Yao Guang: Guide, Skills, Builds, Teams & More
Yao Guang is the first Elation character released in Honkai Star Rail. As the spearhead of an entire new Path, Yao Guang establishes herself very early on as a support unit that can directly interact with the Elation path’s main mechanism and teamwide offensive support.
HSR Yao Guang Release Date
Yao Guang’s banner will be in the first half of Version 4.0, releasing on February 11th, 2026 and will run until February 4th, 2026.
Yao Guang HSR Kit Overview (Trace Level 10)
How The Elation Path Works:
Elation is a brand-new path introduced since the 4.0 patch, with its own unique type of damage called Elation Damage, and each Elation unit also has a unique skill called Elation Skill, independently of their normal skill.
This entire path is focused on the Aeon of Elation – Aha, who will appear on the Action Order if there is an Elation unit in the team. Aha is very similar to summon units like Lightning Lord or Numby, and when Aha acts, he will trigger an occurrence called Aha Instant. During the Aha Instance, Aha will cleanse all debuffs from all Elation characters, consume all Punchline stacks, and activate the Elation Skills of all units in the team sequentially.
Aha’s Speed is dependent on both the amount of Elation characters in the team as well as the Speed of the Elation characters in the team, with the Elation character with the highest units having the most impact. Unlike other summon units, allies or enemies cannot target Aha, nor action advance directly.
After the Aha Instant, all Elation units will gain a state called “Certified Banger” that lasts for 2 turns, with each Elation character having a unique interaction with this state. While having this state, certain parts of Elation characters can snapshot the amount of Punchlines used during the last Aha Instant for their effects.
Not all damage instances from Elation characters will be Elation Damage, but only when specifically indicated in-game. Elation Damage does not depend on Attack or Damage% bonuses, but still scales off Crit Damage%.
At Level 80, Elation Damage is calculated based on a fixed Attack value of 7535, and Elation Damage% (or Elation) will replace Damage% bonus in damage calculation. There are a few other stats that can affect Elation Damage; however, with two unique ones called Punchline and Merrymaking. Punchline is a unique resource that Elation units can generate and is shared across the team, with a certain number of Punchlines generated depending on the number of Elation units in the team at the start of the battle. The number of Elation characters in the team also affects the max amount of Puncline stacks the team can hold.
Punchline is best understood to be a modifier boost to Elation Damage. Merrymaking is a much rarer damage modifier that works similarly to True Damage in that it scales off final damage, and typically will only be seen in some characters’ Eidolon levels. Beyond these two stats, Elation Damage will be affected by enemies’ Defense, Resistance, Damage Reduction, and Vulnerability.
The Elation path is all about triggering Aha Instant as much as possible, and since most of its mechanics are centered around having as many Elation characters in the team as possible. The more Elation units in the team, the more frequent Aha acts, the more damage all of them deal due to more Puncline stacks generated. Thus, this is an extremely mono-centric path, with players unlikely to see their full potential without at least 3 or even a full mono-Elation team.
Yao Guang’s Ultimate & Elation Skills
Yao Guang is very much a dedicated Elation Support, with her kits focusing on retriggering the Aha Instant and improving Elation teammates’ damage output. First of all, Yao Guang’s base Speed is quite high (base 101 plus 9 from her minor traces). Secondly, Yao Guang is highly incentivized to build Speed due to her first major trace – Amaze-In Grace.
If Yao Guang’s Speed is 120 or higher, this trace increases her Elation% by 30%. Furthermore, for every 1 point of Speed exceeded this threshold, her Elation% is increased by 1%, with a cap at a staggering 320 Speed (200% max). While this threshold is highly unrealistic, building speed on Yao Guang also directly improves Aha’s Speed, which improves Aha Instant frequency.
Yao Guang’s Elation Skill – Let Thy Fortune Burst in Flames is an AoE attack that deals 100% Elation Damage to all enemies, then deals another 5 hits of 20% Elation Damage to random enemies. This Elation Skill will also inflict a debuff called “Woe’s Whisper” to all enemies for 3 turns. Enemies under Woe Whisper will take 16% more Elation damage. Yao Guang’s second major trace – Poised and Sated will cause her Elation Skill to recover 1 Skill Point to the team when activated, and also increases her Crit Damage by 60%.
