Honkai Star Rail

[Marina2]

Now that I have decided to use guarantee on Sparkle, I have to rely on luck to win 50/50 and get Acheron.

I have reached 300 pull on standard but haven't selected anyone yet. Should I get Bronya if I already have Sparkle? I already have everyone else on standard except Himeko and Gepard.

[Liddo-kun]

Originally Posted by felix

Congratz, think we get a selector next patch in case you missing someone else.

thanks. I needed another pyro, so getting Guinaifen was one of the strong motivations on finishing Prison Break. Now planning what builds to do for her.. on two accounts it will be a DoT build using a four piece Prisoner of Deep Confinement. However, i have one account that still does have access to Fyxestroll Garden.. so on this third account, I will be doing a standard crit build for her with 2 piece Musketeer and 2 piece Firesmith.

oh, a selector? That's good news. Hmm,,,,, think I got everyone needed, but I could use more eidolons for Xueyi, since she's one of the 4 stars helping me farm World 7.

[Liddo-kun]

Originally Posted by Marina2

Now that I have decided to use guarantee on Sparkle, I have to rely on luck to win 50/50 and get Acheron.

I have reached 300 pull on standard but haven't selected anyone yet. Should I get Bronya if I already have Sparkle? I already have everyone else on standard except Himeko and Gepard.

just pull for who you want.

I mean, if you've always wanted to have Bronya, then go for her. But if there's someone else you need, then get that character.

[belatkuro]

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Got Acheron in just a 10-pull. Got her LC in 70 pulls. Have only lost the 50/50 once this year of playing HSR. Wish I have this luck in Genshin. Been losing the 50/50 since Navia there.
With the anniv rewards plus skipping Aventurine and the stuff this patch, I'll have enough for Robin and eventually for Firefly.

[haseo0408]

Lost the 50/50 for Acheron, no worries, with all the free pulls and events I have 22 days to accumulate enough Jade to get her before her banner is over, thank the aeons this is the patch with the anniverssary. I have the For the Sake of the Work Light Cone so I don't think I'll pull for her signature light cone.

[Marina2]

Fortune smile on me. Got Acheron from winning 50/50.

Too bad I didn't get any Gallagher from those 90 pulls.

[MeoTwister5]

I got Acheron on my 50/50 on a 40 pull.

Got her LC on a single 10 pull with no pity.

Welp. I'm tempted to try for Jingliu's LC.

[relentlessflame]

Won 50/50 on Acheron, but lost the 75/25 on the LC, so will have to pull more later for that.

Spoiler for Small tip to prepare for the final 2.1 battle and the party I used, but no details:

Bring characters that attack multiple targets (whether via their attack/skill or their ult). I personally did Jingliu, Jing Yuan, Gepard, and Luocha, which certainly wasn't the best, but slow-and-steady took the boss down. Being unprepared for the mechanic can quickly do you in in the second phase.

Spoiler for Patch 2.1 Trailblaze Mission First Thoughts:

Well, my craziest theory didn't happen, but I didn't really think it would -- though it was in the realm of possibility.

Honestly, you could kind of argue that this whole chapter was a character quest for Aventurine and Acheron that wove in the mysteries/reveals of the story, and on the whole I thought it was pretty good. Obviously Aventurine needed the character development, and I think they were pretty successful on that front. Really, the whole thing all along was a giant death flag for him, and they even had him coming to terms with "himself" for introspection near the end. But if there was ever any doubt before about "deaths" in this arc, it should be abundantly clear now: death is not the end, but the answer. So we will no doubt see more "deaths" between now and the end, but it'll just bring us closer to the truth that lurks beneath this dreamworld.

(Cynically, spending so much time with Aventurine forced in the party could be seen as a way of promoting his character for the upcoming gacha, but honestly a tank/shielder like that is pretty safe to throw into any party. Was also a small segment with Acheron to promote her honestly slightly OP "kill normal enemies with your skill" overmap skill... so yeah, as far as "ads" go, I'd say this is pretty effective.)

