And honestly, Jiaoqiu was kind of set compared to most other characters due to being a support and having a niche that he was best in. DPSs have it even worse; once their time in the spotlight is done after a few months, there’s no value to pulling them unless you really like them.
i don't feel bad for HSR because devs ruined the game with cheapest and poorest narrative developments possible, while accelerating powercreep to 3x/4x of (for comparison) genshin speed. ofc it mostly has to do with everybody getting ready for the new meta tho.
What is the problem with reruns on HSR?
I only play ZZZ and got a few chars in reruns like Astra and others, Miyabi, planning on getting Yixuan.
And they are all great and very playable, even thought about getting Sanby, just don't have the pulls.
As a turn-based game, Star Rail is pretty much just math on a time-limit; unlike in ZZZ or even Genshin, there is very little the player can actually do to change the outcome of combat besides simply having better numbers.
This issue is compounded by the fact that enemy HP has become massively inflated, and the devs specifically design new enemy mechanics that invalidate old teams, and hyper-accentuate new teams..
You’re often looking at pulling 2-3 (sometimes 4) new units back-to-back (even before you factor in mindscapes/eidolons, or W-engines/lightcones) just to make a team work for 3-6 months until they get almost completely invalidated by both new units, and enemy mechanics that are designed to punish using them.
And all of this while having to roll and build 4-unit teams (instead of ZZZ’s 3-unit teams) BUT with the SAME amount of pull-currency per patch.
Wow, that seems insanely awful, I didn't even knew star rail was a turn based game TBH.
I think if that's the case, your bets strategy is to just accumulate currency for 6 months while your team is viable and only get new chars when your current is useless 6 months later.
But that would remove the fun factor, these games usually get stale if you play the same thing for 6 months.
That’s why discussions about Powercreep are so frequent in Star Rail, and why people began to fear HP inflation in ZZZ (thinking Hoyo was going to spread that across all of their games).
Every pull counts for so much more in Star Rail, and by the time a unit reruns, they’re usually not worth pulling for anymore unless they fit a specific niche.
It’s no exaggeration to say that, in Star Rail, you may have to pull 3 characters you DON’T like, just to make your favorite work; characters like Jing Yuan and Jingliu have players to roll for 2+ entire teams of new BiS units, only to now be barely functional despite all that investment.
It actually isn't that bad. Which is why you shouldn't trust comments.
People like the op don't seem to view being able to 3 star the last stage of endgame content as good enough. You can actually still 3 star a favorable element matchup with The Herta who released at the beginning of 3.0.The fact that she was powercrept does not mean that she is useless.
You also do not need signature lightcones or eidolons, although those will improve the lifespan of the unit.
In truth, dps units in HSR probably have a lifespan of a year and a bit. Horizontal progression is far more important as a f2p, and honestly always spending free jades to build synergistic teams is more important than light cones or eidolons.
HSR absolutely has a power creep problem. This is unfortunately made worse by people who just misrepresent/lie about what the problem is though. A stronger new unit of a different element doesn't mean that your older current version of a dps is useless.
That doesn't mean that there aren't units like Aglaea who were sabotaged so that you are enticed to pull for her eidolons, or units like Cyrene that can't synergize with specific units until you have their eidolons. Or that there aren't strong units like Phainon who can't zero cycle without eidolons. Mihoyo does try their best to entice low spenders to spend money on eidolon 1-2 these days.
From what I've heard the problem seems to be that units only stay relevant in the extremely volitile meta of HSR for a short amount of time, and reruns are often after that window has passed. So even if the unit was still useful, there's probably another unit out there who could do the job better.
Dang, that is bad, what kind of power creep is that!!! At any point you have to get the new agent, I love playing with agents I like, can't imagine my agents becoming pure trash after a few patches and then I have to play with new ones that I may not even like.
The problem with HSR power creep discussions is that you get people who make the power creep seem worse than it actually is. Especially since there are a lot of very loud people who don't view comfortable completion of the endgame as good enough.
In truth, HSR's dps probably have a lifespan of a year and a bit. This can vary a lot if Mihoyo releases new support for particular dps archetypes. Healers and supports have a much longer lifespan but newer supports just provide more buffs.
This is also an oversimplification since some buffers/healers/shielded can't work with certain dps. For example attack buffers often can't be used with ho based units.
Mihoyo would also like you to get multiple dps element types. This leads to the end result where vertical investment is just really bad for low spenders/f2p. HSR is not a game where someone who doesn't pull for supports (and sometimes even healers/shielders which we do get less of) can thrive.
Ooh, thank you for taking the time to give me a rundown. I don't play HSR (hence "from what I've heard"), but I do play both Genshin and ZZZ so I like to keep abreast of how our sibling game is doing. Their management styles of the three games might differ, but they are ultimately from the same company.
Don't trust this guy's opinion, he is working full time in this thread for some reason. I will give you numbers and decide for yourself.
Gepard, a boss from 1.0 had 296 503 HP on his debut in abyss equivalent. Every time boss reappears there, you can expect their HP roughly doubled.
In Gepard's last appearance in September last year (3.x), he had 2 346 340 HP, which is almost 8x of his debut.
Which coincidentally fits with 23 in 3 versions, we can expect 5 million if we see him again in 4.x. He is not an exception, I could list every boss like this I think, but it's cumbersome as I need to check manually on homdgcat.
Now you tell me if it's as bad as people say or just exaggerated?
I watched a video maybe half a year ago that postulated that you could keep a top-tier DPS relevant for a year (at the time) by adding 5 cost to their team. So you pull the DPS, who on release can clear with no dupes and no sig, and then over the course of the year, you would need to pull five more 5 stars (whether their sig, dupes, or new supports) to keep them clearing endgame.
Just for extra context, the overall income of HSR is that, if you can get all rewards, you can get about 1 unit per patch (so 8-9 units a year) on average, assuming your luck is middling but you win half of your 50/50s.
You can decide for yourself whether this overall picture is good or bad.
And the general impression is that both powercreep and the degree to which new endgame rotations shill new units/mechanics is only accelerating.
right now, the only worthy one is Sunday... and hes likely not relevant without his Sig LC anymore after 3.x, and he doesn't rerun until the end of January.
On top of that, even if you wanted the break support, it doesn't matter since that was in December anyways. (Unless you decided to whale for her in the last week of her banner, but that's extremely unlikely; Most sales, especially Whale sales, are made early on in the banner)
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u/Legendary-Fleshbeast Feb 01 '26
This is actually the lowest it's ever been for HSR.
Almost nobody is spending during the content drought since rerun banners have lower value anyway and 4.0 starts in the middle of February.