Dan Heng is everyone’s favorite mysterious emo, and the third free character in the game. He is a 4-star Wind Character that follows the Hunt path. He is thus a single target damage carry and is a very excellent one at that, outputting surprisingly large numbers comparable to 5-star carries. 

From the start, I will say he is a must-build. I will do an overview of his stats, abilities, traces, and eidolons. I will then recommend builds for him, and finish by discussing his role and rotation in a fight, including team compositions.

Stats 

At max level, Dan Heng has 882 Health, 546 Attack, and 396 Defense - some of the lowest tank stats in the game and a low attack stat too, being the lowest among Hunt and Wind characters. 

What carries him is his kit, speed, and energy cost. His speed is at 110, the third fastest in the game, and his energy cost is only 100, one of the lowest in the game. 

Following the Hunt path, his taunt value is 75, the lowest in the game, meaning enemies won’t target him much. 

Basic Attack & Trace 2 

First off, his basic attacks, “Cloudlancer Art: North Wind” are nothing new. 

At level 1, 50% of his attack will be dealt as Wind Damage, and deal 1 Break Unit. 

After unlocking his Trace 2, “High Gale”, his basic attacks will deal an extra 40% damage to any slowed enemies. 

Skills 

His skill, “Cloudlancer Art: Torrent” deals a very high 130% of his attack to a single enemy at level 1, and deals 2 Break units. 

If this crits, he has a 100% chance to reduce the enemy speed by 12%. This effect chance can be reduced by enemy resistance stats. This skill is the core part of his kit, enabling the basic attack to do more damage as well as his ultimate as we will see. 

Speed reduction is also great to have, and the damage is very high. It is a multi hit skill too, meaning it can proc effects that require hits multiple times. 

Ultimate 

His ultimate, “Ethereal Dream”, deals an insane 240% of his attack to a single enemy, increased to 312% if the enemy is slowed. It costs 100 energy, and deals 3 Break Units. 

An amazing ultimate and is very easy to regenerate, and is also fantastic at breaking toughness bars. The slow condition is not too hard to get once you start investing in him and the Hunt path’s light cones. 

Talent & Resistance Explanation 

Dan Heng’s talent, “Superiority of Reach”, will grant him 18% Wind Resistance Penetration when he is a target of an ally’s ability. It has a two turn cooldown when proc’d. 

Being the target of an ally means that Dan Heng has to be under the reticle of an ally buff or heal when it is used, like Bronya’s skill or even ultimate, or Asta’s ultimate for a free to play comparison. 

Resistance penetration in this game is very strong. Every enemy will have certain resistances if they aren’t weak to an element, usually 20%. If an enemy is weak to an element, they have 0% resistance to it. 

Resistance penetration can go into the negatives, however, and boosts damage by 1% per 1% of resistance penetration. This means that on basically all enemies, with Dan Heng’s talent activated, he will be ignoring resistance and even going beyond in damage. 

The only thing left that is tanking his damage is the enemy’s defense. This scales his damage immensely and makes him worthwhile to bring against any element. 

Also Read: Honkai Star Rail: How To Complete Hacking Reality With Silver Wolf?

Technique 

Finally, his technique increases his attack by 40% for 3 turns at the start of the next battle. It is a very big boost, and great to use on any hard fight. 

Since it’s a buff, you can use this in tandem with a damaging technique or buff technique to stack multiple techniques in hard content, like Forgotten Hall and Simulated Universe. 

Traces 

His First Trace Passive, “Hidden Dragon” reduces his taunt value when he is under half health, making it very unlikely to be hit unless in the case of an AOE skill, which is nice to compensate for his squishy stats. 

His Third Trace Passive, “Faster than Light”, gives him a 50% fixed chance to increase his own speed by 20% for 2 turns after attacking. It is a very great trace. 

Combined with his base speed, you could opt for attack% boots over speed, giving yourself great damage whilst still cycling turns fast. 

His trace stat bonuses are in wind damage, attack% and defense%, two offensive stats and a nice bonus to defense. 

