Rank a Star Rail unit by the wrong thing and you build the wrong account. Raw damage numbers lie here, because a hypercarry with no team is a paperweight and a "boring" amplifier like Ruan Mei quietly raises three DPS at once. So this board ranks by how much a character raises a full team's ceiling across the three endgame modes, not by how big its Ultimate hits in a vacuum. It is current for Version 4.5, and it is split by role, because that is how you actually draft a team: a DPS, one or two amplifiers, and a sustain.
For where the finished comps live, pair this with the 4.5 best teams guide; for the pull decisions, the 4.5 banner schedule has a verdict on every warp. New here? The team-building archetypes guide explains why the roles below matter more than the stars.
What changed in 4.5
Not the top of the meta. Version 4.5 is a five-week patch built around summer alternate forms and a new path, and it reshuffled the middle far more than the ceiling.
- Robin Summeretto and Hyacine headline Phase 1. Hyacine is the standout: a modern healer who keeps energy and speed high, which is exactly what Break and DoT teams want in the sustain seat. Robin's summer form is a flavor alt more than an account-definer.
- Aventurine Waveflair arrives in Phase 2 on the new Elation path, the follow-up-attack line, alongside an Ashveil rerun. If you run or want a follow-up core, this is the banner Phase 1 is worth saving through.
- The Break, DoT, and follow-up archetypes that already ruled the endgame kept their crowns. Nothing in 4.5 dethroned them.
DPS tier list
Ranked on damage ceiling, team flexibility, and how many endgame sides the carry can actually take.
S (meta-defining):
- Acheron. Debuff-fueled hypercarry whose Ultimate scales with stacked debuffs. Still one of the highest single-target-into-elite ceilings in the game when fed two Nihility units.
- Firefly. The Super Break standard-setter. She converts Break Effect into enormous sustained damage and does not fight for skill points, which makes her the widest-coverage carry for Memory of Chaos.
- The Herta and the Erudition wave-clearers. Purpose-built for Pure Fiction, where multi-target follow-ups turn a swarm into a payout.
- Castorice and the newest limited carries. The Amphoreus flagships continue to anchor the follow-up and HP-scaling cores that top current clears.
A (strong, situational, or team-dependent):
- Kafka and Black Swan as the DoT engine. They ignore positioning and let debuffs tick; forgiving and nearly unkillable, if a touch slower to close.
- Boothill. Single-target Break duelist who shines on boss-heavy MoC sides and rewards a deep understanding of Break Effect and Super Break.
- Feixiao and the follow-up carries feeding into the new Elation path.
- Jingliu, Dan Heng Imbibitor Lunae, Himeko Nova. Self-sufficient or single-target specialists that clear on investment but no longer set the pace.
Amplifier tier list
The seats that decide whether your DPS is good or great. Most accounts underrate these.
S (universal):
- Ruan Mei. The best generalist support in the game: Break, speed, a damage amplifier, and a resistance-adjacent debuff that nearly every team wants. If you pull one support, it is her.
- Robin. Damage-amplifying Harmony whose Concerto Ultimate supercharges a full turn cycle; the backbone of follow-up and hypercarry teams alike.
- Sunday and the top Harmony enablers for energy and extra-turn generation on skill-point-hungry carries.
A (strong within an archetype):
- Sparkle. Quantum Harmony enabler; extra turns and crit damage for the carries that eat skill points.
- Tribbie and the newer buffers that layer resistance shred and team-wide damage.
- Bronya. The evergreen turn-advance and buff unit still holding up single-target teams.
Sustain tier list
Sustains do not just heal. The best ones feed the team's damage engine while they keep you alive.
S:
- Aventurine. Shielding sustain that doubles as a follow-up sub-DPS, and the reason so many Acheron and follow-up teams feel unkillable.
- Hyacine (4.5). The new healer built to keep energy and speed high, which slots straight into Break and DoT cores as their fourth seat.
- Huohuo and Lingsha for energy-hungry and Break teams respectively.
A:
- Gallagher. The Break-team value healer who also feeds Break, still the budget backbone of a Firefly comp.
- Fu Xuan. Damage-mitigation sustain for the fights where survival, not throughput, is the wall.
How to use this board
Draft from your DPS down. Pick the carry your account can actually build, then the amplifier that archetype wants, then the sustain that keeps its tempo, and you will out-clear a roster of mismatched S-tiers every time. A few standing rules:
- One finished team beats three half-built ones. Relics gate your damage far more than star power; the relic substat priority guide is where clears actually come from.
- Amplifiers hold value longer than carries. Ruan Mei and Robin have anchored the meta across many patches; a hypercarry can fall out of it in two. When in doubt, pull the support.
- Match the mode. Erudition and follow-up wave-clearers for Pure Fiction, single-target duelists for boss-heavy MoC, Break and DoT for Apocalyptic Shadow. The endgame modes guide breaks down what each side rewards.
For the individual character deep-dives, the best characters guide goes unit by unit, and the full HSR tier list stays synced each patch. Grab the current Star Rail codes for free Stellar Jade before you warp.
