News Tag: Honkai Star Rail Dan Heng

Hoyoverse decided to reveal a lot of things through the story mission about Dan Heng Imbibitor Lunae. And while the activity by itself is really interesting, I am gonna take a look at his actual skills and show you just how busted he is going to be for certain teams. 

1. Unique Skill

Probably one of the biggest surprises of 1.2 update had to be the small demo showcasing Dan Heng’s Imbibitor Lunae form. 

Now, I love these sneak peeks Hoyo throws at us because there were so many little details I haven’t noticed until I reviewed the footage.

First of all, looking at this new Imbibitor Lunae form from a high-level perspective, it seems like he will be a mix between a single target and blast damage dealer. And it also seems like the damage will scale with ATK. Because even though Hoyo made sure to hide all the info that you could otherwise inspect, I was able to look at his stats and it’s pretty clear that when a unit has 3,600 HP at level 80, then the damage scaling will come from ATK. 

The other important thing has to be his Ultimate. We couldn’t use it during the fight, but what’s crazy is the energy cost. 140 is a whopping amount to recharge. Only QQ and Yanqing have these costs and it is considered one of the bigger drawbacks for them.

However, we don’t know yet how much energy this new Dan Heng will be able to gain from his kit, although that 140 is something to keep in mind for now. 

Also, I noticed that when for a brief period, I could control Dan Heng on the map. I couldn’t use his Technique but it does say it’s of an Enhance type. So, it’s probably going to be important to set aside one skill point for places, like Memory of Chaos, if he wants to start strong when the fight begins. 

Still, the biggest thing that I wanna talk about would be his Basic Attack. Or should I say his Enhanced Attack thanks to his unique skill? So, you can use the skill to enhance the basic attack up to 3 times. 

The basic attack by default is a single target, so with 1 enhancement, it just gains better damage. But with 2nd enhancement, now it becomes a Blast Attack, meaning it will hit the main and adjacent targets. The 3rd enhancement just gives more damage and a really cool animation.

By the way, you can see that with each enhancement, Dan Heng’s idle animation changes, which is really cool and a nice visual indicator. 

Now damage wise, the basic attack enhanced once deals about 10k damage, although one hit wasn’t critical. And then finally, the 3rd last enhancement on 3 targets, he delivers a pretty massive 40k number. And yet again, 5 hits didn’t crit, so it could be around 50k instead. 

These numbers are super solid, if not amazing. Because keep in mind, we’re looking at around 3.1k ATK, 50% crit and 82% crit damage. This build is at best average. So, imagine how much stronger he will be with actually insane stats. 

And also, he didn’t even have any buffs. Seriously, either the devs are tampering with his stats and he deals unrealistic damage, or he is just that good. But 3 Skill Points to do some damage and then the enhanced attack doesn’t even generate SP? 

What is this, QQ gambling with her skill? Are we back to eating up the skill points for big damage? Not really. Because if you look closely, there’s a stack count on Dan Heng’s portrait. 

Once you have these stacks active, each time you enhance, instead of using up the skill point, the stack will be consumed. So, if here the basic attack is enhanced 3 times, you will see the stacks are used up instead. 

However, one thing that really doesn’t make sense is that I couldn’t determine how he regenerates the stacks. He just starts every turn with all of them refreshed. I think the devs basically just modded his kit so that you don’t have to worry about managing them for now. Because otherwise it would make no sense to even have the stacks if they were always just refresh. 

All in all, Dan Heng Imbibitor Lunae is shaping up to be one of the most exciting units for me. A destruction imaginary damage dealer that can also attack up 3 targets and has a cool mechanic to boost the damage? Really interesting to say the least, although there’s 1 more unit that we got early access to, so let’s talk about her before I tell you something important about Imbibitor Lunae. 

Also Read: Honkai Star Rail: Meta Analysis Of Blade Build & Showcase

2. Jinliu’s Potential

I know I should have talked about Jingliu back in 1.1. But I’ll be honest, I forgot this companion quest exists and was surprised to see you can actually play her. 

Well, ok, not play her but observe from a distance. She literally did a total of 4 attacks and then she vanished. Anyway, here’s what I managed to uncover about this 2B wannabe. 

