The release of Honkai: Star Rail Version 4.0 and the new planet of Planarcadia draws closer every day. Very soon the developers will hold the special program, giving players the first glimpse into the unhinged fun brought by Aeon Aha and his Path of Elation.
So, what better time to share one’s wishlist before the bubble bursts against the harsh reality? Or, better yet, soars even higher if some (or all, let’s be greedy for a while) of these come true!
Most of these hopes for development are based on my own impressions from Version 3.7: As Tomorrow Became Yesterday and Version 3.8: Memories are the Prelude to Dreams, as well as general thoughts about the health of the game.
Without further ado, let’s dive in, starting with a rather fluffy and obvious point. Don’t forget your clown mask! I already have mine on.
Continued Support of Currency Wars & SU/DU
That’s right, new region, new Season of the Simulated Universe (likely) related to Aha, and hopefully a further expansion to the Currency Wars mode, introducing new characters, strategies, bonds, equipment, balance changes, and more.
Let’s consider this one a freebie since it is likely something on the developer’s list of new content anyhow.
Expansion of Herta’s Store & Light Cone Manifest (4-star LC Shop)
For low-spenders and F2P, in-game means of acquiring easily accessible Light Cone options are an important way to save on the Jades that can be thrown into the yawning chasm of the character banners’ gacha.
Herta’s Store offers 5-star LCs that can come in clutch for a fitting character such as Phainon or Firefly, Archer, or even Cyrene. The only problem is the speed with which it is updated: right now, it offers a total of six 5-star LCs of various Paths (missing Harmony, Abundance, and, of course, the yet-unreleased Elation).
If you are someone who is doing the SU/DU/Currency Wars runs weekly and running the flagship events as they roll out, chances are you have more Herta’s bonds than you know what to do with, and spending them on Standard Tickets feels extremely wasteful when the store might potentially get some new goodies in the future.
Similarly, the Light Cone Manifest 4-star LC shop with the endgame currency – MoC, PF or AS. At the moment, it features 2 Light Cones per each original playable Path + a single Remembrance LC, Victory in a Blink. While I inwardly hope that developers introduce an entire new selection, one LC per Path the way it was done in Penacony – and the way Genshin does every expansion – at this point I’d take a new Remembrance LC and Elation x2.
Having just gotten a new playable Path in Amphoreus, players likely remember in great detail what a struggle it is to outfit characters from the new Path without the backlog of the available weapons. The good ol’ days when people resorted to using the 3-star Reminiscence on Aglaea or Bailu’s LC on Castorice due to its high base HP. I’d like to avoid that, but it requires multiple easily accessible LCs to be offered via stores and/or events.
… That, or not pulling for the new Path, like I have done with the Remembrance and plan with the Elation, at least until we know more about the upcoming Path.
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- Herta’s Store
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- Light Cone Manifest
More Novaflare Enhancements
This point likely comes as no surprise to anyone. Honkai: Star Rail’s combat is evolving at a great pace, and that includes the variety of enemies, new mechanics as well as the size of HP and Toughness bars stretching to infinity and beyond.
Some characters simply can’t keep up with the ride anymore – those released during the 1.x cycle were created for an entirely different game, mechanically; while those from the 2.x find themselves lacking numbers and being further slowed down by certain cumbersome kit elements.
Open the list of 1.x – 2.x characters and randomly point your finger, chances are you will land on someone who is barely used in gameplay content anymore: Argenti, Topaz, Seele, Dr. Ratio, the entirety of Standards even if Bronya and Himeko put up a fight, sustains, and so on. Firefly, unless heavily invested into vertically, was struggling with content until the release of Dahlia, the walking Eidolon for the entire Break/Superbreak archetype. Acheron, even at E2, is also finding it harder and harder to clear endgame content in a timely manner.
Now, to be completely honest, the developers have already rolled out six total Novaflares: Kafka, Silver Wolf, Blade and Jingliu in V3.4, and the upcoming enhancement for Sparkle and Black Swan in V4.0, which is great.
The issue lies mostly in consistency and transparency. HSR did 6 enhancements in 8 months (the first round rolled out in July, the second will be in February). Genshin Impact buffed 8 in one go (including 4-stars), while Zenless Zone Zero buffed 5 (including 2 Standards), with the whispers of another 2 coming as soon as the next Version.
Having an idea of how soon and how many buffs are coming would be able to put the folks’ minds at ease. So I hope the developers can share a roadmap or a schedule of what they have in mind for the future.
Skins / Outfits
The lack of skins and a HoYoverse game, name a more frequently mentioned duo. The game will be turning 3 years old in Planarcadia, and so far we only have 2 full-blown character skins (March 7th: Preservation and Firefly), a few customization bits and bobs for the Trailblazer, and a couple of outfits for Pom-Pom.
