HSR Gilgamesh Build Guide 4.4 — Best Light Cones, Relics & Teams

The HSR Gilgamesh build guide every Trailblazer needs is here: Gilgamesh is the free 5-star Lightning Destruction hypercarry arriving with the Fate/stay night [Unlimited Blade Works] collaboration in Honkai: Star Rail Version 4.4, claimable by every player from July 24, 2026. Picture the King of Heroes standing atop the Astral Express, a sky full of golden portals opening behind him as blades rain down and the turn order bends to his will — that is exactly how his kit feels once it comes online. This guide is layered for both newcomers who just heard "there's a free 5-star" and veterans plotting every substat, so everyone walks away knowing precisely how to gear, team, and pilot him from day one.

Pre-release note: the numbers below reflect current community testing and the official 4.4 preview stream. Values may be tuned before the collab opens, so cross-check in-game on release day before committing materials.

🔥 Why Gilgamesh Matters (Even Though He's Free)

Free units are usually filler. Gilgamesh is not. He is a genuine endgame-capable hypercarry — a main damage dealer your whole team is built around — handed to every account for simply logging in during the collab. For a fresh or returning roster, that is an instant top-tier DPS with zero pulls spent.

In plain terms: a "hypercarry" team funnels buffs, energy, and turns into one character who does the bulk of the damage. Gilgamesh fills that slot, and unlike most free characters he scales into the hardest content in the game rather than falling off after the early story.

• Path / Element: Destruction, Lightning. Destruction units mix strong single-target and blast (AoE) damage with survivability, making them flexible carries.
• Zero pull cost: claimed free through the Fate/stay night login event — see our Fate Collab Part 2 preview for the exact claim steps.
• Account-defining for lighter rosters: if you lack a strong burst or AoE carry, he immediately becomes your best damage option.
• Endgame ready at base: community testing has E0 Gilgamesh comfortably clearing current Memory of Chaos, Pure Fiction, and Apocalyptic Shadow.

⚡ Gilgamesh Kit Breakdown — The Interest Engine

Gilgamesh's whole design revolves around one resource: Interest. He banks Interest whenever allies act and whenever any ally uses an Ultimate, then spends it to take extra turns, empower his Skill, and inflate his massive Ultimate. The faster your team acts, the more Interest he hoards — and the more often he detonates.

In plain terms: think of Interest as a savings account that pays out in extra actions. Every teammate's turn is a small deposit; his Ultimate is the big withdrawal. This is why he feels so different from a "press Skill, press Ultimate" carry — his damage compounds the longer a fight runs and the faster your team acts, rewarding you for building a lineup that keeps the turn wheel spinning rather than one that dumps everything in a single burst. Understand that loop and you understand the entire build: every gear and teammate choice below exists to keep Interest flowing.

• Basic Attack: standard single-target Lightning hit — used mostly to sit at low energy cost while Interest builds.
• Skill (DEF Ignore): his Skill deals blast Lightning damage and applies a 30% DEF ignore to the target, which is why his numbers spike hard against tanky elite and boss enemies.
• Talent (Interest → Extra Turns): as Interest stacks, Gilgamesh gains extra turns and enhanced Skill windows, chaining his actions when the rhythm lines up.
• Ultimate — Enuma Elish: a heavyweight 600-energy AoE nuke. Because his Max Energy is so high, each cast becomes a tactical bomb rather than a routine finisher, and the more Energy consumed, the harder it lands.

How to pilot him: keep the team acting quickly, let Interest snowball, use his Skill to strip DEF on the priority target, then release Enuma Elish inside your biggest buff window. He rewards patience within a single cycle — hold the Ultimate one action longer if it means a fuller Energy bar.

📌 Gilgamesh Build At a Glance

Short on time? Here is the community-consensus build in one block — the full reasoning follows below.

