She’s the cheery, cheeky, and mysterious girl you interacted with back in Honkai: Star Rail‘s Version 2.0 Main Storyline Quests. She’s the Masked Fools’ member, the master manipulator, and the trickster, the only Sparkle. As a Harmony character, Sparkle can replenish her team’s Skill Points, and even increase it to a higher level, something unique to her kit now.
This guide will help you create the best Sparkle build in Honkai: Star Rail. That includes a closer look into her kit and how it works, Sparkle’s best Traces, Relics, and Light Cones, and her team compositions for luxury and free-to-play options. Additionally, Sparkle can be your resident Harmony character for your team if you still don’t have Bronya, Ruan Mei, or Tingyun among your arsenal of Harmony characters.
Looking for more Honkai: Star Rail guides and articles? You can check them out at KeenGamer with the links below:
- Honkai: Star Rail Jingliu Build Guide | Jingliu Best Light Cone, Relics, and Teams
- Honkai: Star Rail Argenti Build Guide | Argenti Best Light Cone, Relics, and Teams
- Honkai: Star Rail Dr. Ratio Build Guide | Dr. Ratio Best Light Cone, Relics, and Teams
- Honkai: Star Rail Stagnant Shadow Guide | How to Defeat Dreamjolt Troupe’s Beyond Overcooked and Sweet Gorilla in Penacony
Bam!
Sparkle Materials
To start this guide, we will take a closer look at Sparkle’s materials that you must gather to ascend to Level 80. Here is the list of all the things you need:
- 15x Tatters of Thought / 15x Fragments of Impression / 15x Shards of Desires (Memory Zone Meme Enemy Drops)
- 65x Dream Flamer (Stagnant Shadow Drops)
- 308,000 Credits
When looking for the Memory Zone Meme series materials, the Memory Zone Meme enemies are your best bet at finding these materials, and you can find them in several areas within Penacony. Moreover, you will have better consistency in finding the materials when you try battling through Simulated Universe Worlds. Additionally, you can convert low-grade materials into higher grades using the Omni-Synthesizer. Last but not least, you can easily earn a steady stream of Tatters of Thought through Assignments, netting you 20 (+10) pieces each day.
Another key piece for Sparkle that you’ll need is the Stagnant Shadow Drop, the Dream Flamer. To unlock this Stagnant Shadow, you can find it in the Dream’s Edge sub-region within Penacony. To earn the materials, you have to spend 30 Trailblaze Power to challenge them, and you will have better drops as your difficulty progresses. The main boss you will encounter here is a Dreamjolt Troupe enemy, Dreamjolt Troupe’s Beyond Overcooked, who can unleash deadly Fire attacks on your team if you’re not careful.
As for Sparkle’s Traces, you’ll need all three rarities of the Penacony’s Path of Harmony material (Firmament Note, Celestial Section, and Heavenly Melody). You’ll also need to fight the newest Echo of War, Starcrusher Swarm King – Skaracabaz (Synthetic), as Sparkle needs the material, Past Evils of the Borehole Planet Disaster, from the weekly boss, which was introduced in Version 1.6.
Ready for the Show?
Sparkle Skill Overview
Similar to previous characters in Honkai: Star Rail, Sparkle possesses a set of skills that can help her enable her allies’ abilities and help them win the battle. We’ll examine her Basic Attack, Skill, Talent, Technique, and Ultimate to understand the extent of her abilities.
Basic Attack: Monodrama
Starting her kit overview, we’ll look at Sparkle’s Basic Attack, Monodrama. With this attack, Sparkle deals Quantum DMG to a single enemy target.
And that’s it. Unfortunately, you won’t find any unique mechanism within Sparkle’s Basic Attack. You shouldn’t expect special effects like those of DPS characters because unlike them, Sparkle is mainly a Support character, and you will see her worth through her Skill, Ultimate, and Talent.
Basic Attack, Monodrama.
Skill: Dreamdiver
The next part of Sparkle’s kit is her Skill, Dreamdiver. This ability is practically Sparkle’s main way of enhancing one of her allies’ combat power, as well as advancing their action during a certain turn.
Dreamdiver works by increasing the CRIT DMG of a single target ally by 12% of Sparkle’s CRIT DMG plus 27.0%, lasting for 1 turn(s). And at the same time, Advances Forward this ally’s action by 50%. When Sparkle uses this ability on herself, the Action Advance effect will not trigger.
