Quick Links

As a live-service gacha game, Honkai: Star Rail is an ever-changing game with a complex metagame. There are multiple game modes, and it is important to understand which characters are the best for overcoming every challenge Honkai: Star Rail has to offer. Aside from the seven paths in-game, characters are generally considered within three party roles: Single Target DPS, AoE DPS, and Sustain.

After the recent edition of Firefly, Honkai: Star Rail is now host to fifty-two characters when including the Trailblazer's three variants. Jade is the next character after Firefly, and she is sure to shake up the meta as well. Each new character tends to improve other characters through new team compositions, or lessen their relevance thanks to powercreep. Understanding the ranking of characters will help to make the most of the 2.3 update.

Jade in Honkai Star Rail
Related
Honkai: Star Rail - Predicting Jade's Place in the Current Meta

As per the latest leaks, Jade is one of the upcoming characters in Honkai: Star Rail and its place in the upcoming meta is interesting.

Honkai: Star Rail Tier List

Honkai Star Rail promo screenshot with white game logo

Characters have been organized into tiers based on their viability within Honkai: Star Rail's current meta, though it is worth remembering that each character has a design that is uniquely worth considering. Even the least viable characters can fit into a strong team with enough investment. However, the characters that require less investment or support from their teammates are more likely to skyrocket in rankings.

Tiers

Characters

S

Acheron, Black Swan, Boothill, Sparkle, Robin, Aventurine, Jingliu, Fu Xuan, Luocha, Ruan Mei

A

Firefly, Kafka, Silver Wolf, Huohuo, Bronya, Seele, Blade, Imbibitor Lunae, Jing Yuan, Argenti, Dr. Ratio, Topaz, Imaginary Trailblazer, Clara, Tingyun, Pela, Lynx, Gallagher

B

Bailu, Gepard, Herta, Himeko, Asta, Hanya, Yukong, Xueyi, Qingque, Hook

C

Yanqing, Welt, March 7th, Fire Trailblazer, Natasha, Sampo, Luka, Guinaifen, Serval

D

Physical Trailblazer, Dan Heng, Sushang, Misha, Arlan

S-Tier Characters in Honkai: Star Rail

S-Tier characters are the very best of the best. They are completely dominant in almost any team composition, and are absolutely essential for guiding the player in Honkai: Star Rail's most challenging game modes. While other characters may fit their roles well enough, these are the characters who can outperform their peers in spectacular fashion.

Acheron and Black Swan are two peas in a pod. The two shared a romantic dance in one of the game's animated cutscenes, and they also happen to share space on one of the best teams in the game right now. Many characters who deal AoE damage struggle to deal sufficient damage to single targets, but Acheron's Ultimate solves this problem entirely.

Black Swan's playstyle is complimentary to Acheron's, as she often helps immensely to guarantee Acheron's Ultimate. However, Black Swan is viable in her own right thanks to her Arcana mechanic. She is very comfortable slotting onto DoT teams, even redefining the archetype.

Boothill is one of the newest characters in Honkai: Star Rail, so it's no wonder he is completely redefining the meta. New characters are often designed to be appealing by solving the game's hardest challenges, and Boothill is no different. He sports perhaps the best Break Effect value in the game, with his Standoff stance allowing him to shred bosses like paper, even with next to no support.

Sparkle is one of the game's best supports, and is indispensable for any team that needs a battery. Sparkle lets the party house a greater number of Skill Points than usual, and her Ultimate regenerates them with ease. On top of everything, she is one of the exceedingly few characters in the game who can advance a teammate's turn.

Robin is one of the characters most defined by her Ultimate. Due to her combined ability to grant the entire team an extra turn, sizeable damage buffs to herself and allies, and strong synergy with follow-up teams and generalist compositions alike, Robin is invaluable within Honkai: Star Rail's metagame. Aventurine serves best in conjunction with Robin, and alongside other follow-up characters. However, he is a very strong Sustain in his own right, with his shields contributing a lot of value to any team.

