Honkai Impact3rd / Tropes S to Z

Honkai Impact 3rd Tropes: Tropes A to F | Tropes G to L | Tropes M to R | S to Z

S

• Savvy Guy, Energetic Girl: A same sex version in Mei and Kiana respectively. The former is a gentle, subdued and sensible girl who's occasionally exasperated at the latter's carefree attitude, antics and troublemaking. Gender inverted with Kevin and the previous era version of Mei—in their younger days, he frequently tried to flirt with her and lighten her up when she just wanted to read and study in peace.
• Scale of Scientific Sins: The fact that the more advanced humanity becomes, the stronger the Honkai gets, makes it this trope in embodied form.
• Scenery as You Go: In Post-Honkai Odyssey's "The Verdict" stage, the staircase forms slowly near your character's feet as you approach the Final Boss' arena.
• Scenery Gorn:
  • In ch. 15, the city of Maghreb in North Africa is partly covered in sands, many of the buildings are empty and broken, and there are a number of abandoned cars on the street. This was one of the cities wrecked by a Honkai eruption, but Schicksal has repurposed this empty city into their base.
  • The Nagazora City ruins as seen in Chapter 16 is depicted this way. Most of the city is flooded with Honkai-tainted seawater and many of the buildings are broken, with some having been overgrown with plants. Honkai Beasts and some zombies can be seen roaming around. Mei in particular remembers one building that was damaged by her back when her Herrscher self awakened. However, hidden behind them all is a sanctuary for the refugees called "The Roost" where the surroundings look livelier and notably greener. It's implied to be very well-hidden as Mei claims that Schicksal used to help with relief program on the Nagazora City and they didn't find anything like their living place before.
  • Half of St. Fountain city (the western one) in Post-Honkai Odyssey is wrecked beyond all recognition as the very ground broke into pieces and are seemingly suspended in the air, together with the buildings atop them.
  • When you get to the heart of Coral Island in ch. 18, most of the city has been encased in thick frost. It's filled with Honkai Beasts and zombies, including some frozen beneath ice blocks.
• School Uniforms are the New Black: Most of the Valkyries have a battlesuit with a "Valkyrie" naming scheme that directly references their being at St. Freya's. For Kiana, Mei, Bronya and Fu Hua, it's their school uniform: Valkyrie Ranger, Valkyrie Bladestrike, Valkyrie Chariot, and Valkyrie Accipiter, respectively. Himeko's Valkyrie Triumph suit is her teacher's uniform, while Theresa's Valkyrie Pledge suit is her normal attire as St. Freya's principal (and based on the old-timey Valkyrie uniforms, such as Kallen's). Valkyrie Gloria (Durandal) isn't a school uniform, but it's still a dress uniform.
• Schrödinger's Butterfly: The Second Key comic starts delving into this once the Pioneer projects a simulation of the Previous Era at the time of the 8th Herrscher's appearance. Just how much truth is there about Durandal's, Rita's, Ragna's and Otto's appearances in this simulation? Are they the real deal from the past, or are they manifestations of how Durandal feels about the people she knows^note akin to the "bubble worlds" in chapter 11 of the game? The events leading to the 8th Herrscher's defeat are more than likely true, but the characters presented in the simulation are of uncertain authenticity. Later chapters imply that these are actually Su's memories of the Previous Era, retold with Durandal and the people she knows as stand-ins for Su and the people he knew.
• Scripted Battle:
  • Two instances in ch. 17:
    • The first is Mei's battle against the boss, "Husk - Nihilism". While she (as Striker Fulminata) can damage it reliably, the boss' attacks are too strong and fast for her, but whenever her HP is depleted, she'll have a Heroic Second Wind and wake up with her HP and SP filled. The boss also has a phase where it summons a clone that copies its attacks; she can use her Super Mode's attacks to defeat the clone and stun the boss in the process. Then, when the boss' HP is depleted, it tries to use its time powers to regenerate itself; Mei can try disabling its Deflector Shields and stop its regeneration by destroying the "clock gears", and she has to do it 3 times before the shield breaks and the boss gets stunned, allowing her to attack it again and deplete its HP again. Then you enter a series of cutscenes in which the boss reassembles itself yet again, which end in Mei re-awakening as Herrscher of Thunder. As A Taste of Power, Mei's normal attacks change drastically to become more powerful, and whenever the boss attacks her, she'll Flash Step away as it takes damage. And, after you deplete its HP, there'll be a Quick Time Event where Mei "executes" the boss, destroying it for good.
    • The second is the final battle, Kiana (White Comet) vs Herrscher Mei. The boss has layers of HP where there'll be different cutscenes where the boss will make the fight harder in different ways after Kiana depletes each "red dot". The first time Kiana depletes the dot, there'll be a Quick Time Event where Kiana activates her Super Mode after a button prompt and proceeds to attack the boss with it, only to get blocked. If Kiana gets hit by the boss' lightning attacks too much, she'll get paralyzed and the boss will "execute" her, dealing high damage. If Kiana's HP is depleted, there'll be a scene where Herrscher Mei gives Kiana a Neck Lift and fries her with lightning, then a Quick Time Event where Kiana struggles to wake up; after tapping the button enough times, Kiana becomes Void Drifter and resumes the fight. After that, whenever Kiana's HP is depleted again, she wakes up again with half of her max HP. There'll also be a prompt where Void Drifter has to break the boss' shield with her branch attack; when she succeeds, it cuts to a few images of Kiana and Mei's past scenes together before the fight resumes. When Kiana does it a second time later on, it cuts to another set of images of the two girls' past scenes in Nagazora, including the one where Kiana saves Mei from falling from a tall building by taking her hand; this image is then "cut" in half by Herrscher Mei, right at Mei's hand in the image. When Kiana depletes the boss' last set of HP, it enters a series of Quick Time Events where Kiana gets "strangled" from afar by the boss, then escapes it and tries to get close, before the final part where the two enters a Blade Lock and you have to mash buttons to prevail against the boss... but the game will force you to fail at this, and the boss will overpower Kiana, taking her down.
  • This makes up the second half (the last 3 stages) of ch. 22. Kiana as Void Drifter is fighting the boss, Herrscher of Sentience; unlike other story stages, the game will automatically make you go into the next stage as all 3 stages' stories are closely connected.
    • At first, the boss only uses simpler attacks; meanwhile, Kiana's black hole summoning is disabled in this battle, her Ultimate Skill has shorter cooldown, and she won't die (her health will stop at 1 if it gets depleted). The boss can only be attacked while she herself is attacking; otherwise, Kiana's attacks will pass through her. At certain health thresholds, the boss will interrupt the battle, then disappears and creates 3 shadow clones of herself; if Kiana attacks the wrong one, she will get trapped, and the boss and the other clone will strike her. Attack the right one, however, and the boss will get stunned, allowing you to attack her further.
    • When the boss' health is depleted, it then goes to the scene where the boss knocks Kiana away from the platform they're standing on, which cuts to the next stage where Kiana runs towards the boss while dodging/parrying her long range attacks (see Unexpected Gameplay Change below). There's also a series of Quick Time Events later on where Kiana tries to dodge a few more incoming strikes before she gets close to the boss, then a Smashing Survival sequence where she tries to overpower the boss, although the latter then knocks her away (again).
    • Then comes the final stage; the boss now whips out stronger attacks, and if Kiana's health is depleted, Fu Hua uses her power to partly refill Kiana's HP and make her "golden gauge" fill much slower when she uses her branch attack, allowing her to spam it more freely. Also, when the boss attacks with her BFS, Kiana can use her branch attack to parry the greatsword attack in time, shaving off part of the boss' Armor Meter when successful. The boss also repeats the "guess which me" trick, but this time, Fu Hua gives Kiana hints on which clone to attack (a light will shine on the right shadow).
• Secret History: Partly, at least. In this world, the Apollo 11 moon landing is something well-known to most people. What people didn't know, however, is that the the moon landers found "Honkai energy" and strange relics on the moon, which they chose to keep as a secret to the common people. Not only that, Schicksal also secretly launched their own craft to the moon around this time to discover the same thing.
• Self-Deprecation: The progression of the giant robot Wotan in the Schicksal HQ Open World remains at 90% even after you completed all of its story missions. The game's later versions take some digs at this:
  • If you go to the enemy gallery, the enemies' info will be locked until you encounter them the first time; the game also tells you where to find it if you tap on the pictures. For Wotan, however, the text says "File loading... 90%... 90%..."