This means that, unlike Bronya, Sparkle does not guarantee the target ally to immediately take action upon receiving Dreamdiver‘s effects, thus requiring you to have great SPD stat on both Sparkle and your top DPS character.
Skill, Dreamdiver.
Ultimate: The Hero with a Thousand Faces
Moving on with the next part of Sparkle’s kit, we have her Ultimate, The Hero with a Thousand Faces. This Ultimate allows Sparkle to recover 4 Skill Point(s) for the team and grants all allies with Cipher. For allies with Cipher, each stack of the DMG Boost effect provided by Sparkle’s Talent additionally increases by 6.0%, lasting for 2 turns.
Without a doubt, this is Sparkle’s most important and most useful part of her overall kit, as her Ultimate grants a recovery of 4 Skill Points, which is a huge bonus, especially for DPS characters that need a ton of Skill Points (Dan Heng: Imbibitor Lunae comes to mind). Not only that, but Sparkle also provides DMG Boost for her allies, which works in tandem with her Talent, Red Herring.
In addition to those effects, Sparkle does not necessarily require Quantum-Type allies for her Ultimate, Skill, or Talent to work. However, bringing them to the team will be rewarding if you can upgrade one of Sparkle’s Traces, giving them a better edge compared to other Types.
Ultimate, The Hero with a Thousand Faces.
Talent: Red Herring
Next up, we have Red Herring, another crucial aspect of Sparkle’s abilities. If her Ultimate gives your team a recovery of 4 Skill Points, her Talent provides two additional max Skill Points, giving you more breathing room for Skill Points economy in the long run.
While Sparkle is on the battlefield, additionally increases the max number of Skill Points by 2. Whenever an ally consumes 1 Skill Point, all allies’ DMG dealt increases by 3.0%. This effect lasts for 2 turn(s) and can stack up 3 time(s).
Right out of the gate, this Talent provides your team with not 5 total Skill Points, but 7 total Skill Points. That is huge. You can run both Dan Heng: Imbibitor Lunae and practically another Skill Point-based DPS character (Argenti, Jing Yuan, Seele, Dr. Ratio, etc.) and still be able to reap their maximal potential without the restriction of the original Skill Points. However, keep in mind that you need SP Positive characters to balance it out, as Sparkle alone cannot sustain the economy. Bringing Luocha, Huohuo, or Lynx will be ideal if you want to use Sparkle in your team.
Moreover, not only is her Talent useful for increasing the team’s maximum Skill Points but you will be rewarded by consuming Skill Points, which is stackable up to 3 times, potentially increasing their DMG output by 9%, and if the Cipher effect from the Ultimate is active, then Red Herring‘s effect will instead increase all allies’ DMG output by 27% at maximum stacks.
Searching for the Next Stage.
Technique: Unreliable Narrator
Lastly, we can’t leave out Sparkle’s Technique, Unreliable Narrator, alone as this Technique allows you to be stealthy around the enemies in the open-world areas, giving you more flexibility and a chance to escape detection while also having more Skill Points out the gate when entering a battle.
This is thanks to its effect, Misdirect, in which all allies will not be detected by enemies for 20 seconds, and entering battle in the Misdirect state recovers 3 Skill Point(s) for the team. Pretty neat and fitting for Sparkle’s character, don’t you think so?
Dreams and Nightmares.
Sparkle’s Traces Breakdown
After you understand Sparkle’s overall abilities and things she can do in a battle, the next step to maximize her build is to take a look at this trickster’s Traces. Overall, Sparkle further enhances her supporting abilities by adding some quirks to her Skill and inherent buffs. Aside from that, Sparkle also has several minor Trace boosts, as you can see below:
- 10% Effect RES Boost ( 4 + 6)
- 24% CRIT DMG Boost ( 5.3 + 8 + 10.7)
- 28% Max HP Boost (4 + 4 +6 + 6 + 8)
Following the minor Traces, we will now move on to Sparkle’s Major Traces. The first one is Sparkle’s Ascension 2’s Trace, Almanac. When using Basic ATK, additionally regenerates 10 Energy. Simple and elegant, fitting for Sparkle. This Trace is nothing to be excited about, but that 10 Energy regeneration can help Sparkle trigger her Ultimate faster.
