If you've played Honkai: Star Rail for a little while, you've probably already realized the need for a good DPS character in the game. It features a turn-based combat system where you can have up to four characters in the team at the same time. The game currently features a roster of over 30 phenomenal characters.
Honkai: Star Rail - Beginner Tips
These beginner tips will help you save a lot of time and use your resources efficiently in Honkai: Star Rail.As you progress in the main story, you'll unlock harder content like Memory of Chaos, Simulated Universe, and Swarm Disaster. If you want to clear these game modes to get the rewards, it's important to know about some of the best DPS characters you can use.
Updated on February 06, 2024, by Sanyam Jain: It looks like HoYoverse does care about paths other than Destruction, with Nihility getting a massive push into the meta in the form of Black Swan. The list has been update to reflect the same.
17 Dan Heng
Who Needs To Build SPD
Dan Heng is the second free character you'll acquire while doing the main story of Honkai: Star Rail, and he's loved by the entire community due to his easy-going personality. He's a four-star Wind character following the path of The Hunt, and he can help you easily wipe out the hardest content in both the early and late game.
His Basic Attack, Skill, and Ultimate essentially perform high single-target damage, but there's a lot more that you have to understand if you want to use him properly. Dan Heng's Skill allows him to slow the enemies down, and he can deal higher damage to slowed enemies from his Ultimate and Basic Attack. Moreover, he can also increase his own SPD when he attacks an enemy.
16 Sushang
She Gets All The Turns
Honkai: Star Rail currently has a lack of Physical DPS characters, and that's where Sushang comes into play. Being one of the Cloud Knights on The Xianzhou Luofu, she also belongs to the path of The Hunt. Sushang excels at breaking an enemy's Weakness bar as long as they have Physical Weakness since her Ultimate deals a ton of damage to it.
In fact, the best way to use Sushang is by triggering a ton of Weakness Breaks as these allow her to deal extra damage and get more turns. If you manage to unlock her first Eidolon, she can also regenerate one Skill Point when you use her Skill on an enemy with their Weakness broken, which makes the Skill cost a net zero Skill Points.
15 Hook
Pitch-Dark Hook The Great!
Destruction is by far one of the strongest paths in Honkai: Star Rail since the characters on this path can deal a ton of damage while sustaining themselves to an extent. Little Hook is one of the characters on this path, and she excels at dealing high Fire damage to both single and multi-target enemies. Moreover, she has a chance of applying Burn on the enemies hit.
Honkai: Star Rail - Best Builds And Light Cones For Hook
Hook is one of the few underrated characters in Honkai: Star Rail, and here's how you can make her strong.When she attacks an enemy with the Burn effect, she deals higher damage, regenerates some Energy, and heals herself. With a higher chance to resist Crowd Controlling debuffs from the enemy, Hook can easily sustain herself and carry you to victory in any battle.
14 Misha
Our Resident Hotel Bellboy
Misha was the first four-star that got released in the game from Penacony, and he's a Destruction character with Ice as the combat type. This character has one of the most synergized kits as all his active and passive abilities feed into the Ultimate dealing higher damage.
However, the fact that he's competing with the current best DPS in the game due to the shared path and combat type can't be ignored. Misha might not be good enough to clear the hardest content in the game without specific supports, but he is still one of the more fun DPS units.
13 Xueyi
You Said Cool Animations
Players have been seeing Xueyi here and there during the main story of Honkai: Star Rail ever since the game's release, but she was only released as a playable character during the Version 1.6 update. She's a Quantum Destruction character who took the community by surprise because of her phenomenal animations.
Be it her Technique or her Ultimate, no one will disagree with the fact that Xueyi has one of the best animations in the game. Thankfully, her damage and overall viability match these cool animations, making her one of the best DPS choices if you don't have the better units mentioned here.
12 Clara
But You're Really Just Using Svarog
Other than Sushang, Clara is your only choice for a Physical DPS character in the game at the moment. Being a five-star, Clara can easily be far more effective than her four-star counterpart, but you'll need to build her in a specific way. Clara's main damage comes from Svarog launching a follow-up attack whenever she gets hit.
The follow-ups also occur if any other teammate gets hit after she uses her Ultimate. This attack marks the target enemy, and her Skill deals extra damage to the marked enemies. If you put her in a team with support characters like Lynx or March who can increase the chances of her getting attacked, you'll be surprised by the free damage she can deal.
11 Yanqing
Don't Base His Power On The Main Story
Yanqing might not seem like one of the best DPS characters if you consider his battle record in the main story, but he can actually be quite decent if built correctly. One of the most important things you need to remember about Yanqing is that he's very Skill-Point-hungry. You'd want to use his Skill every time you get a turn to keep the Soulsteel Sync active.
When this effect is active, Yanqing gets a ton of buffs including Crit Rate and Crit DMG along with getting a chance to Freeze enemies with his attacks. Upon using his Ultimate, you can get even more Crit DMG if Soulsteel Sync is active.
10 Qingque
Gacha Within A Gacha Within A Gacha
What's better than playing as a Gacha character in a Gacha game? It's normal to feel like you want to try your luck while playing Honkai: Star Rail, and Qingque lets you do that without having to spend your hard-earned Stellar Jades. Her abilities are based around her favorite game called the Celestial Jade.
Whenever an ally gets a turn or you use her Skill, you'll pick out a certain number of Jade tiles from one of the three suits randomly. The main goal is to get four tiles from the same suit to get an Enhanced Basic Attack, which deals much more damage. However, as you can see, Qingque can be quite an SP-hungry character if you get unlucky.
