Honkai: Star Rail beginners guide: 8 things to know before starting

Honkai: Star Rail is Hoyoverse’s leap into turn-based combat in a mobile (and PC) game that brings out new versions of familiar characters, beautiful art,The following are some examples of how to get started: an interesting and mysterious storyline.

The game itself is a perfect mash-up of both of Hoyoverse’s popular titles: Honkai Impact 3rd and Genshin Impact. While not open world à la GenshinThe character progression, weapon and equipment system, and gripping story combine some of the best features from both games. Sprinkle in turn-based combat, rather than the games’ action combat, and now you have Honkai: Star Rail.

Below, we list out some tips for both those familiar with Hoyoverse’s games and new players looking for something interesting to add into their daily rotation of games to play.

Find chests, puzzles and other treasures.

You can find the treasure and puzzles in your top-left corner. They do not respawn but are full of great loot and premium currency. As you run around for the story, don’t be afraid to wander down the wrong corner — you’ll probably find a treasure chest waiting for you at the end of the path.

Weaknesses aren’t just for show

You can use brute strength to defeat enemies in many games, without paying attention to the weaknesses of your opponents. Sometimes, Star RailIt’s not always like that. Other times, it’s not. When it comes to boss fights and higher-scale enemies, you’ll do better if you have one or two characters that can exploit weaknesses.

Hoyoverse image via Polygon

Big enemy? You can always come back to the site later.

If you follow the above tip, you’ll see lots of huge, looming enemies standing in front of chests. The names of these enemies may be glowing red to indicate that they have a much higher level. It is possible to finesse these monsters and beat them when you’re lower leveled, but it’s easier to just come back later. You can make a note to come back later and take down these monsters after you have boosted up.

You’ll need lots of leveled up characters to complete the endgame content

When you hit endgame content, like the Simulated Universe and Forgotten Hall, you’ll need lots of characters leveled up. Forgotten Hall requires you to have two four-person teams (similar in size to the original Forgotten Hall). Genshin Impact’s Spiral Abyss), so you’ll need at least eight leveled-up characters, all with their own equips and light cones, so don’t go tossing away all your extra equips right away.

Different elements and characters can be used to diversify your team.

As a result of all the information above, it is recommended that you maintain at least one leveled-up character for each element. You don’t need to worry about this very much in the early game, as you won’t have many characters to work with. However, as you progress further and hit end-game content, you’ll want to make sure you can adapt to any type of enemy and weakness.

You’ll also want to make sure that beyond elements, your characters functionally do different things. You’ll want supporters to heal and shield your team, keeping them healthy, while other characters focus on dealing all the damage.

Hoyoverse image via Polygon

Don’t forget about Techniques before you start a battle

Each character has a special ability, labeled a “technique,” that they can use outside of battle. Some of these techniques can be used to buff up a character, or even attack an enemy from far away and freeze them before the battle. The technique gauge can only be filled a handful of times. Take advantage of the skills you’ve learned before a tough battle.

Standard and Event Gacha Banners: Know the Difference

Yes, as expected, Honkai: Star RailCharacters and weapons are distributed using a gacha-style system. New characters and weapons are only available on a limited basis for a couple of weeks. These banners are labeled as “event warps.” If you miss one, don’t fret — they’ll likely return in the future. There is also a set of “standard warp” characters and weapons that you can pull all the time from a separate standard banner.

When converting your Stellar Jade into warp passes, you’ll want to get Star Rail Special Passes to spend on the event warp banner. Star Rail Passes can be used on standard banners, however, it is not recommended to focus on pulling the banner because the banner will always remain. It’s possible to pull these standard characters on the event banner, so through constant gameplay, you’ll end up with a ton of these characters and weapons eventually anyway.

Honkai Star Rail remains a gacha mobile game

After you finish what’s available in the story, the gameplay loop is the same as all the rest of these games: you spend your stamina to grind for better equipment and character upgrades. While you can totally just play the story and then log off until they release more, the bulk of your time in this game will be spent doing menial daily tasks and it’s important to remember that before you even start.