After Penacony and Amphoreus, Honkai: Star Rail’s Latest Stop Is A Nice Break From The Trauma

Honkai: Star Rail's Version 4.0 update has arrived. After averting world-ending crises and watching our friends and frienemies suffer, a world associated with Elation seems like a nice enough vacation. Although we probably would have said the same thing about Penacony until everything went down. Surely this won’t end up like that, right? (Yeah. We’re all a little traumatized at this point.)

So, a trip to Planarcadia it is. Welcome to a world where the Masked Fools gather and discuss… Well, whatever it is Masked Fools believe to be important. The domain of the Elation, Planarcadia, is a silly (and somewhat dark) place. You know what they say about what’s hidden behind every smile. It’s also Himeko’s homeworld – the place where she repaired the crashed Astral Express.

MMOBomb was offered a chance at an early peek at the free-to-play ARPG's new update. Of course, we’re not going to go too deeply into all of the story stuff. In this house, we don’t believe in spoilers.

What everyone does already know is that the Astral Express family’s next destination is Planarcadia and that they’re visiting during The Phantasmoon Games at the invitation of the IPC, who oversee the planet. Specifically, one of the Ten Stone Hearts, Pearl, is charged with Planarcadia’s care. As you can probably imagine, there’s a bit of tension between the followers of Aha and the followers of Qilpoth.

Add to that mix The Hunt, a bit of Harmony, and the Trailblaze, and things are going to heat up. We’re not just talking about the Games. As always, everyone has their own agenda. And there are mysteries to be solved, too.

So, what can we tell you about the new update without being too vague? As you’d expect, almost everything about this planet is silly. There really is a cheery moon, which I expect suffered some brain damage due to the rocket in its head, hanging in the sky. (I like to think that the moon is inspired by the 1902 French silent film “A Trip to the Moon”, which features a moon that looks equally silly but a good bit more terrifying.)

The city is filled with “imagenae”, beings from paintings come to life and are integrated into everyday working society. It’s a bit like creating an imaginary friend and telling them they have to get a job. Oh, yes, and the Nameless really are just that famous. It’s a bit of a problem.

Since this is a silly world, getting around is equally silly. The little Mario-esque platforming levels shown in the Special Program are a pretty common way to make it from one place to another in the world, including the Masked Fools hangout, The Tavern, which is quite a bit bigger than any sensible tavern should be.

There are other platforming games as well. Players will find consoles in each of the zone’s main areas. These are for the Star Rabbit game. These can be played at any time. Although in the beginning, players will only be able to play on Hell Mode. There is a Cheat Mode, but it needs to be unlocked by collecting little jelly-like cube-shaped creatures known as nameless wispae.

The update also introduces two story-focused bits of side content – both of which were shown in the special program. The first is a dice/card game that’s pretty easy to play. During gameplay, each player has a character card with hit points and attack and defense stats. Roll the dice and try to get the highest rolls possible in order to attack your opponent or defend against the attack. The mode also has a variety of modifiers to make things a bit more interesting. Aside from the story content related to the game, players can challenge NPCs out in the wild, provided they have the marker over their head.

The other content involves a bunch of trouble makers known as Furbos: imagenae trying to make a living as paparazzi. It’s up to the Trailblazer to help them out. Of course, both activities offer quite a few rewards, including Stellar Jades and Lightcones. So they’re worth doing.

What would a new Honkai: Star Rail update be without new banners? As we know, we’re getting some Elation characters, starting with General Yao Guang, Seer Strategist, and head of the Xianzhou Yuque. The other is Sparxie, a very popular livestreamer on Planarcadia. As Elation characters, both are subject to the “Aha Instant”, an effect that causes them to use their Elation skill and push other characters in the team into the “Certified Banger” state, which lasts two turns.

Of course, I had to test this out and put both Madam Yao and Sparxie on a team, together with the Trailblazer and Sunday. Then they all went to beat up Sunday boss form, because we all like tormenting Sunday. After throwing around buffs and abusing Sparxie’s Skill a couple of times, the Elation skills kicked in, and it was all over. I didn’t even really have time to smash the train into Sunday’s face.

I should note that in this case, I was using fully maxed E6 characters with fully superimposed lightcones. That said, on my first try, I’d forgotten to apply a lightcone, relics, or Eidelons to Sparxie, and she still flattened him when the Elation skill came up. I do believe these Elation characters are not to be messed with.

The update also buffs Black Swan and the OG Sparkle. Unfortunately, I’ve not really played as either of those characters and can’t really offer an educated opinion as to how the changes feel compared to before. And while there are plenty of events in the update, we didn’t get to try them out since they’re not live until the update launches.

All that said, the Version 4.0 update is a bit of a romp. I got quite a few laughs out of the main story and continued to as I tried out some of the side content. But it wasn’t all giggles. There are some serious things going on in Planarcadia. There will be a few true shocks and surprises. And there were in this update. Although they (mostly) just added to the mystery.

Having lived through Penacony and Amphoreus, I’m steeled for trauma at some point. But not immediately. For now, just have a good time on this deeply weird planet that almost makes Penacony look normal.

**Note: Images in this piece were taken from the beta client and may have changed in the live version.**