Leveling is an essential part of Honkai: Star Rail. See how to level up characters and where to farm ascension materials with our guide!

How to Level Up and Ascend Characters

Spend Character EXP Materials

In the Character Details menu, pick a character and select Level Up on the bottom right of the screen.

This will prompt you to use Character EXP Materials such as Traveler's Guide, Adventure Log, or Travel Encounters to level up your character for the first 20 Levels.

All Upgrade Materials

Collect Materials and Increase Equilibrium Level

When a character reaches levels 20, 30, 40, 50, 60, and 70, they must use items called Ascension Materials to ascend them and continue leveling them up. Most of these levels require you to complete Trials of the Equilibrium to ascend your characters.

How to Increase Equilibrium Level

Ascension Level Requirements

How to Get Ascension Materials

Enemy Drops

You can get a lot of materials through using the Omni-Synthesizer and Assignments alone. Do Assignments to collect a ton of materials and use them in the Omni-Synthesizer to get higher rarity materials.

All Enemy Drops

List of Enemy Drops
Squirming Core	Dream Making Engine	Shards of Desires
Conqueror's Will	Artifex's Gyreheart	Silvermane Medal
Ancient Engine	Immortal Lumintwig	Artifex's Cogwheel
Dream Flow Valve	Fragments of Impression	Usurper's Scheme
Glimmering Core	Immortal Aeroblossom	Silvermane Insignia
Ancient Spindle	Extinguished Core	Silvermane Badge
Thief's Instinct	Tatters of Thought	Immortal Scionette
Artifex's Module	Dream Collection Component	Ancient Part

Stagnant Shadow Drops

Characters ascending from Level 40 will require item drops from Stagnant Shadow Bosses. You can unlock Stagnant Shadow after reaching Equilibrium Level 2.

Stagnant Shadow Bosses and How to Unlock

All Stagnant Shadow Drops

List of Stagnant Shadow Drops
Suppressing Edict	Chordal Mirage	Nail of the Beast Coffin
A Glass of the Besotted Era	IPC Work Permit	Raging Heart
Dream Fridge	Dream Flamer	Netherworld Token
Searing Steel Blade	Nail of the Ape	Shape Shifter's Lightning Staff
Ascendant Debris	Broken Teeth of Iron Wolf	Endotherm Chitin
Horn of Snow	Lightning Crown of the Past Shadow	Storm Eye
Void Cast Iron	Golden Crown of the Past Shadow	Gelid Chitin

Trailblazer Exclusive Materials

Trailblazer Ascension Material
Enigmatic Ectostella

The Trailblazer's Ascension Materials can be collected from Trailblaze Missions and Trailblaze Rewards through talking to Pom-Pom.

List of Ascension Materials Needed

5-Star Character Ascension

Ascension	Levels	Materials
1	20 - 30	2★ Enemy Drop x5
2	30 - 40	2★ Enemy Drop x10
3	40 - 50	Stagnant Shadow Drop x3 3★ Enemy Drop x6
4	50 - 60	Stagnant Shadow Drop x7 3★ Enemy Drop x9
5	60 - 70	Stagnant Shadow Drop x20 4★ Enemy Drop x5
6	70 - 80	Stagnant Shadow Drop x35 4★ Enemy Drop x9

All 5 Star Characters

4-Star Character Ascension

Ascension	Levels	Materials
1	20 - 30	2★ Enemy Drop x4
2	30 - 40	2★ Enemy Drop x8
3	40 - 50	Stagnant Shadow Drop x2 3★ Enemy Drop x5
4	50 - 60	Stagnant Shadow Drop x5 3★ Enemy Drop x8
5	60 - 70	Stagnant Shadow Drop x15 4★ Enemy Drop x5
6	70 - 80	Stagnant Shadow Drop x28 4★ Enemy Drop x7

All 4 Star Characters

Character Ascension Unlocks

You Can Get Free Star Rail Passes

For every character's 1st, 3rd, and 5th Ascensions, you'll receive a free Star Rail Pass that you can use to roll in Warps.

All Warp Banners

Access to More Traces

Some Traces are locked behind minimum Character Ascension Levels. Be sure to ascend them to gain access to more powerful traces to maximize the abilities of your character!

Honkai: Star Rail Related Guides

All Tips & Tricks

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