Board 8 > Anyone else playing Honkai: Star Rail?

(+) Yeah! (+)

Genshin never hooked me, but I just lost my afternoon to this. There is a LOT of lore or, at least, text to read... I have no idea if it'll all make sense at some point. The battles are turn-based but fast-paced enough to be keeping me engaged. Like all these gacha things, I assume I'll hit the point where it feels P2W before too long.

Anyone else playing? My UID is 601979298 if you wanna add me!

my friend quite likes it! she liked Genshin too tho

I just like saying HONKai

I really like the presentation and the writing, but the battles are such a slog. There's so little decision-making involved. Like, 95% of whether you're going to be successful is dependent on whether you have the right team out there. I don't mind that in a JRPG, but in something like Star Rail, that's just gonna mean you're that much more reliant on the whims of the gacha to give you the tools you need to move forward, and that's some shady-ass game design.

I'm waiting for the PSN version.

I like it and have been playing it but the controls are absolutely horrid unless you are playing on a PC with a mouse.

I tried playing on my laptop and there's no options to re-map camera rotation or left/right click. So you have to use the trackpad (or a mouse) to rotate the camera and click on stuff. A trackpad is horrid for that and using a laptop with a mouse defeats the point of using a laptop to begin with. I should be able to reassign camera rotation to the arrow keys and the mouse clicks to whatever key I want. It probably works ok with a controller I guess.

Then on mobile again I just hate how the movement is controlled again. It feels clunky regardless of how you do it because of the camera rotation. And it requires you to use both hands whereas every other mobile game I play requires only one. So it's hard to play setting it down on a table or like laying on your side or something. You have to be sat upright.

I really wanted to reroll as I got Geppard as my free 5* but it just takes so long regardless of how I play that I'm going to have to just roll with him

I've played with both mouse + keyboard and controller, and both have worked fairly well. Though controller has the whole "use LB then right stick to pick a menu" thing (like you get on keyboard with tab), but it doesn't end up picking the one I wanted a lot of the time.

I got Yanqing as my 5* and am also kinda bummed. If it was just the tier lists saying he was less desirable, I don't think I'd really care, but I like March and having two Ice on the same team doesn't feel great.

Yeah that's the issue with Geppard too. Fulfils the same role as March and I'd rather use March

I might give it a whirl once it hits PSN

I tried Genshin, but didn't much care for it though

Game just does not want to give damage dealers. Geppard from the beginner pulls and then it kept giving me Natasha from the Seele banner and then I lost the 50/50 on Seele to Bailu who presumably obsoletes Natasha

So I guess I can run Bailu and Geppard and probably be unkillable but have fights take forever

I always figured that I couldn't possibly play Genshin Impact on my phone, between specs, battery consumption and being an ARPG, but I could probably do this if it's a more traditional turn-based gacha. But I also probably don't want to play that.

Yeah, Ive been playing it. Its pretty cool. Can definitely feels the Trails inspiration it has and I cant wait to play it on console because it will look and feel so much better than on mobile. March 7th is very adorable too.

Won the 50/50 on Seele today thanks to those 10 free pulls in the mail.

UID is 601205588

Randomly got Tingyun on a single-pull from the standard banner (trying to get to 30 pulls on that banner from 21 just to be on a round number) and am hoping this is what my Yanqing needs! Gonna start saving for the next banner instead of pulling on Seele now (even though Seele seems cool).

I'm stuck on Trailblazer Level 20 until I do more MSQ progress, whoops.

I'm glad I didn't play Genshin first because hoo boy does my phone start struggling with this game after 30-40mins of playtime. Like the story and characters so far though the combat feels slow at points. Currently at TB level 29 so I am excite to finally progress again in the main story.

tgs2 posted...

I'm glad I didn't play Genshin first because hoo boy does my phone start struggling with this game after 30-40mins of playtime. Like the story and characters so far though the combat feels slow at points. Currently at TB level 29 so I am excite to finally progress again in the main story.

Did you toggle the settings down? My phone defaulted to everything on high which it could handle but started getting hot. I toggled it down to the setting below (medium maybe?) and everything runs fine now.

I have an old-ish phone so the settings are already on low. I'm shocked it even runs well enough.

Ah ok, I'm on a ~2 year old phone and that can run it decently well (OnePlus 9 Pro)

Sucks ass it can't run on Steam Deck.

