Honkai Star Rail Beginner Guide [20 Tips & Tricks]

Learn about the 20 useful tips & tricks for starters in Honkai Star Rail so you can prioritize the right things & avoid wasting time.

Jumping into your adventure of Honkai Star Rail can be an exhilarating yet challenging experience for newcomers. To ensure a smooth and enjoyable journey through the game’s intricate mechanics, characters, and battles, a comprehensive Honkai Star Rail beginner guide is crucial. It offers valuable insights, tips, and strategies that will empower players to conquer challenges and progress effectively in the vast universe of Honkai Star Rail.

Key Takeaways
  • Honkai Star Rail is a gacha game, which means if you do not keep your priorities right, you will waste more time than get a valuable outcome.
  • The 20 tips and tricks that I have listed here below in this Honkai Star Rail Beginner Guide will align your interests in setting the priorities straight so that you win more, earn more in-game currency & enjoy the game:
    1. Explore maps thoroughly to find hidden quests, chests, and puzzles.
    2. Pay attention to enemy weaknesses for maximum damage output.
    3. Consider revisiting tough enemies after leveling up your characters.
    4. Level up multiple characters to tackle endgame content effectively.
    5. Diversify your team with different elements to counter various enemy types.
    6. Include various character types in your team for balanced gameplay.
    7. Utilize techniques before starting battles to gain an advantage.
    8. Understand the difference between standard and event gacha banners.
    9. Master characters’ unique abilities to optimize their performance.
    10. Focus on character progression and equipment upgrades for better results.
    11. Adapt to different enemy types and exploit their weaknesses strategically.
    12. Complete missions to unlock new gameplay features and rewards.
    13. Participate in in-game activities like Calyx Challenge and Time-Limited Events.
    14. Equip the best Light Cones and the best Relics to enhance your characters’ stats.
    15. Ascend characters and Light Cones to unlock their full potential.
    16. Utilize Assignments as a passive source of upgrade materials.
    17. Prioritize Trailblaze Missions to progress in Honkai Star Rail efficiently.
    18. Build a balanced starter team based on Elemental and Path types.
    19. Collect and manage essential upgrade materials for character growth.
    20. Complete Daily Missions to gain extra resources and rewards.

Learn Combat Basics

Honkai Star Rail Equilibrium Character Swapping
Character Swapping

In Honkai Star Rail, mastering combat basics is essential for every beginner. This turn-based combat system requires strategic thinking, as each character and enemy take turns performing actions. Your team consists of four characters, and during each turn, you can choose to attack opponents or support teammates. Characters have three abilities: Base Attack, Skill, and Ultimate.

  • The Base Attack generates a Skill Point, while the Skill ability, stronger than the Base Attack, costs one Skill Point.
  • As you use these abilities, your character’s Energy meter fills up, eventually allowing them to unleash their powerful Ultimate ability.
  • This can be activated whenever you deem it necessary during combat.

Understanding Elements & Paths

character paths Honkai Star Rail

Understanding elements and paths is a crucial step in Honkai Star Rail Beginner Guide for all newcomers to this genre/game. Each character possesses a specific element and path, which dictate their damage type and combat role. With seven unique elements, it’s essential to learn their interactions and utilize them against opponents with elemental weaknesses, maximizing your damage output in battles.

  • Paths, on the other hand, define the role of characters in combat.
  • Seven distinct paths are available, ranging from DPS to healers.
  • Building a team with a diverse set of paths ensures versatility and adaptability in various combat situations.
  • For example, having a healer or support character, such as Abundance or Preservation, is crucial for keeping your team alive, while Destruction, Hunt, or Erudition characters focus on dishing out damage.

Build A Starter Team

Best Ice Honkai Star Rail Team Comps

As a beginner in Honkai Star Rail, assembling a well-rounded starter team is essential for a smooth gameplay experience. Begin by considering your opponents’ elemental weaknesses and selecting characters with diverse elements to capitalize on these vulnerabilities. When it comes to paths, aim for a balanced mix of roles to ensure optimal team performance.

  1. A recommended composition includes one Abundance or Preservation character, such as March 7th, to provide healing or shielding for the team.
  2. Incorporate one or more damage dealers, like Destruction, Hunt, or Erudition characters, to swiftly eliminate foes. Characters like Dan Heng or Asta can excel in these roles.
  3. Finally, add one or more Harmony or Nihility characters to enhance your team’s abilities or debuff enemies.

