HSR 5 Star Selector – Who to Pick

HSR Guide – Who to Pick with 5 Star Selector

From Version 2.7 (Dec 4th, 2024) until the end of Version 3.2 (estimated May 14th, 2025), any player logging onto HSR will have the chance to claim 1 free character from a 5 star selector. The seven available options are Bronya, Bailu, Clara, Yanqing, Himeko, Welt, and Gepard. (Each representing the initial 7 classes)

Coupled with the free Selector once each account reaches 300 Standard Warps counters, this is the second time a Permanent 5-Star free Selector is given to each account.

This guide will rank how useful each of these characters is and who should be the prioritized pick.

Quick Priority Guide

1. Bronya, Bronya’s Eidolons – Highest Priority for most accounts
2. Himeko, Clara – Usable in the current landscape of the game in specific scenarios (mostly Pure Fiction)
3. Gepard, Bailu – Usable for newer accounts lacking capable solo sustainers to tackle the early game
4. Welt, Yanqing – Vastly surpassed by most of the modern characters

The Selector will be there for a while, so one does not need to claim it immediately. One can wait to see how their roster develops and pick the appropriate option.

For the rest of the guide, I’ll cover the reasoning for these picks, important Eidolons for each Permanent/Standard character, and notable teammates for each. All of this information can be used to decide what pick is the best for your account, or to guide you toward the team you want to build most.

Bronya

Bronya is by far and away the best pick from the permanent 5-star characters. Her 100% Advance Forward is still extremely relevant for many DPS even with the advent of Sunday. She also grants a powerful plethora of buffs ranging from Damage, Attack, and Crit Damage, and also packs a Cleanse on her Skill.

She is quite flexible with team options and will perform well for both new and veteran players. Furthermore, Bronya has some potent Eidolon breakpoints that players who have had their pities broken by her one or a few times, in several cases more arguably valuable than getting another Standard Character in terms of value.

Bronya Notable Eidolon Breakpoint & Impact

• E1: Very High
• E2: Medium
• E4: Low
• E6: Very High

Eidolon 1 – Hone Your Strength: When using Skill, there is a 50% fixed chance of recovering 1 Skill Point. This effect has a 1-turn cooldown.

This one is one of her best Eidolon breakpoints since it is very early and it massively improves her Skill Point consumption, albeit RNG-dependent, which has traditionally been one of Bronya’s weak points.

Eidolon 2 – Quick March: When using Skill, the target ally’s SPD increases by 30% after taking action, lasting for 1 turn.

This Eidolon is good but very conditional on Speed tuning setup. It enables her “wheelchair” build (which is Bronya having very high Speed dragging a DPS with very low Speed), but in general is one most players can do without.

Eidolon 4 – Take by Surprise: After any other ally character uses Basic ATK on an enemy target that has Wind Weakness, Bronya immediately launches 1 instance of Follow-up ATK, dealing Wind DMG to this target equal to 80% of her Basic ATK DMG. This effect can only trigger once per turn.

This Eidolon used to be quite irrelevant even with the slight energy from it, but with the release of Feixiao, it becomes decent, especially E2 Feixiao for stack generation. However, it is not something one should waste a valuable Standard Selector toward unless it is for building toward her E6.

Eidolon 6 – Piercing Rainbow: The duration of the DMG Boost effect placed by the Skill on the target ally increases by 1 turn(s).

This Eidolon is extremely powerful and solves another fundamental problem with Bronya, which was her significant damage-boosting part of her kit – her Skill – only lasted 1 turn. It allows her to support follow-up-centric units or any DPS that utilize out-of-turn damage much better (such as with Summons). 

Bronya Notable Teammates

Most DPS can utilize Bronya to some extent due to how strong and versatile 100% Action Advance is, and even some Support units benefit as well. Some notable team archetypes that I like her the most are:

• Robin: Robin + Bronya is a very popular and strong combination due to the Robin -> Bronya Advance Robin -> Robin getting early Ultimate rotation. This is also one of Bronya’s unique selling points over Sunday as Sunday cannot advance Robin, which can make her more comfortable to set up with than Sunday.
• Standard Hyper Carry DPS: Most Crit-based DPS will love practically all the buffs and extra actions that Bronya provides.
• Break DPS: While Break DPS does not benefit much from Bronya’s Crit Dmg and Dmg boost, they all adore the extra actions that Bronya brings to the table as it lets them Break a lot faster.

When to pick Bronya

Generally, if the account does not have Bronya just yet, it is always valuable to get her since she can make herself useful in so many situations. Her E1 is also quite a quality-of-life improvement to her operation so it is always worth picking her up.

