Many Honkai: Star Rail guides will mention how important is to reach certain Speed Breakpoints. If you’re still confused about what exactly that oddly specific term means, it’s time to learn a bit more about why Speed is so important in this game.
What Are Speed Breakpoints in Honkai: Star Rail?
Speed Breakpoints are Speed values your character needs to have to get extra turns in a given battle cycle. This is mostly relevant in Memory of Chaos battles, where your rewards are directly tied to how fast you can clear. The more Speed you have, the more turns you get to have.
While this sounds a bit obvious, it goes a bit deeper than just stacking as much speed as you can. Certain Speed values allow you to move twice on the same cycle, so stopping at them is recommended.
These exact points are the Speed Breakpoints, and can affect your team rotation as a whole. More actions mean more Skill Points to use or to spend, depending on which character is moving faster. Faster Skill Point positive supports (such as Ruan Mei or Tingyun) mean more points to spend, while faster DPS characters mean more Skill Points needed.
Some external factors can also influence how many actions a character takes, such as Advance Forward effects (Bronya’s and Sparkle’s skill, Seele’s A6 passive Trace, etc), in-battle speed buffs (Asta and Hanya’s ultimate, Tingyun’s A2 passive Trace, etc) and debuffs (imprison, slow, etc). Take them into consideration when deploying a team for a MoC stage.
Related: All Characters in Honkai: Star Rail Ranked (Tier List)
A more in-depth analysis can be found in the comments from u/EtherealEcho in this Reddit thread. But in summary, all you need to know is how much Speed characters need to aim for in their builds.
Important Speed Breakpoints in Honkai: Star Rail
While the necessary Speed for each character varies according to their role, team and build, most of them tend to enjoy a bare minimum amount. These are some of the most important breakpoints you should aim for with your characters.
- 120 (Two actions during the second cycle)
- 134 (Two actions during the first cycle)
- 143 (Two actions on the first and third cycles)
- 160 (Two actions on the first and second cycles)
- 171 (Two actions on the first, second and third cycles)
Aside from that, 120, 135, 145 and 160 Speed will activate certain Planar Ornament effects. So not only the speed status is important for having more actions, but also to make your characters directly stronger. Most characters tend to go for 134 speed to get two turns early. Higher Breakpoints are usually reserved for fast supports or oddly specific builds aiming for zero-cycle clears.
Any speed value between 135 and 142 won’t be as useful as getting to exactly 143. This doesn’t mean that having extra speed is useless. But it shouldn’t be a huge priority after a certain point. If you happened to roll more speed, good. If not, no worries.
Some characters don’t care at all for Speed. Clara is the best example as a huge part of her damage comes when it’s not her turn. Certain characters like Acheron also benefit greatly from allies moving first, but Speed is still useful for them. So you should still stack a bit just in case. Extra Speed is never a bad call.
