Looking to create a good party in the mobile RPG Honkai: Star Rail? Check out our complete tier list to know who to look for!
Creating a definitive Honkai: Star Rail tier list proves challenging due to each players' individual preferences and the unpredictable nature of character acquisition through pulls. Nonetheless, having a general understanding of the best characters in various roles and whether they are worth the investment can be beneficial, particularly in a resource-intensive game where gathering requires time and effort!
It is important to note that tier lists do not encompass everything. Similar to Genshin Impact, any character can become formidable through investing in their development and unlocking their Eidolon special abilities by obtaining additional copies of them. It is essential to ensure that your team targets enemy weaknesses and includes a well-rounded combination of roles such as tank, damage dealer, and healer. Additionally, personal preferences regarding character personality, design, and playstyle should not be disregarded.
Above all, enjoy the process of constructing teams in Honkai: Star Rail! There is an abundance of intriguing party compositions to explore, and it is important to remember that there is never a single solution to any challenge.
| Class | Character |
|---|---|
| S | Luocha, Silver Wolf, Seele, Gepard, Bailu, Welt, Bronya, Jing Yuan, Clara |
| A | Trailblazer (Fire), Natasha, Pela, Himeko, Asta, Yanqing, Sushang |
| B | March 7th, Hook, Serval, Qingque, Dan Heng |
| C | Trailblazer (Physical), Arlan, Herta, Sampo |
S-Tier characters exhibit exceptional performance not only when their particular Damage Type is essential, but their Skills, Ultimates, and Talents enable them to excel even when dealing neutral damage. Notably, Luocha stands out as an S-tier unit due to the scaling of his healing abilities with his ATK. Luocha possesses the power to create a healing field that benefits all allies and continues to provide healing support even if he is incapacitated by an adversary.
Combining the synergy between Luocha and Silver Wolf can lead to effortless victories by inflicting debuffs on enemies. Alternatively, pairing Luocha with Gepard grants your team an exceptional tank, bolstering their endurance and contributing to formidable sustainability for battles where the enemies deal powerful blows.
Game On Promotion — Free Honkai Giveaway! (until codes last!)
Before we continue with our Honkai: Star Rail tier list, we have a Stellar Jade Pack Giveaway!
Claiming this key through our Game On giveaway awards you:
- 30 Stellar Jade
- 1 Refined Aether
- 1 Traveler's Guide
How to claim your code:
Go to the Honkai: Star Rail official website.
Select "Redemption Code" to enter the redemption page and log in to your account.
Choose the corresponding prize recipient character.
Once the code has been successfully redeemed, prizes will be credited to accounts via in-game mail.
S Tier
Luocha
Path: Abundance
Element: Imaginary
Introducing the ultimate healer! A five-star coffin-wielding merchant who has dethroned Bailu from the top spot. What sets this healer apart is his exceptional ability to passively restore health, which scales with his attack power. This unique attribute not only makes him an excellent healer but also an effective damage dealer, a feat that many healers struggle to accomplish.
Silver Wolf
Path: Nihility
Element: Quantum
Silver Wolf excels in the art of debuffing enemies. One of her standout abilities is the capacity to inflict an extra weakness on enemies, matching the element of a random teammate, including herself. This exceptional trait makes her an invaluable asset to any team, as she ensures that weakness breaks are always at your disposal. In addition, Silver Wolf's normal attacks not only deal damage but also have the power to debuff opponents' defense, attack, and speed. This dual contribution of offense and defense further enhances the capabilities of your party.
Seele
Path: Hunt
Element: Quantum
Seele is undeniably one of the most formidable damage dealers in the game. Her specialty lies in inflicting significant damage to individual targets. However, her true prowess shines in her unique talent, which grants her an extra turn upon delivering a killing blow to an enemy. This exceptional ability allows Seele to showcase her versatility by efficiently handling multiple weaker foes as well.
