AsHonkai: Star Railcontinues to grow its roster, many of its older characters are being put in the backburner because its current endgame content favors newer units. While it’s true that recent characters made the likes of Jing Yuan and Herta viable again,Honkai: Star Railplayers are feeling the power creep setting in.
Honkai: Star Rail’s meta is usually defined by the types of enemies in its featured world and those in challenge modes like Memory of Chaos and Pure Fiction. With the game currently focused on Amphoreus, battles require the expertise of more recent characters, like Aglaea, Tribbie, and Castorice. On the other hand, there have beenrumors aboutHonkai: Star Railbuffing older characters, which could spell good news for players.
Retroactive Buffs Could Be Key to Solving Honkai: Star Rail’s Power Creep
Since launching in 2023,Honkai: Star Railhas introduced dozens of playable characters across different worlds, with many more still coming in the future. Each character has distinct abilities that can be amplified with the Light Cones, Relics, and Planar Ornaments, as well as the right synergies with other characters.
As with any live service game,Honkai: Star Railpower creeps many of its older characters, happening at a faster rate because the game releases at least two new characters every version update. At the same,Honkai: Star Railis said to have a power creep problemdue to its lack of kit variety. This was evident during the Penacony arc and short Xianzhou Luofu chapter in 2024, when there were consecutive Break Effect and Follow-Up ATK characters released. Many players also noticed that the game was coming out with more powerful versions of essentially the same type of character within months of each other. The best examples of these are Lingsha, who is a stronger version of Gallagher; and Fugue, who is considered by many as better than Jiaoqiu.
Recently, there have been rumors thatHonkai: Star Railwill be rolling out buffs for select older characters starting in Version 3.4. This allegedly includesadjustments to Blade’s ability, shifting his main stat from ATK to HP, and improvements to his Follow-Up ATK. There were also previous rumors aboutHonkai: Star Railbuffing the damage over time (DOT) of Nihility characters, which some players considered “forgotten” characters. If the rumors are true, these retroactive buffs could be a smart way to solveHonkai: Star Rail’s power creep problem, because these adjustments are meant to make older characters viable again.
This is obviously good news for longtime players who’ve obtained many of the past banner characters, but were forced to stop using them because ofHonkai: Star Rail’s ever-changing meta. These adjustments would also allow players to create interesting team-ups between old and new characters, especially those with similar kits, like Blade and Mydei, who both consume their own HPs. Additionally, the rumors claim that the buffs would be optional as well in case players preferred the characters' original kits. This would also be great for late adopters ofHonkai: Star Railwho might want to experience both old and new versions of certain characters, giving them the option to choose which they prefer for their teams.
Many fans have commended HoYoverse for listening to feedback regardingHonkai: Star Railand addressing them to the best of its abilities. This isn’t just limited to bugs and glitches, but also implementing quality of life updates to improve the game’s overall experience. The rumored retroactive buffs could definitely be a result of players' criticism of the game’s power creeping, and if this approach succeeds, thenHonkai: Star Railcould potentially make similar adjustments for other characters down the line.
