Honkai Star Rail Boothill build (2024)

The best Light Cones and Relics for the straight-shootin' ranger

The best Honkai Star Rail Boothill build is less of a fudger to put together than you might think, thanks to the Galaxy Ranger’s unique kit. He only needs speed and break damage – nothing else. That makes the Light Cone situation a bit tricky for now, but on the bright side, it’ll make getting the right ornaments and relics a breeze, comparatively speaking.

Our Honkai Star Rail Boothill build guide breaks down which Light Cone and relics work best for the 5-star Hunt character. Check out our Boothill materials guide to see what you need to max out his Traces while you're here.

Honkai Star Rail Boothill build

Honkai Star Rail Boothill: Best Light Cone

Boothill’s in a bit of a weird place as a Hunt character who relies entirely on break damage. The only Light Cone as of version 2.2 that offers any kind of break damage support is his signature cone, Sailing Towards a Second Life. It gives the wearer a whopping 60 percent break damage buff, and break damage they deal ignores 20 percent of the enemy’s defense. Boothill can apply physical weakness to enemies with his technique and ultimate, so he’ll manage to get that buff pretty frequently.

It also raises the wearer’s speed by 12 percent if their break damage is over 150 percent. Boothill benefits from speed anyway, but even more so if you’re running the Talia set with its high speed requirements for that extra break buff.

Tempting though it might be to splash out for Boothill’s Cone, you do have other options. They just work a bit differently. One of them is Subscribe for More, an easy Light Cone to work with that grants big buffs without making you jump through hoops. The wearer’s basic attack and skill damage get a 24 percent buff and then, when their energy is full, another 24 percent buff. Boothill needs his ultimate to implant physical weakness, so for enemies without physical weakness, you’ll probably sacrifice that second buff. A flat 24 percent increase – before even factoring in buffs from characters like Ruan Mei – is still pretty good, though.

Swordplay is another solid option. This one increases the user’s damage by eight percent – more, at higher superimposition levels – every time they attack the same enemy, and the effect stacks up to five times. Boothill will almost always be attacking the same enemy, so the only downtime for this cone is when you defeat a foe and move on to a new one. That said, his kit gives him extra turns under certain circ*mstances, so you should be able to re-stack those stacks pretty quickly.

On the 3-star side is Adverserial, which buffs the wearer’s speed by 10 percent for two turns when they defeat an enemy. 3-star cones are common, so you can probably reach Superimposition V on this one without issue and raise that buff to 18 percent. It might not augment his damage, but a fast Boothill is still a strong Boothill.

Honkai Star Rail Boothill: Best Relics

Boothill is a physical character, but don’t waste your time farming Streetwise Relics. He needs break far more than he needs physical damage. That means you’ve got a few set options, all of which are easy to get even without entering a Cavern of Corrosion.

Thief of Shooting Meteor is Boothill’s best set as of version 2.2.

• 2-piece effect: Increases break effect by 16 percent
• 4-piece effect: Increases break effect by a further 16 percent and restores three energy when the user inflicts weakness break

You can get Thief of Shooting Meteor from Echo of War challenges, so you might already even have some nice 5-star pieces rattling around somewhere. If not, you can mix it with Watchmaker, Master of Dream Machinations, as the 2-piece set for that one also raises break damage by 16 percent. You just don’t get that wee little energy buff.

Honkai Star Rail Boothill: Best Ornaments

Boothill only has one ornament set that suits him really well as of version 2.2, and that’s Talia, Kingdom of Banditry. It raises the wearer’s break effect by 16 percent and, if their speed hits 145 or higher, they get an extra 20 percent break effect buff. You could run general damage set such as Herta’s Space Sealing Station or the Glamoth set if you have to, but since all of Boothill’s kit scales on break effect, it won’t be quite as effective.

Honkai Star Rail Boothill: Relic stats

Boothill needs break effect, and a lot of it. His attacks all scale on it, and one of his bonus traces buffs his critical hit rate and damage by an amount that scales on break effect, up to 30 percent crit rate and 150 percent crit damage. He also deals additional break damage if he attacks a target in a weakness broken state, so you get almost nothing positive by focusing on attack or crit stats.

• Body: Anything
• Feet: Speed
• Sphere: Anything
• Rope: Break Effect

Ignore the temptation to get energy regeneration for the rope. His ultimate is useful, but he can just attack enemies that other party members break and deal more damage.

Break effect and speed are the best substats to focus on as well. Unlike other characters, Boothill doesn’t have a dramatic fall-off point with his break effect stat. 200 percent is a good number to aim for if you can, and if you’re using his signature Light Cone, some players are even recommending getting that stat to 300 percent.

If you're wondering who else might work with Boothill, check out our Honkai Star Rail tier list, and head over to our Star Rail codes page for some freebies to help with your next pull.