Equip Light Cones And Relics

Honkai Star Rail Fire Trailblazer Light Cones
Light Cones

In Honkai Star Rail, equipping your characters with Light Cones and Relics is crucial for enhancing their capabilities in battle. Light Cones serve as weapons, while Relics grant significant stat boosts and potent set effects. To equip these items, navigate to the character menu and select the appropriate slots.

  • Upon reaching Trailblaze Level 14, you’ll unlock Relics, further expanding your characters’ potential.
  • It’s essential to prioritize leveling up and Ascending your Light Cones and Relics to stay competitive in battles.
  • To do this, you’ll need to gather upgrade materials such as Character EXP, Light Cone EXP, and Relic EXP materials.

Level-up & Ascend Characters

Honkai Star Rail Equilibrium`Understanding Equilibrium & Trailblaze Levels
Understanding Equilibrium & Trailblaze Levels

In Honkai Star Rail, leveling up and ascending your characters is vital to ensuring their effectiveness in battles. To level up a character, gather Character EXP materials through various in-game activities such as missions and challenges. As your characters reach specific level caps, you will need to perform ascension to unlock further growth potential.

  • To ascend a character, collect Trace and Ascension Materials by completing quests, participating in events, or exchanging in-game currency.
  • Ascension not only increases the level cap but also enhances the character’s abilities, making them more formidable in combat.
  • When building your team, diversify your roster by including characters with different Elements and Paths.
  • This strategy allows you to adapt to various enemy types and exploit their weaknesses.
  • As you progress, focus on leveling and ascending a balanced team, including healers, damage dealers, and support characters.

Collect Important Upgrade Materials

Stellar Jade currency

Among the crucial materials, you will need Stellar Jade, an in-game currency used to exchange for Warps, which provides new characters and Light Cones. Trailblaze EXP, Character EXP materials, Light Cone EXP materials, and Relic EXP materials are necessary for leveling up your main character, individual characters, Light Cones, and Relics, respectively.

Additionally, make sure to collect Trace and Ascension Materials, which are vital for character and Light Cone ascension. These upgrades allow you to break the level cap and enhance your team’s abilities.

To maximize your efforts, participate in daily missions, Time-Limited Events, and other activities that reward essential materials. By consistently collecting and utilizing these resources, you can efficiently strengthen your team, allowing you to tackle more challenging content in Honkai Star Rail.

Participate In In-game Activities

Meeting With Sampo
Honkai Star Rail in-game activities (Image Credits Exputer)

Missions are an essential aspect of Honkai Star Rail, including Trailblaze Missions, Adventure Missions, Companion Missions, and Daily Missions. By completing these tasks, you will unlock new features and earn valuable resources, and that is why I believe this tip is very useful in this Honkai Star Rail Beginner Guide.

  • Calyx Challenge, Simulated Universe, and Forgotten Hall are combat-oriented activities that test your skills and strategic thinking.
  • These challenges reward you with Trailblaze EXP, Character EXP, Light Cone EXP, and Credits, contributing to your team’s growth.
  • Time-Limited Events offer additional gameplay for a limited period, providing unique rewards and opportunities to strengthen your characters.
  • Assignments, a more passive activity, allows you to send characters on missions to obtain various rewards and upgrade materials.

Prioritize Trailblaze Missions

Talking To Julian
Playing Trailblaze Missions (Image Credits Exputer)

Trailblaze Missions serve as the primary plot quests, guiding you through Honkai Star Rail’s narrative and introducing you to its captivating universe. By completing these missions, you will not only gain valuable insights into the game’s lore but also receive substantial rewards, such as character experience points, gear, and essential resources.

  • As you progress through Trailblaze Missions, you will unlock new gameplay features, including the Simulated Universe and the Forgotten Hall.
  • These activities provide additional opportunities to test your skills, level up your characters, and earn even more rewards.
  • Furthermore, Trailblaze Missions often lead you to unlock new areas and encounter diverse enemies, presenting you with exciting challenges and teaching you valuable combat strategies.

By prioritizing Trailblaze Missions, you will ensure steady progression in Honkai Star Rail and establish a strong foundation for your team, setting you up for success in the later stages of the game.

Focus On Daily Missions For Rewards

honkai star rail administrative district chests Chest 5
Daily Missions Honkai Star Rail

Daily Missions are designed to be achievable, providing a consistent source of income for essential currencies like Trailblaze Experience, Stellar Jade, and Credits. As you complete these tasks, you will accumulate Activity Points, which can be claimed in the Guide menu. Reaching the 200 Activity Points threshold daily ensures a steady influx of resources needed to level up your characters and gear.