I've played all the way through the first world now and I agree the combat is starting to wear pretty thin. This is both due to the simplicity of the system and lack of character variety, imo. Part of it is my pulls (my 5*s so far have been Himeko who is great AOE but limited for boss use, and Gepard who is purely defensive when you get multiple defensive units for free), but part of it is that there aren't a lot of characters for a game so heavily based on team composition and elemental type. There is ONE Imaginary-type character in the game currently and it's a standard banner 5*! It feels like I'm pretty limited, strategically.

When the game is firing on all cylinders, like for the big cinematic boss fights or appropriately powered elite minibosses, it's great, but there's honestly way too much typical JRPG/gacha filler that's either autobattle zone or a brick wall of difficulty you need to grind up to. But I'm in an awkward spot right now where I'm being level-gated by the game.

Also the writing is very inconsistent. There's a lot of charming characters with fun dialogue (fortunately March 7th and Dan Heng are both in this category) but also a bunch of nothing ones you're forced to spend time with (like Gepard). And while I found the tutorial story intriguing, the first world's storyline had a bunch of wasted potential and dragged on a bit too much for me. (Ending rant) I'm so unsympathetic to the whole "covering up the truth so Bronya can be President" angle. Girl your mom sucked and your whole society is based on a sham. Get over it!

I dunno, I'll probably keep playing at least through the initial release content. Genshin also pretty notably has a crap initial area and things get WAY better afterward, but the issues here are a bit more grating so I'm not holding my breath.

edit: oh and my UID is 600665617 if we are adding people. I added the ones here, my ingame name is "Receptacle" but I might change that lol, I was put on the spot

Maybe I'm bad at the game or it's easier if you get more 5*s, but the combat really hasn't been bothering me that much? Like I've been trying to use most everyone on my roster so that I have slightly better teams for different situations, and the new things they throw at me tend to be at least a little challenging. Like the first few broken mirror memories things were a little tight when I only have one level 40 character.

Maybe I should be focusing more and just brute force with one team? I've felt VERY weak when I can't break them.

Ah, the walls are mostly in those mirror memories and the Simulated Universe. I think if you are just interested in the main story you can just not bother with those and only increase your world level when the story tells you to. I just hit a point where the story did that and it told me to go do those things for exp, and they're too much for me. I should be able to brute force it once I rank up more.

Maybe it'll be a problem when I no longer have the resources to develop a varied roster but I dunno.

fuckin lmao. okay I guess you got me

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/2/9/4/AAMkRCAAEcAe.jpg

Im still very early. I did finish my 5 discounted cycles, but all I got character wise was Sampo, Arlan and Bronya so Ill just be keeping my starting party for now

As a heads up because it got me, Trailblazer rank doesn't work like it does in Genshin. Once you cap it, it hard caps. I hit capped exp for 20 before it would let me increase equilibrium and then once I did I was 21 and 0 exp. In Genshin it would keep counting and once you increased world level, the exp would overflow yo where you would have been if not capped.

Shockingly, I did not keep my plan to stop pulling on the Seele banner, and am now at 70 pulls with no 5* from it. (I did buy the $5 monthly thing and the $10 battlepass thing.) If I understand this pity system right, I have to control myself now if I'm gonna want someone on a future banner. And Yanqing is The Hunt so I really shouldn't pull for Seele.

I haven't played a gacha game since I spent $150 on KHUx one morning and then immediately uninstalled in regret. No whaling this time!

I also haven't moved the plot forward in a couple days because I haven't gotten the chance to play with sound. I learned my lesson after getting chastised about this in the Octopath topic.

Detach your credit card from the play store or apple store or whatever you use.

Having to physically enter the card rather than just pay with 1 tap will act as a deterrent and give you time to talk yourself out of the purchase

Your reasoning is also why I stopped playing FFRK back in the day. I'd just habitually do the $1 pull every banner and then toss some extra money at banners if I really wanted a drop. Then when my CC broke it down on an end of year report I was disgusted as it had tallied up to something like $600+ or something ridiculous. This was like 6-7+ years ago

Now I limit myself to like $5-10 every month or two if necessary and only if I've invested a lot of time in the game as I see it as paying for the time I spent playing

Yeah if you are prone to impulse spending I would detach your card or just stay away from gacha in general, unfortunately they are awful about that.