First of all, it’s not clear to which path she belongs to. Although looking at her stats and damage output, she could be either Hunt or Destruction. I am leaning towards Destruction a bit more because a bit of giveaway that Hunt units have is their really low base HP. 

Now, it does seem like Jingliu is equipped with a Light Cone, since it gets added to Base HP here. But assuming if for some reason, she would be equipped with the highest HP Light Cone, she would still end up with around 1.2k HP, which is around the low end of a Destruction character’s health. 

So let’s assume she’s an Ice Destruction character. What could we expect from her? 

Honestly, I have no idea right now because there’s not much to her kit. Although one thing’s for sure, she’s gonna want Pela on her team. Well, that is, if you have E4 Pela because this allows her to reduce the enemies’ Ice Res, which is pretty important if you want to improve Jingliu’s damage. But let’s not forget Pela also reduces enemy’s DEF, so that would be the first support that comes to mind. 

Now the other things that stand out about her are the 130 Ultimate cost and the assumption she scales with ATK. Because similar to Imbibitor Lunae, her Health isn’t that high that could be scaled off for damage. 

So, in short, not much can be deduced about her. She’s an Ice character, maybe from the Destruction path and she has a bit of an expensive Ultimate and potentially. She will be good with Pela due to how she helps increase Ice damage output. 

3. New Comps

Now one more thing that I did not talk about regarding Imbibitor Lunae was the potential teams. 

I am sure the first one that comes to mind is Mono Imaginary thanks to the craze that’s been ongoing with Silver Wolf, where we’re trying to build so many mono teams with her. And sure, a team like Yukong, Luocha and Silver Wolf for the new Dan Heng could be great, no doubt. 

Right now, the best we can do with Mono Imaginary is Welt acting as our main damage dealer. Although that’s pushing it a bit too far, seeing how he is a Nihility character and has a lot of debuffs built into his kit. 

But honestly, this team is super obvious and I am sure it will be good but the team that I am more interested in is the newly rising archetype of double damage dealer comp. 

You see, back when Jing Yuan got released, I didn’t spend too much time using him with another major damage dealer, like Seele or Hook and instead, I just built teams around him. And I kinda did a similar thing with Blade. I did showcase one team that had the original flavor, Dan Heng and Blade, together with Welt. But I didn’t really consider the fact two damage dealers could be such a big deal and so that’s why I only briefly mentioned a team, like Seele with Blade. 

But it turns out, after using a team like this for a few days, where both Seele and Blade are in a team, the results are kinda amazing and don’t even have to be Seele. It can be Hook, Sushang and so on just as long as there’s a good single-target damage dealer in the team. So where am I getting at? 

Well, it seems to me Imbibitor Lunae is going to be kinda similar to Blade and by that, I mean he will be good against multiple targets. The blast damage from the 3rd enhancement is pretty scary when used against 3 enemies. So, putting this new Dan in a team with another damage dealer, as well as adding a support like Pela, Silver Wolf, Bronya or Tingyun, could be the next big team. 

In fact, I would argue Pela or Silver Wolf would work best here, since unlike Bronya, whose buff can be applied to one character. Once you debuff an enemy with Pela or the Wolf, a new flavor, Dan Heng, and another damage dealer can fully utilize this. 

And what’s even better, if it turns out that the stacks which negate skill point consumption are going to be easy to maintain, building a team together with Seele who is extremely skill point hungry is going to be a nice surprise.

I am honestly starting to feel like we’re at a point we’re not just obligated to use hypercarry teams. Double damage dealer comps are fun to use. Because two big hitters get to shine and sure, they won’t deal as much damage if the attention for them isn’t fully dedicated.

But at the same time, someone like Imbibitor Lunae feels like a character that’s going to act as a great sub-damage dealer. I kinda think that right now, the so called meta or at least the comps that we can build are getting a bit stale. I am not sure if it’s because of the limitations thanks to the enemy's weakness types or if the character roles are too rigid. 

I know it’s stupid to compare this game to Genshin since they barely have anything similar when it comes to combat, but I feel characters in that game have more roles than just one. Like, Raiden Shogun can be used in a National Comp, a team could be built around her or you could literally use her as a glorified electro applicator thanks to how insanely good her skill is when it comes to triggering the Blooms on the ground. 

