HSR Tier List – Best Honkai Star Rail Characters Ranked (April 2026)

Honkai Star Rail Tier List
Image Credit: Sanmay/ Beebom

Update: This tier list was last updated on April 23, 2026

Your success in Honkai Star Rail largely depends on the characters you pick and the teams you build with them. With the game having a huge number of characters, it is common to be perplexed about who to pick and build in the game. To help you understand which characters are better and should be prioritized, we have created an Honkai Star Rail tier list. Follow this tier list to learn about the best characters in Honkai Star Rail for the current meta.

Honkai Star Rail Character Tier List – Overall for HSR 4.2

TierCharacters
SSSilver Wolf LV.999, Ashveil, Sparxie, Phainon, Castorice, Feixiao, Yao Guang, Sunday, Robin, Tribbie, Hyacine, Huohuo, Gallagher, Dan Heng Permansor Terrae
SElation Trailblazer, Aventurine, The Herta, The Dahlia, Cyrene, Evernight, Anaxa, Cipher, Hysilens, Saber, Archer, Mydei, Ruan Mei, Remembrance Trailblazer, Sparkle, Firefly, Fugue, Aglaea, Bronya, Luocha, Kafka, Silver Wolf, Black Swan, Fu Xuan
AAcheron, Lingsha, Cerydra, Harmony Trailblazer, Jiaoqiu, Topaz & Numby, Pela, Tingyun, Jingliu, Dan Heng Imbibitor Lunae, Hunt March 7th, Boothill, Rappa, Jade, Clara, Seele, Argenti, Blade, Jing Yuan, Yunli, Welt
BMoze, Serval, Asta, Qingque, Dr. Ratio, Gepard, Lynx, Bailu, Himeko, Guinaifen, Xueyi, Herta, Sampo
CPreservation Trailblazer, Preservation March 7th, Yukong, Misha, Hanya, Natasha, Luka, Yanqing, Dan Heng
DSushang, Hook, Arlan, Destruction Trailblazer

Current HSR Meta in April 2026

Elation teams are the current Honkai Star Rail meta. Almost every enemy in Planarcadia is weak to Elation damage, and that makes it extremely useful for the current arc.

Other than that, the Chrysos Heir teams are still going strong. The Phainon team is currently the strongest in the game and can destroy any enemy, irrespective of their weakness type. Alongside him, the health-draining teams led by Castorice are also very strong for the current meta.

When it comes to teams outside the Chrysos Heirs, Follow-Up ATK teams have consistently kept their place in the top order. This team is led by Feixiao, who is the best Follow-up ATK DPS at the moment. Other than that, with the introduction of The Dahlia, Break teams have also received a boost in the meta and have become worthwhile to build.

Best HSR SS Tier Characters

The SS Tier characters in Honkai Star Rail are the absolute best characters in the game. These characters can single-handedly carry you through the hardest challenges and bring immense value to any team they are part of.

Silver Wolf LV. 999

HSR Silver Wolf LV.999 build
Image Credit: Hoyoverse
  • Rarity: 5-star
  • Element: Imaginary
  • Path: Elation
  • Best Team: Silver Wolf LV.999, Yao Guang, Sparxie, and Huohuo

Silver Wolf LV.999 is the new form of our favorite character, and she is incredibly strong. She is an Elation DPS with the highest possible damage potential in the current meta. She completely scales on Speed, making her the best DPS option for those pesky zero-cycle clears. Her Elation damage is through the roof, so all you need to do is build her Crit and Speed stats to deal serious damage.

Grabbing her in the current meta is the best way to dominate the enemies introduced in the Planarcadia arc. However, as Elation team options are still low, you will need to get Yao Guang as well to get the best out of our favorite hacker.

Ashveil

La Mancha Ashveil HSR
Image Credit: Hoyoverse / Honkai Star Rail (screenshot by Sanmay / Beebom)
  • Rarity: 5-star
  • Element: Lightning
  • Path: Hunt
  • Best Team: Ashveil, Sunday, Tribbie, and Dan Heng Permansor Terrae

Ashveil is one of the strongest DPS units in Honkai Star Rail. He has absolutely zero downsides and can dish out an incredible amount of damage. Ashveil is a follow-up Attack DPS who can also decrease the enemy’s defense passively. He is also very F2P-friendly when it comes to team options.

You will want to pair Ashveil with characters who frequently attack enemies to get the most out of his Follow-up Attack damage. I personally love to pair Ashveil with Feixiao, creating an incredibly powerful DPS duo. However, Sunday and Tribbie are still his best allies, and you should focus on building a Hypercarry team around him. Overall, he is easily an SS-tier character in Honkai Star Rail.

Sparxie

Sparxie Honkai Star Rail planarcadia
Image Credit: Hoyoverse (via X/@HonkaiStarRail)
  • Rarity: 5-star
  • Element: Fire
  • Path: Elation
  • Best Team: Sparxie, Yao Guang, Sparkle, and Dan Heng Permansor Terrae

Sparxie is an incredibly strong Elation DPS who can burn skill points to amplify her damage. In the correct teams, she can destroy her opponents. With the current Elation meta, Sparxie in her main team is one of the strongest DPS in the game.

To get the best out of Sparxie, I prefer to pair her with SP positive characters, especially Sparkle. This way, Sparxie has a huge number of Skill Points waiting to be consumed, which will amplify each of her attacks to the maximum. Other than that, you can also play her in a full Elation team, pairing both Yao Guang and Silver Wolf LV. 999 to get a massive damage out increase for the entire team.

Phainon

Phainon's Khaslana form in Honkai Star Rail
Image Credit: Hoyoverse/Honkai Star Rail (screenshot by Sanmay/ Beebom)
  • Rarity: 5-star
  • Element: Physical
  • Path: Destruction
  • Best Team: Phainon, Cerydra, Sunday, and Dan Heng Permansor Terrae

Phainon is currently the strongest DPS character in Honkai Star Rail, even though he isn’t part of the Elation meta. His Ultimate form gives him increased HP and multiple turns. On top of all that, Phainon cannot die in his Ultimate form, and he is completely immune to crowd control. As Phainon’s Ultimate also withdraws all allies from the battlefield, he is also the best character for keeping your allies safe in a tough battle.

Getting Phainon’s Ultimate is the main objective with him in a fight. You will need allies to target Phainon with abilities to charge his Ultimate faster. All you have to do is buff him with support characters and let him use his Ultimate to become almost indestructible. Pull for Phainon, and you will breeze through the hardest challenges in the game.

