Honkai: Star Rail Tier list (October 2025)

Categories

• DPS - Characters that mainly focus on dealing damage and being the main source of it in the team they are placed in,
• Support DPS - Characters that fall within this category are very rarely played as the primary or sole damage dealer of the team and instead almost always play alongside another character that fills that role instead. Support DPS are still built with the intention to deal damage themselves but also have a kit containing buffs/debuffs to bolster their team's performance and/or have abilities that are directly dependent on others in order to function.
• Amplifier - Characters that do not focus on dealing damage but instead amplify the damage other teammates deal by granting allies buffs or debuffing enemies,
• Sustain - Characters who are capable of keeping the team alive with their abilities.

Special tags

Tags are split into 3 categories: Pros, Cons and Archetype which represent the most defining features of a character's kit and the current meta archetypes they fit into. Archetype tags indicate a connection between characters with that tag e.g. Acheron requires debuffs to work and Silver Wolf applies them. Here is a full list of all current tags and what they mean:

• Break - the character belongs to the Break archetype focusing on Break Effect and Break Efficiency,
• Debuff - the character belongs to the Debuff archetype applying one or many debuffs or has a kit that directly relies on them to function,
• DoT - the character belongs to the Damage-over-Time archetype specializing in applying and/or amplifying DoT effects,
• Advance - the character can manipulate the turn order by either action advancing their allies or themselves,
• Buff - the character can apply various Buffs to help their teammates,
• Delay - the character can delay enemies and hinder their actions in battle,
• Energy - the character can recover the teammates energy,
• SP-Friendly - the character is substantially more skill point friendly than other characters in their role.
• SP-Unfriendly - the character is substantially more skill point un-friendly than other characters in their role.
• Partner - character relies on being partnered with a small set of specific characters to demonstrate their full potential at their tier list ranking. When played without these character/s this characters ranking will be 1-2 tiers lower.
• Partner++ - character is extremely reliant on being partnered with a small set of specific characters to function at their tier list ranking. When played without these character/s this characters ranking will be 2-3 tiers lower.

Meta Lines

Meta Lines categorize each section of the tier list into a power bracket. Here are the four brackets:

• Apex Characters (T0 & T0.5) - characters in this bracket are the cream of the crop. They can do outrageous amount of damage, provide massive buffs (or debuffs) or keep the team alive no matter what the enemy throws at them. They simply can achieve the best, most consistent and accessible results in their best teams, allowing you to easily clear the content,
• Meta Characters (T1, T1.5, T2) - characters in this bracket make clearing the content a breeze, but compared to the Apex characters they require more work from your side. Either their team options are more restrictive, they require bigger Relic investment or they possess a notable weakness or downside. Still, they are all great and won't disappoint you if you give them what they need to shine,
• Off-meta Characters (T3 & T4) - characters in this bracket are lacking in one or many fields of their role. These characters still possess the ability to clear all content with the right build, endgame blessing, team or enemy line-up but have much lower play rates and success rates than Meta and Apex characters,
• The Forgotten Ones (T5) - characters in this bracket struggle. A lot. Either their kits simply don't work in the mode or they require a ton of investment and love to be able to work. Just avoid them unless your husbando or waifu landed here and you believe in the power of love.

Half tiers

To further define the tier list and correctly represent the power level of each character in relation to each other we have added half tiers to the higher tier brackets. Under our previous system a tier rating jump of 1 tier rating made it difficult to position characters accurately, often leading to multiple characters ending up in the same tier despite a clear power and utility difference.

Criteria

• Manual play,
• Using optimal team composition/support characters,
• Character level 80,
• All Major Traces unlocked and skills upgraded to level 10,
• Character equipped with level 80 best in slot 4★ or 5★ Light Cone (including limited Light Cones, but at S1),
• Character equipped with 5★ upgraded gear with optimal Main Stats and Sub Stats (with 24 desired sub stats out of a possible 54),
• Eidolon level 0 for 5★ characters,
• Eidolon level 0/6 for 4★ characters.

Roles

We compare characters within their role - so DPS are compared to other DPS and the ratings are adjusted based on their performance within the role. Don't try to compare characters between roles (for example an Amplifier with a DPS), because their ratings mean different things.

