Honkai: Star Rail’s Version 1.5 update has two new five-star recruits: Huohuo, the featured five-star for phase one, and Argenti, the featured five-star for phase two. Two new characters in the same Version means players face a tough choice over which one they should pull for.
Huohuo and Argenti are both unique units, quite unlike the rest of the featured characters who have made their way into Honkai: Star Rail so far. Thus, here’s what you need to know to decide whether to pull for Huohuo or Argenti.
Huohuo’s abilities and skills in Honkai: Star Rail
Huohuo has five abilities and skills you’ll want to learn about when deciding whether she is a good fit for your playable character roster.
- “Banner: Stormcaller” basic attack: Deals Wind damage equal to 25 to 65 percent of Huohuo’s maximum health points against a single targeted opponent.
- Ability type: Single-target attack
- “Talisman: Protection” skill: Dispels one debuff from an ally and instantly restores 14 to 24.5 percent of Huohuo’s health points plus a bonus of 140 to 718 to the same ally. While this occurs, Huohuo also restores health points to adjacent allies based on 11.2 to 19.6 percent of her health points plus an additional 112 to 574.
- Ability type: Health restoration
- “Tail: Spiritual Domination” Ultimate: Regenerates energy for all teammates except Huhuo herself by 15 to 22.5 of their maximum energy. Additionally, this move also boosts attack by 24 to 48 percent for the next two turns.
- Ability type: Energy regeneration and attack boost
- “Possession: Ethereal Meadow” talent: After Huohuo uses her skill, her talent will grant her Divine Provision, which then lasts for two turns. If Huohuo has this effect when a teammate’s turn starts or when a teammate uses their Ultimate, Huohuo will restore health points to this ally by an amount equal to three to 5.25 percent of her own maximum health points plus a bonus of 30 to 154. Additionally, any ally who has 50 percent or fewer health points also receives healing one time. When Divine Provision is used to heal an ally, one debuff is also dispelled off them. This can be activated up to six times.
- Ability type: Health restoration
- “Fiend: Impeachment of Evil” technique: Huohuo channels her own fear to terrorize all nearby opponents which activates the Horror-Struck effect on them. Foes who are afflicted by this effect will run away from Huohuo for 10 seconds. If you choose to strike an enemy and enter battle while this effect is active, there is a 100 percent base chance the target’s attack will then be reduced by 25 percent for two turns.
- Ability type: Impairing
Argenti’s abilities and skills in Honkai: Star Rail
Unlike most other Honkai: Star Rail recruits, Argenti possesses six abilities and skills rather than the standard five.
- “Fleeting Fragrance” basic attack: Deals Physical damage equal to 50 to 130 percent of Argenti’s attack against the selected opponent.
- Ability type: Single-target attack
- “Justice, Hereby Blooms” skill: Deals Physical damage equal to 60 to 150 percent of Argenti’s attack against all opponents.
- Ability type: AoE attack
- “For In This Garden, Supreme Beauty Bestows” Ultimate: Consumes 90 energy to deal 96 to 192 percent of Argenti’s attack as Physical damage against all foes.
- Ability type: AoE attack
- “Merit Bestowed in my Garden” alternate Ultimate: Consumes 180 energy to deal 168 to 336 percent of Argenti’s attack as Physical damage against all enemies. This attack then deals further damage six more times with each strike dealing 57 to 114 percent of Argenti’s attack against a random opponent.
- Ability type: AoE attack
- “Sublime Object” talent: For each enemy Argenti hits with his basic attack, skill, or Ultimate, three energy is restored to him and one stack of Apotheosis is activated. Each stack of Apotheosis boosts his critical rate by one to 3.25 percent and up to 10 stacks can be gained.
- Ability type: Enhancement
- “Manifesto of Purest Virtue” technique: When this technique is used, all enemies within the radius become dazed for 10 seconds. This state prevents them from attacking your team. If you choose to attack a dazed opponent and enter battle, Argenti will immediately deal Physical damage equal to 80 percent of his attack against all opponents and he also regains 15 energy.
- Ability type: Impairing
Is Huohuo good in Honkai: Star Rail?
Huohuo is a strong healer and support unit, but she isn’t the absolute best healer overall. Regardless, Huohuo is still one of the stronger units you can obtain and is overall a very good character.
She is a good unit to pull for if you need a strong unit dedicated to keeping the team healthy and safe. But you might want to consider skipping Huohuo if you already have a unit like Luocha or Fu Xuan since both recruits are superior to her.
Huohuo is worth pulling for if you need a strong healer and supportive unit, but you should skip her if this is not the kind of recruit you’re currently seeking for your lineup or if you already have a better character fulfilling this role.
Is Argenti good in Honkai: Star Rail?
Argenti excels at damage-dealing against many foes at once and he is one of the best Erudition units you can obtain. He is certainly a good character, but he’s not really a necessary one for most team lineups.
You might want to skip Argenti if you already have Jing Yuan, if you’re looking for a dedicated single-target DPS, or if you have a strong Destruction unit you can use instead. Unlike some other kinds of characters, you don’t really need an Erudition unit on any team unless you want one since their role can easily be fulfilled by characters of other paths.
Argenti is worth pulling for if you need a DPS who can deal damage against many targets at once. But you won’t really find much use for him if you already have a strong Erudition or Destruction unit, so you should skip him if this is the case.
Should you pull for Argenti or Huohuo in Honkai: Star Rail?
Both Argenti and Huohuo are uniquely powerful characters joining a fairly small group of playable units, so it is currently a very good decision to pull for either character. I’d ultimately recommend choosing between Argenti and Huohuo based on what kind of character you need most, so you should pull for Argenti if you need a strong AoE damage dealer, while Huohuo is the better choice if you’re seeking a superb healing and support unit.
I personally find Huohuo to be a bit of a stronger choice overall simply because there are way fewer five-star healing units present in Honkai: Star Rail than there are damage dealers. Because of this, I think the overall best choice between these two if you are pulling based simply on who is better is Huohuo.
Characters who are part of The Erudition path like Argenti seem the most useless to me since you could instead choose a Destruction unit to obtain fairly similar damage dealing skills combined with a massive amount of health points. You’d be much better off saving for a rerun of a character like Blade or Dan Heng Imbibitor Lunae since Destruction units are stronger recruits overall.
In comparison to the other Erudition characters in Honkai: Star Rail, Argenti is certainly better than Himeko. Comparing him to Jing Yuan is tough since most of his damage comes from Lightning Lord while Argenti’s attacks are much more straightforward, so I’d say they’re pretty evenly matched, although I personally enjoy Jing Yuan’s skillsets a bit more thanks to his powerful follow-up attacks.
One reason you may like Argenti even though other characters can be used instead is his extremely easy-to-learn and master skillset. Many of Honkai: Star Rail’s best characters are very complex and have a ton of different abilities to master combined with a necessity for immense precision, but Argenti is a very straightforward and reliable damage dealer. If you prefer characters who are easy to play but still immensely powerful, then pulling for Argenti is the right move for you.
Even though Huohuo is the better choice on this banner, this is also the first set of banners I would recommend you consider skipping altogether. Neither Huohuo nor Argenti is bad by any means, but both characters aren’t as special or powerful as most other featured five-star units have been so far, which means this is a great set of banners to skip in favor of saving up for future characters like Dr. Ratio or Ruan Mei or for upcoming reruns like Blade and Kafka.
Overall, you can’t go wrong pulling for Huohuo or Argenti, but neither of them is as impressive as many other units out there, so it’s also not a bad idea to skip both of them.