Castorice

Castorice Honkai Star Rail
Image Credit: Hoyoverse (via YouTube/honkaistarrail, screenshot by Sanmay Chakrabarti/Beebom)
  • Rarity: 5-star
  • Element: Quantum
  • Path: Remembrance
  • Best Team: Castorice, Tribbie, Evernight, and Hyacine

Castorice is one of the most broken characters in Honkai Star Rail. She comes with a global passive ability, which alone is enough to make her S-tier. Her global passive can revive any character on the battlefield for one time after they are downed. The most insane part about it is that she doesn’t need to be on the team to apply this technique.

She is also an incredibly strong DPS with massive AoE and single-target damage output. Castorice consumes the health of her allies to deal damage, so you will generally require a good healer and characters who scale off the HP stat. One more nifty feature about her is that as long as her memosprite is on the field, she prevents death for all allies. This is why she easily fits the SS-tier spot on our Honkai Star Rail tier list.

Feixiao

Feixiao Honkai Star Rail
Image Credit: Hoyoverse/Honkai Star Rail (screenshot by Sanmay Chakrabarti/Beebom)
  • Rarity: 5-star
  • Element: Wind
  • Path: Hunt
  • Best Team: Feixiao, Ashveil, Robin, and Dan Heng Permansor Terrae

Feixiao is one of the strongest DPS units in the game and has single-handedly kept the Follow-up attack teams in the meta. She is a Follow-up Attack DPS with massive damage output capabilities. Her Ultimate is devastatingly strong and reduces enemy toughness by ignoring their weakness type. She has a high chance of executing Follow-up Attacks when her allies hit enemies, which compensates for her lack of AoE attacks as a mainly single-target DPS.

Build Crit and ATK on her to maximize her damage output and pair her in a Follow-up attack team to destroy enemies. Although Follow-up Attack teams haven’t received much buff for over a year, Ashveil’s release is still a good indicator that the team will remain in the meta.

Yao Guang

Yao Guang Honkai Star Rail Planarcadia
Image Credit: Hoyoverse (via X/@HonkaiStarRail)
  • Rarity: 5-star
  • Element: Physical
  • Path: Elation
  • Best Team: Silver Wolf LV.999, Yao Guang, Sparxie, and Huohuo

Yao Guang is the strongest Elation support currently in the game, and she can also deal a fair amount of damage. With the Elation meta shift, she has been moved to the SS-tier. She massively buffs Elation for her allies and deals incredible Elation damage during Aha’s turn. She has become an absolute necessity in Elation teams due to this very reason.

Yao Guang is also very Skill Point positive, and her Ultimate increases All Type RES Penetration for all allies, which is pretty strong. Due to her only buffing Elation damage, I prefer to build Crit and Speed on her, so that she gets multiple turns in one cycle. Also, this way you can build HP or DEF on her as main stats to make her a bit more tanky in fights.

Sunday

Honkai Star Rail Sunday Best Build
Image Credit: Hoyoverse
  • Rarity: 5-star
  • Element: Imaginary
  • Path: Harmony
  • Best Team: Phainon, Sunday, Cerydra, and Dan Heng Permansor Terrae

Sunday is arguably one of the strongest Harmony units in the game, with the capability of action-forwarding allies by 100% alongside their summons and memosprites. 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. His Ultimate can also recharge energy for allies, making him the perfect support for teams that love spamming ultimate abilities.

I prefer to build his Crit stat as allies get a buff based on Sunday’s Crit, and his speed to get him in fast rotation with the main DPS. You can also add HP and DEF stats to him to make him tanky and strong enough to withstand those excruciatingly bad RNGs.

Robin

Robin Honkai Star Rail trailer
Image Credit: Hoyoverse (via YouTube/HonkaiStarRail, screenshot by Sanmay Chakrabarti/Beebom)
  • Rarity: 5-star
  • Element: Physical
  • Path: Harmony
  • Best Teams: Feixiao, Ashveil, Robin, and Dan Heng Permansor Terrae

Robin has been one of the best supports in Honkai Star Rail ever since her debut. She can buff the damage of the entire team with her Skill, while her Ultimate action forwards all allies by 100%. But that’s not all, as she can further buff Follow-up Attack damage with her Ascension ability, and deals additional damage to every enemy hit while she is in her Ultimate state.

She is the best Follow-up Attack support in the game, but you can also play her in other teams. I personally love to have Robin in most of my teams, as her 100% team action forward ability is a complete game-changer in battles. Overall, Robin has absolutely zero downsides and is one of the strongest supports in the game.

Tribbie

Tribbie best build Honkai star Rail
Image Credit: Hoyoverse (via YouTube/honkaistarrail, screenshot by Sanmay Chakrabarti/Beebom)
  • Rarity: 5-star
  • Element: Quantum
  • Path: Harmony
  • Best Team: Castorice, Tribbie, Evernight, and Hyacine

Tribbie shot up to the SS-tier support slot on her release in our Honkai Star Rail tier list. She is a sub-DPS hidden in the guise of a support. Tribbie can massively increase the entire damage output of the team through her Follow-up attacks and Ultimate. Furthermore, her Skill gives a passive damage buff for the entire team, which is also highly useful.

Use the ‘Dance! Dance! Dance!’ Light Cone on Tribbie to also action forward the entire team every time she Ults. As her Ultimate frequency is much higher than most other characters in the game, you are essentially getting free action forward for the entire team without any downsides.

Hyacine

Hyacine Best Build Honkai Star Rail
Image Credit: Hoyoverse (via YouTube/HonkaiStarRail, screenshot by Sanmay Chakrabarti/Beebom)
  • Rarity: 5-star
  • Element: Wind
  • Path: Remembrance
  • Best Team: Castorice, Tribbie, Evernight, and Hyacine

Hyacine is the best Healer spot in Honkai Star Rail. Even though Hyacine is a Remembrance unit, she is better than every other Abundance unit when it comes to healing. Her AoE heals, and incremental healing is incredibly overpowered. Furthermore, she can also deal a ton of damage with her Ultimate and memosprite attacks.

Putting Hyacine in a Castorice team will let you clear most of the game’s hardest challenges easily. As she completely scales on HP, I prefer stacking as much HP as possible on her to get the most benefit from both her healing and damage output. With such a strong kit, Hyacine easily makes it to the SS tier spot in our HSR tier list.

Huohuo

Huohuo Honkai Star Rail SS Tier Sustain
Image Credit: Hoyoverse (via YouTube/HonkaiStarRail, screenshot by Sanmay Chakrabarti/Beebom)
  • Rarity: 5-star
  • Element: Wind
  • Path: Abundance
  • Best Team: Silver Wolf LV.999, Yao Guang, Sparxie, and Huohuo

Huohuo continues to be one of the best healers in Honkai Star Rail. She has a diverse healing kit with added supporting capabilities from Ultimate. With strong multi-target and on-turn heals, Huohuo can keep your entire team up and running without a sweat. All of her heals can also cleanse, making your team almost immune to crowd-control attacks. The cherry on top is her Ultimate, which increases the ATK of all allies while also regenerating energy for them.

