Honkai Star Rail Character Tier List: Best HSR Characters in 2025

Honkai Star Rail relies heavily on correct Team combinations and the individual roles of each character in combat. With the vast number of available characters, which keeps growing with every major update, it can become hard for new players to know which character is good or bad in the banners. So, after careful consideration and analysis, we have prepared the complete Honkai Star Rail character tier list.

Note: Characters in each tier are not ranked by their order. Also, the characters have been placed based on their performance in early, mid and late game. Note that this tier list is subjective, like every other tier list. You can play whoever you find best as long as you are enjoying the game.

Honkai Star Rail Best SS-Tier Characters

• Acheron
• Feixiao
• Robin
• Ruan Mei
• HuoHuo
• Linghsa
• Aventurine
• Fu Xuan

The SS tier characters are the undisputed best for their respective playstyle and position in Honkai Star Rail. Only two of the best characters from each team position (DPS, Support, and Sustain) are selected for this tier. You can consider these characters ‘Must Pulls’ as they provide insane value to any team. Having them will let you breeze past the most challenging content in the game. If you are running short on Stellar Jades to pull these characters, check out HSR codes list.

Acheron

• Rarity: 5-star
• Element: Lightning
• Path: Nihility

Acheron is currently the strongest DPS unit in Honkai Star Rail. She can deal outrageously high damage numbers with barely any investment. Acheron’s Ultimate can deal AoE Toughness damage regardless of enemy weakness type, making her strong against any enemy type in the game. Her technique also makes her extremely valuable to clear story content quickly, as it instantly kills normal enemies without entering combat. This makes Acheron very resourceful when exploring new areas.

Acheron is also fairly F2P friendly, as she works alongside other Nihility support units that can apply debuffs on enemies. She doesn’t have energy as her Ultimate charges based on the number of debuffs applied on enemies, making it quite easy to get her ultimate every cycle if you have her best teams. Each of her Ultimate deals extremely high amounts of damage, allowing her to solo-carry through most of the in-game content. Acheron in my opinion is a must-pull DPS in Honkai Star Rail, as she makes the game that much easier.

Feixiao

• Rarity: 5-star
• Element: Wind
• Path: Hunt

Feixiao is on par with Acheron when it comes to damage output, however, she is more single-target oriented. Her ultimate is also her biggest strength, dealing outrageous single target damage, perfect for fighting against elite enemies and bosses. Her Ultimate also deals toughness damage, regardless of enemy weakness type, making her a strong DPS unit against any enemy type.

She is a follow-up type DPS unit, and she can deal Follow-up attacks pretty frequently throughout the fight. This makes her more viable against multiple targets compared to other Hunt units in the game. Like Acheron, Feixiao also doesn’t have energy and instead uses her Ultimate based on the number of attacks from her allies. So, in a follow-up attack focused team, Feixiao will recharge her Ultimate very frequently, allowing her to destroy almost every enemy she comes across. Her Technique is also great for clearing Trotter-catching mini games.

Robin

• Rarity: 5-star
• Element: Physical
• Path: Harmony

Robin easily took the second best support spot after Ruan Mei on her debut. She is an extremely capable support unit, who can buff the damage output of all her allies and can action forward the entire team with her Ultimate. Robin is also extremely good with Follow-up attack characters, increasing their Crit damage with her passive.

She is simply an excellent support unit with absolutely zero downsides. Her ultimate is the most broken ability in the game and can single-handedly turn the tide of a battle. Other than that, her synergy with Follow-up attack focused teams also makes her stand out, especially as a super support for Feixiao.

Ruan Mei

• Rarity: 5-star
• Element: Ice
• Path: Harmony

Ruan Mei is easily one of the best Support characters in Honkai Star Rail. Her kit is stacked with team-wide buffs, which mostly scale on allies’ stats instead of her stat. She gives allies massive damage and speed buffs, making her a combination of Tingyun and Asta, making her an easy pick for the SS tier support spot in the Honkai Star Rail Character Tier list.

The main highlight of her kit is her ability to delay actions for Weakness broken characters. With Break damage becoming the current meta in Honkai Star Rail, Ruan Mei has become an absolute necessity in many of the best HSR teams. She is currently the best support character for Firefly, Boothill and Rappa teams, who are all S-tier characters themselves. Furthermore, she can also help f2p Break teams equally with her abilities.

Huohuo

• Rarity: 5-star
• Element: Wind
• Path: Abundance

Huohuo has a remarkably diverse healing kit. Initially criticized for not having reactive heals, it quickly became evident that she is the best Healer in the game. She has a strong Blast Heal, which triggers her Talent for 2 turns. It allows her to cycle her Skill and Basic, making her Skill point neutral. Huohuo’s talent is a continuous pool of cleansing and healing, cleansing every character at the start of their turn with additional health restoration, basically never allowing them to have delayed action.

Her talent also allows the ally with the lowest HP% to heal a decent amount when any ally uses their Ultimate, which acts like a reactive heal in emergencies. Combining that with her Eidolon 2, which allows her to revive knocked allies twice in a fight, makes her function as a combination of Luocha and Bailu. Besides healing, her Ultimate regenerates energy and buffs the Attack of allies. Playing her with Tingyun can allow speedy Ultimate recharge for your Main DPS and team.

Lingsha

• Rarity: 5-star
• Element: Fire
• Path: Abundance

Lingsha became the next best healing superstar after Huohuo, giving AoE heals with all her actions. She is probably the best healing character in the game while also being an offensive asset to the team. Her Skill and Ultimate both damages enemies while also healing allies, and her summons’ attack also heals allies. Furthermore, her cleansing capability is the best in the game, making her easily the one best healer in Honkai Star Rail and deserving of the SS-tier spot.

