Yunli — Honkai: Star Rail

Biography

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Honkai: Star Rail

Yunli云璃

Xianzhou Zhuming sword hunter and Flamewheel Octet swordmaster

Yunli is a young sword hunter and gifted swordmaster from the Xianzhou Zhuming in Honkai: Star Rail. Trained by General Huaiyan in both forging and swordsmanship, she belongs to the Flamewheel Octet and pursues dangerous cursed swords made on her home ship. Blunt, intensely competitive, and unusually attuned to the personalities of blades, she travels with her enormous sword Old Mettle and becomes involved in the Xianzhou Luofu’s Wardance preparations.

Her talent is undeniable; her readiness to decide what other people should do with their swords is a more contentious matter.

Biography

A young master of the Zhuming

Yunli comes from the Xianzhou Zhuming, a ship celebrated for the craft of weaponsmithing. General Huaiyan teaches her the discipline of the forge as well as the use of a sword. She grows into a prodigious practitioner: the official character profile calls her the second-youngest prodigy swordmaster among the Flamewheel Octet. Her reputation rests on trained skill, not merely the family connection that puts her close to the general.

Her childhood observations join two interests that rarely leave her mind: good food and swordplay. The character stories show her examining the movements of cooks and market vendors as though she were studying combat forms. She takes her appetite seriously, but even an ordinary meal can become an opportunity to notice a wrist movement or test her judgment of someone’s coordination.

A hunter who listens to swords

Yunli has made hunting the cursed swords that originated in the Zhuming a personal mission. She is suspicious of blades that promise their wielders extraordinary power, and she believes the person carrying a weapon must take responsibility for the choice to use it. Her approach can be uncompromising: she has little patience for people who prize a sword as a status symbol while neglecting the craft and purpose behind it.

She handles an oversized blade affectionately called Old Mettle, also known as the Blade of Forged Remnants. Yunli speaks about swords as though they have temperaments that deserve attention, and her character stories present her hearing their voices. That unusual relationship is central to how she judges swords, owners, and smiths, not just a colorful way of describing an ordinary fighting style.

A difficult meeting on the Luofu

Yunli reaches the Xianzhou Luofu amid the preparations for the Wardance and immediately clashes with Yanqing, a young lieutenant of the Luofu Cloud Knights. After Yanqing loses control of a flying sword while pursuing an enemy, she takes it from him, insisting that a swordsman who cannot hold on to his weapon does not deserve to keep it. Yanqing is furious. What begins as a dispute over one blade exposes two proud, talented fighters with very different ideas about what a swordmaster owes a sword.

At Huaiyan’s suggestion, Yunli and Yanqing also take on a shared teaching responsibility for March 7th as she learns swordplay for the Wardance. The collaboration gives Yunli a setting in which to demonstrate her uncompromising standards while working with people she does not always agree with. The darker turns of this visit, including the result of her separate companion mission, are covered in the spoiler section.

Personality and Motivations

Yunli is forthright to the point of rudeness. She will question another swordsman’s worthiness, argue about a technique, or issue a challenge rather than soften what she thinks. The resulting clashes, especially with Yanqing, reveal competitive pride more than a wish to intimidate everyone around her.

She is also affectionate toward Old Mettle, enthusiastic about food, and keenly sensitive to whether a sword is respected. Those traits temper the image of a reckless fighter: she is attentive to craftsmanship and capable of prolonged reflection about whether a weapon’s proper purpose belongs to its maker, owner, or the weapon itself. Her impatient judgments, however, sometimes outrun her willingness to listen.

Her hostility toward cursed swords is more than a taste for fighting: she treats their destruction as a duty. That certainty makes her quick to confront a threat, but it can also make her slow to hear why someone else values a weapon. She has to learn when a firm judgment is warranted and when she has not yet listened enough.

Appearance

Yunli is depicted as a youthful girl with long, dark blue-black hair, bright amber-gold eyes, and an elaborate gold-toned hair ornament. Her official character artwork combines a short teal-and-white outfit with gold fittings, trailing red fabric, and a distinctive barefoot design. She is frequently shown alongside an outsized sword whose broad form sharply contrasts with her slight frame.

Quick facts

Home ship: Xianzhou Zhuming
Affiliation: Flamewheel Octet; disciple of General Huaiyan
Specialty: Sword hunting, forging, and swordsmanship
Chosen sword: Old Mettle, the Blade of Forged Remnants
Gameplay classification: 5-star Physical character on the Path of Destruction
Story introduction: Xianzhou Luofu Wardance storyline

Abilities

Swordsmanship and close-combat judgment

A recognized swordmaster, Yunli can read the balance and purpose of weapons, handle the exceptionally large Old Mettle, and challenge skilled opponents with decisive, physical attacks.

