The Dark Side of Powercreep in Honkai Star Rail

[@Iyoverse]

What do you guys think about good vs bad boss design in HSR or any of the current gacha games you're playing right now? Zenless almost gave me Smough & Ornstein as a boss so that caught me off guard. lol

[@Marz776]

My fav boss is Sam, I love the "stance change" they have a really cool gimmick

[@Delkagu]

I love Hoolay, I love how good of a punishment he was to a lot of players because of how fast he is, forces you to play his game like you said

[@Satyr42]

Mihoyo needs to talk less to content creators. It provides a skewed perspective on the state of the game because the content creator experience is fundamentally different from the average player. And I agree, current end game has terrible boss and enemy design. Inflating HP, defense and damage is a shitty scumbag move on the developer's part. Even the good parts get dragged down to absolute zero because of this numbers bloat. I genuinely think they should publicly acknowledge this mistake, apologize for it, and then fix it and never do it again.

[@almondxd6110]

Of course there are mechanic on each bosses and elite you have encounter. But people still say "No mechanic in this game nothing but HP inflation" because they worry only about HP inflation not Mechanic on bosses they facing (unless they have nothing to do with them). Powercreep with HP inflation isn't a good way to go so..... Good luck playing HSR for more than 10 years. And explain your experience about this game after 26/04/2033

[@MegaGreenkirby]

Honestly first, most average ppl would rather not have neither inflation or hard mechanics and have everything be busted, that said, I feel inflating defense or speed isn't as bad to an extent...but I understand what you mean...

[@ladyhdwastaken]

HP Inflation is the cheapest shit they can do in any gacha to sell a new character. By cheap I mean lazy. Add some stupid shilly mechanics if anything.

[@jaimecastro3194]

They do that too. Remember the purple dinosaur that only takes damage after breaking him. Aventurine stealing your energy and literally nullifying every hunt character at that moment. Dot enemies (like the puppet) nullifying every type of counter attack.

[@tangman9890]

@@jaimecastro3194 should every enemy be a carbon copy of each other then? Diversity gives combat puzzles. This MOC may have semi inflated numbers but they also do die really easy with the MOC buff.

[@crashsparrow6943]

@@tangman9890 I think they were just responding to the original commenter, and giving examples of "some stupid shilly mechanics."

[@mp9104]

Stuff like the “something unto death” and “shell of faded rage” is what I’d like to see. Well no not the latter that makes things a nightmare if you can’t break fast…or if at all.

[@k.h6635]

That some stupid silly mechanic are the reason why this game called "strategy"

[@QueenMarika1101]

hp inflation in this game is shit . thats why old characters are now unusable

[@Plsmfndow0596vm]

takes so much High vertical investment to make the old chars to work

[@tuananhhoang887]

Not only that the monster do increase damage my fuxuan with her light cone barely survived the last moc with acheron. In the past they didn't even touch her last health bar

[@RePollster]

Seele resurgence doesn't mean anything if you can't kill the trash mobs though lol

[@dante19890]

ye but he is looking at it from a 0 cycle perspective where you have 3 5 star hamony units buffing seele so she can kill. IN a regular team with a sustainer seele is trash.

[@NotAlejoZen]

My opinion on Aventurine boss is a 50/50. He would be a great enemy design IF he didn't decrease the energy of ALL your characters every turn, because at that point he's just prolonging the fight to an unnecessary lenght, and that forces you to a constrict number of characters, like that comment said. It's still doable, sure, but at that point it just becomes unfun due to an element that is out of the player's control. Which is what they changed with the Aventurine boss in Apoc Shadow. They removed the bullshit RNG energy stealing and focused only on dealing with the dices, so at that point it really depends on the player's skill to deal with that while still forcing you to play by his rules and learn the fight. That was true peak enemy design.

[@Carnaj90]

AND they had to nerf the in game boss because it was scaled too high and players could clear it because they put the same mechanics he has in MoC in the story mode one. If they put bosses in games that will eventually be in endgame, they need to make the story mode bosses scaled down a bit to introduce players to the mechanics so they can improve for the endgame.

[@dominicwoodford5711]

He literally had his mind fucked with from a conceptual being, tanked it, and had a stone his boss fight is meant to be hard

[@k.h6635]

That's the reason why Hoyo introduce Acheron and Feixiao unique energy mechanic. I think in future, there's gonna more like those.

[@RygarFang1599]

They did give a pattern of when he would siphon energy, i believe it's his second attack. Also, the siphon energy would be back to full on one attack. So, what's the issue? If you don't want to get siphon, then speed tune + vertical invest, to bypass it. That's what his pointing at, do you want game mechanic or sponge mechanic design, either one is going to leave an impression? Which is the better of two evils.

[@Doremi-q]

​​@@Carnaj90At least we didn't get MoC Hoolay in story (unless I forgotten, it's been a minute) otherwise that would've been just too much, but also glad Aventurine ain't a weekly boss cause I'd probably crash out having to farm that

[@eszterfodor1136]

For a new player I would not recommend a dps just look at last year's best dps Jingliu or Imbibitor Lunae. I would recommend a sustain or a harmony unit.

[@XenosZombie]

I feel like an E0S0 Yunli is a safe recommendation since she's a physical DPS sustain hybrid. She's T0.5 in all 3 endgame modes, and physical weakness is always on 1 side in all 3 modes. She works well with free units obtained. March 7th's shield and then Lynx's skill increases her taunt value, so her LC is optional. She also works well with March Hunt and most supports in the game. And best of all, she needs minimal relic investment to be strong in endgame content. You just farm for crit rate, her ultimate gives 100% critical damage. Any extra crit damage and attack% rolls are just optional bonuses. Basically extremely minimal resources invested to get her working, and works out of the box with free units for a top tier unit in all 3 endgame modes. I don't see why she's not worth it.

[@mysteryfirecat673]

My honest recommendation for new players is Lingsha. She gives you the sustain, does a lot of damage in Super Break Teams, has an amazing 4 LC available for free, and has synergy with follow up teams. She is too good.

[@tizurl]

@@mysteryfirecat673 this^^ sustains are def the most important

[@SageOfLimitlessHands]

I only just now started using harmony characters in endgame

[@Doremi-q]

​@@XenosZombieDef the most safe pick imo, but otherwise sustains & harmony needs to be prioritized

[@MrC1PHER_]

About Aventurine (at least as a MoC boss): A boss like him that forces certain team comps is okay, but not in a gacha game, and definitely not in a time limit gamemode. With his energy drain, his stuns, his delays with the dice. In a game where you can't consistently get what is required for a new boss you can¡t make it so that supports, sustains and dps need to be aoe for have any semblance of consistency, more so because the only options for sustain are Gallagher (which released in that patch and most people wouldn't have built by that point), luocha and aventurine (5* that you aren't guaranteed to get). And in the aspect of supports only nihility can surpass the test and in various cases you need to have ult (which is difficult because if you hold on to your ult he'll fuck you up because energy drain). If those allies that win the bet in the second hp bar were pulled forward (so if you planned accordingly for the boss you don't get screwed by the time limit of MoC) it would be okay, but the boss is designed to royally f*ck with everything: - You don't have team wide action advance to counter the turns wasted with the dice minigame? you're f*cked - You don't have aoe to win the minigame? you're f*cked - You plan to hold on to ults to win minigame? energy drain, get f*cked - You have the spd to win? action delay, get f*cked In concept, AND ONLY IN CONCEPT, it's a good boss, forcing you to play his game. For good bosses I would go to Sam (specially in SU where instead of draining health it gives you the prana debuff where your max Hp is reduced) where you either have enough toughness break to overpower him or play his game and use skill point hungry teamcomps to melt his supersaiyan state as fast as you can (using dots with robin for action advance, using acheron with nihility, using DHIL so you can melt the bar 3 skill points at a time, etc). TL;DR: You can't force a specific team comp in a f*cking gacha because not everyone will be able to have it, you should incentivize playstyles (dot, fua, break, debuff, sp hungry, etc, etc). Also SAM is a better boss than Aven.

