|OT| Honkai: Star Rail | Trails to the Wallet

[spindoctor]

Right, so over the weekend I did Ratio's companion quest. I think it's fair to say that I didn't understand anything that was going on. At all. So you've lost your memory and you're jumping between other people's memories and there's something about a gang and something about the aeons and the Genius society members are fucking with each other and what else is going on? I just completely lost track of what the story was supposed to be. Pretty awful quest all said and done and to be honest, Ruan Mei's wasn't that great either. As I've said before, the last good companion quest in my opinion was Yukong and that was months ago. Why can't they just do straightforward quests to introduce new characters? Chevreuse had a great intro in the Genshin quest in the event that just ended. Just do it like that.

Anyway, I then did the mad scientist DNA splicing event. That was nice because it was so short. I think I finished the whole thing in less than 2 hours. Such a nice change from that ghost hunting event that took several days to get through.

I started looking at Ruan Mei properly as well. Until now I haven't farmed any relics for her and was just using whatever I had left over from before. So I had 2 decent Hackerspace pieces but I always salvaged all Thief set items before this so I could only get 2 crappy relics of that set. Threw on 2 planar ornaments and thought it's good enough to start out. Then I started looking at lightcones. There are only 2 lightcones in the game that increase break effect... her signature and a purple light cone that appeared only once as a rate up in a banner. I do not think it is actually possible to reach the 180% break effect breakpoint without one of these 2 lightcones. I didn't have that purple lightcone so I thought I'll throw 20 tickets into the weapon banner and see if I can get lucky. And I did! Got her signature lightcone that adds 60% break effect and now even with my mediocre gear I have 189% break effect. And I haven't yet leveled her traces so it'll go higher, which means there is some flexibility to change around a couple of relics to add more defensive stats.

I've not used her yet but from the descriptions and reviews it seems like this girl is totally broken in how much extra damage she can provide. Especially if one were to get her eidolons. E1 reduces all enemy defenses by 20%. E2 increases team damage against weakness broken enemies by 40%! That's crazy. Can't wait to see how powerful Hanabi is going to be when she arrives. I still kind of want to get her but I also want Black Swan. I can probably get both but then I'll have to miss out on potentially interesting characters from Penacony that I don't know about yet. So we'll see how it goes. I've already started pre-farming relics for Black Swan (which also basically means I'm farming for Kafka and Himeko as well).

 

[spindoctor]

Still don't understand why they're giving away this guy for free tbh

 

[Ascheroth]

Still don't understand why they're giving away this guy for free tbh

Typically it's for player retention and/or marketing to get back lapsed players and attract new players.
Star Rail is also quite combat focused with many different modes that want different characters (Pure Fiction just came out and now you also need to build AoE characters for example) so they need to supply people (new and old) with enough free characters so they aren't just locked out of everything and bounce.

Genshin doesn't really do that because it's much less combat-focused and also has no competition (turn-based RPGs are dime a dozen on mobile, and Star Rail really is "just" a very high budget version of those).

 

[Dandy]

It's funny - I was all in for Ratio, but now I don't even know when I will build him. I'm more excited about getting and building Himeko when I hit 300 pulls(10 more to go!)

 

[Ascheroth]

Himeko and Herta are an absolute force of nature in Pure Fiction. I really appreciate this new mode (it's honestly also just way more fun than Memory of Chaos, since it's less stages, you are not punished for dying and moving down waves of trash is just satisfying).
I'm missing 1 star from the last floor since my other team can't quite deliver, but 11 stars was a walk in the park.

 

[Ascheroth]

I lost the 50/50, but I think I won.
Started out at 64 pity cause I (unsuccessfully) went deepsea fishing for Hanya on Argenti's banner (and wouldn't have minded an early Knight of Beauty and it was already known the 4 star selection for Kafka was gonna be awful).

First 10 pull: Bronya E1
20 pulls later: Kafka.

1 Natasha (now E2), 2 Hooks (now E6), 1 Landau's Choice, 0 Sushang (already had her at E6).

I'm very happy.
I find it pretty amusing that this mean I still only have 2 standard 5 stars with Bronya and Himeko though.