  • In Mei's birthday mini-event (in 2020), one of the attacks Mei can perform is "90% Rage" where a giant robot will come in to punch the zombies away.
  • In the "Gemina Invasions: Deep Paradise Arc" event, Einstein tries to fight off a giant threat by activating Wotan. However, she gets stuck at 90% and Tesla angrily lampshades it. It does, at least, work out in the end.
  • In the Evangelion collab event "New Century", Wotan was said to be only 90% completed when its original designer, Welt, passed away.
• Sequel Hook: Officially, due to the licensing agreement with Studio Khara, none of the Neon Genesis Evangelion content of the "New Century" event will return once the event is over. That said, the final cutscene has Asuka having survived the Angel-induced self-destruct of Wotan and floating unconscious in the Sea of Quanta to be found by Hyperion, leaving open the possibility of a continuation should another collaboration be successfully arranged.
• Sequential Boss: Every major boss introduced since Bright Knight: Excelsis has been split in at least two phases, with the boss entering a sort of burst mode once its health is first depleted. In Memorial Arena, the easy levels usually feature only the first phase.
  • The fight against Durandal starts with a relatively easy phase where she will parry your attacks and you have to dodge her counterattacks with the right timing. Once you first beat her, she will summon her "Queen and King" phantoms and become more aggressive, which is her Ultimate skill as a playable character.
  • Huodou stands back up and starts to charge an explosion when its health is depleted, after which he becomes wreathed in flames, surrounds the arena with a wall of flames and become a lot more resistant; you have to fill a freeze trauma gauge to interrupt its berserker mode and freezing it for a few seconds, leaving him open to big damage.
  • Husk: Nihilius has two variants, but both have it slide to the center of the arena, start rapidly regenerating health and summon a distraction − either giant clockworks or a phantom clone − that you have to destroy with a certain number of hits before you can deal the finishing blow (the faster you do that, the less time Nihilius has to regenerate).
• She Is the King: The title "Herrscher", following its German roots, is a masculine term^note the female equivalent is "Herrscherin". While the first Herrscher was a man, subsequent ones have always been female and they're still being called "Herrscher". This isn't the case in the original Chinese/Japanese, which used the gender neutral term "Ruler" instead.
• Shield-Bearing Mook:
  • The "shield Honkai beast" mook (PSY type, name varies) and the "mech zombie" mook (MECH/BIO type, name varies) have shields that protect them from frontal attacks. You have to either attack them from behind or use elemental attacks against them to deal damage. In a variant, the "scythe zombie" and "dual swords zombie" mooks may sometimes attempt to block your melee attacks, and the latter has a Counter-Attack should you attack them too much. The "titan mecha" mooks may also sometimes put up a Deflector Shield that will deflect projectiles off them and Counter-Attack incoming attacks at point blank. The "catapult" Honkai beasts also block frontal attacks when they are holding a ball until it explodes from consecutive attacks. A later update introduces the "crab Honkai Beast" mooks, who have large pincers that give them high defense against frontal attacks; the twist is that it's hard to go behind them, as they have the tactic of strafing around you (like a crab would).
  • In Post-Honkai Odyssey, the "Mage" mook has a special shield that has to be broken by quick attacks; Mei is best suited for breaking its shield. Certain other mooks (such as "Chariot") has a different shield that has to be broken by heavy attacks, which Carole specializes in. In a variant, the "Strength" mook frequently tries to block your attacks with its swords, and if you break its defense, it'll try to perform a Counter-Attack (which you can evade in time).
• Shoot the Mage First:
  • The "coffin zombie" mook variant can summon weaker zombie mooks from her coffin and has a potent Wave-Motion Gun attack. If she isn't beaten quickly, you'll have to deal with many minor zombies while she lasers you from far away.
  • The "intangible zombie" mook variants can turn intangible to avoid your attacks (although they can't attack in that state), create a slowing Area of Effect on the ground, and buff/heal other enemies in the area. A stronger version has potent ice attacks, while another can deploy "glowing AOE towers" that can either attack you in varying ways, or give them and/or other enemies a buff, or even heal them. Defeating them (and the glowing towers) quickly will help you big time.
  • The rare "wizard mecha" mook variant can either give a high defense buff to other enemies, or trigger a Time Fracture of its own, slowing you down to a halt. You'll have a hard time beating the other enemies if you don't destroy that one first. A later variant introduced in Chapter 9-EX has a Deflector Shield that blocks all damage (even elemental ones) until it's broken by physical attacks, and aside from buffing other enemies, it can extend laser-like lines to its fellow mooks that slowly but surely burns through your HP if you touch them.
  • In Post-Honkai Odyssey, the appropriately named "Mage" mooks can harrass you from far away while you're busy dealing with other mooks, and they can also give other mooks strong shields. It's recommended to go at them first when you see them among groups. The "Moon" mooks are the Mage's stronger variant, with more annoying attacks.
• Signature Headgear: Particularly for the Valkyrie battlesuits' default look:
  • Most of Kiana's battlesuits have her wearing a black hairband, with different additional ornaments. White Comet, in particular, also has star ornaments near her ears and rings at the end of her braids.
  • Lightning Empress (Mei) wears a purple demonic mask on her hair.
  • Bronya has a pair of butterfly-shaped clips which secure her pigtails. It has different patterns in her different suits.
  • Himeko has a small black hat in her Blood Rose outfit.
  • Fu Hua has different ornaments to tie her (low) ponytail in each of her suits, but her signature one is on Valkyrie Accipiter's default outfit, the Divine Key, Fenghuang Down. Azure Empyrea (who tied her hair differently from other Fu Hua) has a brush-like hairpin to tie her ponytail.
  • Rita wears a horned maid headdress as Umbral Rosse. As Argent Knight, she wears a blue crown-like hair ornament that looks like it's made of ice, symbolizing the ice elemental damage she deals with this battlesuit.
  • Yae Sakura as Flame Sakitama wears long hairpins to tie her Prim and Proper Bun, as well as a horned hair ornament near one of her fox ears. Darkbolt Jonin wears a black fox mask on her hair
  • Kallen as Sixth Serenade has a Cool Mask that she normally wears to the side of her hair. She also has a purple ribbon tying her braid, while the other Kallen suits lack it.
  • Seele as Swallowtail Phantasm has a unique black-and-white one at the left side of her head, which also constantly emits blue flames. As Stygian Nymph, she has a white flower in her hair that turns black and red and moves to the other side of her head when she becomes "Dark Seele".
  • Theresa as Starlit Astrologos (also known as Zhuge Kongming) has a white flower hairpin on her alternate costume, "Orchid Night". It is used as the event currency for her event, "The Day You Vanished with the Stars". Her default outfit has a mini hat that is a reference to the original Zhuge Liang.
• Significant Double Casting: Some characters who are either Generation Xeroxes, are alternate selves, or literally derived from others tend to share the same voice actors of the original aside from being their look-alike. For example:
  • Miyuki Sawashiro (Japanese) voices both Raiden Mei and Dr. MEI, two characters who resemble each other and even share the same name despite living in different eras.
  • Kana Asumi (Japanese) voices Bronya Zaychik and her Alternate Self Bronie from the Captainverse.
  • Mace (Chinese) and Minami Takayama (Japanse) voice Fu Hua and the Herrscher of Sentience. The latter has the memories of Fu Hua, but with a different personality.
  • This is also more straightforward in the cases of Yajing Tang (Chinese) and Mai Nakahara (Japanese) voicing Seele Vollerei and "Seele". The latter eventually became a Literal Split Personality of the original.
• Show Within a Show: One recurring show in the Honkai world is "Arahato", a mecha anime that dates back to The '80s. It apparently becomes a Long Runner up to the present day (2016) and later in Post-Honkai Odyssey (8 years after the present), and by then it has several comic books, spinoffs, merchandise, and video game versions. It's apparently produced by Anti-Entropy as a means of income.
• Silicon-Based Life: Honkai Beasts are made mainly of silicon. As they're the embodiment of Gaia's Vengeance, they're literally made of the most common element of the earth. And, as one event scene in Chinese New Year (of the Pig) event shows, they're inedible.
• Sinister Scythe: One type of the zombie mooks wields a scythe. The icy variant of the mook, in particular, can throw their scythes like a boomerang.
