We’ve updated our Honkai Star Rail tier list after spending several months with the latest RPG from Genshin Impact maker HoYoverse and figuring out just how well everyone works – or doesn’t, in some cases. Each character in Star Rail follows a different Path and uses a different element, but not every fighter is worth spending your hard-earned materials to level up. In our experience with the beta and a pre-release version built for the press, followed by several months of general play, these are the best Honkai Star Rail characters you can add to your team.
Best Honkai: Star Rail characters: S-Tier
S-Tier characters are the ones who hold their own even with basic attacks and non-elemental damage. Most of these are rarer, 5-star characters, but having even just one on your team can make a significant difference in the toughest battles.
Blade (Wind, Path of Destruction)
Blade is an exceptional character who fits with most teams and can even sustain himself. His skill enhances his basic attack for three turns, so you can deal extensive damage without using skill points – or gaining them – and his ultimate doles out substantial damage to several enemies. It also raises or lowers his health to 50 percent, so you can save him from getting knocked out with good timing.
Once Blade takes damage five times, he unleashes a follow-up-style attack that deals heavy wind damage to several enemies. He doesn’t have to take damage to power up, though, so he’s a much safer option compared to Arlan.
Fu Xuan (Quantum, Path of Preservation)
Fu Xuan is unique among Preservation characters in that she doesn’t actually shield. Instead, Fu Xuan absorbs hits for the party, reducing the damage everyone takes, and her HP is high enough that it takes a lot to knock her down. Fu Xuan can boost the party’s HP and critical hit rate, which makes her an excellent fit for Blade, HP-based healers, and similar characters, and she can even throw out some Quantum damage to break enemies.
Bronya (Wind, Path of Harmony)
Bronya’s skill raises an ally’s damage and moves them higher up in the action bar. As if that weren’t enough, it also dispels one debuff affecting that ally. Her ultimate boosts the entire party’s attack and critical hit rate for two turns, and her Eidolons let her recover skill points after using a skill.
Silver Wolf (Quantum, Path of Nihility)
Silver Wolf gives your team some extra flexibility with her skill, which adds a weakness to the target that matches an element from your party. That’s useful in itself, but her attacks also implant small stat debuffs that gradually wear your enemies down and give your party a slight advantage.
Kafka (Lightning, Path of Nihility)
For a character meant to trigger damage over time effects, Kafka’s surprisingly well-rounded. She forces damage over time effects to trigger an extra instance with her skill and deals Shock damage with her ultimate. That set of abilities is good enough on its own and works wonderfully with Sampo, Serval, and similar characters. But her talent also prompts a follow-up attack from Kafka when an ally uses a basic attack.
Seele (Quantum, Path of the Hunt)
Seele is a one of the best single-target damage dealers. She buffs her attack and speed and even generates extra turns for herself by defeating opponents. Seele can build up immense tempo as long as she’s kept safe, which gives her the chance to even shred enemies who don’t have Quantum weakness.
Tingyun (Lightning, Path of Harmony)
Tingyun’s skill gives an attack buff and adds lightning damage to the targeted character’s moves, which is perfect when you’re facing multiple enemies with lightning weaknesses. Her ultimate restores 50 energy and boosts an ally’s damage for three turns. Tingyun is perfect for getting a hard-hitting ultimate in at the right time, and her Eidolons are solid as well, adding more benefits to her skill and ultimate for the targeted ally.
Bailu (Lightning, Path of Abundance)
Bailu is a top-notch healer, with a skill that provides a recurring single-target heal and an ultimate that heals the entire party. Her ultimate also invigorates all targets, which provides a regenerative effect that heals them for up to two turns when they are hit and revives one ally per battle. In addition to adding another revive, her Eidolons enable her to heal more HP and provide some damage buffs.
Imbibitor Lunae
Lunae sucks up all your skill points, but boy is it worth it. He can use up to three skill points to pull off attacks of differing effects and power, and even the weakest of the bunch deals a significant amount of damage. Considering how common enemies with Imaginary weakness are, and the absence of offense-oriented Imaginary characters now, Lunae is an excellent addition to any party.
