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This is our Honkai Star Rail character tier list, ranking the best in the game as of patch 1.4. With this list, we’re ranking our choices for the best healers, DPS, and support characters in Honkai Star Rail. Building your best teams will require a lot of different characters and a good spread of Paths and elements.
While your mileage may vary with each character depending on the Light Cones you have available, you can use this tier list to get a good idea of who you should build if you have them or to see which characters are considered top-tier in the meta. As of patch 1.4, Honkai Star Rail has 33 characters, several of which you actually get for free just by playing the game.
The Honkai Star Rail 1.6 brought Ruan Mei, Dr Ratio, and Xueyi to the game, padding out the roster even further. If you want more Honkai, check out our page with all the active Honkai Star Rail codes to redeem now.
Honkai Star Rail tier list overview – best characters January 2024
When it comes to ranking characters in Honkai Star Rail, we’re looking at different criteria mixed with our own experience with these characters. We will evaluate each character further down this guide, but our overview will give you an idea of which characters we value when it comes to their performance.
Bear in mind, that this tier list is based on our experience with the characters. It generally depends on your level of investment, but you can pretty much make any character great if you raise their Traces to a decent level. With that said, our C-tier characters, such as Serval, are there due to the sheer lack of use and the massive drop in damage output that occurs for her as you get further into the game. When you have Lightning alternatives like Arlan, Kafka, and Jing Yuan, you quickly notice the disparity.
The same mentality applies to the other characters we’ve put in the C-tier, but you might find they perform better for what you need. On another note, we are placing Imbibitor Lunae in SS-rank to begin with, as we come to grips with his kit and playstyle. At first glance, he requires a ton of Skill Points which isn’t ideal. If you click on a name with a link, you will be taken through to a build guide for that character.
| Tier | Characters |
|---|---|
| SS | Kafka, Bronya, Seele, Luocha, Silver Wolf, Jing Yuan, Tingyun, Imbibitor Lunae, Fu Xuan, Jingliu, Ruan Mei, Huohuo, Argenti |
| S | Bailu, Blade, Welt, Gepard, Yanqing, Topaz, Lynx, Clara |
| A | Sushang, March 7th, Dan Heng, Himeko, Guinaifen, Pela, Fire Trailblazer, Sampo, Qingque, Yukong |
| B | Natasha, Hook, Arlan, Asta, Herta |
| C | Physical Trailblazer, Serval |
Honkai Star Rail character tier list – SS tier
Our SS-tier characters in the table above have rightfully won their places. In the table below, we’ll break down why they deserve a spot in the SS rank and why you should consider using them if you’re yet to build one of these incredible characters. In alphabetical order:
| Character | Rarity | Reason |
|---|---|---|
| Argenti – Physical, Erudition | 5-Star | As an Erudition character, Argenti has phenomenal AoE damage capabilities. Better yet, his kit enhances his Crit Rate passively while in combat, making him easy to build. Argenti has a unique Ultimate in that it has two levels, and if you wait until the secondary gauge fills up, his Ultimate will deal significantly more damage. |
| Bronya – Wind, Harmony | 5-Star | When it comes to providing buffs to the party, Bronya is the best of the best. Her Skill not only increases the chosen character’s damage but also moves their turn to be next in the order. You can use Bronya to set up your main DPS to obliterate foes if done correctly. The way Bronya plays with the turn order is her best feature, giving you more attacks and increasing damage output across the whole party. |
| Clara – Physical, Destruction | 5-Star | Clara is arguably one of the most versatile characters you can get at the moment. She can solo almost every single Simulated Universe world and difficulty, trivialising a ton of that content. Her follow-up attacks hammer enemies and she can take one heck of a beating, also letting her act as a Tank. As far as versatile main DPS go, Clara is one of the best. Paired with Luocha, whose heals trigger when she uses a follow-up attack, Clara is borderline unkillable. |
| Dan Heng Imbibitor Lunae, Imaginary, Destruction (Dan Heng Imbibitor Lunae best builds guide) | 5-Star | Even though he has just been released in path 1.3, it’s not hard to see that Imbibitor Lunae is easily one of the strongest DPS characters in the game. His damage increases with each hit and his Ultimate can destroy weaker foes with ease. The biggest problem is that he eats Skill Points, meaning your management and team comps will have to account for this. You always want to enhance his basic attack by using Skill Points, and you should never do this on one stack – always buff it two or three times. |
