Honkai: Star Rail, the next big budget project from HoYoverse offers a great RPG experience based on a space adventure fantasy. The game, while not being an open-world game, still provides a very big map for the players to explore with many secrets and varieties of enemies to challenge themselves against. There are many challenges that the game offers while players take on space adventures via the Astral Express. In this Honkai: Star Rail Beginners Guide, we will try and list out some tips and tricks for players to help them overcome these challenges.
Honkai Star Rail Gameplay basics
The gameplay of Honkai: Star Rail offers a very refined turn-based gameplay for the players, the game lets the players pick their own fights while roaming through the map. There are different enemies of different elements and types scattered all along the map, it is up to the players to decide which enemies they would like to fight and which they would like to ignore.
Speed plays a very important part in the game, it can define how many strikes the character can land in one playthrough. It can also define how the battle starts in the game, if your character’s speed statistics would be better than the enemy then you will start the battle with a blow.
Else the enemy starts with attacking you first, the strength of the character defines how many attacks they can withstand. Attacks that have better stats that strength can break the shield of the characters making them more vulnerable to further enemy attacks.
Once you spot an enemy on the map you can kickstart the battle by attacking them first, this is a time-specific feature and has to be executed in a short stint of time, we will discuss this feature later in this article. Other than the speed, character buffs and powerups are equally important and useful in between the battles that can boost up the stats of characters and teams in general. For example, there are a few characters like Astra that, when you use their skills, increase the speed of the team or themselves.
Honkai Star Rail Combat System explained
The turn-based combat system in Honkai: Star Rail gives the players 3 different options normal attacks, character-specific skills, and the ultimate which is sort of the maxima of characters dealing the most damage. The basic attacks deal with the basic damages which are based on the attacking stats of the character. There are no cooldowns or turns they can be used on, hence basic attacks are there to be used even when there are not enough battle points accumulated with the players.
The second type of attacking option is the character-specific skill, these skills are different for each character and are greatly influenced by the element class of the characters. To know which characters belong to which element class and which character is the best in the game, be sure to follow our characters tier list for the game.
Lastly, the ultimate attacks for the character are the maximum damage attacks each character can offer. Ultimate attacks require battle points in order to be activated, battle points are earned through accumulating damage points during a normal course of battle. Players would need to accumulate around 120 battle points to unlock the ultimate attack during the course of battle. Ultimate skill will not be active at the start of the battle, It fills up as you deal damage.
Understanding the Character elements of Honkai Star Rail
Elements for a character are just like a class for them, every single character and enemy will belong to one of the elements in the game. For the record, there are 7 different element classes in the game namely, Physical, fire, ice, lightning, wind, imaginary, and quantum. Since there is an elemental class in the game, there are weaknesses and class advantages which can be exploited by certain elements against others.
Whenever you are mid-way through a bottle sequence the game itself flashes a red outline against the enemy if they are at an elemental disadvantage. When you use the elements to open a window of opportunity and land a blow, it will result in additional damage against that particular opponent and will also break through the shield while damaging the defense stats for a temporary stint of time in the battle.
When the shield of the enemy is breached it will minimize the toughness of the enemy making it easier for the other characters in the game to have more damage with their basic attacks. Hence, it becomes essential to pay attention to the enemies while in battle because, when you are going to attack, the game will indicate which element the enemies are weak against. This also helps to keep the battle simpler and end it quickly without much complexity.
Different categories of Element classes in the game
As stated before there are different types of element classes in the game with each offering different boosts to the stats of characters and gameplay opportunities to the player. Following are the types and importance of each class in the game.
- Physical: They are the brutes of the game and deal additional physical damage by applying the Bleed effect. This ensures that the enemies get prolonged damage over time.
- Fire: They deal devastating levels of damage by using the burn effect which makes the damage points last for a longer period.
- Ice: Freezes the enemy, preventing it from taking any actions, if the level of the character is higher than the enemy it can also lead them to miss a chance due to the freeze effect.
- Lightning: Deals additional lightning damage and applies the Shock effect, which causes Lightning damage over time
- Wind: Deals additional wind damage and applies the Wind Shear effect, which can also lead to the enemy hurting itself with its own attacks as part of after effects.
- Quantum: Deals a special powerup effect called the Entanglement effect which acts as a supersonic attack and pushes the enemy back while dealing damage.
- Imaginary: Has the Imprisonment effect, which slows down opponent actions and lowers movement and attacking speed.
