Honkai Star Rail tier list
We’ve compiled a version 2.1 Honkai Star Rail tier list of the top DPS, support, and healer characters for April 2024 to help you choose who to utilize on your teams. Even the best characters can’t just brute force their way through everything.
While the free characters Honkai: Star Rail gives you are really extremely good for clearing story content, it’s also vital to have several characters and teams ready to take on diverse battle circumstances. Our Honkai: Star Rail tier list, as of version 2.1 in April 2024, is shown below.
Honkai Star Rail tier list
When choosing which Banner to Warp on or who to devote your resources to, it helps to know how good 5-Star and 4-Star heroes can be. However, keep in mind that clearing material in Star Rail does not require a squad of 5-Star characters.
Building a squad around each unique fighting scenario is more crucial than bringing only characters deemed S-tier, particularly if their abilities don’t match or the opponents aren’t vulnerable to their elemental type.
Our tier list takes into account a character’s desirability in every battle situation, not simply the best possible setups. This includes battling your way through the narrative, facing up against tough enemies, exploring the Forgotten Hall, Swarm, and the Simulated Universe.
Furthermore, two characters that carry out comparable tasks but one performs them better are probably not going to be in the same tier; nonetheless, this does not preclude you from using the lower-tier character!
For instance, although both Huohuo and Bailu are healers, we rank Huohuo higher than Bailu because she not only heals but also restores Energy for your team. If you have both, you shouldn’t always choose to choose Huohuo over Bailu. Because of Bailu’s capacity to restore a fallen comrade and because she can use Electric strikes in place of Huohuo’s Wind attacks, you might require her.
When choosing how to assemble your teams, be sure to understand the justification for each character’s tier placement rather than merely relying on that information! A lower-tier character can frequently clear a lot of content; they just can’t do it as quickly or as well as comparable characters that we’ve graded higher.
Remember that every tier list is an analysis that is subjective. The community’s opinion on a person’s suitability for a position is subjective, even after we evaluated the characters and considered our findings.
Above all, enjoy creating teams in Honkai: Star Rail! There’s always more than one way to solve a combat task, and there are some very cool party configurations to experiment with.
Before determining which characters to upgrade, we strongly advise you to read the far more detailed descriptions of each tier list that are located below. However, we’ve condensed this information into a straightforward table below to give you a basic overview of where each character stands during version 2.1.
This is our current Honkai Star Rail tier list as of version 2.1 in April 2024, summarized as follows:
Honkai Star Characteristics at Tier
Sushang C-tier
D-tier Trailblazer (Physical), Hook, Dan Heng, and Arlan
To demonstrate how excellent Acheron, Jingliu, and Imbibitor Lunae are, we’ve made some significant placement adjustments. We have to transfer a lot of characters down to make room for them because they aren’t as important as the support characters in our SS-tier. Remember that even characters at lesser levels can be fantastic in the right circumstances or with a squad that is focused on helping them level up.
Here is a thorough analysis of each character in Honkai: Star Rail, broken down into their respective tiers:
SS-tier character tier list for Honkai Star Rail
Because of their amazing support abilities, debuffs, and passive and active attacks that aid your party more than merely doing damage to opponents who are vulnerable to their element, we rank these SS-tier characters as the best of the best in Star Rail.
Would you like another spin, Bronya 5-Star Wind The Harmony?
With Bronya’s skill, you can effectively switch to a character who has already had a turn, as it dispels an ally’s debuff and advances their turn by 100%. This essentially means that you can use a DPS, healing, or support ability twice. Her attack and Crit damage will be boosted for the entire party by her Ultimate and Technique, which makes her valuable in most Star Rail groups.
Fu Xuan 5-Star Quantum The Preservation: If you give Fu Xuan enough health points, she might be considered one of the most valuable characters in Star Rail, serving as a virtual tank for your group. Fu Xuan absorbs damage intended for other team members when her skill is active. Her talent then kicks in, allowing her to heal herself when her HP drops below 50%. Fu Xuan can help your squad survive for a very long period if you take caution when developing this talent again!
Huohuo 5-Star Wind The Abundance Huohuo is a fantastic healer for your team through her skill, but she’s also a secret Harmony character because her ultimate boosts your team’s attack stat and regenerates energy for everyone on the team save herself. Huohuo’s increases in attack and energy allow her to take the place of Harmony or debuff Nihility characters on some teams, freeing up a slot. Alternatively, she can increase your DPS even more if you combine her with other top-notch supports.