 

[spindoctor]

Tried a YOLO 20 pull on Kafka's banner. Got Sushang and Hook. Blah.

 

[Dandy]

I'm most likely going to skip this banner. Ratio's LC looks quite good, but I'm trying to save as much as possible, cause there are a lot of characters I'm going to want in 2.0 and beyond.

 

[Dandy]

I decided to throw a few pulls at Ratio's LC after all(I have no good Hunt LCs, tbh). I was at 0 pity on the banner so I wasn't hopeful, but I managed to get it within 20 pulls!

 

[Ascheroth]

Star Rail don't introduce new characters every 5 seconds challenge: impossible



Based on first impressions I'm all in on Constance, and would consider Dubra.

 

[Dandy]

Star Rail don't introduce new characters every 5 seconds challenge: impossible



Based on first impressions I'm all in on Constance, and would consider Dubra.

I love how different the designs are! I saw someone complaining that these don't look like they fit in the world, and I say good! Anything that doesn't look like it's from the Luofu is fantastic in my books.

Constance is the standout, but also Akash looks great.

 

[Ascheroth]

I love how different the designs are! I saw someone complaining that these don't look like they fit in the world, and I say good! Anything that doesn't look like it's from the Luofu is fantastic in my books.

Constance is the standout, but also Akash looks great.

I read that. It's a bit of a weird complaint considering this is a game about interstellar travelling. I'd expect variety!
Especially after a year of getting characters wearing variations of the same Luofu dress (I'm exaggerating, but you know what I mean).

 

[spindoctor]

Drip drip


I thought she was coming much later. Well, there goes any plan of getting Sparkle now. Black Swan and then Acheron for me.

EDIT: Also can I just say the ability to skip the first 7 levels of MOC every time it refreshes is amazing. You do one mostly simple fight and instantly get 420 jades, and then you don't have to bother with the mode again at all until the next refresh.

 

[Ascheroth]

Yeah, probably means skipping Sparkle for me as well.
The background in the splash art looks sick.
She looks really similar to Seele though. Not sure how to feel about that, after we finally left the Luofu dresses behind.

 

[spindoctor]

Not sure how to feel about that

Seele is the best, so we feel very good about this

 

[Ascheroth]

Penacony's wild ride continues

Their trailer game has been on-point.

2nd 5* of 2.1:

 

[Dandy]

Penacony's wild ride continues

Their trailer game has been on-point.

2nd 5* of 2.1:

That trashcan trailer was amazing. Excited for more Sampo.

I think I am skipping Acheron unless she is insanely broken - it's nice that they got a chance to improve Seele's design though!

I want Sparkle for DHIL, and Aventurine because he sounds like he could be really good. Sunday is also on my watch list... So many characters. I'm around 250 pulls right now... I hope they are giving out a lot of Jade this patch!

 

[spindoctor]

a chance to improve Seele's design

You take that back

I'm just hoping Luocha doesn't rerun anytime soon. Solo sustain is extremely useful in this game and Luocha is the best at it so far (alongside Fu Xuan). Would be nice to be able to get him but these banners are just stacked. I'm at 255 tickets right now and should be able to get to 320-330 by the time 2.1 comes so I'll be able to guarantee both Black Swan and Acheron but if my luck is bad then the tank will be empty for other Penacony characters.

I got a Bailu eidolon today from ticket no. 279 on the standard banner. It seems like a rubbish eidolon and I don't use her anyway so that was kind of a waste.

 

[Ascheroth]

Acheron's design has been growing on me a lot.
Might just be the composition of the splash art though - it definitely has to be in the top spots among my favorites, if not the very top.
The color usage is fantastic - desaturated, white background with the purple in the foreground and splashes of bright red. The red umbrella is just cool.
Then the way everything "flows" to the right really appeals to me for whatever reason. Her hair, the one long sleeve, the sword-that-is-way-too-big and the coattails(?) - I just really like the look of it.

