If you’re looking for a Honkai: Star Rail Tier List to help you round out your starter team, you came to the right place.
Honkai Star Rail is full of powerful characters, but some are clearly a level above others. Knowing which characters can make a difference is important since you obtain most of them on a gacha system.
This tier list will help players decide if a certain Warp is worth the pulls or if they’re better off saving their Star Rail Passes for another stop.
Best Honkai: Star Rail Character Ranking
Here are the best characters in the Honkai: Star Rail Tier List to help players build the most powerful team:
| Tier | Main DPS | Support/Debuffer | Healer/Tank |
|---|---|---|---|
| S Tier | Seele, Yanqingm Jing Yuan | Bronya, Tingyun, Welt | Bailu, Gepard |
| A Tier | Clara, Himeko, Sushang, Serval | Asta, Pela | Natasha, Trailblazer (Fire), March 7th |
| B Tier | Arlan, Qingque, Sampo, Dan Heng | ||
| C Tier | Herta, Trailblazer (Physical), Hook |
Unfortunately, when players first begin their journey on the Astral Express, only a limited number of characters are available.
To use some of the stronger characters, players will need to unlock them through the gacha system. This is why it’s important to learn about the Pity system and how it can guarantee you a 5-Star character.
S Tier
Bronya – The Harmony
- Where to Obtain – Stellar Warp
- Element – Wind
- Recommended Role – Support
- Rarity – ★★★★★
Bronya is currently one of the strongest support characters that players can obtain in Honkai: Star Rail. Her Combat Redeployment Skill allows her to dispel a debuff from a single ally, allow them to immediately take action, and boost their damage.
When you pair up with Bronya with a Main DPS like Seele or Yanqing, they can potentially destroy the enemy team without giving anyone else a turn.
Seele – The Hunt
- Where to Obtain – Butterfly on Swordtip Character Event Warp (Current)
- Element – Quantum
- Recommended Role – Main DPS
- Rarity – ★★★★★
Seele is the most deadly single-target DPS in Honkai: Star Rail. Her Talent allows her to attack again after eliminating a target.
Due to how powerful her Skill is, players can easily take down a single enemy and get a follow-up turn because of it.
Her Ultimate is devastating, and when paired up with her signature Light Cone, In The Night, players will have one of the best damage dealers in the game.
Yanqing – The Hunt
- Where to Obtain – Stellar Warp
- Element – Ice
- Recommended Role – Main DPS
- Rarity – ★★★★★
Yanqing is one of the best characters in Honkai: Star Rail and excels at single-target damage due to his critical rate chance and freeze capabilities.
His talent allows him to do a follow-up attack when he gets a critical hit, and his skill increases the odds of obtaining a critical. This allows him to attack opponents until they are rendered frozen.
By the time the enemy attacks, Yanqing already has his Ultimate ready to deliver the finishing blow.
Jing Yuan – The Erudition
- Where to Obtain – Character Event Warp (Upcoming)
- Element – Lightning
- Recommended Role – Main DPS
- Rarity – ★★★★★
Jing Yuan is a part of the upcoming Phase 2 Character Event Warp and is one of the heaviest damage dealers in Honkai: Star Rail.
He is one of the best characters to use in the game because of his powerful AoE attacks that can obliterate foes with lightning. His Talent also allows his Lightning-Lord to do follow-up damage to his attacks.
Jing Yuan is just a powerhouse that any team would welcome. If you pair him up with a character like Asta, who can increase his speed, you’ll mow down the enemy forces.
Bailu – The Abundance
- Where to Obtain – Stellar Warp
- Element – Lightning
- Recommended Role – Healer
- Rarity – ★★★★★
Bailu is the best healer in Honkai Star Rail and the only character in the entire game with a revival ability.
Her healing potential seems almost limitless. Her Talent and Skill are crafted so that she can heal multiple allies. She is able to revive one knocked-down ally as soon as it happens. She fits well onto any team and can ensure your Main DPS is always in full health.
Gepard – The Preservation
- Where to Obtain – Stellar Warp
- Element – Ice
- Recommended Role – Support/Tank
- Rarity – ★★★★★
Gepard is a fantastic Tank character the outclasses the rest due to his ability to shield his entire team with his Ultimate and his tenacity.
Once during battle, if Gepard is taken down, he will automatically heal for a percentage of his health. This means that he can withstand some powerful attacks without hindering his team.
Players should look to add them to their team if they have a Main DPS prone to getting knocked about by the enemy team.