Luocha 5-Star Imaginary The Abundance Because of his healing powers, which genuinely scale off attack, Luocha is not like other Abundance characters. When Luocha obtains two stacks of Abyss Flowers, which heal friends when they attack, he adds a unique Field. Luocha, after spending Traces, is the finest passive healer in the game, even though his Ultimate does not heal.
It deals Imaginary damage to all enemies and removes one buff from them. Your party will automatically heal itself as long as you attack; skill points are not needed. Luocha is an excellent asset to any team that needs a healer because they are crucial in even the most difficult battles.
Pela, the 4-Star Ice The Nihility, is an excellent choice for practically any team because she can debuff opponents and use her skill to generate Energy, which is helpful against bosses and other obnoxious Elites.
Her ultimate is also quite helpful; it lowers all foes’ defenses and deals some Ice damage, which presents a good opportunity for your AOE damage dealers, particularly if they are Ice attackers. Only because other support characters, like Silver Wolf, can be more successful in this scenario—especially if the target isn’t vulnerable to Ice—does she become marginally less valuable versus single target opponents.
Ruan Mei, the 5-Star Ice Harmony character, adds her own special Break Effect debuff to foes while combining the greatest aspects of other Harmony characters. Her Ultimate applies a field that enhances the party’s All-Type Resistance Penetration and adds an effect that slows foes recovering from when they are Weakness Broken.
Her Skill increases the damage inflicted and Weakness Break Efficiency of all allies. Ruan Mei is a fantastic Harmony character that can boost your team’s damage while delaying your opponents’ turns. She also has passive talents that raise your team’s speed, damage, and Break Effect.
Silver Wolf
5-Star Quantum The Nihility Silver Wolf can truly instill a new elemental weakness in adversaries, going above and beyond in his role as a Nihility debuffer! This works especially well against elite and boss adversaries in the Simulated Universe and the Forgotten Hall when you don’t have a strong enough damage dealer that targets the enemy’s weak point.
The element Silver Wolf implants cannot be controlled; it will select at random from your existing party lineup. This is the one drawback to the power. Battles may need to be redone a few times, but that’s a tiny price to pay for the assurance that Silver Wolf will help any of your damage-dealing heroes finish the job in the end. She performs especially well on teams comprised solely of Quantum characters.
Sparkle 5-Star Wind~The Harmony Although she isn’t necessary if you already have strong Harmony characters constructed, she simplifies nearly everything by giving you a ton of extra Skill Points, increasing your team’s damage, and delaying turns by 50%. With an additional Trace, she becomes even more effective in Mono Quantum teams.
In addition, Sparkle allows you to switch up your team lineups and pair several DPS characters with her without worrying about using up too many skill points. Alternately, you can combo her with other supports and debuffers to get an incredible amount of damage from a single character as a solo DPS. Excellent character to have if you don’t have any other solid Harmony alternatives. She is incredibly adaptable and handy.
Tingyun 4-Star Lighting The Harmony: When Tingyun performs her Skill, pairing her with a high DPS character amplifies both of their attacks, and her Ultimate is among the greatest in the game, giving one ally Energy restoration while boosting their damage. An excellent 4-Star support with the ability to provide some lightning damage when needed.
S-tier character tier list for Honkai Star Rail
These S-tier characters are very skilled at what they were created for and are useful in a wide range of combat scenarios outside of their Elemental type; yet, they are either not as effective as functionally identical SS-tier characters or they have minor drawbacks.
Gepard 5-Star Ice The Preservation: With the ability to freeze opponents and gradually deal ice damage, Geaprd excels in single-target or two-target battles. But the true draw is his Ultimate, which grants the party shields as a whole. Another useful ability of Gepard’s is his talent, which allows him to resurrect once after taking a fatal blow.
Because foes cannot attack you while they are frozen in place, he can occasionally take the role of a healer in shorter engagements, freeing up a support or DPS position. Still, using Gepard in tandem with a healer can help you survive more difficult, drawn-out fights.
Imbibitor Lunae 5-Star Imaginary~The Destruction} Imbibitor’s damage output is among the highest in Star Rail, but even with his special kit that lets him employ build-up stacks rather than Skill Points, he still uses a lot of skill points to balance his incredible DPS potential. He’s a fantastic DPS to have on your team to take down any enemy, but to maximize his damage potential, you’ll need to work on his build and balance your skill points with the best teams.
Jingliu 5-Star Ice-The-Destruction Jingliu is another powerful Destruction character, but to get the best burst damage out of her, you must make sure you’re attacking as much as you can during her Spectral Transmigration condition before it finishes.
