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MiHoYo’s latest upcoming turn-based RPG Honkai: Star Rail, is releasing in two weeks on the 26th of April. With the Astral Express departing soon, we have taken the liberty to prepare an overview to get you well informed on your upcoming adventure through the stars.
In Honkai Star Rail your character is known as the Trailblazer who is implanted with a seed of ruin. After a daring rescue by the crew of the Astral Express you decide to join in with them and travel across the stars uncovering the many unknowns of the universe as well as their stories along the way.
What is Honkai Star Rail?
Honkai Star Rail is first and foremost a single-player character-gacha game. Though you may add other Trailblazers to your friend list, this only allows you to bring in their characters as support units to clear certain content. This feature is similar to that of Epic Seven where you could summon in your friends characters which will replace a dead teammate from your squad.
The game will be playable on both Android and iOS as well as PC on the aforementioned release date while PlayStation owners may need to wait for it a bit longer as there was no official release date given at time of writing.
It will also feature Cross-Save functionality. During the Closed Beta the feature was already present so we can safely assume that it would be carried over to final release. Cross Save essentially lets you carry your progress to any device as it is all account bound rather hardware bound.
Being A Star Crossed Voyager
Honkai Star Rail is not an Open World exploration type game, but more of a Sandbox type similar to that of Dragon Age Inquisition or Mass Effect Andromeda. It has players travelling to different areas and allows players to explore and adventure as they see fit within that particular area.
Within the overworld, players will find a ton of content to do, such as pick up treasure chests, explore different areas as well as beat up enemies. Furthermore, similar to that of Genshin Impact, players can choose any character in the party to become the active member that players will control when exploring the overworld.
In terms of combat, Honkai Star Rail takes an approach similar to that of a Turn-based RPG like Octopath Traveller 2, where you can see the monsters and enemies walking about in the overworld and if spotted, will chase you and trigger a battle sequence if caught. Players can hit an enemy first with a Basic Attack to prevent them from starting in an “Ambushed State” that puts the player at a disadvantage.
Additionally, if the monster is hit with a character that is a Type that counters the monster’s Type ( Icons will be shown at the top that highlights which Type the monster is weak too ), monsters will start the battle with their “Toughness” bar reduced.
When a monster’s “Toughness” bar is reduced to 0 (by hitting it with a Type that it is weak to) the monster will then start to take additional effects from attack Types such as Burn, Bleed, Freeze and so forth.
During battle, the turn order is wholly determined by the characters Speed, similar to that of Epic Seven where if your character has a higher Speed stat, the shorter the interval is between the turns taken.
Additonal Side Content
Aside from exploration there will also be additional content to clear such as the Forgotten Hall, which has you battling foes and completing stages within certain requirements (the more requirements you satisfy the greater your reward). The Forgotten Hall also comes in two types of stages, Memory and Memory of Chaos with hard mode being the latter of which that provides better rewards. Completing a special stage in Forgotten Hall will also reward you with the 4* hero Qingque.
Players can also try out Simulated Universe which has the characters going through a gauntlet with multiple modifiers, and as they progresses further, random events will happen. You may also enhance your characters as you aim to complete the Simulated Universe, this mode is similar to that of Goddess of Victory: Nikke’s “Simulated Room” or Higan: Eruthyll’s “Mesmerizing Labyrinth”.
The Friends We Meet Along The Way
During your time as the Trailblazer, you will meet many characters as you journey across the stars. This section aims to help you understand these characters better and give you an idea of what they can do for you as a party member.
Characters will always have both a Type and Paths that they follow, which is Honkai’s Star Rail’s version of Elements and character Classes. For Types these are the ones that are present at this current time:
- Physical
- Fire
- Ice
- Lightning
- Wind
- Quantum
- Imaginary
It is important to take note that each Type also deals additional effects based on their corresponding Type (Lightning may cause Shock) that generally does additional damage over time.
Paths however are broken down into the following:
- Destruction (excel at attacking enemies head on, bruiser class)
- The Hunt (good single target dps class)
- Erudition (exceptional AoE DMG class)
- Harmony (support buffer class)
- Nihility (debuff class)
- Preservation (defensive buffer class)
- Abundance (healer class)
These paths determine what a characters overall performance would be like in combat situations as well as the overworld. For example, the recently revealed character Himeko, is a Fire Type character following the path of Erudition. This makes her overall kit more geared towards multi-target attacks and doing tons of damage with it.
Getting To Know Them Better
Each character has five different abilities which could either be Passive or Active depending on the character, and these abilities all mostly work in concert with each other, meaning that they are always connected in some way.
