Honkai: Star Rail 1.5 introduces some great new relics, but who should you farm them for? Spoiler, Kafka and Topaz have new BiS

With the recent release of Honkai: Star Rail version 1.5, much of the attention is centered on Huohuo, the game's new top-tier healer. However, the other big new addition in this update are four new relic sets that will be game-changers for certain characters.

The new relic sets are the Ashblazing Grand Duke and Prisoner in Deep Confinement from the Fyxestroll Garden Cavern of Corrosion as well as the Firmament Frontline: Glamoth and Penacony, Land of the Dreams from the new Simulated Universe World 8.

So, how good are these new relic sets and who should you farm them for? Read on so you can spend your Trailblaze Energy wisely.

The Ashblazing Grand Duke

The Ashblazing Grand Duke is the dedicated relic set that follow-up attack enjoyers have long been clamoring for. Here are its effects:

• 2-piece bonus: Increases the DMG dealt by follow-up attacks by 20%.

• 4-piece bonus: When the wearer uses follow-up attacks, increases the wearer's ATK by 6% every time the follow-up attack deals DMG. This effect can stack up to 8 time(s) and lasts for 3 turn(s). This effect is removed the next time the wearer uses a follow-up attack.

As the queen of follow-up attacks, Topaz can now reach her full potential with the Ashblazing Grand Duke set. Since her basic attacks and skill as well as Numby's attacks are all considered follow-up attack DMG, the 2-piece alone is a massive upgrade over any other relic sets. As should be obvious, you want to go for the full 4-piece set.

While Topaz's basic attacks will cause the ATK buffs from the 4-piece set bonus to reset every turn, Numby will be the one to take full advantage of those buffs. Numby's attacks, regardless of whether or not it is in its basic or enhanced state, will always trigger the stacking ATK buffs.

Jing Yuan and Himeko have now also found their best-in-slot relic sets in the 4-piece Ashblazing Grand Duke. Both of their follow-up attacks (from Jing Yuan's Lightning-Lord and Himeko's Talent) hit multiple times and aren't as constant as Topaz's, which lets them get the full ATK stacks and use them once their own turn comes around.

Clara, on the other hand, won't be able to take full advantage of the 4-piece set bonus as Svarog's counterattacks only hit a target once in its base state and can only get three stacks when enhanced by her ultimate. Even so, the 20% DMG bonus to follow-up attacks is huge, so Clara's new best-in-slot relic set will be a combination of the 2-piece Ashblazing Grand Duke and the 2-piece Champion of Streetwise Boxing.

Prisoner in Deep Confinement

Just like how the Ashblazing Grand Duke is the new dedicated relic set for follow-up attack characters, the Prisoner in Deep Confinement set will be the must-have for damage-over-time (DoT) characters. Here are its effects:

• 2-piece bonus: ATK increases by 12%.

• 4-piece bonus: For every DoT the target enemy is afflicted with, the wearer will ignore 6% of its DEF when dealing DMG to it. This effect is valid for a max of 3 DoTs.

It goes without saying that the Prisoner in Deep Confinement set will be the new best-in-slot for Kafka, Honkai: Star Rail's queen of DoTs, as well as her merry band of 4-star DoT supports in Sampo, Luka, and Guinaifen.

What makes the Prisoner in Deep Confinement set so good is the 4-piece bonus letting its wielder ignore 18% of the enemy's DEF when the target has 3 DoTs on them. While there are many sources of ATK and DMG% buffs in the game, DEF ignore mechanics are rarer and scales much better.

While I won't bore you with damage spreadsheets to prove how much better the Prisoner in Deep Confinement set is over Kafka's other relic options, the big numbers you will get once you've farmed it up will be proof enough.

Kafka with her signature Light Cone can notably cover 2 DoTs while another support can contribute the third DoT for the full effect, letting you slot in a Harmony support in your team for both ATK buffs and DEF ignore. Kafka enjoyers will be making the Fyxestroll Garden Cavern of Corrosion their home for a very long time.

Firmament Frontline: Glamoth

• 2-piece bonus: Increases the wearer's ATK by 12%. When the wearer's SPD is equal to or higher than 135/160, the wearer deals 12%/18% more DMG.

Kafka wants to stack as much ATK% and Speed as possible, so the massive DMG% buff from this set at the 135/160 Speed thresholds are too good to miss out on. The Speed requirements will easy to reach if you Kafka's signature Light Cone or have Asta as her support, so reaching 160 Speed isn't as difficult a task as it might seem at first.

Aside from Kafka, there aren't many other characters who really want this set.

Seele is the only other DPS who stacks a lot of Speed, but she still prefers having Rutilant Arena instead. If you are adamant in running Firmament Frontline: Glamoth on other DPS characters, even if we don't really recommend it, make sure they have Asta supporting them so they can reach the 160 Speed requirement.

Penacony, Land of the Dreams

• 2-piece bonus: Increases wearer's Energy Regeneration Rate by 5%. Increases DMG for all other allies with the same DMG Type as the wearer by 10%.

Penacony, Land of the Dreams works similarly to the Planetary Rendezvous Light Cone, which increases the DMG for allies whose element is the same type as its wielder. So, to make full use of this relic set, you'd also want to run it alongside Planetary Rendezvous.

However, doing so limits the amount of characters who can use this set, as they need to be the same element as the team's main damage-dealer.

Because of that, you'd want to run Penacony, Land of the Dreams on a Harmony or Nihility support if they already have enough energy regeneration, HP, Effect RES, and other utility stats. Here's a list of Harmony characters that can use this set:

• Asta to support Topaz, Himeko, Hook

• Tingyun to support Kafka, Jing Yuan, Serval

• Pela to support Jingliu

• Yukong to support Imbibitor Lunae, Welt Yang

With that said, running Penacony, Land of the Dreams means your support won't have other powerful Planar Ornament relic sets like Broken Keel or Fleet of the Ageless. So unless you have another support character to use Broken Keel or Fleet of the Ageless, we don't recommend farming Penacony, Land of the Dreams.

Honkai: Star Rail version 1.5 dropped on 15 November and features Huohuo as the banner 5-star character in the first half. The second half will see the debuts of the 5-star Physical Erudition character Argenti as well as the 4-star Physical Harmony character Hanya alongside the first rerun for the 5-star Quantum Nihility character Silver Wolf.

For more information on all the new content in version 1.5, check here.

After version 1.5 comes version 1.6 in December, which will see the release of three more new characters in Ruan Mei, Dr. Ratio, and Xueyi.

Yan Ku is a full-time dog parent, part-time (gacha) gamer, and part-time writer.

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