The best Honkai Star Rail Sampo build, Light Cone, and Relics
He's just havin' fun!
Blow your enemies away with the best Honkai: Star Rail Sampo build. The obnoxious merchant might throw you under the bus at the drop of a hat, but he’s a force to be reckoned with in combat.
Sampo’s setup revolves around wind shear, a debilitating debuff that gradually erodes enemy health. He’s excellent at attacking multiple enemies and inflicting wind shear on them, though he needs some extra help against tough single-target foes.
If you need some extra party members for Sampo, check out our Star Rail codes list for some free Stellar Jade.
Honkai Star Rail Sampo
What is the best Honkai Star Rail Sampo build?
Sampo exists to inflict wind shear on enemies, an effect that deals wind damage over time. He can cause several separate instances of it on the same enemy, which basically means he shreds them. Wind shear damage scales based on his attack, so attack, speed, and effect hit or effect resistance are the most important stats to focus on for Sampo.
Honkai Star Rail Sampo – Best Light Cone
In The Name of the World works a treat on Sampo. The wearer deals more damage to debuffed enemies with this one, their effect rate increases, and they get an attack buff. It’s everything Sampo needs – though it’s also quite rare.
Fermata is a strong 4-star Light Cone and one you can get for free once you reach a certain point in the game. While it doesn’t increase attack in general, it does raise the amount of damage you deal to enemies afflicted with Wind Shear. The wearer also deals more break damage.
Eyes of the Prey buffs damage over time numbers – the kind of damage that wind shear causes – and raises the wearer’s effect hit rate. Sampo has a fairly high effect rate of 65 percent already, so buffing it by a further 20-40 percent means he’s almost guaranteed to cause wind shear with his basic attack and skill. Good Night and Sleep Well is another handy choice, since it raises the wearer’s damage against enemies with debuffs. Wind shear counts as a debuff, and the Light Cone effect stacks up to three times.
We recommend Void for a 3-star Light Cone. It raises the user’s effect hit rate substantially for three turns after a battle starts.
Honkai Star Rail Sampo – Best Relics
Star Rail’s launch version only has one Relic set suitable for Sampo, and that’s Eagle of Twilight Line.
- Two-piece effect: Raises wind damage by 10 percent
- Four-piece effect: User’s position is advanced by 25 percent after they use their ultimate
The wind damage buff is nice, but a Sampo who can act more frequently is one who inflicts more wind shear and wears foes down.
Focus on speed, attack, and energy regeneration for his relic stats and substats. Wind damage is also a bonus.
Honkai Star Rail Sampo – Best Ornaments
Pan-Galactic Commercial Enterprise works best for Sampo. It boosts the user’s effect hit rate and raises their attack by up to 25 percent of their effect hit rate.
Focus on energy, attack, wind damage, and speed for your stats and substats.
Is Sampo good in Honkai Star Rail?
He might have only landed in the B tier of our Star Rail tier list, but Sampo is a powerful character. His basic attack, skill, and ultimate aren’t spectacularly strong on their own, admittedly. They deal low amounts of damage compared to the likes of Himeko and Clara, but Sampo’s talent gives every attack a high chance of inflicting wind shear. His skill and ultimate damage multiple foes, and his ultimate increases the amount of damage all DoT – damage over time – effects as well.
A basic attack, plus Sampo’s skill, and ultimate, and then another skill would inflict enough damage over time to gradually wear down even strong enemies with no wind weakness.
His technique outside of battle is also handy. It inflicts blindness on foes, so they don’t detect your party and don’t attack after the fight begins.
Sampo’s ultimate makes Serval a perfect fit for the party, since her shock attacks deal damage over time as well. Since she’s a free character, you don’t even have to go out of your way to make this setup work. If you want or need a dedicated healer or defender instead, though, you’re fine to leave Serval out and rely on Sampo for DoT.
Asta, Bronya, or Tingyun are good support options to keep Sampo’s energy full or to raise his speed. Since he’s not the greatest at single-target damage, you’ll want to include a strong Hunt or Destruction character as well, someone such as Clara, Seele, or Sushang, to take on formidable foes and bosses as your main DPS.
Should I pull for Sampo?
Yes, with a few caveats. If you’re happy with Serval and don’t really want or need another DoT fighter, then you’re fine to ignore Sampo. The only thing he does differently from Serval, aside from dealing wind damage, is raising DoT damage for the entire party. It’s a helpful effect, sure, but not a vital one.
If you want a wind character or just fancy shredding enemies with two DoT fighters, then Sampo is an excellent choice.
His Eidolons aren’t essential, though, so you’d be fine with just one of him. The first one deals one extra instance of damage during his skill, while fourth one increases wind damage dealt if the enemy has five stacks of wind shear. Sampo’s sixth Eidolon boosts wind shear damage. The only one that’s really worth it is the second Eidolon, which gives Sampo a 100 percent chance of inflicting wind shear on all enemies if he defeats an enemy already afflicted with it.
If you decide on Seele for Sampo's single-target savior, take a look at our build guide to make the most of her, and don’t forget to increase your Equilibrium Level and tackle the Simulated Universe for some extra rewards and a deep dive into Star Rail's lore.