Honkai Star Rail

[Trifle]

They don't give shit really.

What I meant is you don't need to farm 200 flowers or shit like that to level your character. You still need mats to level characters ofc, but they are located in one daily spot that you get through fighting and not climbing/swimming/other nonsense.

Technically there's 2 main mats for each character... one from the calynxs and one from mob drops. I have hundreds of the mob drop ones from doing story etc so I've never needed to farm them, but maybe we'll need to in the future? We also get a bunch of them each day from the assignments if we need them.

[Very Tired]

Finally got to rank 40 today, upgraded my characters and clear the last world of the simulated universe.

Honestly love all of the small QoLs it has over Genshin Impact. No need to wait for specific days to farm certain materials. No need to make and manage your condensed resin. The dailies are much quicker and easier. Can shoot your artifacts up to max level instead of doing the dumb 6 at a time over and over. Autoplay is there if you really can't be bothered to do mindless combat. And your resin recharges one every 6 mins instead of 8.

[Yriel]

Technically there's 2 main mats for each character... one from the calynxs and one from mob drops. I have hundreds of the mob drop ones from doing story etc so I've never needed to farm them, but maybe we'll need to in the future? We also get a bunch of them each day from the assignments if we need them.

I guess it will be like Gensin, there i often had an absurd amount of mats of one kind (like the stuff from slimes) and then i had to level two characters to max that needed those mats and suddenly i actually had to farm slimes because you run out real fast when convert materials.

- - - Updated - - -

Finally got to rank 40 today, upgraded my characters and clear the last world of the simulated universe.

Honestly love all of the small QoLs it has over Genshin Impact. No need to wait for specific days to farm certain materials. No need to make and manage your condensed resin. The dailies are much quicker and easier. Can shoot your artifacts up to max level instead of doing the dumb 6 at a time over and over. Autoplay is there if you really can't be bothered to do mindless combat. And your resin recharges one every 6 mins instead of 8.

Yes it seems to be much more like a mobile game that you can play in the 5-10 minutes you wait for your bus to work every day.

[Airlick]

Finally got to rank 40 today, upgraded my characters and clear the last world of the simulated universe.

Honestly love all of the small QoLs it has over Genshin Impact. No need to wait for specific days to farm certain materials. No need to make and manage your condensed resin. The dailies are much quicker and easier. Can shoot your artifacts up to max level instead of doing the dumb 6 at a time over and over. Autoplay is there if you really can't be bothered to do mindless combat. And your resin recharges one every 6 mins instead of 8.

That is all true, but it feels like you need more mats to level a character and it actually takes longer to get them. Could be wrong since we're low level and WL does increase the drops, but I feel like the trade-off for convenience and being able to farm anything any day is that you actually need to spend more stamina on a character, so it basically evens out.

I guess being able to farm up eventually depends on how often we get new characters.

[infinitemeridian]

The game does have some nice QoL over genshin, but the "artifact" grind is worse, since you can only do it 4 times a day instead of 6.

[cocomen2]

4* characters feels so weak, seems they afraid to make another Bennett, but 5* on other hand useful bunch and can carry you on their shoulders with ease.

[Yriel]

4* characters feels so weak, seems they afraid to make another Bennett, but 5* on other hand useful bunch and can carry you on their shoulders with ease.

To be honest i don't even get the decision to make 4* and 5* in the first place because 4* are just useless in the long run and they make so many of them, often with interesting character traits and abilities but no one uses them once he has his 5* group ready.
It's such a waste.

[everydaygamer]

To be honest i don't even get the decision to make 4* and 5* in the first place because 4* are just useless in the long run and they make so many of them, often with interesting character traits and abilities but no one uses them once he has his 5* group ready.
It's such a waste.

4* aren't useless. Yes 5* are generally better but that doesn't mean 4* are no good.

[infinitemeridian]

4* characters feels so weak, seems they afraid to make another Bennett, but 5* on other hand useful bunch and can carry you on their shoulders with ease.

What? The 4* in this game are all pretty good. Natasha, Asta, Tingyun, and March 7th especially good.

[Gutler]

So far pretty happy with Star Rail got clara from the departure summons then got her again from the seele banner and about 10 summons later got seele now if only i could get bronya to make seele even more broken.

