You might not have noticed, but last week marked an important date: a year since the release of the last 4-star in Honkai: Star Rail. That’s right, our last proper 4-star, Moze (Lightning, the Hunt), arrived on September 9th, 2024, and shut the door behind him. Since then, it’s been an eternal recurrence of 5-stars only.
Now, granted, players still got a variety of free goodies: some 4-stars, characters and Light Cones alike; a new Path/Element combo for the Trailblazer, free Archer (5-star Quantum, the Hunt), and will get a free copy of Dan Heng: Permansor Terrae. However, while Star Rail is something of an extreme when it comes to the 4-star drought, it is not the only game that has been going through such a crisis. If anything, the Gacha Big Four – the ones you always hear about, at the very least – seem to be going through the same thing.
Let’s take a quick look at the situation with 4-stars in Wuthering Waves, Zenless Zone Zero, Honkai: Star Rail and Genshin Impact over the last year and half, to make it fair on the newcomers. But, since 4-stars are not the only indicator of how generous a game is, let’s also check out free 5-stars – standard, limited, weapons – released in the game at the same time.
Wuthering Waves
Wuthering Waves released on May 23rd, 2024. It has been widely praised for its character design, responsive combat system, and smooth exploration. The currently ongoing 2.x cycle only built on the game’s stronger sides with the introduction of Rinascita and flying.
The upcoming Version 2.7 will be introducing another set of 5-stars and no new 4-stars. Though, ~the ancient prophecies~ foretell the impending arrival of Buling.
So, let’s check out what new 4-stars had been released and freebies had been given away in this period of time. Note, there are also a number of 4-star weapons that can be crafted or had been available as an exclusive event reward (alas, not anymore).
- Youhu (4-star Glacio Gauntlet) – October 24, 2024
- Lumi (4-star Electro Broadblade) – December 12, 2024
- A total of 3 Rover Specs: Spectro, Havoc, Aero
- Free limited 5-star: Xiangli Yao (Electro Gauntlets)
- 5-star weapon box for reaching Union Level 45
- Free 5-star sword for Aero Rover, Bloodpact’s Pledge, that can be Syntonized to the max for exploring new locations.
Over 13 Versions (counting the upcoming 2.7), WuWa introduced 22 Limited 5-stars, but only 2 new 4-stars. Thus, the ratio is roughly one 4-star per eleven 5-stars, which sounds quite dire – especially with only Sanhua and Mortefi (+ Rover’s additional forms) usually being considered worth building. That is, unless you are the crazy Aalto or Danjin main that soloes everything under the sun.
Rinascita also makes it so new characters want other new characters as their partners, for example Zani and Phoebe, Carthethiya and Ciaccona, and so on. Some older characters such as Changli can serve as a sub-DPS, while Shorekeeper and Verina remain eternal as healers, but largely the game wants you to pull for multiple new 5-stars to form a coherent, working comp, without providing any new 4-star low cost replacements.
Zenless Zone Zero
Zenless Zone Zero, HoYoverse’s urban action-adventure, took the world by storm on July 4, 2024. Wildly different from both Genshin Impact and the Honkai games, it introduced a pair of protagonists that actually cannot battle on their own, unlike the Traveler, the Trailblazer and WuWa’s Rover. However, the game also has the Bangboo, cute if clumsy and slightly unhinged companions that further empathize the importance of correct party-building. There are certain character class and faction-dependent passives that the Bangboo also utilize.
With no additional battle forms of the protagonists, how does the game show itself with the new 4-stars and freebies for players? Note that much like WuWa, ZZZ has craftable 4-star weapons for every class. The game also frequently gives away 4-star characters and Bangboo, as well as event-exclusive 4-star weapons.
- Seth (A-rank Electro Defense) – September 4, 2024
- Pulchra (A-rank Physical Stun) – March 12, 2025
- Pan Yinhu (A-rank Physical Defense) – June 6, 2025
- Komano Manato (A-rank Fire Rupture) – unreleased, arrives in V2.3
- Free Harumasa (5-star Lightning Attack)
- Free Standard Character & Standard W-Engine of choice for the anniversary;
- Two older units got buffs: Ellen & Soldier 0 – Anby (announced, not released yet)
24 new 5-stars, 4 new 4-stars – including the new trio arriving in V2.3, which makes the ratio roughly one new A-rank (the game’s terminology for 4-star) for 6 new S-ranks. Between the characters’ own Core Passive requirements and the Bangboo requirements, the game does impose certain limitations on party building, especially if you want to tick off all the boxes and use your party at its best.
