Updated for Version 1.3
Disclaimer: The information here is based on Day 1 findings. We cannot possibly cover every single minute interaction immediately. Please note that the information given may change if new discoveries are made. More extensive testing is in progress.
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Table of Contents
Initial Thoughts
Dan Heng • Imbibitor Lunae is a 5★ character available exclusively from the Epochal Spectrum Warp in Honkai: Star Rail. He is an Imaginary-Type damage dealer belonging to the Path of Destruction. Imbibitor Lunae is currently the premier Imaginary damage dealer, bringing exceptional Blast AoE damage as well as strong single-target damage.
Somewhat similarly to Qingque, Imbibitor Lunae uses SP to enhance his Basic ATKs, making his playstyle more unique than your traditional damage dealer. Read on to learn more about his best Light Cones, Relics, teams, and playstyles.
Infographic
Mechanics
Imbibitor Lunae’s kit revolves around his ability to enhance his Basic ATKs, significantly increasing the damage he can dish out.
Imbibitor Lunae can enhance his Basic ATKs either through consuming SP or utilizing his Squama Sacrosancta stacks, which are generated through his Ultimate. With each enhancement, his Basic ATK gains additional hits. At one enhancement, his Basic ATK is a single-target ability. At two and three enhancements, it becomes a Blast ability capable of respectable AoE damage.
It can be difficult to consistently enhance his Basic ATK three times due to the SP requirement, and requires multiple SP-positive teammates. However, it is not always necessary to use his 3x Enhanced Basic ATK. We will cover the various ways to play around his SP usage in the SP Management section.
Trace Priority
> = >
Basic ATK > Talent = Ultimate > Skill
Traces
Note: Trace levels shown are 1/10/12 (Basic ATK 1/6/7).
Eidolons
Disclaimer: This analysis is from Day 1 findings, and may be subject to change with more accurate statements and values.
SP Management
Due to his SP-heavy playstyle, players should try to plan their actions and SP usage in advance to avoid being put into a problematic position. For example, you may need that SP for emergency healing, or even end up in a scenario where you suddenly cannot maintain your damage rotation.
Attempting to utilize Imbibitor Lunae’s 3x Enhanced Basic ATK (Fulgurant Leap) every single turn seems very appealing due to the large amount of damage you can deal, but this all-in playstyle (3-3) is largely unsustainable without extremely specific characters accompanying him. While a 3-3 playstyle is undoubtedly the highest damage potential you could attain, it’s also overkill for pretty much anything the game has to offer right now.
You should not, however, feel shackled to a 3-3 playstyle. Imbibitor Lunae is actually rather SP flexible, being able to change up his SP expenditure based on the needs of both himself and the team as a whole. This opens up two other styles of SP management for him; one where you alternate using a 3x Enhanced Basic and a 2x Enhanced Basic (3-2), and another where you alternate between using a 3x Enhanced Basic and a regular Basic ATK (3-0).
Both 3-2 and 3-0 playstyles sacrifice upfront damage, but have the benefit of notably reducing Imbibitor Lunae’s overall SP expenditure, which significantly expands the amount of usable support characters in his team, as there are more Skill Points to go around. While the total damage output of an Imbibitor Lunae following a 3-2 or 3-0 playstyle will never overtake an all-in 3-3 playstyle, the ability to utilize more SP-intensive supports makes the gap far smaller than you would imagine, while also being more generally adaptable to unforeseen circumstances.
In single-target scenarios 3-2 playstyle does not lose significant damage thanks to the linear damage scaling per SP point. Meanwhile in AoE scenarios, it is better to use an all-or-nothing approach to enhancing his Basic ATKs (using either 3 SP or none at all) due to how backloaded his Enhanced Basic ATK’s Blast AoE damage is.
It is advisable to prepare for the inevitability that you will not be able to use Fulgurant Leap every single turn, and so accounting for that is more generally recommended to use as a baseline when building teams (discussed further down). This is also not as restrictive because if you have SP to spare, then you can easily pivot to using an extra Fulgurant Leap, assuming no other teammate would need the SP.
Additionally, the differences become substantially less pronounced in single-target scenarios, as the damage increase per SP spent when using his Skill is completely linear in that case. There’s nothing preventing you from adapting your SP usage dynamically without adhering to any specific “rigid” playstyle (like those discussed below), and so over time, the player can find their own cadence for spending SP on Imbibitor Lunae.
