Genshin Impact vs Honkai Star Rail: 5 Things That Are Better in HSR

Hoyoverse has found massive success in the gacha game genre with its games like Genshin Impact, Honkai Impact 3rd, and Honkai Star Rail (HSR), the newest release from the company which has joined Genshin Impact at the top of the revenue charts. Although they are different styles of games, their core gacha gameplay loop has remained mostly the same, and it seems Hoyoverse has learned from the flaws and complaints of Genshin and made improvements to some of these aspects in Honkai Star Rail. Players have been left confused as these improvements to the quality of life in Honkai Star Rail have still not been implemented in Genshin Impact.

5 improvements in Honkai Star Rail that are not in Genshin

Resin/Trailblaze Power

Genshin Impact’s Resin system or Trailblaze Power in Honkai Star Rail is the main resource that provides players with the gameplay loop of gacha games. Players use this resource to farm character ascension and level up materials, artifacts/relics to power up their characters, and much more. In Honkai Star Rail, Hoyoverse made it easier for players to acquire this resource. While Genshin Impact’s resin has a cap of 160 and replenishes once every 8 minutes, Honkai Star Rail has a cap of 180 and refreshes once every 6 minutes increasing the production rate and the ability of players to play more.

Story Quests

All Genshin Impact players know that feeling when you want to start a story or event quest but you get that pesky message that says “ X character is busy completing a different quest” which then forces you to complete the other quest first. Hoyoverse has changed it in Honkai Star Rail and made it so you can force NPC characters that are busy out of the other quest and free them up. 

Shop

Aside from the ten free pulls available each month, players don't have a lot of interest in the Paimon’s Bargains shop in Genshin Impact as the other shop items are mostly mob drops and in-game gold currency. Honkai Star Rail’s equivalent to that has not only everything that Genshin’s shop has, but it also has character and lightcone ascension materials that are only available by spending Trailblaze Power available for purchase in the store. This can give players with a lot of extra currency to spend an incentive to do so.

5 Star Weapons/Light cones

In Genshin Impact, Five Star weapons are only obtainable for players by wishing on either the Weapon Banner or the Standard Banner which has some weapons as part of its pool giving free-to-play players no options to guarantee to get one for free without spending wishes. Honkai Star Rail, however, has not one but two different ways for players to get Five Star light cones for free. 

Firstly, the Herta Store in the Simulated Universe has a few Five Star light cones that players can not only purchase but also superimpose to level Five for free. Alternatively, players can also buy standard Five Star light cones from the shop with currency that they get from pulling on character banners. 

The weapon banner in HSR also only features one light cone unlike the two in Genshin Impact which also significantly increases the rates of getting the one you want via gacha.

Exploration

The main improvement that Honkai Star Rail has in this aspect over Genshin Impact is the fact that when you open your map in HSR, you can see exactly how many chests an area has and how many you've gotten out of them. Compared to Genshin which has no indicator whatsoever for chests or other resources, this is a massive improvement for players to keep up to date on their exploration progress.

It seems Hoyoverse has listened to the complaints that Genshin Impact players made and made the improvements required in Honkai Star Rail but not in Genshin Impact and players are wondering if these changes will even arrive in Genshin at this point.

With Fontaine right around the corner, Hoyoverse might finally add the much-needed quality-of-life changes players have been asking for. For more Star Rail content, check out our Silver Wolf build. If you are new to the game and wondering which characters are worth rerolling for, check out our Honkai Star Rail reroll guide.