Honkai Star Rail The Herta Build Guide

If you’re here to learn how to max out The Herta in Honkai Star Rail, you’re in for a treat. The Herta, the Ice Erudition unit, is one of the most powerful characters in the game when built correctly. Not only does she deal massive damage, but her playstyle involves strategic stacking mechanics and energy management that make her a joy to play—if you know what you’re doing.  Here’s a comprehensive guide on how to build the best The Herta for maximum damage output, optimal team compositions, and all the important relics, light cones, and stats you should focus on.

Understanding The The Herta’s Strengths Skill

The Herta might seem like just another cute puppet character at first glance, but once you dive deeper, you’ll see why she’s a top-tier DPS. Her ability to stack Inspiration on enemies is a game-changer, drastically increasing her damage potential as the battle progresses.

The more stacks she applies, the stronger her Enhanced Skill becomes, and with the right setup, she can unleash some of the hardest-hitting abilities in the game. But that’s just the tip of the iceberg. The Herta also benefits immensely from two Erudition characters on the team. The bonus crit damage from her second major Trace (80%) makes her one of the most reliable DPS units, as long as you stack up her passive bonuses and energy generation mechanics.

Best Relics for The Herta: Scholar’s Lost

The Scholar’s Lost relic set is a must-have for The Herta. This set enhances both her Skill and Ultimate damage, with a bonus 8% Crit Rate on the two-piece set. The four-piece set is where things get wild, as it boosts Skill Damage further and grants a damage buff after using her Ultimate. This synergy is perfect for a character that excels at chaining skills and ultimates together for massive bursts of damage.

If you want to really focus on maximizing The Herta’s Ice DPS, pairing the Scholar’s Lost set with Erudition for your planer set is a no-brainer. Erudition boosts crit rate, which works wonders when combined with her already high crit damage potential.

Main Stats

For the main stats on The Herta’s relics, here’s the breakdown:

• Body: Crit Rate or Crit Damage (depending on your current crit rate)
• Boots: Attack or Speed (depends on the content you’re tackling)
• Orb: Ice Damage or Attack (Ice Damage will be better if you’re focusing on raw power)
• Rope: Attack Percent (this is a standard for any hyper-carry)

Speed vs Attack Boots: Whether you go for Speed or Attack boots depends on your team composition. Speed boots work better if you’re playing in game modes like Apocalyptic Shadow, where turn order and frequent use of abilities matter most. However, for team compositions where The Herta’s damage output is the primary focus (like Memory of Chaos), Attack boots might give you better results.

Best Light Cones for The Herta: Maximizing Crit and Energy

The Herta’s signature Light Cone, Into the Unreacheable Veil, is a game-changer. At S1, it gives The Herta 12% Crit Rate and increases Skill and Ultimate damage by 60%. This Light Cone also provides Skill Point recovery on each Ultimate, ensuring that The Herta never runs out of energy for her ability rotations. This is an essential pick if you want to get the most out of her Enhanced Skill and Ultimate synergy.

Other Great Light Cones

• Before Dawn: This is an excellent budget option for those who don’t have The Herta’s signature Light Cone. It maximizes damage bonuses and boosts her base attack significantly, giving her a strong overall performance.
• An Instance Before a Gaze: For those who have access to it, An Instance Before a Gaze provides an extra boost to crit rate and damage, making The Herta’s damage output even more reliable.

If you’re a free-to-play player, the Night on the Milky Way (S1) are solid alternatives. These still provide significant bonuses to her damage output and energy generation.

Priority Talent and Trace Upgrades

To maximize The Herta’s damage potential, you’ll want to level up the following skills:

1. Skill – This is her bread and butter. Enhancing her skill allows her to generate more stacks and trigger enhanced attacks faster.
2. Ultimate – Her Ultimate gives The Herta an 80% attack buff for three turns, which is essential for powering up her Enhanced Skill.
3. Talent – Her talent increases energy generation when you attack enemies, which helps maintain her cycle of Ultimate and Skill usage.