  • Moreover, Daily Missions provide ample opportunities to test your team’s abilities and strategies, helping you refine your tactics and better understand each character’s strengths and weaknesses.
  • This practice will prove invaluable as you progress through Honkai Star Rail and face increasingly challenging foes.

Carefully Seek Out Chests & Puzzles

honkai star rail administrative district chests Café
Chests – Honkai Star Rail 

In Honkai Star Rail, exploring the world and discovering hidden chests and puzzles can greatly enhance your gaming experience. Chests hold a treasure trove of valuable items, including the premium currency, Stellar Jade, and other essential resources. Puzzles, on the other hand, provide an entertaining challenge that can lead to even more bountiful rewards. Keeping an eye out for these chests is definitely a helpful tip in Honkai Star Rail Beginner Guide.

  • As a beginner, it’s essential to keep an eye out for these hidden gems while traversing the various maps.
  • Each map displays the number of available chests and puzzles in the top left corner, giving you a sense of how many secrets are waiting to be uncovered.
  • Don’t be afraid to venture off the beaten path; you may just stumble upon a valuable treasure chest.

While some puzzles may require a bit of ingenuity to solve, the rewards are well worth the effort. In addition to loot, completing puzzles can also grant you experience points and other bonuses to further strengthen your team.

Pay Attention To Enemy Weaknesses

how to get kafka honkai star rail Caressing Moonlight
Exploit Enemy Weaknesses 

As a beginner, it’s important to familiarize yourself with the various elements present in Honkai Star Rail and understand how they interact with one another. By assembling a diverse team of characters, you’ll be well-equipped to tackle any elemental challenge that comes your way.

  • During the battle, keep an eye on enemy information to identify their elemental weaknesses.
  • Then, strategically deploy your characters to maximize damage output by exploiting these vulnerabilities.
  • In some cases, this might involve switching between characters mid-fight to deliver devastating elemental combos.

Return To Challenging Enemies Later

Honkai Star Rail Rarely Affectionate Defeating The Automaton Direwolf
Challenging Enemy Types – Honkai Star Rail

Patience is key in Honkai Star Rail, as leveling up and obtaining better equipment are crucial for strengthening your team. Focus on completing quests, upgrading your characters, and enhancing their Light Cones and Relics to become more powerful. Additionally, one of the best Honkai Star Rail beginner tips I can give you right now is to take advantage of Honkai Star Rail’s various upgrade materials to strengthen your characters and their gear further & nothing is more valuable than this tip in my Honkai Star Rail beginner guide.

  • As you progress in Honkai Star Rail, you’ll inevitably encounter formidable enemies guarding valuable loot or blocking your path to success.
  • These foes might appear overwhelming, especially when their names are highlighted in red, indicating a significant level difference.
  • Instead of risking defeat, it’s wise to retreat and return to these challenging adversaries after leveling up your characters and improving their gear.

Level Up Multiple Characters For Endgame Content

honkai star rail characters abilities
Endgame Characters [Image Capture Credit to eXputer]
Honkai Star Rail’s endgame content demands a diverse and powerful roster to tackle the toughest challenges. As a beginner, it’s essential to plan ahead and invest in leveling up multiple characters, ensuring you have a well-rounded team to face the trials that await.

  • Endgame activities like the Simulated Universe and Forgotten Hall require a deep roster, with the latter demanding two separate teams of four characters each.
  • To prepare for these challenges, focus on raising a variety of characters with different elements and roles.
  • This approach will provide you with the flexibility to adapt to any situation and capitalize on enemy weaknesses.

As you acquire new characters, prioritize leveling and enhancing their abilities, Light Cones and Relics. Experiment with different team compositions to find synergies that work best for your playstyle. Remember to strike a balance between damage dealers, supporters, and healers to maximize your team’s effectiveness in battle.

Diversify Your Team With Different Elements

Diversified Team Comps in Honkai Star Rail

Honkai Star Rail features a variety of elements, each with its unique strengths and advantages. To create an effective team, aim to include at least one character per element in your roster. This will provide you with the flexibility to adjust your team composition based on the enemies you encounter and their elemental weaknesses.

In addition to considering elemental diversity, pay attention to the different character roles, such as damage dealers, supporters, and healers. A balanced team should have a mix of these roles, ensuring that you can effectively manage both offense and defense during battles.

As you embark on your journey, one crucial Honkai Star Rail Beginner Guide strategy for success is diversifying your team with characters of different elements. Having a well-rounded roster not only enables you to exploit enemy weaknesses but also ensures you’re prepared for any challenge that comes your way.

