8 Best Honkai: Star Rail Alternatives in 2026

Once you’re hooked on turn-based combat and building the perfect team, one game isn’t enough. If Honkai: Star Rail got you into the genre, it’s time to find your next obsession.

We pulled together 8 RPGs that hit similar notes. Some go dark fantasy, some let your heroes grind while you sleep, and one throws Marvel characters into match-3 puzzles. All of them will eat your free time if you let them.

RAID: Shadow Legends lands at the top because 900+ champions across 15 factions gives you team combinations for days. Once you start theory-crafting synergies, good luck putting it down.

At a Glance: 8 Best Games Like Honkai: Star Rail

Game	Best For	Platforms
1. RAID: Shadow Legends	RPG fans who get hooked on theory-crafting team synergies	iOS, Android, PC (Windows), Mac
2. Hero Wars	Busy players who want quick daily check-ins and guild content	iOS, Android, Facebook/Web Browser
3. King Arthur: Legends Rise	Fans of dark fantasy and Arthurian mythology	PC (Steam), iOS, Android
4. Watcher of Realms	Tactical minds who enjoy tower defense combat	iOS, Android
5. AFK Journey	Casual players who want a stylized visual experience	Windows, Android, iOS
6. Marvel Puzzle Quest	Marvel fans who like match-3 puzzle mechanics	iOS, Android, Steam, PlayStation, Xbox
7. AFK Arena	Players who want a game that plays itself while they’re away	iOS, Android, Windows PC
8. Genshin Impact	Explorers who want open-world adventure	PC, PlayStation 4/5, iOS, Android, Xbox Series X/S

How We Chose the Best Honkai: Star Rail Alternatives

We’ve spent way too many hours with these RPGs, and we checked what other players think to make sure we weren’t missing anything. These are the games that kept us playing past bedtime.

Here’s what mattered:

• Combat depth: Does the battle system reward smart team building?
• Character variety: Are there enough heroes to keep team building fun long-term?
• Visual quality: Does the game look good on your phone or PC?
• Progression pace: Does leveling up your roster show clear results?
• Time flexibility: Can you play for five minutes or five hours depending on your mood?
• Free-to-play balance: Can you make real progress without spending money?
• Cross-platform sync: Can you pick up where you left off on a different device?

We also compared games across the turn-based genre to ensure our picks deliver on strategic combat.

The 8 Best Honkai: Star Rail Alternatives

1. RAID: Shadow Legends: The Best Turn-Based RPG for Champion Collectors

RAID: Shadow Legends Features

• Cross-platform sync keeps your progress between mobile and PC
• Arena PvP with weekly rewards based on your ranking
• 300+ individual champion backstories add lore depth
• 10+ game modes prevent any single activity from getting stale
• Regular monthly updates bring new champions and events
• Detailed 3D graphics with smooth animations on all devices

RAID: Shadow Legends Pros and Cons

Pros:

• Faction synergies create endless team-building puzzles to solve
• Clan content gives you a reason to coordinate with other players
• Free players can progress through most content with smart resource management

Cons:

• Energy system gates how much you can grind in one sitting
• Menu navigation takes getting used to with so many game modes
• Premium currency speeds things up, though free players can progress

RAID: Shadow Legends throws you into a dark fantasy world where your roster never stops growing. Over 900 champions spread across 15 factions means you’re always finding new synergies to test. The turn-based combat looks simple at first, but the real depth comes from building teams that work together.

The 6 rarity tiers from Common to Mythical give you clear goals to chase. Pull a Legendary and you know it matters. The 12-location campaign comes fully voiced, and each champion has their own backstory if you’re into the lore side of things.

Beyond the story, Clan Boss raids demand coordination with your guildmates. Faction Wars force you to build deep rosters across all 15 factions instead of just maxing your favorites. Dungeons drop gear that can transform how your champions perform.

2. Hero Wars: Idle RPG That Plays Itself

Hero Wars Features

• Browser version syncs with mobile for cross-platform play
• Tower mode offers a different challenge from the main campaign
• Outland battles drop rare materials for hero upgrades

Hero Wars Pros and Cons

Pros:

• Quick daily sessions fit around work or school
• Free players can stay competitive with consistent play
• Regular events keep the loot flowing

Cons:

• Competitive tiers heavily favor spending players
• Core gameplay loop stays the same long-term
• Different servers mean you can’t play with friends on other regions

Hero Wars runs itself while you’re doing other things. Your heroes fight automatically, and resources pile up even when you close the app. Pop in for a few minutes, collect your rewards, make some upgrades, and you’re done for the day.

The 80+ heroes across 6 factions give you plenty of team combinations to explore. Battles play out on their own, but picking the right hero lineup makes the difference between winning and getting stomped. Guild Wars add some social competition when you want it.