But that’s not all as she also increases the Break Damage taken by enemies with her Ultimate. This makes her perfect for Break teams. Alongside Break teams, Lingsha can also work great with characters that like allies having multiple attacks, like Feixiao and The Herta. Overall, Lingsha is easily one of the best characters in the game and definitely a great sustain option for most teams.

Aventurine

• Rarity: 5-star
• Element: Imaginary
• Path: Preservation

Aventurine took the HSR community by storm during the Penacony arc, stealing the show in his gambling fashion. His kit makes him one of the strongest sustains in the game. He is the only shielder after Geopard, but the difference between Aventurine and Geopard is massive. He can provide shields to all allies using his Skill, and also provide reactive shields to allies using his Follow-up attack or when they are low.

Aventurine can allow your entire team to go unharmed with his shield, which stacks. On top of it, his Ultimate deals a decent chunk of damage and makes the enemy target take increased damage for a short amount of time. If you are looking for a sustain that can keep your team unharmed throughout a fight, then Aventurine is currently the best option for you in Honkai Star Rail.

Fu Xuan

• Rarity: 5-star
• Element: Quantum
• Path: Preservation

Fu Xuan is one of the strongest Sustains in Honkai Star Rail. Her kit is unique, as she doesn’t focus on healing or providing shields but on Damage mitigation. Her Skill allows Fu Xuan to receive 65% of the damage taken by her allies for 3 turns. The skill buffs the Max HP of her allies by a portion of her Max HP and also increases the Crit Rate of all allies, making it a powerful offensive and defensive skill.

Her Talent is the main factor for her viability as she reduces damage taken by all allies and restores her HP reactively when she reaches or falls below 50% of her Max HP. Fu Xuan can solo sustain through the most challenging content in the game without the need to heal or shield. Also, having the Quantum weakness type is excellent for clearing Swarm Disasters.

Honkai Star Rail Best S-Tier Characters

• The Herta
• Harmony Trailblazer
• Remembrance Trailblazer
• Gallagher
• Sparkle
• Firefly
• Yunli
• Jiaoqiu
• Fugue
• Sunday
• Rappa
• Aglaea
• Topaz & Numby
• Jingliu
• Dan Heng Imbibitor Lunae
• Bronya
• Tingyun
• Pela
• Luocha

The S tier characters are the strongest characters in Honkai Star Rail, who are not in the top two for their respective team position. These characters are extremely strong and a tremendous asset to any team. Pulling for any of these characters will make your team capable of clearing the hardest content in the game with ease.

The Herta

• Rarity: 5-star
• Element: Ice
• Path: Erudition

The Herta is the original version of the Erudition genius. Being the Erudition Emanator, it was no shock to see her become the strongest Erudition DPS on her release. She applies stacks on enemies based on the attacks of her allies and herself, and after she uses her Ultimate, her next Enhanced Skill attack deals increased damage based on the stacks applied on each enemy. In the correct team, The Herta can deal outrageously high damage.

The Herta does extremely well against multi-target scenarios, as it allows her to apply more stacks on enemies. She can rip through enemies in Pure Fiction, making her a great choice for it. But her single target damage is also high, as the stacks applied by her can be reorganized on an elite or boss enemy, making them take the brunt of most of her damage output. The biggest issue with The Herta is that she only has a few viable team compositions at the moment, which is why we have kept her in the S-tier.

Harmony Trailblazer

• Rarity: 5-star
• Element: Imaginary
• Path: Harmony

Harmony Trailblazer is easily one of the best support units in the game and they are completely free to play. This path of the Trailblazer can increase the break damage taken by enemies while also enabling them to take Super Break damage. With Break teams becoming the meta, Harmony Trailblazer quickly became a massive f2p support unit on their release in Penacony. There is not much else to talk about Harmony Trailblazer, other than that they are a solid support unit that can almost double the damage output of a break DPS.

Remembrance Trailblazer

• Rarity: 5-star
• Element: Ice
• Path: Remembrance

Remembrance Trailblazer is the first Remembrance unit added to Honkai Star Rail and they are a great f2p Support unit. The trailblazer themselves are more of a support to the memosprite. Mem, memosprite of Remembrance Trailblazer, has a charge buildup, which can advance forward one designated ally by 100%. Furthermore, Remembrance Trailblazer can also deal True damage, which is damage that circumvents all elemental resistances, making them a very strong sub-dps option as well.

Gallagher

• Rarity: 4-star
• Element: Fire
• Path: Abundance

Gallagher is currently the best F2P sustain in Honkai Star Rail and he can hold his own in the S-tier spot. He has very strong heals and can deal a fair amount of damage by himself. Gallagher’s Ultimate applies a debuff on enemies which heals allies when they attack them. This way the allies don’t waste a turn to heal, as they can heal by dealing damage to enemies with Gallagher on the team. Furthermore, his Ultimate action forwards him by 100%, allowing him to reflex heal allies whenever the are low on health. Another great thing about Gallagher is that he can make enemies take increased break damage, making him the perfect f2p sustain for Break teams.

Sparkle

• Rarity: 5-star
• Element: Quantum
• Path: Harmony

Sparkle is one of the strongest Harmony characters in Honkai Star Rail. She is perfect for DPS units that are Skill point negative or increase their damage output based on the Skill points consumed. She can also action forward an ally by 50% and increase their damage output. Her Ultimate is also very strong, giving five additional Skill points and increasing the Skill points limit to seven. Overall, she is a very strong support unit and only slightly misses out on her position in the SS tier.

Firefly

• Rarity: 5-star
• Element: Fire
• Path: Destruction

Firefly was the star in the Penacony trailblazing arc, guiding the Trailblazer during the hardest moments and coming in clutch when no one expected it. As a playable character, Hoyoverse didn’t disappoint us with Firefly, as she is currently the best Break DPS in the game. Her damage output can be on par with Acheron and Feixiao with the correct team compositions. She is currently the closest to SS tier among all the S tier characters, due to her incredibly high damage potential and self sustaining abilities.

