Honkai: Star Rail – Version 3.6 ‘Back to Earth in Evernight’ Impressions

HSR Version 3.5 ended with the Trailblazer getting and submitting the Coreflame of Worldbearing to start the long-awaited Era Nova. In Version 3.6 ‘Back to Earth in Evernight’… we have to get and submit the Coreflame of Worldbearing to kick off the first true Era Nova in 33+ million cycles. However, despite this humorous fact, V3.6 contains important lore bits, some of which will come to fruition long after the plot of Amphoreus is over, while others are playing their role in the currently unfolding story.

From the very beginning, we knew that three Paths cross and converge on Amphoreus: Erudition, Destruction, and Remembrance. Over the previous six patches, the influence of Erudition and Destruction had been unveiled bit-by-bit. On the other hand, the role of the Remembrance had been left purposefully vague – until now.

For a path introduced in the 1.x era via Memory of Chaos’ Messenger and then further iterated on in Penacony, Remembrance had always been something of a dark horse. Sure, in very broad strokes we know that there’s the Garden of Recollection that gathers memories for Fuli to rebuild the universe from, there are Memokeepers and Cremators, but… That’s about it.

The finer details such as the organization itself and other Remembrance factions, rules, the extent of their influence and so on had always been left a secret. Moreover, while March 7th had been hinted at being related to Remembrance, it never went past a short mission with Fu Xuan where the Master Diviner was unable to retrieve her memories and a few hints during the meeting with Argenti.

Enter: Version 3.6 and a deep dive into all things Remembrance, building on March 7th, Evernight, the Garden and the involvement in Amphoreus, and much more. Of course, the Path of Permanence will get its due as well, since Dan Heng: Permansor Terrae takes an active part in the story as well.

The update picks up the moment Trailblazer and Hysilens submit the Coreflame of Worldbearing… but not really. The protagonist realizes that the Coreflame of Time had never been returned in this cycle – after all, there had been no demigod of Time to join the Flame-Chasing Journey. However, before the new Deliverer is able to do anything, Evernight’s powers intervene and throw them into the sea of Memoria.

Between Lygus pointing fingers and Black Swan & Evernight dropping lore bombs, we learn that the goal pursued by the Garden of Recollection on Amphoreus is to gather memories about the destruction of a Path. To this extent, in this battle Remembrance took the side of the Destruction, seeking to gobble up the fading Path after Irontomb, left unopposed, destroys Nous the Erudition.

This time, the mantle of savior is donned by Dan Heng, the second character to unlock special abilities in this patch. As the Guard of the Astral Express, he’s able to break through the Memetic trap and return to Amphoreus to help his friends.

Traveling through the sea of Memoria to confront Evernight, Dan Heng comes face to face with the ghosts of his past, literally. He also gets a chance to witness the happier times of Highcloud Quintet, the closest group of friends to his previous reincarnation, Dan Feng. During his time on Xianzhou Luofu, the two dragons have metaphorically come to blows, with Dan Heng refusing to acknowledge the ways of his predecessor.

However, with his own friends’ lives now hanging by a thread, the young dragon is much more willing to listen to and accept the faults of Dan Feng, admitting that he, too, would sacrifice anything to keep his loved ones safe. The two unite their forces to pursue Terravox, the demigod of Earth that had thrown his lot in with Evernight.

It is this determination and acceptance that allows Dan Heng to sway Terravox to his side. The great dromas gives up his Coreflame in exchange for Dan Heng using the power of Permanence to carry out his wishes: even if it is the future Terravox is unable to witness himself, he wants to give the living beings of Amphoreus a chance to reach it in his stead.

Using his newfound connection to the creatures of Amphoreus, Dan Heng dives into the labyrinth of Oblivion to find his lost companion, the Trailblazer. Together the two set out to finally confront Evernight in the Tomb of the Nameless Titan, a hidden location within the heart of Amphoreus that also guards an important secret.

This is where we learn that it was March that initially saved the Trailblazer and Dan Heng and allowed them to enter Amphoreus. But in doing so, she also unlocked the way for the Garden of Recollection.

In addition to finally learning the truth of Evernight’s existence and Remembrance’s involvement with the Eternal Recurrences, we also get to learn of Cyrene’s sacrifice. In Version 3.4, HSR demonstrated everything that Phainon had to go through over 33,550,336 cycles. Back then, it seemed that Cyrene’s involvement ended with her death in Aedes Elysiae at the hands of the Flamereaver.

