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HSR: HAPPY 3RD BIRTHDAY! 🥳🎉 - TJ’s 3rd Annual Playthrough Recap

Three years in... it has truly been a time in the cosmos. This post is coming to you a little later than originally anticipated but sometimes life gets in the way of the fun we have. All that to say, year three was quite enjoyable for me and I'm excited to talk about it! The yapping begins under the cut.

⚠️ Potential spoilers ahead for the events/storylines of HSR versions 3.3-4.1. Read at your own discretion! ⚠️

Apologies for any image distortion, Tumblr’s not a fan of long photos.

Stats Overview

We've made it for three whole years traversing the stars! This is the first live service game that I've played so consistently, time really does fly when you're having fun.

The Astral Express Annual Trailblaze Report (data collection as of 03/31/2026 at 23:59) provided some fun stats on what my gameplay has been like over the past year. Sadly, we're once again lacking a comprehensive, sharable image for this report, so I've taken it upon myself to compile the most interesting highlights:

As of 3/31/26, I've logged 1,045 days of trailblazing on my main account! Unfortunately, I missed a singular login back in mid-January and killed my consecutive streak, so I gave up on keeping track of that. ｡°(°¯᷄◠¯᷅°)°｡

Companion Interactions

These were the new characters that I got over the course of the year:

*Blade and Archer not pictured. Huohuo was technically pulled last year so I'm gonna ignore her being here.

My ride or dies:

Where to even begin? This year was a busy one for my supports, sustains, and Anaxa. I’m actually quite surprised that Anaxa wasn’t my most used character; I brute forced enemies with him for almost every instance of calyx grinding, Simulated Universe, and overworld battle for at least nine months—he was my most used character for map exploration and idle time though—I suppose that’s the price he had to pay for his crimes…

While Anaxa may not have been my absolute #1, Huohuo was. I pulled her as a last resort during one of the most mald-worthy MoC’s in the 2nd year, and I knew that she would be putting in serious work for my account until I could pick up another limited sustain to help split the workload since Aventurine wasn’t holding up too well anymore. Thankfully, the Devs stepped in and gave out Dan Heng • Permansor Terrae for free, making my life a little bit easier by giving me eye candy an arguably universally synergistic shielder to use with a good number of my teams. Of course, free DHPT was followed by a Hyacine rerun that I took advantage of to really bolster up my sustain roster. Which brings me to the only other remembrance unit I own, the one and only Trailblazer themself. RMC saw more battle than every other support that I own. True DMG was huge for such a large part of year three and I don’t know what I would’ve done without the Trailblazer and Mem; endgame probably would’ve been a lot worse and I probably would’ve been a lot more tilted while doing it. Continuing on the support train, my prediction in last years’ recap was correct: Robin took the top spot for harmony! I can almost guarantee that Sunday followed close behind her in stats. Chicken-wing boy was equally as booked and busy as our beloved songbird. I’ll go ahead and make the guess that Tribbie will take over as my most used harmony unit next year. As much as I love the Charmony Dove siblings, I have a feeling that both of them are going to see far less use from me in the coming year. Speaking of units that have seen far less use, Boothill continues to hold the top position for hunt. Break was not my friend this year, but the cowboy was still able to hold his own in the occasional MoC and DU run. I miss playing with my gunslinger… Still on the topic of low usage: Silver Wolf made her grand return! Novaflare really saved this girl, I can’t lie. I already knew that I’d be kicking Pela to the curb in favor of using SW, but I still didn’t think I would end up using her all that often. I’m notorious for ignoring nihility units so she only saw the light of day during DU and Bladie runs where Tribbie was otherwise occupied.