Firefly can self inflict damage to gain energy, allowing her to enter the combustion mode from her Ultimate. Once in the combustion mode, Firefly can heal herself with every attack, making her almost unkillable due to the high speed priority of her character. Overall, Firefly is one of the strongest DPS units currently in the game, and she is also very F2P friendly.

Yunli

• Rarity: 5-star
• Element: Physical
• Path: Destruction

Yunli is a counter-attacking menace and a slightly better version of Clara. She can sustain pretty effectively but is slightly behind Clara. However, she deals blast counter attack damage, making her damage out consistently higher. If you like the counter-attack style of play, then Yunli is a great option to have on the team. She is easily one of the best DPS units in Honkai Star Rail and deserves the S tier spot in the HSR tier list.

Jiaoqiu

• Rarity: 5-star
• Element: Fire
• Path: Nihility

Jiaoqiu was a mixed bag for me initially, as Hoyoverse broke my heart by not giving us a Nihility sustain and instead creating another debuffing kit. However, over time I have seen how useful Jiaoqiu’s kit can be in Honkai Star Rail, especially in Acheron teams. He is one of the best debuff appliers in the game, with the ability to constantly apply defense reduction debuffs on all enemies. One of the best parts about Jiaoqiu’s kit is that he automatically applies debuffs on enemies once they enter the battlefield, making him perfect for Pure Fiction. If you have Acheron with Jiaoqiu, there isn’t any challenge in the game currently that these two won’t help you clear comfortably.

Fugue

• Rarity: 5-star
• Element: Fire
• Path: Nihility

Fugue is another very strong Nihility debuffer and she can double the damage output of any break team. Although she isn’t as important to a break team’s viability as Ruan Mei is, Fugue’s ability to apply an exo-skeleton on enemies, allowing allies to deal break damage twice on one enemy, basically doubles the damage output. Furthermore, she can enable one character in the team to apply defense reducing debuffs on enemies by attacking them, making her a very strong asset in most teams.

Sunday

• Rarity: 5-star
• Element: Imaginary
• Path: Harmony

Sunday is currently the only dedicated support unit for Remembrance units, and can effectively 100% action forward an ally alongside their summons. Sunday also increases the Crit Damage of the select ally of his Skill and his action forwarding ability is perfect for almost all hyper carry teams. He is the better version of Bronya and can replace her in any of her teams. Furthermore, Sunday’s Ultimate can recharge energy for allies, making him the perfect Support for teams that love spamming ultimate abilities. Currently, Sunday truly doesn’t have a dedicated DPS to support other than Aglaea and Jing Yuan, however, with more Remembrance or summoning units releasing later in the game, he might become an SS tier character later in the meta.

Rappa

• Rarity: 5-star
• Element: Imaginary
• Path: Erudition

Rappa is the third dedicated Break DPS added to the game, and she can deal really strong AoE break damage with her kit. As she is from Erudition path, her damage output is mainly catered for AoE scenarios, however, she can still deal a consistent amount of single-target damage with her Ultimate. Many of Rappa’s attacks ignore toughness of enemies, allowing her to effectively deal break damage against almost every enemy she comes across. Pairing her with Ruan Mei and Fugue can make Rappa destroy enemies in both AoE and single-target scenarios, making her perfect for the S-tier spot in HSR tier list.

Aglaea

• Rarity: 5-star
• Element: Lightning
• Path: Remembrance

Aglaea is the first limited 5-star Remembrance unit in Honkai Star Rail and she can dish out a ton of damage with her high speed attacks. Aglaea’s main damage output comes from her memosprite, while she acts as a support and sub-DPS herself. She is a very strong DPS unit and her attacks can constantly increase her speed, allowing her to constantly take turns.

However, currently, only Sunday is dedicated support for Aglaea, which means she is currently only useful in very specific teams. With more Remembrance supports coming in the future, it is likely that Aglaea will take center stage as a stronger DPS character. At the moment, she is perfectly placed at the S-tier in the Honkai Star Rail tier list.

Topaz and Numby

• Rarity: 5-star
• Element: Fire
• Path: Hunt

Topaz is a very strong character who made other Follow-up attack focused characters return to prominence. Her kit revolves around using Numby to deal high Follow-up Single Target and Blast damage. She also buffs all Follow-up attack damage, and with Follow-up attack teams becoming the meta in Honkai Star Rail, the value of Topaz has skyrocketed. She pairs really well as a support/sub-DPS for Feixiao, Yunli, Himeko, Jing Yuan, or Clara and can bring out the best from the kit. Topaz can be a main DPS in many teams, but she is more suited towards Support for other DPS Follow-up attack characters.

Jingliu

• Rarity: 5-star
• Element: Ice
• Path: Destruction

Jingliu was considered the strongest DPS character in Honkai Star Rail at one time, however, she has lost her place due to a lack of a dedicated support or meta team. She is a hyper carry who still does high Ice Blast damage with her Skill and Ultimate. Her kit allows her to consistently take 3 damage turns simultaneously — using her skill to enter Transmigration State, using her Enhanced Skill, and then using her Ultimate.

Once Jingliu enters her Transmigration state, she starts dishing out some serious damage with her enhanced skill. Entering the Transmigration state gives her a 50% Crit Rate buff, letting her deal insane Crit Damage if built with the correct Relics. Other than dealing high damage numbers, she is also skill point positive.

