Honkai: Star RailHertaBest build, teams and other guides

Herta is an AoE specialist character capable of dishing out surprisingly high damage against multiple combatants consistently. She has a low-cost Ultimate and can very quickly regain Energy thanks to her Talent’s follow-up attacks. She struggles significantly when there is only one enemy on the field, but can pivot to being SP-positive in dual-carry setups when that happens. Many of her Eidolons are also freely available courtesy of the rewards from the Simulated Universe.

Well, well, well, how the turns table. Herta may still be scorned by many for being underwhelming in single-target scenarios, but she’s certainly started making a compelling case for using her in the now numerous multi-target combat encounters we’ve been getting steadily more accustomed to - especially in Pure Fiction where she's one of the best characters in the game.

Herta’s Skill hits all enemies on the field for up to 100% of her ATK. If the enemies’ HP is 50% or higher, this attack also deals 20% increased DMG to said targets. A simple Skill but one that is quite efficient in those multi-target situations. The increased DMG% is also appreciated and helps to get enemies down to the necessary HP thresholds to activate Herta’s Talent.

Her Talent will cause Herta to do her signature follow-up spin attack whenever an ally’s attack reduces an enemy’s HP to 50% or below. She’ll deal up to 40% ATK to all enemies. A paltry amount initially, but this is per spin, and if multiple enemies’ HP falls below 50%, Herta will do an equivalent amount of spins. This is even dynamically updated, so if the first follow-up attack reduces a second enemy’s HP to below 50%, Herta will automatically perform a second spin within the same follow-up. Herta will also get these spins even if the target dies beforehand.

This means that it’s possible for Herta to get 5 consecutive spins off in a single follow-up attack if 5 enemies fall below 50% either before the first spin or within the follow-up attack window. If this happens, Herta is doing 40% ATK damage to 5 enemies, meaning it’s essentially a 200% ATK total… 5 times. It’s weird to think that Herta’s follow-up can deal an equivalent 1000% ATK damage to 5 targets, but it really is that much, and it can be very visible if your Herta is actually well invested.

Important to note as well that each individual spin will also give Herta back 5 Energy, meaning multiple spins can very easily give a huge amount of Energy back for her Ultimate. Each spin will also deal its own instance of Toughness damage, meaning that a fully spun Herta will deal 75 Toughness damage to all enemies on the field, potentially.

Herta’s Ultimate deals 200% ATK to all enemies. It deals increased Toughness damage as well, and has a below average Energy cost of 110. Since it is quite likely that Herta will be killing off smaller enemies with her wide ranging attacks, she’ll be getting plenty of Energy from the kills as well as plenty more from her Talent’s follow-up attacks.

Herta is an archetypal Erudition unit in this game. She is perfectly tailored to AoE combat and does a really good job at it. Unfortunately, when it comes to single-target combat, the differences are extremely stark. Without the potential to combo into her Talent, her damage will suffer tremendously. Worse still is that while her Talent has the potential to deal a huge chunk of damage, it’s a one-time deal; once an enemy is below 50% HP, it’s extremely rare for them to be able to recover that lost health unless they’re a boss type enemy.

It’s complicated. In the event that a strong Elite or Boss is facing you by themselves, Herta will offer virtually nothing in that encounter. If she’s your only damage dealer in that fight, then she will quite literally be near useless. However this starts to get flipped if said Elite or Boss is capable of summoning reinforcements. Now, if there are plenty of smaller foes for Herta to decimate and proc her Talent off of, the incidental damage from her follow-up spins can end up making up a large portion of the damage she would otherwise be missing, and then contributing to higher Ultimate uptime in the process.

From this you should be able to see that Herta is quite a feast-or-famine type of unit. If the conditions are met for her to excel, she will do so handily, but otherwise can fall to the wayside. Now that there is a much higher prevalence of enemies that can summon reinforcements repeatedly, Herta can actually be brought into fights that she has absolutely no business being in usually, such as against the IPC Team Leader Elite, or better yet, the True Sting. Yeah, she has a very good time against those damned bugs if you’ve invested in her.

The pervasive question then is ‘should you invest in Herta’ and that can seem tricky to answer initially. I say ‘initially’ because a great many people seem to claim they do not have an Ice damage dealer, which is odd since Herta most definitely exists and is given to everyone unconditionally. Returns on investment may not appear as obviously as for other flashier characters, especially 5-stars, but they most definitely do come about - she will carry one side for you in every Pure Fiction phase from not till forever (or until they drastically change what the mode is about).

Herta’s A2 increases the DMG boost of her Skill by an extra 25% when used against high HP targets, for a new total of 45%. This is a very noticeable bump to damage, especially as it can contribute to pushing enemies below 50% HP for her Talent follow-up or sometimes just outright killing smaller foes. A4 provides a 35% chance to resist Crowd Control, a small but welcome addition to ensure that Herta is more frequently ready to perform a follow-up after an ally’s attack, though this usually comes into play more in dual carry setups. A6 will allow her Ultimate to deal 20% increased DMG to Frozen enemies, something that actually comes up a fair bit if there are enough enemies for a lot of follow-ups due to the increased Toughness damage output.

Herta is not only a freely accessible character but one who also gains Eidolons for free as well. Everyone is able to get Herta and her dupes from completing worlds in the Simulated Universe. As such, she’s evaluated with this in mind.

E1 gives extra functionality to her Basic ATK. When attacking enemies below 50% HP, she will deal an extra 40% ATK as damage, for a new total of 140%. This is a pretty big deal in terms of Basic ATKs as it deals increased damage while still recovering a Skill Point, though this is usually not as big of a deal outside of dual carry setups, and is not enough to offset her weaknesses in single-target combat. E2 provides a permanent CRIT Rate boost of 3% every time her Talent is triggered up to a max of 5 stacks. 15% free CRIT Rate for just doing what you were going to be doing is a very impressive bonus for anyone, especially for Herta in those multi-target encounters where it’s easy to stack up.

E4 increases the Talent follow-up DMG by 10%, and E6 will increase Herta’s ATK by 25% for 1 turn after using her Ultimate. E3 and E5 are actually significant to her as they increase ability levels and can have a very noticeable impact due to her AoE-heavy nature; her Skill goes to 110% ATK per enemy, and her Talent goes to 43% per enemy.

Really, the other big downside of Herta besides her fumbling in single-target combat is that her Base stats are really low. Her Base ATK is on the lower end when it comes to damage dealers, and her DEF and HP are much the same, making her quite a frail unit. 

Even still, she is capable of decimating swathes of enemies if put in the right spot and if the player actually invests in her. I’ve said that multiple times because it’s absolutely true. It’s a very uneven progression, I will admit. It’ll seem like nothing’s improving until suddenly ‘oh hey, my Herta is doing damage now’. Please trust me that that point does definitely exist. You can look up videos of Herta wrecking Pure Fiction if you need more proof. 

I’ve been using Herta since the beginning and I’ve not done her justice, especially in the first iteration of this review. Especially after my initial lapses concerning Qingque, I’m making it a point to do due diligence, and I can safely say that Herta is worth your while, especially if you’re lacking another Ice damage dealer.