Honkai Star Rail Tier List 

Version 1.2

• Changed tier list categories to Damage Dealers, Defensive Supports and Offensive Supports.
• Updated tier list to include all new characters and re-rank characters.
• Many character explanations updated.

This tier list’s goal is to help you understand how well suited each character is for helping you clear end game content, especially Memory of Chaos (Memory of Chaos). This resource may help you decide which character(s) to invest your precious time, resources and Trailblazer Fuel into. 

However, tier lists aren’t everything! You will want to make sure your team synergizes and has a good combination of damage dealers and supports. Additionally, you may have characters you like for their personality, design or playstyle, and you should feel free to include those characters in your teams as well.

Each character has situations where they can excel and matching character elements to enemy weaknesses is often more important than strictly following tiers.   

The Best Honkai Star Rail Characters (Tier List)

Overall Tier List 

Tier List by Role

Honkai Tier List Methodology 

There are many factors to consider when comparing Honkai Star Rail’s characters as they each have a specific role or job they excel at. When evaluating each character, we will consider how valuable their role is, how strong they are in that role and how flexible they are. 

Please remember that character strength depends highly on their investment including levels, light cones, relics and eidolons. This tier list assumes similar levels of investment and low or no eidolons, except for the Trailblazer who receives eidolons for free. 

Honki Star Rail Roles Explained 

Damage Dealer/Weakness Breaker (high importance)

These characters’ primary job is to deal damage. Because skills and ultimates usually contribute the most to weakness breaks, these characters are better suited to dealing with enemy weaknesses than other roles.

Defensive Support

These characters are designed to help the team survive oncoming damage through healing, shielding, damage mitigation and debuff removal. This combines what was previously Tank and Healer roles into one as many invested teams can make do with a single defensive support only.

Offensive Support

Offensive supports primarily help improve the damage output of the rest of your team. This includes Harmony supports which offer powerful buffs for your damage dealers as well as Nihility supports which debuff enemies and make them more vulnerable to the team’s attacks.

Power Level within Role 

After considering how desirable a character’s role is, we also need to consider how much they excel in their role relative to the rest of the cast of available characters. Generally, characters with little competition for their role or who are amongst the strongest at their job are more desirable. 

Flexibility 

Flexible characters are ones that can fit into multiple teams and pair well with a wide variety of characters. This naturally makes them more universal and desirable than less flexible characters which may require specific teammates to really shine. 

Replaceability

Some character’s kits have significant overlap with the existing cast, while others offer something unique that no other character does. Generally, unique kits are more desirable as they offer more options for how an account can tackle content, assuming the kit is a valuable one to begin with.

S Tier – Optimal

These characters have highly desirable roles and are the most powerful at that job. 

Seele 

Seele is a path of the Hunt Quantum damage dealer and is one of the strongest damage dealers in the game. Seele excels at dealing single target damage, but thanks to her talent which gives her an additional turn when she lands a killing blow on an enemy, she is also very adept at dealing with multiple weaker enemies.

Seele’s extremely high personal damaged coupled with her Traces offering 20% Quantum RES Pen while in her buffed state makes her very universal and a strong choice if you are lacking good ways to target enemy weaknesses.

Blade

Blade is a path of Destruction wind damage dealer that has a good combination of single target and area of effect abilities. He has very high damage output with the right investment and is one of the strongest damage dealers in the game.

Blade’s damage scales with Max HP and he consumes health to use many of his powerful attacks, but also has some built in self-sustain. Due to him wanting high Max HP to help scale his damage, he is actually quite survivable despite him damaging himself.

However, Blade does require additional sustain from a healer. Blade consumes only 1 skill point every 3 turns due to his skill buffing his next 3 normal attacks, however this arguably is balanced out by his need for heals.

Silverwolf

Silver Wolf is a path of Nihility quantum character specialized in debuffing enemies. She has the unique ability to add an extra weakness to enemies that matches the element of a random teammate (herself included).

This makes her extremely valuable as she effectively allows your party to always have access to weakness breaks. Additionally, she can debuff opponents’ defense, attack, and speed with her normal attacks contributing both damage and defense to the party.

Silver Wolf’s kit is unique, applicable to all team compositions and powerful making her a very desirable support character overall. She will want to have Effect Hit Rate on her relics and light cone to help ensure that her debuffs are applying as consistently as possible.

Bronya 

Bronya is a path of Harmony wind support who excels at increasing the output of her teammates. She offers attack and crit damage buffs to the entire team, and is able to use her skill to cleanse an ally, provide them with a damage buff and allow them to immediately take the next action.

The power and universal nature of her buffs make her fantastic at supporting any damage dealer in the game. Note that Bronya’s auto battle logic can often be quite clunky and is best suited to encounters where players plan to manually control their characters.

Gepard 

Gepard is a path of Preservation ice type character who specializes in providing shields for the entire team as well as freezing enemies. A well-invested Gepard is more than capable of helping a team survive Memory of Chaos all by himself. His ease of use and large amount of shielding make him a premier option for defensive supports.

