COMPLETELY F2P BOOTHILL GUIDE! Best Boothill Build - Relics, Light Cones & Teams | Honkai: Star Rail

This is a free-to-play guide for the upcoming Physical Hunt five-star character, Boothill. He is one of the characters to be released in Patch two point two and will most likely appear in Phase two of Patch two point two. Boothill is the second limited Physical unit after Argenti and the first limited Physical Hunt unit to be released in Honkai Star Rail. Boothill is really efficient for free-to-play players to build because he only needs to build break-effect relic substats. In addition, with his ultimate and technique, he can apply Physical weakness to any enemy, making it so that you do not need to build characters for each element and can easily brute force memory of chaos floors with him. You will have to focus on breaking enemies’ toughness bars to maximize Boothill’s damage.

For this guide, I will not be going over any limited five-star characters or five-star light cones, not even Boothill’s signature light cone, Sailing Towards A Second Life. If you have a limited five-star character equivalent to one of the options I mention, replace the recommended one with your five-star one. I will only be mentioning five-star characters from the standard banner.

I will go over non-gacha options if you want to go for Boothill as a free-to-play player. Boothill is loved by the community to the extent that several players are simping for him. If you do not have a Physical main D.P.S., you should consider pulling for Boothill. Even if you do have Argenti, you could get away with pulling for Boothill because of his ability to implement Physical weakness on enemies, which is universal. I would pull Boothill over Robin if you do not like the follow-up attack playstyle, because that’s the best team for Robin.

Boothill is optimally used in a team focused on Break Effect. He does single-target damage with his basic attack, skill, and ultimate. So, Boothill will be mainly used in Memory of Chaos and will not be good in pure fiction.

Boothill’s basic attack scales off his attack. Therefore, it is important to focus on Attack Relic substats.

His skill, Sizzlin' Tango, taunts the enemy into a duel where Boothill gains an enhanced basic attack, Fanning the Hammer. It scales off Boothill’s attack. You want to ensure Boothill quickly gains three stacks of Pocket Trickshot because he deals an additional hit with physical damage equal to twenty percent of Boothill's attack on the target for every stack.

Boothill’s talent, Five Peas in a Pod, makes it so that while using Fanning the Hammer, if the enemy is weakness-broken, it deals break damage equal to fifty-six percent of Boothill's physical break damage to this target for every stack of Pocket Trickshot, on the basis of the target's maximum toughness.

Due to Boothill’s talent, it is necessary to focus on Break Effect substats to deal optimal damage with him. Boothill’s ultimate also scales off his attack. But it also delays the enemy’s action with Boothill’s Break Effect.

As previously mentioned, Boothill’s technique applies physical weakness with his skill for one turn.

His major trace priority is Ghost Load, then Point Blank, then Above Snakes. The only major trace to be aware of is Ghost Load, which increases Boothill's critical rate and critical damage. The amount increased is equal to ten percent and fifty percent of his break effect, respectively. Critical rate and critical damage can be increased by a maximum of thirty percent and one hundred fifty percent, respectively. Therefore, critical rate and critical damage substats are not necessary to prioritize.

In fact focusing on Break Effect substats deals more damage than focusing on an optimal critical ratio. Boothill even gets thirty seven point three percent break effect from his traces.

Boothill’s best four-piece relic set is The Thief of Shooting Meteor. Its two-piece relic set effect is to increase break effect by sixteen percent. This is obviously great because Boothill wants tons of break effect. The Thief of Shooting Meteor’s four-piece relic set effect is to increase the wearer's break effect by sixteen percent. After the wearer inflicts a weakness break on an enemy, it regenerates three energy. The four-piece Thief of Shooting Meteor is the most optimal over a two piece relic combination because the thirty two percent increase in break effect is impossible to achieve from any other relic combination. I cannot recommend Champion of Streetwise Boxing because it should be easier to get break effect substats on Thief of Shooting Meteor, and critical rate or damage substats are not a priority since they deal less damage than break effect for Boothill. Either way, Thief of Shooting Meteor and Champion of Streetwise Boxing are in the same Cavern of Corrosion, so you will get both relic pieces.

The optimal two piece planar set to use with Boothill is Talia: Kingdom of Banditry. Its two piece relic set effect is to increase the wearer's break effect by sixteen percent. When the wearer's speed reaches one hundred forty five or higher, the wearer's Break Effect increases by an extra twenty percent. With Talia: Kingdom of Banditry, Boothill must prioritize speed substats to reach one hundred forty five speed.

