Honkai Star Rail 1.6: Banners, Release Date, Characters & More

Honkai Star Rail 1.6 Livestream is scheduled for December 15, 2023, at 7:30 PM (UTC+8) on their official YouTube and Twitch channels. You can refer to our Countdown timer for Honkai Star Rail 1.6 LiveStream to know when the livestream will be available in your country/region. During the livestream, Hoyoverse will share codes for getting free Stellar Jades which we will share with you in a separate article.

Honkai Star Rail 1.6 Banners

As you would know, banners are dropped in two phases with each phase running for around 3 weeks. Following the trend, Honkai Star Rail 1.6 banners will be dropped in two phases starting from December 27, 2023, hopefully. The upcoming Honkai Star Rail update will feature 3 new characters: Ruan Mei, Dr. Ratio & Xueyi. The update 1.6 is also going to rerun the banners for Kafka and Blade.

Here are the details for Honkai Star Rail 1.6 banners:

Honkai Star Rail 1.6 New Characters

The Honkai Star Rail 1.6 update will bring three new characters: Ruan Mei, Dr. Ratio, and Xueyi. The last drip marketing featured all three, almost confirming them for the 1.6 update in December.

However, there is bad news for fans waiting for Black Swan, the Memokeeper of the Garden of Recollection, as she won’t feature in the 1.6 update. As revealed in the recently concluded Developer Radio, the Black Swan will feature in the Honkai Star Rail 2.0 update, with Acheron and Hanabi (Sparkle).

Now, let’s look deeper at all the upcoming Honkai Star Rail 1.6 character banners and what we know about the new characters.

Ruan Mei: Abilities, Paths, and Lore

Ruan Mei is an ice-using 5* Harmony character. She will also be the first limited 5* Harmony character in Honkai Star Rail. The latest leaks reveal that her skill can buff damage up to 32% and increase weakness break efficiency by 50% for all allies.

Her ultimate can buff all-type resistance penetration by 20% for all allies, and any ally attacking under this buff will apply the Thanatoplum Rebloom effect on the enemy, which can extend the duration of the weakness break effect and deal additional damage up to 150% of Runa Mei’s Ice break damage.

Lore-wise, she is an expert in biological sciences, and Herta invited her to develop the Simulated Universe, collaborating with Screwllum and Stephen, as revealed in the Ruan Mei banner.

Dr. Ratio: Abilities, Paths, and Lore

Dr. Ratio is going to be an imaginary-using 5* Hunt character in Honkai Star Rail 1.6. During the drip marketing, his character banner revealed him posing while making the L sign with his hand. Paired with his name, the character will likely be part of many meme templates in the Star Rail community for a long time, and we absolutely love it.

Dr. Ratio will feature a unique combat style. From what we know, his skill and talents can buff him based on the number of debuffs applied to the enemy. He can also perform follow-up attacks, which will likely be his main DPS profile.

Lore-wise, he is a member of the Intelligentsia guild and is described as candid and self-centered. The Intelligentsia guild is known for collecting and trading knowledge across the universe.

Xueyi: Abilities, Paths, and Lore

Xueyi is going to be a quantum-using 4-star Destruction character. From what we know, her damage profile seems more suitable for sub DPS. The latest leaks on her reveal that her Ultimate deals quantum damage that ignores weakness type and reduces the enemy’s toughness. Her skill will do quantum blast damage.

Lore-wise, she is one of the judges of the Ten-Lords Commission, and she is charged with the detention duties of a judge.

Honkai Star Rail 1.6 Light Cone Banners

The 1.6 update is also going to feature two new signature Light Cones of Ruan Mei and Dr. Ratio.

• Past Self in Mirror (Ruan Mei): Regenerates Energies at the start of each wave and increases the damage dealt by 15% for all allies after using the skill. It also increases All-Type Resistance Penetration by 6% for all allies with speed boosts lasting for 3 turns.
• Baptism of Pure Thought (Dr. Ratio): It flatly increases the Crit Damage by 20% and, additionally, for every debuff on the enemy target, increases 6% Crit damage (up to 3 stacks). When the character uses Ultimate to attack an enemy, their Damage increase by 36%, and their follow-up attacks ignore 20% of the target’s Defense, lasting for 2 turns.

Honkai Star Rail 1.6 Stellar Jades Count

The total Stellar Jade count in the Honkai Star Rail 1.6 is yet to be revealed. From leaks, we know that 120 Stellar Jades can be achieved from the two new Memory of Chaos stages.

Honkai Star Rail 1.6: New Game Modes, Curios & Events

The Honkai Star Rail 1.6 update will introduce many gameplay changes, including new curios, game modes, and events, and is even rumored to give a free character.

Free Character in New Game Mode: Pure Fiction

A new game mode has been leaked for the Honkai Star Rail 1.6 update. Pure Fiction, the new game mode, will have constantly respawning enemies, and clearing them will give scores. The players will get enticing rewards based on their high scores.

Also, Lynx is rumored to be a reward for clearing stage 2 of any Pure Fiction game mode phase.

Simulated Universe 1.6: New Curios & Game Modes

The latest leaks on Honkai Star Rail 1.6 reveal that it will add sixteen new curios, including some negative ones. Other than that, the update may also introduce a dice reroll feature.

Some of the notable effects introduced in the new curios are:

• Receiving cosmic fragments after entering a transaction domain
• All characters lose 80% of their health when entering a new domain, but their max health increases by 10% (up to 4 times)
• Turning a combat domain into an elite combat domain’.

Honkai Star Rail 1.6 is also going to introduce a new game mode to the Simulated Universe. The new game mode will feature a meter that gets filled after completing different rooms, and the end score will determine the path forward. Argenti is also going to be a major boss in the game mode.

New Universal Path Materials

The Developer Radio: Penacony Special Edition revealed that the 1.6 update will introduce a new Universal Path material, Tears of Dreams. This material can replace Path Materials required to level up Traces or Ascending Light Cones.

Memory of Chaos 1.6: Two New Stages

Memory of Chaos has been one of the most popular and significant end-game content. According to recent leaks, HoYoverse plans to add the 11th and 12th stages in the Memory of Chaos.

The new stages will also feature additional rewards, and players can earn 120 Stellar Jades more from completing the two new stages.

Honkai Star Rail 1.6 Events

According to recent leaks, ‘Exotic Pets Expropriation’ will be the first event of the 1.6 update. The event will feature the new character Ruan Mei alongside Asta and Screwllum. Although we don’t have much information on the event yet, it is rumored that players will have to generate exotic new pets by matching and combining strange creatures from a new zone. This Honkai Star Rail 1.6 event sounds fun, and hopefully, it will also introduce good rewards.

So, there is everything we know about the Honkai Star Rail 1.6 update. Don’t forget to share your thoughts on the upcoming characters and the new changes in 1.6 with us in the comment section.