Zenless Zone Zero’s support 4-stars – Nicole, Lucy, Soukaku, the newly-released Pulchra and Pan Yinhu – have aged noticeably better than the damage-dealing ones. So it remains to be seen what kind of power will be wielded by Manato – will he be the new Piper and be able to stand up to certain limited characters, or will he burn and plummet as quickly as Nekomata, one of the standard 5-stars?
The endgame also provides buffs not only based on the characters’ element, but also on the type of damage as well: typical Crits, Anomaly, Aftershock, Sheer Damage, and so on. So ideally, you might even want multiple parties for the same element, especially when the developers seem to go out of their way to clip the ever-present ears of Miyabi in Ice content.
However, despite the Bangboo/party-building limitations mentioned above, I have not felt the need to pull for additional characters just to finish the endgame content. While the 4-stars and Standards obviously lose out compared to the limited 5-star supports and beasts of stun agents such as Lighter or Trigger, they are worth building as a low cost substitute.
Still, with three new Rupture-themed characters coming in the new update, many players have been calling out the powercreep finally hitting ZZZ. After all, how do you sell a class that completely ignores enemies’ DEF? By cranking it up, of course! And don’t forget to add Anomaly resistance on top while you are at it – the latest Deadly Assault being an example.
Honkai: Star Rail
The real reason that this comparison even exists, Honkai: Star Rail launched on April 26, 2023, on PC and mobile, later arriving on consoles.
Unlike the rest of the games on this list, HSR employs the turn-based system, which means that you don’t have as many opportunities to express your skill – think of just evading in the other three and forgoing a sustain for another buffer or sub-DPS instead. Sure, you can eat the RNG and go sustainless in HSR as well, either completely blowing the enemy out of the water with crazy damage, or taking some hits and hoping to survive long enough to take the enemy down first.
What that amounts to, though, is proper leveling up, gearing and building your characters, as well as creating comps that fit in the content you pursue and utilize the provided buffs. Here goes the list of the gooes provided since mid-Penacony, to match up with WuWa’s release:
- Trailblazer (5-star Imaginary Harmony) – May 7, 2024
- March 7th: The Hunt (4-star Imaginary Hunt) – July 31, 2024
- Moze (4-star Lightning Hunt) – September 9, 2024
- Trailblazer (5-star Ice Remembrance) – January 15, 2025
- Archer (5-star Quantum Hunt) – July 11, 2025
- Dan Heng – Permansor Terrae (5-star Physical Preservation) – upcoming Version 3.6
- One free standard character of choice for the anniversary
- A free 5-star character from the store (choice between Ruan Mei, Luocha & Standards)
- 5-star character store for copies over E6 (not counting the LC store as it is for spenders only)
- New 50/50 loss system that lets you acquire some of the older 5-stars
- 5-star Light Cones available in Herta’s store + all of the event-exclusive 4-star LCs if you’d missed them
- 4 older units got buffed: Kafka, Silver Wolf, Blade, Jingliu
To sum it up, 26 limited 5-star characters since last May and only 2 4-stars, none of which were released over the last year, no news about the new ones either. That amounts to one 4-star per staggering thirteen 5-stars, making Honkai: Star Rail the absolutely undisputed winner (or is it the loser?) of this list.
Sure, HSR makes up for it with releasing free 5-stars and introducing new, powerful Trailblazer forms, but is it really enough? Yes, but also no. Yes, it is enough to finish all the story content and get most of the rewards from the Memory of Chaos, Pure Fiction, Apocalyptic Shadow… but likely not the upcoming Anomaly Arbitration. If you do not care about the last floor/difficulty in the endgame content, you’re basically set and can pull for anyone you’d like instead of focusing on maxing out their combat performance. Simply enjoy your freebies!
There are also archetypes that have no real low-cost substitutes. Among them, HP-scalers and DoT, both parties enjoying a full or almost full 5-star comp. Say, you wanted to pull for Hysilens or Black Swan because you like them as characters, and you don’t have or even want to have Kafka. But, alas, there’s only one real DoT-enabler in the game, so it’s Kafka or no DoT for the endgame, really.
A similar thing occurs when it comes to HP-scalers: when you were pulling for Castorice or Mydei, you pretty much had to know it meant pulling for another sub-DPS, HP-support and HP-sustain for the optimal performance. Having even just one of these roles sufficiently performed by a 4-star would have made it an easier decision to invest in the new archetype at all.
Admittedly, despite being stingy with its 4-stars and also quite the scammer with signature LCs that sometimes hold a third of the equipper’s kit, HSR is quite generous in pretty much all other respects. There’s a number of free limited 5-stars, a set of 5-star Light Cones from Herta’s store, the event-exclusive 4-star weapons can also be acquired through the same store (please, Genshin, WuWa & ZZZ, take a look and learn, okay?) as can be a variety of 4-star weapons through the MoC store.