She has also received some very strong buffs, and that has brought her up in stature again in the HSR tier list. Huohuo has become the best support for Elation teams, having amazing synergy with Silver Wolf LV. 999.

Gallagher

Gallagher Honkai Star Rail
Image Credit: Hoyoverse/Honkai Star Rail (screenshot by Sanmay Chakrabarti/Beebom)
  • Rarity: 4-star
  • Element: Fire
  • Path: Abundance
  • Best Team: Firefly, The Dahlia, Fugue, and Gallagher

Gallagher is currently the best F2P sustain in Honkai Star Rail and is one of the best healers in the game at E6. He has very strong heals and can deal a fair amount of damage by himself. Gallagher’s Ultimate applies a debuff on enemies that heals allies when they attack them. Furthermore, his Ultimate action forwards him by 100%, allowing him to reflex heal allies whenever they 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. Although he is best suited for Break teams, Gallagher’s strong healing potential makes him perfect for almost all teams in the game.

Dan Heng Permansor Terrae

Dan Heng Permansor Terrae build
Image Credit: Hoyoverse (via X/@HonkaiStarRail, screenshot by Sanmay/ Beebom)
  • Rarity: 5-star
  • Element: Physical
  • Path: Preservation
  • Best Team: Phainon, Cerydra, Sunday, Dan Heng Permansor Terrae

Dan Heng Permansor Terrae was given for free in Honkai Star Rail, and he has quickly established himself as the best shielder in the game. He is capable of everything Aventurine can do, only better, and with higher damage output. This form of Dan Heng can also summon a dragon that not only deals damage, but also gives shields when attacking.

He is the perfect support for most team characters, especially because his shields can stack on top of each other. Also, Dan Heng PT completely scales on ATK, making him very easy to build for both damage output and shield aptitude. This makes him one of the best sustains in Honkai Star Rail, and an easy pick for the SS tier.

Best HSR S Tier Characters

The S-tier characters in our Honkai Star Rail tier list are also incredibly strong units, but are either dependent on their specific teams to dominate the game or have less damage to be considered in the SS tier. These characters can easily compete and replace characters from the SS tier as alternatives.

Elation Trailblazer

HSR Elation Trailblazer
Image Credit: Hoyoverse (via X/@HonkaiStarRail)
  • Rarity: 5-star
  • Element: Lightning
  • Path: Elation
  • Best Team: Evanescia, Yao Guang, Elation Trailblazer, Huohuo

Trialblazer’s Elation form has finally been unlocked, and it packs quite a punch. This is another support version of the Trailblazer, and it is the best F2P unit for Elation teams. Although Elation Trailblazer lacks the versatility of Remembrance Trailblazer, its importance in the current meta has boosted their rank to the S-tier.

The Elation Trailblazer can quickly generate a ton of Certified Banger points with the Skill while damaging all enemies. Their Ultimate is the most important part of their kit, increasing an ally’s Crit Damage and despelling Crowd Control debuffs. If the targeted character doesn’t possess an Elation skill, they are also action advanced, making them decently good for teams outside the Elation meta.

The Herta

Honkai Star Rail The Herta Best Build
Image Credit: Hoyoverse (via YouTube/HonkaiStarRail, screenshot by Sanmay Chakrabarti/Beebom)
  • Rarity: 5-star
  • Element: Ice
  • Path: Erudition
  • Best Team: The Herta, Anaxa, Tribbie, Dan Heng Permansor Terrae

The Herta is the original version of the Erudition genius. As the Erudition Emanator, it was no surprise to see her become the strongest Erudition DPS upon 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 to each enemy. In the correct team, she can deal outrageously high damage.

I personally love to pair The Herta with Anaxa or Jade, which makes it easy to rack up her stacks. Simply build Crit and ATK% on The Herta to get the maximum damage output from her attacks. Being a literal goddess of AoE attacks, The Herta is unparalleled in the Pure Fiction game mode.

Aventurine

Aventurine Best Build Honkai Star Rail
Image Credit: Hoyoverse/Honkai Star Rail (screenshot by Sanmay Chakrabarti/Beebom)
  • Rarity: 5-star
  • Element: Imaginary
  • Path: Preservation
  • Best Team: Feixiao, Ashveil, Robin, Aventurine

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 shielders in the game. He can provide AoE shields with his Skill and Talent-triggered Follow-up attacks. The shields stack, so your allies would barely take any damage if Aventurine is played correctly. Furthermore, his Ultimate increases damage taken by the affected enemy, which is a nice ability to have on a sustain.

With Dan Heng Permansor Terrae being given for free, Aventurine has dropped in importance a bit in the game’s meta. However, he is still an amazing character to have, especially because he completely scales son DEF, and that makes him quite tanky as well.

The Dahlia

Constance "The Dahlia" Honkai Star Rail
Image Credit: Hoyoverse (via YouTube/HonkaiStarRail, screenshot by Sanmay Chakrabarti/Beebom)
  • Rarity: 5-star
  • Element: Fire
  • Path: Nihility
  • Best Team: Firefly, The Dahlia, Fugue, Lingsha

The Dahlia has single-handedly brought back the Break meta in the game. She is an incredible support that allows allies to deal Super Break DMG without actually breaking the enemy’s Toughness bar first. She can also apply weaknesses to enemies and can buff the Break Effect and Weakness Break efficiency of allies.

With Firefly getting some good buffs, The Dahlia is more important than ever. You can pair her with the new Firefly and get through most challenges, even in the current Elation meta. Hopefully, Break Teams are brought back in a later arc, but until then, you need to have The Dahlia to keep a Break Team viable in the current meta.

Cyrene

Cyrene real name HSR
Image Credit: Hoyoverse/ Honkai Star Rail (screenshot by Sanmay/ Beebom)
  • Rarity: 5-star
  • Element: Ice
  • Path: Remembrance
  • Best Team: Castorice, Evernight, Cyrene, Hyacine

Cyrene is an incredibly strong character, but she often feels like a double-edged sword. She is limited to Chrysos Heir teams, and her Ultimate recharge time is painfully slow. Without her Ultimate, she is basically a burden on the team. However, once Cyrene gets her Ultimate charged, she instantly becomes the best support in the game, recharging the Ultimate for all allies and giving insane buffs.