She can also be partnered with characters (like Blade) that gain advantages from losing health to create double damage dealing teams, which is uncommon in the current meta! Another significant plus for Jingliu is that she doesn’t use any skill points, therefore her team compositions are more varied than those of someone like Imbibitor Lunae.
A-tier characters’ tier list on the Honkai Star Rail
These characters are very capable of excelling in their ideal combat situations or team competitions; nevertheless, they either lack the versatility to play on multiple teams, have limits that make them hard to employ, or both.
Asta 4-Star Fire: The Harmony Asta is a surprisingly solid addition to your squad. Her Ultimate makes all party members faster, so if their own speed numbers are high enough, some may be able to take an extra turn. This is quite helpful since, particularly in the Forgotten Hall, even one additional turn can transform a defeat into a victory. To maximize Asta’s capabilities, you will need to make an investment in her Traces, build, and team composition.
For practically every combat scenario in Star Rail, Bailu 5-Star Lighting: The Abundance healers are a must, particularly when engaging in lengthy bouts like boss encounters or the Simulated Universe. She is a good Abundance character to have because of her great skill healing, which can heal several comrades, and her passive ability to revive a fallen ally once every combat. But Bailu’s biggest drawback is that she can’t clean.
Black Swan 5-Star Wind The Nihility As one might anticipate, Black Swan’s DOT insertion and boost enable her to function really well with Kafka, and her playstyle is incredibly simple. Because of the way Black Swan’s DOT stacks function, she may also be a powerful solo player. This is particularly true in the Simulated Universe when you receive the proper Nihility blessings. Across Memory of Chaos, Simulated Universe, and Pure Fiction modes, Black Swan is a great addition to your Nihility teams due to her simple playstyle and natural synergy with other characters.
Blade~5-Star~Wind~The Destruction Blade is a very potent character to have on your squad because he can both heal himself and increase the damage potential of his attacks by using his own HP. Blade is essentially a combination of Destruction, Abundance, and Harmony, but you have to be extremely cautious when controlling his health. Although he can heal himself, you need nearly always bring a healer with you to assist Blade survive the battle. Blade is among the best attackers in the game when he plays with the correct team, but he comes with a high risk and high return.
Clara 5-Star Physical character known as “The Destruction,” is a character worth playing. Her effectiveness depends on the makeup of your squad, as every time Clara takes damage, her helpful friend Svarog counters with an assault. This implies that most Clara teams need a strong shielder or healer because you want to keep her alive so that Svarog can use his powerful physical assaults. As long as Clara survives the battle, you can maximize your DPS potential by baiting foes to attack her.
Dr Ratio 5-Star Imaginary The Hunt Dr Ratio is a fantastic single-target attacker that works well with a variety of Star Rail team configurations. He can launch follow-up strikes when other friends attack a marked adversary provided the conditions are appropriate. Hence, you may group him with other attackers or use characters like Harmony and Nihility to make him a hyper carry DPS; just make sure the opponents are heavily debuffed in order to maximize Dr. Ratio’s damage.
Gallagher 4-Star Fire The Abundance: Gallagher is a fantastic healer and hidden Harmony character with unexpectedly high damage totals. However, you must first unlock his second Eidolon in order to use his Cleanse ability. You’ll see why Gallagher is such an excellent Abundance character if you picture him as a smaller, Fire version of Luocha, who also happens to boost the team’s Effect Resistance and Break Damage and deflect enemy strikes with his upgraded basic attack.
Hanya~4-Star~Physical~The Harmony~ Hanya is an excellent choice for gaining additional Skill Points and enhancing your characters’ damage and speed if you find managing Skill Points to be bothersome. Hanya is more of a backup choice than a necessary choice because other supports can also aid in skill management when used properly. However, she pairs exceptionally well with skill-hungry DPS characters. Still, Hanya is a fantastic Harmony partner if you want to release your powerful attacks more quickly.
Himeko~5-Star Fire~The Erudition} is a powerful AOE damage dealer who retaliates if allies expose enemy weaknesses. She is an excellent choice in situations where there are a lot of enemies that are vulnerable to fire, such as in Pure Fiction, but she can also hold her own in single-target battles thanks to her respectable skill. Her ultimate deals a massive amount of fire damage, but it also replenishes her energy, thus in the ideal situations, especially with the correct relics equipped, she can recover it really quickly. To activate her follow-up attacks as frequently as possible, make sure you and the rest of your team frequently break the weaknesses of your foes.
