Skip to Content

Honkai: Star Rail Tier List: A Complete Ranking of the Best Characters

Welcome, Trailblazers, to our Honkai: Star Rail tier list! In this guide we’ll be separating characters by Path as well as adding a quick write-up on their pros and cons, and why they’re placed that way on the tier list.

A Foreword

A few notes before we start.

First off, finishing the game with the free characters you get is possible. You may have to grind for more relics and traces, but yes, it’s definitely doable. There are no “hard” paywalls when it comes to getting characters, and I hope it stays that way. This tier list is more of a “who should I build to future-proof my strategy” list.

honkai star rail tier guide

Second, we’ll be ranking characters from S to D-tier, with the following criteria for each category:

  • S-tier characters are superb picks of their specific Path. They excel in almost all combat situations and are a no-brainer pick for their roles. If you have them and aren’t using them, I respect your bravery and conviction.
  • A-tier characters are great picks if you don’t have S-Tier characters. While their performance won’t be as insane as S-tiers, A-tiers will likely form the core of your team. They’re not outstanding, but they are reliable, accessible, and usually easier to build.
  • B-tier characters are good. Could be better, could be worse. They’ll perform adequately in their role, but if you have an A-tier character, please use them instead. These characters can be built but will likely be overshadowed when new characters are released or if you pull better ones.
  • C-tier characters are bad and/or super situational. With subpar performance barring extremely specific conditions, it takes a lot of work and investment to get a C-tier going – and why go the distance when just plugging a B or A-tier character will solve the problem?
  • D-tier characters are abysmal or even more gimmicky than C-tiers. If you roll with a D-tier, I hope you know what you’re doing. Please also consider getting help.

Third and last: this tier list is subjective and based on my own experience playing Honkai: Star Rail. There is no be-all, end-all tier list. If you’re the kind of player who lives and breathes waifu over meta, more power to you.

With that out of the way, let’s get down to business!

Destruction Tier List

SClara
ATrailblazer (Physical), Hook
BArlan

S-Tier

Clara

clara honkai star rail
Go ahead. Attack the little girl. See what happens.

Rarity: *****
Element: Physical

Pros:

  • Most of her damage is triggered via counterattack, allowing for absurd damage output even when it isn’t her turn.
  • Has a pseudo-taunt and damage reduction passives to help her survive and deal damage.

Cons:

  • Clara is subject to RNG. Sometimes the enemy will just ignore her despite all the aggro stacking. This also means her damage is dependent on something you can’t control.
  • Can compete with taunt-type tanks for aggro.

Clara is adorable, and Svarog will kick the ass of anyone who lays hands on her. This isn’t just flavor text – it’s literally how Clara works. She’s a strange hybrid of tank and DPS which, for some reason, works out perfectly.

Clara works by dealing massive physical damage via Svarog when she gets hit (and at Eidolon 6, this protection extends to her allies as well). Couple this with her passives that make her more likely to be targeted and reduce incoming damage, and you’ve got a wall of steel that enemies are going to break themselves on.

Related: Honkai: Star Rail Beginner’s Guide: Tips, Tricks & Strategies for Trailblazing Beyond the Stars

That said, remember that Clara is a DPS, not a tank. The whole point of her taunt Technique and damage reduction Talent is to help her survive hits to counter them, not to eat attacks for the party. Make sure she has adequate support!

A-Tier

Trailblazer (Physical)

trailblazer honkai star rail
bat go brr

Rarity: *****
Element: Physical

Pros:

  • Simple and effective kit.
  • Versatile ultimate that can be used as a high-damage single target nuke or an AOE.
  • Easy to get to Eidolon 6.

Cons:

  • Versatility means they lose specialization – physical Trailblazer can’t deal as much damage as a dedicated The Hunt character, nor can they sweep mobs with ease like an Erudition character.
  • Doesn’t have secondary effects tied to their skills (ie, freeze, debuffs, etc.)