Unfortunately, since you cannot have a break effect body piece main stat, Boothill should use either a critical rate or critical damage main stat for the body relic piece. For the feet relic piece, Boothill can either use the speed main stat or the attack percent main stat. Currently, it is unclear which one is optimal because Boothill scales off attack, but speed is crucial to getting his action faster. Depending on whether Boothill values attack percent highly, you can use an attack percent main stat for the planar sphere. However, it is more likely that a physical damage main stat is optimal for Boothill. A break-effect link rope main stat will definitely be the most optimal for Boothill.

The relic substat priority will be one hundred forty five speed to unlock Talia: Kingdom of Banditry’s second effect, then break effect as high as possible, then attack percent as high as possible, then critical rate or critical damage.

Recommended endgame stats will likely be three thousand H.P., one thousand nine hundred attack, nine hundred defense, one hundred forty five speed, thirty percent critical rate, one hundred twenty percent critical damage, and one hundred fifty percent break effect.

If you have the four star gacha light cone, Swordplay, it is a great choice because Boothill inherently synergizes well with it due to his standoff. Swordplay’s effect is that each time the wearer hits the same target, damage dealt increases by eight percent up to sixteen percent based on superimposition levels, stacking up to five times. This effect will be dispelled when the wearer changes targets. To maximize Swordplay’s effect, Boothill must attack the same target. If you do not have Swordplay, a completely free-to-play light cone option is Cruising in the Stellar Sea, which can be obtained from Herta’s Store. Unfortunately, there is currently no Hunt light cone that increases break effect. Cruising in the Stellar Sea’s effect increases the wearer's critical rate by eight percent up to sixteen percent and increases their critical rate against enemies with H.P. less than or equal to fifty percent by an extra eight percent up to sixteen percent. When the wearer defeats an enemy, their attack is increased by twenty percent up to forty percent for two turns. You have to prioritize having the enemies below fifty percent H.P. and ensure that Boothill is the one defeating enemies to maximize this light cone’s effect. A three star light cone alternative is Darting Arrow. Its effect is that when the wearer defeats an enemy, it increases attack by twenty four percent up to forty eight percent for three turns. This is decent for Boothill because he scales off attack.

Boothill’s ability priority is basic attack, then skill, then ultimate, then talent.

Boothill’s best free-to-play team is himself, the harmony trailblazer, Tingyun, and Gallagher. The harmony trailblazer is a mini Ruan Mei; their ultimate makes it so that allies with Backup Dancer deal break damage one additional time of allies’ break damage when an enemy's weakness is broken. Additionally, their technique increases all allies’ break effect by thirty percent for two turns. The harmony trailblazer’s major traces contribute a lot to this team because Hat of the Theater additionally delays the enemy target's action by thirty percent when teammates break enemy weaknesses; Shuffle Along additionally increases the first Toughness-Reducing damage inflicted by the skill in a battle by one hundred percent; and Dance With the One’s effect, if there are five or more enemy targets, increases the break damage triggered by the Backup Dancer effect by thirty percent. For each enemy target fewer than five, the break damage triggered by the Backup Dancer effect additionally increases by ten percent. The harmony trailblazer’s eidolon four dove in tophat increases the break effect of all allies except the trailblazer. The increase is equal to fifteen percent of the Trailblazer's Break Effect plus thirty percent. The harmony trailblazer is great for Boothill because they increase Boothill’s break effect. Furthermore, Watchmaker, Master of Dream Machinations’ four piece relic effect increases all allies’ break effect by thirty percent when the harmony trailblazer uses their ultimate. Tingyun’s skill, Soothing Melody, increases Boothill’s attack, and her ultimate, Amidst the Rejoicing Clouds, regenerates fifty energy for Boothill and his damage by fifty percent for two turns. Alternatively, you can use Asta because of her ultimate, which increases speed of all allies by fifty for two turns. She is also a decent break effect D.P.S. If you decide to use a secondary D.P.S. for a dual D.P.S. comp, Xueyi or Sushang are decent. Xueyi does colorless damage with her ultimate, and is a really good break effect D.P.S. On the other hand, Sushang is decent if you build her as a break effect D.P.S., but she is a physical D.P.S., so she benefits from Boothill implanting physical weakness. Gallagher is the best sustain unit for Boothill teams because his kit revolves around break effect, so his synergy is high with Boothill. Gallagher reduces the enemy's toughness bar by a lot with his enhanced basic attack, Nectar Blitz. The only synergistic standard banner five star character with Boothill is Bronya, who allows him to take his action immediately with her skill. Bronya also increases Boothill’s damage by sixty six percent with her skill and increases all allies’ attack and critical damage with her ultimate.