Summary
While playing a gacha game likeHonkai: Star Rail, you have to make quite a lot of decisions since the developers usually release two new five-star characters every update, but you don’t get enough currency to get all of them unless you get very lucky or spend real money on the game.
Most people wouldn’t want to use the second method, which is why it’s important to choose the characters you want to get. This also makes it important to find the characters that are good without any Eidolons, since it’s nearly impossible for an F2P player to roll for an Eidolon.
Role In Team
Buffer / Off-field damage dealer
Robin was one of the most anticipated units ever since the first trailer for Penacony was revealed, and players finally got to play as her during the Version 2.2 update. Staying true to the broken nature of the Harmony path, this character buffs your entire party’s DMG by 50 percent simply by using her Skill.
Moreover, upon using her Ultimate, Robin gives an instant turn to every other ally while dealing extra damage to the enemy whenever an ally attacks. While this gives the most value when used in a follow-up attack team, you’re able to still use this character in any normal team and deal significantly higher damage.
Main DPS / Enemy annihilator
As you might already know, Honkai: Star Rail constantly shows various connections with another HoYoverse game called Honkai Impact 3rd, and Acheron is one of the closely linked characters with that game. Of course, with that in mind, the developers had to give her something significant and unique.
Acheron has a special Ultimate mechanic that lets her build it even when she’s not using her abilities. However, this requires characters that can naturally apply a lot of debuffs on the enemies. While you already have some great four-star choices for this like Pela and Guinaifen, Acheron will only get better as more debuffers get released.
Saving the team
When Honkai: Star Rail was first launched, one of the main things preventing people from clearing the endgame content was the lack of good sustainers, which led to their teams being unable to survive. However, Fu Xuan made a massive breakthrough in this aspect due to her damage reduction and absorption.
She can reduce the damage taken by her allies by up to 65 percent, while also taking some of the leftover damage herself. Alongside all of this, she can also prevent allies from getting crowd-controlled, which truly makes her a phenomenal sustainer for your account.
DoT Burst
No matter how many characters get released in the subsequent versions of the game, Kafka will always stay as one of the coolest characters not only because of her personality, but also because of what she brings to the table in combat. She can essentiallytrigger all DoT effectson the enemies instantly with her Skill and Ultimate.
Because of this, you don’t have to wait for the enemy to get a turn to get value out of your DoT. Kafka already has a ton of synergistic team members, but she’ll also keep getting better as the game releases stronger DoT-based DPS units.
Healer / Buffer
After releasing Fu Xuan who can just negate most of the damage to your allies, HoYoverse somehow had to make a healer equally viable. This was done with the release of Huohuo, who not only heals multiple characters at the same time but also gives them an ATK and Energy boost with her Ultimate.
The Energy boost can be massive for some characters like Argenti or Jingliu, especially when you also use Tingyun in the team. Moreover, Huohuo is a good enough sustainer to keep you alive in battle as long as you don’t get one shot.
AoE damage dealer
We can’t just talk about Jingliu and not have an entry for the Icy Queen on this list, especially with her being thebest DPS in the game currently. This member of the High Cloud Quintet was released quite early in the game, but she has maintained the DPS crown ever since due to her constant barrage of attacks.
Even without any Eidolons or her signature Light Cone, you may easily see Jingliu dealing over 150,000 DMG when she attacks in her buffed stage. However, it’s important to use Energy-regenerating or movement-advancing supports to keep her in this state for longer.
This is a Harmony unit?
Sure, you can get all six Eidolons for the Harmony Trailblazer for free since they’re a completely free character. However, that doesn’t change the fact that this unit is an absolute beast even without any Eidolons. You’d think that this is because they provide some massive buffs since they’re a Harmony unit.
However, the reason for Imaginary Trailblazer to be so high on this list is actually their damage. When you attack a Weakness Broken enemy during their Ultimate, you may deal massive amounts of extra DMG with these attacks that are calculated based on the attack’s Toughness DMG and the attacker’s Break Effect.
Shielder
Even though there were many sustainers in the game by the time Aventurine was released, there was a considerable lack of shielders. He filled this gap by putting a stackable shield on the entire party whenever his Skill is used or he performs a follow-up attack.
Apart from having enough shield power to sustain most attacks in the game, he can also increase the Crit DMG taken by a specific enemy with his Ultimate. Combining all of these effects in one character makes the best Preservation unit in the game.
Buffer
It’s no surprise that the top positions on this list are alltaken by Harmony characters, with Sparkle being the second-best character for an F2P player to have. While her personality might not be as likable, the value she can bring to your team sure is.
Whenever you use her Skill, she can increase the Crit DMG of the target ally while also increasing the entire party’s DMG whenever a Skill Point is consumed. Her high Skill Point usage also doesn’t matter since she regenerates a bunch of them with her Ultimate.
Finally, there’s no doubt that Ruan Mei is currently the best support for an F2P player in the game because of everything she brings to the table. When you use her Skill, she increases the DMG dealt by all allies while also increasing their Weakness Break Efficiency, which is a stat you cannot get normally.
Another big part of her kit is the All-Type RES PEN from the Ultimate, which is, once again, not commonly available. The party-wide buffs allow you to run double DPS compositions, and the increased Toughness DMG reduces the chances of enemies to attack your characters.