Beyond that, getting extra Bronya copies to build up toward her Eidolon 6 is also not a bad choice, but heavily dependent on what your overall roster is lacking and what her current Eidolon level is at.

Clara

Clara is one of the two picks that are useful if players want to look for a unit that is generally good Pure Fiction, the other being Himeko. Clara is a Counter-based character that scales with how often enemies attack her, which is a frequent occurrence in Pure Fiction. She is particularly good in extremely aggressive Pure Fiction such as DoT-centric ones where enemies generally get a lot of turns.

She also has a full AoE Skill which is generally good against multi-target. Clara’s Eidolons are generally unimpressive outside of her E1 and E6, but they are far worse than Limited Characters’ Eidolons and she is also not as good of a unit in the long run as Bronya.

Clara Notable Eidolon Breakpoint & Impact

• E1: High
• E2: Low
• E4: Low
• E6: Very High

Eidolon 1 – A Tall Figure: Using Skill will not remove Marks of Counter on the enemy.

Generally, using Skill with Clara’s skill will remove the Mark of Counter on all targets on the field for additional damage. With this Eidolon, Clara no longer consumes Mark of Counter so her Skill’s overall damage will be a lot more potent in general against staying enemies.

Eidolon 2 – A Tight Embrace: After using the Ultimate, ATK increases by 30% for 2 turn(s).

While this is still a DPS boost Eidolon, the increase is quite unimpressive as Clara gets a lot of Attacks from her Signature Light Cone / Support units in general.

Eidolon 4 – Family’s Warmth: After Clara is hit, the DMG taken by Clara is reduced by 30%. This effect lasts until the start of her next turn.

This Eidolon increases her overall survivability quite nicely, but in general, this shouldn’t be a problem that needs patching for Clara with a good team.

Eidolon 6 – Long Company: After other allies are attacked, Svarog also has a 50% fixed chance to trigger a Counter on the attacker and mark them with a “Mark of Counter.” When using Ultimate, the number of Enhanced Counters increases by 1.

Quite an impactful Eidolon. This E6 essentially increases both her Counter and Enhanced Counter frequency significantly, further improving her damage.

Clara Notable Teammates

Clara thrives with buffers that grant Energy and buffs that last out of turns. For sustains, she will also prefer Abundance as they have less chance to steal aggro from her.

• Robin / Tingyun: Their damage procs can trigger on Clara’s counter which can accumulate quickly against hyper-aggressive enemies.
• Sunday / Sparkle / Jiaoqiu / Yukong: Buffers / Debuffers that can amplify Clara’s out-of-turn damage.
• Luocha: Luocha teamwide heal can proc after every counter, making the combo between him and Clara nigh immortal.

When to pick Clara

While Clara is generally good for Pure Fiction, she is by no means a Pure Fiction specialist. Her performance can vary from patch to patch as she is highly dependent on enemies attacking her to dish out damage.

She is a rather decent unit for Memory of Chaos as well as Simulated / Divergent Universe with Elation path and can tap into any follow-up-related and counter-related blessings in general. She is quite bad in Apocalyptic Shadow, but for a Standard unit Clara has stayed relevant for a long time, which is a statement to her solid kit.

Clara is only worth picking if one is already satisfied with the state of their Bronya and needs a solid Pure Fiction placeholder unit until a better specialist can be picked up. 

Himeko

Himeko is a Crit-based AoE DPS with Break-related mechanics. Similar to Clara, she is quite solid in Pure Fiction due to her having a full AoE Ultimate and frequent AoE follow-up Damage. Himeko also has notable synergy with several units of the same element, namely Firefly, Lingsha, and Fugue, which lets her stay relevant in a lot of Fire-weak content.

In general, Himeko is a lot worse in Memory of Chaos compared to Clara as her multiplier values are rather mediocre. But she is often better than Clara in Pure Fiction since she is somewhat less reliant on enemy composition, as teammates can trigger her follow-up attack for her instead. Himeko has quite poor Eidolons as well so it is not advised to invest into her Eidolons.

Himeko Notable Eidolon Breakpoint & Impact

• E1: Very Low
• E2: Low
• E4: Very Low
• E6: Low

Eidolon 1 – Childhood: After “Victory Rush” is triggered, Hime ko’s SPD increases by 20% for 2 turn(s)

In theory, this Eidolon entices players to run Attack Boot, but its impact is quite negligible, especially since Himeko needs to constantly trigger her follow-up attack to maintain it. 

