I still remember my first week playing Honkai Star Rail, when I brought my open world exploration team into the first Cocolia boss fight and got wiped in three turns. I had no clue how to adjust my lineup fast, and wasted 20 minutes dragging characters in and out of the team menu over and over. If you’ve ever found yourself stuck in a similar spot, this guide breaks down everything you need to know about how to change team in Honkai Star Rail, for both pre-combat setup and mid-battle swaps. I’ve tested all these methods across 120+ hours of gameplay, from Simulated Universe runs to Memory of Chaos clears, so you don’t have to guess what works.
How to Change Team in Honkai Star Rail Outside of Combat
Most of your team swaps will happen before you enter a fight, whether you’re prepping for a Memory of Chaos floor, switching up your exploration lineup, or adjusting for a new Simulated Universe path. The process is simple once you know where to look. First, tap the phone icon in the top right corner of your screen (or press the corresponding hotkey if you’re playing on PC) and select the “Team” tab. From there, you can drag any character from your roster into the four active team slots, or tap an existing slot to replace the unit inside.
You don’t have to rebuild your team from scratch every time, though. The game lets you save up to 15 custom team presets, which you can access with a single tap from the team menu. Remember to save your frequently used lineups as presets to cut down on prep time for repeated content. I have separate presets for every type of content I run regularly, and it’s cut my pre-fight setup time by 70%.
Not sure what presets to make first? Here are the four most useful preset lineups for most players:
- Open world exploration lineup: 1 mobility unit (like Tingyun or Sampo for faster movement), 1 healer, 2 DPS of different elements to handle random overworld enemies
- Memory of Chaos lineup: 2 DPS that match the floor’s enemy weakness elements, 1 support buffer, 1 shielder or healer for sustain
- Simulated Universe run lineup: 1 main DPS, 1 support that synergizes with your chosen path, 1 healer, 1 sub DPS to help with toughness breaks
- Weekly boss fight specific lineup: Units that match the boss’s 3+ listed weakness elements to break toughness as fast as possible
You can rename each preset to match its use case, so you don’t have to memorize which number corresponds to which lineup. I name mine things like “MoC 10 Left” or “SU Nihility Run” so I can find the right one in half a second.
Quick Team Swaps During Active Combat Sequences
Sometimes you’ll enter a fight and realize your current lineup isn’t working, or an enemy spawns with a weakness none of your active units can hit. You don’t have to flee the fight and restart to swap characters, but there are a few rules you need to follow for mid-combat swaps. First, you can only swap characters when it’s your turn to act, and no active skill or ultimate animation is playing. Each mid-combat character swap costs 1 action point, so you’ll have to decide if the swap is worth giving up a skill use for your main DPS.
To swap during a fight, tap the character icon at the bottom left of the combat screen that you want to bring into the active lineup. The game will automatically switch out the last active character for your chosen unit, and you can use the new unit’s normal attack, skill, or ultimate right away if you have enough points or energy. You can’t swap a character that’s already been knocked out, so make sure to rotate your units before their health drops to zero if you need to bring in a backup.
I use this trick all the time during tough boss fights. Last month I was stuck on the latest Memory of Chaos floor, where the second phase boss spawned with an Imaginary weakness my main physical DPS couldn’t hit. I swapped in my level 70 Dan Heng Imbibitor Lunae mid-fight for 1 action point, broke the boss’s toughness in one hit, and cleared the floor with three stars on the next try. It’s a small mechanic that can completely turn around a losing fight.
Common Mistakes to Avoid When Swapping Teams
Even though swapping teams is a simple mechanic, a lot of new players make small mistakes that cost them wins or waste time. The most common one I see is swapping teams without checking enemy weakness elements first. You can bring a fully built hypercarry team to a fight, but if none of your units match the enemy’s weaknesses, you’ll be dealing 50% less damage and take twice as long to break toughness. Always match at least two enemy weakness elements when you adjust your lineup to avoid unnecessary grind.
Another big mistake is wasting action points on unnecessary mid-combat swaps. If you only have 1 action point left, and your main DPS is ready to use their ultimate to finish off the last enemy, swapping in a different unit is a waste. Only swap mid-fight if it will help you break a critical toughness bar, save a dying unit, or activate a team synergy that will win you the fight faster. I used to swap characters for no reason all the time when I first started, and I lost more than a few fights because I ran out of action points right when I needed them.
You also don’t want to forget to update your presets when you pull new characters or upgrade old ones. I kept using an old preset with a level 50 Natasha for two weeks after I pulled and built Luocha, and I couldn’t figure out why my Simulated Universe runs were taking so long. Take five minutes every week to check your presets and swap out units if you have a better option available.
Pro Tips to Optimize Your Team Swap Workflow
If you want to cut down on prep time and make your team swaps as efficient as possible, there are a few small tricks most players don’t know about. First, sort your character roster by element or role in the team menu, so you don’t have to scroll through 50+ characters to find the one you need. I have my roster sorted by element, so I can find a Fire or Ice DPS in two seconds flat when I’m building a team for a new boss.
Keep your two most frequently used presets in the first two slots of the preset menu. The first two slots are always visible without scrolling, so you can swap to your exploration team or your main combat team in one tap without having to search through your full list of presets. I keep my open world lineup in slot 1 and my general purpose boss fight team in slot 2, and it saves me a ton of time every day.
Another good trick is to test your team in a low-stakes fight before you bring it into high-difficulty content. If you’re building a new team for a Memory of Chaos floor, try it out against a few overworld enemies first to make sure the rotation works and you have enough sustain. You don’t want to spend 10 minutes getting to the second phase of a boss fight only to realize your team doesn’t have enough healing to survive. I always test new lineups in the Simulated Universe’s first world first, where enemies are low level and I can adjust the team if something feels off.
Finally, if you’re playing on PC, you can set custom hotkeys for your first four team presets, so you can swap teams without even opening the menu. It’s a small quality of life tweak that makes switching between exploration and combat teams feel seamless.
At the end of the day, learning how to change team in Honkai Star Rail is one of the most basic but impactful gameplay skills you can master. It doesn’t matter if you’re a brand new player still working through the main story, or a veteran going for full stars on the latest Memory of Chaos floor, being able to adjust your lineup fast will make every part of the game feel less frustrating and more rewarding. Try setting up a few of the presets I mentioned earlier the next time you log on, and you’ll notice the difference in your run times right away.
