In the vibrant realm of mobile gaming, Honkai Star Rail has captivated players worldwide. As seasoned gamers know, victory in titles like Honkai Star Rail heavily relies on your choice of characters. To aid you in navigating this intricate web of options, we present an analysis of the Honkai Star Rail Tier List for Patch 1.3. In this guide, you’ll acquire profound insights into character roles, strengths, and how each character can influence your gameplay. Take note that our tier list does not necessarily take into account every character in the game. The ones featured here are just what we think needs the highlight the most. With that in mind, let us begin.
Honkai Star Rail Tier List – S Optimal Characters
Let’s dive deep into the S Tier, where you’ll find the cream of the crop in Honkai Star Rail. These characters are exceptional in their respective roles and are often considered the most powerful choices.
Dan Heng Imbibitor Lunae

Role: Path of Annihilation Imaginary damage dealer
Dan Heng excels in dealing damage, particularly Imaginary damage. While he’s skill point-hungry, when properly supported, he becomes an outstanding hyper carry. His damage output is substantial, and the scarcity of strong Imaginary DPS options makes him a top choice for your team.
Seele

Role: Path of the Hunt Quantum damage dealer
Seele stands as one of the game’s strongest damage dealers. She specializes in both single-target and multiple-enemy damage. Her unique talent allows her to gain an extra turn after defeating an enemy, making her versatile and adept at dealing with a variety of situations. Additionally, her Traces grant a 20% Quantum RES Pen while in her buffed state, making her an excellent choice when targeting enemy weaknesses.
Blade

Role: Path of Destruction wind damage dealer
Blade brings a potent combination of single-target and area of effect abilities to the table. His damage output is remarkable with the right investment. What sets him apart is his reliance on Max HP for scaling damage, coupled with some self-sustain mechanics. Although he consumes health for certain attacks, he remains surprisingly survivable, especially when paired with a dedicated healer.
Silver Wolf

Role: Path of Nihility quantum character specialized in debuffing enemies
Silver Wolf boasts a unique ability to add an extra weakness to enemies that matches the element of a random teammate, including herself. This grants your party consistent access to weakness breaks, a valuable advantage. Furthermore, she can debuff opponents’ defense, attack, and speed with her normal attacks, contributing both damage and defense to your team. Her kit is versatile, universally applicable to all team compositions, and powerful, making her a highly desirable support character.
Bronya

Role: Path of Harmony wind support
Bronya specializes in enhancing her teammates’ damage output. She offers attack and crit damage buffs to the entire team and can cleanse an ally while providing them with a damage buff. Her buffs are potent and versatile, making her an excellent choice for supporting any damage dealer in the game. Keep in mind that her auto-battle logic can be somewhat clunky, so manual control may be preferred in certain encounters.
Honkai Star Rail Tier List – A Strong Characters
In the A Tier, we find characters that may still need to reach the pinnacle of the S Tier but remain highly effective in their roles.
Jing Yuan

Role: Path of Erudition lightning damage dealer
Jing Yuan excels at dealing area of effect damage. While he maintains competitive single-target damage, his unique mechanic involves summoning an automatically controlled Lightning-Lord to aid in dispatching foes. The Lightning-Lord contributes significantly to his overall damage but may act relatively slowly, requiring some timing considerations.
Welt

Role: Path of Nihility imaginary damage dealer
Welt stands out as the most offensively oriented imaginary damage character. His ability to slow enemies is valuable, reducing their number of turns. Investing in Effect Hit Rate enhances his debuffing potential, making him a powerful choice for targeting enemy weaknesses in the right encounters.
Clara

Role: Path of Destruction physical damage dealer and tank
Clara is a versatile character capable of both tanking and dealing damage to enemies. She excels when paired with allies who can focus enemy attacks on her, as her counterattacks with the trusty robot helper, Svarog, trigger when enemies target her. While she’s less flexible than some characters, with the right team, Clara can be a powerful asset in multiple roles.
Yanqing