Not to mention, the timing and the choice are somewhat questionable: March 7th way after she had actually used the dress and for her barely-used Preservation spec at that, and Firefly during the events of Amphoreus, instead of focusing on the current characters.
This is nowhere near enough, especially when there are so many versions of characters that can serve as skins that we see in official trailers! Just take a look at the 10 Stonehearts meeting in the Myriad Celestia trailer, with Aventurine, Topaz and Jade all wearing the IPC uniform. Firefly in her mecha pilot uniform, Acheron in kimono with her blood-red horns, Stellaron Hunters in suits… the list is endless, but none of it is in the game.
My dream feature, of course, is something similar to Genshin’s Echoes, which is characters’ customization or maybe even entire skins (let me be greedy!) earned through playing the game itself. Won’t you love to unlock Aventurine’s glasses and hat or Acheron’s horns through an in-game event?
4-stars (Pretty Please?)
This is not even funny, Honkai: Star Rail’s last 4-star was Moze, who was released in September 2024. In fact, the realization got me to check out the 5-star to 4-star ratio in the usual four: Genshin Impact, Honkai: Star Rail, Wuthering Waves, and Zenless Zone Zero. You can check out my findings (and rant) over here.
Why do 4-stars matter when we get freebies, you’d ask? And the answer is that HSR is at the point in its lifespan and approach where it wants you to pull for multiple characters (and sometimes Light Cones) in order to build a team.
Say, you really liked Hysilens or Black Swan, but you never thought of building a DoT comp before, you don’t have Kafka, and you’ve just missed her rerun. Do you pull for the character, knowing she’ll sit in your account as dead weight and then will require more investment in the future? Or do you regretfully skip and instead spend your pulls elsewhere? What if there was a 4-star that could do Kafka’s DoT Detonation job, but in a more limited capacity, would you attempt it then?
You can ask yourself a similar question with other archetypes, too, be it Follow-Up Attack, Break, Remembrance, the upcoming Elation, etc. Even then, these archetypes actually do have 4-stars/free units: Moze and March 7th: The Hunt; Harmony Trailblazer and Gallagher; and Remembrance Trailblazer.
Having a 4-star take on a similar niche to a limited 5-star or maybe even fulfill a completely unique role allows you to build a low-cost team that can work right now while you are figuring out how far you are willing to go into the archetype, and how many pulls it will cost. Or if you even care that much about the difference in output.
Maybe you are fine with Gallagher instead of Lingsha or prefer to go sustainless anyhow; maybe you don’t like Kafka as a character but still want to play DoT – alas, there’s no low-cost alternative, even with a worse performance; or maybe Robin’s song gives you headache, so you’ve been running Feixiao without her since the beginning, using March 7th: the Hunt and Moze as substitutes. Such choices are only possible when there are low-cost or free alternatives available, meaning freebies, Trailblazer variants and 4-stars.
Free Mr. Reca from the unplayable basement! He would have made a perfect 4-star for V3.8 to go alongside Constance, but alas.
Anecdotes & Character Quests / Companion Missions
From mid-Penacony, Honkai: Star Rail changed its approach. Instead of having separate character quests (Companion Missions), the likes we saw for Clara, Luka, Jingliu, Luocha, to name a few, characters’ stories are baked into the main narrative.
On the one hand, it makes sense – it gives all characters a certain amount of screentime and ensures that players learn just enough about them from the main plot. Think, for example, Aventurine, whose origin and circumstances were tightly bound with the 2.1 main story, or the entire cast of Amphoreus.
On the other hand, this approach ensures that the character involvement ends when the main story ends. Sometimes even just “their” part, as someone else would need the screentime going forward. And there’s nothing you can do as a player but hope that your fav will be among the screentime lottery winners – for all you know, you might end up liking someone like Seele, Fugue, Rappa, Cerydra or The Dahlia, who only show up for one act and then disappear forever.
A way to address that would be taking a look at Genshin Impact and Zenless Zone Zero, and stealing their Anecdote / Trust Event features. HSR is already halfway there with (some) characters like Asta, Yukong, Bronya, Serval, Astral Express Members, etc., available to talk to in their usual place.
In other HoYoverse titles, characters can pop up around the world – sometimes in the place usual for them, sometimes somewhere unexpected – for a tiny, few minutes long interaction either with an NPC, an object, or a different character.
For example, with Belobog now connected to the larger universe, why shouldn’t Serval visit Robin’s concert or, maybe, Luka can drag Seele off to Xianzhou to introduce to his new friends? We know that Fugue is back to Luofu, why not show her reaction to how her home feels the same but also completely different after her brush with the Destruction? Finally, there’s Argenti, Mr. Worldwide himself, who needs no extra reasons to drop by Planarcadia besides singing praises to Idrila the Beauty.
