Is Honkai: Star Rail TOO Expensive? 

I love the comments section in this video LMAO. 1/3 - I 100% agree The other 1/3 - I disagree respectfully The last 1/3 - Lul get good 4head

Current Pure fiction is a massive character check right now ;_;

Yeah the amount of shit required just unlock all of traces and lvs is a *lot* but the fact that I don't have to wait 2 whole days just to wait for my talents/traces to be available saved some of my sanity.

You can get a lot of pulls per patch but you also need a lot of characters

I just want them to lower the cost of relic runs from 40 to 30 or even lower. 6 runs (240 stamina) for garbage relics most of the time just makes for a horrible experience

I think as an f2p/low spender, it's important to not have the expectation to clear the highest floors of MoC every cycle - if it can be done, that is great, but don't get pressured into trying to pull new charas just to do it. Instead, build teams of characters you enjoy and understand that you are getting a lot of content for a low amount of spend in a live service game.

tbh.. im a complete free 2 play player and i can assure, you don't need to spend a penny on this game.. the only thing you need is having a clear idea of what you want and possibly a calculative decision making quality.

I think it’s both. I’m grateful that I have disposable play money and the willpower to limit myself greatly, but I also have known people that are very susceptible to this kind of predatory marketing. you were absolutely right that while you can complete most contact with a small roster of characters, it takes a lot more effort. Not to mention a lot more reliance on good RNG since so much of a characters full potential relies on good artifact stats balance and the system for those is so unforgiving. I have pulled a signature light cone solely on the basis that I confidently would not be able to get the artifact sub stat rolls I needed to make up for what the light cone could provide.

a lot of people say getting stuck on a boss is bad, but in my opinion the thing that bored me to hell with Genshin is that it was so easy that i felt nothing when doing any content, i was able to beat the first abyss and guess what?, over 2 year later i can use that same team to still beat the abyss.

It's so expensive to build characters in HSR compared to Genshin it's insane. There are so many good characters that you have to build, the last major trace requires the last ascension and a few minor traces require character level 75 or 80, and in Genshin you only need to upgrade 3 types of attack, in HSR not only you have to upgrade them, you have to unlock the major and minor traces as well. And credits are really hard to get as well if you build many characters. Edit: Also the materials to upgrade relics are very scarce but I think Genshin is the same in this one.

I agree mostly, but as you said HSR is more expensive if you don't engage with It on a knowledge level. It's an rpg after all, you're meant to think about teams sinergy and your account as a whole patch to patch, team and character building are the central focus bc well, after a certain point when you account reaches the endgame and the hard content makes itself the focus, there's nothing to do but farm to improve your units. I log in, put the auto farm for the mats or relics that I need for the character of the day and log out. When new content comes in, yeah there's like 4-5 days worth of new things to do if you take your time and play a couple of hours a day (expect story content, that could take a bit more). But after that you're back to the mines. The game expects more of you than Genshin bc there is less to do but improve your account. Same for pulls, supports are always a safe bet and dps units are all the same except for a few that even at release have a label on them that says "I'm actually broken", everyone was skipping ratio bc he was clearly subpar compared to RM, and Robin and Boothill are both skips from a meta perspective since if you're been paying attention and pulling correctly, you already have the big 3 supports. This with the fact that there's usually 100 pulls per patch and soft pity comes at 75-80, means that you always have 20 spare pulls per patch that sum up to save a lost 50/50 in time, not to mention the possible skips like the Ratio banner. I think when this f2p discussion is brought up, warp economy should be an integral point to talk about, not just the units.

Yeah, I tend to agree. I remember asking my sister back in 1.6 when we all got a free Ratio if that meant Star Rail was more F2P friendly than Genshin. And she said "hell, no. I've never been stonewalled by a boss before in Genshin, but it's happened multiple times in Star Rail." At that time she was referring to the new scarab boss, but she also got stuck on the boss at the end of 2.1's story Oh, and some additional context: my sister is a Eula main who plays a mono-cryo team. Literally mono-cryo. It's Eula, Shenhe, Ganyu and Diona.

I definitely feel that I need to pull more in HSR. In Genshin, I pull for characters I like. In HSR, I pull more for a kit than a character. Though how much I like a character is a factor. Many strong ones I didn't pull because I just don't really care for them, but I definitely felt how much I'm losing by skipping them. I don't think I've completed a MOC 12 because I just keep building characters I like instead of teams effective for that MOC cycle. I don't mind, but I can imagine some may get frustrated at not using their favorite team to complete all content. PF is easier than MOC imo since you can make up a lot of points with one of your teams. As long as you get the 60K points, you get max rewards. In MOC both teams need to be functional to complete the content within the time limit. I don't even bother doing the insanely hard stuff in Gold and Gears and Swarm Disaster. The time and effort isn't worth the jades for me. Just to comment on the Sparkle trailer, since you mentioned her, her trailers didn't actually do anything for me. It was her appearance in Black Swan's story quest that got me more interested in her, but still not enough to pull her. Maybe one day, but I don't have enough info on her that I want her now. That goes for a lot of characters honestly.

2 new 5-stars every patch and while more accessible, their LCs generally feel much more powerful than signature weapons do in Genshin. On top of that the relic system is so awful it's an absolute black hole of stamina sinking and the endgame content has much higher and more specific requirements to get through. HSR is certainly a more generous game but the demands are so much higher to begin with. Not to mention that the lack of mechanical input in combat means you can't really do much to just outskill content either, you are much more gatekept by your character kits and the equipment you have available

F2P player here, came from GI and HI3, immediately checked enemies and their type weaknesses. Saw that almost everything was weak to either qua/ima/a dot element, and chose qua+dot for brute forcing everything. It worked, once I got seele,silver wolf and kafka, endgame was never a problem again and now can just pull upgrades or whatever tf I want. Just like genshin, focused on a strong 8 core team for the first few months and then can pull whatever. This does seem a lot harder for casuals and I can see the struggle with my friends too, but eventually we all got there to the point we get too strong for anything so was nothing to worry about.