Playstyles
Imbibitor Lunae is a selfish Hypercarry, generally demanding his teams be built specifically around him due to his high SP costs and high damage scaling. As it is inadvisable to pair Imbibitor Lunae with other SP-negative characters, playstyles using those will not be discussed.
Imbibitor Lunae can be played a few different ways due to his SP flexibility, though the common theme is aiming to maximize uses of Fulgurant Leap. He also has some specialized playstyles that require more setup, gacha-dependent gear, and/or investment.
Adaptable Enhanced Basics (3-0 and 3-2)
This playstyle seeks to maximize usages of Fulgurant Leap (the 3x Skill Enhancement), and using a filler action when you do not have enough SP. This filler action is either Divine Spear (the 2x Skill Enhancement) or a regular SP recovering Basic ATK.
You do not ever want to be using Transcendence (the 1x Skill Enhancement). If you only have enough SP for Transcendence, it is always better to just Basic ATK to recover the SP and then use either Divine Spear or Fulgurant Leap on the next turn. You are encouraged to always use Fulgurant Leap in AoE scenarios as the Blast AoE damage is sizable. However, Divine Spear has more or less equal weighting in single-target scenarios.
By accounting for the amount of SP consumed each turn, you greatly expand the potential support options for Imbibitor Lunae, since there will now be more SP available for support characters to use. This includes more SP-intensive units, such as Asta and Silver Wolf, or more challenging to use (but significantly stronger) units like Yukong.
The stronger support options allow for a “bursty” playstyle where you can time support buffs to the natural uses of Fulgurant Leap for massive damage. This way you get a comfier gameplay experience, and can ensure you won’t run out of SP if you’re unable to defeat the enemy quickly.
Basically Fulgurant Leap until you no longer can, use a filler action on the next turn, then repeat. Fit in support buffs to line up with Fulgurant Leap where possible and watch the fireworks unfold.
This is the most generally recommended way to use Imbibitor Lunae. Enemies can’t kill you if they’re dead, and you don’t need to worry about SP if your enemies are dead.
Pros
- Allows supports to time their buffs to Imbibitor Lunae’s burst damage
- Flexible SP usage without compromising on damage
- Greater pool of support characters to choose from
- Very comfortable once you’re used to it
Cons
- Steep learning curve to get used to SP ebbs and flows
All-In Fulgurant Leap (3-3 and 2-2)
This playstyle seeks to maximize the damage per turn that Imbibitor Lunae does by throwing as much SP his way as possible. Fulgurant Leap deals colossal damage in AoE scenarios, and Divine Spear has the same damage-per-SP as Fulgurant Leap in single-target.
You are not accounting for SP during combat, you are intentionally building your team so that you never have to think about SP during combat. This means your teammate options are pretty much locked into including Tingyun and Pela, as both are very SP-positive while providing persistent benefits. A sustain unit that does not require SP to function, such as Gepard or Luocha, is also needed. All of these characters need to be well-built with a lot of SPD to keep up with Imbibitor Lunae’s SP costs.
While this is restrictive in terms of team-building, it does allow you to pretty much ignore your SP in combat. Just go all-in, all the time, and throw caution to the wind. Again, you really want a strong sustain unit in this setup as you will have virtually no floating SP available to use in an emergency.
This is a very expensive setup in terms of account resources, and as such is not generally recommended.
Pros
- Highest damage potential
- Consistent damage output
Cons
- Very expensive team setup with super specific characters
- Supports need huge SPD investments to keep up with SP costs
Slow Imbibitor
This playstyle focuses on allowing Imbibitor Lunae to use his Ultimate every two turns. Note that this setup requires at least Tingyun, as well as either Tingyun’s E6, or Imbibitor Lunae’s signature Light Cone.
This setup is considerably more investment-heavy due to the SPD stats that the supports require, as well as E6 Tingyun or Brighter Than the Sun. Imbibitor Lunae should use ATK% Boots and ideally be at 102 SPD, as going above this amount will require further SPD investment for all his teammates. Supports should have at least 150 SPD. This setup allows Imbibitor Lunae to use 3 SP comfortably every turn and have Energy funneled to him via Tingyun’s Ultimate.
