WHO IS BEST? | All 4 Stars Reviewed in Honkai: Star Rail! 

TIER LIST SUMMARY sorry for not including it, thanks @beca.alessio843 EARLY GAME Investment Priority (In my opinio, not ordered) S: Asta, Serval, Lynx, Pela, Tingyun, Natasha A: Phys MC, March, Dan Heng, Sushang, Hook, Hanya, Misha B: Qingque, Fire MC, Luka, Guinaifen, Sampo, Yukong C: Arlan, Xueyi, Herta LATE GAME Investment Priority (In my opinion, not ordered) S: Asta, Herta, Qingque, Pela, Tingyun A+: Lynx, Hanya A: Guinaifen, Sampo, Xueyi B: March, Serval, Natasha, Fire MC, Yukong, Sushang, Misha, Luka C: Physical MC, Dan Heng, Arlan, Hook S is best, A is great, B is good OR units that can carry in a niche, C is not recommended. I see cases where Misha can be A, Xueyi A+, and Arlan B with a new Shielder in endgame. Also maybe Hook should've been B.

I really love pela because of how balanced she is as a 4star; def shred, spammable ult, ice res on e4.. man she's basically what a support that could offer.

Can't wait for the day they make more debuffers, Pela and Silver Wolf have had to carry since Nihility was taken over by DoTs

Pela and Tingyun might be the Bennett and Sucrose of HSR. Still usable after so many years and can fight toe to toe with 5 star equivalents

"THE CRIT SAMPO CULT MIGHT BE WATCHING RUN" Yes, yes we are

Arlan review is 100% accurate. He'd be better if we had more and better sources of shields. We've had the same sources of shields since 1.0, and that just REALLY isn't enough to make him remotely viable. With more and better shielders, he'd be a better unit and could potentially climb, but he just doesn't have the tools he needs to be anything past C.

As a Sampo main, I really appreciate how the spotlight on him being underrated was focused. Sure Guinaifen might be a "better" option, but the fact that his ult acts as a DoT buffer for a DoT team is just good itself. Not to mention that he can be skill point neutral as well depending on your stacked wind shears, and his light cone is pretty universal from Eyes of the Prey, Solitary Healing (Ult spam arise), and even Resolutions. He can have break effect subs too, and the controversial crit builds. In my opinion, he can be a hunt/destruction/erudition/nihility/harmony all in one ESPECIALLY in early games, and going with any build above will do wonders. He'd never really disappoint you overall once you've built him. (well except for the fact that he abandoned us in the story but let's get over that because he came back for us anyways!) :D

xueyi at e6 is busted :O i really love using her whenever possible, incredible sound and visial desing and high dmg numbers make my monke brain go wooo

Would have loved a Tier List(Early and late) on the outro as a way to recap and compare what units are better to invest in

Really adore how you describe Qingque! Totally true and she is so much fun at E6. I was extremely lucky to get all her eidolons with ease. I have not looked back ever since and intend to invest all resources into her. Sparkle E0S1 is settled for me. Now only waiting for a proper 5* Light Cone for QQ.

Besides the harmony units, I am partial to Xueyi. So she is S+ in my heart. I would even compare a well built E6 Xueyi with Seele. But A is good enough tbh haha. Thanks for the guide Guoba!

I find Fire MC to be highly underrated when it comes to survivability options, and with the correct positioning they can be used nicely with Blade and Clara (beside them) to get hit by blast And just overall a really good unit for very hard content like SU and it's DLCs, I'd bump them up to A tier from my personal experience

I love Guinaifen, she's a great Ratio enabler if you don't have SW. I run her with the Luka LC, and was lucky to get her E1. one skill and Ratio sees that 100% for his FUA immediately.

I’m glad Serval got a decent recommendation. It was a big lightbulb moment for me realizing she isn’t a DoT unit. She’s a DPS who’s empowered by the presence of the shock DoT. I gave her Argenti’s signature LC and have never looked back. Her and Tingyun just destroy lightning weak enemies on mass. She’s also nice for Calyx and over world farming. Not that it’s hard content but with her 4 star LC it’s easy for her to Ult at the start of every fight.

Appreciate the shout-out at 16:55, Guoba!

