HSR Tier List – Best Characters for MoC
Welcome to our HSR Tier List for Memory of Chaos. We’ll be giving every character an overall tier based on their in game performance in MoC specifically.
Updated Version 2.5
Characters are not ordered within Tiers.
HSR Tier List by Role (Table Version)
Tier |
DPS |
Support |
Sustain |
SS |
Feixiao, Yunli, Boothill, Acheron, Firefly | Ruan Mei, Robin | Aventurine, Huohuo, Lingsha, Gallagher |
S |
Seele, Dr. Ratio, Dan Heng IL, Jingliu | Sparkle, Tingyun, Bronya, Jiaoqiu, Imaginary MC | Fu Xuan, Luocha |
A |
Jing Yuan, Argenti, Black Swan, Kafka, Topaz, March 7th Hunt, Clara, Moze | Pela, Silver Wolf | Gepard, Bailu |
B |
Jade, Blade, Himeko, Qingque, Sushang, Xueyi, Luka, Sampo, Guinaifen, Misha, Dan Heng | Welt, Asta, Hanya, Yukong | Lynx, March 7th, Fire MC |
C |
Yanqing, Hook, Arlan, Serval, Herta, Physical MC | Natasha |
HSR Tier List Methodology
Assumptions/Baseline
- All 5 Star characters are judged at E0S1 with their Signature Light Cone and in their best possible team.
- All 4 Star characters are judged at E6 with S5 4 Star Gacha Lightcone.
- Characters should be compared within their role, and not with another role.
- Characters will be judged on not only their performances and synergy but also versatility, ease of use, splash-ability onto different teams or archetypes, and ability to benefit from different types of endgame buffs.
Criteria
Performance in their best team – Units Ceiling
How good are they in their possible team at E0S1 level in Memory of Chaos. Units that can clear faster with a similar level of investment and team will be rated higher. Units that can brute force elements with their best team will also score higher as it shows they are resilient to different environments.
How flexible is their team comp and synergy with non-optimal teammates – Units Floor
Units that are capable of synergizing with a wide variety of teammates will score higher. As Honkai Star Rail is a gacha-based game, sometimes one cannot guarantee the best setup for their favorite characters, hence units who have natural synergy with various team comps are more often than not more valuable.
Relative power to their replacement
Some units have significant overlap in the role and the gap between them is considered when placed on the tier list. Conversely, units that are easily replaced in their roles will also score lower.
Ability to benefit from various Memory of Chaos blessings
As this endgame mode often features exceptionally powerful blessings that power up different archetypes, units that can take advantage of these blessings often will be rated higher than ones that only benefit from very specific blessings.
HSR Character Roles Explained
DPS/Sub-DPS/Damage Dealer
These units are focused on dealing damage. As of right now, there is not a clear distinction between characters who are DPS and Sub-DPS just yet. Thus, we decided not to separate DPS and Sub-DPS until we have a wider pool of characters.
Supports
These characters focus on bringing damage amplification for the team as well as utility via buffs and debuffs.
Sustains
These characters focus on protecting their teammates via healing, shielding, dispelling, crowd control protection, damage mitigation.
HSR Tier List Character Explanations
SS Tier
The best of the best. These characters dominate the endgame and generally have a strong capacity to brute force through gimmicks.
Feixiao
Feixiao single target DPS right now is unmatched in her best team, making her the strongest for any single-target encounters where focus firing is needed. Being an Ultimate and Follow-up focus DPS means she benefits extremely well from corresponding blessings, and she also breaks quite fast with her Omni-break Ultimate. While her performance has a significant dropoff when not paired with Robin, Feixiao still has a lot of good synergy with other harmony, nihility, and follow-up units, allowing her to easily navigate the end game with various team compositions.
Yunli
Yunli is an exceptional DPS for Memory of Chaos thanks to her absurdly high modifier value on a very spammable ultimate. Yunli benefits from a very wide range of blessings, with Energy, Ultimate, and Follow-up-related blessings being the most beneficial for her, and they are quite common. She also goes well with most of the top-tier amplifiers in the game, giving her fantastic flexibility. Being a blast and bounce DPS that also scales off enemies’ aggression, Yunli can handle a variety of enemy compositions easily. While Yunli’s DPS can worsen against non-aggressive enemies, drawing similarity to her standard counterpart Clara, she essentially plays more as an Ultimate DPS rather than a Counter DPS and can force big Ultimate often as long as she gets enough energy.