9 Seele
Disappear Among The Sea Of Butterflies!
The first limited character released in Honkai: Star Rail, Seele also had the crown of the best DPS character for a long time. Unfortunately, her position on the DPS ranking has fallen quite a bit with the shift in the game's meta and the release of subsequent characters. Whenever Seele defeats an enemy, she gets an extra turn with a buffed state.
This state increases her DMG and doesn't count as a turn, which means that it makes use of all the buffs provided by other characters without reducing their stacks. However, the requirement to defeat an enemy holds her back quite a lot in the current state of enemies with high HP and some enemies even being able to resurrect themselves.
8 Jing Yuan
But You're Really Just Using The Lightning Lord
General of the Cloud Knights, Jing Yuan is a five-star Lightning character following the path of Erudition. Whenever you use his Skill or Ultimate, he can get two and three stacks for the Lightning Lord respectively. The Lord is a separate entity that has a specific amount of SPD, but it can get its turn faster whenever it gains some stacks.
Honkai: Star Rail - Best Team Members For Jing Yuan
These are the team members that you can use alongside Jing Yuan to get more value out of the team and defeat enemies easily.When the Lightning Lord gets a turn, it can deal a huge amount of AoE damage based on the stacks provided. However, the Lightning Lord cannot take action if Jing Yuan is crowd-controlled and if there are multiple enemies on the floor, its attacks are completely random, which adds a layer of uncertainty to this character.
7 Dr. Ratio
Is He Seriously Free For Everyone?
The entire Honkai: Star Rail community was surprised when they learned that HoYoverse is giving a five-star limited unit for free for a certain period of time. Dr. Ratio is an Imaginary character on the path of The Hunt, which means that he mostly relies on single-target damage in the current AoE meta.
However, the reason for his high placement in this list even though his kit isn't suited for the meta is the sheer amount of damage he can deal. With the correct team, you can defeat a boss enemy with Dr. Ratio before they can even spawn additional enemies.
6 Argenti
The Ultimate Idrila Follower
The character that brought the Erudition path into the meta, Argenti is a five-star unit using Physical as the combat type. He's quite a simple yet one of the most fun characters to play because of the choices you can make with him. Unfortunately, you do need a specific team to make him work properly.
Argenti has two types of Ultimates, and you can activate the enhanced version if you get 180 Energy. However, this isn't possible in a timely fashion unless you use characters like Tingyun or Huohuo with him. Once you do have one of these characters with him, you'll see some of the highest damage numbers in the game.
5 Kafka
The Community's Favorite... For Certain Reasons
When you first start playing Honkai: Star Rail, you'll get to play as Kafka before you awaken the main character. She's a five-star Nihility character who makes the damage-over-time play style viable in the game. This is because of her ability to instantly trigger all DoT instances on an enemy with her Skill and Ultimate.
However, if you want to get the most value from Kafka, you'll have to put her in a team with one or two more DoT-based characters. Ideally, you'd want to have a ton of Break Effect on these characters since the Weakness Break also applies a DoT that can be triggered with Kafka.
4 Blade
The High Cloud Quintet Consumed By Mara
Introduced as one of the Stellaron Hunters, Blade is a Wind Destruction character hailing from The Xianzhou Luofu. He has a self-sacrifice play style where he consumes his own HP to increase the damage dealt from his Enhanced Basic Attacks, Ultimate, and follow-up attack.
Whenever Blade gets attacked or reduces his HP, he gains a stack for his Talent. Upon reaching five stacks, he launches a follow-up attack that deals damage to all the enemies on the field and regenerates his own HP. It's highly recommended to use Blade with characters like Lynx or March 7th to increase his chances of getting attacked.
3 Black Swan
Punishing Enemies For Getting A Turn
Black Swan was first revealed quite early by HoYoverse during one of the most popular trailers on their YouTube channel. She finally got released alongside Penacony in the Version 2.0 update with a Nihility Path and Wind combat type. One look at her damage numbers and you'll realize that this character is not to be messed with.
Honkai: Star Rail - Best Builds And Light Cones For Black Swan
Here's how you can easily build one of the most broken Nihility characters in Honkai: Star Rail.She can apply Arcana stacks on enemies through various means, and these stacks deal staggering damage when the enemy gets a turn. She also has a ton of DMG and DEF ignore built into her kit, which can be stacked with various Relics and Light Cones, bringing her into the top three DPS that Honkai: Star Rail currently has to offer.
2 Dan Heng: Imbibitor Lunae
Use Him And Smash Everything Into Pieces
Nobody knows what the developers were thinking when they released Dan Heng: Imbibitor Lunae to the game because he single-handedly destroys every combat scenario. He can deal a ton of damage even if the enemy doesn't have Imaginary Weakness.
Imbibitor Lunae's Skill can be used up to three times to enhance his Basic Attack, which in turn deals higher single-target or AoE damage. Using his Ultimate or Technique gives you some special Skill Points, which can be used instead of normal Skill Points as well.
1 Jingliu
The Game Plays Itself For You With Her
No one thought this was possible, but Hoyoverse actually released a character even stronger than Imbibitor Lunae. Jingliu is a five-star Ice Destruction character who hails from The Xianzhou Luofu. Whenever she uses her normal Skill, she gains a stack of Syzygy, and goes into a buffed state when she has two stacks.
Entering this state increases the maximum stacks you can have to three, and you can only use her Skill when she gets a turn. Instead of using a Skill Point, this Skill consumes a bit of HP from all allies and deals massive damage to three targets. The less Skill Point consumption and continuous big damage arguably make her the best DPS in the game.