Honkai: Star Rail has lots of playable characters, but not all are equal. Some are much better than others in the meta, and you should know which are worth obtaining and which you can skip.
Here is where every playable character in Honkai: Star Rail ranks based on my experience with them. As this game evolves, so will this list, and the characters will likely move around as we get a better idea of how powerful they can truly be.
Honkai: Star Rail Version 2.1 tier list
SS-tier Honkai: Star Rail characters
The SS-Tier contains Honkai: Star Rail’s top meta characters. These recruits are the absolute best of the best picks. They’ll far surpass expectations and are worth pulling for no matter what.
Fu Xuan
Although she’s supposed to be a Preservation unit, Fu Xuan is guilty of path-crossing so intensely that she’s currently the best character you can recruit in all of Honkai: Star Rail. Fu Xuan provides strong shields, can heal herself and the rest of the team, and provides powerful buffs.
Acheron
Acheron is one of if not the singular strongest DPS unit Honkai: Star Rail has to offer. Her damage output is unmatched and highly versatile, which means she can help you navigate even the toughest of battles with ease and with any team you desire.
Dan Heng Imbibitor Lunae
The true form of Dan Heng is Dan Heng Imbibitor Lunae, an immensely strong and versatile DPS unit. He possesses much more freedom in battle than most other characters do thanks to his rotating set of basic attacks and he deals damage powerfully.
Jingliu
Jingliu and Dan Heng Imbibitor Lunae rank pretty evenly, although I find the latter to be slightly more powerful thanks to his more unique skillset. With that said, Jingliu’s also an immensely strong DPS capable of dishing out brutal Ice-based damage.
Blade
The Destruction unit drains his own health to enhance his damage output, and he does so with immense power. Blade is a high-risk, high-reward character who ranks among the strongest DPS units you can use once you master his complex skillset.
Kafka
Kafka may be a Nihility recruit, but she is an exceptional damage dealer who excels at chipping away at opponents’ health over time. Her damage over time is so strong she’ll regularly eliminate many enemies at once after a turn or two passes.
Seele
If you’re looking for strong single-target damage, no one comes close to what Seele is capable of. She’s incredibly swift and deals brutal damage against targets who never even have time to see her coming.
Silver Wolf
The Quantum hacker is an incredibly strong supporting unit capable of dishing out an immense amount of damage and exposing foe’s weaknesses. Silver Wolf doubles as an amazing damage dealer and support, which is why she’s one of the best overall.
Luocha
The reigning king of healing is Luocha, an unbelievably strong support unit no other healer comes even close to. His healing is very reliable and powerful, which makes him an amazing ally for any DPS unit, but especially for health-draining recruits like Blade or Jingliu.
Ruan Mei
This Ice character is the absolute best Harmony recruit in all of Honkai: Star Rail—and it’s not even close. Ruan Mei provides incredibly powerful, universally useful buffs capable of enhancing just about every team lineup you might think to make with her.
Sparkle
Sparkle is a powerful skill point-positive force capable of supplying the team with unbeatable Harmony buffs. She can boost your team’s total number of skill points, advance the actions of her allies, and is super-flexible for a wide range of team builds.
Black Swan
Although she can feel quite complex at first and has a rather steep learning curve, if you’re willing to invest in Black Swan, then you’ll unlock the potential of one of the strongest Nihility units Honkai: Star Rail has to offer. She works great with other damage-over-time-based units and dishes out consistently high damage.
S-tier Honkai: Star Rail characters
Characters who rank in S-Tier still surpass expectations, but only slightly. They aren’t as impressive as those ranked higher up, but they’re still better than everyone ranked lower.
Dr. Ratio
Don’t let his status as the first-ever free premium five-star fool you—Dr. Ratio is a brutal damage-dealing machine. He’s a very easy character to build, is highly capable of dishing out strong single-target damage, and has some incredibly strong follow-up attacks.
Jing Yuan
Jing Yuan’s Lightning Lord follow-up attack is where most of his power comes from and he is very efficient at dishing out widespread AoE attacks.
Argenti
The Physical Erudition character is a straightforward DPS capable of dishing out strong damage. He’s incredibly reliable, although Argenti is not as special or impressive as other DPS units, especially when compared to Destruction units, and he does have low health points, this is more an overall issue with Erudition characters than it is a fault specifically for him.
Topaz and Numby
This two-in-one character is a dual support and secondary damage-dealing unit with very reliable and strong follow-up attacks. They also have one of the most useful exploration abilities since Topaz and Numby can track down hidden treasure.
Huohuo
Although she’s part of the Abundance, Huohuo’s skillset also dips into Harmony territory as her skills lend themselves to healing, removing debuffs from her teammates, buffing attacks, and granting energy restoration. She’s a solid unit, but her healing is way overshadowed by Luocha’s, which is why she ranks here rather than higher.
A-tier Honkai: Star Rail characters
The A-tier is reserved for the limited selection of standard five-star characters. These five-star recruits are solid and reliable options, but they aren’t extremely impressive and they don’t surpass expectations.
You can choose one of these characters for free upon reaching 300 pulls on the standard Stellar Warp banner, so you might want to consider their rankings when making this decision.
Gepard
Gepard has some of the strongest shields in all of Honkai: Star Rail, which makes him a superb support unit. He’s a master at keeping any team safe.
Bronya
Belobog’s Supreme Guardian is an unmatched buffing unit capable of supplying the entire party with mighty damage, attack, and critical damage boosts.
Bailu
Bailu has very strong healing abilities and can even revive a fallen teammate once per battle making her a top-notch support for any roster.
