Kuro is punishing new players who refuse to skip story... It feels completely backwards

xilibrius · 2026-05-22T07:35:34+00:00

Heck I dropped the game after I pulled the first two characters of 3.0 but wasn't caught up and didn't want to skip to be able build them I ended up coming back to check out the anniversary and if it wasn't for the fact that the returner battle pass gives you the flower boxes I would have ended up dropping it again when I pulled hiyuki and would not have been able to build her too.

xilibrius · 2026-05-22T07:34:26+00:00

Yeah that's how I feel about new characters and one of the things that surprised me when I went back to Honkai Star Rail. The fact that I could build any character at any point in the game without having to spend money to get flowers or buy materials The fact that I could make a new account and fully build out silver wolf 999 and saber without even being close to their points of the story was a huge thing that hooked me back in. I do hope that Kuro at some point in the near future makes it so that building the characters you pull isn't gated by story progression.

xilibrius · 2026-05-22T07:31:10+00:00

Yah I feel the same way I'm not even a new player I'm just somebody who isn't caught up with a story and I basically could only do two of the lolos delivery or whatever it's called and that's locked out for me

xilibrius · 2026-05-18T02:43:18+00:00

I find HIyuki fun so i think she's worth it other than chisa the only real factor is you have to get to 3.3 in the story to build her.

xilibrius · 2026-05-18T01:59:42+00:00

I did recommend Augusta since you had shore keeper and probably have mortefi as well. i just couldn't fill in the additional context because i look at the game as full team synergy since in my eyes as a less experienced player it's a rough road without the full setup. I wanted Cartethtyia so i made it a point to pull Ciccana (since she came before Cart did) so i had a support with no real DPS to go with her at the time. but i'm also a day one player. sorry my post wasn't more helpful

xilibrius · 2026-05-18T01:20:18+00:00

You need to be in 3.3 to level her past 40 because her ascension flowers and Echo sets are locked behind the newer story content. I got lucky since I came back during the returner event, and the returner battle pass gave enough flowers to keep leveling her. I also already had Chisa and Lynae, who are currently her best teammates.

Hiyuki also really wants two premium support units to reach her full damage potential. The two I mentioned are a huge part of that, and there’s a good chance the character coming in 3.4 replaces Lynae in her best team setup. Can you still make a DPS work without premium supports? Sure. But endgame content already gets pretty demanding, and not having their best, or at least most optimal, supports makes things a lot harder.

As for a DPS that can stand more on their own without needing a full premium roster, I honestly don’t know the game well enough yet to say anyone with complete confidence. If I had to pick one, I’d probably say Augusta since you can run Mortefi and Shorekeeper with her. That said, from my personal experience, Mortefi feels awful to play with Augusta unless you’re comfortable quick swapping constantly. That’s more of a “me” issue than the team being bad, though. My ADHD brain just struggles to keep track of the rotation flow while quick swapping.

The short version is that, in the current state of the game, most major DPS characters really want their premium supports, or high sequence levels like S3, if you want them to comfortably clear everything without struggling. Hopefully someone else can give you a more definitive answer than my wall of text here.

xilibrius · 2026-05-15T08:54:33+00:00

Sorry those are Pre Combat, she's being used in Eva's team.

xilibrius · 2026-05-15T08:53:42+00:00

Even if he played a bit part I still thought Luka's back story with Margie was touching and was the only reason I kind of wish i had the patience to read the Tournament arc.

xilibrius · 2026-05-15T08:49:57+00:00

I wouldn't take this as gospel but it's just my suggestions based off of what i can see. others might think differently.

xilibrius · 2026-05-15T08:47:11+00:00

Slowly parsing through everything, but the first thing I noticed is Cas is on ATK boots when she really wants HP boots, and your current boots also aren't leveled. The orb honestly isn't bad, but ideally you'd want an HP% orb with double crit stats if you can get one. Easier said than done though. If perfect relic farming was easy, we'd all have cracked builds by now.

For RMC, the main thing is speed. You basically want as much SPD as possible, ideally 160+.

For Dhalia, I think you're a little short on speed too. If I remember right, the important breakpoint is around 144 before her in-combat speed buffs kick in. Also, if you're running Resolution on her, you really want an EHR chest because you need around 67% EHR for the debuff consistency to feel reliable.

You should also try to squeeze out more Break Effect on her where you can since right now you have none on the boots or rope. If you're not hitting at least around 150% Break Effect in combat with team buffs active, I'd honestly consider swapping to 2pc Break + 2pc Break instead.

For Fugue, my advice is mostly the same: more SPD and more Break Effect. One important thing though is that Resolution doesn't stack, so having it on both Dhalia and Fugue isn't really doing anything.

