Best Characters to BUILD as NEW PLAYER Honkai Star Rail 

Just recently, a new game mode was announced for 2.3- Apocalyptic Shadow, and this game mode is expected to be the much needed boost for The Hunt path characters. Focusing on a single big boss, this is likely to really impact the value of certain single target dps characters quite a bit. Though I'd still be cautious with them cause I do view them as having some scaling issues. Though expect more out of yanqing, sushang, and even f2p mono fire comps like hook from this update. Not to mention, Ratio will be an even greater value dps as a result. ALSO ANOTHER UPDATE Harmony Trailblazer released with penacony, and it completely alters the game. Gallagher, Xueyi, Sushang, Luka with break builds f2p all become quite a bit better. Though note Ruan Mei is insanely important with those compositions.

At least the main character in Honkai arent just "tutorial character" like its in Genshin. You can use trailblazer for a long time going through campaign

Pela is definitely someone you want to build for the story in Xianzhou because she can remove the buff from the revive enemies there.

the probelm with dr.ratio in pure fiction is also that he needs debuffs, stacking debuffs on 1 target that die in 1 shot anyway just hurts him

As new player you don't really get to choose, just play a character that the enemy is weak against and whack in a healer and you win everytime

nice video !!! i was a day1 player but went on a REALLY long hiatus so I've only come back now and consider myself a new player, super useful video

Yay! I started the game by the end of January and was looking for a video like this explaining a bit how the characters are currently working, but they were all from 9 months ago, so thanks! This is exactly what I was looking for! I'll check if there's one for the limited characters too

i would put yukong in not recommend since you literally cannot build or even use her in the late and end game, not to mention early game or just starting

I only played hsr till jing yuan banner , and i just redownload it after kafka banner, you can say im a new player too and this is a nice video, it helps me who to prioritize building first, you gained my sub mate

Here's me watching: What the hell is this MLC and pure fiction he keeps talking about?

Remember target Kafka Nehility team = Bloom

Thank you for making this list and the explanation man, I'm an old player but didn't play the game much bc I'm there for the story and exploration, so I'm often torn to whom I should invest in building for casual gameplay. This vid really helps a lot!!

Thank you! I started playing 3 weeks ago and the first character I got from the beginner banner was Welt. I love him and he's my main team (Welt/Asta/FireTraiblazer/Natasha) These days I managed to put together my second team: Imbibitor/Tingyun/Yukon/Bailu I'm waiting for Luocha, Fu Xuan, and maybe Sparkle, to move some characters around on both teams. I would also really like to get BlackSwan but I don't have Kafka :c

It's been over a week since I've started my journey on here, and I clearly have both overutilized AND underutilized my array of characters. Ended up mainly using Serval, Quinque, Sampo, Ratio, Lynx, Natasha, Asta (My only Fire user until I got Fire MC), and March throughout my jounery in Jarilo-IV and I'm now working on my next team now with all this in mind.

Nice, that's encouraging. My main team is Clara, Lynx, Tingyun and Pela. Working on a second team with Black Swan, Natasha, then I need to decide who to use for the remaining slots out of Guin, Sampo and Luka.

Thanks man, really helpful as a new player!

I started playing at the half of february so seeing a newer tutmeans a lot to me tysm!!

So I started playing at launch put took the last 4 months off and am coming back. This video is very timely and interesting thanks. You know an interesting thing about this video is it illustrates how nice it is to save your jade and tickets to pull a good DPS or use Ratio or Clara haha. There actually are a lot of awesome to broken supports for free but not much variety for awesome DPS.

Just started as well and found this very enlighting. Got lucky enough to get black swan and welt. Currently building most of the characters trying to have a built 10 roster! Thanks for the vid!

i feel like people have to invest in dan heng when starting out. his scalings are stupidly strong for a free starter character. and he has access to a good f2p lc. he was important on my warpless account^^

Pela is actually very useful in pure fiction, especially for activating the conditions for herta and himekos followups so id personally put her in the same tier as you but honestly could make a case for game breaking

Let me tell you about March. She never left my SU team because of her strong shield! True that she does need some time to get used to and lil investment on her relics, but once she is built, she’s so good in SU paired with Preservation. *chefs kiss

Thank you, I have no idea whom I Should build my earned playable characters

Thanks for the video, its really helpful. Just started the game 3 weeks ago and i hold back in Trailblazer lv 40 to set up proper stat on some character i need. But sometimes it could a bit confusing since i havent done moc or pure fiction tho, so i looking for a reference who are worth to build. But my goal right now is trying to enjoy the stories most of the time since my friends told me to do that rather than try hard in endgame contents or using META. Maybe i need little bit more patience haha

