Honkai Star Rail's Planarcadia is where we're going next with the Astral Express Crew, and we've got a good look at the cast that's waiting to meet the Trailblazer. Hoyoverse officially posted seven characters - some we've seen before, some we haven't - and we've picked a favorite. Two, actually, but we'll let you guess who.
Sparxie and Yao Guang already got drip marketing recently, confirming them as the next five-star characters to debut as the game introduces us to 4.0 and the Planarcadia planet. Sparxie is a new version of Sparkle, after a bit of a makeover.
Along with these two, we've now got confirmation of Evanescia, Nihilux, and Ashveil - three new characters - along with two more expies of Blade and Silver Wolf. Leaks and rumors previously stated a Yae Sakura expy, and now it's confirmed; Evanescia looks very much like the Honkai Impact 3rd character, complete with long pink ears.
Nihilux seems to be an entirely new concept, but keeps with the white-blonde theme that most of these characters have. Speaking of blonde, Ashveil has mostly black hair but with white tips - and red streaks. It was thought that this would be La Mancha, a fellow Galaxy Ranger for Boothill and Rappa. He does look quite Boothill-y, but it may be an entirely different character. Or, La Mancha may be a title or alternate name for him.
Roles, elements, and paths are currently unconfirmed, so we'll need to wait and see where these new characters will slot amongst other healers and buffers, and whether you'll need to pull all of them to make a good team.
As a certified Boothill stan, I'm very excited about Ashveil - but Blade was my OG alongside Jing Yuan, so I'll gladly throw my jades at another banner of his. Especially as this one's clothed in bandages and has even more luscious hair. Bring on Planarcadia, I say.