Honkai: Star Rail Beginners Guide: Tips and Tricks
After investing multiple hours in the game we have come up with the following tips and tricks in our Honkai: Star Rail Beginners Guide for the players to utilize the game and its features to their highest potential.
1. Utilize the in-game Environment
In the game, Honkai: Star Rail, there are many interactive items scattered around on the Astral Express. They contain both clues and character-specific items. Whenever roaming across the ship keep your eyes peeled for bright blue boxes spread all across the map they contain random perks such as health or low-tier gear for the players.
Players also might run across some valuable pieces of information useful to make the gameplay a bit easier. Experience points are also rewarded when new pieces of information are collected from the map. New information is available to be collected from the map by the indication of a search icon. Once collected the information can be accessed through the character menu.
2. Maximize your Resources by diversifying your gameplay
There are different game modes in Honkai: Star Rail and each offers various different rewards upon completion. Trailblazer level is the general requirement that needs to be fulfilled for competing in these quests. Once you are of the required level in the game, players can actually view the risks and rewards on offer and strategize their moves accordingly.
We won’t go into detail about what different game modes are there for players to experience, for that make sure you follow our guide for different game modes available in the game. Be sure to have the details ready before you venture out on quests.
3. Understand the Character Paths to get the most out of your Team
Character paths are the specialty for that given character and this can give you a pretty solid idea of how to use the character properly in the game. There are currently 14 known Paths in the game, but only 7 are playable, which suggests that new characters will be added as the game moves on. To stay updated be sure to follow our Character Tier List on which are the better ones, we keep them updated once new ones are introduced to the game.
As for the record, there are just 7 playable in the game, we have listed them below for the player’s reference and clarity.
- Abundance: Acts as a healer and can regenerate health mid-way through the fight
- Destruction: Has a more offensive approach to things, and provides good damage per trike.
- Erudition: Can take more than 2 enemies at a time, has good speed in attacks along with a wider reach.
- Harmony: This is an overall support class but also capable of dealing good damage per strike whenever needed.
- Hunt: Again a high damage per strike class, however, can deal very high damage when opted for single target attacks.
- Nihility– The specific class can be used to debuff the enemies and help the team on landing heavy attacks on enemies dealing heavy damage.
- Preservation– This might just be the only tank class in the game, however only from a defensive point of view, attacking options with this class are still limited.
As said before there are still some classes in the game to which no character is assigned as of now and more characters can be introduced to the game later on. Following are the classes to which no characters have been announced.
- Beauty
- Elation
- Enigmata
- Propagator
- Remembrance
- Trailblaze
- Voracity
4. Strike First before the fighting sequence starts to get a headstart
Whenever there is a fight sequence about to start you can press the attack button before approaching them and start the fight sequence early. This results in delivering a surprise attack on the enemies which would result in triggering a weakness against them. If successfully done the enemies will start the battle sequence from lower health and will be more vulnerable to your attacks in the early phases of the battle.
The game will flash weakness to let you know that you have triggered the surprise attack. It makes it easier to even fight off the enemies who are of higher level as to the character.
5. Use Character Accessories to boost their Statistics
There are many character accessories that can be used as powerups and buffs that can help increase the attacking power and overall statistics of the players. There is a unique Character Progression in the game that makes use of different Light cones and relics in the game. These Light cones and Relics have various features that can add value to the statistics of the characters.
Not all accessories work with every character they are well divided according to the different types of characters which include the elements and as well as paths. Light cones can also be referred to as weapons in the game, while Relics add additional stats points to the character’s already equipped skills, Light Cones give the characters new abilities and skills. That is the only difference between the two.
Final Thoughts
The game Star Rail Honkai offers a lot of options and depth whether it is the character customization or just simply the combat system. There is a very deeply detailed character progression and classification system in the game which divides the characters as well as enemies into various different paths and elements. Fans of another HoYovere title, Genshin Impact, might find some of the game systems very familiar as it is not that different from it.
All these details while adding multiple hours of entertainment also add deep levels of complexity for new players to understand the game better. The sole purpose of our Honkai Star Rail Beginners Guide was to provide some basic tips and tricks for new players in the game, making it easier for them to understand the game.
We hope that with this guide we were able to provide just that. The game has not been officially released yet as of the time of writing this article, hence some new things might get added by the time of release. We would definitely keep you guys updated should any new developments take place.
Did you find this Honkai: Star Rail Beginners Guide useful? Let us know in the comments below!
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