Introduction

So, you spent all day trying to get Bronya and Seele because all the tier lists said they were top tier, but you ended up with this white-haired, red-clothed, gap-moe child who isn't named Klee. Is she nothing more than a consolation prize?

Heck no!

"How could you even think that...?"

Clara and Svarog are an excellent duo that dishes out huge amounts of damage while keeping the rest of your team safe from enemy attacks. They excel against single-target attackers, enemies with a physical weakness, and especially single-target attackers with a physical weakness.

Yeah, I'm talking about you. Who's tOp-TiEr now, huh? (Still Bronya, but let me have this)

What the Clara do?

Before we get into how to make Clara work, we need to understand how Clara works.

Honkai: Star Rail is great because, although the character kits are easy to understand, there's quite a bit of depth that goes into them. This is especially true of Clara, who is (currently) the most unique damage-dealer in the game.

Unlike other damage dealers, who primarily focus on directly attacking enemies to deal damage, Clara performs best when they're attacking her. And this is because of her talent, Because We're Family:

AKA "You hit me, I hit you back."

This means that as long as Clara is getting hit by enemies, she is dealing damage (so the "oh no I just used all my skill points on my support and now my DPS has to basic attack" experience is less painful on her).

Enemy counterattacks also trigger this counterattack, so you can be in a situation where Clara attacks an enemy, the enemy counterattacks, then Clara counterattacks.

Since many enemies only have one instance of counterattacking, other DPS units in your composition will appreciate Clara "cleansing" that counterattacking buff on the enemy for them.

"But how does she survive being hit?" you ask. "And how do you even guarantee enemies hit her in the first place?"

This girl, that's how

But before we get into that, let's look at two other parts of Clara's kit first:

Because We're Family possesses the benefit of giving Clara 10% damage reduction. But her Ultimate, Promise, Not Command, adds a further 15% (at level 1) to 25% (at level 10) damage reduction to that.

So a level freshly-pulled Clara under the effects of her Ultimate already has 25% damage reduction, and a Clara with a maxed out Ultimate (disregarding Eidolon levels) has a whopping 35% damage reduction.

So that answers the survival part.

Her Technique has her ordering Svarog to fire a laser at enemies in the field. Should it hit, Clara gains an increased chance to be attacked by enemies for 2 turns, and since Simulated Universe and Forgotten Hall (i.e. the end game content) both allow the use of Techniques, this is a good way to guarantee increased aggro from the very start. Her Ultimate also gives her "greatly increased chances of being attacked by enemies for 2 turn(s)".

So that answers the taunting part.

But as if that wasn't enough, her Ultimate also does this:

AKA "You hit my friends, I hit your friends."

Following Clara casting her Ultimate, if she (or any of her allies) gets hit, she counters with an attack that does more than double damage of her standard counter with an added AoE effect. Because pay attention: the skill description states that "its DMG multiplier against the enemy increases by 108%".

Not becomes 108% - increases by 108%.

So, adding the 96% from her ordinary counter to the 108% increase from her Ultimate, we're looking at 204% damage to the attacking enemy and 102% damage to the enemies beside it (and these are only the numbers at level 3 in both skills). And that's without Clara having to spend a Skill Point or even take a turn.

"Okay, that's nice, but doesn't she seem really Ultimate reliant?" you say.

Maybe! But you have to remember that getting hit by enemies generates Energy, and what does Clara's kit revolve around again? Exactly.

Another way to generate loads of Energy is by casting Skills, and this is where we need to talk about Marks of Counter.

AKA "If you've hit me before, my missiles do double damage."

Whenever an enemy attacks Clara, they will be afflicted with a Mark of Counter. This is relevant for the purposes of her Skill, which straight up doubles in damage if enemies have said Mark on them.