Yao Guang, my first elation unit, naturally came in first for the new path. I got jumpscared by an early Sparxie a week or two after grabbing her, so I’d imagine that she was a very close second. We’ll have to see what other elation units come out before I can make any predictions on next years’ top contender—though logic dictates that Yao Guang being a support will heavily skew things in her favor. And last, but most certainly not least, my favorite Amphoreus character, #1 Nanook hater, Phainon of Aedes Elysiae. I love him so very much and I have used him in pretty much every single endgame mode and cycle since he came out. Spamming meteors is one of my favorite pastimes now and I wouldn’t trade this puppy dog of a man for anything.

Trailblazing!

As we know, trailblazing is the lifeblood of a Nameless. This is what my trailblazing expedition consisted of in year three:

Trailblaze Power Usage & Relic Farming:

Tragically, the Devs didn’t feel the need to tell us which planar and relic sets we farmed the most in this year’s recap. I think mine were probably Lushaka and Pioneer, but don’t quote me on that. It was a long year of rolling and trashing pieces after all.

World Exploration & Achievement Hunting:

It’s a good thing that I’m a fan of map exploration because Amphoreus has the most areas of any world we’ve been to thus far: sure they weren’t always unique on account of essentially being split between light and dark mode, but there was a lot more treasure to find because of it. I’ll never turn down a source for stellar jades. I can’t believe I’m saying it, but I unlocked a lot of Simulated Universe related achievements this time around. We all know how much I avoid all things SU, so that should tell you just how dire the stellar jade situation was for me at multiple points in year three. I still haven’t touched Unknowable Domain, and I won’t for as long as I can afford to—though it seems like a certain Stellaron Hunter might make it necessary in year four. I suppose we’ll have to see if the gacha is nice to me when that time comes around.

Battle Shenanigans & Trailblaze Assistance:

146.3 million single attack damage is ridiculous, and I won’t even pretend to know who hit that or in which mode it happened in. Sometimes I see numbers on my screen, and I don’t even comprehend how large they are… As interesting as this is to know, without context, it doesn’t really mean much to me.

Anaxa, my tried and true unit for bullshitting my way through content, was also my largest money maker this year. Shoutout to anyone who made use of my frail scholar! I appreciate the credits and I look forward to doing business with you again in the future.

Story Recap & Storytelling Assessment

I’m gonna be so for real with y’all, I’m already weeks behind in getting this out and I do not have it in me to make this section like I normally would. If I’m being completely honest, I might not do this part of my recap anymore. As much as I like it for my own chronicling purposes, Amphoreus was long as hell and I can only imagine how long Planarcadia is going to be with it following the same year long story format.

What I will say about Amphoreus is that, despite it’s runtime, it’s my favorite HSR plotline to date: the characters, the motivations, the world building, the emotional turmoil—all of it checked my boxes for what I would expect from an experience like that. It’s not easy to write an epic, and there are definitely moments that could’ve been done better throughout the Amphoreus arc, but I’m still quite pleased with how the writing was managed overall. I sincerely hope that the writers are able to continue to learn from some of the blunders they’ve made while delivering the Amphoreus arc (length and occasional pacing issues) and use player feedback to refine the Planarcadia arc. That being said, I’m looking forward to seeing where this next planet takes us: it still feels like we’ve barely made a dent in our journey towards taking on Nanook.

Permanent Game Modes

Swarm Disaster

I finished getting my jades, but I still haven’t completed the pillars 100%. I want to say that I’ll go back in this mode to do it someday, but the reality is that I won’t come within spitting distance of this feature again if I really don’t have to.

Gold & Gears

It took another full year, but I finally got through this mode! My jades were successfully collected, and I can fully put G&G behind me. Now that I’ve completed this mode, I can definitively say that even though it took forever and I felt like I was being tortured on occasion, I liked it a hell of a lot more than Swarm Disaster.

Unknowable Domain

I talked to Screwllum (accidentally) so I have officially accepted the quest after letting it sit unacknowledged for so long. I still haven’t started the quest, and I don’t expect that I will until I’ve exhausted all other stellar jade resources first. I really, really, really do not want to do this at all.

