Honkai Star Rail's Meta has a Problem

Just Some Useful Information to take with you as you move forward

Please Keep In Mind that these are All My Own Personal Opinions- not objective views and I understand that many Many May Disagree, and if you do then that’s fine.

Honkai: Star Rail is a role-playing gacha video game developed by miHoYo, published by miHoYo in China and by its subsidiary HoYoverse worldwide. It was released on April 26, 2023, for Windows and mobile devices; ports for PlayStation 4 and 5 are planned

#honkaistarrail #hoyoverse #Honkai

[rickfrancisong]

I can see the future meta. And its called the "Super Crit"

[XieRH]

To me the meta problem comes down to the way the endgame buffs basically force you to only use certain team archetypes or else risk a massive DPS loss when you are unable to 'charge up' the buff to build stacks.

Anyone who's ever deliberately tried to use teams that don't synergise with MOC buffs knows how much longer it takes to clear the stage.

[jonathanrobinson]

I feel like people get way too stuck in meta with this game specifically that they overlook decent alternatives considering a character can’t be on both sides of a game mode.

If you need Ruan Mei for a team outside of Firefly, then you can still run your firefly team with Asta and it will do fine. If you have Gallagher and Lingsha then put Lingsha on the follow up or squishier team

Acheron has a team with every nihility character aside from Luka to my knowledge. In my experience, the challenges in this game aren’t necessarily about having the most meta teams at all times. If you allow one team archetype to run their second or even third best team then it allows you to pair your other meta characters with teammates that aren’t considered top tier, but they’ll perform better.

[scheve]

Agreed on most accounts but Pela, Gallagher and Moze are not good examples of the problem with 4-star units. Moze has been able to provide greatly to at least the one team he was essentially designed for, while Gallagher is practically a 5-star unit (or something between 4 and 5-star). Pela especially aged like fine wine, especially when you consider the variety of 5-stars that all got dropped like bricks long before her, granted that most if not all of them are indeed dps units. She's still completely usable in teams like Acheron's—provided that she's not doing as well as her contemporaries—but that's the exact thing you would expect from a 4-star. I would say that Pela and Gallagher are the perfect examples of what 4-star units should be like, completely usable but clearly lacking in some shape or form.

[Toastyz]

I get your points, but Moze and Gallagher are some of the best four star units we've seen release. Moze is a really good alternative to topaz for Fei's comps. Gallagher was good in debuffs comps along with break comps. These are kind of what i look for in 4 stars. Strong alternatives to their five star counterparts.

[DCminh-pewf]

Id say with the exception of Blade, all other limited 5s dps are somewhat fine/playable/pretty good in the meta. You should be able to find two/three stage you can fit your favs in and have them do pretty well
Jingyuan is falling off, again, for the 50th time. But he's also getting buffed, again, for the 50th time by Sunday so he should be fine aswell

Kafka BS still do pretty well, Seele can be surprisingly good if you have a strong harmony to back up her lacking damage

For supports, uh, SW is falling off, her weakness implant is powercrept into oblivion so she's kind of stuck to Acheron in ST scenario or as Jaoqiu replacement
For sustain, Luocha kind of got powercrept by Gallagher
The 4s cast have taken the biggest hit yet though
Asta is dead
Hanya is dead
Yukong is especially dead
Serval is falling off really hard, even in PF she isnt pulling her weight. The only stage she has done somewhat well so far is Choir
Dan Heng is dead

[cryoge]

It's seriously annoying how they keep making the newest shiny character be better than the one before. How about trying to release LESS characters and BALANCE them, instead of continuously releasing new characters than end up overshadowing the prior ones? It's surreal how less viable Fu Xuan has become compared to Aventurine, or how lacking Sparkle feels despite being hyped for the extra SP stacks and generation.

[iamthenothing]

Haha Firefly go BRRRR.
But really you can feel how the break meta is really pushed into the game right now. Like i want to use Clara more cuz shes my favorite or Jingliu cuz she hot but with my Firefly built up and cleaning house in harder modes you can really feel a difference thats hard to come back from.

[teodagreat]

Super ready for the end of break characters!! Please Mihoyo start making the new characters use cooler and different mechanics..

