The version 1.6 of Honkai Star Rail, “Crown of the Mundane and Divine” is already waiting around the corner, and it’s time to take a closer look that the upcoming two banner phases! Who will you spend your Stellar Jades on?
When pulling on a limited Honkai Star Rail banner, the most important thing to get is obviously the featured 5-Star. However, especially if you want to stay free to play, you should also pay at least some attention to the 4-Stars that come along!
To help you decide which banner your hard-earned Stellar Jades should go into, we've summarized the two phases of the upcoming patch down below!
Honkai Star Rail: Ruan Mei & Dr. Ratio Banner Overview
The following banner will be released with the version update. The start of the version 1.6 will be on December 27, 2023! The first phase will begin on December 27, and ends on January 17, 2024. The second phase will have a new banner, which will be live from January 17 until February 7, 2024.
Let's take a closer look at the featured characters!
First Half: Ruan Mei
Ruan Mei is a sweet-tempered, elegant scholar and the 81 Member of the Genius Society. Next to Madam Herta, Screwllum and Stephen, Ruan Mei was one of the four founders of the Simulated Universe, however her main field of research lies much more in biology and understanding the origin of life!
The rerun banner during Ruan Mei's turn will be Blade.
Let's take a look at her banner, which start on December 27, 2023!
Obviously, Ruan Mei is the star of the show! If you haven't checked out our guide on her yet, here's a little overview of her!
| 📌 Ruan Mei Overview | |
| Banner Start: | December 27, 2023 |
| Element & Path: | Ice / The Harmony |
| Rarity: | 5-Star |
| Pre Release Ranking: | S-Tier |
| Difficulty: | easy / mid |
But let's put her to the side real quick, who else can we find on the first half banner and which of these units is worth farming for?
First Half: 4-Stars
- Xueyi
Not only can we get the new 5-star unit in this phase, we even have the opportunity to pull Xueyi! She is also a completely new character, which means we don’t have too much information on how good she really will be, however, Xueyi's kit looks more than promising! Definitely pick up at least one copy of her if you get the chance.
Xueyi is a 4-Star Quantum character who follows the path of The Destruction.
- March 7th
Well, to be honest, seeing March here is a little disappointing, especially nowadays. No one really uses her anymore, and I do understand why. Her Ultimate is still really useful for breaking Ice weakness but on the other hand, if you pull on the Ruan Mei banner, you don’t need another Ice breaker in your team.
March 7th is a 4-Star Ice character who follows the path of The Preservation.
- Tingyun
Well, who do we have here? How's your neck feeling, Miss Tingyun?
Jokes aside, Tingyun is still one of the best buffers in the game, especially if you happen to have all of her Eidolons. After I've gotten her E6, I never took her out of my main team ever again. You should be happy about every Tingyun Eidolon you can get!
Tingyun is a 4-Star Lightning character who follows the path of The Harmony.
Onto the second half!
Second Half: Dr. Ratio
Veritas Ratio, or better known as Dr. Ratio, is probably one of the smartest, yet most self-centered and unsympathetic characters you will ever meet in the Honkai Star Rail universe. He always showed unparalleled intelligence and talent since his very youth, but now he prefers to refer to himself as a “Mundanite.”
The rerun banner during Dr. Ratio's turn was Kafka!
Let's take a look at his banner, which start on January 17, 2023!
To be honest, it's pretty pointless to pull on this banner, at least if you don't want multiple copies of Dr. Ratio, because we all get one Dr. Ratio completely free as soon as the new version launches! We talked about him in his guide already, but here are the most important facts:
| 📌 Dr. Ratio Overview | |
| Banner Start: | January 17, 2024 |
| Element & Path: | Imaginary / The Hunt |
| Rarity: | 5-Star |
| Pre Release Ranking: | high A-Tier / lower S-Tier |
| Difficulty: | easy |
Second Half: 4-Stars
- Sushang
Sushang was a really reliable carry unit, especially at the beginning of Honkai Star Rail! Her damage was extremely high, in particular against singe target opponents, and she could benefit from all meta the supports. Unfortunately, today, she is no longer all that good and can only be used as a sub DPS at best. A plus, however, is her absolutely adorable design!
Sushang is a 4-Star Physical character who follows the path of The Hunt.
- Natasha
Natasha was the only healer together with Bailu at the release of Honkai Star Rail, however Bailu was only available with a lot of luck. Now there are significantly more healers and more teams are being played without a heal at all. Natasha is still usable, but far from really good.
Natasha is a 4-Star Physical character who follows the path of The Abundance.
- Hook
Okay, do we REALLY have to talk about Hook? Sorry to all Hook mains, but Hook was never good, she isn’t good at the moment, and she probably will never be good either! Her only use case is together with Kafka in a DoT team, however most player prefer Sampo over Hook in this case as well. Don't ever build her.
Hook is a 4-Star Fire character who follows the path of The Destruction.
So who should you pull for?
Conclusion
In comparison to the second phase banner, Ruan Mei's part looks just so much better! Even the 4-Stars look super strong, except for March, of course. The second half, however, is pretty bad, and I wouldn't recommend anyone to pull on this banner anymore. The 4-Stars are borderline useless, except for Natasha. Next to that, we get Dr. ratio anyway, so what's even the point on pulling on this banner?