Horizontal vs Vertical Accounts : Which Offers Better Investment Value in Honkai Star Rail

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#honkaistarrail #hoyocreators #hsrguide #eodgamer

[genevie]

Vertical may technically be better, but horizontal is way more fun

[Heliotropic]

A balanced approach would be to horizontally pull all the different dps archetypes - DoT, Debuffs, FuA, Hypercarry, etc just E0 S0 or S1 at the most (make sure to not overlap same type of dps/LC to save pulls) and then vertical invest into the harmony supports that are incredibly essential for these archetypes and have much longer staying power in the meta... Get these ones to E1/E2 S1.

[delfai]

Relic farming is too painful for too much horizontal investment.

[eribus]

Don't hate me for saying this, but I wish this game model never came into existence. Some people spend reasonably, but it siphons off so much money from people who really shouldn't be spending it that it's insane to think about. It's incredibly predatory and hurts many young people who are often irresponsible.

[dagewastaken]

Hoyo is smarter in HSR than they were in Genshin. If you've noticed, since DHIL, they've been putting more power into E2 for DPS and E1 for Supports (Harmony E1s are crazy busted compared to E0, like Robin)

They're way ahead of the community when it comes to something like this. Just the fact that the best DPS examples are FF and Acheron (and even DHIL) whose playstyles/teamcomp drastically and fundamentally change with their E1/E2 (FF E0 is very different from FF E1, and the fact that we have separate teams for Acheron E0 and E2 is crazy).

They know the middle ground will be the choice of players, and it shows. It's also concerning that Light Cones have been drastically more specific as each character releases. The gap between their signature LC and the next best is getting wider and wider. This is particularly true to DPS, a good example is Acheron. This might ruffle some feathers but E0S0 Acheron is not Tier 0 like FF is at E0S0. Acheron without her LC is drastically weaker than she is without, she misses ultimate ticks. And it's sad to say Yunli is the same, she's functionally different without her LC.

Hoyo knows how to make people spend. Unfortunately, they've been getting greedy.

[eherden]

I balance it out with my diagonal investment: Get the character, then get lightcone if possible and S1 in a rerun if its game changing. Only spend on monthly pass and sometimes battle pass (which I recommend to newer players that may want something cost effective).

[zrckera]

vertically invest supports by getting e1 or e2, horizontally invest dps units and get e0s1

[asdfpi]

Going to talk about it from a f2p perspective. I'm generally a big fan of vertical investing and pushing the limits with my favorite character, but I have to say SR quite strongly favors horizontal investment.

First of all, theres 3 games modes, and different characters are better at each game mode. Not to mention the buff changes every reset and sometimes it's quite strong compared to the buffs in something like Genshin's abyss. In addition not being able to break the enemies will result in significantly slower clears, but this is most apparent in Apocalyptic Shadow where breaking the enemy is essential. Pure Fiction also feels like especially a character check since the buffs are usually VERY strong so you really want to have characters that can make good use of it.

So why horizontal and not something like diagonal? Well, I'd argue that the game is balanced around E0S0 characters. If you have a team that matches well into the enemies, a decently invested E0S0 should be more than enough for a full clear (6000 PF, 20 cycles remaining MoC, 6600 AS). F2P players can generally get around 90 pulls a patch, which also happens to be around the average pulls it takes to get a banner character. This means they should be able to obtain around half the banner characters, which means if you just keep pulling characters you should have a pretty good answer into any piece of content.

Keep in mind, this will make it more expensive to invest in all of said characters, but there are also ways to mitigate this. Farming efficient relic sets is important, as sometimes going for their best in slot isn't worth it compared to farming a more efficient cavern/sim uni world that can help build more characters at once. Or sometimes it's better to go for a 2pc 2pc combo instead of a 4pc.

Not to mention this way you'll be able to experience as many of the playstyles this game has to offer as you can.

[LetterSequence.]

This video came at the perfect time, I was just thinking about grabbing E1 Sparkle on her rerun since she's one of my best characters and that extra step to E2 would be juicy.

That being said, I see people considering Eidolons and LC's in a pretty unhealthy way. Remember, this is a single player RPG. The ideal way to play this game as a F2P is to skip banners fairly often, only pull the characters you love, and only pull them at E0, maybe get the LC if you get lucky with rolls. Then, if you still like them after several months, is the point when you pull Eidolons and LC's on their rerun, and only if something new you want isn’t nearby. People in the community insist that because the new DPS is stronger than the last and they raised the HP pools of MoC12 that any old DPS is dead, any support that isn’t Ruan Mei or Robin are dead. So they pull the new shiny toy without finishing their build on their last shiny toy. Spend some time relic grinding, build up some of your standard banner characters and 4 stars, and you can probably still 36 star MoC and Apoc Shadow. I cleared the last one with Jingliu, the washed hag. It'll be fine.

