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The big Honkai: Star Rail version 3.4 livestream took place earlier today, right on schedule. As with every major new iteration of the incredibly popular HoYoverse game, the main thing people have been looking forward to has been, of course, the new characters. The livestream did, indeed, show off the new characters that will be arriving in the free-to-play RPG soon.

The big news from the program is, of course, the imminent arrival of the Fate/stay night collab event. A collaboration between Honkai: Star Rail and genre-defining fantasy visual novel Fate/stay night was first announced in August of last year, at the same time as the latter received its long-overdue official English localisation and modern remaster. It was apparent at the time that the Star Rail crossover was going to be in the oven for a while longer; and indeed, 10 months down the line, the wait is almost over.

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New characters introduced in Version 3.4 will include Fate series favourites Saber (as a 5-Star Wind/Destruction character who’ll be receiving her own banner in the gacha) and Archer (a 5-Star Quantum/Hunt character who will be claimable for free by everyone who logs into HSR during the collaboration). Both are expected to be available for longer than is usual in HSR, with the collab confirmed as lasting from Version 3.4 right through to the end of Version 3.6 (expected circa November of this year).

Additionally, Phainon — who’s been a major NPC since Version 3.0 launched early this year and was the first new character you met on Amphoreus — will finally be added as a playable unit, an honour already granted to several of his fellow Chrysos Heirs over the past few months. He’ll also be a 5-Star character, armed with a Physical/Destruction kit. Since the Fate collab characters exist outside of the usual banner cycle, all three new characters will be releasing in Phase 1.

Not only that, but the version will feature a grand total of six rerun banners, with Tribbie, Sunday, and Sparkle making a limited-time return to the gacha in Phase 1, while Firefly, Jingliu, and Blade all return during Phase 2. That means the latter half of this update will be a rare occasion when HSR receives no new characters, but considering how packed that line-up already is, I don’t think it’s exactly fair to complain.

And last but not least, everyone’s favourite Stellaron Hunters are getting some love in V3.4, with enhancements coming to the battle mechanics and Eidolon effects for Kafka, Silver Wolf, and Blade, as well as a new alternative outfit for Firefly. Jingliu will also be getting a kit enhancement of her own, which hopefully doesn’t mean this troubled Luofu loyalist is joining Elio’s morally-gray team of mercenaries now… although actually that could be rather cool.

Honkai: Star Rail 3.4 is scheduled to go live on July 2nd, with its changeover to the second banner phase expected on July 23rd. You can watch the whole special program livestream on the VOD below:

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Back in May, Honkai: Star Rail’s version 3.3 update introduced Hyacine to the game, and brought back The Herta for the first time as part of its first phase. The banner’s second phase, on the other hand, kicked off just last week and brought new character – Cipher – to the game, alongside a few returning favourites.

It also featured the controversial recasting of the English-language voice actors for the playable protagonists, the female and male Trailblazers (canonically named Stelle and Caelus). This followed the actors’ participation in solidarity action with SAG-AFTRA, who recently suspended their long-running video game voice actor strike after the arrangement of a tentative agreement with several major studios. The status of several other characters whose actors have been participating in the action — which includes two other main characters, Dan Heng and Himeko — remain unclear.

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