Honkai: Star Rail 2.1 – Release Date, New Characters, Banners, Story

Summary

Honkai: Star Rail 2.1 will be released on in late March with new characters Acheron, Aventurine, and Gallagher.
The new characters have unique abilities and gameplay kits, debunking previous leaks about banner reruns.
The update includes story updates, new locations, events, quality-of-life tweaks, and generous anniversary rewards.

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All the details about Honkai: Star Rail 2.1, including its release date, new characters, the banners in phase 1 and phase 2, story updates, and even anniversary rewards, have been revealed by developer HoYoverse. While the game has technically already entered its second year of content with the release of Penacony in Version 2.0, the next patch is when the turn-based RPG will complete its first anniversary since launch and there are a lot of surprises in store, with notable attention to generous rewards in Honkai: Star Rail 2.1.

The special livestream hosted by HoYoverse showcased the three previously confirmed new characters, highlighting their in-game personalities and how they are reflected in each gameplay kit. The rerun units for the upcoming patch were also revealed, completely debunking previous leaks about the character banner structure in Honkai: Star Rail 2.1 – and further reiterating why leaks should always be taken with a grain of salt. Of course, all the other content was also presented in the livestream, including story updates, events, quality-of-life tweaks, and how players are being rewarded for their continued support after a full year.

Honkai: Star Rail 2.1 – Release Date

Honkai Star Rail's Aventurine smirks as he tips his hat.

As was revealed by the developer itself during the Version 2.1 livestream, hosted on the official Honkai: Star Rail YouTube channel, the next update is arriving fairly soon. It is worth noting that the game’s schedule was pushed back by two weeks due to the team’s celebration of the Lunar New Year. In a press release, however, HoYoverse has confirmed that Honkai: Star Rail 2.1 arrives on March 27, across all platforms on which the game is currently available on.

Due to time zone differences, Version 2.1 will likely become available at night, on March 26, in some regions. This has occurred in previous updates for the game.

Honkai: Star Rail 2.1 – New Characters & Banners

Though the three new heroes for Version 2.1 had already been confirmed, the developer gave extra details as to how these units operate, confirming some previously leaked details. The first new addition is Acheron, a character who made her debut as an NPC in Version 2.0 and who is now being added as a fully playable character.

Acheron is a 5-star Lightning character who follows the Path of the Nihility, which means she specializes in applying debuffs to opponents. In fact, her entire gameplay kit revolves around it. Through her Skill in Honkai: Star Rail, she gets charges of Slashed Dream. This special stack is also granted to her when allies apply debuffs on opponents and even when opponents apply debuffs to themselves.

These stacks of Slashed Dream are exactly what will power up and enable her to execute her Ultimate, an ability that can hit four times and where players can select the targets they want to attack each strike. The character’s Ultimate relies solely on Slashed Dream, thus making Energy Regeneration Rate a completely dispensable stat when working on Acheron’s build.

The developer also revealed her Technique, which can instantly kill most opponents in the overworld and can even be chained sequentially – while it may not work on stronger foes, most minions will be insta-killed by Acheron’s Technique, previously leaked as a game-breaking ability in Honkai: Star Rail 2.1.

It has been teased that Acheron has connections to Raiden Mei from the
Honkai
series, but details were left scarce so as to avoid spoiling the story.

The other 5-star unit arriving with the next patch is Aventurine, a character who was also first introduced as an NPC in Version 2.0. Aventurine is an Imaginary character who follows the Path of the Preservation. With his Skill, Aventurine applies a special shield on all his allies, and when these shields sustain damage, they accumulate energy. After a certain amount of energy has been gathered, Aventurine will launch an AoE follow-up attack called Blind Bet.

Aventurine’s Ultimate targets opponents, applying a debuff on them. This will see that they take increased CRIT DMG. His Technique is composed of a roulette wheel that can grant different buffs before entering the next battle. Aventurine’s gameplay kit in Honkai: Star Rail 2.1hints at him being a very aggressive shielder, punishing those who attack his team while also laying the groundwork for his allies to deal even more damage.

The last new character arriving with Version 2.1 is Gallagher, yet another hero who first debuted as an NPC in Penacony. Contrary to the first two, Gallagher is a 4-star unit. He uses Fire DMG in battle and follows the Path of the Abundance, hinting at his healing abilities. His Skill automatically heals his targeted ally.

Gallagher’s Ultimate has him attack foes with an AoE strike that applies a debuff on them. When his allies attack debuffed opponents, they restore life, confirming the speculation that Gallagher would be one of the most aggressive healers in Honkai: Star Rail so far.

