Honkai: Star Rail

This article is part of a directory: Honkai Star Rail: Complete Guide and Walkthrough | Quest Guides, Best Builds, Tier Lists, & More

Every Preservation character in Honkai: Star Rail can shield their team and protect them from incoming damage. However, each shielder has their own ways to apply and benefit from their shields. For example, March 7th's shield is unique because of its cleansing ability and the fact that enemies will most likely attack that shielded unit. On the other hand, Gepard shields all allies while attracting enemies to hit him instead.

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Preservation characters also have abilities that help them survive enemies’ hits since it’s important for them to stay alive and apply more shields to their allies. March can practice her survivability by Freezing enemies with her Ultimate. Her Crowd Control delays enemies’ actions and helps her team be more aggressive. As for Fire Trailblazer, they’ll straight give the entire team a 15% damage reduction while constantly shielding them. With many utilities and kits that protect the team and further help them survive any encounter thrown at them, here are the best Preservation characters in Honkai: Star Rail.

5 March 7th

Guides
March 7th	Ice	Preservation	4-Star
Build Guide		Level-Up Materials
Team Composition		Best Light Cone

While having a low Base DEF, March still has the best DEF scaling on her shield. Of course, the scaling is big because it’s a single-target ability. Additionally, March’s shield increases the chance of enemies attacking that ally and can cleanse allies from one debuff after unlocking her A2 Trace, which gives her shield multiple purposes other than absorbing damage. For example, players can cast March’s Skill on Clara who greatly benefits from being hit and can counter-attack enemies hard. Not only that, but March 7th also counter-attacks enemies when they attack a shielded target with her Talent’s passive.

Other than shielding, as an Ice character in Honkai: Star Rail, March 7th has a strong utility where she can Freeze all enemies through her Ultimate. March has an initial 50% chance to Freeze enemies, which can become 65% when players unlock her A6 Trace.

4 Fire Trailblazer

Guides
Fire Trailblazer	Fire	Preservation	5-Star
Build Guide
Team Composition		Best Light Cone

Preservation Trailblazer is a great Tank/defensive Fire character in Honkai: Star Rail. One of the best abilities the Preservation MC has is their ability to constantly apply a shield on every single move. When Basic attacking, Skilling, or using Ultimate, Trailblazer can apply a small shield on all allies. This shield’s absorption is further increased by 2% of the Trailblazer's DEF with the effect of the second Trailblazer’s Eidolon. On top of providing shields, Fire Trailblazer can also Taunt enemies with their Skill. The Taunt comes with a 15% DMG reduction to all allies, so the team basically enjoys double protection.

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Typically, investing more in offense will always hurt a character’s survivability, but that’s not how it is with Fire Trailblazer. Players need to stack as much DEF as possible to maximize the protection, yet this also enhances damage as many of Trailblazer’s Traces and Eidolons increase their damage equal to their DEF. For instance, with the first Eidolon, Basic ATK deals additional damage equal to 25% DEF, and the enhanced version bumps this number to 50% DEF. Fire MC's Ultimate also scales with DEF.

3 Gepard

Guides
Gepard	Ice	Preservation	5-Star
Build Guide		Level-Up Materials
Team Composition		Best Light Cone

The shield Gepard grants all allies through his Ultimate is insanely useful in many of the game’s content, especially in the Simulated Universe. However, that’s not the only impressive thing in Gepard’s kit. Players can always depend on the captain of the Silvermane Guards to tank as much damage enemies can throw at him. With his A2 Trace, Gepard gets a higher chance of being attacked by enemies, and all his defensive stats will play a big role in his survivability. Not only that, but with his Talent passive, Gepard is immortal since he doesn’t die when receiving a killing blow. Instead, his HP regenerates and his A4 Trace restores his energy by 100%.

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With all these defensive stats, it’s only fitting to have Gepard deal damage when scaling with DEF. This is possible once players unlock his A6 Trace, which increases Gepard’s ATK by 35% of his current DEF stat. This ability isn’t locked to Gepard’s Base DEF, instead, it takes into account when Gepard gains or loses DEF and applies it every turn. In Honkai: Star Rail modes like the Simulated Universe, it’s easy for players to massively increase characters’ DEF stat and that could be crucial to maximizing the utility Gepard can bring to his team.

2 Aventurine

aventurine ascension and trace materials in honkai star rail

Guides
Aventurine	Imaginary	Preservation	5-Star
Build Guide		Level-Up Materials
Team Composition		Best Light Cone

Aventurine is a classic shielder in Honkai: Star Rail, with some ability to deal follow-up attack damage and debuff the enemy. Due to his nature as a gambler, many features of his kit also involve probability. For instance, the Blind Bet he gets, or the buff he gives through his Talent. Aventurine gains Crit Rate based on his DEF, which is the stat he needs to have a stronger shield, so players will gain extra damage from the man without sacrificing his protective ability.

1 Fu Xuan

Guides
Fu Xuan	Quantum	Preservation	5-Star
Build Guide		Level-Up Materials
Team Composition		Best Light Cone

Fu Xuan is a unique and tricky Preservation character in Genshin Impact. She insanely reduces the damage taken by the team and takes some damage an ally takes to herself. Afterward, Fu Xuan can heal herself, which means she has great survivability even without a healer. Additionally, Fu Xuan's ability also grants Crit Rate and HP boosts, which is great for characters such as Blade.

With Fu Xuan, it's almost impossible for the team to get one-shot by the boss. However, it's crucial to be careful if she's the only protector on the team. Despite her great damage mitigation, running the team without a healer may place players in a tricky situation.