Pros
- Higher damage per SP usage
- Floats more SP for support usage and healing
Cons
- Vastly higher investment cost on support characters
- Extremely strict requirements (requires either E6 Tingyun or S1 Brighter Than the Sun)
Fast Imbibitor
This playstyle forgoes frequent Ultimate usage on Imbibitor Lunae in exchange for more overall actions, which results in more Weakness Breaking. This setup also requires less overall investment as supports do not need to build as much SPD as they would need to in a Slow Hypercarry team, and it does not require Brighter Than the Sun or E6 Tingyun.
For this playstyle, Imbibitor Lunae should be on SPD Boots, and should ideally reach 134 SPD or higher. Supports will want a similar amount of SPD, ideally 130–140 each. This setup will not net you 3 SP per turn, so you will not get to utilize Fulgurant Leap often, but you will instead get very frequent uses of Divine Spear. This still deals triple the Toughness damage of a Basic ATK, putting it on par with most single-target Ultimates.
While this Toughness damage is actually lower per turn than Fulgurant Leap, which sits at quadruple Toughness damage, the much more frequent uses of Divine Spear will end up contributing far more Toughness damage in the long run.
Pros
- Lower investment needed on supports
- Greater flexibility in support characters and Light Cones
- Overall greater Toughness damage than Slow Imbibitor
Cons
- Higher SP usage by Imbibitor Lunae leaves less floating SP for supports
- Lower direct damage potential, especially in AoE
Build
Relics
Imbibitor Lunae has a great deal of flexibility in his Relic set options. He does comparable damage with either 4-Pc Wastelander, 4-Pc Musketeer, or 4-Pc Genius. Each set has small advantages depending on the situation – either the enemies he faces or Imbibitor Lunae’s supports.
Relic Sets
4-Pc Wastelander of Banditry Desert | One of Imbibitor Lunae’s best Relic sets. Grants him a decent chunk of CRIT, at the cost of requiring a debuffer to keep uptime, since Imbibitor Lunae doesn’t have any built-in debuffs of his own (except for his own Break). This makes him even more synergistic with debuffers like Pela and Silver Wolf. Keep in mind that the other Relic set in Wastelander’s Cavern of Corrosion is just terrible. It’s not Fuel-efficient to farm compared to other options such as Genius of Brilliant Stars. |
4-Pc Musketeer of Wild Wheat | Imbibitor Lunae’s primary source of damage is his Basic ATK, which Musketeer conveniently buffs while also providing ATK% and SPD, making it on par with Wastelander. Players are also more likely to have pieces due to it dropping from Weekly Bosses. Do note that the SPD from this set may cause problems with team rotations; more on that below. |
4-Pc Genius of Brilliant Stars | A good, generalist option that only gets better when fighting Quantum-Weak enemies. Against non-Quantum Weak targets, this set is competitive with Wastelander and Musketeer, while it pulls ahead of both against Quantum-Weak enemies. It is important to note that enemies are rarely Weak to both Quantum and Imaginary, which makes this set particularly synergistic with Silver Wolf thanks to her Weakness implant. |
2-Pc Options | Combination of Wastelander, Musketeer, and Messenger can potentially be better than 4-Pc sets depending on substats. |
Planar Ornaments
Rutilant Arena | Imbibitor Lunae’s primary source of damage is his enhanced Basic ATKs, which this set is all about buffing. He has very little difficulty reaching 70% CRIT Rate thanks to his Trace stats. |
Space Sealing Station | Space Sealing can be considered in the earlier stages of the game. However, meeting the SPD requirement can be difficult in slower teams and it loses out in damage to Rutilant Arena. |
Light Cones
Brighter Than the Sun | His Best-in-Slot option. Provides him with a sizable CRIT Rate increase, as well as ATK% and ERR%. Brighter Than the Sun allows Imbibitor Lunae to run two turn Ultimate rotations without needing E6 Tingyun, more on that down below. |
On the Fall of an Aeon | Imbibitor Lunae’s best F2P option and general second-best option. Even if you are unable to keep uptime on its passive, it is still better than all other options. |
Something Irreplaceable | Only use it if you already have it leveled. Worse than S5 On the Fall of an Aeon. Do not purchase specifically for Imbibitor Lunae. |
Collapsing Sky | Only use if On the Fall of An Aeon is unavailable. |
Stats
Body | Boots | Sphere | Rope |
CRIT% | ATK% / SPD | Imaginary DMG% | ATK% |
Substat Priority:
CRIT Rate% = CRIT DMG% > ATK%
SPD vs. ATK Boots
See Slow Imbibitor section for further info on the ATK% Boots build and Fast Imbibitor section for SPD Boots build.
