YMMV / Honkai: Star Rail

YMMVs with their own pages:

• Awesome Music
• Game Breaker
• Memetic Mutation

A-D

• Accidental Innuendo: Aventurine gives us a few.

  "I thought you knew… Didn't you say you had me pegged?"

  "Doctor... You're huge!"

• Alternative Character Interpretation:
  • In Serval’s Companion Mission, she announces her plan to join the Astral Express to Bronya and Gepard, and both of them seemingly support her decision. However, at the end of the mission, Serval changes her mind after encountering a physical manifestation of Cocolia’s feelings about her, with Serval realizing that she was trying to run away from her problems in Belobog. This however begs the question of just how supportive Bronya and Gepard were of Serval’s initial decision to leave with the Astral Express. Was their support of her decision genuine, or was it a case of Reverse Psychology, since they know that Serval is a Bad Liar, and that she was trying to run from her problems rather than face them head on? Not helping is that many things that happened in the mission happen to go against her thought of running away from her problems in Belobog, so much that at one point she thinks that Gepard is guilt-tripping her to stay. He, at least, makes it clear he's worried about her when you talk to him privately, then later says to her directly that "running away doesn't solve the problem"^note the context was that she's running away from Landau house because of her disagreement with her father, but it can also be applicable to her current decision of leaving Belobog and how he's not trying to change her mind, but he needs to make sure she really thought things through and isn't just trying to run away from her problems, and he also seemingly alludes to himself and Serval when he's talking to a rescued pair of siblings, particularly about how they should protect each other; she calls him out for said speech, but he claims that it was how he has always felt.
  • In Kafka’s companion mission, she plays a game with the Trailblazer, where they each ask each other a question, and they alternate between telling the truth and telling a lie. It's ambiguous which ones are truths and which ones are lies to some extent, but you can see that she has some "tells" when lying to you or feels upset or pleased by your answers. You can also determine if her previous answer was true if you ask "1+1=2" as your final question, but also sacrifice an opportunity to ask the last question regarding you, her, or Blade. She even says that it's a clever question, but asks if it was worth it. To what degree her answers are valid or true, however, is the more ambiguous part. Some of her answers that are long contain different statements and a few players speculate if it's a case of a truth within a lie or the other way around. One of her lines during a session break has Kafka say that it's not whether you're lying or telling a truth that is important, rather, she's looking for something else about the Trailblazer. You can tell that she can tell if you're lying or breaking the rules of the game based on her expressions. But towards other situations like lying to Yanqing about mindcontrolling Trailblazer, she has no problem and is quick to come up with a cover.
  • The Stellaron Hunters in general. Are they really a gang of well-intentioned but unrepentant criminals, or are they actually anti-heroes who pose as criminals to hide their true intentions? The The Jepella Rebellion — Scene 47 trailer seems to imply that the Stellaron Hunters only steal Stellarons from planets that seek to exploit Stellarons for their own ends (even if the Hunters also cause chaos and destruction in the process) and that their victims aren't quite morally clean themselves. Kafka also implies that the Stellaron Hunters simply took advantage of the chaos other groups caused and willingly took the blame for them.
  • Aeons in general are grand cosmic entities that have in-universe people debating their intentions and limitations and some fans also debate as to how much at fault they are, considering that their actions may be limited to just their paths and some speculate just how aware they are of their actions as its said in the game's lore that an Aeon may not even be able to process information outside of what their path entails. Their Blue-and-Orange Morality makes their cases even murkier.
    • Tayzzyronth: mindless bug with only a strong desire to multiply, or Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds? Their bio did state that they were the Last of Its Kind and their loneliness was what enabled their ascent to Aeonhood...
  • The Interastral Peace Corporation. Are they a genuinely Well-Intentioned Extremist organization who want the best for everyone, or are they a greedy MegaCorp who take advantage of worlds facing a crisis so that they can place them under their heels to line up their pockets with cash? Topaz believes that the IPC is the former because of how they helped save her homeworld from destruction. However, Himeko points out that planets that do accept the IPC’s assistance have only a 63% chance of successful recovery, and that while planets under Topaz have a higher chance, it's still a gamble that must be thought about before taking the chance.
  • Herta. Is her apparent apathy towards managing her own space station and her own employees' safety due to her genuinely not caring about them at all, or is it because she's so intelligent she is perfectly aware of the threats towards her station but like Asta quietly manages events from behind the scenes and trusts in her subordinates to handle themselves? While her general attitude pretty openly puts her in the former case, there are hints that she's more of the latter. For example, Herta always seems to invite the Trailblazer over to the space station right before a major incident occurs, coincidentally putting the Trailblazer in the best position to resolve it. Not to mention, she may agree with Dr. Ratio's criticism of the station staff in that she doesn't want them relying too much on her to solve their problems and would rather they figure it out themselves.
  • Polka. Why did she try to Unperson herself, and why did she kill members of the Genius Society who were studying the Aeons? Did she kill them because she wanted to hoard their discoveries to herself, was it a case of These Are Things Man Was Not Meant to Know, or is she just a deranged Serial Killer who killed them for no reason? The fact that Screwllum advised against inviting her to the Herta Space Station suggests that Polka is The Dreaded among the Genius Society. And while she did erase almost all traces of herself from the universe, the only proof of her existence is a digital portrait that she defaced in the Herta Space Station, leaving her motives unclear as to why she tried to Unperson herself.
  • March 7th. Is she The Pollyanna or is she a Stepford Smiler? Himeko’s lines about her implies that she’s the latter, though March believes herself to be the former. In her companion mission "Total Recall", she asks Fu Xuan to use the omniscia to try to help her remember her past, but the Garden of Recollection interferes, insisting that its for her own good. At the end of the mission, March insists that she isn’t bothered by the Garden’s interference, but come Argenti’s companion mission "Night of Universal Hallucinations", March encounters a hallucination that claims to know about her past, which is revealed at the end of the mission to have been caused by hallucinogenic pheromones from the Stings. Said pheromones cause people to see their deepest desires, which suggests that March isn’t as unbothered by the Garden’s interference as much as she says she is.
• Aluminum Christmas Trees: March's Six-Phased Ice may seem like an entirely fictional thing created for this game at first, and it's described by her lore to be more of a "condensed crystal" than normal ice. Unbeknownst to most fans, however, Six-Phased Ice really does exist in Real Life where it's more accurately named as Ice VI, which is one of the many phases of ice that water can crystallize into. It's worth noting that Ice VI in real life can only exist in pressures 10,000 times greater than the average air pressure at Earth sea level, while March's Six-Phased Ice is supernatural in origin and can exist regardless of air pressure.
• Annoying Video Game Helper: Midway through the Jarilo-VI arc, you'll obtain a Robot Buddy named Findie who will help you track down hidden objects at certain points in the story and some sidequests. However, during these sections, Findie will spam in-universe IPC ads constantly which are voiced, starting each ad with "Beep beep beep..." every time, which just grates on the player's nerves very quickly. While it's meant to hamfist the fact that the IPC is infamous for spamming ads in the lore (thus acting as a Take That! joke to real-life ad spammers), the approach works a bit too well, making the annoyance felt even beyond the fourth wall.
• Awesome Ego:
  • Herta is an Insufferable Genius who can barely feign social grace and is extremely blunt in her lack of interest in other people. And she is hilarious.
  • Dr. Ratio doesn't let himself be undone by his fellow Nous follower. Even before he was released, in the v1.6 livestream, he was established as a Stern Teacher working hard to cure the malady of ignorance in every one of his students, to the point of driving them crazy. The stream also showed him having surprisingly silly combat animations, such as slapping his enemies with his book, throwing a chalk at them and summoning statues of himself in overly dramatic poses, all with an expression of complete seriousness. These characteristics would have made him a liked but not overly popular character... but then he stole the show by calling Owlbert towards the stream's end, speaking in a condescending tone of voice, calling the 4-star characters in his banner pitiful and demanding that every trailblazer be given access to a proper education, by himself of course. He then announces every player will receive him in their mail without having to spend warps on the gacha, cutting to an official screen showing it was not a joke. This event led him to be instantly loved by the community, who welcomed a character arrogant enough to defy the game's conventions this blatantly in a way that did nothing but benefit them.
    Through sheer tyranny of will, I shall become ubiquitous.
• Awesome Music: Now has its own page.
• Base-Breaking Character: Story-wise, people seem to be very split on Topaz, as a result of the sheer complexity of her character. Some believe that she's far too hypocritical and unscrupulous to fit the concept of a "debt collector with a heart of gold". Even though she genuinely wants Jarilo-VI to prosper once again, as an employee of the IPC who have improved her life condition, she's doing things their way: Topaz attempts to manipulate Bronya with her backstory in order to push her into making Jarilo-VI into an IPC colony world, strong-arms Svarog into helping her by threatening to override his functions, takes control of Svarog's robots and sicks them on Gepard and his soldiers, and is even adamant in facing off against the Astral Express crew in battle just for them trying to get in her way. And of course, Topaz hides the fact that the success rate of the IPC restoring planets is 63%^note It's higher under Topaz's jurisdiction, but Bronya rightfully points out that it's still a gamble that, if they lose, could devastate the planet forever. It doesn't help that the narrative constantly tries to push the idea on the player that Topaz is actually good by having other characters frequently say that she's not a bad person. On the other hand, there are people who point out that she isn't really as bad as some make her out to be. Topaz gets her soldiers to stop harassing the locals by threatening to dock their pay, does genuinely apologize for some of her deeds by the end of her story, actually backs down when she realizes that Jarilo-VI doesn't need the IPC to help them, and that her coworkers are objectively worse than she is.
• Broken Base:
  • Many people are split in regards to Seele and Bronya choosing to hide the truth of what really happened with Cocolia and the Stellaron. People who are against Bronya and Seele lying feel that the former is repeating the mistakes of her past predecessors by covering up the truth and lying about what Cocolia was going to do, believing that her choice is a slippery slope into becoming a dictator. Those who defend their choice argue that telling the truth will do more damage than good, believing that telling the truth will cause a rift amongst the populace, with the eventuality of a Civil War- the last thing that the people of Jarilo-VI need when they need to focus on the future.
  • The entire conflict between Yaoshi and Lan has people picking sides. Some people think the Sanctus Medicus cult's actions are too extreme to justify and that the Loufu is justified in rooting them out, while others take the Xianzhou's campaign against the Abundance to its logical extreme and accuse them of wanting to commit genocide against any and all followers of Yaoshi, regardless of any culpability they have in her or the cult's actions.
• Cargo Ship:
  • It's no surprise that fans love to portray Trailblazer being attracted to the trashcans with the flavor texts the game gives. In particular to note is one particular interaction where they can stroke a trashcan before declaring it "the world's most beautiful trash can."
  • Argenti and plants, as his character introduction trailer opens with him gesturing grandiosely to a potted plant and in the companion mission, is seen opining about "Beauty" to the same potted plant on the Express.
• Complacent Gaming Syndrome:
  • In terms of endgame content, be it Memory of Chaos, Simulated Universe, or Pure Fiction, the top teams will almost always have Bronya and for a good reason. Her potent buffs and turn manipulation makes her one of the most sought after characters in the game. While losing the 50/50 coinflip can be frustrating, players consider it a godsend if they lose the 50/50 flip to Bronya and a large chunk of people (assuming they do not have her beforehand) WILL pick her from the 5 star selector after pulling 300 times in the Standard Banner.
  • Many Cavern Relic builds will recommend Speed for your feet relic's Main Stat, as Speed is what determines the turn order. Speed means you get the first move in battle in most cases, which is key to getting speedkills, especially when there's a limited cycle count such as Forgotten Hall. The odd times you don't take Speed is when your own party's turn order isn't aligned correctly for your party's playstyle.
• Demonic Spiders:
  • Guardian Shadows are utterly irritating to fight. They like to randomly impose bans on Basic Attacks, Skills, Ultimates, and even ban attacking them. Violating the ban results in a nasty Counter-Attack, and the only way to stop it is to Weakness Break them, inflict Freeze, Entanglement, or Imprisonment, or cleanse the associated debuff. They also hit hard with AOE attacks to further add difficulty in fighting them.
  • Aurumaton Gatekeepers have a Sanction Meter which charges up when they are attacked using a Skill or an Ultimate. The meter also gets charged using the Dread attack which is always used while not in Sanction Mode. When the meter gets full, they summon Illumination Dragonfish and their toughness cannot be damaged for three turns. Illumination Dragonfish are enough trouble as they have an AOE attack that hits your entire party and reduces their defense, but the Gatekeeper also can dish out an extremely hard hitting single target attack that not only can chunk the HP off of even Preservation characters, but also has a high chance of Imprisoning them. As such, the biggest challenge in Gatekeeper fights is being able to control the Dragonfish numbers while damaging the Gatekeeper itself, while at the same time being careful not to spam your Skills or Ultimates too quickly or else the Gatekeeper will summon more Dragonfish than you can deal with.
  • Frigid Prowlers are a nightmare to fight if you don't have consistent means to take out the Everwinter Shadewalkers they spawn, especially on higher Equilibrium levels and difficulty settings for some modes. The catch with Frigid Prowlers is that they'll devour one of the Shadewalkers to charge up for a powerful attack which, while only targeting one party member at a time, will still take a large chunk of their HP nonetheless and potentially one-shot your Fragile Speedsters, Glass Cannons and Squishy Wizards, so you have to take out all of the on-screen Shadewalkers if you ever hope to keep the Frigid Prowlers from gaining an advantage. The elite variants in the Simulated Universe take it up a notch by devouring all Shadewalkers to charge up for a powerful AoE attack instead, making them bigger threats than the standard ones.
• Diagnosed by the Audience:
  • It's not hard to read Herta as someone on the autistic spectrum — she's incredibly intelligent yet has a narrow range of interests, uses an army of marionettes as proxies so she never has to meet anyone in person, lacks tact or social grace, and has a short attention span with the few things that she does take an interest in but focuses on these things with intensity.
  • Pretty much everyone on the Genius Society (except Screwllum, for rather self-evident reasons) can be identified as being autistic savants due to their rather odd but different personalities and quirks. The fact that an official post states plainly that Genius Society members tend to have, among other traits, 'autistic tendencies' made these audience diagnoses practically canonical.
• Difficulty Spike: Reaching Trailblazer Level 40/Equilibrium Level 3 is generally agreed to be when the game really starts to ramp up in difficulty, both in terms of combat and the drastic jump in resource costs for developing characters and light cones.
• Dry Docked Ship: In fanon, it is extremely common to depict Blade and Dan Feng as former lovers that became enemies as a result of the fallout of Dan Feng’s actions.

