Honkai: Star Rail is miHoYo’s next big game, and fans of Genshin Impact are interested in checking the new game out. If you are one of those fans, then you might be surprised to see that the combat differs from the gameplay you are so familiar with. Instead of being the hack and slash action RPG that Genshin Impact is, Star Rial changes it up by being a turned based RPG. But if you’re adamant in wanting to check out Star Rail, then read this guide and it’ll help you understand the new mechanics better.
Combat Guide
It can be difficult for Genshin players to get used to Star Rail gameplay, but it’s actually not that hard to get used to. One thing you should remember is that each character in Star Rail has Paths. Paths are essentially the class system of Star Rail, and there are 7 of them in the game. Each of these paths have an archetype that differentiates them from other paths.
Here is a table of the different paths and what they do:
| Paths | What They Do |
|---|---|
| The Hunt | High single target damage |
| Erudition | High AoE damage |
| Destruction | A balanced mix of single target damage and AoE damage |
| Harmony | Buffs allies to do more damage |
| Nihility | Debuffs enemies by either giving them negative statuses or lowering their stats |
| Abundance | Healers that can remove debuffs from allies or revive them |
| Preservation | Grants shields to allies and can focus all aggro on them |
As you can see, each path works as a class. Since you can only form teams of four characters, the generally recommended formation is having two DPS characters, one tank character, and one healer character. But you can mix things up and have one DPS character, one buff character, one debuff character, and one tank.
Each team formation serves their own purpose, and one team formation can do well in one battle, but perform poorly in another, so it’s always nice to have different team formations and experiment what works.
Ultimates
Ultimates are a great way to turn the tide of the battle to your favor. Ultimate varies from character to character. Bailu’s Ultimate allows her to heal other characters and buff them with Invigoration, Himeko’s Ultimate unleashes a powerful AoE attack, and Tingyun’s Ultimate lets her buff one ally’s attack damage.
Another great thing about Ultimates is that you can trigger them at any time, even during the enemies turn. So if an enemy is about to wipe out your entire team, you can trigger Gepard’s Ultimate to save your team by giving everyone shields to tank the attack, while Gepard gets a bonus health boost for himself.
Point is, Ultimates can have major impact on the outcome of every encounter. With that said, as the saying goes: “with great power, comes great responsibility”… Well, it’s the same with Ultimates. Don’t get too trigger-happy whenever it’s up!
Wait for the best time in the encounter whenever the enemies are in a vulnerable position or have all their offenses exhausted or whatever the case may be.
Turn Order
But when your Ultimate isn’t charged, you will have to follow the Turn Order. The Turn Order can be found on the top left side of the screen during combat. You can see on the Turn Order who will be next, including the enemies as well. Pay attention to the Turn Order, as you can easily take down a group of enemies without them ever having a turn.
When it’s your turn to attack, look at the Turn Order and look for the enemy that gets a turn after you. Once you have the enemy in your sights, try to take them down with whatever attack that can do the most damage. I would personally attack an enemy who is weak against the element of your character, but attacking an enemy with low health and has a turn next takes priority.
One thing that you should take note about the Turn Order is that character speed stat will have an effect on the Turn Order. If one of your characters have a higher speed compared to the others, that character will noticeably have more opportunities to move compared to other characters. I would recommend looking at the speed stats of each of your character and adjust your team accordingly. While strength is good to have, speed allows you to make the first move in the Turn Order.
Break Bar
While in combat, you will notice that there is a white bar on top of the red health bar on enemies. That is called the Break Bar (or Stamina Bar, as some people call it). When the Break Bar gets depleted, the bar “breaks”, and the enemy will get double the damage when attacked. A great way to easily deplete Break Bars is by using the element the enemy is weak to. Either that, or use characters like Asta who have multi hit attacks that do AoE damage.
While AoE damage does not deplete the Break Bar quickly compared to single target attacks, it does have the benefit of chipping away at all of the Break Bars on the enemy team. It is a valuable strategy that can help stun multiple enemy targets at once, instead of being able to stun one enemy target.
Character Progression
Leveling Characters
With combat done, we can now focus on character progression. The basic thing you need to know is that a character can reach a maximum level of 80. However, you cannot just splurge all of your EXP items on one character until they hit level 80. Once a character hits level 20, that is when you need to use Ascension Materials.
When a character hits level 20, they will not be able to get more EXP until they ascend. Once you upgrade them with the Ascension Materials, the character will then be able to level up. However, take note that your character will need Ascension Materials every ten levels. So, once they hit level 30, they’ll need to ascend again.
One thing I should also mention is that if your Trailblaze level is at level 42, let’s say, then your characters will not able to level up past that. Your Trailblaze level is the limit for your characters, so even if you do have the proper Ascension Materials, you will not be able to do any ascension or leveling up until your Trailblaze level goes up.
If you need help raising your Trailblazer level, then you can check out this article.
Traces
To explain what Traces are, it is essentially your characters skill tree. Each character will have different Traces that all contains different skills and bonuses. They don’t take skill points to upgrade, instead they require materials from the Cocoon of Distortion. Either that, or by completing missions.
Eidolons
When you use the summon banner and pull a character you already have, that copy of the character you pulled will be turned into an Eidolon. What Eidolons are is that they are strong passive abilities that can complete change the way a character works. There are a total of 6 Eidolons for each character, so you will need to pull that character 6 times to fully unlock all Eidolons for one character.
And that is all you need to know about combat and character progression for Honkai: Star Rail. What do you think? Did this guide help you understand the new mechanics for Star Rail? Let us know and comment what you think.
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