Role: Path of the Hunt ice damage dealer
Yanqing focuses on single-target damage and stands as the strongest ice-type damage dealer by a significant margin. His unique mechanic grants a damage buff as long as he avoids taking damage from enemies. This synergy makes him an ideal partner for Gepard, who can shield him effectively.
Sushang

Role: Path of the Hunt physical damage dealer
Sushang’s standout feature is her ability to take extra actions after using her ultimate, making her exceptionally effective at dealing burst damage or clearing weaker enemies. When paired with a teammate who can break weaknesses, she can use her skill without expending skill points, further enhancing her damage output.
Honkai Star Rail Tier List – B Role Players
In the B Tier, we find characters who may not be the top choices but still have their moments and niche uses:
Dan Heng

Role: Path of the Hunt wind damage dealer
Dan Heng is the go-to option for wind damage and is received for free throughout the story. His availability and role as a weakness breaker make him a valuable choice, even when stronger damage dealers are available.
Himeko

Role: Path of Erudition fire damage dealer
Himeko specializes in area of effect damage, making her excellent for clearing weaker content. While her single-target damage may be lacking at low investment, she scales remarkably well with investment and becomes a top-tier choice for speed clearing as your account grows stronger.
Hook

Role: Destruction path fire damage dealer
Hook offers serviceable damage output, especially in the role of a 4-star fire weakness breaker. His value lies in being an accessible choice for players seeking to target fire-weak enemies.
Serval

Role: Path of Erudition lightning damage dealer
Serval specializes in area of effect damage, although she may be slightly weaker in this role compared to Jing Yuan. However, for players without access to Jing Yuan, Serval remains a reliable free-to-play option for dealing with lightning-weak enemies.
Qingque

Role: Path of Erudition quantum damage dealer
Qingque focuses on dealing damage to multiple enemies, making her an option for quantum damage to target enemy weaknesses. Notably, she benefits significantly from eidolon levels, growing stronger at levels 4 and 6, enhancing her damage-dealing capabilities.
Honkai Star Rail Tier List – C Niche Characters
Characters in the C Tier have their situational uses but lack versatility:
Qingque

Role: Path of Harmony imaginary damage buffer
Yukong provides powerful buffs to teammates, including %Imaginary Damage, ATK%, CRIT Rate, and CRIT DMG. Her unique skill mechanics require precise timing, making her somewhat challenging to fully utilize. However, at E6, she gains a stack of her ATK buff when using her ultimate, simplifying the timing aspect.
Sampo

Role: Path of Nihility wind damage dealer
Sampo focuses on damage over time and area of effect damage, making him less desirable than Dan Heng for single-target damage. Investing in Effect Hit Rate becomes essential to ensure his damage-over-time effects stick to tougher opponents.
Herta

Role: Path of Erudition ice damage dealer
Herta excels against weaker enemies due to extra follow-up attacks triggered when enemies fall below 50% HP. However, her damage against sturdier enemies is comparatively low, making her a situational choice. Her potential may shine in content featuring numerous weaker, ice-weak foes.
Arlan

Role: Path of Destruction lightning damage dealer
Arlan stands out for his unique self-damaging attacks, which don’t consume skill points. While he’s unconventional, he may find his place in specific team compositions. However, Serval often fits more naturally into most teams as a lightning weakness breaker.
Trailblazer (physical)

Role: Path of Destruction physical damage dealer
The physical Trailblazer deals physical damage and offers flexibility in single-target and area of effect damage. Despite his strengths, he’s generally overshadowed by Sushang as a physical damage dealer. Player choices are limited as they can only play one type of Trailblazer at a time.
Final Thoughts
In conclusion, mastering the Honkai Star Rail Tier List is essential for optimizing your team and gameplay. As the game’s meta evolves, stay informed about character changes and tier list updates to remain competitive. Armed with this knowledge, you’ll be well-equipped to conquer the challenges of Honkai Star Rail and make the most strategic character choices. Your journey through the game awaits, and may your teams consistently achieve success at the highest tiers of gameplay! Play it now for free!