Eidolons 

His first eidolon gives his attacks 12% extra crit rate when attacking enemies above half health. Free crit rate is excellent, and it means he can build fewer crit stats. 

His second eidolon reduces his talent cooldown by one, meaning he will have his talent back up every other turn. Another great one. 

His fourth eidolon gives him an extra turn essentially after defeating enemies with an ultimate. Since defeating enemies with the ultimate is kind of his strategy, this gives him a free turn extra worth of damage or a free skill point for the team. 

His final eidolon reduces enemies’ speed by an extra 8% when critting in his skill. This reduces their speed by 20% and is a great but not exciting final eidolon. 

Overall, a beautifully synergistic kit that lets him cycle insane damage turn after turn. His eidolons are all great but not necessary. He will still be stellar at E0. 

Relics 

For his build, you will take the Eagle of Twilight Line set. Not only does it boost his wind damage, it gives him yet another speed based benefit, an extra 25% action advancement whenever he ults, which will be a lot. 

You will use the “Space Sealing Station” Planar Ornament set, boosting his attack by up to 24% provided you hit 120 speed, which is easy to reach with his high base speed. 

For your body piece, go Crit Rate for Boots, Speed or Attack% work. For Planar Sphere, you of course want Wind damage%. And for your Link Rope, you’ll want to run Attack%. Prioritize crit rate and crit damage and then attack%. Any bonus speed is appreciated. 

Light Cones 

For Light Cones, the three 5 stars are all excellent on him and will outperform 4 stars, with Seele’s incredible one being his best in the slot, benefitting his high speed and multipliers. 

For Free to Play players, Cruising in the Stellar Sea is his best free option, and is obtainable from the Simulated Universe. You can max it for free too, giving him a free 16-32% crit rate as well as a 40% attack boost after defeating an enemy. 

For 4-star options, Swordplay is his best in the slot, as his multi hit attacks actually proc this effect multiple times, giving himself several stacks of the buff from one attack. The free River Flows in Spring is also a good option. 

And for 3-star options, Adversarial and Darting Arrow are both great placeholder light cones. 

By the way, some of the characters recommended above are not easy to get. So, directly getting a Honkai Star Rail Account with the character you want would be a good choice.

Role 

Dan Heng can be placed a kind of in any team thanks to his wind resistance penetration. But weakness breaks should still be considered important. 

If you need a single target carry, like in boss fights, you can bring him along. Against the squishy waves of enemies, he also excels thanks to his speed and slow effects. He really is versatile and high damage in every scenario, and excellent against enemies with Wind weakness. 

He will take up a damage or flex slot in the team, either by taking up skill points and going damage heavy, or by taking a neutral skill point approach with consistent damage. What do I mean by this? 

Rotation 

I am talking about how he can rotate. 

At 100 energy cost, 95, if we consider the 5 energy you gain back from using your ultimate, Dan Heng can cycle back to his ultimate in two ways, which change how he fits in a team. 

If he is your main carry, and you want pure damage, he can cycle back to his ultimate by using skill three times, and by either killing an enemy or being hit once. This leaves a skill point deficiency of 3 points.

If he is a secondary DPS, or if you want to deal consistent damage and have a neutral skill point usage, you can adopt a second rotation. This playstyle is also great and will still do very good damage, thanks to his second Trace passive, which deals extra damage to slowed enemies. 

So, the rotation here would start with his skill, into basic attack. Doing this twice will regenerate 100 energy regardless of kills or hits taken, and will consume zero skill points in total. 

Team Composition 

Dan Heng can be placed in the Free to Play and starter team composed of Physical MC, March 7th, Asta, and Dan Heng, providing all utility needed in the early game as well as a 4 element coverage. 

Later on, he will fill a main DPS role or secondary DPS role, meaning you can fit him in any team composition. 

If you want to run him as a main DPS, consider bringing a buffer like Bronya or Tingyun as a flex slot. If you want to run him as a secondary DPS, consider bringing a Destruction or Erudition DPS, like the free Serval, alongside him to help with AOE situations.