Honkai Star Rail: Ruan Mei Best Build Guide, Kit & Teams

This Guide will go over Ruan Mei’s best builds, her kit, and sample teams available to her from premium to F2P!

Honkai Star Rail: Ruan Mei Best Build Guide, Kit & Teams
Honkai Star Rail: Ruan Mei

Ruan Mei is set to be the newest character joining the Honkai Star Rail roster in Version 1.6. She is a support character of the Ice Type, following the Path of Harmony.

She is great at boosting the team’s DMG while also controlling Weakness Broken enemies and stacks a great deal with Break Effect. Being a support she has a lot of build diversity and teams that she can fit into. Let’s take a look at her kit and what you can do to prepare for her release on December 27th!

List of Contents:

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Who is Ruan Mei?

A sweet-tempered and elegant scholar. Member #81 of the Genius Society. An expert in the biological sciences.

She earned Nous' attention with her talent and terrifying perseverance, and began her research on the origin of life in a secret corner of the universe. 

Ruan Mei is the first Limited 5-star character joining the Path of Harmony, as such players can obtain her only by wishing on her Limited Character Banner when it comes around.

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Honkai Star Rail: Ruan Mei

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Ruan Mei’s Abilities and Kit

Given that she is a Harmony character, Ruan Mei’s kit revolves around helping her allies dish out some serious DMG. She is great at:

  • Buffing DMG
  • Increasing Weakness Break Efficiency
  • Increasing All Type RES PEN
  • Buffing SPD
  • Manipulating Weakness Broken enemies.

In short she does a lot. Here is the full breakdown of her kit:

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Ruan Mei Skills

Below you will find a full breakdown of Ruan Mei's kit. All abilities with their values for Level 1 and 10

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ATK

Threading Fragrance

  • Deals Ice DMG equal to 50% (100%) of Ruan Mei's ATK to a single target enemy
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Skill

String Sings Slow Swirls

  • After using her Skill, Ruan Mei gains Overtone, lasting for 3 turn(s). This duration decrease by 1 at the start of Ruan Mei’s turn. When Ruan Mei has Overtone, all allies’ DMG increases by 16% (32%) and Weakness Break Efficiency increases 50%
Ultimate - Petals to Stream, Repose in Dream.png

ULT

Petals to Stream, Repose in Dream

  • Ruan Mei deploys a field that lasts for 2 turns. The field’s duration decreases by 1 at the start of her turn. While inside the field, all allies’ All-Type RES PEN increases by 15% (25%) and their attacks apply Thanatoplum Redbloom to the enemies hit. 
    When these enemies attempt to recover from Weakness Break, Thanatoplum Rebloom is triggered, extending the duration of their Weakness Break, delaying their action by an amount equal to 20% of Ruan Mei’s Break Effect plus 10%, and dealing Break DMG equal to 30% (50%) of Ruan Mei’s Ice Break DMG. 
    Enemy Thargets cannot have Thanatoplum Rebloom re-applied to them until their recover from Weakness Break.
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TECH

Silken Serenade

  • After using the Technique, gains Silken Serenade. At the start of the next battle, automatically triggers the Skill for 1 time(s) without consuming Skill Points.
    In Simulated Universe, when Ruan Mei has Silken Serenade, the team actively attacking enemies will always be regarded as attacking their Weakness to enter battle, and this attack can reduce all enemies’ Toughness regardless of Weakness types. When breaking Weakness, triggers Weakness Break Effect corresponding to the attacker’s Type. For every Blessing in possession, additionally increases Toughness-Reducing DMG of this attack by 100%. And after breaking an enemy target’s Weakness, additionally deals to the enemy target Break DMG equal to 100% of Ruan Mei’s Ice Break DMG.
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TALent

Somatotypical Helix

  • Increases SPD by 8% (10%) for the team (excluding this character). When allies Break an enemy target’s Weakness, Ruan Mei Deals to this enemy target Break DMG equal to 60% (120%) of her Ice Break DMG.

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Ruan Mei Traces

Below you will see Ruan Mei's Major Traces and their descriptions:

Major Trace 1 - Inert Respiration.png

Trace 1

Inert Respiration

  • Increases Break Effect by 20% for all allies.
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Trace 2

Days Wane, Thoughts Wax

  • Ruan Mei regenerates 5 Energy at the start of her turn.
Major Trace 3 - Candle Lights on Still Waters.png

trace 3

Candle Lights on Still Waters

  • In battle, for every 10% of Ruan Mei's Break Effect that exceeds 120%, her Skill additionally increases allies' DMG by 6%, up to a maximum of 36%.

