Putting together an effective Honkai Star Rail Aventurine build takes one thing – defense, and plenty of it. Aventurine’s kit has a lot of pieces, but the most important thing he does is shield the entire party. Those shields scale on defense and often don’t even require a skill point to activate, so with the right setup, you could feasibly keep the entire party safe while only occasionally firing off Aventurine’s skill.
Our Honkai Star Rail Aventurine build lists the best Light Cones and Relics he can use and makes some Aventurine team recommendations as well. Spoiler alert: It’s any team, but a few in particular. If you need some more help with your shiny new Preservation character, head over to our Aventurine kit explainer and Aventurine materials list.
Honkai Star Rail Aventurine build
Honkai Star Rail Aventurine Light Cones
Aventurine’s signature Light Cone, Inherently Unjust Destiny, is his best pick, which, if you’ve played HSR for any length of time, likely comes as no surprise. It raises the equipping character’s defense by 40 percent, and when they provide a shield for an ally, the shielded allies get a 40 percent crit damage buff. Aventurine generates shields for the entire party, so that’s a party-wide crit damage buff without having to rely on a support character. When the equipping character uses a follow-up attack – which Aventurine does after he or a shielded ally takes damage seven times – Inherently Unjust Destiny also applies a debuff to affected enemies that makes them take 10 percent more damage for two turns.
It’s a fantastic set of buffs, to be sure, but Aventurine doesn’t have to have them to function well. Gepard’s Cone, Moment of Victory, is a strong choice for him as well. It gives the wearer a flat 24 percent defense boost outright – along with an effect hit rate increase, but that’s pointless for Aventurine – and it makes enemies more likely to attack the wearer. When the wearer is attacked, they get an additional 24 percent defense buff until the end of their turn. That means the shields Aventurine generates after getting attacked scale off the bonus defense as well.
This Is Me, which you can get from the paid battle pass track at tier 30, doesn’t come up often in meta discussions, but seeing as you can control when you get it, it’s worth considering. It raises the wearer’s defense by 16 percent and, when their ultimate damages a foe, increases that damage by 60 percent of their defense. Aventurine is never going to be your party’s main damage dealer, but bumping up his numbers helps wear foes down faster.
Day One of My New Life is another useful 4-star Light Cone. It also raises the wearer’s defense by 16 percent, and it gives the party an eight percent damage resistance buff. Finally is Concert for Two, with yet another 16 percent defense buff, along with a useful damage increase. Every character on-field with a shield increases the user’s damage by four percent.
Honkai Star Rail Aventurine Relics
Since Aventurine’s skills scale on defense, you need a Relic set that gives him as much defense as possible. Knight of Purity Palace fits that bill very well.
- Two-piece effect: Increases defense by 15 percent
- Four-piece effect: Increases max damage the user’s shields can absorb by 20 percent
You can find this set early in the adventure, so it’s easily accessible even for new players. Some players recommend Pioneer Diver of Dead Waters to increase Aventurine’s damage against debuffed enemies, since his ultimate inflicts a debuff. However, Aventurine’s damage will never be high enough to warrant sacrificing defense and shield strength for offensive-focused strategies.
Honkai Star Rail Aventurine Ornaments
Aventurine has a few Ornament choices to pick from. An excellent choice that helps the whole party is Broken Keel, since it raises the user’s effect resistance and, once they hit 30 percent effect resistance, the party gets a 10 percent crit damage buff. It’s a high number to reach, but Aventurine gets a 10 percent effect resistance buff from two minor Trace nodes and an extra 10 percent from the Broken Keel set.
Avoid Belobog of the Architects unless you’re just in need of extra defense. Its bonus effect requires 50 percent effect hit rate, a stat Aventurine has no use for.
If you’re fine on defense and don’t want to roll for effect resistance, Inert Salsotto should be your next choice. Once the wearer’s crit rate reaches 50 percent, their ultimate and follow-up damage increases by 15 percent.
Honkai Star Rail Aventurine stats
Aventurine needs defense above all else. The generally acceptable breakpoint for his defense stat – the point where any further investment results in diminished returns – is about 4,000, though you can make him work with 3,200 or higher. That’s really all you need, though if you have a Light Cone that buffs his defense enough, you could mix in crit damage, speed, or Imaginary damage to help make him more well-rounded.
- Body: Defense
- Feet: Speed or defense
- Sphere: Defense or Imaginary damage
- Rope: Defense
Honkai Star Rail Aventurine teams
Aventurine’s shields, his follow-up attacks, and the debuff his ultimate inflicts make him an excellent choice for any team that needs a sustain unit – someone to keep the party healthy and safe. That said, after you unlock his final bonus Trace, he works especially well on follow-up teams. That Trace gives him one stack of Blind Bet when a shielded ally uses a follow-up attack, which makes it much easier to trigger his own follow-up attacks and provide a passive shield for the party.
One such team could be:
You could swap Moze for Topaz if you have her or use March 7th’s Hunt form instead. Robin buffs follow-up attacks as well, though you could replace her with any support character who can buff the party, such as Tingyun.
The debuff from Aventurine’s ultimate also makes him a good candidate for Acheron teams. Ideally, you’d want to pair the two of them with two Nihility characters to max out Acheron’s passive Trace benefits, though if you have Sparkle, it’s worth using just one Nihility instead.
Jiaoqiu is the ideal candidate for any Acheron team thanks to his unique combination of abilities, but any Nihility character who inflicts debuffs easily is a solid choice.
Check out our Honkai Star Rail tier list to see how these team options stack up and who else might be a good pick, and head over to our Star Rail codes page for some freebies to help with your next pull.