How to Break opponents in Honkai: Star Rail

Combat in Honkai: Star Rail is all about using the characters on your team to exploit your enemies' weaknesses. The key to doing that is paying attention to each character's type and learning the ins and outs of Breaking. Here's everything you need to know to make use of elemental damage and excel in battle.

Every character in Honkai: Star Rail is associated with a particular element, with that type dictating what kind of elemental damage the character does to enemies. There are seven elements in total, with each one designated by a specific icon and color. Get used to quickly identifying the icons and colors that correspond to each element, so you know which kind of damage to use against each enemy.

To understand how strong – or not so strong – an enemy is, look near their name. Enemies of certain types are weak to specific elements, which you can tell by the icons that appear next to their names. They also have two bars beneath their names: a red health bar and a white toughness bar.

Attacking an enemy with an element they're weak to will cause their toughness to deplete, and if you empty the toughness bar, you'll Break the enemy – staggering them, interrupting their actions, and leaving them highly vulnerable. You get huge benefits for Breaking enemies, so you always want to try to take full advantage and use the correct element for the job.

When you Break an enemy, the effects will differ based on your character’s type. For example, if you Break an enemy with a Wind attack, that enemy will take a burst of Wind Shear damage when they recover from the Broken state. If you Break an enemy with Fire damage, you'll burn the enemy, so they'll take a small amount of damage over time until they recover.

With Quantum and Imaginary damage, the Break effects will slow the enemy down and delay their turn. Pay attention to how Break effects work for different elements – some enemies are weak to multiple elements, which allows you to choose which effects you want to inflict on them.

When you Break an enemy, they usually stay in the vulnerable Broken state until their Toughness refills in the next turn. When Broken, enemies take additional damage from your attacks, and they can't counterattack or use other actions during that time. This means that you’ll want get in as many hits as you can while an enemy is Broken.

Pay attention to the order of turns – shown in the top-left corner of the combat screen – and try to Break enemies near the start of your team's turns, rather than right before the enemy's turn. If you Break an enemy right before their turn, they'll recover immediately, and you'll have to Break them all over again to deal extra damage.

Another thing to note is that if an enemy is charging up a powerful attack, a well-timed Break will cancel it. When you see those attacks coming, act quickly with your Ultimates before their next turn, if you can.

Breaking an enemy doesn’t just help you control a battle, it also causes massive damage – much more than your regular attacks. Because Breaks can be so powerful, you want to do your best to enhance them, especially on your damage-dealing characters.

Pay attention to the Light Cones you equip to your characters and how they can increase Break damage when leveled up. If you have one or two characters who are particularly lethal Breakers, try to use them to land the final Break blow on an opponent whenever you can.