Best Honkai Star Rail Sampo Build, Light Cone, and Relics
He's just havin' fun! Here's how to build Sampo in Honkai Star Rail.
UPDATE 09/12/2024: We updated this Sampo build with some more up-to-date details of how to make the most of the character.
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.
Best Honkai Star Rail Sampo Build
Sampo is a free, 4-Star character from the Path of Nihility that harnesses the Wind element in battle.
He exists to inflict wind shear on enemies in Honkai Star Rail, 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
5-Star Sampo Light ConesIn The Name of the World is a 5-Star Light Cone that 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.
4-Star Sampo Light ConesOne 4-Star Light Cone you can consider for Sampo is Good Night and Sleep Well. This will increase Sampo's DMG output, including his DoT DMG, for every debuff that his opponent has. Stacking up to three times, this can be a huge boost to Sampo's output.
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
Eagle of Twilight Line is an easy to attain set that works very well with Sampo.
- 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.
Another set of Relics you can consider are Prisoner in Deep Confinement.
- Two-piece effect: Increases ATK by 12%.
- Four-piece effect: For every DoT the enemy has, Sampo will ignore 6% of the Target's DEF when attacking.
As for the stats of the Relics you kit Sampo out with, focus on speed, attack, and energy regeneration. Wind damage is also a bonus!
Honkai Star Rail Sampo – Best Ornaments
Pan-Cosmic Commercial Enterprise is a brilliant set of Ornaments for Sampo. It boosts the user’s effect hit rate and raises their attack by up to 25% of their effect hit rate.
An alternative is the Firmament Frontline: Glamoth set, which not only increases the user's ATK by 12%, but will also buff Sampo's DMG if his speed is higher than 135/160.
Focus on energy regeneration, attack, wind damage, and speed for your stats and substats.
Honkai Star Rail Sampo – Traces Priority
The main source of Sampo's damage is his Talent, Windtorn Dagger, which allows him to stack wind shear on foes. As a result, this is the Trace that you should prioritise above all. After that, you want to focus on what else will enhance Sampo's damage, such as his Ultimate (which enhances DoT damage) or Skill (which enhances Weakness Break).
Sampo's Basic Attack is our lowest priority as simply put, the rest of his kit is much more useful to us.
Sampo's Traces and the order in which you should prioritise them, from highest to lowest priority, are as follows:
- Talent
- Ultimate
- Skill
- Basic Attack
Honkai Star Rail Sampo – Ascension Materials
To get Sampo from Level 1 all the way to Level 80 in Honkai Star Rail, you will need the following Ascension Materials for him:
- 12x Ancient Part
- 13x Ancient Spindle
- 12x Ancient Engine
- 50x Storm Eye
- 246400x Credits
Best Honkai Star Rail Sampo Teams
Sampo is key to any team wishing to dish out substantial amounts of DoT, which makes him great when paired with Kafka. Kafka is capable of retriggering any stacked DoT's for a portion of their DMG using their skill, allowing us to get even more out of Sampo's kit.
Sampo and Kafka will also work well alongside Black Swan, with Black Swan able to deal additional DMG if an enemy is already afflicted with Wind Shear or other DoT effects. On the other hand, Ruan Mei could be deployed as a character who can buff the Weakness Break effects of Sampo's kit.
As for your supporting team member, you could opt for Huohuo, who also dishes out Wind damage. There's also Aventurine and Fu Xuan that would be apt additions to the team!
As for some more free-to-play friendly options, 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 either.
Asta or Tingyun are good support options that won't break the bank, with them able to keep Sampo’s energy full or raise his speed. Since he’s not the greatest at single-target damage, you’ll want to make sure you include one of your strongest attacking characters too.
Is Sampo good in Honkai Star Rail?
Sampo is not the best, but he is a powerful 4-Star 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.
Should I pull for Sampo?
Yes, with a few caveats. If you don’t really want or need another DoT fighter, then you’re fine to ignore Sampo. The only thing he does differently from other 4-Star DoT-dealing character, 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.