Topic: Honkai Star Rail

@z0d15g0d - Good to hear its F2P friendly, I expect it'll be pretty generous early on like most gacha's but I don't mind dropping a few £ here and there if I enjoy the game. What's your beef with Dr Ratio?
That dude is a FuA monster, he got crept a fair bit by Boothill for single target dmg but he's still top tier, quality freebie imo.

Speaking of free 5* characters, which free standard are you getting next patch? It'll either be Welt to get his E4 or Clara's E1 for me.

@Shigurui thanks for the codes! And yes excited for WuWa on PS5. I’ve been playing that since day 1 but hate the mobile / tablet performance. Hopefully better on PS5.

As @z0d15g0d said it’s been amazing for F2P so far (it can always change), I’ve not spent a penny, no battle pass or anything and have everyone except one limited 5-star (Zhezji) and one standard 5-star (Encore) I also have four 5-star weapons. To be fair my luck has been insane, including three 5-star characters at E1 equivalent (Jiyan, Verina & Camelya). The weapons banner is also guaranteed, no 50:50s or 75:25 and has its own currency which they give free wishes for. They’ve given us several free 5-stars, weapons and characters. (I don’t know if they will for new players) They also seem like they are struggling to keep up with HoYo’s update schedule and already didn’t have a new character for half a patch, which makes it easier to get them all if they keep giving the same amount of free rewards. More time to save.

As for the game it’s VERY much a clone of Genshin Impact in most ways but with a more skill based battle system. If you like Genshin, especially exploring the world, you’ll provably like WuWa.

If I had any complaints it’s that while it’s production value is still high it’s a lot more janky and less polished than a HoYo game… especially on mobile / tablet. The multipliers for 5-star weapon and banner character copies are also much higher, DPS checks are more obvious in some end game content. Combine that with the high skill requirement and a lot of on screen effects sometimes makes it hard to tell what’s going on it, which does make the end game tough for F2P. But as long as you can accept some stuff is likely out of reach for F2P unless you are a gaming god (or spend money) then it’s great.

My only MAJOR complaint is less about this game specifically but more that all these Gacha games are so time consuming, especially if you play several (I’m on 4 currently: Genshin, HSR, WuWa and ZZZ) it doesn’t leave enough time for other games. My backlog has grown a lot since I started playing Gacha games and it’s grown even more since WuWa and ZzZZ came out. They are all good games but the OPPORTUNITY COST of playing them is huge due to their time consuming nature. Would I be better off playing ONE of theses or playing ALL of Baldurs gate 3, Elden Ring, Cyberpunk 2077, Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth & Tales of Arise instead? That’s the real cost to me. Free is enticing, and I’ve fallen in, but would you have I be better off using our time differently. Look at the hours you have put into HSR and ask if it’s worth it. We’re all in a different position and only you can be the judge of that.

I really need to drop ZZZ, the combat and style is amazing, but I don’t like the rest of the game and it’s such a time sink. I’m just struggling to go cold turkey, sunk cost (in terms of time) fallacy. Meanwhile I’m very slowly going through Xenoblade Chronicles 3 would prefer to play that, but find it hard to quit Gacha.

@themightyant - Dayum! Major info drop, much appreciated! The only gacha I play is HSR so picking up WuWa won't be overly detrimental to my gaming time. I quit Genshin ages ago and Zzz did absolutely nothing for me at all, dropped that very early on. Looking forward to finally getting to play WuWa.

@Shigurui haha. lol. Didn’t feel so long when writing it!

Reading it back the last part reads more like self-therapy. I just need to delete ZZZ and play other games instead!

EDIT: I’ve deleted it from PS5 and mobile & tablet. Thanks for indirectly helping me to stay accountable! 😂

@themightyant - Well I'm glad you managed to cut the Zzz cord at least. Happy to hear WuWa has a skill ceiling. I cut my teeth on Ninja Gaiden Black and NG2 as well as DMC back in the day. (Top 5 in the world on NG2), really looking forward to WuWa now!

@Shigurui it does have a high skill ceiling, especially certain characters/teams, so you might enjoy it. Ninja Gaiden was tight back in the day, never quite gelled with DMC.

The only problem for me is that the moves can be so flashy it’s hard to sometimes read what is happening (too many effects). That doesn’t always feel fair, but ymmv. Hope you enjoy it.

@Shigurui @z0d15g0d we get a free standard banner 5-star character in 2.7 which is a bit random, but I’ll take it! Who are you going for?

I’m split between E3 Himeko, which isn’t great in itself but it’s one step closer to E4 which is very strong (it gives her an extra point of charge when she breaks an enemy weakness with her skill)

The alternative is E1 Bronya which combined with her lightcone makes her less skill point heavy allowing her to play better in more teams.

