Honkai: Star Rail Complete Ruan Mei Build Guide

In the version 1.6 update of Honkai: Star Rail, Ruan Mei debuts as a highly anticipated character integral to the Simulated Universe storyline within the Genius Society. Her role as a support unit is pivotal, offering party-wide enhancements through her Skills and Ultimate abilities. These enhancements encompass boosted damage, an exclusive Weakness Break Efficiency increase, and additional advantages like impeding enemies' actions and granting Elemental RES PEN to allies.

Remarkably, Ruan Mei stands out among characters due to her significant reliance on the Break Effect. While certain stats are optimal, players need not obsessively fine-tune numerous attributes. For those who have collected specific gear sets, they might already possess pieces well-suited for her. Below is guidance on optimizing Ruan Mei's build to amplify her utility.

Ruan Mei Review

In Honkai: Star Rail, Ruan Mei stands out as a top-tier support character, offering unparalleled team buffs and Break Efficiency boosts. Her Skill enhances team DMG and Break Efficiency by 50%, a feat unmatched by any other character. Additionally, her Ultimate bestows a 25% All-Type RES PEN to allies and extends enemy Weakness Break, accompanied by a 120% Ice Break DMG hit. She also permanently elevates all allies' SPD by 10% and deals Ice Break DMG whenever an ally triggers a Break.

Ruan Mei's synergy with Break Effect is exceptional, amplifying team damage during enemy vulnerabilities. Her Talent escalates her Skill's DMG bonus by up to 36% based on Break Effect, potentially reaching a whopping 68% bonus alongside her already potent 50% Break Efficiency. Achieving such a high Break Effect level demands significant investment but positions her among top-tier supports like Bronya and Tingyun.

Her Eidolon capabilities are excessive, offering additional benefits during the Ultimate, albeit considered excessive in most scenarios.

While Ruan Mei doesn't surpass Bronya, her effortless maintenance of buffs places her in close contention. The RES PEN significantly boosts allies' attacks, particularly useful against mismatched elements. Her buffs synergize well with other Harmony supports, stacking without affecting ATK, allowing for various powerful combinations. Pairing her with different characters can create formidable setups, potentially establishing new meta strategies.

Ruan Mei excels in enabling double carry compositions, outshining others with her effortless team-wide buffs, making it easier to maintain multiple strong damage dealers during fights. Her role in teams like Kafka DoT and Topaz follow-up teams drastically improves their performance.

Usually considered a 'non-negligible' contributor to damage, Ruan Mei's mere presence and investment can cause smaller enemies to explode, offering defensive advantages by swiftly breaking enemies and extending their vulnerability.

However, her pinnacle performance demands an immense investment, notably achieving a 180% Break Effect, which can compromise defensive stats and options. Despite this, her Light Cone options remain subpar.

The focus on Break in Ruan Mei's and Xueyi's kits hints at potential shifts in strength and strategies. It's advisable to monitor Ruan Mei's evolution over time. Nevertheless, Ruan Mei is undeniably a powerhouse among Harmony units, making her a highly coveted addition to any team in Honkai: Star Rail.

Best Ruan Mei Relics

Considering Ruan Mei's reliance on Break Effect, Speed, and consistent Energy Regeneration for her frequent Ultimate, players should concentrate on selecting Relic and Planar Ornament sets that cater to these needs. The choice between sets hinges on substats and light cones, pivotal for optimizing her performance. For example, struggling to attain high Break Effect might prompt the use of Thief of Shooting Meteor or Talia: Kingdom of Banditry sets to ensure the desired Break Effect. Alternatively, a blend of Thief of Shooting Meteor and Messenger Traversing Hackerspace enhances Break Effect and Speed simultaneously.

Regarding Planar Ornaments, Penacony Land of Dreams and Sprightly Vonwacq both enhance energy regeneration. However, their conditional effects may not align with every team composition, especially Penacony Land of Dreams, ideal for Ice character-oriented teams like those featuring Jingliu or Yanqing. This ornament shines brightest when paired with these characters; otherwise, its utility might diminish. Nonetheless, both ornaments facilitate a slightly faster Ultimate charge compared to Talia: Kingdom of Banditry.

For main stats, equipping Ruan Mei with an Energy Regeneration Link Rope is crucial for maintaining her 3-turn Ultimate. Speed boots are highly beneficial. As for Body and Planar Sphere, players can prioritize either DEF or HP% stats based on availability and suitable substats. Defensive stats take precedence over offensive ones to sustain her as a support without being easily overwhelmed.

In terms of sub-stats, focusing on Break Effect, SPD, HP%, and DEF% is vital. Notably, Crit stats hold no bearing on her damage output as it's solely tied to Weakness Break.

Best Ruan Mei Light Cones

Ruan Mei offers several light cone options, although players might notice a more limited selection compared to other paths. This is because no new additions have been made to the Harmony light cone list since the game's launch, except for Ruan Mei's recently added signature light cone.

The signature light cone, "Past Self in Mirror," stands out with its substantial Break Effect boost, Skill Point generation with each Ultimate use (unlike "But the Battle Isn't Over," which provides this once every 2 Ultimate uses), and an ally-wide damage increase. It also grants 10 Energy to allies per wave, beneficial in multi-wave content like Calyx or Forgotten Hall.

"Memories of the Past," a 4-star option, is a strong choice after her signature light cone, especially when max refined. It mirrors "Past Self in Mirror's" Break Effect increase at Refinement 5 and regenerates Energy each time Ruan Mei attacks, limited to once per turn.

"But the Battle Isn't Over enhances Energy Regeneration for Ruan Mei's consistent Ultimates. It grants a Skill Point every 2 Ultimates and boosts the damage of the ally acting after her, proving advantageous if players can manipulate action order effectively.

"Dance! Dance! Dance!" advances all allies' actions each time Ruan Mei uses her Ultimate. Paired with her talent's speed boost for allies (except herself), this allows multiple actions in a turn, advantageous for challenging end-game content, hastening battles.

"Carve the Moon, Weave the Clouds" offers added benefits like ATK, Crit DMG, or Energy Regeneration to teammates, although Ruan Mei herself benefits solely from Energy Regeneration. Many DPS characters can utilize these stats effectively, but the random effect may cause consistency fluctuations between turns.

"Meshing Cogs," a 3-star option, aids Ruan Mei in generating more energy per turn when she attacks or gets hit, making it a worthy choice.

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