Honkai: Star Rail is a game where creating a strong team is crucial and it's not enough to just include characters with high ratings. The game's elemental system means that even if your team has great synergy on paper, it may still struggle against bosses if you can't break their toughness bar.
Additionally, the absence of a timer or turn limit (with one exception) means that it's important to prioritize your team's survival and recovery. Ultimately, having the highest damage output won't matter if your DPS character gets taken out by the enemy in one hit.
In this article, Gurugamer is going to showcase a complete guide for Honkai: Star Rail team building, covering the initial launch version of patch 1.0.
1. Team building basics
In brief, when constructing a team, there are 4 factors to consider:
Sustain
To maintain your team's health, it is necessary to have a Healer or a Shielder (or both) in your team. Without the means to heal (via a Healer) or protect (via a Shielder) your team, the enemy will gradually deplete your team's HP.
Synergy
Certain characters may not be effective or may not synergize well when added to a team. Clara is an instance of such a character, as most of her damage is generated through Counters, which require her to be hit. To improve her performance, it's recommended to pair her with March 7th and have March 7th use a shield on Clara regularly to increase her chances of being targeted by enemies.
Skill points
Using a Skill in the game requires Skill Points which are generated by using the Basic Attack. Therefore, it is crucial to build a team that is well-balanced and has characters who do not frequently use their Skill or only use it when necessary. This ensures that your primary damage dealers can use their Skills every turn, resulting in steady DPS output, which is more effective than using a combo every other turn. Although Skill Points balance may not be a significant concern in the early stages of the game, it becomes crucial in later stages, particularly in Forgotten Hall.
Elements
In Honkai: Star Rail, the elemental system holds significance. Though in the storyline, you can overlook it and stick to using one team, as you progress towards more challenging content like Simulated Universe or Forgotten Hall, you'll have to construct your team around the boss's vulnerability. Otherwise, you'll find it difficult to defeat the boss. Additionally, creating a Break build early on is very powerful, as you can quickly stack the effect to over 200%. This allows you to inflict significant damage to the boss when you break its toughness bar.
2. Early game (story) team guide
First half
To start with, team building isn't a major concern during the prologue since you will be restricted to the provided characters. Once you have access to Warping and complete your first 20 pulls, you will have more options to choose from.
Additionally, it's essential to note that you must do up to 50 pulls on the Beginner Warp banner to acquire one of the seven 5★ characters available. While some players may be fortunate enough to get one of them within the first 20 pulls, most players will need to complete all 50 pulls to acquire their first 5★ character (excluding Trailblazer).
The following team is a general team composition that only includes characters that are freely available to everyone, and we will adjust it as we advance through the game.
- Main DPS (single): Dan Heng (Wind)
- Sub DPS (AoE): Trailblazer (Physical) / Serval (Lightning)
- Offensive support: Asta (Fire)
- Shielder: March 7th (Ice)
In the first half of the planet Jarilo-VI, most enemies are vulnerable to Physical and/or Wind attacks, making Trailblazer and Dan Heng very effective. As a result, there's no need to switch to other characters to break the toughness bars. However, when more enemies weak to Lightning start to appear and you need more area-of-effect damage, it's a good idea to replace the Physical MC with Serval. Serval is a powerful AoE damage dealer and a great alternative to the Physical MC. You could even use the Dan Heng + Serval duo instead of the Physical MC if you prefer. It's still important to level up the Physical MC, as you'll need them when you unlock their Fire variant later on.
At a certain point in the Jarilo-VI storyline, you'll gain access to Natasha, who functions as a healer. It's highly recommended that you add her to your team immediately because the game's difficulty will increase significantly shortly after you obtain her. Without her assistance, you will likely have a difficult time defeating the next major boss.
Completion
After completing the final main story mission in Jarilo-VI, you will gain access to the Fire version of the Main Character, who possesses qualities of a Shielder, Taunter, and Breaker.
- Main DPS (single): Dan Heng (Wind)
- Sub DPS (AoE): Trailblazer (Fire)
- Healer: Natasha (Physical)
- Shielder: March 7th (Ice)
Your primary damage dealer will change depending on the elemental weaknesses of the enemies you face. For instance, if they are susceptible to lightning but not wind, you can switch to Serval. Nonetheless, with Dan Heng and Fire MC on your team, you should have sufficient elemental coverage and not encounter many issues.