I've seen Misha paired with Pela for stacking def shred and him dishing out very solid damage. I'll definitely keep him on my "to build soon" list.

This is truly one of the most useful tierlist there is (Edit: just reading again i noticed maybe the way i wrote this is a bit confusing, its not a tierlist as if he just ranks characters and thats what makes it good. He values characters for what they are and not just a number comparison)

I want to say that Misha's kit is a monster in single target boss fights - if you use him as a sub dps for permanent breaks on boss shield. There are very little scenario for him to be useful but he can break a suprisingly massive amount of shields on bosses that have ice weakness. A good example is a Rememberance buffed team that heavily relies on freezing for optimal dps, he could go crazy with the 80% increase base chance for freezing.

One of the best guide topic in a long time (i think i havent seen anyone make similar topic updated). Would love to see LC version too, Love it!

Wasn't expecting this but it is greatly appreciated ! Thank you for your hardwork Guoba!

Thank you! loved the graphics you used for the characters! the 2 different investment levels was very helpful

Just a couple of comments: 1) I'm glad you mentioned that leveling Trailblazer may have additional impacts, it's a character worth always at least leveling. 2) I suspect Guinaifen will be better as time goes on, I think she's currently underrated and not enough people had her at E6 - where I think she rivals Pela and other supports, and may be vital for some with an upcoming DPS. 3) A lot of people would say Asta has fallen off, but I'm glad you emphasized her team with Fire characters. If an upcoming Fire character ends up being one of the best DPS, she will climb, just like Pela did with Jingliu. 4) I personally think Natasha should be brought down a tier for early game. I fear people getting too comfortable with Natasha\Lynx and keeping their accounts without a limited sustain, when the power gains from the limited sustains is insane.

Love the guide as a player who recently started a few months ago this helps a ton.

Misha should definitely be A (or even A+) at Endgame since his diffuse kit shines most with high investment and good supports (ie. a lot of EXP and trace materials across multiple characters). His high modifiers and some built-in crit make him very buff receptive, and his "conditional" gimmick is simply for the team to use skills, which teams want to do anyway. And like Lightning Lord, high bounce counts tend to be very versatile and exploitable, especially now that Ruan Mei exists. His Freeze change is also pretty reliable against anyone you would realistically be using him against and creates a very unique support who can shred DEF and interrupt annoying enemies while doing very respectable personal damage (that can pivot to Hyper-Carry if fully supported). I built him for fun and have been extremely impressed with how well he effective he is (mine is E2) compared to my Jingliu in both damage and play-feel/QoL. It also feels like [Auto] gets overlooked a lot as a playstyle/niche, and he's very good there which is a nice QoL boost for SimU, weekly bosses or MoC 7-10 (which are still "Endgame" insofar as Endgame players still have to do them). He certainly offers as much as the others at A, especially given they tend to require more specific/restricted team setups to shine. I think he's being a bit underrated because small things like having his talent not fully leveled (ie. less energy) can add up. Despite his uwu personality, he's a (stat/buff) greedy lad. For comparison/bias-disclaimer, I've also been an ultra-rare Arlan gamer since launch and Arlan's gameplay simply feels bad. The numbers aren't there at all compared to Kafka/JY/etc. and his few synergies/gimmicks are very rare to activate efficiently and aren't even particularly good at peak. Moreover, each 5-star seems to cannibalize him more (while eg. Black Swan elevates rather than deprecates Sampo) and stuff like the new free 4-star skipping him to only working for Sam is just rude. All that is to say: if Misha was bad, that would be fine and I'd still run him for fun like Arlan. However it turns out Misha is actually insanely good so... stonks? The biggest investment argument against Misha is simply that Herta is also very good, pretty much instant-wins one of the game's modes, and you get a bunch of free copies of her -- but again that's more of an early game argument to me as I expect Endgame players to have maxed their main waifus/carries and want to circle back for some fun 4-stars.

The reminder text for stuff like "speed tuning" is a great touch for newer players. Great job Guoba.

