Honkai: Star Rail Relics Guide: Sets, Stats & Where to Farm

Relics are Honkai: Star Rail's gear system: six equippable pieces split into four Cavern Relics and two Planar Ornaments, each carrying one fixed main stat and up to four random substats. Set bonuses stack on top, and because substats roll randomly, Relics are the single largest source of power difference between two otherwise identical accounts.

That last point is why Relics matter far beyond raw numbers. Two Trailblazers can own the same characters at the same levels with the same Light Cones and still deal wildly different damage, purely because one of them is running clean CRIT substats and the correct 4-piece bonus. This guide walks through every slot, every stat pool, the enhancement math, where each Relic type is farmed, what the Omni-Synthesizer actually gives you, and how to decide what to keep.

What are Relics in Honkai: Star Rail?

Relics are equipment pieces that grant stats to a character and additional buffs when worn as a matching set. Each character can equip six at once: four Cavern Relics (Head, Hands, Body, Feet) and two Planar Ornaments (Planar Sphere, Link Rope). Every Relic has one main stat plus up to four substats.

The system unlocks in two stages. Cavern Relics become available during the Trailblaze Mission "Ones Fallen Into the Abyss" on Jarilo-VI, and Planar Ornaments unlock later during "No Time for Me, My Friend" on the Xianzhou Luofu. Until both are unlocked, you simply cannot fill all six slots, which is one reason very early accounts feel underpowered even with good characters.

In-fiction, Cavern Relics are described as phantasmal equipment preserved and reconstructed by the Fragmentum, while Planar Ornaments are artificial imitations built on the same principles. Mechanically, the distinction that matters is where they drop and how their set bonuses are structured — covered next.

What is the difference between Cavern Relics and Planar Ornaments?

Cavern Relics occupy the Head, Hands, Body and Feet slots and come in sets with both a 2-piece and a 4-piece bonus. Planar Ornaments occupy the Planar Sphere and Link Rope slots and only ever have a 2-piece bonus. They are also farmed in completely different places, which changes how you budget your time.

Because Cavern sets have a 4-piece tier, they are where the loud conditional effects live — things like Hunter of Glacial Forest granting 25% CRIT DMG for two turns after an Ultimate, or Iron Cavalry Against the Scourge ignoring enemy DEF once your Break Effect crosses 150%. Planar Ornaments instead tend to carry statline gates: Firmament Frontline Glamoth pays out extra damage at 135 and 160 SPD, Space Sealing Station adds ATK once you reach 120 SPD, and Talia: Kingdom of Banditry rewards 145 SPD.

That gating is the practical reason Speed is such a fixation in this game. A Planar Ornament that does nothing at 119 SPD and a lot at 120 SPD turns a single Speed substat roll into a real damage decision, not a rounding error.

One more structural difference: the Planar Sphere is the only slot that can roll elemental DMG Boost as a main stat. If you want Fire DMG% or Quantum DMG% on a character, the Sphere is the only place it comes from.

What main stat can each Relic slot roll?

Head and Hands are fixed — Head always rolls flat HP and Hands always rolls flat ATK, with no variation whatsoever. The other four slots roll from a pool, which is why Body, Feet, Sphere and Rope are the slots you actually farm for.

The full main-stat pools break down as follows:

• Head: flat HP only.
• Hands: flat ATK only.
• Body: HP%, ATK%, DEF%, CRIT Rate%, CRIT DMG%, Outgoing Healing Boost%, Effect Hit Rate%.
• Feet: HP%, ATK%, DEF%, flat Speed.
• Planar Sphere: HP%, ATK%, DEF%, and the seven elemental DMG Boost% types (Physical, Fire, Ice, Lightning, Wind, Quantum, Imaginary).
• Link Rope: HP%, ATK%, DEF%, Break Effect%, Energy Regeneration Rate%.

Main stats do not roll randomly in value. A given main stat at a given enhancement level is always worth exactly the same amount — the randomness is entirely in which main stat you get and in the substats attached to it. This is why a Speed-main Feet piece is treated as a prize: it is the only slot that offers flat Speed as a main stat, and it competes against three other options for the roll.

How do Relic substats work?

Substats are the random half of a Relic. A piece drops with one to four substats depending on rarity, drawn from a shared pool, and gains one substat upgrade every three enhancement levels. If a piece has fewer than four substats, an upgrade unlocks a new one instead of improving an existing line.

The substat pool is: flat HP, HP%, flat ATK, ATK%, flat DEF, DEF%, flat Speed, Break Effect%, Effect RES%, Effect Hit Rate%, CRIT Rate% and CRIT DMG%. Note that CRIT Rate and CRIT DMG appear only as percentages, and Speed only as a flat value.

