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Honkai Star Rail is a turn-based action RPG from HoYoverse, featuring characters from the Honkai Impact series of mobile games. This RPG has quickly grown in popularity, drawing in thousands of players worldwide owing to its beautiful, intriguing game world and exciting gameplay. Honkai Star Rail’s gameplay features several units or characters in both 4-star and 5-star rarity. Furthermore, these units differ in being free-to-play friendly or not, with most units locked behind the gacha system.
Free-to-play units are naturally the most widely used since they have no restrictions upon account spending or RNG luck. As such, this list will detail five of the strongest F2P characters players can get their hands on in Honkai Star Rail, taking all roles into consideration.
Note: This list is subjective and reflects the author’s opinions.
5 best F2P characters to invest in Honkai Star Rail
5) March 7th
March 7th is one of the few starter units in Honkai Star Rail and is a 4-star character players will obtain early during the campaign. She follows the Path of Preservation and is attuned to Ice.
March 7th plays the role of a tank, thanks to her skill The Power of Cuteness. The skill adds a shield to a selected party member that directly scales off her DEF stat. Additionally, her passive Girl Power deals a counterattack to the enemy whenever a shielded ally receives damage.
March 7th is a great asset to have for free-to-play teams in the early game of Honkai Star Rail, especially due to her ultimate, Glacial Cascade, which deals AoE (Area of Effect) Ice damage with the added bonus of freezing targets.
4) Serval
Serval is an AoE Lightning DPS who is capable of dealing Shock damage to foes. Shocked targets take additional lightning damage when inflicted with the Shock debuff from her skill Lightning Flash.
Additionally, her ultimate, Here Comes The Mechanical Fever, deals AoE Lightning damage to all foes present in the field, simultaneously extending the duration of the Shock debuff. Shock has an 80% chance to proc, and this can be increased to 100% by unlocking her second Eidolon.
Serval is obtained for free as part of the pre-registration rewards and is an excellent DPS, despite her being locked to 4-star.
3) Natasha
Natasha is the underground’s chief doctor and an excellent 4-star healer to bring into any team. She specializes in healing and can quickly pull players out of a pinch when required. Her Love, Heal and Choose skill restores HP to a single ally, while her ultimate, Gift of Rebirth, is an AoE heal that scales directly off her own maximum HP.
She is free to unlock for all players as part of the quest on Jarilo-VI. The current Limited Character Warp banner also features her as a rate up character should players want to unlock her Eidolons.
2) Asta
Asta is a 4-star Fire support character unlocked relatively early on during the campaign. She is the lead researcher of the Herta Space Station as well as a strategic genius. Her primary role in the team is as a buffer, increasing the damage output of allies in battle.
Her Talent, Astrometry, stacks charges every time Asta attacks a different enemy. The stacks cap at five and buff the damage of the entire party, making her incredibly useful to have against waves of foes. Her ultimate, Astral Blessing, provides a Speed buff to the entire team.
Asta is a unique support-DPS hybrid character who is very capable of dishing out damage to foes thanks to her skill Meteor Storm.
1) Trailblazer (Fire)
Trailblazer has a rather lackluster start as a Physical DPS in Honkai Star Rail. However, things completely change when players complete The Return main story quest and unlock the Path of Preservation. The Trailblazer is now transformed into a full-fledged Fire tank, capable of taunting enemies with the Ever-Burning Amber skill.
Furthermore, the Trailblazer can also act as a surprisingly capable DPS, dealing damage from both their basic attack and AoE ultimate War-Flaming Lance. The basic attack is enhanced when taking damage, up to a maximum of eight stacks. Casting a basic attack, skill, or ultimate will generate a small shield on all allies to absorb damage.
The Trailblazer is the only 5-star character in this list and undoubtedly the easiest to ascend (thanks to the Eidolons being handed out for free via campaign missions), making them an incredible asset to have on every Honkai Star Rail team.
