After the huge success of Genshin Impact, miHoYo has been diverting its money to work on other projects... and Honkai Star Rail is one of them. It is the fourth installment in the Honkai series, using brand new characters along with alternate versions of the same characters from Honkai Impact 3rd. This is Mihoyo's first attempt to take on the Turn-Based RPG genre.
Here is everything available about Honkai Star Rail so far, including release date, gameplay and characters.
1. Honkai Star Rail Expected Release Date
It was officially revealed on October 7, 2021, on Star Rail's official YouTube channel. There have been two Closed Beta Testing phases, the first one on October 26, 2021, and the second one on May 25, 2022.
With Genshin Impact taking Mihoyo 15 months from announcement to release, Star Rail is likely the same. This means players can expect the game to come out late 2022 or early 2023.
2. Honkai Star Rail Story
Mihoyo has recently revealed the premise of Honkai Star Rail's story in a press release:
“Honkai: Star Rail features a game world awaiting discovery with elements of myths and legends blended into the space sci-fi story. In this universe, there are the [Aeons], incarnations of universal principles that are able to freely travel between infinite worlds using some kind of primitive force.
“The galaxy is packed with worlds that have unique landscapes and stories; the [Aeons].
“Roaming the universe uphold their own beliefs, among whom there is the [Destruction], who regards the universe as a fallacy and civilization as cancer, casting seeds of ruin called [Stellarons] across the galaxy.
“The protagonist, who was implanted with a [Stellaron], embarks on a trip aboard the Astral Express with a group of passengers who claim to have inherited the spirit of [the Trailblaze], pursuing the trails of [Aeons] to explore the realms of the universe.
“The expedition progresses as the protagonist and the crew seek the ultimate answers to the journey’s purpose and unearth secrets buried in legends.
The TL;DR version of the story is that in the galaxy of Star Rail, there is an infinite amount of worlds, with a mystical entity [Aeons] traveling between them. The main villain is the god of [Destruction] who spread seeds of ruins a.k.a [Stellarons] to destroy civilizations.
The protagonist, who received a [Stellaron], decides to follow [the Trailblaze] group on the Astral Express to explore the universe, stopping other[Stellarons] along the way.
About the Astral Express
The Astral Express was an ancient relic that fell to ruins after the Cancer of All Worlds began to spread. Himeko later discovered it during her childhood and became fascinated by the stories of the engine. Years later, she would repair the train to begin her journey across the universe.
3. Honkai Star Rail Gameplay
Overall, Honkai Star Rail's gameplay is the usual turn-based fare, with each character having attack, skill and a special ability that recharges in the background. This is more or less the Genshin system, but in a turn-based format. A team is also 4 people, however, they fight together on the field instead of switching in and out.
Outside of the turn based battle, players would be able to explore the worlds in literally the same way as Genshin.
Honkai Star Rail Elements & Classes
Similar to Genshin, there are also 7 elements in Honkai Star Rail. They are Physical, Fire, Ice, Lightning, Wind, Quantum, and Imaginary. Each playable character would use one of these elements and their attacks will deal the matching damage.
Playable characters are also divided into classes, with the Closed Beta revealing 7 of them:
- Destruction – Similar to Nous, characters under the Destruction class come under the Attacker category.
- Fertility – Characters under the Fertility class come under the Healer category.
- Hunt – Characters under the Hunt class come under the Assassin category, as they are good single target DPS units.
- Concord – Characters under the Concord class come under the Buffer category.
- Nous – Characters under the Nous class come under the Attacker category.
- Preservation – Characters under the Preservation class come under the Tank/Shielder category.
- Nihility – Characters under the Nihility class come under the De-Buffer category.
Overall, the roles are pretty diverse, with attackers, assassins, tanks and buffers accounted for. An actual magic class might come out later.
4. Honkai Star Rail Characters
So far, there have been 23 characters revealed, with the majority of them coming from miHoYo's Genshin Impact 3rd. However, unlike Honkai, the number of male and female characters in Star Rail is more or less equal. The player character is called "The Trailblazer" and can be either male or female.
>>> Read more: Yelan Vs Xiao: Who Should Players Pull For In Genshin Impact 2.7?
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