[unfilteredJW]

To be honest i don't even get the decision to make 4* and 5* in the first place because 4* are just useless in the long run and they make so many of them, often with interesting character traits and abilities but no one uses them once he has his 5* group ready.
It's such a waste.

4* exists so you spend more money trying to pull a 5*.

[Fenzha]

The game does have some nice QoL over genshin, but the "artifact" grind is worse, since you can only do it 4 times a day instead of 6.

Also throw stats like speed and break% in with the possible rolls

Its 10 different stats in Genshin and 12 in this right? not counting specific damage type rolls

[Trifle]

The game does have some nice QoL over genshin, but the "artifact" grind is worse, since you can only do it 4 times a day instead of 6.

You can still do it 6 times, but you need to log in twice a day... you should be regenning 240 energy over the course of a day.

[Yriel]

What? The 4* in this game are all pretty good. Natasha, Asta, Tingyun, and March 7th especially good.

Right now, yes. But wait a year and see how many 4* you will use. I had many 4 stars in use in Genshin but they all got replaced by a 5* who just does everything better. And it's sad because there are a lot of 4* with fun mechanics still released that are just worse than what i have. Yes the games are easy, you could, of course, run a sub-optimal team for fun but still...

Regarding my luck with 5* in Starrail... my 3 5* pulls were two Bailu and one "Night in the Milky Way" (that i don't really have anyone to use it... maybe i level up Serval for it).
I hope that it won't go on like that.

[Airlick]

Right now, yes. But wait a year and see how many 4* you will use. I had many 4 stars in use in Genshin but they all got replaced by a 5* who just does everything better. And it's sad because there are a lot of 4* with fun mechanics still released that are just worse than what i have. Yes the games are easy, you could, of course, run a sub-optimal team for fun but still...

It's almost been 3 years and there's plenty of 4*s in Genshin that have not been replaced by 5*s or are situationally better than 5*s they were "supposed" to be replaced by. Xiangling is basically a 5*. Xingqiu can be more fitting in some teams than Yelan due to better energy management, the 2 share a niche, but they are the only 2 characters in it and you sometimes want both of them in a team or use both in separate teams. Fischl can be the best electro choice against many mobs if you just want to bring 1 electro character for it. Gorou, Mika, Faruzan, Sara - all have their own niche that has no 5*s equivalent, and it seems like a conscious design choice to make 4*s to fill these niches (though this can change in a few years when Mihoyo is out of ideas and needs more money).

Sure, there are also cases where 4*s are invalidated simply by a similar 5*s existence, but it's not the rule.

[Yriel]

It's almost been 3 years and there's plenty of 4*s in Genshin that have not been replaced by 5*s or are situationally better than 5*s they were "supposed" to be replaced by. Xiangling is basically a 5*. Xingqiu can be more fitting in some teams than Yelan due to better energy management, the 2 share a niche, but they are the only 2 characters in it and you sometimes want both of them in a team or use both in separate teams. Fischl can be the best electro choice against many mobs if you just want to bring 1 electro character for it. Gorou, Mika, Faruzan, Sara - all have their own niche that has no 5*s equivalent, and it seems like a conscious design choice to make 4*s to fill these niches (though this can change in a few years when Mihoyo is out of ideas and needs more money).

Sure, there are also cases where 4*s are invalidated simply by a similar 5*s existence, but it's not the rule.

I mean, Yelans ulti is basically up all the time, has unlimited charges, fires with any basic attack and lasts basically until it is up again. I see no reason to ever use Xingqiu instead. Same with Fischl, what reason is there to use her instead of Ei (or any 4* electro char)? Basically all anemo 4* are inferior to Kazeha. I give you Xianling (although i personally hate her ult gameplay wise but that does not lessen her power). There is no real good 5* fire aoe applicator. I still rather use Yoimiya instead.

[Flaks]

I mean, Yelans ulti is basically up all the time, has unlimited charges, fires with any basic attack and lasts basically until it is up again. I see no reason to ever use Xingqiu instead. Same with Fischl, what reason is there to use her instead of Ei (or any 4* electro char)? Basically all anemo 4* are inferior to Kazeha. I give you Xianling (although i personally hate her ult gameplay wise but that does not lessen her power). There is no real good 5* fire aoe applicator. I still rather use Yoimiya instead.