The physical Trailblazer is a decent character whose cozy spot comes from their sheer versatility. RIP Home Run is a good, simple AOE, and Stardust Ace bears the distinction of being (correct me if I’m wrong) the only ultimate that can be swapped between high single-target damage and great AOE.

The catch here is that it’s easy to become complacent when relying on the Trailblazer. Versatility is often its own downfall, as later on you will want specialists to deal with specific foes. Just because the Trailblazer -can- deal with either bosses or mobs doesn’t mean they excel at it.

Hook

hook honkai star rail
Klee would like a word.

Rarity: ****
Element: Fire

Pros:

  • Great single-target fire attacker.
  • Reliably inflicts Burn for chipping away at foes.

Cons:

  • No AOE whatsoever outside of ultimate enhancing her skill.

Pitch-Dark Hook the Great may be a small girl but don’t underestimate her. She packs fantastic single-target fire damage with both her skill and her ultimate. Oh, and her skill has a 100% base chance to inflict a burn DoT that scales off her ATK. Her talent encourages you to spread the flames further as she does even more damage to enemies that are burned. Saucy!

On the downside, Hook has zero AOE capabilities outside of her enhanced ultimate, which won’t pop up very often. And let’s be honest – the main reason you want to enhance her ultimate anyway is to spread burn.

B-Tier

Arlan

arlan honkai star rail
Oh, the sweet embrace of unalive.

Rarity: ****
Element: Lightning

Pros:

  • Great single-target lightning attacker.

Cons:

  • Directly conflicts with healers as he needs to maintain low HP to maximize damage.
  • Stabs himself to activate his skill.

Honestly, the only reason Arlan is lower than the other Destruction Path characters here is that getting the most out of him requires you to maintain low HP on him, something that’s pretty much a death sentence in higher difficulty content (yes, even with shields). Your DPS is zero if you’re dead. Besides, the other Destruction Path characters can do damage while keeping out of precarious HP – even Clara – which makes Arlan an okay-but-not-great pick.

The Hunt Tier List

SSeele
ASushang, Yanqing
BDan Heng

S-Tier

Seele

seele honkai star rail
My Shadow the Hedgehog OC.

Rarity: *****
Element: Quantum

Pros:

  • Gets extra turns when she kills something.
  • Buffs her own SPD.

Cons:

  • Requires constant kills to maximize performance.

Seele is a straightforward assassin. She hits hard, moves fast, and gets an extra turn when she kills something. Oh, and she gets a DMG (not ATK) boost during said extra turns. A simple kit, but brutally effective.

While it’s true that Seele needs to keep killing to maintain her momentum and performance, you can skirt this issue by making Seele the sole attacker on your team. Pair her up with supports like Bronya, Asta, and Tingyun, and watch the sparks fly.

A-Tier

Sushang

sushang honkai star rail
Eminently practical.

Rarity: ****
Element: Physical

Pros:

  • Excellent at capitalizing on weakness breaks.
  • Buffs her own SPD and ATK and advances her own actions.
  • Eidolon 1 essentially makes her skill free when attacking an enemy with weakness break.
  • Is a 4*.

Cons:

  • Lower damage potential outside of weakness breaks.
  • 100% advance forward on next action means that buffs can be trickier to manage.

Sushang excels at kicking enemies while they’re down, not that that’s a bad thing.

Her Cloudfencer Art: Moonfall deals high single-target damage, with a 33% chance of proccing an extra hit. However, this extra hit becomes guaranteed if the enemy has weakness break, allowing for a quick burst of damage. Meanwhile, Shape of Taixu: Dawn Herald not only nukes a target down but also lets Sushang act again immediately, gives her an ATK buff and adds 2 rolls to proc her extra hits.

This kit makes Sushang incredible at pushing the advantage for a quick, decisive victory. And she’s just 4*!

Yanqing

yanqing honkai star rail
Requisite child prodigy.

Rarity: *****
Element: Ice

Pros:

  • Big crit numbers.
  • Freezes enemies.

Cons:

  • Optimal damage requires that Yanqing not be hit – difficult even with taunts.