I recommend you use Cyrene in Castorice’s team, even though she is highly effective in every Chrysos Heir team. Castorice’s team gets the highest damage increase with Cyrene’s presence, and her ability is so strong that you can break through meta barriers to dominate any challenge thrown at them.

Evernight

Evernight Kit HSR
Image Credit: Hoyoverse (via YouTube/HonkaiStarRail)
  • Rarity: 5-star
  • Element: Ice
  • Path: Remembrance
  • Best Team: Castorice, Evernight, Tribbie, Hyacine

Evernight is one of the best Remembrance units in the game that can act as both a Sub-DPS and main DPS. She is one of the cornerstones of the Castorice teams and would keep her in the meta for a long while. Her damage output is insanely high, and she can often overshadow Castorice herself while in the same team when it comes to damage.

As Evernight also scales with HP, you only need to focus on building her max HP, which in turn increases her damage output. This is also why Evernight is so tanky in fights, even though she is a sub-DPS. Evernight misses out on an SS-tier spot by a slight margin in our Honkai Star Rail tier list, but she is still a solid character to pick in the game.

Anaxa

Anaxa Honkai Star Rail
Image Credit: Hoyoverse (via YouTube/HonkaiStarRail, screenshot by Sanmay Chakrabarti/Beebom)
  • Rarity: 5-star
  • Element: Wind
  • Path: Erudition
  • Best Team: The Herta, Anaxa, Tribbie, Dan Heng Permansor Terrae

Anaxa is primarily an Erudition support, but he can bring a ton of value to any team due to his unique abilities. Anaxa can apply all weakness types to an enemy using their Ultimate and Skill. This makes him particularly useful for players who don’t have a build DPS unit for all weakness types in the game. With Anaxa, you can basically clear every challenge with one team composition as long as you have Anaxa in the team.

Other than being a support, Anaxa truly shines as a sub-DPS or even as a Hypercarry when built correctly. He can rip through any enemy due to his unique ability to apply weaknesses, and with the correct build and team, he can win any challenge.

Cipher

Cipher in Honkai Star Rail
Image Credit: Hoyoverse (via YouTube/HonkaiStarRail, screenshot by Sanmay Chakrabarti /Beebom)
  • Rarity: 5-star
  • Element: Quantum
  • Path: Nihility
  • Best Team: Acheron, Cipher, Jiaoqiu, Dan Heng Permansor Terrae

Cipher is a sub-DPS with good supporting abilities that is perfect for Feixiao teams. She can follow-up attack multiple times on the allies’ turn. The best part of her kit is her Ultimate, which increases its damage output for every hit on the enemy. Additionally, her Ultimate deals True Damage, making it deal a massive chunk of damage irrespective of the enemy’s elemental resistances.

Cipher can easily join both a Follow-up Attack team or act as a debuffer for Hypercarry teams. She has a particular affinity with Acheron because of her easily debuffing nature. Due to her versatile nature and sub-dps damage output, Cipher easily takes an S-tier spot in our tier list.

Hysilens

Hysilens in Honkai Star Rail
Image Credit: Hoyoverse (via X/@HonkaiStarRail)
  • Rarity: 5-star
  • Element: Physical
  • Path: Nihility
  • Best Team: Hysilens, Kafka, Black Swan, Dan Heng Permansor Terrae

Hysilens is the new DoT queen of Honkai Star Rail. She is an omni-DoT character, meaning that she applies every DoT in the game to enemies. This makes her extremely strong and useful against almost all enemy types in the game. However, one shortcoming of Hysilens is that you need Kafka in her team to make her deal consistent damage. If you love DoT teams, then Hysilens would be a must-pull for you.

One thing to remember is that DoT teams have remained off-meta for a while now. But with the recent Black Swan changes, the team is more than viable, especially if you have Hysilens. I personally love DoT teams, and Hysilens was a must-pull for me for that reason.

Saber

saber best build and teams in Honkai Star Rail
Image Credit: Hoyoverse (via YouTube/HonkaiStarRail, screenshot by Sanmay /Beebom)
  • Rarity: 5-star
  • Element: Wind
  • Path: Destruction
  • Best Team: Saber, Sunday, Tingyun, Huohuo

Saber is one of the strongest Wind DPS in the game. Although she is a collab character, she is surprisingly strong with a kit geared towards her Ultimate damage. Having one of the highest Ultimate energy requirements, Saber’s Ultimate deals devastating damage to all enemies.

With Saber, you should be aiming to build her Crit and ATK%. Alongside that, you should also try to play characters that advance her action and recharge her energy. There is a chance that she may not appear on the banners once the collab ends, so grab her now if you want a strong Wind DPS.

Archer

Should You Build Archer in Honkai Star Rail
Image Credit: Hoyoverse (via YouTube/HonkaiStarRail, screenshot by Sanmay/ Beebom)
  • Rarity: 5-star
  • Element: Quantum
  • Path: Hunt
  • Best Team: Archer, Sparkle, Yao Guang, and Dan Heng Permansor Terrae

Archer is the other collab character in Honkai Star Rail, and he was given for free to players. However, unlike how typical free characters perform, Archer is one of the strongest DPS in the game. He can take multiple turns, deal devastating damage with each attack, and get a damage buff for every Skill point he consumes. Additionally, Archer’s passive increases the Skill Point threshold of the team.

With the recent meta shift to Elation, Archer has become much more important. Although he doesn’t have any Elation skills, as Elation is mostly dependent on consuming Skill points, Archer benefits from it. If you haven’t started building Archer because you received him for free, then you are losing out on one of the best DPS characters in the game, who is worthy of the S-tier spot in our HSR tier list.

Mydei

Mydei Honkai Star Rail
Image Credit: Hoyoverse (via YouTube/HonkaiStarRail, screenshot by Sanmay Chakrabarti/Beebom)
  • Rarity: 5-star
  • Element: Imaginary
  • Path: Destruction
  • Best Team: Mydei, Cyrene, Cerydra, and Hyacine

Mydei is one of the most unique characters in Honkai Star Rail, as he is the only character who can self-revive an unlimited number of times as long as the requirements are met. Mydei can be easily made into an unkillable monster with his correct build, making him act as a DPS and a sustain at the same time.

This character completely scales on HP, and hitting the 15k HP mark, with the proper build, can even allow him to clear some of the hardest MoC stages alone. This makes Mydei easily one of the best DPS in the game, and quite a formidable character. That’s why I have placed Mydei in the S-tier of our Honkai Star Rail tier list.

