Honkai: Star Rail

Honkai: Star Rail (崩坏：星穹铁道) is a strategy RPG game published by miHoYo. It is the fourth installment in the Honkai series, designed with newcome players in mind. Honkai: Star Rail is a gacha game, meaning it relies on a regular cycle of character releases that are available for purchase with in-game currency that can be partially gained through gameplay or bought with actual-life currency. 
With the way gacha games' monetization model is built, each character is designed to be very bright, attractive, and fitting a character archetype. These characters are easy to build fandoms around. 
== Background ==
HSR follows a player character on a journey across a space fantasy world. The main cast travels on the Astral Express, a train that works like a space ship. The Astral Express's goal is to trailblaze across the galaxies and cultures, bringing worlds together. In the process, the crew stops at different planets or space ships, interacts with different species, and frequently participates in regions' politics or conflicts. The story is supplemented by extensive world-building, including a pantheon of Aeons that represent their respective values. Out of those, playable paths (value alignments) are Preservation, Abundance, Hunt, Nihility, Harmony, Erudition, Destruction.
The game has four regions so far (April 2024); Herta's Space Station; Jarilo-VI, represented by Belobog; Xianzhou Luofu; and Penacony. Of the regions, Xianzhou Luofu and Penacony are clear fan favourites, and Penacony has had many vocal fans.
==Fandom ==
===MC (Stelle/Caelus) ===
Like in the other Hoyoverse games, players can give the main character a custom name, and the character can be either male- or female-presenting. Stelle and Caelus (the default names for the female and male MC respectively) have the same gameplay mechanics and conversation choices, but there are some differences in attack animations. Based on those animations, fandom often characterizes Stelle and Caelus slightly differently. The MC, unlike in other gacha games, tends to be very well-liked, with most fans appreciating the MC's chaotic personality as well as the fact that the MC is a powerful character (rare in gacha games).
===Other Playable Characters===
There are 58AS of October 2024; this number changes with each new release playable characters available, divided by faction or role:
*Astral Express - released April 2023
**Caelus or Stelle 
**Dan Heng
**Himeko
**March 7th
**Welt Yang
*Herta Space Station - released April 2023
**Arlan
**Asta
**Herta
**Ruan Mei
*Belobog - released April 2023
**Bronya
**Clara
**Gepard
**Hook
**Luka
**Lynx
**Natasha
**Pela
**Sampo
**Seele
**Serval
*Xianzhou Alliance - released in April 2023
**Bailu
**Dan Heng (Vidyadhara form)
**Feixiao
**Fu Xuan
**Fugae
**Guinaifen
**Hanya
**Huohuo
**Jiaoqiu
**Jing Yuan
**Jingliu
**Lingsha
**Luocha
**Moze
**Quingque
**Shushang
**Tingyun
**Xueyi
**Yanqing
**Yukong
**Yunli
*Penacony - released February 2024
**Gallagher
**Misha
**Robin
**Sunday
*Stellaron Hunters
**Blade
**Firefly
**Kafka
**Silver Wolf
*Interastral Peace Corporation
**Aventurine
**Jade
**Topaz & Numby
*Cosmic 
**Archeron
**Argenti
**Black Swan
**Boothill
**Dr. Ratio
**Rappa
**Sparkle
=== Shipping ===
Because of the regular new character release cycle, the cast is always growing, and fandom switches attention between emerging ships again and again. No list can be exhaustive, but below are some popular pairings.
*Blade/Dan Heng
*Aventurine/Dr. Ratio (Ratiorine)
*Blade/Dan Feng
*Blade/Jing Yuan
*Caelus/Dan Heng
*Dan Heng/Jing Yuan
*Gepard/Sampo
*Jing Yuan/Yanqing
*Bronya/Seele (Bronseele)
*Himeko/Kafka
*Argenti/Boothill (Argenthill)
*Kafka/Blade
*Gallagher/Sunday
*March 7th/Stelle
*Acheron/Black Swan (Acheswan)
Dan Heng and Jing Yuan in particular are the fandom bicycles. Many characters are popular.
Dr Ratio is often compared to Alhaitham from Genshin Impact. He was given as a free character for a limited time, a move that was very popular with fans.
====Statistics and aggregates ====
*B's Log Honkai Starrail Ship Ranking 2024
===Dan Heng/Blade===
Dan Heng and Blade, also known as renheng and hengren ("ren" being Chinese for "blade"), emerged as a ship prior to HSR release date because of promo materials.
===Jing Yuan/Yanqing===
Jing Yuan and Yanqing also emerged as a pre-release ship and remain popular across international HSR fandom.
==Interaction with fans==
*One night in Penacony twitter link to highlight video * Acheron cosplay vlog
==Fan Activity Around Gameplay==
Many players enjoy the strategy, gameplay, and other non-story/non-character focused content in HSR.
===Examples of streamers/video guide makers===
*MrPokke
*Sweetily
*MinaAoyama
===Gameplay Guides===
For example, speed, and the idea of speed tuning. Speed determines how many actions a player can take in a turn, and Action Value (AV) order the turns appear to be taken in in game. Many, many guides have been created for this purpose. Speed boots has been said so often it has become trite (as speed can only be the main stat on boot equipment).
*Reddit Question on /r/HonkaiStarRail - typical question with meta
*- a guide to speed breakpoints (the points where you can take two actions in one cycle - important when trying to minimise the number of cycles your battle takes)
* - a guide to speedtune (get the correct speed for) Bronya, a character who many players speed tune for optimal damage.
* or drive link an actual formatted paper with speed related math by a fan
*
*Sparkle speedtuning, like this based off of on YouTube, referencing the chinese speaking fandom guides like and 
==Example Fanworks==
===Fanfiction===
===Fanart===
*Geometric study💎 (inspired by Cosmodyssey reports' style), art of Aventurine by Bepe. Cosmodyssey was a HSR event to celebrate the first HSR anniversary held in April 2024.
===Vids===
*The Crew's Bizarre Adventure by 喵太Miota, where HSR characters go to the nation of Sumeru from Genshin Impact (April 2023)
===Zines===
*IN/FINITE, a Renheng zine that opened preorders March 2024
==Links==
*Honkai: Star Rail tag on AO3
==References==