A great point that I wholeheartedly agree with. One major problem with the character pool in HSR is that not only do you have to pull for different paths, you are almost obligated to pull for certain elements if you want to clear hard content. This might sound like nothing at first, but unlike in Genshin, where the weapons do not matter that much in combat situations, HSR is designed to stonewall players out of content like the Memory of Chaos if you don't have characters of certain elements or them not being good enough to clear, as enemies straight up have a 25% more resistance towards non-weakness elements. What this results in, is that you would have to pull for characters every 1-2 patches if you want to clear certain content without having a hard time. You would also have a feeling that the character you pulled this patch is not as good as the one next patch, and on and on. They did not give out more free stuff solely because they are more generous, but also because the average spenders have to pull for characters more often.

While i agree you do need more characters in star rail you really just need to be smarter with your jades, most stuff can be deal with by just substituting one slot for someone like with the death boss just run sampo or any other dot 4 star, I dont think its too bad of a problem(atleast yet) if it wasnt for the fact that building characters is SOOO ANNOYING and could take months to max them out, as someone who had dhil I know the pain, but this is what some ppl wanted in games like genshin too, where they wanted more diverse gameplay where there forced to use more characters, atleast thats what Ive heard from the community. You can beat the game much easier in genshin which is a good thing on its own

With potentially the exception of Acheron I think its the supports that are what will make you regret skipping. For DPS I think I could edge by with just Clara + DHIL for all endgame content since 1.3

We have to remember how difficult genshin was before its first year, mainly having the liyue big 3 and archons to fall back on to clear difficult content. The game became mind numbingly easy only after the release of dendro. Almost 2 years after its initial release. To say HSR wont have the same fate after seeing what Acheron is is a bold prediction

The reason they give so much free stuff is because there's so much to get. Characters and LC are not really interchangeable unlike in Genshin.

As someone who SKIPPED Jingliu, Fu Xuan, and Acheron, I think you are exaggerating a bit. As you admit at the end, this is ultimately just about feelings. I understand the FEELING of missing out on endgame. I couldn't beat MoC either. But I was also still in my FIRST few months of playing. OF COURSE I wasn't ready for the hardest content. I kept trying, going as far as I could, while slowly building up my teams. Sometimes I'd get a little further, sometimes a little behind. But eventually, I built two good teams and have started consistently beating every challenge. Lately, the turbulence has even favored me, but not always, and not for the longest time. And THAT was SATISFYING. If people want to auto-battle clear the hardest content first try every time, then naturally they are going to feel bad not pulling. But why play the game then? I much prefer the eb and flow with content regularly forcing me to think through my teams and turns than when I just roll over it. Feel bad? Don't worry, there's always next time. And it's going to FEEL so much BETTER when your long-term investment finally pays off. If anything, I think the EXPENSIVE part of the game isn't pulling characters or lightcones, it's needing the BATTLE PASS and EXPRESS SUPPLY PASS to have a decent income of resources for future pulls and leveling. But then we are arguing over (essentially) an MMO sub. There you go, my two cents. You asked. LOL Edit: Just to note, I own barely any 5 star lightcones. They are nice, but characters hardly feel incomplete without them.

It's just my experience ; I didn't get stuck through the whole game and I didn't spend any money on HSR. Just pulled for characters I enjoy, I skipped a lot of characters because I didn't especially like them and never felt that I absolutely need them. Even got characters LC which I don't in Genshin because of this stupid triple shit pity. Everything is doable as much as genshin is. I just focus on one character at a time, full leveling, full traces with the decent artefact (to at least meet all the stats requirement) and everything went well, never got stuck. (I might sound rude but It's not really my objective, im sorry in advance if you felt offended) Now, how i view things from your videos, People just echo chamber themselves by complaining how the game is "not possible" or "too hard without these specific characters" to cope with the fact that it's not their fault if they can't beat some contents in the game. But I'm 100% sure people dont even bother considering leveling "not SSS-tier characters on the tierlist"' nor fully invest on the character they already got. (I saw a lot of people on a discord server that whine about the game sometimes but their characters are a mess, skill/talent/ult aren't even maxed, their artefact are often wrong with bad substat etc...). And I'm 99% sure people dont even know how to manage their ressources (and their rolls) we're lucky to know everything in advance, it's very easy to secure characters you want. And we have so many rolls , it's impossible to "have nothing" in this game. Even loosing all your 5050 you should have at least a decent amount of characters and it should be enough to clear everything, even MOC/PF, otherwise you're playing clearly wrong. Enjoy and level up what you already have. For example, I love Herta so much, she has great artefact and she's bullying the whole SU nodes and PF. Ditching characters because they're "low" on the tierlist or "not good enough", it's very stupid. And it brings me to my second point. People should stop watch tierlist on youtube/website and all these videos that content creators that make people believe that it's impossible to play X without Y. Like "Kafka without BS is not good"' what a load of craps(I wont get into details it's not the point of my comment) . People dont even bother to understand the game and whine about it being too hard without pulling all the limited characters. People just want to beat the game fast and on first try, but it will never happend. I know we're on a period of "I want everything instantly" but it wont. It's the easy way, just complaing about it being too expensive because we can't get our dopamine shot. But developpers makes game possible for everyone, yes it's easier to clear the actual MOC/PF if you have the right character, but it's not impossible nor insanely hard to beat them either. It would have been expansive if without specific character game would be impossible, it's never the case, don't be this delusional, please. And on top of that, even if you want to push further the argumentation of the game being too expansive, you will miss what, 1/2 stars on PC/MOC ? This the end of the world, you can't play the game anymore ? I'm sure not. Sorry it's long and dont mean to offense anyone(my english is bad and rough) but people should really drop the crying act whenever something don't go their way, it's really unhealthy. Gachas are unhealthy enough, dont pressure and corner yourself to spend money on the game with craps like "it's impossible without this character I dont have", please.