Boothill
Boothill scales extremely well in tough boss fights thanks to his strong Breaking capacity and Physical break being the best breaking element in the game. Being a Break DPS with an innate enemy Delay, Boothill’s team is often quite safe as well and puts less pressure on the need for a strong sustainer. His single target DPS is no slouch even compared to Feixiao, but Boothill has more restricted team options and also benefits from a smaller pool of Blessings. Nonetheless, Boothill’s top-tier performance in MoC has been proven throughout multiple patches.
Acheron
Acheron has a high multiplier on her Ultimate and is capable of handling various enemies setups in Memory of Chaos. Acheron’s main problem is her strict team requirement of needing Nihility units in the team to generate stacks, and the fact that her damage output is still exceptional despite the lackluster roster of Nihility units compared to Harmony units is a testament to her power.
Firefly
Of the SS tier DPS, Firefly has the highest floor and possibly the easiest team to pilot. Her stable performance and the ability to implant Fire weaknesses allow her team to brute force many different Memories of Chaos in the game as long as the boss does not weakness-lock. Firefly however has an even stricter team requirement than Acheron, albeit her team is also quite affordable for the performance that it brings. Similar to Boothill, Firefly Team has great innate survivability due to breaking so quickly, making her team quite beginner-friendly.
Robin
Robin is, frankly, absurd and is in contention for the best unit of the game. She brings some of the highest damage amplification out of the support casts while also packing an incredible utility in teamwide advance – one of the most powerful effects on an Ultimate in a mode that rewards fast clear. She is a unit that shines best in any team whose attacks frequently, but because of how much she brings to the table, almost any team in the game (with the sole exception of Break) will benefit from her.
Ruan Mei
Ruan Mei’s damage amplification may not be the highest amongst Harmony units, but her utilities are simply unmatched. Break Efficiency, Speed, Break Extension, Damage% Buff, and Res Pen are all incredibly valuable effects that any team would die for. Ruan Mei is also very simple to pilot and can be splashed into practically any team. Her best performance, however, is with the Break DPS like Firefly or Boothill.
Aventurine
When it comes to pure team protection, Aventurine is unmatched as of right now. His shielding uptime is nigh permanent and he provides so much Effect Res to the team that they can rarely worry about pesky debuffs. Aventurine also has respectable DPS and can also debuff for teams like Acheron or Dr. Ratio or amplify Follow-up teams like Feixiao, making him a very versatile unit.
Gallagher
Gallagher has a simple but effective kit. He has fantastic breaking capacity making him a valuable sustain option for the Break Team. He is fully SP positive and has high action value, meaning he can be a very effective SP Generator and even Energy Regenerator for many teams with Quid Pro Quo Light Cone. Gallagher can fit in many teams and will almost always pull his weight.
Huohuo
Huohuo may have a worse SP economy than some of her sustain counterparts, but she has the best cleansing capacity in the game. Her ultimate is a potent tool not only for DPS who want energy like Yunli, Imbibitor Lunae, or Argenti but also for many top-tier supporters like Robin or Tingyun as well.
Lingsha
Lingsha is best described as the AoE version of Gallagher. Her unique healing mechanics via her summons make her a good sustain for both the Break Team and Follow-up team but she has a notably worse SP economy than many of her competitors, which limits her application. Nonetheless, Lingsha’s healing and cleansing output is still fantastic and more than enough for most teams in the current landscape of the game, and she is exceptional at breaking against any Fire-weak encounters with more than 3 enemies.
S Tier
Powerful character in a specific niche, can perform on the same level as SS Tier when certain conditions are met, but lacks certain edge to reach SS tier.
Seele
Despite being a launch unit, Seele still holds strong throughout the game thanks to her powerful Resurgence mechanics. Seele is one of the most support-friendly units in the game, capable of benefiting from almost all powerful Harmony and Nihility supports, and has some impressive clear over multiple patches. However, with HP inflation in MOC becoming more and more frequent, Seele might struggle to get her resets and lower her potential significantly.
Dr. Ratio
Dr. Ratio has an exceptional Single Target DPS that splits into multiple instances, letting him excel against both a single big boss and multiple elites. Dr. Ratio is quite similar to Feixiao in how they want to play as well as potential teammates, however, he has worse multipliers and attack frequency than her and also needs teammates that can reliably debuff to reach his full potential.
Imbibitor Lunae: Dan Heng
Imbibitor Lunae or DHIL for short is a high SP-consumption DPS with powerful blast damage. In his best team with supports like Sparkle or Tingyun, DHIL is capable of doing strong damage with high Breaking capacity with his Enhanced Basic Attacks. DHIL is also quite friendly, and capable of utilizing most strong Harmony and Nihility units, but needs to take SP restrictions into account.