Gepard
Path: Preservation
Element: Ice
Gepard excels as a shielder capable of safeguarding the entire party using their formidable ultimate! Gepard possesses the potential to freeze enemies through their skill, Daunting Smite. Similar to Bailu, Gepard possesses a self-revive ability, although it only applies to itself. This unique skill allows Gepard to restore 25% of their HP when facing a fatal blow. Gepard stands as the optimal choice for comprehensive survivability, ensuring the team's safety in various scenarios.
Bailu
Path: Abundance
Element: Lightning
Bailu possesses the ability to revive the first fallen ally during a battle. Through her ultimate ability, Felicitous Thunderclap, Bailu not only heals her allies with her Singing Among Clouds skill but also grants them the beneficial effect called Invigoration. This effect allows allies to restore a portion of their HP each time they are struck, effectively reducing damage taken. However, it's worth noting that Bailu lacks the ability to dispel debuffs, which is her only notable limitation. Nonetheless, her unique skill set extends to electrifying her hands and utilizing them as defibrillators to revive fallen allies, showcasing her exceptional healing capabilities in critical situations.
Welt
Path: Nihility
Element: Imaginary
Welt's desirability as a character stems primarily from his exceptional speed reduction capabilities. This becomes particularly valuable if your party already includes characters with high base speed. By reducing the speed of enemies, Welt effectively grants more turns to your own characters, allowing for increased frequency of bonus attacks, healing, and other supportive abilities.
Additionally, his Technique for slowing down opponents stands among the best in the entire game, providing a significant advantage right from the beginning of a battle.
Bronva
Path: Harmony
Element: Wind
Bronya possesses a crucial skill known as Combat Redeployment. This skill not only removes a debuff from an ally but also grants them an instant turn with heightened damage output. Notably, Bronya's ultimate ability holds significant power as it directly boosts the attack and critical damage of the entire party. This makes her a valuable addition to a wide range of teams, regardless of the specific elemental requirements.
With her skill, Combat Redeployment, and the potent buffs provided by her ultimate, Bronya fulfills the role of an offensive support character admirably.
Jing Yuan
Path: Erudition
Element: Lightning
As a prominent figure in the Xianzhou Luofu forces, Jing Yuan showcases his mastery as one of Star Rail's top Erudition characters. His ability to summon the Lightning Lord allows for devastating follow-up attacks, inflicting additional damage on foes. Jing Yuan's skill and ultimate both contribute to stacking this electrifying spirit, with each stack determining the number of times the Lightning Lord strikes enemies. With the potential to accumulate up to ten stacks, each dealing 33% of Jing Yuan's attack power, his exceptional strength as a character becomes evident!
Clara
Path: Destruction
Element: Physical
Clara requires thoughtful consideration of your team composition to fully leverage her strengths. Her reliable companion, Svarog, swiftly counters enemy attacks whenever Clara is targeted. To maximize Svarog's potential, it is crucial to have a dependable shielder or healer in the team, ensuring Clara's survival and enabling Svarog to unleash his potent physical attacks. By baiting enemies to target Clara, you significantly increase your DPS potential, granted she endures the fight and remains in combat.
A Tier
Trailblazer (Fire)
Path: Preservation
Element: Fire
The Trailblazer excels in their superior form, which transforms them into a versatile character fulfilling the roles of both a shielder and damage-dealer. With their Ever-Burning Amber skill, they possess the ability to taunt enemies, granting damage reduction and accumulating stacks of Magma Will. This unique resource can reach up to eight stacks, and once the Trailblazer acquires four, their regular attacks are enhanced. These empowered attacks inflict damage on multiple enemies while simultaneously providing a modest shield to all allies, which remains effective for a few turns.
Remarkably, the Trailblazer's ultimate ability, along with their shields and damage, scales with defense, allowing them to deliver potent blows while safeguarding the party.
Natasha
Path: Abundance
Element: Physical
Natasha is a guaranteed healer you receive in Star Rail. Given the limited options for healers in the game, Natasha's value becomes exceptional. While Natasha may not possess the same level of raw healing output as Bailu or Luochan, she still proves to be an excellent healer. One of her notable advantages is the ability to cleanse debuffs from allies, a task that Bailu cannot accomplish. Moreover, Natasha offers a combination of healing and damage-dealing capabilities.
