Is Honkai: Star Rail pay to win?

Honkai: Star Rail is the latest game from HoYoverse. Its monetization model is exactly like Genshin Impact’s, so while the game itself is free to play, the most coveted characters and light cones are obtained through the gacha system. Here’s what that means for your wallet.

What does money get you in Honkai: Star Rail?

Honkai: Star Rail has even less multiplayer content than Genshin Impact, lacking even a basic co-op function. This means there is no PVP content at all, and you’ll never be pitted against other players who have potentially paid to be more powerful. 

All gameplay modes and areas in Honkai: Star Rail are accessible for free. Paying real money does not unlock any actual content. Furthermore, all game modes are balanced so that even free players are able to beat them with smart gameplay and decent builds. Even Forgotten Hall, the most difficult content in the game, can be cleared with reasonably accessible teams. 

Paying real money in Honkai: Star Rail gets you more Stellar Jades that you can use to pull for 5-star characters and light cones. Along the way, you’ll also get more 4-star characters and their Eidolons. All of these will make your account stronger, which lets you get away with more mistakes in gameplay or worse relics. Paying in Honkai: Star Rail gets you more flexibility to play what you want. You’re paying for your favorite characters, not an advantage over other players.

Does Honkai: Star Rail have powercreep?

Powercreep in gacha games refers to the tendency of newer units to be more powerful than older ones. Over time, this renders older units obsolete and unusable in new, harder content.

Honkai: Star Rail does not have powercreep, or at least, not yet. It’s true that some newer units are more powerful than launch units, but the game is still fairly young. We haven’t had too many new characters yet, and the power differences we’ve seen so far are within the range of what I’d expect from imperfect balancing. 

More importantly, Honkai: Star Rail is always played with a team of four characters. One character’s individual strength is less important than team synergy. The most important character stat in Honkai: Star Rail is Speed, allowing your characters to have more turns within a cycle. A character might not be individually strong, but if they can work well in a variety of teams or take more actions in a cycle, there’s a reasonable argument for using them over a newer, stronger character.

Overall, I think it’s a bit early to say whether Honkai: Star Rail has powercreep, and gacha is still predatory, but I wouldn’t call it pay to win in its current state.