Honkai Star Rail 3.0: Who Should You Pull For In Phase 2 Banners?

Knowing which character to pull for during the Phase 2 banners of Honkai: Star Rail 3.0 can be tough, especially with the extended lineup that developer HoYoverse has prepared, including one new character who follows a brand-new playable Path, as well as three different 5-star reruns. With the limited number of Stellar Jades players can obtain for free through natural gameplay, they will likely have to make difficult choices. Even with all the Stellar Jade in Honkai: Star Rail 3.0, it should be nearly impossible to obtain all four 5-star units during the limited three-week period before the banners refresh.

This is because of the low drop rates that 5-star characters have in banners. This stacks up with the uncertainty of obtaining the desired character or a 5-star unit from the standard banner, which may reset a player’s pity count, too. Overall, knowing which characters are better than the others and then investing resources into them is the best way to go, rather than spending them randomly across all character banners in Honkai: Star Rail 3.0. Of course, players will have a limited time to make this decision, as Version 3.1 is not too far from arriving and swapping banners.

Honkai: Star Rail 3.0 Phase 2 Banners Last Until February 25

Version 3.1 Will Commence After That

Honkai Star Rail's Trailblazer stands between Mydei and Tribbie.

The Phase 2 banners for Version 3.0 have a short three-week duration. With Phase 1 banners coming to an end on February 4, the Phase 2 banners should commence, rotating the available 5-star characters and their respective signature 5-star Light Cones. The Phase 2 banners are expected to last from February 4 through February 25, when maintenance for Version 3.1 will start. After that, the banners should be substituted by new 5-star units, possibly including Tribbie or Mydei in Honkai: Star Rail 3.1, two new Amphoreus characters who have already been presented as NPCs but are confirmed to become playable.

During February 4 and February 25, players will have the option to pull for Aglaea, the first premium 5-star character following the Path of the Remembrance and, technically, the first playable Amphoreus character. The Phase 2 banners will also make three different rerun units available at the same time: Boothill, Robin, and Silver Wolf. The signature Light Cones for these four units will also be available during the period, allowing players to reach the optimal builds for each of these characters. As such, players also have a chance at optimizing Boothill or Robin’s builds in Honkai: Star Rail, for example.

Pros & Cons Of Pulling For Aglaea In Honkai: Star Rail 3.0

She Is The First Playable Amphoreus Character

Honkai Star Rail's Aglaea lifts her finger up.

Aglaea is the only new character arriving in Phase 2 banners for Version 3.0. Aside from the Remembrance Trailblazer, Aglaea is the very first character on the Path of the Remembrance. In battle, the 5-star unit uses Lightning DMG against opponents. Aglaea’s specialty is summoning a memosprite called Garmentmaker onto the field. Unlike the Trailblazer’s memosprite, who operates as a support for the team comp, Aglaea’s Garmentmaker is focused on dealing damage to opponents alongside her. When running Aglaea in Honkai: Star Rail, players should consider her the team comp’s main DPS since she is a powerful damage dealer.

Aglaea is best used in a hypercarry team comp, supported by two buffers who can help increase her damage output and Energy Regeneration Rate. One of the downsides to Aglaea and Garmentmaker is that both of them are considerably fragile in comparison to other units, mainly because her build revolves around offensive stats like CRIT Rate and CRIT DMG, as well as a load of SPD. Aglaea is one of the few characters who scales with SPD, like Seele in Honkai: Star Rail, though she can gain extra stacks of SPD via Garmentmaker during combat and convert that into ATK.

Overall, Aglaea will be extremely reliant on multiple supports to ensure her full offensive potential is unlocked, on top of what can be an elaborate build that has to cater to an extra stat aside from CRIT Rate, CRIT DMG, and ATK. Furthermore, thanks to how fragile they can be, Aglaea and Garmentmaker will need either protection or healing to keep them alive through fights, so players will need to ensure they have a powerful sustain character in Honkai: Star Rail. If players can guarantee this, Aglaea should make for a very good pull in Version 3.0’s Phase 2 banners.

With Aglaea’s increasing SPD, she and Garmentmaker will be capable of taking multiple turns in a single cycle, further boosting her damage output.

Despite how complicated Aglaea’s build may be, she is a reliable hypercarry unit. Players looking to pull for her exclusively for her alignment to the Remembrance should know that, aside from how she works with Garmentmaker, Aglaea is a fairly traditional DPS and she should not play drastically differently from other DPS characters in the game. She can be compared to Destruction characters in the sense that her attacks tend to target an enemy and adjacent targets rather than focusing efforts on a single opponent in Honkai: Star Rail or all of them at once.

Pros & Cons Of Pulling For Rerun Characters (Boothill, Robin, & Silver Wolf) In Honkai: Star Rail 3.0

Only One Rerun Character Outshines The Others

Alternatively, players can look toward the rerun units in Version 3.0’s Phase 2 banners. Boothill is a 5-star Physical character on the Path of the Hunt. The Galaxy Ranger is an exceptional single-target DPS unit whose kit revolves around singling out enemies and starting Standoffs with them. In this Standoff, Boothill and the selected target deal more damage to each other. Meanwhile, Boothill will enhance his Basic Attack, and each character in Standoff cannot target other opponents. The specialty around Boothill’s build in Honkai: Star Rail is inflicting Weakness Broken on enemies.

This makes Boothill a great DPS unit to run in Super Break DMG team comps, supported by characters like the Harmony Trailblazer, Ruan Mei, or Fugue. He can deal a lot of damage individually, but if players want Boothill to truly be worth it, they will need to invest in a Super Break party. As a single-target DPS, Boothill is great against bosses but less effective with battles involving multiple mobs.

Robin, on the other hand, is a 5-star Physical character following the Path of the Harmony. Robin is widely regarded as one of the best support characters in the game. The singer from Penacony is capable of increasing the DMG of all her allies with her Skill and then boosting their ATK stats with her Ultimate. Furthermore, Robin can make her allies immediately take action and increase the CRIT DMG when allies launch follow-up attacks. Robin is a versatile support for all types of team comps, but one of the best for follow-up attack teams in Honkai: Star Rail.

Robin can also contribute to the team’s DMG thanks to the fact that her buffing abilities also scale off her ATK.

Lastly, Silver Wolf is an exceptional support debuffer. One of very few of her kind, Silver Wolf can inflict extra Weaknesses on enemies, making them vulnerable to Elemental Types they weren’t originally. This makes Silver Wolf a valuable ally when using a DPS that doesn’t necessarily have an advantage against the enemy. The downside to Silver Wolf is that the rumors about Anaxa in Honkai: Star Rail 3.2 indicate they will also be capable of applying Weaknesses, but in a much better way, so pulling for her now may prove to be a bad decision.

Overall, players looking for a better source of DMG or Lightning DMG, to be more specific, should definitely consider pulling for Aglaea, as she is a superb DPS, provided that players foster a proper build and team comp for her to work with. Boothill can be strong, but he has serious limitations and requirements that are not as flexible as Aglaea. If players are looking for a support, Robin is the best choice, as she is useful in several types of team comp and will likely continue to be a top-tier support in Honkai: Star Rail for years to come.