As someone who started playing in March, it definitely feels like every new unit is a must pull. It's impossible to keep up

HSR indeed punishes people that either are TOO CASUAL or Those who skip units left and right without regards for the content. I skipped Loucha back in 1.1 (I knew he would fall off for me as soon as Lynx came into the game) and I felt it in part cause he was the only other not totally random option but I still manage to clear MoC during those day up 21 or 24*. Then 1.3 came around and I manage to get both Dan 2.0 and FX ever since then I've never had much issue aside from some outliers, to this day I still see day 1 player struggling to fully clear the game over one of the previous reasons and it is a tought thing to see.

I'm completely f2p and didn't have any problems with the wishing system and traces/relics etc. the only thing I'm bothered by is the lack of off-piece on the relics but everything else is fine especially cause every single content is completely doable with an entirely 4 star team, and the huge amount of pulls you get mean that you get more 4 stars. I don't understand why you are making the "you don't need all the characters to complete endgame" argument with Genshin but not HSR, where it's just as obvious and you're even more likely to get meta units. Another thing is I don't see why does having harder content a bad thing? It's a game, it's supposed to be a challenge, you can't expect to not have extensive knowledge of your units and still beat endgame content, I think playing Genshin may have skewed your judgement on this game as stand-alone

I think the reason why i enjoy genshin so much is ironically the lack of endgame content The lack of endgame content means i have no incentive to pull for any characters i dont want meaning i have no fomo whatsoever and can just play the game without feeling like i need to swipe in order to clear the games content But in star rail, there is so much endgame that i havent even bothered to clear because my units are just not strong enough because i dont pull for characters i dont want. So that creates a sense of fomo and even missing out rewards because of not being able to clear endgame content

as someone who plays both, i have the complete opposite experience and i was really shocked to see this many people agree. i started playing both games when star rail came out and in HSR i have around 16 built characters but in genshin, barely 8-9. i constantly run out of mora, i can only farm domains 4 times instead of 6 and i can only farm ascension mats on a certain day. on paper i get why HSR should be harder to farm for but it just has not been the case for me, ive managed to max out characters within a week while in genshin im still trying to max out Yoimiya after 3 months 😬 not to mention that HSR is way more generous with TP, fuel, double drops etc than genshin. only thing i will agree with though is that good artifacts are easier to come by in genshin but its not even that bad

this kind of constantly changing meta and exclusivity in terms of weapons and such have always been apart of hoyoverse’s identity ever since their early days, with genshin kind of being the exception. I was a ggz player, i have a CN account and that game is super crazy in terms of pushing the meta, ggz’s main method of building a “roster” is by focusing on a specific kind of weapon (bombs, bows, melee and such, think of it like paths in hsr) and having other items on your character supporting so that the damage output of that weapoj gets maximized. With the release of every patch, they will create events and game modes that buffs a specific kind of weapon with some crazy rates like x3000%, and an item will be released as a new addition to that specific weapon branch, allowing it to have a higher damage ceiling, so you basically have some shiny new things to look out for every patches and these items would not work out without a full set, there is a pity system that allows you to pick the item that you want on the banner after a hundred rolls but the gacha currency in ggz was excrutiatingly hard to find, ive never once reached the pity and it gets resetted once a week (?). Hi3 also has this kind of problem with the meta constantly shifting as they release new valkyries that serve different roles, the chase for shiny new meta character never really ends, in those two games there has not really been a “xingqiu, bennett, xiangling” situation, affordable units that can be easily accessible are only relevant for so long before they get powercrept into obscurity. This is a common practice with gacha games rlly and imo genshin did a really good job not going overboard with how crazy its meta changes, players always shit on the game for being not so generous with its rewards but even when we do get a lot of rolls, the pull value of all characters are not that drastically different when compared to other hyv games, everyone is technically usable while on other games, the older characters that were debuted on release would not stand a chance agaisnt the endgame contents. edit:just to add, the difference between a meta unit and one thats outdated in these two games could be extremely crazy, in ggz its the difference between a few thousand damage to a a few thousand millions and i do mean it literally, in honkai its milder imo but not better.

HSR being huge wallet fly-trap is obvious since day 1 but I have to give props to Hoyo for Pure Fiction. That mode is literally a purely fictional mode that they made because they don't know how they're going to sell erudition to player. Like they looked back, saw that somehow destruction and nihility actually have good AoE without being suck at killing single target and now in panic someone just say "What if we make another MoC but this time the goal is to kill as many enemy as fast as possible so that Erudition actually have some use?" Thus born Pure Fiction, and it worked!! I actually need to level up Herta and wished I have Himeko or Argenti for some of these BS. Well played Hoyo, well played. Now I'm sure they're cooking something for Hunt next. Because whoever up there balancing this game has done a terrible job given how dominant Destruction and Nihility is as DPS.