Ruan Mei

Ruan Mei Honkai Star Rail SS tier character
Image Credit: Hoyoverse (via YouTube/HonkaiStarRail, screenshot by Sanmay Chakrabarti/Beebom)
  • Rarity: 5-star
  • Element: Ice
  • Path: Harmony
  • Best Team: Firefly, The Dahlia, Ruan Mei, and Lingsha

Ruan Mei is still one of the best Support characters in Honkai Star Rail. Although she has dropped in importance due to Break teams going off meta, and Fugue and The Dahlia replacing her in importance, she is still an amazing and well-rounded character.

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. Additionally, with her ability of increasing team wide Break damage, she is a must-pick for most Break teams in the game. All of this makes her an easy pick for the S-tier support spot in the Honkai Star Rail character tier list.

Remembrance Trailblazer

Remembrance Trailblazer Best Build HSR
Image Credit: Hoyoverse/Honkai Star Rail (screenshot by Sanmay Chakrabarti/Beebom)
  • Rarity: 5-star
  • Element: Ice
  • Path: Remembrance
  • Best Team: Phainon, Remembrance Trailblazer, Sunday, and Dan Heng Permansor Terrae

Remembrance Trailblazer is the first Remembrance unit added to Honkai Star Rail, and they are a great F2P support unit. Being a Remembrance character, they have a memosprite named Mem, who does most of the heavy lifting in battle. The trailblazers themselves are more of a support to the memosprite. Mem has a charge buildup, which can advance forward one designated ally by 100%.

Furthermore, she also deals True damage, which is damage that circumvents all elemental resistances, making them a very strong sub-dps option as well. Remembrance Trailblazer is the only Remembrance unit that can join other teams without a heartbeat and be equally effective. Try to prioritize building her more as a sub-DPS by investing in her Crit, rather than a normal support unit.

Sparkle

sparkle honkai star rail
Image Credit: Hoyoverse (via YouTube/HonkaiStarRail, screenshot by Sanmay Chakrabarti/Beebom)
  • Rarity: 5-star
  • Element: Quantum
  • Path: Harmony
  • Best Team: Archer, Sparkle, Yao Guang, and Dan Heng Permansor Terrae

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.

After the release of Archer and the recent Elation meta shift, Sparkle has become more important than ever in the game. She also received some very good buffs recently, significantly improving her base kit. Overall, she is a very strong support unit and only slightly misses out on her position in the SS tier.

Firefly

Firefly best Build Honkai Star Rail
Image Credit: Hoyoverse (via YouTube/HonkaiStarRail, screenshot by Sanmay Chakrabarti/Beebom)
  • Rarity: 5-star
  • Element: Fire
  • Path: Destruction
  • Best Team: Firefly, The Dahlia, Fugue, and Lingsha

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 some of the top DPS units in the game with the correct team compositions. She is among the strongest S-tier characters, due to her incredibly high damage potential and self-sustaining abilities.

However, with recent meta changes going away from Break teams, Firefly has slightly stepped out of the spotlight. She is also very dependent on The Dahlia at the moment. Thankfully, she has also received some new buffs that have made her much more usable. The most significant change is that she can now apply Fire weaknesses to multiple enemies.

Fugue

Fugue Honkai Star Rail
Image Credit: Hoyoverse (via YouTube/HonkaiStarRail, screenshot by Sanmay Chakrabarti/Beebom)
  • Rarity: 5-star
  • Element: Fire
  • Path: Nihility
  • Best Team: Firefly, The Dahlia, Fugue, and Lingsha

Fugue is another very strong Nihility debuffer, and she can double the damage output of any break team. She is one of the most important characters for break teams, overshadowing even Ruan Mei. Fugue’s ability is to apply an exoskeleton on enemies, allowing allies to deal break damage twice on one enemy, which doubles the Break 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 any team. With Firefly getting a buff and The Dahlia being added to the game, Fugue’s importance has also grown.

Aglaea

Aglaea Honkai Star Rail
Image Credit: Hoyoverse
  • Rarity: 5-star
  • Element: Lightning
  • Path: Remembrance
  • Best Teams: Aglaea, Sunday, Cyrene, and Dan Heng Permansor Terrae

Aglaea can dish out a ton of damage with her high-speed attacks. Her 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 a dedicated support for Aglaea, which means she is only useful in very specific teams.

Thankfully, Cyrene is also a strong new support for Aglaea, even though she isn’t dedicatedly for her team. As long as you have Sunday and Cyrene together, you can build a strong team around Aglaea as a hypercarry and can win through most challenges in the game.

Bronya

Bronya Honkai Star Rail SS Tier Support
Image Credit: Hoyoverse (via X/@HonkaiStarRail, screenshots by Sanmay Chakrabarti/Beebom)
  • Rarity: 5-star
  • Element: Wind
  • Path: Harmony
  • Best Team: Phainon, Bronya, Cerydra, and Dan Heng Permansor Terrae

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 a 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 is still the biggest priority pull from the guaranteed pick on the Honkai Star Rail standard banner. With more hypercarry units recently, Bronya is currently one of the best replacements for Sunday.

Luocha

Luocha Honkai Star Rail S Tier Sustain
Image Credit: Hoyoverse (via YouTube/HonkaiStarRail, screenshot by Sanmay Chakrabarti/Beebom)
  • Rarity: 5-star
  • Element: Imaginary
  • Path: Abundance
  • Best Team: Castorice, Tribbie, Evernight, and Luocha

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 more than 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. 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. This makes him one of the best healers in the game, and a versatile character who fits all teams.

Kafka

Kafka Honkai Star Rail
Image Credit: Hoyoverse (via YouTube/HonkaiStarRail, screenshot by Sanmay Chakrabarti/Beebom)
  • Rarity: 5-star
  • Element: Lightning
  • Path: Nihility
  • Best Team: Kafka, Hysilens, Black Swan, and Huohuo

Kafka has received new buffs to her kit, making her the best DoT enabler in the game. She now makes DoT teams viable, being the only consistent character for triggering DoTs. Playing a good DoT applier with her can let her deal massive DoT to any enemy. She has become stronger with the release of Hysilens, and together they can destroy every enemy in the game with ease.

Other than that, Kafka has also received some amazing buffs that let her proc DoT on enemies with her Follow-up Attack. This simple change has completely changed her damage output in a DoT team, making the DoT team viable again. This is why she is in the S-tier of Honkai Star Rail character tier list.

Silver Wolf

Silver wolf Honkai Star Rail
Image Credit: Hoyoverse (via YouTube/HonkaiStarRail, screenshot by Sanmay Chakrabarti/Beebom)
  • Rarity: 5-star
  • Element: Quantum
  • Path: Nihility
  • Best Team: Acheron, Silver Wolf, Jiaoqiu, and Gallagher

Silver Wolf in Honkai Star Rail is a cheat code for 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 to enemies using her Skill.