I love Xyu the most. From the moment I got her she's been the main dps on my main team. I run her with Ruan Mei, and then I swap my sustains out as needed between Bailu, Gepard, Caelus, and the quantum healer. She really hits like a 5 star dps. But soon I'll be reforming my team to a 2 dps, solo sustain, and solo buff/debuffer. I plan on getting Jing Yuan and Luchoa/Adventurine and so final team comp will be Xyu, Jing Yuan, Ruan Mei, and either Luocha or Adventurine. Wish me luck.

this is a rly cool vid and probably helps me quite a bit (im slowly getting there in terms of endgame content) thank youu!!!

I think Misha has a ton of room to continue to get stronger as the meta develops and players cook up tech for him. Such a high ult multiplier on a low cost with extremely impactful eidolons being overlooked is crazy to me. I imagine Jingliu existing is a reason why people underrate him.

Love the video. Great takes on all the 4* units. Since you asked, my personal favourite 4* was Pela; but, was replaced by Guinaifen when the streamer came online. Having said that, Pela remains an ace in my team when enemies are weak to Ice; when a crucial dispel means the difference between victory or defeat; or, when Guinaifen is occupied on another team. Pela will remain a favoured and cherished member of my team. :)

I haven't consistently played Star Rail in several months and have only started playing more here and there over the past few days,. I left off around TL60 but only have a dozen characters built and none higher than level 60. The builds are all lackluster or just bad/unfinished, and idk much about teams or how to build them now, so I'm really glad I found this video! Thank you :)

wow, Guoba, you actually gave my exact team for Guinaifen example team. That's just perfect.

I finally built my E6 Pela since I use so many DoT units. I like how simple she is to build, you basically just need EHR and ER, and then maybe some survivability stats (break effect is a nice bonus too if you can get it)

i just wanna say thank you for having proper subtitles!!!

The true 4* tier list! Just the right balance of fact and opinion on character's strengths and weaknesses that is really helpful to make sure the resources won't got to waste. My favorite 4*s are Qingque, Pela, March, Luka, Asta, Tingyun and soon Gallagher. I'm still on the fence though on which between Herta and Misha should I raise coz I still don't have a dedicated Ice dps.

i quite like fire MC with the trend of the universal market for mono fire teams. i got 3 stars in previous pure fiction thanks to fire MC, himeko, guinaifen and ruan mai.

QQ deserves her own tier: "Qingquillion" or "Gamba Gremlin"

As someone who created EU server account for solely 4s characters & MC, I can say these units are best in slot: DPS: Sushang, Qingque, Xueyi, Serval & Misha Support: Tingyun, Pela, Guinaifen Sustain: Lynx, Natasha Niche: March7 for SU remembrance, Herta for PF and the two DOT Sampo/Luka Bubbling up: Asta/Hanya/Yukong Here is an example of my purely 4s lineup: Sushang-Tingyun-Pela-Lynx Serval-Guinaifen-Sampo-Natasha Qingque-Hanya-Misha-(Sustain)

I was a Pela main during cbt and she was one of the first 4* I instantly built again on release. She fights in so many teams as a support, sub dps and ice weakness shredder

Thanks for the video Guoba

I love this vid. Feels refreshing. If I didn't have Seele with her LC, I'll build Xueyi immediately but alas resources are scarce.

Pela main since day 1 ^.^ i got e6 during seele's 1st banner and built her a dps, i dont recommend but it in no way made her kit any less valuable. Great list Guoba can't wait to see the Misha testing i just got him

I got Pela and Tingyun quite early with Clara. While I didn't use Tingyun until I was told that she would be better than March 7th, my main DPS team has been Clara, Tingyun, Pela and Lynx. Pela with Tutorial is still doing amazing and Tingyun let me instant load Clara with her ult thanks to her E6 for MoC and PF (She's my first DPS used and was only joined by Jingliu for full teams for end game.). Xueyi is another character I really love and will build her once I am done with some more important units like Ratio and Bronya.

Great video! What a nice, quick and informative way to summarize the 4-star characters! Btw. I got a question: I'm really on the fence, pulling for Dan Heng IL. In my head the combination of Sparkle, Hanya and Dan Heng IL sounds godlike but is it in practice? When are you allowed to talk about Sparkle's kit in detail? Before or after Dan Heng's banner runs out? Thanks in advance!