• Skill Scores and Perks:
  • Valkyries' skillsets consists of 6 skills: Leader^note passive skills that take effect only when the character is set as the leader of the squad; they also double as "friend skills", Passive, Evasion, Basic Attack, Special Attack and Ultimate. Each of them has "sub-skills" that modify and strengthen each of the skills' properties in different ways. Some sub-skills can only be unlocked by ranking the Valkyrie up, while leveling the skills up will cost money and, for "awakened" characters, certain materials. Awakened characters also share some skills' levels with another Valkyrie suit that serves as their basis. SP Valkyries, introduced later, also has "SP Skills" that give them extra perks.
  • In Post-Honkai Odyssey, the skill tree is more expansive: there are more sub-skills to unlock and they have a "branching" system. They're unlocked and leveled up by meeting the required "intel levels" (can be increased by playing the story missions and the weekly tasks) and paying with the resources found in the open world. Higher tier skills will also require you to have certain Valkyries at certain ranks to unlock or level up. The 3.9 update adds the "tuning factors", extra skills available for the whole team (separately) that works like a mix of stigmata (in that it has Set Bonus) and "stigmata affixes" (in that the enhancement you get is random and you can "reroll" them multiple times to get the desired enhancement). There are 4 slots of it for each character; each slot can hold one specific tuning factor, which does nothing by itself but will take effect if two, and later four, of the same tuning factor is used in the other slots. You can also mix and match two sets of tuning factors. E.g the "Ladon" set allows for increasing max SP, shortening cooldown of Ultimate Skills, and reducing the SP usage of said skills.
• Slippy-Slidey Ice World: The Coral Island, the setting of ch. 18, has become covered in ice and snow despite being located near the equator. It's due to the Honkai eruption occuring there, and in particular, the activity of the Herrscher of Ice.
• Social Darwinist: Actually not really "social" as the issue is indeed "physiological" (i.e close to real Darwinism), but the World Serpent (and Kevin in particular) believes that only a few "qualified" ones among humanity can hope to survive the Honkai. This is reflected through their "Project Stigma": a plan to forcefully rearrange the "stigma genome" in human bodies on people of Arc City at once, in order to awaken the latent power of Stigmata inside them, but as their prior experiments ended with a lot of failure (i.e most of the subjects either died or turned into zombies) they expect that only a few would survive the process and become empowered with Stigmata. In a flashback, Gray Serpent said to a young girl that in rough times like this where basic needs are scarce, only those who "deserve" them can live on, while other people have to be "sacrificed". He then told the girl (who he believed "deserves" to live) to survive and live on for those who have sacrificed their lives for hers, and to make them worth it.
• Socialization Bonus:
  • Making friends with other players will let you summon your friend to help in most missions, and/or use their "friend skills" to enhance your team's capabilities. Doing so will also grant you Friendship Points which you can use for a particular supply drop.
  • In the Armada's Boss Invasion mode, playing co-op with your armada mates will let you do more damage than if you're playing alone. Playing co-op also extends the timer to 80 seconds.
  • There are also materials, such as those needed to upgrade the various Divine Keys, that can only be acquired through playing co-op stages.
• Socketed Equipment: Stigmata can be "refined" by certain materials to give them additional effects at random, such as increasing (certain character's) attack power, increasing defense or element resistance, increasing max HP or SP, etc.
• Soul Jar: Herrscher Cores in general contain the souls of the original Herrschers, which results in a Split Personality for whoever is unfortunate enough to have a core shoved into their body. Special mention goes to the core of the 1st Herrscher, which houses three hundred thousand souls, including Welt Joyce himself.
• Space Elevator: One of the "files" you can collect in chapter 18's stages describes "Project Galactic Stairway", a world project to build a space elevator on Coral Island to support low-earth-orbit space stations. As of 2017 (the game's present, its base has been completed and its tower has arisen to 1300 meters above ground, and it's expected to be completed by 2025. However, as Honkai eruption struck the island, the Herrscher of Ice takes over the tower as her hideout. In the end, she caused a giant glacial formation to erupt out of the tower akin to a blooming snow lotus.
• Split and Reunion: In the 28th chapter, an amnesiac Durandal and Kiana remeet to fight Otto. Even while they remain motivated by different objectives, they manage to get past their differences and fight as a team. It's revealed that they are clone-siblings, so that's a boon.
• Spoiler Title: Knowing that floriography is a fancy term for the language of flowers makes "Rosemary's Floriograph" basically translate to "The meaning of the rosemary", which is a hint to one of the key reveals in the event's climax: Seele's soul is somehow bound to the patch of rosemary outside Welt Joyce's mansion, and the rosemary is used for body swapping and People Puppetry by Bronya in her quest for revenge against Shicksal.
• Stable Time Loop: In "Honkai Kingdoms: Zero" event, the Captain implies that the current present where Zhuge Kongming is sitting in front of him won't happen if he didn't go back in time and help her past self. The ending of "The Day You Vanished With The Stars" confirms it.
• Starting a New Life: For our three protagonists (Kiana, Mei and Bronya), being put into St. Freya to be trained as Valkyries gave them a new direction in life. For Bronya in particular, she also experienced this in the past when she was adopted into Cocolia's orphanage, when she previously was a child assassin. Meanwhile, for Himeko, she changed her life's direction (from wanting to become an astrophysicist) into becoming a Valkyrie after her father's death.
• Status Effects: A number of common status ailments show up in this game: Ignite^note dealing fire Damage Over Time, Freeze^note freezes enemy in place, while making them immovable by attacks, Paralysis^note stops enemy in their tracks, though this only "pauses" their movement, Stun^note dazes enemy and interrupts their current action and Bleeding^note dealing physical Damage Over Time. The Post-Honkai Odyssey only has Ignite and Paralysis, and they work slightly differently: You have to "build them up" on each enemy by the "protagonist's" certain attacks (for Ignite) and by most of Mei's attacks (for Paralysis), so the enemies will get inflicted with the status after you have attacked them enough.
• Stealth-Based Mission:
  • A few stages in Bronya's side story "Dilemma Dreamland" has her try to avoid surveillance drones as she moves towards the destinations.
  • Some of the levels in Chapters 13 and 14 play like the "Sakura Samsara" open world map where there are Patrolling Mooks around; the player can activate "Stealth mode" to see where the mooks are looking at, which also lets the player character see the mooks behind walls. She can also Back Stab them if she walks behind them.
  • When you control Griseo in Chapter 29, you have to help her eavesdrop on Mei and Kevin without being detected.
• Stealth Parody: The special story in the "Summer Memories" event (which takes place 10 years from the present) is actually one for the Sakura Samsara storyline. Both of them involve time looping and an outsider (the Captain for the event, Kiana in Sakura's story) is brought in in order to save someone (Kallen in the event, Sakura in her story). However, while Sakura Samsara ends in a happy note where Sakura is freed from her "nightmare", the event's story ends badly no matter what happened: the Captain couldn't save Luna Kindred, while Otto couldn't save Kallen. "The Day You Vanished With The Stars", in turn, is an extended parody of Summer Memories (and a Shout-Out to Steins;Gate), where the Captain loops time multiple times to try to save Zhuge Kongming, facing failures each time. He only succeeded by taking Kongming to Hyperion (which is currently situated in the Sea of Quanta) with him, as Tesla-Zero reveals that an unseen force tries to wipe Kongming off the face of the world for being an "anomaly" in time.
• The Stinger:
  • The "Final Lesson" video (at the end of ch. 9) has one at the end: Kiana is stranded on a beach after Himeko used the Honkai-neutralizing serum on her to free her from the Herrscher of the Void's influence.
  • The "Meteoric Salvation" video (at the end of ch. 14) also has one: Mei is running towards where Kiana would fall after she gets rid of the Honkai bomb from the Arc City. However, Durandal gets to her first, using her Divine Key to create a tall tree to catch Kiana.
  • Chapter 15 has the final cutscene that you can unlock by playing the challenge stages. Kiana, dragging herself through a desert, is driven by the thoughts of Mei to go back to where they first meet: the Nagazora city.
  • Chapter 16 has the final unlockable cutscene, where Raven talks with the Gray Serpent about how the Honkai levels in Nagazora has reached the "eruption threshold", which means that they can start with an experiment. Gray Serpent the reveals that he knows all along what she was trying to do in the city, and points out that whatever happens to K-423 is their Master's decision. He then warns her that she's not going to get away with that. She retorts with how Kiana's state as a "partial Herrscher" would make her worthless to the World Serpent, and says that she's found "something else" - the "power" that the World Serpent really needs, that will let the Herrscher of the Void develop.
