Honkai Star Railhas a diverse roster of standard 5-star characters that can be incredible additions to your teams. Since players will naturally end up getting some of these characters by wishing on the Stellar Warp banner or losing the 50-50 on limited banners, it is beneficial to know which characters can bring the most value to your account.
RELATED:Honkai Star Rail: All Free Characters
If you’ve played the game since its launch, chances are you are also closing in on the 300 wishes mark that’ll let you select a standard 5-star character of your choice. To help you decide which character would be most suitable for you, here are each of their strengths and weaknesses.
Honkai: Star Rail
Easy To Build, But Less Valuable In Late-Game Content
Yanqingis an Ice Type character who follows the Path of Hunt. He deals significant single-target damage and has a chance to Freeze enemies, which can delay their turn. Yanqing’s kit revolves around entering his Soulsteel Sync state, which decreases his aggro and gives him a Crit Rate and Crit DMG boost. It also gives him a 60% chance to launch a follow-up attack that can deal damage up to 50% of his ATK.
Since Yanqing can boost his own Crit Rate and Crit DMG, he is an especially valuable unit in the early game when players will still be missing good Light Cones and Relics. However, the longer you play, the more likely you are to obtain such pieces, which can then be used onmuch stronger DPS characters. Another caveat he faces is the conditional nature of his boost, which relies on him not taking damage, lest he fall out of the Soulsteel Sync state. Single target damage is also not very useful in current game modes, like Memory of Chaos, which features multiple enemies, and if you haveJingliu, she can do everything he does, but better.
Good Weakness Breaking Utility, But Usefulness Is Situational
Himekois a Fire Type character who follows the Path of Erudition. She deals significant AOE damage and can launch follow-up attacks outside of her turn. Her kit revolves around her Talent, which accumulates stacks every time an enemy’s Weakness is broken, and launches an AOE follow-up attack when you accumulate 3 stacks. Her Ultimate also provides an Energy refund upon scoring kills.
RELATED:Honkai Star Rail: All Characters & Their Voice Actors
Himeko functions extremely well as a sub DPS unit when there are plenty of adds on the field. In such AOE situations, you can Weakness Break frequently, causing her to launch multiple follow-up attacks. However, she struggles against boss enemies and when there are fewer units on the field since you won’t be able to Weakness Break nearly as frequently. Himeko has recently seen more value with the introduction ofTopaz, who can buff follow-up attacks, but her situational use is something you may want to consider before adding her to your lineup.
Slows Enemies, But Damage Is Situational
Weltis an Imaginary Type character who follows the Path of Nihility. He has a rather niche playstyle that revolves around slowing enemies and delaying their turn, allowing your team to deal damage in relative comfort. He additionally deals increased damage against slowed enemies, which can make him work as both a hypercarry, or sub DPS unit, depending on the situation.
Welt’s Ultimate has a 100% base chance to Imprison enemies, thereby slowing them, but the majority of his damage comes from his Skill and Talent. His Skill is a 3-hit attack that can bounce randomly between enemies, much likeAstaandSampo’s. His Talent lets him deal increased damage against slowed enemies. For this reason, Welt works extremely well when there are fewer enemies on the field, or even single targets, since all 3 hits of his Skill will converge on that enemy and deal impressive damage. He does tend to struggle against enemies who can call in adds for the same reason, since his damage gets dispersed between them. In such situations, he works better as a sub DPS than a hypercarry.
Strong Healing, But Missing Cleansing Ability
Bailuis a Lightning Type character who follows the Path of Abundance. She is an extremely powerful healer that can solo sustain your team, and even proactively heal them outside her turn through her Invigoration mechanics. Her Skill provides a targeted heal for a single ally that can bounce to 2 more allies randomly.
Bailu’s kit revolves around her Invigoration mechanics, gained through her Ultimate. Invigoration lasts for 2 turns on an ally and can heal them when they take damage. This effect can occur twice, and since it occurs outside Bailu’s turn, it can allow you to use fewer Skill Points to keep your team alive. She can also revive a downed character once per battle, which is useful when you have your back to the wall. Bailu does, however, lack the ability to Cleanse enemy debuffs, which becomes more valuable in late-game content.
Incredible Solo Sustain
Gepard is an Ice Type character who follows the Path of Preservation. He is anincredible solo-sustain unit, capable of keeping your entire team shielded with his Ultimate, and can even apply Freeze on an enemy with his Skill. He is also relatively easy to build since he scales off of DEF.
Unlocking his 2nd Ascension ability makes Gepard invite more enemy attacks, which is something he wants since it’ll recharge his Ultimate faster. He also has the ability to self-revive once per battle if he gets knocked down, but ideally, you won’t want to find yourself in that situation to begin with. Having him on the team also allows for greater Skill Point efficiency, since you can make do with Normal Attacks, only requiring use of his Skill to Freeze an enemy in an emergency. His only downsides are he doesn’t synergize well with characters like Jingliu, who deals damage to her allies to buff her own attacks, or Blade and Clara, who want enemies to attack them in order to achieve their full potential.
Unique Counterattack Playstyle And Incredible Damage
Clarais a Physical Type character who follows the Path of Destruction. She has a unique playstyle that focuses on dealing damage through counterattacks, making for an interesting and challenging gameplay experience. For this reason, her damage can be reliant on RNG, but it also makes her one of the best damage dealers, especially in AOE scenarios.
RELATED:Honkai Star Rail: All Enemies & Weaknesses
Clara’s kit revolves around her Talent, which provides her with a permanent 10% damage reduction and causes her guardian Svarog to retaliate with a follow-up attack that deals damage up to 160% of Clara’s ATK. Since this ability has no cooldown or downtime, Clara (or rather Svarog) can deal huge amounts of passive damage outside of her turn. This Talent also applies a Mark of Counter against the enemy, which makes them take double the damage when Clara uses her Skill to deal AOE damage. Her Ultimate further reduces the damage she takes for 2 turns, increases enemy aggro, enhances her counterattacks, and causes Svarog to launch an enhanced counterattack whenanyally is attacked, up to 2 times.
Strong Damage Boost And Forward Advancing Mechanic
Bronyais a Wind Type character who follows the Path of Harmony. She is arguablythe best support character in the game, with the ability to advance a teammate’s turn and provide a huge damage buff. In a turn-based game, being able to essentially cheat the turn order can be downright overpowered, making Bronya a valuable addition to any team.
Bronya’s kit revolves around her Skill and Ultimate. Her Ultimate provides a colossal ATK and Crit DMG boost to the entire team, while her Skill provides an additional damage boost that can also Cleanse a single debuff on an ally and Advance their turn by 100%. For this reason, Bronya can essentially allow damage dealers to deal more than twice their damage in a single cycle, or come in clutch by Advancing the turn of a healer for some emergency healing. Her only downside is that she is rather Skill Point hungry, but even that can be mitigated with her E1 Eidolon, which has a 50% chance of recovering a Skill Point when Bronya uses her Skill. For this reason, you might even consider pulling a copy of her from the 5-star selector. She is that valuable!
