Honkai: Star Rail frequently asked questions, answered

Honkai: Star RailHoyoverse has released a brand new video game. Genshin ImpactYou can also find out more about the following: Honkai Impact 3rd. This game is a turn-based fantasy adventure story, with a fantastic space odyssey. It’s free to play.

If you’re unfamiliar with mobile gacha games or are just confused by the terms Honkai: Star Rail uses, we’re here to help. Here are some questions Polygon staffers have asked themselves while playing.

What’s the gameplay loop for Honkai: Star Rail?

You can progress in the main quest and other side quests by using a group of four characters. To power-up your characters and light cones (weapons), you’ll need to fight specific enemies that consume your Trailblaze Power (stamina that refills over time). You’ll need to log on and do some daily activities, then grind for better equipment and stronger characters.

What’s the plot of Honkai: Star Rail?

After being created using a Stellaron, the Trailblazer (you), mysteriously awakens. Stellarons are powerful energy sources that can cause disaster, but the Trailblazer is able to communicate with it and harness its power without doing anything super awful (or so we’ve seen so far). Astral Express is a crew that travels around the universe in their train stopping disasters caused by Stellarons.

How much money do I have to spend to get the best results from Honkai Star Rail?

No. All of the story will be clearable with four-star characters, so you won’t have to spend money to play.

The advanced content such as Simulated Universe, Forgotten Hall and Forgotten Hall is still available. It is easier to understandWith five-star characters. This doesn’t mean you can’t beat it using lower-rarity characters, though. There are already videos of beta players doing Forgotten Hall with only four-star characters, so it’s not impossible. The difficulty will increase.

Is Honkai: Star Rail like Genshin Impact or Honkai Impact 3rd?

Many similarities exist between Honkai: Star Rail, Genshin ImpactYou can also find out more about the following: Honkai Impact 3rdThe mobile RPG is the main reason why people visit. Honkai: Star RailIt shares many traits with other mobile games. Genshin ImpactThis includes farming based on stamina and unlocked characters through gacha.

A few things do almost look exactly alike Genshin ImpactIf you’re familiar with the Character Screen and other UI Elements, then this is for you. If you’re familiar with Genshin Already, you’ll be able quickly adapt to Honkai: Star Rail The UI is a great way to get started.

Hoyoverse Image via Polygon

As mentioned above, the gameplay loop of both Hoyoverse title is almost identical. Honkai: Star Rail is not an open-world game and it doesn’t have active multiplayer like how Genshin Impact does.

What is the location of Calyx, Stagnant shadow/Cave of Corrosion/Echo of War/Echo of War Echo?

You can find these marked on your map and teleport to them, but since Honkai: Star Rail doesn’t use an open world map, it can be a pain in the butt to find what exactly you’re looking for quickly. We recommend just using the “survival index” tab of the Insterastral Guide, which you can access via the main menu or by tapping the rectangle with a ring around it in the top right corner.

How can I re-supply Trailblaze Power?

Please be patient. You need six minutes to fully recharge one unit and up to 18 hours to complete the 180-piece set.

Stellar jade is also a great way to recharge your resin. You can use it up to eight time per day. 50 Stellar Jade replenishes 60 Trailblaze Power. To recharge 60 Trailblaze power, you can use Fuel. This is a reward from completing missions in the battle pass and receiving other bonuses.

How can I charge a technique on Honkai Star Rail?

You’ll want to hit those glowing purple canisters you see around maps to refuel your technique points. Every canister will replenish two technique points.

Hoyoverse Image via Polygon

What is the best way to raise your equilibrium level?

You will receive a quest at certain Trailblaze (your account) levels to raise your balance level. You will be able to make enemies harder around you, and also power up your character. Keep leveling your trailblaze and paying attention to the quest log will unlock higher balance levels.

Note that you must be at the third level of equilibrium to begin farming five-star items.

How can I prepare food in Honkai Star Rail?

Pom-Pom teaches you to synthesize as you play the early levels. Honkai: Star Rail’s version of cooking. Once he has taught you, you will be able to access the Synthesize option from the menu in the game and cook any time you like, so long as you are armed with the necessary ingredients.

What role does the character of support play in the profile?

Instead of using four of your own characters, you can borrow other people’s characters, as long as they’re set as their support character. You can lend out your characters to others if you have set them as support characters.

If I already have Bronya built, other players are welcome to borrow it for their battles.

Support characters are not allowed in Forgotten Hall and Simulated Universe.

Does your character have a weakness to certain types of combat?

Nope. Enemies have weaknesses, but your characters don’t, so don’t worry about being countered.

How do I look up a monster’s weakness?

The weaknesses of all enemies are displayed on their heads. In the Data Bank, you can check out enemy weakness.

Hoyoverse Image via Polygon

Which character do I need to level first?

It’s up to you, but most of the characters on your team should be leveled up equally. It’s worth noting that you can actually make good use of the characters provided to you. When you first start out, we recommend that your team has a shielder and healer. Both March 7th, and Natasha can be yours for free. They both fit into these roles.

What should I do if the banner for the gacha warp is a beginner’s?

There is some disagreement on this. This beginner’s banner costs eight Star Rail passes instead of 10, for 10 draws. After 50 pulls (40 Star Rail Passes), you’re guaranteed a random five-star character from the regular banner. You can use the regular warp to access a variety of features. PickYou can get a five-star standard character if you make 300 draws.

In my personal experience, if you are only playing Hoyoverse Games I recommend using the Star Rail Passes that have been awarded to you to enter into the beginner’s warp. Do not turn your Stellar Jade into extra passes — only use the passes the game actually hands to you. Star Rail Passes can be used on standard warp after.

300 pulls is a lot, and if you don’t plan on spending money in this game, it can take a while to amass the Star Rail Passes to hit this goal, even with the bountiful starting rewards Hoyoverse hands out.

Final, the basis of Genshin ImpactPower creep is a common phenomenon Honkai: Star Rail. Whatever characters you get from the the beginner or standard warp will be useful at the start, but it’s a toss up if they’ll be useful in six months or beyond that. That said, if you don’t get the strongest character around at first, maybe the meta will shift and they’ll be more useful down the line.

You can decide if you’d like to spend the 40 passes on the starter warp, or if you prefer certain characters with five stars over others. The next question is…

Which Honkai Star Rail characters will be the most powerful at launch?

Many players believe that Bronya, Welt and other warp standard characters are best because of their powerful debuffs. This can however change over time as new characters are released and meta changes.

DPS Calculators have Seele at the top of both the charts for single and multiple targets as of this writing. It is not necessary to use these characters. Characters like Sushang, Serval and others with four stars can also produce big numbers if built properly. They also depend on builds and circumstances that you don’t use.

That all said, this will all change as patches roll out, so we don’t recommend going all-in on a character this early unless you really like them.

If you have more questions, drop them below, and we can do our best to answer based on what we know from the game’s beta.