[@Ardorstorm]

Agreed

[@Plsmfndow0596vm]

Edited : NOW, MOC 3.0 has 9+ Million HP BOSS WTF, they're not holding back.. and the turbulence buff only benefit for summon meta... Powercreep in this game is toxic. 😐 Some people overthink it far too much when the answer is simple and obvious. There's nothing confusing about it unless you're trying to cope. Powercreep is Powercreep. Powercreep is annoying in HSR, not just because it's stressful to deal with as an f2p, but also because the main reason to play HSR is for the characters you like. 🤷‍♂ But you get punished for liking the characters and getting attached to them because the game doesn't want you to be using them for too long. The game wants you to swiftly throw out the old for the new. 🤔 Every time someone says, "There's no powercreep, I beat MoC 12 with Herta," they're never telling you the whole truth. In reality, they have godtier relics, the latest character on their team with Herta as a 4th slot add-on, and/or a limited 5 star lightcone equipped on that same 4 star Herta they're bragging about. The cope and dishonesty are annoying. 💡 The only way to bypass powercreep and the game modes altering themselves per patch to support the current rate up unit is to invest into your account with money. Either pay to win or just skip most of the game's content and cross your fingers to hope you're good enough to at least complete the main story (which I personally struggled with in Penacony because I didn't have any break characters on my account other than Harmony MC and Gallgher). 🤔 And in such a situation, you have to ask yourself if playing the game is even worth it as f2p. All the other game modes are insufferable unless you invest in the latest unit who will just go out of fashion soon enough anyway. The dream of going on a galactic adventure with just your favorite characters is dead. If your favorites were Blade and Kafka, the dream is dead. Do you really wanna waste your time (and / or money) pulling for characters you don't like who might either become obsolete like Sparkle did or get powercrept to hell and back like Jingliu did anyway? 💡🤔 As an F2P, the only other way around this issue I could think of is to invest in E6'ing my favorite characters and S5'ing their lightcones whenever a rerun banner appears. That way, I don't have to force myself to pull and build characters that I don't care for. 🙃 But even this solution has a time limit. Even if I got an E6, S5 Blade, by the 2nd or 3rd anniversary of HSR, with the rate of powercreep (and game modes becoming more difficult to accommodate the higher DPS ceiling of the newest characters), even an E6, S5 Blade might become weak compared to the E0, S0 of the newest character at that time. When that day comes, how would I feel? Like I wasted my life? Yep. 🫠 There's no real gameplay in HSR, it's just full auto except for the few special moments in story. You can't do anything with the characters you pulled other than full-auto or be a try-hard for boring fights outside of story without much reward for your extra effort (trying harder than everyone who either paid money or had enough free pulls to get the current patch's shiny new character. 🫣 The only real value the game has is the story with its fake multiple choice options that don't even matter. Why not just watch a playthrough then and spend time playing another game? A game that actually encourages you to "play" it. HSR is an idle game with extra steps at this point. 😅 Even if ZZZ is easy, at least you actually get to "play" around and do things most of the time. This being the situation, why "pretend to play" HSR as an f2p? Where's the reward in that, especially if you're not having fun. You're just doing chores, logging in everyday, doing your best to keep up. And now the game just doesn't want you to play certain modes at all if you didn't have the foresight to skip every banner except break. And according to dreams, there's yet another new playstyle being added that everyone will have to migrate to. So, break mains, good luck with that. 😐 Anyway, people will forever deny the word "powercreep" only because they don't want to accept the reality of the situation. 🤷‍♂ When I see this being the norm, I know the devs are not going to do anything to fix it. This is HSR and it's a matter of coping and accepting it or leaving it behind for greener pastures. ⚠ I'm not saying everyone should be upset about it. But at least accept the situation for what it is. I'd have far more respect for someone if they say, ☺ "yeah, HSR isn't a skill-based game, it leans towards pay to win, and it's not really a good experience for f2p's long-term. But y'know what, I still love this game despite all that, so I'm gonna keep playing even if you don't." 😅 I'd rather people just own up and say that instead of trying to get philosophical about the deep untapped profound meanings of the word known as "powercreep."

[@danifox2244]

It's like you read my thoughts. Eh.. u right. if my e2 DHIL with his good team stops closing content for his own img weakness, if my expensive team with e2 acheron, and e2 adventurine stops working - then I will simply leave the game. Powercreep will not give me motivation to summon new characters, because I love those who I really like. And if they eventually simply do not work, then what's the point of playing this "game"? After all, whoever you get, whoever you like - in a year, he will sink into oblivion, like all the previous waifus.... Ehhhhh

[@ottonathan2150]

I will have to disagree with you on a few points. First: the Herta point. How can you be so sure that is the case for all of the people saying that? And do you just shame people for vertical interest for the character that they like and their expression of skill? Second: vertical inverestment. Yeah, it can be bad when, like you said, some characters can only be good on certain gamemodes, but a lot of time characters like Acheron, Fexiao, and Firefly can be good on multiple gamemodes. So is it still bad to inverse in them? Third: Gamemode. This is just poor management of the account, imo. Even if you get the latest character, you only focus on the one that suits only that archetype, like Break Effect. Then your pure fiction will suffer massively. Diversity your account with the character you like for each gamemode, then you can upgrade/build those characters to the max of your can. Or even get to E6S5 of that character. Fourth: Time Limited. It's a very hard thing to judge something if it will be meta for a very long time or not. Take your example of the E6S5 Blade. How long can you be absolutely sure he will be weaker compared to the new E0S0 character? What metrics are we using to judge a character? Is it a pure DPS number, or is it the character ability to clear gamemode or something else? Fifth: The "pretend to play." There are people who are actually going around to do stuff; they all call Achivement Hunter. Beside, who are you to tell people what is fun or not? Let's just not pretend that GI and ZZZ don't have you just "doing chores, logging in every day, doing your best to keep up" at some point in the game. It's a thing that pretty much every Gacha game will have. The only ways you feel like it's less in GI and ZZZ are because it's an open world, so you feel more in the game than doing chores, but it's basically the same thing. Sixth:The Dev. Yeah, they're not going to fix it. Then why just not adapt to it? Make your team better with your own judgment. I saw some people play the game without pulling and get very good at the game. May I recommend Zmm? He has a playlist of videos where he played without pulling; just use free units and free LC or LC that was given to him. The latest video is 495 days without pulling. I'm not saying Powercreep aren't real. Heck, I'm somewhat dealing with it right now with my Fuxuan, but I don't know if my build is bad or the enemy absolutely does more damage than my Fuxuan can handle, so now I'm rebuilding her from the ground up to see. Yes, it will be easier to just say Aventurine is better; Fuxuan is outmeta. But when you keep chasing the latest units, you don't know for sure if it's the character's fault or your build is just okay. And your reason on why Powercreep is annoying in HSR can just sum up to just "too affraid to commit because of latest character will just be plain old better" it not really stand on it own because EVERY GACHA GAME HAS IT. The only different is how long before they got replace by the newer shinier character.

[@K1ra_245]

@@Plsmfndow0596vm this is exactly why i am building my account to get e2s1 of every dps that i have,currently at e0s1 acheron and e0s0 ff but i need more eidolons to clear

[@K1ra_245]

​@@ottonathan2150 i agree with your points except the first. Literally check any clear,4* or not; and you'll see that it uses whaled out supports and/or DPS. F2p clears in this game are dead it seems

[@ottonathan2150]

@@K1ra_245 yeah, i would to judge it case by case since some people trully do it as much f2p as possible while other just use it as free claim to boost their ego. I play the game as a f2p and i just plan out my pull to clear all the content in the game althought not reach to like 0 cycle or something like the min-max would do

[@msbluebell]

I'm a DHIL main without even E1 and I am tanking my way through fights by clenching my teeth. I refuse to play meta and I'm suffering for it, but by god I'm getting through the bosses. It's agony, but I refuse to spent a single dollar on characters I don't care about just to make the gameplay easier. My dragon man will carry me whether HoYo likes it or not.

[@dante19890]

yeah you are gonna struggle harder in 3.X unless u upgrade to the servant team.

[@msbluebell]

@@dante19890 I fought Aventurine with Serval. Nothing can hurt me anymore.

[@dante19890]

@@msbluebell do u like to suffer or something?? Just save ur pulls and get a strong team in 3.X

[@msbluebell]

@@dante19890 Not unless HoYo makes me fall in love. I'm here to die dude.

[@loreyxillumina]

​@@msbluebellayy preach, I got DHIL to E2 and still beating endgame. Most of the time I can't get the last 2 stars cuz of heavy shilling or goddamn fire and wind weakness. I tried break Himeko, Guinaifen and Clara but I still can't beat Hoolay in 6 cycles.

[@leonisalberis]

the idea that seele can keep up with with just the penacony enemy design is hilarious man

[@dr.strange1300]

Imo I think especially for new players, I recommend you say fuck it to everything and go for the sustains first. There is a HUGE difference between experimenting with whoever you have while you're invincible with Aventurine on the team, vs trying to experiment to make a team with Natasha or Lynx or Bailu. When it comes to powercreep honestly it really just boils down to bad enemy design/bad mechanic design. There's only so much a particular character can do, if they can do everything then mihoyo won't make money, so they introduce you to new enemies that make your current shit harder to use, to try to get you to FOMO into pulling what's new and shiny. And legit if only people could recognize that the only thing you'd lose out on while skipping a bunch of NEW characters that DONT add to your account in any optimal way is only like a couple hundred jades from not being able to get full rewards from the endgame.

[@MACA_Zeon]

For real I love lingsha

[@NoNameHQ]

+1 to this as a person who started the game on aven's original banner and was recommended to ignore the shiny toys and just get him first and trust in the power of being able to tank your way through content

[@balzaque1]

When I was still progressing through story and had almost no one getting Fu Xuan carried me so hard, not being able to survive harder things was a really big problem

[@Carnaj90]

Basically, you can't play the game if your characters are all dead.

[@odisleftpaw5663]

this is the one advice I give to every new player, I started playing the game back in 1.3 and after pulling for fu xuan I didn't pull for another 5* sustain until last patch and I didn't even pull lingsha for sustain I just find her pseudo-erudition gameplay extremely fun

[@rhinoplug5491]

I started in 2.5, got feixiao and it's been amazing, you clear maps eeeeeasily. Team comp does NOT matter hardly at all in the story. March 7 you can skip all of penacony to get to so she is NOT that far. Bronya/asta are great subs for robin. Galligher with nectar blitz is great for healing and gives some attacks. Feixiao is amazing for new accounts.

[@jilvermazariegos]

Iyo is the one out of touch 😭

[@RygarFang1599]

I think he probably didn't think about story mode much, but try to find an all a rounder character that would help at the beginning to end game.