acheron’s light cone in the thumbnail is way too relatable for me rn…. 🫠

I really feel the F.O.M.O with Acheron on my main account, because I need Aventurine, but on my secondary account I got Acheron and she is SO good that I want her. Furthermore, I know that when the rerun comes, she will surely be with two new expected and/or broken characters, as is happening now with Jingliu. And not to mention the PF, where I don't have any 5⭐ that's good enough for the last two difficulties, I still have to find artifacts for Herta and build her, and I have no materials 💀💀💀

As an F2P player with an alt account, I have played for at least 2 months on that account and was able to bag 3 limited 5 stars (lost 50/50 twice + Ratio). The 5 stars in question are Black Swan and Acheron and they managed to carry me in normal MOC and a few chambers of the limited version. The problem I have with HSR is that the relic system is so expensive that it really put my new account on hold for a while. Then, on my main I had to take a couple of tries against a certain boss (Aventurine) because I don't have the elements needed. This makes you feel bad about not pulling a character and you will feel overwhelmed to pull and build more characters. So yes, even if the rewards are generous, it still requires a lot of dedication to fully enjoy the game.

Honkai impact 3rd characters: "imagine staying relevant"

A very good time to talk about FOMO since all of us that are skipping Acheron for Aventurine/Boothill/Robin are smack in the middle of that debate, thanks to Acheron being so distustingly all purpose and useful.

I definitely agree with you! I've been playing genshin since 1.6 but not very consistently and have taken many breaks. Even so I can still clear many bosses even if my chars aren't so "up to date". But I took a break from hsr after 1.3 (and got back after 2.0) and missed so many char banners and now I struggle defeating many bosses. Like I haven't even killed that stupid bug yet 😭😭

I liked the small shade thrown to Hi3 cause as someone who played that game religiously for 3 years, all I can say is that it’s hell. Like if you think star rail is p2w then it has nothing on it because unlike recent games where endgame is optional, in hi3 it’s mandatory as ur main source of pulls and even worse is that it’s a ranking system with other players so if u couldn’t catch up ur fucked that cycle.

As the person who nowadays only pulls for characters good for Yanqing (Because I play just for him and my goal is to make him the strongest possible), I have trouble, having only Bailu as a good sustainer isn't enough (At least Aventurine is soon...), and not having dot team at all is not good too... I have a lot of trouble with MoC 11 and 12... But my Yanqing does great :D (Other team doesn't because I give him all that's the best XD) I'm really glad they will finally release a shielder, not having Gepard impacts you a lot when you're a Yanqing main

0:14 Svarogg’s coat be trying to censor though. 😆

I am light spender I only buy the monthly jade and I treat it as a subscription like any MMO that requires subscription in playing. Games are expensive a ps5 or PC game reach $70 a game spending $7 a month I think it is reasonable you will not get everyone, but you can plan and make sure I get what I want.

If you're lucky its cheap..if you're unlucky it's expensive

i will love to see your thoughts on Arlecchino's weapon XD

9:27 never gonna let that one go, Icy. To be fair, it was really funny

HSR forces players to build a large plethora of characters due to the element-restrictive combat. This is a major reason Dr. Ratio was given for free: There are only 5 Imaginary characters in the game, and only ONE is a 4-star (and not even a damage dealer). So if you did not obtain Welt in early game (I managed to get him as my first 5 star), you had absolutely no Imaginary damage dealer, which was very troublesome against enemies with Imaginary weakness. In Genshin Impact, on the other hand, I can only build a handful of characters and effortlessly 36 Star Spiral Abyss no problem. In Star Rail, I could literally own half the entire roster and always feel like something is missing. Dont forget Relic farming in Star Rail is worse than Genshin.

At their speed of releasing characters (two 5 stars per patch) it's quite difficult for f2p to keep up. I have to choose between the two and then get punished for not getting the one I didn't choose. For example I didn't get Argenti and couldn't clear the new PF which is significantly harder than the previous one.

The F.O.M.O. that I have is missing out on E4 Gallagher, since he's my favorite of the current cast of pull-able people. I sit at E3 and Den Heng keeps appearing, no matter how much I throw at the banners (completely F2P). I wanted a Luocha since I lack good sustainability options. By now I got a Welt on the Luocha Banner, then a Luocha on the Luocha Banner, then I switched to Acheron Banner since why not, but I didn't need her despite liking her from the story, then I even got barely into pity again and got her. Threw my last single onto the Weapon Banner which had pity from all the way back of the first Kafka banner and got her weapon in that one pull. (man that means one more pull back then could have been the Kafka weapon...). So now I have a playable Acheron that I didn't need and still only E3 Gallagher and no more currency to spend. I do have 600 of the cash-back system coins, but I rather wait for when I wanna get a 5-star weapon from the shop. Which I find to be a way more friendly system compared to Genshin. Also I threw random relics on Acheron and with her help got 35/36 stars in the MoC. I never got more than 33 before. That's crazy. But I'm not super much into combat in this game anyways. But I take the extra Stellar Jade. I am glad that I don't feel any F.O.M.O. for upcoming characters. Dont want Aventurine or Boothill, or Robin or Sunday. Only a Fu Xuan re-run would be interesting, but not 100% needed either. So if only I could get one more Gallagher I would be fine. Or else I would have to wait for a re-run of him on a future Banner.

when i started HSR 1.0 i only built 1 team (jingyuan) and ignored MOC after i was able to clear story without struggling i aimed for a 2nd team(argenti) so far i've cleared moc and PF with minor difficulties but really tho you need atleast 3~4 dps of different elements built like for me having only Lightning/physical/imaginary(free dr ratio) so far i find that whenever it's ice/quantum weakness moc i either 11 star or get lucky and 12 star it hopefully a limited ice/quantum erudition is coming soon (yes, it's erudition or erudition support only)

Idk. It is much easier for me to build characters in hsr. And weapon banner is much better. Fuck genshin weapon banner. Also i as well can complete every content of game with units i have as well as in genshin. And i was able to finish gold and gers with gepard. He is a good tank.