Divergent Universe

All the gripes I had about Divergent Universe last year are still prevalent now, with the exception of me not caring nearly as much about being a completionist. Sometimes you just have to accept fate…

DU has gotten a little more fun this past year though. The Chrysos Heir implementation was a nice change to the run strategies and could be quite satisfying if you actually had the right characters to take advantage of them. I think having the ability to use trial characters that you don’t own in DU would’ve made it much easier to enjoy. Either way, I’m not too mad at this game mode at the end of the day.

Currency Wars

Year three saw the addition of yet another permanent game mode; brought to us this time by the IPC rather than the Genius Society. Currency Wars is simultaneously the most fun and most difficult permanent game mode that we’ve been given so far. It is notoriously difficult to beat at higher levels and suffers from being lengthy and heavily character dependent; having poorly built characters is a hindrance and, while the system will supplement some of your failings by essentially turning the neglected units into trial characters, any character you have that doesn’t appear to be neglected (isn’t under leveled or without relics) is fair game exactly as they are. Not a pretty sight if you’re the kind of player who shares pieces among characters or forgets to fix your builds after doing challenge runs. I’m not one of those players on my main account, but I have definitely felt the pain of this on my alts, and I feel sorry for anyone who lives that way on a regular basis.

Rotational Endgame Modes

Endgame, the prime source of a Trailblazer’s stellar jades and frustrations. Since last year, yet another rotational endgame mode, Anomaly Arbitration, was added to our plates. New content is important in a live service game, so I appreciate the fact that the Devs are continuing to give us more places to earn resources. However, endgame that makes day-one players want to scream probably isn’t ideal. But it is what it is and at least that mode doesn’t lock you out of stellar jades—that’s probably the best decision they could’ve made.

Anomaly Arbitration

Speaking of the devil, Anomaly Arbitration (AA), has been the newest source of my growing disdain with meta in gacha games. Genuinely, I don’t know who on the Dev team had an axe to grind with the player base, but this mode is by far the worst endgame that I’ve ever experienced in all my years of playing gachas.

The knight stages of AA make the worst of the worst in MoC, AS, and PF look like child’s play. It feels damn near impossible to beat all three of them if you do not have access to every single team archetype that exists in this game; are you lacking a remembrance team? DoT? Break? E2 hypercarry with a very specific mechanic that can be abused against this very specific stage? You are?? Well, go fuck yourself, you’re not beating this knight no matter what you do or how hard you try. Sucks to suck. How about you pull the newest character and their sig and try again? Does that sound good?

NO. That sounds terrible and I hate that actually, by premise and in practice. In what world would I ever want that?

That being said, I managed to persevere and get some gold medals. I can’t say it felt good most of those times, but I can say that I did it. For whatever that’s worth…

Apocalyptic Shadow

*read top to bottom, left to right because I was too lazy to remake the image when I realized it could've been ordered better

Apocalyptic Shadow is still my favorite of the various rotational endgame modes. It does a decent job at staying relatively balanced and has been known to be really fun on occasion through its manipulatable boss mechanics.

I had a really good year of clears this time around. I don’t think I had to consult any of the discords I’m in or look up teams to clear any of the stages this year. Not bad.

Pure Fiction

I never thought that I’d be saying this, but Pure Fiction is no longer my least favorite endgame mode… I still don’t really like it, and I refuse to score chase in this mode, but it didn’t manage to make me exceedingly irritated this year. Whether that’s an indication that the mode has gotten easier, I’ve gotten better at playing, or I’ve finally managed to diversify my paths enough to be effective, I truly can’t say. For now, I’ll just let it have its little win of no longer being the least favorite child.

Memory of Chaos

Memory of Chaos, you’re great, please never change. As usual, I don’t have any beef with MoC. It’s been the middle of the road endgame for me for these last couple years, and I imagine that it will remain that way well into the future.