Gepard (Ice, Path of Preservation)
I was disappointed when my free 5-star turned out to be Gepard, but I quickly realized how misguided that reaction was. His skill has a decent chance of freezing enemies, but his ultimate is indispensable. It generates a powerful shield for the whole party, which is a massive boon in the Simulated Universe’s harder levels and the Forgotten Corridor.
Luocha (Imaginary, Path of Abundance)
Luocha is easily the best healer in Star Rail so far. He can heal without taking an action, once an ally drops below 50 percent HP, and after gaining two stacks of Abyss Flower, Luocha generates a field that heals allies when they attack – also without using a skill point. He works especially well with Blade’s HP fluctuations and Lunae’s appetite for skill points.
Best Honkai: Star Rail characters: A-Tier
A-Tier characters are still excellent picks for any party, though they don’t have quite the same impressive array of skills at their disposal.
Yanqing (Ice, Path of the Hunt)
Yanqing deals extensive single-target ice damage while increasing his critical hit rate and damage. He has a high chance to trigger follow-up attacks that can freeze enemies and set up stronger attacks. He can also lower his chance to be attacked, which is handy if you have his fourth and sixth Eidolons, which depend on him having high HP to buff his Ice Resistance Penetration.
Jing Yuan (Lightning, Path of Erudition)
We demoted Jing Yuan after spending several months with him. He’s a strong character, for sure, but only in the right circumstances. His ultimate and follow-up Lightning Lord attacks deal a hefty amount of damage, though that number dwindles if you don’t manage to use his skill and ultimate enough times.
Luka (Physical, Path of Nihility)
Luka is brilliant at dealing single-target damage, though it takes time to set him up properly. His attacks inflict the bleed status, and the stacks of Fighting Will he gains while attacking buff his power. His ultimate only hits one target, but that target takes additional damage for a few turns afterward.
Himeko (Fire, Path of Erudition)
Himeko launches devastating area-of-effect follow-up attacks with her talent, but the downside is that it depends on weakness breaks to charge. Her other great asset is her ultimate, which deals heavy fire damage and regenerates energy when it defeats enemies. Her Eidolon 4 is very important, as it allows her to generate more charges for the talent. Eidolon 6 lets her ultimate strike additional times, which is excellent for generating more energy.
Clara (Physical, Path of Destruction)
Clara is great at dishing out damage, but even better is that she also acts like a tank. When an enemy attacks Clara, her robot protector, Svarog, launches a counterattack. Clara can taunt opponents into attacking her with her ultimate, which buffs Svarog’s attacks at the same time. Her Eidolons are all pretty solid as well, especially 1, 4, and 6. They boost Clara’s Damage Resistance and let Svarog to attack more often.
Welt (Path of Nihility, Imaginary)
Welt is one of the rare sources of imaginary damage, an adept who reduces enemy speed. The downside is that his skill hits random enemies, which isn’t great in situations where you face multiple foes. Still, Welt allows your team to have a clear tempo advantage, which is very welcome, and performs well against single bosses.
Sampo (Wind, Path of Nihility)
Sampo’s big boon is applying Wind Shear to as many targets as possible. He can boost the damage enemies take from it and similar effects through his ultimate, which is great if your party has lots of skills that deal damage over time. Sampo’s damage stacks up quickly, so we promoted him from the B tier.
Topaz and Numby
Topaz seems like an investment in Star Rail‘s future. Right now, she’s a decent sub-DPS, but the main draw is raising the party’s follow-up attack power. Only a small handful of characters have follow-up attacks, so unless you’re using her in a party with, say, March 7th, Kafka, and Himeko, Topaz can’t really live up to her full potential.
Guinaifen
Guinaifen is like Fire Sampo. She deals moderate amounts of fire damage with her skills and then continues dishing it out through the burn damage-over-time effect. Also like Sampo, you really need Guinaifen’s Eidolons unlocked to see her damage numbers reach impressive heights.
