Honkai Star Rail Tier List (January 2026): Best Characters Ranked

Honkai Star Rail is a community favourite turn-based gacha game, which came out in early 2023. It is a space-based RPG where you play as a Trailblazer (a member who stays in the Astral Express)and travel through the cosmos, trailblazing through different planets and galaxies. While visiting different planets, you and your teammates help the residents of that planet to solve the Stellaron situation, which is quite dangerous, and like that, our Trailblazing will continue.

During such visits, you get to make connections with different people, who usually become playable characters in the game, and today we will rank these characters in the Honkai Star Rail Tier List, so that newer players know in which character they should invest their Stellar Jades in their early Trailblazing journey. So if you are looking for the best Honkai Star Rail Tier List, then it's right here.

Honkai Star Rail Tier List (January 2026)

In this Tier List, we have ranked all the playable characters till version 3.8 from S-Tier (Best) to D-Tier (Poor). We have ranked these playable units not only based on skills and Eidolons, but we have also gone the extra mile with their abilities and Relic sets to verify their max potential. This lets us put them in a Tier List, which will tell you which characters to invest in, at just a glance. This is why our Tier List rank ranges from:

• S-Tier
• A-Tier
• B-Tier
• C-Tier
• D-Tier

This way, we can place all the characters in their respective ranks without misjudging their potential.

S-Tier

Characters in this Tier are self-sufficient and can deal with most of the challenges with minimal resource investment. These characters also have meta-dying abilities with strong DMG multipliers.

• Castorice: Currently, the strongest Quantum character in-game, who can summon a dragon to burn her enemies. As a playable unit, she consumes her fellow-mates' HP to amplify her Dragon's Quantum DMG output, which is powerful enough to burn those targets to hell.

• Evernight: One of the Strongest Ice DPS at this moment in-game, and can self-buff her own ATKs. As a Remembrance follower, even she has a summon of her own, which looks like a Jellyfish, and can dish out massive Ice DMG. She synergizes very well with Castorice and can buff her Memosprite's DMG output to the next level.

• Cyrene: She is an Ice unit specialized in strong buffs for the Chrysos Heirs, with exclusive buffs for every Heir member. As a playable unit, she even has an exclusive gameplay mechanic, where instead of Energy, she needs “Recollection” points to charge up her Ult.

• The Dahlia: She is the latest character to join the Nihility roster as a Super Break support unit. The Dahlia is the BIS support unit for Firefly, as she is an expert in Super Break Support. She is quite powerful, as shown in the recent Trailblaze quest.

• Phainon: The strongest playable character to date. Phainon is the reason we have to defeat the final boss and end the sufferings of the Amphoreus world. He went through immense pressure and sacrifice, enduring multiple time loops so that the Deliverer gets a chance to defeat Iron Tomb. Phainon is a Physical DPS who enters a 1v1 situation when he applies his Ult, and will hit his target with meteor strikes and more.

A-Tier

Characters in this tier are quite strong but need strong support and decent resource investment to clear the hard challenges that the game has to offer.

• The Herta: She usually interacts with the physical world through her self-created puppets, making occasional cameo appearances in critical situations, such as the recent one that unfolded during the Amphoreus Arc. As a playable unit, she is one of the strongest Erudition characters and can deal massive Ice DMG to multiple enemies at once.

• Fu Xuan: As a playable unit, she is a renowned Support character who, with her Third Eye and Matrix of Prescience, can foresee upcoming events and use that information to protect her close allies by reducing and splitting the incoming DMG to everyone, which lowers the DMG taken by each character massively. She can even self-heal and can withstand stronger foes, with such unique gameplay mechanics.

• Jing Yuan: He is a major character for the Xianzhou Luofu arc, and is also known as “The Divine Foresight”. As a playable unit, Jing Yuan is an Erudition path character, meaning he can deal massive Lightning DMG to multiple enemies at once, and was considered a strong unit, until Kajka made her debut.

• Pela: She is a young person who can deal with almost anything with a calm certainty, from relocating the troops to distributing supplies; she is always a step ahead. As a playable unit, she is a 4-star support unit who can break through her enemies' defense quite easily, letting her DPS allies dish out more DMG.

• Tingyun: A popular Foxian merchant from the Xianzhou Luofu, who is well known among the Star Rail community for guiding the members of the Astral Express during their maiden journey to the Xianzhou Luofu. Later in the plot, it was revealed that she was an imposter, and her image was being used by the Ravager Phantylia. As a playable 4-star support unit, she is an excellent choice for the newer players, as her kit allows her to buff her allies, and with her ULT, she can charge her allies' Ult. In short, she is an excellent Battery unit.

B-Tier

Characters in this Tier lack a powerful kit, so they need heavy resource investments to deal DMG, and without dedicated support units, they will struggle in end-game content.

• Bailu: She is also a 5-star Lightning character, who is an excellent healer. Bailu can provide strong healing through her skills and even buff the allies, which will automatically heal them to a certain extent when they get attacked.

• Himeko: She is also a 5-star Erudition character, which lets her deal Fire DMG to multiple targets at once with her drones. Himeko is an excellent choice for the early game, but in the later parts, she would need heavy investments and specific support characters to dish out decent DMG.

• Blade: Blade is a wanted man among the cosmos and a core member of the Stellaron Hunters. As a playable unit, he is one of the community favourites, where he deals massive Wind DMG by consuming his own HP, and will self-heal after meeting certain conditions. Due to meta shift, he currently depends a lot on his support units, but in his earlier days, he was self-sufficient for end-game challenges.

• Topaz: Topaz is a member of the elite “Ten Stonehearts”. She is also a 5-star Hunt character who was introduced during the later parts of Jarilo-VI, and can deal decent Fire DMG by follow-up ATK. Pairing her with the right squadmates is the key to utilizing her kit.

• March 7th(Harmony): March 7th was one of the characters who was introduced to us when we woke up in the Herta Space Station. While her initial gameplay features Ice as her character element, she later, during a trip to the Xianzhou Lufo, unlocked her sword form after intense training under her two friends. In this form, she is a reliable Sub-DPS who can dish out decent DMGs via follow-up ATKs.

C-Tier

Most of the characters in his Tier need an immense resource amount of investment and specific Support units just to be relevant in the current meta and end-game challenges, which can be avoided with characters who are placed at a higher rank. But if you must invest in some characters to not secure units from a higher rank, then go for these:

• Clara
• Gepard
• Asta
• Lynx
• Dr.Ratio

If you are a regular player, check our Honkai Star Rail redeem codes article to grab some essential freebies.

D-Tier

Characters in this Tier are not worth the investment, and it's better to skip them as there are far better units with stronger kits. For the early game, if you have to build someone, then go for these five:

• Trailblazer (Physical)
• Dan Heng
• March 7th
• Natasha
• Hook

Although they are at the bottom of the Character Tier List Honkai Star Rail, these five units still offer a decent kit, which might be helpful in the early gameplay. That's all for our Honkai Star Rail Tier List ranking the best characters. While you decide on which character to build your team around, how about you check out the latest coverage on Honkai Star Rail?