Luocha

Luocha is a path of Abundance imaginary type character who excels at healing and removing debuffs from teammates, while also being able to dispel buffs from all enemies. Luocha’s healing is highly effective at keeping teammates alive as he automatically heals them after they are hit, helping to mitigate multiple attacks bursting down a single character.

Due to Luocha’s healing scaling with ATK and his ultimate dealing area of effect imaginary damage, he contributes meaningfully to breaking enemy weaknesses. His excellent utility combined with strong healing Luocha is currently the strongest healer in the game overall and a premier defensive support.

A Tier – Strong 

These characters are effective and have desirable roles. 

Jing Yuan 

Jing Yuan is a path of Erudition lightning damage dealer who excels at dealing area of effect damage. His output is high enough that he still offers competitive single target damage but falls behind compared to some single target focused carries.

Jing Yuan has a unique mechanic of summoning an automatically controlled Lightning-Lord to help dispatch his foes. The Lightning-Lord makes up a very large portion of his overall damage and often acts quite slowly making his damage slightly backloaded and a bit harder to time with enemy’s break states than other carries.

Welt 

Welt is a path of Nihility character who deals imaginary type damage and has the ability to slow his enemies, effectively reducing the number of turns they take. Welt is currently the most offensively oriented imaginary type character making him an excellent choice for targeting enemies’ weaknesses.

Like most Nihility characters, Welt does want to build Effect Hit Rate to help boost his chance of debuffing stronger enemies. Welt can be very powerful for the right encounter.

Clara 

Clara is a physical path of Destruction character who excels both at being a tank and dealing damage to enemies. Clara is able to taunt enemy attacks onto herself which in turn triggers the counterattacks of her trusty robot helper, Svarog.

Clara is less flexible than most characters, as she really wants to be paired with someone like March 7th who can help focus attacks onto her, but with the right team Clara can be very powerful and fulfill multiple roles for the team. 

Yanqing 

Yanqing is a path of the Hunt ice character who focuses on single target damage. His damage output is quite respectable and he is the strongest ice type damage dealer by a good margin. Yanqing has a unique mechanic where he has a buff that increases his damage so long as he doesn’t take damage from enemies, making him pair very well with Gepard who can shield him. 

Sushang 

Sushang is a path of the Hunt physical character focused on single target damage. She gets to take extra actions after using her ultimate, making her very effective at dealing burst damage or clearing weaker enemies. She is one of the stronger 4-star options for carries, especially when she or someone else in your party is able to break weaknesses enabling her first eidolon which allows her to use her skill without using skill points. 

Tingyun 

Tingyun is a path of Harmony lightning character who is a buff oriented support. She adds attack, damage and energy to a single character, which makes her great at buffing up your carry and helping them deal large amounts of damage. Tingyun’s attack buff scales with her own attack, so be sure to invest in her attack for maximum effect. Due to the universal nature of her buffs, she is highly flexible and pairs well with any damage dealer. 

Bailu 

Bailu is a path of Abundance lighting healer that has incredible area of effect healing output thanks to both her skill and her ultimate. Bailu also automatically revives the first teammate that is downed each combat, giving her some additional reliability when autobattling.

While Bailu offers excellent healing and survivability, she does not have as much utility as some other defensive supports.

B Tier – Role Players 

These characters have teams and situations where they can be good. But are more situational than S and A tier characters and stronger options in the same role may exist. 

Dan Heng 

Dan Heng is a path of the Hunt wind character who focuses on single target damage. Currently Dan Heng is the best option for wind damage and is received for free just for playing the story! This makes him quite valuable as a weakness breaker, even if you have access to other higher tier damage dealers. 

Himeko 

Himeko is a path of Erudition fire character focused on dealing area of effect damage. She is excellent at clearing weaker content due to her getting extra actions from enemy weaknesses being broken. However, at low investment her poor single target damage makes her a weaker choice than most other 5-star damage dealers for Memory of Chaos which is often quite single target focused. However, Himeko does excel at particular encounters.

Himeko scales very well with investment and can be a top tier choice for speed clearing once she is strong enough to quickly dispatch tougher enemies. As players’ accounts become stronger Himeko will improve significantly.

Hook 

Hook is a Destruction path fire damage dealer, who excels at dealing single target damage. Her damage is serviceable but not especially remarkable. However, because the only other fire damage dealer is Himeko, Hook is still quite valuable as a 4-star fire weakness breaker. 

Serval 

Serval is a path of Erudition lightning damage dealer who specializes in area of effect damage, although she is generally weaker in this role than Jing Yuan.

However, for any accounts which do not have access to Jing Yuan, Serval is your best free to play option for dealing with lightning weak enemies. It is worth noting that Serval gets a notable power bump at Eidolon level 6, for accounts that have access to this.

Qingque 

Qingque is a path of Erudition quantum character who focuses on dealing damage to multiple enemies. Qingque is largely overshadowed by Seele, however since she is a 4-star, she is much more accessible to most players and is your next best option for quantum damage to target enemy weaknesses. Qingque more than most characters, scales very well with eidolon levels and gets significantly stronger at eidolon levels 4 and 6 which greatly increases her ability to deal damage. 