Tingyun – The Harmony
- Where to Obtain – Stellar Warp
- Element – Lightning
- Recommended Role – Support
- Rarity – ★★★★
Tingyun can take any Main DPS from A Tier and turn them into a serious competitor for S Tier. Her ability to increase the ATK of her team while also giving them an additional lightning attack is powerful.
She is also able to regenerate Energy for an ally and boost their damage with her ultimate Amidst the Rejoicing Clouds.
Her Eidolon upgrades only improve how helpful she is to her teammates. If you pair her up with Jing Yuan or Seele, you could decimate an enemy team before they reach their first turn.
Welt – The Nihility
- Where to Obtain – Stellar Warp
- Element – Imaginary
- Recommended Role – Debuffer
- Rarity – ★★★★★
Welt can use his abilities to manipulate the turn order with the Imprisoned effect. This can ensure that your Main DPS is able to secure a few strong attacks before the enemy has a chance to do anything.
He is the only Imaginary element character in Honkai: Star Rail Version 1.0 Tier List. This means that he is necessary for any team if you’re looking to take advantage of that weakness.
When Welt imprisons an opponent, their actions are delayed and speed reduced. This could prove useful when up against a potentially dangerous boss.
A Tier
Clara – The Destruction
- Where to Obtain – Stellar Warp
- Element – Physical
- Recommended Role – Main DPS
- Rarity – ★★★★★
Clara is a powerful Tank that can agro her enemies to focus attack [on] her. Once this is accomplished, she has her companion Svarog launch a counterattack and mark the enemies.
Once the enemies are marked, Svarog will personally ensure that they are dealt the most damage possible for harming Clara. She is a fun character to use and one that has a great payoff for anyone looking to invest in her.
She can also function as a Main DPS because of how powerful her follow-up attacks are at building her Ultimate. Every time she is attacked, Svarog will appear and attack back.
Himeko – The Erudition
- Where to Obtain – Stellar Warp
- Element – Fire
- Recommended Role – Main DPS
- Rarity – ★★★★★
Himeko is a fire-based Main DPS that uses powerful AoE and follow-up attacks to burn her enemies to the ground quickly.
She is great at clearing out waves of enemies, and when you’re able to use her Talent Victory Rush by exploiting enemy weaknesses to follow up and finish off foes she truly begins to shine.
Thanks to her follow-up attacks, she can quickly build up her Ultimate, but she does lack when it comes to single-target damage.
Natasha – The Abundance
- Where to Obtain – Stellar Warp/Butterfly on Swordtip Character Event Warp (Current)
- Element – Physical
- Recommended Role – Healer
- Rarity – ★★★★
Natasha is one of the best support characters in the game because she can keep your entire team alive through countless waves of enemies.
She is a Healer primarily, so don’t expect her to do too much damage. Her Innervation Talent allows her to heal allies that are closer to death for greater amounts.
When you pair her up with someone like Bronya or Asta, who can increase her speed or actions, she can heal the entire party before the next enemy attack.
Asta – The Harmony
- Where to Obtain – Free Unit
- Element – Fire
- Recommended Role– Support
- Rarity – ★★★★
Asta is one of the most versatile characters in the Honkai: Star Rail Tier List and can fit nicely into most team comps. Her abilities allow her to boost her team’s speed while having a great AOE skill to break shields.
Her Astrometry Talent has a Charging ability that can stack and allows her to increase her team’s attack each time she hits a different enemy. This works well with her Meteor Storm, which sends out 4 bombardments and damages a random enemy.
She is a great character to build early on because of her fantastic synergy and can really benefit players when they visit the ice-cold planet, Jarilo-VI.
Trailblazer (Fire) – The Preservation
- Where to Obtain – Story Progression
- Element – Fire
- Recommended Role – Tank
- Rarity – ★★★★★
When players equip the Trailblazer with the Fire Element, it completely elevates their abilities as a Tank to new heights.
This version of the main character in Honkai Star Rail can increase their Damage Reduction and shield their own allies using the Talent Treasure of the Architects.
Despite the relatively small shields they give their allies, the Trailblazer can agro the enemy and maintain the focus on themselves. This allows them to build Magma Will stacks to unleash devastating attacks.
But to use them, you will need to unlock the Trailblazer’s Preservation path first.
Pela – The Nihility
- Where to Obtain – Stellar Warp/Butterfly on Swordtip Character Event Warp (Current)
- Element – Ice
- Recommended Role – Support
- Rarity – ★★★★
Pela is a great Support character because she ensures that the enemy team can’t buff themselves to generate powerful attacks.
Her Ultimate also severely reduces the DEF of enemies and deals AoE damage, so it’s a powerful tool she can use often.
She is also a great character to have in the second area you visit, Xianzhou Luofu, since her debuff takes away the self-revive ability of the mara-struck enemies.