  • Ch. 17 has a secret cutscene that happens after the final playable one (the "Lament of the Fallen" video). It has Otto watching his monitor, which has the image of a mysterious woman and dragon-like creature (see Freeze-Frame Bonus above) in it. The narration states that the experiment in Nagazora is a success, but comes interruption from Amber about the awakening of Herrscher of Thunder, Kiana being taken by the Hyperion crew, and the 5th Herrscher about to appear. Despite the balance of the world being potentially disturbed, Otto could hardly care about them as he's more busy with what he sees in front of him.
• Stock Weapon Names: Some guns and swords are named from real or common terms of weaponry such as Desert Eagle and Muramasa.
• A Storm Is Coming: Chapter 16 is called "Imminent Storm" while ch. 17 is called "Thunders over Nagazora". In the former, Tesla notes that the Honkai energy levels are rising along with the water level of the flood. In the latter, Kiana goes around the city to check the Honkai energy levels, and feels that something is about to come out. Later, as they're detecting the sudden chaos in the city from a distance, Theresa is overwhelmed at the storm welling over the place and the "quantum shadows", and asks about what's going on in the city, to which Einstein answers "I'm afraid we're dealing with a major disaster, Madam Theresa." They all signify the re-awakening of Mei as Herrscher of Thunder.
• Story Arc: The Main Story is made up of several overarching storylines, and each arc can be composed of multiple Chapters. A story arc usually focuses on a specific location or a specific group of characters. Although this was subtle for most of the game's history, it's only until the Version 5.8 update where the interface has been updated so that the related Chapters are finally grouped under a list of appropriately-named story arcs.
• Story Breadcrumbs:
  • In Post-Honkai Odyssey, there are informations that you can get from the boxes you can find in Explore mode (many of which require you to be at the right "intel level" to open). Some of them tells the history of the city-state of St. Fountain, which explains how it gets its name and how the city contains a mix of different cultures. Some others are just there for Worldbuilding.
  • Also in PHO, you first get a special recording from one of the story missions; you then get more of them later by finding them in boxes in the Explore mode. They're the recordings of someone who suspiciously sounds like Otto, talking to something that emits strange noises, whom he calls "Lucheni"^note after an infamous Italian assassin; this person claims that this being will kill him after they've reached their mutual goal, which he's fine with. This person tries to teach Lucheni human language so they can talk better, which the latter eventually understands enough. The plan of this person and Lucheni involve opening the "road and the door" and greeting the arrival of the "Sky People" onto the city of St. Fountain.
• Story Difficulty Setting: In the Story Mode, the Normal difficulty also serves as this, as story cutscenes will appear before and/or after the levels' end, while they won't appear in Hard or Supreme difficulties.
• String Theory: In "Rosemary's Floriograph" event, in the event's "home screen", the room Fallen Rosemary sits in has multiple photos and notes pinned to the wall with strings connecting them. The same room appears in the event's story as Welt Joyce's room. In the event's "story mode", the stages are presented as pictures and notes tied together by lines, evoking this trope. They all show how the stages and the mysteries and informations in them are connected together, befitting the detective mystery theme of the event.
• Stripperiffic: While all of the Valkyries have battlesuits and alternate outfits that are fanservicey, a handful take this to an extreme:
  • Bronya's Yamabuki Armor and most of its alternates are midriff-baring and feature extremely low-rise bottoms, most of which give her a raging case of Plumber's Crack. The exception is Drive Kometa, which is a short dress that's very modest in comparison.
  • Himeko's Blood Rose and its Palette Swap Night Enchantress are fancy dresses whose tops are strategically ripped to barely cover her breasts and show most of her abs.
  • Mei's alternate for Herscherr of Thunder, Rainy Springtide^note as well as Aqueous Springtide, which is the same outfit but also gives her glasses, is basically a sheer black body stocking with enough bits and bobs over it to protect her modesty and approximate a fancy dress.
  • Rita's alternate for Spina Astera, Eternal Dance, is a very fancy belly dancer costume. This fits the Spina Astera version of Rita particularly well as when she enters battle in either outfit, she does a pole dancing spin around the handle of her scythe.
• Super Mode: Some Ultimate Skills make the particular battlesuits enter a powerful mode (usually called "Burst Mode" in game) that strengthens their attacks in some way. Some other battlesuits may also enter a powerful mode in some other way. Not all Super Mode are designated as "Burst Mode" in-game.^note Usually, weapon/stigmata that are said to enhance the character's normal/charged attacks would not affect their attacks while in "Burst Mode". Some other weapon/stigmata effects are said to specifically enhance attacks while in Burst Mode.
• Superpower Lottery: Herrschers are bestowed with the power to command different aspects of nature itself, and each is a Person of Mass Destruction.
• Super-Soldier: This is what Valkyries boil down to; they're girls augmented with stigmata in order to empower themselves and resist Honkai's influence, making them powerful anti-Honkai fighters. The Advanced Ancient Humans in the distant past also had their own "M.A.N.T.I.S"^note Massively Augmented Neo-Tech Integrated Soldiers project, which fuses humans with DNA of Honkai Beasts^note the gene construct called "ICHOR" (Intra-Chromosomal Honkai Repeats) in order to give them phenomenal strength and Honkai resistance.
• Support Party Member:
  • Most Bronya suits are more suited to support her teammates with their inherent skills. The major exceptions to this are Black Nucleus and Herrscher of Reason (both of them being S-rank Awakened characters).
  • Many of the dual guns' skills are useful for triggering status effects (especially for triggering QTE), so that theoretically any Kiana or Kallen can be this, but Valkyrie Ranger (and its "augmented" form, Void Drifter) and Divine Prayer also have inherent skills that can support her teammates. Downplayed with Knight Moonbeam; aside from being a decently powerful attacker, her ability to trigger Time Fracture without needing to evade helps a lot of characters.
  • The Epic-grade greatsword Blood Dance has the rare ability to greatly increase elemental damage towards affected targets with its active skill, so that any Himeko or Olenyeva twin can be this towards elemental Valkyries. Another greatsword, Dark Xuanyuan Sword, has the ability to trigger Time Fracture just by normal attacks (but with a hefty cooldown), making it also a(n otherwise niche) supportive sword for Memorial Arena battles.
  • Liliya, in particular, has skills that can support a good number of other Valkyries, but mainly towards Rozaliya (whose gameplay is greatly improved if Lili's around).
  • Theresa's S-rank suit Celestial Hymn is the prime physical damage supporter in the game (especially against PSY-type enemies), with many of her attacks being able to give the "impair" debuff onto enemies. Some cross weapons are capable of affecting any teammate (not just Theresa) in the Area of Effect, so that she can support her teammates by using her weapon's active skill.
  • Fu Hua's Valkyrie Accipiter suit has skills that can heal the whole party, while the Phoenix suit helps other elemental Valkyries become stronger with her skills (while also being a decently powerful attacker herself). Azure Empyrea (Phoenix's awakened form) is a better elemental supporter, with many of her skills providing buffs for the entire team and debuffs for the enemies, but she's a bit more complicated to use than Phoenix. Her two Stigmata sets, with their effects, also let the user (primarily Fu Hua herself) become a good elemental supporter.
  • Rita's Phantom Iron suit supports fellow elemental Valkyries mainly with her Ultimate Skill, where she summons a hound-like robot that gives an Area of Effect that strengthens your team and weakens the enemies.
  • A good number of Stigmata have effects that affect the whole team (or another member of the team), so that anyone who use them can support their teammates—and they tend to be the Item Caddy for the Stigmata in question. One big example is Newton B, which lets the user apply a special debuff onto a single enemy; this debuff makes the enemy take 41% more total damage multiplier (whether physical or elemental) for 5 seconds, with 10 seconds cooldown. This debuff is effective even when you switch characters, making the user as much a supportive character as a main offensive one.
• Suspiciously Specific Denial: In the "Honkai Quest" event, Seele and Delta find, buried in some leaves and 800 m in front of the Water Djinn’s location, a sign which says that the Water Djinn isn’t 800 m in front of them. Delta clears away more leaves and find several more signs saying that the Water Djinn isn't ahead of them, which of course mean exactly the opposite.
• Suspicious Videogame Generosity: In Post-Honkai Odyssey, you never get SP and health drops, unlike the main game. The one exception is Chapter 2.0, "The Verdict", where the Final Boss drops them each time you break one of its leg armors.
• Sword Lines:
  • Mei and Sakura's own varies by the color of the katana; certain swords also have unique lines, such as Magstorm's 3 parallel blue lines in each swing or Jizo Mitama's lines that resemble dark snakes.
  • For the PRI-ARM weapons (introduced in 3.4), most of them will have the light trails at all times, even when they are not used in attacks.