The Triumphs & Perils of Warping

Could it truly be a gacha without pulling? I've been keeping close track of my pulls since launch. This is my roster after three years, 810 standard passes, and 3948 special passes:

Characters

I got a whopping twelve new five-star characters this past year:

Damage dealers: e1 Anaxa, e2 Blade, e0 Archer, e2 Phainon, e0 Sparxie, and e0 Ashveil

Supports: e1 Tribbie, e0 Cerydra, and e0 Yao Guang

Sustains: e1 Dan Heng • Permansor Terrae, e0 Hyacine, and e0 Bailu

Let’s start with the elephant in the room, my unintentional Anaxa… Best unplanned unit I’ve ever gotten, hands down. I really was not planning to get him during his release banner, or two copies of him no less, but the gacha had plans of its own while I was fishing for a singular copy of Dan Heng. That was back in 3.2 and those are still the craziest pulls I’ve had to date.

In that same insane fishing session, I picked up Blade via 50/50 loss and then lost to Blade two more times before the year was over. I love Bladie—he was the first character that drew me to HSR during the pre-launch promotional phase, don’t tell Dan Heng—and I’ve always wanted him on my account. Getting to e2 during year three was huge for me.

Archer was given to us for free back in 3.4. I wasn’t too excited about him back then because I didn’t have any familiarity with the Fate series; I’ve since watched Fate/Stay Night, and I appreciate having him a lot more now. His character being quantum has also been a saving grace for me in dire times. Sorry pre-Novaflare Seele, Archer’s damage was just too good for him not to take over your spot in my roster.

Phainon, my favorite boy, I talked about how much I wanted to get him during last year’s recap, and I did everything in my power to make it happen. I was really worried that I wouldn’t have enough pulls for e2s1 during his release banner in 3.4 because I got Yanqinged (for the fifth time) right after pulling e1 and I had other units and cones that I also needed to grab that patch. Thankfully, I had been saving for five and a half months at that point with a boatload of starlight in my back pocket for it things got desperate. He was an expensive investment by the time I finished pulling him, but I do not regret it whatsoever.

I’ll keep it real, Sparxie was an accident. Yes, I had been lightly pondering getting her so that I’d have a reason to use Yao Guang before her prime elation unit came out, but it was only a wishful daydream… until it wasn’t. Back to backs are quite rare so I didn’t think that she would come in the next 10 pull after losing my 50/50. Well, she did and I was wholly unprepared for her, but grateful for the early at the end of the day.

Ashveil, my beloved, broke man. He, like Feixiao, snuck up on me and took everything that I had in the process to get e0s1. I told myself that I shouldn’t pull him—that I wouldn’t pull him because I didn’t need more hunt characters… The joke was on me, of course because I folded hard after hearing his voice lines and he ended up on my roster. Great to have you, old man. I look forward to learning more about your past.

I picked up Tribbie and snagged her e1 during her first and second reruns. I also grabbed Cerydra (after getting Yanqinged for the sixth time), adding two more limited harmonies to my collection. Both have been vital to my account and I’m glad I was able to get them. Sadly, I didn’t end up getting either of their cones—which feels wrong for harmony units, imo—but thankfully these two have pretty solid four star options to fall back on. I do want to get their cones someday in the future though.

Yao Guang was my first investment into the foray of elation gaming, and she did not want to cooperate with me whatsoever; I lost my 50/50 (for the fourth time in a row) so getting her e0s1 took over 170 pulls. It wasn’t a good time and I’m still salty about it.

Dan Heng • Permansor Terrae has arrived! We were given a free DHPT in 3.6 because he’s the best boy and declared that he was our protector and he was going to be by our side (whether we liked it or not. I, a Dan Heng simp, loved it, naturally. Thank you very much, sir, you may protect me always.) In true Dan Heng loving fashion, I grabbed his e1s1 as well and the rest was history.

That brings us to little miss bubblegum girlypop herself, Hyacinthia of the Twilight Courtyard. Hyacine did not want to be on my team in any timeline. I lost my 50/50 for her on every single account of mine that I tried to pull her on during her release banner. I had to wait until her rerun just to lose again before finally securing her for my HP fluctuation teams. And then I lost the 75/25 as well, so… I love her, but I hate her too. It’s okay though, I got there in the end.

