Honkai: Star Rail's gameplay relies heavily on the use of buffs and debuffs, which are fundamental mechanics. In order to maximize damage, it is crucial to manage buff windows and perfect casting timings. However, not all characters possess these effects, whereas some characters can perform both.

At the time of Honkai: Star Rail's launch, Pela was one of the original characters included in the game's cast. She is a 4-star unit that specializes in enhancing the damage dealt by her teammates while reducing the damage inflicted by the enemy team. Although her playstyle is relatively simple, players need to optimize their stats and effects to fully utilize Pela's unique abilities.

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Honkai: Star Rail - Pela

Pela Review

Pela is a unique 5* character due to her Nihility nature, which allows her to debuff enemies with a universal defense shred that works well against most enemies. Her ultimate ability is a powerful debuff that damages all enemies and has a 100% base chance to inflict the Exposed status, which reduces the affected enemies' defense by up to 40% at max trace level. This significantly boosts the team's damage and is highly reliable due to its high base chance. Pela's talent allows her to gain energy upon debuffing a target, with a maximum of 10 at max level. Her skill inflicts decent single-target damage and removes one enemy buff, making it valuable against enemies with strong self-buffs.

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Pela's debuff removal trivialize some bossfights

Pela's role in a team is to support the primary damage dealers by restoring SP with her basic attacks and reducing enemy defense with her ultimate. While she is capable of dealing respectable damage, her ultimate is the most important part of her kit, and players should not rely on her as the primary damage dealer. Pela's traces improve her performance and aid in this goal. A2 allows her to deal 20% more damage to debuffed enemies, which synergizes well with her ultimate's Exposed debuff. A4 increases the whole team's effect hit rate by 10%, making it easier for Pela to land her ultimate's debuff against tough foes. A6 increases Pela's next attack's damage by 20% after successfully dispelling an enemy buff with her skill.

Overall, Pela is a strong unit that players should aim to obtain due to her unique setup and supportive capabilities, particularly her defense shred that significantly improves the damage of more damage-focused characters on the team.

Honkai: Star Rail Pela Build

Pela is categorized as a Nihility character, which means she specializes in weakening her opponents. Her abilities include a buff-removing attack that targets a single enemy and an area-of-effect blast that lowers the defense of multiple enemies. Although most players will likely use Pela for her AOE ability, it is crucial to build her based on her true strengths. Follow this recommended setup to transform Pela into a versatile secondary damage dealer.

  • Core Stat Priorities: CRIT, ATK%, Effect Hit Rate, SPD
  • Planar Ornament Stats: Ice DMG, ATK%
  • Relic Sets: Thief of Shooting Meteor (4PC) OR Hunter of Glacial Forest (4PC), Sprightly Vonwacq (2PC)
  • Light Cones: Good Night and Sleep Well (4-star), Resolution Shines as Pearls of Sweat (4-star), In the Name of the World (5-star)

To maximize Pela's effectiveness in the early game, players should focus on increasing her ATK stats, allowing her to break through Toughness bars more easily and increase the team's damage output. Pela's primary skill, Frostbite, works well with her ATK stat, enabling her to defeat enemies that are weakened or have low health. As players progress, they should also prioritize enhancing her CRIT Rate and DMG to further strengthen her attacks.

Pela Screenshot
Pela is effective in a team with an extra Ice DPS.

For players who have Pela's E1 bonus, having high offensive stats is particularly crucial since it allows her to restore energy every time she defeats an enemy. Consequently, building for Energy Regen Rate is less critical, making Pela an excellent option for boss fights with many weak summons or minions, such as the W6 Cocolia mission.

Compared to other characters, Effect Hit Rate is not as significant for Pela. Her Frostbite skill always removes an enemy's buff when it hits, regardless of this stat. Furthermore, her ultimate ability Zone Suppression has a 100% base chance of inflicting the Exposed status. While the Exposed status may not always affect targets due to enemy Effect RES, the high base chance of Pela's ultimate means players don't need to prioritize Effect Hit Rate on their Relics to make her ultimate useful.

However, it's important to note that Pela's personal damage output is still relatively average compared to other specialized characters, unless players obtain perfectly-rolled Relics, the appropriate Light Cones, and Pela's E6 bonus. Instead, she is better utilized as a debuffer, Toughness breaker, and low HP executioner.

Pela Trace Leveling Order

Pela's main contribution to the team is her capability to lower enemy DEF, which greatly benefits the hyper-carry in dealing immense damage. Her leveling order is as follows:

  • Zone Suppression (Ultimate)
  • Frostbite (Skill)
  • Data Collecting (Talent)
  • Basic attack

Whenever possible, players should prioritize taking her Ascension passives and add floating Ice DMG and Effect Hit Rate nodes when necessary for additional stats.

Eidolon bonuses can greatly enhance Pela's effectiveness. Her E4 effect of Ice RES shred is especially advantageous for supporting Ice DPS characters like Yanqing. Moreover, as previously mentioned, E6 Pela can dish out substantial damage when attacking debuffed enemies.

Pela Eidolon

Overall, the first 2 Eidolons of Pela are pretty mediocre - they do not solve her biggest weakness, her lack of damage.

However, as you get more of her Eidolons, there are power spikes at E4 and E6, which improves Pela's damage significantly.

  1. Victory Report: When Pela defeats an enemy, Pela regenerates 5 Energy.
  2. Adamant Charge: Using Skill to remove buff(s) increases SPD by 10% for 2 turn(s).
  3. Suppressive Force: Skill Lv. +2, up to a maximum of Lv. 15. Basic ATK Lv. +1. up to a maximum of Lv. 10.
  4. Full Analysis: When using Skill, there is a 100% base chance to reduce the target enemy's Ice RES by 12% for 2 turn(s).
  5. Absolute Jeopardy: Ultimate Lv. +2, up to a maximum of Lv. 15. Talent Lv. +2, up to a maximum of Lv. 15.
  6. Feeble Pursuit: When Pela attacks a debuffed enemy, she deals Additional Ice DMG equal to 40% of Pela's ATK to the enemy.

>>> Read more: Honkai: Star Rail Early Progression Tips & Tricks