So, not only does Clara's Skill generate loads of Energy for her vital Ultimate, not only is it true AoE (instead of AoE that only hits 3 targets), it also has the potential to do massive damage by itself. Clara's Skill does consume the Mark when you use the Skill, so if you've forgotten which enemies are still Marked, you can always open up the Details screen to check whether they have the effect on them:

Very useful big red circle

Or, if it's Clara's turn, you can select her Skill - WITHOUT CASTING IT - and check for the Mark above the health bars of the enemies:

Very useful red circles and red arrows

Also, since all her counterattacks are follow-up attacks, Clara is extremely broken with Elation Blessings in Simulated Universe, which revolve around follow-up attacks. "Increases the DMG of follow-up attacks by 55%" may as well read "Increases Clara's damage by 55%".

One piece of advice: learn when to cast Clara's Skill versus her basic attack - especially if you're up against a single enemy. Her Skill only does 20% more damage than a similarly-levelled basic attack when used against an enemy not afflicted by a Mark of Counter. During situations where the extra bit of damage isn't worth spending the Skill Point, consider just basic attacking instead.

Of course, if you're (un)lucky like me and have an E1 Clara because the beginner banner decided to give you a dupe, you can freely use her Skill without checking, because Clara's E1 makes her Skill not remove Marks of Counter from enemies.

Definitely not salty. Nope. Nuh-uh.

Advanced Tips:

• While most DPS units' Skills do a lot more Toughness damage than their basic attacks (e.g. Dan Heng's Skill does double the Toughness damage of his basic attacks), Clara's basic attacks and Skill do the same amount of Toughness damage.
• In some cases (especially with E0 Clara), it's better to basic attack with Clara and save her Skill Points for her allies. Though it does good damage, Clara's Skill should be used primarily to build her Ultimate and do AoE against things that need to die right now (e.g. those exploding robots). Otherwise, consider just letting Clara's counterattacks do the "AoE" and leave those Skill Points for the other characters, especially if you have another DPS unit in your composition.

Weaknesses (and how to overcome them)

Clara has 3 notable weaknesses:

• Damage over time & being Frozen/Imprisoned
• AoE attacks
• Lock On Attacks

Damage-over-time & Being Frozen/Imprisoned

DoTs are bad for Clara because not only do they chip away at her shield/health, they're damage she can't counterattack. Being Frozen or Imprisoned is worse, because she can't counterattack even after being hit.

Other DPS units deal with this by having Preservation units like Gepard or Preservation Trailblazer draw attacks away from them, but since Clara has to take damage to do damage - which means a far greater chance of eating CC - this becomes a problem for her.

You never wanna see this.

Fortunately, Clara's first 2 Bonus Abilities deal with this quite well. Kinship lets her have a 35% fixed chance to remove a debuff placed on her when attacked, whereas Under Protection gives her a 35% increased chance to resist Crowd Control Debuffs. March 7th also gets a Bonus Ability that handles this nicely, but that'll be discussed in the next section.

With these Bonus Abilities combined, debuffs become less of an issue - though they still remain a fairly major issue in Forgotten Hall's Memory of Chaos stages.

Advanced Tips:

• When you've reached the point where you're tackling Memory of Chaos in the Forgotten Hall, and the bosses on both sides are evenly-spread with the distribution of Physical weaknesses, I recommend not bringing the Clara composition to the stages with Elites that can inflict Frozen or Imprisonment - especially against the one that charges up an AoE ice attack with a chance to inflict Freeze on your whole team (pictured below).
• While other DPS compositions can mitigate this risk by having Preservation Trailblazer and Gepard draw those attacks away, those units are anti-synergistic with Clara (more info in the Team Compositions section) - especially if you're aiming for fast clears.

Avoid this guy with your Clara composition in Memory of Chaos at all costs

AoE Attacks

AoE attacks, well, now that's a problem. You may be wondering, "Wait, what's wrong with AoE attacks? Don't they guarantee a counterattack from Clara?"