[@Plsmfndow0596vm]

that's the definition of power creep buddy, if you pulled older DPS at that time, you might be struggling to clear endgame even the story (if you on the highest world level)

[@pally3370]

Asta? Sure. Bronya? Not every new account is going to be lucky enough to get bronya off the starter pull immediately, not everyone likes rerolling accounts. Gallagher isn't on every banner, and isn't a "free" unit for new players. Also, there are players (I have friends who started at the start of penacony) that don't like skipping any content whatsoever, they want to go through it slowly and experience the story. I'm glad you found success with Feixiao, but that isn't the point of this video. We shouldn't be recommending any DPS for a new player unless they're just straight up drawn to them. If a new player likes Feixiao's design, Acheron's design, Firefly, DHIL, Jingliu, fuck it- let em and tell them the best team setups for that character so they can build them up. For a new player that is truly unbiased and doesn't care, we should tell them to get supports. A good sustain, a good harmony/nihility. Your jiaoqiu, your robin, sunday, sparkle, ruan mei, linghsa, aven, and fu xuans of the world. This allows them to go from those units to building their own team setups without blindly following meta. It would build smarter and more impartial players.

[@Azulon18]

After this video I'm starting to consider quitting HSR. As long as I find a channel that posts the history quests, I'll be fine. The way enemy designs are done has been bugging me for a time now. It's not a powercreep itself, but increases drastically the osbsolency of older characters. It happens and will always happen - it's a gacha after all, but mittigation in the difference of power is out of the window by now. In 3.0 almost every character from 2.0 will be gradually useless. This way of making money end up jeopardizes the experience and gameplay a lot.

[@yubangaw]

You should just quit gacha games entirely

[@TheRoleplayer40k]

@@yubangawno genshin still lets old characters be very useful

[@shironasama0445]

@@Azulon18 I quit HSR months ago, you will feel much better when you do. I realized it wasn’t fun anymore. The powercreep sucks, the story has terrible dialogue bloat, the “gameplay” is a straight up chore every week. At least I can screw around in Genshin’s overworld and have a blast killing hillichurls if I’m bored.

[@Azulon18]

[update] I actually stopped playing a couple weeks ago. I exorcized the Devil with Beelzebub, as they say. HSR pushes you to spend in a really fun killing way. You feel like missing out every patch If you don't pull for certain "meta defining" characters. You dont have to pull for every single one of them, but new enemies are added every update in such way that makes older characters feeling bad and unsatisfying to play. You can clear content with gen1 characters, but why would you? The effort taken to do it is not worth. You only play gen1 characters If you really like them or really wants to [just because for fun]. In Genshin the difference in performance is mittigated a lot in comparison with HSR. There is still a difference in power between older and newer characters, but not so clear like in HSR. In Genshin most characters feel like newer brighter sidegrade versions of older characters. My frustration is not with the gacha system, althought I find It extremelly dangerous, both financially and psychologically. Stay away from them and try not to don't indulge games that wanna make proffit by taking away your fun and enjoyment to sell It back to you later.

[@gunfights-]

As someone who IS a new player and full f2p I think I can give some insight on what the new player experience is actually like. I obviously don't know better but I do disagree with a lot in this video. 1. March hunt and HMC are not hard to get. I got them before I even accumulated enough free star rail passes to pity the beginner banner and get the first 5 star. In practice you will use the fire MC more, but you only have to level them and not do traces or their lightcone. 2. March hunt is actually your main carry because she can change her type to the weakness as long as you have 1 matching team member (they can be underleveled or a healer but it still works). They will carry you through everything. The free characters are all you need, the trick is figuring out how to get away with investing as few as possible. You don't need to pull anything to clear the story or SU. In terms of the free roster the most flawed role is the healers because they are all ST, so if you are bad at JRPGs and need help clearing the story just invest a limited healer and let march carry. 2. With the pull economy you will never afford an eidolon or a lightcone within your first few months of playing unless you are lucky. I think if you discount the endgame modes and aren't 100%ing all of the exploration or minigames bullshit and are just mainly questing and doing dailies it will be a while before you even get enough to full double pity 2 limited characters and the game makes you field 2 teams so you just need characters first. 3. If you're smart you want to invest horizontally and vertically at the same time by pulling units that are both good standalone/have future value and synergistic with eachother. The game is too stingy to be either full horizontal or full vertical unless you are a spender. If you are pulling a unit just because you like them you should commit to them. I would say in this game you probably can't pull reruns as a beginner unless they are good at e0s0, pretty future proof, and you could slot them into any team and have them pull weight without any synergies (or the synergies are running with them or very soon). Basically they have to be broken or your favorite character or good with your favorite character. Any exception will brick your account at lightspeed. 4. The most important thing to know in HSR is how the gacha works and how the leveling system works. As long as you level your characters to the cap you will never struggle with story. As long as you know this game has 90 hard pity and 50/50 you will understand just how important your resources are and how to invest them. 5. EDIT: ONE LAST THING. The 4 star rates in this game are the worst in any gacha I seen. Usually 4 stars is 25% but in HSR its 5% (10% guaranteed, but half the time it is lightcone). You can't bet on getting them unless your time frame is considering over a year.

[@fomindanyl6068]

About the gacha system, especially weapon baner, the hard pity is 80 pulls and 75/25 to win.

[@OmegaShanic]

Extremely valuable points. 1) Figured Hunt March is way better than most see. 2) emphasizes the biggest advice anyone should get: get two limited 5* sustain first, they change your account. Do not worry about who they are or what they support, they are priority #1. That hasn't changed since I started with Fu Xuan. 3) Bingo. This is also because relic grinding is pure awful. You have to pull right and build right. 4) Yes. Pure Fiction is also much harder because of your limited resources not being able to go toward Herta\Himeko, if you even have Himeko. I've seen new players bash their head in against this, for good reason: free Lynx is a godsend. 5) 4*s luck is worse than you think, because Natasha\Hook\Arlan\Dan Heng are all still there as options - bad light cones too - so you can also get undeniable garbage. This also got worse over time, as more 4*s were added (with most characters being niche and all light cones being niche), and older 4*s fell off. Just to add: your Herta light cones matter significantly because of what you have. S5 Fall of Aeon carried me, but it won't carry others as there are less obvious Destruction hard carries now - new accounts should almost definitely prioritize S5 Cruising with March. The endgame 4* cone shop is basically useless to an established account - they are the Erudition light cone or "just something" light cone for new accounts. I love Gallagher, but he really requires Eidolons to match limited sustains. Finally, you have to prioritize banners that build your good and established 4* characters, as many as you can. It matters as much or more than the limited character for many, and that will be true about 4* light cones as well once more resources are available and the account progresses. Best of luck, by the way, since I know how much luck has mattered for me. :)

[@defensefox]

Hunt March is absolutely busted for new players. These veteran content creators need to be pushing for new players to start the War Dance (not necessarily complete it if they want to do the story in proper release order) just so they can unlock Hunt March 7th and her event. I started the game during free Ratio era, and I started a new account recently to pick up units I don't wanna blow resources for on my main account, and March 7th feels way better than Ratio did as a new account lol

[@MellowGirl2000]

I got several e6 4 stars because I lost all my 50/50s but Misha and Asta carried me early. I got e6 Pela while pulling for Aventurine and I can’t wait to build her

[@shironasama0445]

You’re never going to catch up as F2P. I started in 1.0 and quit just last May. It’s impossible.

[@Raldphium]

You can ult with Pela and lose the gamble during the second phase if you roll between 4-8 while Aventurine has a 9 purely due to RNG. How is that good game design?

[@randomguy9002]

@@Raldphium that would be extreme bad luck lol On avarege you get 12

[@Raldphium]

@@randomguy9002 Yes. That's my point. You lose the gambit due to bad luck, not because of skill, as a game design.

[@randomguy9002]

@Raldphium but that literally the point of his ability Your skill here is to know how to deal with it with less luck There a difference if you know when to prepare the ultimate for pela and between praying with her skill only to get 6

[@Raldphium]

@@randomguy9002 You're not making any sense. Can you please explain to me how you're supposed to prevent an AOE from rolling a roll on each dice?

