In Honkai Star Rail, five-star Lightcones aren’t the end-all-be-all of character building. That’s because certain 4-star light cones can turn the tide of battle just as well without requiring a five-star pull miracle. The benevolent game devs at MiHoYo have given each Path a standout 4-star light cone worth using, plus some honorable mentions that shine in specific situations.
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Here’s a breakdown of the best 4-star light cones you’ll want to keep handy. From damage boosts to conditional buffs, these are the most versatile and effective light cones that you’ll rely on most.
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Under the Blue Sky – The Destruction Path
Under the Blue Sky is the perfect 4-star light cone for Destruction Path characters with a taste for critical damage, which happens to be most of them. Its biggest strength is that it’s straightforward, offering a flat ATK boost and a nice crit rate bump when enemies are defeated. This turns your Destruction units, like Jing-Liu or Imbibitor Lunae, into even deadlier forces, allowing them to clear waves and further ramp up the damage against subsequent enemies.
Honorable Mention: Ninja Record – Sound Hunt
With a flat HP percentage bonus on top of an easy-to-achieve Crit DMG bonus, this Light Cone is also a strong choice. Under the Blue Sky’s simplicity is what makes it the easier choice for those who just want a powerful damage boost without extra conditions. However, if you find yourself using units such as Blade, Clara, or Yunli, Ninja Record – Sound Hunt might be more your style.
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Memories of the Past – The Harmony Path
Memories of the Past brings invaluable support perks to Harmony Path units, making it a must-have for characters like Ruan Mei, Imaginary Trailblazer, or Tingyun. This light cone enhances Energy Regeneration, allowing these supports to unleash their powerful ultimates more often. It also gives a significant 28% (base) bonus to Break Effect, which makes it a prime Light Cone for the plethora of teams that focus on Break-Effect.
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Honorable Mention: Carve the Moon, Weave the Clouds
This Light Cone cycles through various buffs to either ATK, Crit DMG or Energy Regeneration whenever the wearer’s turn begins. As such, this steady stream of buffs does come with some randomness. However, it still provides a lot of general utility for Harmony characters to keep the team energized and ready, making it a great option if you have no interest in Break Effect.
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Landau’s Choice – The Preservation Path
Landau’s Choice embodies the Preservation Path’s mantra: protect and survive. This light cone grants a significant boost to damage resistance when the wearer takes hits, perfect for tanks like Gepard and Fu Xuan. Since it also directs enemy attention toward the wearer, Landau’s Choice makes it easier to manage incoming attacks, keeping squishier teammates out of harm’s way.
Honorable Mention: Day One of My New Life
By providing a teamwide defense boost on top of some DMG resistance, this Light Cone is great for offering some teamwide general survivability. It’s another solid option if you don’t have Landau’s Choice, or if you have a reason for specifically boosting your units’ defense stat. This Light Cone gives your Preservation units a choice as the bulwark of your team.
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Before the Tutorial Mission Starts – The Nihility Path
Before the Tutorial Mission Starts is undoubtedly one of the strongest Light Cones for Nihility Path characters. With many Nihility characters relying on the Effect Hit Rate stat, this Light Cone can provide up to a whopping 40% (with free-to-play accessible Superimpositions), in addition to providing extra Energy if the wearer attacks a unit with reduced DEF. For units like Pela, Silver Wolf, and Jiaoqiu, it means better consistency on their debuffs and faster access to their skills, letting them disrupt enemies with ease.
Honorable Mention: Good Night and Sleep Well
Nihility units are split between debuffer and DOT units, and this Light Cone is especially good for the latter. By boosting both Effect Hit Rate and DoT effects, it’s ideal for units like Sampo, Kafka, Black Swan, and Guinaifen. For general Nihility roles, Before the Tutorial Mission Starts still remains a staple for its versatility, however, this Light Cone pulls ahead for any DOT-focused Nihility unit.
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Swordplay – The Hunt Path
Swordplay is a Hunt Path classic, stacking damage each time the wearer hits the same enemy. The result? Your single-target DPS characters, like Dr. Ratio, Dan Heng, and even Feixiao, become even deadlier over extended fights. This light cone’s strength lies in its ability to build momentum against high-HP bosses, allowing Hunt units to focus on single targets and melt through their health pools.
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Honorable Mention: Final Victor
This Light Cone carries huge damage boosts at the cost of being gated behind an activation condition. First offering a flat 12% attack boost, it also increases your Crit DMG every time you land a critical hit against enemies. With the potential to stack up to four times with an 8% boost per stack, this Light Cones damage benefits can outweigh Swordplay if you’re willing to work for it.
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Quid Pro Quo – The Abundance Path
Although not outwardly flashy, Quid Pro Quo gives Abundance Path healers a very useful team-wide energy boost. This light cone offers Energy to a random ally below 50% of their maximum energy when the wearer takes their turn. With so many Abundance units offering more than enough ways to keep your team alive in their base kits, Quid Pro Quo’s added utility makes it more useful than flat healing bonuses.
Honorable Mention: Post-Op Conversation
With that being said, having Outgoing Healing bonuses will always be reliable, and with an added 8% self Energy Regeneration, it’s also very consistent. Units like Natasha, Luocha and Lynx can especially appreciate the benefits of this Light Cone.
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Today is Another Peaceful Day – The Erudition Path
Today is Another Peaceful Day’s always active DMG boost makes it the most consistent of the Erudition Light Cones. It’s especially great for Erudition staples such as Herta, Himeko, and Argenti making each of their attacks pack more punch.
Honorable Mention: Genius’s Repose
Offering a flat 16% ATK boost plus a 24% Crit DMG bonus after defeating an enemy gives this Light Cone useful ramp-up potential in the multi-enemy encounters where Erudtion units shine. This makes it ideal for Pure Fiction runs. However, Today is Another Peaceful pulls ahead in versatility as it can excel in game modes outside Pure Fiction, such as Memory of Chaos or Apocalyptic Shadow.
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