HSR 3.0’s banners feature The Herta, Aglaea, and six big reruns, so uh, hope you haven’t spent any Stellar Jade for the last six months I guess
So many 5-stars in so short a time
HoYoverse unveiled the Honkai Star Rail 3.0 banners, and all I can say is good lord. The Herta – Herta’s actual, human form, not just the puppet – makes her debut alongside Aglaea, the first character from Amphoreus. The Remembrance Trailblazer is also a thing, but we knew all of this was happening already. What we didn’t know is that HoYoverse is putting six big reruns on these banners as well. That’s rough for free-to-play players, of course, but it’s rather a strain for those who just drop some money on the game from time to time as well, what with the annual Shard top-up still being a few months away.
If you skipped Sunday and are debating over Fugue, well, you might be better off just saving that Jade and clearing out your event backlog if you haven’t already.
Honkai Star Rail 3.0 banners – Phase 1, The Herta
The first round of banners goes live on Jan. 15, 2025, the same as the HSR 3.0 release date, and lasts for three weeks. The Herta is HSR 3.0’s first new 5-star character, an Ice Erudition fighter like her puppet counterpart who uses a battle feature similar to the Brain In A Vat in the Simulated Universe. Herta applies Interpretation stacks on enemies, and the more stacks they have, the more damage they take from anyone who attacks them. It seems like a smart way to shake up Erudition and give it something to do other than “weak team-wide attacks.”
With Herta comes:
- Jade
- Feixiao
- Lingsha
This is Robin’s second rerun, though the first time we’ve seen Feixiao and Lingsha since their debut in 2024. Lingsha plays an important role on break teams, while Feixiao is up there with the 2.X series’ strongest characters, rivaling Firefly and Acheron.
The thing is that, on the eve of a new combat path, it’s tough to say how relevant break teams will be in the coming months. Granted, HoYoverse took a few steps toward reducing power creep, the inevitable issue in live-service games where older characters or abilities get outranked by new releases. Jade made Blade relevant again, for instance, and Sunday is Jing Yuan’s savior as much as he is a potentially potent support for Remembrance characters.
Still, putting four 5-star characters on banners that last just three weeks is a lot.
Honkai Star Rail 3.0 banners – Phase 2, Aglaea
Phase two picks up on Feb. 5, 2025, and introduces Aglaea, the first 5-star Remembrance character. Aglaea brings her dressmaker’s dummy into battle, a summon who can act of its own accord under certain circumstances. Aglaea’s kit uses speed manipulation to buff herself and her summon, and it’s quite unlike anything else in Honkai Star Rail so far – as you’d expect from a brand-new path.
Joining Aglaea are:
Silver Wolf is an interesting one in that mix, since her status as a debuffer has dropped a fair bit in the last year or so. Boothill is a perfect match for Fugue if you end up with her, and Robin is probably the only character of these six reruns who seems least likely to get overshadowed by new characters. Her range of support buffs and party-wide action advance are just that good.
Bear in mind that HoYoverse will likely run these characters again in the future, and the Remembrance meta will probably take off in the patches following HSR 3.0. Having so many high-profile characters on offer at once is a bit dazzling, but plan wisely, and recall that, like HoYoverse’s other games, you can clear most endgame challenges with a free team.
Check out our Honkai Star Rail tier list to see who any of these characters might fit with, and head over to our Star Rail codes page for some freebies to help with your next pulls, be they in HSR 3.0 or beyond.