History YMMV / HonkaiStarRail

** "Cat Cakes" or "Bean Cakes"[[note]]Derived from the craftable consumable name, "Delicious '''Bean Cake'''"[[/note]] - These nicknames are often used for the catlike bean cake variation of Ruan Mei's creations, as they aren't given an official name to distinguish them from the ones resembling buns, which are also called "Ruan Mei's creations".

*** 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 CharacterSelectForcing. 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 CripplingOverspecialization courtesy of being much more effective against weaker enemies than bosses (unless they are a FlunkyBoss 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 [[/note]]. 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.

** There are theories suggesting that March 7th may be [[spoiler:a Memokeeper, or otherwise associated with the Garden of Recollection in some fashion]]. This is mainly due to [[spoiler:Memokeepers]] featuring heavily in her Companion Quest, as well as her backstory and powers being ice-themed and her having a photo hobby, which lines up with [[spoiler:the Remembrance being focused on preserving memories, as well as the Path of Remembrance in Simulated Universe being themed around Freeze-related effects.]] This is further reinforced in 2.2's ''Clockie: Dreamjoy Memoir'' event, where a throwaway line from [[spoiler:Black Swan]] has her casually mention that she knows [[spoiler:"a Memokeeper who also loves to record memories on her camera"]].
** Some speculate that Dr. Ratio is hiding some kind of secret identity, and may be a Pathstrider of an unknown Aeon. Commonly-cited evidence as of 2.2 is: he has a suprisingly minor role in the plot despite being a 5-star character; unlike everyone else, all his character stories are written from the perspective of people other than himself; [[spoiler:his message to Aventurine at the end of 2.1 says that the impossile "isn't Death, but rather Dormancy", which turns out to be the real name of the "Death" meme; when Acheron breaks the Dreamscape, Ratio is shown as the only person in the Golden Hour who is already awake; and one of his daily text messages suggests using the Astral Express as a weapon, which is precisely what happens in the 2.2 boss fight.]] To some, all this seems to imply he has greater awareness of the ongoing events than he should, but what precisely his deal is varies from theory to theory.

* DiscreditedMeme: A massive FandomRivalry erupted between ''Honkai Star Rail'' and ''VideoGame/GenshinImpact'' when Dr. Ratio was announced to be obtainable for free until version 2.2. Thus "''Genshin'' could never" jokes started spreading all over the internet like wildfire (most of which came from dissatisfied ''Genshin'' players), to show that ''Star Rail'' does better what ''Genshin'' don't. While it was fun while it lasted, it started to become annoying very quickly nowadays as many players, especially those who play both ''Star Rail'' and ''Genshin'', sees this as another response to diss on ''Genshin'' over it's flaws while ignoring anything else that made the game so great in the first place. Ironically, even those who hate ''Genshin'' agreed that it was nothing more than a pointless tribalism between the two games (even though ''both games'' were made by the same company).

** Penacony brings two more examples:

** There are some who theorize that Dr. Ratio is much more than meets the eye, and may possibly be a Pathstrider of some unknown Aeon. Commonly-cited pieces of evidence as of 2.2 are: he has a suprisingly minor role in the plot despite being a 5-star character; [[spoiler:his message to Aventurine at the end of 2.1 says that "the impossile isn't Death, but rather Dormancy", and in 2.2 we find out that the "Death" meme is actually called Dormancy; in the cutscene of Acheron breaking the Dreamscape, Ratio is shown as the only person in the city who is already aware of what's happening; and one of his scheduled text messages suggests using the Astral Express as a weapon, which is precisely what happens in the 2.2 boss fight.]] To some, all this seems to imply he has greater awareness of the ongoing events than he should, but what precisely his deal is varies from theory to theory.
*** A jokey offshoot of this is the Worm Theory, which suggests that Dr. Ratio is an worm that has been uplifted by Aha, the Elation. While not taken seriously in most places, there is some assembled evidence, namely (1) Aha had once uplifted a worm with the goal of infiltrating the Genius Society, only for the worm to be ignored by Nous, and Dr. Ratio really wants to join the Genius Society, but Nous refuses to acknowledge him, (2) Ratio's habit of freqently taking baths parallels earthworms' love for wet environments, (3) Ratio frequently wears a mask, which in-universe is usually the calling card of the Masked Fools, servants of Aha.

** 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 ''Franchise/FinalFantasy'' 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 [[BribingYourWayToVictory encourage pulling for them in gacha banner]].

** 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 StatStick[[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[[/note]] 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 ''Videogame/HonkaiImpact3rd''), 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.

** A number of players believe that [[spoiler:Sunday]] is also still alive following the events of 2.2, since [[spoiler:even though he was the end boss of the chapter, he [[NeverFoundTheBody disappeared]] following his defeat.]] Some believe that he will eventually return as [[spoiler:a Stellaron Hunter, and that Elio picked him up.]]

