Tier List | Honkai: Star Rail | Prydwen Institute (2024)

28/06/2024

The "Super Break Team Core" is a squad of 3 units that absolutely obliterates Apocalyptic Shadow and it consists of Harmony Trailblazer, Ruan Mei and Gallagher. It’s no exaggeration that these 3 units can be played alongside almost any damage dealer with reasonable Toughness damage against the enemies vulnerabilities and achieve a 3-star score. We’ve seen this team dominate in Apocalyptic Shadow across the board but most commonly alongside Himeko, Argenti, Boothill, Firefly, Clara, Dr Ratio, Xueyi and Sushang. There are even more examples but the point is clear - this team completely smashes the mode.

The existence of this team presents an interesting problem as it allows many characters to perform far above their usual station - should they be evaluated with this best team or on their next best option? Part of our initial assessment of characters included whether or not they could function with or without this team or even a portion of it. Team flexibility outside of the Super Break Team Core is important and the community has pointed out alternatives for some characters leading to a need to raise them up on the Apocalyptic Shadow tier list. Here are the changes we made:

• [Harmony Trailblazer] T0.5 T0 in AS. We’re raising Harmony Trailblazer to Tier 0. Whether played in the same team or not, Ruan Mei and HMC completely dominate Apocalyptic Shadow and while there is an argument to be made that Ruan Mei is more generic, Harmony Trailblazer is still a unit you’ll almost always be making use of on one side or another and is a huge damage amplifier for many of the top characters. Harmony Trailblazer is closer to power than Ruan Mei than they are to Silver Wolf so we feel it’s correct to place them together for now.
• [Himeko] T1.5 T1 in AS. Our initial placement for Himeko on the tier list was a conservative one. Himeko is one of the biggest abusers of the Super Break Team Core, takes excellent advantage of the first set of Apocalyptic Shadow buffs and has a good match up against the Fire-weak enemy Argenti. Our team had some concerns about Himeko’s performance outside of Super Break after the favorable enemy and buffs pass, but after evaluating community feedback, suggestions and discussion we've done further testing and agree Himeko deserves a higher spot on the tier list. Himeko can still find success outside of Super Break teams in follow-up attack compositions (albeit they are certainly weaker) but also as a supportive AoE breaker in other break compositions such as Firefly teams. This flexibility gives us confidence Himeko will continue to be a strong pick even without relying on the Super Break team and even allows her to free up Ruan Mei in Firefly's Super Break team under certain conditions, offering tremendous value on that front. As always we appreciate the communities feedback!
• [Xueyi] T1.5 T1 in AS. The community feels Xueyi is rated to low on the tier list as while yes she is incredible at abusing the Super Break Team Core (Ruan, Harmony Trailblazer, Gallagher), she also has incredible performance when played in Mono Quantum, meaning she can thrive even without monopolizing the best units for the mode. As a Break-scaling character, the current set of buffs is incredible for Xueyi but despite this, having access to multiple teams, great Toughness damage and the ability to hit enemies that aren't Quantum-weak, gives us enough confidence she'll continue to thrive even without it. We’re raising her up a tier because of that.
• [Qingque] T2 T1.5 in AS. We've rated Qingque based on her average performance in Apocalyptic Shadow but the community has found Qingque's high variance demands a higher tier placement. When on the cusp of attaining 3-stars, Qingque holds an advantage over other characters as on a lucky run she can overperform, getting you over the edge in this incredibly tricky mode. Thanks to her power to edge out a win when it might not be possible otherwise we’re raising her up a tier.
• [Luka] T3 T2 in AS. Luka of course can be played in the Super Break team albeit not as a top pick leading to low play rates. Despite his low play rate, some players are seeing success with Luka in Physical Break teams including Sushang or Boothill. Based on this success we’re raising him up a tier and will continue to keep an eye on him moving forward to see if he needs further placement gains.
• [Asta] T2 T1.5 in AS. Asta isn’t the Best In Slot support anymore but in Apocalyptic Shadow she is a close contender when it comes to 2nd or 3rd spot - which in some teams or for players without the strongest unit compositions can be invaluable. Asta’s Speed buff is great when it’s available, her break is meaningful and in many teams she can serve as a pseudo replacement for Ruan Mei, freeing her for your other team or just filling the slot if you don’t have her. This flexibility and value is enough for us to recognize she’s placed too low and raise her up a tier.