Compared to most Gacha games Genshin and HSR are pretty nice. Most Gacha games give more pulls, but you also need waaaay more than 7 copies of a character for them to be "complete"

Though I never got into trouble with bosses in Star Rail, that's most likely because of the borrowing mechanic and me having Bailu really early on and free Dr Ratio (+ prefarmed) for the Scarab boss. Not to mention 1 full year to finish Swarm disaster and full clear pure fiction + MOC - I'm pretty sure except for abyss 12 you can full clear Genshin's content with no issue

I took a break after DHIL's first banner because aside from losing the 50/50, it really sceewed me over content wise because i also didn't have Luocha. I came back when Silverwolf went on rerun and when Ruan Mei was running. I have such an easier time and can substitute so much in genshin as opposed to HSR. I'm now f2p: forced to pay. FOMO is real in this game. Thank you for this video because i thought that i was the only one who felt this way.

It's a little hard to compare the progression of an account in HSR to Genshin in terms of being able to clear end game content because if I remember correctly, Genshin takes WAAAYYY longer to level up your world level, so you have a longer period of time with units not at max level. Genshin has also fluctuated the Spiral Abyss difficulty quite a few times recently. They made it pretty easy and comfortable to clear after Fontaine dropped, but the cycles leading into Fontaine were absolutely brutal and not something you could just push through with something like Raiden national.

HSR is honestly more of a resource mamagement game than anything else. I started playing in November and used the equivalent of ~$15 total (gifted monthly passes; haven't spent a dime of my own money) and I've managed to 3* the previous MOC 10 without a single 5* sustain. I admit I've put in quite some effort to min/max my account and I've yet to even touch the final two floors of MOC, but I'm happy with my progress as someone who's played for less than 5 months.

I only buy the bp and blessing or what ever it is called in star rail. And i have managed to get every character i wanted, but as you mentioned that is not the same as every character i needed. It was until this patched that i managed yo beat moc and pure fiction. And this specific patch of pure fiction was painful because i dont have a physical dps and i did not roll for argenti so that first half on the last stage was annoying. Although i will say im not all that sweaty about buildinh my characters at least relic wise. Talents maxed but relics ill stop farming when they reach a good enough level. So instead of a 30 crit rate 250 crit damage jing liu mine is at 40 crit rate 170 crit damage for example. In this game you do really NEED certain characters.

It’s ironic timing that this video released just after I decided to go for E6 Acheron

Personally, I don’t find it too expensive. I have no Eidolons and am able to get to MoC 10. I don’t have the top DPS’es (besides Ratio) and just have the top supports. The only sig lightcone I have is Ruan Mei’s. Although i feel the game getting much harder, I also feel like I can keep up enough with the characters I have.

Has anyone else seen the post about the person that spent $22k on 100 of JUST acheron's LC? And that was only their side account 😅

i generally agree except for the fu xuan point. i skipped her bc i didn’t like her knowing everything that her kit does and i have no regrets. i just got luocha recently but before that i was full clearing moc and pf with gepard, lynx, and fire mc. did i struggle? yes definitely, but i was also excited at how i can clear endgame content without premium sustains. i currently can’t get the last star on pf 4 bc im skipping acheron for aventurine so im feeling the fomo a bit more than usual but i believe aventurine will be better for me in the long run bc i have many dps and support units, only lacking premium sustains.

Currently i do struggle in pure fiction because it basically unclearable without some set of unit. You might not need to pull for signature lightcone but this game difficulty depend heavily on what and how many 5 stars characters you have lol

The problem with this game is unlike Genshin, you can’t simply use a bunch of four star units and muscle through the game. The game is power creeping extremely fast, and you must pull a few five stars to stand a chance. But if you lose the 50-50, you are completely screwed unless you swipe the card. Another problem is you have to pull for the new units because the new enemies are cater to be taken down by the newer units.

Feels like I’ve lost all but one 50/50 on characters you if to have every light cone for the character you want but when I have twice manager to get the special light cone in the first ten pull something which hasn’t happened on genshin but when I have multiple 5 stars hasn’t had that happen on starrail yet.

I started playing a month ago from a friends recommendation. I accrued enough Stellar Jades and Daily pulls from both 2.0 and 2.1 patches to Guarantee myself a limited character with the worst possible luck. I was lucky to get myself an Acheron and LC and some running close to eq5. I had no pressure to spend money beyond the monthly and battle pass because i thoroughly enjoyed my time. If anyone is anxious or weary about spending money, if you have your sight on a character and the patience- you can start anytime and wait to ensure you get them.

Funny enough, i felt the "need for more units" applied even to the story while doing Aventurine's boss fight My account is relatively new, but i'm Equilibrium lvl 5, and i did the level up just before 2.1 Imagine how hard it was to do this boss, and how frustrated i was to be locked out of the main story just because that boss was ridiculously hard to do with my limited character pool

Also HSR characters are quite restrictive, a lot of them need a niche team (except for some harmonies and sustain) for themselves so more building and pulling. In the next patch there will be Boothill who deals crazy damage and might powercreep even more but he needs Ruan Mei, it's the same case like Kafka needs Black Swan, etc. I just want to pull a character without feeling like I am missing out on a new playstyle and power level just because I don't want to pull other chars or LC.

As someone playing since launch and has been buying the battle pass and monthly jade pass, even with not getting every character I've rolled for (lost 50/50 on Huohuo, for example), I feel like the main contributing factor is time. I can't imagine how tough it is for newbies to the game to tackle the current content with just the freebies, meanwhile I'm sitting on a mountain of resources as I save up my jades until I'm 100% certain I want to roll for someone, generally one banner per patch. Maybe there needs to be better catch up mechanics for players who don't play every single day, or are just starting the game?