If it helps, this game's economy and gacha system look almost identical to Genshin, and I can tell you up front that whaling is notoriously bad in that game. You can find specific details if you look but the value of buying gems outright is outrageously low. Even with bonuses it's still hundreds of dollars to guarantee a limited 5* so you really should not do it. Most players who spend in genshin stick to those $5/$10 monthly "subs" which are the best value you can get. Not that I'd recommend spending - I've bought them too so no judgement but we gotta be real about it being a gateway drug here.

The good(?) thing about the pity system here is that it's not generous but it's very reliable - you're like 95% to hit a 5* within 80 pulls so if you don't want Seele but absolutely want Jing Yuan you can just stop and wait for the banner to rotate and you are pretty much guaranteed to get enough currency to get him with all the free launch gems.

I lost Seele's 50/50 but because pity transfers I'm just continuing to pull and if I don't get her in time I'll just go for Silver Wolf or Kafka or something

Genshin is so easy you dont gotta spend a cent though. The only meta it has is for saving time, gloating online and maybe getting all the stars on Abyss 12 unless of course you just feel compelled to own every single character just to collect them or something and then yeah its expensive, but entirely unnecessary too

I started playing yesterday its pretty cool. How are so many people getting the 50 beginner banners done already Ive only had enough rails for 30 pulls so far

swordz9 posted...

Genshin is so easy you dont gotta spend a cent though. The only meta it has is for saving time, gloating online and maybe getting all the stars on Abyss 12 unless of course you just feel compelled to own every single character just to collect them or something and then yeah its expensive, but entirely unnecessary too

Yeah Genshin does rely almost entirely on collectable FOMO and minmaxing for the hell of it but those are strong enough motivators for people. For Star Rail I think it's too early to say what difficulty creep is going to look like.

_stingers_ posted...

I started playing yesterday its pretty cool. How are so many people getting the 50 beginner banners done already Ive only had enough rails for 30 pulls so far

You get a bunch of normal passes as one-time rewards from various collection milestones just going through the game. Like when you can ascend a character they'll give you one so you should level every one you get to level 20. You'll unlock more. I think I got around 100 of them by the time I was through the first major planet.

I just got on the train so I guess Ive still got a ways to go

how do you get more undying starlights? and should you use them on rails or try and save up 600 for the light cones

You get starlight from the gacha when you either get a dupe of a character you have, or a light cone.

Saving up for a 5* light cone is the most efficient option (it's worth 30 rail passes which is a steal - 5*s normally take 60-80 pulls), but it'll take forever. Buying a character is good value if you don't have that character, and the two characters change every month. Buying special rail passes is worst value but if it lets you hit pity on a limited character you really want it can be good. And never spend any currency on normal rail passes.

ok I was talking to some buddys and they said that you can definitely get enough rails to get seele on pity f2p so I spent like 30 last night. apparently 90 is pity so Ill get 60 more in the next 2 weeks I guess? Im still early on Im on the ice planet with sampo so not sure how much Ill have to play to get all that

Soft pity is 74 and hard pity 90. It increases as you get closer to 90 so you usually pity way lower than 90 (typically in the 70s / low 80s). Keep in mind the pity is a 50/50 on getting the banner character and then if you lost the 50/50 it carries over to the next pity (and banner) to be a 100% guarantee at pity.

For reference I'm at trailblazer level 28. I got a 5* off Seele banner at around 30 pulls and lost the 50/50. I'm about 50 pulls in on the second pity now. I'd guess you can probably get 100-120 pulls on that banner just doing the story and not being hardcore

I'm at Trailblazer 31 and would guess the same amount of pulls, yeah.

I'm so glad the main character is viable.

Yeah, I use MC + Geppard + Dan Heng + Serval and I feel like Geppard is 100% replaceable with a F2P unit like Natasha or March. Hell, Natasha may even be outright better for me since I have her at like eidolon 5

I've seen it estimated there's 200 gems/passes worth for special pulls in the launch content and 160 is good enough to get a limited unit like 95% of the time (hitting hard pity is extremely rare). It's definitely doable but you might have to rush if you lose the first one.

Shattered posted...

