Topic: Honkai Star Rail

@Shigurui I think i'm on 34/36 after one run. Both 11 and 12 I struggled to get finished within 20 cycles and on 12 I was nearer 10. But I don't mind too much, have to give the whales something and I don't spend long on this at all. One run usually unless I completely fail.

What are you all spending your resin on nowadays? Once again my relic inventory is completely full, I'm a hoarder and I know it, but I just can't bring myself to trawl through and upgrade/delete relics I don't need, it just takes too long. So instead i've been upgrading characters I don't use, that to be fair I might never use, like Guinifen, Luka etc. At worst it gets me a few silver wishes closer to another 5-star weapon or character copy.

I HATE inventory managment!

@Shigurui I managed to get 12 done in 9 cycles. Team 1 was Firefly, Lingsha, RuanMei and Fugue. Team 2 was Aglea, RMC, Huohuo and FuXuan. I tried different teams before and barely made a dent. DHIL couldn't even do stage 1 in 16 turns what a joke. They best buff them soon.

@Shigurui I can understand being annoyed by it. I just don't like these modes. As I've said before they are designed to try and make us spend money... or time. They have always been this way. Some cycles are a bit worse than others but they are designed to do that.

Though as @z0d15g0d showed it can be done with the right team without whaling. It's just is may need to be a more specific team (usually the latest character liks Aglea) not just the right element. Again this is all by design, and i'm not going to get annoyed by it. It's a tiny reward. 34/36 off one run is enough for me, i'll move on.

@Shigurui Yeah, truly ridiculous. He's practically a sub DPS now with 0 SP efficiency. Even Clara does more damage than him.
@themightyant for only 80 jades it's not worth stressing over. Not even enough to buy 1 ticket. You'd think they'd show their whales more love.

@Shigurui I've had it before with other DPS like Jingliu or Seele where they are the right element and pretty well built but I can't 3 star 11 or 12. It is a little frustrating, which is why I said it's another reason I won't spend on this game when they are willing to leave characters in the dust.

But I look forward to seeing what they buff as I do think this is a problem. I also think the next MoC will probably be easier, this usually happens after an outcry. But ultimately it's like 80 jades, I spent almost nothing on the game, I don't care much.

HSR is the first gacha I've ever played so I have "donated" a decent amount of monies but now that their goals are apparent I stopped a while ago and went ftp besides the daily ticket. I got fooled by the DHIL/Blade hype marketing and now they're barely tier 3 in most rankings. I assumed they were integral to the story and would be prominent so I paid for them but seems my analysis was very wrong. Being able to brute force with a premium break team regardless of weakness feels so wrong and dirty which is why I always save them till last even though I paid for them lol. I even noticed WuWa started requiring I get to 80 pulls when I bought the BP at the start of the year. I used to get the premium characters in around 20 pulls but decided to give them some money in Jan as I've been playing for almost a year for free and now my luck has turned to ***** which is why I don't have Phoebe. I can't help but think it's deliberate. The moment you spend they assume you are willing to spend more. Then they F up your probability counter.....someone needs to hack them to confirm.

@Shigurui Boo! Sorry to hear that, I haven't played it yet. I really didn't like the nonsense storytelling in Penacony, other than a few high points, but liked 3.0 and the start to Amphoreus, hope I don't feel the same.

Is anyone going for Tribbie? I really don't like her character, and i'm not usually a fan of tiny kid characters in these games... but she's super powerful, one of the best Sub-DPS in the game + Harmony support. I tried to see if I could snipe her in 20 wishes and then dropped another 30 in a frenzy but am pausing while I consider, don't have many Jades.

@Shigurui I was almost tempted to pull for Tribbie because i'm 90% sure I will lose the 50:50 again and that will guarantee Mydei, but I just don't have enough Jades.

I'll probably play the patch this weekend and let you know if I felt the same.

@Shigurui Hmmm, that sucks. I don't have Sunday, Luocha, HuoHuo or Tribble. To be honest I hadn't done my research on Mydei's teams yet, I just liked him as a character. Thanks for the heads up.

I know Tribbie will be BiS in many teams for a while, she's OP right now, but still not sure I want to pull her. Maybe i'll wait this patch, but I suspect a lot of new characters will "require" units I don't have, this is what HSR does to keep new characters relevant.

