While 5-star characters undoubtedly pack a punch, 4-star characters can be just as powerful and versatile. This tier list will help you identify the best 4-star characters to add to your roster.
Before we get into a long-winded and in-depth analysis of the characters, let’s look at a brief summary. The tiers will be broken down as follows: S, A, B, C, D, E, and F, with S being the best and most meta and F being the absolute worst units in the game
S-Tier
S tier characters are the ones that’ll carry you through all of the game’s content. They’ve all got something they excel in, be it healing, damage, or utility via buffs and the like. Some of these characters may even outperform standard banner 5 stars. Gallagher (90/100)
- March 7th The Hunt (85/100)
- Tingyun (80/100)
A-Tier
A tier characters are stronger than most, but not powerful enough to define the upper limits of what 4 stars are capable of. Instead, they excel at being what 4 stars are supposed to be. They’re not absurd or broken, but they’re good. Decent enough on their own, they’ll make a wonderful addition to any team, even if they don’t get you 36 stars in Memory of Chaos.
- Moze (80/100)
- Pela (80/100)
- Lynx (70/100)
B-Tier
B tier characters are perfectly average. They’re middle-of-the-road, nothing superb nor immensely horrid. They function exactly as they should, occupying a steady and consistent middle-ground.
- Herta (75/100)
- Asta (60/100)
- Guinaifen (55/100)
- Qingque (50/100)
C-Tier
C tier characters are where units begin to exhibit noticeable shortcomings and flaws. They’re either too niche or just don't perform as well as other characters. Even considering their shortcomings, these 4 stars still offer more than the rest of the list and have a semblance of utility and strength.
- Hanya (45/100)
- Luka (45/100)
- Sampo (40/100)
- Xueyi (35/100)
D-Tier
D tier characters occupy an interesting space: They’re generally not going to be your first picks, but they’re far from unusable. They’re not as good as C tier characters (all of the characters in D tier are dps characters, for starters), and two of them are only good in specific circumstances, depending on how you’ve built them.
- Misha (30/100)
- Serval (30/100)
- Sushang (30/100)
E-Tier
E tier characters are half an inch away from falling into the endless abyss. They still have some viability or functionality, but we’re cutting it really close here. It’s a struggle to build them, let alone make them work outside of incredibly specific, hyper-niche content. Even then, the two characters at this tier are sustainers, and that’s the only reason they’re above the rest; they maintain some semblance of a function.
- Natasha (25/100)
- March 7th Preservation (20/100)
F-Tier
F tier characters are impossible to mince words with. To be entirely honest, the characters in this tier are flat out terrible. Straight up, aside from Yukong, you’ll never find a use for them in your entire life unless you’re looking to min-max endgame content and prove a point (that any character, even the weakest, can be used in endgame content with the right supports/teams), or if you just simply like the characters.
- Yukong (40/100)
- Dan Heng (33/100)
- Hook (25/100
- Arlan (20/100)
Gallagher (S Tier)
Gallagher is, without a doubt, the best 4 star unit in all of Honkai: Star Rail. There’s absolutely no competition when it comes to other 4 stars. He’s a healer with the ability to deal absurd superbreak damage. He can cleanse debuffs, get constant turns in, and has a panic heal button. He’s everything you could ever need and even outperforms 5 star healers like Luocha and Bailu.
What Makes Him S Tier?
- Best 4-star Healer in the game. Without a doubt, Gallagher outshines both Lynx and Natasha.
- Competitive + consistent healing output. Although not a 5 star, Gallagher can still get pretty close to 5 star levels of healing. His e is a flat number, which is both good and bad because it means it can’t go any higher once his trace is max level. However, the heal is a very strong 1600 at level 10.
- Very high toughness dmg, thus making him an incredibly useful unit for any break comp. Gallagher’s debuff also makes them take more break damage, making him an absurdly powerful unit for break-oriented team comps.
- Team-wide break dmg increase by increasing their break dmg dealt to enemies inflicted with the besotted state by 12%.
- A4 action advance. Gallagher’s A4 major trace, Organic Yeast, makes it so that his action is advanced 100% upon using his ultimate.