  • Himeko's own looks rougher than Mei's, because she swings her BFS slower. This is the same for the other BFS wielders, Rozaliya and Liliya.
  • Rita's, meanwhile, are tied to her battlesuits rather than her weapon. Umbral Rose's scythe lines are dark rose red, occasionally with rose petals, while Phantom Iron's lines are green with trails of Tron Lines and Argent Knight's are blue and black lines. Her costumes also change the lines' effects, unlike other characters.
  • Swallowtail Phantasm's lines are violet but they turn red and black when she enters Super Mode. As Stygian Nymph, her light version has black lines with swirling white ones trailing her scythe, while her dark version has red and black lines trailing her claw attacks.
  • Theresa as Luna Kindred has red trails following her red swords' attack movement. In a variant, Twilight Paladin ("augmented" Violet Executer) will gain light blue trails for her flying swords' swing moves.
  • Normally, Fu Hua has simple, yellow-colored "blow lines" in her attacks for all of her costumes. As Phoenix, the lines turn red, while as Azure Empyrea, they resemble inkbrush strokes.
  • Like Rita, Durandal's lines are tied to her battlesuits. Valkyrie Gloria's lines are fire red, while Bright Knight's lines are bluish white.
• Swapped Roles: The "Gemina Invasions" spinoff comic has Rozaliya and Liliya being the protagonists. However, in the in-game event "Gemina Invasions: Deep Paradise Arc", the two are now the "villains", and Tesla has to stop them. The twins lampshade it near the end, where Roza says that they're supposed to be the heroes and yet they're now playing as the bad guys.
• Synchronization: Some enemies have the "Soul Link" buff which links 2-3 of them together. If you kill one, said enemy doesn't immediately die; you have to kill the others as well, and if you take too long, the dead one will be revived with half health.

T

• Tag Line: "Fight for all that is beautiful in the world." In one of the supplementary comics, in a flashback with young Kiana and her father, she said that they made an oath that resounds said tagline, and in Post-Honkai Odyssey, they are the words that drive Mei after she has heard it from Kiana.
• Tag Team: A major part of the gameplay is that (for single player modes) you can control 3 characters, one at a time, and you can tag in and out between them. Some levels (particularly the Coop Multiplayer ones) have the 3 characters out at the same time instead.
• Take That!: The 2019 summer event "Game of Honkai" is a Whole-Plot Reference to Game of Thrones, with most of the game's prominent characters in GoT-equivalent roles in the show. There are also a lot of not-so-subtle jabs directed at GoT, especially in regards to the infamous Season 8, via the Captain ragging on Game of Honkai's horrible writing and someone noting that the books' writer left several seasons prior.
  Captain: WHAT?! The worst show ever made it to Season 15? That's ridiculous. I'll stick with Cooking with Valkyries, thank you.
• Tarot Motifs: The enemies in Post Honkai Odyssey are code-named after the Major Arcana. The most common enemy is called "Type 0: The Fool", the Heimdall-like boss is called "Type IV: Emperor", and so on.
• Tech-Demo Game: By virtue of having top notch graphics among mobile phone games, some players have to buy a new phone for it, with some saying that it's suitable to be a PC game. A PC client was eventually released in late 2019.
• Temporary Online Content: There are a good number of event-only weapons, Stigmata and costumes that usually won't be available again (whether you get them from event quests, event shops, Event Supply, or in-app purchase) after the event ends. Certain later events might see the return of a few of the older events' stuff, but don't count on it. This goes double for Evangelion contents in 4.5 where, following the agreement, they will never be available again in future versions.
• Thanking the Viewer:
  • For the 3rd anniversary in the Chinese version and the 2nd in the other regions, there was a mini-event where the Valkyries gave the players "gifts" and messages, in which they thank the "Captains" for having accompanied them until then. The video is also released in the official Youtube channel.
  • In a variant, in 2020, the game gives a special cutscene for players who are also content creators (i.e gameplay/guide video makers, fanartists, 3D animation makers, etc). In it, the "Captain" is depicted as someone who makes fanarts and 3D animations, and Mei takes him out for a walk in the night. They're visiting a fireworks event, where the narration likens the Valkyries of the past and the present as the "fireworks" that light up the night sky. Then the narration casts a doubt on whether anyone would remember every single firework; Mei then continues with saying that the Captain is probably the one who would try doing so. She then thanks him for making the names and faces of the Valkyries known to the masses through the content he has created. After the cutscene, the chosen players will get a special commemorative emblem.
• Theme Naming: The "Pantheon-series weapons" are weapons named after various mythological entities, from deities to monsters.
• There Are No Bedsheets: In the Dorm, the beds will stay like they are (with their sheets undisturbed) whenever the chibis sleep on them.
• Things Man Was Not Meant to Know: In chapter 17, during their negotiation talk, Otto tells Kevin that he plans to reach something called the "Imaginary Tree" using the 2nd Divine Key's Zeroth Power. By doing that, he wants to know "the instant of eternity, the start of the end, and the origins of laws and truth". Kevin inquires him if he knows "what will happen if you do that".
• Timed Mission:
  • A few missions in the Story Mode and certain event missions are timed, and you fail when the time's up. In a variant, some of the levels' medals require you to beat the level under a certain number of seconds, even if the levels themselves aren't timed.
  • In a variant, the Infinity Abyss game mode, and later, Dirac Sea game mode, have each fight depleting your active character's health; the longer the fight goes, the faster the health depletion becomes.
• Time-Limit Boss:
  • The Memorial Arena game mode pits you against a selection of 2-3 bosses each week; you have to beat them under 5 minutes to score points, the faster the better. (Points are still awarded even if you fail.) Each time they're defeated, they'll go up a rank, which will make them pull out more powerful attacks and have more powerful attributes if you fight them again; defeating higher rank bosses means getting more points (although the C, B and A ranks are usually little more than a quick warm-up, with the SS rank being the "actual" boss). You may get prizes from getting certain number of points, and you and the other players will also get ranked with the points; you may win better prizes each week if you get higher in the ranks.
  • The Armada-specific "Boss Invasion" game mode had you and your fellow Armada members (individually, or by co-op) fighting a boss with millions of health points. Each Armada member got three chances to fight the boss, each fight lasting for one minute, with the goal being to do as much damage as possible in order to completely deplete the boss' health. Members gained rewards if the boss got under 66% or 33% HP or was taken to 0% HP.
  • After an update, the Boss Invasion was replaced with "Sim Battle". This mode appears twice a week, 3 days each. In every cycle there'll be 3 bosses, and you and your Armada members have to beat them under a time limit to score points; the faster you finish, the better your score gets. You earn rewards based on your total score, with higher scores accruing more rewards, and bonus rewards are given out as your Armada's accumulated total score reaches certain tiers. The unique part is that the game gives you preset characters with their "optimal" setting to beat the bosses, but you can choose to not use them if you want to use your own.
  • The "Bounty Mark" game mode is a Coop Multiplayer mode where the host player purchases a "boss ticket" ^note it comes in B, A and S rank; different ranks have different bosses, chosen at random, then said player has to team up with other players to beat the boss under a time limit. The prizes are "fragments" of gacha-exclusive equipments that you can use to craft said equipments. The higher rank the boss ticket is, the more materials you can possibly get after beating the boss.
• Time Skip:
  • There's a 4 month time skip between ch. 9 and ch.9-EX. During it, a large "Honkai eruption" occurred courtesy of Herrscher of the Void, causing many parts of the world to become devastated, with the survivors occupying the few large cities left. Kiana and Himeko also went missing, and our Valkyrie group has found intel about Kiana's whereabouts, which prompts them to find her before Schicksal's forces do.
  • The Open World introduced in Version 3.8, "Post-Honkai Odyssey", takes place 8 years from the present. Most of the Honkai (forces and energy) has disappeared from the earth as they're sealed on the moon, Theresa Apocalypse became the Overseer of Schicksal, and the world is in a peaceful era. However, there are still mysteries to solve in the South African city, St. Fountain, which the adult Mei and two of her students (of the New St. Freya Academy) are going to investigate. The gameplay also becomes more expansive, akin to Devil May Cry or NieR: Automata, where the characters can now jump (including Double Jump) and do attacks in the air and the gameplay becomes more akin to Stylish Action.
• Title Drop: The title actually refers to the "Third Honkai Impact" that happened two years prior to the story of the game (and is shown in one supplementary comic), also known as "Third Honkai War". In 2014, there were sudden mass Honkai outbreaks, a lot of people in Nagazora city turned into zombies, and Honkai Beasts appeared en masse. It also influenced Mei, causing her Herrscher side to awaken.
