Honkai Star Rail Tier List 2025 – Best Characters & S Tier Picks - Pizles

The Honkai Star Rail meta has evolved dramatically in 2025, with new character releases reshaping the endgame landscape across Memory of Chaos, Pure Fiction, and Apocalyptic Shadow. This comprehensive Honkai Star Rail tier list evaluates every character’s performance in the current meta, helping you make informed decisions about team building and resource allocation.

Understanding the Current Meta

Version 3.4 has introduced game-changing mechanics and powerful new characters that have fundamentally altered team compositions. The current HSR tier list prioritizes characters based on their versatility, damage output, utility, and performance across all endgame content modes. Unlike previous versions, 2025’s meta heavily favors characters with multi-target capabilities and unique utility functions.

The tier system ranges from SS (absolutely dominant) down to C tier (situational use), with most viable characters falling between S and B tiers. When evaluating characters, we consider their performance with optimal builds, including signature light cones, ideal relic sets, and appropriate team compositions.

S+ Tier: The Meta Dominators

Castorice – The Ultimate Game Changer

Castorice arguably holds the crown as the strongest overall character due to her unique revival mechanic and top-tier damage. She is the most broken character in Honkai Star Rail, featuring the first global passive ability that allows her to revive teammates when they are knocked out, even when she is not part of the team.

This Remembrance path character has revolutionized team building with her unprecedented global revival passive. Even when not actively deployed, Castorice can resurrect fallen teammates, making her an invaluable asset for challenging content. Her AoE damage capabilities combined with this unique utility places her firmly at the apex of the best HSR characters 2025.

Key Strengths:

Global revival mechanic (works even when not in active team)
Exceptional AoE damage output
High versatility across all content types
Future-proof design that scales with content difficulty

Feixiao – Single-Target Supremacy

Feixiao excels as the single-target damage ceiling with her toughness-ignoring ultimate. This Wind Hunt character has established herself as the premier single-target DPS option in 2025. Her kit focuses on follow-up attacks and ultimate spam, making her incredibly effective against elite enemies and bosses.

Feixiao’s toughness-ignoring mechanics allow her to bypass one of the game’s core defensive systems, ensuring consistent damage output regardless of enemy resistances. Her synergy with other Hunt characters and support units makes her a cornerstone of many endgame teams.

S Tier: Elite Performers

The Herta – Pure Fiction Specialist

The Herta dominates Pure Fiction, representing the pinnacle of AoE damage dealing in the Erudition path. This upgraded version of the beloved 4-star character brings massive improvements to multi-target scenarios, making her indispensable for Pure Fiction content.

The Herta’s kit focuses on follow-up attacks triggered by ally actions, creating devastating chain reactions that can clear entire waves of enemies. Her synergy with other Erudition characters like Himeko creates some of the most effective AoE teams in the game.

Ruan Mei – Universal Support Excellence

Ruan Mei continues to dominate the support meta with her exceptional team-wide buffs and utility. Her ability to extend buff durations, provide significant damage bonuses, and offer crowd control through her ultimate makes her one of the most versatile supports in the game.

Her Harmony path scaling and element-agnostic buffs ensure she remains relevant regardless of team composition, making her a safe long-term investment for any player’s roster.

Robin – Damage Amplification Master

Robin has established herself as the premier damage-focused support, providing massive team-wide damage bonuses and action value manipulation. Her ultimate transforms the entire team’s damage output, making her essential for speed-clear strategies and high-damage compositions.

A Tier: Solid Core Characters

Aventurine – Premium Sustain

Aventurine continues to excel as the premier Preservation character, offering both exceptional survivability and offensive contributions through his follow-up attacks. His shield mechanics and counter-attacks make him invaluable for content requiring sustained survivability.

Dr. Ratio – Accessible Excellence

Dr. Ratio remains one of the strongest free-to-play options, offering competitive damage output without requiring significant investment. His follow-up attack focus and debuff synergies make him an excellent choice for players building around Hunt or Nihility compositions.

