The best Honkai: Star Rail Dan Heng build

The best Honkai: Star Rail Dan Heng build boosts the character's crits so he can slow enemies with his skill, before dealing extra damage with his ultimate. As a character on The Hunt path, Dan Heng is a straightforward single-target DPS, and he'll serve as a pretty reliable damage-dealer in the early game. 

What makes Dan Heng special is that he can slow enemies provided he lands a crit with his Cloudlancer Art: Torrent skill, while also boosting his own speed and dealing increased damage to slowed enemies with his bonus abilities. He also deals massively boosted ultimate damage against enemies that are slowed, meaning you should generally chain his skill straight into the ultimate if you land a crit.

Here, I'll run you through my favourite setup for Dan Heng in terms of light cone, relics, and planar ornaments, as well as his abilities and Eidolons, and what materials you'll need to ascend him when levelling.

The best Dan Heng build

Dan Heng is best at fighting individual enemies, using his crits to slow them, and so increasing the damage of his ultimate. In this sense, attack, crit rate, and crit damage are all vital stats.

• Light Cone: Sleep Like the Dead or Only Silence Remains

If you want a simple yet powerful build, the five-star light cone, Sleep Like the Dead, is a strong choice for Dan Heng. This increases crit damage by 30%, and when a basic attack or skill doesn't result in a crit, boosts crit rate by 36% for one turn, which can occur once every three turns. This really helps Dan Heng's skill deal a crit to slow an enemy, letting him follow up with his ultimate that deals massively increased damage to slowed enemies.

The five-star In the Night light cone is also very strong for Dan Heng, but to get the most of its buffs, you need to boost his speed, which is far more reliant on relic rolls, party composition, or having his Faster Than Light bonus ability unlocked than the above. A less rare alternative is the four-star Only Silence Remains. This light cone increases attack by 16% and if there are two or fewer enemies on the field, boosts crit rate 12%.  

• Relics: Eagle of Twilight Line (Four-pieces equipped) 

The Eagle of Twilight Line set is a good pick for Dan Heng, since two-pieces buff wind damage by 10%, while four-pieces means that after he uses his ultimate, his action is advanced forward by 25%, making him act faster. Of course, if you've unlocked Dan Heng's fourth Eidolon which provides 100% advanced forward after ultimate, you might want to swap out two pieces for Musketeer of the Wild Wheat's 10% attack boost. You can get Eagle of Twilight Line from Cavern of Corrosion: Path of Gelid Wind on Herta Space Station once you unlock them.

Equally, if you're using In the Night, Musketeer of the Wild Wheat is a good pick, since its four-piece set provides a 6% speed boost that'll help you increase that light cone's speed-based buffs. For stats, I'd recommend attack, crit rate, and crit damage in order to increase the likelihood of activating Dan Heng's skill speed debuff so his ultimate can hit harder, and boosting the chance of his ultimate to crit as well. You can get Musketeer of the Wild Wheat from the Cavern of Corrosion: Path of Drifting on Jarilo-VI.

• Planar Ornaments: Inert Salsotto (Two-pieces equipped)

The Inert Salsotto is a decent choice for Dan Heng since it boosts crit rate by 8% and when your crit rate is above 50%, buffs ultimate and follow-up attack damage by 15%. The follow up part doesn't apply to Dan Heng, but a permanent boost to ultimate damage is good. If you're using In the Night instead, then Space Sealing Station is probably best, providing a 12% attack boost, and another if you have 120 speed.

If you manage to build your speed really high then you might want to use Sprightly Vonwacq, instead. This set increases energy regen by 5% so Dan Heng can use his ultimate more, and his action is advanced forward 50% at the start of a battle if your speed reaches 145. You can get Planar Ornaments by completing worlds in the Simulated Universe.

Dan Heng abilities and Eidolons

Here are Dan Heng's combat abilities, bonus abilities for character ascension, and the Eidolons you can upgrade if you acquire an additional copy of them:

Dan Heng Ascension materials

Here's what you'll need to ascend Dan Heng fully:

• Twelve Extinguished Core
• Thirteen Glimmering Core
• Twelve Squirming Core
• 50 Storm Eye
• 246,400 Credits

You can farm Extinguished Cores by sending characters on assignment, or by defeating Flamespawns and other enemies in Rivet Town and Backwater Pass on Jarilo-VI, as well as from enemies in the Simulated Universe. You can also create them in the Omni Synthesizer or purchase them from the Embers exchange if you have any left over from warping characters. To get Storm Eye you need to do the Stagnant Shadow: Shape of Dusk on Jarilo-VI that unlocks once you reach Equilibrium level two.

To unlock all character ascensions as well as the upgraded versions of Extinguished Cores that can drop from enemies (Glimmering Cores and Squirming Cores) you'll need to raise your Equilibrium (world level) by gaining Trailblaze levels and completing Equilibrium trials.