the history of Honkai: Star Rail's most meta relevant free character..

between the sheer flexibility and relevancy of asta, its no surprise why I considered her to be the best free character of all time..

[@avej99]

My friend never builds speed on her characters because in her words “ why build speed when I have asta?” Honestly she makes a valid point

[@syncdive]

that would be reasonable if it weren’t for how you need 2 teams for moc/pf/apoc shadow. what happens to the other team then?

[@MaramMaram-mp5sc]

Ummm 🤔 asta is character that u can use her in one team in like moc or pure fiction what will happenes to the other teams

[@avej99]

@@syncdive honestly great question I should ask her

[@aomafura3374]

@@syncdiveHanya

[@ettaetta439]

​@@avej99Tingyun and Hanya combination ig? Lmao

[@scorpx3790]

Player: Aww man, i always miss out on a cycle because i lack speed Hoyoverse: Here take this Asta: What. Is. My. Purpose. Hoyo: S P E E D Asta: Aww man

[@HunteR3453]

Hoyo: S P E E D Asta: Taco Bell Sound ------------ - FTFY

[@undeniablySomeGuy]

The fact that Asta's kit scales completely off of talent levels is amazing. If you're low investment, she can take bad relics and do like 90% of her job. If you're high investment, she can stack hella crit or break effect.

[@emberthecatgirl8796]

Speed and some good ATK buff. She’s a godsend in non-crit team comps.

[@mailcs06]

Charging is pretty good damage too though

[@aovroxie3346]

The biggest problems asta has, that her eidolons are so good and turn her from being sp negative to sp positive. E1 gives 1 more potential stack which is good if you want to stack 5 stack with the first skill, E2 helps you not to lose the stacks after using ultimate, E4 let's you ult more often which coincidentally also makes her E2 better and E6 makes it so you now only lose 1 stack per turn or if there is a fire weak enemy, you are losing 0 stacks. Asta carries my Kafka BS Team till today and I love her for that

[@chifffy]

Her cons do NOT Make her sp positive. The energy restoration she unlocks let her run a 2 turn ult with 2 skills and put her ult at perma uptime, and this is basically the only way to play her

[@SordidusFellatio]

Kafka bullshit team? What?

[@ashik_fahmin]

@@SordidusFellatio, Kafka Black Swan(BS) team. 😂😂 Not bullshit, man

[@firby7341]

@@chifffy THANK YOU dear expert of honkai star rail asta playstyle to clarify there is only ONE SINGLE WAY to play this character. much appreciated!

[@Nevio1810]

Its so good is that she has a dedicated set that buffs her ultimates speed. Or the watchmaker set as well. There are just so many ways to modify her. Like maybe Chorus with Fleet to give the team a permanent 20% atk buff or Dance, Dance, Dance, there are so many ways.

[@Rayne-ih5yf]

You can also put Ruan meis lc on her now she can do more damage boosting and Regan a skill point which helps in her Sp negative playstyle

[@maxmanchik]

​@@Rayne-ih5yfActually, at due to Asta's combination of E2 ans E4, as well as E6 makes her SP positive after just one turn

[@Rayne-ih5yf]

@@maxmanchik Not exactly She'll be sp neutral at best unless if you don't care about maintaining her buff or her ult cuz first you skill then your ult activates then you can skip a Skill on next turn which is just replenishing the skill that she used up hence not really bringing any skill points to the team as she'll use it again in the next turn then rinse and repeat the only way to 2 turn ult with her is by building energy regen 2 piece then skilling every turn

[@maxmanchik]

@@Rayne-ih5yf She loses 2 stacks every turn. She needs 1 Fire weak enemy to be SP positive. Tho, fair point about keeping ult active. So, it would make sense to keep alternating between skill and basic

[@Nevio1810]

@@Rayne-ih5yf I will probably make her Into a pure ATK Buffer with Chorus and Fleet for a short time, as I have Seen from my Tests that Fleet of the Ageless and Chorus also buff Fireflys Break Effect, for the fun of it of course.

