How do Paths work in Honkai Star Rail? Explained

If you understand classes like Rouge or Bard, then making the logical jump to Paths is easy. Honkai Star Rail Paths are essentially a character class, each character having one that defines their growth throughout standard gameplay. What’s in a Path gives players some insight into a character’s strengths and weaknesses. In other words, if you understand a Path for your character, you’ll also understand what Light Cones to equip, which Relics to find, and how to structure your team with your character’s attributes in mind. In this article, we’ll go over all of the Paths you can find in Honkai Star Rail, as well as which characters align with which Path.

All Honkai Star Rail Paths

In Honkai Star Rail, there are plenty of characters to choose from, each of them having a specific Path they follow. Some are built to destroy everything around them, while others are more geared toward healing and keeping things safe. A good combination and balance of different characters with different paths are what players need to secure victory and make progress. The Paths a character can have are as follows:

• Destruction
• Abundance
• Erudition
• Hunt
• Harmony
• Preservation
• Nihility

Each Path available in the game plays a role in determining character strengths, weaknesses, and ultimately where they fall within a player’s strategy concerning team building. Understanding a character’s Path is the first step toward understanding their limitations and the preliminary toward creating a strategically sound team. Below we’ve summarized each Path available in the game and what it makes, or breaks within a character build.

Path of Destruction

The Path of Destruction is arguably the first Path you’ll learn about in Honkai Star Rail because it’s the Path that the main character follows. This Path is simple: it attacks. Whether it be a direct attack or an AOE, one doesn’t matter. That’s the Destruction Path’s specialty: being the main DPS of the team. Those within the Path of Destruction are designed to deal massive damage to enemies and sometimes come equipped with abilities that help support their longevity in combat. This makes them bulky attackers, at best, glass cannons on the other side of the spectrum.

Not as many abilities rest in the low levels of each Path, the Path of Destruction included. In order to really get the damage going on a character on the Destruction Path, you’ll need to level them up through the Ascension process. If you aren’t keen on spending money in the game, consider upgrading your Destruction characters whenever you can. They’re all-around characters, and a DPS one is needed for every interaction, so it can’t hurt if you’re unsure where your resources should go.

Path of Abundance

The Path of Abundance consists of characters that act as healers on the team. While they still can attack, they do so not nearly to the degree as other DPS characters and more specialize in the area of healing a specific ally or perhaps the entire party at once. A character following the Path of Abundance is essential for keeping everyone alive and helping ensure that the DPS does what they’re supposed to do. The game gives you an Abundance character right off the bat, so there’s no reason not to include her in your party, at least while you’re starting out and learning the ropes of the game.

Path of Erudition

Characters under the Path of Erudition are damage dealers, to be sure, but they come with a focus on dealing damage equal to all enemies. These characters deal damage to all targets simultaneously, helping ensure balance toward enemy management. They can help bring a sense of security to the team, especially if paired well with someone under the Path of the Hunt or simply Destruction. Because they focus on multiple targets simultaneously as a specialty, the advantage of any character under Erudition is that they have the highest multi-target damage count out of any path. Due to that specialty, anyone with this kind of Path is not ideal for a boss fight with only one enemy. So while this character may be nice to have in your back pocket, they aren’t always strictly necessary as your go-to team for everything.

Path of Harmony

Those under the Path of Harmony are responsible for buffing teammates. More commonly used to improve Attack specifically, these kinds of characters can be great for making your DPS a hard hitter, regardless of what Path it falls under. But just in case you were wondering, the main attacking Paths that Harmony would mix well with are Erudition, Destruction, and The Hunt. When taking down bosses, characters that fall under the Path of Harmony are basically essential, especially the further along in the game you go.

Path of the Hunt

Consider those on the Path of the Hunt your snipers. They have a wonderful Attack stat but are specialists in that they only attack one enemy at a time. Those under the Path of the Hunt are, as you might expect, Hunters. As such, they deal damage in the highest amounts, but only on a single enemy at a time. Pair one good Hunt character with a good Erudition or Destruction character, and you’ll be all set concerning damage. While anyone under the Path of The Hunt is a viable damage king or queen, that doesn’t make them a panacea for your DPS needs. Sometimes you may be fighting a swarm of enemies, which is ill-handled by a lone Hunt character. Balance is key, so it’s a good idea to have a generalist Destruction Path character in your back pocket along with the single striking Hunt character.

Path of Preservation

No team is complete without a tank, which is why the Path of Preservation exists at all. These characters don’t deal damage nearly enough to be considered relevant as attackers but are designed to keep damage from harming your party. Getting a Preservation character mixed up with Abundance can be easy, but one simple difference splits the two similar Paths apart. Characters under the Path of Abundance help heal the team when everyone’s received damage already. Those under the Path of Preservation are there to prevent damage in the first place.

Path of Nihility

The Path of Nihility is the opposite of the Path of Harmony. Instead of buffing allies, it applies debuffs to enemies. This Path is important in the late game, especially for tough-to-beat bosses down the line. Said debuffs can vary from immobilization to damage susceptibility, statuses, and attack downgrades. Depending on your exact team lineup, a member of the Path of Nihility is a take-or-leave character. If you already have a Path of Harmony character, having one under the Pth of Nihility may be total overkill, not to mention a big hand in ruining balance. However, on their own, anyone under the Path of Nibility can significantly benefit the entire team, especially if fighting against big hordes or a stubborn boss.

Unavailable Honkai Star Rail Paths

Some other Paths within the game are present but currently unavailable with the current character roster in the game right now. These unavailable paths are as follows:

• Elation
• Beauty
• Enigmata
• Remembrance
• Propagator
• Trailblaze
• Voracity

Honkai: Star Rail is available now on PC, Playstation4/5, iOS devices, and Android devices.