This might not be your first rodeo with turn-based combat, but Honkai: Star Rail offers a unique game experience and specific mechanics you would only have found if you spent hours roaming beyond the Astral Express. You might not even know the bliss of engaging in a battle at twice the speed since the buttons are tiny.
If this is your first turn-based combat RPG, then there are some points you'll want to note to make your team stronger. From combat to exploration mechanics you shouldn't miss out on, here are some hacks that will make gameplay feel more enjoyable.
10 Farming Excessively For Relics Below Trailblaze Level 40 Isn't Necessary
It's true that relics make your characters stronger, but they're not exactly what you need to focus on before you hit Trailblaze Level 40. The last thing you'd want to do is to use up your stock Fuel just to farm three to four-star rarity relics, which are doomed to be disposed of much later in the game.
This isn't to say that you shouldn't farm for them later on, but do so when you unlock five-star relics. At lower Trailblaze levels, you should put your focus on levelling up the characters you're fond of using.
9 Path Resonance Is Key In The Simulated Universe
You can choose certain Paths in the Simulated Universe (or as Herta calls it, the Metaverse), but you'll only have Resonance Formation once you've chosen blessings from the same Path six times. So you might be tempted to grab a random, gold blessing from another Path — but you'll want to reconsider that if you haven't reached Resonance Formation just yet.
Choosing blessings consistently will help boost your damage or grant you combat perks, depending on the Path and Resonance Formation you've chosen. Knowing this makes it easier for you to play this game's strange VR.
8 You Don't Need A Lot Of Damage Dealers
A common mistake people make is to think that every turn needs to deal damage. Each character in your team serves a different purpose. It can be to break shields, provide buffs for the team, weaken enemies, or solely deal the strongest damage. What you might need are different combat types, since different enemies often require different elements so that their shields can be broken.
That being said, you should build different types of characters so that you can fight enemies efficiently. If you don't know which four-star characters to build, or if you're not sure how your recently acquired five-star character works just yet, you're still at the earlier stages of the game so play around to figure it out.
7 Attack Warp Trotters
They might be adorable and cowardly creatures, and they sure run away like boars from Genshin Impact without the rude damage. But you definitely should hunt these Warp Trotters, because they offer stellar jade as a reward for defeating them.
You might feel some guilt for attacking these cuddly anomalies, but you'd be thanking yourself later especially if you're running short on stellar jade for your gacha pulls. Appearances can be deceiving, since they're sturdy creatures who might be able to escape from you if you don't kill them fast enough.
6 Some Characters Are Better At Breaking Shields Than Others
You've seen the symbols on top of the enemy's head, so you decided to use your character's skill since it matches the combat element type perfectly. But some characters hit more with their skill or burst than others, and knowing which characters do the trick will save you turns and will help you inflict a break effect so much faster.
This is why experimenting with who you have and who you're able to pull is crucial early on, but why experiment when we have a complete guide here?
5 Speed Is Essential
The first time you encountered the concept of SPD in this game, you probably thought: does this make my party attack the enemies faster? Kind of, but not in the way you're thinking. Speed determines which member of your team attacks first, which can make or break your battle against the opponents in front of you.
The number of times your character gets to act can affect how you play your turns, and this becomes crucial when you're trying to break shields, and you have a character who's compatible for that job.
4 A Secret Society
Honkai: Star Rail never misses in dialogue, and interactions with random objects can give birth to the strangest lore. Somewhere in the outskirts of Belobog is a telephone booth you can go into. If you choose to venture into this mysterious telephone booth, you'll be introduced to a conversation with a secret society.
How do you infiltrate this secret society? Through an accidental dial and a sob story, apparently. All you have to do is enter this phone booth and let your curiosity get the best of you.
3 One Man's Trash Is Another Man's Pleasant-Looking Trash
Everybody knows about the Trailblazer's love story with Belobog's trashcans, and it's been the butt of jokes and memes since the game's launch. But what you might not know is that not all trash is created equally. Most of the trash you get out of your dumpster dives is just basic garbage that can lower your team's HP by a point.
But dig long and hard enough, and you'll come across Pleasant Looking Trash. This rare commodity helps you regain four technique points, which can come in handy before you enter into battle.
2 Relive Your Narnia Fantasies
Ever dreamed of going into another world full of magic through a closet? That's probably everybody when Narnia came out, and this game lets you do that once you stay in the Grand Goethe Hotel. Will you find Lions and endless snow? You'll find something better than all of that.
You'll realize just how powerful Caelus and Stelle are to be so capable of dispelling a largely feared legend in the hotel — that, or they have your imagination completely beat. This interaction proves that you should interact with your environment as much as possible, even if the street lamps in this game call you out for it.
1 Magical Toilet
You'll rarely find toilets in video games, but when you do, very few come across to be as interesting as this toilet. At Herta Space Station, a lone toilet can be found in an unassuming location. It's not a restroom, so you'll be naturally curious to see a random toilet in a dark corner.
Sit on it, and you'll experience something you've never experienced with a toilet before, literally. We won't spoil you what this is, so you'll have to find out on your own. You can thanks us later.