Tier list

Last updated: 27.03.2024

Please keep in mind that Honkai: Star Rail is a game where team building matters most and while our tier list takes the optimal setup into account, a lot of characters can work and do well - even those ranked lower - when you invest into them. Also for story or lower difficulties of Simulated Universe, you don't need to worry about ratings and tiers. You can safely clear that content even with F2P characters as long as you build your team correctly.

These tier lists rate characters based on their average performance in both Memory of Chaos and Pure Fiction regardless of turbulence, whimsicality and cacophony. Characters rated higher will perform well without the need to rely on these and will only benefit more from receiving them. As new mechanics, characters and challenges are introduced each tier list will be updated.

Available tier lists:

  • Memory of Chaos (MoC) - how the character performs in the Memory of Chaos. Blast and single target damage are important here while AoE has niche uses against some bosses.
  • Pure Fiction (PF) - how the character performs in the Pure Fiction. AoE is king here, followed by Blast while single target damage is mostly useless.

Categories:

  • Damage Dealer - Characters that focus on dealing direct damage and can perform their role unhindered by enemy type, enemy element or team composition.
  • Specialist - Characters that excel under specific circumstances carrying a unique role that often requires a different and divergent playstyle. For example, Breakers can deal monstrous burst damage or crippling crowd control and Synergists introduce entirely new team archetypes.
  • Amplifier - Characters that do not focus on dealing damage but instead amplify the damage other teammates deal by granting allies buffs or debuffing enemies.
  • Sustain - Characters who are capable of keeping the team alive with their abilities.

Special marks explained:

  • - character lost a rating in last update,
  • - character gained a rating in last update,
  • NEW - character recently added to the tier list,
  • - RNG machine. A character who is very RNG based and depending on your luck (or the enemies you face) can perform better or worse than the rating indicates,
  • - Breaker. A character who specializes in dealing Break damage against enemies of a corresponding elemental vulnerability. When not against enemies vulnerable to them their rating can be decreased by a single tier,
  • - Synergist. A character whose power drastically increases when one or more specific character(s) accompanies them on their team. These characters are often the focal point of the compositions they are a part of and open up new archetype of gameplay.

Roles

We compare characters within their role - so damage dealers are compared to other damage dealers and the ratings are adjusted based on their performance within the role. Don't try to compare characters between roles (for example a amplified with a damage dealer), because their ratings mean different things.

Criteria
  • Manual play,
  • Using optimal team composition/support characters,
  • Character level 80,
  • All Major Traces unlocked and skills upgraded to level 8,
  • Character equipped with level 80 Light Cone (4★ and 5★, but only those available to F2P players),
  • Character equipped with 5★ upgraded gear with optimal Main Stats and Sub Stats (with 24 desired sub stats out of a possible 54),
  • Eidolon level 0 for 5★ characters,
  • Eidolon level 0/6 for 4★ characters.
What affects the rating

Each tier list rates characters based on their average value in the specific game mode it represents. The higher a character is rated on the tier list the greater their power and more widely they can be used effectively in the mode. We consider:

  • Flexibility - How the characters kit functions against various enemy types, amounts of enemies and their ability to perform when not fighting against enemies vulnerable to their element,
  • Investment - Some characters require specific limited 5 star units, heavy investment in certain relic sets or an abundance of sub stats in order to function at the highest level. Each of these points impact character ratings,
  • Damage Dealer: Rating is heavily influenced based on the characters ability to deal enough damage to achieve the 3 star objective, the easier and more quickly achieved the higher the rating,
  • Specialist: Rating is heavily influenced based on the damage they provide, defense or efficiency boost created by the unique teams these characters create or the utility they provide against certain encounters,
  • Amplifier: Rating is influenced based on the damage amplification abilities of the character and the utility they provide to the team,
  • Sustain: Rating is influenced based on the characters ability to keep the team alive and the utility they provide. The more utility and higher the safety the higher the rating.