Jingliu
Jingliu is an interesting case of having strong innate self-buffs hindering the ceiling of the character. Her modifier was high at her release but has been left behind since. She still has several notable strengths like the ease of builds, ease to pilot, great synergy with various powerful supports, and can benefit from a variety of blessings. Jingliu is more than capable of handling most MoCs in her best team, but it is quite clear that she has fallen behind more modern DPS.
Topaz
In isolation, Topaz is a rather lackluster unit. Her value rises dramatically when paired with high-frequency follow-up attackers like Feixiao and Dr. Ratio, as she is one of their best teammates, but she has a lot of replaceable alternatives like Moze, March 7th, or even another Harmony / Nihility. However, being one of the clear best teammates with one of the most prominent DPS at the moment holds a lot of weight.
Sparkle
Sparkle has a lot of powerful tools in her arsenal – namely frontloading SP, action advance, crit damage, and damage buffs. She has a great ceiling with the Eagle relic set and Dance Dance Dance Light Cone, making her a fantastic teammate for units that want to move frequently. Sparkle’s main problem right now is that she has not gotten a strong hypercarry with great synergy with her since her release, as the closest unit to that archetype is DHIL who was a 1.3 unit and does not have modern DPS’s multiplier and mechanics.
Tingyun
Tingyun is one of the few Energy Supports in the game – an incredibly valuable niche. She is very SP positive, extremely fast, and high ceiling with Dance Dance Dance Light Cone. Tingyun can fit in a lot of team compositions, is one of the most versatile supports in the game for hypercarries, and can go well with almost any other Support as well. Tingyun does have lower damage amplification than her 5-star Harmony and Nihility counterparts but her ease of use is more than make up for it.
Bronya
Bronya is the most SP negative out of the Harmony units but the tradeoff is immense. She offers incredible one-turn buffs and a unique 100% Advance for a specific unit, essentially more than doubling some DPS damage output. The recent advent of DPS with huge bursts that want to move often like Acheron or Feixiao has made Bronya stay relevant even amongst the wave of new supporters.
Jiaoqiu
Jiaoqiu has exceptional damage amplification amongst Nihility units, with the unique ability to constantly reduce enemies’ Resistance as they move. This application makes him the strongest support for Acheron, and his damage amplification is competitive even against some of the top-tier Harmony units. Jiaoqiu’s main issue is that outside of Acheron’s team, he does not bring as much utility as Harmony units, and is often only considered the third or fourth best choice for many of them.
Harmony Trailblazer
Harmony Trailblazer (or HMC) for short is the glue of the Super Break team. Outside of the Superbreak application, HMC has impressive Breaking capacity with their high break units from skill and fast Ultimate cycle which combines very well with Light Cone like Dance Dance Dance to support their team. While HMC is fairly limited in terms of team comp, they are so crucial to the Super Break archetype and Firefly is one of the strongest teams in the game at the moment, which warrants their high tier.
Fu Xuan
Fu Xuan is the best sustainer against single target damage, and has some good utility in one-time crowd control prevention as well as increasing Critical Rate for the team. Fu Xuan is capable of sustaining most teams in the current landscape of the game, but her utility is simply less abundant compared to her competitors.
Luocha
Luocha is similar to Fu Xuan in a way that he is very capable of sustaining most teams in current content with his continuous healing field. He does pack unique Buff Dispel utility on his spammable Ultimate and emergency healing and cleansing via his Talent and is fully SP positive in most cases. Luocha’s very beginner-friendly, but due to being the first limited sustain, he lags in terms of pure utilities that other sustainers offer.
A Tier
Middle-of-the-pack characters who can perform decently with the right circumstances/blessings, but are generally outclassed by S and A Tier.
Jing Yuan
Despite having a high multiplier value on his Lightning Lord and being capable of benefiting from most Harmonies / Nihilities as well a variety of blessings, Jing Yuan is hard capped by his Lightning Lord mechanics being too slow and uncontrollable.
Argenti
Argenti has a very simplistic kit with good AoE and decent single-target damage and can benefit from Ultimate and Energy blessings. He goes well with most hyper-carry buffers and debuffers but simply lags in terms of Multiplier Value compared to higher-tier DPS units.
Black Swan
Black Swan DoT multiplier is high compared to most DoT units but DoT is highly flawed as a DPS mechanic as of right now, being too backloaded and reliant on enemies’ turns while also lacking in Multiplier Value compared to other Damaging Mechanics like Crit.
Kafka
Kafka has a low DoT multiplier relative to Black Swan but managed to stay afloat thanks to her DoT Detonation lessening a portion of DoT’s cumbersome backloaded mechanics.
