Honkai: Star Rail's best follow-up attack character

Honkai: Star Rail's turn-based combat system involves forming a team of up to four characters, each with a unique set of abilities they can unleash when it's their turn. However, in some cases, you don't always have to follow a turn system, such as using a character's ultimate or launching a follow-up attack.



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Honkai: Star Rail – 5 Star Character Tier List

Having different characters in the game puts them on different tiers because they have different power levels.

Follow-up attacks are attacks that can be executed automatically, ignoring turn order, and are an essential part of some characters' kits. With the release of supports like Topaz, Sparkle, and Robin that greatly enhance follow-up attacks, you may want to consider building these follow-up attack-based characters.

Updated on December 1, 2024 by Sanyam Jain. As more characters are released in Honkai: Star Rail, the developers have made their vision for the follow-up characters very clear. These characters may not add much value on their own, but when thrown into a synergistic team, these units can surprise you.


12 shhh

Xueyi prepares to use Ultimate on Honkai Star Rail

  • rarefaction: 4 stars
  • category: quantum
  • road: destruction


Xueyi's playstyle involves gaining stacks of karma for Karmic Perpetuation, a talent he gains whenever he or his allies reduce an enemy's toughness. As your toughness decreases, more stacks of karma are added, and after gaining 8 stacks, you will expend all of your karma to immediately begin a follow-up attack.

The reason Xueyi is low on this list is because her follow-up attacks aren't her main source of DMG, and both her skills and ultimate deal out much more DMG, and her ultimate ignores weaknesses. Plus, it takes so long to build up a stack with follow-up attacks that it's not worth focusing on.

11 leaf

A menacingly smiling blade, Honkai Star Rail

  • rarefaction: 5 stars
  • category: wind
  • road: destruction

Blade the Silent Swordsman is a member of the Stellaron Hunters who has his own story and self-healing abilities within the game. His play style is to deal DMG with his abilities and sacrifice HP to recharge his talent, Gift of Shuhu.


  • When Blade receives DMG or spends his HP, he gains 1 stack (maximum of 5).
  • When the maximum stack is accumulated, it immediately performs a follow-up attack on all enemies and recovers HP.

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Honkai: Star Rail – Best Builds and Light Cones for Blades

Blade is a Destruction DPS character in Honkai: Star Rail. Here's how to configure him to deal the most damage.

Unlike previous characters on this list, Blade's follow-up attacks take up a significant portion of his DMG and can damage all enemies on the field. Blade can also be stacked pretty easily, as he can already get 3 stacks in just one turn using his Ultimate, Skill, and Improved Basic Attack.

10 Aventurine

Aventurine is raising her hand and looking at the camera on the Honkai Star Rail.

  • rarefaction: 5 stars
  • category: imaginary
  • road: preservation

Aventurine is a passive character who can summon stackable shields for the entire team through skills and follow-up attacks. His talent Shot Loaded Right allows him to:


  • When an ally with a shield is attacked, 1 blind bet is stacked.
  • When you reach 7 stacks of Blind Bet, you will spend 7 stacks to perform a multi-stage attack on a random enemy, unlocking the third bonus ability, Bingo, and create a shield for all allies!

Depending on how you choose to build him, Aventurine's follow-up attacks can make him either a respectable sub-DMG dealer or a dependable sustainer with endless shield stacks. The best part is that you can choose to run him without spending any skill points and he will still be able to protect your team.

9 Hertha

Herta performing It's Magic, Honkai: Added Some Magic Ultimate attack with a giant hammer in Star Rail.

  • rarefaction: 4 stars
  • category: ice
  • road: erudition

Herta was known as one of the most overpowering characters in the game and was only suitable for hunting down weak mobs in auto mode. However, with the addition of Pure Fiction, a game mode focused on AoE DMG, Herta and her twirling follow-up attacks are starting to gain attention once again.


When an enemy's HP falls below 50% due to an ally's attack, Herta uses the 'It's okay, I'll do it myself' trait to launch a follow-up attack and inflict damage to all enemies. The nice thing about her follow-up attack is that it can be triggered multiple times in a single action, allowing Herta to spin non-stop and destroy the AoE phase.

8 jade

Honkai Star Rail Jade buffer follow-up animation starting image.

  • rarefaction: 5 stars
  • category: quantum
  • road: erudition

Even after most of the combat in Honkai: Star Rail was AoE-based, Erudition suffered for a long time. This is mainly because there are too many restrictions on how much damage units on this path can deal. Argenti, who needs full support like Tingyun and Huohuo for his Ultimates, is a perfect example.


However, with the release of Jade, Erudition is in even better shape as it can buff certain allies while also dealing massive bonus damage depending on how many units the buffed allies are attacking. This makes her a good pair for most AoE units, serving as both a sub-DPS and buffer.

7 Himeko

Himeko fights enemies on the Honkai Star Rail.