E1 Bronya is definitely the better Eidolon on its own, but as discussed above I don’t use her in m/any teams anymore. Himeko I use a lot in Pure Fiction so that’s probably the more sensible choice. I think I’m getting closer to another 5-star on the standard banner so i might see why happens there first.

@Shigurui Lol I don't really have beef with Ratio it's just that my DHIL does a far better job. I don't use hunt unless there's no other choice.

@themightyant @Shigurui I'm defo going for Clara it will be E3 but gets me closer to that sweet E6. triple super counter and 50% chance to counter when allies are attacked normally? Hell yea. Now if only they will update her kit to let you summon the hands.

Yes! NG2 and DMC 3,4,5 all sweet as hell. Metal gear revengance also I think i broke my controller doing the infinite slash lol. WuWa is pretty similar in the combo aspect. When things start getting too flashy I just focus on my character and it's easier to dodge or parry when they're about to get hit (controllers for the win).

@z0d15g0d Clara is a strong choice, I was considering her too, but based on where my account is at Himeko or Bronya seem better for me.

Her E6 is insane.

@themightyant Himeko was my next choice. I finally got Bronya E1 but she's already been retired as I have to speed tune most of my characters again to make her usable. Watching your DPS run out of shield just before a boss heavy attack isn't cool lol. She makes Clara's ult useless also so I stick with Sparkle mostly.

@z0d15g0d - Fair enough if you don't like the path, I took it you meant Dr Ratio was bad. I'll give you DMC3 and 4 but 5 was awful. Combat is top tier but the enemy and level design is trash. That said DMC4 SE is my favourite game in the series so what the hell do I know? Its half a game played twice!

@themightyant - Free 5* wise I'm leaning toward Clara E1 or Welt for his E4. I have E2 Bronya already so don't need anything there. My Himeko is only E0 but I have her LC and iirc her E1 is a speed boost. Not something I can't get elsewhere, especially with relic substat manipulation coming to the game.

@Shigurui Yea I didn't understand how they could go backwards in terms of enemy and level design maybe they left that to less seasoned team members. Lol one of my mates swears by DMC2 to this day so you're alright for liking 4 SE.

@z0d15g0d - DMC2 may be the black sheep but I can actually remember enemy types and bosses from that game. Nothing of DMC5 stuck with me at all besides the fiery dude. I only remember that because it reminded me of the Berial boss fight from DMC4. Obligatory Vergil fights don't count lol.

@Shigurui Lol I agree the Vergil fights don't count. I quite liked the Lady boss fight. It's the first DMC fight I can recall doing entirely airborne as you could grapple her projectiles as well as those anchor points. That was pretty fun but short.

Is it worth getting Aventurines E1. He's pretty OP now I have his LC but casting shield after his Ult looks pretty tempting.

@z0d15g0d - How often does your Aventurine shield go down to need an ult to reapply it? I got him on my main the other day, put Gepard's LC on him and nothing has come close to cracking it.

I know you mainly play auto so he'd be popping that ult as soon as it was available but he always pops skill to apply it when necessary anyway. I'd save the pulls for something else tbh mate.

@Shigurui Lol yea I main auto most of the time. Auto is pretty dumb so I build my characters to the point where even auto can't mess it up. I'll save the jades thanks.
Why is the next character another fire Nihiity? Their kit looks like it's catered to FF and Acheron. Poor Jiaoqiu hasn't even been round that long. I'm guessing not many players pulled him.

@z0d15g0d - You can play auto with auto ult disabled so you can manually trigger them. I use that in PF. I haven't looked into the next banner characters as I'm skipping for 3.0. I know who's on it but not read up on them.

Yeah I think Jiaoqiu was slept on, likely because he's the healer who doesn't heal lol. I use him all the time. Pretty sure you're the only person in my FL that also has him. Dude puts in work. Very underrated character.

@Shigurui What?? I did not know auto ult could be disabled lol. Would that also work on the SU Curio that enables auto for all the battles but gives the damage buff?

I agree he's very underrated. My Acheron triggers her ult so often practically every turn and sometimes twice because of him.

@Shigurui @z0d15g0d I use auto-battle 90% of the time, though it doesn't work well on some characters, with poorly timed Ults or other issues. There was a website I used to use that gave auto-battle reviews as well as other character ratings. I can't remember what it was, I haven't used it in a while, but it was useful.

The only times I don't use auto-battle are in the stages 3 & 4 of PF and AS, stages 11 & 12 of MoC and highest level of simulated universe in it's various modes. You can breeze through everything else if your team selection is good.

I have used the Ult toggle for a few characters, but not for a while. I am unsure if it works with that 30% DMG buff curio, which I love and almost always pick. At 30% it's OP and usually offsets any poor timings. Let us know how you get on and I will do the same if I get there first. But i've already done my 14,000 SU points this week.