How to Superimpose Light Cones in Honkai: Star Rail
And what to do when you see "Item Locked" on a 4-star or 5-star Light Cone
How do I unlock 4-star Light Cones to Superimpose in Honkai: Star Rail? While every character in Honkai: Star Rail carries a unique cosmetic weapon that they wield impressively as part of their combat animations, Light Cones are the actual weapons in the game from a mechanical perspective. These are the items that you, the player, can equip to a character to influence their combat stats and buffs, and therefore it's Light Cones you need to think about when putting together a character build.
Light Cones can be enhanced in a couple of ways, including Superimposing them together. This is a brand-new system that even experienced HoYoverse players haven't seen before, and therefore benefits from an extra explainer. Read on for everything you need to know about Superimposing Light Cones in HSR, including how to unlock higher-rarity items for Superimposition.
How to Superimpose Light Cones in Honkai: Star Rail
Superimposing two Light Cones in Honkai: Star Rail is reasonably simple. On the character screen, select Light Cone from the list on the left-hand side. From here you'll see options in the lower right-hand corner to either "Switch" or "Enhance" the active character's Light Cone. Choose "Enhance".
The "Enhance" screen will show a tab called "Level Up" by default, but you don't want this! Choose "Superimpose" from the left-hand list instead.
In the lower right-hand corner of the screen you can now add materials, which in this case means dropping in duplicate Light Cones to Superimpose them with the currently selected one. Just be aware that clicking the "Superimpose" button underneath will immediately consume any materials in the boxes, and you can't undo it once it's done!
How to unlock 4-star Light Cones to Superimpose
To avoid the anguish of misclicks, 4-star and 5-star items are locked by default when enhancing, meaning that you can't consume them for levelling materials or Superimpose them until you've unlocked them.
In order to unlock a high-rarity Light Cone, click it in the "Superimpose" screen to see an "Item Locked" message. This will be accompanied by a pop-up showing you the stats of the item you're attempting to sacrifice. The lock icon on this pop-up can be clicked to toggle the lock on and off. With the lock in the "off" position, you can Superimpose using this Light Cone as a material.
What is Superimposing in Honkai: Star Rail?
Because HSR is a gacha game, you're probably going to end up with a lot of duplicate Light Cones, particularly those at a 3-star rarity which account for roughly 90% of your loot box drops. Like older HoYoverse games, Honkai: Star Rail allows you to sacrifice some of those ubiquitous duplicates to improve the Light Cones you want to keep, but with a twist! Instead of simply breaking them down for levelling materials (though you do still have this option as well), HSR allows you to Superimpose duplicate Light Cones together, granting unique effect multipliers.
When you Superimpose two Light Cones together they permanently merge into one item, and the sacrificed Light Cone boosts the unique effect stats of the one you keep. Unlike breaking duplicates down for levelling materials, only multiple versions of the same Light Cone can be Superimposed together, and you're limited to four Superimpositions onto each base item.
Each Light Cone has its own Superimposition benefits, but here's a representative example of the before-and-after effects of Superimposition. These are the effects of Superimposing the 3-star Pioneering Light Cone for Preservation characters, which I have pulled from the gacha approximately a dozen times this month:
- Lvl I (no Superimposition): When the wearer Breaks an enemy's Weakness, the wearer restores HP by 12% of their Max HP.
- Lvl II (one Superimposition): When the wearer Breaks an enemy's Weakness, the wearer restores HP by 14% of their Max HP.
- Lvl III (two Superimpositions): When the wearer Breaks an enemy's Weakness, the wearer restores HP by 16% of their Max HP.
- Lvl IV (three Superimpositions): When the wearer Breaks an enemy's Weakness, the wearer restores HP by 18% of their Max HP.
- Lvl V (four Superimpositions): When the wearer Breaks an enemy's Weakness, the wearer restores HP by 20% of their Max HP.
Is Superimposing Light Cones worth it?
If I may editorialise for a moment, I'm quite a fan of the Superimpose mechanic in Honkai: Star Rail. It's a particular boon for F2P players like myself, since a fully Superimposed 3-star Light Cone is relatively simple to obtain, but can easily boast better stats than a 4-star Light Cone with no Superimpositions.
The main argument against Superimposing is of course that it reduces the number of Light Cones available to share around your roster, but F2P players focussing on building a small, select team will actually be less disadvantaged by this than someone who's trying to build every single character.
However, Superimposing high-rarity Light Cones is less desirable: you're not likely to have many more of them than you have characters to equip them on, so it's a big commitment to consume one in order to beef up another. It's probably worth doing if you're lucky enough to get duplicates of the perfect 4-star Light Cone for your main, but otherwise might be better left alone for higher-rarity items.
For more Honkai: Star Rail guides, be sure to check out our page explaining the Honkai: Star Rail pity system, and our Honkai: Star Rail codes list!