• Best Light Cone: I Am As You Behold (signature); A Thankless Coronation as the top alternative.
• Relics: Lightning DMG / ATK% 4-piece cavern set + a SPD-oriented planar ornament.
• Main stats: CRIT Body · SPD Feet · Lightning DMG Sphere · ATK% Rope.
• Substat priority: CRIT Rate/DMG > SPD > ATK% > Energy Regen.
• Best team: Gilgamesh + Saber + Ashveil/Mortenax + Huohuo (or any fast, Ultimate-heavy core with a healer).
• Eidolon stop: E0 for nearly everyone; E1 if the banner is generous.

💎 Best Light Cones for Gilgamesh

Your Light Cone choice swings his ceiling more than any other single decision. Here is the ranked community-consensus order.

• ⭐ Signature — I Am As You Behold: the best-in-slot. It grants roughly 18% ATK and 10% Energy Regen Rate, raises Ultimate DMG by 10% of Energy consumed (up to 60%), and after his Ultimate or at battle start hands the whole team 25% CRIT DMG. Every stat on it feeds his Interest-and-Ultimate loop.
• 🟢 A Thankless Coronation (5★ alternative): big 36% CRIT DMG, and using an Ultimate boosts ATK by 40% (up to 80% if Max Energy ≥ 300). An excellent non-signature pick that suits his high-energy frame.
• 🟡 Battle Pass / 4★ options: any Destruction cone with ATK%, CRIT, or Energy Regen works. Because he arrives free at his base version, an F2P player can run a battle-pass or event 4★ cone and still field a fully functional hypercarry.

In plain terms: prioritize Energy Regen and CRIT. Gilgamesh lives and dies by how often — and how big — his Ultimate fires.

🔮 Best Relics & Planar Ornaments

Gilgamesh wants a relic package that rewards frequent actions and Lightning damage over a single all-in burst, plus a planar set that helps him take more turns.

• Cavern Relics (4-piece): a Lightning DMG / ATK%-oriented 4-piece that amplifies his repeated hits and Ultimate. Community testing favors an action-economy set over a pure single-window burst set, since his damage comes from many actions, not one.
• Planar Ornament (2-piece): a SPD-oriented ornament set. More speed means more turns for the team, which means more Interest and more empowered Skills — a compounding gain for his engine.

Main stat targets:

• Body: CRIT Rate or CRIT DMG (whichever balances your ratio toward ~1:2).
• Feet: SPD (default) — the extra turns are worth more than a flat ATK% foot on this kit.
• Planar Sphere: Lightning DMG.
• Link Rope: ATK% (or Energy Regen Rate if you are struggling to fund Enuma Elish).

📊 Substat & Stat Priority (with Breakpoints)

Chase substats in this order:

1. CRIT Rate and CRIT DMG — aim for a healthy CRIT ratio around 70% / 200% once fully built.
2. SPD — hit a comfortable 134 SPD breakpoint first; push toward ~160 if your supports can keep pace, since speed directly feeds Interest.
3. ATK% — his multiplier engine, valuable but behind CRIT and SPD.
4. Energy Regen Rate — only if you cannot reliably fire Enuma Elish each rotation; his signature cone and a support battery usually solve this.

In plain terms: get your CRIT ratio and speed right first, then stack ATK. Do not over-invest in Energy Regen if your team already refunds his energy.

👥 Best Team Comps for Gilgamesh

Gilgamesh slots into any lineup built around fast, repeated actions and frequent Ultimates. He does not require a specific partner, but a few pairings are clearly best.

👑 The Fate Dream Team (with Saber)

If you own Saber from the first Fate collab banner, build toward this. After Saber lands three cumulative attacks, she and Gilgamesh trigger a Joint Follow-Up Attack, dealing Lightning damage equal to 400% of Gilgamesh's ATK and Wind damage equal to 600% of Saber's ATK to all enemies. It is his single highest-ceiling comp.

