Bronya vs. Sparkle: Speculating which 5-star to pick in Honkai Star Rail

Honkai Star Rail boasts an ever-increasing roster of characters, and many more are set to release in future updates. Sparkle, a Path of Harmony character who specializes in providing buffs to her team members, is one of them. She is a member of the intergalactic organization, Masked Fools, who will cross paths with the Astral Express crew and Trailblazer in the upcoming 2.0 update.

While Sparkle is a buffer, many players may be wondering if she is worth summoning when compared to Bronya, a standard 5-star character in Honkai Star Rail. This article discusses their abilities and which one to pick in this space odyssey.

Note: This article is subjective and solely relies on the writer's opinion.

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Bronya’s abilities in Honkai Star Rail

Bronya (Image via HoYoverse)

Bronya’s abilities are detailed in the following section:

• Basic ATK: Unleashes an attack that deals Wind damage.
• Skill: Removes an ally's debuff, granting them to take action immediately, and increases their damage for a turn.
• Ultimate: Upon activation, boosts all allies ATK and CRIT DMG for two turns.
• Talent: When Bronya uses her Basic ATK, her next action will be Advanced Forward.
• Technique: After activation, at the beginning of the next turn, every ally’s ATK stat will be increased.

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Sparkle’s abilities in Honkai Star Rail

Sparkle (Image via HoYoverse)

The section below lists Sparkle’s abilities in detail:

• Basic ATK: Deals Quantum damage to a single opponent.
• Skill: Increases an ally's CRIT DMG for one turn and advances their subsequent action by 50%.
• Ultimate: Upon activation, regenerates four Skill Points for all team members and grants them Cipher. For two turns, Sparkle's Passive Talent will increase damage for each ally with the Cipher buff.
• Passive Talent: When Sparkle is on the battlefield, increases the max number of Skill Points by two. When an ally consumes a Skill Point, they deal more damage for two turns. This effect is stackable up to three times.
• Technique: After activation, grants Stealth to all allies for 20 seconds. While in Stealth, characters will not get detected by adversaries, and after entering a battle they recover one Skill Point.

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Bronya vs Sparkle: Which 5-star unit is better in Honkai Star Rail?

In the upcoming Honkai Star Rail updates, players should pick Sparkle. Sparkle is a Quantum character treading on the Path of Harmony. She can easily provide ATK and CRIT-related buffs with her abilities, while boosting her allies' damage simultaneously. Players will also gain two additional Skill Points when Sparkle is in the party. When she is paired up with excellent DPS characters, she can boost their damage and clear challenging activities with ease.

Bronya is also an excellent character in this turn-based gacha title, but when compared to Sparkle, she simply falls behind as the former’s kit is superior. However, Bronya is an SS tier support character whose pick rate is skyrocketing in various end-game activities such as Simulated Universe and Forgotten Halls.