HoYoverse has shown AAA gachas can compete hand-in-hand with the hottest titles thanks to Android's frontrunner gacha Genshin Impact. The company shows no signs of slowing down as another multi-million dollar title arrives on Android, iOS, PC, and PlayStation (coming soon). But juggling several top-tier Android games can be stressful, so we've created a handy guide to teach players all of Honkai: Star Rail's exploitable secrets. After all, we wish all Trailblazers plenty of success as they depart on the Astral Express with their favorite Android gaming phone.
Honkai: Star Rail battle system explained
Honkai: Star Rail uses turn-based mechanics, unlike HoYoverse's previous titles. Each character offers three Skills, an element, and a pre-disposed role, or "class," in battle.
Enemies include an elemental weakness (think Pokémon); the corresponding weakness is listed above the enemy's name. Weakening the enemy with the correct element places the enemy in the Weakness Break state and prompts additional effects tied to your element.
Using Skills consumes SP (skill points), and the entire team shares the same SP gauge. Ultimates, the most powerful ability, on the other hand, all have individual energy gauges (see circular icon).
The Weakness Break system
Attacking an enemy's Toughness with the right element (i.e., what the enemy is weak against) may trigger a Weakness Break. In this state, enemies take more damage and lose a turn. Delaying actions and maximizing your damage output are powerful tools for winning battles.
Character recruitment and the gacha
Characters (4 stars) join your team throughout the story, but you will collect most new units through the gacha system. Similar to Genshin Impact, there are separate banners (known as Warps) for limited weapons (Light Cones) and characters. Every pool has 3 and 4-star Light Cones and 4-star characters; you will acquire 5-star Light Cones and characters in the respective banner type.
Tip: F2P (free-to-play) players should focus on securing new limited characters before spending Stellar Jades/Special Passes on Light Cones.
How the Warp (banner) system works
The acquired gacha currency is Stellar Jades; it takes 160 Stellar Jades to procure 1 Pass or Special Pass. The permanent (standard) and beginner banners use Passes, while the limited Light Cone and character event banners utilize Special Passes.
Tip: The Departure Warp is the beginner's banner, where you guarantee a 5-star character after 50 Warps (pulls), and it costs 8 Passes for a 10-Warp.
S-tier characters for new accounts
Rerolling your account is entirely possible (it will take around 40 minutes) but will require separate accounts and replaying the tutorial (each time). Thankfully there is an epitomized-like path system for the permanent banner. At 300 pulls, you can select any standard character 5-star of your choosing; we recommend obtaining a powerful enabler like Bronya, an adequate healer like Bailu, or a sturdy tank like Gepard for the best start on your account.
Tip: Reminder to always hold onto your gacha currency for limited character runs, otherwise you can miss out on essential upgrades to your team.
How to build a team in Honkai: Star Rail
For balanced team compositions, try to build a team with the following combinations (mix and match at your discretion):
- 1 Hunt/Destruction/Erudition
- 1 Preservation/Destruction*
- 1 Abundance/Preservation
- 1 Nihility/Erudition/Harmony
*Note: Clara is the only defensive Destruction unit presently in the game; you can use her in place of a Preservation spot (such as Fire Trailblazer), but her best teammate is March 7th (Preservation).
Ideally, you want to build around a Hunt or Destruction character, but 5-star Erudition characters like Jing Yuan can surprisingly dish out a lot of damage to carry your team. Other Erudition characters like Herta and Himeko pair well with each other for farming small mobs.
Team composition for turn counts
Keep in mind when you're encountering turn count content, such as Forgotten Hall, Memory of Chaos, or during combat challenges, you may look to squeeze out as much front-loaded damage as possible. As a result, you will change your team to:
- 1 Hunt/Destruction/Erudition*
- 1 Harmony/Nihility
- 1 Abdunance/Preservation
- 1 Harmony/Nihility
Eventually, you will build your team around a hypercarry (best damage dealer), which will be a Hunt, Destruction, or Erudition unit (note that there's some crossover with classes; Kafka is a Nihility DPS that can also be placed in this slot), and select three synergistic supports to enable your hypercarry. Your solo sustain option (Abundance and Preservation) must be well-invested to carry out all the defensive utility your team needs.