[@jacoblee4709]

Great video, but Asta's synergies with Firefly aren't as good as you make them out to be. They're still good, but some disclaimers should have been included. 1. Firefly's Break and Super Break DMG are NOT boosted by the DMG% buffs Asta and Planetary Rendezvous gives. 2. Firefly's ATK -> Break Effect conversion is not as good as getting straight Break Effect, Asta gives her ~60% Break Effect at full stacks which is good but not as important when she usually hits 400-500% Break Effect anyways. Honestly the biggest draw is Asta's huge 53 SPD buff, which IS pretty substantial, allowing you to push for 280+ SPD in Ult for 4 turns. You can also swap SPD for ATK boots for ~35% BE increase but that one extra turn is a lot more important.

[@Rock-vk9ei]

Asta doesn’t give dmg%, just the Atk from her talent. In Superbreak she should either be running Memories of the Past, Meshing Cogs, or Dance Dance Dance. Asta is simply a budget option for a Firefly team. Nobody gives break effect buffs in the first place besides a select few. But almost every support gives atk, so it’s fine.

[@jacoblee4709]

@@Rock-vk9ei She does with her A4 trace. It's only 18%, but toshi cites Asta's Fire DMG buffs being helpful to Firefly when in reality they do next to nothing. You absolutely should be running those LCs on Asta for Super Break though. I'm just addressing toshi's point about Asta's Fire DMG buffs being supposedly helpful to Firefly when that's not the case.

[@JMike-bq6rl]

She is also SP positive at E6 too. And you can slot Gallagher or Ruan Mei in other teams like Acheron's or DOT.

[@jacoblee4709]

@@JMike-bq6rl Yeah, Asta'a a great support, especially on a budget, but I would not recommend running Firefly without Ruan Mei. Without Ruan Mei Firefly's damage window becomes greatly diminished (less Weakness Break action delay + less frequent Breaks). And this is coming from someone who 0 cycled MoC 12 Argenti using E2 Firefly and no Ruan Mei.

[@bang9088]

@@jacoblee4709 Not to mention Ruan Mei's 50% break efficiency boost is a straight up 50% dmg increase for firefly when hitting weakness broken enemies iirc

[@anrypettit3112]

The fire buff that asta provides to firefly contributes like 3% of her total dmg I would better start saying that asta gives a huge help to ff on ruan meiless team with a pseudo break efficiency trough her E which reduce half of thoughness on ST and still very good on aoe. After that, more than 1K atk and speedbuffs which can make so much easier the speed build part of ff

[@user-38rufhoerh3id]

"DOTs as of then, and even now can't CRIT" Divergent Universe: "you sure about that buddy?"

[@Toksyuryel]

Now that the technology exists, I am just waiting for them to introduce a DoT Crit character. Wonder if we'll even see Break Crit eventually?

[@vijaysinghr988]

If they ever release dot crit character it will be locked behind constellations like nahida c2

[@jerickopanlen]

@@vijaysinghr988 shh dont give them ideas

[@frostfire6347]

*Fun fact:* asta's best synergy isn't with a character, but a lightcone. *seele's lc* to be exact, since her lc can quite literally turn any hunt character into speed scaling and only asta can fully abuse this feature with zero effort due to her ult😎

[@TheMustardMan8]

I’m surprised you went through the whole history of her meta uses without mentioning the Asta-Welt eternal torture team even once (not even like a footnote in passing or anything).

[@mailcs06]

"Witness the stars shatter before you. Survive or be destroyed, there is no other choice." "Everything is ordained by the stars! Oh profound secrets of the stars, give these trailblazers your blessing!"

[@A.Singularity]

​@@mailcs06 "Gotta try hard sometimes." "Check out this awesome move!"

[@cinnamaricat]

i have ruan mei and i do agree she's better than asta but dang my asta is still seeing plenty of use whenever i need 2 teams ofc it's mostly bc i don't have robin but every time i play fiction my asta sees plenty of use even in apoc shadow before i got ruan mei i used asta she can be retired from moc for me now but she got plenty of use she's def one of the characters i'd recommend having built just in case there's any potential use or you don't like the 5* harmony units that could replace her i've seen plenty of ppl say they don't like ruan mei so asta will be amazing for them

[@mailcs06]

“Oh profound secrets of the stars, give these Trailblazers your blessing!” edit: Got welt yesterday. Asta + Ratio + Welt is fucking hilarious.