| Fu Xuan – Quantum, Preservation (Fu Xuan best builds guide) | 5-Star | Fu Xuan was introduced in patch 1.3 and she is a perfect tank. Her kit is geared towards redirecting damage intended for your allies to her. She reduces party-wide damage and takes a larger portion of damage when her allies are hit. As a tank, she’s incredibly useful and can keep a party alive through many trials. |
| Huohuo – Wind, Abundance | 5-Star | While not as good at sustaining the party as Luocha, Huohuo’s healing is still top-tier. She can heal over time, remove debuffs, AoE heal, and her Ultimate provides energy and an ATK increase to the whole team. |
| Jing Yuan – Lightning, Erudition | 5-Star | Jing Yuan is an Eredition character, and these characters typically don’t do a ton of damage. With that said, Jing Yuan is something of an exception, insofar as he can keep up consistent damage across every enemy on the field. His Passive strikes foes up to ten times during a battle, which is phenomenal when it comes to breaking weaknesses. |
| Jingliu – Ice, Destruction | 5-Star | Jingliu is an incredibly strong character in Honkai Star Rail. Her AoE ice damage is considerable and she can enter a powerful buffed stat that further increases her damage. If you want big numbers and to wreck several enemies at once, Jingliu is the one for you. |
| Kafka – Lightning, Nihility (Kafka best builds guide) | 5-Star | Kafka, with her focus on damage-over-time attacks, can dish out considerable damage. She’s an excellent Lightning character who can spread damage among several enemies at once. Since you just need to pump her full of Attack stats, her damage and DoT damage are exceptional. Her Effect Hit Rate is also one of the best by default, which makes sure her DoTs almost always land. |
| Luocha – Imaginary, Abundance | 5-Star | Luocha is arguably the best healer in Honkai Star Rail, depending on what you’re looking for. He does not have one big heal like Bailu or Natasha, but he more than makes up for it with the sheer volume of healing he can output. His Skill restores a ton of HP and his Passive will throw out a free heal to any ally low on HP. Better yet, once he heals or uses his Ultimate, his other ability will trigger which creates an aura of healing. Every attack that happens while this auro is active will heal the entire party. Even though Luocha doesn’t have a revive, you will be healed so much that you won’t need a revive in the first place. For a healer, he is incredibly Skill-Point friendly. |
| Ruan Mei – Ice, Harmony | 5-Star | Ruan Mei is disgustingly broken as a Harmony character. She increases the team’s speed as a passive effect and she can increase Weakness Break efficiency for the whole team. Her Ultimate makes enemies spend another turn in the Weakness Break state, giving you more free hits. She is an incredible buffer and arguably provides the best support. |
| Silver Wolf – Quantum, Nihility | 5-Star | Silver Wolf is currently the only character able to place element Weaknesses in enemies. This means even if you don’t have an element the enemy is weak to, Silver Wolf will temporarily implant a weakness for an element you do have to the chosen enemy. Better yet, she is able to debuff enemies and reduce their defence by attacking. Silver Wolf is a phenomenal enabler, letting you benefit from having a mono-element team since you won’t ever have to worry about foes not having the right weakness. |
| Seele – Quantum, The Hunt | 5-Star | Seele, as the first limited banner five-star character, is still ridiculously strong. The biggest appeal for Seele is her damage, and she can hit crits upwards of 30k with ease. The best part about Seele’s kit, and what cements her as an SS-rank character, is her Passive ability. If Seele defeats an enemy, she can have another turn. This effectively doubles her DPS output, and it can be manipulated by using her Ultimate at the most opportune moment to give her several consecutive turns. |
| Tingyun – Lightning, Harmony | 4-Star | As the only four-star in this list, Tingyun easily earns a spot. Her kit is geared towards buffing your characters with more damage and, crucially, enhancing your Ultimate. She doesn’t have the same turn manipulation that Bronya does, but she makes up for it by granting Energy to characters and increasing their damage. If you need to deal more damage, Tingyun should have a place in your party. |
Honkai Star Rail character tier list – S tier
While you might think anyone under SS is useless, that simply isn’t the case. S-tier characters perform just as well, albeit simply a little bit less than those we’ve decided to label as SS. S-rank characters are extremely powerful and should be used in your teams when you can.
