Top Builds, Light Cones, and Relics for Dahlia in Honkai: Star Rail

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If you’ve been playing Honkai: Star Rail for a while, you probably know that the game’s meta shifts quickly. Different play styles become popular depending on the buffs provided by various endgame modes. One of the biggest factors influencing which strategies are favored is the release of new characters.

This was proven when The Dahlia was introduced as a five-star Nihility character in Version 3.8. During the Penacony arc of the main story, teams focused on breaking enemies (called break teams) were very common. But once Amphoreus came out, these teams fell out of favor. Luckily, The Dahlia’s powerful abilities make these teams effective again, giving players a new reason to use her.

Best Light Cones for The Dahlia

The choice of a light cone significantly impacts how well The Dahlia performs. When playing as her, only Nihility light cones should be used so she can benefit from their passive effects. The best option is Never Forget Her Flame.

While other light cones can still work, they will reduce her overall performance — but not enough to make her unusable. Here are your options:

Light Cone	Effect & Compatibility with The Dahlia
Never Forget Her Flame	Best for her, boosting her Break Effect by 60% and increasing her Break DMG by 32%. When she uses her Ultimate, she recovers a Skill Point and can implant weakness on enemies, regardless of existing weaknesses.
Long Road Leads Home	Also offers 60% Break Effect and increases damage to enemies whose weaknesses are broken, with stacking extra damage.
Holiday Thermae Escapade	A battle pass item, it raises her damage by 32% and causes enemies to take 16% extra damage at high Superimposition levels.
Resolution Shines as Pearls of Sweat	Improves her ability to lower enemy DEF by 16% at high Superimposition, stacking with her kit.
Before the Tutorial Mission Starts	An F2P option from an event, it grants extra energy, useful for her energy economy depending on your build.

Best Relics and Planar Ornaments for The Dahlia

Relics and ornaments are key tools for boosting her stats. Fortunately, The Dahlia doesn’t require intense grinding because her stat requirements are moderate. For optimal results, equip her with the Iron Cavalry Against the Scourge relic set and the Forge of the Kalpagni Lantern ornament.

In early game, some alternative sets include:

Dahlia Relics Ranked

Rank	Set Name	Benefits
1	Iron Cavalry Against the Scourge	Boosts Break Effect by 16% and grants her the ability to ignore 10% of enemy DEF when Break Effect exceeds 150%. At 250%+ Break Effect, she can ignore even more DEF with Super Break DMG.
2	Thief of Shooting Meteor	Increases her Break Effect up to 32% and offers free energy when breaking enemy weaknesses.

Dahlia Ornaments Ranked

Rank	Set Name	Benefits
1	Forge of the Kalpagni Lantern	Increases SPD by 6% and significantly boosts Break Effect by 40%, especially against Fire-weak enemies.
2	Talia: Kingdom of Banditry	Raises Break Effect by 36% if her SPD is over 145.
3	Sprightly Vonwacq	Helps with energy issues, boosting energy regen by 5% and improving her action at the start of combat.

Stat Priority

Stat	Priority
Body	HP Percent / Effect Hit Rate
Feet	SPD
Sphere	HP / DEF Percent
Rope	Energy Regen Rate > Break Effect
Sub-Stats	SPD > Break Effect

Since The Dahlia is mainly a support who benefits from high Break Effect, she doesn’t need overly high other stats. Reaching around 160 SPD is generally enough.

Best Team Compositions for The Dahlia

She fits well into teams that focus on breaking enemies, especially ones centered around Fire damage. The most effective team includes:

The Dahlia
Firefly
Fugue
Lingsha

All characters share the Fire type, which helps dismantle enemy weaknesses quickly — particularly with Firefly’s technique that implants Fire Weakness. Alternatively, teams can use Rappa or Boothill as main Break DPS.

If building a free-to-play team, Xueyi works best as the main damage dealer, with Misha as a decent substitute. Pela provides additional support through DEF shred, while Gallagher can sustain the team’s damage output and synergizes well with Break strategies.

Overview and Trace Priorities for The Dahlia

The Dahlia is more flexible than many recent characters in Honkai: Star Rail, and her kit is straightforward. Her abilities include:

Skill: Significantly boosts all allies’ Weakness Break efficiency by 50%. It also allows her to deal Super Break DMG based on the enemy’s Toughness reduction even if enemies aren’t Weakness Broken. This mechanic enables characters to deal Break DMG without needing Weakness Break.
Ultimate: Deals damage to all enemies, reduces their DEF for four turns, and implants her and her Dance Partner’s weakness.
Dance Partner Mechanic: The character who starts the combat or is Highest Break Effect takes this role. It’s best to have your main DPS (like Firefly or Xueyi) in this position.
Follow-up Attacks: When her Dance Partner attacks a Weakness Broken enemy, she can deal Super Break DMG again and recover a Skill Point — once every two attacks.
Team Buffs: When entering combat, The Dahlia regenerates energy and increases the team’s Break Effect based on her own stats. This bonus lasts one turn and can be refreshed through healing or shielding.

Her Skill is her central mechanic, but it doesn’t scale well with upgrades that only improve her own multipliers. Instead, focus first on her Ultimate, then her Talent, followed by improving her Skill and unlocking extra abilities as you progress.