Welcome, every person, it’s time for an additional have a look at Hoyoverse’s gacha video games and one other clear divide – the place are all of the four-star characters? The current releases in Genshin Affect, Zenless Zone Zero, and particularly Honkai Star Rail have all been excessive rarity, and we’re questioning why.
Genshin Affect and Honkai Star Rail had 14 and 13 four-star characters obtainable at launch respectively, however new additions have dwindled since then, to the purpose the place Star Rail solely launched three new four-stars in the whole 2.x patch run, and Genshin has simply two Natlan choices to date.
As Honkai Star Rail now enters its third model, it’s nonetheless developing very brief on four-star choices. We all know of a number of new characters coming to the three.0 and three.1 Honkai Star Rail banners, and so they’re all five-star rarity. Contemplating there’s a brand new summon mechanic, that is sort of wild – certain, we get the Trailblazer’s summon-centric path at no cost, however certainly a four-star choice as a substitute of simply the five-star Honkai Star Rail Aglaea can be clever for the free-to-play-ers? Particularly as she’s within the second half.
Each new area in Genshin Affect, as an illustration, provides away a four-star unit to showcase the realm’s mechanics. Fontaine gave us Lynette, Natlan gave us Kachina, and Sumeru gave us Collei. However Honkai mentioned no, cope with it, you need summons? Pull the five-star. Little do they know that my crack crew of Jing Yuan and Sunday will pull me by means of without having Aglaea.
Inside the 1.x patches of Hoyoverse’s two largest gacha video games, the corporate gave us no less than 4 additional 4 stars in every. Zenless Zone Zero, then again, gave us… one. Please Hoyo, I’ve greater than MC6’d all of my A-Ranks and it’s getting actually boring having the identical few on repeat on all of the ZZZ banners.
There have been back-to-back patches with double S-rank agent releases. That’s ten new S-ranks, with two extra coming, and one singular A-rank within the combine – good previous ZZZ Seth is holding up the fort alongside the 9 A-ranks that debuted on the sport’s launch.
Right here’s a useful desk to indicate the quantities of 4 stars at launch, and in subsequent variations of the Hoyo video games for my fellow visible learners:
| At launch | In 1.x patches | In 2.x patches | In 3.x patches | In 4.x patches | In 5.x patches | |
| Genshin | 14 | 4 | Seven | 9 | Six | Three (to date) |
| Honkai | 13 | Six | 4 | None (to date) | – | – |
| Zenless | 9 | One | – | – | – | – |
It’s not like folks don’t pull for 4 stars. Honkai Star Rail’s Moze has a variety of followers, and I’m responsible of paying [redacted] GBP to get only one copy of Genshin Affect’s Candace when she debuted on Cyno’s banner early within the Sumeru updates. What did I get? About 700 Kuki Shinobu’s, three Cyno’s, and one copy of Candace 5 minutes earlier than the banner ended. I paid far an excessive amount of, however I’d do it once more for an additional four-star I like. Maybe Genshin Affect’s Ifa when he hopefully releases quickly.
Want I point out Genshin Affect’s Kaveh? Top-of-the-line-designed four-star characters throughout all of Hoyo’s video games, with a whole occasion devoted to him? Sadly, his equipment didn’t dwell as much as my very own expectations, however I nonetheless pulled to try to C6 him as the person’s character, model, and story relevance had been means above the four-star mark. Everybody I do know who performs the sport pulled only for him.
This proves that Hoyoverse can completely prepare dinner up glorious 4 stars alongside what are thought-about middle-of-the-rad characters like Genshin Affect’s Sethos, the five hundredth electro DPS. However, for gamers who don’t need to spend so much on a five-star, he’s in all probability their saving grace.
I’m going to unleash the salt right here for a second – there are specific characters like Genshin Affect’s Sigewinne or Emilie and – dare I say it – Honkai Star Rail’s Topaz, Bailu, or Yanqing ought to have, maybe, been 4 stars as a substitute of 5. Although two of those are commonplace banner five-stars in Honkai, there nonetheless may have been some four-stars as a substitute of solely 5 for a very long time.
On the flip aspect, there are undoubtedly some four-stars that ought to have been five-stars like Genshin Affect’s Xiangling and Ororon because of their equipment and story relevance respectively, however we actually don’t want any extra greater rarities proper now.
Now, I’m not saying corporations ought to flood the roster with second-rate four-stars. I’m additionally not saying they need to flood the roster with Xiangling-level four-stars, both – however only a couple extra choices can be good, particularly in Zenless Zone Zero. It’s in all probability troublesome to provide you with and steadiness kits which can be helpful or creative with out being on par or higher than the restricted 5 stars, however there’s undoubtedly room for some extra sub-DPS or first rate assist characters, even when they’re situational. Will we get an A-rank healer for individuals who don’t go for Astra Yao in ZZZ? When will we get a four-star in HSR to supply us with a summon?
It simply looks like the quantity of four-star releases is continuous to go down, and I’m undecided why, even when considering of profit-chasing – as talked about above, it’s not like folks don’t pull particularly for four-stars, and so they’re typically more durable to get than five-stars resulting from a scarcity of a assure. Certain, 5 stars are nice, however having a roster that’s 50/50 or much more than half-full of them appears slightly unfair. Plus, a few four-stars from time to time may really assist the five-stars really feel extra particular. Please, gained’t someone consider our wallets?
Both means, as we impatiently await the following A-rank, don’t neglect to seize the brand new Zenless Zone Zero codes, Genshin Affect codes, and Honkai Star Rail codes so as to add some extra pulls to your stash.
