UK fans of Honkai: Star Rail can head to Miss Millie's fried chicken restaurants for limited-edition merch

HoYoverse has never shied away from a weird real-world publicity stunt to promote its games — who could forget that time it floated a giant inflatable Paimon down the Thames? By comparison, the Time To Feast! Astral Express Pit Stop event — allowing Honkai: Star Rail fans to enjoy tie-in meals and merch at participating restaurants — feels downright normal. For those of us in the UK, the event will be taking place for three weeks starting from this Saturday (October 14th) at Miss Millie's Awesome Chicken.

Truly, the weirdness on this occasion stems from the fact that Miss Millie's isn't exactly a household name in the UK. The fried chicken restaurant has about a dozen branches nationwide, mostly in Bristol, with another handful in towns on the south coast. There are a few London locations too, although oddly, they aren't listed among the participating venues on the event website. Overall then, this promotional collaboration might not have the reach that HoYoverse was presumably hoping for. Indeed, a commenter on the HSR subreddit jokes that they might be better off hopping on a ferry to France, where pizza giant Domino's are hosting the event, because they'd have a better idea of where they were going.

So for most of us UK-based fans of Star Rail, attending in-person perhaps isn't a realistic option. But at least we do get to enjoy the official event art, which shows main companion characters March 7th and Dan Heng hanging out at a fast food joint in very cute casual outfits. Dan Heng as ever looks like he's been dragged along somewhere to keep March happy and it's a delight to see their odd-couple dynamic celebrated in some goofy official artwork, so if that's all I personally get out of this promotion then I am already content.

If, however, you do in fact find yourself in the vicinity of a Miss Millie's over the next few weeks, then you can order the 'Astral Express Megabite' set meal (consisting of a burger, fries, a drink, and a dessert), which comes with physical and digital 'Gourmet Sailing Series' merch depending on the amount you order.

Purchasing one meal gets you a holographic ticket with a code which you can redeem in-game for an exclusive avatar, phone wallpaper, and recipe for a fried chicken health consumable. Buying two meals (and proving you're a genuine HSR player by showing off your account interface on your phone) will net you an acrylic standee featuring that event art I was cooing over. Meanwhile, share photos taken in-store on social media and your reward will be a badge with Pom-Pom's face on it. Finally, in the UK version of the event at least, Star Rail cosplayers can claim 10% off the cost of their meal.

Time To Feast! Astral Express Pit Stop is taking place in nearly a dozen different countries throughout Asia as well as in the UK, France, Germany, and — at some as-yet-unspecified point — the USA. The partner restaurant and dates for the US version of the event have yet to be announced, but I've got my fingers crossed for a one-table clam shack in Rhode Island, to give our American cousins an authentic taste of this baffling experience.

Honkai: Star Rail is available to download for free on PC, Android, iOS, and PlayStation 5. Time To Feast! Astral Express Pit Stop is taking place from October 14th to November 4th at participating Miss Millie's restaurants in the UK. You can view a list of participating eateries in all regions along with more details of the event on HoYoverse's website.