If you’ve ever stared down a tough Forgotten Hall stage or high-level Calyx and wondered why you’re getting one-shot even with a high-level carry, you’re probably missing a key metric: your team’s overall level. A lot of new players don’t know how to check team level in Honkai: Star Rail, since it’s not displayed as prominently as individual character levels or your account-wide Trailblaze Level. This number is a quick, easy way to gauge if you’re ready to take on new content, or if you need to spend a little more time investing in your squad before you jump in. We’ll walk you through the exact steps to find it, what it actually means for your performance, and how to raise it without wasting scarce resources.
Exact Steps to Check Team Level in Honkai: Star Rail
Finding your team level only takes a few taps once you know where to look, and you can check it both from the main menu and right before entering a battle. First, open your Party Setup menu from the main screen, which is the icon with four character portraits in the bottom right corner. Select the specific team you want to check from the team slots at the top of the screen, since each custom team you build has its own independent level average.
Once you have the right team selected, look for the average level indicator right above your four character portraits, next to the total combined combat power number for the squad. This number is calculated by averaging the levels of the four characters you have deployed in that team, rounded to the nearest whole number. If you’re checking before entering instanced content like a Calyx, Simulated Universe run, or Forgotten Hall stage, you’ll also see your team’s average level displayed directly next to the recommended level for that stage, so you can compare at a glance.
Don’t confuse this number with your Trailblaze Level, which is your account-wide progress level. Your Trailblaze Level unlocks new content and raises enemy scaling in the open world, but it has no direct impact on your individual team’s combat performance. You can have a Trailblaze Level of 60 and a team level of 40 if you haven’t invested in your characters, for example.
What Your Honkai: Star Rail Team Level Actually Means
Your team level is a useful baseline, but it’s not the be-all-end-all of your squad’s strength. At its core, it’s a shorthand for how much overall investment you’ve put into the four characters in that specific team. A team with an average level of 70 will almost always have higher base stats across the board than a team with an average level of 50, which translates to more damage, more health, and better survivability.
That said, the number doesn’t tell the whole story. Enemy level scaling in most instanced content is fixed, so if your team level is within 5 levels of the recommended level for a stage, you can usually clear it with decent builds and team synergy. If you’re more than 10 levels below the recommended level, you’ll notice a sharp drop in your damage output and a huge spike in the damage you take, even if you have perfect builds. That’s because the game has a hidden level difference penalty that reduces your damage and increases incoming damage when you’re significantly underleveled compared to enemies.
For example, I once tried to run a level 65 Calyx with a team level of 58, thinking my level 70 Seele could carry the run. I ended up wasting 15 minutes on the stage, because my underleveled supports died to the first AoE attack, and Seele couldn’t take on all the enemies alone. A few days later, after I leveled my supports up to 55 to bring the team average to 61, I cleared the same stage in less than 3 minutes with no issues.
Common Mistakes Players Make When Assessing Team Level
Even if you know how to find your team level, it’s easy to misinterpret what it means, or make mistakes that make the number misleading. These are the most common errors I see new players make all the time:
- Confusing individual character level with team level: A single level 80 carry paired with three level 20 supports will give you a team level of 50, which is misleadingly low even if your main DPS is strong enough for level 60 content. You’ll still struggle because your supports will die instantly and can’t apply buffs or debuffs.
- Ignoring level break thresholds: Your characters get a massive stat boost when you ascend them and break the level cap (like moving from level 70 to 71 after ascension). A team of four level 70 unascended characters will perform far worse than a team of four level 70 ascended characters, even if their team level number is exactly the same.
- Forgetting that support level matters just as much as DPS level: A lot of new players pour all their exp materials and credits into their main damage dealer, but underleveled supports can’t survive AoE attacks, can’t use their ultimates as often, and won’t apply useful effects like defense reduction or healing. This drags your entire team’s performance down no matter how high your DPS level is.
- Using team level as the only measure of squad strength: A team with a high average level but mismatched elements, bad light cone choices, and unupgraded traces will underperform a lower level team with optimized builds and good synergy. Always check your builds and team comp alongside your team level before you attempt tough content.
Most of these mistakes come from treating the team level number as the only metric that matters, instead of the quick baseline it’s meant to be. If you’re ever unsure if you’re ready for a stage, test a quick run first, even if your team level is close to the recommended threshold. You’ll usually be able to tell within the first minute if you’re going to be able to clear it.
How to Raise Your Team Level Quickly Without Wasting Resources
Raising your team level doesn’t have to mean grinding for hours every day, or wasting valuable exp materials on characters you never use. The first rule is to only level the 4 to 8 characters you use regularly for your main teams, especially if you’re a new player with limited resources. You don’t need to level every character you pull, just the ones you use for open world content and endgame runs.
Prioritize leveling all four characters in your main squad evenly, instead of pouring all your resources into one carry. It’s okay to let your main DPS be 5 to 10 levels higher than your supports, but don’t let them fall further behind than that. You’ll get much better performance out of a team where all four characters are level 60, than a team where one is level 75 and the other three are level 40.
Use double exp Calyx events to farm character exp materials efficiently, since you’ll get twice the rewards for the same amount of trailblaze power. If you run Simulated Universe regularly, you can also get a lot of free exp materials and credits from immersion rewards, so you don’t have to spend as much time farming Calyxes. Don’t ascend a character until you’re ready to level them past their current level cap, since ascension materials are hard to come by for new players, and you don’t want to waste them on characters you won’t use long-term.
If you’re really short on credits, you can pause leveling your supports for a few days to get your main DPS to the next level break, but make sure you catch your supports up as soon as you can. The small boost to your DPS’s damage won’t make up for your supports dying in one hit to every AoE attack.
Once you know how to check team level in Honkai: Star Rail, you can save yourself a lot of frustration trying to brute force content you’re not ready for. It’s a simple, quick metric that gives you a baseline for your squad’s strength, but remember that it’s not the only thing that matters. Always pair it with checks for your character traces, light cone levels, and team synergy to get a full picture of how your squad will perform. Next time you’re staring down a tough boss or endgame stage, take 10 seconds to check your team level first, so you don’t waste 20 minutes on a run you have no chance of clearing.
