I’ve been playingHonkai: Star Railsince launch, and I find myself wanting a gameplay feature that’s so simple but has yet to be implemented. While new content is being added to HoYoverse’s turn-based RPG with every update, most of it revolving around new campaign missions and playable characters (such as Hyacine and Cipher in Version 3.4),the developer has been making an investment into turning the title more friendly to its players with several QoL (quality-of-life) updates. There has been aRelic update inHonkai: Star Rail3.3, for example, expanding the maximum inventory limit for Relics and Ornaments.
Prior to that, players saw a new feature added to Relic and Ornament farming that allows them auto-salvage pieces that have 4-star rarities and below, making filtering these pieces much more effective.New QoL updates are implemented quite often in the turn-based RPG and are developed based on players’ needs and feedback, so they should accompany future patches as the game progresses further into its ongoing story arc. While players will see the confirmed buffs to older characters and the release ofPhainon inHonkai: Star Rail3.4, some QoL updates may happen in the next patch, too.
Honkai: Star Rail Needs An Inventory Widget Between Challenges
Players Should Be Able To Access Consumables Between Fights
As I played through my weekly activities recently, I noticed that the game is lacking one easy-to-implement feature that could enhance players’ experiences, especially while farming. After heavily farming Calyx activities, Stagnant Shadows, and, most importantly, Echo of War weekly boss fights,I’ve felt the need for a button that allows you to access your inventory in between farming sessions. Essentially, this feature would permit you to useconsumable items inHonkai: Star Railright before your next fight. With access to your inventory, you could use Recovery items, either to restore lost HP or to buff the characters’ stats.
This feature could be easily implemented with a button on the page following the conclusion of the activity, allowing you to access it and return to the same page, from which you can choose to rechallenge the activity or not. For reference, this is the same page that shows your spoils from the activity and how much Trailblaze Power you have left, for example.Currently, players have to leave the entire activity to then access their inventories inHonkai: Star Railand then go through the process to rechallenge the desired activityfound in the Interastral Guide’s Survival Index tab.
Access To Inventory Between Honkai: Star Rail Battles Could Improve Farming
The Process Of Accessing The Inventory Between Fights Takes An Unnecessary Amount Of Time
The ability to access the inventory quickly in between activities without having to leave the activity altogether would be time-efficient and allow for a more seamless experience while farming. Suppose you’re running several Stagnant Shadow activities, one after the other, in search of Ascension materials for one of your characters. By using Consumables like Disposable Kinetic Arm or Hypnotic Hammer to increase your ATK and CRIT Rate, while reducing the DMG taken by allies, respectively, before each fight.Because consumables only last for a set number of battles, being able to replenish them quickly is of great utility to players.
These two items, specifically, only last for one battle, meaning their effects would expire once theStagnant Shadow activity inHonkai: Star Railis concluded.
This type of strategy could be employed by players when challenging nearly every type of farming activity within the game, be it a Calyx, a Stagnant Shadow, or an Echo of War.Most of these fights require you to tackle the challenge multiple times in a row to farm whatever type of item you need, so being able to buff yourself and perhaps even restore HP for your team comp’s members is already vital, but there’s some downtime having to leave the activity to access your inventory and then return to the activity, resetting any parameters inHonkai: Star Rail.
Surely, nowadays players don’t have to physically visit where they are farming, but this extends loading times. With longer loading times, the process of leaving the activity to open your inventory and make your way back is unnecessarily long, and could be resolved with a simple button.While all farming activities could benefit from this type of mechanic, this would be especially effective for Echo of War challenges, where players faceweekly bosses inHonkai: Star Rail. Compared to Calyx and Stagnant Shadow opponents, weekly bosses are much tougher to take down.
This is especially true if you lack the proper characters to match the bosses’ Weaknesses. For example, before obtaining Tribbie andCastorice inHonkai: Star Rail, I was struggling with dealing Quantum DMG against Shadow of Feixiao, while my Firefly team comp was not operating at peak performance because only the Stellaron Hunter was dealing Toughness-reducing DMG.
As such, the ability to rebuff and restore HP via Consumables between fights against the same weekly boss, perhaps in an effort to farm a Trace material for one of your characters, would largely benefit all players. It’s quite possible to face and beat the same weekly boss thrice in a row (weekly bosses can only be challenged for rewards three times every week), butI often see my team comp with a much lower performance without buffs because the process of leaving to open the inventory inHonkai: Star Raildemotivates me due to how long it usually takes.
Consumables Are More Necessary Than Ever In Honkai: Star Rail
Enemies Are Getting Tougher To Keep Up With Characters’ Powercreeps
More than ever, Consumable items are becoming necessary when challenging tougher enemies in the game. As new characters are getting released, the stronger these releases are, the more appealing than previous ones. Powercreep has been a recurring issue with the game since launch and continues to expand with every new character.Consequently, tougher enemies are being added to the game, too, as a means of balancing these overpowered units and giving players a sense of challengeduring battles inHonkai: Star Rail.
With Consumables, players can buff themselves and make the fights a bit easier, especially when farming materials for their characters. As such, the process during which players use their Consumables also needs to be enhanced, and I see that happening with a button leading to the inventory without forcing players to leave the activity they are challenging altogether. As HoYoverse works on more QoL updates forHonkai: Star Rail, hopefully, a feature like this is among their plans for the future.