Her Ultimate – Hexagram of Feathered Fortune is the main selling point of her kit. With a hefty Energy cost, when it is used, Yao Guang will generate 5 Punchlines and immediately trigger an Aha Instant for the entire team. This Aha Instant will not consume any Punchlines from the team, and is calculated as if it has 20 Punchlines.
It will not affect the actual Aha on the Action Order, meaning Aha will not be pushed back whatsoever. Furthermore, Yao Guang will also increase all allies’ All-Type RES PEN by 20% for 3 turns.
Yao Guang’s Basic Attack, Skill, &Techniques
The remaining parts of Yao Guang’s kits are all great supportive tools for the Elation team. Her Basic Attack is a Blast-type attack that deals negligible damage, but it generates the same amount of Energy as her Skill – 30 Energy per usage. Her Skill – Decalight Unveils All generates a Zone for 3 turns that depends on Yao Guang’s own turn. While this Zone is active, all allies will get an increase to their Elation equal to 20% of Yao Guang’s Elation.
Furthermore, every Basic Attack or Skill Usage from Yao Guang will also generate 3 Punchlines while this Zone is active. Yao Guang’s Technique – Untethered Glimmer Sails Far will automatically trigger this Skill at the start of the battle without consuming any Skill Point.
Yao Guang’s Talent – Behold Wherever Light Unfolds works similarly to Robin’s or Tribbie’s Additional Damage mechanics. While Yao Guang has the “Certified Banger” state, she will deal an additional instance of Elation damage equal to 20% whenever an ally attacks. This effect is called Great Boon. If Great Boon triggers while the ally consumes Skill Point, Great Boon will trigger an additional time.
Great Boon’s damage will be calculated based on Yao Guang’s Elation stats if her Elation is higher than the teammates, and based on the teammates if the reverse is true. Her third major trace – Felicity Ensemble will further improve her Certified Banger’s duration by 1 turn, meaning this effect is in effect practically all the time.
Overall Gameplay Evaluation
Despite being a support unit for an entire new path, Yao Guang’s gameplay is very simple and straightforward. Her rotation is Skill-Basic-Basic in practice, and the players can generally activate her Ultimate whenever it is up, or simply save until a time where they need either the extra skill, or triggering of an Elation character’s Elation Skill.
The best comparison for her skill set is Robin for the follow-up team or Tribbie for any AoE team – a teamwide buffer with non-negligible personal damage and directly amplifying the core mechanism of their team.
However, unlike Robin and Tribbie, Yao Guang lacks flexibility, as a significant portion of her power budget is spent on Elation% stats and the extra triggers of Aha Instant. Both of these are completely useless when used with non-Elation teammates, an intended consequence of Hoyoverse pushing mono-Elation gameplay.
For the Elation team, however, Yao Guang is very influential and possibly mandatory for the future Elation team. If there are units whose Elation Skills are influential and want to be activated often, then Yao Guang’s Ultimate is a surefire way to raise the ceiling of such units. Furthermore, she offers a lot of teamwide damage boost to Elation units, directly increases Aha’s base Speed, and is highly Skill Point positive.
All of these are exceptionally valuable, especially when paired with highly SP – intensive Elation Damage Dealers. For now, it is hard to gauge Yao Guang’s fullest potential due to the lack of Elation units, but her skillset is definitely extremely promising when the right pieces come together.
Yao Guang HSR Core Skills
Basic Attack – Whistlebolt Sings Joy: Deals Physical DMG equal to 90% of Yao Guang’s ATK to one designated enemy and Physical DMG equal to 30% of Yao Guang’s ATK to enemies adjacent to it. Increases Energy regenerated from Basic ATK to 30.
Skill – Decalight Unveils All: Deploys a Zone for 3 turn(s). The Zone’s remaining duration is reduced by 1 at the start of this unit’s turn. While the Zone is active, increases the Elation of all allies by an amount equal to 20% of Yao Guang’s Elation. After using Basic ATK or Skill, Yao Guang gains 3 Punchline(s).
Elation Skill – Let Thy Fortune Burst in Flames: Inflicts “Woe’s Whisper” on all enemies, lasting for 3 turn(s). Increases DMG received by enemy targets under the “Woe’s Whisper” state by 16%. Deals Physical Elation DMG equal to 100% to all enemies. Afterward, deals Physical Elation DMG equal to 20% to one random enemy 5 time(s
Ultimate – Hexagram of Feathered Fortune: Gains 5 Punchline(s). Aha immediately gains 1 extra turn, where a fixed amount of 20 Punchline(s) is taken into account. This turn does not consume Punchline(s), and increases all allies’ All-Type RES PEN by 20% for 3 turn(s).