- 2 debuffs to work with, these being Besotted State and Nectar Blitz’s attack.
- Scales with eidolons, but not required to work. Gallagher is one of those units that’s just too good to flop. His eidolons are great, although not a matter of life or death, so don’t panic. Just a cherry on top.
March 7th The Hunt (S Tier)
March 7th: The Hunt is among the strongest 4 star DPS characters in the entire game, if not the strongest with the most flexible builds. She has a similar function to the trailblazer, a path change mechanic that allows her to swap between her two current paths: Preservation and Hunt. She’s a superb DPS unit, able to be built either crit or break effect. If you build her crit, you’ll want a different team comp than if you go break effect.
What Makes Her S Tier?
- Superb break effect potential. March 7th is one of the few characters in the entire game that can choose between break effect or crit/atk stats based on the relics she equips and the teammates she has.
- Buffs teammates with her Shifu ability, something unusual for a DPS character. Although a little unorthodox for a DPS character to have, it still works since she also specializes in follow-up attacks; having the opportunity for a sub-DPS (if you choose to use her that way) buff a main dps is something you absolutely don’t want to miss.
- Versatility of builds. As mentioned before, March can go multiple different relic sets, changing based on what you want to use her for.
- Flexible team comps. She can be put into a team with nearly anyone and still manage to secure competitive damage numbers.
- Damage on par with some 5 stars. Although she’s not going to be putting out Feixiao levels of damage, she’s still a superb damage dealer–and she can arguably out DPS older units like Seele.
Tingyun (S Tier)
Tingyun is among the best 4 stars in the game because she does something no other unit (except Huohuo) can do: She gives energy with her ultimate, 50 at base eidolons and 60 at E6. She also provides a damage buff for teammates. As the game goes on, she just gets better and better with the advent of new relics.
What Makes Her S Tier?
- Energy restoration on ultimate. This is the main reason for Tingyun being S tier; some characters have as little as 120 energy required for their ultimate (ie Yunli) which means Tingyun can give some characters half of their ultimates with her own.
- Damage buff on ultimate which increases the damage of the unit it’s used on by 50% for 2 turns.
- Versatility of builds. Tingyun is a character you can slot almost anything on and get results. Although set bonuses are important, it’s not the end of the world if you don’t have a 4pc set bonus.
- Fits into any team comp. With her ultimate (and the fact that it increases damage purely) you’ll be able to put her with pretty much anyone, although certain units might be better for specific comps than others.
- Frequent ultimates. Tingyun’s ultimate isn’t difficult to get, especially if you’re running an Energy Regeneration rope. Tingyun uses her skill often, which grants energy, and she’ll be attacking otherwise which means she has good uptime on her ult.
Moze (A Tier)
Moze is a very, very good 4 star unit that, although not as versatile as March, provides a LOT of utility (and especially scales with E2) for teammates by increasing the crit dmg enemies with Prey take. Overall, he’s a powerful 4 star to put into FUA-based comps, and synergizes incredibly well with Feixiao or even Hunt March herself.
What Makes Moze A Tier?
- FUA frequency. Moze is able to utilize the follow-up mechanic, so for a 5 star like Feixiao, he’s invaluable. The only problem with Moze is that he doesn’t have the best follow-up, his scales more off of how many attacks your team is doing/capable of.
- Able to become untargetable with his talent after using his skill, which marks an enemy as “Prey.”
- Eidolon scaling. E2 is a superb addition to any team featuring Moze because it increases the crit dmg against enemies marked as Prey by a whopping 40%.
- Lack of AoE. One of the reasons Moze lacks when compared to March, in my opinion, is due to a lack of any form of AoE in his kit.
- SP neutral despite energy problems. This might sound a bit contradictory. SP neutral AND energy problems? But, well, it’s true. It is a little difficult to get his ult off. Fortunately enough, he more than makes up for it by the rest of his kit’s power being placed elsewhere or evenly distributed.
