Honkai: Star RailYao GuangBest build, teams and other guides

The first of a new Path, the Path of Elation. She's a support character tailored to the new Elation mechanics, but carries strong general purpose buffing with her as well, providing high All-Type RES PEN to allies and Damage Vulnerability against foes. She becomes stronger with more Elation characters on the team, and her Ultimate is able to immediately trigger an extra Aha Instant for free, in which all other Elation characters on the team will use their Elation Skills. She is already very potent, and will only grow stronger as more Elation units are released.

[Intro]

The Seer Strategist of the Xianzhou Yuque, Yao Guang, decided that life was too boring on the Path of the Hunt, and so more closely aligns with... The Elation?? Yes, that's right, it's now come to the absolutely unenviable task of attempting to explain what the mechanics of a new Path are and what we can expect moving forward.

Remembrance's whole thing was memosprites, but largely this ended up being a slightly altered version of existing team archetypes that were focused on CRIT, and the running theme eventually became that they are HP scalers. It seemed to settle into its own archetype over time.

Elation has no such issues, as it defines itself as unique from the rest straight away. This is good because there shouldn't be any overlapping or conflicting of identities. But Aha does not do 'simple'. Aha does 'Chaos, chaos!', and it falls to me to try and explicate what this entails.

[The World Revolving]

The Path of Elation is all about entertaining Aha through the Aha Instant. Aha THEMSELVES (yes really) steal THEIR way into your Turn Order, and when there's an Aha Instant, THEY will grant an Extra Turn to all Elation units on the field.

During this Extra Turn, Elation units will use their Elation Skill automatically without consuming any normal resources, and this will happen in sequence, meaning that every Elation unit will use an Elation Skill in every Aha Instant, guaranteed. Aha's speed on the Turn Order is affected by the number of Elation characters in the team, and increasing their SPD will also increase Aha's SPD. The frequency of Aha Instants is directly affected by Aha's SPD.

There's two mechanics that are integral to this Aha Instant: Punchline, and Certified Banger. If you think these sound cringy, you should first check whether or not you currently talk like this fam.

Punchline is a resource that is generated by Elation units doing things or using abilities. Notice that this includes enemies. Punchline is stored in the bottom right of the screen next to Aha's comedy mask, and the amount of Punchline here is shared across the entire team. When the Aha Instant is triggered, the amount of Punchline stored will determine the amount of Elation DMG that is dealt in this Instant. After the Instant, the stored Punchline will become 'consumed', resetting to 0.

After Elation characters use their Elation Skill, they obtain the Certified Banger state, something that is directly tied to Elation characters' Talents and has unique effects for each one.

The 'consumed' Punchline stacks will then be stored on each Elation character individually, seen as a number next to the character beside a side profile view of Aha's comedy mask. Consumed Punchline stacks will affect how much Elation DMG that specific character will do. When you gain Consumed Punchline, the stacks you get have a set duration before disappearing, but each stack tally is independently timed from one another.

The Consumed Punchline will also stack with the regular Punchline during the Aha Instant to further buff characters' Elation Skills. Elation DMG is not affected by DMG Boosting effects, it is only affected by Elation (a brand new stat), and Merrymake, a new type of Boost that is incredibly rare and powerful as it's a final multiplier.

Do note that the unconsumed Punchline points will only affect Elation Skill DMG during the Aha Instant. It is only when they are consumed after the Aha Instant that they will affect all Elation DMG dealt by Elation characters (but again, will stack together with unconsumed Punchline during the Aha Instant).

This is a lot, so let's try an example:

Let's say you have 2 Elation characters on a team, Floof and Bluff, and by using their Abilities, you have generated 30 Punchline, denoted in the bottom right. Then, the Aha Instant triggers, causing both Elation characters to use their Elation Skills one after another, dealing Elation DMG based on the 30 Punchline you had, and entering their respective Certified Banger states. After this, both characters will have 30 Consumed Punchline, seen as the number 30 next to the respective character portraits of Floof and Bluff. The Punchline from the bottom right is now showing 0.

Floof and Bluff generate 20 Punchline before the next Aha Instant. In this second Instant, Floof and Fluff will deal Elation Skill DMG as though they had 50 Punchline stored (30 Consumed Punchline from before + the 20 unconsumed Punchline from this time). Then, the Punchline tally is reset to 0 again, and Floof and Bluff now have 50 Punchline stored.

But Floof is faster than Bluff, and so the duration of the first Certified Banger state runs out for Floof before it does for Bluff (the one that came from 30 Punchline). Because of this, Floof now has 20 Punchline stored (losing the stack of 30 from the first Aha Instant), and Bluff still has 50 Punchline stored (the stack of 30 from the first Instant, and the stack of 20 from the second Instant), but has 2 turns remaining for the stack of 20, and only 1 turn remaining for the stack of 30.