[@SciFiFreak185]

I started as a f2p about halfway through Acheron's banner. I invested from the start into Asta. I used Ratio as my main DPS in my journey to end-game. I love her. She has saved my ass so many times, I can't even count. Letting me out speed enemies or get in extra attacks/extra damage. For the longest time she was my only harmony - full stop. I'm sure eventually I will get limited units that are better, but I do not regret investing in and using her she's proven her worth to me. As a newer player - I didn't have (and still don't) have everyone equipped with speed boots/speed substats.

[@alexkainaris4322]

Bro I started halfway through acherons banner too I kind of regret not building Asta but now I have a Ruan Mei bronya harmony mc I just don't need her anymore and I plan on getting sparkle on her rerun so my acheron and boothill teams are fine after I get jiaqoi and sparkle and yes I have aventurine too

[@tsynthetic]

Played seele Hypercarry on launch finished xianzhou, took a break and just came back with Penacony. I was in for a rude awakening with Seele 😭

[@mailcs06]

Isn’t Seele still extremely strong when properly built and supported?

[@tsynthetic]

@@mailcs06 she can be, but 1 I don’t have Sparkle, and 2 the adventurine boss is hell either single target

[@mailcs06]

@@tsynthetic Ah

[@buddstar7681]

0:57 voice cracks never fail to make me laugh its unlucky it happens to the best of us

[@paugasol1000]

Doesn’t the fire dmg boost do nothing for firefly because break doesn’t scale of it at all?

[@forcefulstorm6187]

Yes.

[@myself-moons]

She's mostly used for the speed buff tbh

[@vungocanh3712]

@@myself-moons but firefly burns turns so fast that asta's ulti does basically nothing, I use lil gui because at least the dmg deepen is useful

[@Kam1_9]

​@@vungocanh3712 Asta also buffs Firefly's attack and has considerable Sub-DPS capabilities also she has higher WBE than Guinaifen so makes breaking enemies way faster

[@paugasol1000]

Yeah the speed and attack are great, I was just thinking about when he brought up the damage buff being good for her

[@Sakookie]

E7 mentionned !!! Love your videos, keep it up !

[@toshihsr]

thank you, im glad you enjoyed the video!

[@sacredpanda3055]

Was not expecting the SpecTene mention at the end 🫨

[@Kuddochan]

I'm pretty sure Harmony MC is the most meta relevant free character

[@apotatowithnorights]

Fr

[@danielvinceneo3556]

Theyre not introduced in 1.0, so the thumbnail wouldnt be good

[@TheUnholyToast1]

I mean they're not really meta relevant, they straight up ARE the meta

[@ObiAlmighty]

Yes, Harmony MC, my favorite 1.0 character

[@usmanya5110]

i'm suprised i'm still doing great with him even without his eidolons.

[@firby7341]

the first limited 5star i really pulled for was imbibitor who had asta, yukong and march7 on his banner. i got all of the 4stars E6 and to this day, yukong and asta are staples for my imbibitor hypercarry team. the only unit that changed over time was the sustain slot (now usually aventurine) asta is my favorite character. i pulled sparkles lightcone for her!

[@thomasnguyen4427]

I thought it was teyun from the thumbnail playback, then I realized the title said free. Didn't figure it out until the tab loaded (due to yt loving to autoplay thumbnails. I read the title before thumbnail, trained habit from ignoring image clickbait)

[@luiss428]

i know s5 ddd is common in harmony chars, but i havent seen it on asta and its nuts, its like pseudo robin

[@gemani_gem]

She carries me in PF for a long time 😊

[@glu7019]

First, but also pretty wild how asta aged

[@namelessunnamed6544]

Top 5 free char (MOC/AS) - HMC Chadlagher Xueyi Pela QQ (If Hanya) / Asta Deadyun is not free (only 4 star not free)

[@asafesseidonsapphire]

Pela is free?