Pela (A Tier)
Pela is a superb Nihility 4 star character in Honkai: Star Rail that inflicts a defense-down debuff and scales well with eidolons. She’s a staple character for any Jingliu team, and even goes incredibly well with Acheron and other Nihility characters like Black Swan.
What Makes Pela A Tier?
- Defense reduction debuff. By using her ultimate, Pela is able to reduce the defense of all enemies by a whopping 40% for 2 turns.
- Low maintenance and easy to build. She really doesn’t require much at all, especially because her ultimate debuff is guaranteed to hit (thus removing the need for EHR to land it, though you still want the stat if you can get it).
- Good eidolons. Pela has decent eidolons. E4 is her best, in my opinion, and E6 for if you’re running her alongside other units that inflict debuffs.
- Poor relic options, but she more than makes up for it with her kit. She lacks any truly specialized relic options, but her ultimate and high eidolons are what really earn her a place among the A tier characters.
- Slots into any team comp very well, though specializes with a few specific ones. Teams running Jingliu, especially if your Pela is e4, and Acheron, especially if you run Pela with Resolution Shines with Pearls of Sweat, are her two best teams.
Lynx (A Tier)
Lynx is a staple healer. She’s not as good as Gallagher, but she’s still a wonderful unit that has a niche in Destruction team comps, capable of making characters following the Destruction path more likely to be targeted. She has consistent AoE healing with her ultimate, great synergy with units like Yunli (especially if you don’t have her lightcone), Blade, and Clara. She’s also (potentially) SP positive at high eidolons and with her A6 major trace. Let’s talk about what makes her so dang good.
What Makes Lynx A Tier?
- Strong, consistent AoE healing with her ultimate. Her healing amount is equal to 13.5% of Lynx’s max HP + 360.
- Great synergy with Yunli. Lynx’s skill makes it so that if the target ally is a character on the Path of Destruction or Preservation, the chance of them being attacked by enemies will greatly increase. Similarly to her ultimate, it heals 12% of Lynx’s max HP + 320.
- Potential to be very SP positive with A6 major trace, which extends the duration of the continuous healing effect granted by Talent for 1 turn.
- AoE Cleanse on ultimate that removes a debuff from ALL allies, and an A4 major trace that increases crowd control resistance by 35%.
- Very durable. Because she scales with HP, Lynx is an incredibly durable choice for a healer. She’s a wonderful addition to any team, especially if you’re looking for a partner to run alongside Yunli, Clara, or Blade. Abundance characters generally have lower aggro, which makes them less likely to be targeted; that, with Yunli (if you have her LC, she’s more likely to be targeted) and Lynx’s E bonus, makes it so Yunli is practically guaranteed to take the hit.
- Stronger than Natasha and easier to get E6 than 5 stars. She’s easy to acquire, easy to use, and easy to build. So, what’re you waiting for?
Herta (B Tier)
Once upon a time, Herta was among the worst units in HSR, only good at calyx farming for materials. Now, with the advent of Pure Fiction and more relic sets, Herta is actually quite good overall. She’s still far from perfect, but hey, who needs perfection when her 5 star form is right around the corner?
What Makes Herta B Tier?
- One of the best units in Pure Fiction. As mentioned briefly above, Herta’s kit is absurdly good–and almost entirely specific to–pure fiction. If you’re struggling to beat some levels, go ahead and build your Herta. She’s going to make the gamemode incredibly easy.
- Severely limited outside of PF. This is a reason why she’s not so good; she suffers incredibly outside of Pure Fiction. In it, she’s probably the best unit in the game. Outside it, though? She lacks the power and DPS to compete with other single-target 4 star units like Hunt March, Moze, or others .
- Erudition means good AoE, weak single-target. Most erudition characters suffer from this phenomena: Good against many, weak against one.
- Good in dual-carry (2 DPS) teams. She’s sort of the best alongside a secondary DPS because she, like other erudition characters, has the potential for follow-up attacks.
- A struggle to build. She requires a LOT of investment to fully shine, which means you’ll be grinding the same calyx and planar extraction for a VERY long time, unfortunately.
