Honkai: Star Rail is the newest title in the Honkai series, sending players into the stars with a cast of delightful and wonderfully designed characters. Each of these characters fits into a Path, the game's term for a character class, and a Type, which defines an Elemental basis for their powers. New players will need to make the most out of their starter characters for strong team comps.
There are seven Paths available to different characters in Honkai: Star Rail upon launch: The Destruction, The Hunt, The Erudition, The Harmony, The Nihility, The Preservation, and The Abundance. The first three are all DPS roles. The Harmony buffs heroes, The Nihility debuffs enemies, The Preservation shields heroes, while The Abundance is the healer role. There are also seven Types: Physical, Fire, Ice, Lightning, Wind, Quantum, and Imaginary.
Honkai: Star Rail Free-To-Play Characters
This article assumes that you are starting your Honkai: Star Rail adventure when the game launches on April 26, 2023. As such, the characters mentioned in potential team comps are all free characters available to all players or given as a launch reward (such as Serval). Certain details may change between the publication of this guide and Honkai: Star Rail's release.
Honkai: Star Rail is set to launch with twenty-seven known collectible characters. Out of those twenty-seven, eight will be free to players. These eight characters are the Trailblazer, March 7th, Dan Heng, Asta, Serval, Herta, Natasha, and Qingque. The Trailblazer is similar to the Traveler's changing Elements in Genshin Impact, HoYoVerse's other successful title, in that they can switch between Paths and Types. Their current known forms include a Physical/Destruction form and a Fire/Preservation form.
A basic team comp in Honkai: Star Rail typically includes two DPS units, one Harmony/Nihility, and one Preservation/Abundance. The free-to-play character roster does not include any Nihility units but includes at least one for each of the other roles.
The Trailblazer (Physical), Dan Heng, Serval, Herta, and Qingque are all either Destruction, Hunt, or Erudition. Asta is the only Harmony unit in the lineup. Meanwhile, March 7th and the Trailblazer (Fire) are Preservation characters and Natasha is the roster's sole Abundance character.
While The Destruction, The Hunt, and The Erudition are all DPS Paths, each one has slight differences. The Destruction is highly aggressive and adaptable in combat. The Hunt focuses on one enemy at a time, while the Erudition manages large groups of enemies.
Team Comp #1: Dan Heng, Serval, Asta, Trailblazer (Fire)
Out of the five free-to-play DPS characters in Honkai: Star Rail, Dan Heng, and Serval do the best damage. Dan Heng is a Wind/Hunt unit and serves as the guard of the Astral Express, the spaceship/train the Trailblazer travels on. Dan Heng can slow down enemies and deal powerful strikes on individual targets.
Meanwhile, Serval is the Lightning/Erudition unit rewarded to new players at launch. She is a mechanic/rock star from Belobog who keeps enemies Shocked across multiple turns.
As the only free-to-play buff character, Asta will make an appearance in many team comps. She is Herta Space Station's Lead Researcher and focuses on increasing ally ATK and SPD. The Trailblazer's Fire/Preservation form joins her as the team's second Support unit. Their job is to draw enemy attention towards them while shielding the other party members and charging their own fiery attacks.
Team Comp #2: Dan Heng, Qingque, March 7th, Natasha
Since F2P options for DPS characters outside The Erudition are slim, Dan Heng should be included in most F2P team comps. Characters from The Hunt Path pair well with Erudition characters such as Qingque, the lazy Quantum/Erudition Diviner. By pulling jade tiles as her allies take their turns, she can make matches of four tiles from the same suite and deal a ton of damage.
March 7th is an Ice/Preservation unit whose strange name comes from the first day she can remember, waking up within a giant piece of ice. March 7th shields an ally of her choice, directing enemies to attack them should their HP be high enough. Upon attacking a shielded character, March 7th can launch a Counter-Attack on them. While her DMG can only go up to 110% of her ATK, her mechanics allow her to stack multiple attacks across different turns.
Should March 7th's shields draw too much damage to a certain character, Natasha can heal them. She is a Physical/Abundance unit and a doctor for the Underworld. Her Skill heals one character immediately while healing another over the next two turns. Her Ultimate ability is cheap to activate at 80 Energy, healing everyone in the party. When paired with March 7th, the duo can give Qingque the time she needs to match four tiles and trigger her Enhanced Basic attack.
Within these two basic team comps, you can mix and match their F2P characters however you want. Serval, Herta, and Qingque can easily be swapped for one another as they are all Erudition characters. The shields created by the Trailblazer (Fire) and March 7th are both great in their own way and should be included to best suit the needs of the other characters. The best team comps in Honkai: Star Rail should not only plow through enemies but feel fun to play with.
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Honkai: Star Rail
- Summary:
- Set after the events of the ongoing game Honkai Impact 3rd, Honkai: Star Rail is a turn-based online RPG from developer Hoyoverse. Two members of the Astral Express, March 7th and Dan Heng, are on their way to the Herta Space Station with precious cargo when ambushed by members of a group known as the Antimatter Legion. Chaos ensues as among them is the god of destruction known as Aeon, who steals a seed known as a Stellaron, which they implant in an artificial human known as the "Trailblazer." Players will assume the role of this character as they try to avoid their fate and save all of civilization. Similar to gacha-style games, players can acquire more characters to add to their party by summoning and engaging in fast-paced turn-based battles in this epic Sci-fi online RPG.
- Platform:
- PC, iOS, Android, Microsoft Windows
- Developer:
- HoYoverse
- Publisher:
- HoYoverse
- Genre:
- Turn-Based Strategy, RPG, Adventure
- Multiplayer:
- Online Multiplayer
- ESRB:
- Not Yet Rated