The first ability would be Basic Attack. As the name implies, this ability is the weakest attack in the character’s arsenal but also the most useful as it generates Skill Points that you would need to cast your character’s skills.
Next up is Skill, in Honkai Star Rail, Skills actually have no cooldowns but are limited to the amount of Skill Points that you currently have, with different Skills needing different amounts of Skill Points to cast. The skills that the characters have are also determined by the Paths that they walk.
Ultimate also requires Skill Points to cast but they come at a much higher cost. Luckily, you can gain skill charges for the ultimate by attacking enemies and also being attacked by enemies.
On top of that, we have Talents, which are the characters passive abilities that normally gives a certain benefit for the character or other allies.
Lastly, would be Technique which can be used before every battle encounter that either buffs your team or puts a specific debuff condition on the enemy team, you may also this as many times as you want before starting a fight to make sure it will go in your favor.
How Gacha works in Honkai Star Rail
As Honkai Star Rail is a gacha game naturally you would need to roll to get these characters and their corresponding Light Cones, while the developers have mentioned in their Boarding Preparation Special Program that completing certain missions and events will give out characters and Light Cones, Trailblazers may also opt to try your luck on their Warp System by using Star Rail Passes or Star Rail Special Passes.
Star Rail Passes are essentially the standard pull where you have access to the general pool of characters, while Star Rail Special Passes is the currency that you use to warp in characters from limited banners.
As for the rates, according to HoyoLAB user MELLOONA, every user will have a Starter Warp, this warp is available for only 50 Warps and it utilizes Star Rail Pass at a 20% discount.
This Starter Warp also guarantees a 5-star character within 50 warps.
The standard pity counter does sound forgiving in version 1.0 as Regular Warps utilizing the Star Rail Passes will have a guaranteed 4-star or above entity after every 10 warps and at 90 Warps a guaranteed 5-star character will be given, while a 5-star character selector is given at 300 Warps but can only be utilized once.
This makes it more forgiving than other gachas such as Epic Seven which only lets you get the guaranteed unit through a pity after 120 rolls.
For Character Event Warp, the pity rates of these are similar to that of the Regular Warp with the only difference being that within 90 Warps, the featured character will have a 50% chance to appear.
It is important to take note that the information above, is based on the Closed Beta Test which may be different in version 1.0.
Similar to Genshin Impact, Warps will come in two phases as well, and at launch Players will be treated to two Limited Units which are:
Phase 1:
Character – Seele on The Hunt Path [5* Quantum Type] Light Cone – 5* In The Night
Phase 2:
character – Jing Yuan on The Erudition Path [5* Lightning Type] Light Cone – 5* Before Dawn
It is important to note that the below information was obtained through HoYoLAB user MobeiJun.
Light Cones on the other hand are essentially the gear that you equip on the characters. they are classified based on their Path types, and will give you bonus stats as well as provide players with an additional ability.
Any Light cone can be equipped on a character which will confer the bonus stats provided. However, if the character’s Path type align with the Light Cones’, it will allow the use of the additional ability as well.
Complimentary Goodies
Honkai Star Rail will be giving out goodies during the initial week or so after launch. These rewards come in the shape of:
- Login Bonuses (login for 7 days straight for 10x Special Star Rail Passes)
- Pre-registration rewards (50,000 Credits, 18x Star Rail Passes, 4* Character Serval, and Trailblazer Welcome Avatar)
- Trailblazing Will Event (level up event that gives up to 40x Star Rail Passes and 1600x Stellar Jades)
Specifications
It is important to take note that these specifications are based off the Closed Beta Test, so they may be subject to change.
PC
| Recommended | Minimum |
|---|---|
| Intel Core i7 Processor | Intel Core i5 Processor |
| Nvidia Geforce GTX1060 | Nvidia Geforce GTX970 |
| 8GB RAM | 8GB RAM |
The recommended specification for mobile on both Android and iOS are:
- Android – Snapdragon 855, Kirin 990, Dimensity 1000, or better
- iOS – iPhone XS, iPhoneXR, or better
- iPad – Apple A12 Processor or better (October 2018 model or later)
iPad operating system must be iOS 12 or later. macOS currently not supported
and minimum are as follows:
- Android – Snapdragon 835, Dimensity 720, Kirin 810, or better
- iOS – iPhone 8P, iPhone X, or better
All Aboard
With that, concludes this particular introduction on Honkai Star Rail, hopefully with the information provided you are more well-versed in the game and have a much deeper understanding on what Honkai Star Rail is all about. Personally I am very much excited for the game as it looks visually impressive, and knowing miHoYo’s pedigree with telling engaging narratives and stories I am looking forward to see what’s starward and beyond.
