Honkai: Star RailTrailblazer (Fire)Build and Guide

The Preservation version of the Trailblazer deals decent damage for a defensive unit and quite significant Toughness damage as well. They also offer small but consistent party-wide shields at no additional cost. They are able to circumvent enemy lock-ons and unfavourable targeting through their Skill, taunting enemies and provoking them into attacking only the Trailblazer. Later on, they are able to provide teamwide damage reduction that can significantly reduce damage from hard hitting enemy and Boss AoE attacks.

Following the very epic events on Jarilo-VI, the players gain access to the Preservation flavour of the Trailblazer. This is a unit that attempts to consolidate defensive utility with damage and Toughness damage. Compared to the Destruction variant, this ends up being significantly more successful, and is a version of the Trailblazer that still sees quite widespread use even now when far more (and far more powerful) sustain characters exist.

The big draw of the Preservation Trailblazer is their Talent. After using any action, be it a Basic ATK, Skill, or Ultimate, the Trailblazer will apply a shield to all allies for up to 6% of their DEF plus 80, lasting for 2 turns. This is not a large shield by any stretch of the imagination, even at unreasonable DEF values, but the cool part is that it is reapplied by any action, meaning these shields are quite good at dealing with small but frequent sources of damage; even though these shields are unlikely to fully mitigate any attack in the late game, the damage that does end spilling over will be significantly reduced.

The Trailblazer also gains stacks of Magma Will whenever they are hit or use their Basic ATK or Skill, stacking up to 8 times. At 4 stacks, their Basic ATK will be Enhanced, becoming a Blast AoE that deals damage to adjacent foes as well. This Enhanced Basic also deals increased Toughness damage to the main target. This attack consumes the 4 stacks of Magma Will and will not add any back.

The Trailblazer’s Ultimate deals damage to all enemies on the field, dealing up to 100% ATK plus 150% of the Trailblazer’s DEF. This also automatically Enhances the next Basic ATK at no cost. The upfront damage is certainly nice, but the more impactful aspect of this Ultimate is that it deals 60 Toughness damage to all enemies on the field and also counts towards activating the Talent, meaning it is possible to activate this during the enemy’s turn to refresh the shields in a pinch.

Their Skill assumes a defensive stance, reducing incoming damage by up to 50% and having a 100% base chance to Taunt all enemies for 1 turn. This provoke is how the Trailblazer can circumvent lock-ons and redirect strong damage, so that in the inevitable situation where your Foxian teammates end up taking The World’s damage, you have an opportunity to prevent that from resulting in their death. The base chance is high, but on its own is insufficient to provide a true 100% chance of provoking enemies, especially at higher levels and in later stages of Memory of Chaos.

It is not (always) fatal if you do not land the Taunt, as their A2 Bonus Ability Trace provides a 15% damage reduction for the rest of the team for 1 turn whenever the Trailblazer uses their Skill, meaning even if the enemy cannot be made to attack them specifically, the damage reduction on top of the Talent’s shields will do a great job at protecting the other party members. Their A4 restores 5% Max HP whenever they use an Enhanced Basic, and then A6 provides a very tangible 5 Energy per turn so long as the Trailblazer remains shielded. It also provides a very not-tangible 15% ATK increase.

As is the case with the Trailblazer being the main character, you are going to gain access to all of their Eidolons over time by just playing. Unlike the Destruction variant, these Eidolons are actually quite compelling. E1 makes their Basic ATK and Enhanced Basic have additional DEF% scaling, 25% and 50% respectively. This is ultimately pretty negligible unless you’re building for more of a bruiser type of Preservation Trailblazer, in which case it can actually be a pretty significant increase to their overall damage contribution.

E4 grants 4 stacks of Magma Will at the start of a fight, but E2 and E6 are the big big ones. E2 increases the value of the Talent’s shields by an extra 2% DEF plus 27, for a new total value of 8% plus 107. While still rather paltry shields compared to the ones that someone like Gepard can provide, you should remember that these are entirely free shields that are refreshed upon every action of the Trailblazer. E6 will increase the Trailblazer’s DEF by 10% for every Enhanced Basic ATK or Ultimate they use, up to 30%, providing yet further bonuses to their kit.

In the early and mid game, the shields provided by the Preservation Trailblazer are more than enough on their own to completely stifle enemy damage, as the base values are quite high at that point. Later on, however, this starts to be less and less true, as enemy damage starts to climb extraordinarily quickly, enough that if your focus is shielding, you better be damn sure that those shields can endure at least a few attacks before getting broken. Even with the quick reapplication, even singular attacks from non-Elite enemies can easily do in the thousands of damage, far more than the Trailblazer will ever be able to mitigate within reason; for context, you’d need to hit 5-digit DEF values for the shields to be able to exceed 1000, and that’s not happening, even inside the Simulated Universe.

As such, the Preservation Trailblazer is not able to remain the solo sustain unit of a team unless the player is exceptionally brave. Even then, it remains inadvisable in most cases. There are a few enemies who get completely shafted by a Taunt, like Voidranger Tramplers or Malefic Apes, and in cases where they are the main threats of an encounter, Preservation Trailblazer can actually be a suitable stand-in for a proper sustain unit. Do note that in these cases, they are very SP negative, as their Taunt requires they spend Skill Points, so keep this in mind when building a team around their Taunt.

Because of the shielding that is generally inadequate on its own in the late game alongside the quite meaningful Toughness damage that the Trailblazer can dish out, they become a competent unit in a double defensive setup, one where you have two units who are typically considered sustains. Their passive shielding complements another sustain character’s healing very well, making it truly very difficult for allies to die when there are two layers of protection. The Toughness damage also helps to alleviate the otherwise colossal damage loss you incur by replacing either another support character or a damage dealer with the Preservation Trailblazer, though this is contingent on the enemy being weak to Fire.

Double defensive comps are almost always suboptimal, but in the event your dedicated sustain unit is incapable of keeping the team alive, the Preservation Trailblazer can readily turn that ‘maybe’ into a ‘definitely’ — and, hey, if your damage dealers already have no issues decimating anything that’s put in front of them, then why not enjoy the extra comfort that Preservation Trailblazer can offer?

It is an ultimately inescapable fate that the Preservation Trailblazer will see less and less use over time, both for you specifically, and for the general playerbase. Players nowadays have access to stronger, more versatile, and more interesting characters, and team slots are invariably limited to a maximum of four. The days of shoddy sustain units are largely behind us, and with them goes one of the most compelling reasons to use Preservation Trailblazer. Even still, despite all of this the Preservation Trailblazer is still seeing use, and will likely continue to do so until the day all players can get amazing sustain characters entirely for free. 

Nowadays especially, Preservation Trailblazer has slotted themselves into the position of a dedicated Breaker due to their aforementioned high Toughness damage. Since there’s no pressure to use their Ultimate for raw damage and it’s unlikely they’re your only sustain unit, it is relatively easy to guarantee that they will be the one Breaking opponents, giving a great way to make up for the damage you’d otherwise be losing by not using a different unit. The role consolidation is very much appreciated, and with Pure Fiction now in the game, the Preservation Trailblazer has another compelling use case.

As with the Destruction Trailblazer, investing a lot into Preservation Trailblazer will definitely see their usefulness and power increase, but there are many characters and there will be many more, and resources are finite, even including new forms of the Trailblazer themselves. Putting your resources into the Preservation Trailblazer definitely won’t be wasted, but just keep in mind what the Trailblazer says: ‘When you make a choice, make one you know you won’t regret.’

… The Ultimate animation will always be top tier, though.