Captain Gepard Landau of Belobog's Silvermane Knights is a tank specializing in freezing enemies and protecting his team with shields. He is one of the first 5-star characters introduced in Honkai: Star Rail, acting as one of the possible alternatives to March 7th as they fill the same role.
Gepard is a serviceable frontline protector by default. Still, when built correctly, he can become a reliable source of crowd control that can keep key enemies from making any moves. Like the rest of the cast, he has his own set of strengths and weaknesses, and it's up to the players to find a way to leverage all the good points that the captain has to offer. Here's a guide on how to build Gepard in Honkai: Star Rail.
Honkai: Star Rail - Gepard Build Guide
Gepard is a Preservation character built to take damage for his team. His abilities revolve around mitigating the effects of incoming attacks with Freeze procs. With that said, Honkai fans should be looking for the following stats, Relics, and Light Cones when building this character:
- Core Stat Priorities: DEF%, Effect Hit Rate, ATK%, SPD
- Planar Ornament Stat Priorities: Ice DMG%, Energy Regen
- Relic Sets: Knight of Purity Palace (4PC), Pan-Galactic Commercial Enterprise (2PC)
- Light Cones: Moment of Victory (5-star), Landau's Choice (4-star)
Players will want to stack DEF% and Effect Hit Rate to increase the potency of Gepard's abilities. Meanwhile, ATK% is a good tertiary focus because of the high damage scaling ratio on Gepard's skill, Daunting Strike.
Knight of Purity Palace is a good option for a pure tank build. It buffs the user's DEF while also strengthening the shields they make. An alternative set for Gepard is Guard of Wuthering Snow, which can help him sustain his HP and energy level whenever his health drops below half. This set is best taken if Gepard is going to be used in a team without a healer.
His options for Planar Ornaments are somewhat broad. Pan-Galactic Commercial Enterprise is a nice offensive set that boosts his Effect Hit Rate and ATK. Meanwhile, Belobog of the Architects can further increase Gepard's DEF by up to 30%.
Moment of Victory is the best Light Cone choice for Gepard because it dramatically increases his DEF stat. It also grants additional Effect Hit Rate and makes him more likely to be attacked by enemies. Landau's Choice is a budget version of this Light Cone that sadly does not have the Effect Hit Rate bonus. Gepard cannot draw aggro toward himself, so he has to rely on passive abilities and Light Cones to make up for the fact.
Gepard Trace Leveling Order
To get the most out of Gepard in combat, level up the following traces in order:
- Enduring Bulwark (Ultimate)
- Daunting Strike (Skill)
- Basic attack
- Unyielding Will (Talent)
Unyielding Will takes a much lower priority than the rest because it only serves as a safety for when Gepard's HP falls to zero. Ideally, the tank should never die in the first place, so players can freely skip this one.
Enduring Bulwark and Daunting Strike should be leveled equally since they're extremely valuable parts of Gepard's kit. The latter, in particular, is critical to maintaining his damage output while keeping enemies frozen.
Lastly, take the Integrity passive as soon as possible to compensate for Gepard's lack of taunt abilities. The minor Ice DMG and DEF boosts are nice to have, but players can skip on those until they have a surplus of character materials on hand.
Honkai: Star Rail is now available on Android, iOS, and PC. A PlayStation version is in development.