Honkai Star Rail Character Progression Guide: Traces, Eidolons, & More

There is a ton of characters to collect and use in Honkai Star Rail. However, unless you plan on keeping these units as low a level as possible, you'll need to start powering them up in order to tackle the increasingly difficult content from Honkai Star Rail's later stages. Character progression in Honkai Star Rail comes in various different forms and is more complex than simply increasing a unit's overall level. 

So, if you are ready to start powering up your characters in Honkai Star Rail, we have the answers you need! This article will cover everything you need to know about Honkai Star Rail character progression, including Traces, Eidolons, Light Cones, and more!

Honkai Star Rail Character Progression Explained

As mentioned, there are several ways to increase the strength of your characters in Honkai Star Rail. Along with increasing their overall level, it is possible to increase the strength of a character's skills, gear, and more. We will break down each form of a progression into different sections. 

Character Level

This is the most obvious way in which you can increase the strength of your characters is by increasing their level. The maximum level of your units is tied to your Trailblaze level (account level).

Characters cannot have their level exceed that of your Trailblaze level, even if players have all the necessary materials. The maximum Trailblaze level (and therefore character level) is 80. 

Traces

Honkai Star Rail Traces are ways to upgrade a character's skills. Each character in Honkai Star Rail has a skill tree. By upgrading skills and progressing through a skill tree, players can unlock new passives, stronger potencies, and various enhancements for their character's skills. 

Upgrading Traces is linked with your character's ascension level. Therefore, players will need to ascend their characters further if they find themselves unable to advance a certain skill tree.

Eidolons

Honkai Star Rail Eidolons are bonuses to a character that can provide unique passive abilities or enhance existing abilities. Every character has six Eidolons, each of which can be enhanced using materials. 

Eidolons can be upgraded by acquiring duplicate copies of a character from the gacha or via in-game events. The main Trailblazer character is the only exception to this, who can be upgraded fully over the course of the game. 

Light Cones

Honkai Star Rail Light Cones are the weapons of the Honkai Star Rail Universe. Players will equip Light Cones to characters in order to increase their stats and acquire new passive abilities. Each Light Cone is categorized by its associated Path (of which there are seven). 

All characters can equip all Light Cones, but only characters of the corresponding Path will receive the bonus effect. Light Cones can also be enhanced using materials to increase a unit's stats even further. 

Relics

Honkai Star Rail Relics are the gear of the Honkai Star Rail Universe. Each character can equip Relics in Honkai Star Rail, and each Relic comes with a main stat and several sub-stats. As you enhance Relics, the stats of the gear and your character will increase. 

However, the upgrades to each stat (along with the sub-stats themselves) will be random. Therefore, players will need to acquire lots of Relics in order to acquire decent pieces and then hope for good rolls when upgrading them. 

And that's everything you need to know about Character Progression in Honkai Star Rail!