Which Star Power to run, and why
A Star Power is not a button you save for the right moment — it is a permanent change to how the brawler works, on in every fight, so the right one is the one that fits how you actually play it.
A Star Power is the quietest slot in a loadout and the most misread. A Gadget is a button: a few uses, a cooldown, pressed when a specific moment arrives. A Star Power is none of that. It is passive, permanent, chosen once, and switched on in every single fight you take with that brawler. Treating it like a Gadget — reaching for the one that shines in a rare situation — is the most common way the pick goes wrong, because a slot that is always on should be filled for the fight you have constantly, not the one you remember.
It is on in every fight, so build for the common one
Because a Star Power is always working, its value is spread across all of your fights rather than concentrated in one, and that changes the maths of the choice. A Star Power that turns a rare, specific situation into a win looks impressive and pays out seldom; one that quietly improves the fight you have twenty times a match pays out constantly, in games you would never point to as the reason you won. Pick for the median fight — the ordinary one you are in right now — not the highlight you would clip.
ShellyHer two are the textbook split. Band-Aid heals her the instant her health drops low, a floor that fires in most fights she is losing. Shell Shock makes her Super slow whatever it catches, a ceiling that only pays off once the Super lands. Die to burst and take the heal; need the lockdown and 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 coin
Look across the roster and most brawlers offer the same shape of choice, dressed differently each time. One Star Power raises the ceiling: more damage, more reach, a stronger Super, a better version of the brawler when things are already going well. The other raises the floor: a heal, a shield, a faster reload when hurt, a version that is harder to kill when things are going badly. The first makes your good games better; the second makes your bad games less bad. Which matters more is a question about your own matches: are they lost at the top end, where a little more power would have closed a fight you were winning, or at the bottom end, where a little more survival would have saved a fight you were losing. For most players, most of the time, it is the bottom.
BullA tank shows the floor side plainly: the Star Power that keeps him alive a moment longer in the fight he already committed to is worth more than one that sharpens a situation he cannot reliably create, 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 is not fixed across modes. A survival floor is worth most where fights are long and drawn out and you want to keep contributing through all of them; a ceiling option is worth most where a single burst decides a round and there is no long fight to survive. An open map and a walled one pull the same way. There is no rule that the choice has to stay the same when the mode does not, and the brawlers that get the most from a second Star Power are often the ones who switch it deliberately.
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 that constrains every loadout recommendation. A match result records who played and how it ended, never what they had equipped while they played. So a table ranking Star Powers against each other by win rate is not a measurement of Star Powers, however exact the decimals look — it is an argument wearing a number. The only test that survives that is whether a recommendation comes with a reason you can check against your own matches, and "this one is stronger" is not a reason while "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 play rarely is worse value than a first one on a brawler you play constantly, so finish the one that matches your main way of playing before collecting the other.
Can I change Star Power between matches?
Yes, freely and at no cost, as long as you own both. That is what makes the mode-by-mode split worth setting up: the floor option for the long control mode you grind, the ceiling option for the elimination mode you dip into, swapped 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 with it tend to end, not from which effect reads bigger.
Written by Brawlest. Last checked against the live game 23 Jul 2026.