Moving on to the second Major Trace is the Artificial Flower, which you can get after getting Sparkle to the Ascension 4 stage. The CRIT DMG Boost effect provided by the Skill will be extended until the start of the target’s next turn. This means that Sparkle’s Skill’s effect will get an extension until the target ally’s next turn, basically giving them two chances of having Sparkle’s buffs instead of just receiving a one-time buff.
Lastly, there’s Sparkle’s Ascension 6 Trace, Nocturne. Increases all allies’ ATK by 15%. When there are 1/2/3 Quantum-Type allies in the team, additionally increases Quantum-Type allies’ ATK by 5%/15%/30%. In short, the more Quantum-Type allies (Seele, Fu Xuan, Lynx, and/or Qingque) you bring into your team, the more potent their ATK stats are.
Ball of Lies.
Sparkle Abilities Priority
Now that we are familiar with Sparkle’s Traces and their effects, it’s time to discuss what abilities you should prioritize when building Sparkle to her best potential.
- Red Herring (Talent)
- Dreamdiver (Skill)
- The Hero with a Thousand Faces (Ultimate)
- Monodrama (Basic ATK)
As previously mentioned, Sparkle’s main source of providing buffs for her allies comes from her Skill, Ultimate, and Talent. However, out of them all, her Talent, Red Herring, takes the spot as the ability you need to prioritize, since by doing so, you will amplify the DMG Boost her allies receive when consuming Skill Points. This upgrade is crucial because it constitutes her most essential buff.
From there, Sparkle’s Ultimate and Skill are approximately within the same hierarchy in terms of priority, as the Ultimate makes her Talent more potent, while Sparkle’s Skill boosts an ally’s CRIT DMG for two turns.
And lastly, Monodrama takes the last spot simply because it’s rather useless and does not add much to Sparkle’s overall kit and abilities, apart from one of her Traces’ bonuses which allows her to regenerate 10 Energy every time she uses Monodrama.
A Masked Fool.
Sparkle’s Eidolons
Moving on, we will list all of Sparkle’s Eidolons in Honkai: Star Rail. Eidolons can be acquired by pulling the same character multiple times from the Event Warp. To get Sparkle’s unique Eidolons, you need to have multiple copies of her from her Character Event Warp, “Sparkling Splendor”.
- Suspension of Disbelief: The Cipher effect granted by the Ultimate lasts for 1 extra turn. All allies with Cipher have their ATK increased by 40%.
- Purely Fictitious: Every stack of the Talent’s effect allows allies to additionally ignore 8% of the target’s DEF when dealing DMG.
- Pipe Dream: Skill Lv. +2 and Basic Attack Lv. +1.
- Life is a Gamble: The Ultimate recovers 1 more Skill Point. The Talent additionally increases the Max Skill Points by 1.
- Parallax Truth: Ultimate Lv. +2 and Talent Lv. +2.
- Narrative Polysemy: The CRIT DMG Boost effect provided by the Skill additionally increases by an amount equal to 30% of Sparkle’s CRIT DMG. When Sparkle uses Skill, her Skill’s CRIT DMG Boost effect will apply to all allies with Cipher. When Sparkle uses her Ultimate, any single ally who benefits from her Skill’s CRIT DMG Boost will spread that effect to allies with Cipher.
The best Eidolon that Sparkle has is her E2, as this enables all allies who trigger Sparkle’s Talent will ignore a portion of the enemy’s DEF, which can rise to 24% Ignore DEF, a huge damage buff against tough Elite and Boss Enemies. This Eidolon is the perfect stopgap for those who seek to spend quite a bit for Sparkle without spending too much money.
End of the Road.
Sparkle in Memory of Chaos (MoC) and Pure Fiction
After getting to know all of Sparkle’s abilities, Eidolons, and Traces for building her, we will now see how well she fares against two end-game contents in Honkai: Star Rail: Memory of Chaos and Pure Fiction.
In Memory of Chaos, she’s one of the best Harmony characters you can use right now. This is thanks to her versatile kit which does not need a certain set of teammates for her to work. Instead, those characters need her, not the other way around, with Dan Heng: Imbibitor Lunae taking the spotlight as her best pairing. However, you still need to properly build her by increasing her SPD and CRIT DMG stats, as these two stats are highly important for her overall abilities.