• DPS - Rating is heavily influenced based on the characters ability to deal enough damage to achieve the 3-star objective, the easier and more quickly achieved the higher the rating,
• Support DPS - Rating is heavily influenced based on the damage they provide, the buffs and debuffs or efficiency boost these characters create or the utility they provide against certain encounters,
• Amplifier - Rating is influenced based on the damage amplification abilities of the character and the utility they provide to the team,
• Sustain - Rating is influenced based on the characters ability to keep the team alive and the utility they provide. The more utility and higher the safety, the higher the rating.

Other criteria affecting the ratings

Each tier list rates characters based on their average value in the specific game mode it represents. The higher a character is rated on the tier list the greater their power and more widely they can be used effectively in the mode, helping the players in getting all rewards every cycle. We aren't looking at 0-cycle potential. We consider:

• Flexibility - how the characters kit functions against various enemy types, amounts of enemies and their ability to perform when not fighting against enemies vulnerable to their element,
• Investment - some characters require specific limited 5★ units, heavy investment in certain relic sets or an abundance of sub-stats in order to function at the highest level. Each of these points impacts the rating in a negative way. - the more the character requires to perform well, the bigger the impact,
• Utility - recently released characters possess abilities that lie beyond their defined role, for example Amplifiers/Sustains that can deal decent damage. The more a character helps the team outside of their role, the bigger positive impact on their rating it has.

14/10/2025

This update contains the addition of

Dan Heng Permansor Terrae

PF is a little more challenging though, as while DHPT is powerful, Hyacine in PF is on a completely different level, making sitting alongside her a challenge. On the other end of the spectrum DHPT is definitely stronger than the existing sustain cast in most scenarios. Whether it’s enough to push the entire sustain category down below him, making him the sole T0.5 character is another story, and a move we’re not committed to making until we see how he performs in the hands of a large amount of players. In PF, DHPT will be sitting alongside Huohuo, Aventurine and Lingsha for now - although all three of them have been watchlisted to potentially move down pending his performance.

• Pure Fiction: T0.5
• Apocalyptic Shadow: T0
• Memory of Chaos: T0

Apocalyptic Shadow Updates

• 
  Hysilens T1 T0.5 - We’ve been keeping Hysilens rated conservatively for quite a while now, waiting until she finally had a chance to showcase her kit in an AS that wasn’t entirely shilled in her and DoTs favor. As of this Phase that time has finally come and DoT has undeniably taken a massive hit to its performance compared to the past two phases. With that said, despite the fact DoT has limited toughness damage compared to some other archetypes they’re still performing surprisingly well - well enough in fact that they are able to compete with characters residing in the apex tier. Based on this non-shilled performance we’re raising Hysilens and DoT for now.
• 
  Kafka &
  
  Black Swan- As mentioned in Hysilens changelog, DoT has performed above expectations after their shilling has ended. Kafka and Black Swan being large parts of some of the highest scoring DoT compositions of the mode similarly are getting a placement increase as well.
• 
  March 7th • Evernight [Watchlist UP] - Evernight has produced some strong scores solo and alongside others at the time of her release but similar to Hysilens and DoT had a strong amount of shilling boosting her performance. We expect Evernight to move up next update, but are taking one more phase to gather more data.
• 
  Boothill &
  
  Firefly [Watchlist DOWN] - Firefly and Boothill suffered from a mediocre run last phase and things have not gotten better this phase. Break is struggling across the board and that is now starting to show itself more prominently in AS as well. We’re giving Boothill and Firefly one more phase to bounce back to their usual performance before making any hard decisions. Both are being watchlisted based on their recent slump in performance.

24/09/2025

In this update we’re adding

Tribbie

Still, the biggest change we’re making in this update is a swap from a strictly no Signature tier list to one including them. Previously characters were assessed with (and limited) to Standard S1 5★ Light Cones, any S5 4★ Light Cone and Herta’s S5 5★ Light Cones. Under the new criteria, characters will still have access to the previously listed Light Cones, but also any Limited S1 5★ Light Cone as well. Here are the reasons why we’re making this change:

• Nowadays, characters are designed with their Signature Light Cone as a core component of their kit with the expectation they are played with it equipped. This is especially true for damage-based characters, with many having no or incredibly limited alternatives.
• We’ve received feedback on (and agree) that many players evaluate characters' power level and the meta with Signatures in mind - partly because of point 1, but also because more players own the Signatures compared to playing the characters at E0S0 (based on our data).
• The difficulty of the game continues to increase, favoring vertical investment compared to horizontal. Many players are moving firmly towards selecting their favorite characters and investing heavily into them longer compared to limiting them to E0S0.

