Honkai: Star Rail (HSR) tier list for all Characters (January 2026)

Honkai: Star Rail is a thematic turn-based RPG that delves deep into the anime-stylized category of games. Produced by the same developers of Genshin Impact and Zenzless Zen Zero, the game has taken the world by storm with its unique animations and majestic graphics. If you’re wondering which are the strongest HSR characters, you’ve landed at the right place! Our Honkai: Star Rail tier list ranks all the characters in different tiers.

While curating our HSR tier list, we had taken several factors into account. This is because you cannot have an accurate Honkai: Star Rail tier list without separating the different game modes. Each mode presents a new challenge, and so character rankings need to be adjusted accordingly. We have listed down more such factors below. For now, indulge yourself with the rankings below!

In the S-tier, we have housed the strongest HSR characters that are currently in the meta. They are performing quite well in all the game modes, be it the Memory of Chaos, Pure Fiction, or Apocalyptic Shadow. These characters are definitely to stay here for the long run, and you can mindlessly invest your resources in them. That is, if you have them. As, they are also some of the more tougher to obtain than the rest of the bunch.

See more such helpful character rankings in our other tier lists for:

The characters included in this tier are those who are just a slight buff away from being broken. Yeah, if you have any of them in your inventory, what are you even doing? Just build them right now. Even older characters like Kafka and Bronya are still providing amazing utility in different game modes. Don’t waste a second before summoning the next time you see a Ruan Mei banner up, as she has climbed the rankings quite a bit.

The characters in this tier are rather harshly judged. This is because they are neither too good to be put into a tier above but not too bad either to be put one below. Hence, we thought this was the best spot to put these average characters. Since Honkai: Star Rail is quite f2p friendly, you can finish the game even with the starting characters.

But, does that make them strong? Definitely not. It’s just good game design masking more powerful options. Hence, these characters are definitely strong, but need to be geared more accurately in order to prove to be useful.

If you wanted to know about some of the weaker characters in Honkai: Star Rail, this would be the right tier to drop by. Like we said before, these characters can still help you progress but won’t certainly be the torchbearer of the team. We have generally put the lower rarity heroes or the ones that were nerfed hard here. Surprisingly, there are quite a lot of them. Hoyoverse, where are the buffs?!

Sadly, this is where our tier list ends. We have placed the weakest HSR characters in this D-tier. While they are not evidently trash, they get outshined by other characters in the higher tiers. It’s evident that they are not worth the time or effort or resources.

You can still use them for early game progression as most of them are given as f2p rewards along the way. However, keep in mind that they will need to be replaced later down the line when you acquire stronger characters.

Honkai: Star Rail (HSR) Character Roles Explained

You’re probably looking at our Honkai: Star Rail tier list to know which characters you can use to build a strong team. Well, before you do that, we recommend going through the basics of team-building in HSR. You see, each character in the game is assigned a specific role according to which they function. Hence, their abilities work in tune according to their roles. Now, what are these roles? Check out all the Honkai: Star Rail hero roles:

DPS – DPS characters form the backbone of any HSR team. You can ideally use 1 or 2 of them in your team of 4 characters. As the name itself suggests, DPS (Damage Per Second) type characters only care for the amount of damage they can deal to enemies. You can choose to pick either single-targeted damagers or AOE-targeted damage dealers.
Support DPS – You can choose to use supportive DPS characters to not only boost your overall team damage but also provide some utility. Many of these characters offer exclusive buffs and debuffs that can be stacked to gain an advantage over your enemies.
Amplifier – Amplifiers are essentially your boosters. These characters also are an integral part of any team. Essentially, their abilities help shape the core strategy of your team. They can help you organize and synchronize the rest of the members in one tune. Amplifiers provide buffs, debuffs, turn meter increase, and much more.
Sustain – Even the sturdiest characters will fall given sufficient time. That’s why most teams tend to bring at least 1 sustain-type character that provides consistent heals and other supportive buffs. You can use them to ensure completing certain challenges like having all allies alive. Healers also help in trying out new teams without the risk of a loss, thanks to the immense sustain they bring.

Honkai: Star Rail (HSR) Tier List Factors

It’s not easy to rank all 60+ characters of HSR. In this section, we will inform you through the stringent process via which we gauged the rankings of characters in our Honkai: Star Rail tier list. These factors are as follows:

Rarity – The base rarity of a character defines their base statline, and in general, their worth. Hence, we took the rarity of characters as the prominent factor when building our HSR tier list.
Abilities – The higher the character is ranked, the better abilities it usually has. Each character has access to unique active and passive abilities. We judged their usage in different scenarios and compared the difference in terms of damage numbers, turns required to setup, and more.
Usability – Each HSR character is unique, and performs differently in different game modes. A character may be amazing in one game mode but bad in another. Hence, to maintain fairness, we averaged out the rankings of each character based on their performance in these game modes.
Community Rankings – The community perspective matters a lot, and we took that into account when forming our Honkai: Star Rail tier list. Essentially, we took references from some of the community tier lists to gauge what the community thinks about each of the characters.