This is the basis for Elation gameplay, and I promise you it's a lot easier to understand once you actually see it in game. Please keep these terms in mind as I explain things, as it's important to understanding just why Yao Guang is poised to be a pivotal character in Elation teams moving forward.

[Abilities]

Yao Guang herself is relatively simple, it's really just the general Elation mechanics that make it quite the pain to explain.

Her Skill will deploy a Zone for 3 of Yao Guang's turns. This Zone will increase all allies' Elation by an amount equal to 20% of Yao Guang's Elation.

... Right. Elation is actually a brand new stat that exists in the game now, and is tailor-made for Elation characters to make use in much the same way that Break Effect is designed for Break teams. It's even similar in the sense that general DMG Boosts do nothing for actual Elation DMG, so it's very important to have a lot of this stat if you want to maximise the damage that occurs in an Aha Instant.

As such, being able to share a portion of her own Elation with others makes Yao Guang already very useful for the future of Elation teams.

Yao Guang's Basic ATK is a Blast AoE, dealing 90% ATK to the main target and 30% ATK to adjacent foes. The energy recovered by this Basic ATK is always 30, making it a very reliable way to gain Energy. Using either Yao Guang's Basic ATK or Skill will gain 3 Punchline. Not too impressive on its own, but it's still a consistent amount, especially from the Basic ATK since it's a way to gain Punchline without consuming SP at all (something that may become relevant).

Yao Guang's Ultimate is a big reason she's gonna be in damn near every Elation team moving forward. She will gain 5 Punchline, and then immediately creates an Aha Instant with a fixed value of 20 Punchline. This turn does not consume Punchline, and also increases all allies' All-Type RES PEN by 20% for 3 turns. Aside from the very impressive RES PEN, being able to just give Aha an Extra Turn for every Elation unit to use their Elation Skills is fantastic. Don't let the fixed Punchline value of 20 fool you, that's only for the actual Punchline being consumed — if your Elation characters are already holding a large amount of Consumed Punchline, they will still be able to drop a fat nuke on the enemies instantly thanks to Yao Guang.

Even better is that this is a genuinely free Aha Instant, not consuming any of the floating Punchline in the process, and even granting some extra thanks to the 5 Punchline from just using Yao Guang's Ultimate. This is a very strong way to boost damage for the entire team.

The only downside is that it costs a whopping 180 Energy to use, so you're going to have to work for this power, and you DO want to work for it because that All-Type RES PEN is one of the few things that can buff Elation DMG. Be glad the Basic ATK restores 30 Energy.

Her Talent describes her Certified Banger. The Certified Banger state for Yao Guang will allow for allies to trigger 1 additional instance of 20% Elation DMG of the corresponding Type to a random enemy that was hit by an attack of theirs. If said attack consumed SP, then there will be a second additional instance of Elation DMG. This Great Boon will use the attacker's Elation stat to calculate damage, but in the event that it's lower than Yao Guang's, Yao Guang's Elation will be used for the calculation instead. This effect cannot trigger off of itself. Free extra damage is free extra damage, and it will add up very quickly, especially if Yao Guang is holding a lot of Consumed Punchline.

Yao Guang's Elation Skill is used automatically during the Aha Instant. It will inflict Woe's Whisper on all enemies, lasting for 3 turns. Woe's Whisper will make enemies take 16% increased DMG. She then deals 100% Elation DMG to all enemies, followed by 5 instances of 20% Elation DMG to one random enemy.

The damage you'll see from this will be in the vein of 'that's pretty good for a support', but you must of course remember that she is alone for now. With even a single other Elation unit on the team, that number can very quickly transform into 'hey wait, that's DPS numbers!' and you will in fact scarcely believe it's coming from a support character.

[Bonus Traces]

The A2 is a stat converter. When Yao Guang's SPD is 120 or higher, increases this units Elation by 30%. For every 1 SPD beyond this cap, increases the Elation bonus by 1%. Up to 200 SPD can be considered for this effect, resulting in a total bonus of 230% Elation if you somehow reach 320 SPD.

Naturally, this is not possible in regular gameplay (for now, touch wood), but it is still very useful to try and go for a fast acting Yao Guang, not only for the Elation bonus you get from this Trace, but also because a faster General is a faster Aha.

Her A4 will increase Yao Guang's CRIT DMG by 60% unconditionally, and will also allow her Elation Skill to recover 1 SP for the team when used, making the ordinarily SP neutral Aha Instant actually give SP back.

