In this Honkai Star Rail Serval Build Guide we’re going to be covering the AOE Lightning DPS Serval Build, who also doubles as shield breaker, and Damage Over Time dealer. This build focuses on Breaking enemies toughness through hitting multiple times, and helps in killing smaller enemies via AOE.

Honkai: Star Rail Serval Build Guide

Serval is a guaranteed character that everyone gets through the in-game mail as a free reward. She’s a four star lightning DPS from the Erudition Path. Her skill hits enemies in an AOE, and has a high chance to inflict a Shock DoT. In addition to that, her talent gives an extra attack on all Shocked enemies. So the total hits Serval can deal to enemies is three hits per turn, which is the key to break any enemy that’s weak against lightning.

At zero Eidolons, Serval’s DPS can rival the best AOE damage dealers in game, or come in just slightly behind them. As a four star though, you may get a lot of additional Eidolons for her, which unlocks even greater power. She’s kind of lacking against single enemies, but a lot of Honkai Star Rail bosses tend to summon reinforcements, so against some bosses, Serval is still viable.

Serval Build Guide – Active Skills

Skill leveling Priority: Skill > Talent > Ultimate > Basic Attack.

Roaring Thunderclap – Normal Attack

Deal lightning damage to a single target, with zero base Shock chance. You will only use Serval’s normal attacks if your team is tight on skill points, and you want to generate some. Otherwise, we don’t prioritize normal attacks, up until we get Shock going with good duration on all enemies.

Serval can still proc her talent after a normal attack, but the condition for that is having enemies Shocked. So we need to Shock all enemies first, before switching to use normal attacks. But still, her normal attack doesn’t contribute a lot to her overall damage, so we don’t prioritize leveling it.

Her first Eidolon gives Serval some AOE to her normal attack by hitting one additional random target.

Lightning Flash – Skill

The bread and butter of Serval’s kit, she deals lightning damage to one enemy, and splash damage to two enemies next to it. The skill has a base shock chance of 80%, and goes to 100% with Ascension 2 trace. The shock chance is counted before enemies resistance to effects, so in reality, we still need more effect hit rate. Minor traces give an extra 20% effect hit rate, but we take more from gear.

Once Shocked, enemies will take damage over time at the beginning of their own turns. By default, the Shock from her skill lasts two turns, and you can add two additional turns from her ultimate. If you use her skill again on a Shocked enemy, you extend the duration not refresh it. So after using the skill a couple of times, Serval can start using normal attacks without hurting her damage.

If there are more than 3 enemies on the enemy side you need to use her skill multiple times to put Shock on all of them, which means she will consume higher skill points than her typical rotation,

Please also note that damage from the DoT is not fixed, and scales with Serval’s Skill level. So leveling her skill is very impactful to her overall damage.

Galvanic Chords – Talent

After Serval attacks any enemy, she deals an additional lightning hit on all Shocked enemies. This is the main tool in her breaking ability, since each hit breaks a portion of enemies’ shields. Her DoT hits once on enemies’ turns, and her talent hits once on Serval’s turn. Then if you use her skill as well on the same turn, it’s a total of three hits.

Talent damage is pseudo AOE, as Serval usually applies Shock to all enemies on the field, and it has nice scaling, and hits harder than her splash damage from her skill.

Here Comes the Mechanical Fever – Ultimate

For a low cost of 100 energy, Serval hits all enemies on field with strong Lightning Damage. If they are Shocked, she extends the duration of their Shock status by two additional turns. At 4th Eidolon, Serval’s ultimate can apply Shock to enemies who are not already Shocked, which is a great quality of life improvement and damage increase.

The low cost of her ultimate enables Serval to spam it much more than any other character. She also has traces that give her 15 more energy at the start of each battle, and with Eidolon 2, her talent refunds 4 energy each time it triggers. If circumstances are right, she can keep extending Shock on enemies without using a lot of skill points.

Honkai: Star Rail Serval – Traces

Traces are passive skills that characters unlock after leveling, and reaching certain ascension levels. For this Honkai: Star Rail Serval Build, you need to farm and spend resources to unlock Traces, but they give a huge advantage to Serval. She’s an AOE breaker and DPS, and all her major Traces help with that, so try to prioritize them.

For minor Traces, she gets very strong Crit Rate and Effect Hit Rate ones, but it’s up to you if you want them now or later, depending on how much materials you can get your hands on. Prioritize Serval’s Traces behind a main DPS or a team wide buffer.

Rock ‘n’ Roll – Major – Ascension 2

Extra 20% chance to Shock enemies with Serval’s Skill which is a great way to get enemies Shocked more often than not.