Jing Yuan 5-Star Lightning The Erudition: Despite being on the The Erudition route, Jing Yuan has a powerful Lightning punch when facing foes that only attack one area. Having him on your side will require you to build up his Lightning-Lord stacks for maximum damage potential. He is a particularly skill-hungry character. However, Jing Yuan is an excellent DPS to create if you bring the appropriate squad along and manage your skill points well. The only drawbacks to his strategy are that he cannot compete with S-tier DPS characters without his distinctive Light Cone, and he is not as well-buffed by relics as he is by those in S and SS-tier.
Kafka~5-Star~Lightning~The Nihility} Kafka can shock opponents to inflict DoT, deal some AoE damage, and launch a counterattack when allies use their basic attacks. However, her greatest ability amplifies the damage of each DoT effect she applies to an opponent. This implies that she performs best in pairs with teammates who use Wind Shear, Shock, Bleed, or Burn. Although Kafka’s damage output may not seem as high as that of other DPS characters at first, her assaults have a significant effect that is compounded by delayed damage and follow-up attacks.
The sole drawback to Kafka is that her full potential can only be attained by building additional DoT characters, which can be very resource-intensive. 4-Star Quantum The Abundance Lynx is a highly sought-after healer since she can lure opponent attacks to the character she heals with her skill—but only if those attacks are directed along the Destruction or Preservation paths.
It’s a win-win situation because these avenues tend to be assaulted in a way that benefits your party. Additionally, when Lynx uses her Ultimate, she can dispel defuffs for your entire team. Though she lacks Bailu’s or Luocha’s raw healing stats, she more than makes up for it in other ways.
March 7th: Four-Star Ice The Preservation Don’t undervalue this day! She is adaptable enough to defend your group against opponents who are not Ice-weak. March offers a bit of everything when it comes to team protection, which is why.
Auto-hitting back when an ally under protection is assaulted, shielding an ally with her Skill (which may be used to bait adversaries to attack a specific character), and using her Ultimate to freeze entire groups of enemies. She’s very helpful in prolonged confrontations, prolonging the combat so that your DPS heroes can finish off the adversaries. She can become an even more formidable character in the Simulated Universe by honing her powers.
Qingque 4-Star Quantum The Erudition: Sometimes her kit’s randomness prevents her from realizing her full potential, but when she’s elevated to E6, she becomes an extremely important asset. With her skill allowing her to draw extra tiles and thankfully not ending her turn so you can also use normal attack, her entire kit is centered upon getting four of the same tiles to increase her attack damage.
It’s difficult to make sure Qingque does the necessary quantum damage because this is purely luck-based. She can, however, secure the victory for you in some circumstances if you don’t mind refighting fights.
Typically, Seele 5-Star Quantum The Hunt hunter characters are most effective at dealing single-target damage to enemies who are vulnerable to their element. Seele laughs at this reasoning and is actually most effective in situations where there are multiple targets because of her passive ability, which grants her another turn after defeating an adversary.
Seele’s Ultimate can be used to take advantage of this and grant her four consecutive turns. Seele can assist you in more combat circumstances than only opponents who are vulnerable to quantum if you pair her with allies that boost her attack, critical, or speed stats.
Topaz 5-Star Fire The Hunt If your character relies heavily on follow-up attacks, Topaz is the perfect partner for them because she can utilize her kit to passively increase follow-up strikes while also enlisting the help of her friend Numby. She’s a wonderful situational selection for your team due to her personal fire damage, effectiveness in the Simulated Universe, and exploration of the overworld.
Welt 5-Star The Nihility Welt’s speed reduction is what makes him so appealing, particularly if your team already includes characters with fast base speeds. Your characters will have more turns when the adversary moves more slowly, giving you more opportunities to use support skills like healing or extra attacks. One of the best slowing techniques in the game, it gives you a significant advantage early in a fight.
Xueyi~4-Star~Quantum~The Destruction} Xueyi is a particularly helpful 4-Star attacker since, despite being Quantum, her Ultimate diminishes an enemy’s Toughness regardless of what they are truly weak to. If combined with strong supports to increase her damage even more, this, together with her AOE quantum damage and follow-up attacks, make Xueyi useful in a variety of combat settings. Although she doesn’t have the same damage output as 5-Star damage dealers, her adaptability and simplicity of use make her a great choice in many different types of combat, especially in the Simulated Universe and its other modes.
Yukong 4-Star The Harmony Yukong is a highly helpful Harmony character to build as, while Roaring Bowstrings is active, her Ultimate boosts the Crit Rate and Crit Damage of all friends. Her Skill also improves the attack stat of all teammates. However, Yukong’s only drawback is that you have to be cautious with your rotation to make sure Roaring Bowstrings is active while your DPS is executing their strongest skills. Although Yukong isn’t as simple to use as Tingyun, she’s just as good at maximizing the potential of your characters by giving them more Crit Rate and Damage. In addition, Yukong makes a fantastic sub-DPS character on her own and works incredibly well with other Imaginary characters.
