Honkai: Star Railway has come a long way since launch, with around fifty playable characters on the roster and counting. Because of all the characters and Paths, it can be difficult to choose who to prioritize, especially when it comes to gacha. However, some characters are suitable for general content and usage, which means you will probably never regret using or building them! This guide will introduce the best characters to attract and build Honkai: Star Railway.
Please note, I’m not focusing on the meta, it changes depending on the version, character chosen or mode. For example, no one noticed Himeko or Herta until Pure fiction has become a permanent end-game challenge mode. The first patches in Version 2 focus heavily on characters having follow-up attacks in their kits thanks to Aventurine and Robin. Until then, follow-up attacking characters like Topaz, Dr Rate, and even Jing Yuan are still just “okay” compared to Destruction characters (released consecutively by Dan Heng Imbibitor Lunae, Blade, and Jingliu ). The characters in this list should be fine no matter how the meta changes, meaning you can use them in any patch or content type.
Of course, the problem with gacha games is that some players like to focus on the characters they like. It’s a very logical way to approach things, and it’s also how I like to play gacha! Even if certain characters are not on this list, you should still pull and breed them for your enjoyment Honkai: Star Railway your way.
Best destruction character: Jingliu
Jingliu is one of the best Destruction characters when it comes to her scalability and usage. She is easy to use in any content. You can also use Jingliu on many types team, making her a versatile attacker for any account. If you want to maximize her damage output, there is some math involved in the party’s maximum HP. But even if you don’t mind that, she can still do a lot of damage with minimal investment. Her technique of freezing enemies is also very handy.
Honorable Mentions:
- Blade (Without dedicated support, his scaling is terrible compared to other attackers.)
- Dan Heng Imbibitor Lunae (His SP cost is too high to run comfortably unless you have Sparkle or use Yukong’s passive and not her Skills.)
Best Hunt Character: Dr. Ratio
Dr. Ratio is a great Hunt character thanks to his powerful follow-up attack and Ultimate. He also did free of charge, which means a lot of players already own him. In situations where he can focus on a single target, his damage output per turn is huge. You can also place him on multiple categories team instead of the usual hyper-carry team. However, I must admit that Dr. Ratio has some obvious negatives. For one thing, his next attack will trigger depending on the enemy’s debuff count. On the other hand, he only does one hit per attack, which means he only has one chance to get a critical hit.
Honorable mention
- Seele (She’s not a bad investment, but her glory days came from her fake AoE attack. Now that we have more Erudition and Destruction attackers, scaling Seele’s tissue means other characters can easily surpass her.)
- Boothill (He’s good, but he needs a dedicated Break Effect team to shine in harder content.)
Best scholarly character: Argenti
Honestly, I don’t want to give this position to Argenti. But since Version 2.2 (and arguably, even with more Gems in version 2.3), he is probably one of the best Erudition characters to have thanks to his basic equipment set. Argenti is amazing when it comes to farming as well as in modes like Pure Fiction. While he needs it supporting character like Tingyun or Huohuo to maximize his potential, you can reach his first ultimate level if you have to take on a bunch of cannon fodder. For reference, Argenti’s Energy requirements are 90 for level 1 Ultimate and 180 for level 2.
Honorable mention
- Jing Yuan (Jing Yuan works well in his field but his Lightning Lord has too many problems. Its fixed SPD, cannot work if Jing Yuan is debuffed Crowd Control and SP hungry nature making him less popular now than before.)
- Himeko (She was never as bad as everyone thought she was.)
Best harmonious character: Nguyen My
Ruan Mei is one of the best support characters in the game for a multitude of reasons. She can increase party damage, Weakness Break Efficiency, SPD, and RES PENS of all types. Ruan Mei can also deal additional damage to enemies with her ultimate and talents. Robin can similarly increase stats, as well as deal damage with her ultimate. But Ruan Mei is the only character that can provide Weakness Break and RES PENS of all types. Additionally, certain teams and characters (such as DoT attackers like Sampo) cannot fully utilize Robin’s skill set due to Robin’s Crit DMG boost. In that sense, Ruan Mei can go with any team and character.
Honorable mention
- Sparkle (Her ability to grant extra SP and break the max limit is great. Like Robin, however, she’s not as good as she was on the DoT team. Bronya has the same problem.)
- Tingyun (For 4 stars, Tingyun is one of the best support characters, especially for a super carry team. However, she is quite squishy and can only target a single character for your Skills and Ultimate.)
Best nihilistic character: Kafka
Kafka is one of the best Nihility characters you can have in the game due to how many teams she can be on. You can use her as a normal super carry or as a DoT support. Even if you don’t have Black Swan’s premium option, you can still use Kafka with characters like Sampo and Guinaifen. I’d go as far as to say that you can’t make a good DoT team unless you have Kafka, which essentially means she opens up a new style of play with her.
Honorable Mentions:
- Silver Wolf (Her ability Plant a weakness It doesn’t matter anymore since most players now have a good list of characters and Types available to them. Her biggest hurdle is that she’s single-targeted, which makes her great against Hunt characters but not as effective against Erudition characters, for example.)
- Acheron (She is one of the best attackers in the game with her insane scaling abilities, but she requires two Nihility characters to work, limiting your team composition. You also need to give her her signature Helm of Light to become truly powerful like Eidolon to remove the Nihility limit.)
Best conservation figure: Pho Xuan
Fu Xuan is one of the more unique shield creators in the game in that she does not provide shields. Rather, she can distribute damage to herself when her Skill is active. She can also increase the Crit Rate of the entire party, as well as give them resistance to the Crowd Control buff for one turn. While she doesn’t synergize well with Yanqing and can be weak to AoE attacks if your Fu Xuan doesn’t have enough DEF, her unique Matrix set makes her valuable for late-game content , where enemies can melt through shields.
Honorable mention
- Aventurine (He was my first choice until I remembered. Most of the reason why I think he’s better is because he has his signature Eidolon and Cone of Light. Without them, he’s really just a decent cover who is much more SP hungry than Fu Xuan.)
Richest character: Huohuo
Although Luocha was the king of Abundance back in the day, he was quite outclassed by the humble little Huohuo. Huohuo is the beginning of a new trend Honkai: Star Railway These characters can combine two types of units in one. In her case, she is a combination of Abundance and Harmony. Not only can she heal (and clear every turn, trivializing enemies that can Freeze or inflict DoTs), she can also increase the party’s ATK and Energy with her ultimate.
Honorable mention
- Lac Sat (His manual cleaning leaves SP hungry, and if you rely on his auto-heal, you can fall behind. However, his Longevity Cycle is still a way really good for healing, especially if you’re running a team with mostly attackers.
Honkai: Star Railway To be available on PS5, Windows PC and mobile devices.