Asta (B Tier)
Asta is a relatively good unit in HSR. She’s still capable of maintaining a degree of power in the meta despite it being a year since the game’s original launch, when she was regarded as a far more meta character. Unfortunately, though, she has fallen out of the meta and isn’t quite as strong as she once was. Even so, she’s a good unit to have, especially if you lack someone like Bronya or Sparkle or are just a new player.
What Makes Asta B Tier?
- Provides speed for the entire team, which alone is nearly enough to earn her place in B tier.
- Pretty good at weakness breaking enemies when there’s only one up, which enables her to be good in places like Apocalyptic Shadow (when there’s a fire weakness, of course).
- Gains defense, both good and bad. She’s less likely to die this way, but it’s not good for the rest of the team, unfortunately, and it’s not incredibly beneficial when you’ll be running a Preservation or Abundance character anyway.
- Quite versatile/slots into many different team comps as a backup. Don’t have Bronya/Sparkle? Well, Asta has you covered! Her speed buff is amazing. Don’t sleep on it, especially if you’ve gotten an E6 Asta over time without ever having secured a good 5 star Harmony.
- Not the worst, not the best. A middle-ground support unit capable of being a great addition to some teams, although she’s never going to be best-in-slot for any of the currently meta teams.
Guinaifen (B Tier)
Guinaifen is a superb Nihility character who pairs incredibly well with some of the greatest DoT DPS characters, and, of course, the queen herself, Acheron. She has incredible debuff uptime, is super good against fire-weak enemies, can detonate burn DoT effects, and situationally, she’s SP positive.
What Makes Guinaifen B Tier?
- Strong, consistent debuff. So consistent, in fact, it’s regarded as permanent.
- SP flexible in even the most dire circumstances. She’s very easy to manage SP with, although it can get trickier when you’re using her in a team full of DoT characters.
- Decent damage. Nihility characters always have back-loaded damage (they deal their damage at the end of the enemy’s turn after the debuffs have accrued), and although Guinaifen is no exception, she can forcibly proc all burn DoTs on her enemies.
- Consistent DoT damage. As with all DoT characters, they can’t crit, so their damage is 100% consistent. 5 stacks of the same debuff will always deal the same damage unless there are external factors like defense down or resistance reductions, so you don’t have to worry about calculations too much.
- Situationally SP positive, primarily against single-target enemies. Even with this in mind, she’s a great pick for AoE due to her abilities. Indeed, most Nihility units are flexible in both AoE and single-target endgame content.
Qingque (B Tier)
Qingque is still a great pick. Unfortunately she’s not as consistent as some of the other dps characters in the game. She lacks the oomph of a consistent Feixiao against enemies. She’s not bad by any stretch of the imagination, but she’s not exactly where she was once in the meta with the addition of so many other characters. Even still, she has more than earned her place as a B tier character.
What Makes Qingque B Tier?
- Strong in both AoE and single-target, enabling her to deal the most in countless situations. She’s a bit of a generalist, which means she may not excel in any of the gamemodes, but she certainly does well enough to warrant B tier.
- Flexible with relics and teams. Although I’d say you definitely want the right 4pc set, most characters in HSR can get away with focusing on substats rather than set bonuses. In this case, Qingque does really well without requiring any specific 4pc relic bonuses (but some will make her deal even more damage).
- HIgh AoE damage because she’s an erudition character, it’s just par for the course, y’know?
- Buffs her own damage and gambles, because who doesn’t want both? Qingque is rather efficient at not really needing buffers (although you’ll want to run her as the solo DPS anyway). However, in order to buff her own damage, Qingque needs to expend SP, which makes her incredibly difficult to manage without E6 and/or Sparkle.
- Versatile in multiple gamemodes, although not the most consistent DPS due to her gambling addiction and notoriety as a slacker. Unfortunately, having to potentially invest so much SP into gambling to get the strongest ult is a bit tiresome.
Hanya (C Tier)
Hanya is a very interesting unit. While almost on par with Asta, I don’t believe she has the oomph to outperform her (unless your Hanya is extremely well-built). So for this ranking, we’re looking at character kits as they are unbuilt. To be honest, I think a well-built Hanya has every opportunity to outperform an Asta, but the amount of resources one would have to expend to get to that point is almost not worth it.
