What is Break Effect in Honkai Star Rail?

Breaking an enemy's weakness isn't the most challenging job in Honkai Star Rail. All players must do is match an element against an enemy's weakness and hit the latter with the element they're weak to. However, this game has an entire mechanic behind the "break" stat, also known as the "Break Effect."

The Break Effect is tied directly to a character's element, depending on the action they will take on enemies. Players should note firsthand that the "Break Effect" stat does not determine the damage given to an enemy's toughness shield but the action taken after the shields break.

The following article will guide you through everything regarding the Break Effect stat in Honkai Star Rail and how it works with different characters and elements.

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How to utilize the "Break Effect" stat effectively in Honkai Star Rail

As mentioned, the "Break Effect" is tied to a character's element since the game inflicts different debuffs upon breaking shields. Since it has already been established that this particular stat does not increase damage against the enemy's shields, the following list should help you remember each debuff based on different elements:

• Physical: Applies bleed effect and deals physical DoT (damage over time) upon breaking shields.
• Fire: Applies burn effect and deals burn DoT upon breaking shields.
• Ice: Freezes the target and deals additional ice damage upon breaking shields.
• Lightning: Applies shock effect and deals lightning DoT upon breaking shields.
• Wind: Applies shear effect and deals DoT upon breaking shields.
• Quantum: This applies entanglement to delay the enemy's action and makes them vulnerable to the same elemental damage.
• Imaginary: Applies imprisonment on enemies whose actions will be delayed and SPD reduced.

Elemental break effect (Image via Honkai Star Rail)

The base break damage, which activates upon breaking the entire shield, usually scales based on a character's level. Hence, high base damage of break can be achieved by simply leveling up a character. Additionally, more damage can be earned through Relics, Light Cones, and Planar Ornaments.

Relic with Break Effect as its sub-stat (Image via Honkai Star Rail)

It should also be noted that break damage from each element will also depend on their multipliers on top of the damage. The multipliers are as follows:

• Burn: 200% damage multiplier.
• Bleed: 200% damage multiplier.
• Freeze: 100% damage multiplier.
• Shock: 100% damage multiplier.
• Wind Shear: 150% damage multiplier.
• Quantum: 50% damage multiplier.
• Imaginary: 50% damage multiplier.

Shredding the enemy's DEF stat using Nihility characters like Pela is a great way to amplify the outgoing break damage. Elements that deal with imprisoning and slowing enemies down (elementary and quantum) will increase their effectiveness with higher multipliers, reducing the opponent's actions by the extra.

Inflicting break on enemies using quantum damage (Image via Honkai Star Rail)

Since Honkai Star Rail is still in the early stages, the full potential of the Break Effect stat remains to be seen in the deeper endgame.