Dan Heng Imbibitor Lunae

• Rarity: 5-star
• Element: Imaginary
• Path: Destruction

Dan Heng Imbibitor Lunae, aka Dan Heng IL, deals a crazy amount of damage. His skill doesn’t deal any damage by itself; instead, it amplifies his basic attacks. Using his Skill doesn’t end his turn and can be used 3 times consecutively. The effect of his Enhanced Basic Attack changes based on the number of Skills used, dealing a 7-hit Blast attack at the 3rd Skill usage. With each hit of his attack, Dan Heng IL’s Talent further increases his Attack and damage output.

Dan Heng Imbibitor Lunae is a very strong hyper carry who can let you breeze through MoC and Swarm Disaster, making him an easy S tier pick for the Honkai Star Rail Tier list. However, he is very Skill Point negative and needs Sparkle in his team to consistently deal his full damage potential every turn.

Bronya

• Rarity: 5-star
• Element: Wind
• Path: Harmony

Bronya was the most important character in Honkai Star Rail at one time, even considered an absolute must-pull. However, she has lost her place in the SS tier with the release of very strong Support units that are simply better than her. Still, she provides a ton of value to any team. Her Skill and Ultimate provide insane damage and Crit rate buff to your main DPS. Bronya’s Skill also allows a 100% action forward to an ally, allowing your main DPS to take action twice in a cycle, but with a more significant attack buff the second time.

She buffs damage, and can pair with any DPS, even someone like Blade, who scales on HP instead of Attack. Select her at the 300 pulls in the Stellar Wrap if you haven’t got her already because she is still one of the best Harmony characters in the HSR.

Tingyun

• Rarity: 4-star
• Element: Lightning
• Path: Harmony

Tingyun is one of the strongest buffers in the game, perfect for Hypercarry teams, and an amazing alternative for Bronya or Sunday. Her Skill buffs an ally’s attack by 55% up to 27% of Tingyun’s attack, for 3 turns, and deals additional lightning damage equal to 44% of their Attack. This skill works with most DPS characters in Honkai Star Rail as most of them scale on Attack.

Her Ultimate additionally buffs an ally’s Damage by 56% and regenerates 50 energy. Using her Ultimate at the right time will let your main DPS energy recharge quickly while dealing significantly more damage. She is also very Skill point positive, as her Skill has a long uptime. She is a 4-star character so pulling for her and even getting her E6 is comparatively much easier.

Pela

• Rarity: 4-star
• Element: Ice
• Path: Nihility

Pela is another amazing 4 star Harmony character and one of the most powerful S-tier characters in Honkai Star Rail. Her kit mainly revolves around using her Ultimate, which does AoE damage and has a 100% chance to reduce all enemy defenses by 40%, giving a massive damage increase to your Main DPS units. Her skill also removes enemy buffs (except buffs that cannot be removed) and is very useful in stopping an enemy from doing massive enhanced attacks. She is also very Skill point positive.

Luocha

• Rarity: 5-star
• Element: Imaginary
• Path: Abundance

Luocha is one of the best healers in Honkai Star Rail. He doesn’t have a multi-target heal, but his reactive heals are insane and make up for it. His Skill does a high single-target heal but it also has a reactive heal function. When an ally’s HP drops to 50% or lower, this Skill is automatically triggered and the character is healed. The reactive heal can trigger once every 2 turns.

Other than that, Luocha’s Ultimate removes buffs from enemies and adds 1 stack of Abyss Flower. At 2 stacks of Abyss Flower, Luocha consumes the stacks and triggers a field. When any ally attacks enemies in this field, they automatically restore HP based on Luocha’s attack. Luocha is a very solid healer to have in your team and his reactive heals can save your characters during a bad enemy damage RNG.

Honkai Star Rail Best A-Tier Characters

• Hunt March 7th
• Boothill
• Jade
• Clara
• Dr. Ratio
• Seele
• Argenti
• Silver Wolf
• Black Swan
• Blade
• Jing Yuan
• Kafka

The A-tier characters in Honkai Star Rail are very strong characters but they are not insanely strong like the SS and S-tier and work best as alternatives for different play styles. However, don’t underestimate them as if properly built, they can comfortably clear the most difficult parts of Honkai Star Rail.

Hunt March 7th

• Rarity: 4-star
• Element: Imaginary
• Path: Hunt

Hunt March 7th was one of the unexpected turnarounds to normal Hoyoverse meta where only the protagonist gets new paths or playstyles. Instead, Honkai Star Rail decided to also give March 7th, one of the most popular characters in the game, another free-to-play path, and surprisingly she is very good. Hunt March 7th is a really good F2P Sub-DPS units, especially for characters that like doing a ton of attacks. She excels in Follow-up attack teams, and can even replace Robin or Topaz in Feixiao teams without losing a ton of damage.

Boothill

• Rarity: 5-star
• Element: Physical
• Path: Hunt

Boothill is the second dedicated Break DPS added to the game and he is a Galaxy Ranger like Rappa. Boothill has a ton of damage potential, with the possibility of even two-shotting bosses with his best build. However, Boothill requires a ton of investment and very specific teams to get the best out of him. His kit is also fairly tricky to play and only for single-target scenarios. Boothill can excel in Apocalyptic Shadow but might struggle in the other game modes if you don’t have his best build and teams. Overall, Boothill is a solid A-tier DPS in Honkai Star Rail.

Jade

• Rarity: 5-star
• Element: Quantum
• Path: Erudition

Jade is currently the only 5-star Erudition support character in the game and her importance has increased after the release of The Herta. She can be very strong in Pure Fiction, constantly dishing out AoE attacks. Jade excels alongside The Herta and Argenti, providing the necessary support while also dealing a fair amount of damage herself. She also does Blast damage with her basic attack, making her very Skill Point positive. Overall, Jade is a really good character deserving of the A-tier spot, and she may enter the S-tier in the future if the Erudition characters see a return in the upcoming metas.