That would be correct. However, the problem with AoE attacks isn't that they're bad for Clara specifically - they're bad for her teammates. Against enemies whose primary mode of attack is AoE, Clara may soon find herself left alone on the field with 3 defeated allies.

The solution here would be AoE healing and AoE shielding. I'll discuss this in more detail in the Team Compositions section, but suffice to say that the current AoE shielding characters have a certain issue (i.e. drawing aggro away from Clara) preventing them from being ideal for Clara compositions (unless you have E6 Clara, I guess).

"Gepard and Preservation Trailblazer are good for Clara compositions now."

Lock On Attacks

Some enemies (notably the Elites) have lock on attacks that focus high-damaging attacks onto a single target. Should you get unlucky with your taunting, the enemy will lock onto a target who isn't Clara, which will force you to have to shield and/or heal that target.

This can end up in a vicious cycle where you're desperately trying to keep someone alive by shielding them, drawing aggro away from Clara (via March 7th's shield's taunt effect), and then having the enemy locking onto someone who isn't Clara again.

The big red circle and big red arrow show what you WANT to see.

You can lessen the chances of encountering this situation in a few ways:

• Using Clara's Technique before the battle, granting her a higher chance of drawing enemy attacks (and lock ons).
• Taking note of whether the enemy you're up against has a lock on and saving your Ultimate to use at the very start of battle to draw aggro.
• In the middle of the fight, ensuring Clara is either under the effects of her Ultimate or shielded by March 7th when you think the enemy is about to cast its lock on again.
• When you manage to get these enemies to lock onto Clara, they're often locked (haha geddit) into a cycle of constantly locking onto and attacking Clara, making the fight extremely easy.

March 7th

"Ehe"

Put March 7th in.

This is non-negotiable.

One of the most amazing things about Clara is how her best teammate is an F2P unit. By herself, Clara struggles a little in taunting and quite a bit in survivability. 35% damage reduction is a lot, but the remaining 65% has to go somewhere.

How about into this?:

AKA "Everything wants to hit you, and they do no damage."

More taunt so the damage actually goes into Clara? A shield so she can keep absorbing damage?

Heck yeah!

And what's more is that March 7th has a Bonus Ability called Purify that removes 1 debuff from the target, which is among one of Clara's largest weaknesses. Not to mention it's the first Bonus Ability to be unlocked.

As a bonus, March 7th's Talent has her triggering attacks against enemies that hit a shielded teammate, which is really nice against enemies weak to Ice.

One usage tip to keep in mind is to not to spam March 7th's Skill when Clara's shield is still largely intact. Also, keep in mind that the Shield scales with DEF (as do her counter attacks once you get her to E4).

Finally, remember how I mentioned Clara being really busted with Elation Blessings in Simulated Universe because the bulk of her damage comes from follow-up attacks?

March 7th does follow-up attacks too.

Put March 7th in, people.

"Clara and March 7th do 55% more damage."

Advanced Tips:

• When March 7th's shield on Clara is about to run out, it starts flashing. Use this to quickly determine whether you need to reapply her Skill.
• Consider avoiding Effect Hit Rate when building March 7th if you're intending on using her for a Clara composition. While Freezing enemies with her Ultimate would be great in a vacuum, Forgotten Hall focuses on fast clears. Frozen enemies can't attack Clara, which means Clara can't do damage, which means slower clears.
• You could also avoid using her Ultimate altogether, which I would recommend against enemies without an Ice Weakness in Forgotten Hall.
• You could probably replace March 7th in your Clara composition, but I strongly discourage doing that. March 7th's Skill is a very easy way to ensure increased aggro on Clara, who would otherwise have to rely on her Technique or Ultimate for that. Maybe if you have a Tingyun built to spam her Ultimate, that could work, but then your healer has to work overtime to heal Clara and anyone else chipped by AoE.

Team Compositions

Note: Character portraits for this section taken from prydwen.gg.

