Beginner’s guide to building a strong Honkai Impact 3rd team

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Honkai Impact 3rd can be overwhelming for new players with its many characters, limited-time offers, story missions, events, and complex currencies. Without a strategy, your team will likely be built on favorites and struggle against enemies with specific weaknesses. Having a clear plan for team building is more helpful than just getting lucky with new characters.

Understand what a balanced team really needs

Most effective teams in Honkai are built around a core damage dealer, supported by two characters who either boost her damage output or help her survive. Rather than simply collecting characters you like the look of, it’s more helpful to plan what role each character will play in your team.

Beginner teams work best when they cover three simple roles:

  • Main DPS: spends the most time on the field and finishes waves or bosses.
  • Support DPS: sets up combos or applies debuffs to boost damage.
  • Sustain or utility: healing, shields, or crowd control that keeps the main DPS upright.

Once each slot has a job, gear and upgrade choices become much easier to judge.

Start with one clear carry

The game encourages players to focus their resources – like crystals, gear, and materials – on developing one strong character instead of trying to build six weaker ones. This could be a tough, close-combat fighter, a character specializing in elemental attacks, or a battlesuit that’s effective and enjoyable to use throughout the early parts of the game.

Quick, risky games can be exciting for a little while, but they don’t usually lead to lasting improvement. Games like Aviator, where players try to cash out before a multiplier ‘crashes,’ offer simple rules, fast-paced action, and the potential for big wins, all backed by technology that ensures fairness. However, in games like Honkai Impact 3rd, focusing on consistent, gradual progress—like building up a strong character over time—is more rewarding than relying on luck for a quick boost.

Choose a strong main damage dealer that fits your current equipment and the challenges you’re facing, and then build your team to support them. It’s better to focus on one powerful Valkyrie at the beginning than to have several average ones who can’t defeat bosses quickly enough.

Support Valkyries that make your carry shine

Okay, so I’ve got my main damage dealer picked out – awesome! Now, I need to build a team around them to really make them shine. A good support player, in my experience, will always do at least one of these things to help make that happen…

  • Lower enemy defence or resistance to the carry’s damage type.
  • Group enemies so burst skills and ultimates hit everything at once.
  • Provide buffs or healing during key windows so the carry can stay aggressive.

Even free or farmable units can cover these jobs with a bit of investment.

Build around elements, not only favourite faces

It’s common for new players to want to use all their favorite characters at once, and that can be fine for easier levels. However, when facing enemies with elemental strengths and weaknesses, it quickly becomes challenging. A better strategy is to focus on building a team around a single element, which makes the game easier and avoids frustrating damage calculations.

A simple early plan looks like this:

  • Build one physical-focused team for most content.
  • Start a basic fire, lightning, or ice team when gacha pulls line up.
  • Keep at least one flexible support that can move between teams.

This design aligns with how most players approach gaming. While over 80% of internet users play video games, many only have a few hours a week to dedicate to it. Because time and in-game energy are limited, focusing on developing a few strong characters or abilities is generally more effective than trying to build many that remain underdeveloped.

Gear, stigmata, and upgrades that stay under control

Collecting stigmata, weapons, upgrade materials, and improving your rank can feel overwhelming. If you focus on getting gear that helps you play your preferred role, instead of trying to collect everything, the system will feel much more manageable.

Three simple habits help:

  • Prioritise a good weapon and core stigmata pieces on the main DPS.
  • Use easy-to-farm sets on supports instead of chasing perfect rolls.
  • Avoid upgrading every new drop and save key materials for clear upgrades.

Let’s be real, time is always the enemy when I’m gaming. I’ve seen studies that most of us play a decent amount each week, but not enough to really dive into everything. When you’ve got a story to follow, limited-time events, friends to play with, and all that gear to grind for, you quickly realize you need to figure out what’s most important. Otherwise, it just gets stressful and stops being fun!

Learn from other games and communities

Honkai Impact 3rd is part of the same family of games as titles like Star Rail from HoYoverse, so many of the strategies – like building a balanced team and managing resources – apply to both. Helpful guides and rankings are available to help players learn the ropes without making the game overly complicated. Looking at popular character combinations in Star Rail can also give you ideas about what works well in Honkai Impact 3rd, and how different characters can support each other.

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2025-12-30 15:26