Images: HoYoverse
If you're pulling for The Herta, then you might also want to get two of her best 5-star teammates.
Honkai: Star Rail Version 3.0 is almost here, with the game's next major update adding the new world of Amphoreus, as well as featuring two new limited 5-star characters and six 5-star reruns. The version's first half banners features the long-awaited debut of The Herta as well as reruns for Jade, Feixiao, and Lingsha.
With four 5-star characters to choose from, it's definitely going to be hard to choose who to spend your hard-earned Stellar Jade on. But fret not Trailblazers, read on and we can help you decide.
Need an Emanator of Erudition? Pull for The Herta
Genius Society member #83 and Emanator of Erudition The Herta has finally revealed her true form as a playable character, wielding the Ice element and following the Path of Erudition.
While most Erudition characters excel in high enemy count combat encounters like Pure Fiction, but are not as good in Memory of Chaos and Apocalyptic Shadow, The Herta stands apart as her sheer damage output lets her easily breeze through all kinds of combat situations. She also boasts some of the best animations in the game, featuring a magical girl aesthetic befitting a beautiful genius like The Herta herself. And if you're wondering why a genius scientist like The Herta is using magic in combat, this character quirk hearkens back to a famous quote from popular science fiction writer Arthur C. Clarke: “Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic”.
So if you're looking for gamebreaking damage output to go with beautiful animation, then The Herta is well worth the Stellar Jade. If you're one of those players worrying about powercreep, The Herta should only get stronger with time – if our experience with other playable Emanators is anything to go by.
The Herta's damage profile prominently features her ultimate and enhanced skill on top of plenty of self buffs and hefty damage multipliers. And just like the Emanator of Nihility Acheron, The Herta also scales when her team features a character following the Path of Erudition. Her kit's focus makes the 4-piece Scholar Lost in Erudition and 2-piece Izumo Gensei and Takama Divine Realm her preferred relic sets, making it easier for players to get her geared up, as they should have plenty of pieces from those relic sets lying around after farming for other characters.
Players lucky enough to have pulled The Herta can also enjoy plenty of strong Light Cone choices aside from her signature. Jing Yuan's signature, Before Dawn, is her best 5-star alternative while Today is Another Peaceful Day will be her best 4-star Light Cone – assuming players have acquired it from the Battle Pass. For free-to-play players, go for The Seriousness of Breakfast.
Finally, The Herta also has a top-tier team she can roll with as soon as she releases. In fact, two of her best 5-star teammates, Jade and Lingsha, are even running alongside her. Just add a Harmony support like Sunday or Robin, and you already have The Herta's premier 5-star team. For those looking for a lower cost team, the likes of Remembrance Trailblazer, Serval, and Gallagher can all be easily acquired and still pack a serious punch.
Need a formidable Erudition Sub DPS? Pull for Jade
The third member of the Interastral Peace Corporation's Ten Stonehearts to become a playable character, Jade wields the Quantum element and follows the Path of Erudition. Similar to her fellow Ten Stonehearts member Topaz, Jade acts as an enabler and sub DPS. Mirroring how Topaz enables single-target follow-up attack compositions, Jade enables AoE-focused lineups.
Jade can designate one ally as a Debt Collector, boosting their speed and dealing an additional instance of damage to every enemy they hit at a small HP cost. Every target hit by the Debt Collector and Jade herself also builds up stacks of Charge for Jade, with 8 stacks of Charge letting her unleash a follow-up attack that hits all enemies on the field. Finally, Jade's ultimate lets her gain more stacks of Charge while also boosting the damage of her next two follow-up attacks.
Jade's kit makes her one of the best characters to clear through Pure Fiction, alongside other Erudition characters like The Herta, Herta's 4-star puppet version, Himeko, Argenti, and more. With some investment, specifically her E1, Jade can also become a strong pick for Memory of Chaos and Apocalyptic Shadow, as this upgrade lets her gain more stacks of Charge from single-target and Blast-type attacks from the Debt Collector.
