Nightmare Fuel / Honkai: Star Rail

Per wiki policy, Spoilers Off applies here and all spoilers are unmarked. You Have Been Warned.

"...surely you can withstand the blessing... of Destruction."

While Honkai: Star Rail is Lighter and Softer in comparison to the game it was based off of, that doesn't mean that everything in the game is family friendly either.

---

Main Story

• Prologue:
  • The Antimatter Legion attack on Herta Space Station right at the start of the game. While the space station has its own security force, it is still mainly made up of researchers who are ill-equipped to deal with the invasion that hits. While most of the researchers were evacuated, there were unfortunately a few casualties. And even once you take back the station from the majority of the Antimatter Legion, some places have to be closed off due to the fact that the Fragmentum has taken root and continues to produce monsters, though thankfully the numbers are much more manageable.
  • The Doomsday Beast that the Trailblazer, March 7th, Dan Heng, and Himeko have to fight right at the end. Even though it isn't a Lord Ravager, an Emanator of Destruction, it is still a formidable beast to deal with. As the Astral Express Crew flees from the scene, Dan Heng says that Herta Space Station stands no chance against such a formidable foe even though it is much more manageable than their High Command and Aeon. It takes on the form of a giant dragon and it would have disintegrated March 7th with its energy beam had the Trailblazer not leapt in and took the attack in her stead.
  • The Protagonist having a Stellaron inside their body. The Stellarons are known as 'Cancer of All Worlds' and are seeds of disaster that often cause changes in civilizations and ecosystems, often for the worst. They also result in the creation of Fragmentums, anomalies created by Stellarons that cause corrosion and spawn monsters. As we see later on during the Jarilo-VI arc, it turned a planet once thriving with life into an Glacial Apocalypse in which the people living there are barely surviving. And the Trailblazer you pick at the beginning of the game has one shoved into them.
    • Near the end of the prologue, they lose control of the Stellaron and release so much power that it destroys the Doomsday Beast the Astral Express Crew is struggling against, one of the dreaded monsters among the ranks of the Antimatter Legion. Had it not been for Welt intervening who knows just what could have happened.

• Jarilo-VI:
  • The fact that the Supreme Guardians dating back to the time of Alisa Rand were Hearing Voices courtesy of the Stellaron. Eighteen Supreme Guardians for the past seven hundred years have had to deal with the Stellaron haunting their thoughts and trying to convince and sway them from the Path of Preservation. It isn't until Cocolia, the eighteenth Supreme Guardian, that they manage to succeed.
  • In the Trailblazer's first dream since they arrived in Jarilo-VI, they witness an old memory of the Stellaron interacting with Cocolia when she's still a young teenager. In the present, Cocolia is the mother of an adult Bronya training to become the next Supreme Guardian and who had been adopted at such a young age that she doesn't remember that she was originally an orphan from the Underworld. Just how long had the Stellaron been talking to Cocolia and influencing her? Turning her from an idealistic young woman to a cold Well-Intentioned Extremist who saw no problem in sacrificing the current world because she saw it as a lost cause?
    • Listening to the Stellaron speak to Cocolia is unsettling. It speaks with a Voice of the Legion, sounding not as a single voice but several other overlapping each other. And it's not just Cocolia but also her predecessors before her who had to deal with this voice haunting them for years. It's amazing that none of the previous Supreme Guardians went insane.
  • After the Stellaron crisis on Jarilo-VI is resolved, the IPC shows up to collect on a 700-year-old debt that the Belobogians owe them, which has accrued such an enormous amount of interest that they cannot hope to pay it. As soon as the IPC arrives, they start pressuring the Belobogians in what comes very close to a hostile takeover, complete with armed soldiers who utterly outclass the Silvermane Guards on a technological level. Worse, Topaz demonstrates that they can hijack all of Belobog's robots with ease. Despite everything Belobog has done to survive over 700 years, the IPC makes it abundantly clear that they could crush them like bugs if they wanted to. The only reason Jarilo-VI gets off so easily is due to Topaz being a Reasonable Authority Figure; if anyone else from the IPC were in charge of collecting the debt, it's likely the Belobogians would've been more-or-less enslaved by the MegaCorp.
    • To make it even more painful, capitulating to the IPC would not guarantee the revival of Jarilo-VI, as Himeko notes that only about 63% of planets who receive IPC's aid actually recover from disasters. While Topaz's success rate is higher at 80%, that would still be taking a dice roll with the future of Belobog that could end up being All for Nothing.

