Honkai: Star Rail: 8 tips for getting started

Honkai: Star Rail borrows a lot from Genshin Impact, including many of its progression systems. Building your team of characters is extremely important if you want to survive the turn-based RPG's toughest battles.

There are several ways to strengthen your team, some of which are more important then others. But like a lot of live service games, you can establish a daily routine that will reward you with plenty of materials to never fall behind.

Here's eight tips for cultivating a stellar team of anime protagonists.

Do your daily training

Raising your Trailblaze level is one of the most important things you can do in Star Rail, unlocking new missions, activities, and upping your world level—or Equilibrium—which means you get more rewards from defeating enemies and farming. The best way to do this is to complete your daily training goals in the Interastral Guide. Each objective you complete is worth points, which count towards rewards you can claim, including up to 1,000 Trailblaze XP per day. Doing these dailies is by far the fastest way to raise your Trailblaze level, and farm up Stellar Jade to use for warping new characters.

You can skip some of the grind by using these Star Rail codes to redeem for free Stellar Jades, too.

Complete the Simulated Universe and The Forgotten Hall

While The Forgotten Hall is the equivalent of Genshin's Spiral Abyss, giving out big Stellar Jade rewards for completing a variety of battle-based challenges, the Simulated Universe is actually more important in a lot of ways. This roguelike activity unlocks quite early on in the Herta Space Station and lets you delve into multi-staged worlds, fighting battles, and earning buffs to stack in order to eventually overcome the final boss. 

Each world completion rewards you with Trailblaze XP, Stellar Jade, but more importantly, Herta Bonds you can use in the shop to purchase a selection of five-star light cones. The Simulated Universe is also where you get Planar Ornaments, special two-piece relic sets that make your characters even stronger, once you unlock them in the story on Jarilo-VI.

Level extra characters

While you shouldn't spread yourself too thin by investing resources in non-party characters early on, because of Star Rail's weakness system, it's a hell of a lot harder to complete certain battles if you don't have a character with the relevant damage type to break and stun enemies. If you're intent on doing the Simulated Universe, for example, you're probably going to have to level a lightning character and other damage types as you progress through the different worlds. That said, don't level any old character—hold onto your resources and be prepared if you face a boss where you don't have the relevant damage type. Luckily, Star Rail provides a fair few free characters in the form of Herta, Qingque, and Natasha. 

Use auto-battle to cash in your Trailblaze power

One of the worst things about Genshin was having to fight Domain battles to farm materials over and over, but the good news is that Star Rail has auto-battle. This system works for Calyx to get credits and XP items, Stagnant Shadows for ascension materials, and even Caverns of Corrosion for relics, meaning you can farm away your daily Trailblaze power without having to fight the same battles. If you don't need anything in-particular, just whack your characters on a six-stage Calyx for some free items, credits, and Trailblaze EXP while you do something else idle game style. To activate auto-battle, just click the sideways hourglass looking symbol in the top right.

Study your character's skills

The turn-based combat in Star Rail heavily relies on a mastery of your team's abilities. Many characters synergize with each other, like how Bronya can grant another character a free turn. Understanding how supportive characters and damage dealers interact will make the RPG's tough battles much easier to handle. And it helps you identify which characters to focus on leveling up first.

To see your team's abilities, head to the character page and click the skill tab on the right. You'll see five skills, including a basic attack, a skill, an ultimate, a talent, and a technique. Experiment with these in your next fight and see what works best.

Use techniques outside of battles

Each Star Rail character has a unique technique that they can use outside the turn-based encounters. Some characters buff the team right before a battle, while others can preemptively attack for bonuses at the start of the fight. Rare characters, like Seele, even have the ability to go invisible so you can avoid enemies altogether.

The explorable areas are littered with canisters that fill your technique slots back up, so don't be afraid to deploy them frequently.

Claim your daily check-in rewards

HoYoLab, HoYoverse's social media site, has a page that rewards you for logging in every day. Visit the rewards page regularly, or set it as your browser's home page, and click each item to claim them.

The first three times you log in, you'll receive a handful of Stellar Jade, Star Rail's premium currency for character rolls. Otherwise, the rewards include materials for leveling up your character and buying rare items on the in-game store.

Interact with everything while you explore

Star Rail might not be an open world game like Genshin, but its environments are packed with things to interact with. Herta Space Station, the RPG's opening area, is scattered with NPCs and other objects to click on. Sometimes they give you some worldbuilding and lore, but more often than not, they also include a few Stellar Jade as a reward.

In Jarilo-VI, there are trashcans everywhere and if you keep interacting with them, you'll go down a stinky rabbit hole that ends in a unique icon to use on your profile. So, trust me, if an item sparkles, interact with it.