Acheron being an Emanator of Nihility (IX) was kind of the worst kept secret given the trailers laid it on quite thick (the last one even had "Self-Annihilator" in faint text on her title card), but I think things still aren't 100% clear. What is the "red text" trying to do as it guides us in a certain way? But besides that, very good scenes with Welt Yang that also tied in some HI3 lore about who he really is. Aventurine casting aspersions on her was misdirection, and I don't think they're going to pull any sort of twist where she's anything but an ally to the Express. However, if we assume that the person on the "call" with Black Swan was our other Galaxy Ranger showing up in 2.2, well, they didn't show up yet... but it sounds like it's not going to be friendly.

Regarding Robin, between what she said in her letter and what we know from Aventurine, I think we can start to picture what happened. I suspect she wasn't actually "murdered" in the way Sunday thinks, but she essentially staged her own death so she could cross the barrier and get to the bottom of the issue with SUD. This would no doubt put her at odds with her brother, and perhaps with The Harmony itself, who just seems to want to root out/kill the Watchmaker once and for all.

Gallagher's reveal was... quite something, although they didn't really do much to hide the contempt he has for The Family. The reveal that Mikhail is actually the Watchmaker isn't that surprising. There's a suggestion that he ended up dying IRL, but as we've seen before your spirit can survive in the dreamworld, so I'm supposing that's where they'll go with this, combined with the above point. It seems that "the waking world" that Acheron alluded to at the start is actually where you arrive after you pass through death in the dreamworld -- and presumably to the "truth" of Penacony. The mysteries run deeper...

And the "unmasking" of Sam in the closing scene was a pretty obvious hook for the To Be Continued. The monologue changes if you revisit the "special place" after finishing the story.

All in all... a good continuation, at least from my point of view. It maybe wasn't quite as exciting as the first act in some ways (though still had a few good reveals), but it's a good development of both the theme and the underlying mystery.

Spoiler for Patch 2.1 thoughts about new maps/puzzles/etc.:

Honestly, if there's one kind of weak spot of 2.1 IMO, it's that the new maps are mostly reskins of existing maps/ideas and almost all the mechanics were the same. Without the novelty of the first time, it felt a little bit tedious at times to me. They seem to have mostly made the Clockie puzzles a bit easier. I did like that they gave Hanu the bazooka though, because I don't really like this kind of stealth that much (even if it's simple).

The model-size town, though, we pretty funny as a little twist. There was also a new mini-game that apparently has more levels.

Edit: Just for fun regarding these predictions:

Originally Posted by relentlessflame

I guess my instinct says that he's going to be right about a lot of things, but wrong about some critical piece, but less because of willfully lying to us but because he actually doesn't know and is his just bluffing his way though. They keep pointing out he's a gambler, so even though he may only know ~60% of the facts or whatever, he's going to be willing to roll the dice. Just the fact that they're portraying him as so over-the-top-shady makes me think he's not going to be as full-of-it as one might believe (just like I think about Sparkle too, incidentally -- I think there is some sincerity in what she's doing despite her "foolish" methods).

[...]

Anyway, I suppose to be contrarian, I'll predict that neither Boothill or Acheron will know the other, but Boothill will offer the explanation that they're basically "lone rangers" (parden the pun...) who operate independently these days, so it's not surprising that they've never met each other. That explanation makes it a sort of a fake-out. But whatever the truth is either way, Boothill will end up being important later.

Spoiler for 2.1 Plot - How it turned out...:

I was right that Aventurine was "right about a lot of things, but wrong about some critical piece" but 100% wrong about the reason: him pitting the murders on her was actually the big lie. He was totally right about her being an Emanator and being the one who killed Ifrit and the gang. They portrayed it as the Gang willfully choosing to fight rather than just hand over the box and run away when she gave them the option, but she definitely killed them all.

The sincerity in what Sparkle is doing is absolutely clear now. She knows exactly what's going on with this dreamworld and, in her foolish ways, is trying to lead everyone to the end. The real question I guess is: who is she working for? I suppose the easy answer here is the Watchmaker. Perhaps the slightly more out-there answer would be Robin. We know now that Robin was investigating SUD, so if we assume that she purposefully allowed herself to get killed so she could cross over to the other side, perhaps what she found is what caused her to reach out to Sparkle and try to manipulate people to crossing over without doing anything overt. Working through a fool means no one will question it. I wonder if, perhaps, the thing that Sunday is most angry about isn't actually that Robin got killed literally, but that Robin now knows the truth that they were trying to hide from her for whatever reason, and it'll disrupt The Harmony. It's either that or the truth has also been withheld from Sunday as well so he legit doesn't know what's on "the other side" (only that people who die to SUD in the dream become "spiritually dead" from his point of view).