The game also recently buffed a number of older 5-star limited characters, bringing them to a much better place, power-wise, with Kafka and Silver Wolf immediately starting to devour the new content. The new 50/50 system allows you to “lose” to one of the select older characters (Fu Xuan, Blade, Seele), while the new in-game store lets you purchase certain limited characters and LCs. Granted, an F2P being able to purchase characters from said store requires being extreme levels of unlucky (I sympathize, with my E5 Clara…), and the LC store requires the currency obtainable through the paid Battle Pass, thus not at all F2P-friendly.
Still, the lack of 4-stars is incredibly noticeable. For example, there is not a single 4-star Remembrance unit, and hopefully everyone has pulled for Tribbie E1 for that sweet, sweet True Damage, since the Trailblazer will likely be swapping off to a new Path with a new gimmick come 4.x, leaving your Castorice, The Herta, Mydei, etc., without an easily accessible buffer.
Genshin Impact
The oldest game on the list and the gacha that is generally considered to be the king among them, even if aging and sometimes not keeping up with the youngsters. Genshin Impact released on September 28, 2020, and set the new standard for the genre going forward.
One of the things that it repeatedly gets praised for is the lack of powercreep… or so it was until Fontaine, at the very least. It also releases significantly more 4-stars compared to the rest, with many being varying degree of useful – from completely OP such as the starter gang of Bennett, Xiangling, Sucrose, Fischl and Xingqiu and the relatively recent Chevreuse, Gaming, Lan Yan, and Iansan, to “well… at the very least worth building for the Theater”-useful.
Needless to say, just as the games above, Genshin Impact comes with multiple sets of craftable 4-star weapons and frequently offers a free copy of a 4-star character or an event-exclusive 4-star weapon from the events. Alas, unlike HSR, you cannot purchase these in any way, shape, or form, leading many newer Albedo mains to despair over missing the Cinnabar Spindle. In-game store? Pretty please?
Here’s an overview of the new 4-stars and the 5-star freebies given since the last May, to make it fair for WuWa & ZZZ:
- Sethos (4-star Electro Bow) – May 6th, 2024
- Kachina (4-star Geo Polearm) – August 28, 2024
- Ororon (4-star Electro Bow) – November 20, 2024
- Pyro Traveler (5-star Pyro Sword) – January 1st, 2025
- Lan Yan (4-star Anemo Catalyst) – January 21, 2025
- Iansan (4-star Electro Polearm) – March 26, 2025
- Ifa (4-star Anemo Catalyst) – May 7, 2025
- Dahlia (4-star Hydro Sword) – June 18, 2025
- Aino (4-star Hydro Claymore) – a free copy with the release of Nod-Krai on September 10, arrives in the banner in the 2nd half of the patch
- New System – To Temper Thyself and Journey Far that awards a free Constellation for Standard characters & some limited 5-stars you own for completing daily activities. It can award up to 4 Constellations (one per character only) a year, provided you do the required activities.
- Free standard 5-star for the anniversary
To sum it up, since Clorinde’s debut banner from the last May, there have been 15 limited 5-stars, one Standard 5-star (Yumemizuki Mizuki) and the record 8 4-stars, six of which have arrived in the last year. The upcoming Version Luna II will feature a single new 5-star, no 4-stars announced. So all in all, Genshin has been steadily releasing one 4-star per two 5-stars for a while.
With Nod-Krai utilizing the Moonsign passive that takes into account the amount of Lunar reactions-wielding characters in your party, the 4-stars now are more important than ever, only comparable to the Scroll-wielding Natlan heroes. So let’s hope Nod-Krai continues with this rather impressive consistency and makes Lunar reactions easily available for F2Ps and low spenders!
Generally, the games above follow the same pattern: the fewer 4-stars released, the more freebies the game awards, with HSR staying as a clear winner… if it wasn’t for Genshin’s new system “To Temper Thyself and Journey Far”, that basically means four free 5-stars a year and throws all calculations out of the window.
Additionally, some of the actually released 4-stars require 6th Constellation/Eidolon/Midscape/Resonance Chain to sufficiently take the spot of a 5-star at a reduced effectiveness. And if there’s one thing all gacha players know, it’s that it is harder to get the 4-star you want compared to a 5-star. At least you can guarantee those.
Now, granted, with fewer 4-stars around, the chances of maxing out a character and getting some cashback on the repeated dupes also grow. But remember, never build pity/pull for a 4-star unless you won’t mind getting the 5-star at the same time!
Add to it that most new units across all the aforementioned titles want other new units, and it seems like the devs have arrived at the ultimate scheme of how to make the players pull more without looking like villains. After all, there are plenty of freebies being given out, including weapons and even flashy limited 5-stars, so how can anyone really be accused of greed or not caring for the playerbase?
