Should you pull for Jingliu in Honkai: Star Rail?

The five-star Ice Destruction character Jingliu is a potent damage dealer, so you might be considering recruiting to your team in Honkai: Star Rail.

There is a new character or a rerun of a previously released character every three weeks, so it’s a tough decision to determine which ones are worth pulling for and which ones you should skip in favor of saving up. Jingliu is the first Ice Destruction character in Honkai: Star Rail, so if you are debating whether or not to pull for her then you should consider all aspects of her skillset carefully.

Jingliu’s abilities and skills in Honkai: Star Rail

Before you decide whether or not to pull for Jingliu, you’ll want to review all of her abilities and skills to determine whether they appeal to you and whether they fit your personal playstyle preferences.

Jingliu has five basic abilities and skills plus one additional ability that can be activated by her talent.

• “Lucent Moonglow” basic attack: Deals Ice damage equal to 50 percent to 130 percent of Jingliu’s total attack against a single selected opponent.
  • Ability type: Single-target attack
• “Transcendent Flash” skill (single target): Deals Ice damage equal to 100 percent to 250 percent of Jingliu’s attack against a selected enemy and gives her one stack of Syzygy.
  • Ability type: Single-target attack
• “Moon On Glacial River” skill (blast): Jingliu has a secondary version of her skill that can be triggered through her talent to convert it into a blast. This ability deals Ice damage equal to 125 percent to 312.5 percent of Jingliu’s attack against a single targeted enemy. Simultaneously, this attack also deals 62.5 percent to 156.25 percent of her attack against adjacent opponents. This skill consumes one stack of Syzygy and does not use skill points.
  • Ability type: Blast attack
• “Florephemeral Dreamflux” Ultimate: Deals Ice damage equal to 180 percent to 360 percent of Jingliu’s attack against a selected foe and deals 90 percent to 180 percent of her attack against all adjacent enemies. Jingliu then gains one stack of Syzygy.
  • Ability type: Blast attack
• “Crescent Transmigration” talent: After Jingliu has two stacks of Syzygy accumulated, she activates the Special Transmigration state. This state advances her action forward by 100 percent and raises her critical rate by 40 percent to 55 percent. Additionally, Jingliu’s alternate “Moon On Glacial River” skill is triggered.
• After Jingliu uses a skill while she is in the Special Transmigration state, she consumes health points from all her teammates equal to four percent of their respective health points. When she does this, she will never reduce them to lower than one health point.
• Jingliu’s attack increases based on 540 percent of the health points she consumed and is capped at 90 percent to 225 percent of her base attack until her attack concludes. Syzygy can have up to three stacks and Jingliu will leave the Special Transmigration state when she drops down to zero stacks.
  • Ability type: Enhancement
• “Shine of Truth” technique: As Jingliu uses her technique, a special dimension encircles her that then lasts for 20 seconds. Any enemies that are in this field become Frozen. If you enter a battle while opponents are in this dimension, Jingliu generates 15 energy and one stack of Syzygy, and there is a 100 percent chance of freezing the selected opponents for one turn.
• While in the Frozen state, enemies are not able to take action and they receive extra damage equal to 80 percent of Jingliu’s attack at the beginning of each turn. Only one dimension created by the team can be active at any given time.
  • Ability type: Impairing

Is Jingliu good in Honkai: Star Rail?

Jingliu is an immensely strong damage dealer who will help you take out any foes you come across. She is certainly a strong and reliable recruit, but she also isn’t overwhelmingly unique or overpowered.

The Ice-wielder is by no means a bad character, but she doesn’t have a showstopping skillset, and she can’t do anything other characters can’t, like Fu Xuan. I wanted to be blown away by Jingliu, but I just wasn’t, especially when comparing her abilities and potential to the other two exclusive five-star Destruction characters, Blade and Dan Heng Imbibitor Lunae.

Is Jingliu worth pulling for in Honkai: Star Rail?

Jingliu is a powerful damage dealer who is absolutely worth pulling for if you need a tanky character with a lot of health that deals high damage and can tear through enemies with ease.

Destruction characters among my favorite types of characters in Honkai: Star Rail because this path allows recruits to have both a sizeable amount of health points and incredible damage-dealing skills. These characters almost always feel a bit too good to be true, so you should consider pulling for Jingliu if you do not already have a Destruction character on your team.

If you already have a strong Destruction character on your team, you can still pull for Jingliu if you want to, since you can have more than one character of this type and still find immense success thanks to how well-rounded their skillsets are. However, you might also want to consider what kind of character you need most, and save for that type of character instead if you are trying to create the best team possible.

Unlike most other Destruction units, Jingliu focuses more on single-target damage than AoE. For this reason, if you are seeking a damage dealer who will dish out heavy damage to many opponents at once, you might want to save up for a rerun of characters like Blade or Kafka.

Jingliu will occasionally blast adjacent foes, but this is minimal compared to the massive AoE capabilities other characters possess. You can think of her skillset as being somewhat close to the five-star Quantum Hunt character Seele, although Seele’s single-target damage is more focused, as Jingliu occasionally uses blasts.

Should you pull for Jingliu or Topaz & Numby in Honkai: Star Rail?

Topaz & Numby possess a unique skillset that is unlike anything other recruits have to offer while Jingliu performs in a similar manner to many other characters, so I would recommend pulling for Topaz & Numby over Jingliu.

Both characters are quite powerful, but Topaz & Numby have a special wow factor that Jingliu doesn’t. I still greatly prefer Blade over Jingliu, while no one can compare to what Topaz & Numby is capable of.