After the buffs to her kit, she can now apply Defense reduction to all enemies with her Ultimate, which has made her regain her position in the S-tier. I personally love her new buffs and think she can offer a lot in multiple teams.

Black Swan

Black Swan A tier character
Image Credit: Hoyoverse (via YouTube/HonkaiStarRail, screenshot by Sanmay Chakrabarti/Beebom)
  • Rarity: 5-star
  • Element: Wind
  • Path: Nihility
  • Best Team: Kafka, Hysilens, Black Swan, and Huohuo

Black Swan is a strong DoT DPS character who can be broken with the correct team composition in Honkai Star Rail. 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 in our Honkai Star Rail tier list.

Fu Xuan

Fu Xuan Honkai Star Rail
Image Credit: Hoyoverse (via YouTube/HonkaiStarRail, screenshot by Sanmay Chakrabarti/Beebom)
  • Rarity: 5-star
  • Element: Quantum
  • Path: Preservation
  • Best Team: Fu Xuan, Seele, Sparkle, and Tingyun

Fu Xuan is still 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.

However, with many strong sustains being released, the importance of Fu Xuan has decreased significantly. Also, she is a much harder character to play, especially against bosses that hit very hard. So, if you are not used to the game’s mechanics, I would suggest you skip her.

Best HSR A Tier Characters

The A-tier characters in Honkai Star Rail are only good in specific teams or as alternatives to the above characters. These characters are still really good and can be an asset against the hardest challenges in the game.

Acheron

Acheron Honkai Star Rail
Image Credit: Hoyoverse (via YouTube/HonkaiStarRail, screenshot by Sanmay Chakrabarti/Beebom)
  • Rarity: 5-star
  • Element: Lightning
  • Path: Nihility
  • Best Team: Acheron, Cipher, Jiaoqiu, and Dan Heng Permansor Terrae

Acheron has lost her S-tier spot, but she continues to be a strong DPS character 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.

But with recent meta changes, she is a lot more dependent on Jiaoqiu for her damage output, which is why she has dropped to A-tier. However, I still greatly enjoy playing Acheron in the game, and if you build her correctly, she can be a great asset.

Lingsha

lingsha best build hsr
Image Credit: Hoyoverse/Honkai Star Rail (screenshot by Sanmay Chakrabarti/Beebom)
  • Rarity: 5-star
  • Element: Fire
  • Path: Abundance
  • Best Team: Firefly, The Dahlia, Fugue, and Lingsha

Lingsha is one of the best healers and can give AoE heals with all her actions. She is also an offensive asset to her team. Her Skill, Ultimate, and summons deal damage to enemies while also healing allies. She also increases break damage received by enemies with her Ultimate.

Pair Lingsha with Firefly, The Dahlia, and Fugue, and she can greatly increase the team’s damage output, while also keeping them alive in the current meta. However, she is quite impactless when it comes to teams outside of Break, which is why she is placed in the A-tier in our HSR tier list.

Cerydra

Cerydra Honkai Star Rail
Image Credit: Hoyoverse (via X/@HonkaiStarRail)
  • Rarity: 5-star
  • Element: Wind
  • Path: Harmony
  • Best Team: Phainon, Sunday, Cerydra, Dan Heng Permansor Terrae

Cerydra is a unique support in Honkai Star Rail who allows main DPS units to use their abilities twice at the same time. This ability makes Cerydra an insanely strong support for Phainon, allowing him to use his Meteor Shower twice. Other than that, she also buffs the allies’ damage, whom she targets with her Skill.

Harmony Trailblazer

Harmony Trailblazer Honkai Star Rail
Image Credit: Hoyoverse (via X/@HonkaiStarRail, screenshot by Sanmay Chakrabarti/Beebom)
  • Rarity: 5-star
  • Element: Imaginary
  • Path: Harmony
  • Best Team: Firefly, The Dahlia, Harmony Trailblazer, Lingsha

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.

Jiaoqiu

jiaoqiu-honkai-star-rail
Image Credit: Hoyoverse (via YouTube/HonkaiStarRail, screenshot by Sanmay Chakrabarti/Beebom)
  • Rarity: 5-star
  • Element: Fire
  • Path: Nihility
  • Best Team: Acheron, Cipher, Jiaoqiu, and Dan Heng Permansor Terrae

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.

Topaz and Numby

Topaz Honkai Star Rail A Tier DPS
Image Credit: Hoyoverse (via YouTube/HonkaiStarRail, screenshot by Sanmay Chakrabarti/Beebom)
  • Rarity: 5-star
  • Element: Fire
  • Path: Hunt
  • Best Team: Feixiao, Topaz and Numby, Robin, Dan Heng Permansor Terrae

Topaz is a very strong character and acts as both a Follow-up attack support and sub-DPS. 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. However, with recent support characters being more useful than Topaz, she has dropped down to the A-tier.

Pela

Pela Honkai Star Rail S Tier Support
Image Credit: Hoyoverse/Honkai Star Rail (screenshot by Sanmay Chakrabarti/Beebom)
  • Rarity: 4-star
  • Element: Ice
  • Path: Nihility
  • Best Team: Acheron, Pela, Jiaoqiu, and Dan Heng Permansor Terrae

Pela is another amazing 4-star Harmony character and one of the most powerful A-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. Her skill also removes enemy buffs (except buffs that cannot be removed) and is very useful at stopping an enemy from doing massive enhanced attacks. She is also very Skill point positive.

Tingyun

Tingyun Honkai Star Rail S Tier Support
Image Credit: Hoyoverse/Honkai Star Rail (screenshot by Sanmay Chakrabarti/Beebom)
  • Rarity: 4-star
  • Element: Lightning
  • Path: Harmony
  • Best Team: Saber, Sunday, Tingyun, and Huohuo

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 ATK, while her Ultimate additionally buffs an ally’s Damage while regenerating 50 energy. 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.

Jingliu

Jingliu Honkai Star Rail SS Tier DPS
Image Credit: Hoyoverse (via YouTube/HonkaiStarRail, screenshot by Sanmay Chakrabarti/Beebom)
  • Rarity: 5-star
  • Element: Ice
  • Path: Destruction
  • Best Team: Jingliu, Sunday, Tingyun, and Huohuo

Jingliu’s kit received new buffs recently, bringing her back into importance in Honkai Star Rail. The recent kit changes made her completely scale off HP, while also giving her an additional Transmigration stack. She now continues to be one of the strongest Ice DPS units in the game.

