Top Ten Honkai: Star Rail Characters for Version 2.6
Released on October 23, 2024, Honkai: Star Rail's version 2.6 update is packed with exciting content that pushes the boundaries of exploration and strategy in the game. Headlining this update is Rappa, an eye-catching new 5-star character from the Imaginary element and member of the Erudition Path. Rappa’s stylish, colorful attacks are perfectly suited for exploiting enemy weaknesses, making her a powerful addition for players. She’s featured in the Eyes of a Ninja banner, where she chases down the villain Evil Ninja Osaru across the edges of the cosmos, joined by the returning Dan Heng Imbibitor Lunae. This phase of the update offers players the chance to acquire Rappa and several Quantum and Imaginary 4-star units, while Phase 2 will introduce Aventurine and Acheron along with more familiar characters like March 7th and Sampo.
Adding to the exploration element, players can journey to a new location, Penacony Paperfold University College, a prestigious institution found within the Moment of Sol region. This area is filled with captivating NPCs, hidden treasures, and the mysterious mechanized monkeys involved in the latest Trailblaze mission, Banana Outrage: Battles Without Ninja and Humanity. Here, players can also meet returning characters like March 7th and Dan Heng, and encounter Mr. Reca, the leading examiner at the college. Complementing these updates are two new relic sets—Sacerdos’ Relived Ordeal and Scholar Lost In Erudition—which enhance critical stats like CRIT Rate and Speed, adding strategic options for high-stakes battles.
The 2.6 update also brings the third Simulated Universe DLC, Unknowable Domain, where players can collect and customize Scepters with Components to unlock powerful synergies for the final boss encounter. Events like Sound Hunt Ninjutsu Inscription, Mr. Cold Feet’s Pop-Up Shop, and Planet Fissure offer limited-time rewards, while Garden of Plenty and Shadow of the Ranger enable players to obtain boosted materials and experience. With so much to explore, Honkai: Star Rail 2.6 enriches both gameplay depth and character development opportunities. Below, we’ve rounded up the top ten characters for this patch who excel at taking on its new challenges and maximizing the update’s strategic potential.
Top Ten Honkai: Star Rail Characters for Version 2.6
1. Kafka
Kafka is a powerhouse in the 2.6 update, known for her strong debuffs and damage-over-time effects. Her Shock debuff deals continuous Lightning damage, and Kafka’s abilities allow her to spread this effect across multiple enemies, especially when paired with allies who have multi-hit skills. This compounding damage-over-time is extremely useful in prolonged battles, particularly against bosses with high health who require sustained damage to bring down. Kafka thrives when teamed with characters who can trigger her Shock with additional attacks, allowing her debuffs to escalate damage quickly and efficiently. Ideal builds for Kafka focus on increasing her Lightning DMG and Effect Hit Rate, ensuring her debuffs land consistently.
2. Luocha
Luocha is a top-tier healer and debuff cleanser, making him indispensable in 2.6’s high-damage environments. His healing skill automatically activates when allies’ HP drops, making him an efficient reactive healer who doesn’t drain SP. Luocha’s ability to cleanse debuffs adds a layer of defense against enemy effects that might slow down or weaken teammates, which is crucial in boss battles with constant debuff applications. His presence allows DPS characters to operate at full strength without worry. For optimal builds, prioritize HP% and Outgoing Healing Boost relics, giving Luocha the resilience and healing boost needed to support his allies in tough encounters.
3. Silver Wolf
Silver Wolf is the ultimate debuffer, specializing in adjusting enemy weaknesses to align with her team’s strengths. Her unique skill allows her to apply a random weakness to enemies, based on the main elements of her allies, which is critical in 2.6’s weakness-oriented content. By debuffing enemies and lowering their resistance to key elements, she enables her teammates to maximize their damage output, which is especially useful with single-element DPS characters. Silver Wolf pairs well with high-damage characters like Seele, who can take full advantage of weaknesses she creates. Ideal builds for Silver Wolf focus on Effect Hit Rate, Quantum DMG, and Break Effect to keep her debuffs consistent and potent.