Jingliu does enough damage to not need any Sub DPS to back her up. Instead, with support from the right buffers and decent support, Jingliu can lead teams better than almost any other character. Likewise, she doesn't require a specialized team archetype like many other top tier characters do. As long as she can remain in her enhanced state, Jingliu can lend players everything they need to topple the game's toughest bosses.

Fu Xuan is Honkai: Star Rail's premiere Sustain character. Her skill is a huge tool for any party's damage reduction, redirecting damage to herself, in combination with an emergency self-heal. Fu Xuan can tank better than any other character in the game, and can render even her squishiest teammates unkillable.

While Fu Xuan is the game's strongest tank, Luocha is a strong contender for the best healer. He handles enemy debuffs exceptionally well, and is great at keeping the party healthy in a pinch. He can even apply an effect to the field that allows characters to heal themselves based on the damage they deal.

Ruan Mei is the perfect example of why a strong support can completely build a team from the ground up. She can increase the entire team's ability to apply Weakness Break, and even delay the actions of enemies attempting to recover from Weakness Break. She provides plenty of other utility thanks to buffs for essential stats like SPD, but her ability to excel in applying and maintaining Weakness Break is her strongest asset thanks to the mechanic's importance within every single battle.

Honkai Star Rail Morality System Strange
Related
Honkai Star Rail's Morality System May Be The Strangest in All of Gaming

Honkai Star Rail has a morality system that can be heavy at times, but one aspect of it provides a surreal and funny take on human nature.

A-Tier Characters in Honkai: Star Rail

A-Tier characters are extremely capable, though may simply require a higher level of investment to fit onto a team. However, they are often worth the investment, often serving as the center of a given team composition. If a player wants to run a meta team, but finds themself lacking one of the game's S-Tier characters, there are no shortage of characters within the A-Tier who can meet their needs.

Firefly is the newest character in Honkai: Star Rail, and she kicked off 2.3 with a bang. She enters an enhanced state with her Ultimate that allows her to dish out some of the best DPS in the game despite damaging herself. Likewise, she is continuing the recent trend of characters easily dealing with Weakness Break. Firefly can inflict Weakness Break on an enemy whether they are weak to her damage type or not, an extremely powerful trait that dominates the game's central mechanic, and allows her to slot incredibly well on any team.

Kafka is the shining example of a character who excels with the right support, and she is one of Honkai: Star Rail's most popular characters for it. Damage-Over-Time, or DoT, is a very popular team archetype, and it's one that Kafka dominates with ease. However, if a player lacks the necessary support to bring this type of team online, Kafka will have to wallow for awhile until those needs are met.

Silver Wolf is one of the game's most unique debuffers, and the sort of character that is perfect for patching holes left open by others. She has the unique ability to create a weakness on enemies, meaning she fits well into "monotype" teams. Players are usually encouraged to cover a number of damage types, but Silver Wolf circumvents that need entirely.

Huohuo is a very versatile support character. She is one of the best characters for dishing out healing, and she provides significant damage buffs to boot. Having a Sustain is essential for almost any team, so picking up a healer who can perform multiple roles at once will allow players to navigate Honkai: Star Rail's difficult game modes much more easily.

Bronya and Seele are an iconic duo that defined much of the early game's story, and its metagame. Bronya remains one of the best supports in the game with her ability to grant any given teammate an extra turn while buffing their damage. In fact, Bronya has seen a renewed place in the Star Rail meta thanks to newer editions like Boothill. As the game's first limited-time 5-Star, it's no wonder Seele came out of the gate swinging, and her role as a Single Target DPS is still only surpassed by a few characters.

Blade and Imbibitor Lunae can both alternate between dealing damage to an area of effect or single enemies. Blade has a self-damage mechanic that enhances his damage drastically. Imbibitor Lunae can consume multiple Skill Points at once in exchange for peerless damage.