Dan Heng Imbibitor Lunae

Dan Heng Imbibitor Lunae Honkai Star Rail SS Tier DPS
Image Credit: Hoyoverse (via YouTube/HonkaiStarRail, screenshot by Sanmay Chakrabarti/Beebom)
  • Rarity: 5-star
  • Element: Imaginary
  • Path: Destruction
  • Best Team: Dan Heng Imbibitor Lunae, Sparkle, Tingyun, and Dan Heng Permansor Terrae

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. However, he is very Skill Point negative and needs Sparkle in his team to consistently deal his full damage potential every turn.

Hunt March 7th

March 7th Hunt Path
Image Credit: Hoyoverse (via YouTube/HonkaiStarRail, screenshot by Sanmay Chakrabarti/Beebom)
  • Rarity: 4-star
  • Element: Imaginary
  • Path: Hunt
  • Best Team: Feixiao, Hunt March 7th, Robin, Dan Heng Permansor Terrae

Hunt March 7th was one of the unexpected turnarounds to the 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 unit, 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

Boothill Honkai Star Rail
Image Credit: Hoyoverse/Honkai Star Rail (screenshot by Sanmay Chakrabarti/Beebom)
  • Rarity: 5-star
  • Element: Physical
  • Path: Hunt
  • Best Team: Boothill, The Dahlia, Fugue, Lingsha

Boothill is a dedicated Break DPS with a ton of damage potential to the extent of 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 is 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.

Rappa

Rappa Ninja Idle Animation HSR
Image Credit: Hoyoverse/Honkai Star Rail (screenshot by Sanmay Chakrabarti/Beebom)
  • Rarity: 5-star
  • Element: Imaginary
  • Path: Erudition
  • Best Team: Rappa, The Dahlia, Fugue, Lingsha

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 the 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 the toughness of enemies, allowing her to effectively deal break damage against almost every enemy she comes across.

Jade

Honkai Star Rail Jade
Image Credit: Hoyoverse (via YouTube/HonkaiStarRail, screenshot by Sanmay Chakrabarti/Beebom)
  • Rarity: 5-star
  • Element: Quantum
  • Path: Erudition
  • Best Team: The Herta, Jade, Tribbie, Dan Heng Permansor Terrae

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

Clara Honkai Star Rail S Tier DPS
Image Credit: Hoyoverse/Honkai Star Rail (screenshot by Sanmay Chakrabarti/Beebom)
  • Rarity: 5-star
  • Element: Physical
  • Path: Destruction
  • Best Team: Clara, Topaz and Numby, Tribbie, Dan Heng Permansor Terrae

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.

Seele

Seele Honkai Star Rail S Tier DPS
Image Credit: Hoyoverse (via YouTube/HonkaiStarRail, screenshot by Sanmay Chakrabarti/Beebom)
  • Rarity: 5-star
  • Element: Quantum
  • Path: Hunt
  • Best Team: Seele, Sunday, Bronya, Dan Heng Permansor Terrae

Seele reigned as the strongest DPS character in Honkai Star Rail until she was terribly power creeped. She is a DPS unit, but her use cases have 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 against Swarm enemies. We have placed Seele in A-tier as she can still clear most of the challenges in the game.

Argenti

Argenti Honkai Star Rail
Image Credit: Hoyoverse (via YouTube/HonkaiStarRail, screenshot by Sanmay Chakrabarti/Beebom)
  • Rarity: 5-star
  • Element: Physical
  • Path: Erudition
  • Best Team: Argenti, Tingyun, Sunday, Huohuo

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.

Blade

Blade Honkai Star Rail
Image Credit: Hoyoverse (via YouTube/HonkaiStarRail, screenshot by Sanmay Chakrabarti/Beebom)
  • Rarity: 5-star
  • Element: Wind
  • Path: Destruction
  • Best Team: Blade, Bronya, Sunday, Luocha

Blade is a very strong DPS unit who has received new buffs to his abilities. We would have placed him in the S-tier in our HSR character tier list if his playstyle weren’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.

Jing Yuan

Jing Yuan Buff After Sunday
Image Credit: Hoyoverse (via YouTube/HonkaiStarRail, screenshot by Sanmay Chakrabarti/Beebom)
  • Rarity: 5-star
  • Element: Lightning
  • Path: Erudition
  • Best Team: Jing Yuan, Sunday, Robin, Dan Heng Permansor Terrae

Jing Yuan is an Erudition DPS character with Follow-up attacks 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. Overall, a very strong unit for clearing multi-target and enemies that are weak to Lightning damage.

Yunli

Yunli Honkai Star Rail
Image Credit: Hoyoverse (X/@HonkaiStarRail)
  • Rarity: 5-star
  • Element: Physical
  • Path: Destruction
  • Best Team: Yunli, Topaz and Numby, Tribbie, Dan Heng Permansor Terrae

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 counterattack damage, making her damage output consistently higher. If you like the counter-attack style of play, then Yunli is a great option to have on the team. Although she is still one of the best DPS units in Honkai Star Rail, the changing meta has forced her into the A-tier.

Welt

Welt Honkai Star Rail
Image Credit: Hoyoverse/Honkai Star Rail (screenshot by Sanmay Chakrabarti/Beebom)
  • Rarity: 5-star
  • Element: Imaginary
  • Path: Nihility
  • Best Team: Acheron, Welt, Jiaoqiu, Dan Heng Permansor Terrae

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. Welt is easily an A-tier character in Honkai Star Rail, as he has strong debuffing and sub DPS capabilities.

Best HSR B Tier Characters

The B-tier characters in Honkai Star Rail are made up of characters who are only good as second alternatives. These characters don’t have enough value alone to affect a team fight and rely on other strong characters to make an impact. However, characters in this tier are still good and can be effective in very specific scenarios in the endgame.

Himeko
Image Credit: Hoyoverse/Honkai Star Rail (screenshot by Sanmay/ Beebom)

This tier is filled with characters like Dr. Ratio, Moze, Lynx, Asta, Guinafen, Xueyi, and more such characters. Characters like Herta, Serval, and Himeko are extremely good for Pure Fiction, but fail terribly in other game modes. Other than that, Gepard and Baily are also good sustains that can keep your team alive well into end-game content.

You should not prioritize pulling for these characters and only build them if you have already finished spending resources on your main characters.

Best HSR C Tier Characters

The Honkai Star Rail C-tier characters are only good for early to mid-game content. These characters are not even worth as second alternatives. The only time you may play them in end-game content is when you want a mono-comp team and are running short on characters.

Natasha Honkai Star Rail C Tier Sustain
Image Credit: Hoyoverse/Honkai Star Rail (screenshot by Sanmay Chakrabarti/Beebom)

This tier is filled with characters like Yukong, Misha, Hanya, Luka, and Yanqing. The only standout character on this tier is Yanqing, who is a 5-star character. He is actually a good damage dealer, but requires a good shielder to be effective.

