Honkai: Star Rail – Jiaoqiu build and ascension guide (2024)

Serve your enemies a meal they can’t easily digest with the best Honkai: Star Rail Jiaoqiu build. A 5-Star character following The Nihility, Jiaoqiu deals Fire Damage and specializes in applying DoT to enemies consistently on top of debuffing them in various ways.

Jiaoqiu’s Skill, Scorch Onslaught, deals Fire Damage based on his Attack to an enemy as well as adjacent foes. This move has a high chance to inflict one stack of Ashen Roast to the main target. In addition to this Skill, Jiaoqiu’s Basic Attack and Ultimate can inflict Ashen Roast, too. Each stack of Ashen Roast increases the damage taken by the afflicted enemy. Ashen Roast lasts for two turns and each foe can have a maximum of five stacks. Ashen Roast also counts as Burn, dealing Fire Damage based on his Attack at the start of the enemy’s turn.

His Ultimate, Pyrograph Arcanum, afflicts all enemies on the field with a number of Ashen Roast stacks equal to the highest number of stacks currently on the battlefield – so you’ll want to time this move well. It then deals Fire Damage based on his Attack to all enemies and creates a Zone that will last three turns. Inside the Zone, enemies suffer increased Ultimate Damage and there’s a chance for them to be inflicted with Ashen Roast when they take action. This effect can trigger up to six times and only once per target every turn.

Jiaoqiu’s Eidolon Levels, which can be obtained by pulling additional copies of him, further boost his power. Eidolon 1 allows allies to deal increased damage to enemies afflicted by Ashen Roast and doubles the amount of stacks whenever the effect is inflicted by Jiaoqiu’s Talent. Eidolon 2 boosts the DoT dealt by Ashen Roast, while Eidolon 4 reduces the Attack of all enemies caught in the Zone. Eidolon 6 transfers all Ashen Roast stacks on defeated enemies to those still on the field and increases the maximum number of stacks to nine. In addition each stack reduced the All-Type Resistance of enemies.

Jiaoqiu primarily wants two stats: Attack to maximize his damage and Effect Hit Rate to ensure that he can consistently inflict Ashen Roast on enemies. Effect Hit Rate even helps bolster his Attack when it surpasses a certain threshold, thanks to one of his Traces.

His signature Light Cone, Those Many Springs, checks all the boxes: It comes with a significant Effect Hit Rate buff and comes with the chance for attacks to inflict a debuff called Unarmored. Enemies affected by this status receive additional damage for two turns. If the target is currently affected by a DoT from the wearer – which is almost certainly going to be the case – Unarmored may be upgraded to Cornered, which makes the foe even more vulnerable.

The fact Jiaoqiu can inflict two debuffs at once when using this Light Cone makes it incredible if you plan on using him with Acheron, since this will make it very easy to charge her Ultimate – in general, The Nihility has a ton of great options to offer, though.

Best Light Cones for Jiaoqiu in HSR:

• Those Many Springs (5-Star)
• Reforged Remembrance (5-Star)
• Incessant Rain (5-Star)
• Patience Is All You Need (5-Star)
• In the Name of the World (5-Star)
• It’s Showtime (4-Star)
• Eyes of the Prey (4-Star)
• Solitary Healing (5-Star)
• Good Night and Sleep Well (4-Star)
• Before the Tutorial Mission Starts (4-Star)

Honkai: Star Rail – Jiaoqiu: best Relics

Attack and Effect Hit Rate (target around 140%) are the two key stats for Jiaoqiu, as we’ve established above. On top of these two main priorities, you’ll want to keep an eye on Speed (target above 142) as well as Break Effect – the earlier Jiaoqiu can get started applying those Ashen Roast stacks, the better. While most of his DoT will be based on his Attack (everything coming from Ashen Roast), Fire DoT inflicted by Weakness Break will still be calculated based on his Break Effect, hence it’s nice to stack some of that. You can replace Break Effect with Effect Resistance to play it a bit more safe as well.

You’ll want to have slightly different Relic Sets for Jiaoqiu depending on whether you’re using him on a DoT team or as a source of debuffs for Acheron – we’ve marked the constellations below in accordance with that.

Best Relic Sets for Jiaoqiu in HSR:

• [DoT] Musketeer of Wild Wheat (2) / Prisoner in Deep Confinement (2) / Firmament Frontline: Glamoth (2) + Messenger Traversing Hackerspace (2) – +12% Attack and +6% Speed.
• [Acheron] Pioneer Diver of Dead Waters (2) + Messenger Traversing Hackerspace (2) – +12% damage against enemies affected by debuffs and +6% Speed.
• [DoT] Prisoner in Deep Confinement (4) – +12% Attack, wearer’s attacks will ignore 6% of enemy’s Defense for every DoT the target is suffering from, counting up to three DoTs.

