Honkai: Star Rail - Should You Pull for Yunli or Jiaoqiu? (2024)

Honkai Star Rail's latest update, Version 2.4, introduces two new characters alongside March 7th's new form, being Yunli and Jiaoqiu. As the Trailblazers return to the Luofu for the continuation of the story after the Penacony arc, these new additions have sparked significant excitement and discussion within the community. Players are now faced with the decision of which character to integrate into their team compositions, each offering unique abilities and gameplay strategies.

While both Yunli and Jiaoqiu are appealing options, their distinct skill sets, contributions to the evolving meta, and respective strengths and weaknesses will play a crucial role in determining whether players choose to invest in them. This decision is critical for all players, regardless of whether they are free-to-play or willing to spend, as they navigate the game's latest challenges and end game content.

Yunli Or Jiaoqiu In Honkai: Star Rail

Understanding the nuances between Yunli and Jiaoqiu, including their optimal builds and team synergies, is essential for making an informed decision. For players uncertain about which character to invest in, this breakdown aims to provide clarity by highlighting the strengths and potential uses of Yunli and Jiaoqiu in various game modes and scenarios.

Luckily, unlike in the previous update, version 2.3, where both Jade and Firefly had a DPS focus, Yunli and Jiaoqiu bring distinct abilities to the table, making the decision process potentially easier for players, especially based on their existing roster. Yunli is a Physical Destruction unit with strong single-target and AoE damage capabilities, focusing on her Ultimate and follow-up attacks, coupled with self-healing abilities. In contrast, Jiaoqiu, as a Fire Nihility unit, offers a skill set more tailored for DoT teams or specific use cases like Acheron, where he can debuff enemies in various ways, including making them receive more damage from Ultimates.

Therefore, if players need a hyper carry or a character capable of fulfilling a duo-DPS role, particularly in a follow-up oriented team, Yunli might be a valuable addition. On the other hand, if they are looking for a character to function as a DoT team enabler, debuffer, and buffer, Jiaoqiu could be the better choice. However, considering there are many more characters to come, and since these characters are not entirely unique on their own—with Yunli showing significant similarities to Clara, albeit with a higher DPS ceiling, and Jiaoqiu being somewhat comparable to Black Swan—skipping both of them may not be a significant loss in terms of the evolving meta. Here's some more things to consider based on their roles, builds and even strenghts and weaknesses.

Roles

Yunli emerges as a versatile DPS bringing a unique set of abilities that make her a valuable addition to any team. Her kit revolves around her powerful Ultimate and follow-up attack mechanics, allowing her to deal substantial damage while also maintaining her own survivability. Yunli's Ultimate, Earthbind, Etherbreak is one of the main aspects of her damage output. Uniquely, her Ultimate has a cost of 240 energy, but it can be used at 120 energy, effectively allowing her to store energy and use the Ultimate twice consecutively if the energy is capped. This mechanic prevents energy overcap and ensures that Yunli can consistently unleash her Ultimate without waiting for a full charge, distinguishing her from characters like Argenti who need a fully charged Ultimate for maximum effectiveness. Additionally, it boosts the damage of her next follow-up attack, further amplifying her overall DPS. Another key component of Yunli's kit is her follow-up attack, through her Talent, Flashforge. This counterattack triggers when Yunli is attacked by enemies, dealing considerable damage. That means, if players have a solid team where Yunli can hold aggro, she can deal follow-up attack quite often. Another important part of her kit is her Skill, which is more of a utility than DMG, eventhough it has AoE DPS capabilities. Although it doesn't have the highest DPS modifiers, it is crucial for regenerating energy, allowing Yunli to use her Ultimate more frequently. This skill deals AoE damage and heals Yunli, providing additional self-sustainability. As such, using her Skill instead of her Basic Attack is often recommended to maximize energy regeneration, ensuring she can activate her Ultimate as often as possible.

Jiaoqiu, as a Fire Nihility unit is best compared to Black Swan due to his proficiency in inflicting multiple stacks of DoT effects. Jiaoqiu's abilities, including his basic attack, skill, and ultimate, all contribute to applying a specific Burn DoT effect (Ashen Roast), which not only inflicts damage over time but also enhances the damage enemies take. with his Ultimate, he can also create a Zone, which then increases the damage taken by enemies from all Ultimate attacks during its duration. This makes Jiaoqiu an excellent choice for DoT-focused teams or compositions that heavily rely on maximizing Ultimate damage output. Additionally, Jiaoqiu's capacity to amplify the damage enemies take positions him as a versatile debuffer, capable of fitting into various team strategies. He serves as a perfect hybrid between debuff-oriented and DoT-oriented Nihility characters, providing both offensive and utility roles within a team.