I am hoping that with Imbibitor Lunae we’re gonna shift more towards the same what Genshin has. Maybe we will be able to build a team focused just around the new Dan Heng. And at the same time, we can also put him into a double damage dealer comp or just throw him in whenever you need extra damage. 

But yeah, you can probably tell I am really excited about Dan Heng. I think that if you can have such a five-star character in your Honkai Star Rail Account, it will definitely bring you a lot of surprises. It’s great that we got to play him during the story, although not everything was revealed about him but there was enough data to get a strong first impression. 

Now, the only thing I have to hope for is that I can use both of his versions in a team just to see if they freak out seeing one another.

Dan Heng is everyone’s favorite mysterious emo, and the third free character in the game. He is a 4-star Wind Character that follows the Hunt path. He is thus a single target damage carry and is a very excellent one at that, outputting surprisingly large numbers comparable to 5-star carries. 

From the start, I will say he is a must-build. I will do an overview of his stats, abilities, traces, and eidolons. I will then recommend builds for him, and finish by discussing his role and rotation in a fight, including team compositions.

Stats 

At max level, Dan Heng has 882 Health, 546 Attack, and 396 Defense - some of the lowest tank stats in the game and a low attack stat too, being the lowest among Hunt and Wind characters. 

What carries him is his kit, speed, and energy cost. His speed is at 110, the third fastest in the game, and his energy cost is only 100, one of the lowest in the game. 

Following the Hunt path, his taunt value is 75, the lowest in the game, meaning enemies won’t target him much. 

Basic Attack & Trace 2 

First off, his basic attacks, “Cloudlancer Art: North Wind” are nothing new. 

At level 1, 50% of his attack will be dealt as Wind Damage, and deal 1 Break Unit. 

After unlocking his Trace 2, “High Gale”, his basic attacks will deal an extra 40% damage to any slowed enemies. 

Skills 

His skill, “Cloudlancer Art: Torrent” deals a very high 130% of his attack to a single enemy at level 1, and deals 2 Break units. 

If this crits, he has a 100% chance to reduce the enemy speed by 12%. This effect chance can be reduced by enemy resistance stats. This skill is the core part of his kit, enabling the basic attack to do more damage as well as his ultimate as we will see. 

Speed reduction is also great to have, and the damage is very high. It is a multi hit skill too, meaning it can proc effects that require hits multiple times. 

Ultimate 

His ultimate, “Ethereal Dream”, deals an insane 240% of his attack to a single enemy, increased to 312% if the enemy is slowed. It costs 100 energy, and deals 3 Break Units. 

An amazing ultimate and is very easy to regenerate, and is also fantastic at breaking toughness bars. The slow condition is not too hard to get once you start investing in him and the Hunt path’s light cones. 

Talent & Resistance Explanation 

Dan Heng’s talent, “Superiority of Reach”, will grant him 18% Wind Resistance Penetration when he is a target of an ally’s ability. It has a two turn cooldown when proc’d. 

Being the target of an ally means that Dan Heng has to be under the reticle of an ally buff or heal when it is used, like Bronya’s skill or even ultimate, or Asta’s ultimate for a free to play comparison. 

Resistance penetration in this game is very strong. Every enemy will have certain resistances if they aren’t weak to an element, usually 20%. If an enemy is weak to an element, they have 0% resistance to it. 

Resistance penetration can go into the negatives, however, and boosts damage by 1% per 1% of resistance penetration. This means that on basically all enemies, with Dan Heng’s talent activated, he will be ignoring resistance and even going beyond in damage. 

The only thing left that is tanking his damage is the enemy’s defense. This scales his damage immensely and makes him worthwhile to bring against any element. 

Also Read: Honkai Star Rail: How To Complete Hacking Reality With Silver Wolf?

Technique 

Finally, his technique increases his attack by 40% for 3 turns at the start of the next battle. It is a very big boost, and great to use on any hard fight. 

Since it’s a buff, you can use this in tandem with a damaging technique or buff technique to stack multiple techniques in hard content, like Forgotten Hall and Simulated Universe. 

Traces 

His First Trace Passive, “Hidden Dragon” reduces his taunt value when he is under half health, making it very unlikely to be hit unless in the case of an AOE skill, which is nice to compensate for his squishy stats. 

His Third Trace Passive, “Faster than Light”, gives him a 50% fixed chance to increase his own speed by 20% for 2 turns after attacking. It is a very great trace. 

