Fu Xuan vs Aventurine: Which Preservation unit should you pull for in Honkai Star Rail?

It is practically a requirement, in Honkai: Star Rail, to have a few units in your roster of characters that can preserve your team(s). With the introduction of Adventurine, the inevitable question of whether you should pull him or Fu Xuan is one I can answer for you here.

Should you pull for Fu Xuan or Aventurine in HSR?

Both Fu Xuan and Aventurine are excellent at sustaining any team, and they are quite competent at the job. However, they do have nuance cases where you may want to pull for one or the other.

• Pull for Fu Xuan if you favor her secondary Harmony-like buffs (HP boost for entire team, Crit Rate% boost, etc.), good for defensive players
• Pull for Aventruine if you want a sustainer that is capable of dishing out consistent, secondary damage with DMG vulnerability debuffs, good for very offensive players

That's the gist above, but I have a more detailed discussion below.

Still, the truest answer to this potentially mind-numbing question is rather simplistic: it depends on the state of your Honkai: Star Rail account.

Related: Honkai Star Rail (HSR) Codes – Livestream Codes!

You need two teams to complete all of HSR's content, which means you also need two reliable Abundance or Preservation characters. If your account is young, pull Aventurine and Fu Xuan if you don't have at least two sustaining characters on your account already. If you already have two of either category, you should pull for neither, as your Stellar Jades are better used elsewhere.

How does Fu Xuan sustain your team?

Fu Xuan protects your team by providing the buff, Matrix of Prescience, which massively reduces the damage your team takes. A portion of the damage that goes through the damage reduction and is then absorbed by Fu Xuan herself, causing your whole team to be highly durable so long as the mentioned buff remains active.

Matrix of Prescience also boosts everyone's HP and Crit Rate. It's an incredibly powerful buff and is solely why Fu Xuan is so sought after by pretty much every team.

However, Fu Xuan does have a significant weakness. Large amounts of damage, especially AoE attacks, can very easily overwhelm Fu Xuan when that damage is being taken by multiple members of her team. In difficult content such as Gold and Gears, it isn't uncommon to see Fu Xuan get killed in a single attack due to absorbing too much damage. However, in content like Forgotten Hall and Pure Fiction, she is more than enough to sustain her team.

Related: How to level up the Relic substats you want in Honkai Star Rail (Upgrade guide)

How does Aventruine sustain your team?

Aventurine protects your team by providing large, self-restoring shields at a constant rate. When he uses his Skill, he applies an additional application of his shield to your entire team (up to 200% of the shield he can build). He also applies another application of his shield every time he activates his Follow-up attack.

In short, his Shields stack.

Shields in Honkai: Star Rail acts as effective health, meaning that he is effectively 'healing' your team every time one of his shield applications is activated. This provides an extremely comfy, skill-point inexpensive method of sustaining your team.

Aventurine also has other passive buffs, albeit for single team members only, such as self resistance to crowd control and a Crit DMG boost to targets hit by his Ultimate.

However, just like with Fu Xuan, there is a significant weakness. Aventurine shields provide effective health, not actual healing, so if a teammate takes health damage, that damage is permanent. Additionally, if enemies are dealing damage that exceeds the total effective health of his shield, then your team will eventually be chipped down if the fight lasts too long.

Fu Xuan can provide minor healing to her team, while Aventurine cannot, which is something you should consider. Fortunately, also like Fu Xuan, situations where damage of this caliber can occur are uncommon and are generally only found in advanced Simulated Universe stages.

For more helpful guides relating to Honkai Star Rail, check out All Penacony Dream Ticker Puzzle Solutions in Honkai Star Rail right here at Pro Game Guides.