Honkai Star Rail: How Does Damage Over Time Work?

Honkai Star Rail’s combat system can prove to be quite intimidating to new players who are still learning its many intricacies. Terms like DoT (damage over time), can seem straightforward to veterans but may stump newer Honkai Star Rail players. Let us look at how damage over time works in Honkai Star Rail and how it interacts with other effects. 

What is the meaning of DoT in Honkai Star Rail?

DoT in Honkai Star Rail stands for “Damage Over Time”. DoT causes damage to characters at the start of their turns and can be triggered by various sources. Damage over time can be inflicted by either breaking an enemy’s Toughness or with Skills or abilities which inflict DoT directly. Note that DoT from Skills and those from Breaks are counted separately. For example, if you break an enemy’s Toughness, they can be inflicted with a DoT Bleed effect and Skill DoT together. There are seven damage types in the game, six of which apply DoT effects: 

Freeze – Inflicted by Ice Damage.

Bleed – Inflicted by Physical Damage.

Burn – Inflicted by Fire Damage.

Shock – Inflicted by Lightning Damage.

Wind Shear – Inflicted by Wind Damage.

Entanglement – Inflicted by Quantum Damage.

Shock and Burn are the weaker DoT effects but are the easiest to get. Wind Shear also has lower scaling but it can be stacked up to 5 times. Both Freeze and Entanglement, despite dealing DMG at the beginning of the enemy’s turn, are not considered as DoTs but as debuffs. Bleed deals damage based on the target’s maximum HP and the user’s own Attack. For example, Luka’s Skill deals up to 24% of the target’s HP as Bleed, but the damage cannot exceed a certain amount of Luka’s own Attack.

DoT calculation and rules in Honkai Star Rail

There are different effects and debuffs that increases Normal DoT Damage:

Elemental DMG Bonus

Universal DMG Bonus (like DMG increases by x%)

DoT DMG Bonus (like Eyes of the Prey Light Cone)

Scaling’s stat of the DoT (can be either ATK or DEF as of Version 1.2)

Debuffs:

DEF Shred (increases overall DMG and not only DoT)

RES Shred (increases overall DMG and not only DoT)

Damage dealt to a target is calculated using this formula:

DMG = Base DoT DMG x DMG Boost Multiplier/Break Effect (Attacker) x DEF Multiplier (Target) x RES Multiplier (Target) x Vulnerability Multiplier (Target) x DMG Reduction Multiplier (Target) x Broken Multiplier (Target)

All DoTs are affected by damage-increasing buffs with simple scaling and do not apply to crit. So unless you’re running Serval who’s more of an AoE DPS with some extra DoTs in her kit, instead of solely revolving around them, you don’t need to build Critical in your DoT characters. 

If you use two characters with the same type of Damage over Time in Honkai Star Rail, they do not cancel each other out and will take hold simultaneously. However note that if the same type of DoT effect is used, it will simply refresh the duration of the effect on the target. An example of a character with DoT is the recently released Luka. His Skill, Lacerating Fist includes an effect where while Bleeding, the enemy will take 24% of their Max HP as Physical DoT at the start of each turn. A popular DoT pick in the current meta is Kafka who deals Lightning or Shock DoT.

Full Story »