I think for the most part I agree. I consider myself relatively lucky, and have been able to 36 and 12 star every MoC and PF except for the latest one, though I'll hopefully figure it out. I've only bought the battle passes, so goldfish. The banner schedule is extremely aggressive, and offsets the amount of pulls we get. If we get 30-50% more pulls than Genshin, we're also getting 100% more units. We had already reached more 5 stars than 4 stars before 2.0 which is wild to me. The added pressure of the only content being combat adds to the need to get as many units in as many team types as possible. I have invested nothing in DoT and it has been biting me in the butt to do so, but... The content is still clearable without all of that. Sim uni is so hard at high levels that it invalidates the raw stats of most eidolons and lightcones, making the main factor luck of blessings. There are a plethora of small channels that do 4-star only clears proving that the latest shiniest 5-star isn't necessary, only the investment in your units and your skill, understanding of mechanics, and teambuilding. HSR is at its core, a teambuilding game, and 5-stars do a lot for that. But enemies and mechanics haven't scaled to the point that old units are unusable like Hi3. Hopefully things stay that way.

If you are struggling go look up 4 star only clears, they usually have good tips and info. MoC 12 and PF 4 are consistently being completed by 4 star only set ups (LCs and characters) therefore Star Rail is completely free to play friendly. Especially considering the average player will be using their 5 stars. Even if the game becomes harder, if you don't beat the highest difficulties you barely miss out on rewards either way. This video does a great job validating players who are struggling and baiting players who know what they are doing lol. Some claims in the video are just false (content being impossible without certain characters lol), but I'm guessing that's because you're a good content creator and you wrote the script to get interactions. Well played, I watched the whole thing either way.

in genshin you basically need two teams and basically done, in star rail you need like, a team for each type of weakness , also teams that use different attacks (ultimate, basic, skill, follow up, dot) or else you are screwed, yeah..star rail is way more p2w

I consider myself a dolphin though Im VERY broke at the moment and so have been saving before sparkle. I am... notoriously bad at bringing up multiple units at a time and struggling with resources. But when I can slap a certain amount of passable gear onto my many characters and easily pick them up for many situations, it keeps everything feeling fresh. Due to my recent situation and having accidentally skipped fu xuan when I started and knew nothing about the game (including preservation agro being a thing) I have been in desperate need of a strong preservation unit. So I have been saving up for a while now for Aventurine and will be able to get him but this has been almost entirely by accident. I cannot clear moc or pure fiction all the way, some of it really feels like I need certain characters to do so, but I can give it a solid try with my weaker teams and get farther along by paying attention. This would be easier with more money, hands down, but I don't really wanna spend that much. With the way that I can make progress with proper planning, I dont mind so much when I get knocked back some. Honkai is expensive, but it also feels like its doable without spending so much.

Well there's hope that the more role and stuff they push out the more options available, to us like in fuxuan case with aventurine

Honestly this goes for most gachas, I don't get as excited for pulling a new character as I should be because I know I'm going to have to dedicate like 2-3 weeks farming for materials to make them usable. I don't get why they keep doing this, because if anything it makes me want to pull much less.

8:00 I can confirm that to be true. The only leveled DPS I have is Dan Hang LI and I could barely complete the story Aventurine battle. It took me several attemps and had to cheeze with double sustain units to get through it somehow.

I think the light cone Superimposition is probably the game mechanic that peeves me the most. And I'll explain why When new players are starting out, pulling for units as opposed to light cones is higher priority, and unfortunately, the dupes of 4-star and 5-star light cones can be hard to come by. Everyone can S5 every 3-star light cone, which I already have, and I've locked my S5 copies of all of those, because, before I had anything better, I was using Cornucopia and Collapsing Sky. And if I need three characters of the same path for MoC or PF, those occasionally get equipped because I have no third light cone available.(Amber and Meshing Cogs are actually really good.) For example I have like six Destruction 4-star cones, and most are level 1 because they're not that useful. I pulled Jingliu but not her Cone, so when I run my dual-Destruction team she usually gets A Secret Vow (Picture of Arlan) and TB or Xueyi gets On the Fall of an Aeon. The non-character specific Light Cones that are 5-stars come from the shops at MoC or at SU. And in the latter's case, you can spend for a Custom Superimposer that can Superimpose any Cone that you bought from the SU using Herta Bonds. *And that makes me realize that if we got a Superimposer that works for the gacha Cones, that would make things a lot easier.* It doesn't _need_ to be an easily-obtainable item, mind you, but the ability to earn at least a handful of them would not only make S5-ing that much easier, but quite possibly incentivize more pulls for the Cone banner. Close second would be the Relic system. Like Vars mentioned in the Relic system video, it sucks compared to Genshin's because we can't have an off-piece. I thought my Relics were "good enough," but now that I'm dealing with Salsotto, Rutilant Arena and Firmament Glamoth, the stat-raising requirements to activate their secondary effects can be frustrating for every Crit character whose name isn't Jingliu. Rutilant Arena being the main hard one for me, 70% crit is not easy to come by. The 50% demanded by Salsotto is much more generous. But anyway, the relic Caverns and the SU don't let us farm for one set at a time, and it's annoying when you want to farm one set and keep getting the other. Firesmith of Lava Forging and Celestial Differentiator are among the least useful sets in the game and nobody wants to keep getting them. Sprightly Vonwacq is iffy, if only because the other Support sets just seem better to me, the only set I levelled up was for my Bronya. I do think the game will give us a way of making the relic hunt easier, eventually, but we'll see. We basically have to win the lottery or fly to the moon for even one Self-modeling Resin, and we need ten to custom-fuse a Relic.