What Makes Hanya C Tier?
- Regenerates SP for the team because of her skill’s debuff, Burden. Burden makes it so your allies regenerate one SP for every 2 attacks, skills, or ultimates.
- Great buffs. Hanya increases attack, speed, and recovers SP; with her A6 major trace, she can even regenerate her own energy.
- Good energy regen via skill usage. Because Hanya uses her skill more than most other supports (for the Burden and SP regen), she’s able to get her ult up frequently. And because she presents the option to regenerate SP, she doesn’t have to worry so much about how frequently she uses her skill.
- Speed and ATK buffs with her ultimate, which increases an ally’s SPD by 20% of Hanya’s SPD and increases their ATK by 60%
- Versatility and flexibility of team comps. Because Hanya increases ATK, she works well with almost (key word, almost) any team comp wherein the hypercarry is in want of both speed and attack. Most teams are like this, which makes her a great option.
Luka (C Tier)
Luka is an incredible unit who has contributed to an untapped niche: leed. He makes up for a lot of unexplored territory because bleed is an underdeveloped debuff in Star Rail. He isn’t a superb unit, but he is a character that can be utilized under the right circumstances to deal incredibly consistent, reliable damage, while also making it so that your allies deal more damage to the enemies.
What Makes Luka C Tier?
- Great single-target damage with his ultimate, passive, and skill.
- Can trigger his own bleeds, which allows frontloading of his damage without needing an exceptional ally like Kafka. In this respect, he mirrors Guinaifen with her bleed.
- Potential future synergy with other bleed-based units. Luka is among the best, if not the best, bleed-based characters in Honkai: Star Rail. He’s also really the only bleed-based unit.
- Damage amplification built into his ultimate. This allows him to support the team even without being a Harmony unit (or being a unit of any other path) and makes it easier to fit him into Nihility-based team comps, or comps with other DPS units against physically-weak enemies if you’re going for a physical comp.
- Easier to build as he doesn't need crit. This one’s pretty self-explanatory, but Luka, as well as other Nihility units, generally don’t need crit stats of any kind (excluding Acheron), which makes him exceptionally easy to build (ATK, SPD, EHR).
Sampo (C Tier)
Sampo isn’t the best. He’s a solid unit, though, but there are units that do what he does but better. Units like Black Swan, for example, are far better–as for 4 stars, units like Luka add more to your team comp. There are other Nihility units as well; Pela and Guinaifen, namely, that do what he does but better. Despite this, Sampo can be powerful against the right enemies and with the right allies.
What Makes Sampo C Tier?
- Surprisingly good at weakness breaking enemies. Sampo is among the few Nihility characters who can break enemy weakness bars consistently.
- Deals consistent damage with DoT and provides defensive stats against enemies affected with wind shear via A6 major trace.
- Scales fantastically with Eidolons. Sampo’s eidolons are a wonderful method of increasing his strength, especially if you play the game and have gotten him E6 over time.
- Can be SP-positive if used properly; firstly, his skill isn’t necessary, and secondly, his ultimate is easy to acquire. Make sure when you use Sampo, you utilize him alongside either other DoT-based characters or Harmony units that can buff him.
- Incredibly viable alongside 5 star Nihility units such as Kafka, Black Swan, and Acheron. If you don’t have Black Swan but do have Acheron or Kafka, Sampo is a great, cheap replacement.
Xueyi (C Tier)
Xueyi is a powerful, useful destruction unit whose scalings are half traditional DPS (atk, crit, spd) and half break dps. You don’t want too many crit stats on her, however; 70/120 is a good split because you’ll want break effect on top of that. It can be hard to balance everything accordingly, but once you do, it’s more than worth the investment. Xueyi fills an interesting, untapped niche as a quantum break-effect scaling unit. She’s a powerful damage dealer overall.
What Makes Xueyi C Tier?