Nice to see some love for Xueyi. I have her almost maxed out at E5 and she is absolutely disgusting. Maybe it’s just me not having farmed perfect gear yet but I feel like she outpaces my Seele much of the time with more damage and the insane break on her ult just smashes through tough enemies. Insane power in a 4 star

Thanks again for this video. :) Save the best for last, I guess! Tingyun is amazing! And casually my best built character because I have zero artifact luck for my DPSs.

Great video! I think you're right on the mark about basically everything, though I'd say from personal experience that Fireblazer can solo sustain in the endgame against more than just the monkeys. I invested a decent amount in them just because I love the Trailblazer character and ended up pleasantly surprised about how well they were able to sustain me even in Moc 11 or 12. They won't keep you alive in an 8+ cycle MoC battle of attrition because your team will get gradually worn down over time and they can't heal, but for quicker 5 or fewer cycle fights they (again, in my experience) can sometimes even outperform Lynx, especially if you have Moment of Victory/Landau's Choice. This is because they 1) have great breaking capabilities against Fire weak enemies and 2) if you're using a really frail character (Like my Argenti, for example, which has 3100 HP and *700* DEF ;---;), it is often better to not even give the enemy a chance to attack them, since they can be 1 shot by strong attacks and so healing them after the fact becomes useless. With either of the aforementioned LCs the chance of Fireblazer being targeted over the rest of your team is ~60% without you needing to do anything. In fact, I rarely even use their taunt skill and mostly rely on their shields and the LC's natural taunt for damage mitigation (though I do use the skill more frequently in fights where I have a really frail character on the team, as I talked about before). For reference, my Fireblazer is at LVL 80 and has: - LVL 80 Moment of Victory (though I believe Landau's Choice would work just fine because the main thing is the higher taunt value) - Maxed out Talent trace - 4400 DEF - 128 Speed (Speed boots, DEF body, rope and orb) Obviously there are safer and more consistent sustains, especially 5 star ones, but I do believe that my silly little burning trash panda can absolutely work as a solo sustain even in end game content. They can also be particularly good in Pure Fiction, which is so much faster paced than MoC and so having a sustain with better offensive capabilities becomes very important (if you are gonna use a sustain at all, which I often don't in PF lol)

Tingyun and Pela are definitely worth investing on the moment you get her. FireMC is still good for shenanigans. moreso after they reveal the 2.0 shop light cones. but i can't wait for their new path. i wonder if it is Harmony...

My fav is tingyun, truly one of the best preservation characters Jokes apart, guanifen is my fav

"March 8th"

Endgame tier list: S: Tingyun, Pela, Qingque, Herta, Asta A+: Lynx, Hanya A: Guinafen, Sampo, Xuyei B: March, Serval, Natasha, fire TB, Yukong, Luka, Sushang, Misha C: Physical TB, Dan heng, Hook, Arlan

I love hook, and after finally being able to aquire guinaifen (thanks black swan banner) she is now at full power against most things from the get-go. As long as it isn't an enemy made of actual fire (immune to burn + fire res) she can kill it pretty easily.

Among all simillar videos, this was trully useful. Thank you for sharing your wisdome

This video is the reason I don't really listen to any recommendations or guides on which characters to build. Obviously some are better than other characters, but there are so many different opinions and experiences out there that I end up playing what I like and build a team around that. Always worked, always will work

thank you so much for this vid😭 i’m having such a hard time understanding the terms and games

Building characters can be tough for me in Hsr, but March and Natasha did carry me well in many situations even now. While I’m focusing on other characters to eventually change my party up. I do enjoy using March in simulated universe due to her survivablility especially against that dang deer and Yan Qing

Very informative video, thanks Gouba. Now a 5 star characters version of this video, pretty plzz:)

"I love to read your thoughts " really caught me off guard there

Apart from a few examples, it’s great to see that so many 4 stars are capable of excelling in at least one aspect of endgame content. You can really get the most out of characters that you particular enjoy.

When he said "confused veterans" I felt that, Its already 2024 but I'm still stuck on Swarm Disaster difficulty 4 💀💀

Misha really has some good potential to grow in the future and become even stronger imo, just from what we've seen with sparkle she will probably pair very well with him already.