27/03/2024

  • [Acheron] and [Gallagher] were added to the tier list.
  • We are placing Acheron in S+ alongside Jingliu and Imbibitor Lunae as her performance in MoC is absolutely some of the strongest thanks to her incredible burst damage, frequent ultimates and ability to brute force encounters via her universal break and resistance shred. Her power level in Memory of Chaos can be even higher than that of Jingliu and Imbibitor but as she derives an overwhelming amount of benefit from her personal Light Cone (even among 4 star options without S5 GNSW things are rough), teams Light Cones (Pearls of Sweat - not everyone will own) and her own signature relic sets (main set and planars - Diver and Gensei respectively) we'll be keeping them together for now despite her higher ceiling. Currently, we feel it's not as universally easy to achieve everything Acheron needs to shine but we'll be keeping a close eye on her.
  • Despite Acheron's exceptional performance in MoC, in Pure Fiction she encounters more resistance. Almost all of Acheron's killing power is associated with her ultimate and in Pure Fiction she'll be relying almost exclusively on it in order to take out the hordes of enemies, often resulting in insane overkill and wasted damage. Even with complete focus on stacking Slashed Dream, Acheron still has trouble gaining enough ultimates to slay all the enemies as a sole dps within the time limit without exceptional gear or use of signatures (which this tier list does not include at this stage). This problem can be remedied to some extent by relying on multi-damage Nihility setups but due to her ultimate reliance we'll be placing her in A in Pure Fiction.
  • Gallagher possesses the unique niche of being a breaker and a debuff applying healer - something entirely unique, placing him in a similar category of synergy as Lynx and her taunting. Unlike Lynx though, Gallagher has some weaknesses when it comes to healing. He sacrifices safety for synergy and against enemies that dish out a tonne of burst damage Gallagher lacks mitigation, shields or instant healing - which can lead to death as even with his ultimate available he cannot heal during an enemies turn. Fast enemies can also give Gallagher some trouble unless he has excellent Speed and energy recharge himself as it will substantially lower the uptime of his Besotted state putting your team in a real healing pinch. For these reasons we're placing him in B to recognize his synergy capabilities but not to the level and safety of Lynx.

09/03/2024

  • Pure Fiction:
    • [Sparkle] S S+ - Sparkle has performed far above expectations in Pure Fiction achieving some of the highest average scores based on our testing and in-game analytics. The reason for this is twofold: first her skill point economy, exceptional buffs and specifically action acceleration effects make her a top choice across the board but even more so for hyper carry comps. The second reason which has proven to cement her dominance is her ability to elevate already intensely powerful Pure Fiction character options like Jing Yuan, Herta and even Argenti to new heights - all characters who dominate the top of the Pure Fiction tier list. Some of these characters can be played in double damage compositions but when played in hyper carry setups, Sparkle is firmly their #1 support and it shows. Thanks to these synergies while she isn't as widely applicable as Ruan Mei she is a main stay and raises the already strongest teams,
    • [Argenti] S+ S - Argenti has proven to be a complete powerhouse in Pure Fiction but ONLY if he has access to the right buffs and gear that allow his 90 energy Ultimate to fully wipe out a wave of non-elite monsters. When using Argenti's 90 cost Ultimate in the event you're able to wipe out a full wave of small enemies you'll recover a whopping 40-50 energy from the on kill bonuses (5 from the ultimate itself, up to 15 from his talent and a further 8-10 energy from his bonus ability Generosity) which when combined with Tingyun and Huohuo allows him to string together 2-3 and sometimes even more 90 cost ultimates in a row. Now what happens if you can't 1 shot those 4-5 non-elites? Well Argenti stops cold in his tracks generally resulting in only being able to cast a single 90 cost Ultimate a turn which reduces him from an ultimate spamming killing machine to something a lot more tame. We feel Argenti's gear, team and buff reliance limits his potential compared to the universally good queen of Pure Fiction Herta, who can perform better with much less - as such we are moving him to S. Especially as the last two phases data show him performing well below the S+ tier standards,
    • We're also observing Himeko as she's performing really well in Pure Fiction in the last 2 phases, but in most of her best teams you will spot Herta and she elevates everyone she's paired with. We will give it one more phase to gather more data and do more testing, but most likely Himeko will join Herta in S+ soon,
    • Black Swan and Kafka performance dropped drastically according to current phase data, but in our testing they still perform well. We will wait 1 more phase to see how their data will behave before making any changes to their ratings.

