Best Follow-Up Attack Characters In Honkai: Star Rail

Honkai: Star Rail’s turn-based combat system involves building a team of up to four characters, each having their own set of abilities that they can unleash when their turn comes. In some cases, however, you don’t always need to follow the turn system, such as when using characters’ Ultimates, as well as launching follow-up attacks.

Follow-up attacks are attacks that can be triggered automatically while ignoring the turn order, and are an integral part of some characters’ kits. With the release of supports that significantly buff follow-up attacks such as Topaz, Sparkle, and Robin, you might want to consider building these follow-up attack-based characters.

Updated on December 01, 2024, by Sanyam Jain: As more characters got released in Honkai: Star Rail, the developers have made their vision quite clear for follow-up characters. You might not get a lot of value from these characters by themselves, but when put in a synergistic team, these units can surprise you.

12 Xueyi

• Rarity: Four-Star
• Type: Quantum
• Path: Destruction

Xueyi’s playstyle includes gaining Karma stacks for her Talent, Karmic Perpetuation, which can be gained whenever she or her allies reduce enemies’ Toughness. The more Toughness is reduced, the more stacks of Karma are added, and after gaining eight stacks, she consumes all of them to immediately launch a follow-up attack.

What makes Xueyi low in this list because her follow-up attacks aren’t her main source of her DMG, as both her Skill and Ultimate deal considerably more DMG, with her Ultimate even ignoring Weaknesses. Moreover, gaining stacks for her follow-up attack takes really long which doesn’t make it worth focusing on.

11 Blade

• Rarity: Five-Star
• Type: Wind
• Path: Destruction

The silent swordsman Blade is a member of the Stellaron Hunters who possesses self-healing abilities both in his lore and in-game. His playstyle revolves around sacrificing his HP to both deal DMG with his abilities and charge his Talent, Shuhu’s Gift:

• When Blade receives DMG or consumes his own HP, gains one stack, up to a maximum of five.
• At max stacks, immediately launches a follow-up attack on all enemies and restores his HP.

Unlike the previous characters in this list, Blade’s follow-up attack contributes a significant portion of his DMG and can damage all enemies on the field. You can also stack it pretty easily as Blade can already gain three stacks in just one turn using his Ultimate, Skill, and enhanced Basic Attack.

10 Aventurine

• Rarity: Five-Star
• Type: Imaginary
• Path: Preservation

Aventurine is a sustain character that can summon stackable shields for his entire team with his Skill and follow-up attacks. With his Talent, Shot Loaded Right, he gains the following effects:

• When shielded allies get attacked, gains one stack of Blind Bet.
• Upon reaching seven stacks of Blind Bet, consumes seven stacks to launch a multi-hit follow-up attack to random enemies and create a shield for all allies after unlocking his third Bonus Ability, Bingo!

Depending on how you choose to build him, Aventurine’s follow-up attack can turn him into a considerable sub-DMG dealer, or a reliable sustainer with his never-ending stacks of shields. The best part is that you can choose to run him without ever using any Skill Points, and he’d still be able to protect your team.

9 Herta

• Rarity: Four-Star
• Type: Ice
• Path: Erudition

Herta used to be heralded as one of the most underwhelming characters in the game and was only good for farming weak mobs in auto mode. However, with the addition of Pure Fiction, a game mode that focuses on AoE DMG, Herta and her twirling follow-up attacks began to see the spotlight once again.

With her Talent, Fine, I’ll Do It Myself when an ally’s attack causes an enemy to fall below 50 percent HP, Herta will launch a follow-up attack and deal DMG to all enemies. What’s good about her follow-up attack is that it can be triggered multiple times in a single action, making Herta twirl non-stop and demolish AoE stages.

8 Jade

• Rarity: Five-Star
• Type: Quantum
• Path: Erudition

Even after most of the battles being AoE-based in Honkai: Star Rail, Erudition has suffered as a path for a long time. This is mainly due to the units from this path having too many constraints for the amount of damage they deal. Argenti needing the perfect supports like Tingyun and Huohuo for his Ultimates is the perfect example.

However, Jade’s release made the state of Erudition significantly better since she can buff a specific ally while also dealing a ton of extra damage based on the number of units the buffed ally attacks. This makes her act as both a sub-DPS and a buffer, making her a great pair for most AoE units.