Clara
Clara has aged quite well and is generally a strong pick against highly aggressive enemies layouts, however, her DPS also drops dramatically against non-aggressive enemies, something her replacement Yunli suffers a lot less from.
March 7th (Hunt)
Hunt March 7th has excellent attack frequency and is a strong F2P alternative for Feixiao. She has great breaking capacity and can be played as both a Crit and Break DPS, as well as benefit from a wide range of blessings. Nonetheless, she is still a 4-star and is on the lower end of this tier.
Moze
Moze is the F2P version of Topaz and generally fits in all the compositions that she is great in. There is a notable gap in performance between them even though Moze is no slouch on his own at E6 level.
Pela
Pela is one of the 4 stars that has stayed relevant ever since launch due to her high action frequency, spammable Ultimate, SP positivity, and the capacity to help many DPS cap Def Shred – a valuable damage amplification that all archetypes can benefit from.
Silver Wolf
Silver Wolf has one of the best single target damage amplifications via her Def Shred, Res Shred, and Implant. However, Silver Wolf is cumbersome to use due to awkward SP economy, the randomness of her implant (which has also gotten less valuable due to new DPS having implants or minibreak), and requires a lot of stats to be stable and effective (needing high Effect Hit Rate, Speed and ideally bulk as well).
Gepard
Gepard is a lot worse than Aventurine in the same niche, being a Standard unit. He does his shielding job well and can generally sustain a team in MoC when built, but beyond that does not offer anything else.
Bailu
Bailu is an Abundance that plays almost like a Preservation with her Invigoration healing mechanics trigger after every hit. Her healing output is quite stellar even when going fully SP positive, but her lack of cleanse is a notable flaw that better-sustaining units do not suffer from.
B Tier
Lackluster characters who got powercreeped / have been underpowered compared to their peers. Need a lot of help to perform.
Jade
At E0S1 level, Jade’s single target damage is simply too weak to stand out in Memory of Chaos. She does exceptionally well against pure AoE enemies layout, which is not as common after Pure Fiction has been implemented in the game.
Blade
Being an HP-based DPS, Blade scales very poorly with current Harmonies in the game. His Multiplier Value is also not high enough to compensate and generally does not have a big upside over other DPS outside of being bulky.
Himeko
Himeko is extremely reliant on Breaking constantly to trigger her Follow-up Attacks. Her Multiplier is also rather poor compared to modern DPS and she mostly excels in Fire Weak AoE-centric fights.
Xueyi
Xueyi is a decent F2P Break DPS that has Omni Break on her Ultimate and her Eidolon. She scales well in a team with teammates who can break fast but require high investment to be good.
Sushang / Luka
Both of them are very similar in that they are good Single Target Physical Breakers. However, their performances are far and away significantly worse than Boothill’s in the same niche.
Sampo / Guinaifen
They are both 4-star DoT units that can work as secondary options for the DoT team, with Guinaifen being able to work as an Acheron teammate when she has no better options. However, they both belong to a lackluster archetype with not a lot of upsides.
Misha / Dan Heng
They are both lackluster DPS of their elements with much better competitors available. They can work when invested but are not an ideal usage of resources.
Welt
Welt has a lot of utility but has since fallen out of favor due to most of his value being unneeded in the current meta team. He is also quite SP-hungry which further limits his usage.
Asta / Hanya / Yukong
These Harmony units all have much weaker buffs compared to the amplifiers above them, and not much utility to make up for it.
Lynx
Lynx has a unique niche of increasing Aggro for her teammates, which makes her good with Clara, Yunli, and Blade. She also has an emergency cleanse on her Ultimate, making her a decent F2P healer but her general performance is not on the same level as higher sustain units.
Preservation Trailblazer (FMC) / March 7th (Preservation)
They are both poor men’s choices for the job in the early days of the game. They still have some unique applications with FMC having a guaranteed Taunt debuff and March 7th having Cleanse, Aggro Increase, and Follow-Up to be playable in some teams.
C Tier
The worst characters of their niche, require significant investment to stay relevant.
Yanqing / Hook / Arlan / Serval / Herta
These DPS are all very cumbersome to use with poor multiplier values in their kits. They are outclassed by pretty much all other DPS of the same elements.
Natasha
Nat is the first free sustain that a player will receive and she did her job at the early stage of the game, but is simply too lacking compared to newer sustains with both stronger healing/shielding performance and more utilities.
Thanks for reading! Be sure to let us know what you think. To check out more resources, be sure to check out our other HSR Guides.