Imbibitor Lunae, more like Imbibitor Wunae, because he doesn’t take L’s.
Here’s how to make him hit enemies like a truck.
If you roll for the most good looking characters, you’d be wrong to pull for the new Dan Heng Imbibitor Lunae, because that title belongs to Jingliu. But you’re in luck, because on top of being a sick upgrade to Dan Heng’s initial appearance, Imbibitor Lunae is also the highest damaging character in the game at the moment. But this doesn’t come without a catch!
Imbibitor Lunae takes game knowledge and investment to play, so I’m going to teach you everything you need to know about him.
First off, he has 4 basic attacks… That’s not a joke. He has his normal basic attack, basic attack level 1, basic attack level 2, and basic attack level 3. When you use his skill, it levels up your basic attack by 1 for that turn, up to a max of 3. Each one costs a skill point, generates more energy than the last, and deals a ton more damage! The secret sauce is that his Basic Attack Lv 3 (BA3) is significantly stronger than his Basic Attack Lv 2 (BA2) due to the amount of hits as well as some of Dan Heng’s secondary effects.
-For every hit starting at hit 4, he gains a crit damage buff until the end of his turn.
-For every hit dealt during his turn up to a max of 6 at E0, he gains a damage bonus.
These two things make it so that BA3 is almost always better, and also incentivizes you to use his Ultimate during his turn to get the maximum damage output on that as well. Speaking of his ultimate, it gives him essentially what is 2 free skill points to use on his next basic attack, so using that often is great.
But there IS a catch to his absurdly high damage. He eats up a TON of skill points to nuke enemies, and you’ll need to play around that fact.
So here’s what I recommend:
You want to play Dan Heng IL with specific units at specific speeds. The speed I recommend is 147, which may seem daunting at first, since you’ll have to give up some of your better crit relics in favor of more speed substats. But remember, Dan Heng IL’s damage will more than make up for the loss in your support’s damage.
By playing supports at a minimum of 147 speed, you can guarantee your supports attack very frequently, and if your supports use their basic attacks, it allows cooler Dan Heng to use his BA3 every turn when playing him at a lower speed.
How low? I recommend 106 at highest so he doesn’t miss a skill point later on. Speaking of stats, here’s his best build.
Body – Crit Damage (Crit Rate)
Boots – ATK%
Sphere – Imaginary DMG (ATK%)
Rope – ATK%
These stats will net you the highest overall damage. For relic sets, I recommend Wastelander of Banditry Desert, which will give him Imaginary DMG bonus as well as a TON of crit rate and damage for hitting imprisoned enemies. Since Dan Heng IL breaks a lot of Imaginary toughness and imprisons many enemies at a time, he’s great with that set.
You can also opt for 2 or 4 pieces of Musketeer of Wild Wheat to gain a bit of ATK% and basic attack damage, but Wastelander will be better in situations where enemies can be imprisoned from Imaginary break!
Lastly, Rutilant Arena will get you some Crit Rate and DMG Bonus on his Basic Attacks, so aim for 70% Crit Rate and get that Rutilant buff!
What Light Cone do you give Dan Heng Imbibitor Lunae?
Light Cones are also important, but luckily Dan Heng IL is pretty free-to-play friendly. Paid Destruction Light Cones like Brighter than the Sun and The Unreachable Side are fantastic for the stats they provide, but one of his best options is actually On the Fall of an Aeon, which gives a ton of attack% and damage bonus, and is absolutely free through Herta’s Simulated Universe shop.
Under the Blue Sky at S5 is also an amazing choice if you can keep up its passive, and otherwise, I’d look for Something Irreplaceable, A Secret Vow, and The Moles Welcome You.
Source: LP Imbibitor Lunae Calcs
Should you get his Light Cone, or Eidolons?
Dan Heng Imbibitor Lunae’s Eidolons all add a fair bit of damage, but the most promising low-spender targets are E1 and E2. His 2nd Eidolon has gained a ton of excitement from the community due to how effective it appears to be for gaining damage after using Dan Heng’s ultimate.
Unfortunately, it is bait.
Eidolon 2 is not by any means a *bad* constellation; on average, you’ll see a gain of around 20% total damage across a fight with Dan Heng after unlocking it. However, there have been many miscalculations in the Star Rail theorycrafting community relating to this Eidolon, as they do not always account for full rotations, and usually assume BA3 for every attack, when in reality you may get BA3 after the action forward from E2, but you will likely not be able to BA3 after that. While some players and community members advocate for this being a 40-50% damage increase, it isn’t quite that broken.
With that said, it is a ton of value. Between going for Eidolon’s on Dan Heng Imbibitor Lunae and his signature Light Cone Brighter than the Sun, I would recommend going for his Light Cone first, since it makes him feel more complete, and allows you to play him in specific teams that need the Energy Regen!
Since he wants so many Skill Points, there’s two ways to play Imbibitor Lunae.
- Play him with 3 supports all at high speeds to generate skill points with their Basic Attacks so that Dan Heng can use BA3 every turn
- Play him with his signature Light Cone Brighter than the Sun and Bronya, and use BA0, Bronya Skill, BA3. This gives you DHIL’s ultimate every 2 turns, and allows you to gain Skill Points
In playstyle 1, you can play him with most other supports in the game and use him with a free-to-play friendly setup. All you need to do is find relic pieces that have 2-4 speed in their substats, and 2 pieces of the Messenger relic set. Other stats don’t matter, we are destroying your support’s builds in order to make Dan Heng deal ABSURD damage. I like to think that’s why he’s a Destruction unit.
Here’s an example of my Yukong’s destroyed build. She needs to go right before Dan Heng for her buff, so every other character on my team is 148 speed, and DHIL is 102.
For playstyle 2, you need a Bronya at 134 speed, Dan Heng at 135, and supports at 136. That’s it.
Here’s some team examples with their speed requirements written out.
“F2P Friendly” (DHIL 102 / Pela 147 / Tingyun 147 / Natasha 147)
“High Investment” (DHIL 102 / Yukong 147 / Silver Wolf 148 / Luocha 148
“High Spender” (DHIL 135 / Bronya 134 / Tingyun 135 / Any Preservation or Abundance 135)
If you’re willing to give up all of your supports damage and builds, you can make Dan Heng Imbibitor Lunae the strongest DPS in the entirety of Honkai: Star Rail.
If you want to know even more about Dan Heng or see him in action, check out this video!
