Aetherium Wars is a Pokémon-style event in Honkai: Star Rail that tasks you with catching Aether Spirits you can then battle with to become the ultimate champion.
With so many Aether Spirits to choose from and many unique challengers to face, it can be tough to know which ones are worth using and which ones should be avoided at all costs. Some Aether Spirits are immensely powerful while others are quite weak, so it’s important to know which Aether Spirits are the best options for helping you find success in battle.
Best Honkai: Star Rail Aetherium Wars Aether Spirits
Out of the 19 creatures you can collect in Aetherium Wars, seven of them are among the best Aether Spirits, while the rest are simply decent.
These seven spirits possess powerful abilities and mechanics that far surpass the others.
Warp Trotter
- Spirit type: Normal
- Counteract type: Aberrant
Instead of trying to chase one of these evasive creatures down to earn Stellar Jade, you immediately begin Aetherium Wars with a Warp Trotter at your side. And this creature is by far one of the best Aether Spirits you can use in battle.
I bring my Warp Trotter to every single battle, and this little creature never fails me. The Warp Trotter is a superb unit that excels at both damage dealing and support, which makes it one of the most versatile creatures you can use.
This Aether Spirit can heal, buff, and attack. The Warp Trotter is essentially the Fu Xuan of the Aetherium Wars world, and it is one of the strongest spirits you can use in battle because of this.
Voidranger: Trampler
- Spirit type: Overlord
- Counteract type: Aberrant
The damage the Voidranger: Trampler is capable of dealing is quite brutal and pretty similar to what you’ve likely experienced from battling this foe out in the world beyond the event. This spirit is one of five Overlord Aether Spirits, which are essentially extra-powerful units.
You can only have one of the five Overlord Aether Spirits on your team, and all five of them are pretty powerful. This Aether Spirit excels at dishing out damage against the opposing lineup after vanquishing an enemy and is an all-around solid DPS force.
Silvermane Cannoneer
- Spirit type: Normal
- Counteract type: Humanoid
The Silvermane Cannoneer is the ultimate support unit that allows you to spam attacks when used correctly. This Aether Spirit isn’t an Overlord, but its abilities are so useful, it feels like it should be.
You can use this Aether Spirit to buff allies and support units to launch follow-up attacks after they make a move. The Silvermane Cannoneer is an unstoppable spamming support force and is one of the best allies you can have to create the best Aether Spirit team possible.
I’ve found this Aether Spirit to be especially useful on a team with the Aurumaton Gatekeeper since this Overlord Spirit summons Entranced Ingenium: Illumination Dragonfish to aid the battle and the Silvermane Cannoneer will not only follow up the Aurumaton Gatekeeper’s moves but also the moves made by the Entranced Ingenium: Illumination Dragonfish. This makes for about six brutal attacks in a row between the Aurumaton Gatekeeper, the Entranced Ingenium: Illumination Dragonfish, and the Silvermane Cannoneer.
Frigid Prowler
- Spirit type: Overlord
- Counteract type: Mechanical
This Overlord Aether Spirit has a high-risk, high-reward gameplay style that makes crafting the right team for it essential for success. There’s also a bit of a learning curve to mastering this spirit’s skills, but the effort is well worth the end result since the Frigid Prowler can be one of the most brutal damage-dealing forces of all.
The Frigid Prowler can drain its allies’ health points to enhance its own abilities. It’s pretty similar to Jingliu, so if you get how her abilities work and you know how to keep the team healthy and safe despite her draining their health, then using the Frigid Prowler should be decently easy for you since it is a very similar process.
This Aether Spirit is all about damage-dealing and inflicting the frozen effect.
Entranced Ingenium: Obedient Dracolion
- Spirit type: Normal
- Counteract type: Mechanical
It’s incredibly tough to kill this spirit when you face it in combat, and this remains true when you add it to your team for enemies to take on. The Entranced Ingenium: Obedient Dracolion is a healing-focused unit that will supply health for its allies and heal itself when needed.
The Ultimate move this Aether Spirit has basically protects it from death and restores most of its health points when the opposing lineup does try to vanquish it. As far as support Aether Spirits go, the Obedient Dracolion is by far one of the best and is on almost every team I use in battle.
Silvermane Lieutenant
- Spirit type: Overlord
- Counteract type: Humanoid
This Overlord Aether Spirit is a defensive support recruit. The shields the Silvermane Lieutenant grants are incredibly tough and anytime I’ve used them on a team, my Aether Spirits make it to the end of the fight with their health points still almost full.
This spirit’s skills are fairly similar to Gepard as all of its abilities are dedicated to keeping the team safe. You’ll need a couple of strong damage dealers at the Silvermane Lieutenant’s side in battle, but this spirit will have support completely covered.
Aurumaton Gatekeeper
- Spirit type: Overlord
- Counteract type: Mechanical
The Aurumaton Gatekeeper is another Overlord Aether Spirit focused on damage dealing. This Aether Spirit can impair enemies to reduce the amount of damage they deal, dish out strong blows, imprison foes to delay their actions, and summon Entranced Ingenium: Illumination Dragonfish to aid in battle.
Out of all the Overlord Aether Spirits, I find the Aurumaton Gatekeeper to have the most well-rounded yet still immensely powerful skillset.
Honkai: Star Rail Aetherium Wars Aether Spirits tier list
Of the 19 Aether Spirits you can recruit in Aetherium Wars, most are incredibly helpful and rank quite highly because of this.
Just as most playable characters in Honkai: Star Rail far surpass expectations, so too do most Aether Spirits. No Aether Spirits are necessarily bad and you’ll generally need to use every spirit at least once to be successful in the different battles you come across.
Here is how every currently playable Aether Spirit ranks based on my experience with them and how their skills perform in battle.
| Tier | Explanation | Aether Sprits |
| SS | These Aether Spirits are incredible and far surpass all other Aether Spirits. | Warp Trotter Aurumaton Gatekeeper Entranced Ingenium: Obedient Dracolion Silvermane Cannoneer Silvermane Lieutenant Frigid Prowler Voidranger: Trampler |
| S | Aether Spirits in this category are fairly powerful and slightly surpass most other spirits, but they’re not quite as impressive as those listed higher up. | Imaginary Weaver Blaze Out of Space Vagrant Silvermane Soldier |
| A | These spirits are solid and reliable, but nothing about them surpasses expectations or feels extraordinary. They’re good, but not great. | Everwinter Shadewalker Incineration Shadewalker Voidranger: Reaver Voidranger: Eliminator Abundance Sprite: Wooden Lupus |
| B | This group is pretty lackluster and disappointing in comparison to the other Aether Spirits. They’re still not terrible, but they are easily outperformed. | Entranced Ingenium: Illumination Dragonfish Automaton Spider Silvermane Gunner |
There are tons of exclusive rewards you can earn from the Aetherium Wars event, including a free four-star character of your choosing, so be sure to participate in it while you can before you miss out on the limited-time rewards. You’ll be able to take on any challenger that comes your way now that you know which Aether Spirits will help you do so.
