Honkai Star Rail’s latest update, Version 2.3, introduces two highly anticipated characters to the forefront: Firefly and Jade. This update has sparked considerable excitement and debate within the community, as players grapple with the decision of which character best suits their team compositions and gameplay strategies. While both characters might be quite tempting to many players, these characters' abilities, their impact on the evolving meta, and their strengths and weaknesses can be the deciding factor on pulling either of them, regardless if they are free to play, or spending players.
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For those unsure of which character to invest in, this breakdown aims to provide clarity, highlighting the strengths and potential uses of Firefly and Jade in various game modes and scenarios, especially considering that they have a similar role, in terms of both having AoE and DPS capabilities. As such, for both veteran players looking to optimize your team for endgame content or newcomers navigating the intricacies of character selection, understanding the nuances of these new additions will be crucial for making an informed decision and saving valuable resources.
Firefly Or Jade In Honkai: Star Rail
As players are presented with two intriguing DPS-oriented characters, Firefly and Jade, understanding their unique set of skills and abilities becomes crucial. Each character caters to different playstyles and strategies, which can significantly influence a player’s decision on who to choose.
Firefly, joins the roster as a Fire Destruction unit, is designed to unleash massive damage on enemies while effectively utilizing the Break Effect and Super Break mechanics. This makes Firefly a formidable force on the battlefield, capable of dealing devastating blows to foes. Considering that she is able to implant Fire weakness into enemies, she's able to match against any enemy in especially challenging endgame content such as Memory of Chaos. On the other hand, Jade is a Quantum Erudition character, focusing on AOE damage and providing follow-up attack with some support to either herself, or an ally quite similar to Topaz in some extend. With that, Jade is well suited for Pure Fiction, and for players who prefer multiple DPS (or sub-DPS) characters in the team. That being said, both being DPS oriented characters, rather than many previous patches introducing a support and DPS, players may have an easier time deciding between both.
Roles
Firefly emerges as a powerful DPS unit in Honkai Star Rail's Version 2.3 update, showcasing a set of abilities that make her an essential addition to any player's roster. Her ultimate ability, Complete Combustion, allows her to enter an enhanced state where she immediately takes action, greatly boosts her speed, and gains enhanced attacks. In this state, her basic attack deals significant fire damage to a single target while restoring her HP, making it both powerful and sustainable. Her enhanced skill inflicts fire damage on the main target and adjacent enemies, applies fire weakness, and restores HP, adding both offensive and defensive benefits. This is quite beneficial, since Firefly’s unenhanced skill, Aerial Bombardment, while it deals substantial fire damage, instead does drain her HP and provides single target DPS instead. However, players are recommended to use it instead of her Basic ATK to regenerate as much energy as possible to be able to activate her Ultimate often. These, combined with bonus abilities, allowing her to deal super break DMG as well as, reduce toughness even for non-Fire weak enemies, make her a versatile and self-sustaining character, in order to be able to tackle a variety of endgame content, and a potential meta changer.
Jade, on the other hand, is designed to offer significant damage output while providing strategic benefits to her team, making her a mix of sub-DPS and DPS depending on what players prefer. She primarily relies on her Debt Collector mechanic and the ability to stack this, in order to deal follow-up damage through her talent. Additionally, her talent allows her to gain another type of stack called Pawned Assets, enabling Jade to increase her Crit DMG by up to 150% when players accumulate 50 stacks. Considering this may take a while, she'll shine better in content with waves of weaker enemies, such as Pure Fiction. Through her skill, Jade can either buff herself or an ally, enhancing their speed at the cost of some of her HP. If Jade uses the skill on herself, however, she will not benefit from the speed enhancement nor consume HP, but she'll still build Debt Collector stacks on her own. Therefore, if players do not have any characters like Jing Yuan who can deal AoE damage while benefiting from follow-up attacks, it might be better to have Jade use the skill on herself. Jade's ultimate ability, Vow of the Deep, attacks all enemies and further enhances her follow-up attacks, making it a crucial part of her kit for dealing with groups of enemies efficiently.