- Scales with break effect for huge buffs via her A2 major trace, which increases dmg dealt by this unit by an amount equal to 100% of break effect, up to a maximum of 240%
- Huge dmg vs quantum-weak foes. Due to her break-effect scalings, Xueyi is a beast to be unleashed against enemies who are quantum-weak.
- Ultimate allows type-ignoring toughness dmg.Her eidolons scale well with this, namely E2 and E4, the first of which increases her toughness damage, and the second of which increases the break effect of her ultimate.
- Deals more damage the more toughness dmg your team can inflict, which enables Xueyi to work well with units like Gallagher (who deals absurd toughness damage) or, if you have her, Lingsha; optionally, units like Ruan Mei and Harmony Trailblazer are incredible additions, and running mono quantum can be immensely viable with Silverwolf’s debuffs.
- Can inflict quantum break on any enemy regardless of weakness because her ultimate ignores weakness-type.
Misha (D Tier)
Misha isn’t an amazing unit. He won’t blow your mind, but he is full of some pleasant surprises. He’s no Jingliu, but he can deal great damage. He’s a bit harder to build, requiring and making use of stats like EHR, ATK, Crit, and SPD. He has an exceptional freezing ability (which effectively prevents enemies from getting turns in) that, when paired with the right allies, makes Misha a strong competitor as a damage dealer. He’s so low on the list, though, because he has less account value as compared to the rest of the cast and feels underwhelming when fighting multiple enemies.
What Makes Misha D Tier?
- Consistent freezes. Misha is great at freezing, even more-so versus a single target.
- Absurd single-target damage. Misha’s ultimate, while inconsistent against many enemies, is guaranteed to hit the single enemy once there’s only one remaining. This makes Misha incredibly good to play against bosses that have an ice weakness and don’t summon any minions.
- Buffing himself with traces and eidolons. When you have Misha’s A6 major trace, crit damage dealt against frozen enemies is increased by 30%. E1, E2, and E6 are all exceptional buffs to his kit as well.
- Eidolons scale very well. As mentioned just above, his eidolons are great. E1 adds more hits to his ultimate when there are more than one enemy on the field, adding one per enemy to a max of 5. His E2 adds the potential to decrease defense by 16% for 3 turns as well, and his E6 increases his damage by 30% and adds the ability to regenerate SP.
- Hindered greatly in wave-based content. Misha really is a king of single-target damage. This is because of how his kit functions, namely the stacks for his ultimate and determining who they target; the bounce can be very unreliable.
Serval (D Tier)
Serval isn’t a stellar character. She’s not the best with damage, but she does have incredibly frequent ultimates because they cost such little energy and she’s always using her skill. You need supports to make up for the disparity between her and enemies; units like Tingyun, Sparkle, Robin, Huohuo, and many others may help alleviate the suffering caused by playing a 1.0 character. This might sound exaggerative, but a lot of the 1.x characters released in Star Rail are, by 2.x, considered somewhat dated. New and new characters get more and more buffs, their kits get better and better, and older characters are left behind or abandoned altogether.
What Makes Serval D Tier?
- Reliable damage thanks to her talent and built-in damage over time.
- Increased single-target toughness damage as a direct result of her skill’s blast AoE.
- Can keep enemies shocked forever, thus meaning they take constant damage over time at the end of their turns.
- Spammable ult because it costs such little energy, which means she can spam itwhen paired with units like Tingyun, Bronya, Sparkle, or Huohuo.
- Not the best option for damage output. She’s a good unit. Not the best, as we’ve seen, especially because she’s such an old unit and all the newer characters have things that just blow the others out of the water entirely.
Sushang (D Tier)
Sushang is a unit with restricted uses in Honkai: Star Rail. She's good, but nothing groundbreaking or even close to being meta-defining. She’s surprisingly fast, deals a good amount of damage and is even possible to run as a break unit while using characters like Harmony Trailblazer and Ruan Mei. Unfortunately, however, she lacks in a plethora of areas that makes her more than earn her spot as a D tier character: she’s bad against multiple enemies, and although speed can help alleviate these problems, she still falls short of being as powerful as a unit like March 7th The Hunt. In some aspects, March 7th’s Hunt form embodies what Sushang could have been.