Regarding Pure Fiction, Sparkle is still exceptional, as the fast-paced environment is suitable with the buffs she provides, mostly lasting for several turns, and she is the perfect complement for the best DPS characters for Pure Fiction (Himeko, Herta, Argenti, and Jingliu).
Overall, Sparkle is a solid all-rounder Harmony character, though she cannot overtake Bronya or Ruan Mei, and vice-versa. She’s more ‘well-suited’ for Quantum Team, however, she does not necessarily have to pair with them to maximize her abilities’ potential.
Banquet of the Fools.
Sparkle’s Best Light Cones in Honkai: Star Rail
Best in Slot: Earthly Escapade
When talking about what would be the best Light Cone for Sparkle, her signature Light Cone, Earthly Escapade (Path of Harmony), is simply the winner as her best in slot Light Cone. You can try and obtain Earthly Escapade from the Light Cone Event Warp “Brilliant Fixation”, which is still ongoing in tandem with Sparkle’s Character Event Warp. Since this Light Cone is tailor-made for Sparkle, this Light Cone is finely suited to further enhance her supporting capabilities.
At level 80, Earthly Escapade nets you 1164 HP, 529 ATK, and 463 DEF to the holder. This Light Cone has one main Ability, Capriciousness, and there are plenty to break down here. This Light Cone increases the wearer’s CRIT DMG by 32%. At the start of the battle, the wearer gains a Mask, lasting for 3 turn(s). While the wearer has a Mask, the wearer’s allies have their CRIT Rate increased by 10% and their CRIT DMG increased by 28%. For every 1 Skill Point, the wearer recovers (including Skill Points that exceed the limit), they gain 1 stack of Radiant Flame. And when the wearer has 4 stacks of Radiant Flame, all the stacks are removed, and they gain Mask, lasting for 4 turn(s).
In short, this Light Cone fits Sparkle perfectly thanks to her nature as an SP-positive Harmony character, where she doesn’t need to use her Skill every turn, and with her as the holder, Earthly Escapade’s Capriciousness will have a guaranteed 100% uptime.
Earthly Escapade Light Cone.
Best Alternatives for Sparkle’s Light Cones
Even though we’ve explained that Earthly Escapade is Sparkle’s best Light Cone, you should not worry about her replacement Light Cones. This Quantum Harmony Masked Fool is no joke and her options are very vast, which we will discuss below.
Before we dive in, it should be worth mentioning that the recommendations will mainly be 4-Star in rarity, though we will include a 5-Star option that is free-to-play and players can get it easily.
The best replacement Light Cones for Sparkle in Honkai: Star Rail are But the Battle Isn’t Over, Past and Future, and Dance! Dance! Dance!.
Past and Future Light Cone.
Light Cones Breakdown
But the Battle Isn’t Over is a free-to-play 5-Star Light Cone option that you can get through Light Cone Event Warp, Standard Banner, or Starlight Exchange Store for 600 Undying Starlight. Its Ability, Heir, increases the wearer’s Energy Regeneration Rate by 10% and regenerates 1 Skill Point when the wearer uses their Ultimate on an ally. This effect can be triggered after every 2 uses of the wearer’s Ultimate. When the wearer uses their Skill, the next ally taking action (except the wearer) deals 30% more DMG for 1 turn(s). With her Skill and Ultimate, Sparkle can rely on this Light Cone’s effects to its fullest.
The next Light Cone is Past and Future, another wonderful Harmony Light Cone that can support Sparkle’s abilities, especially her Skill. You can get this Light Cone from any of the game’s various Warp Banners, including the current “Brilliant Fixation”. At Level 80, the wearer can get 952 HP, 423 ATK, and 396 DEF, and with its Ability, Kites From the Past, whenever the wearer uses their Skill, the next ally taking action (except the wearer) deals 16% increased DMG for 1 turn(s), you can turn Sparkle’s Skill into a more robust buff provider for your DPS character.
Lastly, we have Dance! Dance! Dance!, is a good 4-Star Light Cone alternative for Sparkle, as this Light Cone’s Ability, Cannot Stop It!, allows its wearer to Advance Forward all allies’ actions by 16% whenever they use their Ultimate.