Considering their roles, players must weigh their current team composition and specific needs when deciding between Firefly and Jade. For those with a well-rounded roster of Harmony characters, both Jade and Firefly could be valid options. On the other hand, if players are in need of support characters instead, skipping on Jade or Firefly, and instead pulling Ruan Mei during Firefly's banner duration might also be a valid option. Nevertheless, Firefly and Ruan Mei also have a synergy with each other, so this may also be a good time to pull on both, and skip on Jade. On the other hand, players who have access to characters like Robin, and Topaz, and enjoy a duo-carry might find Jade a better choice. Ultimately, the decision to pull for Firefly or Jade should consider factors such as existing team compositions, the specific content players are focusing on, and personal preferences regarding character design and playstyle. It's worth noting that, being DPS units, both might be less future-proof compared to support units, but their immediate impact to meta as DPS characters cannot be understated.
Builds
As a DPS unit, Firefly certainly requires more optimization compared to a support character. However, since she primarily focuses on Break Effect and Super Break, which don't benefit from Crits, players may find optimizing her build relatively simpler, especially if they focus on Speed and Break Effect. What makes Firefly difficult to optimize early on is the fact that her best Relic Set, Iron Cavalry Against the Scourge, which increases her Break Effect and ignores DEF, as well as her best Planar Ornament, Forge of the Kalpagni Lantern increasing her Speed and Break Effect, both become available with the version 2.3 update, meaning players cannot pre-farm them. Nevertheless, it's possible to mix and match sets like Thief of Shooting Meteor or use Talia: Kingdom of Banditry until players can build Firefly with optimal pieces from the aforementioned sets.
It's also worth noting that Firefly, like some other characters such as Boothill or Acheron, is quite reliant on her signature Light Cone, Whereabouts Should Dreams Rest. However, On the Fall of an Aeon or the 4-star gacha Light Cone Indelible Promise can still work quite well for her. Considering all these factors, for those who are unable to spend many resources in the game but still want to optimize Firefly, this can be quite a dealbreaker.
Jade is built more like a standard DPS character, focusing on Crit Rate, Speed, ATK, and Crit DMG, giving her more stats to optimize. However, since she can stack Crit DMG on her own through her Talent, players can build her effectively without needing to min-max Crit DMG excessively, as long as they provide a good balance of the other stats. Her build is similar to characters like Seele or Qingque, as she benefits from sets like Genius of Brilliant Stars and Inert Salsotto. This means players can even swap sets from these characters if they aren't using them on the same team. Compared to Firefly, pre-farming for Jade's best relics is possible, although she requires more optimization.
As for her best Light Cones, Jade benefits most from her signature Light Cone, Yet Hope Is Priceless, but she can also use many other Erudition Light Cones that enhance her damage or focus on the above stats. If players plan to use her as a sub-DPS instead of a main carry, this reliance on her signature Light Cone is reduced, though it remains a powerful option worth considering for those with additional resources to spare.
Strengths and Weaknesses
While both Firefly and Jade offer good DPS oriented kits, they are still not without their strenghts or weaknesses, which can help players make better choice between either of them, especially if they are F2P oriented.
Firefly's Strengths and Weaknesses:
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Jade's Strengths and Weaknesses:
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Verdict: Pulling Firefly vs Jade
Ultimately, the decision to pull for Firefly or Jade, or otherwise for other characters in the future or during their banner duration depends on more factors than just their strenghts or weaknesses, since it is still quite dependent on personal preferences, as well as players' access to other characters, and what kind of a character that can benefit them specifically. That being the case, below factors can also make a difference for players to decide which one of them might be more beneficial to pull:
Players should pull for Firefy if:
- They want to explore Super Break mechanic further while in synergy with Harmony MC.
- Have invested in characters like Ruan Mei, and Gallagher.
- Are able to invest further in her light cone, or second eidolon specifically.
Players should pull for Jade if:
- They enjoy a follow-up-oriented play style, and have characters such as Topaz, or Robin that can compliment her play style.
- Require a pure AoE character to easily tackle Pure Fiction, as they don't have an option like Argenti.
Honkai: Star Rail – Firefly Ascension and Trace Materials
These are all the materials to farm for Firefly in Honkai: Star Rail
Honkai: Star Rail
The fourth entry in HoYoverse's Honkai franchise, Honkai: Star Rail is a free-to-play sci-fi RPG. Utilizing a turn-based combat system, the game includes dungeons, multiple planets, and a gacha system for unlocking new characters. Debuting on April 26, 2023, on PC and mobile, Honkai: Star Rail has also been announced for the PlayStation 5 and PlayStation 4.