Talent – Behold Wherever Light Unfolds: When Yao Guang possesses “Certified Banger”: After an ally target uses an attack, triggers the “Great Boon” effect, dealing 1 additional instance of 20% Elation DMG of the corresponding Type to 1 random target hit. If Skill Points are consumed during this attack, additionally triggers “Great Boon” 1 additional time.
When triggering the “Great Boon” effect, if the attacker’s Elation is lower than Yao Guang’s, this instance of Elation DMG will use Yao Guang’s Elation for calculation.
Triggering the “Great Boon” effect is not considered as using an attack.
Technique – Untethered Glimmer Sails Far: After using the Technique, automatically triggers Skill 1 time at the start of the next battle without consuming any Skill Points. When Yao Guang is in the team, breaking destructible objects immediately grants “Fortune Pouch,” up to 8 within every Earth Week.
Yao Guang HSR Traces
Amaze-In Grace: When Yao Guang’s SPD is 120 or higher, increases this unit’s Elation by 30%. For every 1 point of SPD exceeded, increases this unit’s Elation by 1%, up to 200 points of excess SPD.
Poised and Sated: Increases this unit’s CRIT DMG by 60%. After using Elation Skill, recovers 1 Skill Point(s) for the team.
Felicity Ensemble: When Yao Guang obtains “Certified Banger,” increase its duration by 1 turn(s).
Yao Guang HSR Eidolons
- Chuckle Chimes Where Jade Falls: Increases the fixed amount of Punchline taken into account in Aha’s Ultimate-triggered extra turn to 40, and the Elation DMG dealt by all ally targets ignores 20% of the target’s DEF.
- Blind Arrows Guided by Feathers: While the Zone is active, increases all ally targets’ SPD by 12% and additionally increases Elation by 16%.
- Auspices Mirrored In Decalight: Skill Lv. +2, up to a maximum of Lv. 15. Basic ATK Lv. +1, up to a maximum of Lv. 10. Elation Skill Lv. +1, up to a maximum of Lv. 15.
- Threads of Fate Colored by Plumes: In Aha’s extra turn triggered by Yao Guang’s Ultimate, the DMG dealt by all ally characters’ Elation Skill becomes 150% of the original DMG.
- Bejeweled in Radiant Grace: Ultimate Lv. +2, up to a maximum of Lv. 15. Talent Lv. +2, up to a maximum of Lv. 15. Elation Skill Lv. +1, up to a maximum of Lv. 15.
- Ferried Along the Astral Arc: All allies’ Elation DMG merrymakes by 25%. Increases DMG multiplier of Yao Guang’s Elation Skill by 100% of the original multiplier.
Eidolon Priority
Yao Guang has very good Eidolons. None of her Eidolons, saved for E6, are as broken as many recent Damage Dealer Eidolons, or Supportive Eidolons like Evernight E1 / Tribbie E1. The Merrymaker from her E6 seems like it will be the premium version of True Damage but exclusively for Elation characters, and so far it is locked behind high Eidolon level like this.
For players looking to vertically invest in Yao Guang, her Light Cone is the most important piece and should be prioritized. Afterward, both E1 and E2 are great improvements, with her E1 being more influential. This Eidolon directly improves her own Aha Instant from the Ultimate by calculating the Elation Skills based on 40 Punchline instead of 20, and it also has the ever useful 20% Def Ignore teamwide buff that many support units have.
Her E2 is a teamwide Speed buff that directly translates to Aha’s Speed, but its influence is highly dependent on the specific Speed threshold. The additional 16% Elation increase from this Eidolon is always useful, however.
Her E4 is one of the very rare useful E4s in the game. This Eidolon increases all Elation Skill’s Damage triggered by Yao Guang’s Aha Instant by essentially 50%, which is a massive value if she is paired with a Damage Dealer whose damage primarily comes from their Elation Skill.