Pela 

Pela is a path of Nihility ice character who focuses on debuffing enemies to reduce their defense. Pela also has the ability to remove beneficial buffs from enemies and can be quite a strong choice for breaking weaknesses against ice type enemies. Pela is a very solid support character with a unique kit, but be sure to build Effect Hit Rate on her to help make sure she can debuff some of the higher level enemies in Memory of Chaos. 

Asta

Asta is a path of Harmony fire character who focuses on supporting teammates by buffing their attack and speed. Her traces also allow her to passively buff the fire damage of her teammates so long as she is on field, making her particularly valuable when supporting a fire element dps.

However, her stacking attack buff requires her to regularly use her skill to maintain and as a result she can be very skill point hungry. Asta is best suited as a support in fire focused teams, while other supports like Tingyun and Bronya are more universal.

March 7th 

March 7th is a path of Preservation ice character who offers shields, cleanses and a chance to taunt enemy attacks to her shielded target. Her counterattack and ultimate also provide decent ice damage to enemies and can offer crowd control on weakness breaks.

March 7th is capable of sustaining a team all by herself, however doing so is often very skill point intensive as her shielding capabilities are entirely linked to her skill. March 7th being able to focus enemy attacks on specific characters is a unique ability that pairs very well with characters like Clara which counterattack when they are hit.

Natasha 

Natasha is path of Abundance physical character and is the only healer you guaranteed to receive for free. Natasha’s healing output is lower than 5* options like Bailu and Luocha but is still quite respectable.

Additionally she has the ability to cleanse debuffs from allies – something Bailu and Luocha are unable to do. Natasha is more than capable of solo sustaining a team in Memory of Chaos and is an excellent free to play friendly choice to help ensure your team stays alive.

Trailblazer (Fire) 

The Trailblazer is a path of Preservation fire character who provides shields for the team and has the unique ability to taunt enemies’ attacks for a turn at 100% base chance.

Combined with great personal survivability, team shields and decent area of effect weakness breaking, the Trailblazer is a strong character, but has more difficulty solo sustaining a team than many other defensive supports. Trailblazer is extremely free to play friendly with eidolons being obtained using in-game currencies.

C Tier – Niche 

These characters have situations they can be useful in but are not very universal in application or better options exist within their role. 

Yukong

Yukong is a path of Harmony imaginary type character who increases her teammates %Imaginary Damage, ATK%, CRIT Rate and CRIT DMG. In addition to these powerful buffs Yukong’s burst does area of effect Imaginary damage making her a decent option for targeting enemy weaknesses for an element that is otherwise exclusive to 5*s.

While Yukong’s buffs are strong, she suffers a bit from being difficult to fully utilize as her skill only buffs ATK on the next two character’s actions and her Ultimate only provides CRIT buffs so long as her skill is active. This means in order to buff your damage dealers she needs to act just before them. In order to overcome this, players may try to quickly burst down enemies or carefully plan the SPD of all their characters to ensure Yukong remains synced with the carries.

Notably, this problem is solved by her E6 providing her a stack of her ATK buff when she uses her ultimate making the CRIT bonus always live and easy to time before a carry’s burst turn.

Sampo 

Sampo is a path of Nihility wind damage dealer who specializes in damage over time and to multiple enemies. Due to his area of effect focus, Sampo is often less desirable than Dan Heng who deals more single target damage and players receive for free from the main story. Due to Sampo applying damage over time, he generally needs to invest in effect hit rate to guarantee his effects stick to tougher opponents which competes with his ability to build other damage dealing stats such as Crit. 

Herta 

Herta is a path of Erudition ice damage dealer specialized in area of effect damage. She is particularly effective against weaker enemies due to her extra follow-up attacks triggering whenever an enemy falls below 50% HP. However, her damage against more sturdy enemies is quite low, making her a weaker option for Memory of Chaos. If there is content in the future that has lots of weaker enemies with ice weakness, Herta may have her chance to shine. 

Arlan 

Arlan is a path of Destruction lightning damage dealer focused on dealing single target damage. Arlan has the drawback of hurting himself with some of his attacks in exchange for not consuming skill points, making him an unusual character to build a team around. Currently, Serval fits more naturally into most teams as a lightning weakness breaker, but there may be teams in the future that can utilize Arlan’s unique kit. 

Trailblazer (physical) 

The physical Trailblazer is a path of destruction damage dealer who deals physical damage. The Trailblazer has good flexibility in their ability to deal single target and area of effect damage, but is generally overshadowed by Sushang as a physical damage dealer. Additionally, since players can only choose to play one type of trailblazer at a time, the fire trailblazer is generally the more popular option.

Thanks for reading! Be sure to let us know what you think. Honkai Star Rail is still quite a new game, and we’ll be updating this tier list frequently as new characters come or new discoveries are made.

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