Honkai Star Rail Tides of War guide: Best teams and strategies

Tides of War is the latest Honkai Star Rail event, and players can earn free Stellar Jades and other rare rewards by defeating some of the game’s strongest bosses.

Grit Mechanics are the main gimmick of Tides of War, special buffs that activate as you accumulate Grit Value by fulfilling certain criteria during battles. You only have a limited number of turns to defeat as many enemies as you can, just like Pure Fiction, but Hoyoverse has given players a ton of powerful trial units to help make things easier.

• Trotter Effect
• Perilous Threshold
• Supreme Leader
• Weakness Assault
• Overflowing Wounds
• Perpetual Exploit

Honkai Star Rail Tides of War Event Schedule

Tides of War will be live for four weeks, beginning on Saturday, April 13, 2024, and ending on Monday, May 6, 2024. When the event wraps up, Honkai Star Rail version 2.2 will be released, so there’s no need to worry about a potential content draught.

The event itself is time-gated with bosses becoming available every day for the first week of Tides of War, but they’ll be permanently unlocked afterward so you can catch up easily. Tides of War itself won’t stick around permanently, though, so you only have a limited amount of time to claim all of the free rewards.

Trotter Effect

The first Tides of War battle is Trotter Effect. Here, you’ll face off against a Trampler, Beyond Overcooked, and finally Stellaron Hunter Sam. In this stage, Trotters will regularly appear, and defeating them will accumulate large amounts of Grit Value. Here’s the best team lineup for this stage.

• Acheron
• Black Swan
• Pela
• Bailu

With this team lineup, you should choose Enduring Effect for Grit Phase 2 and War of Attrition for Grit Phase 3. This is a DoT-centric team, and these Grit Phase effects will help Black Swan and Acheron maximize their damage. Pela is also a huge help because of her DEF debuffs. These characters are all available as trial units except Bailu, but you can just swap her out with a sustain unit of your choice like Fu Xuan, Luocha, or Gallagher.

Perilous Threshold

Perilous Threshold is the second Tides of War battle. You’ll be up against a Guardian Shadow, The Ascended, and finally Argenti. This stage’s Grit Mechanic will raise your Grit Value any time an ally’s HP is lowered or raised. As such, you should use characters that consume HP and healers that can frequently top off everyone’s health bars. This is the best lineup for this battle.

• Blade
• Luocha
• Jingliu
• Bronya

Surprise, surprise, the trial units are perfect for this stage, too. Blade’s attacks consume HP and Jingliu can absorb allies’ HP as well, so they’re perfect for Perilous Threshold. Luocha can heal super often, and since heals count for the Grit Mechanic too, he’s the best choice. Bronya doesn’t help with the Grit Mechanic, but if you want to clear this stage fast enough, you’ll need to make use of her CRIT DMG buffs and turn order manipulation.

For this team, the best Grit Phases are Desperate Counter and Decisive Strike. The former will restore HP after characters lose HP, raising your Grit Value, and it also increases your team’s SPD and will help you clear the round faster. Decisive Strike boosts the damage of follow-up and Ultimate attacks, greatly enhancing Blade and Jingliu’s damage respectively.

Supreme Leader

Supreme Leader is the first truly difficult stage of Tides of War, but it’s nothing you can’t handle with the right team setup. You’ll start with Searing Prowler, move on to some Mara-struck foes, and end with a battle against Kafka. This stage’s Grit Mechanic will grant you a large amount of Grit Value when the ally positioned first in your team lineup uses their Ultimate. Try this team setup for this battle.

• Dan Heng Imbibitor Lunae
• Tingyun
• Sparkle
• Huohuo

Make sure to deploy these units in this specific order to take advantage of the Grit Phase buffs. Imbibitor Lunae will be your hypercarry DPS for this fight with Tingyun buffing his damage and Sparkle ensuring he has enough skill points at all times. Huohuo will keep everyone alive.

For this fight, choose Shared Hatred for Grit Phase 2. This will regenerate Ultimate Energy for Imbibitor Lunae whenever Tingyun uses her Ultimate. For Grit Phase 3, go with Hone Your Strength. This is an overall buff to Energy Regeneration Rate, allowing for more frequent Ultimates and easier Grit Value accumulation.

Weakness Assault

Weakness Assault culminates in a battle against Bronya, so you’ll need to be prepared with a strong team. This stage’s Grit Mechanic increases your Grit Value when you break an enemy’s Weakness or attack Weakness Broken enemies. Try this lineup for this stage.

• Ruan Mei
• Himeko
• Silver Wolf
• Lynx

The available trial units are perfect for a Weakness Break team. Ruan Mei‘s entire kit revolves around Weakness Break and extending the Weakness Break period, and Himeko‘s follow-up attacks will help you accumulate a ton of Grit Value. Silver Wolf and Lynx are great support units for debuffing and healing respectively.

With this team setup, you should choose Expose Weakness for Grit Phase 2. This will increase your team’s Weakness Break efficiency after breaking any enemy’s Weakness and deal damage to any enemies that have already had their Weaknesses broken. For Grit Phase 3, go with Pursuer. This increases the damage received by Weakness Broken enemies by 80%, which will help you defeat enemies even faster.

Overflowing Wounds

The main threat in Overflowing Wounds is Gepard, but there are some really helpful trial units available that will make the fight a lot easier. This stage’s Grit Mechanic will accumulate a large amount of Grit Value whenever you defeat an enemy with Overflow DMG, meaning your attack does more than enough damage to kill them. Here’s the best lineup for this stage.

• Seele
• Sparkle
• Tingyun
• Fu Xuan

Seele is your hypercarry for this stage. With Sparkle and Tingyun buffing her, she can make quick work of any enemy on the field. Fu Xuan will ensure that nobody takes too much damage as well. You could also swap her out for Jing Yuan, but she’s the most effective at defeating enemies and accumulating Grit Value at this stage.

The best choice for Grit Phase 2 is Solitary Overwound, which deals massive Overflow DMG to the boss and minor Overflow DMG to all enemies when attacking and defeating a single target, which is where Seele excels. For Grit Phase 3, choose Final Blow to maximize the damage dealt by Seele’s Ultimate.

Perpetual Exploit

The final stage of Tides of War features a showdown with Cocolia, who shouldn’t be too big of a problem if you bring the right team. The Grit Mechanic for this stage rewards you with Grit Value for performing consecutive actions. As you might expect, a follow-up attack team is the key to victory here. Try this team composition to make quick work of this stage.

• Aventurine
• Topaz
• Dr. Ratio
• Hanya

This stage gives you a trial version of the newly-released Aventurine, and his follow-up attack unleashed by accumulating stacks of Blind Bet is perfect for this stage. Topaz is the best follow-up attack character in the game, too, so picking her is a no-brainer here. Hanya will ensure everyone has enough skill points at all times and allow for huge damage with the buff from her Ultimate. Finally, Dr. Ratio‘s follow-up attacks will trigger quite often with this team continually applying debuffs.

You should choose Chain Motivation for Grit Phase 2 since your entire team will be popping off follow-up attacks every turn. For Grit Phase 3, go with Master Exploder since the Detonate debuff not only increases the damage received by enemies but also adds one more debuff to the list that Dr. Ratio can capitalize on.

That’s it for the Tides of War event! Remember that you only need to defeat the first boss of each stage to earn Stellar Jades. Defeating the other bosses will just net you Relic Remains and other rewards. You’ll also get a Track of Destiny for defeating the first wave boss of every stage. Make sure to complete this event while it’s still available so you can level up Nameless Honor, too.