Best Herta build in Honkai Star Rail

Herta is a playable character in Honkai and besides being a member of the Genius Society, she’s also a master of the eponymous Herta Space Station.

Although she appears in the form of an artificial puppet, Herta’s extremely powerful and a valuable unit to have. To understand how she works, here’s the best Herta build in Honkai: Star Rail.

How to build Herta in Honkai Star Rail

Madam Herta is a four-star sub-DPS in Honkai and while she’s an artificial robot, Herta is still an Emanator of Erudition, meaning she’s a force to be reckoned with. She’s an Ice damage dealer who follows the path of Erudition and as such, she excels in big AoE follow-up attacks, which makes her a great unit for Pure Fiction. To use her kit to its utmost potential, you need to equip her with right Light Cones, decent Relics and Planar Ornaments, and level up her Traces.

Light Cones

To make your Herta work, she needs a proper weapon that matches her kit. Since she’s a follower of Erudition, this means that you can only equip her with Erudition Light Cones. Luckily, she has a ton of great free-to-play options that are easy to get.

Here are the best Light Cones for Herta:

• Before Dawn (five-star)
• Night on that Milky Way (five-star)
• The Birth of the Self (four-star)
• The Seriousness of Breakfast (four-star)

Before Dawn is Jing Yuan’s signature Light Cone, and since it provides a ton of offensive and utility stats, it’s also Herta’s best in slot. This five-star Light Cone increases Herta’s CRIT damage by 36 percent, Skill, and Ultimate damage 18 percent. Additionally, Herta’s follow-up attack damage increases by 48 percent.

The Seriousness of Breakfast is a four-star Light Cone you can obtain for free from the Forgotten Hall Store. It’s a decent alternative that increases Herta’s damage by 24 percent, and whenever she defeats an opponent, her damage increases by an extra eight percent.

The Birth of the Self is another solid four-star option, and you can obtain this Light Cone through Honkai’s gacha system.

Trace priority

Just like Traces are an essential part of Herta’s kit, they are also a crucial part of this build and you need to invest in them. You want to level up Herta to 80 and unlock all her Traces, and since her main source of damage comes passively from her follow-up attacks, you can ignore Herta’s basic attacks and focus on other abilities.

Here are the abilities and talents you should prioritize:

• Her Skill is your first priority. It deals a decent amount of damage and whenever an opponent is below 50 percent of health, Herta’s damage increases by 20 percent against that opponent.
• Her Ultimate is a big AoE Ice nuke, which increases her overall damage, so you should also level it up.
• Her Talent is equally important as other abilities since that’s where big AoE follow-up attacks come from. 

Relics and Planar Ornaments sets

Good Relics and Planar Ornaments are a core part of any build, and Herta is no exception. To increase her utility and damage she provides even more, it’s important to equip her with Relics that match her playstyle and as a strong sub-DPS, Herta’s choices are straightforward.

Here are the best Relics and Planar Ornament sets for Herta:

• Hunter of Glacial Forest (two-piece) and Musketeer of Wild Wheat (two-piece)
• Inert Salsotto (two-piece)

The two-piece combo of Hunter of Glacial Forest and Musketeer of Wild Wheat is Herta’s best bet. This mixture of sets offers a ton of value since it increases Herta’s Ice damage by 20 percent and attack damage by 12 percent. 

To match the synergy of those Relics, two-piece Inert Salsotto is the way to go for Planar Ornaments. This set increases Herta’s CRIT Rate by eight percent and the damage of her follow-up attacks by 15 percent. You can also grind this set in World six of the Simulated Universe.

Relic and Planar Ornament stats and substats

To put those Relics and Planar Ornaments to good use, decent stats and substats are 

necessary to have.

Here are the following stats you should target when farming those Relics:

• Body: CRIT Rate or CRIT damage
• Feet: Speed
• Sphere: Ice damage
• Rope: Energy Regeneration Rate or ATK percent

Since Herta scales with attack, you should aim for a balanced CRIT ratio and a good mixture of offensive substats like attack and speed.

Best Herta Eidolons

Although Herta functions perfectly fine without Eidolons, she’s a four-star unit and you’re bound to get some of them sooner or later. You should try and get her Eidolons two and four because they are her best ones. They increase CRIT Rate by 15 percent and her overall damage by 10 percent.