In terms of pulling, Black Swan next is a given.
Acheron also got a spot reserved.
I dunno about Sparkle. I know I said I wanted her for Qingque but that really would just be a luxury, since otherwise I have no strong feelings about her design one way or another and we know nothing about her personality and story presence. If she really delivers in those aspects it could get tricky again.

Ultimately it will also depend on how many pulls Black Swan is gonna demand and what 2.2 drip marketing will bring. Sam takes priority. And honestly, a second limited Sustain like Luocha or Huohuo or a new one would be more valuable - fueling a Jingliu team with Lynx alone is pain in harder content.

 

[Ascheroth]

Final drip

Gallagher

And stream in a couple hours. Very curious about that one.

 

[Ascheroth]

What a fun stream and trailer.


Main story from 2.0 to 2.2 with an Epilogue in 2.3 is also already a much better roadmap than 1.x beginnings had, assuming the size and quality are decent.
New enemies, puzzles and just the vibe looks really great though. I hope it will actually be as fun as they make it look like but I'm excited.
Looking forward to the animated shorts we'll be getting as well.


Here's my link from the webevent.

Welcome to The Reverie Hotel

Stay at The Reverie Hotel with me and win fabulous rewards in the Dreamscape carnival!

act.hoyoverse.com

 

[Dandy]

Penacony looks better than I imagined! I can't wait!

Welcome to The Reverie Hotel

Stay at The Reverie Hotel with me and win fabulous rewards in the Dreamscape carnival!

act.hoyoverse.com

 

[Ascheroth]

I didn't realise 2.0 is going to be one day early - it's Tuesday instead of the usual Wednesday for me. Not complaining! Means getting Black Swan one day early.
I also didn't know that the writer in the livestream (Shaoji) was actually the one behind some of the best (and most tragic ) story arcs in Honkai Impact. Knowing that and with them already having given us a roadmap for the story I feel like the chances are very high we're not gonna get another Luofu mess.

 

[Dandy]

I didn't realise 2.0 is going to be one day early - it's Tuesday instead of the usual Wednesday for me. Not complaining! Means getting Black Swan one day early.
I also didn't know that the writer in the livestream (Shaoji) was actually the one behind some of the best (and most tragic ) story arcs in Honkai Impact. Knowing that and with them already having given us a roadmap for the story I feel like the chances are very high we're not gonna get another Luofu mess.

Here's hoping! It will be interesting to see if any of the existing characters will factor into the story, or if it will revolve around the new ones. I want to find out more about what Luocha is up to, for example.

 

[Ascheroth]

Well my first impressions of Penacony are positive!
The story premise has me intrigued and the characters have been interesting so far. I'm not done with the story yet, so I'm curious where things will go.
Penacony looks really good, the maps are massive and packed full with all sorts of puzzles, interactions, secrets, mini-activities, etc. This is going to take some time
And I haven't even been to all of them, lol.

Black Swan has also been great fun. Gonna be living in the new Nihility trace material mines for a good while now, but it's already felt worth it.
Casually auto-ing the new Pure Fiction while not being fully built (and Serval was just unbuilt filler too). I'll probably work on Guinaifen and Luka after her, to get her and Kafka some more friends.

 

[Dandy]

Penacony is so good! I can't wait for the next patch. Love the setting, music, and characters. I love how much there is to do!

Aventurine is definitely joining my team after that!

 

[Ascheroth]

The location is really good. The maps, level design, puzzles, side activities, atmosphere... it's all fantastic. And there's indeed a lot!
Main story wise there is a lot of potential there. I enjoyed it a lot in the moment outside of one thing (the first "death" didn't work at all for me), but there's so much mysteriousness and vagueness that to me there aren't really any stakes right now because nobody can be trusted and nothing can be taken at face-value. I really need some answers before I can get really into it. It's fun speculating tho.

 

[spindoctor]

I've enjoyed Penacony a lot. Golden Hour is such a visually appealing area and so much bigger than the other hub areas we've gotten so far. Lots to do and discover. The other areas are nice as well with the perspective puzzles and wall walking, although I have to say I'm not too keen to return to wall walking areas too much in the future. It's ok as a one time thing and I hope they don't put a lot of content in those places in the future. I'm just glad we have a new place to visit and explore after so many months of Belobog and the Luofu. I still really do wish their cadence for new planets was a bit faster but you can just see how expansive Penacony is to realize why it takes time to make this stuff.

