Gilgamesh arrived in Honkai: Star Rail with one of the more interesting design quirks in recent memory: his joint follow-up ATK only activates when Saber is on the same team. That single condition splits his team-building into two completely different directions, and the gap between them matters more than most players initially realize.
Why Saber is the non-negotiable core
Here's the thing: Gilgamesh is built around his joint follow-up ATK, and that mechanic simply does not fire without Saber present. Pull him without her, and you're leaving a significant chunk of his damage output on the table. The two characters were clearly designed as a pair, which makes his optimal team one of the more premium setups currently in the game.
The best Gilgamesh team right now is Gilgamesh + Saber + Mortenax Blade + Huohuo. Each slot earns its place for a specific reason, and swapping any of them comes with real trade-offs.
The Saber team: how each slot earns its place
Mortenax Blade fills the third slot as a sub-DPS who brings genuine supportive value on top of his damage. His taunt is reliable enough that he can even enable a sustainless setup in certain content, though running Huohuo in the fourth slot is the safer and stronger call for most players.
Huohuo's value in this team goes beyond just healing. The key here is her Ultimate: it restores energy for the entire team simultaneously, which matters a lot for a team that wants to cycle ultimates quickly. Gilgamesh's playstyle is energy-centric, so Huohuo's team-wide energy restoration has an outsized impact here compared to other sustain options.
For the Mortenax Blade slot, the replacement pool is wide: Tribbie, Sparkle, Cyrene, Cipher, Sunday, Robin, Silver Wolf, Ruan Mei, and Tingyun all fit if you're missing him. Check out the Silver Wolf build guide if you want to maximize her contribution in that support role.
Running Gilgamesh without Saber
Skipped Saber's banner? The non-Saber route turns Gilgamesh into a hypercarry and compensates by stacking buffers. The recommended setup is Gilgamesh + Mortenax Blade + Tribbie + Huohuo.
Tribbie replaces Saber's slot and brings strong buffing capability alongside her own damage contribution. Both Mortenax Blade and Tribbie function as buffer-damage hybrids rather than pure supports, which means Gilgamesh still has teammates dealing meaningful numbers while his own output gets amplified.
What most players miss here is that this team, while weaker than the Saber version, is still a coherent and functional lineup. It's not a consolation prize so much as a different playstyle: single carry with layered buffs rather than a dual follow-up machine.
Quick team comparison
The premium team requires pulling multiple limited characters, which makes it genuinely expensive to assemble. The hypercarry alternative is more accessible and still performs well in endgame content.
For players building out the rest of their HSR roster alongside Gilgamesh, the Honkai: Star Rail strategy guides collection has detailed breakdowns on characters like The Dahlia and Himeko Nova that pair well with various team archetypes across different content types.
