Traces in Honkai: Star Rail increase the damage scaling of a character's kit as well as some of their stats. Find out how to level them up and where to get trace materials in this guide!

How to Level Up Traces

Collect Trace Materials

Character Traces require various items which can be obtained mostly by spending Trailblaze Power. The types of materials you will need are Calyx rewards, Enemy drops, Echo of War boss drops, and Tracks of Destiny.

Take note that 4-Star and 5-Star characters have a different total number of materials needed, so be sure to check their material requirements before going material farming!

Reach the Required Ascension and Equilibrium Levels

Certain Trace levels down the line are locked behind Character Ascension levels. In order to ascend characters, you will also need to be at the required Equilibrium levels.

Where to Get Trace Materials

Crimson Calyxes

Most of your trailblaze power will be spent on Crimson Calyx runs since you will be needing a lot of its rewards. Selecting higher difficulties will increase your chances of getting higher rarity materials.

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Echoes of War

Battle Echo of War bosses to get their drops. Like with the Calyxes, defeating them at higher difficulties will grant you better and more rewards. Take note that you can only get these rewards 3 times a week, so choose which ones to battle based on what you need more!

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Rewards and Shops

Tracks of Destiny can be received as Simulated Universe or Nameless Honor rewards. Some events may even offer it as a reward as well. They can also be purchased from the Embers Exchange once a month.

In addition, Calyx and Enemy materials can be bought in World Shops as well as the Embers Exchange. However, world shop stocks will be sold out once everything is bought. On the other hand, the Embers Exchange will refresh its stock periodically.

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Defeated Enemies

Overworld enemies will drop materials once defeated. You will naturally collect many of these during exploration, but it is less efficient to grind for drops in the overworld since enemies take a day to refresh.

Alternatively, you can do Simulated Universe runs which can be attempted as many times as you want. The elite and boss enemies there will still provide drops and refresh each time a new run is started.

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Assignment Rewards

Enemy drops can also be attained by dispatching characters on Assignments. Assign characters that match the recommended paths to gain more materials!

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Material Synthesis and Exchange

If you have extra materials, you can either combine them to craft a higher rarity item or exchange them for other kinds of materials using the Omni-Synthesizer!

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All Upgrades from Traces

Base Kit

Level up your character's Basic ATK, Skill, Talent, and Ultimate to increase their scalings. Basic ATKs can be upgraded until Lv. 6 while Skills, Talents, and Ultimates can be upgraded until Lv. 10.

Bonus Abilities

Bonus abilities need to be activated first with Trace materials before they take effect on your character's kit. They function like extra Talents, but cannot be leveled up. Upon activation, it also unlocks access to some Stat Bonuses.

Stat Bonuses

These Traces provide direct stat boosts to your character, and can increase the overall strength of their kit. Similar to Bonus Abilities, they can only be unlocked and not leveled up.

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