Summary
If you’ve playedHonkai: Star Railfor a little while, you’ve probably already realized the need for a good DPS character in the game. It features a turn-based combat system where you can have up to four characters in the team at the same time. The game currently features a roster of over 30 phenomenal characters.
As you progress in the main story, you’ll unlock harder content like Memory of Chaos, Simulated Universe, and Swarm Disaster. If you want to clear these game modes to get the rewards, it’s important to know about some of the best DPS characters you’re able to use.
Updated on July 18, 2025, by Sanyam Jain:Honkai: Star Rail’s lore made it obvious that Chrysos Heir are a lot more powerful than regular characters in the game, which can also be seen in their kits. Castorice is a great example of this as he can deal a bunch of DPS without much investment.
28Dan Heng
Who Needs To Build SPD
Dan Heng is the second free character you’ll acquire while doing the main story of Honkai: Star Rail, and he’s loved by the entire community due to his easy-going personality. He’s a four-star Wind character following the path of The Hunt, and he can help you easily wipe out the hardest content in both the early and late game.
His Basic Attack, Skill, and Ultimate essentially perform high single-target damage, but there’s a lot more that you have to understand if you want to use him properly. Dan Heng’s Skill allows him to slow the enemies down, and he can deal higher damage to slowed enemies from his Ultimate and Basic Attack. Moreover, he can also increase his own SPD when he attacks an enemy.
27Sushang
She Gets All The Turns
Honkai: Star Rail currently has a lack of Physical DPS characters, and that’s where Sushang comes into play. Being one of theCloud Knights on The Xianzhou Luofu, she also belongs to the path of The Hunt. Sushang excels at breaking an enemy’s Weakness bar as long as they have Physical Weakness since her Ultimate deals a ton of damage to it.
In fact, the best way to use Sushang is by triggering a ton of Weakness Breaks as these allow her to deal extra damage and get more turns. If you manage to unlock her first Eidolon, she can also regenerate one Skill Point when you use her Skill on an enemy with their Weakness broken, which makes the Skill cost a net zero Skill Points.
26Hook
Pitch-Dark Hook The Great!
Destruction is by far one of the strongest paths in Honkai: Star Rail since the characters on this path can deal a ton of damage while sustaining themselves to an extent. Little Hook is one of the characters on this path, and she excels at dealing high Fire damage to both single and multi-target enemies. Moreover, she has a chance of applying Burn on the enemies hit.
When she attacks an enemy with the Burn effect, she deals higher damage, regenerates some Energy, and heals herself. With a higher chance to resist Crowd Controlling debuffs from the enemy, Hook can easily sustain herself and carry you to victory in any battle.
25Misha
Our Resident Hotel Bellboy
Misha was the first four-star that got released in the game from Penacony, and he’s a Destruction character with Ice as the combat type. This character has one of the most synergized kits as all his active and passive abilities feed into the Ultimate dealing higher damage.
However, the fact that he’s competing with the current best DPS in the game due to the shared path and combat type can’t be ignored. Misha might not be good enough to clear the hardest content in the game without specific supports, but he is still one of the more fun DPS units.
24Xueyi
You Said Cool Animations
Players have been seeing Xueyi here and there during the main story of Honkai: Star Rail ever since the game’s release, but she was only released as a playable character during the Version 1.6 update. She’s a Quantum Destruction character who took the community by surprise because ofher phenomenal animations.
Be it her Technique or her Ultimate, no one will disagree with the fact that Xueyi has one of the best animations in the game. Thankfully, her damage and overall viability match these cool animations, making her one of the best DPS choices if you don’t have the better units mentioned here.
23Clara
But You’re Really Just Using Svarog
Other than Sushang, Clara is your only choice for a Physical DPS character in the game at the moment. Being a five-star, Clara can easily be far more effective than her four-star counterpart, but you’ll need to build her in a specific way. Clara’s main damagecomes from Svaroglaunching a follow-up attack whenever she gets hit.
The follow-ups also occur if any other teammate gets hit after she uses her Ultimate. This attack marks the target enemy, and her Skill deals extra damage to the marked enemies. If you put her in a team with support characters like Lynx or March who can increase the chances of her getting attacked, you’ll be surprised by the free damage she can deal.
22Yanqing
Don’t Base His Power On The Main Story
Yanqing might not seem like one of the best DPS characters if you consider his battle record in the main story, but he can actually be quite decent if built correctly. One of the most important things you need to remember about Yanqing is that he’svery Skill-Point-hungry. You’d want to use his Skill every time you get a turn to keep the Soulsteel Sync active.
When this effect is active, Yanqing gets a ton of buffs including Crit Rate and Crit DMG along with getting a chance to Freeze enemies with his attacks. Upon using his Ultimate, you may get even more Crit DMG if Soulsteel Sync is active.
21Qingque
Gacha Within A Gacha Within A Gacha
What’s better than playing as aGacha character in a Gacha game? It’s normal to feel like you want to try your luck while playing Honkai: Star Rail, and Qingque lets you do that without having to spend your hard-earned Stellar Jades. Her abilities are based around her favorite game called the Celestial Jade.
Whenever an ally gets a turn or you use her Skill, you’ll pick out a certain number of Jade tiles from one of the three suits randomly. The main goal is to get four tiles from the same suit to get an Enhanced Basic Attack, which deals much more damage. However, as you can see, Qingque can be quite an SP-hungry character if you get unlucky.
20Seele
Disappear Among The Sea Of Butterflies!
The first limited character released in Honkai: Star Rail, Seele also had the crown of the best DPS character for a long time. Unfortunately, her position on the DPS ranking has fallen quite a bit with the shift in the game’s meta and the release of subsequent characters. Whenever Seele defeats an enemy, she gets an extra turn with a buffed state.
This state increases her DMG and doesn’t count as a turn, which means that it makes use of all the buffs provided by other characters without reducing their stacks. However, the requirement to defeat an enemy holds her back quite a lot in the current state of enemies with high HP and some enemies even being able to resurrect themselves.
19Jing Yuan
But You’re Really Just Using The Lightning Lord
General of the Cloud Knights, Jing Yuan is a five-star Lightning character following the path of Erudition. Whenever you use his Skill or Ultimate, he can get two and three stacks for the Lightning Lord respectively. The Lord is a separate entity that has a specific amount of SPD, but it can get its turn faster whenever it gains some stacks.
When the Lightning Lord gets a turn, it can deal a huge amount of AoE damage based on the stacks provided. However, the Lightning Lord cannot take action if Jing Yuan is crowd-controlled and if there are multiple enemies on the floor, its attacks are completely random, which adds a layer of uncertainty to this character.