[@namelessunnamed6544]

@@asafesseidonsapphire via an event

[@usmanya5110]

​@@namelessunnamed6544 wait is the event permanent though?

[@namelessunnamed6544]

@@usmanya5110 no True free characters are MC M7 DanHeng Herta Asta Natasha Serval Lynx QQ Xueyi Yukong

[@justamuart]

​@@usmanya5110permanent events always have limited time rewards and yes free characters are part of the limited time rewards

[@hvcskmagyar]

got f#&ked by no speed relics but they are so good with dmg its a shame to delete them? USE ASTA WITH SPEED ONLY AND RANDOM STATS

[@NoiseRosemaker]

In Firefly team? Pela is better. Cleared 1 cycle faster with Pela compared to with Asta. Thing is you want an increase of 70 speed for Firefly to gain one extra turn during her enhanced state, and Asta only gives 50, so it barely matters, and most likely that 50 speed had been burned out by Firefly long before Asta can replenish it. Asta's 60% atk buff is also really good on paper, but that "only" translates to 48% break effect on Firefly, which is fine, but there's something even better: 40% def shred on enemies. Or Bronya giving 1 extra turn during enhanced state.

[@youssifao_1277]

15:36 Dude forgot Bennett exists

[@sheepsong5681]

Bennett wasn’t free? It took a veryyyy long time for me to eventually get him randomly in standard

[@PeytonHolland-pt9hx]

Not now cus h mc can de got early but I don’t know how early cus I gust got a con when I was pulling for firefly

[@erykolop1]

5:15 actuallllllyyyyyyyy 🤓☝️ Divergent Universe has an Equation that makes DoTs Crit

[@ethannguyen9638]

Fire DMG% doesn't affect Firefly since she's BE no? Asta provides massive atk and spd buffs but no other increased dmg.

[@elpalito4538]

dammit give my guy blade some love

[@Trebord_]

Asta has been a favorite of mine since day 1, and she was the first character I maxed out. I even gave her Bronya's signature Light Cone, and she's still an amazing support character, especially for being a Version 1.0 4-star

[@Ice_Cream_Dispenser]

I love using Asta, but I never really need her in my team comps these days. I have Bronya, Sparkle and Robin, which kinda just does the trick for me, in addition to giving very useful buffs, their kit one way or another gives speed to my characters. Sp positive too (I use Bronya’s sig light cone on Bronya. She is E1+ too)

[@kwayke9]

Speed buffs are pretty underrated in pure fiction, honestly. A free way to hit that 160 breakpoint (and potentially push for 200+) is great when you only have 4 cycles

[@saggyai7670]

Bro really added epic seven at the end 😭😭 pls give us epic seven hostory videos 🙏🙏🙏

[@cronoluminara6911]

She still is in use on both my accounts

[@aries-zn6xe]

so i love asta because i am a main jing yuan since he came out and i use her with tingyun but i wanted to replace her with bronya and i did it but then i went back to asta, but now i just don't use her like... at all, harmony trailblazer i would say is the strongest free unit of hsr, maybe even more than dr ratio, i still keep using other 4 stars like gallager pela and tingyun but not asta, but break/Dot asta with trailblaizer and ruan mei is soooo fun (i do not have sparkle and other characters, i mainly go for male characters or female that can suport them)

[@borislylesss2808]

Hyper break Asta is so fun to play and Asta playe a good extra dps with the harmony mc I love Asta will continue to use her because she's fun

[@eternal1780]

Asta is honestly really good as a firefly replacement, which sounds insane in concept, but on a single target my Asta is dealing 150k super break damage (on my harmony only account) alongside Ruan Mei. It's a ridiculously strong setup, and one I wish would be observed more

[@mailcs06]

Makes sense. Asta does insane toughness damage to a single fire weak target

[@jaceybella1267]

If it's not too much trouble, what's the source of the image at 0:30 in the vid? I wasn't following star rail during pre-release, I found out about it because an anime-tuber did a sponsorship during 1.0, and I'd love to see some info about the changes made to the characters prior to the game's launch.

