Highlights

  • Honkai: Star Rail introduces Ruan Mei, the game's first limited five-star Harmony character, who is a versatile support that can be used in various team compositions.
  • Ruan Mei's skills and abilities provide valuable buffs to the team, including weakness break efficiency, bonus damage boosts, all-resistance penetration, and additional break effects.
  • Ruan Mei is easy to build and understand, making her a valuable addition to any Honkai: Star Rail player's team. She can excel in DoT teams, hypercarry teams, and double DPS teams.

With the introduction of Honkai: Star Rail's Ruan Mei, the game finally has its first ever limited five-star Harmony character. She's an Ice unit, and her abilities to support the team go far beyond what one might have guessed. She's a universal support who can be slotted into any Honkai: Star Rail player's team. She can prop up DoT, double DPS teams, hypercarries, and more.

She's also easy to build and easy to understand. Though the long list of buffs she gives can feel intimidating at first, it's a list full of nothing but good things. Taking a look at things slowly, step-by-step, can make it easier to figure out how to use and build Honkai: Star Rail's Ruan Mei. Being as flexible as she is, she's become as valuable as units like Bronya or Tingyun.

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Honkai: Star Rail's Ruan Mei's Kit

ruan mei unwritten body

Ruan Mei's Build

There's a lot to break down about her kit before players can know how to build Ruan Mei. Her trace priorities should be her ultimate, skill, and talent--ignore her basic attack. Ruan Mei's skill gives the entire team 50% weakness break efficiency and a huge bonus damage boost based on her trace level. It also gives an additional 6% DMG boost for every 10% weakness break effect she has over 120, with a maximum gained of 36%. In total, with the traces and that 36%, she could have a 68% total DMG boost to her allies. Her skill lasts for three of her turns, giving it good uptime.

Ruan Mei's ultimate is another long list of great things for her allies. Her ultimate buffs the entire team with 25% all-resistance penetration, forces enemies to stay in weakness break longer based on Ruan Mei's break effect stat, and makes the enemies take damage when Thanatoplum Rebloom is triggered, also based on her break effect. Thanatoplum Rebloom happens when a party member attacks an enemy during her ult. This has limited uses, but is still wonderful for Honkai: Star Rail's Ruan Mei teams.

Finally, her talent gives the party (minus herself) a 10% SPD bonus and deals damage when an ally breaks an enemy. It also grants 20 additional break effect for the team and grants Ruan Mei 5 energy at the start of her turn. With all this said, her best 4pc relic set is Thief of Shooting Meteor for the break effect. Players should aim for about 180 break effect on her. For planar ornaments, there are a few good options:

  • Talia: Kingdom of Banditry
  • Penacony, Land of the Dreams (when she's paired with Jingliu)
  • Sprightly Vonwacq

Ruan Mei's Lightcones

There aren't too many lightcones that are exceptional for Ruan Mei right now. She needs specific things from her lightcones, after all, to prove even more beneficial to her teammates. Still, a few decent options stand out. Some of Ruan Mei's best lightcones will be:

  • Past Self in the Mirror (signature lightcone with amazing buffs like 60% break effect, 24% bonus damage for the whole team when using her ultimate, and more.)
  • Memories of the Past (four-star, gacha)
  • Meshing Cogs (3-star, gacha)

Ruan Mei's Team Comps

One wonderful thing about Ruan Mei is just how flexible she is with her teams. She can buff any kind of team that she's slotted into. She's the unit players can use to take up a flex slot. It doesn't matter what players have available or if they've ever even pulled for other units. She's incredibly free-to-play friendly in her team comps. She can do well in: