How does turn-based combat work in Honkai Star Rail?

Honkai Star Rail closed beta has been live for a few hours now, with only a number of selected players from the community gaining access to its servers. Besides interesting character designs, the gacha system, and quests, HoYoverse's newest title offers a turn-based combat style mixed with twists and turns.

The turn-based mechanics in video game combat have been popular for a long time. Although the system generally gets mixed reactions from most players, Honkai Star Rail's combat isn't just any typical RTS (real-time strategy).

With less than two months remaining until the official release, the following article will list everything that HoYoverse's next entry has in store regarding their combat in the ongoing closed beta version.

Disclaimer: This article contains minor spoilers on the combat mechanics of Honkai Star Rail and doesn't include anything related to the main storyline.

Honkai Star Rail's turn-based combat introduces fun interactions and flow catering to all players

Honkai Star Rail is now available for players to pre-register on HoYoverse's official website. Anyone that's interested can head to this link and follow the instructions to go through the registration process on different platforms. As mentioned earlier, the official release date is less than two months away, as it was leaked to be dropped on April 26, 2023.

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However, the company has already granted access for the closed beta version to most of the community. Due to this, several new players are experiencing the turn-based combat system in the game. Players should note that turn-based combat works just as the name suggests, where the playable character(s) and enemies take turns attacking each other.

A brief look at combat in the game (Image via HoYoverse)

Honkai Star Rail follows a similar path, showcasing the traditional attacking style while switching between enemies. Fortunately, HoYoverse has added plenty of features and interactions to this otherwise slow-paced combat mechanic, allowing fans of both RTS and action combat to weigh in on the fun.

Every added feature in Honkai Star Rail combat so far

1) Normal attacks and skills

Regular attacks and abilities (Image via HoYoverse)

A party of four can be dispatched at a time on the battlefield. Each character can perform a normal attack and a particular skill, accumulating and depleting skill points. The latter is required to perform unique skills on opponents, which means that players must be careful before using any type of attack.

2) Weakness

Weakness activation before combat (Image via HoYoverse)

Weakness is a gameplay mechanic that lets players use a specific elemental type to deal massive damage to their enemies. This can be identified with a small icon over the enemy's head, allowing players to either start a battle by applying weakness to enemies or deal increased damage during battle.

3) Ultimate skill and animations

Ultimate skill animation for Kafka (Image via HoYoverse)

Honkai Star Rail can be separated from other HoYoverse titles solely due to each character's unique animation and ultimate skills. These skills work like most action games by dealing significant damage, buffing allies, or debuffing enemies based on the character's class.

4) Classes

Classes in the game (Image via HoYoverse)

Presently, there are seven classes in the game, with each of them providing different buffs in different scenarios. The classes include:

Destruction: Deals increased damage and grant survivability.
The Hunt: Deals increased damage to single targets.
The Erudition: Deal increased damage to multiple targets.
The Harmony: Apply buffs to allies.
The Nihility: Apply debuffs to partners.
The Preservations: Possess powerful defensive abilities.
The Abundance: Heal allies and restore HP for the team.

This further allows players to plan ahead of any encounter and form teams based on enemy types. Interestingly, the speed of the battle can even be set to 2x so that everyone can quickly run each wave of enemies in a single tileset.