Why we are excited now that Honkai Star Rail confirmed Blade to be an upcoming character

Honkai: Star Rail developer HoYoverse has confirmed that the fearsome Stellaron Hunter, Blade, will be an upcoming playable 5-star character that wields the Wind element and follows the Path of Destruction.

In a teaser posted on Tuesday (23 May) that is reminiscent of Genshin Impact’s drip marketing, HoYoverse showed off Blade’s official splash art as well as some tidbits on his lore.

In the teaser, Blade is described as “A swordsman who abandoned his body to become a blade” whose birth name remains unknown. He also “possesses a terrifying self-healing ability” and wields an ancient sword “riddled with cracks, just like his body and his mind.”

Blade has also pledged his loyalty to ‘Destiny’s Slave’, another name for Elio, the enigmatic leader of the Stellaron Hunters. Other known members of the group include the femme fatale Kafka and the genius hacker Silver Wolf.

Blade makes his first in-game appearance in the Xianzhou Luofu storyline, appearing in the worldship alongside Kafka during the sudden and chaotic appearance of a Stellaron there.

While HoYoverse did not go into further detail on Blade’s kit in this latest teaser, they did show a preview of it last year. In last year’s preview, Blade’s kit revolves around consuming his own HP to enhance his attacks.

Using Blade’s skill consumes a portion of his HP to enhance his basic attack, dealing Wind DMG to both the main target and any adjacent enemies.

Blade's enhanced attack:

After losing HP a certain number of times, whether it’s by using his skill or getting attacked by enemies, Blade’s talent will let him unleash a strong follow-up attack that also regenerates his HP.

Blade's talent proc:

Finally, Blade’s ultimate deals a huge amount of Wind DMG to both the main target and any adjacent enemies. In addition, using this ability sets Blade’s current HP to 50% of his Max HP.

Blade's ultimate:

That last part gives Blade’s ultimate unique utility, as it will actually heal him if his HP is less than 50% of his Max HP, which synergises with his HP-consuming skill and is handy in a pinch.

While there are bound to be changes to Blade's kit since the preview dropped last year up to his impending release, we do expect it to remain largely the same. Any changes made by HoYoverse will most likely just be tweaks to the numbers of his abilities in an effort to balance him.

Should you be pulling for Blade?

Blade is looking to be a strong addition to Honkai: Star Rail’s dynamic roster of playable characters. As someone who wields the Wind element and follows the Path of Destruction, he will be filling a much-needed niche in both those categories.

Currently, there are three Wind characters in Honkai: Star Rail: Bronya, a 5-star, as well as Dan Heng and Sampo, who are both 4-stars.

Bronya is a Harmony character that focuses on buffing her allies, though she doesn’t output that much damage herself.

Dan Heng is a 4-star Hunt character with skills that focus on dealing single-target damage, though he is lacking in area-of-effect damage. Meanwhile, Sampo is a Nihility character whose skill and ultimate both deal damage to multiple enemies, though he leans more on dealing and buffing damage-over-time.

Since Blade is a Destruction character, he is adept at dishing out both single-target and area-of-effect damage all while being inherently tanky and having self-healing abilities.

He’ll also help improve the element coverage of Destruction characters, being the first Wind character of that Path. Currently, the Path of Destruction covers Physical with Clara, Fire with Hook, and Lightning with Arlan.

We’ve only seen brief teasers of Blade at this point, but it’s already looking like he’ll be one of Honkai: Star Rail’s strongest characters.

When will Blade come out?

While the timing of Blade’s drip marketing suggests that he’ll be coming out in version 1.1, that may not be the case.

The thumbnail for the upcoming version 1.1 preview livestream shows the chibis for three known upcoming characters: Silver Wolf, Yukong, and Luocha, with Blade nowhere to be seen.

Going by how HoYoverse usually showcases the new characters for a certain version in the accompanying preview livestream, we can safely assume that it will be Silver Wolf, Yukong, and Luocha that will be the debuting characters in version 1.1.

That means Blade won’t come until version 1.2 at the earliest, though we do expect him to come out by then judging by his increasing presence in the main story.

Honkai: Star Rail version 1.1 is expected to release on 6 June, and assuming it will last the usual 40 days, version 1.2 and hopefully 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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