[reicheru]

i do vertical investment personally, but i get that it gets a bit hard to wait and save around, especially with some endgame modes that make it really not fun when you do not have the current dps that lends itself towards that playstyle (such as break/fire/phys etc.) this last apocalyptic shadow made me want to scream without firefly and break-teams in general lol. but i do have e6 robin only and that helps with one side for sure... i just prefer investing into one character rather than a lot of e0 characters.

[XiasGaming]

I'm more in horizontal investment.

But i have 4 S1, From Acheron, RM, Jingliu and Jade.

But my only E1 RM.

I cleared any endgame easyly, right now just collecting more characters, is bored play the same team.

PS: i'm day 1 HSR player, 358 dolars spent in my journey so far.

[ottersaurus]

Horizontal i think is just better but also unsafe for f2p if you too wide. Whereas vertical is good if you make good investments but then your account isnt as fun since you only have like two teams for 8 months.

[ShadO]

3:00 I don't think getting involved in the community for hoyo games is necessarily a good idea

[indyvidual]

I agree with this, especially prioritizing building team archetypes. I always called it “diagonal” investment. My thesis (as a spender):

- E1-E2 stopping point: I don’t think I’d ever E6 one 5* character because that’s all eggs in one basket (ie Seele example you gave). Would rather have multiple E1-E2s on a team.

- If I’m pulling a character I’ll only do so if I can get the lightcone as well, if not I catch it on rerun. Reasoning: Personally I feel like I’m only getting half the character without it. I’ve never gone for copies, but JQ is the first 5* that’s making me consider prioritizing his lightcone copy over Eidelons, just so I can guarantee more baseline effective hit rate. The idea of having to sacrifice proper mainstat relics in favor of wtv has effective hit rate substat doesn’t sit well with me

- Balancing waifu/admiration and powerlevel/gameplay: Boothill is cracked, but I’ll never pull him because I don’t really care for his character. Gonna be grinding to build these characters so I’d make sure I actually like them and not become a pure meta slave. Conversely I love Yukong as a side character in story, but I’ll never build her.

[RerunBladeIPayForES]

For longevity I prefer vertical, such as investing in only my FAVORITE character like an E6S5 Blade since it's more about how I play the game rather than trying to clear everything and being effective and critically thinking about the game in an objective manner.

[is-osdv]

I’m at the point where my horizontal investment strategy has enabled me to full clear all of the endgame modes, and I’ve been able to maximize my enjoyment by having a great number of options that can clear (if barely) the final stages of endgame modes, which provides a fun challenge.
Granted, I have generally good gacha luck and I’ve been playing since day 1, and I really just like collecting characters in general.

[jonesff]

thank you for the valuable topics that you make....everyone riding the jioquo slander ... meanwhile you make the important ones... appreciate you man❤

[mike_ewul]

im a horizontal player in genshin and after almost 4 years of playing, i actually regretted it. too many characters i dont even like and my fave characters could have been stronger if i pull constellations, that's why im changing my way in hsr, playing vertical with e2s1 dhil and only pulling husbando characters at e0s1 since im still a collector. i cleared all hard game contents even with bronya/tingyun/pela/e0 robin as supports. i fully support the gameplay that play whoever u like so it's less prone to burnout in the long run

[ZerHour]

I'm at the point I want to switch to vertical.

[iliketrainz]

i havent watched the whole video yet but my take about the discussion would be the inital early game its probably better to horizontally invest mainly to cover all the bases such as one erudition dps that is likely longevous in pure fiction and is viable in moc, a good all round dps (generaly a destruction main dps or acheron) to cover all gamemodes and then a unit that can excel in apoc shadow and do well in MOC.

Then you would ideally try to get supports that benefit the whole account like your robin, ruan mei and your sustains and if those necessary supports are in the banner while the dps you plan is not coming soon then pull on the support since even though you might not get the dps, having a support is better than no supports since you no sustain(except zero cyles) are stupid unless you can accomodate for the lack by not letting the enemies get a turn (for example welt black hole and cucking their actions with robin ult advance).

then once you established a good core that can somewhat reliably clear. make the choice in switching to fully vertical or fuck all i want to gamble

for people that enjoy horizontally investing and pulling i recommend farming for multiple good sets for universal sets. such as pioneer, genius(quantum set), grandduke, prisoner(is interchangeable between most DoT and is an excellent pick for 2pc 2pc combinations) and the eagle set(CN favorite for supports) or speed set(only need 2pc) and for planars either farm world 3, 7 or 8 and synthesize other niche sets. world 6 is a good pick if you run a follow up team core with aventurine.

for those who want to fully vertical invest i would say the most important thing is to properly guage the value of a new support for the said character, their light cone and the eidolons since each one of them give a different scale of buffs, for example: e1 firefly is more recommended than e0s1 since you get more superbreak from harmony mc skill which means more energy and uptime and since you dont need to worry about skill points while e0s1 boothill is more recommended than e1s0 since you can generally get his stacks pretty quickly when mobs are there and s1 gives higher numbers for break dmg, while for Dr. Ratio its more important to have an e4+ pela with resolutions, silver wolf or topaz than his e1 or signature due to him requiring a debuff applicator to do any of his follow up attacks.