We called the team above, which features three defensive support characters, the Turtle Team during the Final Beta. Since there is no time limit to worry about while progressing through the game, it is better to play it safe rather than attempt to create a hypercarry team (which will be discussed later). Additionally, if you try using anything other than the Turtle Team in Simulated Universe, you will likely struggle.
Still, if the gameplay is a bit too slow for you in the Story, you can use this team instead:
- Main DPS (single): Dan Heng (Wind)
- Sub DPS (AoE): Serval (Lightning)
- Healer: Natasha (Physical)
- Shielder/Breaker: Trailblazer (Fire)
3. Useful 4-Star characters
If you happen to be lucky enough to pull Sushang or Tingyun, your progress in the early game will be much smoother. Sushang can substitute for Dan Heng when you require a Physical Attacker and is considered the best 4★ damage dealer who can become an unbeatable force with Break Effect build. Tingyun, on the other hand, can replace one of your Shielders (most likely March 7th) to provide a significant boost to your carry, as her buffs are simply overwhelming.
However, keep in mind that buffers like Bronya and Tingyun aren't very effective at the beginning as they need the main carry to have some stats that they can further boost. But around level 40 or 50, you can safely start using her. The best part is that you can even run them together!
Below is the lineup with Sushang or Tingyun:
- Main DPS (single): Sushang (Physical)
- Offensive support: Tingyun (Lightning)
- Healer: Natasha (Physical)
- Shielder/Breaker: Trailblazer (Fire)
4. Teambuild with Newbie banner SSR
Bailu
Amongst the 7 possible SSR to get, Bailu is the easiest for team build. She is a healer and you can just replace Natasha with her.
Bronya
Bronya is not an easy character to use as her role is to boost the stats and damage output of the main DPS. This means that if the main carry is weak, Bronya's contribution will be minimal. As a result, Bronya is more effective when the main carry reaches level 40 or 50 and has a sufficient amount of stats. The modified Turtle Team below has only one DPS, but with Bronya's buff, the main carry's damage output is significantly increased, allowing the team to take down enemies faster. However, the lack of an additional Shielder may become a problem.
Clara
Clara is a character with a distinct gameplay style where she needs to be frequently hit in order to activate Svarog's attack multiple times per turn. While it's beneficial to use March 7th to constantly shield Clara and accumulate Counters, it isn't necessary.
She can serve as the main DPS of the team, replace Dan Heng. For the best damage, players would need Tingyun support from the gacha.
Gepard
Gepard is a character who specializes in Shielding and is different from March 7th in that he can provide a shield to the entire team at once with his Ultimate. However, he is not as versatile as March 7th, who can use her shield ability every turn. Gepard can be used solely for generating Skill Points, but it is important to remember that he has a limited energy gain and is reliant on his Ultimate. In the beginning stages of the game, March 7th is generally more effective than Gepard.
Himeko
Himeko is a character who deals damage with Area of Effect (AoE) attacks, and can be considered as a more powerful version of Serval. However, her weakness is in dealing damage to a single target, which means you'll need to pair her with another damage dealer or build her up as a "hypercarry" - but this can only be achieved after reaching level 50.
Welt
Welt is a character who can both debuff enemies and deal damage, and is also strong against Imaginary-weak enemies. He can serve as the sub-DPS of the team. Welt is unique in the game as the only Imaginary character, and can be helpful in battles against such enemies.
Yanqing
Yanqing is a character that focuses on dealing damage to a single target. One of his disadvantages is that he doesn't have any skills that can hit multiple targets, but he compensates for this by having high damage output. Like Himeko, you can use Yanqing either with another damage dealer to cover his weaknesses, or in a team with a hybrid carry.
Seele
If you managed to get Seele, who is considered the most powerful damage dealer in Star Rail 1.0, then make her your team's primary DPS. However, remember that when playing in the Simulated Universe, it may be better to run an extra shielder (March 7th) alongside the Fire Trailblazer in the Turtle Team for safety reasons.
>>> Read more: Honkai Star Rail System Requirements For PC And Mobile