Yanqing is a character who gets a ton of crit and crit damage via his skills. This allows him to burst down enemies with incredible single hits – and freeze them too. Thanks to Yanqing’s heavy focus on crit rate, one could eschew building that stat and instead go all-in on crit damage to make his numbers even bigger.

This power comes at a price – Yanqing’s Soulsteel Sync mode requires that he be unscathed to maintain his focus. While having the mode up decreases the chance he’ll be attacked, you’re still at the mercy of the RNG. Not to mention the slew of AOE attacks that enemies possess.

B-Tier

Dan Heng

dan honkai star rail
Tall, dark, and full of ellipses.

Rarity: ****
Element: Wind

Pros:

  • High damage multipliers.
  • Synergizes with March 7th off the bat.
  • Chance to slow enemies.

Cons:

  • Very convoluted optimal damage setup. It’s simpler and often more effective to just use someone else.

Dan Heng is your starter The Hunt Path character, and he’s decent. A lot of enemies will be weak to wind (especially elites) so you’ll at least have a fighting chance. Dan Heng is also blessed with higher multipliers than most; his skill and ultimate hit for 325% and 480% respectively while most characters will only go into the high 200s there.

The main issue with Dan Heng is how ridiculous it is to get his damage to competitive numbers. Seele, for example, is “kill something, get extra turn with more damage, rinse and repeat”. Sushang is “weakness break enemy, poke them until they stop moving.” Dan Heng is on a college thesis level: “IF I can crit on my skill THEN I can slow (chance) my enemies so my ultimate can do more damage. Oh, and I need to be buffed before the ultimate hits so my wind res pen increases. AND this has a cooldown.” Thanks for the info, Danny boy, but uh…I think I’ll pass on that.

Erudition Tier List

SJing Yuan
BHerta, Serval, Himeko
CQingque

S-Tier

Jing Yuan

jing honkai star rail
Has a Stand.

Rarity: *****
Element: Lightning

Pros:

  • Fantastic single-target attacker despite being an Erudition character.
  • Still packs meaningful, powerful AOE.
  • Lightning-Lord can easily weakness break.
  • STANDO POWA

Cons:

  • Skill point hog.
  • Any form of CC shuts down Lightning-Lord.

Jing Yuan is an unconventional Erudition character in that he is perfectly capable of high single-target damage. That doesn’t detract from his kit though – he’s always ready to go with both an AOE skill and ultimate.

What sets Jing Yuan apart is the Lightning-Lord, an…Aeon? Imaginary friend? Guardian angel? Stand. Jing Yuan is now a JoJo character. Lightning-Lord is essentially a 5th character on your team, and the more Jing Yuan uses his skills, the more hits Lightning-Lord does when its turn comes around. As Lightning-Lord deals multiple instances of lightning splash damage, weakness breaks are hilariously easy to achieve and even bosses will find a good chunk of their health blitzed away.

Jing Yuan does have some shortcomings. A large part of his DPS is tied to proccing Lightning-Lord, which requires him to spam his AOE or ultimate – meaning he’ll likely be hogging skill points. Lightning-Lord will also fail to act if Jing Yuan is under any form of hard CC, so freezes, entanglement, and other ailments will stop the thunder dead in its tracks.

B-Tier

Herta

herta honkai star rail
It is always time to twirl.

Rarity: ****
Element: Ice

Pros:

  • Eats mobs for breakfast, making her fantastic at farming.
  • Great, easy-to-proc follow up conditions.
  • Kurukurukurukuru.

Cons:

  • Useless against bosses or elites.

Herta scores low on most tier lists, which I think is fair considering most of them focus on endgame Memories of Chaos. For general purposes though, such as story clearing, farming, and grinding, Herta is a solid pick made even better due to being both free and easy to raise thanks to getting her Eidolons from the Simulated Universe.

Make no mistake – Herta is made for killing mobs and mobs only. Her skill does 20% more damage to enemies with high health, often leading to a cascade of skill – follow up – death. See, Herta is a busy woman, and thus she knows the value of and respects your time. Please reciprocate by using her only in appropriate situations.