Eidolon 2 – Convergence: Deals 15% more DMG to enemies whose HP percentage is 50% or less.

This Eidolon is a somewhat decent damage increase for Himeko, but the increase is also poor and not 100% uptime.

Eidolon 4 – Dedication: When Himeko’s Skill inflicts Weakness Break on an enemy, she gains 1 extra point(s) of Charge.

This Eidolon is only relevant when Himeko triggers Weakness Break with her Skill and against non-elite / non-boss enemies. Bosses and Elites in general give 3 stacks of Charge immediately and Himeko cannot store the extra Charge. It is an Eidolon that sounds better on paper than in practice.

Eidolon 6 – Trailblaze!: Ultimate deals DMG 2 extra times, each of which deals Fire DMG equal to 40% of the original DMG to a random enemy.

Probably her best Eidolon in terms of damage boost, giving 2 Bounce hits after each Ultimate use. Still a mediocre Eidolon impact-wise.

Himeko Notable Teammates

Himeko can function with most standard hyper carry supports. She also has decent synergy with several notable Fire and AoE units that make her Pure Fiction team a lot more flexible.

• Standard Hyper Carry Supports: Himeko is a Crit-based unit and thus scales with pretty much all standard Hyper Carry Supports.
• Firefly: Firefly has AoE Fire Implant which is extremely useful to Himeko in Pure Fiction to help her trigger her follow-up attack a lot more often.
• Lingsha: Lingsha is another Fire-AoE unit with very good Toughness Damage to help break enemies faster and trigger Himeko’s follow-up attacks. Against Fire-weak Pure Fiction, Lingsha is the best sustain option for Himeko.
• Fugue: Fugue essentially increases the number of follow-up attacks Himeko can do by a significant amount with her Exo Toughness mechanics.

When to pick Himeko

Similar to Clara, Himeko is only worth picking if one does not intend to invest further into Bronya and/or still lacks a good Pure Fiction DPS. Himeko has much better versatility in this mode than Clara but she is also quite worse in Memory of Chaos due to her low multiplier value, unless against linked HP bar bosses like The Past, Present, and Future Show.

It is worth noting that Himeko is also significantly better than Clara in Apocalyptic Shadow thanks to her decent Toughness Damage and the presence of many Fire-weak AoE bosses in such mode.

Himeko’s Eidolons are very poor so it is never a good idea to pick more copies of her up.

Bailu

Bailu is one of the two Limited Sustain Units from the standard banner, the other being Gepard. Despite being a healer, Bailu functions similarly to a Preservation unit with her unique Invigoration mechanics which heal allies immediately whenever they are hit and the damage reduction it grants. She also has a one-time per battle Autorevive for any ally that falls in battle.

Bailu is very competent at healing, often she will overheal and with some investment she can be a fully SP-positive healer, solely relying on her Ultimate to keep allies healthy. In comparison to her Standard peers, Bailu has quite good Eidolons.

While Standard Sustain Unit Eidolon is never worth picking up, picking Bailu over Gepard does have the advantage of making any future off-banner Bailu more valuable than an off-banner Gepard, as the latter’s Eidolons are quite poor. Bailu’s weakness is her incapability to cleanse, but this is a weakness that Gepard shares as well. The other thing is her skill on her Skill is a bit RNG which can be a problem in the early game where emergency skills are more common.

Bailu Notable Eidolon Breakpoint

• E1: High
• E2: Low
• E4: Medium
• E6: Medium

Eidolon 1 – Ambrosial Aqua: If the target ally’s current HP is equal to their Max HP when Invigoration ends, regenerates 8 extra Energy for this target.

This is Bailu’s best Eidolon. Sustain units generally will be wearing Quid Pro Quo Light Cone to supply the team with more energy, and this Eidolon makes her more valuable on the field. It is quite common that units will end turn with their max HP while Invigoration is on them, thus making the Energy gains not particularly finicky.

Eidolon 2 – Sylphic Slumber: After using her Ultimate, Bailu’s Outgoing Healing increases by an additional 15% for 2 turn(s).

Bailu already does not have a lot of problems sustaining the team when built, so this Eidolon is not particularly impactful.

Eidolon 4 – Evil Excision: Every healing provided by the Skill makes the recipient deal 10% more DMG for 2 turn(s). This effect can stack up to 3 times (s).

This is another good utility Eidolon on paper but it has a few problems. First, one usually does not want to spam Skill with Bailu due to Skill Point constraints. The other is her skill is an RNG bounce so it is quite unreliable for the damage boost. It is more of a “nice if it happens” Eidolon than something to rely upon. 