But as it turns out, she also carried out heavy duty that remained invisible to the inhabitants of Amphoreus and forgotten by the world itself. While Phainon had gathered the Coreflames and reset the world time and time again to prevent the arrival of Era Nova and the birth of Irontomb, Cyrene used “As I’ve Written” to collect the memories of these endless cycles and preserve them.

Seeing the girl willingly choose to sacrifice herself again and again for a hazy chance of deliverance sometime in the future, just like Phainon, makes it all the more impossible to accept Evernight’s plan: destroy the carefully preserved memories to create a flawless, blank slate Amphoreus. Setting fire to all the stories, all the emotions, and all the futility will turn the Garden’s conspiracy to dust and completely annihilate the Scepter’s operating logic. But everything that Amphoreus ever was will be gone forever.

Naturally, our protagonists will never agree to sacrificing the Chrysos Heirs – and in this, they’re aided by Cyrene and the last vestige of March’s conscience that manages to talk Evernight down. Not only that, but they reveal a safety measure installed by the crafty Imperator in V3.5 – if anyone were to temper with the arrival of Era Nova, Amphoreus would plummet into pure Destruction.

Following a teary-eyed reunion, the Astral Express trio ushers in the Era Nova with the help of Cyrene. The final battle awaits, but in addition to the Astral Express and Chrysos Heirs, Amphoreus will be aided by the Geniuses, the Xianzhou Alliance and the IPC, all preparing for a large-scale conflict that will decide the fate of the cosmos.

Looking over the events of V3.6, it might look like nothing really happened and yet, it was quite a hectic storytelling, jumping between various PoV’s, flashbacks, and locations, all the while trying to further build upon Remembrance (including the story hooks for the future), the Nameless Thirteenth Titan that might not exist (but likely totally does), Evernight, Dan Heng, March 7th, and, of course, Cyrene.

The whole Remembrance involvement could have used another patch to let the storyline breathe a little. As it stands, it gives the necessary information compressed into an overloaded lore dump – with finer details to be explored on your own (through “As I’ve Written” or other notes and character stories) or unveiled at some point in the future.

For example, the part where Cyrene and Evernight are both Pure Children of Anāsrava, shards of Fuli, Aeon of Remembrance. It is also likely that the Garden of Recollection is being led by their sister – or perhaps even multiple sisters. But how would Cyrene be a creation of Amphoreus if she was already a part of Fuli at some undisclosed point in the past? Not to mention, is there a difference between PhiLia, the first Cyrene who is stuck in the Remembrance Path space, from Mem and from “prime” Elysia-like Cyrene we meet at the end? Is she the fusion of PhiLia and “our” Memrene?

Similarly, Dan Heng’s and Evernight’s character development had to be concentrated and confined to a single patch that they shared with bigger and bolder lore reveals. It felt natural with Dan Heng as he’d already made his steps on the Path of Permanence in Xianzhou, and Amphoreus’ arc felt like a well-fitting continuation.

But the long-teased past of March 7th dropped unexpectedly and was gone in a wink, all over the course of a single patch. Before 3.6 is even done, Evernight has returned to her slumber – but not before using the power of Mythus to wipe the information about the Children of Remembrance from March’s memory. Sure, she’s somewhere in there anyhow, but will we be seeing any of her outside Amphoreus? Only time can tell.

In addition to the previously set-up storylines of eight other Zandar shards out there (potentially), Version 3.6 adds a few more story hooks for the future.

Polka Kakamond was revealed to be the creator of Device IX (not to be mistaken with the Aeon IX). It is a mysterious faction created due to the Theory of Four Apocalypses and the War of the Aeons. Of them, we know three for certain: Destruction, Harmony, and Nihility. Acheron is searching for Device IX, believing that it will help in killing IX, the Aeon of Nihility.

The Garden of Recollection is not as uniform as previously believed. There are the mysterious radicals that stand behind the Amphoreus plot, the Cremators whose beliefs in collecting memories differ from that of Memokeepers, but now we also know of the Children of Remembrance. This seems like the plot point that will continue to evolve over time. Not to mention, in order to help the Astral Express, Black Swan went against the Garden, which might put her in the hot water with her superiors.

All of that in addition to the Xianzhou God Slayer protocol that suddenly came back to light and Amphoreus’ karma disappearing from the Matrix of Prescience.

I cannot imagine the upcoming Version 3.7 to be able to solve all of the above, so the best I can hope for is that it would take less than two years (like for Jingliu’s & Luocha’s plan) to get more details. One thing is certain: Amphoreus will be the most romantic story ever told, and everyone will get their happy end, right?.. Right?

Wrong. Prepare to shed tears.