As for Boothill, if we assume that he was the person speaking on the phone to Black Swan (which seems very likely, as he otherwise wasn't introduced yet and we know he's going to appear in 2.2), then my speculation here was totally wrong, and what I originally suspected is closer to the truth. Not only does he know who Acheron is, he considers her an enemy. And as for Acheron being a Galaxy Ranger... it's basically a cover story. Galaxy Rangers walk the path of the Hunt, but the real Acheron walks the path of the Nihility -- the Galaxy Ranger is just what she's "known as" but not who she is.

So anyway, all in all... pretty close? They're sticking very close to the formula of making sure everyone one involved is some variation of grey in the end rather than being pure black-or-white.

[Liddo-kun]

not much luck in pulls on all servers I play in.

EU = got her light cone, but no Acheron. I'm guaranteed, so just have to gather some more.

Asia = lost the 50/50 to Clara. Wondering if I should keep pulling, or just save the guarantee for another character.

America = not yet triggered any 5 star. But I'm on 65 pulls, so it's close.

[haseo0408]

I got her! Acheron is mine!!!!!!!

Now a question my fellow Trailblazers: is it worth it to pull for her signature Light Cone Along the Passing Shore? I have the guarantee so if I pull for it I will get it, does it bring enough to the table that justifies the use of my precious jade?.


I don't have Loucha so I can also pull for him......

That's my conflict, so what do you think?.

[relentlessflame]

Originally Posted by haseo0408

I got her! Acheron is mine!!!!!!!

Now a question my fellow Trailblazers: is it worth it to pull for her signature Light Cone Along the Passing Shore? I have the guarantee so if I pull for it I will get it, does it bring enough to the table that justifies the use of my precious jade?.


I don't have Loucha so I can also pull for him......

That's my conflict, so what do you think?.

Currently, my understanding is that there just aren't that many other LCs at the moment for Nihility characters that focus on DMG and CRIT. So at the moment, it's the best by a significant margin. The second-best is supposedly Good Night and Sleep Well (GNSW), which is a 4-star that's also exclusive to the gacha, but it's focused on increased damage based on DoTs. Now, it may be in the future that other Nihility LCs will come around that provide a reasonable alternative, but right now this LC is a rather significant boost.

That said... personally, I think Luocha is an extremely good healer in this game. His passive healing and HoT help a lot with SP conservation, not to mention his passive heal also has a cleanse, so in a lot of cases it's just "set and forget." He's basically in almost all of my parties, regardless of elements, because he's just a self-sufficient healbot.

So... I guess it depends on what other sustain characters you have, plus how many jades you have. Statistically, your odds of getting the LC are higher, but if you have a healer gap just having more damage isn't necessarily the most strategic. Like I said, it might be that other more accessible LCs come along later, or you could pull the LC during the rerun, possibly.

But then again, the normal rule of gacha applies: when in doubt, pull for your favorites. If you really like her, then something that will make you want to use her more will probably make you happier. And hey, if you kill things faster, less need for healing.

[haseo0408]

Originally Posted by relentlessflame

Currently, my understanding is that there just aren't that many other LCs at the moment for Nihility characters that focus on DMG and CRIT. So at the moment, it's the best by a significant margin. The second-best is supposedly Good Night and Sleep Well (GNSW), which is a 4-star that's also exclusive to the gacha, but it's focused on increased damage based on DoTs. Now, it may be in the future that other Nihility LCs will come around that provide a reasonable alternative, but right now this LC is a rather significant boost.

That said... personally, I think Luocha is an extremely good healer in this game. His passive healing and HoT help a lot with SP conservation, not to mention his passive heal also has a cleanse, so in a lot of cases it's just "set and forget." He's basically in almost all of my parties, regardless of elements, because he's just a self-sufficient healbot.

So... I guess it depends on what other sustain characters you have, plus how many jades you have. Statistically, your odds of getting the LC are higher, but if you have a healer gap her just having more damage isn't necessarily the most strategic. Like I said, it might be that other more accessible LCs come along later, or you could pull the LC during the rerun, possibly.