That said, those little bite-sized anecdotes shouldn’t be taking the place of the actual Companion Missions that do a heavy lifting of character development that won’t fit in otherwise. Say, the threat of Irontomb made Bronya realize just how precarious the position of Belobog is. Give her a half-hour to work out a plan on how to proceed and rope in the Trailblazer – or not, that’s the beauty of these quests: they can show us what is happening in the previous regions while we’re busy elsewhere, making the universe feel a bit more alive.
The Trailblazer as the character does not even need to be aware of these events, it’s enough that players know what is going on.
Narrative-driven events
Amphoreus’ lack of deep, narrative-driven events and over-abundance of mobile game-like activities was one of the points I’ve brought up during my V3.8 Impressions.
During the 1.x and 2.x seasons, HSR usually cycled between a big, plot-driven event that offered a free 4-star LC or a character, followed by a bunch of smaller quick mini-games that take no time at all and offer quick rewards. Some of these larger events include Belobog’s Museum Restoration, Aurum Valley’s Hustle and Bustle, A Foxian Tale of the Haunted, Saga of Primaveral Blade, and Wardance.
For obvious reasons, Amphoreus stepped away from these grander flagship festivals and went all-in on Origami Birds, Seal Slammers and various Chimera activities. There’s really only two events that I can recall: raising the little Dromas (even though I let auto-mode do it all) and the Mem Restaurant. Everything else is a mess of match-3, random PvP, and bright colors.
I hope that these more involved limited-time events will be coming back in Planarcadia… which sounds like one big unhinged festival anyway.
Less Powercreep and Tampering
Another rather obvious point. As I’ve mentioned above during the Novaflare section, Honkai: Star Rail’s endgame difficulty keeps increasing by leaps and bounds. It is likely that the first couple patches of the new expansion will be relatively mild, with your invested 2.x comps and 3.x parties not having any significant troubles.
But we all know how it goes, and the 250M Mega Hoolay is waiting just behind the corner with the bug boss in the 2nd half. Oh, and the Amphoreus horse and lion, in each, because that’s how we roll. Not to mention, the new enemies that will likely favor the new heroes. This is where I wish HoYoverse would go the way of Nikador, enemies that are less about brute-forcing, and more about doing mechanics that can make or break your clear.
Tampering is the secondary concern when it comes to battle. Bosses and enemies naturally favor certain elements and types of heroes – single-target, cleave/AoE, DoT, Break, whatever else – and this is more than fine. Tampering comes with endgame buffs or debuffs that only fit the newest, shiniest, most-shilled addition to the game. For example, in Amphoreus it would be something along the lines of “When a Memosprite attacks, all enemies gain X while all allies receive Y” or “each hit reduces the attacked characters’ Crit Damage by 25%”, immediately cutting your options in half, if not less.
Zenless Zone Zero does something similar – a new character belongs to the Rupture specialization that ignores enemies’ DEF? Crank that up to 11, choking both Anomalists and Attackers unless you vertically invested enough to ignore it. Oh, and provide buffs to HP (almost uniquely used by Rupture). Genshin? Bring along Lunar reactions, unique to new Nod-krai characters, or perish.
Such tampering makes it so the endgame can feel quite miserable if you are skipping the newest shiny unit, let alone a whole selection of them. The thing that developers don’t seem to get is that it is unlikely to force players into pulling just to clear the endgame anyhow, but the resentment to such obvious manipulation builds up overtime, especially when you see it being repeated again, and again, and again.
Prepare for unique stage requirements and buffs that only benefit the new Elation units – you know it’s coming.
Less Convoluted Story (Doubtful)
Admittedly, this point is the one that I find the least realistic, even compared to more Novaflares, skins, or slowing down the powercreep. Yes, that is a more cohesive, easy to follow story with clear stakes and without the flair of “this is all a dream / simulation / manga come alive / virtual reality, and also your memories had been tampered with”, substance over hype, plot that can be understood without digging through Wikis and listening to Loretubers over drama, plot and character development over gacha.
As I wrote before in my impressions, Enigmata and Fuli are the best weapon of a bad writer. At any point when it’s convenient, it can turn out that anything and everything had been fake from the beginning, the stakes dramatically raised or lowered at the drop of a hat. Oh, you see a character getting killed? But it’s impossible to die in a dream! Another died? We’re in a simulation anyway, they’ll respawn and be back. And even when the simulation itself crashed and burned, they’re still saved as creatures of memoria anyhow, no harm done.
However, ever since learning that we are going to the world of Aha the Elation, I have had my doubts that the tone of the story will be more down to earth rather than less. All that remains is to wait and see – Version 4.0 should be arriving in February.