TL;DR Team Composition (Whale Version) / Tingyun replaces Bronya when you get good Relics

TL;DR Team Composition (4 Star Units Version)

Once you have Clara and March 7th in, you now have to choose 2 of 3 between AoE healers/shielders, DPS, and offensive supports. There are different scenarios in which they can be useful:

• AoE Healers/Shielders: When you're up against AoE damage or such intense single-target damage that March 7th can't keep Clara alive by herself. Downright necessary to have at least 1 of them per team in Forgotten Hall's Memory of Chaos.
• DPS: When you desperately need an additional weakness breaker or if you need the extra damage to win the fight under a set number of turns. Keep in mind that, since most DPS units want to constantly use their Skills whenever they're up, you're gonna have to make Skill Point sacrifices somewhere.
• Offensive Supports: Generally a good idea to slot them in. You can also have 2 of them in your team if you're so inclined (not recommended in Memory of Chaos, since you almost definitely need a Healer and March 7th in the other 2 slots).

AoE Healers & Shielders

Bailu

The ideal pick to deal with AoE. Unless you get really unlucky with her gourd bounces, she can hard-target a priority unit and splash some healing around.

Invigoration, an effect that regenerates a character's HP when they're hit, can allow for some leeway in March 7th's shield uptime on Clara, granting you margin for error on health damage for Clara while also allowing March 7th to be more economical with Skill Points.

There's also the auto-revive if things go really wrong, which is neat.

Natasha

Her Skill gives an ally a strong single-target heal and a healing-over-time effect for 2 turns. Also cleanses a debuff when she unlocks her first Bonus Ability; this combined with Clara's and March 7th's Bonus Abilities should make CC less of an issue.

Great if you don't have Bailu or need to cleanse debuffs on allies who aren't Clara.

Gepard

While Gepard has a powerful Ultimate that provides a party-wide shield, his effectiveness is hampered by 2 things:

• He has a Bonus Ability that increases his chance to taunt enemies, which translates to fewer attacks on Clara, which means less damage from Clara. While you could theoretically just not unlock this, I'm not sure if it's wise to gimp Gepard's defensive effectiveness in all other situations solely to force him into a Clara composition. And we're playing a gacha game, after all - the goal is to unlock ALL the things, no?
• His Skill revolves around freezing enemies, which is antithetical to Clara's theme of counterattacking. While you could theoretically just only basic attack with him, keep in mind that you generate more Energy using Skills, so you're also looking at fewer Ultimates overall.

Preservation Trailblazer

Generally considered one of the better units in the game, Preservation Trailblazer suffers in Clara compositions because their Skill aggros enemies onto them for 1 turn, which is a big nope when it comes to having Clara as your primary damage dealer. Their Talent also revolves around being attacked a lot, which is absolutely anti-synergistic with Clara's kit.

The alternative route is to simply have them passively regenerate Shield every time they act and use only their basic attack and Ultimate. This isn't necessarily bad - it just incurs the opportunity cost of taking up a slot that could be going to Bailu/Natasha or an offensive support instead.

DPS

Literally put anyone who makes sense here. Just look at the weaknesses and whether the encounter you're up against is single-target or AoE and just go. Or just use Seele because she's a single-target beast with a reset, which is kinda like AoE.

A DPS unit alongside Clara is a nice backup to have when stuff goes wrong (e.g. the enemy refuses to lock onto Clara) or if you need the extra type coverage to ensure consistent breaks.

Just keep in mind that healers/shielders and offensive supports tend to have good Skill Point economy, since the effects of their skills either last several turns and/or don't have to be activated every turn, whereas DPS units' usefulness drastically falls off when they're not spamming their Skills every turn.

This often means Clara is relegated to basic attack spamming in compositions with another DPS unit.

Have an image of Seele. Why not?

Offensive Supports

Bronya

Bronya adds a bunch of damage to Clara and a bit of extra damage to everyone else. She also has the option of spamming her basic attack to generate loads of Skill Points.