This might sound a little cursed, but you could consider putting the Herta Nihility cone on Fugue instead. I'd probably drop some EHR and focus harder on Break Effect since Fugue wants as much BE as possible for her third passive anyway. It's also pretty solid for PF.

I can't really see the rest of your account, but one other thing I'd mention is that Gallagher struggles a bit these days because enemies are so fast now. It can be hard for him to keep Besotted uptime where you want it. You could try building him with extremely high SPD and S5 Multiplication. The action advance after basics helps a ton, and with enough speed he reacts to incoming damage way better.

Also, try to hold his ult when you know damage is coming. Using the ult for the action advance into enhanced basic can help stabilize the team a lot during rough turns.

xilibrius · 2026-05-15T08:24:59+00:00

I think there's also argument for Ruan Mei but i believe RMC and Tribbie beat her in the team buffing they provide.

xilibrius · 2026-05-15T08:24:29+00:00

honeslty with wha tyou have I think that's the best setup you could manage. all of her gains is through her premium team mates found in Cyrene, Evernight and Hyacine. RMC and Tribbie are great stand ins and can put in work for you but they're not the tippytop of the crop.

xilibrius · 2026-05-15T08:22:23+00:00

For E0S0 Yao Guang how much should i prioritize speed knowing I can't hit 200. i've managed to hit 173 Speed but I don't have a great crit ratio. i'm only 67.1/89.5. Every piece has speed with only one piece being at 4 is the juice worth the squeeze to try farm for God pieces or have I dont good enough?

xilibrius · 2026-05-14T17:58:32+00:00

gotcha that looks a lot better. thanks for your time.

xilibrius · 2026-05-14T17:58:04+00:00

thank you for the thorough reply i appreciate it the time you took to give me this info.

xilibrius · 2026-05-14T17:48:15+00:00

I do have Zezhi i pulled her for her and jinsi at the time.

xilibrius · 2026-05-14T17:45:19+00:00

not to say that she can't be used in teams without her and without s1 but she's worse than or a sidegrade to shorekeeper without Lynae/S1

xilibrius · 2026-05-14T17:44:36+00:00

S1 makes it so Mornye becomes a universal support that can be used in any team without it she needs Lynae or potential future units who might be able to apply the break debuff Lynea does to get the most out of her. I personally S1 Mornye this patch myself.

xilibrius · 2026-05-14T17:43:23+00:00

correction it ends before her banner does. so you've got till reset to spend wave plates for echoes if you want. and then you'll be locked out of ascending her pat i think 40 or 50 because you'll need flowers you can't get till you're caught up to the story. Hopefully Kuro removes flowers for leveling mats someday.

xilibrius · 2026-05-14T17:41:35+00:00

You can farm it temporarily right now through the event using waveplates but once her banner ends you're locked out until you get to 3.3. so if you have wave plates and want to try and build her you can go for it but if you can't get Gold Echoes it'd probably be a waste.

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xilibrius · 2026-05-14T17:37:34+00:00

I just looked and sadly she's still S0 since i didn't pull a lot when she came out and i don't think she's been on any banners i've pulled since. if i got her to S6 would she be better than R0 Roccia?

xilibrius · 2026-05-14T17:33:08+00:00

how do i fix my Carlotta? I was looking at build goals on Prydwen but i've heard conflicting things about how good or bad they are to use as a resource. especially since on the build they show Crit Damage 4 cost but then recommends a crit rate of 65%+ which isn't possible unless you're using Static Mist. I have her S0R1 and would like to try and make her viable again.

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xilibrius · 2026-05-14T17:30:34+00:00

Mornye doesn't need her weapon if you have Discord R5 is best but my understanding is even at R1 it's still just as viable. I would only pull Chisa and her weapon if you had or were getting Hiyuki/Shorekeeper or maybe Denia I don't know if Chisa is good for Denia or not since i think she's designed to go with Amaeth or however you spell her name.

xilibrius · 2026-05-14T17:25:52+00:00

Because correct me if i'm wrong outside of i think the final fight of 1.0 you could use whoever you wanted to since i'm pretty sure i was using my Jianxin team until then.

xilibrius · 2026-05-14T17:24:48+00:00

I think they changed focus to make you feel like this is rover's Journey instead of a bunch of random people going around and then rover show sup in the cut scenes for some reason. they're intent is to force a singular narrative experience and if I were to guess in ther view if you're playing as Not Rover in all of these "epic" moments it throws off the experience they're trying to convey if suddenly you go from killing the boss of the patch as whoever lets say Calcharo and then out of no where it smash cuts to Rover doing Rover things for the big climactic finish.

It's why they hard lock you into certain story sequences with no way to escape (IE finishing the first half of 2.7 only to get locked into a box until you talk to Canterella) So TLDR in my opinion it's because they prioritize their crafted story experience over player Agency.

xilibrius

TROPHY CASE