Honkai Star Rail Starter Guide: Gameplay, Progression, Gacha System

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.

In this article, Gurugamer is going to showcase a starter guide for Honkai Star Rail so that players would get an early start.

1. Gameplay & Progression

The Overworld

The player is free to roam around the map to find treasure, fight enemies, solve puzzles, interact with NPCs, and more. Maps are a sequence of enclosed spaces, not open-world.

When approaching an enemy, players can attack them with their Weakness to gain a slight advantage. Some Characters can use their Technique to strike the enemy to give the player team an advantage at the start of battle. Others can use their Technique to buff allies before striking the enemy.

Combat

Honkai: Star Rail features a turn-based battle system with a team of up to four members, where a Character’s Speed stat determines when and how often they act.

On their turn, Characters may use their Basic Attack to generate skill points, consume skill points to use their Skill, or use their Ultimate ability if it is fully charged. Skill points are shared across teammates, up to a cap of five.

Ultimate abilities have an energy cost to use them and must be charged by using Basic Attacks, Skills, defeating enemies, getting hit by enemies, and more.

Characters may use their Ultimate ability whenever the player chooses as long as it is fully charged. When an Ultimate ability is activated during an enemy turn, the Character will cast their Ultimate immediately after the enemy’s turn regardless of turn order. When activated during the player’s turn, the Ultimate will be casted immediately.

There is no elemental cycle system in Honkai: Star Rail. Instead, every enemy has their own set of elemental weaknesses and certain Characters may even impose additional weaknesses upon the enemy. Targeting enemy weaknesses with attacks causes damage to their Toughness meter and once depleted, inflicts Weakness Break based on the element used. Weakness Break inflicts a large sum of damage on the enemy along with the Effect associated with the element: Bleed (Physical), Burn (Fire), Freeze (Ice), Shock (Lightning), Wind Shear (Wind), Entanglement (Quantum), and Imprisonment (Imaginary). The damage and effect can be increased via increasing the character’s Break Effect stat.

Character Progression

Characters can grow in a variety of ways including increasing Character level, leveling up Traces, collecting Eidolons (duplicates), and equipping Lightcones and Relics.

All Characters fall under one of seven elements and follow one of seven playable Paths (there are many more Paths in the universe). Their element determines their damage type while their Path describes their general role as well as what Lightcones they can equip effectively.

There are seven elements: Physical, Fire, Ice, Lightning, Wind, Quantum, and Imaginary. There are also seven playable Paths: Destruction (general DPS), Hunt (single-target DPS), Erudition (multi-target DPS), Harmony (buffers), Nihility (debuffers), Preservation (shielders), and Abundance (healers).

All characters have Traces, which are their collection of abilities. Every Character has a Basic, Skill, Ultimate, Talent, and Technique. These may be leveled up to enhance the Character's power alongside unlocking three Bonus Abilities and ten Stat Bonuses for further growth. Basics can be leveled up to Level 6 while Skills, Ultimates, and Talents can be leveled up to Level 10. They can also be leveled further via Eidolons.

Basics, Skills, and Ultimates are all usable during battle on the Character’s turn. Talents are passive abilities that have a variety of effects in battle and Techniques are used outside of battle to gain an advantage before battle begins.

Lightcones

Lightcones are the primary equipment for Characters, akin to weapons in other games. They can be leveled up to increase their stats as well as Superimposed by using up to four duplicates to strengthen their passive ability.

Lightcones each follow one of seven Paths and can be equipped by any Character. However, in order to activate a Lightcone’s passive ability, the wearer’s Path must match that of the Lightcone’s, otherwise they will only confer stats and no passive ability.

Relics

Relics come in four varieties: Head, Hands, Body, and Feet. They grant a variety of stat boosts as well as bonuses when equipping an entire set. They are earned as rewards for completing Cavern of Corrosion.

Simulated Universe Relics come in two varieties: Planar Sphere and Link Rope. They also grant bonuses when equipping a matching pair. They are earned as rewards during Simulated Universe World 3 and higher.

The main stat of a Relic depends on which type it is, with some having a broader variety than others.

Relics also confer set bonuses when wearing two or four. These bonuses come in a wide variety including ATK, DEF, HP, Elemental DMG, and other bonuses as two set bonuses, along with passive abilities as four set bonuses. Simulated Universe Relics confer bonuses when wearing a matching pair, and additional bonuses for fulfilling stat requirements.

2. Honkai Star Rail Gacha system

Overall, it is pretty much identical to Genshin.

Stellar Jades are the gacha currency of the game and are used to purchase Passes or Special Passes for 160 Stellar Jades each. Passes are used on the Regular and Beginner Warps while Special Passes are used on Character and Lightcone Event Warps.

• Rates are 0.6% for a 5-star (1.6% consolidated rate) and 5.1% for a 4-star (13% consolidated rate).

Limited & Standard banner

• 4-star pity: If a player does not obtain any 4-star after 9 Warps, the 10th Warp is guaranteed
• 5-star pity: If a player does not obtain any 5-star after 89 Warps, the 90th Warp is guaranteed

50% chance to get the banner character.

Lightcone banner (aka weapon banner)

Similar to the character banner but only 80 pity for a 5-star. 75% chance to get the banner featured Lightcone.

3. Honkai Star Rail Activities

Missions

Missions are categorized into four types: Trailblaze, Companion, Adventure, and Daily.

• Trailblaze Missions are the main story of the game and reward Stellar Jades alongside other rewards. These are required missions for story and account progression, and may be required to be completed for future events.
• Companion Missions are side quests. They reward Stellar Jades and feature additional stories for each character, as well as inviting the character aboard the Astral Express. Talking to a new character aboard the Astral Express also rewards 10 Stellar Jades.
• Adventure Missions are side quests. Some may reward Stellar Jades, others do not.
• Daily Missions are daily quests that reward 200 Daily Training points.

Forgotten Hall

 Forgotten Hall is split into two parts: Memory and Memory of Chaos, and serves as the “Spiral Abyss” of the game.

 Players must defeat groups of enemies within a certain number of turns in order to gain full rewards. Higher floors of Memory and the entirety of Memory of Chaos require two teams.

Trailblaze Level

As players complete Missions, use Trailblaze Power, partake in events, etc. they will earn Trailblaze EXP to increase their Trailblaze Level, which functions as their account level. The maximum Trailblaze level is 70.

As Trailblaze Level increases, the Equilibrium Level also increases, making enemies more challenging while also increasing rewards. The equilibrium Level increases at Level 20, 30, 40, 50, 60, and 65 after completing the related Adventure Mission.

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