But then again, the normal rule of gacha applies: when in doubt, pull for your favorites. If you really like her, then something that will make you want to use her more will probably make you happier. And hey, if you kill things faster, less need for healing.

Thank you, that was very helpful, I think I'm going to leave Loucha for later reruns or wait for another healer equally as powerful as him. Right now I have Houhou to cover all my healing needs. Besides, Acheron is indeed a favorite of mine, I have Mei-senpai Hescher of Thunder in Honkai Impact 3, Raiden Ei in Genshin Impact and they have never left my teams not even once so yeah Acheron is here to stay I think I'll pull for the Light Cone, I will most likely get it and made my life easier to get more Jade in the Simulated Universe and other challenges.

Thank you for your help.

[belatkuro]

Spoiler for 2.1 Trailblaze:

They actually made me sympathize with Aventurine and it worked. This was kinda like his character quest if you think about it. I'm amazed by the steps that he made throughout the story. Using not just 2 but 3 Cornerstones as bargaining chips, and actually destroying one into pieces to hide it, and using Ratio to double cross Sunday. He can be this reckless knowing he'll come out on top coz of the luck blessing he received. It's amazing and also pretty suicidal too, which makes sense given his history. His kit is also not bad but given the content on MoC and PF, don't think I need him. Plus there's Robin and Firefly in the future.
On a side note, I guess this explains why Topaz was pretty confident in facing off against the Nameless in the Jarilo-VI Interlude. The executives in IPC having these Cornerstones from an Emanator of Preservation as a trump card certainly paints things differently for Topaz. Though with her actions in Belobog, she got her stone confiscated it seems and used by Aventurine. And we're not done with the IPC yet with the intro of Jade, who has something cooking after what Aventurine did. She's something alright to have lent her stone to Aventurine.

Kinda sad that Acheron and TB didn't have much interaction this time. I wanted to learn more of her red lines and the connection they had at the beginning of Penacony. And she expressed concern again to the TB when she asked Welt about them which really solidified my trust in her despite Aventurine throwing shade on her identity. Though I like the bonding she did with Welt. I left playing HI3 though before I encountered him and the other character Kevin but I've gotten the gist of it at least from looking it up on reddit. Acheron being the Mei expy probably helped in him trusting her. Establishing this was probably what the writer Shaoji wanted for this patch story. And there's still time for Acheron and TB to bond given that another Galaxy Ranger(most definitely Boothill) is on the way to hunt her.

I honestly got spoiled early on in 2.0 about the Sam=Firefly thing so it didn't surprise me. This was probably the story spoiler they mentioned in the 2.1 stream. With the hints given around it's probably not hard to guess it. One thing I noticed when Sam and Acheron were talking, at least in the JP voice over, is that Sam was using keigo(polite language) at times when talking to her. His rough exterior doesn't fit the polite tone of his voice so that's probably also a clue, maybe. Wonder how his combat kit and voice over is. Is Firefly the main personality or is it Sam? I'll pull for her/him still.
And connecting to her still being alive, this raises more questions about Robin's "death". Given how she's playable next patch, and obviously she's not dead yet even with the story painting her as such, what is up with her then? Did she set up her death to do something else? Something about the legacy of the Watchmaker and the whole Penacony thing I guess?

Sunday mentions something about a Master so I'm guessing there's another mastermind around. He didn't look like the true mastermind of this story at all, plus he got taken down by Gallagher like that at the end. Screams more of mid-boss. Though I didn't expect that about Gallagher(didn't get a copy of him given how I got Acheron in just a 10-pull.) Why are 4 stars so sus?(Tingyun, Gallagher, and maybe Misha). I guess the Hounds asking who is Gallagher is the big clue that he's sus. There's still more mysteries about the Watchmaker's Legacy and we're not close to knowing it yet. There's still the thing about Clockie and the power it gave to the Trailblazer that they used several times in the story. Probably next time we'll know more about it and how it connects to the truth of Penacony. Which will lead to Harmony Trailblazer as a new form given how things go with them and Aeons and Paths.
We didn't get a Hunt Path TB in Luofu but that story arc was a mess already which doesn't seem to leave room for it. We'll probably go back in there again to get the new form.

