Highlights

  • Honkai: Star Rail continually evolves its meta with frequent character releases promoting different playstyles.
  • Jade, a new character, will likely focus on enhancing and sub-DPS potential, offering a departure from the current meta.
  • Jade is expected to fit well in Pure Fiction mode, supporting follow-up teams and offering a new option for players.

As a live-service gacha game, Honkai: Star Rail is not new to meta-changing and power-creeping new mechanics and characters. With two new characters releasing every six weeks, it seems almost inevitable that the meta will change and evolve — and more frequently moving forward. The recent updates have shown a trend with Honkai: Star Rail’s releases, which seem to promote a certain playstyle or meta.

Boothill, for instance, is a break-focused character who excels in Hyper-DPS teams due to his single-target burst potential. A while before Boothill, the community was introduced to the Harmony MC, which also introduced a new mechanic called “Superbreak” which also supports the break-focused meta. Now, Honkai: Star Rail’s next update will continue this trend with Firefly, and even Ruan Mei’s rerun. However, the trend seems to end with the introduction of Jade, the next new character to release after Firefly.

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Unlike Boothill or Harmony MC, Jade is Expected To Be an Erudition Character

According to the leaks, Jade will be an Erudition character with enhancing and sub-DPS potential. She will be able to buff allies and receive stacks every time those buffed allies attack — with a passive that allows her to either launch a follow-up attack or increase her attack percentage after reaching a certain number of stacks. Therefore, Jade will largely stick to the fundamentals of an Erudition playstyle, with a focus on damage stemming from its passive and ultimate.

When Jade’s gameplay loop is compared to the current meta, she’s a potential option for a sub-DPS outside of break-focused teams. Therefore, her kit will likely work best when paired with other Erudition characters like Himeko or Herta. At the same time, it’s possible that Jade will work well with self-damaging Destruction characters such as Blade. Many leaks and sources are also optimistic about her kit's potential for continuous skill usage without cooldowns.

Jade Will Probably Fit in Well With Pure Fiction

As the overall meta of Honkai: Star Rail is constantly changing, only one game mode has been consistent, and that is Pure Fiction. With a proper team, such as follow-up or DoT teams, Pure Fiction will become a breeze and Jade’s kit promotes such a play style as well. The community is already rooting for her to get established in this exact setting.

Due to Pure Fiction’s gameplay loop, and its focus on clearing waves quickly, Erudition follow-up teams have always been meta. The majority of players have always recommended follow-up teams even over DoT teams when it comes to Pure Fiction, as well. Now with Jade’s entrance, and the value she provides to a follow-up-focused team, she could most definitely carry things best in Pure Fiction.

Jade Will Likely Be a Departure From Current Meta

Once all leaks and information about Jade in Honkai: Star Rail are analyzed, it’s clear that she is a departure from the current meta set up by the recent few updates in the game. When taking into account her kit, and her possible niche position in the existing meta, it would seem that she is merely adding to be another seemingly good option.

Playing follow-up teams is usually pretty straight-forward, and doesn’t net the players with many great options. When compared to the hyper-DPS and Dual-DPS metas using DoT or break focus, a consistent follow-up team has been lacking in options, especially when considering game modes outside Pure Fiction. So it seems that Jade is coming to fill that void in Honkai: Star Rail.