• Xianzhou Luofu:
  • The citizens of the Luofu are all immortal to some degree thanks to the blessing of Yaoshi... but it turned out to be a double edged sword. Xianzhou humans are fated to turn into mara-stricken, deteriorating bloodthirsty monsters that attack anything in sight. Worse yet, their minds are still fully conscious inside their bodies.
  • After defeating Dan Shu (who has turned into The Ascended), Tingyun, the Astral Express Crew's companion during their journey in the Xianzhou, suddenly betrays them and reveals herself to be Lord Ravager Phantylia, one of the Antimatter Legion's Emanators, and the one responsible for the Stellaron crisis in the Luofu and using the Disciples of Sanctus Medicus to do her bidding.
    • The way Phantylia is introduced is nothing but terrifying. The normally soft-sounding Tingyun drops her voice into a low and cold tone then overlaps with Phantylia's own, she turns around and makes one hell of a Nightmare Face, and finally snaps her own (or rather, Tingyun’s) neck with a VERY audible crack sound.
    • The reveal raises several questions regarding Tingyun herself. What happened to her? Did she even exist at all? Was Phantylia pretending to be her from the moment the Nameless met her or even before the Xianzhou arc begins? Jing Yuan and Welt assume there is a real Tingyun and theorize the possibility that Phantylia killed and/or took her place at some point, but there's no way to know for certain.
    • Her boss fight also has an incredibly creepy moment if you idle long enough. The music just STOPS, replaced by familiar bells. Then you hear deranged laughter coming from somewhere. Turns out the fight caught Aha's attention. They don't interfere but still.
  • The fact that Cirrus was able to possess the Trailblazer so easily. They've got a Stellaron in their body and yet they were effortlessly taken over by the heliobus.

• Herta Space Station:
  • Entering the Seclusion Zone is downright disturbing. The Trailblazer goes down there alone at the behest of Ruan Mei, who wants them to discretely clean up a mess she's made. When they reach the zone, they come across one of the floating robots that can be found in Herta Space Station... only for it to turn toward them and show it has more-or-less had its face ripped off, revealing a single electronic red eye, and then spasm wildly. Then, the elevator goes back up unexpectedly, and when the Trailblazer turns back to the robot, it's gone. Creepy...
  • When roaming around the Seclusion Zone for the first time, the area is dimly lit with no inhabitants around, adding in to the creepy factor. Once you start navigating through the second floor's circular hallway, you will be greeted with the lovely surprise of invisible True Stings ambushing you out of nowhere. Fortunately, in subsequent visits, the Seclusion Zone will be lit up and inhabited by the Space Station robots, Ruan Mei's creations, and two Herta puppets, and the True Stings will no longer be invisible.
  • The Trailblazer finds a huge incubator that has been broken to pieces and is covered in a strange yellow goo. After they inspect it, they realize they're not alone... just as a clone of an Emanator of Propagation lands behind them. Cue the Trailblazer spinning around with their bat to face an insect at least twice the size of a full-grown elephant. Then, after the boss fight against it, the Trailblazer is nearly killed by the giant bug and its progeny, and only survives because the clone's body destabilizes and it dies as a result (as well as its minions). One has to wonder what the hell was going through Ruan Mei's head when she decided to create this thing! By the way, the Trailblazer had to fight this thing ALONE.
  • Ifrit's abduction of Asta is horrifying on several levels. First, it happens oh-so-abruptly, with Asta suddenly being surrounded by blue fire just as the others realize the demon means to target her. Asta's reaction to spontaneously bursting into flames is one of sheer terror, and before the Trailblazer can do anything to help her, she is teleported away by Duke Inferno. Though the Trailblazer and Dr. Ratio are able to find and rescue her unharmed (as well as everyone else Ifrit had abducted from the space station), Dr. Ratio later reveals to Screwllum that had he not interfered with Ifrit's teleportation, it's likely the demon would've just warped his victims into deep space.