[@stardust9470]

I remember commenting in a video a year ago SEVERELY underestimating Asta due to my lack of understanding of Speed and now I unironically use her in Topaz Ratio to use ATK Boots and being able to tech Glamoth if I want to. I tried to be greedy and use Asta as a third buffer in the Firefly team,but I die too fast for it to work and she strains the SP economy EVEN more than it already is.

[@m0ha644]

Second, Asta is really good as a harmony character

[@jayden9766]

5:10 what is this sooooong omg I can't find the name!

[@shai310]

I think in general Asta will always have great value especially for f2p players who can't usually have access to the likes of Ruan Mei, Robin, Sparkle etc.

[@adamcobb7892]

I know it's not much but getting Blades dmg to the 200k made me happy. I still use dude. He's also good in fiction.

[@wildfire_]

tingyun in the corner frowning at the word *most* HMC in the other corner

[@Brainfly-]

The fact that we've got so many good 4*s and free characters is honestly so sick Tingyun, Asta, Pela, Gallagher, HMC, Ratio, QQ, Herta... It's awesome

[@mailcs06]

Hell even Preservation Trailblazer is very strong with their taunt, constant small shields, and fucking ginormous amount of DR when taunting, not to mention chip damage from the enhanced basic attack.

[@HazZzel-]

As a husbando collector characters like Asta are a godsend

[@Paandaas]

The ODST music got me

[@tsundude4320]

*Jade liked this*

[@1997CreepeR7991]

Until I used her with firefly I had now idea how crazy she really was

[@linhmy7673]

Me building crit asta: wot? Shes a buffer?

[@goldentiramisu7935]

asta with energy recharge build is bonkers

[@allister21]

idk why it bothers me and it’s totally a me problem, but *Jing YUAN 😅

[@raihannursantiago1061]

How about the strongest harmony/preservation our beloved foxian

[@konstantinbobrov205]

I think it's important to mention that Asta is not completely overshadowed by the new five-star harmony, but often synergizes with them. For example, Asta's talent significantly increases damage and buffs from the Robin! And the ultimate is almost guaranteed to provide an additional move during the Concert to all allies. And of course it's very nice that Asta can be completely assembled into speed and break effect and used in a team with MC and Ruan Mei (it's real HARMony team)

[@hypemaddox]

Pela moment.

[@GrimTzu]

Still, if you don't have her Eidolons, building her is much more trouble than just getting speed in the correct character and getting that space Asta would take for a Harmony character, for most accounts and especially for the fp2 like me, she is not worth it.

[@user-eo4it2rn1f]

doesnt blade has atk scalling but much less than hp? bruh im planning to use asta, ruan mei, harmony mc, and fu xuan or gallager for a break team cause no firefly lol.in pf. maybe ruan mei, bs, guanaifen and fu xuan. i really want to use asta but i have robin and recently ruan mei btu not max trace so not much reason to use asta..... i need more dps but oh welp.

[@Somehuy77-kp4rz]

Firefly doesn’t need fire damage boost though, she does absolute shit non super break damage

[@Sekainoowaride]

E7 mentioned

[@nmaranda0610]

I slept on Asta for too long only to fully build her for Penacony Sunday Boss. Now, she never leaves my team.

[@MrMacdaddymcfly]

DoTs can crit in divergent universe 😏

[@dianarozsa8004]

Asta is the reason why i coild beat moc11

[@inspirer4763]

Elemental damage buff does nothing for break damage.

[@ilyftyt]

My Asta is a speed demon 164 😈

[@GabeIG]

best free character when herta exists lol

[@artasticmuffin]

Asta wouldn’t leave me alone ever since launch like, she appeared on banners she prolly shouldn’t have 😭so ngl i’m glad i got her e6

[@collector153]

Hah nah march 7th is the best

[@caio7208]

I still use Asta on my mono fire team everytime it becomes relevant

[@TheLastGhostLegendario]

The comments being pepegga about the HMC its really funny to me, even more when he just talk about it in the video.