Sampo def carried me as my wind breaker unit over Dan Heng (though I wanna maybe build him) since i started playing last year. Now that a year is passed and upgraded him to the DOT relic and hes E6, he's still holds his own. He definitely helps stack Dots with Guinafen if you have Black Swan and has pretty great damage output. Qingque is lowkey the Xiangling of this game when shes C4-C6. The fact that with the right light cone she can be on par with some 5 stars is crazy. With the edition of Sparkle and Ruan Mei , the gambling gremlin really gets to show off how nasty her damage is. and I have her using that 4 star Serious of Breakfast one. Id wanna test out damage with other erudition cones to see how much of a difference would it be

I love seeing every video praise Tingyun as a must build and i’m just sitting there still bot building her simply because I have other things i’m doing lol

My favourite 4star is definetely xueyi. I remember reading the information on the 240% extra dmg trace before she came out and was like yes, this is it.

I know it is 4 star only but we got ratio for free so it is a valid to question "why should i build other ones" - i think including this fact would also be helpful!

Ting Yun without a doubt, literally a 5 star covered in 4 star skin.

Sushang is my favorite 4 star because I've loved her since HI3rd, I love the take on her in this game. Also with the right team she dominates, my Sushang/Clara/Silver Wolf/ Fu Xuan team is crazy

E6 Yukong is very nice, used her all the time with DHIL. After Ruan Mei release though you get fully SP positive character with no need for speed tuning.

Great, thanks.. you help me a lot on deciding which character should I invest from now on. And btw, are you also planning on make video like this for the 5 star??

My fave 4star is Tingyun. I built her since the very start of the game and she is a monster indeed, spent months trying to improve her and now she's cracked. I took a while to build Pela and i must say she's a close second. Amazing unit, very reliable and can work with anyone. For those who played since the beginning, SW's event cone is absurd to use on her.

Whenever new players ask who they should build I always say Tingyun, Pela, and Asta. All three are so versatile that they can help almost any team and I still use them in MoC depending on the enemy types. I certainly don't use them all the time but they're great characters to always have in your back pocket when you need them. They were among the first characters I grinded to build and I don't regret building them first since I always know I have a good support option no matter the content.

Sushang always has a place for being my best 4 star since i invested rutilant arena to her going 75%crit over 125%dmg with 134 spd

I don't know why it took so long but I am finally starting to invest into Tingyun since I just got her E6 and I must say I never had so much fun with such a speedy unit.

i got e6 misha just by accident and lazily built him for the 2.1 story boss fight (not spoiling) and omg?? hes a pretty good sub dps for low investment, doesnt need a lot of sp because his damage comes out of the burst, very fun, probably worth it if anyone is wondering!

I built my luka for physical weakness which was before and also after argenti as I wanted a good partner for my main dps blade or black swan- he continues to surprise me with his pure damage and skill point balance!- I really thought he’d be higher from my personal experience from sometimes not even using him in dot teams but just in general as a sub dps / debuffer

Hey sir Guoba ! I recently returned to HSR and I want to say your channel really helped me to catch up my delay ! Also I love how you explain things and I really like your accent lol. RU-vid says your channel is based in France, are you actually? (I myself am from France !)

Thankyou my man 👍❤

I wanted Xueyi since her first appearance in game, every time she showed up on screen it made me smile, idk know why I guess K just really liked her design and she shares a VA with Yoimiya who’s one of my favorite Genshin characters. I was able to get her C6 very easily as a F2P, I didn’t even get 2 five stars before I got her c7 (the last one I got on the standard banner) I didn’t expect it since I’m usually unlucky with four stars but it made me really happy and I’ve gotten her mostly built now and love using her. I’m sad to see you placed her at C tier since I really think she deserved at least A but since I have her at C6 it could just be that she only feels good at c6

Sampo is really slept on. He currently has the only “DoT vulnerability up” debuff meaning that every DoT unit benefits from him. You don’t need to have other wind units either. He works great with Kafka and Black swan. And even better running all 3 with a sustain.

Thanks! Now i know what i should prioritize. Having hardtime rn which i should first investing you mentioned worthy chars like Qingque, Asta, Lynx, Tingyun, and Herta? Don't have Pela yet, so bad she couldn't worth investing to future contents coz having Ruan Mei does better unit. 5:23

mayo is mentioned!!!! I so proud of him o7

I always found the elbon deer super hard to fight against, especially since i didn't get jingliu. So i built hook, and man, did she put in so much work against that deer, being my main dps whenever i need to fight that stupid boss. So yes, she is S tier in my heart.

