Why Silver Wolf, Luocha, and Yukong in Honkai Star Rail 1.1 have us excited

Honkai: Star Rail’s colourful cast of characters is about to get bigger!

The game’s upcoming version 1.1 update, titled ‘Galactic Roaming’, will add two new 5-star characters: Stellaron Hunter Silver Wolf and the mysterious merchant Luocha. There will also be a new 4-star character in the Xianzhou Luofu Helm Master, Yukong!

While version 1.1 also includes tons of new events and other content, we’re sure what most Trailblazers are excited about will be the three new characters. So, if you want to know more about Silver Wolf, Luocha, Yukong, and why you should pull for them, we’ve got you covered.

Need someone to shred your enemy’s defences? Get Silver Wolf

Silver Wolf will be the banner 5-star for the first half of version 1.1, with Dan Heng, Asta, and Serval as the 4-stars running alongside her.

The genius hacker of the Stellaron Hunters wields the Quantum element and follows the Path of Nihility. She will be the third Quantum character in the game, joining the 5-star Hunt character Seele and 4-star Erudition character Qingque.

Silver Wolf specialises in weakening the enemy by giving them an additional elemental weakness, reducing their DEF, and applying a host of other debuffs. So if you’re having a hard time taking down certain strong enemies, then Silver Wolf will cut them down to size.

Silver Wolf’s skill is her bread-and-butter, as it lets her inflict a single enemy with a random elemental weakness of the same type as that of an ally’s. So if you run Silver Wolf alongside three Fire characters, for example, then her skill will either inflict a Quantum or Fire weakness to an enemy.

In addition, Silver Wolf’s skill reduces the target enemy’s RES to the inflicted elemental weakness and their overall DMG RES.

As if that wasn’t enough to boost your party’s damage output, Silver Wolf’s ultimate can also lower a target enemy’s DEF while also dealing a hefty amount of Quantum DMG.

Finally, Silver Wolf’s talent lets her randomly inflict one of three debuffs to an enemy every time she attacks. These debuffs either reduce a target’s ATK, Speed, or DEF.

Silver Wolf will be potent against strong single-unit enemies and bosses, letting her focus all of her debuffs on that one target. Try to run her in team compositions with one or two element types so that she can reliably inflict an elemental weakness of your choice. With that said, all of her abilities are single-target, so make sure she has the right teammates around her to help deal with mobs of enemies.

Need heals and dispels? Get Luocha

Luocha will be the banner 5-star for the second half of version 1.1, with Yukong, Pela, and Qingque as the 4-stars running alongside him.

This mysterious merchant who carries a coffin around wields the Imaginary element and follows the Path of Abundance. He will notably be the game’s second Imaginary character, joining the 5-star Nihility character Welt Yang.

As an Abundance character, Luocha focuses on providing healing to his allies. This alone makes him a valuable character, as we only have two other healers in the game right now in Bailu and Natasha. You can’t get far without a defensive support on your team, so having another healer like Luocha in your roster will go a long way.

With that said, Luocha brings more to the table than just healing, as he can also remove buffs from enemies to help even the playing field. His healing also scales with his ATK, so he can dish out some respectable damage on top of his defensive utility.

Luocha’s skill is a straightforward single-target heal that also dispels debuffs once the relevant Trace has been leveled up. However, he can also automatically trigger his skill without consuming skill points when an ally’s HP gets low.

If your enemies are being empowered by buffs, then you can remove them by using Luocha’s ultimate, which removes a single buff from all enemies while also dealing a hefty amount of Imaginary DMG.

Luocha can also provide party-wide healing through his talent, which gets activated once he has 2 stacks of Abyss Flower. You can get stacks of Abyss Flower by using his skill and ultimate. Once his talent is activated, Luocha deploys a field that causes his allies to get healed every time they attack an enemy.

By Honkai: Star Rail’s nature as a turn-based game, defensive supports like healers and shielders will always be needed since you can’t prevent enemies from attacking. Luocha is especially valuable at this point of the game since he’ll only be the third healer available.

Luocha is also a more offensive-minded healer compared to Bailu and Natasha. His ATK-scaling heals means his damage output will still be significant while his ultimate and talent incentivises you to remain on the offensive while he keeps everyone on tip-top shape.

With that said, he doesn’t have the party-wide burst healing capabilities that Natasha and Bailu have, so you still need to be careful. He is best paired with a tank-type character like Clara or another defensive support so that his slower healing can’t be outpaced by the enemy’s damage.

Need ATK and Crit buffs? Get Yukong

Yukong will be debuting alongside Luocha as one of the rate-up 4-star characters in the second half of version 1.1. However, players can also get her for free by participating in one of the events in the update.

The Helm Master of the Xianzhou Luofu wields the Imaginary element and follows the Path of Harmony. She will be the game’s third Imaginary character, joining 5-stars Luocha and Welt Yang.

As a Harmony character, Yukong focuses on buffing her allies, and boy does she give some good buffs. Not only does she increase her allies’ ATK, she also boosts both their Crit Rate and Crit DMG. We expect Yukong to join fellow Foxian Tingyun as the game’s must-have 4-star Harmony characters.

Yukong can buff her allies’ ATK with her skill, which gives her 2 stacks of its ATK buff. One stack of the buff is removed after every turn by an ally, meaning Yukong can only buff the ATK of the two characters that take their turn after her. Make sure to adjust your characters’ Speed values to make good use of Yukong’s skill.

Yukong’s ultimate is where it’s at, however, as it increases the Crit Rate and Crit DMG of all allies while also dealing a hefty amount of Imaginary DMG to a single enemy. Keep in mind that the Crit buffs from Yukong’s ultimate can only be activated when the buff from her skill is active on her, so make sure to use her skill first before popping her ultimate.

Finally, Yukong’s talent enhances her basic attack every 2 turns. When it is active, it boosts the damage dealt by the attack while also doubling the amount of enemy Toughness it reduces.

Harmony characters are always valuable for their ATK buffs, but Yukong is especially tempting to have for the juicy Crit buffs she provides. While you do have to play around the stack limitations of her skill, the insane damage buffs Yukong brings to the table are well worth it.

We can already foresee all the ‘Hypercarry’ lineups being enabled by the Foxian duo of Yukong and Tingyun. And the fact that HoYoverse is giving her for free is just icing on the cake.

Silver Wolf, Luocha, and Yukong will make their debuts in Honkai: Star Rail version 1.1, which will be released on 6 June. If you want to learn more about the other content coming in the new update, check out the full preview livestream here.

And while we’re already excited about the three new characters coming in version 1.1, players can also look forward to the release of Kafka, Blade, and Luka in version 1.2. Assuming version 1.1 will last the usual 40 days, version 1.2 as well as Luka, Kafka, and Blade will be released in mid-July.

Honkai: Star Rail is currently in the second half of version 1.0, featuring the Lightning Erudition character Jing Yuan as the banner 5-star.

Honkai: Star Rail officially launched on 26 April on PC, Android, and iOS. The game will also be made available on PlayStation some time after release. You can download the game here.

If you're still just starting with Honkai: Star Rail or want to try the game out for yourself, we've got you covered! You can check our beginner's guide, guide to building the starter characters, and guide to its gacha system.

Yan Ku is a full-time dog parent, part-time (gacha) gamer, and part-time writer.

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