Lastly, the A6. It's one line, and it's that it increases Yao Guang's Certified Banger duration by 1 turn, for a new maximum of 3 turns. Innocuous, yet very potent, for it means that Yao Guang will be able to hold onto a lot more Consumed Elation than her future peers, quite often having a significant amount more. This then plays into her Talent letting her be the main point of Calculation for the additional DMG instances from Great Boon, increasing team Elation DMG even further.

See? I told you the actual character was simple. Ignore the Everything else™ shaped everything else surrounding her. We'll all get used to it soon enough.

[Eidolons]

Hello, yes, it's me again to tell you that you do not need Eidolons in order to have a good time, and this is especially true with Yao Guang. The reasons you would want to pull for her and bring her to your team do not change when you consider her Eidolons. Even still, should you wish to go for them, you can have a pretty good time.

• E1 makes the Ult's guaranteed Aha Instant have a fixed Punchline value of 40 now, up from 20, and allies dealing Elation DMG will ignore 20% of the target's DEF.

• E2 will make her Skill's Zone increase allies' SPD by 12%, and increases Elation by 16%.

• E4 is pretty strong. In Aha's Extra Turn that's granted by Yao Guang's Ultimate, allies' Elation Skill DMG will become 150% of its original DMG. This is a straight 1.5x final multiplier to the damage you deal, which is uhhh... Pretty strong, I'd say. A shame it comes so late though, as E4 is very rarely a target point or stopping point.

• Lastly the E6 will Merrymake allies' Elation DMG by 25%. This is ANOTHER multiplier to the Elation DMG that the team can do, and coupled with the boost from her E4, you're going to be hitting some obscene numbers on both Yao Guang and any Elation units you use alongside her.

  • Oh and it also doubles the final damage of her own Elation Skill. You know, for funsies. 

[The Rest]

Normally I'd have this big spiel about what this all means for the unit and for future teams and the like, but really, I don't think she's that complicated at all.

All of Yao Guang's buffs and benefits are simple to understand, regardless of the team composition you're looking to put her into. She has DMG Vuln and RES PEN, so she's automatically going to be at least somewhat good for everyone, even outside of a dedicated Elation team.

Hell, she even restores extra SP with her Elation Skill, so you can actually use her quite well in teams that have SP negative supports as well. Since her Punchline generation is also very consistent, and she rather likes building for SPD thanks to her Bonus Trace, she can actually generate a fairly consistent stream of Punchline all by herself, and the bonus turn you get for her Certified Banger state means she can hold onto Consumed Punchline for longer.

She's just very self-synergistic and it's quite readily apparent when you actually try to use her in-game.

But that's why it's so impressive, because this is the first in what is likely to be a fairly long line of Elation units, and yet... Yao Guang is a complete character already, at E0, and without much special attention either. Knowing that she will only become better with the addition of future Elation units into the team is honestly somewhat frightening.

This is not even mentioning the fact that a good stream of Punchline generation could theoretically let the team's DMG keep ramping up over time, getting stronger and stronger. Maybe this isn't so impressive for those obsessed with 0 cycles, but for even the enthusiast player, having that kind of a fallback mechanism built into the team is very reassuring.

But let's say you like a character who is more generally applicable, and do not wish to be tethered to one archetype exclusively. Well... like I said, Yao Guang is already a complete character. Maybe she's not quite as impressive as a Tribbie or Cipher for non Elation teams, but she's still a very strong support with buffs that are very rarely diluted.

Yao Guang can fit with the newly buffed Sparkle very well in an Archer team, for example. The high SP positivity of the team lets Archer spam out Caladbolg with reckless abandon, and he sure does appreciate having some extra RES PEN as well.

Yao Guang is unlikely to be replacing anyone on an already built non Elation team, simply because we're quite spoiled for choice when it comes to strong supports. Having said that, Yao Guang is The Future™, and if you have even a passing interest in Elation teams, you are encouraged to seek out Yao Guang. She is going to be IMPORTANT, and you will feel like quite the Fool if you miss her.

Having said that, her supportive abilities are a little suspect outside of Elation, of course, and there is no guarantee that she will definitely stay relevant, but for those looking to the future, you should at least consider getting her.

[Wrap up]

You know I think the Elation explanation took more characters than the actual kit description and review of Yao Guang. We just can't have nice things. I am not making any promises whatsoever, okay, but I have a strong suspicion that this will be a more measured approach to a new playable Path than the first time they did this.

Remembrance is memed on quite a bit for its insane cost, but I can tell you that seeing what Yao Guang does, and how Elation works as a mechanic, that she is of a different composition.

It is definitely too early to call this the Hyacine of Elation, but please, do yourself a favour and get familiar with Elation. Once you do, you'll quickly realise the potential that this unit has for this fresh new archetype — but please, make an educated decision, and one you will not regret.

As a wise saying goes: 'Don't fall in love with potential'.