“Useless” is not a term I toss around lightly, so it’s a bad sign that that’s the word I would use to describe Herta’s performance against bosses. Everything in Herta’s kit revolves around chewing up and spitting out normal mobs as fast as possible, and thus she flounders hard against hardier foes. Just don’t try it, and please have a character of The Hunt on standby to replace her.

Serval

serval honkai star rail
REDDO HOTTO CHIRI PEPPA

Rarity: ****
Element: Lightning

Pros:

  • Great AOE damage vis-à-vis her shock procs.
  • Has a sweet axe.

Cons:

  • Skill is a blast, not an AOE.
  • Reliant on shock to get the most out of her damage.

You wouldn’t think that Serval was an architect of Belobog, but that should teach you not to judge books by their cover. Serval’s mobbing skills come from her ability to proc and exploit shock on her foes – her skill has an 80% base chance to inflict shock on 3 enemies, while her ultimate extends the duration of this ailment. Her normal attack also gets in on the fun by hitting shocked enemies whether they were her main target or not.

While Serval does have a solid use case as a mobber, the fact that most of her damage comes from shock procs (which won’t always happen) makes her a little less reliable than Herta. Still, she’s a solid choice for a mage.

Himeko

himeko honkai star rail
Beautiful, but…

Rarity: *****
Element: Fire

Pros:

  • Follow up attack hits all enemies.

Cons:

  • The 5* you probably don’t want to see.
  • There’s not much she can do that Herta or Serval already have covered.
  • Requires a lot of trace and Eidolon investment to reach acceptable damage numbers.

Himeko is…well.

There’s not much she can’t do that Serval and Herta can’t already apart from AOE fire coverage, and even Asta can do that thanks to her bouncing attack. Himeko does have a great follow up attack that hits all enemies but requires consistent and quick weakness breaks. On its own, the damage it deals is far too slow to make any meaningful contribution in combat and requires careful coordination for a meh payoff.

Himeko is still good at clearing mobs, but it’s damning that a free 4* unit can do a better job than her. And now that I said that, she’s going to eat my pity.

C-Tier

Qingque

qingque honkai star rail
This is a real “heart of the tiles” moment.

Rarity: ****
Element: Quantum

Pros:

  • One of the few Quantum damage dealers.
  • Free.

Cons:

  • Her damage is literally based on your real-life luck.
  • No on-demand AOE, unlike other Erudition characters.

As a wise man once said, “The primary mechanic is chance. Every character is chance. Every weapon is chance. Every piece of every build is ****** chance.” So yeah, let’s take that mechanic and apply it to a character’s ability to do damage. To add salt to the wound, said AOE is an enhanced basic attack that, for some reason, doesn’t generate skill points. Are we here just to suffer?

Oh, and no, Qingque doesn’t have an on-demand AOE, which is the whole point of using Erudition characters. Her skill just lets her draw more tiles. While it’s cute on paper, it can be aggravatingly random in practice. Pass from me, but at least she’s free.

Harmony Tier List

SBronya
AAsta, Tingyun

S-Tier

Bronya

bronya honkai star rail
Why fight if someone else can do it better?

Rarity: *****
Element: Wind

Pros:

  • Makes allies act again immediately with more DMG; the same skill comes with a dispel and an ATK boost.
  • Powerful ultimate that raises both ATK and crit damage that partially scales off Bronya’s own crit damage.

Cons:

  • Frail.
  • Good judgment is required when using Combat Redeployment as it can burn through Skill Points quickly.

The commander of the Silvermane Guards is, unsurprisingly, a commander-type character who empowers her allies in battle. Bronya’s Combat Redeployment allows a targeted ally to act immediately while giving them a hefty DMG boost, which is fantastic for setting up both skills and ultimates. When push comes to shove, The Belobog March can start a cascade of hurt for your enemies thanks to its massive boost to both ATK and crit damage. Oh, and part of that buff scales off Bronya’s crit damage.

