Huohuo in Honkai: Star Rail Remains Frightfully Good

When Version 2.4 goes live in Honkai: Star Rail, Huohuo will re-run in the banner alongside new character Yunli. While a new attacker character may seem tempting, I highly recommend that those who don’t have her yet and have enough firepower on their team consider getting Huohuo instead. Aside from her capabilities as a healer, she’s great as a support and is a fantastic Abundance character for high-level teams or endgame content.

To start with, as a healer, Huohuo is just alright. She doesn’t excel as a sustain like Luocha and Aventurine do, meaning that she’s not as good at keeping your characters alive. That sounds terrible for an Abundance character. However, that’s because Huohuo’s true worth lies more in her ability to increase your team’s damage output through her myriad of buffs and her ability to passively cleanse debuffs. The main thing with Huohuo is that she works better on a built team. If you run her with characters you haven’t invested in, you’re going to think she’s a terrible unit. So always run her with a party that won’t crumple like a paper bag before Huohuo can get a turn in.

As a brief summary of Huohuo’s kit, her Skill can heal a character and remove a debuff. She can also heal adjacent characters, though they receive less HP. This gives you a bit more control over who she heals, as opposed to Bailu’s randomness. Her Skill also grants two Divine Provision stacks. While she has these stacks, characters can heal themself when their turn starts or when they use their Ultimate. They can also dispel a debuff, meaning they can move even if hit with a Crowd Control debuff instead of needing to wait for their next turn. Finally, her Ultimate can regenerate Energy and increase their ATK.

If you read all that and thought, “Wow, she sounds great for [insert character here]” you’re probably correct! Unlike characters like Bronya and Sparkle, you can use Huohuo with any party. This includes characters with more unique specialties like Firefly (Break Effect) and Kafka (DoT). They don’t need Crit DMG. But everyone wants ATK and Energy boosts, and everyone likes a good cleanse or two. I’ve long since asserted that if you’re thinking of pulling for in Honkai: Star Rail and you care about having a strong party, you should pull for a limited 5-star support. Attackers are a dime a dozen and you can get a good one with proper investment. Yes, even if they’re a “low-tier” character like Qingque or Serval. However, without a good support character, even ridiculously powerful attackers like Acheron and Firefly can fall flat.

Huohuo’s main use falls in how useful she is in endgame content. For example, you can bring her into the more difficult levels of Simulated Universe, Pure Fiction, or Memory of Chaos. In modes like Pure Fiction, her ability to get rid of annoying Crowd Control debuffs that may cost a character a turn is valuable when you want to clear the battle within a time limit. You can run her with pretty much any team provided that you’re running her with characters you built. She can also free up a slot in your team, as she can double as a sustain and a support. This means you don’t always need to run a Harmony or a Nihility with her.

Huohuo’s viability on a team will never change due to the universality of what she brings to the table. But if we’re talking about the specific upcoming patch in which Huohuo and Sparkle are both re-running, some people might need to decide who to pull for. That’s not even taking into consideration Yunli and Jiaoqiu. While I can’t speak on them, as we have no clue how they fare in the final build of the game, I can give a brief rundown on Sparkle versus Huohuo.

In my opinion, it really comes down to who else you like to use. Huohuo has a very generic kit for any attacker, meaning you can use her with any party. Her Ultimate really helps other characters on the team get back their Ultimate. Sparkle, on the other hand, offers a DMG boost (different point of calculation from ATK), Crit DMG bonus, and more SP. No one can say no to more SP. So in terms of their kits, Huohuo and Sparkle can benefit the entire party in different ways.

However, in my experience, while Sparkle is undoubtedly a fantastic support, not everyone can make full use of her. In fact, I’d go as far as to say that Dan Heng Imbibitor Lunae is the only one who needs Sparkle’s positive SP economy (as of Version 2.3 anyway). This is due to his Enhanced Basic Attack taking a whopping 3 SP instead of the sane 1. But people can get by just fine even without her (albeit with other premium options like Ruan Mei or, yes, Huohuo).

Huohuo can really speed things up due to her role as a battery, support, and healer. This makes her invaluable for any account. I highly recommend anyone who doesn’t have her to consider forfeiting your Stellar Jades and Special Passes to Huohuo. May she and Tail lead you starward.

Honkai: Star Rail is readily available on the PS5, Windows PC, and mobile devices. You can only get Huohuo in Honkai: Star Rail when the “Bloom in Gloom” banner is active.