Her arsenal includes impressive Eidolons, such as the ability to provide continuous healing and deal additional damage, making her a worthwhile long-term investment for endgame content.
Pela
Path: Nihility
Element: Ice
Pela proves to be an exceptional offensive support character, offering various advantageous abilities. With her ultimate, Zone Suppression, Pela effectively reduces enemy defense by applying Exposed. Notably, when Pela successfully attacks an enemy with a debuff, she regenerates five energy, allowing her to recharge and continue applying her abilities. Additionally, Pela possesses the unique capability to remove buffs from enemies using her Frostbite skill, making her particularly valuable in battles against elites and bosses.
Himeko
Path: Erudition
Element: Fire
Himeko proves to be an excellent choice as an area-of-effect (AOE) damage dealer, particularly when facing multiple enemies vulnerable to fire. However, she also holds her ground in encounters with single targets. With her ultimate ability, Himeko unleashes a powerful blast of fire damage, while also benefiting from energy regeneration. This means that, given the right circumstances and equipped relics, she can quickly replenish her ultimate gauge.
As players' accounts grow in strength, Himeko's performance will notably improve, solidifying her position as a top-tier option for efficient clearing.
Asta
Path: Harmony
Element: Fire
Asta’s ultimate ability grants a notable increase in the speed of all party members, allowing those with high individual speed stats to potentially take an extra turn. This advantageous effect holds significant value, as even a single additional turn can often be the deciding factor between defeat and victory, particularly in challenging encounters like the Forgotten Hall or Memory of Chaos.
However, to fully unlock Asta's potential as a powerful fire attacker, it is essential to invest in her Traces and optimize her build accordingly. Building her alongside Luocha, Asta can become a top tier speeder consistently generating her ultimate.
Yanqing
Path: Hunt
Element: Ice
Yanqing thrives against single-target enemies vulnerable to Ice, making him particularly effective in such encounters. Benefiting greatly from significant boosts to both crit rate and crit damage through his ultimate, Amidst the Raining Bliss, and the Soulsteel Sync state. Yanqing does possess some supportive qualities, as activating an Empathic Sword Link through his skill grants him a chance to freeze enemies. While Yanqing's freezing ability and attack buffs would elevate him to the upper echelons of effectiveness and damage potential, their reliance on random chance makes him an unpredictable ally at times.
Sushang
Path: Hunt
Element: Physical
Specializing in delivering potent single-target damage. Sushang’s unique trait lies in her ability to take additional actions after using her ultimate, which proves highly effective in inflicting burst damage or swiftly eliminating weaker enemies. Particularly as a 4-star option, she stands out as a formidable carry, especially when combined with her ability or that of another party member to break weaknesses. This triggers her first eidolon, granting her the capability to use her skill without expending skill points.
Her reliance on weakness breaks, skill point management, and skill chaining make her a formidable force on the battlefield. With similarities to the renowned Seele, Sushang offers remarkable potential for decimating enemies, especially in scenarios where individual targets are the primary focus.
B Tier
March 7th
Path: Preservation
Element: Ice
As a path of Preservation ice character, March 7th excels in fulfilling the tank role by offering shields, cleansing effects, and the ability to provoke enemy attacks toward her shielded target. Her counterattacks and ultimate also deliver decent ice damage to enemies while providing crowd control opportunities through weakness breaks. The unique ability of March 7th to divert enemy attacks toward specific characters pairs exceptionally well with characters like Clara, who possess counterattack abilities triggered by incoming hits. Whether fulfilling the tank role, dealing ice damage, or controlling enemy movements, March 7th proves to be an exceptional character choice with unique synergies.
Hook
Path: Destruction
Element: Fire
Hook's main challenge stems from the existence of the Fire Trailblazer, which outshines her in more demanding and protracted battles. While Hook's playstyle is relatively straightforward, focusing on unleashing a flurry of attacks to inflict Burn on enemies, the Fire Trailblazer excels in longer encounters. Not only does the Fire Trailblazer possess superior immediate damage-dealing capabilities at the start of a fight, but they can also tank.