While Bronya's Skill may not seem as impactful to use on Clara as opposed to on other DPS units, the flexibility of being able to bring March 7th or another unit forward for a clutch Skill activation in bad situations is invaluable.

However, as far as Forgotten Hall is concerned, when you're at the point where you need two teams, Bronya would likely be better suited for the non-Clara composition using a more conventional DPS unit. Bronya is only a top Clara support because she's overpowered - not because her kit has perfect synergy with Clara's (that honour goes to Seele).

Tingyun

Tingyun adds a bunch of additional damage to Clara, and her Ultimate helps Clara have her Enhanced Counter up for many more procs and more reliable aggro-drawing.

Arguably as good as Bronya for Clara compositions - and arguably better when you have Relics farmed up, since Tingyun needs some good % ATK/Speed/Energy Regeneration Rate investment to get going.

Pela

Pela does DEF down and buff-cleansing things. The main difference between her and Bronya/Tingyun is that Pela's DEF debuff relies on her Technique or Ultimate, whereas Bronya/Tingyun can apply their damage multiplier with just their Skill. Still, when you're up against enemies with vital buffs (that can be cleansed), Pela is a strong contender against Bronya/Tingyun.

Of course, you could just pair Pela up with one of them in the event that you have no need for a healer and are missing one of Bronya or Tingyun.

Asta

Asta has a hard time building up and maintaining a % ATK buff for allies that Bronya/Tingyun can apply right out the gate. While she is great at breaking enemies with a Fire weakness, her % ATK buff relies on spamming her Skill (i.e. she is really Skill-Point-hungry) and falls off against single-target opponents - especially those not weak to Fire.

These problems are largely fixed by her Eidolons, but then you'd be better off pairing her with a DPS unit who isn't Clara due to the following:

Her Speed-boosting Ultimate is not really relevant, since Clara doesn't care too much about Speed (compared to other DPS units). Maybe she can be useful if you desperately need to break Fire weaknesses? Otherwise, there's no real reason to pick her over Bronya/Tingyun/Pela.

Welt

Welt, while really strong, has a major issue in Clara compositions: anti-synergy. He decreases enemies' Speed and delays their actions, which Clara really doesn't want. Unless you need Imaginary damage for some reason, you should just use Bronya/Tingyun/Pela.

Advanced Tips:

• In Team Setup, position Clara at either the first or fourth spot to increase her allies' survivability. Some enemies have AoE attacks that target one unit but also affect adjacent targets. Having Clara at the first or fourth spot ensures that those attacks hit only one extra teammate instead of two.
• Following this train of thought, make sure to have the unit directly adjacent to Clara be able to take some splash damage. This can be March 7th or Natasha/Bailu, since they already build loads of DEF or HP respectively.
• However, if you simply wish to maximise your chances of doing damage against these target-one-damage-three enemies, you should put Clara in either the second or third position so she has a greater chance of being hit. I recommend only doing this for content for which you have a 0% chance of dying, such as going through the maps and clearing trash mobs to farm their drops.

How to Build Clara

TL;DR Build

Note: For Relic Main Stats with 2 recommendations, the one listed first is generally preferred:

• Body: As you need to hit 50% CRIT Rate on Clara to trigger Inert Salsotto's second bonus effect (+15% follow-up attack DMG), you almost always want CRIT Rate on this. That is, unless you get God rolls with CRIT Rate Substats on your other pieces to hit 50% CRIT even without factoring in the Body slot. In such a situation, CRIT DMG on the Body slot is better.
• Feet & Link Rope: As Clara wants as much uptime on her Ultimate as possible, Speed and Energy Regeneration Rate are okay substitutes for % ATK. Speed also has the added benefit of letting you take turns faster, which means having CC effects like being Frozen wear off faster. However, if you already have a Tingyun giving you Energy for Ultimates and/or a Natasha cleansing your debuffs on top of March 7th also doing so, you should probably prioritise % ATK for both slots.
• This same concept also applies to Substats: If you already have loads of cleanse in your composition, Speed and Effect RES drop in priority.