E-H

• Ensemble Dark Horse:
  • Despite being a fairly minor player in the big scheme of things (at least initially), Sampo gathered a sizeable fanbase on release for his genuinely fun Lovable Rogue antics and good looks.
  • Herta's role in the main story is rather minor aside from being a pivotal lore character and Ms. Exposition for the Simulated Universe (an out-of-the-way side activity), and her in-universe personality is far from pleasant. Despite this, she's rather popular and well-liked by the fanbase because of her cute Elegant Gothic Lolita-esque design giving her a Moe vibe, her Awesome Ego, and the fact that the Japanese dub has her shout "kuru kuru" whenever she does her follow-up Spin Attack on enemies, which adds some cathartic amusement to her gameplay.
  • Thanks to his interesting design and gentlemanly behaviour, Screwllum quickly won over the fanbase. All the more impressive when you consider he debuted during Silver Wolf's companion mission, a very anticipated character, yet managed to overshadow her not through a weak showing on Silver Wolf's part, but because Screwllum was simply that impressive.
  • Ruan Mei was this back when she hadn't physically appeared in the game and only in Simulated Universe. The fandom loved her due to the occurrence with her being absolutely game-breaking: either you gain all blessings of a particular path (which is good for collecting them all to get jades), gain 2000 cosmic fragments (which is amazing if you have the curio that increases damage per 100 fragments), enhance all blessings you have (which will save a lot of your fragments), or gain 20 random Curios. There was much rejoicing when drip marketing confirmed her to be playable; however, she became a Base-Breaking Character instead when "Crown of the Mundane and Divine"- her playable debut patch - was released and she was revealed to have the personality of an amoral Mad Scientist.
  • As soon as his appearance was shown, Gallagher quickly became incredibly popular for his attractive gruff older man aesthetic and voice.
  • Siobhan became quite a hit particularly among lesbian fans, sporting a sharp and dashing design despite her being an NPC. Having a Team Mom personality and a surprisingly tear-jerking sidequest also endear her even more to the overall fanbase, to the point that many wish she becomes a playable character in the future.
  • Many took an instant liking to Misha, being a Pretty Boy and The Klutz, as well as his design. Not only that, but his grandfather was a Nameless, so Misha himself is enthusiastic about exploring the galaxy like his grandfather and going on an adventure. Needless to say, he greatly admires the Nameless on the Astral Express. Many fans want him to board the Express, as he can live out his dreams and possibly assist Pom-Pom on the train, with the bonus of expanding the current crew.
• Epileptic Trees:
  • Some fans are under the impression that the main character is either a Kaslana or somehow related to the Star Rail universe's version of the Kaslanas, due to the fact that they wield a baseball bat as their weapon, much like Kiana, Siegfried, and Kevin did at one point.
  • Likewise, the reveal of the existence of an Aeon of Finality has led fans to believe that the Honkai have a presence in the Stair Rail universe, and that said Aeon may be related to or actually be Kiana herself (who became the Herrscher of Finality by the time Honkai Impact 3rd's Part 1 story ended). The reveal that Acheron (Mei) may possibly be an Emanator of Finality only further fueled this theory.
  • The fact that there are "two Bronyas", with Bronya Rand of Belobog being the obvious one and the Stellaron Hunter known as "Silver Wolf" being the other, with them sharing a voice actress in Japanese but not in any other language (including Chinese, where Hanser has been handling the character for years and voices Silver Wolf but not Rand) is a source of whole epileptic forests, with one of the reigning theories being that she is in actuality Bronie from Honkai Impact. Pouring gasoline on this theory is the existence of "Punklorde", a world in the Star Rail-verse that sounds extremely similar to the place Bronie was from in HI3; there's even a curio in Herta's collection that describes it.
  • Many players speculate that Luocha's true identity was Void Archives, given he is also the one who accompanied Welt before going on their separate ways and given Luocha's actions through other parts of the galaxy before he set foot unto Luofu makes his appearance and Void Archives' absence more in line than what they assumed.
  • The final cutscene of the Jarilo-VI arc heavily recontextualizes Sampo's character and adds a lot of additional mystique to his motives and purpose, all suggesting that he's actually a member of the Masked Fools, followers of Aha. Helped by this is an occurrence you can run into on the Xianzhou Luofu where you discover a mini-neutron bomb, and when it seems its explosion is imminent, you pass out, only to realize it was a prank accompanied with a note from Sampo. Eventually, 1.4 confirms the Masked Fool theory.
  • With the start of the Penacony arc, there are already theories abound that Firefly is actually Sam's true identity, but there are aspects of their backstories that seem to line up. First, both Firefly and Sam make their first appearances in the same chapter. Firefly escapes suspicion from the Bloodhound guards when Gallagher points out they're supposed to be looking for a silver haired man, not a girl, while at the same time Sam is largely assumed to be male due to his physique and voice, and both he and Firefly are stowaways who infiltrated Penacony. Firefly mentions she is hiding her true identity from the Trailblazer but never mentions what it is, and Sparkle chides the Trailblazer for not realizing who Firefly really is. They both also apparently received personal invitations from the Watchmaker to find his Legacy, and were implied to be working together. Firefly also seems to have combat experience, being easily able to tell that Sampo is a dangerous fighter. She also mentions she is a refugee after her planet was destroyed by either the Antimatter Legion or the Swarm, which matches with Sam's home planet of Glamoth being destroyed after an apocalyptic war with the Swarm. Finally, right after Firefly "dies", Sam immediately arrives on the scene. This isn't even getting into the fact that Firefly and Sam are both associated with fire. And by the time 2.1 came out, these theories were all proven to be true.
• Estrogen Brigade: The game has a vocal female fanbase thanks to its several attractive male characters such as Dan Heng, Welt, Gepard and Sampo. Those are just some of the male cast who are in Version 1.0, with more to arrive in future updates.
• Evil Is Cool: The Stellaron Hunters are extremely morally dubious and often cause wanton chaos in the service of the greater good, but all four of the organization's known field agents are beloved by the fanbase for their attractive designs and sheer badassery.
  • Kafka has an implied power to destroy planets, and is not above using manipulation tactics to get what she wants. However, fans love her because of her fashion sense, her strong introduction of playing Pachelbel's "Canon in D major" with an air violin at the start of the game (during an Antimatter Legion invasion no less), her amicable personality towards the Trailblazer (helped by the fact that she's actually the first playable character who awakened them to begin with), and being a Ms. Fanservice.
  • Silver Wolf is such a gifted hacker that she's capable of hacking reality itself, and happily abuses this to commit all sorts of petty crimes and make a nuisance of herself wherever she goes. The fanbase loves her for this very reason, as well as being a highly quotable Gamer Chick.
  • Blade is by far the most sinister of the Stellaron Hunters, being a completely immortal being who's made it his secondary mission in life (beyond ending said immortality) to make his Dan Heng's life a living hell due to his prior life Dan Feng being responsible for his current condition.
  • Sam gained coolness points right away with his mechanical armor reminiscent of a Kamen Rider, and his debut in the game more than met expectations with his over-the-top fighting style and badass voice. The revelation that "his" true identity is the not-so-innocent Firefly did not subtract from this.
• Fan Nickname:
  • The game itself has earned some nicknames:
    • "Honkai in Space" - The initial nickname by fans, because it was a continuation of miHoYo's Honkai series and there was an emphasis on space travel. This has seemingly died out, though, largely as a result of it becoming clear as the game launched that there was more to it than that.
    • "HSR" - The game's abbreviation, due to the Honkai fanbase's love for abbreviations.
  • "Mommy" - Attractive adult female characters like Kafka, Himeko and Natasha, due to their appearance. Kafka has the distinction of being the one who awakens the Trailblazer, so she's the first and most popular recipient of the nickname. Other variants are based on the specific character's traits, such as Himeko being called "Fire Mommy" because of her Fire element.
  • "Daddy" - Attractive adult male characters such as Welt, Jing Yuan, Luocha, and Blade, a Distaff Counterpart to the "Mommy" nickname. Jing Yuan in particular is referred to as "Electro Daddy" for his Lightning powers (with "Electro" being derived from the naming theme of Elemental Powers in Genshin Impact).
  • "Shampoo" - a joking nickname for Sampo Koski.
  • "Scampo", "Suspo" - Nicknames for Sampo that take a stab at his shady conman nature.
  • "Intertwined Fate Girl" - March 7th, due to her eyes having the pink and blue colors associated with the Intertwined Fate gacha currency of Genshin Impact. This association happened as soon as Star Rail was unveiled at the 5th anniversary live concert of Honkai Impact 3rd, with many miHoYo fans pointing out this resemblance.
  • "3/7" - A shorter format of writing March 7th.
  • "Danny", sometimes "Daniel" - An Affectionate Nickname given by fans of Dan Heng
  • "Dan Leng", Danny Phantom, "Dan Hung" (1.2 spoilers) - Dan Heng's past life as "Dan Feng". Other variations include Daniel, occasionally capitalized as DanIeL, or DHIL (sometimes pronounced like "dill") for his Inbibitor Lunae form.
  • Some pre-existing fan nicknames coined by the Honkai Impact 3rd fandom are also carried over here for those who have Star Rail "counterparts":
    • "Da Bronya" for Bronya Rand and/or Silver Wolf.
    • "Sus" for Sushang.
  • "Qiqi" or "Electro Qiqi" - Bailu by Genshin players, since she's also a tiny purple-haired healer from the standard banner, originating from a Chinese-inspired nation, in a miHoYo game.
  • "Blue Sucrose" - Pela, because she also wears a hat and glasses just like Sucrose from Genshin, but with a blue color theme instead.
  • "Autopilot" or "Autoplay" - Alternate names for the Auto-Battle feature.
  • "Cowboy" relics - The Musketeer of Wild Wheat relic set, due to their wild west appearance.
  • "Cards" - Light Cones, occasionally, due to their rectangular shape.
  • <Character>'s Light Cone - A 5★ Light Cone that's designed or tailor-made for a specific character, also known as their "BiS" ("Best in Slot"). For example, the "In the Night" Light Cone is called "Seele's Card" or "Seele's BiS" because it was released in the gacha alongside her.
  • Abbreviations and acronyms for certain gameplay terms, features and mechanics are also common:
    • "TL" – Trailblaze Level
    • "SU" – Simulated Universe
    • "E<digit>" - Eidolon upgrades, borrowing from the naming trend of Genshin Impact fans.
    • "S<digit>" - Superimposition upgrades for Light Cones, also based on Genshin.
  • "HSS" - Short abbreviation for Herta Space Station, not unlike how the International Space Station in real life is referred to as the ISS by most people.
  • "Apolojades" - A spin on the already-common fan nickname "apologems" from other gacha communities referring to additional Premium Currency being given out due to bug fixes and other downtime maintenance, just changed slightly to refer to Stellar Jades instead.
  • "Among Us Plot" - Two sidequests on the Herta Space Station focus on tracking down a rogue Blob Monster called the Xenohydro who has the ability to shapeshift into anyone near flawlessly. Unsurprisingly, fans drew parallels to the Among Us game due to its similar premise of Spot the Imposter, as well as calling the Xenohydro "sus". Hilariously, Among Us is also brought up again when the Tingyun guiding the party turns out to be Phantylia. And when the lines in game after the reveal included the words "impostor" and "among us", plenty of players lost it.
  • "Hoshiboshi" - Asta or anything related to Asta. Taken from the first word of her shortened Ultimate line in the Japanese dub when playing on 2x speed.
  • "Gambling/Gamba Gremlin" - Qingque, for the randomness in her gameplay and her characteristic (the little-looking girl who loves games and slacking off work).
  • "Topass" - Topaz, due to her very generous posterior, skintight wardrobe, and Impossible Hourglass Figure.
  • "BS" - An acronym used for Black Swan.
  • "Bootyhill" - An intentional misspelling of Boothill, mostly coming from the part of the fanbase that desires him carnally.
  • "Chicken Wing Boy" - Sparkle's nickname for Sunday, which fans found funny and also started to use.
  • "义父" (Yìfù, "Godfather/Foster father") - The CN fan nickname for Dr Ratio, because he was given out as a free character and is often portrayed as a Stern Teacher towards the Trailblazer.
  • "Aven" and "Churin" for Aventurine, with "Aven" being more popular among English speakers and "Churin" being mostly used in Japan.
• Fandom-Enraging Misconception: Star Rail is being compared a lot to Genshin Impact and it's understandable since the former turned out to be a Creator-Driven Successor whose character progression systems and user interface elements are heavily based on the latter, and because Star Rail became the first Honkai game of many miHoYo newcomers from Genshin. However, some comparisons often show a lack of knowledge about miHoYo's games other than Genshin... which can annoy some long-time miHoYo and Honkai fans.