Eidolon 6 – Drooling Drop of Draconic Divinity: Bailu can heal allies who received a killing blow 1 more time(s) in a single battle.

An extra revival can come in handy for underpowered accounts, but otherwise not something that comes up every so often.

Bailu Notable Teammates

Bailu is a sustain so she goes with practically every team that needs one, and does not have any particular notable synergy. 

When to pick Bailu

To progress in the early game, a sustain is often very valuable to progress the story and content until the account can get more characters. While for the long term, a unit like Bronya will be a lot more valuable, picking Bailu early will alleviate a lot of growing pains during this period and accumulate more resources to get a more powerful limited character. However, there is no reason in any circumstances to pick an extra Bailu for her Eidolons.

Gepard

Gepard is the other sustainer from the Standard Banner. Gepard protects allies mainly via his Ultimate which creates a powerful Shield and draws enemies’ attention thanks to his high Aggro. Both he and Bailu are fantastic picks for early game to progress, but both are worse than the Limited sustainers.

While Shield generally protects the team against super-powerful attacks better, it does have the notable fallback of running out on speed/units with a lot of action advance. Furthermore, at an early level, Gepard will have trouble maintaining the shield compared to Bailu. Gepard also has a revival but only for himself, so he is harder to utilize well for new players. Last but not least, Gepard has a lackluster set of Eidolons, even for a Standard Character.

Gepard Notable Eidolon Breakpoint & Impact

• E1: Very Low
• E2: Very Low
• E4: Low
• E6: Very Low

Eidolon 1 – Due Diligence: When using Skill, increases the base chance to Freeze the attacked target enemy by 35%.

Gepard’s base chance to freeze on his Skill is extremely poor and he generally does not build Effect Hit Rate, so this makes it more reliable at least. However, one generally does not want to use his Skill beyond getting more Energy for his Ultimate.

Eidolon 2 – Lingering Cold: After an enemy Frozen by Skill is unfrozen, their SPD is reduced by 20% for 1 turn(s)

It is generally tough to quantify how useful Speed Debuff is, and as this only lasts 1 turn, rarely, this would ever be impactful.

Eidolon 4 – Faith Moves Mountains: When Gepard is in battle, all allies’ Effect RES increases by 20%.

The Effect Res in general sounds good on paper, but 20% is extremely low. It is somewhat useful to trigger the Broken Keel set effect on allies but beyond that, this will rarely if ever be noticeable in battle.

Eidolon 6 – Unyielding Resolve: When his Talent is triggered, Gepard immediately takes action and restores extra HP equal to 50% of his Max HP.

An extra revive would have been more useful, this Eidolon does not accomplish much for what Gepard wants to do.

Gepard Notable Teammates

Similar to Bailu, Gepard can function as a sustainer for most teams. He has very poor synergy with speedy units who like action advance a lot, as they will run out of Shield before he can get his Ultimate back. Gepard also does not go as well with units who want to take aggro such as Clara, Yunli, or Blade to trigger their abilities, since he has high aggro. A notable synergy for Gepard is with his fellow Standard Character Yanqing, who does not want to get attacked as much as possible to maintain his stats boost.

When to pick Gepard

In general, Gepard is a good sustainer capable of solo sustaining most teams in early and endgame content. However, between him and Bailu, he is more prone to poor runs than Bailu and also has less utility. His Eidolons are also particularly bad, which hurts his case. One thing Gepard does have over Bailu is that Shield is quite powerful in Simulated Universe-related contents, especially at higher difficulty, so this is an argument for Gepard. 

Welt

Welt is a debuffer that can fill several roles, be it Support, DPS, or even sustain in some cases. However, he is a poor example of role compression as he requires too many resources to do these roles effectively, none of which he is among the competitive options.

Welt’s main selling point is the plethora of strong debuffs that he inflicts: Speed Debuff, Action Delay, Imprisonment, and Damage Taken. His skills inflict Slow and do notable damage against enemies that are slowed and his Ultimate has a decently fast rotation to keep enemies constantly in a state of Slowed and Delayed, which boosts the team’s survivability.

However, Welt is extremely resource-hungry, both in terms of build and combat. Being a Nihility, he needs to build a good amount of Effect Hit Rate to ensure his debuffs can consistently apply, and to deal good damage he needs a lot of Crit Rate / Crit Damage as well while having no innate stats boost. He also needs to use his Skills very often to keep being effective, meaning he can be an SP blackhole in a support/sub-DPS role which puts a strain on his team-building requirement.

In terms of Eidolon, Welt’s Eidolons are quite impactful to his performance, but since Welt is a lower-priority unit, it is not worth using the selector to get his Eidolon.