In contrast, Hook primarily offers proficiency in Fire damage without the versatility of tanking abilities.
Serval
Path: Erudition
Element: Lighting
Serval presents a user-friendly character option, ideal for teams requiring area-of-effect (AOE) Lightning damage. Her attacks have the ability to shock enemies, and when she strikes a shocked enemy, Serval inflicts additional damage. While her damage potential may be limited against enemies without a Lightning weakness, Serval serves as a capable option, especially when obtained as a free character and utilized strategically to exploit specific elemental vulnerabilities.
Qingque
Path: Erudition
Element: Quantum
Qingque's entire kit revolves around gathering four tiles of the same suit to amplify her attack damage. Her skill proves valuable as it enables her to draw additional tiles, while also allowing her to continue her turn, facilitating the use of normal attacks alongside her enhanced strikes. Due to the element of luck involved in collecting the required tiles, it becomes challenging to consistently ensure that Qingque deals the Quantum damage necessary.
However, if players are willing to engage in repeated battles and embrace the unpredictability, Qingque can be instrumental in securing victories in specific situations.
Dan Heng
Path: Hunt
Element: Wind
Dan Heng proves to be a decent starting character with the potential to excel if properly built. However, a significant portion of his usefulness relies on landing critical hits with his skill to slow enemies, followed by dealing increased damage with his ultimate. Obtaining a satisfactory crit rate in the early game can be time-consuming, and by the time you achieve it, you may have already acquired a more advantageous Hunt character.
The primary drawback with Dan Heng lies in his limited versatility. Although his skill carries a chance of reducing an enemy's speed, it is only effective against a single target and lacks a guarantee. Consequently, other characters excel in performing this role more efficiently when facing multiple targets.
C Tier
Trailblazer (Physical)
Path: Destruction
Element: Physical
While the physical Trailblazer demonstrates decent damage-dealing capabilities, their overall set of abilities may appear somewhat lackluster when compared to other characters. One notable advantage of this character, however, lies in their ease of building, as stacking attack stats proves sufficient to witness noticeable results. Moreover, the basic Trailblazer exhibits a commendable level of versatility in terms of dealing damage, courtesy of their RIP Home Run skill that targets multiple enemies, and the Stardust Ace ultimate, which offers both single-target and multi-target DPS modes.
In general, there are other physical damage-dealers who bring more to the team, but it would be unwise to disregard the potential of the physical Trailblazer, particularly when AOE physical damage is required.
Arlan
Path: Destruction
Element: Lightning
Arlan proves to be an exceptional character when built appropriately, although his skill's health deduction upon each use can pose a significant challenge in certain battles. However, this issue can be mitigated by including a healer or shielder in the team composition. One of the key advantages of having Arlan on your team is that his skill does not consume a Skill Point. Consequently, this allows other party members to allocate their Skill Points elsewhere, potentially increasing overall damage per turn.
It is worth noting that Serval currently fits more seamlessly into most team compositions as a lightning weakness breaker. Nonetheless, with evolving team strategies, Arlan's unique abilities may find a niche in future team compositions.
Herta
Path: Erudition
Element: Ice
Herta specializes in dealing ice damage as an Erudition character and excels in area-of-effect damage. Her ability to trigger additional follow-up attacks when an enemy's HP drops below 50% proves particularly effective against weaker foes. However, her damage output against more resilient enemies remains relatively low, rendering her a weaker choice for Memory of Chaos encounters. Nevertheless, if future content features a multitude of weaker enemies susceptible to ice attacks, Herta may find her opportunity to shine.
Sampo
Path: Nihility
Element: Wind
Sampo's desirability is often overshadowed by the prominence of Dan Heng, who boasts superior single-target damage output and can be obtained for free through the main story. Sampo's reliance on area-of-effect damage necessitates investment in effect hit rate to ensure the successful application of his damage over time effects on resilient opponents. However, his talent provides a significant advantage, granting a high chance to apply the potent Wind Shear effect. When coupled with his area-of-effect ultimate, which amplifies damage from damage over time effects, players can effectively cycle between his abilities and observe the gradual depletion of the enemy team's health through the ticking damage.