  • Calling this game "Honkai in Space" can be acceptable to some degree, but do not call this game "Genshin in Space", especially if it's a generalized sweeping assumption. Several news outlets have earned ire from players because of this, even back during the early closed beta. Beyond the progression and UI aspects that do make it a successor to Genshin, this game still has closer ties to the previous Honkai games in other aspects such as the worldbuilding and lore, with Welt Yang often alluding to events and fellow characters from Honkai Impact 3rd.
  • Do not comment that Star Rail Himeko looks like a Distaff Counterpart of, or an Expy ripped-off from Diluc. Honkai fans would consider her being mistaken for Diluc as a major insult because while both have red hair and fire-elemental affinities, Star Rail Himeko is based on Himeko Murata in a lot of ways, the latter being a Honkai character designed and written by miHoYo long before Genshin rose to prominence. In addition, Genshin is implied to already have its own Expy of Himeko Murata in the form of Murata, the Archon of Natlan, since her name is based on her Honkai counterpart's surname and she is a fire-based lady of war. Similarly, assuming that Acheron is "ripping-off" from Raiden Ei / Raiden Shogun of Genshin is generally frowned upon if the one who makes the assumption forgets that said Genshin character was intentionally based on the Honkai character Raiden Mei in the first place.
• Fandom Rivalry: Although there is a substantial overlap between the fanbases of Honkai Star Rail and Genshin Impact, there are nonetheless significant portions of the Star Rail playerbase that have some fiercely bad blood with Genshin due in part to the latter's immense popularity, despite its flaws, wanting to lord Star Rail over Genshin as HoYoverse's "superior" game. Ironically, the majority of the Star Rail playerbase are also Genshin players who either still play or have quit the game. Meanwhile, a large subset of Genshin players despise Star Rail due to the perception that the latter receives preferential treatment over the former, especially when it comes to its free rewards^note This is because 1) Genshin puts the majority of its Primogems in its primary gameplay focus, i.e exploration, puzzles and quests, while Star Rail puts its own Stellar Jades in its endgame modes and events; 2) due to its gameplay, Star Rail puts more importance in fitting character role and damage type to finish challenges faster than Genshin does, which means the former potentially demands more Stellar Jade consumption for gacha (for characters and Light Cones) than the latter does. and endgame contents^note Star Rail has Forgotten Hall, Simulated Universe and Pure Fiction as permanent game modes, while Genshin only has Spiral Abyss as the only endgame available with no other plans for other game modes. This does not include Genius Invokation TCG which has nothing to do with combat whatsoever.
  • Said rivalry exploded when Star Rail announced that a limited 5-star character Dr. Ratio would be given out for free via mail between the start of his initial banner and the end of Version 2.1. This caused an uproar among the Genshin fandom since Star Rail got its first free 5-star in its first year of release while Genshin has yet to get a single one^note This does not include Aloy, who is a collaboration character for over three years since launch.
• Fanfic Fuel: Based on the premise of the game itself, there are so many potential crossover stories of the Astral Express crew travelling to worlds of different franchises for them to explore and help the characters there, particularly with other Space Opera works such as Star Wars, Star Trek, Doctor Who, Phantasy Star, Star Ocean, Xenosaga, Mass Effect, Halo, Green Lantern, Guardians of the Galaxy, Space Battleship Yamato, Captain Harlock, Macross, Gundam, Warhammer 40,000 and Super Robot Wars.
• Foe Yay Shipping: Many of the fandom's favourite ships are between characters who are bitter enemies in canon:
  • Kafka and Himeko are arguably the most popular f/f ship, despite their sole interaction having Himeko show clear disdain towards the Stellaron Hunters.
  • Dan Heng and Blade are likewise one of the most popular m/m ships, even though - or perhaps because - Blade has been Dan Heng's personal Implacable Man, chasing him across the stars with the clear intent to murder him, to the point where Dan Heng has vivid nightmares about him.
  • Sunday and Gallagher are often shipped together by fans, even though Gallagher murders both Sunday and his sister, and the two openly despise each other's presence.
  • Aventurine and Dr. Ratio began as an enemies ship before further plot developments revealed that the two have actually been on the same side all along.
• Fountain of Memes: Firefly, as The Reveal that she's extremely violent Stellaron Hunter Sam sparked a ton of memes.
• Friendly Fandoms:
  • Some fans of other Turn-Based Combat RPG franchises like Final Fantasy and Persona expressed their interest in this turn-based Honkai game. In particular, fans of the Trails Series generally tend to find a lot to love in Star Rail and a number of similarities (which is perhaps, not a surprise because the producer of this game is a massive fan of that series).
  • There's a little bit of overlap with the Project SEKAI fanbase as two of the main trio, March 7th and Dan Heng, happen to share voice actors with some of Project SEKAI's main cast (Yui Ogura as March 7th/Minori Hanasato and Kent Itou as Dan Heng/Touya Aoyagi). There's even some fan art swapping the characters with each other.
  • Although the previous Honkai games already had amazing bangers, "Wildfire" being an English rock song has attracted fans from games which had similar English-lyric songs played during boss fights, such as Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance, Sonic Frontiers, and the Devil May Cry series. It's also worth mentioning that many DMC fans have played the previous Honkai action game already, so it's still a surprise to see a continued fandom overlap even if this game has a Turn-Based Combat gameplay.
  • Fans of the Fate Series are also into Star Rail, as evidenced by the number and viral spread of the meme edits using Illyasviel von Einzbern's "Berserker!" scream during Clara's Ultimate animation of calling out Svarog. This has also brought crossover fanarts, or fans comparing other characters apart from the four, such as Gepard being compared to Gawain. The Fate series also has its own Turn-Based Combat RPG gacha game via Fate/Grand Order, so these fans are already accustomed to the similar genre of both games.
  • With JoJo's Bizarre Adventure given that Jing Yuan and Sampo Koski share the same voice actors as Jotaro Kujo and Noriaki Kakyoin (Daisuke Ono and Daisuke Hirakawa, respectively). The overlapping playerbase resulted into combining scenes between the two games, imported memes, and calling Jing Yuan's Lightning-Lord a "Stand" because it's a Fighting Spirit.
  • With shared voice actors (in both language tracks), similar tragedies and boatloads of memes, there are quite a few Jujutsu Kaisen fans around. The Penacony arc is notable for being a source for many shared memes.
• Game-Breaker: See here.
• Genius Bonus:
  • Quantum's effect is Entanglement.
  • Many of the Destruction Blessing names in the Simulated Universe reference astronomy and physics terminology. Examples include "Extreme Helium Flash" (Helium Flash being a stage in a star's red giant phase where it starts fusing helium into carbon), "Universal Heat Death Characteristic" (Heat Death being one of the possible ends of the universe through entropy according to the laws of thermodynamics), "Primordial Black Hole" (a type of microscopic black hole that is theorized to have existed shortly after the Big Bang), and "Orbital Redshift" (Redshift being a term to describe the light of objects being stretched over long distances as a result of them moving away from the observer).
  • The feline Family Theme Naming of the Landau family is possibly a reference to the Soviet physicist Lev Landau ("Lev" is Russian for "Lion").
  • In "Jolted Awake from a Winter Dream", Natasha's quote about "those who sell their freedom for security will attain neither in the end" (when the Trailblazer is asking her whether the people should comply with the IPC's offer for their planet or not) is taken from the famous quote by Thomas Jefferson:
    "Those who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety."
  • When Gallagher is asked about his age, he simply replies that he's "Thirteen", which the group interprets as trolling. This turns out to be subtle foreshadowing, as Gallagher is connected to the "Death" that is affecting Penacony, and Death is the thirteenth Major Arcana in tarot.
  • Throughout the Penacony arc, Acheron has trouble retaining her memories and Black Swan finds it difficult to recover any memories pertaining to Acheron in general. Black Swan also briefly envisions herself being torn apart by a black hole when she attempts to directly read Acheron's memories in "Rondo Across Countless Kalpas". Given the confirmation that Acheron is an Emanator of Nihility, it makes sense why Black Swan is seemingly powerless against Acheron, since one major theory about black holes is that they are capable of destroying the information that they suck in, which means black holes and by extension Acheron's Patron Aeon IX are capable of destroying memories, making them a particular threat to the Remembrance.
• Goddamned Bats:
  • Automaton Beetles are annoying to fight in numbers once they start using their "Unstable Forcefield" skill which grants them a Barrier buff. They will nullify the next instance of damage aside from Damage Over Time effects, but this includes shrugging off your party members' Skills and Ultimates. This is made even worse by the fact that they can recast "Unstable Forcefield", and the Auto-Battle A.I. can show its flaws by letting your characters waste their Ultimate or Skill to dispel the Automaton Beetle's Barrier buff when you could've just manually used a basic attack against it instead.
  • Mara-Struck soldiers are extremely annoying, as once per battle, they will automatically heal back to 50% of their HP when they take a lethal hit, which also restores their Break Meter and removes debuffs. What's even more annoying is that this doesn't count as a death, so Seele's Talent will not trigger if she kills them for the first time. Luckily, their Rebirth buff can be dispelled if you have a buff remover like Pela.
  • Version 1.1 adds the Lost Trotters, which are silver variants of the Warp Trotters that have a random chance of appearing in battles and will reward you with increased material drops if defeated. That's all fine and dandy on paper, but the problem with them is that they're way too frequent with an unusually high spawn rate for a Metal Slime that's supposed to be rare, meaning you'll be seeing these things constantly and their bulky HP and DEF stats make them annoying battle pace breakers at worst. It's entirely possible to encounter up to 20 Lost Trotters in a single day's worth of material farming.
  • Version 1.2 adds the Wooden Lupus, a frustratingly annoying wolf enemy that not only summons clones of itself that don't die when the original is killed, but also has an annoyingly high speed stat to ensure that it can get one clone out as early as possible. Moreover, there's no limit to how many times they may do it in an encounter, and several encounters have more than one of them. Needless to say, they're the bane of any auto battle user due to how much they can stretch out a fight with their summons. Thankfully they're individually rather weak, and the clones they summon can't spawn with more health than the original, which is what ultimately keeps them out of Demonic Spider territory.
  • The Simulated Universe: Swarm Disaster's regular enemies introduced in 1.3, Juvenile Sting and Lesser Sting, can prove to be rather annoying. Their main gimmick is that, if they're not staggered, they'll propagate themselves and create a clone of themselves with full health every other turn, only balanced by their explosion-on-death which damages all of their allies. Also, they're mostly just weak to Imaginary and Quantum, two of damage types with rarer units.
  • The Mr. Domescreens in Penacony can be either a pain in the butt or a generous help, but only if you're careful when dealing with them: hitting them will make them switch between Surprise Channel, which will make them restore 50% of a character's Energy in their turn, and Startling Channel, which takes 20% Energy from all characters. The catch: they have an ability that just lets them switch channels at will if you keep ignoring them, and when you inflict Weakness Break, they'll automatically be set to Startling Channel when they recover.
• He's Just Hiding:
  • A handful of players have this impression for Tingyun, who was actually Phantylia in disguise. With Welt having assumptions that Tingyun had to be alive at some point for Phantylia to plant herself as The Mole, and Yukong swearing to find the truth behind the whole thing, people are wary and are waiting for evidence on the contrary in spite of the Soul-Soothing Ceremony being arranged in 1.3.
  • By the end of "If One Dreams at Midnight", both Firefly and Robin are apparently dead. However, many players are certain that they're not actually dead or will be resurrected somehow, due to both characters featuring heavily in the patch's advertising, as well as many plot details about their pasts and motivations remaining unknown. Also, both of them are seen dead only inside the Dreamscape and not reality, and it is already established that people cannot die in the Dreamscape, they're simply booted back to reality. And even if that's not the case, there's still the fact that the rules of the Dreamscape and Memory Zone don't conform to reality. Firefly is eventually confirmed to still be alive... as the person inside Sam, i.e she was indeed hiding.
  • Likewise, players aren't fully convinced that Ifrit is really dead, even if he was killed by Acheron. After all, he is still an immortal energy being, not to mention the Annihilation Gang playing a large role in the leadup chapter and 2.0's marketing. The animated short "Rondo of Endless Kalpas" and later "The Cat Among Pigeons" Trailblaze Mission would confirm that he really is dead.