• Tomboy and Girly Girl: The dynamic between Kiana and Mei. Kiana is the tomboy, enjoying games and manga and opting for shorts with most of her battle suits and costumes. Mei is the girly girl; she cooks and opts to wear skirts and dresses for many of her battlesuits and costumes.
• Took a Level in Badass: Different updates to the game did this for some of the Valkyries in the form of "Augment Cores", alternate versions of certain battlesuits that come with unique attacks, skills, and associated outfits:
  • Version 2.9 was the first such upgrade, giving Mei's Valkyrie Bladestrike a major overhaul that modified many of her skills and attacks and made her more powerful and useful. It also came with a new outfit called "Striker Fulminata" where she has shorter hair. In-story, all of these augments are made by Tesla of Anti-Entropy to aid her.
  • Bronya's Yamabuki Armor received one in version 3.0, made by Dr. Einstein of Anti-Entropy. Like Valkyrie Bladestrike, it modified many of her skills and attacks, making her more powerful and useful, especially for support. It also came with a new outfit called "Drive Kometa".
  • Version 3.3 introduced Kiana's upgrade for Valkyrie Ranger called Void Drifter. It improves her playstyle greatly, allowing her to dish out much more damage, dash faster and support her teammates better. It also coincides with the moment in the story where, after some pep talk from "Himeko" inside her mind, she manages to use some of Herrscher of the Void's powers by her sheer will, allowing her to overpower the Honkai Beasts around her. Later on, she further takes levels in badass by commanding Herrscher of the Void's full power with her mind intact, fueled by her resolve, to save the people of Arc City from the Honkai energy bomb.
  • Version 3.4 marks the first Augment Core upgrade for an S-rank Valkyrie: Theresa's Violet Executer suit, called "Twilight Paladin". It increases the range of her attacks and gives her access to a Super Mode that modifies her attacks into more powerful ones; unlike her regular self, this doesn't cost SP and only requires her to fill a gauge. Her new Ultimate Skill is her dealing damage in a large AOE with her blades and her cross that also empowers her afterwards.
  • Version 3.5 gives one to Fu Hua's Valkyrie Accipiter outfit, by the name "Hawk of the Fog". It trades her supportive skills for more offensive ones, changing her main role from a support character to a melee offensive lighting-elemental character capable of attacking multiple enemies at once.
  • Version 4.2 introduces Mei's second Augment Core upgrade, "Danzai Spectramancer" (for Shadow Dash). It significantly improves her damage dealing capabilities, while also giving her support capabilities (for physical damage teams) as well.
  • Rozaliya's Molotov Cherry suit is the second S-rank suit to get an augment core: "Fervent Tempo Delta". It notably makes her no longer heavily reliant on Liliya to deal huge damage by her own. Her fighting style becomes more dynamic where she can keep moving and attacking her enemies for long, and it also incorporates some of Lili's techniques and traits (including physically) as well.
• The Tower: The Tower of Babylon, a Honkai research lab belonging to Schicksal, located in Siberia. It is the main setting of the 2nd Honkai War, and it's shown in-game in a "holographic scenario" in ch. 5 and 6.
• Toxic Phlebotinum: The Honkai can be harnessed as an energy source, but they have to be handled with care or people may suffer from Honkai corruption. There exist Honkai energy reactors and Honkai-powered machinery, although these technologies are limited to the major anti-Honkai powers of the world. The Valkyries are also capable of harnessing Honkai energy to empower themselves, courtesy of the Stigmata technology; however, average valkyries are only fitted with artificial stigmata, which doesn't offer full protection against the Honkai, and they tend to have short life expectations because the frequent exposure to the Honkai will slowly corrupt them. The Herrschers, meanwhile, can freely use them to empower themselves, because they're already "part of the Honkai".
• Trapped in Another World: The "Honkai Kingdoms" event has the Captain being whisked off to a different world with only the Olenyeva twins keeping him company. There, they meet the other girls being put in different roles, such as Fu Hua being a king or Himeko being a pirate captain.
• Trapped in TV Land:
  • The Co-op Raid stages "Final HOMU Fantasy" has Kiana and Mei enter the titular video game world in order to find Bronya, who is missing. It turns out that not only does Bronya want to stay inside the game, she hacks it in order to fight her friends.
  • The "Winter Rhapsody" event starts with the Captain and the girls playing a game, then everything turns black and they're suddenly in a different world, which the Captain notes might be the game they were playing earlier. Seele was the one trapping them.

U - Z

• The Unblinking: With the exception of Durandal^note as Bright Knight Excelsis and Dea Anchora, Asuka, and the Herscherr of Sentience, the Valkyries' character sprites don't blink when they're standing still.
• Underwater Ruins: The Deep, located in the Mariana Trench, holds the undersea ruins of the previous civilization, now occupied by Anti-Entropy. Chapter 10 has the Valkyries visiting it to meet Cocolia.
• Unexpected Gameplay Change:
  • Three levels of Story Mode Chapter 6 (only in Normal difficulty) have different gameplay: one has you playing as HOMU in a platformer-style game to get coins and go to the finish, another has you controlling a plane in an Unexpected Shmup Level, and the last one has you control HOLA to bomb enemies in a Bomberman-like game. All of them also appear as event stages where you can get weekly rewards.
  • Chapter 7 also starts with an Unexpected Shmup Level and a reference to Ikaruga with the white and black bullets and lasers that the enemies shoot, and the black and white barriers you can deploy to defend your aircraft.
  • The "Winter Rhapsody" event features a Rhythm Game-like mode for some of its battles.
  • The "Honkai Kingdoms" event has one special level different from the others: a shooter-like game where you're playing as chibi Dorm avatars and wielding a gun that shoots balls, trying to shoot other players of opposing teams in real time. When you die, you'll respawn after a few seconds in a different place, ready to attack again. There are a few pickups that will help you, including a speed up item and a Deflector Shield item. This gameplay returns in the Slugfest minigame in the "Odd Drifter" event, with the chibi Valkyries able to use the various weapons used in the event's levels.
  • "Odd Drifter" itself mainly plays like an overhead shooter game, with different chibi characters using different weapons to run around and shoot multiple enemies (and some bosses). Then there are some special levels where they play like an Endless Running Game, where you attack incoming enemies and jump over obstacles until the finish/you defeat the boss. This "running game" mode comes back for a few events later.
  • The "Empyrean Legends" event sees the shooter game mode coming back, now with more mechanics introduced. It also returns in "Once Upon a Time in Shenzou".
  • Chapter 17 has one stage where the gameplay becomes akin to a Rail Shooter as you fly in the sky, shooting enemies. Mei as Herrscher of Thunder rides her new dragon in the air and attacks the Quantum Shadows on her path to Kiana's position. You as the dragon have a normal attack where you shoot electric balls, you can do Ultimate Evasion from enemy's attacks, you can do a Charged Attack (a Breath Weapon of lightning) that requires you to charge a red bar, and an Ultimate Skill where Mei spams huge Sword Beams from her katana.
  • "Gemina Invasions: Deep Paradise Arc" plays like the "St. Freya Fiesta" event, i.e a Monopoly-style board game where your walking distance is decided by a wheel roll and you get to build facilities that strengthen your characters in various ways. There are also encounters with enemies that, when you defeat them, gives you event currency to buy things, and "random events" that can either give you goodies or make you lose them. There's an extra "unexpected" layer in that, if you run into a HOMU-style enemy on the board, you'll be taken into a stage where, instead of fighting enemies like normal gameplay, you're playing a different minigame^note either "collecting falling coins", "run-and-gun play" (ala "Empyrean Legends"), or "Goomba Stomping monsters" (a variant on the "HOMEI's Fight" material mission).
  • The Evangelion collab event "New Century" has two of these: stages where you're riding a motorbike and speeding to the finish line, and stages where you're controlling Wotan to fight enemies, including the Angels.
  • Chapter 22 has an obstacle run-style Auto-Scrolling Level where Kiana, after being knocked down from where the boss is standing, is running towards the boss, while the latter attacks her from a distance. Kiana has to slide under the boss' Sword Beams and use her Subspace Lance to parry the flying swords that the boss summons.
• Uniqueness Rule: A Co-Op mission won't start if at least two players chose the exact same battlesuit.
• Unlockable Content: Many game features get unlocked one at a time as your Captain level increases.
