Just started Honkai Star Rail and don’t know your Stellar Jades from your Golden Calyx? Don’t worry, here are our beginner tips!
Honkai Star Rail is taking the world by storm. With over 20 million downloads in less than a week, it is safe to say that miHoYo has another hit on its hands.
And if you’re boarding the Astral Express, you probably have many questions. So let this be a formal introduction to the world of Honkai Star Rail and how you can prosper on your journey through the stars.
Some of this will be common knowledge but if you’re new to miHoYo’s general gameplay loop or this is your first time playing a mobile game like this. But you’ll hopefully find something that’ll help you out on your travels.
Don’t Panic
Just like Douglas Adams’ Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy says in big bold letters, “Don’t Panic” is the best advice you can give to any future Trailblazers.
You’ll start playing the game and will quickly be overwhelmed by tutorial pop-ups, endless exposition dumps that mean nothing to you, or just visual overload.
While Honkai Star Rail is an incredibly intuitive game, it also seems unnecessarily complicated for no good reason. So take it slow and don’t feel like you have to play a game of catchup.
Once you come out of the tutorial, you’re gonna get flooded with currencies, timers, and all kinds of loot. Don’t worry too much about ticking off all the boxes and maximizing everything you’re given.
Take your time, take it easy, and go at it at your own pace. You only really have to worry about all of those things once you hit the endgame.
That can take you up to 20-30 hours and by then should have a decent grasp on the mechanics of the game. So take it easy.
Focus on Progress, not Progression
If you’re just starting out Honkai Star Rail, it’s best to keep focus. The game is very linear so there are not as many distractions as other games. But we still see players get distracted by shiny things here and there.
Especially when it comes to building out various characters and upgrading gear. First and foremost you want to focus on catching up with the story.
As of 1.00 you need to reach at least Trailblaze Level 35 and complete the Achievement “Draconic Opulence”.
The reason you should focus on progressing the story first is rather simple, finishing the entire game unlocks all the optional challenges and features you’ll need to upgrade your characters to the fullest.
And till you reach that point, the rewards you get from just questing and casual exploration should be more than enough to gear up a few of your characters.
Explore off the beaten Path
Despite being relatively small in size, Honkai Star Rail is still jam-packed with all kinds of secrets to find. A small detour into an alley or room can often leave you with neat rewards and little side quests.
The game is full of little challenges and text adventures. Interacting with everything that sparkles is therefore heavily encouraged. You’ll find everything from trash to treasure and sidequests.
Focus On A Small and Diverse Team
While it’s always exciting to draw new characters in Honkai Star Rail, it’s not always worth upgrading them before reaching the endgame (see the point above).
Nothing will stop you from using all the cool characters you like, you should at least try and form a party that covers all the bases. Healing, damage, and support.
The Trailblazer, Marth 7th, Dun Heng, Asta, Arlan, Herta, and Natasha (who you unlock after finishing the mission “Lying in Rust”) are more than enough to carry you through the entire story.
If you’re planning to use more than 4 characters, make sure to at least cover diverse elements. You’ll never be able to optimize them anyways but it’s good to spread out your team nonetheless.
Team Positions Matter
You may have noticed by now that some attacks hit multiple targets. Many enemies actually, just like you have attacks that hit 3 targets.
So if you have a tank that has a Lightcone or an ability that can taunt, make sure to position them strategically.
Either on the side and/or next to someone who might benefit from getting hit. There are some abilities in Honkai Star Rail that trigger effects after taking damage. Do with that information what you want.
Spend your Undying Embers
At first, you’ll probably agonize over what to spend your Undying Embers on. Don’t worry too much about it because you’ll eventually swim in them since you’ll earn them on almost every warp.
They are generally best spent on basic upgrade materials such as Sivermane Badges or Thief’s Instict and of course Star Rail Pass’ and Tracks of Destiny.
Spend them at your own leisure for upgrade materials so you don’t have to waste that previous trailblaze power. On minor upgrade materials.
Don’t Spend Your Stellar Jade
While there is not much to spend your Stellar Jade on, you shouldn’t just spend it on as many Star Rail Pass’ as possible or recharge your trailblaze power.
Only spend it when you plan to use it. Because you never know when you need a bit of Stellar Jade to recharge just a little more trailblaze power or an extra Star Rail Pass.
The moment you spend it, you lose the flexibility you had earlier. And you’ll also be less likely to spend it impulsively or by accident.
Warp Responsible
We’re not in the business of telling you how to spend your money, but we’ll at least advise you how to spend those precious Star Rail Passes.
The regular ones (silver) are best used on the beginner banner. Afterward, it’s not really worth spending any Stellar Jade on them on the basic banner. Only use up the Star Rail Passes you earn through various means.
Spend your Stellar Jade instead on the Star Rail Special Passes that you can use on the banner. If you already have the characters on there or don’t want them, save them up for a future banner instead.
Especially when characters like Kafka (I know you want her) are on the horizon, wouldn’t you rather have 180 tickets at your disposal to get a guaranteed pull? So be patient. You don’t need every character.
Don’t Fall for the Meta
The great thing about Honkai Star Rail is that the game is actually pretty balanced. As long as you’re somewhat doing what you’re supposed to do, should be able to clear most if not all the content with most characters.
You’re gonna see clips of people pulling off some insane damage numbers or creating some rather broken builds. Those people either got lucky and/or spend a fortune on the game.
(Yes I am really upset that I didn’t get Welt or Seele yet.)
“Make the best with what you have.”, might sound like some lame advice but it also makes the game more to play and progress. If you just follow the meta or tier lists, the game gets boring pretty quickly.
At Least Do Your Daily Training and Spend Your Trailblaze Power
“Just do your dailies” sounds easier said than done. And that’s no different in Honkai Star Rail. The daily training will be your surefire way to level up your Trailblaze level.
With 1300 EXP per day, that’s nothing to scoff at and most of those boxes can be ticked off within a couple of minutes of playtime. So it’s well worth doing, especially when you’re still progressing through the story.
As for your Trailblaze power, you simply don’t want to cap it. It takes almost an entire day to naturally recharge but you can also earn special potions that recharge more of it.
You could also refill it by using Stellar Jade but that’ll have diminishing returns at some point. Keep it to those potions of which you’ll earn plenty.
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