I-L

• Idiosyncratic Ship Naming:
  • "Guns N' Roses" for the Boothill/Argenti ship, owing to one being a space cowboy and the other having Something about a Rose.
  • While mostly known for their Portmanteau Couple Names, Dr. Ratio and Aventurine are occasionally referred to as "Golden Ratio".
• Launcher of a Thousand Ships:
  • The Trailblazer gets shipped with numerous characters (some prominent ones are Dan Heng, March 7th, Kafka, and Firefly) for self-shipping due to their role as the Audience Surrogate.
  • Dan Heng/Imbibitor Lunae is shipped with the Trailblazer (more Caelus than Stelle), March 7th, Blade, Luocha, and Jing Yuan.
• LGBT Fanbase: Much like its previous game in the series, Star Rail has attracted a dedicated lesbian fanbase given the subtext and teasing between the female characters. The return of a pre-existing female Honkai ship like "Bronseele" also contributed to this game being noticed by such players. Gay fanbase also gets their share, with several males having (implied) history with each other.
• Like You Would Really Do It: When Firefly was seemingly killed by Something Unto Death, many players were not convinced that they would kill them off so quickly. Sure enough, come 2.1, and it turns out they were right. In more ways than one, as not only was Firefly revealed to be alive, she also turned out to be the person inside the Stellaron Hunter, Sam.
• Low-Tier Letdown:
  • Arlan is a Lightning Destruction character whose gimmick is dealing more damage the lower his HP is and consuming HP instead of skill points with his Skill, which is considered too risky outside Simulated Universe's Destruction Path due to being a Destruction unit without any aggro-reducing talent, making him more likely to be attacked and thus prone to dying, requiring a Preservation unit to cover for his survivability while also preserving his low HP. Not helping matters are his low DEF and purely ATK-scaling damage (without additional HP or DEF scaling unlike, for example, Blade) which hurts his survivability even further and his mediocre self-sustaining Traces and Eidolons compared to other Destruction characters, who either have better survival skills or non-risky playstyles.^note His second ascension Trace "Revival" restores HP instead of shield (which anti-synergizes with his "low HP buff" gimmick) and activates upon killing an enemy, thus difficult to activate when fighting solitary bosses; the sixth ascension Trace "Repel" can only negate the first received attack; the fourth Eidolon "Turn the Tables" can only revive him within his first two turns. Worse yet, even if you do jump through the hoops to make him work, he still ends up doing an overall mediocre amount of damage, as a mostly single-target unit, even with full Eidolons, Arlan still loses out to an unupgraded Dan Heng.
  • Yanqing is an Ice Hunt DPS and is considered as the worst 5★ Standard Warp unit. While he can dish out massive amounts of single target damage, the majority of his output is tied to his Soulsteel Sync buff which boosts his Crit Rate and Crit Damage by 33% and 64% respectively on top of a 62% base chance of a follow-up attack that has a 65% chance of freeze and boosting his Crit Damage by 54% when he uses his ultimate with the buff active. While all those combined would make him a good DPS, it is held back by the fact that Yanqing loses the Soulsteel Sync buff if he loses HP from damage. While his kit lessens his aggro to mitigate this, the majority of the endgame bosses all have AoE attacks rendering his decreased aggro useless and requiring him to have a shielder with him, and of the four shielders in the game, Gepard (another 5★ Standard Warp unit) and Aventurine are the only two who can consistently protect him.^note Preservation Trailblazer's shield is fairly weak and can easily be broken while March 7th's shield draws aggro to the shielded character making it anti-synergistic with Yanqing. Not helping his case is the release of better DPS units within his niche, such as Jingliu and Dr. Ratio.
  • In Simulated Universe, the Path of Elation can struggle to be of any use depending on the characters available to you, since its Blessings rely on follow-up attacks, which only a handful of units can do, making it the Path with the highest degree of Character Select Forcing. As of 2.1, of units capable of follow-up attacks, only Clara, Jing Yuan, Kafka, Blade, Topaz, Xueyi, Dr. Ratio, and Aventurine can trigger follow-up attacks consistently by themselves to warrant picking Elation ^note Technically speaking, so can Himeko, Herta and March 7th; however, Himeko and Herta's follow-up attacks suffer from Crippling Overspecialization courtesy of being much more effective against weaker enemies than bosses (unless they are a Flunky Boss like the Abundant Ebon Deer), while March is often brought for her defensive-oriented playstyle (shielding/debuff removal) compared to being a follow-up attacker . Comparatively speaking any other Path is of significantly more flexibility and utility for a general team, meaning Elation blessings are often completely dead weight when they show up unless you're already running an Elation-geared team. On the other hand, if you are lucky enough to have one dedicated follow-up attacker or the Champion's Dinner: Cat's Cradle blessing (which makes offensive Ultimates count as follow-up attacks and thus benefit from all Elation blessings), the Path of Elation becomes just as good if not better than any of the other Paths.
  • The Celestial Differentiator relic set provides a solid 16% CRIT DMG to the wearer... only to disappoint the player with the next sentence, which gives a 60% CRIT Rate boost for their first attack only, making it inferior to Planar Ornament sets that give more permanent bonuses like Inert Salsotto and Rutilant Arena. Even Bronya, who provides a buff that scales off of her own CRIT DMG, has a trace that causes her Basic Attack (her only damage-dealing move) to always CRIT, making the set's second effect useless on her, and who also has better options such as Fleet of the Ageless (which boosts all party members' ATK) or Broken Keel (which gives Effect RES to the wearer and 10% CRIT DMG to all party members).