[XX-brbn]

When was this made ? We now have heard about the updated pure fiction which is a buff for erudition, no issues with elites and boss in PF anymore

[nonenoninomae]

I've built Moze. And it's amozeing.
I have it as a support character for people to use.

[Machiavelli]

We need a New Game Plus mode where players can restart the game in a more challenging world with better rewards, additional story content, higher levels, and more diverse enemies—similar to Elden Ring. Each time a boss is defeated, players could choose a unique reward, with other options unlocking in future cycles.

In this mode, players would be accompanied by a spiritual guide—an evolving Divine Spirit Guide—which grows with each cycle. This guide would draw on Kabbalistic principles like wisdom, protection, or balance, offering unique abilities or insights that deepen as players progress. Weapons and characters could bond with Divine Spirits, gaining blessings that enhance elemental powers or spiritual resilience.

Additionally, players could gain Aeon Powers from defeated Aeons, unlocking a special ability that strengthens with each cycle, reflecting their connection to these mystical entities. Each New Game Plus cycle could also allow one character to become a vessel of divine energy or gain transformative Aeon powers. Exclusive gear and weapons, representing these sacred and Aeon connections, would be available only once per cycle, creating new depths for each playthrough.

[armadyleanarchon]

Breaking news everyone! A playstyle that wasn't even viable on the games release is now the "current" Meta!

DOT had the EXACT same treatment. It's just a cycle. Chill out it'll be crit in a few months

[OmniNatureSmore]

Don’t worry, 3.X will bring a new meta and a lot of units to support the new meta. A lot more food for people to complain about normal game design!! People who like and pull for the new meta will enjoy it, people who don’t get in will complain all 3.X about it like those complaining about break today.

That aside, I am a DoT player, game is still easy enough to clear and I do all game mods with DoTs.

Also please… the 4 star comment should be a joke? Right? Moze is great, HMC is op, Galla surpases Lingsha on situations, March8th is super strong… Pela can still be used in Acheron without Jiaoqiu… what was that take lol

[Mr.MasterOfTheMonsters]

More than that. There is very blatant favoritism for a couple of characters, to which they dedicate the entirety of multiple patches (Dan Heng in 1.X, Firefly, Acheron and Fei Xiao in 2.X). The rest of characters are either hyper-specialized supports for those specific DPSs (Lingsha, Jiaoqiu, Sparkle), or just bad (Argenti, Jade, Black Swan).
So even if you like certain Meta characters, chances are it's going to be useless if you don't have the dedicated DPS for which they are tailor-made.

[ladyhdwastaken]

I loved Firefly ( I still do) and couldn't wait for her to become playable. I now have her E2S1 and I can't wait for her to become unplayable. At this point she is Himeko's support for me. I'll never get tired of making Auntie Himeko pizza slice the enemies. But in all seriousness: I'm so tired of using Firefly, holy... can I use my Jingliu in an at least somewhat decent situation? Any ice weak enemies? If they wanna push break, do all the units have to be fire?

Divu/Simu are the best game modes for me. Absolute chaos and perfection each run. Shit, I still use Preservation March in these game modes cause she's kind of cracked in them 😆

[SmashTheAdam]

Did you really just call Moze, Gallagher and Pela bad?, dude those three are some of the best characters in the game right now, sure Sparkle, Ruan and Robin are the top of supports right now, but you're really downplaying Pela's AoE Def shred, she's easily the best 4 star Nihility in terms of her debuffs, and Gallagher excels in both break AND debuff teams (he can apply two debuffs back to the back) not to mention he's 100% sp positive unlike Lingsha, you basically never need to use his skill except for emergency heals, so he can work in sp negative teams, and Moze is an amazing 4 star replacement for Topaz.
Honestly with the exception of Misha, all the 4 stars in 2.x have been amazing, not to mention they're basically free too (Gallagher was free in 3 events i think, March is obviously free, and leaks said 2.7 is gonna have a 4 star selector that includes Moze), i really don't know how you looked at Gallagher, Moze, Pela and most likely hunt March and thought "yep, those are absolutely garbage, and no one would build them"