- Eidolon 1: High
- Eidolon 2: High
- Eidolon 4: High
- Eidolon 6: Very High
Yao Guang HSR Build Guide Overview
Light Cones
- When She Decided to See
- Mushy Shroomy’s Adventures
- Today’s Good Luck
- Lingering Tears
Main Stats
- Body: Crit Rate% / Crit Damage%
- Feet: Speed
- Orb: HP%
- Rope: Energy Regeneration Rate%
Relics
- Diviner of Distant Reach
- Eagle of Twilight Line
- 2+2 of sets with Speed bonus
Planar Set
- Sprightly Vonwaq
- Lushaka, the Sunken Seas
HSR Yao Guang Light Cones
Premium Options
When She Decided to See: Increases the wearer’s SPD by 18%. When the wearer enters combat or uses Ultimate on an ally target, the wearer gains “Great Fortune” for 3 turn(s). While the wearer has “Great Fortune,” all allies’ CRIT Rate increases by 10%, CRIT DMG increases by 30%, and the wearer’s Energy Regeneration Rate increases by 12%.
At the start of each wave, the wearer regenerates a fixed amount of 15 Energy.
If the player wants to get Yao Guang to future-proof the Elation team, they should consider her Signature Light Cone as an extremely major part of her kit. Elation F2P Light Cone options are very dire, and this Light Cone offers way too many influential effects for her overall performance:
Speed, teamwide Crit values, Energy Regeneration boost, and flat Energy at the start of every wave.
Mushy Shroomy’s Adventure: Increases the wearer’s Elation by 12%. When the wearer uses an Elation Skill, increases Elation DMG taken by all enemies by 6% for 2 turn(s).
This is Yao Guang’s best secondary option as it gives both Elation% and Elation Vulnerability%, which improves the team’s overall damage. However, this does not improve her operation as it does not offer any Speed nor Energy Regen.
Today’s Good Luck: Increases the wearer’s CRIT Rate by 12%. When the wearer uses an Elation Skill, increases Elation by 12%, stacking up to 2 times.
A more selfish option than Mushy Shroomy’s Adventure. Since Yao Guang will be building Crit stats to improve her damage.
F2P Options
Lingering Tears: When Punchline is 10 or more, the wearer’s CRIT DMG increases by 20%.
A simple and easy to get Light Cone from the gacha that can serve as statstick until players can get better options.
HSR Yao Guang Main Stats
- Body: Crit Rate% / Crit Damage%
- Feet: Speed
- Orb: Attack% / HP%
- Rope: Energy Regeneration%
Since Elation’s Damage scales off Crit, Yao Guang should go for either Crit Rate% or Crit Damage% on her Body piece. As she gets a whopping 60% Crit Damage for free from one of her traces, Crit Rate% should be more valuable. For boots, Yao Guang wants Speed boots at all times to maximize her trace value and Aha’s Speed.
For Orb, Attack% does have some value, despite Elation Damage not scaling off Attack, mainly because her Basic Attack uses her own Attack and is not Elation Damage. If the players want to improve their survivability instead, a HP% Orb will be a fine substitute. For Rope, Energy Regeneration Rope% is essential to improve the frequency of her Ultimate.
HSR Yao Guang Sub Stats
- Speed
- Crit Rate% / Crit Damage%
- HP%
Yao Guang’s most important substat to get from relics is Speed. Afterward, Crit Rate & Crit Damage are decent tertiary stats to look for to improve her damage output, or HP% for more survivability.
Main Stats Goal & Speedtuning:
- Goal: As high a speed as possible.
While Yao Guang does have a hard cap on her Speed trace, it is extremely unrealistic in general play. As her Speed directly improves her Elation,% which also cascades to teammates’ Elation%, and raises Aha’s base Speed at the same time, it is highly advised to maximize this stat as much as possible.
HSR Yao Guang Relics
Option A
Diviner of Distant Reach
- 2-Pc: Increases SPD by 6%.
- 4-Pc: Before entering combat, if the wearer’s SPD is greater than or equal to 120/160, increases the wearer’s CRIT Rate by 10%/18%. When the wearer uses Elation Skill for the first time in each battle, enhances all allies’ Elation by 10%. This effect cannot stack.
This set is created for Yao Guang. It gives her Speed, Crit Rate%, and teamwide Elation% boost with very easy-to-fulfill conditions.
Option B
Eagle of Twilight Line
- 2-Pc: Increases Wind Damage by 10%.
- 4-Pc: After the wearer uses their Ultimate, their action is Advanced Forward by 25%.
Eagle is another option that the players can opt for to increase Yao Guang’s action frequency, which translates to more Energy and Skill Point.