** '''Arlan''' is a Lightning Destruction character whose gimmick is [[CriticalStatusBuff 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 [[CriticalStatusBuff 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.[[/note]] 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 [[BreakablePowerUp 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 [[HerdHittingAttack 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.[[/note]] Not helping his case is the release of better DPS units within his niche, such as Jingliu and Dr. Ratio.
** Unlike their other Paths, which have specialized applications, '''Trailblazer (Destruction)''' is simplistic to a fault due to their nature as a StarterMon. They're a no-frills damage dealer who has both Single Target and Blast capabilities, but other than this they don't offer anything worthwhile and lack sufficient damage multipliers to compete with most of the cast. It is notable that Trailblazer tends to be stuck at the bottom of most community tier lists alongside Arlan.
** 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 CharacterSelectForcing. 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 CripplingOverspecialization courtesy of being much more effective against weaker enemies than bosses (unless they are a FlunkyBoss 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 [[/note]]. 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).

* DiscreditedMeme: A massive FandomRivalry erupted between ''Honkai Star Rail'' and ''VideoGame/GenshinImpact'' when Dr. Ratio was announced to be obtainable for free until version 2.2. Thus "''Genshin'' could never" jokes started spreading all over the internet like wildfire (most of which came from dissatisfied ''Genshin'' players), to show that ''Star Rail'' does better what ''Genshin'' don't. While it was fun while it lasted, it started to become annoying very quickly nowadays as many players, especially those who play both ''Star Rail'' and ''Genshin'', sees it as another response to diss out ''Genshin'' over it's flaws while ignoring anything else that made the game so great in the first place. Ironically, even those who hate ''Genshin'' agreed that it was nothing more than a pointless tribalism between the two games (even though ''both games'' were made by the same company).

* DiscreditedMeme: A massive FandomRivalry erupted between ''Honkai Star Rail'' and ''VideoGame/GenshinImpact'' when Dr. Ratio was announced to be obtainable for free until version 2.2. Thus "''Genshin'' could never" jokes started spreading all over the internet like wildfire (most of which came from dissatisfied ''Genshin'' players), to show that ''Star Rail'' does better what ''Genshin'' don't. While it was fun while it lasted, it started to become annoying very quickly nowadays as many players, especially those who play both ''Star Rail'' and ''Genshin'', sees it as a way to diss out ''Genshin'' over it's flaws while ignoring anything else that made the game so great in the first place. Ironically, even those who hate ''Genshin'' can agree that it was nothing more than a pointless tribalism between the two games (even though they were ''both'' made by the same company).

** There are theories suggesting that March 7th may be [[spoiler:a Memokeeper, or otherwise associated with the Garden of Remembrance in some fashion]]. This is mainly due to [[spoiler:Memokeepers]] featuring heavily in her Companion Quest, as well as her backstory and powers being ice-themed as well as her photo hobby, which lines up with [[spoiler:the Remembrance being focused on preserving memories, as well as the Path of Remembrance in Simulated Universe being themed around Freeze-related effects.]] This is further reinforced in 2.2's ''Clockie: Dreamjoy Memoir'' event, where a throwaway line from [[spoiler:Black Swan]] has her casually mention that she knows [[spoiler:"a Memokeeper who also loves to record memories on her camera"]].

* DiscreditedMeme: A massive FandomRivalry erupted between ''Honkai Star Rail'' and ''VideoGame/GenshinImpact'' when Dr. Ratio was announced to be obtainable for free until version 2.2. Thus "''Genshin'' could never" jokes started spreading all over the internet like wildfire (most of which came from dissatisfied ''Genshin'' players), to show that ''Star Rail'' does better what ''Genshin'' don't. While it was fun while it lasted, it started to become annoying very quickly nowadays as many players, especially those who play both ''Star Rail'' and ''Genshin'', sees it as a way to diss out ''Genshin'' over it's flaws while ignoring anything else that made the game so great in the first place. Ironically even those who hate ''Genshin'' can agree that it was nothing more than a pointless tribalism between the two games (even though they were ''both'' made by the same company).

* DiscreditedMeme: A massive FandomRivalry erupted between ''Honkai Star Rail'' and ''VideoGame/GenshinImpact'' when Dr. Ratio was announced to be obtainable for free until version 2.2. Thus "''Genshin'' could never" jokes started spreading all over the internet like wildfire (most of which came from dissatisfied ''Genshin'' players), to show that ''Star Rail'' does better what ''Genshin'' don't. While it was fun while it lasted, it started to become annoying very quickly nowadays as many players, especially those who play both ''Star Rail'' and ''Genshin'', sees it as a way to diss out ''Genshin'' over it's flaws while ignoring anything else that made the game so great in the first place. Ironically even those who hate ''Genshin'' can agree that it was nothing more than a pointless tribalism between the two games (even though they were ''both'' made by the same company).