@Shigurui I partly agree. I made a similar rant a year or so ago about Firefly, Harmony TB and introducing super-break. But on reflection I wasn’t completely right and it is more nuanced than that.

What you said only applies to the meta, and the very last one or two stars in each game mode. EVERYTHING else is completely possible with older out of favour characters. For example I usually only ever do one one run in Memory of Chaos, Pure Fiction, Apocalyptic Shadow mostly on auto-battle and I have 34/36, 11/12, 11/12 without having the latest meta characters. I’ve missed out on just 240 jades, one and a half wishes. And I probably could improve that if I did multiple runs and really tried, but my time is more precious.

That all said I still don’t like it, HSR is worse than other games in this regard, especially Genshin, and I am in a bit of a lull with love for the game.

@Shigurui I get the frustration, I really do and agree with all your points, I'm just a little less bothered by them currently. Until I can't get most of the rewards in endgames easily with minimal effort i'm probably not going to be too fussed. But i'm also not as enthused with HSR as I once was either, all these things slowly chip away at how we feel about a game. And if it keeps going... death by a thousand cuts.

Though excluded from that is the Castorice thing, i've not read or heard about that yet, but you are right that sounds like a REALLY bad move, if off party characters can influence things. Don't like that at all in theory, but also don't know the ins and out of it, I'll have to find out more before having a strong view. I don't mind there being a revive for an on field character, that always seemed likely, it's the off field thing that sounds awful like you said.

@Shigurui thanks. I also tried getting her but ended up getting E2 Clara. Tried sniping her in the first 20 wishes, where I find the odds are higher, but no luck. I still had 30 wishes left and also sank those the next day but got nothing.

I still have 71 wishes worth of Undying Starlight (wish shop credit) so I COULD guarantee her but I’m slightly undecided, I like to save that currency in case of emergency and losing the 50:50 on a character I REALLY want.

But I’ll probably see if I can get her without it, see what I can get from events and story in the next 12 few days or save the guarantee. We’ll see.

@Shigurui I’m completely stuck who to pull for. After doing some of the events I’m at 57 wishes on a guarantee.

I was originally going to go for Mydei, as I liked his character and design a lot, but you were right, after doing research on his kit I don’t have any of his best partners. None of them. But I still like him and maybe I’ll have some better partners later. But it doesn’t seem like a sensible pick.

Then there’s Tribbie who I probably should pull as she’s so strong and versatile, good in almost any team. But I’m not a huge fan of her character. Hmm.

Then there’s Jiaoqiu and Acheron rerun in 3.2. Acheron is my favourite character, she’s the only featured 5-star where I have her signature weapon, I’m tempted to get Jiaoqiu to keep her strong/relevant a bit longer. But he’s not useful in many other teams…

Decisions, decisions.

Best / worst investments?

Worst? Probably Jingliu, I didn’t get her till her rerun, I wanted her more than anyone at the time, but she’s basically been pretty useless since and I’ve hardly used her.

Also Bronya that I finally got after 300 wishes and have barely used her. These two make we wary of getting characters late.

I have a soft spot for Seele as she was my first featured 5-star and completely carried me through the game, through Jarilo-VI & Xianziou Luofu. Fun to play too.

Best? Acheron’s my favourite, Fu Xuan & Aventurine are in every team.

@Shigurui Hmm.. My worst will probably have to be Jingliu also. She was irrelevant like a day after I got her and I did a lot of grinding for her mats and gear. It still stings that Blade was my main for 2 months then fell into obscurity.
My best purchase by far was Luocha. He is still my most used even though I haven't used him in a while. He was practically on every single team. Now it's between Aventurine and Fu Xuan like most players. FF and Acheron are my most used DPS at the mo but that looks to change soon if I get decent teams built around Big Herta and Aglea.

In exactly this boat right now. Struggling to get through the story. It's horrificly written, but worse is the pacing. It's got a lot of the worst hallmarks of Penacony where they are dragging everything out as long as possible to artifically inflate the playtime. I realise making games is hard and having an update every 6 weeks is super hard, but i'd prefer them to halt the story and have one every other patch if it was better and more concise. Fill the patch with fun minigames you've already made like Legend of the Galactic Baseballer or something if you must.

