Honkai: Star Rail features a turn-based combat system that effectively utilizes numerous engaging elements to maintain the game and battles as robust and exciting experiences. While team compositions, particularly character roles and their stats (such as the Speed stat, which determines the action order in battle), play a significant role in achieving successful outcomes when facing challenging content, various other unique aspects within the gameplay also hold significance.
One of these aspects is the Skill Points players will have to be able to utilize characters' skills alongside their Ultimates and Basic Attacks. Typically, most characters' Skills consume a skill point, granting them advantages that Basic Attacks don't provide. Additionally, they set up the gameplay for a more tactical approach, requiring players to be mindful of when to strategically employ the skills in Honkai: Star Rail.
6 Avoid Pairing Skill Point-Heavy Characters
While it can be said that all characters need to utilize their skills in one way or another, some characters simply rely on them more than others. One such example is Bronya, whose skill effects only last one turn. Another character, like Jing Yuan, needs to utilize skills as often as possible to gain stacks for the Lightning Lord's damage modifier. While it is certainly possible to pair these characters together, players will quickly notice that they may not have enough skill points for their other characters each turn.
It can be said that Bronya's signature light cone makes this issue less prominent by providing an additional skill point under certain conditions, however, if players do not have access to this light cone, it can be more beneficial to pair skill point-heavy DPS characters like Jing Yuan with others like Tingyun, whose support effects from their Skill last longer. Bronya can be better utilized with a character like Seele, who can advance forward herself and utilize multiple attacks in the same turn thanks to her talent, allowing her to compensate for some skill points used in certain situations.
5 Opt for Characters that Thrive on Basic Attacks Instead of Skills
While some characters derive the most benefit from their skills and should prioritize their use, others do not require frequent utilization of skill points. A notable example is the Fire Trailblazer, whose skill enables taunting enemies as a defensive measure but generally does not need to be used frequently. Their Basic Attack, on the other hand, serves as an excellent means to maintain a party-wide shield and execute AoE or single-target attacks.
Another unique character, Blade, scheduled for release in version 1.2, enhances his Basic Attack for three turns using his skill. Therefore, he proves to be an excellent character for managing skill points for other characters, as he only consumes one skill point for three turns, albeit without generating additional skill points through his enhanced basic attacks. Nonetheless, players can anticipate the arrival of several similar characters who prioritize enhanced basic attacks over skills, contributing to more effective skill point management.
4 Equip 4p Passerby of Wandering Cloud on A Healer
Thanks to its 2-piece bonus, Passerby of Wandering Cloud is an excellent set to utilize on Abundance characters. However, utilizing the 4-piece bonus on some healer characters can also be beneficial as it allows for the generation of an additional skill point at the start of the battle. This means starting the battle with 4 skill points instead of 3. While this method of generating skill points is not constant, especially in quick-paced content with few turns, it can be useful to have the option to use skill points on all characters right away on the first turn if necessary.
Nevertheless, players should be aware that for other Abundance characters like Luocha, equipping only 2 pieces of this relic set and equipping Musketeer of Wild Wheat can provide higher overall benefits throughout the battle.
3 Reserve a Skill Point for a Healer as a Precautionary Measure
On the topic of healer characters, players need to be well-prepared to utilize their healing abilities in tough content. They should either ensure that their Ultimate is ready (in the case of Natasha or Bailu) or have a spare skill point that can be used to heal an ally after anticipating a devastating attack from the enemy. In many instances, boss enemies have specific animations and mechanics that allow players to plan ahead for a powerful strike. Players will need to either prevent the attack from occurring (e.g., through weakness breaking) or be prepared to recover from it.
Therefore, players should pay attention to the action order for the current turn and ensure that the healer character is able to utilize a skill point, especially if their action follows the enemy's strong attack. In such instances, players can choose to forgo using a skill point on a support character who acts before the healer. Taking a defensive stance may provide more benefits than an offensive approach in such situations, particularly in content like Forgotten Memory, where players must ensure no character is knocked down to obtain an additional star upon clearing the battle.
2 Calculate for Situational Uses
While the main DPS or healer typically require the use of skill points, it is important to also pay attention to the offensive support character's skill points, especially if they have effects that last multiple turns. For instance, players should monitor the buffs provided by characters to ensure their stacks remain, as seen with characters like Tingyun or Asta, and replenish them once they have depleted after a few turns.
Another situational use arises when utilizing characters like March 7th, who grants a strong shield to a single character. If players primarily focus on maintaining this shield on only one character and do not use it on others, they may not need to utilize March 7th's skill as frequently. Instead, they should pay attention to the remaining shield amount and re-apply it once it is fully depleted or significantly low to conserve skill points.
1 Pay Attention To The Energy Bar for Ultimate
For most characters, utilizing an Ultimate as early as possible is highly advantageous in battle, whether for additional DPS or support utilities. While this may vary for certain characters, the typical energy generation is 20 for Basic Attacks and 30 for Skills, allowing characters to access their Ultimate sooner. Therefore, in situations where players have low skill points, they may want to consider the energy bar levels for each character. They can focus on using Basic Attacks for those with nearly full energy bars and use the skill points on others who need a bit more energy to fill their bars.
This approach can enable players to effectively activate two Ultimate skills with minimal skill usage in the same turn, rather than using a skill on a character who would benefit greatly from it but activating the Ultimate skill from another character could benefit the entire team to a greater extent. However, this may be less significant in instances where the character's Ultimate skill is not immediately necessary. For instance, if Jing Yuan already has 9–10 stacks for the Lightning Lord, utilizing both the skill and Ultimate would not benefit the character or the team until after the follow-up attack occurs, allowing Jing Yuan to rebuild stacks again.
Honkai: Star Rail is now available on Android, iOS, and PC. A PlayStation version is in development.