What Makes Sushang D Tier?
- Higher damage against weakness-broken enemies due to sword stance being guaranteed to trigger against weakness-broken enemies, dealing another instance of damage equal to 50% of the original after using her ultimate.
- Deceptively speedy character, which can be accredited to her talent. With E6, her talent can offer a 40% (20% base x2) speed increase, and her major A6 talent gives her an action advance when enemies are weakness broken.
- High base multipliers and scalings on her abilities, thus making her all the more potent against single-target enemies. You can get some seriously big damage numbers using Sushang.
- Scales well with eidolons like her E1, E4, and E6, which allow her to regenerate SP when weakness-breaking an enemy, increase her break effect by 40%, and increase her talent speed boost’s stacks to two.
- Horrid against multiple enemies as a result of her single-target centered playstyle.
Natasha (E Tier)
There’s not much to be said about Natasha, really. She’s the GOAT of early game, but beyond that, she falls off late into the game when you’re able to gain access to other healers. As sad as it is, she really isn’t as good as other healers once you’ve unlocked the late game–although her ult uptime is good, she’s really not worth the struggle of using.
What Makes Natasha C Tier?
- Free healer. She’s good because you get her for free. Moving on, folks.
- Talent allows you to ult like it’s a panic button. Her talent is this: when healing allies with HP percentage at 30% or lower, increases Natasha's Outgoing Healing by 50%. This effect also works on continuous healing.
- Lowest cost Ultimate, which enables players to make use of her low ult requirements by spamming ultimates.
- Carries you through the early game. And that’s why she’s the GOAT. You get a healer for free, and she’s able to put the whole team on her back and carry you through the mid-game, from early to late. She really is one of the OGs.
- Exceptionally low healing output. Unfortunately, Natasha’s scalings are absurdly low, and she’s just…not great. Her skill restores a single ally for 10.5% of Natasha's Max HP plus 280. Restores the ally for another 7.2% of Natasha's Max HP plus 192 at the beginning of each turn for 2 turn(s).
- Worst healer in the game. Yeah, yeah, I know, it’s harsh, but it’s true. As of right now, Natasha is the worst healer in the game; her scalings just don’t match up to the others, and she’s nowhere near as viable as her 4 star counterparts, Lynx and Gallagher.
March 7th The Preservation (E Tier)
Once upon a time, March 7th only had this Preservation form. And boy oh boy, was it bad. She’s nowhere near as good as a unit like Gepard, and yet she’s the only 4 star Preservation unit in the entire game. She’s not as good as Preservation trailblazer, either, which leaves one wondering what she’s good at if she can’t even outperform free characters. However, what she does have, more or less, is the ability to work well with characters that want to tank aggro or drain their health exceptionally because she still has a powerful single-target shield.
What Makes March 7th The Preservation E Tier?
- Strong single target shield which protects your units from damage. It’s not amazing, but it’s not horrible, either.
- Can potentially freeze multiple enemies with her ultimate ability and counter-attacks.
- Versatile teammate, although focused on the early-game who can swap roles to specialize in whatever you need.
- Has a cleanse on her skill.
- Can increase aggro with her shield, making her pair well with allies who want to take damage or have high HP scaling.
Yukong (F Tier)
As much as it pains me to say this as a resident Yukong lover, she’s not in any place right now to be considered an absurdly powerful teammate. I wouldn’t consider her anything above E tier at the highest: She requires more management than other supports while not offering as much as them, is far too niche to excel in the majority of team comps, and demands that you understand how to manage her passive, Roaring Bowstrings.
What Makes Yukong F Tier?
- Decent damage buffs, but it’s still not enough to make her competitive with other buffers.
- Absurdly high skill ceiling as compared to the rest of the game, which requires building characters appropriately rather than using abilities in a proper sequence or knowing how to play them.
- Great damage against imaginary-weak enemies and high toughness damage on her ultimate, which also has the potential to increase crit rate and crit damage for other units.
