Honkai: Star Rail Tier list (May 2026)

Honkai: Star Rail Tier list (May 2026) The most popular tier list for Honkai: Star Rail that rates all available characters by their performance in Memory of Chaos, Pure Fiction and Apocalyptic Shadow. Last updated: 13/05/2026 Honkai: Star Rail Tier list About the Tier List Please keep in mind that Honkai: Star Rail is a game where team building matters most and while our tier list takes the optimal setup into account, a lot of characters can work and do well - even those ranked lower - when you invest into them. Also for story or lower difficulties of Simulated Universe, you don't need to worry about ratings and tiers. You can safely clear that content even with F2P characters as long as you build your team correctly. These tier lists rate characters based on their average performance in Memory of Chaos, Pure Fiction and Apocalyptic Shadow regardless of turbulence, whimsicality and cacophony (last 3 phases specifically) . Characters rated higher will perform well without the need to rely on these and will only benefit more from receiving them. As new mechanics, characters and challenges are introduced each tier list will be updated. Important! Characters are ordered alphabetically within a tier . Available tier lists: Memory of Chaos (MoC)

• how the character performs in the Memory of Chaos. Blast and single target damage are important here while AoE has niche uses against some bosses. Pure Fiction (PF)
• how the character performs in the Pure Fiction. AoE is king here, followed by Blast while single target damage is mostly useless. Apocalyptic Shadow (AS)
• how the character performs in the Apocalyptic Shadow. Single target and Break potential are heavily favored here. About the ratings : To decide the ratings we use a combination of the data we gather for every mode (the Analytics for every mode you can find in the left menu), our own testing that's done inline with the criteria (check below) and the last element is community feedback we receive - either from Reddit, YouTube or our own Discord. Categories & Tags Categories DPS
• Characters that mainly focus on dealing damage and being the main source of it in the team they are placed in, Support DPS
• Characters that fall within this category are very rarely played as the primary or sole damage dealer of the team and instead almost always play alongside another character that fills that role instead. Support DPS are still built with the intention to deal damage themselves but also have a kit containing buffs/debuffs to bolster their team's performance and/or have abilities that are directly dependent on others in order to function. Amplifier
• Characters that do not focus on dealing damage but instead amplify the damage other teammates deal by granting allies buffs or debuffing enemies, Sustain
• Characters who are capable of keeping the team alive with their abilities. Special tags Tags are split into 3 categories: Pros , Cons and Archetype which represent the most defining features of a character's kit and the current meta archetypes they fit into. Archetype tags indicate a connection between characters with that tag e.g. Acheron requires debuffs to work and Silver Wolf applies them. Here is a full list of all current tags and what they mean: Break
• the character belongs to the Break archetype focusing on Break Effect and Break Efficiency, Debuff
• the character belongs to the Debuff archetype applying one or many debuffs or has a kit that directly relies on them to function, DoT
• the character belongs to the Damage-over-Time archetype specializing in applying and/or amplifying DoT effects, Advance
• the character can manipulate the turn order by either action advancing their allies or themselves, Buff
• the character can apply various Buffs to help their teammates, Delay
• the character can delay enemies and hinder their actions in battle, Energy
• the character can recover the teammates energy, SP-Friendly
• the character is substantially more skill point friendly than other characters in their role. SP-Unfriendly
• the character is substantially more skill point un-friendly than other characters in their role. Ratings & Meta Lines Meta Lines Meta Lines categorize each section of the tier list into a power bracket. Here are the four brackets: Apex Characters (T0 & T0.5)
• characters in this bracket are the cream of the crop. They can do outrageous amount of damage, provide massive buffs (or debuffs) or keep the team alive no matter what the enemy throws at them. They simply can achieve the best, most consistent and accessible results in their best teams, allowing you to easily clear the content, Meta Characters (T1, T1.5, T2)
• characters in this bracket make clearing the content a breeze, but compared to the Apex characters they require more work from your side. Either their team options are more restrictive, they require bigger Relic investment or they possess a notable weakness or downside. Still, they are all great and won't disappoint you if you give them what they need to shine, Off-meta Characters (T3 & T4)
• characters in this bracket are lacking in one or many fields of their role. These characters still possess the ability to clear all content with the right build, endgame blessing, team or enemy line-up but have much lower play rates and success rates than Meta and Apex characters, The Forgotten Ones (T5)
• characters in this bracket struggle. A lot. Either their kits simply don't work in the mode or they require a ton of investment and love to be able to work. Just avoid them unless your husbando or waifu landed here and you believe in the power of love. Half tiers To further define the tier list and correctly represent the power level of each character in relation to each other we have added half tiers to the higher tier brackets. Under our previous system a tier rating jump of 1 tier rating made it difficult to position characters accurately, often leading to multiple characters ending up in the same tier despite a clear power and utility difference. Criteria Criteria Manual play, Using optimal team composition/support characters, Character level 80, All Major Traces unlocked and skills upgraded to level 10, Character equipped with level 80 best in slot 4★ or 5★ Light Cone (including limited Light Cones, but at S1), Character equipped with 5★ upgraded gear with optimal Main Stats and Sub Stats (with 24 desired sub stats out of a possible 54), Eidolon level 0 for 5★ characters, Eidolon level 0/6 for 4★ characters. Roles We compare characters within their role - so DPS are compared to other DPS and the ratings are adjusted based on their performance within the role. Don't try to compare characters between roles (for example an Amplifier with a DPS), because their ratings mean different things. DPS
• Rating is heavily influenced based on the characters ability to deal enough damage to achieve the 3-star objective, the easier and more quickly achieved the higher the rating, Support DPS
• Rating is heavily influenced based on the damage they provide, the buffs and debuffs or efficiency boost these characters create or the utility they provide against certain encounters, Amplifier
• Rating is influenced based on the damage amplification abilities of the character and the utility they provide to the team, Sustain
• Rating is influenced based on the characters ability to keep the team alive and the utility they provide. The more utility and higher the safety, the higher the rating. Other criteria affecting the ratings Each tier list rates characters based on their average value in the specific game mode it represents. The higher a character is rated on the tier list the greater their power and more widely they can be used effectively in the mode , helping the players in getting all rewards every cycle. We aren't looking at 0-cycle potential . We consider: Flexibility
• how the characters kit functions against various enemy types, amounts of enemies and their ability to perf