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As soon as you step foot in Honkai: Star Rail, you'll already be fighting enemies in the turn-based combat system. Even if you've played previous games from Hoyoverse, this system will be quite new to you. The game lets you fight as Kafka and Silver Wolf until you wake up the Trailblazer.

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Not only will you need to fight enemies to progress in the story, but also to get treasure and ascension items for your characters. It's important to know all the mechanics involved in combat if you want to have a good time in the game.

Updated August 8th, 2023, by Sanyam Jain: As you get to the endgame combat scenarios like the Memory of Chaos in Honkai: Star Rail, it becomes important to prioritize the correct enemy on the battlefield. A designated section has been added to help you with this.

How Turn-Based Combat Works In Honkai: Star Rail

Honkai Star Rail Combat Starting Scene

The combat system starts as soon as you locate an enemy in the game, but the actual battle only begins if you attack or get attacked by that enemy. This will play a cool animation and lead you to the combat screen where you'll see your characters and the enemies lined up against each other.

It's always better to attack the enemy first since Ambush triggers if you get attacked first.

This effect gives the enemies the first turn, which will heavily impact the outcome of the battle, especially against hard opponents.

Honkai Star Rail Combat Screen With Dan Heng Attacking

On the combat screen, you'll be able to see many icons, but the most important is the bar on the left where the turn lineup is shown. The top of this bar will have the character that's currently performing an attack, and the upcoming turns will be displayed in order below them. If you change an enemy's turn, it'll also be shown here.

This bar lets you plan your attacks and support abilities accordingly. Moreover, you can use this to prioritize enemies so that you can delay damage to your characters as much as possible. You'll also be able to see the enemy's weakness bar on top of their health, and this mechanic is discussed in detail below.

On the top right of your screen, you'll see the speed-up, auto-battle, and pause buttons. You can use the pause button to retreat from battle.

The speed-up button doubles the speed of all abilities, and the auto-battle button lets you sit back and relax while the game fights for you.

Honkai Star Rail Dan Heng Locked On

One of the most important aspects of combat in Star Rail is keeping an eye on enemy attacks. Some of these attacks can lock on to your character, apply debuffs on them, or make them fall asleep for one turn. You can see all these debuffs on your characters at the bottom of the screen, so it's important to pay attention to that.

At the bottom left, you'll see a small icon with a magnifying glass on it. You can use this icon to read all the buffs and debuffs that your characters currently have. Moreover, there'll be an icon at the top that shows a certain enemy. If you click on this icon, you can get information about each enemy and their attack pattern.

You can also see your character's skill set in this menu by clicking on the white button on the top left.

Complete Weakness Guide

Honkai Star Rail Weakness Triggered By Welt

Weakness is the most important mechanic that you have to pay attention to if you want to win your battles, especially in the late game. You can use this mechanic both in and out of battle to get a massive advantage over your enemies. Whenever you get close to an enemy, you'll see their level and name at the top of your screen.

Below their name, you'll also see some combat types (elements). This symbolizes the combat types that the enemy you're about to attack is weak to. Make sure that your first attack to start the battle is done by a character who has one of the weakened elements. This will lower the toughness of all enemies who are weak to that element.

You can only see one enemy roaming around in the open world, but there will be more than one when you start the battle.

The elements displayed below an enemy's name in the open world include the weakened elements for all enemies that you'll fight.

Honkai Star Rail Enemy Toughness Bar Being Removed

Once you enter battle, you'll be able to see an enemy's Toughness bar on top of their health. Above the bar, you'll see the elements that they're weak to. When you're casting an ability on these enemies with the respective element character, you'll see a yellow bar on them. Their Toughness bar will deplete to the point shown with this yellow bar.

If an enemy's Toughness bar reaches zero, Weakness break triggers. This has different effects based on the element you use to break them:

Break Element

Effect

Physical

Deals Physical DMG and apply the Bleed effect that deals Physical damage over time (DoT).

Ice

Deals Ice DMG and freezes the target. This immobilizes the enemy and deals extra Ice DMG.

Wind

Deals Wind DMG and applies the Wind Shear effect that deals Wind DoT.

Fire

Deals Fire DMG and applies the Burn effect, which deals Fire DoT.

Lightning

Deals Lightning DMG and applies the Shock effect that deals extra Lightning DoT.

Quantum

Triggering Weakness Break with Quantum applies Entanglement to the enemies. This delays their action in the next turn and deals extra Quantum DMG.

Imaginary

Inflicts Imprisonment on the enemy and deals Imaginary DMG to them. Imprisoned enemies have their action SPD reduced and they have delayed actions.

Another thing to note about the Toughness bar is that if this bar gets depleted, the enemy recovers it fully whenever they get the next turn. This doesn't consume their turn, so they can still attack after that. This can be particularly frustrating if you're fighting a boss and spend many turns to get rid of their Toughness, only to face it again.

You need to manage your attacks in a way where you would take away the enemy's toughness at the start of your turn so that the rest of the characters can deal plenty of damage to them before they recover.

Silver Wolf is the only character in the game that can mess around with an enemy's Weakness by implanting a new one.

It's highly recommended to get this character since she reduces the number of DPS characters you have to build.

How To Use Your Abilities In Honkai: Star Rail

Honkai Star Rail Welt Using Technique

Each character in Honkai: Star Rail has a set of abilities that can be used in and out of combat. Here's everything you can use on each character:

Ability Type

When To Use

Description

Basic Attack

Outside battle

You can use the basic attack of any character outside battle to start it. This will inflict Weakness on enemies if you use the correct element.

Technique

Outside battle

This is a special ability that can be used before starting a battle. They usually provide you with different buffs for the next battle, and some of them can also debuff enemies.

Basic Attack

In Battle

This is a normal attack that deals the respective character's elemental type as DMG. This will give you one Skill Point.

Skill

In Battle

Whenever you use a character's skill, it'll consume one skill point and do the character's special attack.

Ultimate

In Battle

With time, you'll get points that will recharge your ultimate, which can be seen at the bottom of your screen beside character posters. Once your character has the ultimate ready, you can use it at any point in the battle.


The ultimate can bypass the turn lineup on the top left of your screen, and you can even trigger it in the middle of enemy turns.

As mentioned above, you have to take care of your skill points when you're using your basic attacks and skills during combat. You can have a maximum of five skill points, and you won't be able to use your skills if you don't have any. You can see the current skill points at the bottom right near your skills.

Which Enemy Should You Prioritize In Battle?

Honkai Star Rail Silver Wolf In Memory Of Chaos Floor Seven

Honkai: Star Rail has quite a few types of endgame content including the Simulated Universe, Swarm Disaster, and Memory of Chaos. All these game modes require a different play style since the first two require you to have as much sustenance as possible while the last one needs high DPS due to limited cycles.

One thing that stays the same in all these game modes is the requirement to learn the enemy priority. Attacking the wrong enemy can be the reason for your defeat. Here are a few ways to help you make this decision:

  • If you're in a situation where the amount of cycles doesn't matter, it's always recommended to defeat every small enemy and the enemies summoned by the boss first. This is because most bosses can use the summoned enemies to unleash a stronger attack.
  • However, if you have to end the stage in a certain number of cycles, it's highly recommended to keep your focus on the main boss as much as possible. Characters with AoE damage can help a lot here since they can reduce the HP of side enemies while most of your damage focuses on the main boss.

The actual priority will always change depending on your current battle since there are too many variables.

Once you get better at prioritizing enemies, you'll be able to beat all the endgame content easily.

NEXT: Honkai: Star Rail - Beginner Tips