• Unobtainium: Soulium (aka "Soul Steel") is a special metal alloy that was made from the Previous Era. The technology to produce it is lost in modern times, so Schicksal has to scour the Earth to look for it. It's not only sturdy, it also exhibits many different properties. Einstein claims that it's actually a semi-intelligent nano-robot composite that can change its form depending on its user's need. Many of the in-game weapons were built using this material.
• Unreliable Narrator:
  • It's said that Cecilia died fighting and keeping Sirin busy long enough for Otto to order Schicksal to fire the Honkai fission missile upon them, killing them both as a result. The Second Honkai War comic, however, makes it clear that Cecilia and Siegfried managed to subdue Sirin's Superpower Meltdown before they were hit by the missile, and that the missile strike was really Otto trying to kill Siegfried, as he considered Siegfried too powerful to let loose. He even rewrites Theresa's memories with Fenghuang Down to draw her suspicions away from the truth. As Otto succinctly puts it:
    Otto Apocalypse: ... I shall fabricate a version of history that benefits Schicksal most.
  • Played for laughs in the Gemina Tales side comic, where Rozaliya narrates how she and Liliya got their Honkai augmentations and boasts how they've become more powerful than even S-rank Valkyries (with Liliya correcting that they're not). Then she recounts how Cocolia gave her blessings to the twins to leave the orphanage and become idols, when in reality Cocolia flat out rejected Rozaliya's plan.
    Cocolia: For the last time! нет! ^*Russian for disagreement
    Roza's narration: Matushka gave us 100% support.
    Cocolia: [Sees Roza drag Lili away from the orphanage] Roza! Lili! Get back here, now!
    Roza's narration: She was almost crying when we left the orphanage with her blessings.
• Unusually Uninteresting Sight: In "Once Upon A Time in Shenzhou", Mei is in Herrscher of Thunder mode wearing the Aqueous Springtide outfit. Contrasting all the gravity it's treated with in the main story, nobody here seems to be the slightest bit concerned.
• Valkyries: The female warriors of Schicksal aren't real Valkyries of the myth, but they've been called such since the Middle Ages.
• Victory Pose: After you complete a solo stage, the camera will pan closer to your Valkyrie as they perform some animation or pose, such as Kiana brandishing her guns and winking at the camera or Project Bunny cradling Bronya in its hand.
• Video Game Dashing: The "dodge" button makes the character do a short dash move: Mei, Bronya and Sakura do a Flash Step; Fu Hua and Kallen slide a short distance; Kiana, Theresa and Himeko do short hops/rolls; and Rita, the Olenyeva twins and Seele briefly disappear and then reappear a short distance later. The first and second cases also have afterimages trailing from their bodies. Aside from aiding with movement, the button is also used to dodge incoming attacks; if timed right, it means you've successfully done an "Ultimate Evasion" and will trigger its effects (depending on the character). You can only do the dodge move twice (or once, for a few characters) in a row; it's to prevent the player from spamming it too much. In Post Honkai Odyssey, you can do a dash, as well as Ultimate Evasion, in midair. The air dash has a slight elevation, which can help in platforming in the stage.
• "The Villain Knows" Moment: In Chapter 39, our heroes have been prepared to go against the "god-like entity" Sa, which threatens to destroy the "bubble universe" they're in, including the possibility that "she" might be omniscient, so they try doing their thing with only the subtlest of communications. But it's when Prometheus was backstabbed by Sa's agent, Vita, that it's revealed that Sa can read their minds too. From then on, it's almost by the sheer stroke of luck that our heroes can finally have a chance of fighting back.
• Vitriolic Best Buds: Kiana and Bronya have a bit of a rivalry, namely over Mei's attention and affection, as well as other things (such as the fact that Kiana's air-headedness does genuinely drive Bronya up the wall sometimes). Despite that, the two are friends who will help each other when they need it.
• Void Between the Worlds: The "Sea of Quanta" is theorized to be something like this. Einstein describes it as "when worlds are like drinking glasses, then water is poured into them until they spill, the puddle formed from the spill is the Sea of Quanta". It's part of what Einstein called the "many worlds interpretation" and it's noted to still be a hypothesis. So far, the only access point into said realm is the "Eye of the Deep", a structure located in the heart of the Deep. As shown when Bronya entered it in ch. 11, it's an Eldritch Location where surreal things float in the air, where one's memories can shape its appearance, and where "bubble universes" exist, consisting of the many alternate possibilities of timelines and history. The "Sanka Saga" event implies that the "Saha World" that Kasumi repeatedly jumps into (and, for the last time, deliberately) is none other than the Sea of Quanta. It's rumored that all things that are "missing" in the real world would end up in this space.
• Vomit Indiscretion Shot: In the "Valkyrie's Cafeteria" event, one story scene features Rozaliya and Liliya making some dishes so they can livestream themselves eating them as a promotional piece. However, when Rozaliya eats the dish Liliya made, she reacts with disgust and then starts uncontrollably throwing up. This is depicted◊ with a rainbow stream shooting out of her mouth.
• Vulnerable Convoy: In a side story about Durandal's Bright Knight: Excelsis battlesuit (taking place sometime before the game's main story), a delivery vessel called "Mazarin" was carrying the project codenamed HDA-007 SPECTER^note Self-powered Suit for Emergency Confrontations, Tactical Engagements and Raids towards Schicksal HQ when it came under attack from an unknown group, which stole said project and brought it into their underground hideout. Durandal was dispatched to infiltrate their hideout and retrieve said project, which turned out to be the Bright Knight battlesuit. Otto told her to wear it on the spot as he turned the whole mission into a test run for said suit, telling her to use the suit's capabilities to defeat the enemies in said location.
• Walking Swimsuit Scene: Most of the Valkyries have at least one battlesuit which has a swimsuit or beach-appropriate attire like a sundress as an optional outfit that can be worn into battle. The exceptions are Fu Hua and Kallen, who (currently) don't have any such option.
• Warp Whistle: In Post-Honkai Odyssey's Explore mode, the map has multiple "teleporter beacons" that you can activate so your characters can start from or teleport there. They usually only appear after you beat certain bosses.
• Weak to Magic: MECH-type entities (whether they're Valkyries or the Mecha-Mooks) take more damage from PSY-type entities.
• Weapon Specialization: All of the playable characters wield one type of equippable weapon each. A lot (though not all) of the Valkyrie suits have "signature equipment" that are tailored (often exclusively) towards the strengths and abilities of the particular suits, such as Hyper Railguns (for Kiana's Knight Moonbeam suit), Skoll and Hati (for Fu Hua's Night Squire suit) or Sleeping Beauty (for Rozaliya).
• Weather of War:
  • The Schicksal HQ Open World has a weather system that affects the gameplay. The weather changes thrice a week; this will affect how the enemies work/behave (such as giving them buffs/debuffs or changing their properties), your Valkyries' status, and a buff/debuff for the drive-able mechas you may bring in. E.g in snowy days, you'll be hampered by constant snow fall which will deal small amounts of ice damage; staying inside a mecha/chopper will protect you from the damage; and enemies will take increased ice damage from your attacks and periodically get frozen.
  • The Dirac Sea game mode also has a simpler weather system; this will affect the kind of enemies present and their increased resistance/vulnerability towards different kinds of damage. A later introduced game mode, Superstring Dimension, also has a similar weather system.
• Webcomic Time: The story started in 2016 and has progressed for only a year (Time Skip included) as of the game's August 2020.
• Wham Episode: Chapter 6 in the game ends in a massive doozy as the truth about Kiana is revealed in the most heartrending way possible, Kiana is captured by Otto, and Theresa orders the Valkyries of St. Freya to get ready for a rescue mission against Schicksal itself. From there on, the game's story shifts to a Ensemble Cast instead of focusing on Kiana, and moves to a darker, more desperate tone as the heroes have gone from being supported by Schicksal to fighting them directly.
• Wham Shot:
  • In the special chapter "Everlasting Memory", there's a shot of child Kiana, cuffed and blindfolded, accompanied with Otto mentioning about how he has Kiana in his custody. It foreshadows that the Kiana that we know is actually Experimental body K423.
  • The Evangelion collab event "New Century" ends with this. Kongming and Fallen Rosemary Rita are enjoying tea time on Hyperion's bridge while the Captain is away, but are interrupted by Ai-chan, who has picked up a signal of a living being drifting in the Sea of Quanta. The scene then cuts to a shot of Asuka floating unconscious in Wotan's wreckage.