This encourages players to build Bronya as a crit machine, as she also has a trace that causes all of her normal attacks to crit. While this hardly makes her a top DPS, it means that she’ll be able to contribute meaningfully toward wind weakness breaks.

For all the strength she gives her allies, Bronya herself is frail. While her normal attack does partially bridge the gap between her turns, Bronya struggles to get her first turn out. God help you if the enemy decides to focus her down, too.

A-Tier

Asta

asta honkai star rail
Helps you do stupid things faster.

Rarity: ****
Element: Fire

Pros:

  • Surprisingly good toughness breaker thanks to her bouncing attack.
  • Monstrous party-wide passive ATK buff.
  • Builds Charging stacks incredibly quickly on fire-weak enemies.
  • Ultimate raises everyone’s SPD.

Cons:

  • Difficult to keep Charging stacks in single-target boss fights as she gains stacks when hitting different enemies.

Asta is a full-on offensive support. Like Bronya, Asta excels at getting others to do her dirty work for her. Unlike Bronya, Asta is also a decent weakness breaker as her bouncing attack hits 5 times (6 with Eidolon 1) which is terrifyingly effective against fire-weak foes. Each different enemy that Asta hits with her attack also grants her a Charging stack, and each stack grants Asta and her allies 8.4% more ATK – a grand total of 42% more ATK.

Full Charging stacks are an ideal scenario, however. In practice, you’ll likely get up to 2-3 Charging stacks via her first skill, then have to juggle skill points between stack upkeep and your actual attackers. As Asta only gains Charging stacks for each different enemy she hits with the same action, her ATK buff suffers if she’s facing a tough boss that doesn’t (or rarely) summon minions.

Tingyun

tingyun honkai star rail
For a moment I was worried she would be Akagi/Wakamo.

Rarity: ****
Element: Lightning

Pros:

  • Powerful single-target ATK buff.
  • Gives other allies the ability to deal lightning damage.
  • Ultimate literally gives free energy.

Cons:

  • All her buffs are single-target, making Tingyun less desirable in mob sweeping compositions.

Where Asta goes wide with her buffs, Tingyun goes tall. This Foxian has a short, sweet kit which I’m a big fan of. Soothing Melody gives one ally ATK based on Tingyun’s own as well as an extra lightning damage attack after their attack and lasts 3 turns. Eidolon investment further augments this with a SPD boost, energy regeneration on kill, and even more damage. If that’s not enough to satisfy your desire for big numbers, Tingyun’s ultimate, Amidst the Rejoicing Clouds, is straight-up free 50 energy and 20% more damage for one ally, ideally for a souped-up ultimate.

While Tingyun is undoubtedly an incredible playmaker, she’s a devoted single-target support. Look at her skill text – her Benediction only works for its latest recipient, so you can’t shift it around during mob fights. But why would you put Tingyun in a trash mob cleaning team anyway?

Nihility Tier List

SWelt
APela

S-Tier

Welt

GRAVITY SQUEEZE! YOU ARE DEFEATED.

Rarity: *****
Element: Imaginary

Pros:

  • Slows and stuns are universally useful.
  • One of the few Imaginary element characters.
  • Not a limited character.

Cons:

  • Slows require greater attention to the turn order.

Welt is apparently some big shot from Honkai: Impact. I wouldn’t know; I haven’t played that game. Regardless of his position in that game, he’s an incredible debuffer in Honkai: Star Rail.

Welt’s claim to fame is his ability to reliably inflict slow and imprison. The less your enemies act, the better. While it’s not quite as hard a CC as freeze, these statuses do persist, and Welt has some pretty good synergy with characters who can capitalize on slows (cough Dan Heng cough). Slows are also universally useful.

A-Tier

Pela

pela honkai star rail
Ice Sucrose.

Rarity: ****
Element: Ice

Pros:

  • DEF reduction is always useful.
  • Strips enemy buffs.
  • I like freeze!