Clara

• Rarity: 5-star
• Element: Physical
• Path: Destruction

Clara is a very strong DPS unit, who can also act as a Sustain due to her high damage reduction and aggro capabilities. She excels at drawing enemy attacks to herself and doing strong Follow-up blast attacks. Her counter-attacking play style can be a bit hard for starting players to fully grasp, but once correctly built, she can hyper carry through all the hardest content in the game.

Dr. Ratio

• Rarity: 5-star
• Element: Imaginary
• Path: Hunt

Dr. Ratio is the free 5-star character rewarded during the Honkai Star Rail 1.6 version and he is a really strong DPS unit. His kit is perfect for taking down big health pool bosses, better than every other hunt character. Dr. Ratio’s main strength comes from his Talent Follow-up attacks, which are triggered when Dr. Ratio attacks an enemy with debuffs.

Hitting enemies with three or more debuffs gives Dr. Ratio a 100% chance to do a follow-up attack, and as DoTs count as debuffs, running him in DoT teams, like with Kafka, can significantly increase the damage output of the team

Dr. Ratio doesn’t play as a free 5-star character. He is fully equipped for clearing the hardest challenges of Honkai Star Rail and is easily one of the best DPS in the game.

Seele

• Rarity: 5-star
• Element: Quantum
• Path: Hunt

Seele reigned as the strongest DPS character in Honkai Star Rail until she was terribly power creeped. She is still among the best DPS units, but her use cases has diminished greatly over the versions. As a Single target damage dealer in the game, and having the Quantum damage, she is still a great DPS option for Swarm Disaster.

Even though she is a single-target character in Honkai Star Rail, her Talent allows her to take an extra turn after defeating an enemy, further buffing her attack. However, this extra turn is not as frequent the Follow-up attacks from Feixiao. Furthermore, Seele currently doesn’t have anything in her kit that can make her stand out in the crowd of DPS units recently added to the game. And she is also very fragile, easily dying if not careful. Still, Seele is an A-tier DPS and can help clear most of the challenges in the game.

Argenti

• Rarity: 5-star
• Element: Physical
• Path: Erudition

Argenti is one of the strongest Erudition DPS in Honkai Star Rail. Argenti’s Ultimate is layered twice, with one charge filling at 90 energy and another more substantial charge filling at 180. His 90-charge Ultimate is not noteworthy and only deals a good amount of AoE damage. However, after doing a stronger AoE damage, his 180-charge Ultimate adds 6 additional attacks to a single enemy. When facing a single elite enemy, the randomness no longer matters, and Argenti basically Nukes the single target for insane damage.

Pairing that with his Talent, which regenerates Argenti’s energy by 3 for every enemy hit while buffing his Crit Rate up to 28% at full stacks, he can constantly recharge his Ultimate and continuously Crit and deal insane single target damage. Additionally, his Skill does AoE damage, making him a strong AoE damage dealer with an extremely strong single-target nuke. That is why we have featured Argenti in the A-tier in our Honkai Star Rail character tier list.

Silver Wolf

• Rarity: 5-star
• Element: Quantum
• Path: Nihility

Silver Wolf in Honkai Star Rail is a cheat code to its in-game mechanics. The game heavily relies on the weakness system to make the combat challenging and forces players to pull for different characters. If you have Silver Wolf, you no longer need to worry about having DPS of the same weakness type, as she can apply weaknesses on enemies using her Skill. Having her instantly makes any DPS team viable for all content in the game, irrespective of the enemy’s weakness. However, with recent DPS units like Acheron and Feixiao basically ignoring enemy Toughness when dealing damage, the use case for Silver Wolf has diminished greatly, forcing us to drop her position to A-tier.

Besides adding weaknesses, Silver Wolf’s Skill and Ultimate reduce enemy defenses and Type Resistance, making her a very powerful defense shredder. She is also the only character who can debuff enemies with her Basic attack (because of her Talent), making her Skill point positive and an invaluable asset to any team.

Black Swan

• Rarity: 5-star
• Element: Wind
• Path: Nihility

Black Swan is a strong DoT DPS character, who can be very broken with the correct team composition. Her build relies on implementing stacks of Arcana, which depend on the number of DoT procs on an enemy. Black Swan synergizes extremely well with Kafka, and together both of them can destroy any challenges in the game. However, she is still very niche to the DoT builds, which is why we have placed her in the A tier.

Blade

• Rarity: 5-star
• Element: Wind
• Path: Destruction

Blade is a very strong DPS unit, that would be in the S-tier in our HSR character tier list if his playstyle wasn’t highly reliant on having a good healer in the team. Blade’s damage scales are based on his Max HP and the HP loss during combat. His Skill basically converts his HP into Damage. Because of this, you need a strong healer in the team to play Blade viably.

However, once Blade has a good healer and enough HP from his Relics, he can destroy most enemy health bars before consuming his own. A very strong character, and you won’t be disappointed pulling for him.

Jing Yuan

• Rarity: 5-star
• Element: Lightning
• Path: Erudition

Jing Yuan is a follow-up focused DPS character in Honkai Star Rail. His main strength is his Talent, which summons the Lightning Lord at the start of the battle. Lightning Lord has its own turn and can deal up to 10 hits (at max stack) of Bounce lightning damage, considered a Follow-up attack. Other than that, his Skill and Ultimate deals high AoE damage. Jing Yuan has also received many buffs recently, with the addition of Sunday and the new Relic sets to the game. Overall, a very strong unit for clearing multi-target and Lightning weakness enemies.

