Honkai: Star Rail version 2.3 sees the arrival of the fan-favorite, Firefly, and another IPC debt collector, Jade. Both characters certainly have a lot of appeal to consider pulling for, but if you can only grab one, which should you?
Should you pull for Firefly or Jade in Honkai: Star Rail 2.3?
The decision between pulling for Firefly and Jade won’t be a difficult one for most people. Firefly has been a part of the Penacony storyline since 2.0, meaning players have had a lot more time to get to know her and witness her actions in the story. Jade, on the other hand, has only been seen in a flashback and mentioned/heard everywhere else, but she hasn’t actually done anything noteworthy as of yet. That will likely change for 2.3, but regardless, she hasn’t had a chance to resonate with the playerbase. So, from a story standpoint, Firefly is the better pull. However, if you’re asking this question from a meta-perspective, here’s some fat to chew on.
Firefly
Firefly is a Fire Destruction character with a hard focus on dealing Break Damage consistently. On a team, she primarily serves as the hypercarry and will struggle to function outside this role. The reason is because of her hyper-focus on Break Damage and how that affects her potential team comps. You see, Firefly does not deal any meaningful damage if the target is not broken or cannot be broken. She is entirely reliant on breaking her enemies, and this is a massive negative for her gameplay despite her being extremely good at it. The negative aspect here means she really only has one team comp she can use: Ruan Mei, Harmony MC, and Gallagher.
Firefly without the above-mentioned comp is extraordinarily weak, again, because of her focus on Break Damage. All three characters help Firefly perform, and omitting even one of them means your Firefly will be considerably weaker. Ruan Mei, especially, is an utterly massive boost to Firefly’s performance that cannot be ignored. I’d go as far as to say that if you don’t have Ruan Mei, you should not pull Firefly. You’re better off using a different character if you can’t pull Ruan Mei. Fortunately, her banner will be rerun in 2.3. Unfortunately, you’ll have to pull two five-star characters to make Firefly’s comp viable.
If you already have Ruan Mei and the rest of the mentioned team comp, Firefly is an absolute powerhouse that will let you destroy everything in the game. Ruan Mei provides Firefly with a significant boost to Break Damage. Harmony MC grants Firefly the ability to perform Super Breaks, which will scale extremely well with her. Gallagher supports FIrefly with his healing and also helps her break her targets with his own contributions. This team comp is one of the strongest ones in Honkai: Star Rail… if you can get all the pieces together.
Jade
Jade is a Quantum Erudition character with a significant focus on dishing out large amounts of AOE (Area of Effect) damage. She is a Follow-up attack character, and her kit functions entirely with that aspect in mind. Jade is mainly a sub-DPS that applies an SPD and ATK buff called Debt Collector on the target of her Skill, at the cost of their health every time they perform an attack. When Jade or the target of her Debt Collector attacks a target, she gains charges equal to the number of targets hit, up to a maximum of eight. When Jade has eight charges, her Follow-up attack activates, dealing significant damage Quantum damage to all enemies on the field. Jade’s Ultimate deals AOE damage and empowers her Follow-up attacks.
With the most important aspects of her kit in mind, Jade greatest weakness is her focus on AOE damage, or rather, the need to hit as many targets as possible every turn. In fights with large amounts of enemies, Jade flourishes and soundly sweeps her foes. However, in low enemy count encounters, her damage suffers greatly. This aspect alone is enough not to pull for Jade, as most of the difficult encounters in Honkai: Star Rail are three targets or less. In a single-target fight, Jade does not perform well due to her lower-than-average multipliers and her inability to gain more than two stacks per cycle (one for herself and one from the Debt Collector target).
However, if you need a character to help you clear Pure Fiction, Jade is a top-tier character and you may want to consider pulling her. Since Pure Fiction is an end-game mode that is difficult to clear without AOE, getting a character like Jade and building her up will naturally help you a lot in that aspect. With Pure Fiction, Memory of Chaos, and the new Apocalyptic Shadow cycling as endgame modes starting in version 2.3, it is a good idea to consider Jade for Pure Fiction every time it comes up.
Utimately, I consider both Firefly and Jade to be niche pulls in the grand scheme of the universe that is Honkai: Star Rail. Both characters are extremely powerful in their roles, but only under the correct circumstances, which is why I don’t consider either one a must-pull. If I had to pick one, the safest character to pull is Firefly as long as you already have Ruan Mei. While I am a huge fan of Follow-up team comps, Jade’s contributions to the already immensely powerful Topaz, Dr. Ratio. Robin, and Aventurine team serve no meaningful purpose beyond replacing Dr. Ratio in AOE-heavy encounters. I also believe her true role has yet to be uncovered, much like Topaz’s role wasn’t until future characters were released to improve her performance.