Cons:

  • DEF shred isn’t tied to her skill.
  • Her own damage is meh even with notable Trace investment.

Pela’s got one of those short and sweet kits. The most important thing you need to know is that she demolishes enemy DEF via her ultimate and technique. “Demolish” is the word here, as at max level, Pela’s ultimate cuts out a whopping 52% of it, meaning the rest of your team gets a ton of mileage out of her debuff.

As an offensive support, Pela works best in a team that can maximize her DEF destruction. That said, it can be a little tricky to swap her in – the more supports you have, the less benefit you get out of Zone Suppression, and it’s generally a better idea to buff yourself over debuffing your enemies.

B-Tier

Sampo

sampo honkai star rail
More than meets the eye.

Rarity: ****
Element: Wind

Pros:

  • Innate wind shear procs on his attacks.
  • Bouncing skill means his wind shear can spread fast.

Cons:

  • Nobody else uses DoTs as their main damage mechanic so his ultimate is underutilized.
  • Takes a while to get going in fights.

Love him or hate him, Sampo Koski makes for an interesting character who leverages DoTs to whittle foes down. His talent causes his attacks to inherently have a chance to proc wind shear without weakness break, while his Ricochet Shot allows him to spread wind shear as quickly as possible. His ultimate, on the other hand, causes all enemies to take more damage from DoTs, allowing him to indirectly push for more damage.

While Sampo packs a solid kit, DoTs are less valuable than upfront damage. He also needs some setup to get going and is dependent on RNG (though this can be mediated with relics) to get his wind shear on as many foes as possible – other characters just charge right in from the first turn.

Preservation Tier List

SGepard
ATrailblazer (Fire)
BMarch 7th

S-Tier

Gepard

gepard honkai star rail
moai_emoji.png

Rarity: *****
Element: Ice

Pros:

  • Skill has a 65% base chance of freezing.
  • Party-wide shield ultimate that scales off Gepard’s DEF and is chea
  • Built-in taunt via his traces.

Cons:

  • Why does he have a self-revive instead of something that helps him proactively reduce damage?

Gepard is your run-of-the-mill tank: innate taunt, crowd control with his skill (freeze? Yes please!), and damage protection via his shield. Just like your typical MMO tank, his kit isn’t flashy, but it will get you where you need to go. With how tough Honkai: Star Rail’s battles can get, simple and effective is always good.

My one (major) gripe with Gepard is his talent: the first time he would die, he doesn’t and heals some HP. Once again, the MMO comparison: if your tank has died, something has gone horribly wrong and/or you’ve lost control of the raid. You will also probably get party wiped soon. I can think of at least 10 other effects I would rather have on his talent than self-revival. C’est la vie.

A-Tier

Trailblazer (Fire)

trailblazer honkai star rail
Qliphoth could have given us a new costume with the lance but nooooo.

Rarity: *****
Element: Fire

Pros:

  • Everything they do generates shields.
  • Amazingly good attacker that scales off both ATK and DEF. In many cases, superior to the physical Trailblazer.
  • AOE taunt that actually inflicts taunt.

Cons:

  • Shields have low HP.
  • More farming required!

Physical Trailblazer is a good brawler, but their performance is knocked out of the park (it’s a baseball pun!) by the Fire Trailblazer. If you haven’t finished the Jarilo-VI questline, I urge you to do so as the Fire Trailblazer is leagues beyond them in terms of both damage and utility.

The Fire Trailblazer is a Preservation character, meaning their intended role is as tank and shielder. This is a task they do well as virtually anything they do generates a weak shield for everyone; while it is admittedly a low health shield, it does add up. Their skill is also fantastic in that it packs a damage reduction buff (52% at max level) AND inflicts a proper AOE taunt that forces foes to focus on the Trailblazer.

I’ve talked about the Fire Trailblazer’s defensive utility, but that’s not all they can do. Almost every action not only produces a shield but also gives them one stack of Magma Will – and that includes getting hit, which the tank is going to do anyway. At four stacks, Magma Will enhances their basic attack into an AOE with increased health and toughness damage. And because it’s a basic attack, it still gives you 1 skill point back – a far cry from Physical Trailblazer’s skill-dependent AOE.