01/03/2024

  • Memory of Chaos:
    • [Imbibitor Lunae] S S+ - The biggest issue in teams with Imbibitor Lunae has always been Skill Point management. He has a wide array of decent teammate options already, but with the release of Sparkle he gains a new exceptionally powerful one who greatly assists with his Skill Point troubles. In all but the longest fights, Sparkle's early influx of SP is a complete game changer for Imbibitor Lunae. With his SP issues solved, and with this addition of a new best-in-slot support at E0, his viability and power is now S+ quality,
    • [Jing Yuan] A S - Jing Yuan has gained a good amount of power due to the release of Sparkle. She grants him high effective Speed with her Skill's Action Advance, as well as a massive lingering damage boost that actually benefit Lightning-Lord - something that a character like Bronya was previously unable to do for him (unless you had her at E6), bringing his potential in line with other S tier damage dealer. Sparkle boosts Jing Yuan even more if you are able to acquire her signature Light Cone, making him even stronger (but this is outside of the tier list criteria),
    • [Asta] A B - The release of Ruan Mei saw many players switch out their 4-star Harmony characters for her dominating presence. She single-handedly raised the bar for Harmony and as a result lowered the relative performance and play rate of characters such as Hanya, Yukong, and Asta. The release of Sparkle is one more step in that direction, as Sparkle is a clear and direct upgrade to many of these characters in teams where they were previously best in slot. She also synergises with other exceptionally powerful options such as Silver Wolf, Pela, Ruan Mei, and Tingyun. The final driving point of this change is the continual relevance of Pela, who offers her universally desired AoE defence shred, utility, and break. Pela sits in A tier boasting many more synergies and powerful teams, as well as a far higher play rate than either Asta or Hanya. As a result, we feel moving Asta down is appropriate,
    • [Hanya] A B - Same reasoning as with Asta,
    • [Yukong] B C - Asta and Hanya moved down and Yukong was the victim of that. Even before Yukong was used mostly with Imbibitor Lunae teams and Sparkle release will heavily affect her usage rates,
    • [Sushang] B C - both her performance and usage rates have been decreasing over the last few MoC phases as players simply have more, stronger, options available to them.
  • Pure Fiction:
    • [Jing Yuan] A S - Sparkle is a great benefit to Jing Yuan, boosting his effective Speed and allowing for 1 hit KOs on full waves under the right conditions. She also grants his Lightning-Lord far more killing power thanks to more consistent stacks as well as higher overall boosts, and he is now more likely to wipe a full wave with his follow-up. This also better prevents him from getting slowed down by 1 HP stragglers, meaning he doesn't need to spend as much time cleaning up the small fry,
    • [Asta] S A - Asta is an exceptional alternative to Ruan Mei for double damage dealer teams, but as of the release of Sparkle, gets edged out of the S tier. We are moving her to the A tier to be alongside Pela, as both these characters see both high play rate and high scores in multiple teams, but are not on the power level of the current S tier characters in what they offer in terms of utility or team amplification,
    • [Hanya] A B - Hanya possesses in-demand Speed buffs and strong multipliers, but lacks the efficacy of stronger Harmony characters like the newly released Sparkle, or the dominant force that is Ruan Mei. The movement of Asta down a tier mandates the movement of Hanya down as well. Asta possesses higher flexibility in Pure Fiction, being a strong option for double damage teams on top of also being an option for single damage teams. Asta is the primary alternative for double damage teams that lack access to Ruan Mei, whereas Hanya is directly competing with hypercarry teams, and she struggles to shine in comparison,
    • [Yukong] B C - Asta and Hanya moved down and Yukong was the victim of that. Even before Yukong was used mostly with Imbibitor Lunae teams (who aren't that good in PF either way),
    • [Silver Wolf] C D - Well, we should have done it earlier. Silver Wolf simply has no place in Pure fiction,
  • Other changes/stuff:
    • [Misha] has been moved from Specialist category to DPS. Misha has demonstrated that he has potential to deal sufficient damage, and to be played in a more damage focused role. His more supportive elements are less utilized by players at this time. He has been moved to the damage column for this reason, but his rating will remain the same for now,
    • [Qingque] is somewhere between S and S+ tier when you pair her with Sparkle, but even the insane amount of free Skill Points sometimes isn't enough for the Gamba Gremlin. So we decided to keep her in the S tier, but keep in mind that her RNG potential sometimes borders the S+ rating.
    • [Clara] hovers somewhere between A and S tier, but while performance with Sparkle is way better compared to older setups, she is still heavily reliant on the enemies she faces and how often they attack her. So for we will leave her at A and revisit her in next tier list update.

29/02/2024

  • [Sparkle] has been added to the tier list,
  • No other changes have been made to the tier list, because we need an additional day to test Sparkle with every damage dealer in the game in both PF and MoC. Within 24 hours of Sparkle's release we will update the whole Damage Dealers category to reflect her impact on their performance.