In addition to being excellent against their ideal opponents, our B-tier characters frequently possess a unique skill that makes them a respectable choice in other battle situations. Remember that most of these characters can become much more useful by raising their Eidolons.
Herta 4-Star Ice The Erudition: Since Pure Fiction was released, Herta has gained a lot of popularity because to her AOE Ice damage. She will launch a follow-up attack if an ally brings an enemy’s health below a particular level. Herta is a bit of a one-trick pony, but if an adversary is susceptible to ice or has a very low health bar, as the mobs in Pure Fiction, the trick works incredibly well. She may also function effectively in the Simulated Universe, but in order to advance far, you must acquire the best Blessings and pair her with characters such as March 7th.
Himeko 5-Star Fire The Erudition: An AOE damage dealer with a high damage skill, Himeko is a great choice against multiple enemies that are weak to fire, such as in Pure Fiction. However, she can also hold her own in single-target encounters thanks to her high damage skill. Her ultimate deals a massive amount of fire damage, but it also replenishes her energy, thus in the ideal situations, especially with the correct relics equipped, she can recover it really quickly. To activate her follow-up attacks as frequently as possible, make sure you and the rest of your team frequently break the weaknesses of your foes.
Luka 4-Star Physical The Nihility: Given his history as a Belobog fighter, Luka is an excellent choice for dealing bleed damage to single targets or low targets. As he gains level, he also receives energy back from utilizing Fighting Stacks, which he should be doing frequently. This increases his chances of activating his Ultimate, which deals massive damage and debuffs the victim by dealing more damage than they were previously dealing. Furthermore, Luka is useful in more circumstances than it may initially appear because he can remove one buff by utilizing his skill on an opponent (after gaining access to a passive ability).
Misha 4-Star Ice The Destruction: Misha is a pretty lackluster 4-Star attacker when used alone, but he does well in groups with other attackers that expend a lot of skill points because his damage increases when hit points are charged. Misha can be used as a flex slot or secondary DPS on teams that need to expend a lot of skill points. He is highly effective on Freeze teams, especially in the Simulated Universe. Misha’s biggest drawback is that you can get just as good, if not better, results by using a Harmony or Nihility character in your flex slot. Misha, however, functions incredibly effectively with teams that have the ability to restore team energy and use Skill Points.
Natasha 4-Star Physical The Abundance If you don’t already have any other healers, especially in the early stages of the game, Natasha is a healer that you absolutely must develop. Her Ultimate heals the entire party, while her Skill heals and removes one ally’s debuff. She might not possess any impressive skills, but clearing a lot of stuff requires healing your team.
Sampo 4-Star Wind The Nihility is your man if you require AOE Wind damage and DoT. His Technique can also be used to slow down opponents early in a battle, granting your group additional turns in the process. Sampo’s skill, which does AoE Wind damage, is a little erratic, so not all enemies will be affected. You should use his Ultimate as much as you can to deal the most amount of Wind damage. He works very well with Kafka in a pair.
Serval 4-Star Lightning The Erudition: Serval is a fairly simple character to use and a fantastic choice if your squad needs AOE Lightning damage. Her blows have the ability to stun foes, and Serval will do additional damage when she strikes one of them. She offers nothing more, although in the main story, particularly in the early sections, there are a lot of opponents that are weak against Lightning. This is also true in the Forgotten Hall and Simulated Universe modes.
Because of her simple yet powerful equipment, Serval makes an excellent ‘basic’ character. Another figure who gets along well with Kafka is Serval. The Fire version of the Trailblazer is an excellent tank that will draw attacks from the opposition thanks to their skill.
Stacking Magma Will through attack or block and then releasing potent fire damage is extremely helpful when facing formidable Elites, especially if they have a low fire resistance. When facing up against opponents who are not fire-weak, you’ll find it more difficult to utilize the Trailblazer’s damage output, although they can still be useful for baiting assaults.
Yanqing can be effective against single-target opponents that are susceptible to Ice, but he can also serve as a minor support because of his ability to freeze opponents when an Empathic Sword Link is engaged. We would rank Yanqing higher because of his utility and potential for damage against Ice vulnerabilities if his freezing and attack buffs were more consistent, but because of his unpredictable nature and diminished attack capability in comparison to other DPS characters, he can be a fickle buddy.
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