Traces

Bonus Abilities are circled in red; normal abilities have a rectangle under them

Skill Levelling Priority:

• Ultimate & Talent >>> Skill & Basic Attack always, as the former two are where the bulk of your damage is coming from.
• Ultimate > Talent IF you can maintain good uptime on Clara's Ultimate, normally through a Tingyun with high Speed and/or Energy Regeneration Rate. Talent > Ultimate otherwise.
• Skill > Basic Attack IF you're running Clara as your sole DPS OR IF your Supports generate enough Skill Points for Clara and another DPS unit to spam their Skills. Basic Attack > Skill otherwise, since other DPS units get more value out of Skill-spamming than Clara.

Bonus Abilities Priority:

1. Revenge (Ascension 6; +30% Counter DMG): The goal of endgame is fast clears in Memory of Chaos, and this gives you damage.
2. Under Protection (Ascension 4; +35% chance to resist CC): This takes precedence over Kinship because preventing CC is better than having to cleanse it.
3. Kinship (Ascension 2; when attacked, +35% chance to remove a debuff): See above.

5* Lightcones

Before I explain my choices above, we first need to look at Clara's Traces and understand the concept of diminishing returns.

A total of 28% Percent ATK from her Traces

Clara gains a whole bunch of % ATK from her Traces and Relics, which causes additional % ATK she gets from her Lightcone to provide her a lower percentage gain in overall damage (i.e. diminishing returns).

The damage formula is somewhat complicated, but consider this (somewhat oversimplified) hypothetical: If your Clara already has +50% ATK and you have the choice between taking another +50% ATK and +50% DMG, which do you pick?

• Picking another +50% ATK causes you to get +100% ATK, making your damage 1 x (1+0.5+0.5) = 2
• Picking the +50% DMG causes you to multiply your current damage by 1.5, making your damage 1 x (1+0.5) x 1.5 = 2.25

In fact, % DMG in this situation is better even at +45% DMG vs. +50% ATK, at +40% DMG vs. +50% ATK, and even +35% DMG vs. +50% ATK. It only starts losing out to +50% ATK when it drops below +33.3...% DMG in this specific example.

(This is also the reason why everyone recommends you to prioritise CRIT in your builds: it's yet another separate multiplier.)

When comparing Clara's specialised 5* Lightcone (Something Irreplaceable) with the Simulated Universe 5* Destruction Lightcone (On the Fall of an Aeon), we need to keep this in mind.

Something Irreplaceable

Something Irreplaceable has these things going for it:

• Better stats than On the Fall of an Aeon
• Unconditional +24% ATK increase
• Healing when hit (which is somewhat wasted with March 7th right now, but once we get a character that can give an ally Taunt, among other buffs, this would become a lot more relevant)
• Very easily satisfied conditional +24% DMG increase for 1 turn when hit

On the Fall of an Aeon

In contrast, this is what On the Fall of an Aeon is rocking:

• Very easily achievable S5 (Can be acquired before June 2023 if you're so inclined)
• Very easily satisfied conditional +32% ATK increase (S5: +64% ATK increase)
• Inconsistently satisfied conditional +12% DMG increase for 2 turns when breaking an enemy (S5: +24% DMG increase)

Some may consider On the Fall of an Aeon to be a better pick for Clara. After all, it is really easy to get it to S5, and a +64% ATK increase HAS to be better than the measly +24% ATK increase on Something Irreplaceable, right?

Well, considering you're likely already getting loads of % ATK from your Traces and Relics, it's possible that the +64% ATK increase may amount to a much lower overall percentage increase in damage due to diminishing returns.

