With the Luocha Banner just starting up (at the time of writing this), Hoyoverse's newest gacha game, Honkai: Star Rail has been cruising along pretty comfortably both in terms of content and in terms of overall success. With all the story missions, events, and bonuses new players get, it doesn't take all that long to get to what Honkai: Star Rail players call the 'endgame' which is around Trailblaze Level 40 to 45.
But, once players actually reach this point what can they expect to be there waiting for them? Here's everything HSR players wish they knew about the endgame before they spent so long 'rushing' to get there.
7 You'll Really Miss Those Story Missions
While players were first blazing through the Story Missions of Honkai: Star Rail, skipping through all the dialogue and spamming their left-click (or tapping their phone screen) until their finger got sore, HSR seemed like a game with a lot going on that rewards its players pretty frequently.
Players were constantly meeting new characters, being introduced to new locations, dealing with new conflicts, and even having musically bombastic boss fights every once in a while. But, once they actually reach the end of the current story content, most players realize that there was no reason to blaze through it so quickly. For one, there's actually a lot to HSR's story and world-building of Aeons, galactic politics, and more, so it's easy to miss a lot of the smaller details while rushing (especially character details). And two, once players run out of story, HSR fully transitions from a JRPG with mobile game aspects to a mobile game with JRPG aspects.
6 Progression Slows Down Exponentially
Speaking of the progression slowing down in HSR, let's go a bit more into that aspect of the endgame. Players will end up running out of story content right (at least in Version 1.2's current story progress) after helping rescue the Xianzhou Luofu from the Ambrosial Arbor that was resurrected by a Stellaron.
At this point, most players are sitting somewhere between Trailblaze levels 40 and 50, and probably feel like the progression between levels is now slower than it used to be, but not bad overall. However, once they reach TL55, the true endgame begins, as the required EXP per level begins to basically double from what used to be required. Then, at TL60, things get ridiculous, as the EXP per level can reach up to 10k a piece. This is all to say that players should be ready for their Traiblaze Leveling to slow down to a crawl and should be ready to focus on other aspects of the game instead once they reach this point, such as clearing the Simulated Universe, getting all the collectibles, and other similar tasks.
5 There Are Way More Collectibles Than You'd Think
Most of the people who blazed through the current story content of Honkai: Star Rail did so while also making sure to check every new area they entered for all sorts of collectibles. From Hidden Chests/Bountiful Chests to all the hidden Warp Trotters to the daily check-in NPC puzzles or even the Hexanexus Cube puzzles, there are just so many different things to interact with on every inch of each map.
And, while players might think they're being as thorough as possible and clearing everything out while they progress, it's almost guaranteed that they're missing stuff. A lot of these puzzles, daily NPC quests, and collectibles are either exceedingly well hidden, are time-gated, or don't actually show up until a certain amount of progress has been made. So, players who have reached the endgame, be prepared to re-comb through every single map multiple times, re-fight certain bosses for specific secret achievements, and complete a whole lot of puzzles, and this is especially true for those not following a guide.
4 Time To Bash Your Head Against The Memory Of Chaos 'Wall'
A lot of people are saying that the Forgotten Hall is the 'endgame' of Star Rail, and that is true...for the most part. But, there's actually another 'Hall' after the Forgotten one is cleared, and it's called the Memory of Chaos. These challenge levels, unlike the Forgotten Hall, have a rotating modifier for them called the 'Memory Turbulence' and this modifier, as well as the MoC levels themselves, will rotate every couple of weeks.
The Memory of Chaos is hard, incredibly hard in fact. This is an aspect of the game where players who have put tons of money into the game will find themselves more equipped to handle it, which should be obvious, but it feels like the easiest-to-see separation between F2P and P2W players. Basically, this all boils down to one real 'tip', be ready to have to reattempt these Memories again and again and again.
3 Welcome To The Relic-Grinding Simulator
Genshin Impact players will be more than familiar with this next aspect of HSR's endgame, otherwise known as Relic-grinding time. However, unlike Genshin, there aren't very many Relic Sets in Star Rail yet, and players won't want to start farming them until at least TL50 to get at least a couple of 5-star Relics per attempt. But, unlike Genshin, characters in a team are out on the battlefield at all times in HSR, and players can't actively avoid damage as long as they play perfectly, which means every stat increase matters more than it ever has before.
So, players who are still taking their time progressing through HSR should absolutely keep playing at their own pace, because the main thing awaiting them in the endgame is what feels like purgatory farming Relics over and over again in the hopes of getting that 'perfect' primary and secondary stat spread on not just 1 Relic for 1 Character, but for multiple Relics on multiple characters, as this also includes the Planar Ornaments gained from the Simulated Universe.
2 It Was Never A Race, So Why Did You Rush?
This next aspect of HSR's endgame is a bit less mechanical and a bit more philosophical. Basically, once players reach the endgame of Honkai Star: Rail, they'll very quickly realize that their 'need' to blaze through all the content provided to them as quickly as possible was due to some imaginary feeling of FOMO (fear of missing out). And, this FOMO made even less sense to listen to considering HSR is almost exclusively a single-player game, but yet a majority of the player base ended up following it anyway (ourselves included).
Sure, they would've been behind in understanding posts about the game on forums and maybe some of their friends would brag about their progress, but at least they'd be enjoying the ride to the utmost. So the tip here is for players not quite at the endgame to ignore that constant feeling of FOMO as much as possible. To put it simply, there's not much in the game as of yet to truly 'miss out' on and players should be focusing on enjoying the game more than anything else.
1 Endgame Means Less Maintenance, Not More
And for the final piece of Honkai: Star Rail's endgame to be ready for, players should get ready to 'not play the game' funnily enough. Once all the main story missions and side missions are done, players are completely at the whims of their Trailblaze Power and its refresh rate to make any sort of meaningful character progression.
But, unless a player is ready to start throwing in tons of money to keep their Trailblaze Power topped off, this means that there's only so much they'll be able to 'do' in the game per day. This is the point at which HSR becomes a 'low maintenance' game that players check in on for maybe an hour or two a day to do their dailies, redeem some free Stellar Jades, and maybe roll on the new banner. And this isn't a bad thing necessarily, as a lot of people like low-maintenance games, especially when it comes to mobile games. Just don't expect that have 6+ hour gaming sessions with HSR anymore outside of maybe the start of new events (such as all the content added alongside Luocha) or the beginning of a new week when all weeklies refresh.
Honkai: Star Rail is available now for PC and mobile devices with a PS5 version releasing in Q4 2023.