How to level up Traces in Honkai: Star Rail

Traces are an important way to add power to your characters in Honkai: Star Rail. While levelling up your team and weapons will give you an overall strength boost, Traces enhance each of your individual abilities. The requirements to increase their level can be complex and are different for each one. We're here to help you power up your Traces and get the most out of your characters.

Traces are upgrades specific to each character's abilities; you might think of them as nodes on a skill tree. Some will raise your attacks, while others give additional boosts to stats like defence.

In a similar way to Eidolons, Traces have to be unlocked in a particular order, although some have multiple levels. It's a good idea to regularly upgrade them, as they can significantly improve a character even if you don't have the materials to level them up or ascend them.

Each character has a Traces menu, where you can see the full list of skill trees that they have. You'll need a variety of materials to upgrade these, many of which are exclusive to a character's Path. Credits are also required, and some upgrades are locked until your character hits a certain level or ascension rank.

Trace materials come from a lot of different sources. You'll get some by completing quests or through normal gameplay, while others will require specific activities. Depending on a character's Path, you may need to battle Echo of War bosses, run Calyx stages or enter Simulated Universe mode, so playing these regularly helps stockpile what you need.

You can also trade universal materials like Tears of Dreams for missing Trace items, if hunting them down is too arduous or they're rare. To check the requirements for each Trace upgrade, tap a Trace node, then tap any listed material on the right to see where they can be obtained.

Honkai: Star Rail has a crafting system that can help you earn Trace upgrade materials in a pinch. The Omni-Synthesizer allows you to exchange some materials for others of the same rarity or combine several lower-tier materials into a higher-tier.

Exchanging rarer materials requires you to raise your Equilibrium Level first, but this tool can help you swap surplus materials into the ones that you need for Trace upgrades, saving you the time that you would otherwise spend farming. It can be a key way to power up your characters when you're low on a specific material type.

The Traces menu is useful for planning a character's development, as it shows later upgrades and the path to earning them. You must unlock earlier Traces to access later ones, so planning ahead helps to level up efficiently. Since characters on the same Path share some Trace upgrade materials, knowing your plan can prevent accidentally spending them on other characters.