09/02/2024

  • [Guinaifen] has been moved from Amplifier category to Specialist (Synergy). Her personal damage is actually pretty good, allowing her to shine in dual-carry teams (nearly always DoT based), and the Firekiss debuff is just a great addition that improves the team's damage. The second reason for the change is Black Swan thanks to whom DoT teams shine more, allowing Guinaifen to be used in them as a damage dealer/amplifier hybrid,
  • Memory of Chaos
    • [Kafka] S S+ - DoT teams are not only the new 'favorite toy', but most importantly their performance is actually outstanding. And it's not just Black Swan's impact, because Kafka + Sampo teams are also performing very well. No matter the type of DoT team you want to play, Kafka is the heart and soul of DoT teams and amplifies them and takes them to the next level. DoT has more tools and a higher power ceiling with the release of Black Swan and while Black Swan by herself is a powerful synergy piece it's Kafka that allows for the maximum potential of DoT to be unlocked earning her a place in S+ for her extreme synergy,
    • [Bronya] S+ S - Well, it was bound to happen one day. After nearly a year of sitting at the highest tier, Bronya has dropped down. The main reason behind this is Ruan Mei who currently is the first pick for the majority of teams - hypercarry, dualcarry, DoT, FU. Any archetype there exist, Ruan Mei shines there, compared to Bronya who is mostly restricted to hypercarry teams nowadays. And with the meta making dualcarry and DoT team popular, Bronya simply can't keep up with Ruan Mei. Furthermore, while Bronya is mainly an offensive Amplifier, Ruan Mei is both offensive and defensive (via Break Efficiency and Delays), allowing her to make a bigger impact in her teams,
    • [Pela] S A - This change is caused partially because of Bronya dropping down and the MoC slowly transforming into 2-3 enemies waves, while PF is the AoE playground. Ruan Mei also affected Pela's teams as she simply replaced her in a lot of them (like the Jingliu one).
  • Pure Fiction
    • [Black Swan] S S+ - The reasoning for Black Swan ascension to S+ rating is similar to Kafka's, but while Kafka is very versatile and can be used in many teams, which makes her shine in MoC, Black Swan's AoE potential is simply insane. Every 3 Arcana stacks on enemies equal to a Blast attack that decimates the waves - not only in the current PF which is DoT oriented, but we also tested her in the 'old' one and there her performance isn't much worse,
    • [Luocha] A S - While healers aren't that needed in Pure Fiction, Luocha's Ultimate provides additional damage that makes reaching the 3-stars scoring easier if you need the defensive layer. Also, some players are building Luocha more like a damage dealer since his healing output is already obscene, making him an even bigger asset in PF,
    • [Sampo] B A - With the raise of DoTs, Sampo is now in a great spot, doing a lot of damage and amplifying his DoT team members,
    • [Bronya] S+ S - Same reasoning as for MoC (it's all Ruan Mei's fault!),
    • [Seele] S A - The previous Pure Fiction buff had a bigger impact on Seele than we anticipated and now when the buff is neutral, she doesn't perform as well anymore,
    • [Serval] S A - Serval's damage is mostly Blast-oriented with the occasional AoE via Ultimate and she can't really rival Himeko when it comes to clearing waves (and her performance in our tests and data reflect that), so we decided to drop her down a tier,
    • [Yukong] A B - She's simply not a good choice for Pure Fiction and while there are some teams where she's decent, her overall performance and limitations are too big.

05/02/2024

  • Added [Black Swan] and [Misha] to the tier list.
  • [Sampo] had his MoC Rating increased from B to A. The main reason behind this change is Black Swan release and him being the second best partner for her who enables her kit - and at the same time, she makes him much stronger,
  • In a week we will introduce more changes to MoC and PF tier lists - we need to do some more testing first! One of the changes we are discussing internally is moving Guinaifen to Specialist category as her personal damage is pretty decent and the Damage Taken debuff is just a cherry on the top - so she's more of a hybrid rather than just an Amplifer.

17/01/2024

Added [Dr. Ratio] to the tier list.

11/01/2024

The tier list has been fully reworked and we cleared the old changelog to avoid any confusion.

Our ratings explained:

  • S+ - a God. The character is simply overpowered and dominates in their role,
  • S - a great and versatile character that has barely any flaws,
  • A - a good character that has a few little flaws,
  • B - a decent character that has a few big flaws holding them back,
  • C - underwhelming character,
  • D - please buff me.

Tier List (Memory of Chaos)

You're currently viewing the Memory of Chaos tier list. It shows how the character performs in the Memory of Chaos. Blast and single target damage are important here while AoE has niche uses against some bosses. Use the switcher below to view a different tier list.

Show 4★ characters at Eidolon 6 (E0 otherwise)
Memory of Chaos
Pure Fiction
 
Damage dealer
Specialist
Amplifier
Sustain
S+
Damage dealer
Specialist
Amplifier
Sustain
S
Damage dealer
Specialist
Amplifier
Sustain
A
Damage dealer
Specialist
Amplifier
Sustain
B
Damage dealer
Specialist
Amplifier
Sustain
C
Damage dealer
Specialist
Amplifier
Sustain
D
Damage dealer
Specialist
Amplifier
Sustain