Between HoYoverse's two prominent games at the moment, Honkai: Star Rail and Genshin Impact, it's reasonable to assume that the former offers better quality-of-life features than the latter. Despite their gameplay differences, Honkai: Star Rail and Genshin Impact share some similarities, such as gacha features and farming mechanics, but it seems that Honkai: Star Rail improves on some of Genshin Impact's flaws. However, Honkai: Star Rail has one particular mechanic that Genshin Impact should take for itself to improve players' experience: the Support System.
As Honkai: Star Rail is a turn-based RPG with a four-character party in battles, the Support System allows players' to replace their fourth member with another player's character. Not to be confused with characters who follow supporting Paths like Abundance, Harmony, Nihility, and Preservation, support characters can be any character that players choose. Having the choice to replace a weak unit with another player's stronger character makes farming battles a lot easier in Honkai: Star Rail, and Genshin Impact should adopt the feature itself in a future update.
Breakdown of Honkai: Star Rail's Support System
The Support System is available for all of Honkai: Star Rail's farming activities. Players can borrow other players' characters in Calyxes (both Gold and Crimson), Stagnant Shadows, Caverns of Corrosion, and Echoes of War. It's a particularly convenient feature because each unique battle requires characters of specific elements to deal with certain enemies' weaknesses.
The way the Support System works is simple. All players have to do is select the challenge they want to undergo and be put into the team selection menu. To the right of the menu will be a "Support" button, which will provide a list of characters from either friends or random players. The levels of support characters are equivalent to the borrowing players' Equilibrium Level and character level cap. For instance, players at Equilibrium Level 2 will only be able to rent level 50 characters and below. However, friends' support characters can exceed the level cap.
The Support System is not only useful, but it's a very fun feature that also allows players to try out characters that they don't own. Players not only can try out 4-star characters, but they can borrow 5-star characters as well, such as the recently released Silver Wolf. Players can set a single support character for others to use by accessing Trailblazer Profiles, and when one player's support character is used by other players, they gain credits that can be collected.
Why Genshin Impact Needs a Support System As Well
Although Genshin Impact's gameplay differs from Honkai: Star Rail, some of Genshin Impact's activities could use a similar Support System for a better gameplay experience. Genshin Impact has four kinds of Domains where a Support System could be appropriate and handy: Domains of Forgery, Domains of Blessing, Domains of Mastery, and Trounce Domains. Each Domain has their own distinct sets of enemies (or in the case of Trounce Domains, bosses) and players are recommended to build teams with specific elements in order to have an easier time defeating them.
Farming Domains isn't really an issue for those who have multiple well-built characters, but for players who are at lower World Levels or only have weak characters, farming tends to be an arduous chore - especially in particular Domains with troublesome enemies. Giving Genshin Impact players a Support System could help newer and lower-level players feel better while fighting in Domains by making powerful 5-star characters like Al-Haitham and Kaedehara Kazuha available for rent.
As Genshin Impact nears the introduction of the new nation of Fontaine into the game, more Domains will appear with new kinds of enemies. Lower level players will need all the help they can get, and a Support System would not only give players the help needed in Domains, but would also give players the opportunity to try out characters they've never owned. Fontaine will also introduce new characters as well, so HoYoverse should consider adding the system by that update.
Honkai: Star Rail is available now on Mobile and PC. PS4 and PS5 versions are in development.