It's a shame as I enjoyed 3.0 and the start to Amphoreus. Hopefully it picks up. It looks particualrly bad as i've been playing loads of smaller games this last month (Rollerdrome, Sayonara Wild Hearts, Braid, Resident Evil 2 & 3 remakes, Ninja Gaiden 1 & 2 Black) and this just feels like such a chore by comparison. Hopefully get through it tonight or tomorrow.

@themightyant I think I've gotten through most of it and I haven't read a single line of text. Just autoplay and press 1 when dialogue options came up. Had to manually fight through the kingdom hearts wannabe boss but then back to ignoring all the story.

@themightyant Played through RE2 remake twice and now I'm going through with infinite weapons just to piss tyrant off lol. Going through Mass Effect trilogy remaster at the mo but will be getting Mydei as I lost Tribbie 50:50. He's pretty much a Blade replacement from the looks of things which makes me think that their whole "Buff older characters" is a crock.

@z0d15g0d @Shigurui to be fair I started paying attention a little more, and it got a better for a while before tailing off again. I was skim reading it and occasionally using the text recap to see if I missed anything important.

The overarching story around “kingdom hearts boss” (lol. Perfect description) Flame Reaver was actually quite good, just horribly told, and MIGHT end up being VERY interesting in the long run. It’s a shame they shot themselves in the foot by telling it so poorly.

In case you missed it, and have any interest, a brief recap. Obvious story spoilers below. The Flame Reaver is also hunting core flames, just like our band of heroes. And Anaxa has a core flame embedded in him from his Titan, which is the scene with Anaxa on the Throne at the top of the grove where we first meet Flame Reaver.

Mydei meanwhile is wracked with uncertainty about whether to seize his Titan’s (Strife) Core Flame and ascend to Godhood, he doesn’t know what to do and fearing he might fall to evil tells Phainon that he has a weakness (an Achilles heel as this all flirts with Greek Myths) between two vertebrae in his back. He tells Phainon if they need to kill him as a God this is his weakness.

Mydei then goes to face his trial to become a God while we go off to face Flame Reaver at Castrum Kremnos and try and trap him in the old world with Tribbie’s ability, using Anaxa’s Core Flame as bait. (Also remember Phainon failed his trial, though we don’t quite know what happened)

In the flashy fight scene our trap doesn’t work and the Flame Reaver doesn’t end up trapped in the past but Mydei, now a God, appears in the nick of time and traps him in the red crystal before burying that huge spear through him. Cool scene. Mydei has also changed and is all confident now.

But here’s where it gets POTENTIALLY really interesting. Below isn’t set in stone but it’s my theory based on quite a bit of foreshadowing. I’ve put it in spoilers as it’s a theory and I don’t want to spoil upcoming story, it also might not be true as HSR loves red herrings and fake outs.

Now that’s all unconfirmed but could be a cool story, it’s just a shame they tell it so badly and have 6-8 hours of dragged out word salad to get there.

Aside from that I’m now at about 70 pulls in with a guarantee. I SHOULD probably pull Tribbie, she’s strong, she’s fits with teams I have, and I’ve kinda farmed for her.

However I still really like Mydei, especially after that story, he had a pretty great arc in the end and the way his confidence and character changed after ascending to Godhood is cool. Even though he’s the worst option - I don’t have any of his best team - I kinda want to pull Mydei even more now, he’s awesome. Undecided what I will do. I have 3 days to decide. Heart or head decision.

@Shigurui Agreed FAR too much text. They are just dragging out what is in reality a 2-3 hour story for 6-8 hours. Woeful. Sadly I looked up reviews for 3.1 and a lot of people were praising it. I think perhaps i'm just not the target market for it. Story skip... is it really coming in 3.2? Sounds great, but I also wonder why to keep playing an RPG if I don't like the story.

My head prevailed and I got Tribbie... so I now have 1/3 of Mydei's best team, I'll try and snipe him, but unlikely I only have 9 wishes left even after all the events, Tribbie went almost all the way to 90 pity TWICE.

@Shigurui Cheers mate. Appreciate the info.