Character Comparisons
Qingque
Imbibitor Lunae and Qingque appear quite similar in terms of their game plans. They both want to spend the majority of the team’s SP reserves to Enhance their Basic ATKs and provide themselves with powerful buffs to increase their damage further. Their teammate limitations end up being quite similar as a result of this, as neither wants to be paired with units that are likely to be taking away precious SP from them. The key thing is that while they both want to Enhance their Basic ATKs, the actual mechanics for it end up differing.
Qingque is shackled to some slight randomness, meaning she can consume anywhere from 1 SP to get her Enhanced Basic ATK, to 5 SP and still get nothing. She can even spend 0 SP and just get lucky enough to automatically draw her Enhanced Basic ATK before her next turn. In practice, it’s quite unlikely for Qingque to always be consuming the maximum 4 SP to get her Enhanced Basic ATK, as she’s likely to already have a certain number of matching tiles. Especially in the cases where you already have 4 matching tiles before her next turn, you may actually want a teammate that can consume excess SP to not overcap on Skill Points and end up wasting them.
Qingque can go on lucky streaks and end up outputting a lot of damage at very little cost relative to other characters. Imbibitor Lunae does not have this benefit, and his consistency comes at the cost of essentially needing 3 SP every time he attacks. Compared to Qingque who only has two states of Basic ATK, Enhanced and not-Enhanced, Imbibitor Lunae has three separate Enhancement states for his Enhanced Basic ATK, with each one being more powerful than the last. This means that if you’re going to be spending any SP at all on Imbibitor Lunae’s Enhancements, you are encouraged to go all the way to 3x, especially in AoE scenarios where the Blast damage ramps up massively between Enhancement tiers. The understandable tradeoff for this is the absurd multiplier present on Imbibitor Lunae’s 3x Enhanced Basic ATK.
Same same, but different.
Notable Synergies
Debuffer
As Imbibitor Lunae does not possess debuffs within his kit, he needs help activating the 4-Pc Wastelander bonus, which these units can do.
Pela | Pela is an excellent generalist support option, and has even more synergy with Imbibitor Lunae. She’s very SP-positive, which helps alleviate his heavy SP needs. Her debuffs enable the 4-Pc Wastelander Set Effect to activate with full uptime, at least for the CRIT Rate% portion and her DEF Shred synergizes with 4-Pc Genius Set Effect and can have 100% uptime. The AoE nature of her debuffs further synergize with Imbibitor Lunae’s AoE damage, unlike Silver Wolf who is entirely single-target based. Incredibly cute. Has no downsides. | ||
Silver Wolf | Similar to Pela, Silver Wolf is an excellent generalist support option, though she does have more nuance. Silver Wolf tends to be SP-positive over time and applies debuffs, much like Pela. However, the biggest positive to using her is her ability to ensure enemies have Imaginary Weakness. This allows Imbibitor Lunae to make use of his A6, granting him a significant amount of CRIT DMG%, and helps make Imaginary Weakness Break more likely. The downside is that her debuffs are single-target, which makes it difficult to fully benefit from her against non-single target content such as late MoC. |
Buffer
These units buff Imbibitor Lunae.
Tingyun | Due to her SP-positive playstyle, DMG% and ATK% buffs, and ability to feed him Energy, Tingyun is one of Imbibitor Lunae’s best teammates. With some extra Energy, such as from his signature Light Cone or Tingyun’s E6, she can even enable two turn Ultimates for him. | ||
Yukong | Her buff windows can easily align with Imbibitor Lunae’s damage windows, and provide quite a bit of ATK% and CRIT. This is a rare case in which her A4 Trace providing extra Imaginary DMG% to teammates is useful, and she can hold Planetary Rendezvous as well for extra DMG%. She especially has synergy with the 3-0 and 3-2 playstyle, where Imbibitor Lunae’s damage ebbs and flows. However, Yukong requires more planning and SP management to fully utilize. | ||
Asta | Can be run SP neutral and her SPD buff allows Imbibitor Lunae to act more often without compromising the team’s SP economy. Her ATK buff can be difficult to maintain if enemies are not Weak to Fire-Type damage, particularly at low Eidolons. If the team generates a surplus of SP per rotation, Asta becomes a stronger pick, as she can use her Ultimate more frequently to grant her team more turns. |
Sustain
These unit(s) keep Imbibitor Lunae alive.