Kafka

• Rarity: 5-star
• Element: Lightning
• Path: Nihility

Kafka is one of the strongest DoT characters in Honkai Star Rail, and a must-pull if you want to build a strong DoT team. Her Skill does good Lightning blast damage and instantly triggers every DoT applied on an enemy. She can also do Follow-up attacks that inflict Shock. Playing a good DoT applier with her can let her deal massive DoT to any enemy. She has become stronger with the release of Black Swan, and together they can destroy every enemy in the game with ease. One of the strongest characters in Honkai Star Rail and a clear fan favorite for her style and story significance.

Honkai Star Rail Best B-Tier Characters

• Moze
• Serval
• Asta
• Qingque
• Geopard
• Lynx
• Bailu
• Welt
• Himeko
• Guinafen
• Xueyi
• Herta

The B-tier characters in Honkai Star Rail are average or slightly above average characters. These characters are good enough to complete all the story mission content in the game. But for end-game challenges, like MoC and Simulated Universe, it’s better to pull for A-tier or above characters.

Moze

• Rarity: 4-star
• Element: Lightning
• Path: Hunt

Moze is a 4-star Hunt character and his kit is quite strong for a f2p friendly unit. He can lose aggro using his Skill, making him great for Clara or Yunli teams. Furthermore, he can execute a ton of Follow-up attacks, making him a great option for Feixiao teams as well. Overall, Moze is a decently strong 4-star DPS character in Honkai Star Rail, and perfect for the B-tier.

Serval

• Rarity: 4-star
• Element: Lightning
• Path: Erudition

Serval has received a boost to her position with the recent buffs to Erudition units, especially with the addition of The Herta. She is another DoT character but from the Erudition path instead of the Nihility path like most other DoT characters. Serval provides consistent damage every turn and they build up with each turn. Her main kit revolves around applying Shock on enemies and triggering her talent that deals additional damage to shocked enemies. Having her E6, lets her apply Shock constantly on enemies and increases damage dealt to Shocked enemies significantly.

Asta

• Rarity: 4-star
• Element: Fire
• Path: Harmony

Asta is one of the best free characters in Honkai Star Rail and an amazing support character who requires very little investment. Her Ultimate increases the speed of all allies by 52 at max level, changing the attack order massively and helping your characters meet the speed break points and speed relic thresholds.

Asta’s Skill does a Bounce attack on random enemies. Her Talent buffs the Attack of all allies by 15% per stack, based on the number of targets Asta hits with her Skill or Basic attack (stacks 5 times). She is a very low investment, as you only need to invest in her Talent and Ultimate. The game also gives her for free at the very start, making her an invaluable early-game asset.

Qingque

• Rarity: 4-star
• Element: Quantum
• Path: Erudition

Qingque is still arguably the best free DPS character in Honkai Star Rail, with the potential of becoming a really strong DPS option after unlocking her Eidolon 4. Her playstyle is very gambling-oriented, as it depends on using her Skills to get 4 stacks of the same Jade tiles to do her enhanced Basic Attack for 1 turn.

Her attack increases by 30% each time she uses her Skill (max 4 stacks), making the idle time to deal her enhanced Attack after her 4th Skill use. However, she can reach the 4 stacks of Jade tiles before, or worse, not reach at all after using all your Skill points, making her damage very unreliable each turn. She truly shines after unlocking her E4, which lets her do a Follow-up attack after her Basic attack (with the same multipliers), dealing the already high damage twice. She is a fun character to play but can be frustrating when the RNG gods don’t help you.

Geopard

• Rarity: 5-star
• Element: Ice
• Path: Preservation

Geopard is a very strong Sustain, who provides strong shields using his Ultimate to all allies. He can lead your team to victory without anyone taking a single damage. On top of that, his Skill has a good chance of Freezing a single enemy, while dealing Ice damage. Geopard can also self revive using his Talent, making him a very strong Tank. Pairing him with someone like Clara can let you effortlessly clear most of the difficult challenges.

Lynx

• Rarity: 4-star
• Element: Quantum
• Path: Abundance

Lynx is a 4 star Abundance character and one of the best healers in the game. Her Skill is a single target heal that also increases the target’s Max HP. Additionally, her Skill gives aggro if it heals any Path of Destruction or Preservation characters, making her a perfect partner for Blade, Yunli or Clara. Lynx’s Ultimate is a team-wide heal that also cleanses the targets for 1 debuff. Being able to cleanse is extremely important in late-game, making her an easy favorite over Natasha or Bailu.

Bailu

• Rarity: 5-star
• Element: Lightning
• Path: Abundance

Bailu is a very strong healer and the only Eidolon 0 healer who can revive knocked out characters. Her Skill is a bounce heal that heals the main target first and then jumps to two random allies. The highlight point of her kit is her Ultimate, which is a good team-wide heal that also applies Invigoration on all the allies for 1 turn. Invigoration lets allies heal automatically for a decent amount when they get hit by enemies, making your team a bit more tanky.

The biggest downside of Bailu’s kit is the lack of any cleanse. Cleanse is very important in the end game of Honkai Star Rail, and having a healer not able to cleanse can make challenges infinitely harder. That’s why I have placed Bailu lower than Lynx in the Honkai Star Rail character Tier list.

Welt

• Rarity: 5-star
• Element: Imaginary
• Path: Nihility

Welt is a great character and someone I really like playing. However, with the release of better support characters, Welt has become more of an afterthought. Welt’s kit is very unique as he applies Slow on enemies with his Skill, forcing them to delay their turns, while his Ultimate imprisons enemies, making them skip turns completely. Building Welt properly can stop enemies from taking any action and is a genuinely fun way to play.

Himeko

• Rarity: 5-star
• Element: Fire
• Path: Erudition

Himeko is one of the popular characters in the Honkai universe, but her character in Honkai Star Rail doesn’t live up to her hype. However, with recent buffs to both follow-up attack characters, break DPS units, and Erudition characters, Himeko has certainly become a better viable option. Himeko can also be considered an SS-tier character when it comes to Pure Fiction, as she can effectively auto-clear rounds with Fire weaknesses. Being a DPS, her damage is comparatively very low, only her Follow-up attack, which deals AoE fire damage, has any power behind it.

