Image: HoYoverse
With tons of new content released in 2024, Honkai: Star Rail has been chugging full speed ahead.
The year 2024 was a very eventful one for Honkai: Star Rail, with the year featuring Versions 1.6 to 2.7, 20 new characters, the game's third world in Penacony, two new game modes in Pure Fiction and Apocalyptic Shadow, the game's first anniversary, and tons of other content. With how much developer HoYoverse has added to Honkai: Star Rail in 2024, things bode well for the future of the game in 2025 and beyond – especially with what we've seen from the next world, Amphoreus, so far.
So, with 2024 coming to a close soon, let's take a look back at how much Honkai: Star Rail has grown this past year.
While Honkai: Star Rail kicked off 2024 with Version 1.6, the game really properly kicked the year off in February with the release of Version 2.0 and the game's fourth world: Penacony. From Version 2.0 to 2.3, players were treated to arguably the game's best storyline yet, as the Astral Express Crew found themselves embroiled in a dark struggle for the freedom of Penacony and its inhabitants amid the bright lights of the Planet of Festivities.
I won't break down the entire Penacony storyline here, but I'm sure the twists and turns it took with every update – and the rollercoaster of emotions that came with them – still resonate with many players months after. A few moments that particularly stuck with me included Aventurine evolving from a character players loved to hate into a full-fledged fan favourite, the Crew finally discovering Misha's identity as Mikhail the Watchmaker, Acheron's meeting with Welt and the reveal of her true name, the big twist in the Penacony storyline's climax and the final battle with Sunday, as well as basically everything that featured Firefly – especially her Myriad Celestia Trailer and Animated Short.Â
And while the first three worlds we encountered in the game mostly saw us deal with just the respective factions ruling those worlds, Penacony also marked the first time the developers properly showed the scale of the setting in terms of the number of factions there are. We met Penacony natives such as Robin and Sunday, two members of the Ten Stonehearts in Aventurine and Jade, a fourth member of the Stellaron Hunters in Firefly, Masked Fools, Memokeepers, History Fictionologists, and even the first playable character confirmed to be an Emanator in Acheron, among many others.Â
The increased diversity in the cast of playable characters extended into their gameplay archetypes too. 2024 notably introduced the Super Break mechanic and its three principal damage-dealers: Firefly for the Destruction, Boothill for the Hunt, and Rappa for the Erudition. We also met the first character to not utilise an energy bar for their ultimate in Acheron, who was soon followed by Feixiao.
But returning to the state of the game's overarching narrative, 2024 did bring us one of the biggest teases to the future yet. Another war between the Aeons is brewing, and Luocha and Jingliu have successfully contacted the Xianzhou Alliance's Marshal Hua and presented their ultimate plan to defeat the Aeon of Abundance Yaoshi: the Godslayer Protocol. It involves the Genius Society member Ruan Mei, who has had her own brushes with the minions of the Aeon of Destruction Nanook in her efforts to save Tingyun from the clutches of the Destruction Emanator Phantylia by turning her into the being now known as Fugue.Â
If the reveals from the Simulated Universe's Swarm Disaster and Gold and Gears storylines are anything to go by, any war between Aeons is universally catastrophic, as only Aeons have the power to harm one another. With the Trailblazer destined for a confrontation with Nanook, the Astral Express Crew's eventual role in this fated battle between cosmic gods has become all the more intriguing.
