Is Honkai: Star Rail TOO Expensive?

Honkai: Star Rail's quickly become a household name in the gacha industry right next to Genshin Impact. But even in spite of Star Rail's apparent superior execution in gameplay, quality of life and such, does the game put too much pressure on players to spend? Today we'll be discussing if Honkai: Star Rail is too expensive/pay to win.

~Editor (Mindlesslight)~

~Contact Links~

#HonkaiStarRail #Gacha #StarRail

[VarsII]

I love the comments section in this video LMAO.

1/3 - I 100% agree
The other 1/3 - I disagree respectfully
The last 1/3 - Lul get good 4head

[kiet]

Yeah the amount of shit required just unlock all of traces and lvs is a *lot* but the fact that I don't have to wait 2 whole days just to wait for my talents/traces to be available saved some of my sanity.

[ryohei]

Current Pure fiction is a massive character check right now ;_;

[a.k]

You can get a lot of pulls per patch but you also need a lot of characters

[BatteryStaples]

I think as an f2p/low spender, it's important to not have the expectation to clear the highest floors of MoC every cycle - if it can be done, that is great, but don't get pressured into trying to pull new charas just to do it. Instead, build teams of characters you enjoy and understand that you are getting a lot of content for a low amount of spend in a live service game.

[DreamingNousagi]

I just want them to lower the cost of relic runs from 40 to 30 or even lower. 6 runs (240 stamina) for garbage relics most of the time just makes for a horrible experience

[jinx]

tbh.. im a complete free 2 play player and i can assure, you don't need to spend a penny on this game.. the only thing you need is having a clear idea of what you want and possibly a calculative decision making quality.

[AnimeWineAuntie]

I think it’s both. I’m grateful that I have disposable play money and the willpower to limit myself greatly, but I also have known people that are very susceptible to this kind of predatory marketing. you were absolutely right that while you can complete most contact with a small roster of characters, it takes a lot more effort. Not to mention a lot more reliance on good RNG since so much of a characters full potential relies on good artifact stats balance and the system for those is so unforgiving. I have pulled a signature light cone solely on the basis that I confidently would not be able to get the artifact sub stat rolls I needed to make up for what the light cone could provide.

[andrewm]

a lot of people say getting stuck on a boss is bad, but in my opinion the thing that bored me to hell with Genshin is that it was so easy that i felt nothing when doing any content, i was able to beat the first abyss and guess what?, over 2 year later i can use that same team to still beat the abyss.

[feyrod]

I definitely feel that I need to pull more in HSR. In Genshin, I pull for characters I like. In HSR, I pull more for a kit than a character. Though how much I like a character is a factor. Many strong ones I didn't pull because I just don't really care for them, but I definitely felt how much I'm losing by skipping them. I don't think I've completed a MOC 12 because I just keep building characters I like instead of teams effective for that MOC cycle. I don't mind, but I can imagine some may get frustrated at not using their favorite team to complete all content. PF is easier than MOC imo since you can make up a lot of points with one of your teams. As long as you get the 60K points, you get max rewards. In MOC both teams need to be functional to complete the content within the time limit. I don't even bother doing the insanely hard stuff in Gold and Gears and Swarm Disaster. The time and effort isn't worth the jades for me.
Just to comment on the Sparkle trailer, since you mentioned her, her trailers didn't actually do anything for me. It was her appearance in Black Swan's story quest that got me more interested in her, but still not enough to pull her. Maybe one day, but I don't have enough info on her that I want her now. That goes for a lot of characters honestly.

[FormerEmiliaBestWifi]

It's so expensive to build characters in HSR compared to Genshin it's insane. There are so many good characters that you have to build, the last major trace requires the last ascension and a few minor traces require character level 75 or 80, and in Genshin you only need to upgrade 3 types of attack, in HSR not only you have to upgrade them, you have to unlock the major and minor traces as well. And credits are really hard to get as well if you build many characters.

Edit: Also the materials to upgrade relics are very scarce but I think Genshin is the same in this one.

[ThatOneGuyNamedLemon]

I agree mostly, but as you said HSR is more expensive if you don't engage with It on a knowledge level. It's an rpg after all, you're meant to think about teams sinergy and your account as a whole patch to patch, team and character building are the central focus bc well, after a certain point when you account reaches the endgame and the hard content makes itself the focus, there's nothing to do but farm to improve your units.

I log in, put the auto farm for the mats or relics that I need for the character of the day and log out. When new content comes in, yeah there's like 4-5 days worth of new things to do if you take your time and play a couple of hours a day (expect story content, that could take a bit more). But after that you're back to the mines.

The game expects more of you than Genshin bc there is less to do but improve your account. Same for pulls, supports are always a safe bet and dps units are all the same except for a few that even at release have a label on them that says "I'm actually broken", everyone was skipping ratio bc he was clearly subpar compared to RM, and Robin and Boothill are both skips from a meta perspective since if you're been paying attention and pulling correctly, you already have the big 3 supports. This with the fact that there's usually 100 pulls per patch and soft pity comes at 75-80, means that you always have 20 spare pulls per patch that sum up to save a lost 50/50 in time, not to mention the possible skips like the Ratio banner.

