You just pulled your favorite 5-star character, leveled them to 80, maxed out all their traces, and slapped on your best light cone – but they still feel underwhelming in battle. If that sounds familiar, you’re not alone. Most new HSR players hit this wall fast, and the fix almost always boils down to bad relics. Learning how to farm relics in Honkai Star Rail efficiently is the single most impactful thing you can do to boost your account power, and I’ve picked up dozens of tricks over 400+ hours of play to make the grind way less frustrating. I’ve wasted hundreds of trailblaze power on low-yield runs early on, so I know exactly what works and what doesn’t when it comes to getting great relic drops.
How to Farm Relics in Honkai Star Rail Without Wasting Trailblaze Power
Trailblaze power is your most valuable resource in HSR, and you only get 240 of it per day, plus small extra rewards from events and daily check-ins. Wasting it on low-value relic runs is one of the biggest mistakes new players make, and it can set your account progression back by weeks. Wait until you reach Equilibrium Level 5 (Trailblaze Level 65+) to start serious relic farming – before that, you can only get a maximum of 4-star relics from dungeons, which you’ll replace entirely once you unlock 5-star drops at EQ5.
If you’re stuck on a particular story or Simulated Universe fight before EQ5, you can run 10-20 runs of a lower-level relic dungeon to get passable 4-star sets, but don’t sink any more power than that. Use the free 4-star relic sets you get from quests, Simulated Universe rewards, and Forgotten Hall clears to hold you over until you unlock 5-star drops. You’ll get way more value out of spending your power on character level up materials and trace upgrades in the early to mid game anyway.
Pick the Right Relic Sets and Target Stats First Before You Grind
So many players jump into relic farming with no plan, running random dungeons just because they saw someone mention the set online. That’s a surefire way to waste weeks of grind with nothing to show for it. Before you spend a single point of trailblaze power on relic dungeons, sit down and make a list of exactly what sets and stats each of your 4-5 core team members need. You don’t need to build every character you own right away; focus on the characters you use for endgame content like Memory of Chaos first.
Prioritize 2-piece set bonuses over 4-piece if you’re short on time or power – most characters perform almost as well with a 2-piece of their signature set and a 2-piece generic stat set (like 2-piece ATK for DPS, 2-piece HP for healers) as they do with a full 4-piece set, especially if the 2-piece combo has better substats. I spent 3 weeks grinding for a full 4-piece quantum set for Seele early on, until I realized my 2-piece quantum + 2-piece ATK set with 72% crit rate and 158% crit damage did 12% more damage than the messy full 4-piece set I managed to grind out.
Not sure what stats to prioritize for different roles? Use this quick breakdown to filter your drops as you get them:
- DPS characters: Prioritize correct main stats (ATK%/Elemental DMG Bonus/Crit Rate or Crit Damage) on chest, boots, planar sphere, and link rope first, then hunt for substats of Crit Rate > Crit Damage > ATK%/Speed
- Debuffer/buffer supports: Prioritize Speed, Effect Hit Rate (for characters that apply debuffs like Silver Wolf or Pela), and Energy Regen Rate on link rope to make sure they use their ults as often as possible
- Healer/shielder supports: Prioritize HP% or DEF% (depending on their skill scalings) and Energy Regen Rate to keep your team alive through tough endgame fights
If a relic doesn’t have the right main stat for your intended character, you can immediately salvage it for relic xp or synthesizer materials. Don’t hold onto bad main stat pieces just because they have one good substat; you’ll never use them.
Use Alternative Relic Sources to Cut Down on Dungeon Grind
Caverns of Corrosion aren’t the only place to get great relics, and relying solely on them will make your grind take way longer than it needs to. There are half a dozen other sources of 5-star relics that cost less or no trailblaze power at all, and you should be taking advantage of all of them every week.
Run Simulated Universe World 5 and above at least once per week for free 5-star relics and planar ornaments. Planar ornaments can’t be obtained from regular Caverns of Corrosion, so the Simulated Universe is your only consistent source for these powerful 2-piece sets. You also get a ton of extra rewards like credits, light cone ascension materials, and cosmic fragments that you can use to buy even more relics from the Simulated Universe shop.
The Omni-Synthesizer is another underused tool that can save you weeks of grind. You can convert 10 useless 5-star relics into one random piece of any relic set you want, and you can even pick the main stat of the resulting relic now. Use the Omni-Synthesizer to target specific main stat pieces you’ve been missing for weeks – I got my perfect crit damage body for Dan Heng Imbibitor Lunae from the synthesizer after 6 weeks of no drops from the dungeon, and it saved me hundreds of trailblaze power. Don’t forget to run weekly bosses too; they drop planar ornaments for only 30 trailblaze power per clear, which is half the cost of running the Simulated Universe for ornament drops.
How to Speed Up Your Relic Grind and Avoid Burnout
Let’s be real: relic farming can get boring fast if you’re running the same dungeon 20 times in a row. The worst thing you can do is burn yourself out on the grind to the point where you don’t want to play the game at all. There are a few simple tricks you can use to speed up your runs and keep the grind feeling manageable.
First, build a dedicated auto-clear team for every relic dungeon you run regularly. Your team should be able to clear the dungeon in 3 cycles or less, so you don’t waste time waiting for long auto battles. I run all my relic dungeons on auto while I watch TV or do household chores, so it doesn’t feel like I’m spending extra time grinding. Set a daily limit for how much trailblaze power you spend on relics to avoid burnout – I only spend 120 power per day on relics, and use the rest for trace materials, weekly bosses, and event rewards. That way, I don’t get sick of running the same dungeon over and over.
You also don’t need to chase perfect 10/10 substats on every relic. Most players can clear all current endgame content, including Memory of Chaos 30, with relics that have 60-70% of the ideal substats. Chasing perfect rolls is a waste of power for 99% of players, and you’ll get way more value out of building more characters for your account instead of grinding for a single extra 3% crit damage substat on one piece. I stopped grinding for a perfect speed boot for my Kafka after 5 weeks, and used the saved power to build a full support team for her that boosted her damage by 30% overall.
Relic farming doesn’t have to be the soul-crushing grind a lot of players make it out to be. When you learn how to farm relics in Honkai Star Rail with these tested strategies, you’ll waste less trailblaze power, get better pieces faster, and spend more time actually enjoying the game instead of running the same dungeon on repeat. Take it slow, plan your grind ahead, and don’t be afraid to settle for good enough pieces until you have the rest of your account built out. You’ll be clearing endgame content with ease before you know it.