| Character | Rarity | Reason |
|---|---|---|
| Bailu – Lightning, Abundance | 5-Star | Bailu’s healing is better than Natasha’s in almost every single way. She could very easily be an SS-rank character for a lot of people, but generally speaking, the only thing that puts her ahead of other healers is her revive ability. She’s the only one who can bring an ally back to life during combat, but it can only trigger once. Bailu is a must-have for a lot of reasons, especially when you need more healers in the Forgotten Hall levels. |
| Blade – Wind, Destruction | 5-Star | Blade is a Destruction character, making him an excellent all-rounder when it comes to dealing damage. He can dish out AoE pain and impressive single-target damage. One of his best attacks is his follow-up attack Passive, which lets him hit every single enemy on the field with one strike. He scales off HP and synergises extremely well with a healer like Luocha. |
| Clara – Physical, Destruction | 5-Star | Clara is arguably one of the most versatile characters you can get at the moment. She can solo almost every single Simulated Universe world and difficulty, trivialising a ton of that content. Her follow-up attacks hammer enemies and she can take one heck of a beating, also letting her act as a Tank. As far as versatile main DPS go, Clara is one of the best. Paired with Luocha, whose heals trigger when she uses a follow-up attack, Clara is borderline unkillable. |
| Lynx – Quantum, Abundance (Lynx best builds guide) | 4-Star | As the fourth healer added to the game, Lynx is the best of the two four-star healers, completely eclipsing Natasha in every way. Her healing can remove debuffs and her heal-over-time effect in her Skill is brilliant. |
| Gepard – Ice, Preservation | 5-Star | Gepard can provide one of the strongest shields out there as a Preservation character, but only through his Ultimate. His Skill can freeze people, but you will typically want to use Gepard to regen your Skill Points. With the highest defence and HP in the game, he is incredibly strong and if you need a Tank other than the Fire MC, you should consider using him. He does have many drawbacks, but he can self-resurrect once per battle if things turn dire. |
| Welt – Imaginary, Nihility | 5-Star | Welt is a character who is dedicated to slowing down the enemy and delaying their actions. Due to this specialised kit, he is one of the best when it comes to speed-related debuffs. He doesn’t deal a ton of personal damage, but he will hinder your foes so much that they will struggle to get a turn. Delaying actions will outright move an enemy down the turn order while having their speed reduced will mean their next turn comes around much slower. Within this time, you can give your team more turns, meaning more damage or healing as and when you need it. |
| Yanqing – Ice, The Hunt | 5-Star | As it stands, Yanqing’s personal damage is incredibly impressive. The way his kit handles does have its downsides and you do need careful planning to optimise his DPS, but the resulting damage is well worth using him. Not only that, but he can freeze enemies without needing to break their weakness, letting you get in plenty of free hits. |
Honkai Star Rail character tier list – A tier
The Honkai Star Rail characters we consider to be A-tier are still extremely decent by all accounts. These characters will fill a role if you don’t have any of the ones above, and you can invest in them until you get someone better to fit into your teams. In a lot of cases, you might find the Fire Trailblazer and March 7th are incredible Preservation characters who can easily rival the likes of Gepard.