  • rarefaction: 5 stars
  • category: fire
  • road: erudition

Another “less than overpowered” version 1.0 character is Himeko, who happens to form an automatic follow-up combo with Herta, allowing for an endless cycle of follow-up attacks between the two. Like Herta, the release of Pure Fiction allowed her to shine once again. Because her follow-up attacks are very easy to trigger and very effective against groups of enemies.


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Honkai: Star Rail – Best Builds and Light Cones for Himeko

Here's everything you need to know about how to build and use Himkeo in Honkai: Star Rail.

When an enemy's weak point is destroyed through her trait, Victory Run, Himeko gains 1 stack of Charge, gains 3 stacks, and then begins a follow-up attack. This attack deals damage to all enemies on the field and is good for combos with other follow-up attack-based characters such as Hertha, Shay, and Topaz.

6 Clara

Honkai: Star Rail - Clara prepares to use her ultimate attack.

  • rarefaction: 5 stars
  • category: physical
  • road: destruction

Clara is the first character in the game whose primary source of DMG focuses on follow-up attacks. Due to her We Are Family trait, enemies that attack Clara will immediately receive a counter from her ally, Mr. Svarog, and Clara will be able to deal damage to all enemies while attacking her.

Using the ultimate increases the chance of being attacked by enemies for 2 turns, and the counter also damages enemies near the target, increasing AoE. Additionally, allies who are attacked by enemies while the ultimate is active will also trigger a counter.


5 ethic

Honkai Star Rail Yunli stands holding the sword of Yanqing.

  • rarefaction: 5 stars
  • category: physical
  • road: destruction

When Yunli was first released in the game, the community was unsure about her. This was because it depended on her being attacked, even though the kit itself looked pretty good. Basically, whenever Yunli is attacked, she will start counterattacking the attacking enemy, dealing AoE DMG.

This attack can be enhanced with an ultimate and can have up to 2 stacks. If you have the right support like March 7 or Lynx that can increase Yunli's attack potential, Yunli can easily surprise you with her damage in battle.

4 Jing Yuan

Honkai Star Rail Jing Yuan Looking down with wonderful golden eyes


  • rarefaction: 5 stars
  • category: lightning
  • road: erudition

Jing Yuan, despite being an Erudition character, has been the best follow-up character for some time, capable of dealing Hunt-level DMG against single-target bosses. Like Clara, his main source of DMG is centered around follow-up attacks, and he's only getting stronger as powerful support characters continue to be released for him.

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Honkai: Star Rail – Best Builds and Light Cones for Jing Yuan

Jing Yuan is the second limited character to appear in Honkai: Star Rail. Here's how to make a general of Xianzhou Luofu:

His talent Prana Extirpated allows him to summon the Lightning Lord at the start of battle. Lightning Lord not only has a basic SPD, but also has his own turn of action sequence. Every time Jingyuan uses a skill or ultimate, Lightning-Lord's SPD and Hits Per Action increase, and when it's his turn, he goes down to slaughter his enemies.

3 Topaz and Numby

Topaz sits on a throne with her hand on the trotter of the Honkai Star Rail.

  • rarefaction: 5 stars
  • category: fire
  • road: hunt


Topaz and Numby are follow-up attack characters, meaning all parts of their kit count as follow-up attacks. Most of the playstyles have the following effect: “Pay Difficulty?” It comes from skill.

  • Inflicts Proof of Debt status on a single target enemy, increasing damage from follow-up attacks by 25% to 55%.
  • Numby inflicts Fire DMG on the target and the attack is considered to initiate a follow-up attack.

At first glance, Topaz and Numby seem like regular DPS, but they shine even more when used as support for other follow-up attack characters. Additionally, when an ally's follow-up attack hits an enemy with Proof of Debt status, Numby's action becomes Advanced Forward, allowing him to attack faster.

2 PhD rate

How to capture fire within a Honkai Star Rail Dr Ratio cube


  • rarefaction: 5 stars
  • category: imaginary
  • road: hunt

Dr. Ratio is another hunting unit that excels at dealing high single target DMG. To successfully activate the passive effect of the skills Cogito and Ergo Sum, the enemy must have a debuff.

  • When using the skill, Dr. Ratio is fixed at 40% chance to launch one follow-up attack against the target.
  • Each time the target enemy has one debuff, the fixed chance of launching a follow-up attack increases by 20%, with a maximum of 4 debuffs.

With his ultimate, he applies Wiseman's Folly to a single enemy target. When an ally attacks the target, Dr. Ratio automatically launches a follow-up attack, allowing you to wipe out all enemies with endless follow-up attacks.

1 Feixiao

Honkai Star Rail Feixiao reveals a mark on his back in his ultimate.


  • rarefaction: 5 stars
  • category: wind
  • road: hunt

The developers have already taken various measures to strengthen the follow-up team and bring it into the meta, but Feixiao is the icing on the cake with his phenomenal kit. Even after becoming a character in The Hunt, which isn't a very good route to take with AoE-based enemies, Feixiao still found his place.

This is essentially because she can launch continuous follow-up attacks and has a special ultimate that also counts as a follow-up attack. This means that Ultimate gets buffed by Ultimate and subsequent DMG bonuses, making it an absolute damage machine.

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