Serval is Belobog's resident rock star who can stir up a storm with her literal electric guitar. In Honkai Star Rail, she brings down bolts of lightning on her enemies for massive AOE damage, making her an essential member of the Astral Express and its growing roster of Trailblazers.
Like other characters, Serval has her unique set of strengths and weaknesses. Knowing how to build her around them is the key to unlocking her true potential. However, with the myriad of options available to players in Honkai Star Rail, finding the right combination of stats and effects for Serval can be confusing. Here's a guide to help shed some light on that subject.
Recommended Serval Build in Honkai Star Rail
Serval excels as an AOE DPS unit that deals damage with both direct attacks and Shock procs. She stands on the opposite side of someone like Dan Heng, who specializes in big bursts of single-target damage. With that in mind, players will want to get as many Effect Hit Rate and ATK% stats as possible, so Serval can do her job more effectively.
- Core Stat Priorities: Effect Hit Rate, ATK% CRIT Rate, Speed,
- Planar Ornament Stat Priorities: Lightning DMG%, ATK%
- Relic Sets: Band of Sizzling Thunder (4PC), Space Sealing Station (2PC)
- Light Cones: Night on the Milky Way (5-star), The Seriousness of Breakfast (4-star), Sagacity (3-star)
Much of Serval's damage comes from the Shock procs that her Skill, Lightning Flash, inflicts and the bonus hits that apply whenever she attacks a Shocked target. Her ultimate, Here Comes The Mechanical Fever, deals Lightning DMG to every enemy on the field while simultaneously extending the duration of any active Shock effect. This being said, ATK% takes priority over CRIT stats since DoT effects like Shock cannot critically strike.
Lightning Flash has a base Shock chance of 80%, and players can easily reach 100% just by getting Serval to Ascension 2. However, keep in mind that enemy Effect RES may prevent her from scoring Shock procs all the time. Feel free to swap some stats for extra Effect Hit Rate to compensate for this.
As for Light Cones, she can make good use of anything that bumps her damage up. Sagacity is a great early option since Serval should always be using her ultimate whenever it's available, but options like The Seriousness of Breakfast can be much more reliable. Plus, the base stats on higher-tier Light Cones are always going to be higher than those of a 3-star one.
Serval Trace Leveling Priority
Prioritize leveling up the following abilities and passives when building Serval:
- Lightning Flash (Skill)
- Galvanic Chords (Talent)
- Rock 'n Roll (Bonus Ability - unlock ASAP)
- Here Comes the Mechanical Fever (Ultimate)
- Basic attack
This leveling order leverages Serval's high base Shock rate. Following this means committing to using her as a Shock applicator instead of an AOE nuker. For the rest of her Traces, focus on getting the Effect Hit Rate bonuses first and leave the CRIT Rate ones for later.
Incidentally, this build and leveling order will also make Serval a good partner for Kafka once she becomes available in the game. The former applies DoT stacks while the latter detonates them. More synergies may become available once the game receives more updates.
No Eidolon bonuses were considered in this build, but players can expect to get much more mileage out of this setup if they do get more copies of her from the gacha.
Honkai: Star Rail is now available on Android, iOS, and PC. A PlayStation version is in development.