| Character | Rarity | Reason |
|---|---|---|
| Dan Heng – Wind, The Hunt | 4-Star | Dan Heng will be your first and only Hunt character for a long time unless you get lucky on the gacha Warps. To this end, investing in him as one of your main DPS characters is a great idea. He can dish out considerable damage and inflict Wind Shear as an added DoT. |
| Fire Trailblazer – Fire, Preservation | 5-Star | At the moment, the Trailblazer has access to two Paths – Destruction and Preservation. The Preservation path turns the MC into a wonderfully powerful Tank, letting them soak up hits and provide party-wide shields. As one of the few Preservation characters you’ll have, you should always use the Trailblazer in this Path. |
| Guinaifen – Fire, Nihility | 4-Star | Guinaifen is a Fire DoT-focused character who can debuff enemies, simultaneously increasing her own damage against enemies inflicted with burn. As such, she can work extremely well with Kafka and she’s an excellent fire DPS in her own right. |
| Himeko – Fire, Erudition | 5-Star | Himeko might not inspire a lot of you when you use her, but her kit lets her keep extreme pressure on enemies so long as you’re doing damage to them – which should be constantly. Her follow-up attack hits every enemy for a bunch of Fire damage and this is excellent for crowd control. Not to mention, her Blaze debuff lets her keep more damage ticking over on enemies. Any foe with Fire weakness won’t last long with Himeko. As an added bonus, she is incredible if you want to farm Calyx or other challenges in Honkai since she deals with groups with ease. |
| March 7th – Ice, Preservation (March 7th best builds guide) | 4-Star | Another free character you get at the start of the game, March 7th holds up in the long run far better than Dan Heng. She provides strong shields and can increase a party member’s aggro, meaning you can direct enemy attacks. Her shields are beefy and her Ultimate has a chance to freeze enemies, making her an excellent defender and crowd controller who will serve you well through tons of challenging content. |
| Pela – Ice, Nihility | 4-Star | The best thing about Pela is her Defence shredding debuff, and that her Ultimate can remove enemy buffs. As a Nihility character, she’s more geared towards rebuffing in general, instead of applying DoTs to foes. You will get a ton of usage out of Pela, especially against enemies who have troublesome buffs. |
| Sampo – Wind, Nihility | 4-Star | Despite his loathsome personality, Sampo is actually a decent DPS unit in Honkai Star Rail. If you can get over how annoying he is, you will benefit from his generous DoT application and the damage provided by each tick. Pairing Sampo with more Nihility characters will lead to some wonderfully powerful results. Arguably, you need Kafka to get the most out of him. |
| Sushang – Physical, The Hunt | 4-Star | As a Hunt Path character, Sushang fits into your teams as a main DPS. Her biggest drawback is that she’s a Physical damage dealer, and the market on these characters is somewhat saturated, especially when one of the three healers available is also Physical. With that said, Sushang shines as a DPS. Her kit allows her to take extra turns and she can hit the same target multiple times with one attack, letting her keep pressure on enemies while being especially effective against foes with a Physical weakness. |
| Qingque – Quantum, Erudition | 4-Star | Despite being simply fun to play, Qingque is something of an oddity. Her damage output is slightly RNG-based, but if everything goes well she can dish out incredibly impressive damage to several enemies. Her Skill enhances her Basic Attack if she pulls four of the same tiles. While this costs Skill Points each time you try, the resulting damage is almost worth the investment. |
| Xueyi – Quantum, Destruction | 4-Star | As the only other four-star Quantum DPS, Xueyi fits into teams extremely well. She has a follow-up attack system, which is a nice benefit to her kit. At the same time, her Skill hits multiple targets and her Ultimate can damage enemy toughness even if the foe doesn’t have a Quantum weakness. |
| Yukong – Imagination, Harmony | 4-Star | As a four-star character, Yukong can provide a surprising amount of support to your team, while also being a half-decent attacker. Since she fills two roles, Yukong has flexibility with her builds. That said, you should focus mainly on using her as a supporting character since she can increase your team’s damage and crit rate/damage. She requires careful thought for the turn order, and you should only use her Ultimate when she has stacks from her Skill. |
Honkai Star Rail character tier list – B tier
Alas, these characters are sitting on the cusp of greatness. The biggest problem is the characters we’ve placed in the B tier are ones who are mostly outclassed by others higher up. Take Natasha, for example. She is one of the only healers you will have for a long time unless you get Bailu or pulled for Luocha, but that merit alone is not enough to make her a decent character. Her healing is strong, but having one or both of the others will make her entirely redundant.