While Jade fits very nicely in just about any AoE-focused lineup, she has increased value for this banner specifically as the premier Erudition teammate in The Herta's best 5-star team right now. While The Herta can work as Jade's Debt Collector, the best character in this role for that team specifically is actually Lingsha. This is because Lingsha has more frequent AoE attacks, while The Herta prefers a slower buildup before unleashing a massive burst of damage with her ultimate-enhanced skill combo.
Need the premier follow-up attack DPS? Pull for Feixiao
The second Arbiter-General of the Xianzhou Alliance to become a playable character, Feixiao wields the Wind element, follows the Path of the Hunt, and is hands-down the best single-target DPS character in the game right now. If The Herta's AoE focus is not your style, then Feixiao's ability to focus on bosses should make her worth your Stellar Jade.
Feixiao, just like Acheron, doesn't have an energy bar and instead relies on the entire team, unleashing attacks to charge up her powerful ultimate. Every two attacks from Feixiao herself, or her teammates, gives her one stack of Flying Aureus up to a maximum of 12 stacks, with six stacks being the required amount for her to use her ultimate.
Due to the high frequency of attacks that follow-up attack characters can unleash, Feixiao works best alongside others of this archetype.
Her best teammate by far is Topaz, who can dish out plenty of follow-up attacks of her own to help Feixiao charge up her ultimate, while also increasing the damage dealt by follow-up attacks from the entire team. Meanwhile, the best sustain character for a Feixiao team is Aventurine, who provides the strongest shield in the game while also dishing out frequent follow-up attacks.
Finally, Robin is this team's best Harmony support by far, as her ultimate advances the actions of the entire team while adding additional instances of damage to every single one of their frequent attacks. The game's community has even lovingly referred to Feixiao's premier team as the F.A.R.T. (Feixiao, Aventurine, Robin, Topaz) lineup. A fitting name for one of the best team compositions in all of Honkai: Star Rail.
But if you don't have those three 5-star characters, fret not as Feixiao also has plenty of strong 4-star teammates. You can go with either March 7th's Hunt version or Moze as a substitute for Topaz – or even run them both at the same time – while a high Speed build Gallagher can be the team's sustain. If you're only running one of March 7th Hunt or Moze in this team, Asta's party-wide ATK and Speed buffs make her the best 4-star option.
Need a versatile healer? Pull for Lingsha
Finally, we have Lingsha, who wields the Fire element and follows the Path of Abundance. While Lingsha is the best healer in the game right now and is the premier sustain support for Break teams, she is also versatile enough to fit in other team archetypes, or even take on Sub and Main DPS roles.
Lingsha's kit is centered around her summon Fuyuan, which she summons using her skill. When Fuyuan is active, it appears in the action order and attacks all enemies in the field during its turn – healing all allies and removing one debuff from them in the process. Lingsha's healing scales off her ATK and Break Effect stats, which lets her pack quite the punch on top of her strong healing.
Lingsha is the go-to sustain support for Break teams with Firefly, Boothill, and Rappa, as she can also boost the Break DMG received by enemies and dish out considerable Break DMG of her own, all while keeping the entire team in tip-top shape. While some players like to run sustainless Break teams, you can also go the other direction with Lingsha by making her the team's Main DPS and sustain without deviating too much from her usual support build.
And just like Jade, Lingsha gets added value for this banner specifically, as she is currently the go-to sustain support for The Herta's premier team. Due to her more frequent attacks with Fuyuan, Lingsha works best as Jade's Debt Collector, with the two working in tandem to help The Herta build up to her powerful ultimate-enhanced skill combo. And with someone like Robin taking the Harmony support spot, every member of The Herta's premier team will be constantly dishing out tons of damage that no enemy can hope to survive.
Honkai: Star Rail version 3.0 will be released on January 15, bringing with it the new world of Amphoreus as well as three new characters: the Trailblazer's new Remembrance version for free by playing through the main story, as well as The Herta and Aglaea through the gacha banners of the version's first and second halves, respectively. The update will also see reruns for a total of six 5-star characters, namely Jade, Feixiao, Robin, Boothill, and Silver Wolf.