[@randomguy9002]

@Raldphium i cant prevent getting absolute bad luck Not everytime you will get the worst result

[@Grayewicked]

Regarding Feixiao: I think I would agree to this, but I would extend the whole argument to the entire FuA team. Since there's actually value in pulling in LC banners in HSR, it's definitely one of, if not the most expensive team to get into, both in terms of resources and time. With Super Break, the minimum you really need for it is Ruan Mei, and either Firefly, Boothill, or Rappa, and you're set, and everyone else are just nice to haves. For DoT, as "bad" as it is, you only really need Black Swan and Kafka, and you're done. For your standard Hypercarry, you only really need Huohuo, and decide whether to get Sparkle as a nice to have or you can just settle with Bronya. With FuA, you'd have to have Robin, Aventurine, AND Topaz as a BASE, and you can really feel the effects of not having one of them. Sure, anyone could argue that at least Robin and Aventurine are ubiquitous, but then again, at a new player's perspective, by the time you have already waited long enough for their reruns, newer units have already been released, and even other team archetypes that require less Limited 5-Star units to be built comfortably. That's still one more Limited 5-Star to get first before even deciding which Limited 5-Star FuA DPS to get, if ever Feixiao gets a FuA competition. Regarding end game content: I do not blame anyone for focusing on this as when giving advice to new players, since you can pretty much clear the story with any comp or unit, and at the end of the day, when everything else is all said and done, what's gonna be left to do is build your units to what end? Exactly. MoC, PF, AS, SU/DU. And I've said it once, will keep saying it again: Not because people can have preferences, doesn't mean they should play irresponsibly. Everything they do in gacha games have direct consequences to their accounts and will quite literally affect their level of enjoyment, as much or as little as they would like to admit. Regarding boss designs and unit powercreep: HP bloat and stall mechanics (like Aventurine's and Scaramouche's) in ANY game are garbage designs that do nothing but to inject this false sense of difficulty, without actually making the boss difficult. And sure, you can give them the benefit of the doubt that "there's only so much you can do in turn based games", I would still disagree, considering how Hoyoverse actually were able to make four different end game modes. No matter what happens, Hoyoverse needs to sell these units and newer content has to cater to them to give them added sense of value. That's just the unfortunate truth. It might suck for the older players considering buyer's remorse and all that when it comes to invested resources, but it's also not terrible for new players because they can just keep getting the new, "better" stuff. Regarding Seele: I disagree. The argument in defense of Seele can quite literally apply to any unit, limited or not, in the game. I'm not gonna give her points for doing what she's SUPPOSED and EXPECTED to do. Let's not hype up a fish for being able to swim, now. Regarding HMC: Can't you get him as early as you finish the Cocolia boss fight now? Super Break is not locked behind HMC's eidolons, it's such a non-issue to complain about. Doubling down against Aventurine: There's difficult, and there's inconvenient. The point of a "gamble" is that you have no agency over what's going to happen, that's why the entire spiel about "learning to fight the gamble" is absolutely useless.

[@sdr24]

I'm a free-to-play, and I left the game for a long enough period of time before coming back, I might as well be a newer player. And I managed to pull Fei Xiao and Lingsha in a row, and already had a Robin sitting in my account from before. Throw in Pela or Asta in there, and I've supposedly got a decent team (I don't have any 5 star supports in my account). But, I'm leveling up Fei Xiao and - guess what - her ascension materials are content-locked. I haven't played enough of the story to unlock them. So I can't really do much more with my Fei Xiao than mess around with her at this point on weak world map enemies. So I wound up having to rely on my Mono-Quantum team with Fu Xuan and Seele and Silverwolf to farm content and brute-force through some of the content I simply don't have anything else built for (it seriously struggles with multiple enemies, but what you gonna do?). I've also been struggling to make Welt and Himeko teams work to clear certain content. Now I'm trying to make Harmony MC work with Himeko and... it's a struggle so far. I think I get the concept of superbreak. Problem is - how do you get the enemies broken in the first place? The game doesn't really tell me in an obvious way, and I wind up having to do all this Internet research. Meanwhile, I'm doing an awful lot of farming spread out over multiple characters. First it was my mono-quantum team farming. Then I had to farm for key Harmony supports. Then I had to farm Serval for the Adventurine boss. Then I farmed Robin and Fei Xiao until I discovered I couldn't. Then Lingsha. Then Welt, then Himeko, then Harmony MC.... So I've done a lot of farming and I still don't have a really finished team to show for it - except my mono-quantum team - which doesn't really meet a lot of the progression content requirements. And I still can't even get Fei Xiao's ascension materials. It's fine, I'll get there eventually. But point is - you're completely right that saying "dude, just get Fei Xiao" is not a new player solution at all. Oh, and by the way. The Adventurine boss kicked my ass. Then I did some research - came back at it with March 7th, Serval, and Lingsha - and it totally wasn't a problem. The boss took a while to down - but totally wasn't hard with that team.

[@Sheep.]

I love Aventurine's boss design. When I fought him, I was losing but I was slowly figuring him out. I literally kept thinking in my head that he was such a cool boss. And when I finally beat him, it was so gratifying. I literally think he's top 3 boss designs in HSR.

[@Mh_ix]

I was rly concerned early game about e0s0 power level because if the unit is underperforming at e0s1 then s0 is just below the ground which is sad how many units lack free option when it come to dps characters especially considering how each path want certain things at the same time + like sure power creep units one after the next but man why do you got to inflate hp bars like no tomorrow to the point a dps can’t catch up after few patches of their release? It’s insane .

[@almondxd6110]

1. New players should pull characters for their teams and not just for META(They really can't​ catch up for META at the time)​. They need at least 6 mouths to make 2 teams for each endgame contents (It could took longer than me to get to this point IDK) 2. Many people complaint about HP inflation of the endgame contents​ so do i. They do this to make money but I think this should​n't go any further than this. Otherwise this could servarely damage HSR communities. Currently Bosses (even elite on later rotation)​ had reached 1 million HP (per phase)​ in MOC and i hope this won't turn into 10 million bosses or above. Old DPS feel unuseable to use at this point without eidolons and even that they still stuggle to beat MOC. 2.x DPS characters will be next if HP inflation is keep getting further and further. 3. Last thing is, To counter powercreep as much​ as possible is Vertical i​nvestment on your favourite teams​ while planing new future teams. This is my strategy to beat most endgame​ contents​ and I have fun a lot even​ though i don't pull META DPS characters​ at all

[@latenight4722]

iyo really taught me how to choose characters, vertical investment, how to play certain characters, he explains how a character works in such a detail that u understand it at basic level which most new players need. if i did not start watching his videos i might have vested lot of my jades.

[@Delkagu]

On gangalon and haters still hate

[@itsmantras]

Dude fr, he doesnt get his credit at all when it comes to his takes. He literally is the only CC ive seen that put heavy emphasis on pulling for team comps, pulling for potential future metas, pulling for accessibility, etc. Its so annoying seeing ppl call him bad take Iyo or dumb stuff like that.

[@EtherealRune]

Until he negative edges over himself and kara-cancels all his takes.

[@Kinger_of_the_circus]

By the time you get that team to back up that character everyone said was so good That character gets powercept 😂

[@indyvidual3917]

I still think many are missing the main elephant in the room and fail to make clear to new players. The FIRST thing you need to decide is whether you’re going to spend in this game or be F2P. It’s a completely different experience one way or the other. I’m talking you just downloaded the game and are looking up YT videos new. 1st gacha game? First thing is to understand wtf that even is and how they work. Banners, pull currency, gear/relics etc. Wuthering Waves was my first gacha and I remember being so lost when ppl would say “oh, system x is like y in Genshin”. Never touched Genshin, so ended up having to learn a bunch of Genshin crap just to understand what everyone was talking about because players use terms across games interchangeably. Next thing to understand is that Gachas are all about the characters and making teams. You got 4 stars, standard 5 stars and limited 5*. That last category is the “catch”. Those are the cool & stronger than 4* & standard characters that are only available for limited time (hence the name). Once you understand that, you reach next decision point: are you going to randomly start spending or do you need to play more to know? If you’re unsure on spending on wtv banner is up off rip, then you just play story. Like actually, forget about “meta endgame”, you’re 1.5-2 months away from solidly attempting that anyways. Focus on leveling and story. (Side tangent: no one ever says this but unlike normal games most leveling in gacha is with mats, not just xp.. I spent way too long under-leveled because I didn’t know lol). At the end of each major story chapter, re-evaluate. The more you play, the more you’ll understand, the better decision you’ll make for your goals and your account. Do not blindly follow what anyone says. If you can’t come to the same conclusion as that advice independently, you don’t know enough to make that decision yet. Always always always make decisions on your account progression and what characters you have so far. This is a team building game, and there are different archetypes that play differently. Skip/Must pull conversations are 99% of the time from veteran POV. Listen but make your own judgment based on what you have and where you want to go. Ppl were saying skip Jiaoqui because Pela got the job done fine. I didn’t have Pela and I knew I wanted to build an Acheron team. So I ignored all that and picked up every piece I needed along the way. All this to say, if you’re a new player reading this you’re already halfway there. If you’re a vet, when giving advice just make sure they know the fundamentals of gacha and what they want out of the game before giving hot oversimplified takes. /EndRant

[@tejrof3910]

i would not recommend my worst enemy to get seele at this time for a new player

[@Seth-de5bs]

I’ve heard someone say how Jingliu’s Kit is so perfect that it actually is a hindrance to her because her kit is so perfect and because it has no flaws it means she will never be able to receive that huge dedicated support to make her stronger meaning she will always be where she says and never move up, but by that logic that means recommending Jingliu to a new player as their first Dps is the best case scenario

[@shwix6534]

That crazy support for her already exists in bronya, she s perfect for her. The only way to make a stronger support is to give bigger multipliers to a premium support

[@dakotacampbell1097]

Great video, man! Thanks for helping me realize I have tools to clear endgame content and that zero-cycling is simply a flex. Had serious FOMO and almost pulled Acheron, but this and the last video helped me understand a LOT! Appreciate a creator that can teach you how to play and not just what to play 🔥

[@Zorander.]

I am really unhappy about the huge HP and DEF increase of the Bosses. I do not like it when the game is using boring methods like that to drag the fight out and make it un necessary long fights. Boss HP and Boss DEF is way to high now!

[@dante19890]

For new players best advice is. Forget about endgame until u rdy. Build ur key 4 star characters and save ur jades and do the low floor stuff. When ur rdy you pull for the latest meta teams, easy win.

