Ruan Mei is a sweet-tempered and elegant scholar and a member of the Genius Society in Honkai: Star Rail. While she’s an expert in biological science, she’s also no stranger to battle.
Ruan Mei is an Ice support who follows the path of Harmony in Honkai. With her stacked kit, Ruan Mei excels in buffing her team and debuffing opponents at the same time, making her arguably the best unit in Honkai.
How to build Ruan Mei in Honkai: Star Rail
Supports are usually more valuable in lineups than DPS in Honkai, and Ruan Mei is the best support you can get. She’s a Harmony unit who buffs the entire team, debuffs and slows opponents, and increases Break Effect.
All of this makes Ruan Mei very versatile, but just like other characters, you need to equip her with right Light Cones, Relics and Planar Ornaments, and level up her Traces.
Light Cones
Ruan Mei carries a Light Cone. Since she’s a follower of Harmony you can only equip her with Harmony Light Cones and luckily, she has a couple of good options for both free-to-play players and light spenders.
Here are the best Light Cones for Ruan Mei:
- Past Self in Mirror (five-star)
- Memories of the Past (four-star)
- Meshing Cogs (four-star)
- Planetary Rendezvous (four-star)
Past Self in Mirror is Ruan Mei’s signature Light Cone, and her best in slot that offers a ton of utility. As her best Light Cone, it increases Ruan Mei’s Break Effect by 60 percent, and whenever Ruan Mei uses her Ultimate, the team’s overall damage is increased by 24 percent, and it lasts for three turns.
Memories of the Past is a solid four-star Light Cone and a good alternative for Ruan Mei. It increases her Break Effect by 28 percent and restores four energy every turn. You can obtain this Light Cone through Honkai’s gacha system.
While those are Ruan Mei’s best option, any other Light Cone with decent utility also works.
Trace priority
Ruan Mei’s a support that scales with Break Effect, so you want to level her up to 80 and unlock all her Traces. As a support, all of her utility comes from abilities and talents, so you can ignore her basic attacks.
To use her broken kit to its full potential, here are the abilities to focus on:
- Her Talent is your top priority since Ruan Mei increases her team’s speed by eight, and whenever her allies break opponents, Ruan Mei deals extra Break Effect damage.
- Her Skill is also important as it increases team’s damage by 16 percent and Weakness Break Efficiency by 50 percent for three turns.
- Her Ultimate increases all-type Resistance Penetration of all allies by 15 percent, and slows opponents by 30 percent.
Her entire kit revolves around Break Effect and utility, and by leveling the mentioned Traces, Ruan Mei will bring massive value to your teams.
Relics and Planar Ornaments
Getting the proper Relic and Planar Ornament set is crucial for any build to work, and luckily Ruan Mei’s option is very straightforward. These are the best Relic and Planar Ornaments set for Ruan Mei:
- Messenger Traversing Hackerspace (four-piece)
- Talia: Kingdom of Banditry (two-piece)
Messenger Traversing Hackerspace is a Relic set tailored for utility supports, and it’s Ruan Mei’s best in slot. This four-piece set increases Ruan Mei’s speed by six, and whenever she uses her Ultimate, the speed of all party members increases by 12 percent.
Talia: Kingdom of Banditry is a two-piece Planar Ornament you can farm in World Four of the Simulated Universe. The set increases Ruan Mei’s Break Effect by 16 percent, and Break Effect of all allies by 20 percent, making it her best-in-slot.
Relic and Planar Ornament stats and substats
Ruan Mei is easy to build’ she only wants a couple of stats that are easy to get. When you farm her Relic and Planar sets, you should focus on getting the following main stats:
- Body: Break Effect
- Feet: Speed
- Sphere: HP percent
- Rope: Energy Regeneration Rate or Break Effect
To boost her main stats even more, you should aim for a ton of Speed and Break Effect as her substats.
Best Ruan Mei Eidolons
With her strong kit, Ruan Mei is arguably the best character in Honkai, even without her Eidolons added in. While she doesn’t need them, you can get her first two Eidolons as they increase attack of all party members by 40 percent, and reduce opponent’s defense by 20 percent, making them her best Eidolons to have.