A 5-star Relic that drops with all four substats already visible will receive five substat upgrades on the way to +15 — one each at +3, +6, +9, +12 and +15. A 5-star that drops with only three substats spends one of those upgrades unlocking the fourth line, leaving four to distribute. That is the core gamble: more starting substats means more total upgrades landing on lines you already have, but fewer chances to hit a line you actually want.

The in-game Enhancement Cap toggle exists precisely for this. Turning it on levels a Relic to the next node and stops, so you can see which substat was hit before committing more upgrade material. On a marginal piece, that is the difference between spending a little and spending a lot on a dud.

As a general priority for damage dealers, CRIT Rate and CRIT DMG lead, with Speed and ATK% close behind, and the widely repeated target is a roughly 1:2 CRIT Rate to CRIT DMG ratio. Sustain and support characters invert that: Speed, Effect RES and the defensive percentages carry far more weight than raw CRIT.

How far should you enhance a Relic?

Enhancement caps are tied strictly to rarity: 2-star pieces stop at +6, 3-star at +9, 4-star at +12 and 5-star at +15. Only 5-star Relics reach the stat ceiling and the full five substat upgrades, so any piece you intend to keep long term should be 5-star.

Upgrade material comes from Lost Lightdust, Lost Gold Fragment and Lost Crystal, plus the option to feed unwanted Relics directly into a piece you are levelling. The salvage function in your inventory converts junk into upgrade material rather than leaving it to clog storage, and it is the correct default for anything you have already decided against.

A practical rule that saves an enormous amount of material: level a promising Relic to +3 or +6 first, read the substat result, and only continue if the roll landed somewhere useful. A 5-star Body piece with CRIT DMG main and two CRIT-adjacent substats already visible is worth pushing to +15 immediately. A piece with three defensive lines on a damage dealer is not worth the fourth node, let alone the fifteenth.

Do not enhance 4-star Relics as a stopgap unless the account is genuinely early. They cap at +12, they will be replaced, and the material spent on them is material not spent on a keeper.

What do 2-piece and 4-piece set bonuses actually do?

A 2-piece Cavern bonus is almost always a flat statline — 12% ATK, 16% Break Effect, 10% elemental DMG, 6% SPD. The 4-piece bonus is where the conditional, kit-specific effects live, and it is usually worth more than the raw stats you give up to complete it.

A few examples make the pattern clear. Musketeer of Wild Wheat gives 12% ATK at two pieces and adds 6% SPD plus 10% Basic ATK DMG at four. Messenger Traversing Hackerspace gives 6% SPD at two pieces and, at four, grants the whole team 12% SPD for a turn when the wearer Ultimates on an ally. Watchmaker, Master of Dream Machinations gives 16% Break Effect at two pieces and spreads 30% Break Effect to all allies at four. Sacerdos' Relived Ordeal stacks CRIT DMG onto the ally you buff.

Because 2-piece bonuses are cheap and stackable, a very common configuration is two 2-piece bonuses rather than one 4-piece — for instance pairing two Break Effect sets on a Break character while the correct 4-piece is still missing. That is a legitimate build, not a compromise, whenever the 4-piece condition does not fit the character's rotation.

Planar Ornaments are simpler: one set, one 2-piece effect, and both pieces must match to get anything at all. A mismatched Sphere and Rope give you their main stats and substats and nothing else.

Set effects and their exact numbers are adjusted as new sets release, so treat specific percentages as accurate to the version you are playing and check the in-game Relic description or HoYoverse's official patch notes when a new set arrives.

Where do you farm Relics, and what does it cost?

Cavern Relics come from Caverns of Corrosion at 40 Trailblaze Power per run, with each Cavern offering two specific sets. Planar Ornaments come from the Simulated Universe and Divergent Universe, claimed through Immersion Rewards after an Elite fight using either one Immersifier or 40 Trailblaze Power.

Caverns of Corrosion run across six difficulty levels, unlocked progressively by Equilibrium Level. Higher difficulties raise the chance of 5-star drops, which is the main reason raising Equilibrium is worth doing even though it also raises enemy strength — farming at the highest Cavern tier you can clear is strictly better for Relic quality than farming a lower one safely.

Relics also arrive from sources that cost no Trailblaze Power at all: exploration treasure chests, Trailblaze Level milestone rewards from Pom-Pom, Operation Briefing tasks in the Interastral Peace Guide, mission rewards, and full 4-piece sets purchasable from each world's shop currency. None of these are efficient enough to build around, but early accounts should sweep all of them before grinding Caverns.

Budget realistically. At 40 Power per Cavern run yielding one to two Relics, a single targeted piece with the right slot, right main stat and usable substats routinely takes weeks of daily Power rather than days. This is why Relic quality is the slowest-moving part of an account's strength and why it lags behind character and Light Cone acquisition. If you want the broader picture of how Relics sit alongside Trailblaze Level, Warp and Equilibrium, the HSR progression guide covering levels, Warp and characters maps the full curve.

