How elements and elemental weakness work in Honkai Star Rail

S-s-shield breaker!
Honkai Star Rail Elements Elemental Weakness Shields Guide
Screenshot by PC Invasion

Honkai Star Rail lets you unleash the power of the elements when you fight foes in the game world. However, this is primarily tied to the break mechanic, where you destroy a target’s shields. Here’s our guide to help explain how elemental weakness works in Honkai Star Rail.

Recommended Videos

Note: We’ll have a Honkai Star Rail guides and features hub once the game has officially released, so stay tuned.

How elements and elemental weakness work in Honkai Star Rail

There are currently seven elements in Honkai Star Rail. We list these, as well as their colors and symbols, below:

  • Physical – grey; two crossed swords.
  • Fire – red; flame.
  • Ice – light blue; snowflake.
  • Wind – green; cloud or gust.
  • Lightning – purple; spark.
  • Quantum – dark blue; orb with sharp edges (looks a bit like a chakram or an eye).
  • Imaginary – gold; shining cross.
Honkai Star Rail Elements Elemental Weakness Shields Guide 1

Screenshot by PC Invasion

Elemental combat in Honkai Star Rail versus Genshin Impact

If you’ve been playing Genshin Impact, then the Honkai Star Rail elements or elemental weakness system will be quite different from what you’re used to:

  • Each enemy in Honkai Star Rail can have one or more elemental weaknesses. If you hit them with a character with that element on the overworld map, you can apply a weakness effect once the battle begins.
  • There are no elemental reactions, at least none that I’ve noticed so far during the closed beta. That means using a lightning attack on a target, followed by fire, wouldn’t cause Overload. Similar to that, the wind element doesn’t necessarily spread applications akin to Swirl.
  • For the most part, elements are just there to denote which one deals more damage so you can break a target’s shield. Once the shield is broken, the target suffers an additional debilitating effect based on the element that depleted it (i.e., if an opponent is weak against ice, and ice is used to deplete the shield, the foe will get frozen).
  • If several enemies have the same type of elemental weakness and a character has a multi-target/AoE attack that matches the element, you can deplete the shields of those hostiles.
  • Do note that attacking a shielded enemy with a character that doesn’t match its elemental weakness will simply do minuscule or ineffective damage.
  • The shield will be fully restored once that enemy’s turn has begun, so you’d need to reuse the same characters/elements to deplete it once more.

Related guides: Character paths/classes and turn-based combat system.

Honkai Star Rail Elements Elemental Weakness Shields Guide 2

Screenshot by PC Invasion


Honkai Star Rail is available via its official website.


PC Invasion is supported by our audience. When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn a small affiliate commission. Learn more
related content
Read Article How do the Campfires work in Diablo 4
How Do The Campfires Work In Diablo 4
Read Article Fastest ways to raise Episode 1 Fear Rank in Suicide Squad Kill the Justice League
Episode 1 Fear Rank Fast Suicide Squad Kill The Justice League
Read Article How to unlock Joker in Suicide Squad Kill the Justice League
2024 03 28 12 54 11 Greenshot
Related Content
Read Article How do the Campfires work in Diablo 4
How Do The Campfires Work In Diablo 4
Read Article Fastest ways to raise Episode 1 Fear Rank in Suicide Squad Kill the Justice League
Episode 1 Fear Rank Fast Suicide Squad Kill The Justice League
Read Article How to unlock Joker in Suicide Squad Kill the Justice League
2024 03 28 12 54 11 Greenshot
Author
Jason Rodriguez
Jason Rodriguez is a guides writer. Most of his work can be found on PC Invasion (around 3,400+ published articles). He's also written for IGN, GameSpot, Polygon, TechRaptor, Gameskinny, and more. He's also one of only five games journalists from the Philippines. Just kidding. There are definitely more around, but he doesn't know anyone. Mabuhay!