5 best Honkai Star Rail Characters to build in early game 

Honkai Star Rail is Hoyoverse's latest RPG adventure, which will take you into a massive universe far into a post-apocalyptic future. Unlike the previous title from the developers, Genshin Impact, Honkai Star Rail features strategic turn-based combat, where the abilities and skills of your characters will matter a lot at every turn. There are plenty of characters to choose from in Honkai Star Rail, divided into several tier classes based on the star rating.

To get hold of 5-star characters, you’ve got to do a bit of a grind and collect enough Stellar Jades to obtain them. All these gameplay aspects make it difficult for players to decide which characters to pick in the beginning. They will want characters who give them a smooth ride in the early phases of the game while at the same time helping them build up a formidable roster of heroes for the late game.

But fret not. In this article, we have handpicked some 4-star characters that will help you cruise along the early game of Honkai Star Rail.

Note: This list is subjective and solely reflects the opinions of the writer

---

Top 5 characters to pull in the early game of Honkai Star Rail

1) Asta

Asta is a lead researcher in Honkai Star Rail (Image via miHoYo)

• Rarity: 4 stars
• Element: Fire
• Affiliation: Hertha Space Station
• Path: Harmony

In Honkai Star Rail, Asta is a Fire element character who serves as a buffer for the team. She aids her teammates by providing various buffs to enhance their abilities. Asta acts as a terrific support character, wherein her fire stackability gives her and her allies an increase in attack speed by up to five times.

The damage to her charging stackability increases as she levels up 7%/16.1%/17.5%, respectively. She also possesses the Miracle Flash technique, which grants her the ability to immediately attack enemies when entering into battles.

Asta’s Skills:

• Spectrum Beam (normal attack): Asta charges a beam forward that deals damage to a single target.
• Meteor Storm (Bounce attack): Unleashes a powerful Meteor Storm that deals Fire damage to a single enemy with four bombardments.
• Astral Blessing (Ultimate/Support ability): Increases the speed of allies significantly for the next two turns. This ability's speed buff increases as Asta levels up.

---

2) Pela

Pela serves as an intelligence officer for the Silvermane Guards in Honkai Star Rail lore (Image via miHoYo)

• Rarity: 4 stars
• Element: Ice
• Affiliation: Belobog
• Path: Nihility

Pela is a character who has the Ice element at her disposal and serves as a good Nihility option for your rooster in Honkai Star Rail terms. This means that she has the ability to assist her teammates by impairing their opponent’s ability in fights.

Whenever Pela's attack debuffs an enemy, she restores 5/12/13 extra energy. This effect can only be triggered once per attack. Additionally, Pela deals 80% of her ATK as Ice DMG to a random enemy and has a 100% chance of lowering the DEF of all enemies by 20% for the next two turns.

Pela’s skills:

• Frost Shot (Normal Attack): Deals ice damage to a single target equal to 50%/130%/140% of her basic attack.
• Frost Bite (Impair ability): Removes buffs of all enemies for one turn and deals ice damage equal to 105%/241.5%/262.5% of Pela’s basic attacks.
• Zone Suppression (Ultimate/Impair ability): Deals massive ice damage to all enemies, with a 100% chance of inflicting an exposed status on enemies. Exposed enemies will have their defenses drastically reduced over the next two turns.

---

3) Sushang

Be wary of Sushang and her powerful blade (Image via miHoYo)

• Rarity: 4 stars
• Element: Physical
• Affiliation: Xianzhou Luofu
• Path: Hunt

Sushang is one of the few characters revealed so far in the A-tier list of Honkai Star Rail that has the ability to deal extraordinary physical damage to single-target enemies. This makes her ideal for playing Blitz battles.

Sushang has the ability to attack immediately as soon as introduced on the field and deals damage equal to 80% of her basic attacks. Furthermore, Sushang gets a speed boost whenever an enemy is on a weakness break on the battlefield.

Sushang's skills:

• Cloudfencer Art: Starshine (Normal Attack): Sushang leaps at an enemy and deals damage to a single enemy.
• Cloudfencer Art: Mountainfall (Attacking Skill): Deals incredible damage to a single target through her sword. There is a 33% chance that after the end of the move, Sushang will end in the sword stance. In the Sword stance, Sushang deals additional physical damage to a single target enemy.
• Shape of Taixu: Dawn Herald (Ultimate): Sushang deals Physical damage to a single enemy equal to 192%/358.4%/384% of her basic attacks.
• This skill also boosts Sushang's attack by 18%/33.6%/36%, respectively, and grants her two extra chances to trigger Sword Stance. If Sword Stance is triggered from these extra turns, it deals 50% of her basic damage.

---

4) Serval

Gepard is her brother, and she works as a mechanic during the day and slays enemies at night (Image via miHoYo)

• Rarity: 4 stars
• Element: Lighting
• Affiliation: Belobog
• Path: Erudition

Serval belongs to the C-tier list of characters. She is one of the few on the tier list with incredible AOE damage abilities. Serval wields the power of the lighting and deals additional lighting damage to enemies through her Galvanic Chords talent. She also has the ability to attack enemies when put into battle immediately.

Furthermore, Serval deals lighting damage to a random enemy at every turn. There is also a 100% chance of all enemies becoming electrically shocked for the next three turns.

Serval's skills:

• Roaring Thunderclap (normal attack): Serval deals lightning damage to a single target enemy.
• Lightning Flash (Blast skill/ AOE): Deals a huge amount of lighting damage, 70%/140%/154% of Serval's basic attack to a single target. It also deals additional lighting damage to the adjacent enemies of the intended target. Also, the skill grants an 80% chance for all impacted enemies to be in a shocked state for the next two turns.
• Here Comes the Mechanical Fever (Ultimate/ AOE): Deals tremendous AOE lighting damage equivalent to 108/180/194% of her basic attacks on all enemies on the battlefield. Enemies already in a shocked state will have their shock state extended by two more turns.

---

5) Dan Heng

Dan Heng is the character that reached 10 million players during the pre-registration of Honkai Star Rail (Image via miHoYo)

• Rarity: 4 stars
• Element: Wind
• Affiliation: Astral Express
• Path: Hunt

Dan Heng has been one of the most popular picks so far in Honkai Star Rail. He acts like an assassin-like character and is an ideal pick if you want someone to take a single target quickly out of the equation. He possesses the power of the Wind element and is primarily effective against single targets.

Dan Heng’s skills:

• Cloudlancer Art: North Wind (normal attack): Deals wind damage equivalent to 50/100/110% of Dan Heng's basic attacks to a single target enemy.
• Cloudlancer Art: Torrent (attacking skill): Unleashes a wind torrent that deals damage to a single target enemy, equivalent to 130/260/286% of his basic attacks. If, by chance, a critical hit is inflicted through this move, then the enemy’s speed will reduce by 12% for the next two turns.
• Ethereal Dream (Ultimate): Deals massive wind damage equal to 240/400/432% of Dan Heng's basic attacks to a single target. If the enemy is slowed, the damage is amplified by 72/120/130%, respectively.

---

Honkai Star Rail features extensive gacha mechanics. There are innumerable ways in which you can max out the potential of your characters to the fullest. With this recommended list of 4-star characters in your rooster, you’d have no trouble slaying enemies and exploring Honkai Star Rail's vast universe.