Jing Yuan and Argenti are similarly strong DPS characters that both specialize in AoE. Jing Yuan is popular for a reason, with a follow-up attack that is reliable for stacking additional damage if players need a strong finisher. Argenti has the unique feature of firing off his Ultimate at half energy. This allows him to break out a heavy blow in a pinch, but means he requires support from characters who generate a lot of energy in order to really fire on all cylinders.

Dr. Ratio is a blessing; he was gifted to players for free in a limited time event that served as somewhat of an in-joke with the character himself, and the good doctor has only grown more relevant since. He provides follow-up attacks very reliably, which makes him a must have for any team that revolves around the mechanic. Topaz follows suit, thanks to the help of her trusty partner Numby. Numby essentially rotates follow-up attacks throughout the battlefield, guaranteeing a cycle where Topaz can apply heavy damage to one target before cycling to the next.

Imaginary Trailblazer is the best free character the game has to offer, paying off the player's earlier investment in dividends. They bring the Superbreak feature, and with it a massively improved DPS to any team they join.

Clara has DPS that is very respectable, but dealing damage outright is not her specialty. Instead, Clara specializes in drawing aggro from enemies, with the unique ability to deal very powerful counter damage in return.

Tingyun is the game's best 4-Star, and has been since her inception. She grants a very strong damage buff, with her Ultimate providing enough Energy to often let her teammates simply cast their Ultimate immediately following hers.

Pela is another exceptional 4-Star, thanks to her ability to remove buffs from enemies. Many boss enemies in Honkai: Star Rail rely heavily on buffing themself to snowball into the player and keep battles quick and decisive. However, some playstyles require battles to be drawn out longer, and Pela is essential to any team this rings true for.

Lynx has immense value as a 4-Star healer. Lynx can control aggro on the field and even remove debuffs on allies, a somewhat rare trait that only makes her that much more valuable. Gallagher is another respectable 4-Star healer. Not only can he apply healing to single allies, but he can apply a debuff to enemies that allows these allies to gain more healing themselves.

Honkai Star Rail Goes the Extra Mile for Consumable Item Design
Related
Honkai Star Rail Goes the Extra Mile for Consumable Item Design

Honkai: Star Rail's consumable items are not just pretty in their design, but they also go the extra mile by being built into the game's lore.

B-Tier Characters in Honkai: Star Rail

B-Tier characters shine in particular areas, but not so much in others. The mark of a B-Tier character in Honkai: Star Rail is often power creep. B-Tier characters may only have one or two weaknesses, but the growing size of the cast means they have stronger alternatives.

Gepard and Bailu are perfect examples. Gepard is an incredible shielder by all means, and Bailu offers both a party heal and a single revive that can give the player a very secure safety net. Though they are powerful enough support units to carry a player through much of the early game, they have fallen off in the metagame over time thanks to other characters simply performing their roles to an even greater extent.

Other B-Tier characters may be rising stars in specific game modes despite struggling to perform in others. Herta and Himeko define this role, given their almost absurd ability to carry in Honkai: Star Rail's Pure Fiction game mode. Their reliable follow-up attacks pair well with one another, and other follow-up dependent characters.

Asta is a strong 4-Star for players to consider picking up. She provides SPD buffs that make her teammates able to take more actions during combat, which is absolutely essential given the system's mechanics. Likewise, characters like Boothill or Seele rely heavily on reaching certain SPD tiers compared to their teammates.

Hanya can apply a condition that increases the damage dealt to a single enemy, and regenerates additional Skill Points when the marked enemy is hit. This gives her decent utility as a support, but there are other characters who can farm Skill Points to an even greater degree.

Yukong is one of the few buffers in the game who specializes in dealing damage all on her own. Most other Harmony characters in Honkai: Star Rail lend buffs that scale depending on one of their own stats. This is not the case for Yukong, who can instead focus on building DPS.