The best 4-stars for team building blocks
The best generalistic 4-stars to use include Tingyun, Pela, and Asta.
Remember that the other 4-stars are still worth using but becomes more situational. So for example, if you are missing sustain options (Preservation/Abundance), we recommend getting Natasha, March 7th, and eventually Lynx up to speed.
How to select the right supports for your DPS?
You have to consider some factors when choosing synergistic supports. The first includes whether your support is SP (skill point) positive, SP neutral, or SP negative. You can foresee which category they fall under based on their skill point usage in battle and if those skills are required to perform their primary role.
For example, Tingyun is considered an SP positive support; she only needs to use her skill once every three turns, whereas Bronya would be considered SP Negative without her E1 and Light Cone since she uses skill points every turn and desires full uptime on her ultimate.
Speed tuning
The second factor for determining the right supports is how fast they can act in battle to generate SP for your DPS. Some DPS are naturally fast (like Seele) and are greedy with SP usage. Generally, you want your supports going before your DPS so they can either add SP points with a normal attack or use a skill to buff your DPS (or add debuffs to the enemies).
The speed breakpoints in Honkai Star Rail are 121, 134, 143, 161 and 172. You will aim to get most of your support units to 134, but 121 is the absolute minimum. You can acquire more speed by farming relics, equipping speed boots, or rolling for speed substats on your gear. Some characters bring external speed buffs (like Asta).
Buffs they provide
It also becomes a matter of which buffs these supports can provide. Tingyun, for example, brings extra damage percent, raises a target's attack, and refunds another character's energy with her ultimate. However, if you pair her with Blade, he scales heavily off his max HP stat and doesn't have energy problems, so he won't get as much use from Tingyun. In comparison, a unit like Jing Yuan would prefer all three buffs.
Daily completion and checklist in Honkai: Star Rail
Progression is locked behind Trailblaze Levels and the main story quest. Playing through the main story quest is vital to unlocking features like your Trailblaze Power (the stamina cost or Genshin Impact's Resin system).
- Send your characters on Assignments (these are like Genshin Impact's Expeditions).
- Spend your Trailblaze Power (240 is the cap) on Calyx Golden and Domains.
- Complete Daily Missions (green colored).
- Complete Weeklies: Simulated Universe (roguelike mode) and Echoes of War (bosses).
Tip: Turn on auto-battle to speed up your daily/weekly task rotations. Focus on leveling up your units first before jumping into Relic farming.
How to efficiently use your Trailblaze Power (stamina) in early and midgame
New players should only farm Calyx Golden for EXP materials (Light Cone and characters).
Mid-game players should include Calyx Golden but focus on farming, Stagnant Shadow, Calyx Crimson, and Echoes of War. Stay away from the Cavern of Corrosion until you've at least unlocked Equilibrium Level 4 and higher; you will still get a few 4-star gear sets through NPC shops and from PomPom (Trailblaze level rewards).
Remember, Trailblaze Power recovers every 6 minutes and has a max of 240 in Honkai: Star Rail.
Honkai: Star Rail is HoYoverse's latest turn-based gacha RPG
Thankfully if this isn't your first rodeo playing a HoYoverse game, the formula should be familiar. Honkai: Star Rail borrows progression elements from Genshin Impact while recasting some of Honkai Impact 3rd's original characters. However, despite the similarities, it is still a standalone game. Additionally, the producer confirms inspiration came from Falcom's famed Trails series, a series known for its exceptional writing and world-building themes. So if you're already a fan of RPG games on Android or high-production gachas, we invite you to check out Honkai: Star Rail through the widget below.
