Honkai: Star Rail – World & Boss Walkthrough Guide

Image: Hoyoverse via HGG / Brittany Alva

Human Made

Penned by Brittany Alva

Brittany is our resident Palia and Honkai: Star Rail specialist.

Reviewed by Jeffrey Hsu

Getting through each world or planet in Honkai: Star Rail isn’t as easy as it seems – in fact, even the first world, the Herta Space Station, isn’t always a breeze if you don’t know what you’re up against. Going into each world with a plan can set you up for success, especially when you’re taking on major bosses. That’s why we’ve put together this walkthrough guide, containing the best strategies for each world and boss fights in Honkai: Star Rail.

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Note on Worlds in Honkai: Star Rail

Worlds, or planets, in Honkai: Star Rail mean the various places that the Trailblazer and the Astral Express Crew travel to and from. These are currently three locations:

• Herta Space Station
• Jarilo-VI
• The Xianzhou Luofo. 

These do not include the Simulated Universes or the Memory Halls that players can challenge – those two count as separate challenges that scale exponentially in difficulty and are much tougher than any of the current story Worlds that are in the game. 

Herta Space Station Walkthrough for Honkai: Star Rail

The Herta Space Station is the first real world that you unlock. It stands out from the others as it’s more of a tutorial area, but there are some areas that are a bit tricky. Luckily, at this point, there are several free characters available who make this a breeze.

Even if you’re struggling, there’s likely a simple answer that will get you past anything since you won’t really have too many options about who to use, Relics, or Light Cones at this point. 

Overall Strategy for Herta Space Station

With access to only the Physical Trailblazer, March 7th, and Dan Heng, this team can only function one way. Dan Heng and the Trailblazer will dish out damage, while March 7th focuses on Shielding.

While March 7th can do some damage as well, it’s best to use her for Shields, since she counter-attacks when her Shielded ally gets targeted.

How to Beat the Doomsday Beast

The first major boss in Honkai: Star Rail is at the Herta Space Station during the Lingering Shadows Trailblaze Mission: the Doomsday Beast. This boss is intimidating, but there’s an easy trick to taking it down if you focus on its weaknesses. 

The Doomsday Beast has three different parts to it: Dawn’s Left Hand, Disaster’s Right Hand, and the Antimatter Engine. Each part has its own weaknesses, and you can use the free team given to you to target them.

Dan Heng should focus on the left hand, March 7th should attack the right hand (when she’s not Shielding), and the Trailblazer should focus on the engine.

Players are also able to use Himeko in this battle, which is great as she can attack all three parts at the same time. Plus, all three parts are weak to Fire, so using Himeko’s Skill often is a good option. 

The Doomsday Beast has two health bars you’ll need to take out after you defeat all three parts. The Beast itself doesn’t have any Shields or anything, so once it’s down, focus on dealing as much damage as you can in the few turns you get. 

Jarilo-VI Walkthrough for Honkai: Star Rail

While Honkai: Star Rail holds you by the hand for much of the Herta Space Station missions, Jarilo-VI is a different game entirely. At this point, you’re free to assemble your team and build them as you’d like. This gives you a lot of freedom in how you play and who you use, but it increases the difficulty.

On Jarilo-VI, you’ll need to pay careful attention to how each enemy group works together – many of them buff each other or can’t be targeted until other enemies are taken out. Planning how you’ll use your Abilities and Skills is much more important as well.

At this point, it’s vital to keep your main team leveled up as high as you can. As you go through the world, you’ll likely level up and unlock new Ascension Levels for your characters, letting you increase their max level. This also applies to the other things you can enhance and level up as well, which include the following:

• Light Cones
• Traces
• Relics
• Eidolons (if you’re pulling for characters)

There are some enemies that are nearly impossible to defeat unless you’re at least equal to them level-wise. You may have to grind your Trailblazer Level in order to get to level up your characters to keep up. 

Overall Strategy for Jarilo-VI

In Jarilo-VI, you’ll need to pay careful attention to how each enemy group works together – many of them buff each other or can’t be targeted until other enemies are taken out. Planning how you’ll use your Abilities and Skills is much more important as well.

Beyond that, each Boss will require their own unique strategy.

How to Beat Bronya

During the Traiblaze Mission You Can Run, But You Can’t Hide, you’ll have to fight a boss battle against Bronya. Since it’s so early on, she’s built to be fairly easy to take down with the original team you’re given (Physical Trailblazer, March 7th, Dan Heng, and Asta). 