M-P

• Magnificent Bastard:
  • "Future Market": Topaz, real name Jelena, is one of the Ten Stonehearts of the IPC, in charge of collecting debts from planets that have made loans with them. Learning that Jarilo-VI survived the Eternal Freeze, Topaz is assigned with collecting Belobog's debt, and approaches Bronya, offering to turn Jarilo-VI into an IPC colony world in order to have their debts forgiven and help reconstruct the climate. Resisting every attempt at negotiation, she appeals to Bronya by sharing a story of her own past, where her once-ruined world flourished under the IPC, almost getting Bronya to accept until Himeko reveals she left out the fact that the IPC's success isn't a guarantee, potentially devastating the planet if they fail. In the meantime, she uses a piece of IPC source code to control Belobog's robots, strong-arming Svarog into helping her find the automaton factory in hopes of proving to the IPC shareholders that the planet can generate worth and effortlessly subduing the Silvermane Guard. Anticipating the Astral Express' interference, she waits for them, requesting permission from her superiors to attack them ahead of time and unleashing an army of robots on them once it is granted. Despite her shady actions, Topaz truly wishes for the best for Jarilo-VI, and when Bronya shows her that its people can fight for themselves and help their own situation, she willingly backs down, accepting punishment from her superiors without complaint.
  • "Crown of the Mundane and Divine": Dr. Veritas Ratio is a member of the Intelligentsia Guild, seeking to cure the "disease" of ignorance that plagues the galaxies through the distribution of knowledge. Interrogating the Trailblazer on the disappearance of Herta's puppet, he works from an accusatory perspective to find the truth, before learning that Ifrit of the Annihilation Gang plans to attack the station. He and the Trailblazer investigate this further, learning about the spontaneous combustion teleporting several researchers and Adler looking into the Phase Flame, a mysterious Curio that Herta was interested in. When Asta herself combusts, Dr. Ratio determines that the flame is still in the station, and with the Trailblazer's help, manages to neutralise the threat. When confronted by Screwllum at the end, Dr. Ratio confirms that he knew all along that Ifrit was going to strike, and used the Flame to intercept his plans by making sure everyone was teleported safely within the station. Knowing Ifrit planned to sow chaos, Dr. Ratio allowed this to happen, letting discontent spread across the station and seeing the ordeal as a learning opportunity so that the researchers would shed their blind worship of geniuses that stunted their potential and come to a solution on their own.
  • "Bestial Ferocity" Adventure Mission: The silver-tongued Zhongshan is an enigmatic NPC who ropes you into resolving a conflict within a group of merchants called the Unshackled, who try to earn merit points from Yaoshi by releasing wildlife aboard the Luofu regardless of ecological consequences. After hearing the requests of the three belligerent Benevolent Ones to avoid a food chain, Zhongshan quickly picks up the Trailblazer's offhanded suggestion to look beyond organic lifeforms, ultimately settling for Belobog's Automatons with the phony reasoning that such an outrageous idea is interesting. With some smooth talking from Zhongshan and additional reassurance from the Trailblazer, the Benevolent Ones are sold on the idea that the Automatons fit their vision of wildlife to be released, unaware that their enablement would land them in hot waters with the Luofu authorities in true karmic fashion. Reveling in the Benevolent Ones' comeuppance and humbling, Zhongshan departs for the stars, leaving behind a letter that confirms her goal of "unshackling" the Unshackled and hints at her allegiance to the Aeon of Elation, Aha.
• Memetic Loser:
  • As of 1.2 update, Yanqing has gained this reputation for failing to pursue and arrest Jingliu, Blade, and Dan Heng. Despite being a prodigy in his own right, Yanqing should have known better not to pursue and fight three characters who are not only formidable fighters, but also much more experienced than him. He even attempts to fight Blade and Dan Heng together during the Luofu Trailblaze mission. Naturally, players are bullying him for his overconfidence, and his boss fight is the perfect opportunity to put him in his place. Not only that, he also gets scolded for his impulsiveness by Jing Yuan, who had warned him against pursuing Blade. Note that when fighting Yanqing, he's weak to Wind, Imaginary, and Lightning. It doesn't help that in Kafka's companion mission, it seems that he still hasn't learned and charged to a "mind-controlled" Trailblazer and a highly dangerous wanted criminal by himself, only to be defeated again and be sent away with his memories of those moments wiped out by Kafka. He is also considered wholly unremarkable as a playable unit and is seen by many as a Junk Rare. As the cherry on top, as of version 1.4, there are six achievements for landing the finishing blow on Yanqing with various characters, including Yanqing himself. To add insult to injury, he's the final boss of Simulated Universe World 8, meaning you can kick his ass on a regular basis.
  • Duke Inferno / Ifrit has become this as of 2.0; despite being hyped up in multiple trailers and the Crown of the Mundane and Divine Trailblaze Continuance quest, his ultimate fate is to be Killed Offscreen by Acheron in an apparent application of The Worf Effect. Jokes about his status as a jobber on par with Yanqing immediately ensued. This was somewhat walked back on in 2.1, where it's shown that in his final moments, he showed a lot of Villainous Valour and willing decided to go down fighting out of a genuine belief in the Path of Destruction.
  • Initially, there was quite a bit of excitement for Boothill and Robin being playable in the 2.2 banner. However, the subsequent announcement that fan favorite character Firefly ( AKA Sam the Stellaron Hunter) becoming playable in 2.3 has led to jokes of players completely skipping Boothill and Robin in order to save for Firefly.
• Memetic Mutation: See here.
• Misaimed Fandom: The "Aurum Alley Hustle and Bustle" event features a bet between Sushang and Skott where the loser has to apologize and bark like a dog. It's supposed to be seen as humiliating, but it's not hard to find fans who wanted to see the attractive, curvy Sushang acting like a dog.
• Moe: This is a miHoYo game, after all.
  • Clara is the undisputed queen of Moe in the Star Rail continuity, being a timid, innocent little girl who's managed to find a father figure in a war machine of all things, and is stated in her bio to have the goal of making the whole Underworld one big happy family. Her tendency to use cutesy emoticons (like ('･ω･') and (☉Д☉)) when texting also contributes to her adorableness. Her gameplay only adds to her cuteness, because Clara doesn't attack, Svarog (said robot father figure) does and will launch a counterattack against anyone who tries to hurt Clara. Her entire gameplay gimmick revolves around being protected.
  • Hook, following in the footsteps of Klee, is just precious. She's an extremely loving and devoted daughter to Hersman, is first introduced by coercing the Trailblazer into playing hide-and-seek with her, snacks on a lollipop for one of her idle animations, and her animations and sound effects during battle are similarly adorable.
  • In contrast to fellow Foxians Tingyun and Yukong, Huohuo is played up for cuteness instead, being short, perpetually shy and nervous, and possessing an Adorable Fluffy Tail that's constantly belittling her and dragging her along, evoking all the more sympathy from the playerbase. There's even a sticker of someone pinching her cheek.
  • Some players consider IX of all things to be utterly adorable, with the Aeon of Nihility appearing as a giant purple blob/black hole with small, sad beady eyes.
  • Penacony brings two more examples:
    • Misha is a Pretty Boy, cute as a button, and also very clumsy, especially in gameplay, which only adds to this factor. He's also an Adorably Precocious Child, putting him in contrast with other young males such as the more haughty Yanqing or the more level-headed Arlan.
    • Then there's Firefly, one of the game's most prominent Nice Girl and Token Wholesome examples, with lots of Ship Tease with Trailblazer. One of the most common reactions among players is to "protect her smile", which only makes her apparent death even more heartbreaking to many. It then looped back around to being hilarious to just as many when it was revealed that not only was she actually still alive but that an adorable girl like herself was the true identity of Sam, the most intense and intimidating-looking of the Stellaron Hunters.
• Older Than They Think: Because Star Rail served as the first Honkai game of many (especially those who became miHoYo fans around the 2020s thanks to Genshin Impact), there were a bunch of concepts that were assumed to have originated here, but were actually used in the older installments:
  • The opening song "Take the Journey" and the song that plays during Cocolia's boss fight, "Wildfire", were thought to be the "first" instances of HOYO-MiX making fully-voiced English songs (as in those with lyrics, not just music tracks with instrumentals or Ominous Latin Chanting). There were also those who thought that "Wildfire" was following the trend of games like Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance, Devil May Cry 5, or Sonic Frontiers featuring epic English songs during a boss fight (which became viral in 2022). Veteran miHoYo fans would then quickly inform the newcomers that the previous two Honkai games already had plenty of amazing fully-voiced songs, many of those were also in English, and some (like "Oaths" and "Oracle") were played during climactic boss fights.
  • The Ship Tease between Bronya Rand and Seele in Star Rail caused some fans to think that their "Bronseele" ship has finally sailed for the first time, though the pre-existing Honkai fans will remind that the teasing and the Portmanteau Couple Name both predate this game; there were already some intended Ship Tease moments between the previous iterations of Bronya and Seele, and in the Azure Waters comic for HI3, they even officially kissed.
• Portmanteau Couple Name:
  • "Bronseele" is the ship name of Bronya Rand and Seele, just like how it was also used for shipping their Honkai Impact 3rd counterparts.
  • "Kafhime" for Kafka and Himeko.
  • "Dancae" or "Caeheng" for Dan Heng and Caelus (Male Trailblazer).
  • "Danstelle" for Dan Heng and Stelle (Female Trailblazer).
  • "Starch" for Stelle (Female Trailblazer) and March 7th.
  • "Danmarch" for Dan Heng and March 7th.
  • "Servalia" for Serval and Cocolia.
  • "Sampard" for Sampo and Gepard.
  • "Renheng" for Blade^note "Ren" being how the word for "blade" is pronounced in Chinese and Dan Heng.
  • "Jingren" for Jing Yuan and Blade.
  • "Jingheng" for Jing Yuan and Dan Heng.
  • Avenpaz for Topaz and Aventurine.
  • "Avenratio"/"Aventio"/"Ratiorine" (and occasionally "RatUrine") for Aventurine and Dr Ratio.
  • "Screwtio" for Screwellum and Dr Ratio.
  • "Acheswan" for Acheron and Black Swan.
  • "Sunturine" for Sunday and Aventurine.
  • "Caefly" for Caelus (Male Trailblazer) and Firefly and "Stellefly" for Stelle (Female Trailblazer) and Firefly. "Fireblazer" is also used for either Trailblazer and Firefly.

