After An Extended Wait, HoYoverse Shares What Awaits At Honkai: Star Rail’s Next Destination, Planarcadia

After a bit of a wait for players, HoYoverse finally aired the livestream for Honkai: Star Rail’s upcoming Version 4.0 update, “No Aha At Full Moon”. The team has been teasing the Ahaification of the free-to-play ARPG for a while now with crazy trailers and reveals of upcoming characters tied to the update – all of whom, it turns out, are vying for the chance to be Aha for a minute. It might be a little difficult to see what being Aha for a minute could do. But I imagine a god can get a lot done in that amount of time.

The update will take players to the world of Planarcadia, a world in which people survive by way of clout, like the kind you think of when you’re dealing with streamers and social media personalities. Being noticed is literally the only way to live.

Planarcadia also happens to be Himeko’s home world, where she rebuilt the Astral Express. (This might explain her obsession with awful coffee. Maybe that was her form of clout chasing when she lived there.) The planet was, apparently, a flat “World in a Canvas” at one point. But the IPC has long since taken control, and the place is overseen by one of the Ten Stonehearts – Madam Pearl. As such, it’s a pretty lively destination, and with the arrival of half the universe – including one of the generals of the Xianzhou and several of the Stelleron hunters, it’s about to get crazier. Of course, the Astral Express crew is there as well, and the Trailblazer will be representing them in the competition to be Ahaified.

As for new playable characters, 4.0 will introduce two Elation characters: the General of Xianzhou Alliance’s Yuque Yao Guang and Sparxie (who is not to be confused with Sparkle...it seems Sparkle may be a species?). If you’re not sure you remember Yao Guang, that’s probably because until this point, we’ve only heard her voice and seen a glyph representing her via comms on the Loufu.

On an additional note on the character front, the update also enhances Black Swan and the OG Sparkle. Oh, yes, and there will be new outfits. Players will be able to obtain a new skin for Ruan Mei as well as a 20-pull reward for logging in after the version launches on February 13. There are also new outfits and accessories for the Trailblazer. These are free, but they will require time and effort as the outfit and a headband are both obtained via the Gift of Stardust store. The outfits aren’t that different from the standard fit. It’s mostly color and pattern changes, as well as a different shirt. It makes a bit of sense, as the game’s lore pretty much tells you the Trailblazer just keeps a closet full of the same outfit.

Players can expect plenty of events and rewards as well, including plenty of chances to get their hands on more Stellar Jades. Another will allow players to pick a free 5-star character. Always a good thing.

For those of you who have been wondering how the delay of this update will impact the game’s cadence, the devs stated during the stream that things would be back on track by 4.2. That said, players can expect 4.1’s release timeline to be adjusted in order to allow for that.

As always, the livestream included redemption codes. These are AHAHAHAHAHAHA (I double-checked the number of “AHs”), QWQXDDLOLOMO, and HITLIKETOBEAHA.