[@natudayross4704]

Now I want Jing Yuan to T1 or T0.5 just to troll Iyo 😂😂😂

[@DBZnChill]

I am a new F2P player, started when Feixiao came out. Missed Robin because I didn’t have enough jade and now all I hear is she isn’t that good without Robin. Thanks for explaining the struggles of us new players 🙏

[@luisjose3076]

I completely agree with that to the point that 90% of new players dont even know that the option to turn on action value exist, I still dont understand why thats a feature instead of default and I am sure that most people dont even explain that to new players

[@sunnyblack3359]

16:16 Yeah but the reason *why* people don't want to fight Aventurine is because you don't actually *fight him* you fight the dices 90% of the time which is fine, i actually think it's a cool design if it weren't for the fact that the game put you in a setting where you have to kill everything as fast as possible. When the marker for sucess is clear time, it just feels like you are spending most of your time fighting against an enemy who essentially stalls your ability to beat his ass, and i emphasis on *beating* , not *defeating* him. What i mean by that is that hitting the dices doesn't feel like you are effectively doing something to him, add to that an rng mechanic forcing you to play a certain way and you get a receipe for free frustration from the playerbase.

[@arcangel6384]

the problem with aventurine is not his mechanics, its the fact that his HP is too high not everyone has the luck to get the relics that we need to output the damage with the mechanics. and when we have even the best characters if they are not outputting the damage they need to do a 5 round clear turns into a much higher clear and we either have to have one side carry or settle with 2 stars.

[@whatisthis252]

I agree that so much of the community isn't considering the *actual* perspective of a new player. They look at the game from an endgame perspective and not the journey from Equilibrium 0 to 6. Those are two COMPLETELY different experiences. When someone asks, "Who do I pull if I want to get through the main game easily?" the typical response is meta characters-which are the meta for the endgame like MoC etc., generally take into heavy account their meta teams, and not for the rest of the game. The big problem is if the difficulty ramp ever gets so much that it gates old units from not-endgame content. (there is definitely a ramp up in enemy numbers as when they obviously-linearly scale later game enemies like the TVs and dogs down to lower Equilibriums they are waaaaaaaayy tankier and more damaging than they have any right to be. There is obviously 0 effort put into considering the balance of how characters scale in power exponentially as they ascend such as how they gain access to more traces, more LC choices, more character choices, better team comps, possibly more eidolons, better relics, better planars, easier access to the materials to level all those things with, etc.). The conversation *is* too focused on endgame balance and that distorts the question *casuals* actually have when they hear characters "falling off" and HP Inflation: will they be able to play up to version 5.0 or whatever story/side quests/overworld elites with only their favorite characters. And the thing that *really* muddies that water is: Seele reran only once and that was in 1.4. Silver Wolf reran only once in 1.5. Blade reran only once in 1.6. What is going on with Seele and Silver Wolf? (Seele and Silver Wolf are surprisingly even in terms of their absence: Silver Wolf just released exactly 1 patch after (both were phase 1 banners) and both reran exactly 9 phases after their debut.) While I think suggesting Seele to clear story content was a good idea to clear up the difference between late game and endgame: how? If you've been playing since 1.4; you're not a new player anymore. It's probably a good suggestion to use the Seele they already have from 1.0 or 1.4 if someone just sucks at playing the game or took a long break: but that is a super niche recommendation. Not an unusable one, just not applicable to newer players asking for non-endgame help. Imagine joining the game because you really liked Seele's design and want to use her only to hear people *constantly* talk about how her endgame sucks (with no reference point for how she plays in not-endgame content), but it doesn't matter anyways because it's been *over a year* since her only rerun. Can only imagine that's demoralizing as hell. (Jingliu and Blade's waits for their second rerun aren't *so* bad yet. The longer waits for second reruns are 7 patches (Jing Yuan and Luocha... but those 2 also had 7 patches for their first rerun too...) and Jingliu's had 6 since (2.1) and Blade's at 8 right now (1.6, so he additionally gets the dubious honor of not existing in 2.x). No idea what they're cooking with Ratio (8 since debut in 1.6, he also gets the honor of not existing in 2.x) as a majority of first reruns are 4 patches although Huohuo's was 6, and Acheron/Argenti/Adventurine/Topaz was 5 (Boothill is currently at 5). Robin had the lowest of 3 patches what the fuck Robin. Seele's and SW's second rerun are on 10 and 9 at the moment. Also somehow only just realized they've been doing Quantum dirty from day 1 since there's no Standard banner Quantum but there are 2 cryos. But then again the only easy shuffle they could've done is switch Seele with Gepard (since Seele is the only limited 5☆ Belebog character. Though imagine if Yanqing had limited-5☆ multipliers or something.))

[@defensefox]

4:00 you don't need to do all the story for Hunt M7. You can story skip to the War Dance arc after you beat Cocolia. :)

[@Khronny]

Man, as someone who started playing the game this patch, I hear you about the new player experience. Ok, I'm the kinda of player who takes a game at least at midcore level, so endgame is something I have in mind, but what most content creators don't understand, is that as a new player, you need to want to play the game until you get there. HSR has banners every 3 weeks or so, so telling the new player to wait to the shiny new meta guy is awful. I doesn't help that the shine new meta guy is a support. I think I saw enough videos and played enough to understand that supports mostly defines the meta, but saying to a new guy that he has to wait for Sunday to use with his top tier Luka is just awful. How long until the new meta to have a half decent team? Then how long to get the second new team? If I didn't have something to get by until I will be able to afford the shiny new meta, I wouldn't be playing the game anymore. Thankfully, for me that something came in the name of Acheron and Aventurine. I won't be top tier for a while, but hey, If I waited for Sunday I still wouldn't be top tier in a while, just more miserable.

[@Satyr42]

I'd recommend getting Aventurine. His shielding is top tier and one of his best F2P lightcones can be earned in the endgame modes. He will make your early game a lot easier.

[@WestProZ17]

I used to hate Pure Fiction but now I look forward to it ever since I got Yunli. She's lowkey the best universal DPS in the game.

[@boiledliddo]

nice to see another Yunli enjoyer. She's strong.

[@WestProZ17]

@boiledliddo very strong. While I have E0S1, people always glaze and talk about the "Big 3" being Acheron Feixiao amd FF. The reality is at E0 S0 she's arugably better than 2/3 of them.

[@boiledliddo]

@@WestProZ17 mine is E0 with signature light cone. Managed to get her to 80+ crit rate and 150+ crit damage after 2 or 3 weeks of farming. It was worth the effort, with Robin support, she helps mow down a lot of things in MOC. funnily enough. Yunli is also good at trashing the Sunday boss at Echoes of War. I used her to farm items from that boss. While it's true that she does not break the boss in the first and second phase, she does massive damage to it, so the third phase comes soon where the boss is weak to all and can be broken by her.

[@boiledliddo]

@@WestProZ17 I hope to get at least one eidolon for Yunli on her re-run.

[@WestProZ17]

@@boiledliddo great build I have less CD around 147 but I managed to hit 90% CR. Stronger counter DPS will come out eventually but I think because she scales with enemy speed, as long as well keep getting MoC enemies who hit us repeatedly/super fast like Hooley she'll age really really well. Better than every other Destruction DPS probably bar FF.

[@Reialine]

Most gacha games btw do psychological research on the situation and experiences the player go throught, the powercreep is indeed a fact, players over time will get stronger the more they play the game, they will either chase to collect characters or if they feel like not related (perhaps like they will not like the 3.X characters and play older characters), once they stop collecting characters and feel weak they will vertical invest their existing or finish their rosters strenght like getting weapons/LCs or eidolons as soon as an oportunity rises. This is good design since it keeps the players engaged and not getting bored of enemies growing weaker and weaker as you get stronger. But new players will not have this time commitment as the older players and if it constantly grow players are left behind, so the gacha developers know that in order to get newer players engaged they go by the most common cause of joining late... they got enticed by a promoted character and liked its gameplay, therefore for the new player they need to feel like their new choice feels strong and capable of beating the game, hence newer characters need to get stronger, and still leave verticality if they are not interested in the other characters (not grown familiar with the story or the advertising) and can vertically invest if they do not have interest in getting new characters/teams.

[@Seth-de5bs]

A Counter boss would be amazing, like where if you hit them a certain amount of times they built up charge and launch a attack back at you that hurts a lot so that way it emphasizes taking caution in your turns

[@lenwok3222]

future fua counter mechanic design right there

[@HisPersonalSentry]

Yunli and Clara: *Finally, a worthy opponent. Our battle will be legendary*

[@ToukaVT]

On the topic on if Aventurine is a good boss design, I run an account on the side for fun that does not pull any characters from the warp system. That account has cleared his boss fight with 0 issues by understanding how the boss plays and playing a team around his mechanic. The boss design is great and it is fair for the player in what they are expecting.

[@thepeanutter9972]

I just caught up on the story after starting a month ago. It's really not difficult at all because even if I'm stuck on a boss I can turn it down to casual mode. The free March 7th Hunt was definitely the game changer when it comes to progression.