But the Battle Isn’t Over Light Cone.
Best Relics and Planar Ornaments for Sparkle
Relics are arguably the most versatile part of any Honkai: Star Rail character build, which you can try matching two combinations that you see fit for that character. Moreover, every set has its unique effects and abilities that can shift a character’s potential. For Sparkle, we want to give her a Relic Set which can help improve her supporting abilities for her allies.
With that in mind, the best Relic and Planar Ornament set for Sparkle is the 4-piece Messenger Traversing Hackerspace and the 2-piece Broken Keel. Starting with our main Relic set, Hunter of Glacial Forest increases the wearer’s SPD by 6%. Moreover, 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. Lastly, we have Broken Keel, the Planar Ornament set, which increases the wearer’s Effect RES by 10%. And when the wearer’s Effect RES is at 30% or higher, all allies’ CRIT DMG increases by 10%.
Messenger Traversing Hackerspace Relic Set.
Combination Explanations
The reason why this combination fits Sparkle the best is due to a multitude of reasons. From the get-go, the stats they provide are great for Sparkle, which focuses on SPD and Effect RES, the latter of which can be translated into bonus CRIT DMG for Sparkle’s allies.
The combination of Messenger Traversing Hackerspace + Broken Keel also provides SPD for all allies whenever Sparkle uses her Ultimate, and though it might not last long, the downtime of the Relic Set’s 4-piece bonus doesn’t necessarily reduce Sparkle’s buffing capacity. Meanwhile, the Broken Keel Planar Ornament Set is straightforward: as long as you can get 30% Effect RES on Sparkle, then you are guaranteed to give your team a 10% CRIT DMG Bonus.
Broken Keel Planar Ornament Set.
Sparkle’s Crucial Stats
Here are the main stats we’re recommending Trailblazers should hunt for if they want their Sparkle to be the best Harmony unit she can be:
- Body: CRIT DMG%
- Feet: SPD
- Planar Sphere: HP%
- Link Rope: Energy Regeneration%
Meanwhile, here’s what you want to be on the lookout for in terms of Sparkle’s sub-stats:
- CRIT DMG
- SPD
- Effect RES%
- HP%
Insanity… Or Ignorance?
Best Teams for Sparkle in Honkai: Star Rail
Sparkle Hypercarry Team
Sparkle can shine with anyone, although she will shine even brighter when you can pair her with the correct DPS characters, notably Dan Heng: Imbibitor Lunae, as his Skill Points usage is sometimes off the roof, you’d need someone like Sparkle to help negate that issue.
With that in mind, the Sparkle Hypercarry Team comprises Sparkle, Dan Heng: Imbibitor Lunae, Tingyun, and Luocha.
Luocha still retains his position as the best healer in the game. The major reason is that his healing is mostly automatic, either from the Cycle of Life Field or from his Skill that triggers whenever an ally falls below 50% HP, which helps prevent any of your team members from dying from burst damage. Additionally, Luocha is the perfect character to generate Skill Points (SP), so his presence can help Sparkle maintain the Skill Points economy, which will help Dan Heng: Imbibitor Lunae to focus on using his enhanced Basic Attacks.
Meanwhile, Tingyun can keep restoring Dan Heng: Imbibitor Lunae’s Energy so that he can deal as much damage as he can more frequently, working in tandem with Sparkle in doing so.
Sparkle Hypercarry Team.
Sparkle F2P Team
If you are still relatively new to Honkai: Star Rail, or if you don’t have many character options yet, then do not worry, as the game presents a lot of reliable 4-Star characters that can pair well with Sparkle without needing you to pull for the exclusive 5-Star characters to make her work.
With that in mind, the Sparkle F2P Team has Sparkle, Qingque, Asta, and Lynx.
Lynx in this team will replace Luocha’s capacity as the team’s resident Healer. Though her abilities might not be as potent as Luocha’s, she is more than enough to sustain everyone on your team, particularly Qingque and Asta. If you don’t have Lynx, then you can use Natasha as the substitute Healer for this team.
As for Asta, her SPD and ATK buffs can help enhance Sparkle’s abilities, especially since this team has two Quantum-Type allies, which further increases their ATK stat, giving them an elevated starting point compared to other teams you can field with Sparkle.
Sparkle F2P Team.