With all of that said, we’re not making this change lightly - we first investigated multiple solutions:

• We considered splitting the tier lists and having a Sig and non-Sig version (6 total), but after actually making a draft, majority of the tier list looked exactly the same - while the floor and the ceiling of the character power did change with Signatures added, the 'order' within remained mostly the same with very small number of shifts,
• We also experimented with implementing a Signature tag for characters with overly impactful Signatures, but found where to draw the line to be too subjective - with either not enough characters having the tag or far too many.

Ultimately our final decision, one that has been forced upon us by the state of the game, is to make the full swap to Signatures - or rather their best Light Cones, as some characters don't use a Signature Light Cone as their best in slot. As always we’ll be listening closely to your feedback, so send it our way!

As mentioned, also in this update we moved

Now let's move to

We also want to make a special mention for DoT in Apocalyptic Shadow as the 'shilling 'of free DoT break in the mode is now coming to an end with this upcoming phase. We’re maintaining

We’ll be watching closely how these changes play out, and will make adjustments where needed based on feedback in our next update.

10/09/2025

As usual we’re proceeding with our routine post phase update - this time based on 3.5 Pure Fiction:

• 
  Hysilens T0.5 T0: Hysilens continues to perform well despite the fact that the “hard” DoT shilling has mostly passed. Based on this, we’re following through on her watch list and moving her to Tier 0.
• 
  Kafka &
  
  Black Swan - Despite Hysilens moving up, we’re putting a pause on raising Kafka and Black Swan a step higher for now. Hysilens is penalized by the Partner++ tag while Kafka and Black Swan are not. We’ll revisit DoT again in the next update (we’re aware specifically Black Swan is punching well above Tier 1 this phase).
• 
  Mydei T1.5 T1: We’re moving Mydei alongside Blade in T1, partly because of his fantastic synergy with the HP stacking mafia but also because he has proven quite capable in PF alone as well. Mydei can put up convincing scores in duo or solo, for that he’s getting a raise.
• 
  Argenti T0.5 T1: Argenti played solo, is capable of scoring 40,000 convincingly in some phases, but struggles noticeably in others. This inconsistency in the face of Phainon and Anaxa is why we’re lowering his rating for now.
• 
  Jing Yuan T1 T1.5: Jing Yuan has struggled to clear comfortably the past three phases compared to others in T1 even when paired with the great equalizer Tribbie. We’re moving him to T1.5 for now.
• 
  Rappa,
  
  Trailblazer • Harmony &
  
  Tingyun • Fugue - Super Break is not doing well in Pure Fiction, following the trend of experiencing a drop off in all three competitive endgame modes. Rappa isn’t where we expect a T1 DPS to be at the moment, so she’s moving down. With Rappa moving down, so are the archetype supports Fugue and Harmony Trailblazer. We hope Super Break gets some love soon.
• 
  Serval T1 T1.5: Black Swan and Blade are both outstanding partners within their designated Niche while Serval is a 3rd or 4th choice at best. We’re correcting Serval’s tier to better communicate the power of Blade and Black Swan.
• 
  Silver Wolf T1.5 T1: Silver Wolf isn’t smashing PF out of the park, but she’s also not doing poorly. We’re raising her rating to T1 to reflect her flexible position in the meta and her ability to slot into multiple teams.
• Support Damage Dealers: We have multiple characters currently we feel are candidates for T0 status such as Support Anaxa, with others sitting in the wings in T1, limited by the power houses in T0.5. The reason so many characters are “capped at 0.5” is Tribbie. Tribbie is so universal, so powerful and so overwhelming that placing characters alongside her is a tall order, even the character alongside her in PF right now, Jade, could be argued against. For this reason we’re discussing moving Tribbie to the Amplifier category where she can more appropriately battle it out with equally universal characters like Sunday and Remembrance Trailblazer.

