HoYovers presented Honkai Star Rail 3.0 bannersand all I can say is good God. Herta – the actual human form of Herta, not just a puppet – debuts alongside Aglaea, the first character from Amphoraeus. It’s also about Pioneer of Remembrance, but we knew that all this had already happened. What do we NO HoYoverse is also known to feature six huge replays on these banners. This is obviously arduous for free-to-play players, but it’s more of a burden for those who just throw some money into the game every now and then, given that there’s still a few years left before the annual Shard top-up months.
If you missed Sunday and are debating Fugue, well, you might be better off just keeping that Jade and catching up on the events if you haven’t already.
Honkai Star Rail 3.0 Banners – Phase 1, Herta
The first round of banners will go live on January 15, 2025, the same day as HSR 3.0, and will last for three weeks. Herta is the first up-to-date five-star character in HSR 3.0, an Ice Erudition warrior like her puppet counterpart who uses a Brain in a Vat-like battle feature in the simulated universe. Herta applies stacks of Interpretation to enemies, and the more stacks they have, the more damage they take from anyone who attacks them. This seems like a intelligent way to shake up Erudite and give it something other than “weak attacks on the entire team”.
With Herta comes:
This is Robin’s second reprise, although this is the first time we’ve seen Feixiao and Lingsha since their 2024 debut. Lingsha plays an significant role in the break teams, while Feixiao is up there with the strongest characters in the 2.X series, rivaling Firefly and Acheron.
The thing is, on the eve of a up-to-date battle path, it’s demanding to say how significant breakthrough teams will be in the coming months. It’s true that HoYoverse has taken several steps towards reducing power creep, an inevitable problem in live games where older characters or abilities are overtaken by up-to-date releases. Jade, for example, made Blade relevant again, and Sunday is as much Jing Yuan’s savior as he is a potentially powerful support for the Memory character.
Still, putting four 5-star characters on banners that only last three weeks is a lot.
Honkai Star Rail 3.0 Banners – Phase 2, Aglaea
Phase Two begins on February 5, 2025 and introduces Aglaea, the first five-star character from Remembrance. Aglaea brings her seamstress’s mannequin into battle, a summon that can act of its own accord under certain circumstances. Aglaea’s set uses speed manipulation to enhance herself and her summoning, and is completely different than anything else in Honkai Star Rail – which is what you’d expect from a completely up-to-date path.
Joining Aglaea are:
Silver Wolf is an captivating figure in this set as her status as a debuffer has dropped significantly over the last year. Boothill is a perfect fit for Fugue if you end up with her, and Robin is probably the only character of these six retellings that seems least likely to be overshadowed by the up-to-date characters. Her range of support buffs and team-wide performance progression are just good.
Please note that HoYoverse will likely reboot these characters in the future, and the Memory meta will likely appear in updates following HSR 3.0. Having so many celebrated characters at once is a bit dazzling, but plan wisely and remember that, as with other HoYoverse games, you can beat most of the final challenges with a free team.
Check out our Honkai Star Rail tier list to see who any of these characters match, and head over to our Star Rail cheats page to get freebies that will facilitate you with your next trains, whether it’s HSR 3.0 or later.