Forging and reworking blades

Trained by Huaiyan, she understands smithing and can work with recovered sword material. Her concern extends beyond the blade’s performance to what should become of it when its original use is dangerous or unworthy.

Hearing and sensing swords

In the character stories Yunli perceives voices and temperaments from swords. She can notice qualities their owners overlook and takes the weapons’ own perspectives seriously, even when other people cannot follow what she is hearing.

Reactive counterattacks

Her playable combat kit centers on counterattacking after enemies strike her. The Talent Flashforge triggers a Physical counter, while the Ultimate Earthbind, Etherbreak prepares a parry that can convert a timely counter into Intuit: Cull.

Limitations: These named effects describe in-game combat mechanics, not proof that every scripted encounter unfolds by the same rules.

Relationships

Huaiyan

grandfather, guardian, and teacher

The general of the Xianzhou Zhuming raises Yunli as his granddaughter and teaches her forging and swordsmanship. He takes her talent seriously, but challenges her habit of taking swords from wielders she considers unworthy. The circumstances of his guardianship are explained in the spoiler section.

Yanqing

fellow young swordmaster and competitive rival

Yunli disputes his judgment about swords and repeatedly challenges him. Their shared work training March 7th forces them into cooperation alongside their rivalry.

March 7th

swordplay pupil

Yunli and Yanqing help train March 7th before the Luofu Wardance, with the apprentice navigating their differing styles and competitive temperaments.

Interesting facts

In Yunli’s character stories, a sword named Jasminette is annoyed by its flowery name yet pleased that someone cherishes it.

This small contrast gives a specific example of the different temperaments Yunli hears in weapons.

Yunli describes appreciating a sword as more than admiring its looks: she also considers its temperament and what it would mean to live with it.

The ritual explains why she treats blades as long-term companions rather than disposable trophies.

Despite acquiring other people’s swords, Yunli resists replacing Old Mettle with a more conventionally finished weapon.

Her preferred sword reflects loyalty to a particular companion, not a search for the most prestigious-looking blade.

Frequently asked questions

Who is Yunli in Honkai: Star Rail?

Yunli is a sword hunter from the Xianzhou Zhuming, a prodigy of the Flamewheel Octet, and General Huaiyan’s student and beloved granddaughter. She hunts dangerous cursed swords and joins the Luofu’s Wardance storyline.

What is Yunli’s weapon called?

Her oversized sword is called Old Mettle, also known as the Blade of Forged Remnants. She treats it as a companion, not simply a tool.

What are Yunli’s element and Path?

As a playable character, Yunli is a 5-star Physical unit on the Destruction Path. Her battle mechanics emphasize counters and parrying.

Is Yunli related to General Huaiyan?

Yes. Huaiyan raises Yunli as his granddaughter and teaches her swordsmanship and forging. The circumstances of how they became family are explained in her spoiler-marked backstory.

Why does Yunli argue with Yanqing?

They are both proud sword practitioners, but Yunli questions how Yanqing handles his weapon. Their disagreements become a recurring rivalry during the Luofu Wardance preparations.

Can Yunli communicate with swords?

Her character stories and dialogue portray her hearing swords’ voices and sensing their temperaments. This is part of the game’s narrative portrayal of her, not just a comparison for expert craftsmanship.

Does Yunli teach March 7th?

Yes. Yunli and Yanqing train March 7th for swordplay during the Wardance-related storyline and the Saga of Primaveral Blade event.

Major story spoilers below.

The tragedy at the Flamewheel Forge

Yunli’s obsession with cursed swords begins with her own family. Her biological father, the gifted smith Hanguang, became consumed by the pursuit of extraordinary weapons and forged swords associated with heliobi. A catastrophe at the Flamewheel Forge turned the weapons he created against the people around him. Hanguang was fatally stabbed with one of his own swords, and Yunli’s mother pushed her child out of the path of a deadly strike. Yunli lost both parents in the disaster. General Huaiyan reached her in time, took her in, and raised her as his granddaughter and disciple.

The ordeal turns her sword training into a mission of restitution. Yunli regards Hanguang’s cursed blades as a legacy she must prevent from hurting more people. In Swords to Plowshares, she cites records of 1,382 heliobus-cursed swords, 182 with unique designs. At that point she has found 312, with Guyun poised to become the 313th. The scale matters, but so does the danger: reclaiming those blades repeatedly places her against violent wielders, and Huaiyan fears what such a life is costing the granddaughter he meant to protect.