Lastly, and totally not forgotten, Bailu made her grand arrival to my roster. It felt so weird to get her after such a long time; I was genuinely stun-locked on the warp screen when she popped up via standard banner just a couple of days before the third anniversary. It took a while but I can officially say that I own every single standard five-star now.

Besides the couple of freebies mentioned above, we were also given:

A free Golden Companion Spirit Token in 3.7 and the choice to claim a newly added Topaz & Numby from the Stellar Convergence shop; I opted for saving my token since I didn’t want or need Topaz

A Commencement Selector (limited five-star selector) with your choice of Jing Yuan, Kafka, DHIL, Jingliu, Sparkle, Acheron, or Aventurine in 4.0; I used mine on e1 Sparkle since she was also getting a massive Novaflare upgrade in that same patch

Another free Golden Companion Spirit Token in 4.2 and the choice to claim either a newly added Robin or Huohuo; I opted to save this token as well, though I will probably end up using it on Robin’s e1 if she gets a Novaflare or sees a prominent use resurgence with units from the coming year

Having three GCS Tokens to use whenever I feel like it is actually quite huge. Three characters were added to the shop during the third year, and two tokens were given for free, if things continue at that pace, I have a good chance of fully eidolon maxing a character by the time year four ends. I’m looking forward to seeing who they choose to add next.

Light Cones

Light cones… I don’t really have words for the things that occurred with them this year. I now have 24 copies of Make the World Clamor. 24… That’s six more copies than last year; it averages out to be one copy every other month. I am so tired of getting this cone, and the amount of disdain that I hold for it is laughable. Be warned, I’m probably going to lose it when I get the 25th copy and you will be hearing about it.

When it comes to limited cones, boy did I have another rough year of acquisitions. My 75/25 experience is abysmal, and I don’t think I’d wish it on my worst enemy. That being said, I’m almost at s5 Something Irreplaceable now; surprisingly only one copy of that cone was a loss. I don’t know why, but my standard banner really loves it above all other possibilities ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Pull Luck

My luck is just a touch below average, I would say. This is how my pulls have shaped up since launch:

I’ve had 32 limited character 50/50s. Of those I’ve lost 15, putting me at an average win ratio of 53.13%:

2 losses to Gepard

2 losses to Bronya

1 loss to Clara

5 losses to Yanqing

3 losses to Blade

1 loss to Seele

1 loss to Welt

My average pity is 58. Out of characters received:

25 came before the 75th pull

21 came after the 75th pull

Earliest pull = 6 pity

Latest pull = 81 pity

I’ve had 15 light cone 75/25s. Of those I’ve lost 8, putting me at an average win ratio of 46.67%:

2 losses to Sleep Like the Dead

1 loss to In the Name of the World

2 losses to Moment of Victory

1 loss to Something Irreplaceable

1 loss to But the Battle Isn’t Over

1 loss to Time Waits for No One

My average pity is 56. Out of cones received:

9 came before the 65th pull

14 came after the 65th pull

Earliest pull = 16 pity

Latest pull = 73 pity

I’ve had 13 standard five star pulls. Of those I’ve gotten 7 characters and 6 cones. My most reoccurring characters are Welt and Yanqing, tied at 2 copies each and my most reoccurring light cone is Something Irreplaceable with 3 copies.

My average pity is 57. Out of 13 five stars received:

7 came before the 75th pull

6 came after the 75th pull

Earliest pull = 26 pity

Latest pull = 80 pity

Future Plans & Wishlist

I did a pretty good job adhering to the plans and wishlist I laid out for myself in my 2nd Annual Playthrough Recap: I managed to check off a couple of things and get half of the characters on my wishlist. Seeing how well things went, I think I’ll continue to lay out these loose plans for myself in hopes that they’ll help me in the long run.

