Honkai: Star Rail Guide - F2P Characters Overview
Apr. 25, 2023Honkai: Star Rail Guide – F2P Characters Overview
Honkai: Star Rail Guide – F2P Characters Overview– In this Honkai: Star Rail Guide, we’re going to discuss all of the F2P characters you’ll get simply by progressing in the story and doing events. If you’re interested to know what makes them unique and how well they perform in a team, then this guide is for you!
In Honkai: Star Rail, you can get a total of 8 free characters, which already includes your main character, the Trailblazer. They are March 7th, Dan Heng, Natasha, Asta, Herta, Qingque, and Serval, the latter of whom will be given due to the staggering volume of players who have pre-registered for the game. Even though these are mostly 4-star characters except for the Trailblazer, they do well in combat. Since they also cover almost all playable Paths, you’ll gain experience in the different DPS and support classes early on. Without further ado, let’s start with the Trailblazer!
The Trailblazer has two versions – the Destruction Path that you get by default, and the Preservation Path, which you can easily switch to at a later portion of the game. The Destruction Path comes with the Physical Element where reducing the enemy’s Toughness to zero can inflict damage over time in the form of Bleed. This particular element is beneficial to you because you’ll often come across creatures who have Physical Weaknesses, thereby allowing you to break them frequently. As such, they’re great to have on your team from early to midgame.
The versatile Trailblazer (Physical) is highly skilled at dealing significant damage to single or multiple targets whether it involves activating their RIP Home Run Skill or triggering their Blowout Ultimate Ability. Furthermore, they’re resilient in combat. Not only do they have the highest HP compared to the rest of the F2P characters but they also regenerate a portion of their HP upon inflicting Physical Damage on targets who are weak against it.
On the other hand, the Preservation Path of the Trailblazer is relatively more team-oriented and can live longer in combat. This is due to the temporary Shield they conjure for all party members when activating any attack or Skill provided that they stack enough Magma Will. Magma Will is accumulated every time they get hit by enemies, which is why it’s imperative for this class to have high Defensive and Damage Reduction Stats. Unlike the Trailblazer (Physical), this one has the ability to taunt enemies effectively and deal great Fire Damage. As a result, they’re an ideal teammate to bring along with your other DPS characters when you’re facing Ice bosses who are weak against Fire.
Similar to the Trailblazer (Fire), March 7th follows the Preservation Path. Her highly utilized Skill allows her to provide an ally with a Shield based on her Defensive Stat in order to absorb some damage. This is a potent ability, especially against bosses who either lock into a single character or deal devastating damage using their Ultimate Abilities. Most of the time, you’ll end up saving them.
However, since The Power of Cuteness is a Skill, you’ll need to make sure that you have 1 available Skill Point to activate it, otherwise, you’re going to have to wait for the next turn where it might be too late. Furthermore, when Shielded allies are attacked, March 7th always counters the enemy by retaliating with her Ice Arrows.
In cases where you have another support character or combat is just starting out, March 7th can instead deal Ice Damage against a single target. This Basic Attack is average at best but it’s beneficial in cases when you need to save Skill Points for your other teammates.
March 7th is a good ally to have in the party because, on top of generating a Shield, she has a good crowd-control ability. This can be done at the start of combat by triggering the Freezing Beauty Technique or when she unleashes the Glacial Cascade Ultimate. Either way, the Action Value of frozen enemies is raised, potentially lowering the chances of performing an action during their turn.
Dan Heng is a beginner-friendly character in Honkai: Star Rail who specializes in dealing huge single-target damage due to his Hunt Path. As such, he’s the go-to 4-star character you’ll want against bosses who have Wind Weakness because he can obliterate them with his Skills and Ultimate Ability.
But what’s different about him compared to the Trailblazer is despite having decent HP, he’s not as resilient in combat, making it essential to always have a support character nearby to make sure he lives. This actually synergizes well with his Talent. For instance, if March 7th were to provide Dan Heng with a Shield, he can ignore a part of the enemy’s Wind damage resistance, allowing him to deal more damage.
All of Dan Heng’s abilities and Techniques contribute to increasing his overall damage so he’s straightforward to pilot. With his Cloudlancer Art: Torrent Skill, he’s able to reduce the Speed stat of a target when a critical attack is triggered. This, in combination with Dan Heng’s Ethereal Dream Ultimate, lets him deal considerable Wind Damage, especially when the enemy is slowed.
Next is another beginner-friendly, but this time, support character named Natasha with the Abundance Path. She primarily heals teammates but she can also deal some damage on the side particularly when initiating combat. Natasha’s Hypnosis Research Technique allows her to deal damage in addition to potentially weakening all targets as long as they don’t have enough Physical Damage Resistance. And if they’re broken, they end up inflicting less damage.
When it comes to healing, there are a number of ways that Natasha can save the team. For one, her heals increase if her target’s HP is less than 50%. She can also instantly restore her own HP if it’s way too low. Although Natasha performs the occasional Basic Attack to deal Physical Damage and to save a Skill Point, it’s not effective compared to the damage of others. So it’s better to use her for her healing capability, which can turn the tide in battle.
