Find the best characters in Honkai: Star Rail to tackle the endgame modes
Marco Wutz
Honkai: Star Rail has a great many characters to choose fromwhen it comes to team-building and that variety is necessary, since you’ll face a wide range of adversaries with different weaknesses as you make your way through the universe. Your characters aren’t just separated by their unique looks and personalities, of course: Each one follows a different Path – roughly equivalent to the character classes you’d find in many other RPGs – and commands a different Damage Type, about which you can find out more in our Paths and Damage Types overview.
Table of Contents
- Honkai: Star Rail – Memory of Chaos tier list
- Honkai: Star Rail – Pure Fiction tier list
Naturally, you’ll ask yourself what the best Honkai: Star Rail characters are as your collection is starting to grow. While the answer is almost always situational thanks to the combat system and the amount of possible combinations, a general ranking of strength is definitely possible. Some characters are more flexible than others, some simply offer more useful skills or naturally have a higher damage output. We've split this tier list into separate categories for the Memory of Chaos and Pure Fiction game modes, as both require very different skill sets, allowing various team compositions to shine.
This Honkai: Star Rail character tier list offers you a general overview of which characters you should look to add to your roster and train up with a high priority.
Memory of Chaos challenges require a mixture of single-target damage and wave-clearing skills, though the focus is definitely on the first aspect. You’ll want to include sustains in your teams as well, as this mode’s tougher enemies can definitely eliminate members of your team and prevent you from clearing the stage with all stars.
Tier | Main DPS | Sub DPS | Support | Sustain |
|---|---|---|---|---|
S+ | Acheron, Dr. Ratio, Firefly, Boothill | Kafka, Black Swan | Ruan Mei, Robin, Sparkle, Trailblazer (Harmony) | Aventurine, Fu Xuan, Huohuo, Gallagher |
S | Imbibitor Lunae, Jingliu, Seele, Qingque, Yunli | Topaz, March 7th (Hunt) | Jiaoqiu, Silver Wolf, Tingyun, Bronya, Pela | Luocha |
A | Clara, Jing Yuan, Blade | Xueyi | Guinaifen, Asta | Lynx, Bailu, Gepard |
B | Himeko, Argenti | Luka, Jade | Hanya | |
C | Misha, Serval, Dan Heng, Herta, Hook | Sampo, Welt, Sushang | Yukong | March 7th (Preservation), Natasha, Trailblazer (Preservation) |
D | Arlan, Yanqing, Trailblazer (Destruction) |
Honkai: Star Rail – Pure Fiction tier list
Pure Fiction challenges require wave-clearing capabilities above all else, which is why some of the characters that perform below expectations in Memory of Chaos can shine here. There often is no need to bring sustains in this mode, though it’s sometimes necessary in order to cleanse debuffs that may hinder characters from taking their turns.
Tier | Main DPS | Sub DPS | Support | Sustain |
|---|---|---|---|---|
S+ | Acheron, Himeko, Herta | Kafka, Black Swan, Jade | Ruan Mei, Robin, Sparkle, Jiaoqiu | Aventurine, Fu Xuan, Huohuo, Gallagher |
S | Argenti, Jing Yuan, Clara, Yunli | Bronya, Tingyun, Pela, Trailblazer (Harmony) | Luocha | |
A | Blade, Jingliu, Seele, Jing Yuan, Firefly | Topaz, March 7th (Hunt) | Asta, Hanya | |
B | Jingliu, Serval, Qingque | Welt, Xueyi, Sampo | Guinaifen, Silver Wolf | Bailu, Gepard, Lynx, Trailblazer (Preservation) |
C | Dr. Ratio, Imbibitor Lunae | Yukong | March 7th, Natasha | |
D | Arlan, Dan Heng, Yanqing, Boothill, Hook, Misha, Trailblazer (Destruction) | Luka, Sushang |
More characters are coming to Honkai: Star Rail soon, so we'll update this tier list with new entries once they've arrived. Check out the Honkai: Star Rail character list to find build guides for everyone.
Published |Modified
MARCO WUTZ
Marco Wutz is a writer from Parkstetten, Germany.He has a degree in Ancient History and a particular love for real-time and turn-based strategy games like StarCraft, Age of Empires, Total War, Age of Wonders, Crusader Kings, and Civilization as well as a soft spot for Genshin Impact and Honkai: Star Rail.He began covering StarCraft 2 as a writer in 2011 for the largest German community around the game and hosted a live tournament on a stage at gamescom 2014 before he went on to work for Bonjwa, one of the country's biggest Twitch channels. He branched out to write in English in 2015 by joining tl.net, the global center of the StarCraft scene run by Team Liquid, which was nominated as the Best Coverage Website of the Year at the Esports Industry Awards in 2017. He worked as a translator on The Crusader Stands Watch, a biography in memory of Dennis "INTERNETHULK" Hawelka, and provided live coverage of many StarCraft 2 events on the social channels of tl.net as well as DreamHack, the world's largest gaming festival.From there, he transitioned into writing about the games industry in general after his graduation, joining GLHF, a content agency specializing in video games coverage for media partners across the globe, in 2021. He has also written for NGL.ONE, kicker, ComputerBild, USA Today's ForTheWin, The Sun, Men's Journal, and Parade.Email: marco.wutz@glhf.gg
