Right now there are 83 playable characters in Honkai: Star Rail, spread across 7 elements and 8 combat paths. That number grows by two or three every patch, and 4.1 is no exception. This page collects all of them in one place, with a link to the full build guide for each one. If you came here to figure out who to pull, the HSR tier list is probably the better starting point.
Every portrait below links directly to that character's guide covering light cones, relics, team compositions, and eidolon value. Use the search bar or element filters to narrow things down, or just scroll the full roster. The order here reflects current meta standing with the strongest characters toward the top.
Seven elements, each with its own weakness system. Click any element card to filter the roster below.
Paths are the combat archetypes that define what a character actually does in a team. There are eight of them: for single-target DPS, for self-buffing carries, for AoE damage, for debuffs and DoT, for shielding, for healing, for team-wide buffs, and for the newer summon-style support playstyle. Click any path name to filter the roster above.
Path matters less than you might think when choosing who to pull. A Nihility character can out-DPS some Hunt characters depending on team composition. The build guide for each character covers what their path actually means in practice. If you want to know which paths are strongest in 4.1, the tier list breaks it down by role.
The roster keeps growing. Version 4.1 brought the character count to 83, and 4.2 will push it further. If you bookmark this page it will be updated the same day new characters go live. And if the reason you came here was to figure out where to spend your Stellar Jade, the full tier list is the better place to start.
There are 83 playable characters in Honkai: Star Rail as of patch 4.1. The game adds roughly 2 new characters per patch on a six-week cycle, so the roster keeps growing. Phainon, Castorice, and Anaxa were among the most recent additions before this version settled.
In 4.1, Phainon is the strongest DPS in the game, followed closely by Sunday as the best support and Castorice as the top Remembrance carry. In S+ tier you have Firefly, Feixiao, Acheron, Robin, Ruan Mei, Aventurine, and Kafka all clearing endgame content with room to spare. The HSR tier list covers all 83 characters with full rankings from SS down to C.
Honkai: Star Rail has 7 elements: Fire, Ice, Lightning, Wind, Quantum, Imaginary, and Physical. Each element exploits a specific enemy weakness in the toughness break system. Fire is the most dominant element in 4.1 thanks to Phainon, but Quantum and Imaginary have stayed near the top of the meta across multiple patches running.
Paths are the 8 combat roles in Honkai: Star Rail: The Hunt, Destruction, Erudition, Nihility, Preservation, Abundance, Harmony, and Remembrance. Think of them as the game's class system. A character's path shapes their kit, but the actual playstyle varies quite a bit within each path depending on the specific character's design.
Free characters in Honkai: Star Rail include the Trailblazer (all story forms, the best of which is Trailblazer Imaginary for Harmony support), Gallagher (one of the best sustain characters in the game at zero cost), Pela (provides DEF shred unavailable anywhere else at her rarity), and a wide range of 4-stars through Stellar Warp and events including March 7th, Natasha, Dan Heng, Hook, Serval, Asta, Herta, Arlan, Sushang, Qingque, and Sampo. The F2P guide on the tier list covers which ones are worth the investment.
