If you’ve ever spent hours farming Cavern of Corrosion only to walk away with 10 flat DEF relics you’ll never use, you know how frustrating gearing your units can be. Learning how to get better relics in Honkai: Star Rail doesn’t just boil down to luck, though – there are small, consistent choices you can make to cut down on wasted stamina and walk away with more usable drops every run. I’ve been playing since launch, and I’ve tested every farming trick in the book to cut my gearing time for a full character down from 3 weeks to just 5 days on average, no premium currency hacks required.
Start by mapping your relic needs to avoid wasted stamina
The biggest mistake new players make is farming random relic sets without a clear plan for which units they want to gear first. Every Cavern of Corrosion drops two different relic sets, so you can double your usable drops by pairing two units that need sets from the same location. Always pair two characters that use sets from the same cavern when you plan your farming schedule. For example, if you’re building Seele who uses Genius of Brilliant Stars, pair her with a support that uses Space Sealing Station from the same cavern, so every drop has a use for one of the two.
You also don’t need to start farming 5-star relics before Trailblaze Level 40. Drop rates for 5-star pieces below that level are less than 10% per run, so you’re better off using 4-star relics temporarily to clear content faster and level up quicker. Planar ornaments are only farmed in the Simulated Universe, so schedule those runs separately when you have extra stamina left after cavern runs for your core units.
How to get better relics in Honkai: Star Rail by optimizing your run strategy
Once you know which caverns you need to run, small tweaks to how you run them can make a massive difference in the quality of drops you get. Always run the highest difficulty you can clear consistently – the difference in 5-star drop rate between Difficulty 4 and Difficulty 5 is almost 20%, so it’s worth waiting until you can clear the higher level even if it takes a few extra days. That’s the single biggest hack for how to get better relics in Honkai: Star Rail without spending extra money or stamina.
Don’t waste your self-modeling resin on random pieces either. Save it for the rare main stats you can’t get easily after 20+ runs, like a SPD boot, CRIT rate chest, or elemental damage orb. I used to waste resin on body pieces with decent substats, but once I started saving it only for the rare main stats I couldn’t farm reliably, I cut my gearing time in half. You also get a free 5-star relic selector every month from the Forgotten Hall shop, so don’t waste that on a random piece – hold it for the last missing piece of a set for a core unit.
Filter and evaluate relic drops correctly to avoid junk upgrades
Most players waste thousands of credits and relic XP upgrading bad relics that will never make it onto a final build. Setting strict filters for what you’ll even consider upgrading will save you a ton of resources long term. For main DPS units, only keep relics with at least one useful substat out of the first two – that means CRIT rate, CRIT damage, ATK% for physical/quantum/imaginary DPS, or corresponding elemental damage% for others. For supports, look for SPD, HP%, DEF%, or effect hit rate depending on their kit.
When you upgrade, stop at +3 first to see what substat you get. Stop upgrading a relic immediately if it rolls a useless substat at +3 or +6, and use it as fodder for other relics instead of wasting more resources on it. I have a personal rule: if a relic for my main DPS gets a useless substat like flat DEF at +3, I toss it right away, no exceptions. That’s saved me thousands of credits that I can now put towards leveling up units or light cones instead.
If you’re not sure which relics to keep, use this quick list of red flags for pieces you can discard immediately:
- Relics with 3 or more flat stats (flat ATK, flat DEF, flat HP) for any unit that scales with percentage stats
- DPS relics with zero CRIT rate, CRIT damage, or relevant percentage stat substats at level 0
- Support relics with no SPD, effect hit rate, or relevant defensive percentage stat for their kit
- Any 5-star relic with a wrong main stat for the set you're farming (for example, a DEF chest for an ATK-scaling DPS)
Leverage in-game events and bonus drops to get extra relics for free
You don’t have to farm every single relic from caverns. HoYoverse regularly runs events that give out free 5-star relics, relic XP, and even self-modeling resin, so you can skip a lot of grinding if you prioritize these rewards. Always complete event missions that reward relic selectors or resin first – these are guaranteed drops that you don’t have to spend stamina on, so they’re way more efficient than regular farming. For example, the recent Museum event gave out two free 5-star relic selectors, enough to complete a 2-piece set for a new support without a single stamina spend.
Don’t forget about the weekly Simulated Universe bonus rewards either. You get extra planar ornaments twice a week if you run the world that has the set you need, and you can use Simulated Universe points to buy relic fodder or even rare relic selectors sometimes. If you’re a new player, the Trailblaze Mission rewards include a lot of 4-star and 5-star relics that you can use to gear your first few units until you unlock higher difficulty caverns. You don’t need to spend stamina on relics at all before TL 40, because those free drops are more than enough to carry you through early content.
At the end of the day, gearing your units doesn’t have to be a soul-sucking grind if you work smarter, not harder. Following these small, consistent tips will help you cut down on wasted stamina and resources, so you can spend more time playing the content you enjoy instead of running the same cavern 50 times. If you take nothing else away from this guide, remember that planning ahead and being picky about what you upgrade will get you way farther than mindlessly farming all day. Learning how to get better relics in Honkai: Star Rail is as much about good decision making as it is about luck, and even small changes to your routine will give you way better drops over time.