The unfinished blade that became Old Mettle

Long before it became her constant companion, Old Mettle was an unfinished sword frame left in Hanguang’s workshop. Yunli salvaged it after the tragedy and continued working with it while training under Huaiyan. She discovered that its reluctance to accommodate heliobus possession set it apart from the cursed creations she hated. The blade remained broad and unconventional, yet she chose it for what it was rather than treating its unfinished form as a defect.

As she hunted cursed swords, Yunli separated the corrupting heliobi from their material and reforged remnants into Old Mettle, giving the weapon its other name, the Blade of Forged Remnants. The story’s central paradox is not lost on her: she rescues blades from harmful owners while needing to decide whether she has the right to determine their future. Huaiyan presses her to think beyond simply taking a prized weapon from someone she deems unworthy.

Guyun and the meaning of laying down a sword

In Swords to Plowshares, a delegation from Kalevala returns Guyun, an ancient sword meant to become a Wardance prize. Yunli recognizes it as one of Hanguang’s heliobus-cursed creations and demands that it be melted down. When the weapon subsequently vanishes, her earlier attempt to seize it makes her the chief suspect. But Argenti, a Knight of Beauty, has taken Guyun away to protect its wishes. Yunli confronts him, and the dispute leads her to learn about a Cloud Knight stranded on Kalevala who fought to protect its people with Guyun at his side.

Guyun has endured centuries of being treated as a weapon and longs for its fighting days to end. Yunli finally listens. Rather than melt the sword into Old Mettle with the other cursed remnants, she has its metal reforged into a guzheng and displayed in Aurum Alley to honor the nameless Cloud Knight. She does not renounce her hunt for dangerous swords, but this time she lets one particular blade’s wishes shape its fate. Huaiyan recognizes the change and asks her to carry that patience into future decisions.

A rivalry tested at the Skysplitter

During the Wardance crisis, the escaped borisin leader Hoolay threatens the Luofu and the Skysplitter. Yunli joins Yanqing and March 7th in resisting him. Their cooperation matters precisely because Yunli and Yanqing began as quarrelsome competitors. The young fighters help hold Hoolay and contribute to his defeat; Yanqing’s decisive finishing sword technique particularly impresses Yunli, who admits admiration for a skill she had not seen from him before.

The result is not Yunli’s solitary victory. Hoolay has been weakened by Jiaoqiu’s poisoned blood, and Yanqing’s finishing technique helps bring him down. The crisis does not end there: Hoolay’s last gambit causes Feixiao to lose control, and Yunli joins Yanqing and March 7th in trying to hold the general back while she struggles against his influence. Once order is restored, Huaiyan and Yunli prepare to return to the Zhuming. Her established story leaves her still forging, training, and pursuing cursed swords, with no final conclusion to that lifelong undertaking.

Additional story facts

In her companion mission, Yunli cites 1,382 heliobus-cursed swords made by Hanguang, including 182 designs described as unique.

The figures reveal why her vow represents a far larger undertaking than recovering one or two dangerous heirlooms.

Spoiler questions

Who are Yunli’s biological parents?

Her father is the swordsmith Hanguang; her mother is not given a personal name in the verified material consulted. Both died in the disaster at the Flamewheel Forge, after which Huaiyan raised Yunli.

Why is Yunli determined to destroy cursed swords?

Hanguang forged swords empowered by heliobi, and the consequences destroyed Yunli’s family. She wants to prevent more people from falling victim to such weapons and to address the legacy of her father’s work.

What happens to Guyun in Swords to Plowshares?

After learning about Guyun’s past and its desire to stop being used for killing, Yunli allows it to be melted and reforged as a guzheng memorial rather than simply obliterated.

Does Yunli defeat Hoolay alone?

No. Yunli, Yanqing, and March 7th fight together during the Skysplitter confrontation. Yanqing delivers a decisive strike, while Hoolay has also been weakened by events elsewhere in the story.

What happens to Yunli after the fight with Hoolay?

After helping Yanqing and March 7th overcome Hoolay, Yunli faces a second emergency when Feixiao is affected by Hoolay’s final gambit. The young swordfighters work to contain the danger until the crisis is resolved. Yunli later prepares to return to the Xianzhou Zhuming with Huaiyan; this does not end her pursuit of cursed swords.

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