Q-T

• Rescued from the Scrappy Heap:
  • The path of Erudition, while not exactly bad, suffered from fairly limited usage outside of farming due to their primary focus on AOE attacks, which often resulted in scuffed damage output in single boss fights. Jing Yuan, in particular, may have respectable single-target damage thanks to his follow-up attack, but he would still lose out to other non-Erudition damager characters like Blade, Jingliu or the Imbibitor Lunae. Perhaps due to this, the game subtly tried to give them more time to shine: from creating more Flunky Bosses and event challenges that involve waves of enemies to the release of Pure Fiction (basically the permanent form of "Tales of the Fantastic" event). In this mode, the constantly spawning mooks per wave meant that Erudition's attacks would always strike at maximum power, letting them kill much faster and score a lot more points than other paths. Additionally, the Simulated Universe: Gold and Gears expansion also released Erudition as a chosen path, conferring ridiculous benefits that let them become insanely powerful even with single target bosses. As a result, Erudition characters like Herta below, Himeko, and Serval, have shot all the way up to endgame viability thanks to their specialization in AOE damage.
  • Herta is an Ice Erudition character whose gimmick is performing an AOE follow-up attack whenever an enemy drops below 50% HP. This made her a rather hard sell for single target content, the primary focus of Memory of Chaos, as the mileage you got out of Herta's follow-up was extremely limited, relegating her to a rather mediocre damage dealer. Her most popular use during launch was speeding up farming content where the party's overall strength wasn't much of a concern in the first place. Later content releases would improve Herta's usability, with two Flunky Bosses, the Abundant Ebon Deer and the IPC Team Leader being released and put into a few Memory of Chaos stages. Herta is a good matchup against both, as they are weak to Ice and constantly summon Ice-weak minions that need to be killed fast before the boss uses them to unleash powerful attacks. Additionally, the release of the Pure Fiction mode has shot Herta up to meta status, thanks to her follow-up being able to consistently trigger due to the constantly spawning waves of enemies.
  • The aforementioned Jing Yuan also gets "rescued" with a Relic set released in 1.5, The Ashblazing Grand Duke. Its 2-set bonus increases the damage of follow-up attacks, while the 4-set one makes follow-up attacks grant an ATK buff to the user per hit (stacking up to 8 times), which is reset when the user uses follow-up attacks again. Out of all the follow-up attackers in the game, only Jing Yuan alone can gain the maximum potential power from it (as his follow-up attack hits a lot of times) and actually utilize it to the fullest, as his other attacks can also be empowered by using this relic set.
• Salvaged Gameplay Mechanic: While a number of UI and gameplay elements have been carried over from Genshin Impact, a handful of changes have been implemented to address common complaints.
  • In Genshin, the Starter Mon trio, Kaeya, Lisa, and Amber, are generally considered middling at best, barely usable at worst. To make matters worse, the three could not be obtained via the Character or Weapon Event banners, limiting their Constellation upgrades to the Standard banner (where they were rare) or the shop (where they only rotate once every six months). By contrast, Honkai Star Rail's starter trio, the Trailblazer, Dan Heng, and March 7th are all powerful characters within their own niches, all capable of pulling their own weight and competing even with some of the best five-star units in the game at release. ^note Dan Heng's absolute maximum damage potential on a single turn falls just 1.03% short of Seele, the strongest single-target damage dealer in the game, though the difference is compounded because of Seele's extra-turn Talent, innately higher speed and self acceleration, and Dan Heng's finnicky buff talent. Nontheless, he's still extremely potent as a damage dealer and only really falls out of the running in the hyper-competitive 12th floor of Memory of Chaos. March for her part is somewhat resource-intensive as a sustain character, but excels against single-target enemies, paired with an Area of Effect type freeze attack ultimate and access to follow-up attacks that make her synergize with several different paths in Memory of Chaos. Furthermore, Dan Heng and March 7th are available in every banner, are featured with boosted drop-rates on 5-star event banners as regularly as other 4-stars, and are still accessible via the shop should the player choose.
  • While Genshin's Traveler can be an effective unit depending on build, their initial elements of Anemo and Geo are generally considered their worst elements and they're usually replaced by a 4-star of the same element. In Honkai Star Rail, the Trailblazer's initial forms Destruction and Preservation are not only good units in general, but their versatility and damage output make them outstanding Crutch Characters for their respective phases of the game.
  • Trailblaze Power which is this game's version of the Resin mechanic from Genshin is massively improved. The max Trailblaze Power is 180, a full 20 more than the Genshin cap to start. General materials such as Exp and Credits only cost 10 Trailblaze Power per run and can be done up to 6 times at once, in comparison to Genshin's Exp and Mora spots taking 20 Resin to perform, and Echoes of War (The Weekly Bosses of Star Rail) cost 30 Trailblaze Power (compared to the initial cost of 60 Resin in Genshin, which was later changed to 30 for the first three attempts per week). Even better, Version 1.3 not only increased the Trailblaze Power cap to 240, but also added a system for reserving surplus Trailblaze Power up to a massive 2400 points (following Honkai Impact 3rd), to the utter joy of the player base.
  • Stagnant Shadows (the equivalent of Normal Bosses in Genshin) have much better special drop rates and more importantly, zero RNG on how many special drops the player receives. At the highest difficulty, the player will always receive 5 special drops per run, and 10 (for a 4-star unit) or 13 (for a 5-star) runs will thus always provide enough special drops to fully ascend a unit. In Genshin, the corresponding drop rate is 2-3 drops with 46 needed to fully ascend a unit, so it is common to miss the ascension requirement by a single special drop and have to wait 5 hours for a Resin recharge.
  • Echoes of War (the equivalent of Weekly Bosses in Genshin) are not restricted to one run per boss per week. The player can instead run one boss 3 times for their drops, which in combination with the boss only having one special drop makes farming skill items much easier.
  • Like the Traveler in Genshin, the Trailblazer can change their element and character class. Unlike the Traveler, they can actually change it on the fly in the character menu instead of having to teleport to special statues and touch them − and yes, that includes some of the challenge modes with preset teams like the Simulated Universe, which means that as long as you have access to the character screen, you basically have an extra character at your disposal.
  • Once Star Rail began having double banners in 1.4, the rate-up 5★ Light Cones have their own banners as opposed to sharing a single one, eliminating the need for an equivalent of Genshin's "Epitomized Path".
  • An oft-criticized part of Genshin is the endgame mode, Spiral Abyss, due to only changing two to four of the non-permanent floors each patch, having little variety due to being the only 'real' endgame mode and never adding any more permanent floors, thus stagnating in the amount of rewards that new players could obtain. The Forgotten Hall is structured similarly to the Spiral Abyss, but improves on it in multiple ways: for once, there are far more permanent stages, and new ones, based on each planet the story takes place in, are added every few patches, increasing the amount of obtainable rewards for new players. On top of that, before 1.6 the Forgotten Hall was updated twice in each patch, and after 1.6 once, with the other instead going to the new endgame mode Pure Fiction.
  • Daily Training Activity (the equivalent of Daily Commissions in Genshin) is far more flexible, with a real choice on what objectives to complete to obtain daily rewards. Notably, while bypassing Daily Commissions in Genshin is tied to event rewards or one-time content, completing a Simulated Universe run instantly clears Daily Training Activity requirements.
  • Post-release 4★ Light Cones that debut in the Warps are made permanently available from any banner once their debut patch ends, a step up from Genshin, where post-release 4★ weapons that appear in the Wishes are not available when they do not have a rate-up on the Weapon Banner.
• Scrappy Mechanic:
  • Of the many Genshin Impact game mechanics to be repurposed for Star Rail, arbitrarily time-gated sidequests annoyingly make a return, and because there's no day-night system, whenever a mission says you have to wait until tomorrow, it's obvious that it really means tomorrow in Real Life days. Luckily they aren't quite as annoying as in the former as they tend to only last 3 or 4 days at most and mostly involve minigames or puzzles to complete, which will give you some kind of reward each day you progress the sidequest chain. Updates past 1.0 have largely done away with these going forward, with no new time-gated quests being added in 2.0.
  • The infamous "50/50" returns from Genshin Impact. When you pull on a Character Event Warp (limited banner), there's a 50% chance that the 5★ you receive is not the featured character (or 75% for limited Light Cone banners), but instead one of the seven Stellar Warp (standard banner) characters, with the only respite being an indefinite guarantee that the next 5★ you pull after that will be the featured character that carries between limited banners. Fortunately, unlike Genshin Impact, all seven Stellar Warp characters are workable in the endgame.
    • Another reviled Gacha-related mechanic from Genshin also appears in this game in the form of Eidolons - significant upgrades that can only be obtained by pulling duplicates of characters in the Gacha. This is feasible enough for 4-star characters, but the low rates of 5-stars make them really painful to obtain. And like the Constellations in Genshin Impact, the upgrades are often major passive changes and additions that change how the character behaves in battle. Some 5-star characters in Genshin practically require Constellations to stand out from the rest of the cast, but thankfully, pretty much all 5-star characters in HSR are workable as-is. Plus, a Curio in Simulated Universe modes even allows you to temporarily upgrade all of your characters one Eidolon tier higher than they are for the entire run.
  • More of a scrappy lack of a mechanic, but the fact that battles have no option to access your item inventory mid-battle to use healing or support items has become a sour point for turn-based RPG veterans coming in from other series, who are so used to having the mechanic as a basic necessity. In conjunction with this which is equally baffling is the total absence of mid-battle reviving items (like Phoenix Downs from the Final Fantasy series) that could really help regain traction in tough fights, and the fact that character revivals are relegated to characters like Bailu (who can revive party members with her Talent) and to a lesser extent, Gepard and Arlan (who both revive themselves with their Talent and E4 upgrade respectively), have left many players suspecting that HoYoverse intentionally made it this way to encourage pulling for them in gacha banner.
  • Another lack of mechanic is the inability to cancel Ultimates after selecting them. For an example scenario as to why this is a problem, a DPS reaches Max Energy and the player quickly selects their Ultimate before the enemy can attack once more, only to realize too late that a Support such as Pela (who shreds enemy defence) or Bronya (who buffs ATK and CRIT DMG) has their Ultimate ready. Unfortunately, there is no why to cancel the ultimate selection and choose another, with the player having no choice but to push ahead. Players have been asking for Hoyoverse to fix this since the game launched.
  • Just like in Genshin Impact, obtaining and upgrading the right relics is frustrating because of the heavy presence of Random Number God, making it an outright Luck-Based Mission.
    • For starters, you need to be lucky enough just to get the relic with the right main stat, let alone the right substats which become critical for harder content. While self-modeling resin can somewhat alleviate the main stat issue, they do not alleviate the substats issue and can only be obtained by completing limited-time missions of some events, reaching higher levels^note Level 40 in the free pass and level 50 in the paid pass in Nameless Honor, getting as many stars as possible to get Jade Feathers in Memory of Chaos^note Each 3 stars starting from 21 stars onwards in a single cycle reward 100 Jade Feathers and Pure Fiction^note Each star starting from the seventh in a single cycle rewards 100 Jade Feathers.
    • The real can of worms lies in enhancing said relics because even with the right main stats, the game can decide to roll for the wrong substat upon reaching a node level^note Multiplier of three, ie. +3, +6, +9, +12, and +15. This can render the point of grinding for relic leveling materials and getting the relic with the right main stat (in addition to using relic remains and the already rare Self-Modeling resins in some cases) entirely moot and forcing the players to start over.
  • Signature Light Cones are treated rather differently than signature weapons in Genshin. In Genshin, signature weapons are generally considered strong but not a necessity on most 5* characters that have them and can be safely written off if a player is F2P or has no desire to invest strongly in that character, since a weapon's value as a Stat Stick^note all weapons in Genshin have a main ATK stat and one varying substat, the latter of which can be useful to certain characters, while all HSR light cones only have HP, ATK and DEF as their base stats can sometimes outshine its functional ability. Signature Light Cones, on the other hand, are far more catered to the characters they are associated with (just like in Honkai Impact 3rd), to the point that even for F2P players it is recommended for players to pull on a character's Light Cone banner if they can help it since the alternatives are a significant downgrade in overall effectiveness. This came to a head with Acheron's banner, which drew the ire of players as her Light Cone, "Along the Passing Shore", provides such a large amount of value on her that team-building and combat with and without it is considered practically night and day; her best non-Limited Light Cone is commonly considered to be "Good Night & Sleep Well", which only provides bonus damage based on the number of debuffs on the target, compared to her signature which provides a huge unconditional Crit DMG bonus and lets her apply a debuff on her attacks that increases her Skill and Ultimate damage against afflicted foes.
• Self-Fanservice: Some fan artists depict Stelle's white shirt with a much lower neckline exposing her bare shoulders, making her show some more skin in her otherwise conservative attire^note Apart from her bare legs and exposed bra straps.
• Self-Imposed Challenge: Due to the high replayability of the Simulated Universe, some players aim to beat worlds under self-imposed conditions to add unique challenges. Some of these include:
  • "All-Path Runs", where players select a Path at the start and have to choose only Blessings of that Path for the whole run, with leeway given to other Path Blessings if there are none from their intended Path available from Blessing pulls. Some examples include All-Destruction Runs, All-Hunt Runs, All-Nihility Runs, etc. Relatedly, there's "Mono-path runs" where your characters are all from the same path.