4. Seele
Seele is a single-target DPS specialist who can devastate enemies in a single turn. Her skill grants her an extra turn upon defeating an enemy, allowing her to chain attacks and eliminate multiple enemies quickly or focus down a single high-health boss. This makes her exceptionally valuable in 2.6, where efficient single-target damage is essential to breaking through bosses with high resistances. Seele shines in teams that can further enhance her speed and damage, ensuring she can act frequently and exploit enemy weaknesses. Critical Rate, Critical DMG, and Quantum DMG relics maximize her damage, making her a dominant force against key targets.
5. Blade
Blade is a self-sustained DPS character who converts his HP into powerful attacks, making him less reliant on support from healers. His ability to deal high damage over time while maintaining his health allows him to serve as both a secondary DPS and a tanky presence on the team. Blade is particularly effective in long fights where he can steadily wear down opponents, as his skills don’t require heavy SP use. In 2.6’s endurance-focused stages, Blade’s durability and consistent damage output make him a reliable asset. His best builds focus on HP%, Wind DMG, and Damage Reduction, allowing him to endure enemy attacks and deal substantial damage.
6. Bronya
Bronya is a versatile support character, best known for her buffs and turn-manipulation abilities. Her skills boost allies’ attack power and can even advance their turns, giving key DPS characters extra opportunities to strike. This turn manipulation is crucial in 2.6, especially in battles where keeping up with boss attacks is essential. Bronya’s ultimate also increases team damage output, providing a significant boost to characters like Seele or Jing Yuan who thrive with higher attack rates. Critical Rate, ATK%, and SPD relics enhance her utility, making her an essential choice for teams needing consistent DPS boosts and fast-paced combat.
7. Jing Yuan
Jing Yuan brings excellent AoE DPS to the table, thanks to his summoned Lightning Lord, which performs multiple hits against all enemies. This ability makes Jing Yuan invaluable in stages with multiple foes or boss fights where summons are involved, as his AoE damage can quickly clear the battlefield. In 2.6, his multi-target skills provide consistent damage output that helps weaken groups of enemies, setting up kills for his allies. Ideal builds for Jing Yuan include Lightning DMG and Crit relics, enhancing his burst damage and enabling his Lightning Lord to deal heavy hits consistently.
8. Sushang
Sushang is a burst DPS character specializing in rapid, single-target attacks. Her abilities allow her to perform follow-up attacks, which increases her damage output against high-priority targets, like bosses. Sushang is perfect for the 2.6 update’s boss fights, where single-target focus and high burst damage are key to wearing down powerful enemies. Her fast and relentless attack style keeps up the pressure on single foes, helping break their weaknesses quickly. For Sushang, Physical DMG, ATK%, and SPD relics optimize her burst potential, allowing her to repeatedly strike and capitalize on enemies’ vulnerabilities.
9. Clara
Clara is a tanky counter-attacker who shines in situations where the enemy frequently targets her. When hit, Clara retaliates with powerful counterattacks, allowing her to return damage while absorbing hits that would otherwise target her allies. Her durability makes her a strong defensive option for prolonged encounters in 2.6, particularly against enemies with heavy-hitting single attacks. She’s best suited for fights where the enemy AI frequently targets her, enabling her to use her counterattacks for steady DPS. Ideal builds for Clara emphasize DEF%, Physical DMG, and HP%, ensuring she can absorb and return damage effectively.
10. Yanqing
Yanqing is a high-crit DPS who relies on critical hits to deal impressive burst damage. His kit enhances his critical rate and damage, making him one of the best single-target DPS options in the game. Yanqing excels in 2.6, where quickly breaking down bosses is essential. His synergy with buffers like Bronya allows him to consistently land critical hits, maximizing his damage output in each turn. Builds for Yanqing should focus on Critical Rate, Critical DMG, and Ice DMG relics to make him a consistent threat on the battlefield.
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Patrick Yu is a Senior Project Manager at Level Interactive and has 8 years of experience writing business, legal, lifestyle, gaming, and technology articles. He is a significant contributor to Acer Corner and is currently based in Taipei, Taiwan.
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