The story so far is quite interesting too. I see that they've put the lore of the game front and centre instead of something that happens in the background like in Genshin. So for example, in that game you can make do without knowing much about the Heavenly Principles/Celestia, the history of Khaenriah, the archon war and such. They tell you about it between archon quests and all but it's never really emphasized (although I guess that will change once we reach Snezhnaya and the story moves beyond there). In Star Rail the lore of the aeons is a deliberate and prominent part of the story. If, for example, you do not understand who the Masked Fools are then you will know nothing about Hanabi and why she is doing what she is doing. All the factions have been invited which means you do need to have at least a rudimentary understanding of the cosmology they have set up.

The actual plot of the Trailblazer quest was a bit predictable when they had foreshadowed that everything is not as it seems on the planet. The revelation that something is wrong with the dreamscape was not much of a revelation really. Still, it's an interesting story and I'm very interested in seeing where it goes. I haven't had a chance to get into the side quests yet which I've read were very good. I was in a bit of a rush to get through the story before I see spoilers on Twitter or reddit. Well, I managed to do that but then you go on Twitter and people are posting spoilers that have been datamined from the beta builds so it's still fucked

I managed to get Black Swan. It was a pity-lose 50/50-pity again situation. Can't really complain though because I won the last 4-5 50-50s. The plan was to get Black Swan and then Acheron but I had hoped that if I got an early Black Swan I'd try my luck on Hanabi's banner. That's probably out of the question now. Which is a shame because I actually really like Hanabi after seeing her character in the game. It's nice to have out and out villains sometimes instead of just morally grey characters.

I had pre-farmed gear and materials for Black Swan so she ended up being fairly powerful right out of the gate. A team with Black Swan, Kafka and Ruan Mei is absolutely lethal. I actually gave Kafka proper DOT gear as well now and they just complement each other so well. This is how pure fiction went this time

Didn't just get 60k points for 3 stars. I actually defeated Argenti at the end, got the full 80k and did it in 5 cycles. And this is with Herta only having left over relics that I got while farming for Jing Liu. Still need a couple more days to farm traces to get Black Swan to level 10 everywhere and then will look into pre-farming for Acheron. Luocha is also coming up very soon and I really want a solo sustain but I don't think I can get him with all these Penacony characters as well. So I'm thinking maybe I'll have spare tickets by the time Huo Huo reruns.

Also can I just say how it's hilarious that the annihilation crew got bumped off off-screen. Everyone (including you guys ) were making plans for who you wanted to get and then turns out they're all dead already. (Yes, I know they're not all dead and they'll find a way into the game but imagine how funny it would be if mihoyo went to all the trouble of making those trailers and everything but had no plan of ever bringing them into the game).

Very pleased with the state of the game at this moment.

EDIT: One more thing. Did they change the voice actor for Sampo? And did it feel like he was trying to sound a bit like (yes, I know, this is ridiculous) Trump when drawling out his lines?

EDIT2: Another question. I'm about 5 tickets away from 300 on the standard banner. I don't have Gepard or Yanqing and the plan was always to get Gepard. Now though, I'm wondering if I should get Bronya E2 or Himeko E1 instead. A basic shielder no longer seems that useful as a sustain unit when Fu Xuan exists and other solo sustain units are also healers. The only reason to have him is if/when the trailblazer changes her path from preservation to something else. I'm still probably going to get him anyway but I'm thinking about this too...

 

[dfghstrbght]

Holy shit I like this game

 

[Dandy]

EDIT: One more thing. Did they change the voice actor for Sampo? And did it feel like he was trying to sound a bit like (yes, I know, this is ridiculous) Trump when drawling out his lines?

I think it's the same actor, but he definitely sounds different. I feel like he was less goofy sounding, or something.

I didn't get Trump from him though haha

 

[Gevin]

Didn't realize we had an OT for this. This game is great

 

[Ascheroth]

Slowly making my way through the Penacony side quests, and sheesh they go hard

Also, they really have too much money, lol.

