The main menu screen (sort of) where you can select the 4 separated official servers of the game
This is basically a somewhat lazy tutorial to play the game that do not require you to open YouTube
The first part of this guide covers the gist of HSR for the real beginners that you can skip and jump to the later parts (when I am done with it first
).
So...what is Honkai: Star Rail?
It is a turn based role playing video game made by miHoYo (globally known as Hoyoverse), As the name suggested, it takes place on a space train travelling through stars
Joke aside, if you have played games like Persona, old Final Fantasy, or specifically Trails series (which is one of the biggest inspiration according to the director of the game) then you already know what the gists of the gameplay is.
You control a team of up to 4 characters which can be obtained by various means:
- free beginner units such as Trailblazer (the half self-insert, half individual seen at the far left of the above image representing us, the players that you can choose your name and one of 2 genders: Stelle (female) and Caelus (male)) and March 7th (the mascot girl of the game and also my waifu)
- limited-time events
- gacha...
Right, lets talk about the gambling aspect of the game.
The game has 2 types of gachas:
standard and
limited. The standard one, also called in-game as "Stellar Warp", is available permanently and you
should not spend your money on (more details on later parts). The limited one consists of 2 types of "banners" (think of it as different kind of gamble machines): characters and Light Cones (more details on later parts). As the name suggested, limited banners are only available for a limited time, usually half the running time of a version of the game which is 3 weeks though it can be shortened or lengthened depending on decisions from miHoYo. If you missed any of the banners, you have to wait for an uncertain amount of time, usually a few months but there are cases where characters do not have their banners becoming available for pulling again for up to a year.
The gameplay is straightforward but not quite simple:
- You have your team each fighting against enemies per turn seen on the top left of the screen.
- You have basic attack to gain a Skill Point seen on bottom right.
- You have Skill to use a Skill Point and do special move (stronger attack, buffing/debuffing, shielding/healing, you name it) of that respective character
- You have Ultmate only available to use on certain condition (usually by attacking and getting attacked enough to fill its bar) and do another special move of that respective character.