  • The last shot of ch. 24 is of Kiana reacting in shock to the Herscherr of Domination revealing that it has the Gem of Haste, the Herscherr core that powered Himeko's Vermilion Knight battlesuit. This reveal, at the time, pretty much wrote in stone that Himeko is truly dead, and the next chapter's events would confirm it.
• What Happened to the Mouse?: The end of the Soul Throne raid stages has Sakura rejecting the offer to "walk again in the real world" with the sword Jizo Mitama, and then the sword is seen falling from the sky and landing on the grounds of St. Freya Academy. There's nothing said about what happened to the sword afterward.
• What If?: Chapter 11 has multiple "bubble universes" in the Sea of Quanta, demonstrating how the world might have turned out had things been different:
  • World 1 is a timeline where Cecilia actually survived the Second Honkai Eruption, and founded St. Freya. As a result, this timeline is actually better than reality in some ways, including Cocolia being a Valkyrie and a genuinely heroic person.
  • World 2 is a timeline where Otto and Theresa are running what is implied to be the same orphanage Cocolia owned in the main timeline, and Otto, unlike his real self, is a genuinely good person.
  • World 3 is a timeline where the Second Honkai Eruption happens several years later than it should, and Anti-Entropy was slaughtered by Schicksal, with Welt being the only survivor. Welt rebuilt the organisation, stole Sirin's core, and proceeded to return the favor, basically annihilating Schicksal and slaughtering nearly all of its Valkyries, including Kiana and Mei.
• Where It All Began:
  • In the "Empyrean Legends" event, the story starts with the Celestial and Book of Fuxi occupying a room in Sakura's Inn in Xanadu Village. After most of the story having them travel to other places, the final chapter is in the village, having been razed while the Celestial was away.
  • The end of chapter 15 sets up a major story development for chapters 16 and 17, in the ruins of Nagazora City, the site of the Third Honkai Impact where Kiana's and Mei's fates began to intertwine. Kiana has fled to this city and Mei goes there looking for her, while reminiscing things that happened there, particularly between her and Kiana. Then, after Mei finds Kiana and the latter wakes up, the two have a walk around the ruins, while talking about how their lives were like 3 years ago, and how a lot have changed since then. They also visit their old school, the Chiba Academy, although they could only see it from a distance due to the huge flood. When Mei asks her why she came to Nagazora, Kiana at first implies that it's out of nostalgia and old dreams^note she says that the idea just popped up to her head as she's fleeing from the chaos in Schicksal's Vimur Base, and about how there's the idea of thinking of the past when one feels lost. But after she talks about how she wants to make the world a better place following Himeko's "last lesson", she realizes that that must've been why she came to this city: she remembers the battles here and the oath they made to fight for all that is beautiful in this world; however, she then thinks to herself about how the rising Honkai energy in the city feels wrong, as if something huge is about to happen, implying that above everything else, she wants to save this city.
  • In particular, in the past, they used to fight each other on their school's rooftop as Kiana tried to free Mei from her Herrscher self (as seen in Guns GirlZ and the supplementary comics). Then, in chapter 17 of the game, they end up fighting each other on the same rooftop again... and this time Kiana is fighting Herrscher Mei to stop her from joining World Serpent. This time, Mei has more reasons to win beyond just defending herself against Kiana - and now she has more than enough power to back it up.
• Whole Episode Flashback:
  • Chapters 5 and 6 takes place in the "simulation" of the 2nd Honkai War, as Kiana walks through it and witnesses things that happened. The twist, however, is that it's revealed in the end that the Herrscher inside Kiana's mind is twisting her perception, making her see things that couldn't possibly happen in the past.
  • One stage in ch. 11-EX is, at least in big part, a flashback - this time, about Kiana's time with Himeko in the academy. It would later end with the flashback to the end of ch. 9 where Himeko sacrifices herself to bring Kiana back from her Herrscher self.
  • One stage in ch. 17 is partly about this, as Mei reminisces of the time she first meets Kiana and then their lives together some time afterward, as she's currently running towards where Kiana is flying with Benares. Mei has a literal trip down the memory lane; during which, it cuts to the scenes in chapter 1^note Kiana and Mei fighting Honkai Beasts on the Selene battleship, ch. 2^note Mei trying to help Kiana study, and ch. 8^spoilers!Mei trying to free Kiana from Herrscher of the Void, but failed that you will play through. Then an image of Kiana appears to meet her, and they re-enact their conversation in ch. 14 when they met each other again; where Kiana tells Mei that she's just going to be a danger to her friends. Then "Kiana" runs towards the light at the end and Mei follows her, which brings her back to the present.
• Who You Gonna Call?:
  • There are currently two groups that respond to the Honkai threats: Schicksal and Anti-Entropy, the former being founded in the Middle Ages and the latter being more recent. They just as often have conflicts with each other, however. They differ in their fighting methods: Schicksal usually uses their Valkyries, while Anti-Entropy uses Mecha-Mooks.
  • In the previous major civilization 50000+ years ago, there existed the Fire Moth (aka "The Moth who Chases the Flames"), which also responded to the Honkai threats. Their troops are called the MOTH, or "Myrmidons of Taskforce Honkai". The previous incarnation of Mei later became the head scientist of this group and created many inventions for fighting the Honkai and especially Herrschers.
• Why Don't You Just Shoot Him?: The Herrscher of Domination spends a lot of time and effort trying to break Kiana's spirit, a ploy that not only goes nowhere but also leads to its defeat. Trying to remind Kiana of Himeko's death with the Gem of Haste just leads to Kiana reclaiming it, which also gives her the strength to beat Sirin for the final time. Only after Kiana becomes the Herrscher of Flamescion does it finally go all-out, and by that point it's too late.
• Wolverine Claws: One type of zombie mooks fights with a pair of clawed gloves. They can also run on all fours and generally attack like a wild beast.
• World of Action Girls: All of the playable characters are female, and many significant characters are female fighters. The exceptions are: Siegfried, Kiana's dad and one of the strongest Valkyries; Welt, the first Herrscher and leader of Anti-Entropy; and Archbishop Otto Apocalypse, the leader of Schicksal and owner of the Divine Key Void Library. Post-Honkai Odyssey introduces a male character while noting that he was one of the few males in St. Freya Academy, as men with Honkai energy resistance are extremely rare.
• World Tree: Chapter 17 has Otto describe something called the "Imaginary Tree". This tree "emerged" from "an endless Sea of unfathomable depths and boundaries", i.e the Sea of Quanta. The Tree and the Sea have something of a "rivalry"; the Sea seeks to flood, while the Tree seeks to "absorb". As the Tree has grown since time immemorial, it has grown the "branches and leaves", including a certain "unassuming branch" that leads to the birth of the human civilization. Otto's discovery of this "tree" leads him onto the "edge of science" where the only way for him to "keep going" is to look further into the tree. He then expresses his idea of how true peace could be achieved by reaching the "origin of civilization". To "ascend" this Tree is said to be akin to entering the "domain of God".
  Otto: Imagine it! The Imaginary as the origin of the human race and the seed of civilization! Time flows in the trunk of the Imaginary Tree and branches out into an infinity of worlds. Every branch is a form of civilization. Every bud is their past and present etched onto the dimension of time. But growth is countered by a force - a selective and corrective system in the Tree's rivalry against the Sea. A natural system based upon the Imaginary mechanics. It breeds, nurtures, tests, and removes. This is what humanity describes as the Honkai.
• Year Inside, Hour Outside: In the Durandal visual novel, 4 years after Durandal finished her mission in the Sea of Quanta and got out of it, she and Rita visit a particular bubble universe again, and characters in there said that 10 years have passed since Durandal's leave.
• You Require More Vespene Gas: Prior to the Version 3.5 update, the "Base" contained facilities that would help you improve your game^note various locations that increased your Valkyries' base stats; the Refinery, which you could tap for extra coins and upgrade materials; the Command Center, where you could assign Valkyries to background missions for coins, materials, and Valkyrie fragments; and the Hub, where you could increase your roster of in-game friends. They could all be upgraded in order to make them more potent, but they required certain equipment enhancement materials each time, and more and rarer kinds of them to upgrade as their levels increased. Also, they required a certain amount of "power" to unlock their benefits, which was generated by the Honkai Powercore which also had to be upgraded to sufficiently fuel everything. After the 3.5 update, however, the Base (now rolled into the Dorm) no longer requires any material to upgrade^note the game will even give the materials used in previous versions back to you; instead, it is now upgraded by finishing specific Valkyrie-related tasks.

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