 

[SaberVS7]

Jesus

2.1 leaks started dropping

Acheron...

Acheron don't have an "Ultimate"

She has a fucking Domain Expansion.

 

[Dandy]

Jesus

2.1 leaks started dropping

Acheron...

Acheron don't have an "Ultimate"

She has a fucking Domain Expansion.

Her animations are so good. I just wish her design was better to match. She looks OP though, so I may be tempted.

Aventurine and Sparkle are still my priorities, as they will slot perfectly into my existing teams.

 

[dfghstrbght]

Gonna skip sparkle and go all in on Acheron
Also hope for a Fu Xuan banner rerun would be good for my newbie account

 

[spindoctor]

One thing I've been reading about Acheron is that there aren't many good light cone options for her. And by that I mean there's one good option - Good Night, Sleep Well - which is quite rare and even if you have it it's probably being used by some other nihility character of yours. The other, less good option is Welt's light cone which costs 600 of that currency in the shop. And aside from these two the only other real choice is her signature cone. That adds to the number of tickets required to get her and I'd think about this issue before deciding to get her.

 

[Ascheroth]

Those Acheron animations sure are something else. They very much appeal too me.
Was not that interested in her before seeing them since I also am already running triple Nihility Kafka and making another triple Nihility (also Lightning focused) didn't seem that appealing.
But apparently DoTs also work for her special talent and replacing Guinaifen with her in my Kafka + Black Swan team could work? That changes things.

I also happen to have started on my 2nd Good Night Sleep Well (I have one S5 and recently got another one ), so I guess I would be covered on that front too.

 

[spindoctor]

I have one GNSW at S3 and Kafka is using it. I bought Bronya's cone from the shop so I don't have enough currency to buy Welt's cone and I probably wouldn't want to anyway. So now I have to see if GNSW repeats in her light cone banner so that you could get away with an early 4-star GNSW drop instead of going all the way for her signature. But the thing is, pre-farming needs to happen now. So the choice is either pre-farm now and then end up needing up to 300 tickets in the worst case (in case you lose both the 50-50 on her banner and the 75-25 on the weapon banner). And if you don't get her you pre-farmed a ton of useless shit. Or don't pre-farm anything and then see if you can get a light cone for her before actually pulling for her, which also sounds silly. And if that does indeed happen, then she won't be up and running for at least a month after getting her. Not a great situation. The nihility cones in the game are really not up to par...

Oh also, no spoilers, but 2.2 banner leaks have started and we're going to want to have some tickets for that too

 

[Gevin]

Finally finished Penacony so I'm caught up with the story. I guess the daily grind begins so I can get my characters up to speed

 

[dfghstrbght]

Just finished Xianghou story, gonna do some companion missions now

 

[Ascheroth]

Finally finished Penacony so I'm caught up with the story. I guess the daily grind begins so I can get my characters up to speed

That was fast!
But I guess there really wasn't all that much mandatory main story after the initial 1.0 drop, since the Continuances are optional - weirdly enough, given how the Space Station has to happen canonically before Penacony, but Star Rail is playing a bit loose with its timeline I guess.
I assume you still have a lot of side stuff to do though
Lots of fun side-modes scattered around.

 

[Gevin]

That was fast!
But I guess there really wasn't all that much mandatory main story after the initial 1.0 drop, since the Continuances are optional - weirdly enough, given how the Space Station has to happen canonically before Penacony, but Star Rail is playing a bit loose with its timeline I guess.
I assume you still have a lot of side stuff to do though
Lots of fun side-modes scattered around.

Yep, I did play the main story mainly so I could get caught up with the current events and get those out of the way. I'm now going to relax a bit, clear some sidequests each day, play a bit of the old modes, etc

Gotta say getting to this point was a lot of fun

 

[Dandy]

After finishing the Penacony story, Black Swan's mission, and the Hanu thing, I've slowed down. I still have lots of side content to do as well! I wish I had remembered to take screen shots of all the origami birds/chests as I collected them... Would've made it a lot easier to track the ones I missed down!