After considering the community's response there is a number of characters we’re waiting for additional data on or a new buff to make changes to on the tier list. The characters we’re currently watching closely are Dr. Ratio, Seele, Jingliu, Himeko (even after the move to T1 as she has the potential to move higher), Sushang, Misha, Robin and Lynx. As always thanks to the community for the valuable feedback and suggestions!

27/06/2024

• We have added the Apocalyptic Shadow tier list. Since we only had one phase available to us and it's heavily skewed toward Break characters, it was hard for us to create the ratings (we based them both on the data gathered by us and manual testing done for every characters). Once the next phase starts and the theme for it will be revealed, the tier list will become more accurate.

19/06/2024

New additions:

• [Firefly] has been added to T0 in MoC and T1 in PF. Firefly’s release sees her skyrocket to the top of the Break damage meta when it comes to the carries.
• Firefly's best team deals some of the most damage of any team in the game while also almost completely ignoring the weakness inherent to her Break archetype thanks to her kit. Firefly can implant her own Weaknesses, amplify her own toughness damage, has multiple ways to scale her Break damage, has strong multi-target capabilities thanks to her Speed and cleave and has a full team of incredibly synergistic characters to play alongside her. It's just too much.
• We rank Firefly as the best Break carry, and one of the best overall damage dealers in the game thanks to her all encompassing kit eliminating many of the weaknesses of her archetype. As a Breaker, we’re placing her in the Specialist category alongside her closest peer Boothill.
• We’re ranking her at Tier 0 in MoC as she crushes the mode, but Tier 1 in Pure Fiction as her cleave-only kit and pure Break damage causes her to require the assistance of a more AoE inclined character such as Himeko to excel.

Changes:

• [Ruan Mei] T0.5 T0 in MoC. Ruan Mei is one of the most flexible, most used and strongest supports in the game. Our team was waiting for one of the top 3 amplifiers of Ruan Mei, Sparkle and Robin to break away from the pack and show they are worthy to move above the rest. As of 2.3 and the release of Firefly we feel Ruan Mei now absolutely deserves the top spot. Ruan can be played in almost every team in the game to some success but also possess many top tier teams where she has no comparable replacement (Boothill / Firefly / Superbreak teams) thanks to her incredible break capabilities. For these reasons Ruan Mei is moving to Tier 0 in MoC.
• [Harmony MC E6] T1 T0.5 in MoC and T1.5 T1 in PF. With the release of Firefly, Imaginary Trailblazer finds a close to irreplaceable position in one of the best teams in the entire game and also gains access to their long awaited E6 raising the power level of the character by a significant amount. After testing Imaginary Trailblazer with Firefly and also observing how their position in the Break meta has developed we’re updating their role and position on the tier list - as we’re adjusting Trailblazer’s role from Specialist to Amplifier. The reason for this is that in Firefly’s teams Trailblazer's main home they primarily contribute through their buffs and not their own personal damage - we’ve also found this to be the case in many other break teams. While their damage can be significant it’s their buffs that secure them a position on most teams. Due to Trailblazer’s reasonable performance throughout 2.2 and new top tier team composition with Firefly in 2.3 we’re also raising them up to Tier 0.5 in MoC and Tier 1 in Pure Fiction.
• [Gallagher E6] T1 T0.5 in MoC and T1 T0.5 in PF. As a completely Break-focused sustain with debuffing capabilities, Gallagher is by far one of the biggest winners of the Penacony patches overall. Gallagher finds himself as one of if not the best sustains for multiple of the best teams in the game - the latest of which is of course the tremendously powerful Firefly Break team. When discussing Gallagher and his position on Tier Lists, it’s almost easier to try to justify why he wouldn't be top tier. Gallagher is currently the uncontested best sustain in the Firefly’s team (one of the best teams in the game), a top option in Acheron’s team and also competes for a top position in Boothill’s best team as well (also a very strong team). Outside of this, he can also be used in other teams - but holding just these positions in our eyes justifies makes it hard not to move him up the list, for this reason we’re moving him up to Tier 0.5 in both MoC and PF.
• [Himeko] T4 T3 in MoC. Himeko's performance in the most recent MoC exceeded all expectations, but that's because all stars aligned for her. Still, we are raising her one tier up and we will continue to monitor her in the next phase.
• [Fu Xuan] T0 T0.5 in MoC. Fu Xuan has stood at the top of the MoC tier list for a long time thanks to her great offensive buffs, break potential, fantastic damage mitigation and protection abilities. Though, after much internal discussion and with input from the community, we have decided to move Fu Xuan down half a tier. The driving force behind community sentiment and our decision is Aventurine and his universally dominant kit. He has proven he is invaluable in some of the most powerful teams in the game but also is at the very least the 2nd best option in most others. Fu Xuan still has her own best team’s and has her highly valued CRIT RATE buff but Aventurine is more flexible thanks to his overpowered Shielding, skill point positive kit and single target break capabilities.