3. King Arthur: Legends Rise: Dark Fantasy with Arthurian Lore

King Arthur: Legends Rise Features

• Colosseum PvP tests your squad against other players
• Adventure Mode offers side content beyond the main story
• Dungeon runs drop gear to power up your heroes

King Arthur: Legends Rise Pros and Cons

Pros:

• Six hero classes give you room to build a squad that fits your style
• Still new enough that the devs are actively adding content
• Free players can keep up without hitting paywalls early

Cons:

• Loading screens test your patience
• Endgame content runs thin after you finish the story
• Some PC players report optimization issues

King Arthur: Legends Rise takes the Round Table legends and makes them gritty. You’re building a squad from 6 hero classes, using terrain and environmental hazards to your advantage. Push an enemy off a cliff during combat? That never gets old.

Unreal Engine 5 makes everything look sharp on both PC and mobile. Your Steam progress syncs to your phone, so switching devices mid-campaign is painless. The story mode takes its time building out the dark Arthurian setting, and it works because the writing doesn’t treat you like you’ve never heard of King Arthur before.

4. Watcher of Realms: Tower Defense Meets Hero Collection

Watcher of Realms Features

• PvP Arena matches test your positioning skills against other players
• Guild content includes multiplayer dragon raids
• Story campaign spans the mystical continent of Tya

Watcher of Realms Pros and Cons

Pros:

• Combat plays differently than standard turn-based systems
• Voice acting brings personality to the characters
• Multiplayer raids give you reasons to join a guild

Cons:

• Pulling rare heroes from gacha takes a lot of luck
• Difficulty spikes hard after the early chapters
• Story content fades after the intro sections

Watcher of Realms blends tower defense with hero collecting in ways that make both genres better. You’re positioning 100+ heroes across the battlefield, timing abilities, and managing waves of enemies. The dark realistic art style stands out from the usual anime-inspired competition.

Eight factions give you synergies to chase, and the 3D hero models look great in action. Guild partnerships let you team up against epic dragons when you want a break from solo content.

5. AFK Journey: Storybook Visuals with Idle Progression

AFK Journey Features

• Open world exploration includes puzzles and hidden areas
• Seasonal events rotate new content regularly
• Cross-platform support syncs between PC and mobile

AFK Journey Pros and Cons

Pros:

• Art style gives it a distinct look compared to other idle RPGs
• Progression systems are less grindy than the original
• Free players can compete without hitting walls

Cons:

• Requires more attention than the AFK name suggests
• Gacha luck can swing wildly between accounts
• Less strategic depth than its predecessor

AFK Journey leans hard into its canvas art style, and every screen looks like a storybook illustration come to life. The tile-based combat adds environmental twists like flamethrowers and landmines to shake things up.

Your heroes gather resources while you’re offline, so you’re always making progress. Level up one group of five heroes and your whole roster benefits from the shared experience. As a sequel to AFK Arena, it streamlines the original’s systems while keeping the collection loop that made fans stick around.

6. Marvel Puzzle Quest: Match-3 Combat with 250+ Heroes

Marvel Puzzle Quest Features

• Console and PC support extends beyond mobile platforms
• Daily challenges offer reliable rewards for consistent play
• Alliance events create cooperative goals with other players

Marvel Puzzle Quest Pros and Cons

Pros:

• Over a decade of updates means tons of content
• PvP tournaments give competitive players goals
• Cover system turns duplicate pulls into ability upgrades

Cons:

• Recent updates have caused performance hiccups
• Roster slots push you toward spending
• Gameplay loop gets repetitive over time

Marvel Puzzle Quest has been running for over a decade, which says something about the formula. Match-3 tiles to power up your heroes, unleash abilities, and take down enemies. With 250+ Marvel characters from comics and movies, the roster goes deep.

Team synergies matter here too. Certain heroes buff each other, so picking the right trio for each mission becomes its own puzzle. When you pull duplicate characters, the cover system upgrades their abilities instead of wasting your pulls. Alliances give you people to team up with for seasonal events and tournaments.

7. AFK Arena: Idle RPG with Crossover Characters

AFK Arena Features

• King’s Tower offers endless climbing challenges
• Arcane Labyrinth adds roguelike elements to progression
• Guild content includes cooperative boss battles

AFK Arena Pros and Cons

Pros:

• Established community means plenty of guides and resources online
• Low daily time commitment compared to active RPGs
• Generous pull rates during the early game

Cons:

• Developer focus has shifted to AFK Journey
• Late-game progression demands patience or spending
• Older interface looks dated compared to newer games

AFK Arena is the game that AFK Journey spun off from, and it’s still going strong. Nearly 200 heroes across 8 factions, and the game plays itself while you’re away. Check in, collect rewards, spend resources, check out. The hand-drawn art still holds up years later.

Dimensional crossovers bring in characters from Assassin’s Creed, The Witcher, and other franchises. The merge token system turns duplicate heroes into upgrades instead of wasted pulls.