Time to do all the events and exploration. I'm still not done with the previous MoC though. I'm missing 1 more star, even though I already 36 star the newest one with Sam. Any advice for the "Something Unto Death" boss in MoC?

[MeoTwister5]

There is supposedly a F2P LC in 2.2 that will be her BiS 4 star, but still gacha. GNSW is still her current F2P best.

[relentlessflame]

Originally Posted by belatkuro

Spoiler for 2.1 Trailblaze:

One thing I noticed when Sam and Acheron were talking, at least in the JP voice over, is that Sam was using keigo(polite language) at times when talking to her. His rough exterior doesn't fit the polite tone of his voice so that's probably also a clue, maybe. Wonder how his combat kit and voice over is. Is Firefly the main personality or is it Sam? I'll pull for her/him still.

Spoiler for 2.1 Trailblaze Mission:

Yes, I noticed this too in the JP dub. I heard some of the cutscenes in videos too, and in the English dub I don't think this really comes across at all because they really gave Sam a much more belabored and almost "angsty" sounding voice. When you realize it's Firefly, you almost wonder if it's because her voice is being synthesized by Sam, or if she's just trying super-hard to sound over-the-top cool in her Sam persona. The JP dub it much more plausible as Firefly with a voice change via the mecha.

My guess is that, now that we know who Firefly/Sam is, in future scenes it'll be more clearly "Firefly talking in Sam's voice" rather than seemingly like a different persona to us. But at least if we assume what she said about her condition is true, outside of the dreamworld it seems like she always has to remain inside Sam as a sort of cryo-capsule. (In the dreamworld, she can "magical girl transform" like that.)

Originally Posted by belatkuro

Spoiler for 2.1 Trailblaze:

And connecting to her still being alive, this raises more questions about Robin's "death". Given how she's playable next patch, and obviously she's not dead yet even with the story painting her as such, what is up with her then? Did she set up her death to do something else? Something about the legacy of the Watchmaker and the whole Penacony thing I guess?

Spoiler for 2.1 Trailblaze Mission:

My strong guess, based on what happened to Aventurine, is that she "crossed over" into the "true dreamworld" (or, what Acheron calls "The Waking World") where the truth of the Watchmaker is going to be revealed. I suppose we can assume that the reason Firefly got killed by SUD (beyond motivating the TB) was also so that Silver Wolf could figure out the coordinates to this secret place. And I'm guessing that this is where Firefly is going to take the Trailblazer in the next act, and Acheron will lead to the rest of the Express crew to join them.

Originally Posted by belatkuro

Spoiler for 2.1 Trailblaze:

Sunday mentions something about a Master so I'm guessing there's another mastermind around. He didn't look like the true mastermind of this story at all, plus he got taken down by Gallagher like that at the end. Screams more of mid-boss. Though I didn't expect that about Gallagher(didn't get a copy of him given how I got Acheron in just a 10-pull.) Why are 4 stars so sus?(Tingyun, Gallagher, and maybe Misha). I guess the Hounds asking who is Gallagher is the big clue that he's sus. There's still more mysteries about the Watchmaker's Legacy and we're not close to knowing it yet. There's still the thing about Clockie and the power it gave to the Trailblazer that they used several times in the story. Probably next time we'll know more about it and how it connects to the truth of Penacony. Which will lead to Harmony Trailblazer as a new form given how things go with them and Aeons and Paths.
We didn't get a Hunt Path TB in Luofu but that story arc was a mess already which doesn't seem to leave room for it. We'll probably go back in there again to get the new form.

Spoiler for 2.1 Trailblaze Mission:

In the dialog when Sunday talks about Gallagher's master they use what is basically furigana to overlay The Watchmaker. So, at least Sunday believes that The Watchmaker is the true master behind all this. The insinuation is that Gallagher is not actually even a real "person" but a sort of amalgamation of Family traits created by the Watchmaker to be a sort of vessel for the Watchmaker to act in the dreamscape. He also claimed that his age was 13, which beyond being the tarot card for death (as I saw pointed out), could actually truly be his "creation date." His skill at mixing "concepts" to create drinks in the dreamworld could also stem from the Watchmaker, who is basically the dream master.