[@katinthegetto2916]

ruan mei outclass asta real bad in firefly teams but it's still one of her better options without ruan, though I feel like i saw pela being better? don't remember

[@itsame7491]

I just like her voice a lot, I don't even like the game honestly I just like

[@sleptik]

ah yes another black clover fan, goat

[@Fl3cheF]

Your favorite protagonist of all anime os asta from black clover ??? Interesting choice

[@DrStunJosh]

I won’t stand for this Serval slander (even if Asta is realistically the best free 4* at launch-at launch being the key phrase)

[@neilwaterson2487]

Me in late game if 4 star not e6... I feel don't like to use it,why?? Any one can explain it?

[@vv.aa.n]

Well it really depends on the 4*. Tingyun is amazing even at E0, Pela at E4 gives Ice res but it’s only valuable if you play her with Jingliu and after E4 she only gains small buffs on her damage which is not necessary (she only needs the Resolution lightcone or the SW event lightcone and she will be amazing). Lynx is still the best budget option for a cleansing healer at E0 when there is too much CC and DoT. 4* damage dealers are more dependent on eidolons to receive a boost on their damage but I find all the support characters worthwhile using even at E0. You always find a situation where you need to use them, especially if you’re a F2P and can’t pull on every banner.

[@joshnoritake3167]

Gallagher exists.

[@riko_is_life5647]

the question is should i replace my ruan mei with her lc for asta in my firefly team

[@MrWilliGaming]

no but you should give ruan mei's lc to harmony trailblazer

[@huaggen7246]

The 1st 4 star character still doesn't have any eidolons on her

[@PeytonHolland-pt9hx]

Hyper firefly may ast h mc

[@ethannguyen9638]

Eh I think Pela is far better than asta. Don't get me wrong, my pasta in V1 was maxed out completely with 146 speed and maxed out traces versus a pela with nothing but lvl 8 ult, and I still use pela a lot even to this day xd

[@tommytomikawa332]

The Powerpuff Girls (5 star Harmony girls) really broke/changed the meta more than a majority of the DPS's

[@Skew0443]

Im sorry, different paths have different taunt values? No wonder they always hit my tingyun instead of Clara!

[@slimstrait780]

Tingyun lowkey has 150 taunt value.

[@apotatowithnorights]

​@@slimstrait780 nah, at least 300 taunt value

[@Skew0443]

@@apotatowithnorights conveniently my Clara just so happens to have 299

[@ryusorata]

Most meta relevant free character is HMC.

[@rue1533]

just for the ending of the video, "strongest free character in any gacha game" my friend, i have one word Xiangling.

[@twilightwolf6248]

Pela: Am I a joke to you?

[@TheLastGhostLegendario]

She was not that much used until recently, now we want debuffs over buffs.

[@twilightwolf6248]

@@TheLastGhostLegendario what's the definition of recently to you?

[@JMike-bq6rl]

Free ATK% and Speed Buffs while making the team SP positive or Neutral vs Fire weak enemies at E4-6. (if you use her Burst at the end of team's rotation properly like Gepard's or Robin's) Giving extra 2 turns for each party members, can be the factor to have lesser cycles done or no sustains needed in that particular team.

[@cd6583]

does harmony TB count as a free character?

[@someguy6736]

ofc

[@Gottaloveaxolotls]

yep, they even made it so you get them after the cocolia fight which is kinda wild since it makes no sense story wise because you just got preservation.

[@ghotyolocanisyn2880]

I benched her at level 40.

[@Pitch_Dark_Hook]

Realistically Herta is more relevant but yeah

[@jin_desu777]

I will be patiently waiting for “history of the worst character of Honkai star rail”

[@bulat9331]

Thought I would learn something but we're just glazing a weak, irrelevant character for 15 minutes.

[@sv3s]

This unit died along time ago. stop coping

[@vollied4865]

Bros glazing her way too hard, you need to play more gacha games cuz she's decent but I can nail like 10 welfares from FGO that'd make asta look like a worthless character 😂

[@kaptainsalty7335]

Homie, this is a video on how Asta is the best free character for HSR. It’s not as if he’s trying to glaze her to be the best free character in all gacha games