 

[spindoctor]

Someone explain this trailer to me like I'm 5 and currently experiencing an LSD trip...

 

[Ascheroth]

I dunno, but it was great!
I keep going back and forth between who to go for, but I think I've settled on getting Sparkle tomorrow and am leaning towards skipping Acheron (her base design really does nothing for me, no matter how cracked she may turn out combat-wise). But since she's still a couple weeks away, I expect to continue going back and forth between that too, lol.

 

[Ascheroth]

spindoctor Actually I think I do know. I think it's basically showing how she descended into Elation.
It's important to look at the masks. Sparkle with the Red Mask goes around shooting Sparkles with White Masks and no Masks. Then Red Mask Sparkle plays Russion Roulette with White Mask Sparkle. White Mask Sparkle starts with one shot, then Red Mask Sparkle shoots herself 3 times and forces White Mask Sparkle to shoot herself a 4th time (5th total) as well and it's the last blank.
Then White Mask Sparkle takes the last shot and "dies", as you see the White Mask becoming half Red, i.e. getting taken over/succumbing to Elation.
The question is whether this is meant to be taken literally as in is the Red Mask an actual different entity or is it just a metaphor for her inner crazy.

Edit: Actually the bullets are probably metaphors for Elation since Aha looks like a ball and so do the bullets (the , and you have all the colorful strings coming out of the shot Sparkles which probably refer to the random nature of Elation (the SU Elation Path Effect deals random damage types too -> lots of colors), so it's probably not intended to be seen as her "killing" White Mask Sparkles, but instead infusing them with Elation (fits a lot better with the White Mask becoming Half Red).
And this also ties then ties into the distinction between "foolishness" and "a Fool" they made. Fools only act foolishly, but are actual smart and in control. Red Mask Sparkle couldn't even lose the Russian Roulette anyway, because why would getting hit with "Elation" hurt her, when she's already fully sunken into it anyway? Only White Mask Sparkle had something to lose and was foolish to go along.

 

[Dandy]

I'm definitely pulling for Sparkle tomorrow! I don't necessarily need another harmony character, but she'll be great for DHIL and QQ (just need 1 more copy for E6!).

My big decision will be Aventurine. I love his design/personality, and he'd be a potentially good fit with Ratio and Topaz, but he's also getting pretty bad reviews from CBT. Hopefully he gets some buffs before his banner goes up.

I was pretty sure I was going to skip Acheron as her design is pretty bad, but I have to admit that I'm inching my way towards going for her. It will all come down to how quickly I get Sparkle, if I go for Aventurine, and what we find out about upcoming characters. I have 350 pulls saved up, so I have a good stash to work with.

 

[Dandy]

Good luck pulling for Sparkle today! Her banner is still a few hours away in NA, but I'm excited to bring her home!

 

[Ascheroth]

Good luck pulling for Sparkle today! Her banner is still a few hours away in NA, but I'm excited to bring her home!

Good luck!
Already got mine
And 2 Hanya's (my first ones) and a surprise off-banner Xueyi (also my first one). And some LCs and too many Qingque's, lol.
Quite satisfied! 58k Jades left in the bank.

 

[spindoctor]

Congrats on getting her!

Qingque always appears on a banner I'm not pulling on . I still only have her at E3 I think. In my game she doesn't do the famed damage that she is capable of at E4 and beyond. Also it doesn't help that she's wearing hand me down relics from Seele. I'd have to do a proper amount of farming quantum relics to get her up to speed. And I don't think I'll get around to that until I actually get her eidolons.

Can't really decide what to do about Hanabi. For starters, I have not prepared at all for her. I think right now I'm going to wait for a few weeks until we see what weapons are coming along with Acheron. If GNSW appears on her signature weapon I'll try and get that and Acheron as well. If it turns out that I'll need to get both Acheron and her signature then I might decide to skip her entirely because I just won't have enough tickets to guarantee both. Then maybe reconsider Hanabi. I've been pre-farming traces and gear for Acheron though, so that might end up being a waste until she reruns or something.