• Penacony
  • Right out the gate with the first Penacony Trailblaze Chapter, 3 characters are already killed: Firefly, Duke Inferno and Robin. While only Robin’s corpse is shown, and Duke Inferno was killed offscreen before the quest even started, we get to witness Firefly’s particularly jarring and gruesome death as she is impaled by Something Unto Death, followed by her body exploding into blue goo, all within a matter of seconds. Speaking of which...
  • Something Unto Death, the Memory Zone meme responsible for killing Firefly. This...thing is completely unlike anything the Trailblazer has faced thus far - both in terms of design and gameplay mechanics. It looks like a nightmarish purple and black Draconic Abomination with far too many eyes, a misshapen torso, and one wickedly serrated blade-like wing. According to its lore, it is the embodiment of the fear of death, formed from the subconscious nightmares of all who have entered the dreamscape. Fittingly, it possesses the terrifying power to instantly kill any one of your team members via its special attack, keeping their souls imprisoned in crystals (which you can fortunately destroy to revive your fallen teammates, but it's still frightening to experience).
    • Additionally, when Something Unto Death first appears, it causes a bunch of television screens to light up with a bunch of glowing eyes that are reminiscent of the Herrscher of Corruption. It doesn't help that this happens after the Trailblazer and Firefly try to escape the room they're stuck in, only to be constantly looped back, all the while a mysterious voice that's accompanied by several floating texts (implied to be derived from Misha's memories) shout out more frantically with each loop.
  • The real Dreamscape. Unlike the Golden Hour and the Dream's Edge, which are vibrant, bustling areas, A Child's Dream and the dream version of the Reverie Hotel have a dark, sinister atmosphere around them. They are also more surreal in a disturbing way, with uncanny layouts, fragmented areas, and the presence of many monsters, including the Memory Zone Memes. In particular, during the first visit to A Child's Dream after the Trailblazer and Firefly get knocked out by Sparkle, they come across floating texts that suddenly appear in the air, accompanied by what sounds like Misha voicing the texts. They tell about someone trying to find Mikhail while being chased and then cornered by an unknown pursuer, with the pleas intensifying in the aforementioned room where the Trailblazer and Firefly first encounter Something Unto Death. Combined with the description of the area being formed from someone's distorted memories and the tracks playing being twisted versions of tunes for children, this gives a strong first impression of how off the real Dreamscape is while also calling into question the mystery behind Misha and Mikhail and what happened to them.
  • When Gallagher reveals to Sunday that he is the one responsible for Robin's death, the serial killer takes the moment to sit down and ignite his lighter. Not even a second later, Sunday is stabbed from behind by Something Unto Death, which effortlessly got through all of Sunday's security and caught him completely by surprise.

Companion Quests

• In Yanqing's companion quest, he's already on a dangerous (and unauthorzed) mission to hunt down the dangerous Stellaron Hunter, Blade. Along the way he meets Jingliu....who, according to Jing Yuan's trailer, was Jing Yuan's former master and is supposed to be dead. She then challenges Yanqing, and almost kills him. Yanqing barely escapes, and drops a jade recording device as he leaves the area. If the Trailblazer and March hadn't found the device, Yanqing's (at least, at the time) current state could still be unknown.

Open World

• Belobog:
  • On the left of the theater, there's a locked gate to a closed area. There's a Nervous Man you can talk to. He mentions that he's from the "back alley", an area where poor people reside. The man worryingly explains that something has been replacing the people. He hates the "back alley". He wants to escape. He explains that he and the other residents can't leave due to the gate being closed. He goes back to his home for safety. But, he can be seen and interacted again for a few times. Eventually, he is called "Smiling Man". He cheerfully welcomes you to the "back alley" of Belobog. His smile is as stiff as a board. You question his sudden change in attitude, but he says that the "back alley" wishes to see the rest of Belobog and asks for the gate be opened. You can agree to his request and text Gepard to open it because he has the keys. Gepard replies that there is no "back alley". You look back up from the phone to the Smiling Man, but he disappears. Your recollection of the "back alley" is also gone. But, you remember only one thing: his smile is as stiff as a board. You get an achievement called "The Mandela Effect". All of this is never explained.
  • If you knock on every door in the Overworld's Goethe Hotel, you get a rather chilling reference to the twins from The Shining. What exactly is happening in that hotel!? Not to mention a couple of the things you hear in various rooms before it happens, including "All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy"...
• Penacony:
  • The version of the Reverie in the Dreamscape contains more horrors than just Something Unto Death.
    • While on Penacony, you can collect text stickers for your Dreamscape Pass. The ones you can find in the dreamscape Reverie are... disturbing.
      The swimming pool is on the fourteenth floor. You're welcome to experience the sensation of drowning.
      There is a restaurant on the seventh floor. You can freely choke on the food there any time.
      There is a sauna on the ninetieth floor, with temperatures hot enough to melt the flesh from your bones.
      There is a dance hall on the hundred-and-fifty-sixth floor, and its lights are sure to blind you.
      And let's not forget the grand hall on the two-hundred-and-third floor, where three mass funerals are conducted daily.
    • In the dreamscape Reverie, you can find a broken Dream Ticker that doesn't awaken once it is fixed. Instead, the Trailblazer is afflicted with a sudden surge of intense rage and relentlessly kicks the Dream Ticker until a bizarre tape comes out of its body. The tape is apparently an advertisement done by Clockie for the Dream's Edge, but not only is what is supposed to be his voice distorted and "filled with malice and scorn," the recording is filled with static, screaming, and other disturbing sounds, and the narration goes into terrifying segues such as "please refrain from hunting local residents" and "open up your mind, release your pressure, and shed some of your blood!" You can take it to a Bloodhound security officer, who reveals that tapes like these have been popping up all across Penacony, that living people who pick them up experience intense rage, fear, and hallucinations, and if they keep them for too long their minds collapse completely.