29/05/2024

• [Boothill] has been added to the tier list,
• Boothill is the new king of single target and absolutely dominates the niche when set-up correctly, routinely blasting enemies for 100’s of thousands of damage like it’s absolutely nothing thanks to his incredible mostly non-gear reliant Break-focused damage profile.
• We’ve ranked Boothill as a Specialist due to the majority of his damage being contingent on enemies being broken by his attacks or already broken - both of which require some form of interaction with Toughness. Boothill’s reliance on breaking enemies means he cares about enemy weaknesses and also enemies that can lock their toughness from being depleted, the first of which can slow down his clear times by varying degrees but the second of which can render him completely helpless against that enemy.
• There is no doubt that Boothill is more comfortable, easy and far more powerful against enemies that are Physical weak. This fact is the main driving force behind our categorization of him. We acknowledge Boothill is more than capable of brute forcing non-physical weak fights thanks to his Ultimate but in our tests those fights were harder required more planning and in many cases slower pushing him closer to his more Break-focused brethren like Luka.
• Boothill’s potential is incredible especially in the hands of a knowledgeable player with the gear and roster to support him, but as per our criteria event limited Signature Light Cones are no allowed so we’ve had to penalize Boothill’s ranking slightly as his Light Cone is a substantial damage increase for him (~30%).
• [Pela] T2 T1.5 in MoC. Based on overwhelming community support and recommendation we're raising Pela to T1.5 alongside Silver Wolf. A strong consensus has been reached that while Pela isn't a best in slot support for many or even any characters in the ultra endgame, she can be played in almost any team giving her supreme flexibility. On top of this while she might be behind in some compositions such as Jingliu's losing out to Ruan Mei it's not by enough to knock her variants of each team out of viability with many of them only being slightly behind. We agree with both these points and feel raising her is appropriate.
• [Gallagher] T1.5 T1 in MoC. Gallagher continues to find his way into more and more characters' best team compositions thanks to his Break-focused kit. Boothill being one such Break character of course absolutely loves Gallagher and has him present in many of his top teams. While Gallagher’s sustain may be harder to manage than other characters, his Break and offensive capabilities are undeniable in the team’s where he thrives and with another top tier team composition under his belt we’ll be raising him up a tier.
• [Ruan Mei] - With the Release of Boothill, Ruan Mei receives another top tier team while her closest competitors Sparkle and Robin maintain similar positions. We absolutely have our eye on Ruan and we will revisit her position after further testing.

09/05/2024

Added Harmony MC to the tier list.

08/05/2024

The tier list has been fully reworked, so we wiped the old changelog as it would only bring confusion.