Before you can focus on Bronya, you’ll need to take her two lackeys down. March 7th and Dan Heng can take them down pretty quickly. Afterward, you can focus on destroying Bronya’s Shields with Asta’s Skill and the Physical Trailblazer’s Basic ATKs. 

Bronya recovers her Shield after being downed for one turn, which can drag this fight out. To avoid a long fight, you can save every character’s Ultimate for when her Shield is completely gone. This also saves you from dealing with low HP, since you more than likely don’t have a healer or shielder at this point. 

How to Beat the Automaton Grizzly

One of the most annoying boss fights on Jarilo-VI is the Automaton Grizzly fight during the Trailblaze Mission Ones Fallen Into the Abyss. It’s a tanky robot that can taunt you and summon other enemies.

Luckily, the enemies it summons are exploding enemies. If you can kill them in time, you can force them to explode on the Automaton Grizzly, which does a significant bit of damage against his Shield. Unfortunately, if you didn’t kill them before it uses its Taunt, then these little guys do a massive amount of AoE damage.

Focus on the little Spider guys first – since they do damage to the Automaton Grizzly when they die, it’s a win-win. From there, really focus on taking the Automaton’s Shield out with Asta. 

If you’re struggling to take the little Spiders out in time, then look at using Serval. If you don’t have Serval, then any other Lightning character will suffice for homing in on their weakness. They’re also weak to Wind, so Dan Heng can also fixate on taking them out.

How to Beat Svarog

Despite how friendly Svarog is with Clara, the robot will take you head-on in a boss fight to defend the fate of Jarilo-VI during the Trailblaze Mission To Rot or To Burn.

He’s weak to Lightning, Fire, and Wind, so you’ll need to tailor your team to him. Asta and Dan Heng are perfect for the job, along with whatever Lightning character you have. 

At this point, you’ll have received Natasha for free. You’ll want to bench Physical Trailblazer for the healer because Svarog hits hard, and most of them are AoE attacks. If you’re still struggling even with Natasha on your team, you can also run March 7th as a Shielder, but this doesn’t tend to do much against Svarog’s massive damage numbers.

At one point in battle, Svarog will Summon an arm that will ensnare a teammate. While it’s annoying, you’ll want to focus on Svarog and wait for your teammate to come back. Once Svarog is defeated, the battle will end, and you want that to happen as soon as possible – Svarog’s attacks do too much damage to let this fight be drawn out. 

How to Beat Gepard

The Gepard boss fight during the Trailblaze Mission Young Guard can be incredibly frustrating as he can summon allies, buff them, shield them, and freeze your characters. He’s also incredibly tanky himself, making this battle a long one.

You can focus on chipping him down with Physical Trailblazer, Natasha, and Welt (if you have him). Dan Heng is a great choice for taking out the enemies around Gepard.

If you don’t have Welt, then Asta works too. Her SPD buff is helpful, and even though Gepard isn’t weak to Fire, her Skill will still do a significant chunk of damage to his Shield. The only character to avoid using for this fight is March 7th – while she can Shield your characters, Natasha does a fine job at healing them compared to Gepard’s damage.

How to Beat Cocolia

The final boss fight in Jarilo-VI is against Cocolia during the Trailblaze Mission Roads to the Past Have Long Been Closed. This fight isn’t for the weak at heart, and it’s as long as it is difficult.

You’ll be required to bring the Trailblazer, who will prove to be quite useful for each part of the fight. You’ll also want to bring along Natasha to help with healing through the early parts of the fight.

Other than that, you’ll want to bring some combination of Fire, Lightning, and Quantum characters for the last two slots. Asta works perfectly, and you probably have a Lightning character from previous fights already leveled up.

If you don’t, then you can use the free unit Qingque, which most people should have at this point in the game. However, Qingque is RNG-based, meaning that she’s not very consistent. You may need to try the fight multiple times if you use her. 

The first round of the fight is simple, and you can take the enemies out in any order. During the second phase, a Decaying Shadow and two Imaginary Weavers will come out. Focus on the Imaginary Weavers first.

At this point, a cutscene will trigger. You’ll need to walk through the cutscene as the Trailblazer, and once you’ve gotten through it, you’ll be returned to battle. At this point, use the Trailblazer’s new Skill and let your other characters focus on taking down Cocolia’s HP.

Also, utilize the robot you’re able to use as soon as it pops up – the goal is to take her out as quickly as possible, especially during Phase Two. 