String Vibration – Major – Ascension 4

Serval gets an extra 15 energy at the start of battle. It’s a nice bonus, but nothing to go nuts about. You get this bonus once in a battle, so in longer fights this 15 energy is not huge. In content based on waves though, it’s an excellent way to spam her ultimate.

Mania – Major – Ascension 6

Gets an extra 20% attack buff upon defeating an enemy. With Serval focusing on AOE damage, you will get this buff often from defeating small enemies. It’s a nice damage increase to help Serval defeat more enemies, and is especially useful for bosses who can summon a lot reinforcements.

Minor Traces

Serval gets ten minor stat increases, distributed as the following:

• Crit Rate (Five nodes)
• Effect Hit rate (Three Nodes)
• Effect Res (Two Nodes)

All of these are very nice, impacting both her damage and shield breaking ability. Get as much as you want, as long as you have materials for her.

Honkai: Star Rail Serval Build – Eidolons

Serval’s Eidolons are a good addition to her strength in this Honkai: Star Rail Serval Build, if you were lucky to get some of them. She’s a four star, so Eidolons are much easier to get over time.

Her first one adds one extra hit on a random enemy to her normal attack. It’s not a major upgrade, since normal attacks have a low chance to Shock, and deal low damage. but her Eidolon 2 and Eidolon 4 are where her utility gets a major boost.

The second Eidolon is a “more energy per talent trigger”, and the fourth is straight up 100% Shock chance on ultimate on non-shocked enemies. Both result in more damage for Serval, and better shield breaking without using a lot of skill points. You only need her to use her skill to apply her Shocks, and then you can extends them by consistent use of ultimate.

Finally, her 6th Eidolon is a 30% more damage modifier which makes her very competitive in endgame modes, and can rival some of the five star characters.

Honkai: Star Rail Serval Build – Light Cone

For this Honkai: Star Rail Serval Build, gear is a crucial part, and usually requires some testing with various teams and setups to get the highest performance. In this section, I’ll go through the recommended Light Cone for Serval to fulfill her DPS and breaker roles.

Light Cones are similar to weapons in other games, and while you can equip any Light Cone on any character, only Cones matching the character’s Path can provide full benefits. Serval is of the “Erudition” Path, which has Light Cones focusing on ultimate usage and damage, or follow up attacks. Serval doesn’t have follow up attacks, so that eliminates some options from the get go, leaving few others.

Pass Key – Three Stars

Three star Light Cones from Erudition Path are not typically very strong, and don’t scale damage well. However, “Passkey” stands out for the utility it provides, as it generates energy with every skill use. As a three star, you get max Superimposing tier with ease, so it generates up to 12 energy per skill use. Thus, it can help Serval use ultimate more often, and do more breaks and damage.

The Seriousness of Breakfast – Four Star

All four star Light Cones from the Erudition path share the same base attack value, except for “Today is Snother Peacful Day” which comes from the paid Nameless Honor (battle pass). Even if you are a player who buys the Battle Pass regularly, I don’t recommend choosing an Erudition Light Cone. The reason is, it scales with max energy, and Serval has low max energy of 100. So it’s not really better than the free Light Cone.

On other hand, “The Seriousness of Breakfast” is a mission reward, so you get it for free. And you can get more copies from the Echo of War and Forgotten Hall Store. The condition on its passive is very easy to fulfill, by merely defeating enemies. The killing blow doesn’t have to be done by Serval herself, so the buff can build up very fast. Not only that, but the buff has unlimited duration, and will not expire after few turns.

At base, the passive grants the wielder up to 36% damage multiplier, and 12% attack after defeating three enemies. And at max superimpose (refinement) tier, this passive doubles to 72% damage, and 24% attack! This is a massive damage boost that can rival five star Cones.

Bad options/Don’t use:

The signature four star Light Cone for Serval is a trap, and I learned this the hard way. It has similar base attack to all other four stars, but the passive gives energy once at battle start. On long fights, 20 energy is not very useful, and you will not notice any real difference. And when it comes to damage, “Make the World Clamor” only gives 32% damage to her ultimate. Meanwhile “The Seriousness of Breakfast” give 36% damage to to all damage Serval does, on top of 12% attack at the same refinement tier!

Honkai: Star Rail Serval Build – Relics

In this Honkai: Star Rail Serval Build we’ll cover all four Relics slots: Head, Gloves, Body, and Feet. Then two other slots that unlock at higher levels that are Sphere and Rope. Head always comes with a Flat HP stat, and Gloves comes with Flat Attack. Then Body, Feet, Sphere, and Rope come with random stats. So gearing the Head and gloves will lean more towards finding the best sub stats, while other four have to also roll a good main stat.