[@anibotic]

My recommendation to a new player wud be to focus on a 3-man team - Sus, Amp, DD... the 4th can be element check or any other DD/Amp. They shud be taught the mechanics & let them experiment rather than just follow the norm(meta shud be a late game focus). Also, in terms of grt kit units I find Jingliu & Yunli very gud since they are in a sense a complete unit. Of course, the dmg multipliers & dedicated teams matter but from a gameplay perspective, both are grt. Moreover, the game's banking too much on HP inflation to increase difficulty rather than providing grt mechanics or limitations to let us try different stuff. (I was shocked to see the HP inflation that was done in V5 - tnx to leakers who have completely destroyed my desire to pull sunday/fugue).

[@k.h6635]

For anyone new player out there to cope harder end game, first rules get your support and sustain first, and ALWAYS...i mean always max out invest your talent and traces.

[@MisterHeadphones73]

Most rewarding boss fights are the one where you work with the enemy mechanics. Love Aventurine and Echo of War Sunday fights! Hoolay is still tough for me cause I haven't mastered his mechanics yet Edit: New players -> Focus on support/sustain limited firsts that enable the playstyle you like (Break, Follow Up, etc). They're gonna be your foundations. The dps you can always swap out

[@Jayjs20]

I don't like this mentality. This idea that you, as a new player, should have access to the best teams in the game immediately, or at least early on, is nonsensical. Use who you have and pull for character you like or think will be useful. Use Asta, use Pela, use Bronya if you get her, then just wait to see if a supporter comes along that can compliment your roster. That's how these games are played. New players don't get access to the best characters and best teams immediately. New players should not be able to clear the hardest content in the game early on.

[@bigdragaobebe]

O didnt started now, i played a lot in 1.0 and then comeback in 2.5 i was lost and powercreeped for real, my bailu, silver wolf qince couldnt carry me to finish ruan meis quests, because i would die again and again for the final boss. Now, i got robin, i got, aventurine, and im starting to feel comfortable with the game again, but im hunger for a good dps, but i think i did the right choice, robin transforme my damage output, aventurine gave me so much confort now i can get a good dps to shije with then, i think i did it this way because im used to genshin, and in genshin you dont go anywhere if you dont have good sub dps and application.

[@loreyxillumina]

7:43 DHIL and Xueyi carried me through the game.

[@Marz776]

The video turned into the Final fantasy X superboss design all of a sudden

[@Iyoverse]

I wanna replay FFX again, but leave on the final boss & forgot about it. Again. Lol

[@stellacipriani7953]

Only thing i had for feixiao was robin e0 at the beginning and thats all you really need for her, yeah topaz would more than ideal for her too and you should defo pull her for your feixiao, but for now im 0 cycling moc w march and feixiao and thats huge to me bc I was not be able to do it w any other dps in my acc, and now I managed to get e1 robin and aventurine, just need topaz to complete the team but what I wanna say is that I played feixiao w e0 s0 robin and without topaz and aventurine and she still was good, I feel like as long as you have robin your feixiao is safe. Ofc im not saying topaz is not important or that you should not pull her, im just saying that to clear comfortably from what I experienced she just needs robin and then you try to het her other supports. She does not feel unplayble without half of the teams missing, unlike other dps. At the end of the day: just.get.robin.

[@animusdemifiend2307]

In just 6 months, mind you, HP of enemies has increased by 800%. A E6SU5 blade now needs 4 turns instead of one to one tap MoC.

[@skycat196]

I always tell new players to focus on getting and building a strong sustain and a harmony unit. DPSs come and go, but your support units having staying power and can work with any DPS. It may not be the best team for that DPS, but if you are starting out who cares, you just need to be able to clear content so your account can grow.

[@K1ra_245]

I think what a new player should do is only pull sustains and harmony units,the f2p dps or standard units(theres an upcoming standard selector) should carry them until penacony,then they should try to pull for a good DPS. If you get a DPS too early into the game you're cooked. Speaking from experience because by the time i got into endgame the "good" characters i got became trash so i had to build my account from the ground up and rn i might have to do it again because i got acheron too late and she's basically doing no damage even at e0s1

[@gabrielhagetv]

You’re blowing things out of proportion. I cleared all the game content using Luocha, Acheron, Kafka, and Black Swan on auto. Star Rail, like all Mihoyo games, is designed to be accessible, even for younger audiences. Yet, you treat it as if it’s the most challenging and complex game ever, which simply isn’t the case.

[@mitsurukia]

I absolutely get what you say, but really, as a new Player I got Firefly E2 in a lucky pull and from there I just went with that; like I was lucky that Harmony Trailblazer was given to me so early bc I already had half a team with her and HTB and on one of the next banners I did a solo 10 pull and got Gallagher, so I was just very lucky with that but yes I did ask a lot of times for "who should I pull for" and they always said Acheron lmao and btw you get HTB already after Belebog, and yes Firefly helped me sooooo much but as I said, I get what you're saying, and thanks to your video I finally understood a bit better how to play Acheron, bc I didn't know all of that and only used her occasionally as Support from other players

[@foxwaffles]

I started at the end of 2.5 and yeah its weird. Seeing everyone say don't bother with reruns because by the time they rerun they're not good anymore. It's disheartening to see my favorite character in the entire game (DHIL) be regarded as fallen off. The game for me would be really boring and frustrating if it's only playable by meta chasing. I like the characters. So I've had to accept i won't ever be able to do endgame because I don't want to pull for a character I don't like.

[@Kicksrockskids]

What he meant by "Seele broken" is that, if you only see her kit regardless of the multiplier. She is almost complete. Though I would argue Feixiao is also broken. Break-capable ult, guaranteed follow up, have both low damage and nuke damage, good damage distribution. Aventurine boss is indeed the best one we've got. The only problem with it is, he's very sustain-heavy before the introduction of premium break units( and nuke dpses that came after). The only non-gacha sustain options we have relies on ult. Else, you waste time wasting sustainer turns to heal/shield allies one by one, all while the cycle counter is ticking.

[@maikcampbell]

I genuinely am not worried about DOT, they haven’t even reached a ceiling with DOT as we can clearly see from FUA and Superbreak archetype. Acheron was such departure from DOT playstyle it’s probably just a fakeout. Wouldn’t be surprised if in 2 years Elio is front running the new SuperDOT playstyle (not cope)

[@donnellhopkins8879]

All about building the team and putting the pieces together. To me a new player should probably get ready to build a summon type team that's coming up, and don't worry about moc. Imma get ready for that type of team myself with the next patch.

[@arcanacoltic971]

7:30 if that's true then level her traces damn 💀 cause she's so good right?

[@thearchivist250]

I really like your thoughtful opinions on HSR.

[@mysteryfirecat673]

My honest recommendation for new players is to get Lingsha. She gives you the sustain you need, does a lot of damage in Super Break Teams, cheap to build, has an amazing 4 ⭐ LC available for free, and has synergy with follow up teams, summon teams and break teams. She is too good.

[@Super-Godzilla99]

i started honkai star rail at the start of this year, and the yeah this is a meta char and this is bullshit, build the team you want the characters you like and don`t think about what is meta and what not. in gatcha games like genshin or honkai you stay playing game when you use the characters you like not the charactes that are meta. my main team is acheron, main character ( tank ), pela and natascha, I`am happy with my main team, the only character i would change would be pela for silverwolf if her banner comes one day. in such games today youtubers and streamers demand you get the meta characters but you shouldn`t care about meta characters, you only should care about the characters you like.

[@Nocturnehell]

Made it work with getting Feixiao. I started last week of Yunli's run. So, I listened to friends and my first pull was Sparkle. Felt like a misstep for a while, though it did help me get through story. I eventually landed on Feixiao E0, Moze E6, Robin E0, Aventurine E0 (Gepard LC). Team two I pulled Dhil E0 S1, Sparkle E0, Tingyun E0, and Gallagher E2. My Future plans are to get Sunday E0 (almost have 20k) and eventually get Aglaea embracing the coming summon meta. Skipping break and Acheron teams. Would rather look forward not backwards. My PF situation is absolute trash though, but hey maybe that free 5 star will get me Himeko. Thoughts?

[@TieflingUnshackled]

I think, and this is opinion, the idea of good boss design does need to incorporate how the boss makes people feel. A good boss in RPG's is about creating a hard but satisfying feelings like a lot of FF14 or WoW fights are good because they don't include as much rng and it's about how you handle it BUT Aventurine has too many moments where it's not about handling the mechanic. It's about "Oh he selected your only non AoE character to do the dice and that unit failed the roll 5 times....amazing" like just getting your shit kicked in because you don't have the units to make him a joke is frustrating. Blackhand heroic from Warlords of Draenor is one of the BEST bosses in the game because everything is mostly in the players hands and they just need to suck less Aventurine takes control and it feels bad.

[@nicholas549]

I agree on the bosses, i would like to see more bosses with particular mechanics that let you play also older characters or you need to do something particular, it's difficult to do, but i would like to see that (one of my favourite boss is something unto death for his mecs,...). On the new player i think i can give you my experience, i started playing on the second half of the 2.0 and i can say that at the start you don't really need to have a super good dps since you are not going to do damage with LV 50 characters and no relics. On the other hand i agree that we can't only say pull that or that, i remember asking who to pull and a lot of people said i should pull jingliu over acheron because she was more "free to play friendly" and there also where some people who recommended achron like iyo that made a video where he showed that achron was also "free to play friendly". What i would recommend to a new player is just pull who you like and then build the team around them if you're not too interested in the meta, on the other hand if you care about meta than i guess looking at tier list or asking others also works

[@latitude990]

Isn't HP inflation necessary tho? Just considering the natural progression of a gacha game. Slowly the overall account power for the average player goes up (more new chars fewer old/less powerful chars), so even if the enemies are well designed, they will be too easy to kill. So they need to implement both.