Other than that, characters like Natasha and Preservation on March 7th are great for boosting your early game progress.

Best HSR D Tier Characters

The D-tier characters in our Honkai Star Rail tier list are the absolute worst characters in Honkai Star Rail. These characters bring no value to any team, and you should not spend one dime on them. Every resource spent on these characters will be outright wasted.

Arlan Honkai Star Rail D Tier DPS
Image Credit: Hoyoverse/Honkai Star Rail (screenshot by Sanmay Chakrabarti/Beebom)

The characters that make up this list are Sushang, Destruction Trailblazer, Hook, and Arlan. These characters are not even good up to mid-game content. The best you can get out of them is early on, but even the other free characters you get would be a better option than these.

Best DPS Characters in Honkai Star Rail

Here is a list of all the best DPS and Sub DPS characters in Honkai Star Rail:

TierCharacterBest For
SSSilver Wolf Lv. 999She has extremely high Elation DMG and is the best DPS in the current meta.
SSAshveilA very strong Follow-up ATK DPS character who also applies DEF reduction on enemies.
SSSparxieOne of the strongest Elation DPS in the game, with the ability to constantly self-buff by consuming skill points.
SSPhainonThe strongest DPS, irrespective of meta, in Honkai Star Rail. Can single-handedly win against any opponent.
SSCastoriceRevies allies, sustains teams, and deals massive damage with her memosprite every turn. Losing HP buffs her damage.
SSFeixiaoOne of the strongest Follow-up ATK DPS characters in the game with an extremely powerful single-target ult that shreds enemies.
SThe HertaExtremely high AoE damage and serious single-target damage.
SHysilensThe best DoT DPS unit in the game. Can apply all DoT debuffs on enemies.
SSaberA strong hypercarry with a massively overpowered Ultimate ability.
SArcherThe best F2P DPS in the game with constant, strong repeated attacks every turn. Consuming Skill Points buffs him.
SMydeiAn absolute beast who can solo tank enemies and can convert damage taken into massively powerful attacks.
SFireflyThe best Break DPS in the game, and she can also apply Fire weakness on enemies.
SAglaeaA strong DPS who deals more damage the faster she is built.
SKafkaOne of the strongest DoT DPS who can trigger DoT damage with her Skill, Ultimate, and Follow-up attacks.
SAnaxa (Sub)An extremely strong Sub-DPS who can also apply every weakness type on enemies.
SEvernight (Sub)One of the strongest Remembrance DPS units with incredible damage output in the correct teams.
AAcheronAn incredibly strong DPS who got powercreeped with meta changes.
AJingliuA good hypercarry DPS who can constantly use her Ult to deal damage.
ADan Heng Imbibitor LunaeConsumes Skill points to increase DMG output.
ABoothillA good single-target break DPS, with a strong Ult.
ARappaA good AoE break DPS who can reduce toughness irrespective of enemy weakness type.
AClaraStrong counterattacks that also make her a tank and damage soaker in fights.
ASeeleVery strong single-target DPS, who can instantly kill enemies with low health.
AArgentiPurely AoE DPS with a strong single-target Ult ability.
ABladeA strong Hypercarry who takes damage to increase damage output.
AJing YuanA good AoE DPS who can summon to deal damage on separate turns.
AYunliAnother counter-attack DPS with very good damage output.
AJade (Sub)A good Sub-DPS with really good AoE damage.
ATopaz & Numby (Sub)A sub-DPS who increases Follow-up ATK damage taken by enemies.
AHunt March 7th (Sub)Decent sub-DPS and free-to-play option.

Best Supports (Amplifier/Debuffer) Characters in Honkai Star Rail

Here is a list of all the best support characters, including amplifier and debuffer, in Honkai Star Rail:

TierCharacterBest For
SSYao GuangThe best Elation support in the game with good sub-DPS damage.
SSSundayThe best Hypercarry support who can action advance allies, buff Crit and DMG, and recharge Ultimate.
SSRobinGreatly buffs the team’s damage, ATK, and Follow-up ATK damage. Her Ult can action forward the entire team.
SSTribbieStrong, long-lasting buffs with very high sub DPS capability.
SThe DahliaThe best Break support in the game currently. She enables Break DMG without even breaking the enemy toughness bar.
SCyreneAn incredibly strong support who gives a different buff based on the characters in her team. Her buffs are personalized for Chrysos Heirs.
SRuan MeiA strong Break support who buffs Break Effect and damage output for all allies.
SRemembrance TrailblazerAn incredibly strong free supporter who can action forward allies, and deal True damage to enemies.
SElation TrailblazerThe meta F2P support for Elation teams.
SSparkleHypercarry supports who can action forward allies and restores Skill Points with her Ultimate.
SFugueAnother very strong Break Support with strong DEF reducing capability.
SSilver WolfCan apply other weaknesses to enemies, while reducing their DEF.
SBlack SwanA very strong debuffer and DoT applier for DoT teams.
ACerydraAllows the skill of your DPS to be used twice in one action. Also buffs the ally’s Crit stat.
AHarmony TrailblazerA strong F2P Break support.
AJiaoqiuA good debuffer who applies debuffs automatically when new enemies appear.
APelaOne of the strongest F2P-friendly debuffers in the game. Reduces all enemies’ DEF with her Ultimate.
ATingyunOne of the strongest F2P-friendly amplifiers who buffs ATK and can regenerate Ult for allies.
AWeltA strong debuffer with a good damage output.

Best Sustain Characters in Honkai Star Rail

Here is a list of all the best sustain characters in Honkai Star Rail:

TierCharacterBest For
SSHyacineThe strongest healer in the game with incredibly high damage output.
SSDan Heng Permansor TerraeThe best shielder with strong supporting capability and decent damage output.
SSHuohuoA very strong healer with incredible cleansing potential. Also recharges energy and buffs the ATK of all allies with her Ult.
SSGallagherThe best F2P-friendly healer in the game. Can also increase Break DMG taken by enemies.
SAventurineA strong shielder who can apply a debuff on one enemy with his Ult and can deal Follow-up attacks.
SFu XuanThe only sustain who mitigates damage instead of healing or shielding allies.
SLuochaA very strong healer with reactionary heals for allies when they are low off-turn.
SLingshaA good AoE healer who also increases Break DMG taken by enemies.
ABailuA good healer who can revive allies.
AGeparProvides shields to all allies with his Ult.
ALynxGood cleansing and single-target heals.
ANatashaA good F2P healer.

So, this is our Honkai Star Rail tier list. This list was created after careful analysis of 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.

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