How Speed Works in Honkai Star Rail

Honkai: Star Rail has many mechanics and terms that new players may not be too familiar with. Concepts like damage over time and turn based combat may be common knowledge for some, but something as simple as how speed works in Honkai Star Rail might trip players up. It sounds quite simple, speed refers to how fast characters can act, but what does that mean for combat and what affects it? Let us look at all this and more to find out how speed works in Honkai Star Rail.

The basics of speed in Honkai Star Rail

Speed, shortened to SPD in Honkai Star Rail, is used both by characters and enemies in simple terms refers to how quickly your character acts. 

Speed decides your AV or Action value and in turn the order in which you or your enemy will act. The higher your character’s speed, the lower their base AV is. This means that the character or enemy with the lowest Action Value will take their turn first. After a character or enemy finishes their turn, their Action Value will be reset. 

Your total AV and base AV can be changed through Action Delay, Advance Forward and Speed manipulation. You get more turns the faster you are. An Advance Forward hops you forward a step or two, and Action Delayed pushes you backwards, so you're further away from your next turn. According to guide website KQM Genshin these are the formulas for speed:

Current Action Gauge:

Current Action Gauge = Current AV * Current SPD

How to improve Speed in Honkai Star Rail?

There are three major ways you can increase your character’s speed stats in Honkai Star Rail:

• Relics (e.g. Musketeer of Wild Wheat set)

• Items (e.g. Topological Acceleration Band)

• Abilities (e.g. Asta's ultimate Astral Blessing)

Relics

Relic itemization is a great way of improving your SPD stat. For example the Musketeer of Wild Wheat 4-set when equipped grants a 6% SPD bonus to the wearer. 

Items

The Topological Acceleration Gel is another way to boost SPD, for a short time. On consumption pre-battle, Topological Acceleration Band will increase SPD of all allies by 24% for 2 turns.

Abilities

Another way to boost SPD in Honkai Star Rail is through abilities. Characters like Asta, Sushang and Seele have abilities that grant speed boosts. For example, Asta’s ultimate Astral Blessing increases the SPD of allies by 36 for 2 turn(s). The SPD buff can be further increased by improving Asta's Traces.

Character's that have SPD abilities:

• Asta: Astral Blessing (Ultimate) Increases SPD of all allies by 36 for 2 turn(s)

• Silver Wolf: Impair (Talent) reduces enemy SPD by 3%

• Welt: Synthetic Black Hole (Ultimate) Reduces SPD of imprisoned enemies by 10%

• Welt: Gravitational Imprisonment (Technique) Imprisoned enemies have SPD reduced by 10%

• Welt: Edge of the Void (Skill) 65% base chance to reduce enemy's SPD by 10% for 2 turn(s)

• Yukong: Chasing the Wind (Technique) Boosts her SPD by 35%.

Is speed worth building in Honkai Star Rail?

There are a lot of advantages to building around speed for your team. Extra actions means more damage, healing and chances to apply effects. Some Planar Ornament Sets like Fleet of the Ageless and Space Sealing Station have passives which can be unlocked only at certain SPD values. 

However, there is always a catch. Funneling expensive resources into SPD stats means you have less to give for the rest. So you may be quick but if you don’t optimize for damage, your total damage output will suffer. While Speed can generate more actions, you aren’t getting those actions until your additional Speed would be enough to overtake an enemy’s AV. 

You also need to allocate skill points and buffs in advance to fully utilize your SPD stats. If you cannot manage this well, investing into speed may not be right for your playstyle. 

Which characters you build the stats on also has a huge impact on your overall team strength. For example, if we equip Clara with the Musketeer of Wild Wheat 4-set her SPD increases from 90 to 95. This still makes her one of the slowest characters. In comparison giving Seele the same Relic set would boost her SPD from 115 to 122. The impact of this 6% is obviously more impactful on a character who is naturally swift. 

While Speed can be an incredibly powerful stat, it isn’t always reliable in getting the highest damage output. Other factors like team composition, your playstyle and RNG will affect the outcome of a battle and need to be given due consideration. 

How speed is calculated in Honkai: Star Rail

According to guide website KQM Genshin these are the formulas for speed:

Current Action Gauge:

Current Action Gauge = Current AV * Current SPD

• Action Gauge Modifier:

  New Action Gauge =  max(0 , Current Action Gauge – 10000 * (Advance Forward% – Action Delay%))

• Base Action Value:

  Base AV = Default AG / Speed , Default AG = 10000

• Final Action Value after Speed status effects:

  New AV = Current AV * Current SPD / New SPD

• General Action Value:

  New AV = Current AV * Current SPD / New SPD – 10,000 *(Advance Forward%- Action Delay%) / New SPD

• Extra Action gained at new Speed:

  Extra Action / Action Taken = New SPD / Current SPD – 1

• Imprisonment Action Delay:

  Final Action Delay % = 30% * (1 + Break Effect %)

• Entanglement Action Delay:

  Final Action Delay % = 20% * (1 + Break Effect %)

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