Genshin Impact and Honkai: Star Rail Fans Are at War

There’s been drama brewing in the HoYoverse fandom for some time, but it may have reached boiling point following the announcement of Honkai: Star Rail’s latest update, Into the Yawning Chasm. As the game celebrates its first anniversary, the gacha game developer announced rewards of up to 1,600 Stellar Jade and up to 20 Star Rail Special Passes. For the uninitiated, this represents 30 free pulls on a character or weapon banner.

Genshin Impact, meanwhile, offered just 13 free pulls for its Latern Rite Festival update, and fans are getting increasingly frustrated that Honkai: Star Rail players are getting a better deal. This anger has been compounded by the fact that players of HoYoverse’s turn-based RPG recently received five-star character Dr. Ratio at no cost, while many feel crucial quality of life improvements have been coming quicker to the developer’s newer title.

It’s all resulting in an aggressive undercurrent running throughout the community, as Genshin Impact fans feel they’re being short changed. This author plays both games and there’s no question the rewards are better in Honkai: Star Rail right now, although things could potentially change once Zenless Zone Zero releases later in the year, and HoYoverse puts in the extra effort to establish that tile instead.

It’ll be interesting to see whether all this pressure encourages the Chinese developer to throw Genshin Impact players a bone, or whether it ultimately knows its enthusiast community is going to cough up for characters regardless – no matter how much it complains online. Either way, things are getting toxic among the communities of both games, and it presents an interesting challenge for HoYoverse to overcome as it attempts to please the audiences of two extremely popular but ultimately quite similar titles.