The best part about Honkai: Star Rail's combat is the sheer number of play styles you can have with mechanics like follow-up attacks or damage over time. Using characters who utilize these mechanics keeps the turn-based combat fresh, and Guinaifen is one of the DoT-based units in the game.

She's a four-star Fire character on the path of Nihility, and she was first released in the game during the second phase of the Version 1.4 update. However, you can get your hands on this character at any point since she gets added to the general roster after the update.

7 Himeko

• Path - Erudition
• Combat Type - Fire

Remember that five-star Standard character that was arguably one of the worst five-star in the game? Yes, she seems to be making a return to the meta with the Fire characters released in the Version 1.4 update. Himeko is great for triggering follow-up attacks when one of your allies break the enemy's weakness bar.

The best part about this combination is the shared combat type since they can both break an enemy's weakness quite fast as long as they're weak to Fire. This works especially well if you build Guinaifen on Break Effect and use the DMG bonus from her Talent to increase Himeko's DMG.

6 Luka

• Path - Nihility
• Combat Type - Physical

Released alongside Kafka, Luka was a part of the revolution of damage over time. This play style was quite bad during the early game, but Luka made it a little better since he had the ability to trigger his Bleed DoT on command whenever you use his Enhanced Basic Attack.

This effect is similar to Guinaifen's Ultimate since that also triggers the Burn DoT she applies on all enemies. Together, these two can slowly shred the enemy's HP by applying their respective DoT and punishing enemies for simply getting their turn.

5 Hook

• Path - Destruction
• Combat Type - Fire

This might feel like a not-so-good synergy since Hook's path isn't anywhere related to the DoT aspect of Guinaifen, but that's not the only play style she can go for. With specific Planar Ornaments and Light Cones, she can act as a decent damage buffer for the team since her Talent increases the DMG taken by all enemies.

This DMG increase comes from Firekiss, which in turn gets applied when enemies take damage from Burn. It can stack up to three times at zero Eidolons and give you an increase of up to 21 percent DMG. Moreover, Hook can also help her break the target's weakness bar quickly with her buffed attacks.

4 Silver Wolf

• Path - Nihility
• Combat Type - Quantum

How can a character's best team composition be completed without the mention of the most versatile character in the game? Silver Wolf is the only character in the game with the ability to implant a new weakness on the enemy whenever her Skill is used, and this weakness is guaranteed to be one of the combat types in your party.

Moreover, she can also reduce the target's DEF with her Ultimate and the random bugs planted by her whenever she attacks the target. Her weakness implant can help Guinaifen in the Break Effect build while the DEF reduction can stack with her DMG increase to buff another DPS.

3 Fu Xuan

• Path - Preservation
• Combat Type - Quantum

Guinaifen can apply the Burn effect on enemies when she hits them with both her Basic Attack and Skill. However, the chances of applying the effect are higher on the Skill, which means that you'd always want to use her Skill whenever she gets a turn. Her Skill also deals higher damage to more enemies.

If you want to keep up with her Skill Point usage, you'll have to bring along a Skill Point-Positive character like Fu Xuan. Apart from being SP-Positive, she can also give Guinaifen a bit of Crit Rate and a ton of protection from enemy attacks.

2 Luocha

• Path - Abundance
• Combat Type - Imaginary

Healers are an important part of Honkai: Star Rail both during the early and late game due to its turn-based nature. All your characters are on the field at the same time and they can easily get knocked down if you don't have a character to heal up all the damage taken, which is where Luocha comes in.

Out of all the healers in the game, he's the best for Guinaifen since he hardly ever needs to consume a Skill Point. Moreover, he can remove enemy buffs and clear debuffs from his allies upon the usage of his Skill (both automatic and manual).

1 Kafka

• Path - Nihility
• Combat Type - Lightning

Finally, saving the best for last, Kafka is by far the best companion you can use with Guinaifen since she's the character who truly made the DoT compositions viable. Apart from applying a ton of Shock DoT, she has the ability to instantly trigger all the DoT instances on one enemy with Skill and all the enemies with her Ultimate.

Here's an example to show you how good Kafka and Guinaifen can be when put together: You'd break the enemy's weakness with Guinaifen on a Break Effect build, which applies a massive Burn DoT on the enemy. This DoT can now be triggered multiple times whenever the enemy gets a turn, Kafka uses her Skill, or either character uses their Ultimate.

NEXT: Honkai: Star Rail - Best Team Members For Topaz & Numby