**This might be the game that gets me to stop playing so much Fate/Grand Order . ** From a personal standpoint, FGO has been my go-to game on mobile. Part of that is because it’s so easy to stop mid-battle, take out the garbage or wash some dishes, and then come back to finish it. Action-based games don’t provide that luxury, but the turn-based nature of Honkai Star Rail alongside its much more impressive presentation might mean I’m in for a shift in how I allocate my gacha time once it releases. (I will, however, still play entirely too much FGO and Genshin Impact on top of that, so take this with a grain of sa

Read the books you find. Honkai Star Rail ’s universe is pretty complex right from the get-go, with lots of unanswered questions swirling within the first half hour of its introduction. Picking up books and reading the lore is not just interesting, but essential to fully understanding some of the sci-fi elements at play h

**Honkai: Star Rail ** is a video game built on years of experience in the limelight of live-service gaming. Developer HoYoverse certainly isn't a stranger to high-profile, ongoing titles - Genshin Impact remains one of the most popular and influential titles in its space. While Star Rail is a dramatically different experience overall, the similarities between the two games are almost entirely positives, with a polished cast of characters, intriguing story, and incredible depth of gameplay pushing the 1.0 launch into rarefied territ

As announced by HoYoverse, Honkai: Star Rail ’s release date for PC, Epic Games Store, iOS, and Android is on April 26. Pre-installation starts on April 23. With the end of the final closed beta on March 24, the game arrives nearly a month after its last testing period. The developer also revealed that the PlayStation version of the game is still in development, but that it does not have a fixed release date – or even a release window for that matter. Much like Genshin Impact , Honkai: Star Rail will be a free-to-play title, which has in-game microtransactions. It is expected to be frequently updated as a live service g

Screen Rant gained access to the closed beta test and, since launch, I've logged several hours into Honkai Star Rail to see how it measures up to more traditional representations of turn-based combat (think Final Fantasy ) and games in the gacha space that have similar pacing (something like Fate/Grand Orde

**Honkai Star Rail ’s music is S-tier. ** Seriously, the OST is just full of bops. I’ve had at least three different tracks stuck in my head on repeat since the closed beta test started, and I won’t be surprised if there’s more by the end. HoYoverse knows how to make a catchy b

Exploration in Honkai: Star Rail is linear, but maps are littered with things to do - collectibles, treasure chests, elite enemies, and puzzles populate most of them, which are closely equivalent to traditional JRPG dungeons. The cities that make up hubs for each world visited are interested and diverse, with plenty of lore scattered throughout for those who want to know more about what the universe the Trailblazer inhabits looks l

Honkai Star Rail walkthrough: Star Rail follows the Trailblazer, a player-controlled character who awakes under mysterious circumstances. They're quickly burdened with a power that is either highly sought-after or vilified by denizens of the game's universe, and rescued by the Astral Express - a group of world-jumping heroes who chase after Stellarons, the protagonist's power that also functions as a cancerous presence on any planet it's fo

Another option is Hunter of Glacial Forest because it boosts general ATK, but it is not slightly as good as the previously mentioned Relic set. Himeko is a very straightforward attacking character in Honkai: Star Rail and the stats players will want for her Firesmith of Lava Forging Relic set are mainly ATK, a good balance between CRIT DMG and CRIT Rate, and, whenever possible, Fire DMG. This is the ideal stat priority for Himeko’s best build in Honkai: Star Ra

Those issues aren't directly related to the core of Star Rail , however, which shines as brightly as any of the celestial bodies it tasks players with visiting. The quality of content at launch is, quite simply, incredible - it really looks, feels, and plays like a live service game that has already been out for years. Its turn-based combat might, tragically, not be for everyone, even in spite of its depth of tactics and highly customizable loadouts. That should be something everyone decides for themselves, however. Honkai: Star Rail is a must-play 2023 release that could very well become the next big thing in live service games, and will, if nothing else, become one of the better RPG releases in recent mem

HoYoverse’s RPG is not all about offensive measures, and Gepard is one of the best 5-star Honkai: Star Rail characters because of that. The captain of the Silvermane Guards in Belobog follows The Preservation Path, meaning he is a shielder – and a great one at that. The character also uses Ice as an element, and due to how his shields work, he is effectively better than the F2P (free-to-play) opt