While previously leaked details on the new characters were mostly correct, the rumors about the banner reruns were debunked with HoYoverse’s presentation. Topaz and Fu Xuan were anticipated to be returning, but the developer confirmed that Honkai: Star Rail 2.1 will rerun Luocha and Jingliu.

The Phase 1 banners will be composed of Acheron and Luocha as the 5-star units, with increased drops for Gallagher, Pela, and Dan Heng. Acheron’s signature Light Cone, Along the Passing Shore, and Luocha’s signature weapon, Echoes of the Coffin, will also be featured during Phase 1, accompanying the respective characters.

Phase 2 banners, on the other hand, will host Aventurine and Jingliu as the featured 5-star units, with increased drop rates for Lynx, Luka, and Serval. Aventurine’s signature Light Cone, Inherently Unjust Destiny, and Jingliu’s signature weapon, I Shall Be My Own Sword, will be featured in the Phase 2 Light Cone Banners in Honkai: Star Rail 2.1.

Honkai Star Rail's Jingliu enveloped in shadow on the left, with her clearly wielding an ice sword in the middle, and a close-up on her face on the right.

Honkai: Star Rail – Jingliu Character Ascension (& Materials)

Fully Ascend and level Jingliu and her Traces to unlock her full powers as a DPS in Honkai: Star Rail. Here are all the required materials.

Honkai: Star Rail 2.1 – Story & Map Updates, Events, & Anniversary Rewards

The Nameless from Honkai Star Rail walk happily next to each other in Penacony.

Version 2.1 will continue the main campaign missions in Penacony and follow the Trailblazer as they make unexpected alliances to uncover the secrets within the Planet of Festivities. Along with the main story quests, HoYoverse is adding a new narrative mechanic called Fate’s Ensemble, which provides unique story quests in which players control other important characters.

This multi-narrative experience is unlocked gradually as the campaign goes by. In terms of tone, Honkai: Star Rail 2.1 is expected to be a lot less light-hearted than Version 2.0, despite still being set in Penacony and its joyful environment.

Penacony is getting larger with the patch, with two new major locations being added. The first is the Clock Studios Theme Park, which itself contains several different areas – there will also be thematic mini-games within this zone. The other is Dewlight Pavillion, home to the Oak Family and Sunday’s house.

These new locations will include new resource nodes, including new items for Fire, Preservation, and Abundance characters. From the looks of it, a lot of the materials for Aventurine and Gallagher will need to be farmed once Honkai: Star Rail 2.1 arrives rather than pre-farmed.

The main event is called Vignettes In A Cup, and the idea is to help Siobhan’s lounge cater to monsters. These creatures will show up and players will listen to their stories, mixing drinks according to their emotions. It will feature several rewards, including a free 4-star character. Another upcoming event is called Tides of War. This is a battle event with an exclusive mechanic, and it is inspired by old pixel-style games, though the battles still retain their normal looks from Honkai: Star Rail.

Robin from Honkai Star Rail sings as a blue robin bird flies from her hand.

Honkai: Star Rail 2.2 Leaks Suggest New Character May Not Be Worth Pulling

A leak about a new character in Honkai: Star Rail 2.2 sound ominous, but there is still a glimmer of hope if another leak proves itself accurate.

Herta’s Simulated Universe is getting a World 9, along with two new sets of Ornaments: Sigonia, the Unclaimed Desolation, and Izumo Gensei and Takama Divine Realm. Simulated is getting some updates in future patches but, starting in Version 2.1, players can skip straight to Difficulty IV, rather than having to unlock it by challenging easier modes. Version 2.3 will introduce an optimization to how Ornaments are farmed, but details about this were kept secret for now.

One upcoming quality-of-life update in Version 2.1 will allow players to auto-claim all their Assignment rewards and redispatch their characters.
Honkai: Star Rail
2.1 will also allow players to better sort and organize their Relics and Ornaments.

Aside from a special game mode planned to celebrate the game’s first anniversary, there are also a few generous rewards for players. The first is two returning events. Planar Fissure and Realm of the Strange, which normally offer double Relics and Ornaments, respectively, will now drop triple rewards.

In addition to that, the patch will have a login event that will grant them a total of 20 Star Rail Special Passes for free. To top it off, on April 26, the day of the anniversary, players will get 1,600 Stellar Jade, enough to buy an extra 10 Star Rail Passes. There is a lot in store for Honkai: Star Rail 2.1 as the game continues to move further into its second year of content.

Source: YouTube/Honkai: Star Rail (1, 2)