Honkai: Star Rail feels right at home as an RPG with rich exploration elements and a solid turn-based battle system. It’s fast-paced in its delivery but deliberately designed to be quickly understood for its mechanics. The mechanic that can be considered the most vital to any battle’s outcome will be your understanding of elemental weakness breaks in Honkai: Star Rail. Understanding this mechanic will affect how you choose your teammates and often whether you win or lose.
What are Elemental Weakness Breaks in Honkai: Star Rail?
Elemental weakness breaks, and weakness breaks in general in Honkai: Star Rail, refer to when you deplete your enemy’s toughness meter above their HP bar in battle. While this applies in a general sense, elemental weakness breaks refer to specific effects when you break an enemy’s toughness using an elemental attack that corresponds to their weakness.
In addition to enemies’ turns being delayed and taking more damage, the following effects apply depending on what type of attacks you deplete their toughness with:
- Weakness Break: Physical — Will deal additional Physical damage (DMG) and apply Bleed to deal Damage Over Time (DoT)
- Weakness Break: Ice — Will deal Ice DMG and freeze your target, immobilizing them and dealing additional Ice DMG
- Weakness Break: Wind — Will deal Wind DMG and apply Wind Shear to deal Wind DoT
- Weakness Break: Fire — Will deal Fire DMG and apply Burn to deal Fire DoT
- Weakness Break: Lightning — Will deal Lightning DMG and apply Shock to deal Lightning DoT
- Weakness Break: Quantum — Will deal Quantum DMG and apply Entanglement, which delays the enemy’s action and at the start of the next turn, deals additional Quantum DMG to the enemy. When the affected enemy is hit, the additional DMG from the start of the turn increases
- Weakness Break: Imaginary — Will deal Imaginary DMG and apply Imprisonment, delaying their actions and lowering their Speed (SPD)
Related: How to Do a Follow-Up Attack in Honkai Star Rail
It doesn’t take players long to clue into how these can be used to your advantage. Add this to the Follow-Up attack mechanic and your preferred characters, and you’ll be able to make some killer team comps.
As always, look at the enemy’s elemental weaknesses, shown above their HP and toughness bars, and you’ll usually see the corresponding elements heavily displayed over your attack options for any given character.
- This article was updated on April 28th, 2023
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