| Character | Rarity | Reason |
|---|---|---|
| Arlan – Lightning, Destruction | 4-Star | For those who want to use a Lightning character and are stuck with the likes of Serval, Arlan can be an excellent substitute. Due to how his kit works, Arlan needs to be at low HP to perform well, meaning he needs a Shield character with him at all times to stop him from hurting himself and dying immediately. As a Destruction character, he does a lot of things well but doesn’t truly excel at anything. He can dish out great single-target damage, but there are others who fill this role better than him. |
| Asta – Fire, Harmony (Asta best builds guide) | 4-Star | As a Harmony character, Asta is geared more towards general survivability than doing damage. Her Skill bounces around several enemies with Fire damage and she can provide buffs to the party. The best thing about her is her Ultimate, which increases everyone’s speed within the party. This is excellent, but it doesn’t necessarily translate to your team getting more turns before enemies. It certainly helps, but she is one to use cautiously, and only if invested in enough. |
| Herta – Ice, Erudition | 4-Star | People like to think Herta isn’t a strong character, but this is something of a misconception. Due to the sheer frequency of her AoE attacks and the number of hits she can get off, she is one of the stronger crowd-controller characters who can deal with multiple enemies at once. You get several Eidolons of Herta for free through the Simulated Universe, and she will perform admirably if you invest in her. Don’t be disheartened by her low damage numbers, it’s more about consistency and volume when it comes to Herta. |
| Hook – Fire, Destruction | 4-Star | Hook is one of the only main DPS Fire characters you can get at the moment, but this still isn’t enough to make her viable in most situations. She’s strong, but the problem is she’s not consistent due to how her Ultimate is needed to enhance her Skill, turning it into an AoE attack. This is how she does more damage, but you could do much more useful things if you substitute her with the Fire Trailblazer, for example. |
| Luka – Physical, Nihility | 4-Star | Luka is yet another Physical-based character, but he performs a bit better in this role since he follows the Path of Nihility. He is specialised at inflicting Debuffs on enemies and he can enhance his Basic Attack, letting him DPS well and apply DoTS at the same time. His rank would be higher, but he is far too dependant on being in a Nihility-heavy DoT-focused team, limiting his options and usage for most compositions. |
| Natasha – Physical, Abundance | 4-Star | Natasha is only good because she is one of three healers currently in the game. If she was anything other than Physical, she would be much higher on the list. If you don’t have any other healers, you will more often than not be teaming her up with Physical characters and doubling up on that element. That said, her healing is excellent and her Ultimate gives party-wide healing which can sometimes come in clutch. Most times, she can stop you from falling in battle, but she is fairly Skill Point hungry for a healer and she is outclassed frequently by Bailu and Luocha. |
Honkai Star Rail character tier list – C tier
Last but not least, these C-tier characters are sadly nothing special. Your mileage may vary, only with Serval, but we consider these characters as ones who should be avoided unless you have no other options available.
| Character | Rarity | Reason |
|---|---|---|
| Physical Trailblazer – Physical, Destruction | 5-Star | The Physical Trailblazer isn’t necessarily bad, the problem is that the Fire Preservation version of the Trailblazer is just better in every single way. The Physical Trailblazer can dish out single and AoE damage well, but they are much better utilised being a Tank in the Preservation Path. You will be stuck with them in this role until you reach the end of the Belobog story arc, but try not to invest too much in them unless you really enjoy playing as them. |
| Serval – Lightning, Erudition | 4-Star | Serval has all the trappings of a Nihility character, but due to her Erudition Path, she is stifled in so many ways mostly thanks to the lack of Light Cone options that benefit her. Her DPS and AoE capabilities are only fine, and while she can perform well in early-game fights, she quickly drops off in usefulness the further you get into the game. Her lack of versatility and incredibly lacklustre damage leave much to be desired. Your mileage may vary with Serval, but we never felt like she was performing well most times. |
That’s all on our Honkai Star Rail character tier list. More characters will periodically added to the game as future updates are released and we will continue to update this page to reflect any changes and slot in new characters when they become available. If you’re getting into the swing of things, check out how to level fast in Honkai Star Rail so you can catch up to all the new content.