  • "Nuzlocke Challenges", where if party members fall in battle, players are not allowed to use them for the remainder of their current runs. Some even go a step further by restricting or forbidding the use of the downloader in respite rooms.
  • "Solo Character Runs", which is pretty self-explanatory but involves going through SU worlds with only one character. No additional party members are allowed. This one requires optimal set building, Minmaxing of stats, and thinking outside the box in order to pull off properly, especially on higher world difficulties.
• Sequel Displacement: While Honkai Impact 3rd and its predecessors were not unknown in the mobile game space (though less well known in the anglosphere than in Asia, particularly for the pre-3rd games), Star Rail ended up being the first introduction for many to the Honkaiverse and its characters, especially those who started playing Hoyoverse games with Genshin Impact and learned of Star Rail through it. Some numbers give us a glimpse of this:
  • According to gaming news articles and data gathered, Honkai Impact 3rd had 35 million downloads between 2016 to March 2018. By comparison, Star Rail already had 20 million downloads in just 24 hours.
  • When it comes to their online communities and official social media platforms, HSR has quickly eclipsed the numbers of HI3 on Twitter, Reddit, and YouTube (amongst other sites) within less than a month after being released.
• Ship Mates:
  • Gepard/Sampo with Seele/Bronya. Both ships involve a Silvermane Guard romancing a roguish Underworlder, so it's easy to see how they hit it off.
  • Dan Heng/Caelus and March 7th/Stelle. Both are same-sex couples made of beginner characters.
  • Dan Heng/Stelle and March 7th/Caelus for the straight ships.
  • Jingliu/Baiheng is often shipped alongside either Jing Yuan/Dan Feng or Blade/Dan Feng...or even alongside Jing Yuan/Blade/Dan Feng.
• Ships That Pass in the Night:
  • The Kafka/Himeko ship is astonishingly popular despite the fact that the two have only interacted with each other once in the story (as of 2.0), and neither character has displayed particularly strong feelings for one another aside from Himeko's disdain for the Stellaron Hunters in general. While their designs, contrasting personalities, and similar caring roles towards the Trailblazer help in giving this pairing their appeal, the one thing that launches it is what Himeko said to Kafka: "We're not about to get into bed with a Stellaron Hunter." While this is meant as her (and the Astral Express) not wanting to have any dealing with the Hunters as seen in other translations, the fact that the English one uses a more... naughty-sounding figure of speech is quite suspect.
  • The Boothill/Argenti ship has gained some traction despite the fact that the two characters have never met, and don't even belong to the same faction. This being said, the factions they do belong to are similar, with both the Galaxy Rangers and Knights of Beauty travelling the universe and righting wrongs, and the coarse space cowboy Boothill and the Dork Knight Argenti provide ample fuel for funny character interactions.
  • Similarly, Boothill/Robin is a Crack Ship born from the fact that the two are set to release during the same game version - it's not even clear if the two will get to meet, since as of 2.1, Boothill still hasn't arrived in Penacony, while Robin has come down with a bad case of Something Unto Death. Nevertheless, it has managed to pick up some actual fans who find the sheer contrast between Sir Swears-a-Lot and Miss Spoiled Sweet entertaining.
  • Firefly/Robin has a fair share of followers as well, despite the fact that the two never interacted with each other in the story as of 2.1, with the only notable connections they share with each other being that Robin's song "If I Can Stop One Heart From Breaking" is heavily associated with Firefly and they were both "slain" by Something Unto Death.
• Shocking Moments:
  • The reveal that Tingyun was the true mastermind in disguise was something that some players had picked up on before Version 1.2's release. That she was Phantylia, a servant of the Aeon of Destruction, who tops the reveal off by snapping Tingyun’s neck, was most definitely not.
  • The final scene of version 2.1, where Gallagher is revealed to be the serial killer controlling Something Unto Death, and confirms it by using the Death meme to murder Sunday, has caused shock to great many people.
• Signature Scene:
  • The climax of Jarilo-VI's story, where all of the Traiblazer's friends help them scale the Engine of Creation to get to Cocolia, and later, when they awaken the power of Supreme Guardian's lance and Path of Preservation after Cocolia impaled them with said lance, with them pointing their new lance towards her before the real boss battle starts.
  • These ones overlap with Shocking Moments:
    • The reveal that Tingyun was the true mastermind in disguise was something that some players had picked up on before Version 1.2's release. That she was Phantylia, a servant of the Aeon of Destruction, who tops the reveal off by snapping Tingyun’s neck, is a very infamously memorable moment because of how unexpected it is.
    • Despite being revealed as a faked death at the end of the 2.1 main story, Firefly seemingly killed by Something Unto Death at the end of the 2.0 main story and the Trailblazer's traumatized reaction to her "death" swiftly became one of the game's most memorable scenes overnight.
    • Likewise, the reveal that that Firefly was Sam, the fourth Stellaron Hunter also turned into one of the most impactful scenes of the game, both for The Reveal and also because it’s the Cliffhanger of 2.1.
    • The final scene of version 2.1, where Gallagher is revealed to be the serial killer controlling Something Unto Death, and confirms it by using the Death meme to murder Sunday, has caused shock to great many people.
• Spiritual Successor:
  • Setting-wise, it can be considered a spiritual sequel of sorts to the Star Ocean franchise, being a Science Fantasy RPG where the main characters travel through various planets with their own technology level and cultures.
  • Gameplay-wise, it can be considered a spiritual sequel to the Trails Series - not only does it feature a 1-to-1 gameplay feature from that game, the Limit Break being able to be used at any point, but the series is also known for its extensive amount of reading, including in-game books (which this game has in spades) and well-defined, integrated sidequests involving named side-characters going through their own little arcs, which this game also features. The producer is a self-admitted fan of the series too.
• Strangled by the Red String: For some players, the Ship Tease between the Trailblazer and Firefly comes off as this, as the way the narrative plays out has the two develop an immediate close connection in what feels like less than an hour. The reveal that Firefly is Sam does help in explaining it, as Sam would already have at least been friends with the Trailblazer from the time they were with the Stellaron Hunters, meaning the two of them were acting on an attachment that already existed (though more subconsciously in the Trailblazer's case).
• Subbing Versus Dubbing: Much like Genshin Impact before, there's a debate among the Star Rail fanbase over which dub they prefer and/or like better; the Chinese dub for being the authentic native dub, the Japanese dub for being a natural fit for the game's anime art style, the English dub for its all-star cast of professional VAs and internet celebrities, or the Korean dub just for the sheer novelty of having one in the first place.
• That One Attack:
  • Bronya's Combat Redeployment, which allows a character to immediately take their turn, is a Game-Breaker when used by players - and is just as deadly when it's in the hands of the enemy. Whenever Bronya shows up as a boss - be it in Simulated Universe or in the Forgotten Hall, she is almost guaranteed to be paired up with another powerful enemy who she will use Combat Redeployment on again, and again, and again - boss Bronya doesn't have to worry about Skill Points AND she has two turns, allowing her to both attack and use Combat Redeployment in the same action. This is particularly deadly with enemies that have Charged Attack skills, since Bronya can make them cast it before your party has the possibility of reacting to it by healing or putting up shields.
  • Aventurine is a difficult boss loaded with annoying attacks, but the worst of the bunch is "Big Spenders' Mad Party", where he rolls four die and forces the entire party to try and beat his score. The good news is that Aventurine's score is capped at nine, the bad news is that even if he rolls all snake eyes, units with no way to attack multiple targets at once will have a tough time getting a high score off of the extremely limited rolls they can make. And even the units who do have AoE attacks might just get screwed over by the RNG. When someone pretty much inevitably fails to beat Aventurine's score, he then casts "The Winner Takes It All", bombarding them with a highly damaging rain of poker chips. Worse still, Aventurine himself cannot be damaged while the die have been cast, and he's liable to use this every turn, slowing the battle down to a crawl until you can get a Weakness Break on him. "It's all or nothing!" indeed.
• That One Boss:
  • All of the Simulated Universe bosses are more powerful versions of bosses you've already faced in the main story, but Cocolia takes the cake in just how massive a Difficulty Spike she is in translation. Her first phase is simple enough, with no gimmicks that she didn't already have, but all hell breaks loose once she hits her second phase and Bronya takes the field. Armed with the Combat Redeployment skill that makes her playable version such a potent support, she will spam this move endlessly to give Cocolia four attacks per round while speeding up the rate at which her infinitely stacking damage buff builds up and removing all of her debuffs constantly. On top of this, she also begins spawning two icicles at once that each hit your entire party, and are almost pointless to kill since she can almost immediately summon more at little detriment to herself with how many actions per round she's getting. The game is also cool with the following combo: Cocolia begins charging Punishment of Endless Winter, Bronya takes her turn and casts her skill, cleansing Cocolia of Debuffs and allowing Cocolia to use her most powerful attack immediately with almost no chance to interrupt it.
  • Phantylia is one of the more annoying bosses to farm in Echo of War, especially if you are trying to clear it with autoplay. The main roadblocks are simply all of the mechanics that Phantylia throws into the fight, ranging from her continually respawning flunkies that will siphon away skill points and debuff your party by cutting their max HP in half, to dealing massive AOE and single target damage, making it difficult for the autoplay AI to keep up.
  • Starcrusher Swarm King: Skaracabaz (Synthetic) is an Echo of War boss that leaves many players pulling their hair out in frustration from its story battle. It has multiple hard-hitting attacks, some of which hit multiple characters, and it spends much of its time in the fight with a carapace up, which causes it to spawn Stings whenever it takes a hit in addition to taking reduced damage. It comes with the caveat that breaking it while its carapace is up breaks all of the mooks on the field as well as doing major damage, but it has so much Toughness that it's difficult to do. Its second phase is even worse; it gains a new Herd-Hitting Attack, and it summons a different type of Sting with different weaknesses. Everything in this fight is weak to physical attacks, but Area of Effect physical attackers are very rare (Clara and Argenti are both 5-stars, the latter is limited, and the former requires special setup to reliably deal damage), and the one that everyone has, the Trailblazer on the Destruction path, is less optimal than them.
  • Ten Stonehearts: Aventurine of Stratagems is a ball-busting battle that has heavy shades of Character Select Forcing. His signature attack "Time For a Bet" is a luck-based move where a target character has one attempt (or two, if the character has an offensive ultimate at the ready) to attack dice and roll a higher value than him. The reality is that the attack hard punishes characters who lack any form of multi-target attacks, namely Hunt characters and most support-oriented characters, as chances are they will only get to roll one die and thus have very low odds of making it out unscathed unless the boss rolls unusually low, which is unlikely in the first phase which has two dices and outright impossible in the second phase as he uses a stronger move, "Big Spenders' Mad Party", that forces every single member of your team to roll four dice against him, and the boss rolls tend to be higher than six. The end result is that support and Hunt characters will end up spending their turns trying to mitigate the damage they take from getting nuked every other turn and diverting resources away from your damage dealers, making the boss's other attacks even more of a trial to survive since he hits rather hard for his level and he often uses "Points Fountain" to deplete the team's Energy and delay access to Ultimates while the second phase becomes an outright Total Party Kill for teams that are not mainly AoE based as Hunt characters and supports are picked out one by one. And it must be noted that because of this preference for multi-target teams, the boss fight runs the risk of becoming a long grind. Notably, the boss received a nerf within days of release, a first for the game.
• That One Sidequest: The first three "On the Doorsteps of Science" Daily Missions (which aren't repeatable) requires the player to answer quizzes from Belobog's Ministry of Education in order to submit Regin's thesis paper to them. However, the quizzes given are anything but straightforward with no other in-game hints to help out, and many of them (especially the math quiz featuring the flowers) border on Moon Logic Puzzle. Getting an answer wrong means a lot of running back and forth between Regin in the Geothe Hotel and the Ministry of Education officer at the Qlipoth Fort entrance, which can lead to a lot of unnecessary frustration. Thankfully after that, the repeatable versions of these Daily Missions don't require getting a right answer to proceed, so you can still get an answer wrong and walk away with your rewards.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character: Duke Inferno was hyped up as a significant threat in the Penacony Trailblaze Mission, with some players going so far as to hope that he would become playable. When Aventurine and Black Swan casually tell the Trailblazer that Acheron killed him, many were not convinced that he really was dead, due to how he was established as being a lifeform created from the Phase Flame. The "Rondo of Endless Kalpas" confirming that he really is dead left many players disappointed, and questioned why Hoyoverse would create a trailer dedicated to him before the release of Penacony if they were just going to off him offscreen. He does, at least, appear in one of the flashbacks, showing that he went down fighting by his own volition.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot: Serval's Companion Mission is seen by several players as wasted potential. The premise was Serval planning to leave Jarilo-VI and join the Astral Express crew to explore the universe, to the excitement of players who wanted to see the potential Serval's presence could add to the main crew and show the potential of adding new permanent or temporary characters into the main crew's roster. However, it ultimately concludes with Serval choosing to stay in Belobog after she lets out her frustrations revolving around Cocolia's death. Even if the whole point of the story is to give her closure regarding Cocolia and a better sense of responsibility^note the real reason she planned to leave was more because she wanted to escape from all of her troubles, instead of facing them, players are still rightfully disappointed that the game made a deliberately disposable plot point that just happened to be a good one.

