Dan Heng is one of the first starter characters players receive in Honkai: Star Rail. He is a 4-Star Wind character of the Hunt path, the train guard aboard the Astral Express, and a man with a mysterious past. Dan Heng can strike powerful blows against strong enemies, preying on Wind weaknesses to decimate them.
Dan Heng becomes playable almost immediately after players unlock their Trailblazer in the Prologue. His kit focuses on single enemy attacks that reduce SPD and potentially Slow the enemy. He synergizes well with characters who can target their allies, as his Talent will then boost his Wind RES PEN, allowing Dan Heng to annihilate weak enemies and even the playing field against those neutral or resistant to wind.
Dan Heng's Best Light Cones
Although only a 4-Star character, Dan Heng has a Light Cone designed with him in mind called Only Silence Remains, bearing one of his memories. Only Silence Remains increases the wearer's ATK by up to 32%. In addition, when there are only one or two enemies on the field, the wearer's Crit Rate increases by up to 24%.
As a character on the Hunt path, Dan Heng works well in battles against one or two strong enemies, which makes this Light Cone perfect for building up his attacks.
In the realm of 5-Star Light Cones, In the Night is amazing with Dan Heng. The Light Cone gives the same Crit Rate bonus as a fully upgraded Only Silence Remains. For every 10 SPD above 100, the Light Cone gives one bonus to Basic & Skill DMG and one to Ultimate Crit DMG. The effect can stack eight times, and Dan Heng already starts with 110 SPD.
When the Light Cone is fully advanced; Dan Heng will always have at least a 12% bonus to Basic & Skill DMG and a 16% bonus to Ultimate Crit DMG.
If players lack both Only Silence Remains and In the Night, Dan Heng can make do with Swordplay or Arrows. Swordplay will stack DMG against a particular target as long as Dan Heng stays focused on that target. Meanwhile, Arrows will give a Crit Rate bonus for Dan Heng's first three turns. Since Arrows is a 3-Star Light Cone, players will likely start with that equipped to Dan Heng before they can get better Light Cones.
Dan Heng's Best Relics & Planetary Ornaments
Dan Heng has a couple of options for Relics, depending on what Light Cone he has equipped. Generally, Dan Heng works best with a 4-piece Eagle of Twilight Line set. This Relic set will increase his Wind DMG by 10% at two pieces. At four pieces, Dan Heng's action is Advanced Forward 25% after using his Ultimate. As a Wind character focusing on powerful attacks, this set should serve Dan Heng well. There will likely be Relics that appear in the game with future updates, but this will work for a launch build.
If Dan Heng has In the Night as his Light Cone, he will benefit from a four-piece Musketeer of Wild Wheat Relic set. Although the two-piece bonus is relatively simple, bumping ATK up by 10%, the four-piece set boosts Dan Heng's SPD by 6% and Basic DMG by 10%.
With the right Relic sub-stats, Dan Heng's Relic can get the SPD to 120 for another stack of bonuses.
Dan Heng's best Planetary Ornament set is Pan-Galatic Commercial Enterprise. This set boosts his Effect Hit Rate by 10% while bumping up his ATK by 25% of his Effect Hit Rate. While this is less of an ATK boost than other Planetary Ornaments give, the Effect Hit Rate bonus can help Dan Heng slow enemies and boost the strength of his Ultimate against Slowed enemies.
Meanwhile, as part of Dan Heng's In the Night Light Cone build, Space Sealing Station can take advantage of Musketeer's SPD boost to increase Dan Heng's ATK by 24%. The Planetary Ornament is only useful with Musketeer, however, so most Dan Heng builds will stick with Pan-Galatic Commercial Enterprise.
Tips For Building Dan Heng
As a 4-Star character, it is easier to collect Dan Heng's Eidolon (one of many Honkai: Star Rail slang terms) than for 5-Star units. His build begins to shine once players reach Eidolon level 2, which reduces the cooldown of Dan Heng's Talent by one turn. This allows players to take advantage of Dan Heng's rare RES PEN bonus.
Dan Heng's Light Cone and Relics can trigger variations of his Eidolon levels 4 and 6, so players shouldn't worry about collecting more than a couple of copies of Dan Heng.
Since Dan Heng is a DPS character, his Body Relic should have a main stat of either Crit Rate or Crit DMG. His Feet should have a Speed main stat if he is using his In the Night build. Otherwise, Dan Heng can have Break Effect as his main stat. His Planar Sphere needs to focus on Wind DMG, while his Link Rope can be either ATK% or Break Effect. When picking sub-stats, Crit Rate and Crit DMG should be a top priority, followed by Effect Hit Rate and ATK%.
When comparing Dan Heng to other DPS characters in Honkai: Star Rail, there are stronger options within the Hunt path for players to build. Both Seele and Sushang are high-tier characters capable of incredible damage against single enemies. While Seele is a limited-time 5-Star character, Sushang is a 4-Star character whom players are bound to pick up before too long. The young Physical Destruction character Clara is also stronger than Dan Heng, and players can choose her as a free 5-Star character after 300 Warps on the Stellar Warp.
Still, Dan Heng is worth building if not because he is a free-to-play character in Honkai: Star Rail. He is the best DPS unit out of all the starter characters, including the pre-registration reward character Serval. In addition, his synergy with March 7th and her ally targeting abilities allows the pair to take down powerful enemies, even as Honkai: Star Rail grows more difficult.
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Honkai: Star Rail
- Summary:
- Set after the events of the ongoing game Honkai Impact 3rd, Honkai: Star Rail is a turn-based online RPG from developer Hoyoverse. Two members of the Astral Express, March 7th and Dan Heng, are on their way to the Herta Space Station with precious cargo when ambushed by members of a group known as the Antimatter Legion. Chaos ensues as among them is the god of destruction known as Aeon, who steals a seed known as a Stellaron, which they implant in an artificial human known as the "Trailblazer." Players will assume the role of this character as they try to avoid their fate and save all of civilization. Similar to gacha-style games, players can acquire more characters to add to their party by summoning and engaging in fast-paced turn-based battles in this epic Sci-fi online RPG.
- Platform:
- PC, iOS, Android, Microsoft Windows
- Developer:
- HoYoverse
- Publisher:
- HoYoverse
- Genre:
- Turn-Based Strategy, RPG, Adventure
- Multiplayer:
- Online Multiplayer
- ESRB:
- Not Yet Rated