The Xianzhou Luofu Walkthrough for Honkai: Star Rail

The Xianzhou Luofu world in Honkai: Star Rail is the hardest yet, but you’ll be able to handle its challenges with this walkthrough. While the story may not be completely finished, there are several bosses that are frustrating to beat, and you’ll need to invest in your characters in order to defeat them.

Overall Strategy for Xianzhou Luofo

While you’re doing the Trailblaze Missions in the Xianzhou Luofo, you can’t be scared to mix your team up. This is where exploiting enemy weaknesses should be your top priority, and you’ll need to really focus on getting the correct team comps to take down enemies.

If you weren’t already, it’s also important to watch what your enemies do. However, no amount of predicting will help you if you don’t optimize your teams based on who you’re fighting. 

How to Beat Kafka

The boss battle against Kafka will probably require multiple attempts due to the RNG-nature of the fight. Even the most prepared teams can be screwed over by bad luck and rendered helpless.

Kafka will have two Cloud Knights with her, and you’ll want to take them down immediately. We strongly recommend building your team around Wind damage, as both Kafka and the Cloud Knights are weak to it. From there, you’ll have to rely a bit on luck. 

Kafka specializes in debuffing your characters, so it’s important to have Natasha or Pela on your team. Either option is fine, and you may need to try them both out in order to get past Kafka. However, you may have a few attempts that don’t work out, depending on which debuffs Kafka uses and which of your characters are afflicted with them.

This can definitely be one of the harder boss fights in Honkai: Star Rail, so don’t give up even if you fail a couple times!

How to Beat the Abundant Ebon Deer

The first time you encounter the Abundant Ebon Deer, don’t let it fool you – you’re supposed to be forced out of that fight after destroying its Shields two times. To do this, take out the Twigs that it summons as soon as they appear, and then focus on hitting the Abundant Ebon Deer with everything you have. 

It’s weak to Ice, Fire, and Quantum. This means that a perfect setup can look like March 7th, Asta, Qingque, and Natasha, or the Fire Trailblazer. You can sub characters in and out as you have them, but make sure you keep all Elemental Weaknesses accounted for. 

When you actually fight the Abundant Ebon Deer the second time, make sure that Natasha or Pela is on your team. Otherwise, you’ll be overwhelmed by the staggering amount of debuffs that come from the Twigs. Everything is the same from the first encounter with it during Phase One. 

However, when Phase Two comes, you’ll want to focus solely on the Abundant Ebon Deer. The Twigs can be incredibly annoying, but the deer itself doesn’t have much HP to it, and it constantly summons Twigs to replace the ones you took out. Unless you have a character like Seele or a very powerful AoE character that can take out multiple in one turn, you can ignore them.

How to Beat Phantylia the Undying

The climax of the Xianzhou Luofa storyline is the fight against Phantylia the Undying. The three-stage boss is powerful, and she can feel impossible to take down if you don’t go in into the fight with the right strategy and team comp.

Part of what makes Phantylia so difficult to defeat is the annoying flower buds that she summons over and over again. These do different things – including draining your Skill Points and lowering how much HP you can heal, making it difficult to manage your abilities and stay alive. 

In the first phase of the fight, you’ll want to take out the buds. The best way to do this is with some kind of AoE DPS on your team. During this stage, make sure your characters are healed and/or shielded consistently.

The second phase of the fight is when things get deadly – Phantylia will drastically reduce the amount of health you recover from healing, which makes any attack of hers deadly. Shielders like Gepard and Fire Trailblazer are perfect, but a debuffer can also make this stage much easier. The same thing applies to the buds here: deal with them first, and try to do so with AoE damage if you can. 

The third and final phase of Phantylia’s fight can feel overwhelming because she summons both kinds of flower buds to help her, while she deals massive amounts of damage, including damage over time. Again, focus on keeping your characters healed/shielded and doing as much AoE damage as possible until Phantylia is the only one left. At that point, you should be able to whittle her away while keeping your team shielded and alive.

Join the High Ground!

And that concludes our walkthrough guide for each world in Honkai: Star Rail, broken down by the major bosses you’ll encounter in each location. Honkai: Star Rail gives you a lot of options to succeed despite being a gacha game, and hopefully this guide will help you no matter what characters you’ve got in the game.

Let us know in the comments below if you struggled with a boss that wasn’t on this list. You can also subscribe for more Honkai: Star Rail content and gaming guides like this one.

Happy gaming!