I was listening to you say Bronya is OP and i realized i did not pull in standard with the free stuff from the tutorial. Now i have Bronya, this must be fate :)

thank u so much for this!! i’m an ar57 genshin player and i just started playing hsr like last week i’m on tb25 i think? so yeah i have a lot to go

I'm really fortunate to start playing around 2weeks ago. Receiving free Dr. Ratio, Bronya at Departure Warp, Sparkle with her LC, Lynx and Tingyun at Permanent Banner. Currently finishing Xianzhou Luofu. Now I need another DPS and Preservation unit, and a Debuffer and take a look at that..... its coming this next patch. Been saving for Acheron (with Pela) and hopefully Aventurine. It's been great and excited for Anniversary. Edit: This game continues to be generous with me😭 I pull E0 Acheron, E3 Pela and E2 Gallagher. Tried to pull Aventurine but I lost early with Gepard (Pity 24)🤣 then tried again to pull him after 25 trail pass. Then accidentally pull 10x on Jingliu banner (I absentmindedly thought its his LC) and got her.

Very interesting takes. I’m starting a free to play account and I appreciate the information you’ve built. Personally I like using Yanqing since he goes crazy with crit damage, but I also don’t have qingque or any solid AoE units yet. Dr. Ratio for the win though lol

Xueyi should be a bit higher on the list is because her ult can break a lot of shields that the enemy have regardless if the enemy has quantum weakness

I really appreciate this guide because most guides assume that you have all the limited characters.

I started playing the game yesterday and in the first ten pull on the start banner i got yanqing, i know he is not that good, but i like his design. And on my third ten pull i got Bronya! I also like your tier list its really helpful for me as a beginner.

Trailblazer fire works great for me since the time I got it until now. If you don't have any decent preservation, I recommend it

I just got this game and just finished the tutorial Simulator System battles. Doing a couple side missions atm. My MC is lvl 10 all others are whatever lvl you get them at. (Haven't tried building anything or purchasing anything yet because I didn't want to waste resources.)

The asta disrespect is insane... For a new player a pretty much free 50% damage buff is really good on top of the speed. Shes basically robin but doesn't give a turn.

Here are some tip this game is more team base game for example currently in black sawn meta a lot of people are using Sampo but if you put him in other team he is bad. So yeah remember that

4:07 I had a feeling you would say that. Got E12 Den Hang from the Acheron banner and standard banner

What is pure friction and MLC I am new to the game and trying to understand it's mechanics regarding team making and characters.

I would say MC is "broken in game mode" and by that I mean in pure fiction. He/she can both do AoE and give shields just by using basics attacks, which means your main DPSs can spam SP as they want and he is good at breaking too. Their shields are too flimsy for anything else, but for Pure fiction it's perfectly OK.

I started this week I’m trailblazer lvl 15 and apparently all my sustain units are mid 🥲 so who do I invest in?

Bro avtually really good video, for real. I thought it had minimum 15 k views before checking it: 300 views Now: 15 k views

very helpful list! ty ty :)

My fuckin prayers were answered. I just started on feb 10th and im a bit overwhelmed. I kinda know whos good and not but this is perfect! Thanks!

Brand new to the game and going through the story with: Dr. Ratio, Asta, Tingyun, and Gallagher. I'm still early and my characters are level 30, do you think I should swap Asta with Pela? Also, where does Gallagher sit on your tier list? Thanks!

What about any Teams recommendations with Himeko and Dan Heng IL , I recently got Dan Heng and Himeko as well as bailu in 1.6 , Any recommendations (Only have Natasha and Bailu for Abundance) for teams? Maybe Himeko dps but I also have dr ratio but then again PF hes kinda bad sadly -I also have E5 Guinaifen from Trying to get tingyun 😂 , At least I got her but whilst getting 6 Guinaifens 😂😂❤

I just got back into this game and have TB 51 , fucking grinded the shit out of it last year (it felt like a nuke when I saw that max TB is 70 and I quit the game after a month or so, I kind of overleveled a bit) and I think I'm gonna build welt and dr ratio for a combo (especially with the 2.4k free TrailBlaze green energy), they seem like a nice pair, I also have 4k defense fire MC as a tank and natasha as a healer, sounds like a fun team. I like Acheron from the story so far and would like to pull her (46 pulls on her banner and more to go) but Sampo is the one I want the most, too bad he is not really featured.