⚝️ The Action-Economy Core (no Saber needed)

• Ashveil — turns Gilgamesh's frequent attacks into repeated follow-ups against her Bait, and her DEF reduction lifts the entire team's damage.
• Mortenax Blade — his Charge cycle accelerates off Ashveil's extra hits, producing more free Skills while his Zone amplifies everyone.
• Huohuo — sustains the lineup and restores team-wide Energy, keeping the attack-heavy rotation flowing so Interest never stalls.

Budget substitutes: any Skill-Point-light sustain (Aventurine, Lynx, Gallagher) plus a fast damage-amplifier works. The only real requirement is tempo — keep the team acting.

🔄 Optimal Rotation (Turn-by-Turn)

Gilgamesh is not a "press buttons randomly" carry — his damage lives in a clean loop. Here is the reliable opening cycle:

1. Turn 1 — Skill on the priority target to plant the 30% DEF ignore and start banking Interest from the hit.
2. Let supports act (Ashveil Bait, Mortenax Charge, buffers) so every ally action deposits more Interest.
3. Skill again once your amplifiers are up, converting the empowered window into blast Lightning damage.
4. Release Enuma Elish the moment your team's biggest buff and DEF-shred window overlaps — never dump it into a bare target.
5. Repeat, using Basic Attacks only to bridge energy gaps when the Ultimate is a single action away.

In plain terms: shred, stack, nuke, repeat. The whole team exists to keep Interest flowing so his Ultimate fires as often as possible.

📊 Gilgamesh vs Your Current Roster

Judge him by what he adds to teams you already run, not by raw hype:

• If you lack a strong AoE or burst carry: Gilgamesh is an immediate account upgrade — a free top-tier DPS that fixes your biggest hole for zero pulls.
• If you already own a premium hypercarry (Firefly, Feixiao, Acheron-tier): he becomes a superb second team anchor, letting you two-team dual-side endgame modes like Memory of Chaos without borrowing carries.
• If you run Saber from Part 1: he is arguably your new best team, thanks to the Joint Follow-Up synergy.
• If your roster is thin on sustain: pair him with Huohuo or any energy-positive healer first — his engine stalls without team energy to keep tempo high.

💵 F2P Value Breakdown

For free-to-play and low-spend Trailblazers, Gilgamesh is one of the most generous gifts HoYoverse has handed out. A functional E0 build costs you 0 warps, a battle-pass or event Light Cone, and a set of farmable relics. That alone competes with characters other players spent 80+ warps to secure. Prioritize your limited relic-farming energy on his CRIT and SPD pieces, lean on a 4★ energy-positive sustain, and you have an endgame-viable carry without touching your Stellar Jade savings — which you can then hold for the paid headliners.

📈 Damage Ceiling & What Investment Buys

• E0 on a 4★ Light Cone (free baseline): a fully functional Destruction hypercarry that clears current endgame — remarkable value for a login reward.
• E0 + signature (I Am As You Behold): the biggest single jump, sharpening his Ultimate and handing the team CRIT DMG. This is where he goes from "great free unit" to "premium carry."
• Full CRIT/SPD relics + Saber comp: pushes him into top-tier clear speed on the hardest floors.

🎯 Eidolon Priority — Where to Stop

Because he is a limited collab unit, extra copies come only from the paid banner, so be deliberate.

• E0 — the recommended stop for most. Clears everything current content asks of him.
• E1 — the standout upgrade if you get lucky: his DEF shred applies party-wide instead of only to his own hits, and he self-charges Energy whenever Interest advances — a real quality-of-life and damage spike.
• E2+ — whale territory: smooth optimizations, not baseline needs. Do not chase copies of a limited collab unit unless you are a dedicated collector.

📅 Claim & Banner Timeline

• Version 4.4 live: July 15, 2026 (headlined by the Himeko Nova launch and reruns).
• Fate Collab Part 2 opens: July 24, 2026 at 12:00 server time.
• Gilgamesh claim window: log in anytime from July 24 through the end of Version 4.6, then finish the collab event to fully unlock and level him.
• No hard expiry: like Part