8. Genshin Impact: Open World for Exploration Lovers

Genshin Impact Features

• Domains offer repeatable challenges for character materials
• Spiral Abyss tests your roster in high-difficulty combat
• Regular version updates add new story regions

Genshin Impact Pros and Cons

Pros:

• Production values rival console games
• Voice acting and soundtrack are top-tier
• Each character has individual story quests

Cons:

• Gacha rates frustrate players chasing specific characters
• Resin system limits daily grinding
• Storage requirements hit 100GB and climbing

Genshin Impact brings open-world exploration to mobile with a scope you don’t usually see on phones. The anime-style world spans seven nations, each with its own element and storyline. Elemental reactions in combat reward swapping between characters mid-fight.

Four-player co-op works across all platforms, so you can team up with friends regardless of what they’re playing on. The world keeps expanding too, with regular updates adding new regions, characters, and story quests. Just make sure you’ve got the storage space because the download size climbs past 100GB.

What Game Modes Does RAID: Shadow Legends Offer?

RAID spreads your gameplay across 10+ different modes, so you’re not grinding the same thing forever. The most popular modes include:

• Campaign: 12 locations with fully voiced storylines where you’ll level champions and farm the gear they need to progress
• Dungeons: Each dungeon drops specific equipment sets, so you’ll keep coming back once you figure out which sets your champions need
• Arena PvP: Weekly rankings where you pit your team against other players for rewards that scale with how high you finish
• Clan Boss: The big guild activity where you coordinate with clanmates to chip away at massive bosses for top-tier loot
• Faction Wars: A mode that requires building rosters across all 15 factions instead of just maxing your five favorites
• Doom Tower: Rotating monthly challenges with bosses that demand specific strategies and champions
• Tag Team Arena: 3v3 battles where you set up three separate teams, adding another layer to the PvP grind

How Does RAID: Shadow Legends Compare to Honkai: Star Rail for Free Players?

Both games let you progress without spending, but they feel different. Honkai: Star Rail gates characters behind gacha, and missing a limited banner means waiting months for a rerun. RAID has gacha too, but the champion pool is so large that you’re always finding someone new to build.

Faction events drop guaranteed heroes if you put in the time. That means free players can target specific champions instead of relying purely on luck.

RAID’s energy system limits grinding sessions, just like Honkai’s Trailblaze Power. The difference is RAID gives you more modes to spread that energy across. Dungeons, campaign, Arena, Faction Wars—there’s always something worth doing. Free players can stay competitive in their clans and work toward endgame content without hitting hard paywalls.

Why RAID: Shadow Legends Is the Best Honkai: Star Rail Alternative

RAID: Shadow Legends gives you the turn-based strategy and character collection that makes Honkai: Star Rail fun, then adds hundreds more champions to discover. The dark fantasy setting has its own style, and the depth of team building can hook you for years.

Jump into battles that reward planning over button mashing. Build a roster that’s yours alone from 15 different factions. Join a clan and take on bosses that need real coordination.

Give RAID: Shadow Legends a shot and see what all the hype is about.

FAQs About Games Like Honkai: Star Rail

What games are similar to Honkai: Star Rail?

RAID: Shadow Legends hits a lot of the same notes with turn-based combat and a massive roster to collect. You get 900+ champions across 15 factions, and the team-building depth can keep you busy for months. Other options include King Arthur: Legends Rise for tactical combat and AFK Journey if you want something more casual.

What’s the best turn-based RPG for mobile?

RAID: Shadow Legends has the biggest champion roster and deepest team-building systems on mobile. The combat rewards smart ability timing and faction synergies, with 10+ game modes to keep things fresh across months of play.

What RPG has the best character collection system?

RAID: Shadow Legends leads with 900+ champions across 15 factions, each with unique abilities and synergies. The 6 rarity tiers from Common to Mythical give you clear upgrade goals, and the faction system means you’ll always have a reason to build someone new.

Is RAID: Shadow Legends better than Honkai: Star Rail?

For team-building depth, RAID wins. With 900+ champions across 15 factions, you get way more options for creating synergies and trying different strategies. Honkai has a smaller roster, so you’ll run out of new characters to build faster.
RAID also gives you more ways to play. Between Arena, Clan Boss, Faction Wars, and Doom Tower, there’s always a reason to build someone new. That variety keeps things fresh longer than Honkai’s more limited endgame.

Which gacha RPG is the most free-to-play friendly?

RAID: Shadow Legends lets free players clear most content and stay competitive in their clans. Faction events drop guaranteed champions if you put in the time, so you’re not completely at the mercy of gacha luck. The 900+ champion pool also means you’re always pulling someone worth building, even without spending.

What RPG has the most characters to collect?

RAID: Shadow Legends has the biggest roster at 900+ champions spread across 15 factions. New champions arrive with monthly updates, and the 6 rarity tiers mean there’s always someone worth chasing. If you’re the type who wants to collect and build as many characters as possible, nothing else comes close.

Is RAID: Shadow Legends pay to win?

You can beat the campaign and most PvE content without spending. The top Arena and Clan Boss rankings get competitive, but clans at every level compete within their tiers. Skill and team composition matter more than wallet size for most of the game.