Best Planar Ornaments for Jiaoqiu in HSR:

• [DoT] Pan-Cosmic Commercial Enterprise (2) – +10% Effect Hit Rate, up to 25% of the wearer’s Effect Hit Rate are added to Attack.
• [Acheron] Sprightly Vonwacq (2) – +5% Energy Regeneration Rate; wearer’s action is advanced forward by 40% at the start of combat when Speed is 120 or higher.

Prioritize the following Relic and Planar Ornament stats for Jiaoqiu in HSR:

• Head – HP (Primary), Attack %, Effect Hit Rate %, Speed, Break Effect %
• Hands – Attack (Primary), Attack %, Effect Hit Rate %, Speed, Break Effect %
• Body – Effect Hit Rate % (Primary), Attack %, Speed, Break Effect %, Effect Resistance %
• Feet – Speed (Primary), Effect Hit Rate %, Attack %, Break Effect %, Effect Resistance %
• Planar Sphere – Fire Damage % or Attack % (Primary), Effect Hit Rate %, Speed, Break Effect %, Attack % or Effect Resistance %
• Link Rope – Energy Regeneration Rate % (Primary), Attack %, Effect Hit Rate %, Speed, Break Effect %

Jiaoqiu is an excellent addition to your DoT and Acheron teams, making him a valuable pick-up if you feel like you’re still missing a piece to make the most of these playstyles.

• Kafka (Main DPS), Black Swan (Support), Jiaoqiu (Support), Huohuo (Support)

Jiaoqiu is a nice upgrade from Guinaifen for the well-established core of Kafka and Black Swan. The Stellaron Hunter and the Memokeeper will remain the team’s main engine, but Jiaoqiu adds valuable debuffs into the mix to increase the overall damage output. His own DoT benefits from Kafka and Black Swan’s various effects in turn to create some great all-around synergy. Use whichever sustain you have to complete the composition – we can easily recommend Huohuo for the job, though.

• Acheron (Main DPS), Silver Wolf (Support), Jiaoqiu (Support), Aventurine (Support)

Jiaoqiu is a fantastic addition to your Acheron squad: His consistent DoT infliction contributes heavily to charging Acheron’s Ultimate and his debuffs further maximize the damage she deals – you’ll want to have immense Speed on Jiaoqiu for this team so that he can set the stage for the Main DPS. Aventurine is a great sustain for Acheron, since his Ultimate applies a debuff as well. Another debuffer like Silver Wolf, Pela, or Guinaifen complete the team.

Honkai: Star Rail – Jiaoqiu: ascension materials

Here’s everything you need to know to get Jiaoqiu ascended to the maximum level and upgrade all of his Traces.

Jiaoqiu requires the following ascension materials to get to level 80 in addition to the necessary XP:

• Credits x308,000
• Immortal Scionette x15
• Immortal Aeroblossom x15
• Immortal Lumintwig x15
• Raging Heart x65

You can collect Immortal Scionettes, Aeroblossoms, and Lumintwigs from enemies on the Xianzhou Luofu as well as the Simulated Universe. You can create or exchange them through the Omni-Synthesizer on the Astral Express, too. Immortal Scionettes are one of the base materials you can easily farm through the Daily Assignments to your characters, making for a steady supply of the material.

Raging Heart is dropped by the Stagnant Shadow (Dewlight Pavilion) on Penacony or gained through exchange. The best source of Credits are the Golden Calyxes (Bud of Treasures) in the Great Mine, Artisanship Commission, and The Reverie (Dreamscape).

Jiaoqiu requires the following materials to upgrade his combat abilities and Traces:

• Credits x3,000,000
• Immortal Scionette x41
• Immortal Aeroblossom x56
• Immortal Lumintwig x58
• Fiery Spirit x18
• Starfire Essence x69
• Heaven Incinerator x139
• Regret of Infinite Ochema x12
• Tracks of Destiny x8

For the materials already mentioned, check above. Fiery Spirit, Starfire Essence, and Heaven Incinerator are available in the Crimson Calyx (Alchemy Commission). As usual, you can create the high-level materials by combining lower-level resources in the Omni-Synthesizer on the Astral Express.

Regret of Infinite Ochema is a boss material only gained from fighting Phantylia in the Echo of War (Scalegorge Waterscape) domain, while Tracks of Destiny can be obtained from events, the Embers Exchange, the Nameless Honor, or as a Simulated Universe Points Reward.