I personally still think it must be connected to Misha, as you suggested, because in the dreamscape that had the lines about Mikhail it sounded absolutely like Misha's voice, and it seems like no one can see Misha except the TB, in the same way that no one can see Clockie -- and we now know that Clockie and that whole Hanu story are directly connected to the Watchmaker and the origin of Penacony as they know it. That doesn't necessarily mean that Misha is the Watchmaker, but there's definitely a strong connection.

[Tenzen12]

Spoiler for 2.1 Trailblaze Mission:

Quite dissapointed with Sam reveal. It completely destroy their no-nonesnse weapon of mass destruction appeal. Feels like everything we knew about Sam was lie and truth is not even that appealing in comparison.

[relentlessflame]

I put it under spoiler tags just to be safe a bit longer for those who are still catching up.

Originally Posted by Tenzen12

Spoiler for 2.1 Trailblaze Mission:

Quite dissapointed with Sam reveal. It completely destroy their no-nonesnse weapon of mass destruction appeal. Feels like everything we knew about Sam was lie and truth is not even that appealing in comparison.

Spoiler for 2.1 Trailblaze Mission:

I guess I personally feel the total opposite -- the "no-nonsense weapon of mass destruction," to me, isn't as interesting/appealing to me as the concept of wearing Sam sort of like a "mask" -- a weapon that exists only to kill, a slave to destiny, but there's a person inside who wishes they could break free but can't. To me it makes them more multi-layered, and brings it much closer to the core narrative themes of this story arc. And, well, the pilot inside the mech is a very recurring theme in all mecha anime (and tokusatsu like Kamen Rider), which I think this is pretty clearly an homage to. They already started the argument even here that "no-nonsense weapon" is indeed who Firefly is (as was hinted in some dialog in 2.0), but they've shown she's also not just that. I assume coming to terms with whether she has "the right" to basically have a life outside her duty, especially given all she's done (all she's killed) and the role she was born into + condition, might be part of her character development here.

But yeah, obviously it's just a matter of opinion/preference. Certainly it makes sense to me that some would like the concept of Sam just being Sam and like them for that.

[Tenzen12]

That's wrong way to look at it. Let's take Blade or Kafka as example. Bladeb is suicidal madman who kill people like nothing and take their swords while laughing like maniac ... but he is also pretty chill dude when you aren't on his bad side. Kafka is literal sociopat, but you can see she has lot of genuine affection toward trailblazer. People have layers and whole this Sam persona is baseline to build on. There is infinite possibilities to go from there.

But it's all gone and we now know pretty much everything that there is to know about Sam thus there little to no room to expand their character.

[Marina2]

Oh, look like they just released a patch to nerf new boss.

[Klashikari]

Spoiler for 2.1:

Can't say I felt much for Aventurine, like at all. The whole deal about his past and gamble made him quite more interesting as a character, but the side effect is that they went really too hard with his POV about his past and future that it felt incredibly forced. Like they really used tons of tragic past tropes to try "redeeming" gambler blondie. I'd argue it was way worse than their attempt to make players like Firefly with the date and all, since they kept exposing Aventurine's woes ad nauseam to the point the build up as an antagonist felt nearly nonsensical.
Moreover, I do think MHY should really make up their mind when it comes to the concept of "death" for characters. Tingyun status left in the open is already one thing, Firefly and Robin "fakeouts" as well, but then, double dipping with Aventurine makes me wonder if there will be any reason to care when they pull the same shenanigans, especially when the game tries very hard to show characters being shaken by such news whereas it is actually no big deal, which cheapen quite severely the whole ordeal as result.
At least, I have to admit his plan matches his gambling nature, although going as far as potentially dying for real was a bit too much.

Meanwhile, I think them beating around the bush about Acheron wasn't particularly enjoyable considering they kept pushing all the references from Honkai 3rd to the point I'm not even sure if they will commit or not (all the stuff about project stigma and Kevin were so on the nose that I wouldn't be surprise if they did that to bait people to check the other game or ask info from players there).

So on a narrative perspective, I guess 2.1 wasn't too bad and could have been much more awkward given how 2.0 went. But in term of exposure and execution, I'm not exactly impressed and I sure hope 2.3 isn't going to be the same as Luofu's epilogue, because that would be extremely anticlimatic.