What are Space Anchors in Honkai Star Rail and how do they work?

Honkai Star Rail brings a brand new space-faring JRPG-inspired experience to mobiles and PCs. As part of the crew of Astral Express, the protagonist, known as the Trailblazer, embarks on a journey that could determine the fate of the world. With new friends and allies in tow, players will visit different worlds and battle otherworldly threats from the Antimatter Legion. Despite the linear nature of most maps, one will often find themselves backtracking between various areas.

On their adventures, starting on the Herta Space Station, players will notice odd blue crystals with gold rings scattered around each area. They are called Space Anchors. What exactly are they, and what do they do?

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Space Anchors are one of the most useful elements aiding traversal and progression in Honkai Star Rail

Simply put, Star Anchors are checkpoints in Honkai Star Rail. As such, it makes sense that they will be dotted around maps to make the grind more bearable. However, there is more to it. They also serve a two-fold goal in the game and can be used for:

• Fast travel
• Healing the party

This can get annoying, given how many areas players can go through to get to new locations. This is where the Fast Travel or Teleport ability comes in handy. Once unlocked, players are able to fast travel to any previous Star Anchor at any location. This reduces the time wasted trudging through dungeons and maps, especially since they are littered with enemy spawns.

This also brings us to its other, arguably more important effect: healing. While players can purchase consumables to heal at any time they want, it is not feasible during the game's early hours. None of the party members at this stage can use any healing skills either. As such, players will often find themselves rushing back to Star Anchors to have their party healed after taking damage from a powerful foe.

By default, entering the Anchor's vicinity will replenish all party members' health. Players can also manually enter how much HP percentage should be healed each time by interacting with the object.

However, it should be noted that Star Anchors operate on an energy system. In other words, energy is consumed every time the healing effect is used. Thankfully, it regenerates over time as well.

Furthermore, players can toggle whether they want the healing effect to be automatic or only initiated after engaging with the Star Anchor. This is a good way to avoid wasting energy if one is farming a map or location. All things considered, these objects offer respite to Honkai Star Rail players in their pursuit of treasure.

Honkai Star Rail was developed and released by HoYoverse on April 26, 2023. It is a free-to-play, story-driven, turn-based RPG with gacha mechanics. The game is available on PC, iOS, and Android platforms. Ports for the PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5 consoles are also planned to arrive in the future.