A Superimposed On the Fall of an Aeon might be better than Something Irreplaceable during the period where you're able to Superimpose it but still haven't farmed up enough % ATK Relics to feel the full brunt of the diminishing returns (i.e. around Trailblazer level 40).

However, once you're past that point, the essentially free +24% DMG increase from Something Irreplaceable becomes much more valuable, especially when compared to the inconsistently satisfied condition to receive the same % DMG increase from an S5 On the Fall of an Aeon.

Not to mention the recovery-on-being-hit effect is likely going to become extremely relevant for potential new support characters that would powercreep March 7th in Clara compositions.

4* Lightcones

Here's a quick overview of the 4* Lightcones:

• A Secret Vow: The only 4* Destruction Lightcone with an unconditional +20% DMG increase; secondary effect of +20% DMG increase when your HP% is lower than the enemy's is not often relevant with March 7th.
• Nowhere to Run: BP Lightcone. Unconditional +24% ATK increase. Healing equal to 12% of ATK on kill.
• The Moles Welcome You: Every time you use a basic attack, Skill, or Ultimate, you gain +12% ATK. According to many people on the Star Rail Discord, this stacks up to 3 times, so we're looking at a conditional +36% ATK that's easily satisfied, especially in boss fights.
• Under the Blue Sky: Unconditional +16% ATK increase. On kill, gives you 12% CRIT Rate for 3 turns.
• Woof! Walk Time!: Unconditional +10% ATK increase. But! Conditional +16% DMG increase against enemies afflicted with Burn or Bleed. In situations where you're running those status effects (e.g. Burn with Himeko/Asta/Hook), this can be okay.

A Secret Vow

Due to the diminishing returns of oversaturated % ATK in your Traces and Relics, I'm recommending A Secret Vow as the top 4* pick. +20% DMG is great enough by itself, but a +40% DMG increase at S5 is amazing.

The Moles Welcome You is second due to it having the largest % ATK increase, though Woof! Walk Time! is also great if you're running a Burn build. Otherwise, it's rather weak.

The remaining Lightcones are about the same in power level, and their on-kill effects don't seem that relevant for the hardest content currently in the game, which is primarily boss fights.

Relics (Main Stats)

The Relic sets themselves should be self-explanatory - both of them seem custom-made for Clara. As far as 1.0 is concerned, you can't really beat +10% Physical DMG & +25% ATK on the 4-piece and 8% CRIT Rate & +15% follow-up attack DMG on the 2-piece.

This section will focus on my choices for the main stats and substats.

% HP, % ATK, % DEF, CRIT Rate, CRIT DMG, Outgoing Healing Boost, or Effect Hit Rate

Body: CRIT Rate or CRIT DMG

CRIT is multiplicative with the overall damage Clara is putting out, so it takes precedence over % ATK. A damage dealer taking a damage stat - fairly straightforward.

To repeat what I said in the TL;DR section: As you need to hit 50% CRIT Rate on Clara to trigger Inert Salsotto's second bonus effect of +15% follow-up attack DMG, you almost always want CRIT Rate on this.

That is, unless you get God rolls with CRIT Rate Substats on your other pieces to hit 50% CRIT even without factoring in the Body slot. In such a situation, CRIT DMG on the Body slot is better.

% HP, % ATK, % DEF, Break Effect, or SPD

Feet: % ATK or SPD

% ATK should be self explanatory, since Clara is a DPS unit, and that's the only direct DPS stat among the possible main stats for the Feet slot.

As for Speed, it's a potential contender for when you already have tons of % ATK from your Lightcone and Relics and are looking for more actions on Clara to build up her Ultimate faster.

Clara is quite a slow character, so the percentage gains she gets from flat Speed are going to be more significant than on other characters (e.g. +10 flat Speed to a Clara with 90 Speed is an 11.1% increase, whereas +10 flat Speed to a Seele with 115 Speed is an 8.7% increase).

Speed probably drops in priority when you can easily get back your Ultimate quickly, such as if you have Tingyun in your composition.