Other

• Blade's Character Story 1 demonstrates just how much Jingliu went off the deep end. Apparently, she inflicted a Resurrection/Death Loop on him by stabbing him "again and again... for thousands of times", continuing even when the sword broke, and Blade couldn't stop his body from self-healing. Jingliu's eyes are described as "blood-red" as she stabs him again, telling him to "Remember the feeling of death, and bring it to them" and commands him to "Rise, and let me kill you once more". No wonder Blade wants to die permanently. Even in the present, remembering her causes him to feel phantom pain everywhere in his body.
• If you idle long enough during Phantylia's second phase, you can hear the sound of bells followed by a very creepy and maniacal laugh. While it's never explicitly stated who's laughing, it's very heavily implied that it's Aha the Elation. But who are they laughing at? And why are they laughing? It's creepy as hell!
• Hanya's and Xueyi's Character Story 3 reveals what had happened to Xueyi for her to end up in her robot body, and it isn't pretty at all. Among the chaotic backdrop of the Denizens of Abundance's attack on the Xianzhou Cangcheng that saw the living planet Rahu devour the Cangcheng with its organic core while propagating countless offsprings, and the borisins easily crushing any attempts to fight it, Shuhu, an Emanator of Abundance who took the form of a giant walking tree, impaled every Xianzhou soldier in its path, including Hanya's comrades, and then grew fruits with the faces of Xueyi and her other comrades, all of them begging her to join them. Xueyi herself was left helpless as Shuhu tried to tempt her and her absorbed comrades to accept the blessing of the Abundance, only being saved by a timely attack from Luofu's Arbiter-General at the time, Teng Xiao. Hanya regularly has nightmares of that day, and frequently drinks Wine of Oblivion to forget. From an out-of-universe perspective, many players reacted in an "OH GOD KILL IT BURN IT" way upon learning about this incident, finding that it truly conveyed the horrors of the Abundance in a way they hadn't quite understood before.
• Speaking of Aha the Elation, Sparkle's trailer, "Monodrama", demonstrates through her insanity as a Masked Fool that she embodies the Elation, and in fact declares herself to be Elation itself as she joyfully murders copies of herself, indulging in a disturbingly playful game of Russian Roulette right in the middle of combat, with a gleeful Nightmare Face to boot.
  "Were you scared just now?"'
• The "Rondo Across Countless Kalpas" animated short starts innocently enough, with the Memokeeper Black Swan asking Acheron for a dance in order to familiarize herself with the mysterious "Galaxy Ranger." But then Black Swan asks about Acheron's involvement with the disappearance of Duke Inferno/The Annihilation Gang, and then decides to look into her memories...only to find herself completely and utterly overwhelmed by whatever horrors lurk inside Acheron's memories. In the short itself, this is represented by a nightmarish-looking red-eyed cognitive version of Acheron, who unleashes a visceral No-Holds-Barred Beatdown on the Memokeeper, tearing her own memetic body to shreds by literally ripping out her feathers, all punctuated by imagery of various prey animals being hunted down by a vicious predator. Given the reveal that Acheron is actually not a Galaxy Ranger at all, but is instead an Emanator of Nihility, Black Swan's horror is well-warranted - after all, as a physical avatar of the void itself, Acheron might be one of the only beings in the universe that could actually kill a Living Memory like her.