Welt Notable Eidolon Breakpoint

• E1: Low
• E2: High
• E4: Medium
• E6: Very High

Eidolon 1 – Legacy of Honor: After using Ultimate, Welt gets enhanced. Then, the next 2 times (s) he uses Basic ATK or Skill, deals an extra instance of Additional DMG to the enemy target. The Additional DMG dealt when using Basic ATK is equal to 50% of the Basic ATK DMG multiplier. The Additional DMG dealt when using Skill is equal to 80% of the Skill DMG multiplier.

This Eidolon is mostly relevant for DPS build Welt but the impact is not particularly notable.

Eidolon 2 – Conflux of Stars: When his Talent is triggered, Welt regenerates 3 Energy.

Extra Energy improves his Ultimate uptime quite noticeably. Since Welt will constantly debuff enemies with Slow, this Eidolon is almost always relevant.

Eidolon 4 – Appellation of Justice: When using Skill, increases the base chance of reducing the attacked enemy target’s SPD by 35%.

The extra base chance on his skills reduces a lot of Effect Hit Rate requirement for Welt so he can spec into more DPS stats on his gears.

Eidolon 6 – Prospect of Glory: When using Skill, deals DMG for 1 extra time to a random enemy.

This Eidolon provides a very notable Damage Increase for DPS Welt, around a 35-40% increase over the previous Eidolon level, so at this point, Welt can compete with some Limited DPS at the E0 level.

Welt Notable Teammates

Welt is a rather flexible filler unit, provided that the team has Skill Point to spare. Hence he does not have any significant synergy outside of one character.

• Acheron: Welt can fulfill the Nihility requirement for Acheron and also provides debuffs for her to fuel her Ultimate.

When to pick Welt

Picking Welt is definitely not a good usage of the selector unless the account is very new and needs a Nihility unit to make their Acheron playable. Even with his Eidolons being decent for him, it is still an inefficient usage of the selector since Welt’s role has been power creeped too much.

Yanqing

Yanqing is a Single Target Damage Dealer whose niche is that he gains a significant amount of stats buff as long as he is not hit and can maintain the Soulsteel Sync. This whole gimmick means he should be played with a Shielder like Gepard, Aventurine, or even March 7th (albeit she also increases aggro on him), otherwise, he is a very inconsistent unit, especially against enemies with a lot of AoE attacks.

Yanqing is, undeniably, the worst Standard unit of the bunch. He does not have enough DPS to justify the amount of babysitting required and he does not scale either. Last but not least, Yanqing’s Eidolons are also very lackluster, further cementing him at the bottom of this list.

Yanqing Notable Eidolon Breakpoint

• E1: Very Low
• E2: Very Low
• E4: Medium
• E6: Very Low

Eidolon 1 – Svelte Saber: When Yanqing attacks a Frozen enemy, he deals Ice Additional DMG equal to 60% of his ATK.

Yanqing’s base chance to freeze the enemy is low and it is mostly from his also chance-based followup, so this Eidolon is negligible in terms of damage boost.

Eidolon 2 – Supine Serenade: When Soulsteel Sync is active, the Energy Regeneration Rate increases by an extra 10%.

Yanqing has a costly 140 base Energy Ultimate, and this Eidolon does not really change his rotation in any significant way.

Eidolon 4 – Searing Sting: When the current HP percentage is 80% or higher, this unit’s Ice RES PEN increases by 12%.

This is Yanqing’s best Eidolon in terms of damage boost since RES PEN is a rare buff, and maintaining his HP at a high level is a side effect of catering to his gameplay.

Eidolon 6 – Swift Swoop: If the buffs from “Soulsteel Sync” or the Ultimate are in effect when an enemy is defeated, the duration of these buffs is extended by 1 turn.

This Eidolon is only relevant when there are trash mobs for Yanqing to kill, but generally, Yanqing wants to spam his skill regardless of the situation so the extended duration is not even particularly relevant.

Yanqing Notable Teammates

As a DPS, Yanqing scales with most Hypercarry Supports. He however has a particular synergy with Shielders like Aventurine and Gepard since they can help protect his Soulsteel Sync state. Beyond that, he does not have any particularly notable synergy.

When to pick Yanqing

One should never pick Yanqing out of the seven options. While his high self-buff can help him carry the account through the early game in terms of damage, his fall-off is too drastic and he loses value extremely quickly, especially when DPS is the most abundant role in the game in terms of options.

Thanks for reading! To check out more resources, be sure to check out our other HSR Guides.