I'd argue Serval and Sampo should be Higher especially serval. I have an no pull account that recently achieved Trailblaze 70 and she is by far one of the most reliable characters to clear most content if invested enough. She has a an amazing type, good at breaking with fast ultimates and quite decently high consistent damage. I find her better in MoC than pure fiction because most of the time she just deals blast danage and MoC really likes to give you 4 ennemies at once so the 5 target ult doesn't lose too much damage. Being the only option for doT is also nice (assuming you didn't ger other DoT 4 stars like in the case of a no pull account) also helps to deal with the dinosaurs and Something unto death in MoC.she is the 3rd best dps we have access too behind Qq and ratio and she is very underrated currently in my opinion. As for sampo while he is certainly more of a nich character, he definetely excels in his favored teamcomps and can fill a lot of rolls in one team. He has good personal damage is incredible at breaking and enabling other DoT units and works very well for most content. Even before Kafka, i have played him since launch and he was basically the reason you could play Nihility path in sim Universe. Even in Non DoT teams if you are a new player Sampo will provide really good value because early game DoT scalings are crazy strong and his high break potential makes him an excellent damage dealer if you don't have limited 5 star options. Wind is also a pretty rare type right now eith the only reall efficient damage dealers being also pretty niche in their own regard and not the most popular characters when it comes to pull value I think it makes Sampo all the better. He is also very easy to build as you only need attack and speed and maybe a little Break Effect or ERR id you really want to go the extra mile. I don't think these characters are top tier by any means but I do think that they deserve a little justice and credit because they are amongst the most underrated 4 stars imo and they are really a lot more versatile and suited for a lot more content than one might think.

At which eidolon does qingque becomes worth leveling? Thanks for the recommendations

Thank you this was so helpful! Especially as a new player who just started 😅😅 Btw, since Jingliu is coming up soon, I’m saving up for her. Do you think Lynx or Natasha is a better healer for her?

I started Honkai when I heard about a free dr ratio and this list actually helps me out since I just started. Also do you think sparkle would be worth pulling for dr ratio?

Outside of Pure Fiction and MoC, i think March 7th is broken in simulated universe modes + Rembrance. Gold & Gears is easy with march on V10

I use march with topaz and Clara in SIM universe. Elation path op. I don't usually do too good outside of there though.

Nice video, you are soooo underrated

My team for now is Clara, Sparkle, Dan Heng, and Pela. I have Natasya as my only healer, so should I replace Dan Heng? also i do also have Tingyun, should i add her in my team?

What does mlc mean ? Or maybe i'm not hearing well i'm french sorry

Short term use or okay in one game mode is okay for bringing a Hook, because Penacony elite enemies all of them (No Sam) have weakness to fire! Nonetheless, Neither I got Guinaifen lmao!

I'm confused about the limited resource thing cause if they're limited in the same way genshin are then u will still be able to get them back? Or is there just no more

i’ve got DHIL e0s1, tingyun e6 with bronya LC, pela e0 and bailu e1 for the first team, but i can’t get any idea for what to do for the second one. i really wanna save a lot of pulls and go for acheron e2s1 with gui e4 and linxy with hopes to pull bronya from standard warp, but that would mean i have to skip sparkle and miss out on il best partner. i’m in existential crisis rn and dunno what to do. can some1 clear up my mind pleeeease

wait why do u call qingque "kinkweh" 😭 it's more like cheenchweh. yanqing too, the q is supposed to be a sort of "ch" sound.

Could you maybe combine Ratio with an Acheron core to make the most of his kit and get more hits in PF? They’re already stacking tons of debuffs.

Generally agree. Only gripe is that I'd put Natasha a bit higher. She's pretty essential for as long as you don't have a healer.

man when I started to play hsr during its release I got seele in like 20 pulls then I gor bronya from standart banner then I got the battle isnt over (bronyas signature) from standart pulls boy I am still using them today

puts March in short term use, despite her having been a hard carry for me on SU world 5 on max difficulty against Kafka without maxing her traces

I have a team of Clara, March and Natasha, just built them to lvl 50 (thats the highest i can go for now) and now seeing this made me sad that i waisted materials for chars that aint gonna be much useful later

Why not building natasha? We need healer if we dont have bailu or lynx? At least we need 2 healer right?

This video is obviously geared towards new players. As a new player, I'm still terrible at identifying some characters just from their picture. If you could add named timestamps that would be SUPER helpful!

I need help for the swarm boss, thanks for the vid now I need to build characters I don't even like for the sake of my baby Misha's ascension T-T

I would say Lynx is a must build for MoC because of her cleanse. I’ve been playing since day one, and since her release, I’ve been using her as a solo sustain to clear MoC 12.

you should invest abit in dan heng anyway because this game severely lack wind elements unit, it will make your beginning more easier for sure

How about Tingyun + yukong/bronya on the same team?