- Higher skill required to manage than other characters, which puts her at a disadvantage: You either need to know how to play her well, or you need to have her at E6 to alleviate some of the skill required (and thus make her far more functional) to play her. In that case, you could (and should) get E6 on a different support character, preferably someone like Pela, Gallagher, or even Moze, who add much more to your roster than Yukong unless you own imaginary characters like Welt, March, or Dan Il and want to make the most out of their imaginary damage.
- Outperformed by other support characters in the vast majority of circumstances and situations, even when she’s considered at her best.
Dan Heng (F Tier)
Dan Heng is a unit that most players will only ever use for the beginning of the game. And, to be honest, it’s not even because he’s horrible or anything, just because he lacks the strengths that other characters (and especially other DPS 4 star characters have) going for them. He isn’t absurdly bad, but he’s not someone that’s going to be breaking any DPS records, either. That being said, he has specific usages as the only other non-DoT 4 star wind DPS. As far as wind 4 stars in general go, Dan Heng and Sampo are the only two.
What Makes Dan Heng F Tier?
- Decent multipliers, still lacking compared to the rest of the DPS characters in the game: Nothing warrants picking him over another FTP option like March 7th: The Hunt (unless you really like him, then go right ahead).
- Naturally very speedy thanks to passives, eidolons, talents, and the rest of his kit.
- Has an incredibly rare resistance pen in his kit, which doesn’t do much for him since he’s still considerably weak among the DPS characters in the game right now.
- One of few characters with a learning curve, although it isn’t tremendously steep and Dan Heng still plays relatively simple as compared to the rest of the roster.
- Outperformed by most DPS characters, needs help in order to achieve big numbers or deal with multiple enemies at the same time.
Hook (F Tier)
Hook is certainly a character you can run, but she’s not very optimal for endgame content. You can still clear MoC with basically anyone, especially if your supports are strong enough, but there’s not enough of a reason to put Hook anywhere but the bottom of a tier-list. Generally, there are countless tier-lists that all agree on placing Hook in the bottom alongside Arlan and other units because there is no reason as to why you would pick her over any of the stronger/more meta 4 star dps characters.
What Makes Hook F Tier?
- Decent single-target damage output despite specializing as a destruction character in AoE damage, although not exactly superb at AoE either; Hook functions as something between a mix of Hunt and Destruction.
- Lots of free energy from her kit, enabling you to frequently ult; paired with Tingyun, these ults are even more commonplace and happen almost constantly.
- Faster than expected as a result of the action advance from her A6 major trace, which is a pleasant surprise but isn’t enough to give her an edge or advantage over any of the other characters in this specific tier.
- High single-target toughness damage; however, it’s not exceptional, as almost every other character on this list has relatively high toughness damage and is effective at weakness-breaking enemy units.
- Better generalist characters exist, better DPS characters certainly exist as well, and Hook suffers from trying to be two things at once without fully specializing in either. Without a doubt, though, she’s good for new players to use.
Arlan (F Tier)
Arlan is, without a doubt, the worst character in all of Honkai Star Rail. He’s outperformed by virtually every character in a wide array of different circumstances, offers nothing in regards to self-sustain, and doesn’t have the greatest eidolons, either. There’s nothing about Arlan that makes him “better,” than any other 4 star. Rather, there are things in his kit that make him the worst damage dealer in the entire game. Unfortunately, time hasn’t been kind to Arlan either, and he has only since fallen further and further down the list of playable characters.
What Makes Arlan F Tier?
- Doesn’t consume SP to deal damage, instead uses HP and drains himself of HP without having any mechanism with which to sustain himself like Blade has. This means you need good, consistent healing.
- Decent ability multipliers which, admittedly, means he can deal solid damage when built and functioning within the right teams.
- High natural DMG from talent, not that it makes up for his lack of sustain and the fact that he uses his own HP to deal damage.
- Lowest base defense in the game, which means enemies deal absolutely mind-boggling damage to him.
- Needs shielding and heals, other characters are better without requiring so much external investment (into healers and relics alike).
- Absolute “worst,” character in the game without a doubt: He can effectively kill himself and, if your healers aren’t good enough, he’ll effectively down himself before the enemy even gets a chance to.
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