Here's our Honkai Star Rail Arlan build! Arlan is the head of the Herta Space Station’s security department at Honkai Star Rail. He is a four-star Lightning DPS who trades his survivability for high single-target damage to elite and boss enemies. He is the epitome of a glass cannon.
Trading off AOE damage for high single-target attacks, he is best used on big enemies. If you can manage to work around his kit and have the right support ready to buff his damage, Arlan can put in a lot of work for your account in any content.
The best Honkai Star Rail Arlan build
You want to optimise Arlan’s offensive stats when building him, but he also requires a large amount of HP to repeatedly sacrifice his health for more damage. By giving him more HP and using other support units to buff his attack and heal him, you can cycle his skills very consistently and deal tons of damage in single-target situations.
Best Light Cone for Arlan
Arlan’s signature Light Cone is A Secret Vow, which boosts his damage if enemies have a higher HP% than him. If you don’t have access to A Secret Vow, Shattered Home and Collapsing Sky are also great considerations.
A Secret Vow
Increases DMG dealt by the wearer by 20%. The wearer also deals an extra 20% of DMG to enemies with a higher HP percentage than the wearer.
Shattered Home
Increases DMG dealt from its wearer to enemies above 50% of their Max HP by 20%.
Collapsing Sky
Increases Basic ATK DMG and Skill DMG of its wearer by 10%.
Best relics for Arlan
The Band of Sizzling Thunder is the best relic set available for Arlan if you want to boost his Lightning damage. You can also use Fleet of the Ageless for more survivability or Musketeer of Wild Wheat to boost his attack and speed.
Band of Sizzling Thunder
- 2-Piece Bonus: Increases Lightning DMG by 10%.
- 4-Piece Bonus: When the wearer uses Skill, increases the wearer's ATK by 25% for one turn(s).
Fleet of the Ageless
- 2-Piece Bonus: Increases the wearer's Max HP by 12%. When the wearer's SPD reaches 120 or higher, all allies' ATK increases by 8%.
Musketeer of Wild Wheat
- 2-Piece Bonus: ATK increases by 10%.
- 4-Piece Bonus: The wearer's SPD increases by 6% and Basic ATK DMG increases by 10%.
What are Arlan’s abilities?
Arlan needs his Trace 3 to tank powerful hits from enemies so you should try and level him to 80+ as soon as possible. Arlan is resistant to DoT damage and he can self-heal by defeating enemies.
Skill | Description |
|---|---|
Basic Attack | Deals Lightning DMG equal to 50% of Arlan's ATK to a single enemy. |
Skill | Consumes Arlan's HP equal to 15% of his Max HP to deal Lightning DMG equal to 160% of Arlan's ATK to a single enemy. This Skill cannot be used if Arlan's HP is too low. |
Ultimate | Deals Lightning DMG equal to 210% of Arlan's ATK to a single enemy and Lightning DMG equal to 90% of Arlan's ATK to any adjacent enemies. |
Talent | Increases Arlan's DMG for every percent of HP below his Max HP, up to a max of 40% more DMG. |
Technique | Immediately attacks the enemy. After entering battle, deals Lightning DMG equal to 80% of Arlan's ATK to all enemies. |
Trace 1 | When Arlan's HP is at 30% of his Max HP or lower, him defeating an enemy will immediately restore his HP by a value equal to 20% of Max HP. |
Trace 2 | Arlan's DoT RES increases by 50%. |
Trace 3 | Upon entering battle, if Arlan's HP is at 50% of his Max HP or lower, he gains a Barrier that nullifies the next incoming attack. |
What are Arlan’s Eidolons?
Eidolon Level | Effect |
|---|---|
Level 1 | Arlan's Skill can be used so long as his current HP percentage is above or equal to 5%. If his current HP is less than 15%, using his Skill will reduce his HP to 1. |
Level 2 | Skill DMG increases by 10%. When using Skill, dispels a debuff inflicted on Arlan. |
Level 3 | Skill Lv. +2, up to a maximum of Lv. 15. Basic ATK Lv. +1, up to a maximum of Lv. 10. |
Level 4 | When struck by a killing blow, instead of becoming incapacitated, Arlan immediately restores his HP to 25% of his Max HP. This effect can only trigger 1 time per battle. |
Level 5 | Ultimate Lv. +2, up to a maximum of Lv. 15. Talent Lv. +2, up to a maximum of Lv. 15. |
Level 6 | When Arlan's HP is lower than 50% of his Max HP, increase his Ultimate's DMG by 20% and the DMG multiplier on adjacent targets increases to that of the target enemy. |
We do not recommend going for Arlan’s Eidolons until you have a good grasp of how his kit works. The character sacrifices his health pool to deal more damage and it is a mechanic not many will be able to manage properly when going up against tough foes. He does become a lot more comfortable to play if you unlock his fourth Eidolon, as it allows you to dance with death at low HP and survive one fatal attack every battle.
- Read more: Our Honkai Star Rail tier list
When using Arlan, you need to know when to heal him and when to leave him at low HP to boost his damage. Having a tank that taunts enemies is very important when using Arlan, as you do not want enemies to be targeting him when he has critically low HP.
How to get Arlan in Honkai Star Rail
Arlan is a four star rarity character that you can get from any of the game's warp banners. Just keep opening banners and you will find one. Unfortunately, as the game is reliant on banners, it may take you a little while.
That is all you need to know about Arlan’s build and we hope you have fun using him. For more Star Rail content do check out our guides on how to get more Stellar Jades and how to increase Trailblaze level quickly.
For even more, do check out our other build guides for Clara and Natasha, who will join the game’s roster in future updates.