After less than a year of success with gacha fans, Honkai: Star Rail is ready to release its 2.0. Details for the major update were unveiled in an announcement stream and PlayStation Blog post earlier today. This massive update, coming in early February, includes a new story and setting, three new playable characters, quality of life updates, and limited-time events.
The new permanent characters are two 5-star banners and a 4-star one that are part of Peacony, the new setting in the story. The first 5-star, Black Swan is the first playable Memokeeper, which traverses the universe as memories to seek out other memories; she has a chance to trigger a stack of DoTs upon her enemies. The 5-star Sparkle brings a boost to the team’s Skill Point max and raises a Crit DMG of one designated teammate. Finally, Misha, a 4-star doorman of Penacony, raises his Ultimate damage as he uses skill points, and the Ultimate brings a chance of freezing a chosen enemy into place.
Peacony, known as “The Planet of Festivities,” is a former frontier prison turned into a wealthy vacation hub overseen by The Family. Probably the most fascinating part of the new setting is “Dream’s Edge,” which brings intellectuals from across the galaxy to form the future of Dreamscapes. The area’s various elements let the player interact with the environment in fascinating ways through the “Dream Eye,” including visual illusions changing the terrains and “Dreamwalking,” or walking on walls and ceilings.
Further, the 2.0 update brings quality-of-life updates to help players keep up better with the game’s story and leveling. The “Fate’s Atlas” will be an in-game encyclopedia for events, and Relic leveling will be improved, allowing players to pick a desired level and even have optimized builds recommended by the game.
Finally, there’ll be four limited-time events with special banners: Hanu’s Prison Break, Dreamchaser Bulletin, Dreamjolt TV, and Penacony Food Fest. Specifically and most excitingly for some fans, Hanu’s Prison Break allows you to pick a 4-star character upon completion.
Also, seemingly in lieu of a formal trailer for now for the update, HoYo released a full music video featuring the characters of the game. It’s titled “White Night,” sung in English by Jake Miller, and is about your standard OP/trailer-length cut.
Honkai: Star Rail’s 2.0 “If One Dreams At Midnight” update drops on Tuesday, February 6th.