Combined with his base speed, you could opt for attack% boots over speed, giving yourself great damage whilst still cycling turns fast. 

His trace stat bonuses are in wind damage, attack% and defense%, two offensive stats and a nice bonus to defense. 

Eidolons 

His first eidolon gives his attacks 12% extra crit rate when attacking enemies above half health. Free crit rate is excellent, and it means he can build fewer crit stats. 

His second eidolon reduces his talent cooldown by one, meaning he will have his talent back up every other turn. Another great one. 

His fourth eidolon gives him an extra turn essentially after defeating enemies with an ultimate. Since defeating enemies with the ultimate is kind of his strategy, this gives him a free turn extra worth of damage or a free skill point for the team. 

His final eidolon reduces enemies’ speed by an extra 8% when critting in his skill. This reduces their speed by 20% and is a great but not exciting final eidolon. 

Overall, a beautifully synergistic kit that lets him cycle insane damage turn after turn. His eidolons are all great but not necessary. He will still be stellar at E0. 

Relics 

For his build, you will take the Eagle of Twilight Line set. Not only does it boost his wind damage, it gives him yet another speed based benefit, an extra 25% action advancement whenever he ults, which will be a lot. 

You will use the “Space Sealing Station” Planar Ornament set, boosting his attack by up to 24% provided you hit 120 speed, which is easy to reach with his high base speed. 

For your body piece, go Crit Rate for Boots, Speed or Attack% work. For Planar Sphere, you of course want Wind damage%. And for your Link Rope, you’ll want to run Attack%. Prioritize crit rate and crit damage and then attack%. Any bonus speed is appreciated. 

Light Cones 

For Light Cones, the three 5 stars are all excellent on him and will outperform 4 stars, with Seele’s incredible one being his best in the slot, benefitting his high speed and multipliers. 

For Free to Play players, Cruising in the Stellar Sea is his best free option, and is obtainable from the Simulated Universe. You can max it for free too, giving him a free 16-32% crit rate as well as a 40% attack boost after defeating an enemy. 

For 4-star options, Swordplay is his best in the slot, as his multi hit attacks actually proc this effect multiple times, giving himself several stacks of the buff from one attack. The free River Flows in Spring is also a good option. 

And for 3-star options, Adversarial and Darting Arrow are both great placeholder light cones. 

By the way, some of the characters recommended above are not easy to get. So, directly getting a Honkai Star Rail Account with the character you want would be a good choice.

Role 

Dan Heng can be placed a kind of in any team thanks to his wind resistance penetration. But weakness breaks should still be considered important. 

If you need a single target carry, like in boss fights, you can bring him along. Against the squishy waves of enemies, he also excels thanks to his speed and slow effects. He really is versatile and high damage in every scenario, and excellent against enemies with Wind weakness. 

He will take up a damage or flex slot in the team, either by taking up skill points and going damage heavy, or by taking a neutral skill point approach with consistent damage. What do I mean by this? 

Rotation 

I am talking about how he can rotate. 

At 100 energy cost, 95, if we consider the 5 energy you gain back from using your ultimate, Dan Heng can cycle back to his ultimate in two ways, which change how he fits in a team. 

If he is your main carry, and you want pure damage, he can cycle back to his ultimate by using skill three times, and by either killing an enemy or being hit once. This leaves a skill point deficiency of 3 points.

If he is a secondary DPS, or if you want to deal consistent damage and have a neutral skill point usage, you can adopt a second rotation. This playstyle is also great and will still do very good damage, thanks to his second Trace passive, which deals extra damage to slowed enemies. 

So, the rotation here would start with his skill, into basic attack. Doing this twice will regenerate 100 energy regardless of kills or hits taken, and will consume zero skill points in total. 

Team Composition 

Dan Heng can be placed in the Free to Play and starter team composed of Physical MC, March 7th, Asta, and Dan Heng, providing all utility needed in the early game as well as a 4 element coverage. 

Later on, he will fill a main DPS role or secondary DPS role, meaning you can fit him in any team composition. 

If you want to run him as a main DPS, consider bringing a buffer like Bronya or Tingyun as a flex slot. If you want to run him as a secondary DPS, consider bringing a Destruction or Erudition DPS, like the free Serval, alongside him to help with AOE situations.