Which Star Power to run, and why
A Star Power isn’t a button you save for the right moment. It’s always on, in every fight, so the best one is the one that fits how you actually play the brawler.
The Star Power is the quietest slot in a loadout, and the one people misread most. A Gadget is a button. You get a few uses, it goes on cooldown, and you press it when the right moment shows up. A Star Power is nothing like that. It’s passive, it’s permanent, you pick it once, and it’s switched on in every fight you take. So reaching for the one that shines in a rare situation is the common mistake. A slot that’s always on should be filled for the fight you’re in constantly, not the one you remember.
It’s on in every fight, so build for the common one
Because a Star Power is always working, its value spreads across all your fights instead of landing in one. That changes the maths. A Star Power that turns a rare situation into a win looks great and almost never comes up. One that quietly improves the fight you have twenty times a match pays off constantly, in games you’d never point to afterwards. Build for the ordinary fight you’re in right now, not the clip you’d save.
ShellyHer two are the textbook split. Band-Aid heals her the moment her health drops low, a floor that fires in most fights she’s losing. Shell Shock slows whatever her Super catches, a ceiling that only pays off once the Super lands. If burst keeps killing you, take the heal. If you need the lockdown, take the slow.A Gadget answers a moment. A Star Power answers a habit. Fill it for the fight you have most, not the one you remember best.
The two usually trade the same thing
Look across the roster and most brawlers offer the same choice in different clothes. One Star Power raises the ceiling: more damage, more range, a stronger Super, a better brawler when things are already going your way. The other raises the floor: a heal, a shield, a faster reload when you’re hurt, a brawler that’s harder to kill when things are going badly. The first makes your good games better. The second makes your bad games less bad. Which one matters more comes down to your own matches. Do you lose at the top end, where a bit more power closes a fight you were winning? Or at the bottom end, where a bit more survival saves a fight you were losing? For most players, most of the time, it’s the bottom.
BullA tank shows the floor side plainly. The Star Power that keeps him alive a second longer in the fight he already committed to beats one that sharpens a situation he can’t reliably set up, because a tank that dies on the approach never gets to use either.
The mode can flip the answer
Like Gadgets and Gears, the right Star Power isn’t fixed across modes. A survival floor is worth most where fights drag on and you want to keep contributing through all of them. A ceiling option is worth most where one burst decides a round and there’s no long fight to survive. Open maps and walled ones pull the same way. Nothing says the choice has to stay put when the mode changes, and the brawlers that get the most out of a second Star Power are usually the ones who switch it on purpose.
KnockoutShort elimination rounds reward the Star Power that wins the one decisive fight. A long control mode rewards the one that keeps you in every fight across a hold.
One honest limit, the same one behind every loadout tip. A match result records who played and how it ended, never what they had equipped at the time. So a table ranking Star Powers by win rate isn’t really measuring Star Powers, however precise the decimals look. It’s an argument dressed up as a number. The tip worth trusting is the one that comes with a reason you can check against your own matches. “This one is stronger” isn’t a reason. “This one answers how this brawler keeps dying” is.
Should I unlock both Star Powers?
Eventually, yes, because owning both lets you switch to fit the mode. But not first. A second Star Power on a brawler you rarely touch is worse value than a first one on a brawler you play constantly. Finish the one that matches your main way of playing, then collect the other.
Can I change Star Power between matches?
Yes, freely, as long as you own both. That’s what makes the mode-by-mode split worth setting up. Run the floor option for the long control mode you grind, and the ceiling option for the elimination mode you dip into, swapping in the menu between queues.
Which Star Power is best for a given brawler?
The one that answers how that brawler loses in the modes you play it, which is a different answer for different players on the same brawler. The brawler page lists both with the reasoning attached. Start from how your own matches tend to end, not from which effect reads bigger.
Written by Christian Baldwin for Brawlest. Last checked against the live game 23 Jul 2026.