It’s all systems go now that we’ve hit the second anniversary of Hoyoverse’s turn-based gacha, and even Honkai Star Rail’s standard pool of five-star characters has had a little makeover.
There’s a lot going on in-game, from Honkai Star Rail Castorice’s animated cutscene greeting you first thing, to the anniversary rewards where you can select a free five-star, and plenty of deals on stellar jade and warp tickets. But what we’re interested in is the ‘Celestial Invitation’.
The new Celestial Invitation screen allows you to select which seven characters you want as options to lose a 50/50 to. Out of ten possible characters, this means you can eliminate some you don’t want – like Honkai Star Rail’s Yanqing, one of the worst characters in battle – and potentially avoid getting cursed by them on the banners ever again.
There are the day-one options – Himeko, Welt, Bronya, Gepard, Clara, Bailu, and Yanqing – but now we also have HSR’s Blade, Seele, and HSR’s Fu Xuan available as options. On the screen, you can uncheck up to three previous options to add one, two, or three of the new additions to the pool. For me, it was an easy choice – no more Bailu, Yanqing, or Clara, even if I am scarily close to an E6 Yanqing already. Look, he’s a cute character in the story, but his combat just doesn’t hold up.
This pool only affects the limited banners, though – it doesn’t carry over to the five-star options on the permanent standard banner. So, sorry, you might still get another HSR Gepard there even if you evict him from the limited choice.
Either way, this is a really great change, and I actually look forward to losing a 50/50 now, as Honkai Star Rail’s Seele hasn’t had her own banner in far too long, and I would like to add her to my roster.
By the way, if you’re stuck choosing which free character to pick, check out our guides on Honkai Star Rail’s Luocha, Honkai Star Rail’s Ruan Mei, Honkai Star Rail’s Welt, and Honkai Star Rail’s Bronya to help you pick.