The fact that I've touched MoC after I've got Silver Wolf and Luocha after their banners back in 1.1 and Acheron now with Lc says alot. I still need more suports tho

i always thought that my struggle with needing specific units for each path/element was purely an early game issue, like when i didnt have bennett or xingqiu yet in genshin. but now i'm tb level 70, have a decent amount of 5 stars, and still feel that immense pressure to pull for certain units. you wanna try dot teams without kafka? tough luck. play mono element without sw? literally impossible. i get that genshin is easier as a game but it feels like there are so few substitutes for limited 5 stars. it's not like we need nahida to play hyperbloom (although that does make your life easier), but the gap between kafka and non-kafka dot is so big it makes the team almost entirely unviable

Bold of you to assume I spent money..... But I have luck in my side

11:20 you could also use kafka's light cone to apply a debuff

As a BP/monthly player that has beat every endgame content with luocha, gepard, yanqing, jing yuan, argenti, and dhill. It’s not about getting every shinny new character, it’s investing in them. Pulling supports good for them and going through rng hell to get good relics. Off element? I just brute force. Genuinely just pulling for fun now, saving up space cowboy bc he looks so good.

I heavily disagree with this stance. I'm a light spender in Genshin and completely ftp in hsr. Been playing Genshin since 3.2 and played hsr day 1. Building teams in hsr has been much easier and less time consuming. I wasn't expecting to pull Sparkle, but after doing some quick math on how many pulls I'd have after getting her, I pulled. Lost the 5050 and then got her guaranteed. I didn't prefarm for her because I didn't expect to get her. And yet after just 3 days of farming, I'm at a point where I can say "good enough" and move on to a different character. I'm also back up to 90 pulls already. With Genshin, I'm lucky to get a character done within three weeks. Everything is time gated and randomized. It honestly feels downright bad to play at times. And the time commitment to get back up to 90 pulls is laughable. Genshin is mind numbingly easy, and I think it would be a huge disservice to push hsr into being that as well. It already isnt a super hardcore challenging game, it is catered towards casuals still. But it just requires you to understand your characters, team comps, and what the game is asking from you. If you can't get through something the first time, take a step back and try again. Sometimes that step back requires you to build different characters (that you probably already have!) You don't need premium characters in this game. I know that a lot of people struggled with the 2.1 boss, but even prenerf Natasha/Fire MC double sustain got a lot of people through that fight without much difficulty. Many 4* characters are fantastic: Lynx is one of the best sustains for Clara/Blade teams, Xueyi can break enemy toughness regardless of weakness, Herta does fantastic in PF, Qingque can rival Seele, Pela is bis over SW for most teams, and everyone seems to be frothing over Gallagher's kit. Not even to mention Tingyun, who is still one of the best harmony units even comparing her to 5*s. As a ftp, you will never get every single character. You either learn to accept that, or you start swiping. I skipped Seele, Luocha, Blade, Kafka, DHIL, and Jingliu because I met FX in the story and I wanted to go all out on her. I was lucky that she turned out great, but even if she hadn't, I would have still pulled. Are you a meta player? Character leaks are going to be your best friend, they'll help you figure out which up coming characters are going to be good for your account. Waifu/Husbando player? Easy, you just pull who you like. No character is a must have character, you just need to work with what you have.

You did not just flash me with the Staff of Homeless

I started after the first jinglu or kafka banner and didn't have fu or jinglu and i struggled with somewhat hard content then i pulled argenti and haohao then things started to be easier. I also lost my 50/50 for ruan mei and that hit hard.

I agree I have suffered hard for not having fu or any of the hard dps besides blade now I can't decide if I should get jingliu or aventurine 2 thing I desperately need to save my account

Star rail requires way more characters to be pulled and built then Genshin ever has. Star Rail requires you to have coverage for nearly every element across multiple different paths to deal with the various endgame modes and that’s JUST dps we’re talking then factor in that you need the supports and sustain to go along with those units? Yeah you need a wild amount of characters to be able to comfortably be prepared for anything and that will only grow larger when they inevitable add some kind of Hunt specialized boss rush game mode in the future.

I think it's mostly because of HSR gameplay that relies too much on your characters roster, esp Pure Fiction. It affects how you play and combat is 80% what you do on HSR. Having certain OP characters helps you by A LOT. But the thing is that certain contents are locked behind them and you are missing a lot of gameplay and contents. This is because characters skills are simple, but, there are too many weaknesses. Each characters only do so little (compared to other turnbased). This further induces more FOMO on people, and they are punished not only bc they can't clear stuff, but certain contents and the fun also locked. not mentioning the powercreep and restrictive LC. Having to play around with few chars and 4 stars can be fun as it challenge you more, but the thing itself is not the main challenge, but your luck as relic system is one of the worse in any gacha game and some LC are also locked behind gacha. It could take months to get decent build. It is fine to not complete end game content fast but the gameplay is way too locked on more characters, and they are introducing more characters in the future that is as restrictive. And yes, I am concerned how this game will handle this in the future. Because I love HSR. I like Its stories and characters and I also enjoy the combat, if I don't get punished too badly.