Yea just sounds like you're not using characters right. Sucrose can be used in place of Kazuha at times especially since it's easier to get her C6 and she can buff damage to the moon.

Xingqiu and Yelan work differently enough that Xingqiu VERY MUCH has a role over Yelan at times when in coming damage can be an issue. And like Airlick said, BOTH are needed at times in teams like Hutao vape.

There is no replacement right now for the likes of Kuki.

Yaoyao has better dendro application than Baizhu and so can be preferred in a lot of comps as a dendro healer.

Then there's the pyro archon Bennet who has no 5* equal. And Xiangling who is still an absolute powerhouse.

Genshin is the wrong game to talk about "weak 4*s". Or "5*s are just better 4*s". A lot of the 4*s aren't even "niche replacements". They're just straight up truly irreplaceable as much if not more so than a lot of 5*s.

Also, Star Rail is feeling more anime-esque to me even than Impact 3rd for some reason. They've clearly taken a lot of inspiration from Genshin, but it's clear that the two games are made by separate teams. I really have enjoyed turn based gameplay a lot and Star Rail does it really well. But Honkai is Hoyo's "tech otaku's save the world" and, as weird as it feels to say, feels to me like just TOO anime imo.

[Airlick]

I mean, Yelans ulti is basically up all the time, has unlimited charges, fires with any basic attack and lasts basically until it is up again. I see no reason to ever use Xingqiu instead. Same with Fischl, what reason is there to use her instead of Ei (or any 4* electro char)? Basically all anemo 4* are inferior to Kazeha. I give you Xianling (although i personally hate her ult gameplay wise but that does not lessen her power). There is no real good 5* fire aoe applicator. I still rather use Yoimiya instead.

Maybe you wouldn't use XQ instead of Yelan (though it depends on your artifacts and weapons as well), but depending on comps you have, you may be running BOTH XQ and Yelan in 1 team or XQ in 1 and Yelan in 1. There's a lot of comps that want either of them, so there's a high chance you'll be using both. I mean, is Yelan stronger than XQ? Obviously. Does she invalidate XQ? Nope.

Fischl hits shielded mobs and is ranged. Ei is entirely useless against shielded mobs and even more useless against flyers or ranged mobs. Fischl also does a LOT more off-field damage with Oz than Ei does with her E. The reason I didn't compare them is because they really don't fill the same niche, Ei is just there for wombo-combo and requires a lot of field time, Fischl is an extremely versatile character that requires no field time.

[Delever]

I mean, Yelans ulti is basically up all the time, has unlimited charges, fires with any basic attack and lasts basically until it is up again. I see no reason to ever use Xingqiu instead. Same with Fischl, what reason is there to use her instead of Ei (or any 4* electro char)? Basically all anemo 4* are inferior to Kazeha. I give you Xianling (although i personally hate her ult gameplay wise but that does not lessen her power). There is no real good 5* fire aoe applicator. I still rather use Yoimiya instead.

Thats not true at all. Yelans ulti does not function exactly the same and XQ has quite a few ups to her in a lot of situations such as the knockback resistance. He also has better hydro application.

[Yriel]

Maybe you wouldn't use XQ instead of Yelan (though it depends on your artifacts and weapons as well), but depending on comps you have, you may be running BOTH XQ and Yelan in 1 team or XQ in 1 and Yelan in 1. There's a lot of comps that want either of them, so there's a high chance you'll be using both. I mean, is Yelan stronger than XQ? Obviously. Does she invalidate XQ? Nope.

Fischl hits shielded mobs and is ranged. Ei is entirely useless against shielded mobs and even more useless against flyers or ranged mobs. Fischl also does a LOT more off-field damage with Oz than Ei does with her E. The reason I didn't compare them is because they really don't fill the same niche, Ei is just there for wombo-combo and requires a lot of field time, Fischl is an extremely versatile character that requires no field time.

Well i often use 2 water chars but even then my second one is usually Ayato or Kokomi (which have a different skillset than XQ but are both better all in all imo).
And regarding a ranged off field ele support.. well again i rather use Yae than Fischl.

But well, enough Gensin talk, i guess tastes are different.