With Honkai Star Rail, players can dive into HoYoverse’s new RPG. Here’s everything you need to know about this turn-based space adventure from the team behind Honkai 3rd and Genshin Impact. A cast of quirky characters and team-based combat await, all presented in beautiful anime-inspired art.
Honkai Star Rail: What You Need to Know
As with previous HoYoverse games, Honkai Star Rail rewards characters and weapons based on a gagcha system. This gacha system, also called the Warp system, is used to obtain characters and weapons of the highest rarity (five stars). A time-limited banner rotates every few weeks in the Warp system. You can obtain new characters through a time-limited banner, and find light cones (weapons) through another.
Using a Warp requires a Star Rail Pass (permanent banner) or Special Star Rail Pass (time-limited banner). Warps equal items of four- and five-star rarity. In-game currency Stellar Jade is used to buy Star Rail Passes. Stellar Jade can be bought with real money or earned through play.
As the Warp system may sound a bit complicated, here’s the main takeaway:
- Genshin Impact’s Primogems can be bought with Stellar Jade (Special) Star Rail Passes.
- Warp banner pulls can be exchanged for one Star Rail Pass.
- A starter Warp, a permanent Warp, a character Warp, and a Light Cone Warp are available.
- One five-star character or weapon is guaranteed every 80 or 90 pulls (depending on banner).
Honkai Star Rail Gameplay and Story
Honkai Star Rail is a newcomer-friendly turn-based RPG with strategic combat, exploration, and puzzles. Similar to previous HoYoverse games, the game has a sci-fi theme. Star Rail takes place in the same galactic universe as Honkai Impact 3rd, but has its own story. New and familiar characters appear.
Star Rail’s protagonist has been implanted with a Stellaron, a seed of ruin. Your predicament is caused by Destruction, an Aeon (godlike creature) who believes civilization should end. The Astral Express won’t stop you from traveling through Star Rail’s universe. A group of passengers claiming to possess the “spirit of the Trailblaze” will also join you.
Honkai Star Rail Combat System
Honkai Star Rail’s combat system emphasizes teambuilding. In order to form the best team, you must consider attacks, support abilities, and Elemental types. There are seven elements in Honkai Star Rail: Physical, Fire, Ice, Lightning, Wind, Imaginary, and Quantum.
You can see the attack order in the upper left corner once you enter a Honkai Star Rail battle. Consider your opponent’s weakness. If they have an icy icon under their name, for example, they are weak to Ice damage.
Characters have three types of attacks: basic, skills, and ultimates. Basic attacks recover Skill Points while skills cost Skill points. You must balance basic attacks and skills throughout the fight. The Ultimates can be used at any time and don’t cost Skill points, but they take time to charge.
Relics, Elements, and Light Cones of Honkai Star
There are tons of interesting gameplay features in Honkai Star Rail, but these four are essential:
- Paths: Honkai Star Rail’s lore describes a character’s alliance, which is rooted in a certain philosophy. Cooperation and support are valued by the Harmony Path. Characters with Harmony tend to buff their teammates, whereas those with Destruction tend to deal more damage.
- Elements: Players can choose from seven elemental powers. An element character can exploit an opponent’s weakness, such as a Fire character targeting a Fire-weak opponent.
- Light Cones: main equipment of characters. Your character’s default weapon will still appear in their hand, but it will improve their stats and grant them a passive ability. As seen in Genshin Impact, they’re similar to normal weapons.
- Relics: equipment that improves a character’s stats. It’s very similar to Genshin’s Artifacts for Genshin Impact players.
Honkai Star Rail Characters
Who are the Honkai Star Rail playable characters? The confirmed characters so far, divided by Elemental type:
Physical
- Natasha: a doctor in Belobog’s Underworld.
- Sushang: Xianzhou Luofu Cloud Knights amateur but ambitious.
- Clara: a young girl who is very serious about math and logic. The robot Svarog raised her.
Fire
- Asta: Herta Space Station researcher.
- Hook: Leader of Belobog’s Underworld adventure squad, The Moles.
- Himeko: Astral Express repairer.
Ice
- Gepard: Belobog’s Silvermane Guard captain.
- Herta: The puppeteer leader of Herta Space Station.
- March 7th: a spirited girl who suffers from amnesia.
- Pela: Silvermane Guard Intelligence Officer.
- Yanqing: Xianzhou Luofu lieutenant and brilliant swordsman.
Lightning
- Serval: An important family’s rebellious daughter. To fulfill her dream of becoming a mechanic, she opened a workshop and hosted rock ‘n roll shows.
- Arlan: Herta Space Station’s security chief.
- Kafka: the Interastral Peace Corporation wants to hear from a Stellaron Hunter.
- Jing Yuan: Cloud Knight leader and general of the Xianzhou Alliance.
- Bailu: a healer who can’t bear to see people suffer.
- Tingyun: Whistling Flames merchant guild leader with silver tongue.
Wind
- Sampo: Belobog salesman who persuades.
- Bronya: Silvermane Guard Commander and heir to Belobog’s Supreme Guardian.
- Blade: wielder of an ancient sword, filled with cracks. “Just like his body and mind’, according to the official character description.
- Dan Heng: Astral Express’ guard and a reserved man.
Imaginary
- Welt: the wise and experienced former Anti-Entropy Sovereign.
- Luocha: A foreign trader with medical knowledge. He carries a coffin on his back.
Quantum
- Seele: member of Wildfire, an Underworld faction.
- Silver Wolf: Hacker and Stellaron Hunter.
- Fu Xuan: Xianzhou Luofu Divination Commission’s confident and blunt Head.
- Qingque: an employee of Divination Commission Xianzhou Luofu.
Honkai Star Rail Locations
Different worlds are packed with unique landscapes and stories in Honkai Star Rail. In addition to the Herta Space Station, we will be able to explore the Astral Express, Jarilo-VI, and Xianzhou Luofu.
Research is carried out at the Herta Space Station, led by genius researcher Herta. Your journey aboard the Astral Express space ship begins here, but you’ll soon explore the rest of the galaxy.
Belobog, the last city of civilization left on Jarilo-VI, is located on a very cold, snowy planet. In other words, it is the last bastion of mankind against perpetual freezing. There are two worlds in Belobog: the Overworld, where it is governed, and the Underworld, containing remains from the Old World.
A gargantuan space ship called the Xianzhou Luofu travels from world to world, fighting civilizations aligned with the Abundance faction. The Xianzhou Luofu is more like a floating city than a space ship.