Is Honkai Star Rail power creeping units too fast?

The concept of power creep is ingrained in Honkai Star Rail, given it has a dominant gacha system at its core. It is basically a system where newer characters are designed to exceed the potential of existing individuals, pushing players to summon them to strengthen their accounts. However, it appears that HoYoverse has been pumping out better individuals in every patch, which begs a closer look at their power creeping strategy.

Star Rail has a lot of F2P offerings that, under a new structure, are likely to lose value going forward. With that in mind, we will dive deep into the nature of power creep in the title, exploring all the characters that have been affected by the system.

Note: This article is subjective and reflects the writer's opinions.

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Are Honkai Star Rail characters subjected to power creeping?

Silver Wolf and Luocha have been immune to power creeping (Image via HoYoverse)

Yes, various free-to-play and default characters are subjected to power creeping since HoYoverse has been designing new units with more efficient movesets and better combat potential. In fact, almost every 5-stars from the past has been replaced by newer individuals.

As of writing, Luocha and Silver Wolf are among the few exceptions that could crack into the meta with their unique abilities. Hence, it will take some time for the developers to design a character that exceeds their limits, setting up a new benchmark for support in the game.

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What are the Honkai Star Rail characters affected by power creeping?

For starters, Natasha had a high usage rate when she was the only accessible healer on Honkai Star Rail. However, she was dethroned with the release of Lynx in version 1.3, as the latter has access to better movesets, including the ability to remove debuffs from the entire team.

The power creep is more prominent in the DPS segment, as almost every future unit is designed to overshadow the existing characters. For instance, Dan Heng Imbibitor Lunae has power crept almost every DPS in the game with his fluid gameplay and massive damage output with both F2P and frugal builds.

Thankfully, Blade has received some indirect buffs after the release of Fu Xuan and Lynx to compete against the High Elder. Besides that, Kafka has basically replaced Jing Yuan in the Lightning element and also introduced unique DoT-based teams that are quite easy to build.

Lastly, Fu Xuan has been power creeping all the tank units with her extensive damage mitigation buff and self-healing ability. She can also extend her support potential by increasing allies’ HP and CRIT Rate when her Matrix of Prescience is active.

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In conclusion, Honkai Star Rail is power creeping characters too quickly, considering that multiple units have better alternatives within a few months of its release. For reference, its sister, Genshin Impact, took over a year to implement characters capable of dethroning some of their staple DPS units, like Ganyu and Hutao. Even so, they are still usable across a couple of well-built team compositions.