For Serval, we have two options, going full DPS, or hybrid between break and DPS. Usually, you can’t break bosses a lot, so going full DPS is more useful. And for that we need Crit Rate or Crit Damage main stats on Body, Attack or Speed on Feet, Lightning Damage on Sphere, and Attack, Energy Regeneration, or Break effect on Rope. The choice of Rope is tougher since energy comes only from this slot, as well as break effect. Serval’s ultimate doesn’t cost a lot of energy, so you can ignore energy as long as she ultimates every two turns.

On sub stats, you need Effect hit Rate, Crit Rate, Crit Damage, Attack, and speed.

Band of Sizzling Thunder

The go-to lightning damage DPS relic set, with 10% lightning damage bonus. The four set bonus gives a temporary attack buff for one turn after using a skill. So it’s purely offensive, which forces players to get any utility stats needed from main and sub stats instead.

Hybrid 2x Band of Sizzling Thunder + 2x Musketeer of Wild Wheat

As usual, hybrid sets have slightly less set bonuses, but allow players to pick the strongest two pieces of each set to have much better sub stats. This is viable from early game up to endgame. It may only be a worse choice if you have an absolute great four pieces of one set, which is usually not the case before months of farming. I recommend going hybrid with Serval all the time.

Honkai: Star Rail Serval Build – Team Composition

Teams consists of four characters in Honkai Star Rail, where you usually seek to fill several roles, such as single target DPS, AOE DPS, shield breakers, and both defensive and offensive supports. The combat system prevents you from using one character to break all shields, since shields break only if you attack it with the elements it’s weak against. Therefore, the game still encourages players to build a very diverse team, with four different elements, or at the very least three elements.

In this section, I’ll go through some of the recommended team members for this Honkai: Star Rail Serval Build. Note that Serval is AOE DPS that can double as shield breaker. So she still need single target DPS, defensive support, and offensive support. Serval can get mixed with a lot of four star and five star characters, with a lot of team archetypes. The only teams where she has no place is tank teams, and hyper carry teams. The former needs more Preservation units, and the latter needs more offensive supports. Most other teams are fair game for Serval.

Single Target DPS from The Hunt Or Nihility Path

As a DPS herself, Serval isn’t restricted to a Hunt Path companion only. She can pair with Welt or Sampo pretty well, since they also double as single target and AOE. Especially Welt, who can add very potent break effects.

The typical roster from Hunt path also works with Serval, so Seele, Sushang, and Yanqing. They work as main DPSes, and Serval as sub DPS. Luckily, all of them have different elements from Serval, so the team stays diverse and has more flexibility in picking supports.

Healer from Abundance Path

The ever reliable Natasha fills this role, with easy access to AOE healing, skill point generation, and energy generation for the team. Natasha has the physical element, so she can help break some shields. Until we get a more accessible healer with more buffs, Natasha will we stay as your go-to pick in this slot.

Buffer from Harmony Path

A team with two DPS characters is a team that deserve a good offensive support, to boost the damage of both. Currently we have Tingyun, Asta, and Bronya from this path. Asta is a very good character, but she’s more of a fire support, and shield breaker. So I’d take Tingyun or especially Bronya, if you have her.

Bronya comes with the wind element, and 100% crit rate on her normal attack. She buffs attack, damage, and crit damage, on top of advancing her own turn, and allies’ turns. So overall, she elevates the whole team to a new level.

Final Tips

The final hit in lightning break deals some extra damage directly, and applies Shock. However, there are stronger effects to trigger the break such as physical (damage scales with boss max HP), Quantum (delay enemy action), and Imaginary (reduce speed). So what that means is: if enemy has physical, quantum, or imaginary weakness, along with lightning weakness, then we want to use Serval to reduce their shields with her constant attacks, but deal the breaking blow with other elements for a stronger effect.

Serval is a squishy character herself, so she wants to either avoid very aggressive enemies, or alter the team to include a shielder. You don’t want her to be taken down by one hit or one combo from bosses.

To do a good rotation with Serval, you must start with her Skill to apply Shock to three enemies. Then on then second round, if not all enemies got Shocked, use her skill again. And in subsequent rounds, you can use her normal attacks, and her talent will trigger on all Shocked enemies,. Then reapply Shock with her ultimate whenever it is available.

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Stay tuned for more Honkai: Star Rail Character Guides and be sure to drop by our Twitch Channel if you have questions about the game. For more Honkai: Star Rail content, check Sushang Build Guide, Tingyun Build Guide, Pela Build Guide, Hook Build Guide, Bronya Build Guide, Asta Build Guide, Natasha Build Guide, March 7th Build Guide, Welt Build Guide, Seele Build Guide, Sampo Build Guide, Yanqing Build Guide, Gepard Build Guide, F2P Characters Overview, Honkai: Star Rail Beginner Guide, and Honkai: Star Rail Gameplay Overview (F2P Turn-Based RPG).