Option C
- 2+2 Pieces With Speed Bonus: Players can also go for any 2+2 combinations of set that gives Speed bonus as placeholders until they can transition to a full set.
HSR Yao Guang Planar Sets
Lushaka, the Sunken Seas
- 2-Pc: Increases the wearer’s Energy Regeneration Rate by 5%. If the wearer is not the first character in the team lineup, then it increases the Attack of the first character in the team lineup by 12%.
Extra Regeneration Rate is very valuable for Yao Guang. While Elation Damage does not scale with Attack, certain Damage Dealers can still benefit from the extra Attack boost from this set.
Sprightly Vonwacq
- 2-Pc: Increases the wearer’s Energy Regeneration Rate by 5%. When the wearer’s SPD reaches 120 or higher, the wearer’s action is Advanced Forward by 40% immediately upon entering battle.
As Yao Guang can deploy her Skill at the start of the battle with the Technique, this action advance effect is not as powerful on her as other support units. Nonetheless, it can still help a lot with her early Ultimate timing, especially when combined with the Energy Regeneration Rate buff.
HSR Yao Guang Teammates
Due to the lack of Elation teammates at the launch of her banner, Yao Guang has very few potential teammates. As more Elation characters are added into the game, her amount of potential synergy will rise.
Main DPS
Sparxie: Sparxie is by far Yao Guang’s best partner at the start of patch 4.0. Sparxie is an Elation Damage Dealer that consumes a lot of Skill Points and does a lot of damage via her Elation Skill, as well as most of her damage being Elation Damage, all of which play right into Yao Guang’s strength.
Archer: Yao Guang is a good sidegrade amplifier option for Archer. This is due to Yao Guang’s generating a lot of SP, albeit not to the level of Sparkle after her Novaflare adjustment, and Archer being a good unit that can trigger her Great Boon effect.
Support
Sparkle: Sparkle is the best SP generator in the game bar none, meaning she is both Sparxie and Archer best teammates. Post her Novaflare’s adjustment, a lot of Sparkle’s boost also benefits Elation Damage, being Vulnerability, Crit Damage and RES Pen.
Tribbie: Tribbie is another teamwide buffer with great types of buffs that benefit Elation Damage Dealers, being Vulnerability and True Damage. Her ability to abuse Dance Dance Dance is also quite helpful for both Yao Guang and her teammates to generate more Skill Points and Energy.
Debuffers: Elation Damage scales very well with both Def Shred and Vulnerability, meaning strong Debuffers are some of the best units to raise the overall damage output of the Elation team.
Sustain
Huohuo: One of Yao Guang’s primary bottleneck is her Energy, and Huohuo is exceptional at generating large amount of Energy for the team as her Ultimate regenerate Energy based off max Energy instead of a flat amount.
Dan Heng – Permansor Terrae: DHPT is a strong generic sustain for most teams. While Elation Damage does not scale off Attack boost, DHPT can still provide good boost to non Elation Damage Dealers like Archer, or Elation Damage Dealers with some Attack conversion like Sparxie.
HSR Yao Guang Teams
At the beginning of 4.0, Yao Guang’s potential team options are very limited, thus we only list her notable teams and will update as there are more Elation units being added into the game.
Sparxie Sample Team
Archer Sample Team
HSR Yao Guang Pull Value and Conclusion
Yao Guang is a hard unit to judge, solely because we are yet to see a full fledged Elation team yet, and most likely won’t for at least 1-2 patches. In a sense, she is similar to a Cyrene or Hyacine, units that are pivotal to a mono-path but this time is released before we even get the center piece of the archetype, ala Castorice and Evernight for Mono Remembrance.
Nonetheless, it is quite easy to see how good she would be in a Mono Elation team, simply due to how she can trigger Aha Instant, the foremost mechanic of such teams with every Ultimate usage. Furthermore, she provides a lot of teamwide buff for Elation teammates, which legacy support like Robin or Sunday would not be able to do as Elation units scale off very specific stats and resources that only they themselves can generate.
All in all, if players want to invest in an Elation team in the future, they can grab an E0S1 Yao Guang and then pick up future Elation units to complete the puzzle. Otherwise, a wiser course of action could be simply skip her first banner and wait for her rerun for a better evaluation of her actual value.
Thanks for Reading! For more resources, check out our other Honkai Star Rail Guides.
Thanks for reading! For more resources, check out our other Honkai Star Rail Guides.