As an arlan main, I understand the tier list. I hope there are better shielders though.

Little Gui has absolutely stolen my heart as a lover of all things Nihility, she's so flexible, and performs great in every role she's put in. I quite litterally use her in three different endgame teams (kafka, dr ratio, and himeko) the only unit more of my teams want is Fu Xuan.

No surprise that the support 4 stars are generally the units with longevity. I think if we ever get single target end-game content, Susheng with rise in the ranks like Herta did with Pure Fiction 🤔 Hoping we get something like that, as the team fixed Erudition with PF and the Hunt class could use somw similar love 🤞🏻

I just love that all these characters if built well are viable. If you really enjoy a specific character, you can go ham on investing in them and there will be content where they shine

I think Fire MC is super underrated as a unit, given that they can operate as a pseudo-sustainer while still dealing half-decent damage and breaks. They aren't the optimal answer for certain encounters, but having a jack-of-all-trades that covers one of the more common weaknesses in the game made them a must invest for me. Honestly though, I just wish there were more preservation characters to compare them to. Their only competiton as an offensive tank is Fu Xuan, who far outclasses them in element, damage, and buffing.

I like how every time you mentioned a unit who wasn't top tier but you liked using, I was like "I know that feeling. I use them too". Granted, the fact that I've built almost every character i have to the point of playability (not viability necessarily) it comes with a grain of salt. The cool takeaway is that with enough love, any character can shine. People should definitely build any character who they love the thematic/character/etc of (except Arlan).

Xueyi looks so badass, I wish I had some of her eidolons. Maybe she is still insane at E0? I have a fully built E6 QQ so I don’t need her, but she is more break focused which I think could be better than QQ in certain single target boss scenarios especially if they have some stupid high toughness bar or something.

my current goal is to e6 my Xueyi. at E2, she is already a monster and i find her performance in some stages in pure fiction to be stellar.

Xueyi just got buffed by a lot more with the release of Harmony MC, so she is next on my list of characters to build

Sushag with so much speed and forward advancement can be an A-tier unit if the enemy is physically weak especially with Ruan Mei which makes enemies' toughness break quicker, also the new planar set that gives dmg based on speed can be easily achieved with her if you have the eidolon that doubles her spd passive. Also I believe Misha has big potential but it is very Eidolong dependent to get big numbers, still 10x better than Arlan with the same investment + better element.

Pela and Asta are my girls, they always have a place in my teams whatever the content is. BTW, Asta ATK buff on top of her SPD make her a more than viable alternative to Guinaifen in a DoT team, especially a Kafka one if you build her right (Break Asta FTW).

Here's my top 3 of 4* would be: 1. Tingyun (Don't even ask) 2. Lynx (Great AOE heal with cleanse and aggro) 3. Pela (40% AOE Def shred is nuts and her buff dispell is great, especially that one enemy who sucks HP i forgot their name) The three of them are invaluable for both early and late game with how easy the requirements to build them. I'm looking forward for how hsr will add new *4 that could top tingyun one day...

12:57 wait a second, I don’t think that’s how that cutscene went-

Great vid as always! Just out of curiosity - what do you use to make these infographics? I'm pretty terrible at anything related to graphic design, so I wonder if you have any tips on how to make something like this.

Tingyun and Pela are so good; they helped me get my first ever MOC 36 star.

It's great that Herta is relevant. When Star Rail released, she was consistently C/B tier and since she was one of my favorites that was featured, I was very disappointed and left her level 50. I need Ice anyways, so this is great to hear!

Pela,Tingyun and Lynx is kinda like the National team HSR version, put any limited dps in the final slot and you got a pretty strong f2p team

this vid is basically 4* support good 4* DPS ermmmm go pull for 5* DPS kidding aside, i love your guides. i forgot tingyun's existence when i got ruan mei, so i might now start building her for my second team 😅

6:49 I'm gonna keep pulling on Sparkle (even though I already have her), just in case I can get her eidolons. But if I don't, I'll just save any Stellar Jades I get for when she is featured on another banner, simply because she's my main (Along with Sparkle) on my alt.