When entering combat in Honkai Star Rail, enemies will have two bars above them: one white and one red. While the red color displays their HP, the white is the Toughness Bar.
When the white bar goes to 0, players will trigger a Weakness Break effect based on the element used.
In this guide, I will explain how the Toughness Bar and the Weakness Break effect work in Honkai Star Rail to help you excel in combat.
Also, it’s essential to have the right characters to excel in combat, so make sure to check out our tier list of the best characters in Honkai Star Rail.
Toughness Bar Explained in Honkai Star Rail
The Toughness Bar is the white bar that can be seen above each enemy’s head. This bar only takes damage when the enemy is hit by any of the elements showcased above them.
Each enemy is weak to multiple elements, so there are many ways to reduce their Toughness Bar.
Due to that, some of the best team comps in Honkai Star Rail utilize characters of varying elements, to ensure they’ve got an answer to every enemy.
It’s important to note that Ultimates reduce Toughness Bars more than Skills, which are more effective than Normal Attacks.
Keep in mind that you don’t need to damage an enemy’s Toughness Bar to take them down. Instead, you can keep attacking them with other Elements (that they aren’t weak to), and their HP will go down normally. It will just take a few extra attacks.
Weakness Break Effect Guide in Honkai Star Rail
When an enemy’s Toughness Bar is fully depleted, Weakness Break will trigger.
Weakness Break will cause an enemy to instantly take a lot of damage while also reducing their action points and delaying their turn.
The most important thing to note is that a different effect will trigger based on the element that caused the Weakness Break. Here are all the possible effects:
| Element | Effect |
| Fire | Deals Fire damage and applies Burn, which deals DoT (damage over time). |
| Wind | Deals Wind damage and applies Wind Shear, which deals DoT. |
| Lightning | Deals Lightning damage and applies Shock, which deals DoT. |
| Ice | Applies Frozen, which prevents the enemy from acting and deals damage when Frozen ends. |
| Physical | Deals Physical damage and applies Bleed, which deals DoT. |
| Quantum | Applies Entanglement which delays enemy actions and deals DoT. |
| Imaginary | Applies Imprisonment which delays enemy actions and reduces their Speed. |
Based on this information, make sure to use the right Element when triggering Weakness Break to deal more damage, or apply certain debuffs.
How to Break Shields Quickly in Honkai Star Rail
To break an enemy’s shield (Toughness Bar) and cause Weakness Break quickly, players should use their Ultimates at the right time as they reduce the Toughness Bar the most.
Make sure to have up to four different elements in your team and have enough action points to use Skill on characters that can target enemy weaknesses.
You can break common enemies’ shields even with one Skill or Ultimate, while bosses can also be broken within a turn if you have saved enough Ultimates.
Keep in mind that follow-up attacks also reduce an enemy’s Toughness Bar.
Wrapping up
In conclusion, the Toughness Bar is the white bar above enemies, which is reduced by hitting them with the right Elemental Attacks.
Reducing the Toughness bar fully triggers Weakness Break, which deals different effects based on the element used.
Does your main team have four different Elements? What’s your favorite Element in the game? Feel free to share your thoughts in the comments below.
If you’re trying to master the combat system, consider checking out our guide on how follow-up attacks work in Honkai Star Rail.
He has a Master’s Degree in Philosophy, which allows him to always come up with a fresh approach to solving in-game puzzles and challenges, but also to create content that’s to the point, clean and easy to follow.
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