Clara
Svarog works to keep Clara safe and deal immense damage with her highly efficient Destruction damage-dealing oriented skillset. Clara can make herself a bigger target, take decreased damage, and use powerful follow-up attacks thanks to Svarog’s lending hand.
Welt
Honkai: Impact 3rd’s very own Welt is a strong secondary damage dealer and reliable debuffer in Honkai: Star Rail.
Yanqing
The Ice Hunt unit Yanqing specializes in dedicated single-target damage dealing and while he’s good at it, there are also many stronger damage dealers available, which makes him seem rather lackluster.
Himeko
Erudition units seem like the weakest path type overall, and while Himeko’s skillset is very visually stunning, she’s rather underwhelming compared to most other damage-dealing forces.
B-tier Honkai: Star Rail characters
The B-tier includes playable characters who are strong at what they do but don’t feature the best numbers or are overshadowed by another top character in their category. It means they’re still worth adding to your roster, but they generally won’t be your first priority.
Tingyun
If you’re familiar with Bennett from Genshin Impact, Tingyun is sort of the Bennett of the Honkai: Star Rail world since she’s a four-star character who seems way too powerful for her star rarity status. Her Harmony skills are incredible and she’s generally regarded as the best four-star you can use.
Lynx
The four-star Abundance unit is widely regarded as the strongest healing unit of her rarity since she can supply healing with ease through almost all of her abilities while also removing debuffs and boosting her team’s maximum health points.
Pela
Pela is a brutal Nihility unit that can tear enemies’ defenses down, leave opponents exposed to increase her team’s damage against them, and overall supply strong debuffs.
Gallagher
The four-star Fire unit is a reliable healing force and provides some solid debuffs. He’s got a pretty unique skillset if you want a healer who also dips into Nihility territory.
Hanya
The Harmony character efficiently boosts her allies’ speed and attack while also inflicting her special Burden debuff. She’s a really solid support unit, especially if you need someone focused on bolstering your DPS.
Qingque
Although Qingque is a bit of a wildcard in battle since her talent collects tiles over her turns to eventually enhance her basic attack, if luck is on your side then she’s one of the best damage-dealing four-stars you can use.
Asta
Herta Space Station’s lead researcher is a fantastic buffing unit that can grant a strong speed boost, raise attack, and supply solid Fire damage dealing.
Guinaifen
Guinaifen’s debuffing skills make her a solid support unit who can boost her own attack and increase the damage her team deals against enemy targets.
Xueyi
The four-star Destruction unit is a solid all-around Quantum damage dealer. Considering how much the Destruction path is dominated by exclusive five-star units, the fact that she’s decently strong is quite impressive.
Luka
Boxing specialist Luka is all about single-target damage over time. He strikes hard to make his enemies bleed and slowly drains them as turns pass.
Misha
Misha has solid freezing capabilities and mostly relies on his Ultimate move. He’s not great at AoE damage, but his single-target damage is strong, which makes him a solid unit overall.
Yukong
Yukong’s Harmony skillset supplies some decent buffs to attack, critical rate, and critical damage but she can be a little tricky to actually use, which makes her a mediocre option.
Natasha
Natasha is a reliable healer, but she’s also the overall worst one you can use. She’s not bad and will get the job done, but she does feel quite weak when you compare her to other healing units.
March 7th
For being a free unit everyone obtains right away, March 7th is a surprisingly reliable shielder and support force so you can’t go wrong with having her on your team.
C-tier Honkai: Star Rail characters
Those who fall into C-tier feature minimal strengths and can still be powerful, but you’ll have to put much more work in with them than you would any other character who is ranked higher.
Trailblazer
The main character of Honkai: Star Rail is so far a rather mediocre unit although they are the only character who can adapt their path and element type. We’ll certainly see new path and element versions of them in the future, but for now, here’s how the different versions rank.
- Fire Preservation Trailblazer
- Physical Destruction Trailblazer
Dan Heng
While his Imbibitor Lunae version is an absolutely unmatched DPS, regular Dan Heng is rather disappointing. His damage dealing isn’t terrible, but he’s outperformed by most others.
Hook
Hook isn’t a bad DPS and she can deal some decent Fire-based damage if you can’t unlock a better unit, but she can be tricky to play and works like a weak Hunt unit focused on single-target damage only.
Sushang
Although she’s got some strong DPS abilities, Sushang requires heavy investment and is a lot more work to handle than most other characters.
Serval
As an Erudition unit, Serval should be very adept at AoE damage but she just ends up being mostly underwhelming.
D-tier Honkai: Star Rail characters
There aren’t really any bad characters in Honkai: Star Rail since you can build anyone to work well for you, but those in D-tier are as close to bad as you can get.
No character is really considered terrible, but those ranked among the lower tiers are designed for specific situations that don’t make them highly versatile, or they’re overshadowed by other similar characters who are more flexible or stronger overall.
Sampo
Sampo’s damage over time takes a while to apply and take effect and his Ultimate is very specific for only a few characters in the game, so he’s generally just not worth using.
Arlan
The one nice aspect of Arlan’s skillset is that he does not directly use skill points since he drains his own health instead. Beyond that, he’s an overall weak and high-risk, high-reward unit that rarely pays off.
Herta
While no character in Honkai: Star Rail should really be classified as bad, Herta might be the singular exception. Her damage is incredibly weak, many other characters of a similar type work far better, and she just can’t do much even if you invest in her skillset.
Each new Honkai: Star Rail update brings more playable units to the game, so this list will be updated and expanded upon as more characters arrive or as existing recruits move around.
Published: Apr 1, 2024 02:47 pm