Triggering her Follow-up attack requires weakness-breaking 3 enemies, which can become increasingly hard outside of Pure Fiction. Nonetheless, she is still great for early-game content and is very strong for the Pure Fiction mode.

Guinafen

• Rarity: 4-star
• Element: Fire
• Path: Nihility

Guinafen is a strong DoT unit that can do a fair share of damage while decreasing enemy defenses if built correctly. Her Skill applies burn on enemies for 2 turns. When enemies with the burn status take DoT damage, their defense is weakened by 7% (can stack up to 3 times). Her Ultimate also does AoE fire damage, while also triggering all the Burn DoTs applied on the enemy. Overall, she is a good unit and can pair well with other Fire characters like Asta and Himeko, and DoT characters like Kafka.

Xueyi

• Rarity: 4-star
• Element: Qunatum
• Path: Destruction

Xueyi is a solid 4-star Destruction character who excels at breaking enemy weaknesses. She features a wide range of attacks — Single Target, Blast, and Follow-up attacks — and her attacks can do Toughness damage irrespective of the weakness type. Breaking weaknesses of enemies lets her do Follow-up blast attacks, making her very strong as a sub-DPS.

Herta

• Rarity: 4-star
• Element: Ice
• Path: Erudition

Herta is one of the easiest characters to get Eidolon 6 on Honkai Star Rail, as you get most of them free from the Simulated Universe. She is a decent character with good AoE damage Skill and Ultimate. Additionally, she does AoE Follow-up attack when an enemy hits 50% or lower health. She is very good in the early game and the Ashblazing Grand Duke Relic set has only made her stronger. She is insanely strong for Pure Fiction and is considered an S tier character in Pure Fiction. But, she is pretty weak in every other aspect of the game, justifying her low placement in the Honkai Star Rail Character Tier list.

Honkai Star Rail Best C-Tier Characters

• Preservation Trailblazer
• Preservation March 7th
• Yukong
• Misha
• Hanya
• Natasha
• Luka
• Yanqing
• Dan Heng

The C-tier characters in Honkai Star Rail are the comparatively weaker characters, who are only good in early game content or in very specific scenarios. In most cases, these characters will be left out of your main team if you are planning to take on difficult opponents.

Preservation Trailblazer

• Rarity: 5-star
• Element: Fire
• Path: Preservation

Preservation or Fire Trailblazer is a decently strong f2p sustain unit with a fair bit of damage output. His/her kit is primarily based around the Talent, which stacks Magma Will each time the Trailblazer is hit (up to 8 stacks). The Trailblazer can also get stacks from using their Skill. When the Trailblazer has 4 stacks or more, their basic attacks become enhanced basic attacks and deal Blast damage instead of single target damage.

However, the main highlight of the kit is that the Trailblazer will apply a small shield to all allies when the Trailblazer uses their Basic Attack, Skill, or Ultimate. Additionally, using Skill will decrease damage taken by 40% for the Trailblazer, with a 100% chance of taunting all enemies for 1 turn, drawing their aggro. Trailblazer’s Ultimate also does a fair bit of AoE damage and makes the next basic attack automatically enhanced. The Fire Trailblazer has many good things in their kit, but sadly they cannot solo sustain a team, leading to their C-tier placement in the Honkai Star Rail Tier list.

Preservation March 7th

• Rarity: 4-star
• Element: Lightning
• Path: Erudition

March 7th is the first free character you will get in Honkai Star Rail, and she does a fairly good job as a sustain, helping you clear most content until you get Fire Trailblazer or a better sustain. Her Skill gives Shield to a single ally and any attack on that ally triggers a Follow-up attack from her. Her Ultimate also does AoE attack with a small chance to freeze all enemies. Overall, she has a good kit for early-game content and can be useful if you want another shield provider in late-game challenges.

Yukong

• Rarity: 4-star
• Element: Imaginary
• Path: Harmony

Yukong is a very strong Harmony character with a combined kit of a Sub DPS and Support. She can buff the Attack of all allies by 88% using her Skill which is much stronger than buffs received from other Harmony characters. Yukong’s Ultimate can additionally increase Crit Rate by 30% and Crit Damage by 70% for all allies, while dealing a ridiculous 410% of Yukong’s attack as Imaginary damage to a single target.

Her buffs are extremely strong but where she lacks is in her buff uptime, which is why we have kept her in C-tier in our Honkai Star Rail character tier list. Her Skill buff only lasts 2 turns of her allies and not her 2 turns. This makes building a team around her very hard as you always need to make sure the main DPS is going right after Yukong. However, if built and played correctly, she can provide a massive damage buff to your team while doing a decent bit of damage herself.

Misha

• Rarity: 4-star
• Element: Ice
• Path: Destruction

Misha is a 4-star Ice DPS character who can be very strong against Ice weakness enemies. His kit specializes in breaking enemies’ toughness and freezing enemies. Misha’s Ultimate is a multi-target bounce attack, which has a good chance of freezing enemies and is equivalent to a nuke against a single enemy. He is a strong character and can deal really good damage when built correctly.

Hanya

• Rarity: 4-star
• Element: Physical
• Path: Harmony

Hanya is another newly released character in HSR and she fixes the Skill Point issue for characters like Dan Heng Inbibitor Lunae and Qingque. Her Skill marks a single enemy and any attack on that enemy generates a Skill point (up to 2 Skill points). Also, allies attacking the enemy with the Burden status will deal 33% more damage.