Sushang – The Hunt
- Where to Obtain – Stellar Warp
- Element – Physical
- Recommended Role – Main DPS
- Rarity – ★★★★
Sushang is a powerful single-target character that can deal powerful single-target Physical damage to an enemy and build her Ultimate quickly using follow-up attacks.
Her Ultimate, Shape of Taixu: Dawn Herald, allows her to increase the likelihood of her follow-up attack which allows her to damage her opponent multiple times with one attack.
Serval – The Erudition
- Where to Obtain – Stellar Warp
- Element – Lightning
- Recommended Role – Main DPS
- Rarity – ★★★★
Serval has potential to be great, but requires a lot of investment into her attack damage. Her character is built to take advantage of the Shock effect and its continuous damage to enemies while it is in play.
But if her overall Relics and Light Cone attack damage is low, then her abilities aren’t as powerful as they should be.
March 7th – The Preservation
- Where to Obtain – Free Unit/Butterfly on Swordtip Character Event Warp (Current)
- Element – Ice
- Recommended Role – Tank
- Rarity – ★★★★
March 7th is a great Tank character that can help her team withstand powerful attacks due to her skill Power is Cuteness that shields any of her team members. When building her, players need to focus on getting her to high defense to bring out the best in her.
She can also apply Freeze to her enemies with her Ultimate so it can help push enemy turns further down.
If a player were to get her to Eidolon 6, she becomes a powerhouse and could go as far as being considered an S-Tier Tank/Support. The “Just Like This. Always…” Eidolon 6 skill allows any ally under the protection of her shield to restore HP at the beginning of each turn.
B Tier
Dan Heng – The Hunt
- Where to Obtain – Free Unit
- Element – Wind
- Recommended Role– Main DPS
- Rarity – ★★★★
Dan Heng is a powerful single-target character that can players can build their team around with enough investment.
His Ultimate deals more damage if their enemy is Slowed. Pairing him up with a support unit like Asta, who increases speed, will really make the most of what he can do.
You will need to outfit him with the right Relics or his damage will begin to drop off in the later stages of Honkai Star Rail.
Arlan – The Destruction,
- Where to Obtain – Stellar Warp
- Element – Lightning
- Recommended Role – Main DPS
- Rarity – ★★★★
Arlan is a great character for any players that enjoy going all out on the attack. His attack power increases the lower his health is.
This means that Arlan is at his best when his health is at its lowest. But this is a dangerous tactic, so pairing him up with a character like March 7th that can shield him is always a great option.
Sampo – The Nihility
- Where to Obtain – Stellar Warp
- Element – Wind
- Recommended Role – Sub DPS
- Rarity – ★★★★
Sampo is a fun character to use when you have a team that is already built around another powerful Main DPS. His attacks allow players to do decent damage while his Ultimate boost the amount of damage-over-time enemies are affected.
He is great to use with any characters that use an effect to prolong the damage they dish out, like Hook or Serval.
Qingque – The Erudition
- Where to Obtain – Stellar Warp
- Element – Quantum
- Recommended Role – Main DPS
- Rarity – ★★★★
Qingque is a fun character to use, but she is also a gamble. Her most powerful attack happens when the player manages to pull 4 tiles of the same suit.
Until then, her damage is average and isn’t something players should build their damage around.
C Tier
Hook – The Destruction
- Where to Obtain – Stellar Warp
- Element – Fire
- Recommended Role – Main DPS
- Rarity – ★★★★
Hook deals a decent amount of damage and has a strong AoE Ultimate, but she relies too much on the Burn effect.
If your team isn’t built around other Fire characters, then using Hook won’t have as great of an effect as it could.
Herta – The Erudition
- Where to Obtain – Free Unit
- Element – Ice
- Recommended Role– Main DPS
- Rarity – ★★★★
Herta is a powerful early-game Ice Sub DPS due to her strong AoE Skill but will require players to invest in her to still be viable in the late-game areas.
As a free character, Herta is a great choice and will help players with farming early on in Honkai: Star Rail. Once she reaches Eidolon 6, she becomes a ruthless Freeze dealing AoE powerhouse.
She is by no means a bad character, and a great player can still get ATier potential out of her build with the right Relics.
Trailblazer (Physical) – The Destruction
- Where to Obtain – Main Character
- Element – Physical
- Recommended Role – Sub DPS
- Rarity – ★★★★★
The physical element using Trailblazer is a pretty fun choice to use due to their powerful damage attacks and AoE Skill, but that’s all there really is to the character.
Don’t expect the Trailblazer (Physical) to add anything else to your team besides a solid damage output.
