Honkai Star Rail 5-star character tier list (December 2023)

The more challenging contents of Honkai Star Rail are mainly reliant on how good your characters are at minimizing incoming damage and dealing massive damage to enemies. Each character is distinct, with some standing out from the rest in the meta. Tier lists exist to provide players with an estimate of which units are at the top of the charts and others that are at the bottom.

This article provides a tier list of how Honkai Star Rail's 5-star characters rank against one another. Since 5-stars are the most difficult to obtain and require a significant commitment of resources and Stellar Jades, you can also assess which characters are worth obtaining during the forthcoming rerun patches.

Note: The tier list is subjective and reflects the author's opinions.

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Tier list for Honkai Star Rail 5-star characters as of patch 1.5

5-star tier-list (Image via Tiermaker)

The tier list is divided into four sections. SS denotes that the characters here define the meta, while B indicates that they are currently in a bad state. Some of these characters might benefit from relics or direct buffs in future releases.

Also, the female Trailblazer represents the Preservation path, and the male represents the Destruction one.

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SS

Jingliu from Honkai Star Rail (Image via HoYoverse)

There are seven characters in this tier. They are considered unmatched in terms of the utility they bring to the table. These characters are:

• HuoHuo
• Luocha
• Silver Wolf
• Bronya
• Fu Xuan
• Jingliu
• Dan Heng Imbibitor Lunae

Both Jingliu and Dang Heng IL currently have unparalleled damage in the game. They deal the most damage as both are Destruction units, meaning they can target multiple enemies simultaneously.

Fu Xuan, Luocha, and one of the newest characters, HuoHuo, are survival units that provide healing and mitigate damage. They also offer additional utilities, such as increasing specific stats or removing buffs from enemies, making them quite powerful and unique.

Bronya and Silver Wolf are the support characters in Honkai Star Rail. The former focuses on giving massive stat boosts to teammates, while the latter debuffs the enemies and shreds defense.

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S

The S-tier units are fairly powerful in their own right (Image via HoYoverse)

Even though not as powerful as the SS-tier characters, the following seven names are some of the best units in the game:

• Kafka
• Argenti
• Seele
• Topaz
• Welt
• Preservation Trailblazer
• Blade
• Gepard

Argenti, Seele, Kafka, and Blade are the strongest damage dealers in their respective elements. Despite being a DPS, Topaz can also act as a support, thanks to her ability to debuff enemies into taking more damage from follow-up attacks.

Welt has the unique ability to slow enemies down, and given the Imaginary element lacks many characters, his damage is also quite good in terms of being a standard banner 5-star.

Both Preservation Trailblazer and Gepard provide excellent sustenance. The latter has the strongest shield in Honkai Star Rail, while Trailblazer can taunt enemies into attacking them instead of teammates. This can give them stacks that boost their damage.

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A

Himeko's ultimate is one of the aesthetically best ones in Honkai Star Rail (Image via HoYoverse)

The units in this tier are good but cannot compete with the previous tiers, as they suffer from a few issues that hold them back. These characters are:

• Himeko
• Bailu
• Jing Yuan
• Clara

Himeko, Jing Yuan, and Clara are damage dealers who depend on follow-up attacks as their primary damage source. Both Himeko and Clara's follow-ups are triggered conditionally, which means there can be a big loss of damage during tougher challenges. Meanwhile, Jing Yuan's main problem is that his follow-ups get delayed when he is stunned by enemies.

Even though there is a new Relic set that buffs follow-up attacks, these inherent problems make them less efficient.

Bailu is a great healer who can revive enemies but lacks additional utility compared to other 5-star Abundance units.

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B

Yanqing is considered one of the worst 5-stars in the game (Image via HoYoverse)

The following two characters are considered the worst by the majority of the community. They boast low damage and do not bring any additional utility to help their cause. They are:

• Physical Trailblazer
• Yanqing

Yanqing had a hard time shining in the meta for a long time because Seele, the first limited 5-star in the game, outclassed him in his role of a Single-Target DPS. Just one patch ago, Jingliu took on the role of an Ice attacker. His low damage multipliers make him the weakest 5-star as of now.

The Physical Trailblazer is an introductory damage dealer against the earlier Physical enemies. This makes them weak and has low damage compared to others on this list.

While they may become viable later on, as of Honkai Star Rail Patch 1.5, they are weaker than the other 5-star units.

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At the end of the day, players should invest in whichever character they are having fun with. Challenging content, such as Simulated Universe and, in particular, the Memory of Chaos, are optional. Honkai Star Rail's meta is constantly changing, as is typical of games in this genre. Hence, the tier lists and character ranks will also change.