Sushang (Physical, Path of the Hunt)
Sushang is another handy single-target damage dealer. She can build additional speed, which helps advance her placement in the turn order, and her skills let her deal additional damage with each attack. It sounds basic, but the damage stacks up pretty quickly. Best of all, Sushang is exceptionally easy to build, hence us bumping her up to the A tier.
Best Honkai: Star Rail characters: B-Tier
B-tier characters are solid candidates for your parties who can carry you through challenging battles – as long as you play your cards cleverly and you combine them in the right way.
Trailblazer – Fire (Path of Preservation, Fire)
The Trailblazer in this form is a decent tank who increases their damage reduction and taunts opponents. Being hit generates Magma Will, which enhances their attack, skill, or ultimate and creates shields for all allies. Their actual shielding ability is pretty low, though, so don’t expect to keep allies safe like Gepard does.
Natasha (Physical, Path of Abundance)
Natasha is a strong healer. Her skill not only fills an ally’s HP, but it also creates a regeneration effect for the next two turns as well. Her ultimate is simple – a team-wide heal – but it gets the job done.
Arlan (Lightning, Path of Destruction)
Arlan does more damage as his HP drops, which makes him great for anyone wanting to take some risks. You’ll definitely want to put some shields on the reckless lad, though.
Dan Heng (Wind, Path of the Hunt)
Dan Heng is a capable single-target attacker. He benefits from allies targeting him with effects, as this activate some of his special buffs..
March 7th (Ice, Path of Preservation)
March 7th is a reliable source of Shields, has a high chance at applying Freeze to several opponents through her ultimate, and can trigger follow-up attacks after placing a shield on an ally. She’s better suited for support than attack, though, as her damage output is low.
Lynx (Quantum, Path of Abundance)
Lynx is a mix of very situational and generally useful. The general usefulness comes from her basic healing abilities. Her ultimate heals the party and removes debuffs, and her talent keeps that healing going for two turns. Lynx’s skill is the most interesting part of her setup, though. It heals the targeted ally, increases their HP, and, if they’re on the Destruction or Preservation path, makes it more likely for enemies to attack them. That’s useful for Blade, the Fire Trailblazer, and Fu Xuan, but not so much for anyone else just yet. That’ll probably change as more characters roll out, though.
Serval (Lightning, Path of Erudition)
Serval is great at doing one thing: applying shock to multiple enemies at once. You really need to boost her attack to make this worthwhile, as her damage output is low otherwise. If you focus on her energy regeneration, though, you can handle large parties of tough enemies by firing off her ultimate as much as possible.
Pela (Ice, Path of Nihility)
Pela reduces enemy defense and deals solid ice damage. Her ultimate is definitely her most important asset, though, as it targets the entire enemy team and applies debuffs, which regenerate Pela’s energy.
Best Honkai: Star Rail characters: C-Tier
C-Tier characters can still be pretty effective, but they tend to cover just one niche, which reduces their overall utility.
Herta (Ice, Path of Erudition)
Herta deals decent ice damage and launches follow-up area-of-effect attacks when an ally drops enemy HP to 50 percent or lower. Damage from these follow-up attacks is relatively low, though Eidolons can help mitigate that.
Hook (Fire, Path of Destruction)
Hook is a middling single-target damage dealer who occasionally launches area-of-effect attacks. She relies on triggering burn and hitting enemies affected by it to deal additional damage, which is a bit unreliable.
Qingque (Quantum, Path of Erudition)
Qingque can deal solid damage to single or multiple targets, but she has to get a full suit of matching Jade Tiles to boost her damage to the maximum. That’s a great thematic choice for her, but doesn’t make for the most consistent damage output. Her ability to shuffle herself up the turn order is quite useful, though.
Trailblazer – Physical (Physical, Path of Destruction)
This version of the Trailblazer is a pretty decent Physical damage dealer, but that’s about it. They’re decent – nothing more and nothing less. This style is a bit bland, though it’ll get the job done.
Not rated here are Kafka, Silver Wolf, and other characters that have not been released yet to be playable on a permanent basis.
Check out our Honkai Star Rail codes list if you need some extra Jade for more tickets.
Written by Josh Broadwell on behalf of GLHF