Xueyi has the unique ability to ignore weaknesses with her Ultimate. Xueyi's entire kit revolves around unique interactions with an enemy's toughness, including a follow-up attack that only adds to her utility.

Qingque has a unique luck-based playstyle. This gives her kit an element not seen in any other character, though relying on RNG can make her less consistent than the game's more dominant characters. Still, she's practically essential on monotype teams, as long as players can pair her with Silver Wolf.

Hook can function as either a Single Target DPS or an AoE DPS, and her damage output is high enough to make her provide more value than some of her other 4-Star counterparts.

C-Tier Characters in Honkai: Star Rail

C-Tier characters are anything but unusable. Even some of Honkai: Star Rail's characters who are least relevant to the meta can still remain impactful in shaping a team composition.

Yanqing has unfortunately fallen to the wayside over time. He is a Single Target DPS, and performs this role well enough in battles that require it, but he struggles to fit into many other scenarios. Welt is an AoE DPS who suffers the same problem in reverse. The two play well enough on teams in the early game, but struggle to measure up to their counterparts on Honkai: Star Rail's standard banner.

March 7th can be a shining star in any player's beginning party. Though she is limited, just like her counterparts, she has a couple advantages that set her above them. Thanks to her reliable shields, March plays the Sustain role well enough that some players can put off picking up a better alternative. March also benefits quite a lot from raising Eidolon Resonance, and 4-Stars are easier to invest in thanks to their wider availability. Likewise, March's follow-up attack means she can be fit into the rising team-archetype if a player wishes.

Fire Trailblazer is a remarkable improvement to their Physical counterpart. Their ability to provide shields and draw aggro means they at least serve a unique role on any given team. However, they are still somewhat lackluster in comparison to March 7th. When the player gets both for free, and one much earlier than the other, it's hard to justify using the Fire Trailblazer long-term.

Natasha, the infamous underworld doctor, is a decent healer that players receive for free partway through a very early section of the game's story. However, she is not much more than that. Other healers have better tools to deal with enemies buffing themselves and debuffing the party. Similarly, even simple shielders provide greater value to sustaining the party.

Sampo and Luka belong together in more ways than one. Both are Nihility characters that can contribute to a DoT team in their own ways. Neither can lead a team on their own, but both serve well under stronger characters like Acheron or Kafka. Sampo in particular has a multi-hit skill that serves the break effect value of any team he's on.

Guinaifen can apply DoTs to multiple enemies at once. Though it doesn't add up to a lot of damage, it makes her a useful asset to some of the game's stronger DoT characters. Serval also has niche roles on mono-Electric and DoT teams thanks to her ability to extend the Shock effect, but does not present much value otherwise.

D-Tier Characters in Honkai: Star Rail

Honkai: Star Rail is a game that strongly prioritizes making each character feel satisfying to use in their own right. For this reason, there are very few who feel truly unviable. Even though this is the thinnest tier by far, there are still a few characters that players would be better off leaving by the wayside.

Physical Trailblazer and Dan Heng are the standouts in D-Tier. Their status as free characters that the player receives by default means that they must be relatively weak for balancing purposes. However, they're still solid enough to remain usable, in contrast to some of their D-Tier counterparts. They both have more viable counterparts, but the player is incentivized to invest in the Trailblazer in particular, since their levels will carry over.

Misha and Sushang are nothing special. They play their respective roles as AoE and Single Target DPS well enough, but are outpaced by pretty much anyone else who can fit those roles. That is exactly where their biggest problems come into play: the player automatically receives characters who can fit those roles, while Misha and Sushang don't contribute much to specialized team compositions.

Arlan is, unfortunately, not much to write home about. He has a self-damaging playstyle reminiscent of more viable characters like Blade. However, Arlan does not have the damage output to make up for it. His presence makes a team far more frail without contributing much to the DPS. Likewise, Arlan lacks the sort of unique gimmick or necessary party role that may help a character's rankings.