Include Various Character Types In Your Team

In Honkai Star Rail, assembling a well-balanced team is crucial for conquering the challenges that lie ahead. Including various character types in your team is a key strategy for beginners, as each character type serves a unique purpose in battles and contributes to your overall success.

  • Your team should comprise characters with distinct roles, such as damage dealers, healers, and supporters.
  • Damage dealers focus on inflicting as much harm as possible to your foes, while healers restore your team’s health, ensuring their survival in tough encounters.
  • Supporters, on the other hand, provide valuable buffs and debuffs to strengthen your allies and weaken enemies.

Utilize Techniques Before Starting A Battle

As a beginner, it’s essential to familiarize yourself with each character’s technique and strategically use them to bolster your chances of victory. For instance, you can activate a character’s technique to provide a temporary boost to your team’s attack or defense, giving you an edge from the very start of the battle.

It’s crucial to remember that techniques have a limited number of uses before needing to recharge. Therefore, use them judiciously and plan your moves carefully to maximize their impact on the battlefield.

In Honkai Star Rail, mastering the art of utilizing techniques before starting a battle can give you a significant advantage over your adversaries. These powerful pre-battle abilities, unique to each character, can provide buffs, debuffs, or even freeze enemies before the fight commences.

Know The Difference Between Standard & Event Gacha Banners

Standard gacha banners are always available and offer a fixed pool of characters and weapons. These banners are a reliable source for obtaining essential characters and equipment, making them an excellent option for beginners looking to build a solid foundation.

Event gacha banners, on the other hand, are time-limited and feature exclusive characters and weapons for a short duration. These banners are an excellent opportunity to acquire powerful, unique additions to your team. However, keep in mind that event banners often have lower drop rates for featured items, making them a riskier choice for players with limited resources.

Utilize Characters’ Unique Abilities

Characters’ abilities can be categorized into three main types: Base Attack, Skill, and Ultimate. Base Attacks generate Skill Points, while Skills consume these points for stronger attacks or support abilities. Ultimate abilities are powerful, game-changing moves that become available once a character’s Energy meter is full.

  • Additionally, take note of character Techniques, which can be used outside of battle to buff allies or debilitate enemies before engaging in combat.
  • These pre-battle abilities can give you a strategic advantage and turn the tide in your favor.

If you want to ace Honkai Star Rail beginner tips, then it’s crucial to understand the synergy between characters and their abilities, as some can complement each other, leading to devastating combos or valuable support actions. This includes abilities that exploit enemies’ elemental weaknesses or those that provide essential healing and shielding for your team.

Focus On Character Progression & Equipment

Character progression involves leveling up and Ascending your characters. To do this, you’ll need to collect various materials, such as Character EXP Materials and Ascension Materials, by completing missions and participating in in-game activities. Keep an eye on your characters’ level caps and be ready to Ascend them when necessary.

Equipment plays a vital role in boosting your characters’ stats and unlocking powerful abilities. In Honkai Star Rail, characters can equip Light Cones and Relics to enhance their combat prowess. Light Cones act as weapons, while Relics grant significant stat boosts and potent set effects. Always ensure that your characters are well-equipped, and don’t forget to enhance your gear for maximum benefits.

Adapt To Different Enemy Types & Weaknesses

To effectively counter enemy types, it’s essential to build a versatile team composed of characters with different elements and abilities. By understanding the elemental strengths and weaknesses of your foes, you can leverage the appropriate characters to inflict maximum damage and improve your chances of success.

In addition to elemental weaknesses, enemies may have specific vulnerabilities to certain character abilities or status effects. Familiarize yourself with your character’s unique skills and talents, and learn how to utilize them effectively in different combat scenarios.

Final Remarks

With this, I conclude my Honkai Star Rail beginner guide, where I believe every little & useful tip or trick is listed. All of these tips and tricks helped me big time during my playthrough of Honkai Star Rail & I believe it will help you, too, if you set the priorities right. 

Also, do not forget to read about Honkai Star Rail Hook Quest, Draconic Tears, Dazzling Golden Watch Location, and Signs Of Fragmentum guides.

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Sameer Tahir


Sameer is a Senior Writer & Editor for all sorts of guides on eXputer. He’s been hooked on games since the age of 8, when he found a liking for Pokemon titles on the Gameboy. Since then, he has dove deep into many other genres on all sorts of consoles to feed his love for gaming. Sameer is currently pursuing a Journalism Degree. He has several years of writing experience and has worked for Mashable previously. Experience: 5+ Years || Education: ACCA and Currently doing a Bachelor's in Journalism || Previously Worked for Mashable || Published 200+ Guides

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