7 Himeko

• Rarity: Five-Star
• Type: Fire
• Path: Erudition

Another “underwhelming” Version 1.0 character is Himeko, who coincidentally formed the auto follow-up combo with Herta, allowing for an endless cycle of follow-up attacks between the two. Just like Herta, the release of Pure Fiction allowed her to shine once more, as her follow-up attack is quite easy to trigger and is extremely effective against groups of enemies.

With her Talent, Victory Rush, when an enemy becomes Weakness Broken, Himeko gains one stack of Charge and will launch a follow-up attack after gaining three stacks. This attack deals DMG to all enemies in the field and is great for comboing with other follow-up attack-based characters, such as Herta, Xueyi, and Topaz.

6 Clara

• Rarity: Five-Star
• Type: Physical
• Path: Destruction

Clara is the very first character in the game whose main source of DMG focuses on her follow-up attacks. With her Talent, Because We’re Family, enemies who attack Clara will immediately receive a counter from her companion, Mr. Svarog, allowing her to deal DMG to all enemies as long as they attack her.

With her Ultimate, she increases the chances of her being attacked by enemies for two turns, and her counter will also DMG enemies that are near the target, increasing her AoE. Additionally, while her Ultimate is active, allies that get attacked by enemies will also trigger her counter.

5 Yunli

• Rarity: Five-Star
• Type: Physical
• Path: Destruction

When Yunli was first released in the game, the community was uncertain about her. This was mainly due to her reliance on getting attacked even though the kit itself sounds pretty nice. Essentially, whenever she gets attacked, Yunli launches a counter-attack on the attacking enemy, dealing AoE DMG.

This attack can be buffed with her Ultimate, which she can have up to two stacks for. If you have the right supports like March 7th or Lynx who can increase Yunli’s chances of getting attacked, she can easily surprise you with her damage in battle.

4 Jing Yuan

• Rarity: Five-Star
• Type: Lightning
• Path: Erudition

Jing Yuan used to be the premiere follow-up attack character for a while, being able to deal Hunt-level DMG against Single-Target bosses despite being an Erudition character. Like Clara, his main source of DMG revolves around his follow-up attack, and with the continuous release of strong support characters for him, he just keeps getting stronger.

With his Talent, Prana Extirpated, he summons Lightning-Lord at the start of the battle, which has its own turn in the action order as well as its base SPD. Whenever Jingyuan uses his Skill or Ultimate, Lightning-Lord’s SPD and Hits Per Action will increase and will descend to decimate enemies once its turn arrives.

3 Topaz and Numby

• Rarity: Five-Star
• Type: Fire
• Path: The Hunt

Topaz and Numby are what it means to be a follow-up attack character, with every part of their kit being considered as a follow-up attack. The bulk of their playstyle comes from their Skill, “Difficulty Paying?”, which has the following effects:

• Inflicts a single target enemy with a Proof of Debt status, increasing the DMG it takes from follow-up attacks by 25 percent to 55 percent.
• Numby deals Fire DMG to the target and the attack is considered as launching a follow-up attack.

At first glance, Topaz and Numby might seem like a regular DPS, but they shine brighter when used as a support for other follow-up attack characters. Additionally, when allies’ follow-up attacks hit an enemy with the Proof of Debt status, Numby’s action is Advanced Forward, allowing it to attack sooner.

2 Dr. Ratio

• Rarity: Five-Star
• Type: Imaginary
• Path: The Hunt

Dr. Ratio is another Hunt unit, excelling in dishing out high Single-Target DMG. He requires the enemies to have debuffs to successfully trigger the passive effect of his Skill, Cogito, Ergo Sum:

• When using his Skill, Dr. Ratio has a 40 percent fixed chance of launching a follow-up attack against his target one time.
• For each debuff the target enemy has, the fixed chance of launching a follow-up attack increases by 20 percent, capping at four debuffs.

With his Ultimate, he applies Wiseman’s Folly to a single enemy target. When allies attack that target, Dr. Ratio will automatically launch his follow-up attack, allowing you to wipe out all your enemies with an endless barrage of follow-up attacks.

1 Feixiao

• Rarity: Five-Star
• Type: Wind
• Path: The Hunt

While the developers had already taken various steps to buff the follow-up-based teams and bring them into the meta, Feixiao served as the icing on the cake with her phenomenal kit. Even after being a character from The Hunt, which is not such a good path to have with the AoE-based enemies, Feixiao still found her place.

This is essentially due to her being able to launch constant follow-up attacks and also having a special Ultimate, which also counts as a follow-up attack. This means that the Ultimate gets buffed both from Ultimate and Follow-up DMG bonus, making her an absolute damage machine.