Something else to consider is how CC effects only wear off once the turn order reaches your character's turn. In other words, having a higher Speed also serves to more quickly get Clara out of the awful Frozen state. (This is less important if you have loads of cleanse in your composition: a composition with both March 7th and Natasha would probably have less issues with a Frozen Clara, for example.)

The flip side of having high Speed is that taking more turns also means buffs wear off sooner, which means having to reapply buffs from your support characters onto Clara more often.

% HP, % ATK, % DEF, [Element] DMG Boost x7

Planar Sphere: Physical DMG Boost

% ATK is a very far second for this slot. Physical DMG Boost is a multiplier in the same class as % DMG, so that's by far the best you can get from this.

Consider using Self-Modelling Resin (acquired from level 40 of the F2P battle pass) for this, since it's the Relic slot with the most potential Main Stat rolls (with most of them being dead rolls when you land on the wrong element). The Body piece is another contender for the Self-Modelling Resin for similar reasons, though there are far fewer dead rolls there.

% HP, % ATK, % DEF, Break Effect, or Energy Regeneration Rate

Link Rope: % ATK or Energy Regeneration Rate

Exact same reasoning as the Feet section. % ATK because damage; Energy Regeneration Rate if you want more Ultimates.

Relics (Substats)

God roll for substats on a 4* Relic from the wrong set =/

Priority:

1. CRIT Rate or CRIT DMG
2. % ATK or SPD or Effect RES
3. % HP or % DEF
4. Everything else

As always, Clara is a DPS unit, so the CRIT and % ATK selections should be obvious; Speed is also fairly nice to have for more actions and more Ultimates. The only things that should stand out here are Effect RES, % HP, and % DEF.

Despite Clara's and March 7th's (and potentially Natasha's) Bonus Abilities that either resist or cleanse debuffs, Clara can still find herself in situations where she's Frozen or otherwise incapacitated by enemy crowd control.

This is most apparent against the final boss of Jarilo VI - specifically their Echo of War and ESPECIALLY their Simulated Universe/Memory of Chaos versions. Having Effect RES lowers the chances of being blasted with CC and having your damage fall off a cliff.

% HP and % DEF are here because Clara is a DPS unit whose entire playstyle revolves around being hit, so some survivability in Substats would be appreciated.

Note that Effect RES, % HP, and % DEF aren't stats you should be aiming for - they're just nice to have and probably give you greater value than flat ATK.

Conclusion

That's it for my Clara guide! I hope it's been useful! Considering giving it a like, dropping a comment, and praying for me to get Seele or Bronya from Seele's banner instead of another dupe for E2 Clara. Lost the 50/50 and got Bailu to make my Clara comp stronger lol. Got Seele from the second round on the banner at soft pity.

Changelog:

(Doesn't include grammatical and other minor changes.)

2023/05/01: Added Advanced Tips to most sections, updated the Weaknesses section to include lock ons, and added a proper write-up for Bronya. Added some images too.

2023/05/08: Added the How to Build Clara section, added another image displaying Marks of Counter, changed the first image on the guide to better showcase Clara's expressiveness, and added minor points to Pela's, Asta's, and Welt's sections.

2023/05/09: Made some changes to the How to Build Clara section to improve clarity and reasoning.

2023/05/10: Minor changes all around to improve clarity and reasoning. Added another March 7th image because why not. Added a link to the damage formula.

2023/05/15: Noted that Tingyun is better than Bronya (in Clara compositions) when you have Relics farmed up and added a sentence to the end of the DPS units section. Also added Advanced Tips, an image, and more information to the Damage-over-time & Being Frozen/Imprisoned subsection.

2023/05/17: Added Skill Levelling Priority to the How to Build Clara section.

2023/05/18: Finalised the Traces subsection and discovered the magic of separation lines on Hoyolab.

2023/05/30: Cleared up the section on Asta and did a sweep for typos.