All these things considered, both characters have flexibility with versatile team compositions. As a hypercarry, Yunli excels in teams designed to maximize her energy regeneration and damage output. Characters like Tingyun and Huohuo can provide significant energy boosts and buffs, making them ideal partners for Yunli. This setup is particularly effective in modes like Memory of Chaos (MoC), where sustained damage and energy management are crucial. Alternatively, Yunli can be used in follow-up attack-oriented teams, where multiple characters contribute to overall DPS through follow-up attacks. This composition is highly effective in Pure Fiction, where continuous damage output is necessary. In these setups, Yunli can work alongside other DPS characters who also have follow-up attack capabilities, amplifying the team's damage potential. Jiaoqiu on the other hand, will find best combined with Kafka - DoT oriented teams, or with Acheron for both enabling enough debuffs on the enemies, and increasing the Ultimate DMG, as long as it is timed quite well. However, he can also fit in most other teams that benefit from Nihility characters like Pela, as he does provide a generic debuff that can be used by most DPS characters, albeit pulling for him for only a general use may not be the most resource-friendly option, especially for F2P players.

Builds

As a DPS unit, Yunli requires more optimization than Jiaoqiu to maximize her damage output, as it is expected of DMG oriented characters. This means that optimizing her build revolves around balancing ATK, Crit Rate and Crit DMG, alongside managing her energy regeneration effectively. Yunli's optimal Relic Set is The Wind-Soaring Valorous, which increases her ATK and Crit Rate while boosting her Ultimate DMG. However, this set is relatively niche, and if players have not farmed it alongside other Firefly's best-in-slot relic set, alternatives like The Ashblazing Grand Duke, which enhances follow-up attack DMG, are viable. Another effective but slightly more team-dependent option is the Pioneer Diver of Dead Waters set, provided players can consistently apply multiple debuffs to enemies. For Planar Ornaments, Yunli benefits from Inner Salsotto, which boosts both her follow-up attack and Ultimate DMG. Alternatively, Duran Dynasty of Running Wolves is also a strong choice, especially in follow-up attack-centric team compositions. Overall, luckily Yunli has a good range of options for building her optimally with similar performing sets, but will still take some effort to optimize.

Yunli's best-in-slot light cone is her signature, Dance at Sunset, which not only provides excellent Crit stats but also enhances her follow-up attack DMG and benefits from being attacked, thus enabling more frequent counterattacks. For F2P players however, this might be a downside, since her other viable options perform much less optimally, and her other best options are also limited-time light cones. Nevertheless, On the Fall of an Aeon at max superimposition can still be a decent alternative for F2P players, albeit players will notice around 20-30% DMG difference between her best, and F2P option, which is quite significant.

On the other hand Jiaoqiu, as a more support oriented character, has a more straightforward build, with easier stat optimization is focusing primarily on Effect Hit Rate to ensure his debuffs land and, secondarily, on Speed to take as much as action in the same turn as possible. This makes him more accessible and less resource-intensive to build compared to more DPS-centric units. Depending on whether he is being paired with Acheron, or otherwise in a DoT-centric team, his best Relics show a difference. In team compositions with Acheron, the best setup involves using the 2-piece Pioneer Diver of Dead Waters for increasing his DMG to enemies that are debuffed, and the 2-piece Messenger Traversing Hackerspace. If players have obtained enough speed through substats, they can also opt-in for a 2-piece set bonus that provides ATK (like Prisoner in Deep Confinement) instead. For DoT oriented teams, 2-piece ATK with 2-piece Messenger Traversing Hackerspace or otherwise 4-piece Prisoner in Deep Confinement works quite well. For Planar Ornaments, the selection depends on the team composition once again, with

Strengths and Weaknesses

Being used for different roles, Yunli and Jiaoqiu's utility significantly differs, however neither is without specific strenghts or weaknesses.

Yunli's Strengths and Weaknesses:

Xiaoqui's Strengths and Weaknesses:

Verdict: Pulling Yunli vs Jiaoqiu

Unlike previous characters like Firefly, who has brought an entirely different play mechanic relying on Super Break when combined with HMC, Yunli or Juaoqiu doesn't bring as much as significance to the existing meta and not must-pull characters on this regard for players looking to revamp their gameplay with unique combat styles. That being said, ultimately, the decision to pull for Yunli or Jiaoqiu, or to save resources for future characters, hinges on more than just their individual strengths and weaknesses. It also depends on personal preferences, the existing roster of characters a player has, and the specific roles or abilities that would benefit their team compositions the most. Thus, players should consider how these characters align with their current needs and future plans. Below specific aspects can also help players have a solid verdict on whether to pull for Yunli or Jiaoqiu, or neither.

Players should pull for Yunli if:

• They haven't invested in Clara, and need a Physical DPS character that can be useful in MoC and Pure Fiction
• Have access to characters like Huohuo, Topaz or Robin.
• Are able to farm her niche relic sets, or give her her signature light cone for maximum DMG potential.

Players should pull for Jiaoqiu if:

• They enjoy a DoT oriented playstyle, and need a support unit for Kafka.
• They require a support unit for Acheron, and have not pulled for Black Swan who is relatively similar in her benefits for Acheron.

Honkai: Star Rail

The fourth entry in HoYoverse's Honkai franchise, Honkai: Star Rail is a free-to-play sci-fi RPG. Utilizing a turn-based combat system, the game includes dungeons, multiple planets, and a gacha system for unlocking new characters. Debuting on April 26, 2023, on PC and mobile, Honkai: Star Rail has also been announced for the PlayStation 5 and PlayStation 4.

See at Official Site