2/09/2025

In this update we’re adding

Anaxa

Phainon

Cerydra is the first character where we’re sure she’ll perform at the top of the meta, perhaps even being one of, if not the highest scoring amplifier for as long as Anaxa and Phainon dominate. But on the other hand we also want and need to represent the fact that outside of these two she’s underwhelming.

To remedy this as best we can we’re introducing the [Partner++] tag, an upgraded version of our usual [Partner] tag as well as making the original partner tag clearer.

• [Partner++]: Character is extremely reliant on being partnered with a small set of specific characters to function at their tier list ranking. When played without these character/s this characters ranking will be 2-3 tiers lower.
• [Partner]: Character relies on being partnered with a small set of specific characters to demonstrate their full potential at their tier list ranking. When played without these character/s this characters ranking will be 1-2 tiers lower.

We’re also upgrading Hysilens’s [Partner] tag to [Partner ++].

Summing it up, we’re rating Cerydra highly on her release as she not only has a place alongside two of the strongest damage dealers but elevates them meaningfully in power. Even though Cerydra is niche, we expect she’ll perform very well for those who can utilize her - we’ll be relying on the [Partner ++] tag to communicate her shortcomings. In addition to adding Cerydra, we’re also renaming the Niche meta line to Off-Meta based on community feedback.

Finally after considerable deliberation, we’ve also decided to follow through on a previous watchlist to adjust

Also, you can expect the Signature tier list split update and rework before the release of Evernight. During this update we’ll also be re-assessing the DPS category based on how much higher Cerydra pushes Anaxa and Phainon up the power scale.

24/08/2025

In this update we’re back to our usual routine updates shortly after each phase's release - this time we’ll be addressing 3.5s Apocalyptic Shadow.

Kafka

Black Swan

Let's move to other characters.

• DPS:
• 
  The Herta T0 T0.5: Within the current meta The Herta, while still strong, is closer in power and performance to characters sitting at the top of T0.5 compared to the consistent powerhouses of Anaxa, Phainon and Castorice. The Herta had a strong run while AoE was at the forefront of the mode but less so now especially as Ice weak is becoming less common and Ice resistant is incredibly present - if we see it shift back toward Ice or AoE you can expect to see her back on top.
• 
  Jingliu T1 T1.5: Jingliu in contrast to Blade hasn’t reached expectations this phase despite starting out strong in 3.4 after her buff. Part of this is definitely the double Ice resistance bosses this phase, but even considering this we expected more when compared to characters she currently shares a tier with like Rappa. Jingliu is moving back to T1.5 for now.
• 
  Acheron T1 T1.5: Acheron hasn’t done enough this time to avoid the watch list eye of doom from completing its task. We’re following through on our previous assessment and moving Acheron down to T1.5 for the time being.
• 
  Blade T1.5 T1: Blade continues his trend of putting up solid performances in AS with and without another DPS partner in crime. He can be played effectively alongside the likes of Castorice but also be played with the “wheelchair” HP scaling duo of Tribbie/Hyacine solo. We’re raising Balde to T1.
• Support DPS:
• 
  Anaxa T0 T0.5: Anaxa is almost exclusively played alongside The Herta when being used as a Support DMG dealer. Now that she has moved to T0.5, we’re moving Anaxa’s Support Damage ranking down to T0.5 as well. Note: Anaxa still remains in T0 as a primary damage dealer when he is played as the main carry himself.
• 
  Jade T0.5 T1: Jade is not as powerful a partner as Anaxa is for The Herta and while she does has a place in some other teams so does Anaxa (with arguably even more power behind him there as well). We’re moving Jade down a tier to compensate for this.
• 
  Herta &
  
  Argenti T1 T1.5: With Jade moving down Herta and Argenti are following suit as they aren’t up to the same power level in the erudition support niche as Jade.
• 
  Serval T1.5 T2: Serval continues the cascade of Erudition characters and is moving to T2 to make way for Herta and Argenti.
• Amplifier:
• 
  Tingyun T1 T0.5: We feel Tingyun has enough of a stake in the current meta to move into T0.5 thanks to her ability to be played alongside multiple top tier damage dealers such as Phainon and Saber.