Key Traces:

• Second Major Trace: Grants 80% Crit Damage when you have two Erudition characters. This is an absolute must for optimal performance.
• Third Major Trace: Regenerates 3 energy per target attacked, making it easier for The Herta to charge up her Ultimate more quickly.
• First Trace: Increases the damage of her Ultimate by 1% for every Inspiration stack on the enemy, which is invaluable for ramping up damage output as the battle progresses.

Best Team Composition for The Herta

The Herta works exceptionally well when paired with certain team compositions that maximize her energy generation and crit damage potential.

Recommended Team Composition Pick Just One

1. Jade

• Best Overall Partner: Jade excels in generating speed bonuses, enhancing Herta’s performance in multiple modes, such as Pure Fiction, Apox Shadow, and Memory of Chaos.
• Why Jade Works: Jade boosts Herta’s damage output, speeds up her attacks (Lingaw), and helps keep her energy generation steady. She’s versatile, works well in both AOE damage and single-target situations, and provides crucial support.

2. Herta (Grande)

• Solid Backup Option: Herta complements The Herta’s abilities by giving her more attacks and energy when using her skill.
• Why Herta Works: While Herta shines in Pure Fiction and Apox Shadow, her usefulness in some mode is more limited unless there are constantly spawning enemies. Still, Herta’s additional energy generation can make her a valuable asset in multiple content modes.

3. Serval (Free-to-Play Friendly)

• Free-to-Play Option: If you don’t have access to high-tier supports like Jade, Serval is a great alternative, especially for new or budget players.
• Why Serval Works: Serval offers great energy regeneration through her PassKey light cone. At S5, this provides 12 energy for each skill used, which can help Herta use her ultimate more frequently. Serval is an excellent battery for Herta, and can be easily built for energy generation rather than damage.

Other Team Comp:

Remembrance MC

• Why Remembrance MC Works: Remembrance MC shines with Herta because of the synergy in energy generation and buffs. With Eidolons, Remembrance MC provides significant true damage, which is a great damage multiplier and doesn’t suffer from diminishing returns like standard buffs.
• Recommended Team Composition: A team with Jade, Lingaw, and Remembrance MC is ideal for maximizing Herta’s damage while ensuring energy generation and buff stacking are at their peak.

Sunday

• Why Sunday Works: Sunday is an excellent pick because she generates energy directly for Herta. She provides around 40+ energy from her ability, which can be useful for enabling Herta to spam her ultimate and skills.
• Recommended Strategy: Play Sunday with a focus on speed tuning so that you can cycle Herta’s skills more efficiently. You may want to prioritize speed boots for Sunday to reduce the skill-point consumption and keep the energy flow steady.

Robin

• Why Robin Works: Robin offers great buffs but his action-forward mechanics aren’t always active. However, he still adds value by boosting your team’s overall effectiveness, especially when paired with Remembrance MC to help push Herta’s damage potential.

Eidolons: Are They Worth It?

The Herta’s Eidolons provide significant power boosts and can greatly improve her overall effectiveness in battle. While they’re not mandatory, Eidolons make a noticeable difference in damage output and energy management.

• E1: Increases the damage calculation by adding 50% of the highest Inspiration stacks to the multiplier, boosting her Enhanced Skill even further.
• E2: Grants 35% action forward on every Enhanced Skill, making her even faster and more aggressive in combat.
• E3: Level up Skill and Talent, improving her overall damage output.
• E4: Increases speed for all Erudition characters, which can be pivotal for speed-based teams.
• E5: Boosts Ice Resistance Penetration by 20%, making her even stronger against enemies resistant to Ice.

While you don’t need to go all-in for Eidolons, they definitely help enhance her damage scaling and utility.

The Herta’s potential as a top-tier DPS in Honkai Star Rail is unrivaled when you build her correctly. With the right relics, light cones, and talent upgrades, she can become an unstoppable force in battle, dealing massive AoE damage and crushing bosses with ease. Keep in mind the importance of stacking her Inspiration debuff on enemies, leveraging her energy generation mechanics, and pairing her with the right supports to maximize her damage output.