U-W

• Unintentionally Unsympathetic:
  • Invoked by the Disciples of Sanctus Medicus. While Yaoshi's gift did result in numerous problems for the Xianzhou Alliance and some followers of the Abundance do carry out horrific crimes, it can be difficult to side entirely with the Alliance when you recall that their ancestors built the entire civilization for the explicit purpose of finding Yaoshi and wishing for immortality, apparently without once considering the very obvious and extremely well-known consequences of immortality that would have arisen even without the mara. Moreover, the Alliance is currently engaged in a seek and destroy mission to slaughter Yaoshi and their followers for the crime of... giving them what they asked for?
    • Additionally, if the Xianzhou Alliance genuinely believes that Yaoshi's gifts were such a curse and any and all who associate with the Plaguemaster deserve punishment or death, then why do they still make use of the Ambrosial Arbor?
    • Depending on your view, it can also be argued that the Disciples of Sanctus Medicus only became so extremist due to the severity with which the Alliance treats followers of the Abundance, especially as we are told that the Xianzhou and Lan the Hunt do not care about casualties and collateral damage. Dan Shu's second entry to her diary obtained after her associated Adventure mission noted that she only joined the Disciples after her best friend was killed by one of Lan's arrows.
  • On the other side, some players have found the actions of the Disciples inexcusable, citing that their backstories aren't an excuse to force others to comply with their views and methods of converting people to accept long-life suffering as part of their "healing" and vengeance against Lan. Scenes like a disciple being condescending to the party and Dan Shu scolding a blind child to not be a burden on others certainly didn't help their cause. Not to mention, the Disciples allying with Phantylia, an Emanator of Destruction, was pretty much the nail in the coffin. Sure, the people of Xianzhou asked Yaoshi for eternal life in the past, but none of them asked for a chronic disease to come with it.
• Unpopular Popular Character:
  • Lovable Rogue Sampo is The Friend Nobody Likes in the story, with both Overworlders and Underworlders considering him, at best, an unreliable criminal. That said, for how minor his role is currently, his popularity blew up among fans for his fun antics and looks.
  • Aventurine, one of the Corrupt Corporate Executives of the IPC, is mistrusted and belittled by most people in Penacony, with Black Swan being the only one willing to cooperate with him of her own volition. However, his flamboyant personality and hints of a Dark and Troubled Past have quickly made him quite popular with the fanbase, particularly the part that is interested in men.
• Values Dissonance: The Xianzhou arc is a Deconstruction of the Chinese Xianxia genre, which involves heroes undergoing martial arts cultivation in order to achieve immortality. However, while popular in China, the genre is relatively unknown outside the country, meaning a lot of the themes of the story arc are lost on foreign players.
• Woobie Species: Trotters. Those poor, harmless creatures keep getting lost and the only thing they can do if you attack them for loot is tremble in fear and run away if they’re lucky enough.

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