Luocha | Luocha is incredibly synergistic with Imbibitor Lunae. He can usually sustain a team without spending SP. His healing cleanses debuffs which ensures that you’re not going to end up in a tough spot due to enemy Crowd Control Debuffs, and he does all of that while generating SP. |
Gepard | Gepard is another character with an SP-positive playstyle. He can sustain a team through his Ultimate’s Shield. Freeze also provides comfort and additional debuffing to help enable the 4-Pc Wastelander Set Effect. |
Abundance unit with Multiplication | An instantaneous way to turn your Abundance unit into an SP factory. |
Notable Anti-Synergies
SP Negative Damage Dealers | Most damage dealers are either fairly SP-negative or neutral. | ||
Welt | On paper, Welt looks like he can provide high uptime on the 4-Pc Wastelander Set Effect, but the SP costs to use his Skill every turn is too great when paired with Imbibitor Lunae’s already SP hungry playstyle. Also, as an SP-negative damage dealer, Welt falls into the same issues as other SP-negative damage dealers. |
Regarding Bronya:
While Bronya can work with Imbibitor Lunae, she requires substantially more knowledge and experience to utilize without impairing your team’s rotation. Her Advance Forward can be incredibly powerful when used efficiently, but can be very detrimental when used without proper planning. Alternatively, consider using Bronya on your other team, as other support options will be simpler as well as generally more effective.
Teams
Due to his highly SP-negative playstyle and focus on his own damage, Imbibitor Lunae prefers having SP-positive units that can enable him to dish out as much damage as possible.
Slow Hypercarry
Slow Imbibitor Lunae uses ATK Boots, and has a strict teammate requirement. For details on how to play Slow Imbibitor Lunae, go to the Playstyle section.
Tingyun is mandatory for this team to enable two turn Ultimates. Either her E6 or Brighter Than the Sun is required.
Pela is highly SP-positive, but this might be too much for the team. In that case, consider using Yukong.
Yukong should be played SP-neutral and alternate using Skill and Basic ATK to maintain SP balance.
Silver Wolf is about as SP-positive as Pela, but is worth using to add Imaginary-Type Weakness and Quantum-Type Weakness if using Genius set.
Example Teams
This team variant is highly SP-positive with Tingyun, Pela, and Luocha, and rather comfortable to play due to SP excess and access to enemy buff dispel and party cleanse.
Fast Hypercarry
Fast Imbibitor Lunae uses SPD Boots, and has a strict teammate requirement. For details on how to play Fast Imbibitor Lunae, go to the Playstyle section.
For the buffer option, Tingyun is the best option, with Yukong close behind, but Asta is much easier to use.
Silver Wolf and Pela work as debuffers, and are both very SP-positive. This can be especially helpful if running more aggressive playstyles such as 3-3, or running a SP-negative or -neutral buffer such as Asta or Yukong.
For the Sustain option, all previously listed options work.
Example Teams
A standard Imbibitor Lunae team with a buffer and debuffer duo. Silver Wolf helps with Weakness Breaking and keeps team Weakness matchups flexible, while also being replaceable with Pela for AoE DEF Reduction and higher SP generation.
Yukong is a niche choice if you can end the fight quickly with the high burst damage she provides. This team has a heavy emphasis on ending the fight quickly, as she uses too much SP to be useful with Imbibitor Lunae in the long run.
Luocha is the best defensive option you can provide Imbibitor Lunae with due to high SP generation, incredible healing, and many other utilities. Asta is a great F2P option, since she increases the entire team’s SPD instead of just Imbibitor Lunae, meaning your SP economy is not harmed while still netting extra potential Fulgurant Leaps.
Credits
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Changelog
- August 31 2023 – Published for v1.3