[@onryu]

Hmm, another hot take vid, who woulda thought, all content in HSR, ZZZ and Genshin can be cleared with F2p teams, getting premium characters and teams just makes the end game content easier

[@legacymse7095]

Cleared yes, but you're not getting all stars if you don't have eidolons, LC or the current meta team. That's only true for HSR and Genshin sometimes. ZZZ doesn't have this problem yet

[@DragonoftheDarknessFlame]

I said this about when everyone wanted to disrespect Argenti people should take PF seriously. Also so many CCs and players hard shitting on Rappa was actually insane it was Kokomi all over again

[@saverngild_o7]

I cleared the whole game with Acheron. I used Serval, Dan Heng, March 7th & Acheron. All applies debuffs until you get Pela + Guinaifen. I picked up Aventurine, Jiaoqiu, Robin & Topaz. I ended in Penacony and cleared 3-Stars all the way from Story to MoC 10. All while being F2P. It's going to be easier for newer players because they already know what the good characters are. Feixiao could probably do the same as well. Slap on March 7th, Asta & Herta/Himeko and you'll be set to go. Very F2P friendly teams!

[@solidsnail44]

Bro,the main game is so easy that if you keep upgrade your free unit,matching element weakness,you can even play in auto all the time(except few a boss).

[@shotgunshogun4707]

I think the reason why iyo is struggling to get his point across is that gacha players are so scared of the word "have to" when it comes to anything in these games whether it's pulling something or learning something. It's like taboo or something. Like, sure, no one wants to be forced into anything BUT...sometimes u need to do things a certain way to get the result u seek but gacha players can't accept that when in reality all video games are like that. in fighting games u can't just mash ur way against a well designed boss...u NEED to learn their mechanics AND ur character of choice otherwise the AI will stomp ur Js. As for the HP thing... I don't think it's an issue in a vacuum. Why? Cause all RPG video games do it. it's part of the progressive nature of RPG to have scaling. Even eldern ring has HP inflation. Why do u think the amount of dmg required to kill a new boss barely changes (as in how many hits) yet u keep progressing and getting more offensive stats and stronger weapons? It's cause the enemeis have more HP and resistance to ur dmg. It's also why despite getting more HP and defensive stats new bosses still take roughly the same anount of hits to kill you, the player. The issue stems if HP is all that goes up in the game's progression and not mechanisms but...HSR ALREADY adds mechanics to their bosses...just not in MOC. APOC and all the different S.U expansions have multiple variations of the new bosses with new moves and abilities...like the kafka dominate going on her allies (not present in MOC) or how aventurine has a completely different dice game...or how the monkey elite is completely different in G.G and don't just dunk on u (he still does tho), or how Yanqing has a completely different nuke ult than what his initial story and moc version have, or like how the 2 robot elites in G.G have a mechanic where u need to down both at around the same time or the initial downed elite will revive, and Coco has had 30 different variations since the initial boss in the story.The memory zone meme is a bit different too, argenti is similar to Coco as well. This isn't to say HP inflation isn't an issue but imo, boss design in HSR is perfectly fine for a turn based rpg...And turn based bosses have usually been about the spectacle and story compared to challenge except for the select few here n there (like Red). We'll see what 3.0 does to the game tho...hopefully a better direction overall.

[@Lu_Kadjolo]

Sorry but your HP inflation argument doesn't work here, yes other rpg like Elden Ring do it, BUT they are games where you have all the resources already in the game to beat it, you don't have to gamble for a weapon or a character that is time limited, that you will need to wait months if you don't get it first time and that's the problem why new players have a hard time getting into the game, because they are so far behind in characters, while in a game like Elden Ring, Persona or Final Fantasy, you can start playing now and have the same experience as you would if you started last year

[@butteredwaffles_7603]

I feel as if that many of the complexities of HSR isn't really needed for the average player, if your goal is to just full clear all our end game modes, but if your goal is to 0-cycle, then your more than likely watching videos about speed tuning and action value. More or less, the game is simple enough for some players, and complex enough for those who wish to really dive deep.

[@MagmaSpacer]

Any and all “complexities” are locked behind rng though. Having the right speed tuning along with crit stats is incredibly difficult. Not to mention dance dance dance. Action value math is all there is really unless I am wrong 😅

[@RePollster]

The problem with aventurine is that there are random elements involved. If it was all skill it would be fine.

[@BlackHeron116]

Thats why as a new player, I only pull for supports or sustains. Yes, im building 4star dps but when i know im already ok. Ill start building meta.

[@GodofGoblins]

Yeah I mean its one of those things where I dont see what else they can do in regards to making enemies more difficult. The beautiful thing about star rail is people can clear end game through a variety of strategies. People still clear with DOT and hyper carry even though they arent meta. But yes, this will require more knowledge of the game, building characters better, etc. If people want an easier time? Invest in the flavor of the month and turn on auto battle. If people want to suggest make enemies challenging in a different way than just stat inflation, ok...how? What, make them immune to CC? Make them highly resist literal elements? All that does is limit what you can play to beat the game, which is a complaint we see nowadays anyways. At least its still possible to beat the content with non meta characters. Hell, I still do it with freaking Clara and QQ, and I dont spend a dime. Max stars too. I think people need to realize, if you want to use older characters or non meta strategies (which changes since hyper carry will likely be meta again soon) then yeah. Gotta use that brain and play well and invest smart. Just my perspective

[@ar2r3cki]

It is disgusting how sometimes you can manipulate design to achive specyfic purpose. It is especialy apparent in a deterministic game like HSR where you can simply design a problem and then sell efficient solution to it. Points Fountain targets team comps that rely on burst damage from ultimates while All or Nothings targets characters that do not deal aoe damage. Between the two you can arrive at team comp that pass dps check and is particulary effective ,AND it just happens that core component of such team is on the banner. Even if it is not you can generate FOMO this way. It is noteworthy that auto battle mode can run in reverese and just like players adjust their lineup, developers can adjust "environment" hp, weaknesses, formations, debuffs, trigggers etc. to do thy bidding (EVP mode lol). You may think that you are smart but you just arrived at prearrenged range of solutions. Devs are always step ahead. This is truely brain in a vat type of game that play you, not the other way around. Manipulating numbers, creating demand and connecting it to gacha is partiiculary evil/brilliant, depending on the point of view.

[@Level_1_Frog]

I managed to convince a friend to play the game, told them to snag Aventurine, helped them build Acheron and a team for her, and they're having a great time. They've dipped their toes in end game modes but not clearing max level yet. But, thats okay! They're having fun, they're clearing the story, they're having fun experimenting in Sim/Div U- I feel like people complaining about tough bosses being tough bosses just want to complain. So what if you miss like 80 jades? If you cant have fun unless you can clear every bit of content every time, that's kind of sad.

[@CHeroVT]

I think that every character, including Acheron and Feixiao, will eventually get powercrept. Not to mention that the dev can always nerf or buff any existing characters at anytime they want to.

[@LadyGisell]

I agree with the philosofy of not making bullet-sponges but rather making cool fights like Aventurine, but what you are questioning is programmed/planned obsolence wich i dont think is totally wrong/immoral. thought evoking video but a little ranty

[@donnellhopkins8879]

Adventurine boss fight is good because like you said that dice shit. You have to hit the dice at certain points and not focus on him. Plus the numbers on the dice. Ppl saying his bad are tripping. He actually makes you think

[@MK-hi4jy]

When feixiao was on banner, they had the finality's vision feature to let anyone get March 7, right?

[@kiwee4577]

I think the main takeaway is new players are lacking so much knowledge of the game early on that they are unable to fully understand and utilize the meta characters, especially DPS. Especially in gacha games where each character kit is relatively sophisticated and often catered towards certain playstyles and team comps

[@Kasraken]

But feelings count! Wallets are connected to feelings!

[@devinayaz9210]

the issue i have with boss designs in this game is that theres a severe disconnect in difficulty. Spoiler: "Shadow wolf" for anon sake. Was too easy cause the mechanic was obvious and really just felt boring. But with adventurine, I had to actually consider the choices I made, think about if I should sacrifice bronya and E someone to get the turn for the dice hit, or maybe E a sustain for the hit thats about to come since I couldnt get another character to aoe the dice. TLDR. ADVENTURINE MADE ME USE MY BRAIN THANK GOD. But now that I see shit like sunday coming out and im now gonna have access to bronya and sunday and sparkle...dude this isnt gonna be thinking anymore. This is blade's dream on cocaine.

[@vault29a]

Counterpoint: They nerfed the game's difficulty to the ground and removed TB lvl requirements as well. Story bosses have a "casual mode" toggle now. You can finish the whole story content at equilibrium lvl 1 or 2 if you want, using any random characters in the team.

[@Iyoverse]

@@vault29a Oh that’s actually kinda disgusting. No wonder players have little idea how to fight these end games. Why would Hoyo do that???

[@vault29a]

@@Iyoverse as I've seen on Reddit "some people play just for the story" so some people don't want to log in daily, know about artifact sub stats, the simulated universe, they want to pull cute waifus/mommies. also is easier for streamers to play it since they don't have to grind before each video/stream.

