Source: HoYoverse
The second half of Honkai: Star Rail version 2.5 is now upon us!
Featuring two Fire characters who both use cute Summons in battle, Honkai: Star Rail version 2.5's second half banners are looking to be a difficult pick. First up is the 5-star Fire Abundance character Lingsha, who makes her debut alongside her cute bunny Fuyuan. Then there’s a rerun for the 5-star Fire Hunt character Topaz and her adorable pet Warp Trotter Numby.
Lingsha joins Honkai: Star Rail as the premier Abundance support for Break-focused teams, especially for the premier Super Break team headlined by Firefly. Meanwhile, Topaz has long been a must-have in teams reliant on follow-up attacks, which have shot up to the top of the metagame tier lists with the release of Feixiao in version 2.5.
And with both Lingsha and Topaz heavily utilising Summons in their kits and HoYoverse seemingly gearing up for a Summon-focused metagame for version 3.0 and beyond, these two characters should only become stronger in the future.
If you’re having trouble deciding if you should pull for Lingsha or Topaz – maybe even the both of them – then read on and we’ll help you decide who to spend your hard-earned Stellar Jade on.
Pull Lingsha for your Break teams
Lingsha boasts arguably the most versatile kit for an Abundance support, as she is able to provide constant party-wide healing and debuff cleanse while also reducing the Toughness of enemies weak to the Fire element and boosting the amount of Break DMG they receive.
Lingsha’s kit is centered around her Talent and skill, which lets her summon Fuyuan in battle. Fuyuan acts similarly to other summons like Topaz’s Numby and Jing Yuan’s Lightning Lord, as it appears in the action order and has its own Speed stat – though Fuyuan is also different in that it has a specific amount of actions it can take before disappearing.
Whenever Fuyuan attacks, it deals damage to all enemies while also healing all allies based on Lingsha’s ATK and cleansing one debuff from them. Lingsha can also use her skill to increase the amount of actions Fuyuan can take before it disappears while also healing and cleansing debuffs from allies.
Meanwhile, Lingsha’s ultimate lets her inflict a debuff on all enemies that increases the amount of Break DMG they receive while also healing the entire party and letting Fuyuan take action immediately after.
If Lingsha’s kit seems somehow familiar to you, then that’s because she basically functions as a 5-star version of Gallagher. What sets Lingsha apart however is her more frequent party-wide healing and debuff cleanses as well as her higher Toughness reduction and damage output. So if you feel like Gallagher isn’t quite up to snuff for your Firefly Super Break team, then pulling Lingsha should push it to the next level.
But to say that Lingsha is simply a 5-star Gallagher massively underplays her strength. She boasts more versatility thanks to Fuyuan’s actions being considered as follow-up attacks, which lets her fit in nicely in powerful follow-up attack compositions alongside the likes of Topaz, Feixiao, and Robin. Moreover, Lingsha’s Summon-centric kit should also give her a good place in the upcoming Summon metagame being cooked up by the developers.
Pull Topaz for your follow-up attack teams
Topaz is one of the select few characters in Honkai: Star Rail that have been getting better as more new characters and mechanics are released.
In the case of Topaz, her hybrid role as a follow-up attack enabler and Sub DPS makes her one of the most valuable DPS characters in the roster. Not only that, the lovable pair of Topaz and Numby are set to become even better if the Summon meta does indeed come around.
Topaz fights alongside Numby in battle, with the Warp Trotter being summoned through her Talent. Numby also appears in the action order and has its own Speed stat, unleashing a follow-up attack on a single target once its turn comes around. Topaz can designate Numby’s target using her skill, which also inflicts a debuff on the target that advances Numby’s action forward whenever it is hit by follow-up attacks.
With Topaz’s own basic attacks also being considered follow-up attacks (to go with those from other party members), she can quickly string together multiple actions for Numby to take down a high priority target.
Topaz can also empower Numby’s attacks using her ultimate, which gives it 2 enhanced attacks alongside DMG multiplier and Crit DMG boosts. In addition, all ally attacks and not just follow-ups will advance Numby’s action when Topaz’s ultimate is active.
While Topaz and Numby are already formidable in battle, they are also very helpful during exploration. In the Overworld, Numby will automatically seek out any nearby Treasure Chests and Warp Trotters, even preventing the latter from running away. In the Simulated Universe and Divergent Universe, Topaz’s Technique lets you gain more Cosmic Fragments after every battle with a small chance of receiving a random Curio.
Topaz is a must-have in any follow-up attack composition, be it in the single-target team alongside Feixiao or Dr. Ratio or the area-of-effect team with Jade, Himeko, or Herta. Her power is further boosted once she has her signature Light Cone and E1, which greatly boosts her own damage output as well as that of her teammates. And once the Summon meta arrives in version 3.0, we expect Topaz and Numby to become even more valuable core picks for even more teams.
Honkai: Star Rail version 2.5 was released on September 10 with three new playable characters in Feixiao, Lingsha, and Moze as well as tons of other new content, including a special triple rerun banner in the first half of the version featuring Kafka, Black Swan, and Robin. Meanwhile, the second half featured the debut of Lingsha and a rerun for Topaz.
For more information on what's to come in Honkai: Star Rail version 2.5, check here.