All this combines into an incredible package of tank, shielder, sub-dps, mob clearer, weakness breaker, and skill point generator. The Fire Trailblazer sets a high standard for the rest of their iterations moving forward, and if this is what the second form looks like, I can’t wait to see the next Paths.

B-Tier

March 7th

Rarity: ****
Element: Ice

Pros:

  • Fast shielder.
  • Counterattack procs even off shields that aren’t her own.
  • Ultimate has a 50% base chance to inflict freeze, which is always welcome.

Cons:

  • Low damage.
  • High trace and Eidolon investment are needed to unlock extra features.
  • Sometimes you don’t want the taunt effect of her shield.

March 7th is a free character who focuses on keeping your team alive via her shields. It’s a straightforward kit – enemies target an ally, and she shields them. March 7th also packs a great ultimate that, while low on damage, has a 50% base chance to freeze enemies. Stopping enemies from acting at all is fantastic no matter what stage of the game you’re in.

That said, the longer you use her, the more the cracks start appearing. Yes, she’s a great proactive shielder. Said shield also comes with a taunt if the target’s HP is more than 30% which is sometimes what you don’t want. She’ll also need lots of both trace and Eidolon investment to unlock the powerful auxiliary effects – debuff removal and passive HP recovery – of her shield, something you might not have the patience for.

Abundance Tier List

SBailu, Natasha

S-Tier

Bailu

bailu honkai star rail
Unlike the small 5* healer in Genshin Impact, you’ll be glad to see Bailu.

Rarity: *****
Element: Lightning

Pros:

  • Reactive healing buff via Invigoration.
  • One-time death prevention effect.
  • Has an overheal.

Cons:

  • No debuff removal.

Bailu is the only 5* healer in Honkai: Star Rail right now, and while her kit isn’t flashy, it’s quite solid.

Singing Among Clouds is technically an AOE heal skill that heals its primary target and two random ones. The random healing is unpredictable, but always welcome. Bailu’s ultimate, Felicitous Thunderleap is a burst party heal. Simple to understand, easy to use.

However, it’s Bailu’s Invigoration stacks that really set her apart. Her ultimate not only applies a heal but also gives Invigoration to all allies that didn’t have it. While under this effect, allies not only heal when struck but also have a death protection effect – but do note that this will only proc once during the entire battle!

While Bailu’s slew of on-demand and reactive healing is fantastic, do note that she has no way to remove debuffs, unlike Natasha. This can be a make-or-break function in later boss fights, so consider yourself warned.

Natasha

natasha honkai star rail
We are Wildfire.

Rarity: ****
Element: Physical

Pros:

  • Easy to use healer.
  • Heals scale off her max HP.
  • Has debuff removal with Trace investment.
  • You get her for free.

Cons:

  • Damage is abysmal.

The true leader of Wildfire joins you at the turn of the tide. Perfect timing, too – March 7th’s shields will no longer suffice for the type of content you’ll be facing from that point onward. Unless you got Bailu, invest in Natasha. This is not a suggestion. The fact that she’s free really, really, REALLY helps.

Like Gepard, Natasha is your run-of-the-mill healer. Thankfully, her healing scales off her max HP so you don’t need to choose between making her bulkier or healing for more. Her skill both provides a good burst of health while also giving the target a 2-turn regen buff so you (hopefully) won’t have to heal them again next turn. Gift of Rebirth, her ultimate, is a vanilla party heal. Just like a healer, Natasha’s damage output is garbage (unless you get her Eidolon 6, which is a different story) so don’t expect her to do any damage.

Play Who You Want To Play

As I mentioned at the beginning of this tier list, these are just suggestions on who to build and use over the general course of normalgameplay. Ultimately, it’s up to you to decide who you want to invest in. Honkai: Star Rail has a lot of systems, so with enough determination and skill, you can make your own builds!