Yeah, I use MC + Geppard + Dan Heng + Serval and I feel like Geppard is 100% replaceable with a F2P unit like Natasha or March. Hell, Natasha may even be outright better for me since I have her at like eidolon 5

Natasha has been super good for me, I have her at E4. She's usually good enough to keep people alive on her own or with Fire MC or March if you need a bit more. Haven't even leveled my Gepard, haven't needed to yet. Is he reliable defense even with his shield only on his ult?

My freebie 5* was Himeko, which wasn't really what I wanted, so I pulled everything I earned on the Seele banner. I told myself if my first actual pull was a dupe Himiko, I would quit the game on the spot.

But I got lucky and hit the 50/50 on Seele 49 pulls in, and then got my first actual 5* on the generic pool 43 pulls in, and it was Bronya. Apparently this game wants me to keep going for a while.

I've been saving everything that isn't a regular Pass ever since, and I'm up to 6400 Jade and 4 Special Passes.

Damn I wanted Himeko but I got Gepard. Hes cool but Himeko has an orbital space laser and thats my shit

Wow, I got Clara from 20 regular passes! I got a dupe of Asta too who I was using in my main team before I got Nat from the story. Game is pretty fun and my Trailblazer level Exp still carried over past 20 so maybe they fixed that? As soon as I finished a mission I went from 20 to 23

I hit Equilibrium 2 yesterday, and this is definitely the point where I feel spread thin on resources. Soo many traces to upgrade.

HeroDelTiempo17 posted...

Natasha has been super good for me, I have her at E4. She's usually good enough to keep people alive on her own or with Fire MC or March if you need a bit more.

Maybe I should try Natasha without fMC more. I'm mainly running Yanqing + Tingyun + NatashaE2 + fMC, and Natasha just sits there doing basic attack 80% of the time. She's important when she has to save me -- I just got the trace that can remove a debuff and that's nice -- but otherwise she feels so boring. Maybe that means my team is too safe and I should see if I can get my Pela E3 involved.

MrSmartGuy posted...

I've been saving everything that isn't a regular Pass ever since, and I'm up to 6400 Jade and 4 Special Passes.

Sounds right, I pulled on Seele's banner 80 times in the end, and I've got 2900 Jade and 1 special pass.

swordz9 posted...

Wow, I got Clara from 20 regular passes! I got a dupe of Asta too who I was using in my main team before I got Nat from the story. Game is pretty fun and my Trailblazer level Exp still carried over past 20 so maybe they fixed that? As soon as I finished a mission I went from 20 to 23

Ooh, nice, I wish I had Clara. She seems like she'd be super fun with March.

How do you get the fire MC is it part of the story

Yeah, it's locked behind story. Won't post specifics, just that you will likely be somewhere in the trailblazer 24-28 rank region at that point

March is always gonna be in my party. Simply too adorable to replace

catesdb posted...

Maybe I should try Natasha without fMC more. I'm mainly running Yanqing + Tingyun + NatashaE2 + fMC, and Natasha just sits there doing basic attack 80% of the time. She's important when she has to save me -- I just got the trace that can remove a debuff and that's nice -- but otherwise she feels so boring. Maybe that means my team is too safe and I should see if I can get my Pela E3 involved.

I honestly kind of like that about Natasha - spamming normals when heals aren't needed conserves my skill points and Physical weakness is weirdly common and she can help chip away at breaking enemies too.

I got Welt from standard banner so I've been running him as my go-to support. He and Dan Heng both slow enemies so they get less turns, so that's probably helping me on defense too. Welt's debuffs aren't incredible but he puts out a good amount of damage while doing it and his multi-hit skill absolutely shreds weaknesses so he's kind of a beast. Plus he's the only Imaginary unit currently so I really lucked out lol.

Before I hit the resource drain of EL2 I was also messing around with Asta and Sampo but they were a bit harder to slot into teams. I want to go back to them, especially Sampo who is easily one of my favorite characters, personality-wise.

My luck has been pretty meh on pulls honestly, although I decided I was going to save all my special passes and gems for Kafka's eventual banner, so the only 5* I have is Welt and the Preservation light cone from normal passes. I haven't been having any problems though because the 4* are so good. Tingyun and Sushang are both amazing and can easily replace for Bronya and Seele without any significant drop off in performance. The fact Welt gives me access to Imaginary damage too has been really useful. Natasha is arguably better than Bailu thanks to the debuff cleanse (which also counts for a lot for why March is such a solid option as well).