13/08/2025

The Revival of DoT

With the release of

• 
  Hysilens
• MoC: T0
• PF: T0.5 (Watchlist for T0)
• AS: T1 (Watchlist)
• 
  Kafka
• MoC: T0.5 (Watchlist for T0)
• PF: T0.5 (Watchlist for T0)
• AS: T1 (Watchlist)
• 
  Black Swan
• MoC: T1 (Watchlist for T0.5)
• PF: T1 (Watchlist for T0.5)
• AS: T1.5

As usual, when we add new units to the tier list we prefer to place them conservatively to avoid having to drop them later, after players have already pulled them. We would much rather raise them once we have data, and they’ve proven themselves. Hysilens and the 'older' DoT characters are no exception to this.

Across all three modes DoT has been given favorable encounters and buffs to work with at the time of Hysilens’s release - something that isn’t uncommon but certainly allows them to perform above what their average performance may be at in the future. For that reason, we’ve assigned watchlists where appropriate with the intent to raise DoT as a whole when we have more information.

With the above in mind we want to specifically call out each of their AS rankings. DoT has always struggled in AS due to their mostly low toughness damage outside of post buff Kafka’s ability to launch frequent FuAs. Hysilens does not change this fact, but does introduce a whole lot more damage. Based on this, the favorable buffs and our testing, we expect DoT to do well initially but are ranking them on the low end for the mode as we don’t expect this performance to last in future phases with less favorable buffs. If DoT continues to perform outside of heavily “shilled” content we’ll re-evaluate their rating at that time.

MoC Update:

• DPS:
• 
  Aglaea T0 T0.5: With the release of Hysilens, the continual domination brought about by Phainon and the overall high bar of T0 in MoC currently, Aglaea isn’t currently measuring up and is much closer in power to characters currently ranked in T0.5.
• 
  Rappa T1 T1.5: Break continues to struggle in this MoC seeing minimal play and success - something that has been a trend the past three phases. Rappa, the highest rated of the breakers, has not been immune to this either, so we’re lowering her rating based on her worsening performance.
• 
  Jingliu T1.5 T1: After her buff Jingliu has been performing well enough to earn a promotion into T1 - some of this is thanks to the fact that as a HP scaler shes often played alongside Hyacine, Tribbie and Castorice, but we still feel she‘s done enough to hold her own.
• 
  Jing Yuan &
  
  Boothill watchlisted to move down. Neither Boothill, nor Jing Yuan have been scoring at a level at which we expect this phase or the previous two for their current ranking. We’re watch-listing them for now to give them one more phase to give them a chance to recover.
• 
  Blade continues to perform well after his buff, but like Jingliu, he leans heavily on the HP juggernauts of Tribbie, Hyacine (Hyacine’s Sig) and Castorice perhaps even more so than her. We recognize his strength but don’t feel he has done enough at this point to break into T0.5, especially with the power level pushing ever higher each patch.
• Amplifier. The Phainon Effect: Phainon is absolutely dominating MoC right now and his presence on characters average scores has been drastic. Most characters who are part of his common teams are experiencing a resurgence in meta relevancy. We’re updating the rankings of those affected by everyone’s favorite meteor dispenser. Sparkle, while only a situational pick for Phainon, benefits from Archer’s release as well, allowing her to gain ground in this update too.
• 
  Bronya T1 T0.5.
• 
  Sparkle T1 T0.5.
• 
  Tingyun T1.5 T1.
• 
  Tingyun • Fugue T1 T1.5: All of Fugue’s Super Break characters are unfortunately dropping down the tier list with swiftness. Without a high performing Super Breaker to support her kit, we’re lowering Fugue’s rating for now.

PF Update:

• DPS:
• 
  Mydei added to watchlist (to move up). Mydei like Blade in MoC is experiencing a major improvement to his score thanks to Hyacine, Tribbie and Castorice thanks to him being able to slot in alongside them more efficiently than most. While not nearly as strong without one or multiple of them, we’re watch-listing him to move up as we feel his position right now doesn’t reflect his current capabilities.
• Amplifier:
• 
  Cipher T1 T0.5: Cipher has proven over multiple phases now that her constantly present debuffs are a major benefit in PF with her scoring impressively and being able to be slotted into multiple teams.
• The Phainon Effect (PF Edition): Similar to in MoC Phainon has also had an impact in PF, although slightly less dramatic. We’re updating ratings accordingly.
• 
  Bronya T2 T1.
• 
  Sparkle T1.5 T1.
• 
  Tingyun T2 T1.