What is the Omni-Synthesizer, and when is Self-Modeling Resin worth it?

The Omni-Synthesizer lets you craft Relics from Relic Remains, the material you get by salvaging unwanted pieces. Self-Modeling Resin is a separate consumable that removes the randomness from the main stat, letting you specify exactly which main stat the crafted Relic rolls.

Synthesis unlocks around Trailblaze Level 40. A customised craft consumes one Self-Modeling Resin plus a batch of Relic Remains, and Resin is capped at a small number per month, so it is a scarce, deliberate resource rather than a farming shortcut. Salvaged 5-star Relics are the densest source of Remains.

The key restriction is that main-stat customisation only applies to slots that actually have a main-stat pool — Body, Feet, Planar Sphere and Link Rope. Head and Hands have fixed main stats, so spending Resin on them buys you nothing. Save it for the pieces the game refuses to hand you: a Speed-main Feet, a CRIT DMG Body, or the elemental Sphere that has not dropped in a month of Caverns.

Even then, crafting only fixes the main stat. Substats remain random, so a crafted piece can still roll into uselessness. Treat the Omni-Synthesizer as a way to stop losing to main-stat luck specifically, not as a way to manufacture a finished Relic.

How do you decide which Relics to keep and which to salvage?

Filter in this order: rarity, then slot and main stat, then substats. A 5-star piece in a slot you need, with a main stat your character actually scales from, is a candidate. Anything failing the first two filters is salvage material regardless of how good its substats look.

Concretely, that means a 5-star CRIT DMG Body is worth reading even with mediocre substats, because the main stat alone is a large chunk of damage. A 5-star Outgoing Healing Body on a team with no healer who needs it is Remains. Flat HP and flat DEF substats on a damage dealer are dead weight; the same lines on a survivability-scaling character like a shielder are not.

Two habits keep the inventory manageable. First, salvage aggressively at the 3-star and 4-star tier once your account is past the early game — those pieces will never reach +15 and their only real value is as upgrade material. Second, do not hoard "maybe" 5-stars indefinitely; if a piece has sat unequipped through two characters' builds, it is Remains for the Omni-Synthesizer.

Which characters you are building changes all of this, so it helps to settle your team structure first. The HSR characters and best teams breakdown covering Paths, Types and team building is the right reference for deciding who deserves your Cavern runs before you start farming.

How much do Relics change an account's overall strength?

Enormously — and disproportionately at the top end. Character levels, traces and Light Cones are deterministic; you spend materials and you get the result. Relics are the only major system where two accounts with identical investment can be separated by a large damage gap purely through substat luck.

This shows up most clearly in endgame modes. Memory of Chaos, Pure Fiction and Apocalyptic Shadow all impose turn or cycle limits, so clears are gated on damage per action rather than total damage. A hypercarry sitting at 60% CRIT Rate with a mismatched 4-piece and one at 80% CRIT Rate with the correct set are not slightly different — they are on different sides of a clear threshold.

It also explains why endgame accounts are described in terms of "built" characters rather than owned ones. Owning a limited 5-star is a Warp outcome; having that character at +15 Relics with a correct set and clean CRIT lines represents months of Trailblaze Power. New Trailblazers working out where Relics fit into the wider picture will find the fundamentals laid out in the Honkai: Star Rail beginner's guide to Warp, characters and Stellar Jade.

Common questions about Honkai: Star Rail Relics

Can Relics be moved freely between characters? Yes. Relics can be unequipped and re-equipped on any character at no cost, and enhancement level carries over. There is no re-forging penalty, so a shared Speed-main Feet piece can rotate between builds while you farm a second one.

Do Relic substats ever reroll? No. Substat lines are locked when the Relic drops; enhancement only increases values on those lines or unlocks the remaining ones. There is no mechanic to change an existing substat.

Is a 4-piece set always better than two 2-piece sets? No. It depends entirely on whether the 4-piece condition fits the character's rotation. A 4-piece that triggers on follow-up attacks does nothing for a character with no follow-up, while two stacked 2-piece stat bonuses always apply.

Does Equilibrium Level affect Relic drops? Indirectly but significantly. Higher Equilibrium unlocks higher Cavern of Corrosion difficulties, and the higher tiers improve your odds of 5-star drops. Farming the highest Cavern tier you can reliably clear is the single biggest lever on Relic quality.

Should new accounts farm Relics at all? Not seriously. Early Trailblaze Power is better spent on character and trace materials, with Relics coming from chests, missions and world shops. Dedicated Cavern farming makes sense once you have a settled team and access to the higher difficulty tiers.

If you would rather start from an account that already has the Relic grind behind it, browse the Honkai: Star Rail accounts available on GameMarket.gg and compare rosters, Equilibrium Level and build depth side by side — or explore everything listed on the Honkai: Star Rail marketplace hub.

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