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As soon as you step foot in Honkai: Star Rail, you’ll already be fighting enemies in the turn-based combat system. Even if you’ve played previous games from Hoyoverse, this system will be quite new to you. The game lets you fight as Kafka and Silver Wolf until you wake up the Trailblazer.
Not only will you need to fight enemies to progress in the story, but also to get treasure and ascension items for your characters. It’s important to know all the mechanics involved in combat if you want to have a good time in the game.
Updated August 8th, 2023: If you’re looking to master Honkai Star Rail’s combat, we’ve included a video guide with this article to help you become the ultimate Star Railer.
How Turn-Based Combat Works In Honkai: Star Rail
The combat system starts as soon as you locate an enemy in the game, but the actual battle only begins if you attack or get attacked by that enemy. This will play a cool animation and lead you to the combat screen where you’ll see your characters and the enemies lined up against each other.
It’s always better to attack the enemy first since Ambush triggers if you get attacked first.
This effect gives the enemies the first turn, which will heavily impact the outcome of the battle, especially against hard opponents.
On the combat screen, you’ll be able to see many icons, but the most important is the bar on the left where the turn lineup is shown. The top of this bar will have the character that’s currently performing an attack, and the upcoming turns will be displayed in order below them. If you change an enemy’s turn, it’ll also be shown here.
This bar lets you plan your attacks and support abilities accordingly. Moreover, you can use this to prioritize enemies so that you can delay damage to your characters as much as possible. You’ll also be able to see the enemy’s weakness bar on top of their health, and this mechanic is discussed in detail below.
On the top right of your screen, you’ll see the speed-up, auto-battle, and pause buttons. You can use the pause button to retreat from battle.
The speed-up button doubles the speed of all abilities, and the auto-battle button lets you sit back and relax while the game fights for you.
One of the most important aspects of combat in Star Rail is keeping an eye on enemy attacks. Some of these attacks can lock on to your character, apply debuffs on them, or make them fall asleep for one turn. You can see all these debuffs on your characters at the bottom of the screen, so it’s important to pay attention to that.
At the bottom left, you’ll see a small icon with a magnifying glass on it. You can use this icon to read all the buffs and debuffs that your characters currently have. Moreover, there’ll be an icon at the top that shows a certain enemy. If you click on this icon, you can get information about each enemy and their attack pattern.
You can also see your character’s skill set in this menu by clicking on the white button on the top left.
Complete Weakness Guide
Weakness is the most important mechanic that you have to pay attention to if you want to win your battles, especially in the late game. You can use this mechanic both in and out of battle to get a massive advantage over your enemies. Whenever you get close to an enemy, you’ll see their level and name at the top of your screen.
Below their name, you’ll also see some combat types (elements). This symbolizes that the enemies you’re going to fight will be weak to those elements. Make sure that your first attack to start the battle is done by a character who has one of the weakened elements. This will lower the toughness of all enemies who are weak to that element.
You can only see one enemy roaming around in the open world, but there will be more than one when you start the battle.
The elements displayed below an enemy’s name in the open world include the weakened elements for all enemies that you’ll fight.
Once you enter battle, you’ll be able to see an enemy’s Toughness bar on top of their health. Above the bar, you’ll see the elements that they’re weak to. When you’re casting an ability on these enemies with the respective element character, you’ll see a yellow bar on them. Their Toughness bar will deplete to the point shown with this yellow bar.
If an enemy’s Toughness bar reaches zero, Weakness break triggers. This has different effects based on the element you use to break them:
|
Break Element |
Effect |
|---|---|
|
Physical |
Deals Physical DMG and apply the Bleed effect that deals Physical damage over time (DoT). |
|
Ice |
Deals Ice DMG and freezes the target. This immobilizes the enemy and deals extra Ice DMG. |
|
Wind |
Deals Wind DMG and applies the Wind Shear effect that deals Wind DoT. |
|
Fire |
Deals Fire DMG and applies the Burn effect, which deals Fire DoT. |
|
Lightning |
Deals Lightning DMG and applies the Shock effect that deals extra Lightning DoT. |
|
Quantum |
Triggering Weakness Break with Quantum applies Entanglement to the enemies. This delays their action in the next turn and deals extra Quantum DMG. |
|
Imaginary |
Inflicts Imprisonment on the enemy and deals Imaginary DMG to them. Imprisoned enemies have their action SPD reduced and they have delayed actions. |
Another thing to note about the Toughness bar is that if this bar gets depleted, the enemy recovers it fully whenever they get the next turn. This doesn’t consume their turn, so they can still attack after that. This can be particularly frustrating if you’re fighting a boss and spend many turns to get rid of their Toughness, only to face it again.
You need to manage your attacks in a way where you would take away the enemy’s toughness at the start of your turn so that the rest of the characters can deal plenty of damage to them.
How To Use Your Abilities In Honkai: Star Rail
Each character in Honkai: Star Rail has a set of abilities that can be used in and out of combat. Here’s everything you can use on each character:
|
Ability Type |
When To Use |
Description |
|---|---|---|
|
Basic Attack |
Outside battle |
You can use the basic attack of any character outside battle to start it. This will inflict Weakness on enemies if you use the correct element. |
|
Technique |
Outside battle |
This is a special ability that can be used before starting a battle. They usually provide you with different buffs for the next battle, and some of them can also debuff enemies. |
|
Basic Attack |
In Battle |
This is a normal attack that deals the respective character’s elemental type as DMG. This will give you one Skill Point. |
|
Skill |
In Battle |
Whenever you use a character’s skill, it’ll consume one skill point and do the character’s special attack. |
|
Ultimate |
In Battle |
With time, you’ll get points that will recharge your ultimate, which can be seen at the bottom of your screen beside character posters. Once your character has the ultimate ready, you can use it at any point in the battle. The ultimate can bypass the turn lineup on the top left of your screen, and you can even trigger it in the middle of enemy turns. |
As mentioned above, you have to take care of your skill points when you’re using your basic attacks and skills during combat. You can have a maximum of five skill points, and you won’t be able to use your skills if you don’t have any. You can see the current skill points at the bottom right near your skills.