Well we've all been preparing for this one

I like to compare turn based nature of combat and stuff with Pokemon franchise. In pokemon you have lot of options and objective in each stage like gym battle and elite Four rival. Now with hsr in mind, those stages in mind can be compared to moc, PF, and SU. You have free option to do whatever you want but when you have certain coverage of the stage gimmick, the play will become easier. Especially when elements and resistance are actually matter in both of game. Sure you want to snowball everything with dan IL but it won't be the same for other stages For progression, i think its the same honestly its just hsr gated their resources so you have ti carefully build your unit to match up the contest. Like da IL might be goated in luofu story but he struggles while fighting aven boss for example. You are forced to follow the hard coded gamechanic. Its not action RPG like genshin while one character carry all its 4 character match together as a team those synergy between each other while considering enemy gimmick is more important. While the 5 * powercrept is true but at the same time 4* and standard still serveable as option for the content its just the player decision that doesn't want to invest in them. I just hope people play this game like a pokemon game instead of genshin action rpg. Oh and for the record we haven't got enemy that completely immune to damage so the game is still relatively easy to go one trick but it won't when enemy started to get immunity

I literally had to choose between aventurine and acheron because I can’t get both 😭😭 i’m getting aventurine

Kind of hard disagree, yes the element and toughness system are a big factor but elements can have more than one damage dealer, and you don't even need your carry to be the one doing the break But more importantly, after getting the character is where the game actually gets expansive, why is building them so costly ? And I don't even mean relics Gotta farm character exp, gotta farm trace materials, gotta farm light cone exp, gotta farm trace materials AGAIN for the light cone, it never ends ! I've been playing since 1.0 and I've almost never farmed relics because of this crap, I'm just stuck in calyxes, ignoring my relics quality I only have 2 characters that can even be considered close to well invested

1:15 Just a minor correction here, Both Kafka's LC and Resolution LC can give Acheron two stacks of her ult in one skill. But then again, Acheron's LC is the only Nihility LC that gives an ult damage boost and gives her 2 stacks *every* skill (Unlike the aforementioned LCs which only give 2 stacks if the target enemy is not already inflicted with that specific debuff) Other than that great video! keep it up man

luckily I'm mostly just playing for the story and so I can just pull for characters I actually like. I do like acheron tho so I might be able to make a brute force everything team and actualy clear some non simulated universe endgame for once.

For those who said farming relics is worse than artifacts, I have to disagree. I've done farming a decent relic set for Acheron in 1 month. Even her new izumo set when it came out I just dump all the resin model and food into crafting the complete set for her. But in Genshin, I haven't done farming for Navia since her patch till now. Heck I don't even get a good Geo dmg piece in my 3 years of playing. Genshin arts farming is purely base on luck, even if they have strongbox, it won't be available for the new set until I've done farming for those ages ago.

In honkai star rail when you pull for scythe girl you get the scythe with her. Can't say the same about genshin.

This is why the TV event that gave you a ton of trial characters to play with was my favorite event.

at least an E0 limited 5-star characters in hsr would work. other gacha games like ToF sometimes need C3 for them to have some sort of damage. sure, some might argue that the gameplays between the two are different but cost-wise, as a player who have played both, the cost for pulling characters is a lot cheaper in hsr and in terms of fomo, there are a lot of content creators like EODGamer that have character and lightcone review to help with that decision making even before the banner is live. once the banner is up, there are even more hands-on and detailed review that would further help justify why you need/don't need that character in your roster. that would significantly help lower the cost since it helps you build the strategy to beat the ongoing content

I think this is 90% accurate and when I started HSR I got that impression that even though the game is more generous it demands way more resources to build a team. Compare to Genshin if you are f2p in HSR you need to be significantly more considered of pulls you are doing. In reality you do not want to be targeting 5 stars but rather 4 stars to build a team and if you get a 5 star that is a nice touch for f2p. You can still complete everything the game has with 4 star characters but it will just take longer since you need to make sure they are fully geared up to do so.

day one player here, I do bp's and monthly. and I have 337 limited wishes left over not counting oneiric shards from the monthly. with an average of 53 pity per 5-star I've pulled 10 limited entity pulls. In addition to that I've had a lifetime 330 pulls on the standard banner, which were all from free tickets. I do moc 12 and pf just fine, and it'll only become easier as I've only just started spending stamina properly on artifacts like last week. edit: I do not own a 5-star carry

I am still struggling with regular enemies and story quest battles 😂 and I am new and I have sparkle and acheron with her lightcone . Especially acheron needs high amounts resources for her self and her teammates :) even her teammates lightcones is important and all of these things are gacha

The only characters I have regrets not pulling are Silver Wolf and Fu Xuan (maybe Blade too, but that's only due to little Wind DPS in the game rn) but even then it's not like I'm so stonewalled that I can't complete 90% of the content of this game. I'm slowly chipping at G&G with getting higher variant levels in difficulty V and can get 3 stars up to 11 in MOC/stage 3 in Pure Fiction. It all boils down to what kind of player you are. I aligned myself as a casual Dolphin for this game. I clear what I can clear and since that's 90% of current content, I'm perfectly fine with it. (Also I only have like 5 character 5 star LCs which are YangBoi Jingliu, Kafka, Black Swan and Acheron and all my 5 star characters are E0 outside of Bronya and Welt at E2)

I don't agree with this argument 1:30 "it's ok to not get new characters in genshin because there is no content to use them on anyway" Yes, but flip the phrase: since there is nothing to do in genshin, characters are often the ONLY content you get so if you'r not pulling in a patch, you'r basically bored for 6 weeks (or more if the next patch also doesn't have a character you like)

Hsr is incredibly hard for me than GI. The relic system is just trash, no off piece to build a character is just a pain and here I am stuck with many characters who are not build because of this. The only team that is completed is my dot team because you don't need crit in there

Yeea I started the game after Huohuo and Fu Xuan's banners so I have to rely on Gepard/Bailu/Lynx/Fire MC, I have not managed to clear the hardest content so far :')