It annoys me to hell how he doesn't pronounce the names of the characters right Also he didn't talk about Bailu's revive and how her talent can not only "mitigate damage" but possibly even heal more HP than what was lost She heals a crapton amount, so much so that even if you're underleveled, you'll be able to go far if you have her built, well, all that in exchange for a cleanse

MY absolute ; * main dps - Dr. Ratio * Healer - Gallagher I only need Nihility & Preservation. Currently my preservation is the Mc, but Im looking forward to Nihility Mc. Then later I'll find other Preservation who don't eat much skill energy. Like the preservation MC, which is exactly my style but the def amount buff percentage is too low. To add his build is still extremely raw.

I would say that dr ratio is best to be built first, just because you get him first out of everyone right now.

yanqing carried me through jarilo and xianzhou in the early game. he’s kind of falling off now for me compared to the damage i’d like to be doing now. lost acheron 50/50 to himeko and have opted to play physical mc over her. himekos ass and i spent 5 minutes building mc and she is already better than my himeko, i’m at 68 pity on acherons banner and guaranteed so now my next worry is finding an acheron team that i have everyone for

Wow, seeing the gintoki pfp felt nostalgic

I am a new player and this was helpful but I am confused...what are the two game modes you were talking about?

For me, Dan Heng was useful until Penacony Natasha, March, clutched me during Penacony MC is just must build

funny enough, now I feel like I got lucky Started playing the game 2 weeks? ago just to get that free Dr. Ratop and my first pulls were Tingyun and Bronya xD Well, now I just need a team to use them with

Awesome video Remember me when you're famous ;) Also I understand that lynx have clines But as i have a built both of them I don't die with bailu although i struggle with having lynx Yea skill issue ik.

Ok so I am tl 36 and just pulled Archeon, I have pela and gallagher with her in my team. Who else should I use. Currently saving for silver wolf

11:57 so glad fluffy tail lady is good as i was using her either way

Who should I go for on current banner? I'm new and already have Welt so I wanna keep him in my team.

I would put Physical MC a bit higher. They still get the job done when Clara doesn’t cut it, like paired with Ice units (Pela, Herta, March) and Penacony enemies. Really helps that their ult is flexible too. I don’t get to use Fire MC much in Penacony except for one boss.

the only problem in building dr ratio is that is ascension materials are "end game" so it's difficult to reach them

March has value in any Sim World version because she enables anyone to run remembrance and clear it with no decent investment required on other characters

If u know how she works I would put qq way more than usable

I honestly don't know what I'm doing in that game but turns out, I accidentally managed to build the best characters

Fire trailblazer is good still, yeah he not as good as someone like gepard or fu xuan but they're great especially starting out. They helped me a bunch and i still use them eventho i already at max trailblaze level

I believe that fire trailblazer is a badass game changer. Always on my main team. I build her over gepard bc she can still deal significant damage while tanking.

I'm new to the game, please someone explain to me what is moc and pure fiction ?

I don't know about Kinkuey but Qingque is broken for me like I got her e6 early on and she convinced me I don't ever need Seele, her damage out scales most 5 star DPS I pulled all the while being infinitely more fun to play with ✓

Moc?

What about simulated universe? Feels like that's an important gamemode that should have been considered here

I feel so slow, I know what MOC is but what is Pure fiction?

Like commented and subscribed 👍

I just started last month but I already got Himeko,Bronya and Himekos Light Cone but I'm still a newbie so yah XD

Watching this as a Returning player, gotta catch up

The Tier is great, it is very accurate and useful for all kind of player. Still, I would like to suggest to everyone: PLAY THE CHARACTERS YOU LIKE. In this game every character (with a good amount of investment) can perform incredibly well, so if u like some of those who aren’t in top tier, just give u some time to farm and you will see how good they can be. This is an advice from someone who felt bored of this game so many times, but now i’m in a good streak of month in which i played no stop and i don’t feel bored at all. I hope this can be useful for someone who is struggling playing lately. Peace

i dont know how much i agree with this. Not much i will said but is an intersting perspective. Yukong evaluation for example for a new player i belive yukong 100% a F tiert totally, you need speed boots, speed tunning to fully feel her buff and without eidolons she is meh. Yes her buff is great but just from the fact that every other Harmony unit in the game is 90% useful in any comp i belive her being so heavy "build around me" is one of the worse baits for new players.

Glad i built my tingyun though she has a curse to being aggroed and always first to die.

When i first started the game i thought stellaron hunters would be like archons but now i own all 3 stellaron hunters currently available and they all feel really weak to me silverwolf suffers from being single target my kafka isnt strong enough to be the sole DoT 5* on the team and Blade does like 20k on an ult compared to ratio and seele easily hitting over 100k i feel like i fucked my account a little for the forseeable future by summoning for stellaron hunters