Other than being a Skill point generating machine, she also gives a significant Speed and Attack buff with her Ultimate to a single target for 2 turns. She is overall a decently strong Harmony unit and will help your high Skill Point economy teams cycle properly.

Natasha

• Rarity: 4-star
• Element: Physical
• Path: Abundance

Natasha is a very good early-game healer. Players can get her for free in the early game, making her the first healer most players get to have. Her Skill lets her heal a single ally and it additionally heals the same ally at the start of their turn, for 2 turns. Her Ultimate heals all allies for a decent amount, making it really good for early boss fights. However, she lacks cleanse, and that makes playing her near impossible in end-game content which is why she is placed lowest among all the Abundance characters in the HSR character tier list.

Luka

• Rarity: 4-star
• Element: Physical
• Path: Nihility

Luka is a strong DoT applier who can also deal vulnerability to enemies, reducing their defenses. He is particularly good in DoT teams or as a sub DPS. Teams built around Kafka can use Luka to deal a good chunk of DoT damage, but other than that, you will be better off with other DPS characters.

Yanqing

• Rarity: 5-star
• Element: Ice
• Path: Hunt

Yanqing is the only 5 star character in the C or lower tiers (excluding Trailblazer) and the main reason for that is his playstyle. In terms of damage output, Yanqing can dish out a lot of damage due to his self-buffing capabilities. When Yanqing uses his Skill, he deals a good single target ice damage and activates Soulsteel sync for 1 turn.

While this effect is active, Yanqing gets a buff to his Crit Rate by 21% and Crit Damage by 33%, also allowing a 60% chance of doing Follow-up attacks after attacking enemies. His Ultimate increases his Crit rate by 60% and additionally increases the Crit Damage by 54% when the Soulsteel Sync effect is activated while doing a good amount of single target damage.

However, the main drawback of his kit is when Yanqing takes damage, he loses his Soulsteel Sync effect. This is why, to have the best out of Yanqing, you need to use a good shield applier. Although he is a very strong character, there are better DPS units than him that are easier to play, which is why he is placed so low in the Honkai Star Rail Character Tier list.

Dan Heng

• Rarity: 4-star
• Element: Wind
• Path: Hunt

Dan Heng is the 2nd free character given at the very start of the game. Being the weaker version of himself, Dan Heng can still become a formidable character at Eidolons 6. He can act as a carry for most of the early game content at E0 as he possesses strong single-target damage that also has a chance to Slow enemies. His talent also gives him 37% Wind Resistance Penetration as long as a targeted Skill is applied to him, like Tingyun’ Skill or Asta’s Ultimate.

Dan Heng’s Technique also gives him a 40% Attack increase for 3 turns. However, he truly shines at E6, as he can take another action after defeating an enemy with his Ultimate and can Slow enemies with a better chance. Dan Heng is a good character for beating most of the early game content, and if properly invested, can be a good late game asset if you are lacking a good single target DPS carry.

Honkai Star Rail Best D-Tier Characters

• Sushang
• Hook
• Sampo

The D-tier characters are the weaker characters in Honkai Star Rail. These characters can be good but need high investment and very specific teams to shine.

Sushang

• Rarity: 4-star
• Element: Physical
• Path: Hunt

Sushang is a decent single-target Hunt character with the Physical damage type. She gets a significant speed buff when enemies are broken. Her Skill does good single-target physical damage, with a chance of triggering Sword Stance, which deals additional damage to the enemy. Sword Stance has a 100% chance against weakness-broken enemies, so her main damage output is going to be against them. She also has a good single target Ultimate, which also 100% advances her turn.

Sushang is a lovely character but her damage is not significant, and someone like Dan Heng is a better choice because of the Slow debuff they can apply on enemies. Sushang will appear in phase 2 of Honkai Star Rail 1.6 banners.

Hook

• Rarity: 4-star
• Element: Fire
• Path: Destruction

Hook is another decent Honkai Star Rail character. Her Skill basically does good single-target damage, which also applies Burn on enemies. Her Burn damage scales with her level so she can do pretty good damage once fully leveled. She does consistent damage and can let you clear early-game content pretty easily, especially against the Fire Weakness types. But compared to other DPS characters, she doesn’t stand out at all.

Sampo

• Rarity: 4-star
• Element: Wind
• Path: Nihility

Sampo is another good DoT applier who can quickly rack up Wind shear stacks on enemies. His Skill bounces between enemies dealing Wind damage and applying Wind shear up to 5 hits. This is RNG with multiple enemies, but against a single target, it’s really good. Sampo’s Ultimate also makes enemies vulnerable to DoTs, making him decent for DoT teams. But he doesn’t have anything exceptional, which is why he is placed in the D tier of the Honkai Star Rail Character Tier list.

Honkai Star Rail Best E-Tier Characters

• Arlan
• Destruction Trailblazer

The E-tier characters in Honkai Star Rail are the weakest and don’t bring much value to any team.

Arlan

• Rarity: 4-star
• Element: Lightning
• Path: Destruction

Arlan is widely considered the worst character in Honkai Star Rail. He has a similar playstyle like Blade, but without the high damage part. His kit also consumes his HP to increase his damage, however, his multiplier is below subpar, leading to barely any damage.

Destruction Trailblazer

• Rarity: 5-star
• Element: Physical
• Path: Destruction

Ranking Physical Trailblazer in the E tier was physically painful for me because I absolutely love the Galactic Baseballer. However, his/her kit is just straight single and blast Physical damage with very poor damage numbers. If looked at it from pure damage numbers, players are better off with any other DPS than him.

So, this is our Honkai Star Rail character tier list. This list was created after carefully analyzing each character and their kit for early, mid, and late-game content. We would love to know your thoughts about our tier list and your favorite characters. Share your opinion with us in the comment section.