It’s worth noting that since Natasha’s heals scales with her HP, you’ll need to boost this stat even more as well as her Outgoing Healing to make her more effective in encounters.
Asta is an interesting character who follows the Harmony Path and specializes in dealing significant Fire Damage. Although she may seem like your average character, she performs well in a group, especially when it comes to boosting the team’s attack power.
In this Honkai: Star Rail Guide, you can think of Asta as an Erudition – Harmony hybrid because of her ability to bombard several enemies at once with the Meteor Storm Skill. In some cases, this may even result in inflicting the Burn status effect. Like the Physical Element, Fire is common in the game, especially in the early stages. This works well with Asta’s passive ability because, for every attacked target, a Charging stack is gained. And the more stacks she has, the higher the attack buff will be for her allies.
In terms of Asta’s Ultimate, she can increase everyone’s Speed stat by a considerable amount, allowing them to attack more often in combat. So it’s important to immediately trigger this once you accumulate enough energy. Additionally, increased Speed becomes crucial in moments when you need to keep hitting the boss first so you can break them, otherwise, they’ll have time to unleash a deadly powerful skill against you.
Despite Asta’s buffing and damage-dealing prowess, she’ll need the help of support characters to either shield her from taking too much damage or to heal her when things get rough.
The next three characters all follow the Erudition Path except that their elements are different. First is Herta who has the ability to not only freeze multiple enemies with her mighty hammer but she also deals solid damage. She’s often paired well with other damage dealers like Dan Heng and the Trailblazer to finish their targets efficiently. Because of Herta’s wide reach in terms of the overall damage she inflicts, she’s best suited in fights against mobs rather than facing a single boss.
Herta’s One-Time Offer Skill is made all the more effective when she uses it against foes whose HP is greater than or equal to 50%. So she ends up dealing greater Ice Damage while potentially freezing them in place. What’s more, is that Herta launches a follow-up attack every now and then. Rather than March 7th’s counter, she hits all enemies when one of their HP goes down to 50% or lower, and this happens frequently at the latter parts of an encounter..
Qingque is a rather unique character in that she uses Quantum attacks. Dealing enough Quantum Damage will cause Entanglement, putting the target at a lower Action Order. As such, she can still hold her ground when facing bosses on top of dealing considerable damage against numerous foes but piloting her properly requires a bit of luck.
Qingque’s kit revolves around manipulating Jade tiles to dictate the effectiveness of her moves. In total, she can hold up to 4 tiles. For starters, her passive Technique allows her to draw 2 tiles at the beginning of combat. With the Celestial Jade Talent, she can draw a random tile after an ally makes a move. If she eventually ends up holding 4 tiles belonging to the same suit, she’ll go into the Concealed Kong State. This significantly boosts her overall attack, and consequently her Basic Attack against a regular enemy or boss.
Meanwhile, Qingque’s Ultimate automatically allows her to enter this enhanced state since all 4 tiles she currently has will be converted to the same Fish suit. This, on top of the massive Quantum Damage she deals against all enemies, makes Qingque an interesting teammate to have.
Last but not least on the list of F2P characters in Honkai: Star Rail is Serval. Serval’s element is Lightning so if an enemy is inflicted with the Shock status effect, they take damage over time but they’re not stunned. In Serval’s case, her main draw is to deal Lightning Damage to as many targets as possible while inflicting DoT. And when they’re incapacitated by this status effect, they take higher damage.
For starters, she has an active Technique, which would allow her to initiate combat by dealing damage and then potentially inflicting Shock against all enemies on the battlefield. Her Basic Attack against a single target would sometimes result in dealing additional Lightning Damage to other hostiles nearby. And finally, Serval’s Ultimate caters to all enemies and works better against Shocked targets since the respective condition is extended further the moment they’re hit.
These F2P characters should hold you in good stead until you manage to successfully pull powerful premiums via the Warp System. Doing so would allow you to experiment with your teams more to come up with optimal setups. The ones I would recommend concentrating on would be a mix of both 4-star and 5-star characters.
First is Bronya, who follows the Harmony Path and specializes in not only removing an ally’s debuff and increasing their attack as well as critical damage, but she can also instantaneously move them up higher in the Action Order. Second is Tingyun, who is another Harmony character that excels in buffing an ally’s attack power while granting additional Energy so these will be useful for main damage dealers.
And the third one is the fast-moving Seele who follows the Hunt Path. Seele can remain invisible until she attacks and she even gains an extra action after putting down an enemy, allowing her to attack more times than anyone in the game. In case you don’t pull them just yet, you can look at alternatives such as Bailu, Gepard, Clara, and Sushang.
That’s it for our Honkai: Star Rail Guide – F2P Characters Overview. Stay tuned for more Honkai: Star Rail Guides, and be sure to drop by ourTwitch Channelif you have questions about the game. What would your first team composition look like? Who are the characters you’re hoping to pull? Let us know in the comments below! For other content, check out Honkai: Star Rail Beginner Guide andHonkai: Star Rail Gameplay Overview (F2P Turn-Based RPG).
Reiku
Writer at Fextralife. I enjoy playing RPGs, narrative-driven games, and platformers. Outside of gaming, I like watching meaningful movies and reading sci-fi and dystopian books.