These are my current plans for year four:

Further invest in different team archetypes: punchline (elation) and DoT are going to be of the highest priorities. Newer break supports could be a good investment depending upon a Boothill Novaflare, Rappa being added to either the loss pool or Stellar Convergence shop, or the release of a new break DPS that actually intrigues me

Dive into nihility via Mortenax Blade and Novaflared Welt: these two will be the perfect candidates for jumping onto the nihility bandwagon. I’ve already got e3 Welt and I’ve got a guarantee for MB, I'm just waiting for his banner to come in 4.3

Get the last of my under-upgraded and unleveled units caught up for maximum Currency Wars efficiency: having neglected units can be debilitating in this mode and they’re only going to continue to update it. Taking the time to do this wouldn’t be wasted because having more playable units will be beneficial for Anomaly Arbitration and the three team extreme endgame expansion that we’ve got coming in year four

At this moment in time, my wishlist consists of:

Mortenax Blade: it’s Bladie, what more do I have to say?

DoT Team: Kafka, BS, Hysilens or whomever takes over as the new and improved DoT squad. Playing this game for a third year without a DoT team was rather irritating on more than one occasion. I’m ready to rip the band-aid off and invest in this archetype

Screwllum: Hoyo, when?!? No, seriously; when will you free this Intellitron from fake NPC jail? It’s been three years and still nothing…

Yunli: now that she’s been added to the 50/50 loss pool, I’m a lot more amenable to getting her. She’s been out long enough at this point that I think having her would allow me to try some fun and unexpected clears

Argenti & Fu Xuan: these two are also in the 50/50 loss pool now and I wouldn’t be against having them for collectors purposes

Jade: no one new has come out to take her spot in the meta yet. I really thought that someone newer, fresher, and better would come out by now. She’s still not a priority for me, but I do have the idea of her on the backburner

Mydei: yaoi. Honestly, I still shouldn’t pull him for the same reasons I had last year—imaginary and I don’t really need him—but I really like him as a character, and I want to have him on my account. There’s also the Cyrene aspect of it all that’s helping to keep him as my absolute last priority

Final Thoughts

Oh my gahd, I feel like I've been typing forever. Realistically, it took me a solid two days to get this recap fully put together, but it was done in relatively small bursts over a couple of weeks. Today, 5/14/26, I can finally close out this word document and call it, yippee!

Anyways, overall, I enjoyed year three just as much, if not a little bit more, than year two. I’d say the biggest points of contention that I will always have with this game are it’s gacha related idiosyncrasies and the Devs decisions when it comes to meta and balancing.

I’m not a meta chaser but I’m aware of it and how it affects the game; I genuinely think that something needs to change in the teambuilding department—we cannot continue to go down this road of needing eidolons to complete content. Sure, there are people out there who can make the best of a bad situation and ride the struggle bus through a million resets to get an endgame clear done, but the average player doesn’t have time for that. Star Rail’s endgame is not optional, no matter what anyone says, because a majority of our stellar jades come from endgame and not being able to complete it severely cripples players chances to flesh out their accounts with the units they need. Once you add needing multiple copies of a character or the necessity of a light cone into the mix, you end up in a very bad spot.

I’m a day-one player that has played this game almost every day since launch; I have a strong roster of characters who are built well and I know how to use them, yet, there’s content in this game that I struggle with or occasionally cannot beat. I believe that's enough to indicate that perhaps there are adjustments that need to be made in order for this game to be more accessible to its player base.

Despite my feelings on meta and difficulty I still love this game. Playing it has enabled me to connect with some really great people through mutual enjoyment of it and I have had a constant daily activity to come back to.

It’s been a pleasure traversing the cosmos, meeting all kinds of intriguing characters, and saving the universe one Stellaron containment at a time. HSR holds a special place in my heart, and I really mean it when I say that I cannot wait to see where the silver rails will take us next.

If you made it to the end, thank you for joining me in this yap session. I'll see you all again for next year’s recap.

May this journey lead us starward!

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