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Honkai Star Rail is a hot topic in the current gacha market. Fans of HoYoverse's previous games and players worldwide have gathered to try out the company's next big entry. While the name "Honkai" is enough to pull in an entire community, many players are interested in trying HoYoverse's turn-based combat attempts.
With multiple closed beta tests that came before, a particular portion of the community already has a taste of what to expect with the official launch. However, many are unaware of what to expect from combat, characters, and mechanics.
This article will help you push through the beginning parts of the game and guide you on things to include and ignore in your playthrough.
Disclaimer: This article is subjective and solely reflects the opinions of the writer.
Best usage of gacha currencies and other things that Honkai Star Rail beginners need to know
1) Understanding the Paths of characters
The concept of "Paths" in Honkai Star Rail works similarly to a character's class in any other game. The title has seven Paths, each fulfilling separate roles for their allies and against enemies. The names of all paths and their functions are as follows:
- Destruction: Attacks from the front and durable.
- Hunt: Single-target specialists.
- Erudition: Multi-target specialists/ AOE damage dealers.
- Harmony: Buffers that increase allies' damage against enemies.
- Nihility: Debuff enemies.
- Preservation: Increases overall defense of their team.
- Abundance: Healers.
It is essential to get accustomed to the Paths of each character, as the enemy waves' setup can be countered easily with the correct character class. For example, a boss can be opposed to a "Hunt" character while having an "Abundance" and a "Nihility" character for extra measures.
2) Countering enemies with correct elements
You must learn about the elements of each character and how they work against enemies in combat. During combat, it should be noted that each enemy has a shield on their health bar and a bright elemental icon identifying their weaknesses.
Hence, fire characters will damage enemies more with glowing fire icons, wind characters will do the same to those with green icons, and so forth. As shown in the image above, Arlan, who is wielding the electro element, is going up against Gepard, who is weak to the element.
This leads to characters rapidly draining both their enemies' shields and health bars, resulting in easy fights against all sorts of foes.
3) Best usage of gacha currencies
Your premium gacha currency in Honkai Star Rail is called Stellar Jade, equivalent to Primogems from Genshin Impact or Blue Crystals from Honkai Impact 3rd.
During the early stages, it is recommended that you avoid using Stellar Jades on the Standard or Beginner banners and spend it only on the character event banner (Selee, v1.0).
Additionally, Light Cones are equivalent to weapon banners, which only accept Star Rail Special Pass and Stellar Jades. Choose wisely between both these banners. Prioritizing a 5-star limited character above everything else will be the wisest choice for a beginner.
4) How to level up your Trailblazer
Once you keep progressing through your story, there will be times when your character will hit a wall. Here, you need to level up your character to a certain number, allowing you to progress further in the game.
Some of the best activities to level up your Trailblazer include completing daily missions and burning your stamina by running Cavern of Corrosions, Calyxes, Simulated Universe, and much more. These activities can be found within the Survival Index, acting as a handbook in Honkai Star Rail.
Once you hit the required Trailblazer level for your story mission, progress further into the quests to gain more EXP with each stage completion.
5) Have each of your characters always leveled up
While this goes without saying, farming for materials in the beginning to level your character up is a massive step toward smooth combat. This will lead to your party dealing subsequent damage based on the enemy's level and receiving less damage from bosses and mobs.
Don't worry about the relics initially, as the system won't unlock until Trailblazer 15. However, it would help if you equip Light Cones and unlock your character's Traces for increased stats.
