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Techniques are special abilities you can use in the overworld of Honkai: Star Rail, granting individual characters or the party various bonuses before combat begins. To begin with, you can use a Technique three times on the field and replenish them by breaking special containers or using certain consumables.

Related: Honkai: Star Rail - The Best Character Talents, Ranked

Several DPS characters have a Technique that is a variation on the same theme, namely buffing their personal damage. While these are good for stacking damage before a fight, you'll find party-wide Techniques more beneficial. That's not to say individual buffing Techniques aren't good; they merely suit different styles.

11 Sushang - Cloudfencer Art: Warcry

Honkai Star Rail Sushang Splash and Menu

The four-star character Sushang is all about dealing physical damage. This is further illustrated through their Technique that allows you to begin a battle and smack every enemy in combat for a ton of damage.

If you hit with her Technique, you'll deal 80 percent of Sushang's attack power to all enemies as the fight begins, which might even end up breaking a couple of enemies who have a weakness to physical. Either way, starting combat by hurting every enemy is always a decent way to kick things off.

10 Clara - Small Price For Victory

Honkai: Star Rail - Clara stands behind Svarog as they activate their technique

Mr Svarog really doesn't like it when Clara gets attacked, despite her best efforts to keep drawing every foe's attention. Clara's Technique has excellent synergy with her Skill and Talent, which makes this a brilliant ability to kick off any battle.

Clara's Technique launches an attack on the enemy, and she will begin combat with increased aggro. When Clara is hit, Mr Svarog will counter that hit and mark the enemy, which means the more attention on her, the more damage every enemy will receive if they hit her. Why you'd ever want to hurt Clara is beyond us.

9 Yanqing - The One True Sword

Honkai Star Rail Yanqing Splash and Menu

Yanqing is a powerful ice element DPS character, and their Technique allows them to begin fights with a huge damage buff. If you use this ability to start combat, you'll set Yanqing up to deal damage fast to enemies who have a lot of HP. Since this ability increases damage based on how much HP the enemy has, you can try and nuke foes down as fast as possible.

Related: Honkai: Star Rail - How To Reroll

The buff will increase Yanqing's damage by 30 percent, so long as the enemy he attacks has more than half HP. Personal attack buffs are variable and hard to pin down. For example, Dan Heng's Technique increases his damage by 40 percent, so this is similar in many ways, while still being beneficial.

8 March 7th - Freezing Beauty

Honkai: Star Rail - March 7th uses her technique, shooting an arrow into the sky

The questionably-named March 7th has a special technique that allows her to randomly freeze one enemy if you use it to initiate combat. At the moment, March is the only character who can start a fight off and inflict the freeze debuff on an enemy, making her Technique extremely useful.

The base chance for the ability to freeze an enemy is 100 percent, but like all debuffs, this can be resisted. Freezing an enemy lasts for one turn and means the enemy will miss their turn while taking damage over time.

7 Serval - Good Night, Belobog

Honkai: Star Rail - Serval use her technique by strumming on her guitar weapon

Serval's Technique is decent when facing a large party of enemies. Using it to begin combat will spread lightning damage to one random enemy, and then it has a 100 percent chance to inflict the Shock debuff on every enemy in combat. Multiple enemies have a weakness to lightning, which makes Serval's kit so good.

The shock debuff damages the enemy every turn, and you can deal an extra instance of lightning damage to shocked enemies thanks to Serval's Talent. Hook's Technique is the same as Servals, but it deals fire damage and inflicts the burn debuff instead. Depending on who you prefer or use more, know that this Technique is brilliant for fighting large mobs.

6 Trailblazer - Immortal Third Strike & Call Of The Guardian

Honkai: Star Rail - Trailbliazer uses her technique, clicking her fingers to heal all allies

The Trailblazer MC gets access to two different paths, letting them be a physical or fire damage dealer. Think of this as like the Traveler in Genshin Impact and how they can change their element at any Statue of the Seven. As a fire attacker, they can use the Call of the Guardian technique, which gives them a shield based on their defence at the start of the battle.

Related: Honkai: Star Rail - Every Playable Character's Age, Height, Path And Element

As a physical damage dealer, the Trailblazer can use Immortal Third Strike outside combat to restore the whole party's HP. The heal isn't great, but it will help top you off until you get a dedicated healer to fix you up in battle. Considering how decent the Trailblazer is as a free unit, these two skills will benefit any party.

5 Bronya - Banner Of Command

Honkai: Star Rail - Bronya stands in the character menu

Arguably the best damage buff for your whole party, Bronya's Technique imparts a 15 percent attack increase to everyone for two turns when combat begins.

Starting a battle with this skill will put you in a good position to power up your chosen character, especially if you use Bronya's in-battle skill that lets her further increase a party member's damage and move their turn directly after hers. You'll probably be able to deal considerable single-target damage right off the bat.

4 Gepard - Comradery

Honkai: Star Rail - Gepard in the main character preview menu

Gepard's Technique is similar to the fire Trailblazer's shield, except Gepard's skill grants a valuable shield to the entire party. It doesn't cover as much as the Trailblazer's, but this is to be expected since it's spread between your four units.

The shield generated scales from Gepard's defence and then adds a flat increase of 150. It will last for two turns, serving as a substantial buffer for tough battles if you've invested in Gepard.

3 Sampo - Shining Bright

Honkai: Star Rail - Sampo uses his technique, thowing a bomb out that will blind enemies

As a four-star unit, Sampo's Technique is shockingly powerful. After you use it, you'll blind any nearby enemies for ten seconds, meaning they won't be able to see you at all for the duration of the skill.

Related: Honkai: Star Rail - Beginner Tips

Better yet, when you hit a blinded enemy to start combat, Sampo's Technique will have a 100 percent chance to delay all enemies' actions by 25 percent. Turn order is a vital part of the turn-based combat in Honkai: Star Rail, and being able to delay turns or mess with it goes a long way in making a character powerful.

2 Welt - Gravitational Imprisonment

Honkai Star Rail Welt Splash and Menu

Welt has a similar Technique to Himeko, in that he also creates a dimension for 15 seconds. Essentially, this means that using Welt's ability will create a field outside of combat that will slow any enemy who is caught in it, making them easier to hit as they can't react as quickly.

When you begin combat with an enemy who was caught in this field, every enemy in battle will be Imprisoned – a unique part of Welt's kit – and this will delay each enemy's action by 20 percent and it will reduce their speed. So, not only does this manipulate the turn order, it effectively gives you more turns in place of the enemies who are now slowed.

1 Tingyun - Gentle Breeze

Honkai Star Rail Tingyun Splash Art and Menu

Tingyun is another four-star character with a fairly broken Technique. Using Gentle Breeze outside of combat will instantly grant 50 Energy to Tingyun, recharging her Ultimate.

Depending on when you use this ability, you can either start every fight with Tingyun's Ultimate fully charged or you can increase it enough that she gets it during her first turn in combat. Since you can activate Ultimates at any point in combat, this will go a long way in giving her Ultimate a ton of usage in fights.

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