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Ruan Mei’s Best Light Cones

Ruan Mei has access to a lot of the great Light Cones offered to Harmony characters, as such you do not need to worry about finding something to use on her. Below you can find all of her best light cones starting from premium to F2P options.

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Ruan Mei Light Cones

Below you can see all of Ruan Mei's Best Light Cones from premium to F2P:

Best in Slot:

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Past Self in Mirror

  • Increases the wearer's Break Effect by 60%. After the wearer uses their Ultimate, increases all allies' DMG by 24%, lasting for 3 turn(s). Should the wearer's Break Effect exceed or equal 150%, 1 Skill Point will be recovered.
    At the start of each wave, immediately regenerates 10 Energy for all allies. Effects of the same type cannot stack.

Alternative:

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Dance! Dance! Dance!

  • When the wearer uses their Ultimate, all allies' actions are Advanced Forward by 16%.
    • Best option and can be argued that it's even on par if not better tha Ruan Mei's Signature. Although it doesn't offer the Break Effect, manipulating turns in Star Rail is one of the most important things, and with Ruan Mei's buffing capabilities, enemies just might not get a turn
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Memories of the Past

  • Increases the wearer's Break Effect by 28%. When the wearer attacks, additionally regenerates 4 Energy. This effect cannot be repeatedly triggered in a single turn.
    • A great alternative for Ruan Mei's signature, giving her a lot of Break Effect, making you reach that 180% way easier. A choice that you can't go wrong with.

Best F2P:

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Meshing Cogs

  • After the wearer uses attacks or gets hit, additionally regenerates 4 Energy. This effect cannot be repeatedly triggered in a single turn.

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Ruan Mei’s Best Relics

Support characters in Honkai Star Rail are always easy to build because the thing you need the most on them is survivability, so you can easily put all of your useless HP/DEF% on them. Ruan Mei is no exception. She has some good choices that players can use, but can be just slightly tricky to build with her Break Effect requirements of 180%.

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Relics and Ornaments

Below are all the great choices that Ruan Mei can use for her Relics and Ornaments:

Best Relic Set:

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Messenger Traversing Hackerspace

  • 2-Piece: Increases SPD by 6%.
  • 4-Piece: When the wearer uses their Ultimate on an ally, SPD for all allies increases by 12% for 1 turn(s). This effect cannot be stacked.

Alternatives:

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Thief of Shooting Meteor

  • 2-Piece: Increases Break Effect by 16%.
  • 4-Piece: Increases the wearer's Break Effect by 16%. After a character inflicts Weakness Break on an enemy, regenerates 3 Energy.

Planar Ornaments:

Best Planar Set:

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Broken Keel

  • 2-Piece: Increases the wearer's Effect RES by 10%. When the wearer's Effect RES is at 30% or higher, all allies' CRIT DMG increases by 10%.

Alternatives:

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Fleet of the Ageless

  • 2-Piece: Increases the wearer's Max HP by 12%. When the wearer's SPD reaches 120 or higher, all allies' ATK increases by 8%.
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Talia Kingdom of Banditry

  • 2-Piece: Increases the wearer's Break Effect by 16%. When the wearer's SPD reaches 145 or higher, the wearer's Break Effect increases by an extra 20%.

Main Stats:

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HP/DEF% SPEED HP/DEF% Break Effect/ERR

Sub Stats:
Break Effect (until 180%) > SPD (until 134) > Effect RES

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Ruan Mei’s Best Teams

Being a powerhouse of a support Ruan Mei is honestly going to fit great into any team you place her in. Her ability to buff DMG, control Weakness Break, increase RES PEN are great for any DPS and complement any other support unit as well.

On top of being a Skill Point efficient unit, it would be strange not to use her if you have her. Here are some sample teams in which you can use her:

Best Single DPS Team:

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Ruan Mei Jingliu Bronya Fu Xuan

Best Double DPS Team:

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Ruan Mei Kafka Sampo Huohuo

F2P Team:

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Ruan Mei Xueyi Asta Natasha

 

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Is Ruan Mei Worth Pulling For?

Ruan Mei is certainly a unique and very strong support unit. She opens up the doors to strong Dual DPS teams and is sure to do well in any Mono-Ice team, if you have Silver Wolf that is.

However, she does not bring that much to Single DPS teams, as most of those already have dedicated support they can work around and are generally better. We believe that you can pull for Ruan Mei if you already have Silver Wolf and can enable Mono-Ice teams, want a powerful enabler for Dual DPS teams, or just simply like her design, as that is the most important thing in all, before any meta!

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For other Honkai Star Rail guides head on over to our site or use the links below:

Honkai Star Rail: Dr. Ratio Build Guide

Honkai Star Rail: Argenti Build Guide

Honkai Star Rail: Version 1.6 Recap

Honkai Star Rail: Free Characters

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