[@sendiafirza]

@@Iyoverse that's not disgusting, that's pretty good improvement, if the new player doesn't have any break DPS so you wanna force them to pull Break DPS for penacony enemies ?? i remember fighting aventurine boss for the first time, that's really difficult for me but I managed to clear it anyway, because I have jingliu, what if i don't have jingliu at that time ? ? yeah, constant struggle just for the story

[@kemystery8896]

Ironically Jingliu is a good starter, but the trade off is how peak power is below current standard.

[@tianyouzhang4301]

Superbreak is the easiest team to build, HMC is free, Himeko can be picked on the standard banner. Lynx is free and fine to use until you get gallagher, (who is a 4*) and the only one that needs to be pulled is the support RM or Fugue. the other top team FUA requires a premium dps to work well, as well as a premium support and sustain. Also the free 4* is much further along into the game compared to HMC.

[@dante19890]

well HMC is not really free anymore if you wanna play rememberence MC in 3.x

[@tianyouzhang4301]

@@dante19890 yes it is, the only caveat is that you wouldn't be able to use both forms of mc in the endgame modes. But that's not really an issue until remembrance path becomes developed a bit further and actually has a proper team.

[@tangman9890]

Can confirm, I started on Seele re-run, she helped me all the way up!

[@Iyoverse]

Seele on top! :D

[@jaimecastro3194]

@@Iyoverse I'm under. Ok i see myself out sry.

[@azureknight729]

@@Iyoverseoh she’s definitely on top 😉

[@dante19890]

waste of jades

[@Carnaj90]

If a boss is great from a "game design" perspective, but no one wants to fight that boss, and I mean no one or the vast hyper majority say he's bad, doesn't that MAKE him poorly designed? Think of it this way. A soda company sells a soda, no one likes it, but most reviewers (who are a hyper minority of consumers) say it's great from a design perspective, does that make it good? No. That's literally the "just trust me bro" mentality. Things are only good in a consumer-driven market if the majority of consumers say that product is good. If Hoyo did a poll of who the players thought was the "best boss," I doubt Aventurine would be out of the bottom 25%. Same with characters; they can be "well-designed," but design and performance are two different things; both need to be taken into account when assessing aspects of a consumer-based market.

[@Iyoverse]

No. What you're example here is arguing whether or not someone likes/dislikes it, not if the "game design" is good or bad. The mass majority don't like Frieza, Dio, Blackbeard, etc. but that doesn't magically make them horrible villains based on "bad/good design". A game boss by design is supposed to make it difficult for the player to defeat them. Otherwise, the boss is "too easy" or "a bad boss" by design. The argument isn't whether or not players like XYZ. It's whether or not XYZ served its purpose & by how well.

[@Grayewicked]

​@@Iyoverse There's difficult, and there's inconvenient. Aventurine's the only boss who has this issue from the playerbase for a very clear reason, not even the Ebon Deer. They even completely adjusted how he works in AS to fit the game mode, because unlike others, in a game where you're REQUIRED to clear as fast as possible, he quite literally is a massive wall. Being a damage sponge doesn't make you a difficult boss, you're just annoying to deal with, and why would anyone bother with that? It really is that simple. Even in other game genres, why would you wanna take out the enemy tank first before the DPS? You don't. Because everyone knows that the real threat is the one that deals the most damage. Humans have a default understanding on what's difficult and what's not, that not even being a quirky, anti-mainstream can't contest: It's all about having agency over a situation, and the point of the Aventurine fight is gambling, the direct antithesis to that. So, tell us Iyo, what happens to a man when he gets faced with a situation he cannot solve, not because of his lack of ability, but because of factors outside of his control? What are his thought processes gonna be? How will he feel? What's he gonna do?

[@Carnaj90]

@@Iyoverse Who gets to decide what's good game design? THAT'S my real point. I'd argue it's the consumers. They decide with their wallets.

[@Iyoverse]

@ Unfortunately that’s not how the decision works. Good vs bad game design isn’t subjective. There are objectives behind them that have been used for decades when it comes to critiquing games, characters, etc. The “people’s wallet” in this case never dictates if the design is good. Just whether or not they like it.

[@Carnaj90]

​@@Iyoverse Isn't one of the biggest metrics of good/bad in a game whether or not someone wants to actually play that game or fight that boss? If a game company makes a boss according to the "objectives" that you say they should be based off of, and literally 0% of players say it's good, it must then still be good just because it was based off of some metric? Maybe the metric or objective is flawed or not applicable.

[@K1nrix]

Best unit to pull is robin, she is the best teamwide buffer in mostly every team except break

[@danielribeiro654]

I'm late on this one and maybe someone else has already said it, but Genshin is the exception to Gacha. Whoever said even Genshin needs new characters to beat endgame is absolutely wrong. Just to be clear, this doesn't mean that any casual will be able to do it, but someone who clearly understands the game's mechanics in and out can beat Abyss with just 4* characters, all free and with really crappy relics and weapons. Proof?! Sevy from Sevyplays - she's temporarily or permanently retired now, but she always did Abyss guide videos and she used the standard free 4* characters with crappy relics and 4* weapons, some even used 3* weapons. It can be argued Sevy is one of the best - if not the very best - Genshin Impact player in the world. But the point is that even casual players will have access to better relics than the ones she used in her Abyss videos, because she purposefully used crappy relics to show that even with so many disadvantages, it's still possible to beat Spiral Abyss with only free 4* characters. Honkai Impact 3rd and Honkai: Star Rail are probably the only miHoYo games where the same isn't possible. I believe Zenless Zone Zero still allows this - like in the beginning, but since Shiyu Defense has gotten a lot worse in difficulty, this might not be the case anymore. Genshin is most likely never have an Abyss that isn't possible to beat with the free 4* characters, as they came out overtuned and they are still - and will most likely always be - the best support characters in the game, because in order to change this, miHoYo would need to release truly busted characters - like Ruan Mei, Robin and Sunday in HSR, which would completely break the game's balance and therefore the Genshin devs won't ever do, exception being Neuvillette and maybe Arlecchino, though both are DPSs.

[@salahkamell4503]

Hey thank you, I just got in star rail. I don't know who to pull for

[@Prinny.]

I’ll be honest this video is saying nothing about the powercreep of star rail just runoff about it. 11:14 13:10 are just some examples

[@Lew98765]

I remember back at the start of the game untill penacony the end game was extremely stressful to me, I mostly had hunt units who struggled a lot, my clears were slow, my chars would often get randomly focused several times in a row and killed so I had to reset intensively to progress it was overstressing me and killing my fun feeling like I was too bad of a player to do it The best thing I did was to focus the right dps and invest a little bit on them to guarantee I wouldnt have to worry about end game for a while Firefly E1 and Acheron S1 really helped me a lot Since then this allowed me to pull whoever I wanted regardless if the characters were good or not because I didnt have to be scared about them struggling at end game If that can help anyone in a similar situation

[@ShineEdgateAshton14]

You don't need to do fiction content period on unless rush level you only equals quest twice you don't higher than that . They do teach you the you are not seeking it

[@ramspencer5492]

Pretty new Star Rail player. Finally beat all the story content. Yeah. The late game content is retched in this game! There almost nothing to do and such long wait between patches. Like how do you guys keep playing this game?

[@SuperDR2K]

I feel like a free 5 star selector might help the new player experience. Maybe next patch? 🤭

[@Iyoverse]

@@SuperDR2K E2 Bronya incoming. 😎

[@SuperDR2K]

@ that’s literally what I was going for. Speed tuning nightmare tho.

[@daniel336600]

But you really think they will care and when you start you’re not thinking the same as a try hard and everything will be viable because there is different game modes for end game and knew players can try beating one end game mode because it is impossible to beat all of them. If they are free to play you are locking it to be slow in progress so no one can think they will do well straight away and there is content to do and I think the main content is more important and for all ppl starting a few years in there is a lot to do and you can have fun without meta because ppl try too hard. I think also restarting and playing again is a better experience because you can’t know what you don’t experience

[@Roniesmoooth]

my current team right now is Feixiao, linsha, dr ratio and robin im struggling picking my team comp do i jus go for adventurine? do i wait for firefly would she even be good on this team? or do i just wait for the new patches and characters i failed my 50/50 on topaz so shes out the question.

[@dasoix]

March 7th hunt is great replacement for Topaz (she is free). Firefly is not good for a follow up attack team but you can easily make a superbreak team with her, lingsha, and harmony trailblazer(also free). The only thing would be another superbreak support, Ruin may or even Fuguee(who's coming out soon) could fill in the slot. Aventurine would go great on your Feixiao team but personally i'd look at the new characters and if you like any of them before deciding. (Lingsha is great for Feixiao team as well so if you don't care about superbreak, you don't need aventurine(unless you like him(you could also build Gallagar *if you have him* for a superbreak team (Gallagar is also on Fuguee banner))) If you're interested in the new summon meta that's coming I'd just switch dr ratio for March 7th hunt and get sunday. Honestly. It would be hard to make a bad choice with what you have. choose who you like the most!

[@Roniesmoooth]

@dasoix thanks very much that actually helped alot alot :)

[@kazuhah1743]

just saying, I will not invest (time or money) in a game that doesn't protect my investment. powercreep is a devaluation of my previous investment

[@TOTGodofWar]

@@kazuhah1743 Then you should stay away from the gacha genre in general causecthis is very common.