Kafka & Black Swan – DoT Dominance

The DoT (Damage over Time) archetype continues to perform well in 2025, with Kafka and Black Swan forming the core of poison-based compositions. Their synergy creates devastating sustained damage that excels in longer encounters and multi-wave content.

Jingliu – Ice DPS Stalwart

Jingliu maintains her position as a top-tier DPS option, particularly in Ice-weak content. Her unique HP consumption mechanic and massive damage multipliers ensure she remains competitive despite power creep from newer characters.

B Tier: Specialized Excellence

Topaz & March 7th (Hunt) – Follow-up Specialists

These characters excel in follow-up attack compositions, providing consistent damage and utility. While not as universally applicable as higher-tier characters, they form the backbone of specific team archetypes.

Gallagher & Lynx – Reliable Healing

Both healers offer solid sustain options for players who prefer traditional healing over shield-based protection. Gallagher’s debuff capabilities and Lynx’s cleansing utility provide additional value beyond raw healing numbers.

Silver Wolf & Pela – Debuff Support

Defense reduction specialists remain valuable for amplifying team damage, particularly in compositions built around specific damage types or when facing high-defense enemies.

Team Building Strategies for 2025

Meta Team Compositions

Castorice Hypercarry:

Castorice (DPS)
Sunday/Robin (Support)
Tribbie/Trailblazer (Utility)
Aventurine/Gallagher (Sustain)

Feixiao Follow-up:

Feixiao (DPS)
Topaz (Sub-DPS)
Robin (Support)
Aventurine (Sustain)

The Herta AoE:

The Herta (DPS)
Himeko (Sub-DPS)
Asta (Support)
March 7th (Sustain/Utility)

Investment Priorities

For new players or those with limited resources, prioritizing characters in this order maximizes account progression:

Sustain First: Invest in at least one reliable sustain character (Aventurine, Gallagher, or Lynx)
DPS Selection: Choose one premier DPS from S+ or S tier based on your preferred playstyle
Support Core: Build Ruan Mei or Robin for universal team applicability
Specialized Units: Add characters for specific content types (The Herta for Pure Fiction, Feixiao for single-target)

Light Cone and Relic Considerations

The character rankings HSR heavily depend on proper equipment. Signature light cones typically provide 15-25% performance improvements, while optimal relic sets can contribute another 20-30% to overall effectiveness. When evaluating characters, consider:

Signature Light Cones: Provide unique mechanics and substantial stat boosts
Relic Set Bonuses: 4-piece sets often define character playstyles
Sub-stat Priority: CRIT ratios, Speed thresholds, and Effect Hit Rate requirements

FAQs

Q1: Who is the strongest in Honkai Star Rail?
As of Patch 3.4, Phainon stands at the top of the tier list thanks to his all-around DPS dominance.

Q2: Who is the strongest DPS in Honkai Star Rail?
For raw burst, Phainon and Castorice; for sustained AoE damage, Feixiao and Acheron in specialized setups.

Q3: What is the strongest element in Honkai Star Rail?
No single element reigns supreme—it depends on the team synergy and content context.

Q4: Is the boy or girl Trailblazer better?
The choice is purely visual and does not affect stats or performance.

Q5: Do I need S-tier characters to progress?
Not necessarily. Strong A-tier characters with proper team comps and gear can handle most content.

Q6: Can 4-star heroes make an impact?
Absolutely. Units like Tingyun, Pela, and Gallagher are often core to team builds despite lower rarity.

Q7: Should I recheck the tier list after updates?
Yes tier lists are dynamic and changes in patches or new banners can shift rankings significantly.

Q8: Who is the best healer right now?
Huohuo, Hyacine, and Lingsha all offer top-tier healing with additional utility.

Q9: Which support characters shine most in 2025?
Ruan Mei and Sparkle remain meta-defining due to their buffing and SP utility.

Q10: Is Phainon worth pulling for?
If you’re going meta and want high-level DPS, Phainon is a top-tier investment.