I think when this f2p discussion is brought up, warp economy should be an integral point to talk about, not just the units.

[GentleIceZ]

Yeah, I tend to agree. I remember asking my sister back in 1.6 when we all got a free Ratio if that meant Star Rail was more F2P friendly than Genshin. And she said "hell, no. I've never been stonewalled by a boss before in Genshin, but it's happened multiple times in Star Rail." At that time she was referring to the new scarab boss, but she also got stuck on the boss at the end of 2.1's story

Oh, and some additional context: my sister is a Eula main who plays a mono-cryo team. Literally mono-cryo. It's Eula, Shenhe, Ganyu and Diona.

[juliogomez]

HSR indeed punishes people that either are TOO CASUAL or Those who skip units left and right without regards for the content. I skipped Loucha back in 1.1 (I knew he would fall off for me as soon as Lynx came into the game) and I felt it in part cause he was the only other not totally random option but I still manage to clear MoC during those day up 21 or 24*. Then 1.3 came around and I manage to get both Dan 2.0 and FX ever since then I've never had much issue aside from some outliers, to this day I still see day 1 player struggling to fully clear the game over one of the previous reasons and it is a tought thing to see.

[danielm]

As someone who started playing in March, it definitely feels like every new unit is a must pull. It's impossible to keep up

[marchimarch]

As someone who SKIPPED Jingliu, Fu Xuan, and Acheron, I think you are exaggerating a bit.

As you admit at the end, this is ultimately just about feelings. I understand the FEELING of missing out on endgame. I couldn't beat MoC either. But I was also still in my FIRST few months of playing. OF COURSE I wasn't ready for the hardest content.

I kept trying, going as far as I could, while slowly building up my teams. Sometimes I'd get a little further, sometimes a little behind. But eventually, I built two good teams and have started consistently beating every challenge. Lately, the turbulence has even favored me, but not always, and not for the longest time. And THAT was SATISFYING.

If people want to auto-battle clear the hardest content first try every time, then naturally they are going to feel bad not pulling. But why play the game then? I much prefer the eb and flow with content regularly forcing me to think through my teams and turns than when I just roll over it. Feel bad? Don't worry, there's always next time. And it's going to FEEL so much BETTER when your long-term investment finally pays off.

If anything, I think the EXPENSIVE part of the game isn't pulling characters or lightcones, it's needing the BATTLE PASS and EXPRESS SUPPLY PASS to have a decent income of resources for future pulls and leveling. But then we are arguing over (essentially) an MMO sub.

There you go, my two cents. You asked. LOL

Edit: Just to note, I own barely any 5 star lightcones. They are nice, but characters hardly feel incomplete without them.

[Haplezzz]

F2P player here, came from GI and HI3, immediately checked enemies and their type weaknesses. Saw that almost everything was weak to either qua/ima/a dot element, and chose qua+dot for brute forcing everything. It worked, once I got seele, silver wolf and kafka, endgame was never a problem again and now can just pull upgrades or whatever tf I want. Just like genshin, focused on a strong 8 core team for the first few months and then can pull whatever. This does seem a lot harder for casuals and I can see the struggle with my friends too, but eventually we all got there to the point we get too strong for anything so was nothing to worry about.

[Kuddochan]

2 new 5-stars every patch and while more accessible, their LCs generally feel much more powerful than signature weapons do in Genshin. On top of that the relic system is so awful it's an absolute black hole of stamina sinking and the endgame content has much higher and more specific requirements to get through. HSR is certainly a more generous game but the demands are so much higher to begin with. Not to mention that the lack of mechanical input in combat means you can't really do much to just outskill content either, you are much more gatekept by your character kits and the equipment you have available

[_.___.._]

A great point that I wholeheartedly agree with.

One major problem with the character pool in HSR is that not only do you have to pull for different paths, you are almost obligated to pull for certain elements if you want to clear hard content. This might sound like nothing at first, but unlike in Genshin, where the weapons do not matter that much in combat situations, HSR is designed to stonewall players out of content like the Memory of Chaos if you don't have characters of certain elements or them not being good enough to clear, as enemies straight up have a 25% more resistance towards non-weakness elements.

What this results in, is that you would have to pull for characters every 1-2 patches if you want to clear certain content without having a hard time. You would also have a feeling that the character you pulled this patch is not as good as the one next patch, and on and on. They did not give out more free stuff solely because they are more generous, but also because the average spenders have to pull for characters more often.

[KaziaGD]

as someone who plays both, i have the complete opposite experience and i was really shocked to see this many people agree. i started playing both games when star rail came out and in HSR i have around 16 built characters but in genshin, barely 8-9. i constantly run out of mora, i can only farm domains 4 times instead of 6 and i can only farm ascension mats on a certain day.

on paper i get why HSR should be harder to farm for but it just has not been the case for me, ive managed to max out characters within a week while in genshin im still trying to max out Yoimiya after 3 months 😬

not to mention that HSR is way more generous with TP, fuel, double drops etc than genshin. only thing i will agree with though is that good artifacts are easier to come by in genshin but its not even that bad