Honkai: Star Rail 1.2 banners: Blade, Kafka, and Luka debut

Every new character coming with the update
Honkai: Star Rail 1.2 banners: Blade, Kafka, and Luka debut
Honkai: Star Rail 1.2 banners: Blade, Kafka, and Luka debut /

Version 1.2 of Honkai: Star Rail will go live soon, adding new playable characters, a continuation of the main story, and time-limited events to the RPG. Naturally, the fresh faces are always one of the big highlights of an update. As usual, you will be able to pull for these characters from their banners, two of which are going to be included in this patch. Update 1.2 has some especially highly anticipated additions in store.

Each of these two banners features one 5-Star character and three 4-Star characters with boosted drop rates. Alongside these character banners run two Light Cone banners with one 5-Star Light Cone and three 4-Star Light Cones, which usually are very good options for the characters being available at the time. All of them run for three weeks.

Here’s everything you need to know about the Honkai: Star Rail 1.2 character and Light Cone banners.

Honkai: Star Rail 1.2 banners: Phase 1

Starting on July 19, 2023, with update 1.2’s release, you’ll be able to call upon one brand-new character:

  • Blade (5-Star character, Wind, The Destruction), Arlan (4-Star character, Physical, The Destruction), Natasha (4-Star character, Physical, The Abundance), and Sushang (4-Star character, Physical, The Hunt).
  • The Unreachable Side (5-Star Light Cone, The Destruction), A Secret Vow (4-Star Light Cone, The Destruction), Shared Feeling (4-Star Light Cone, The Abundance), and Swordplay (4-Star Light Cone, The Hunt).

Blade

HoYoverse

Blade is part of the Stellaron Hunters and will be a powerful damage dealer, who can consume his own HP to increase his offensive capabilities. He’s best thrown right into the fray, allowing him to accumulate stacks of his Charge ability to unleash powerful follow-up attacks.

Arlan

HoYoverse

Arlan has somewhat similar mechanics to Blade, dealing more damage the lower his HP are, but he’s generally considered to be pretty weak, as his style is way too risky to work against tough opponents.

Natasha

HoYoverse

Natasha is the most basic healer every player has access to. It’s a job she does very well, though 5-Star characters of The Abundance naturally come with a few extras on top of good healing that make them superior.

Sushang

HoYoverse

Sushang is a solid single-target attacker, especially once you’ve got a few Eidolon Levels, as this allows her to use less Skill Points for her attacks, freeing up room for other characters to shine.

Honkai: Star Rail 1.2 banners: Phase 2

Phase 2 will begin on August 8, 2023, and run up to the release update 1.3. You’ll be able to get another two brand-new characters in this time period:

  • Kafka (5-Star character, Lightning, The Nihility), Luka (4-Star character, Physical, The Nihility), Sampo (4-Star character, Wind, The Nihility), and Serval (4-Star character, Lightning, The Erudition).
  • Patience Is All You Need (5-Star Light Cone, The Nihility), Resolution Shines as Pearls of Sweat (4-Star Light Cone, The Nihility), Eyes of the Prey (4-Star Light Cone, The Nihility), and The Birth of the Self (4-Star Light Cone, The Erudition).

Kafka

HoYoverse

Kafka is another Stellaron Hunter and excels at dealing DoT – damage over time. She applies Shocked through her follow-up attacks and her other moves, immediately triggering damage from DoT effects on enemies when using her Skill on them.

Luka

HoYoverse

Luka specializes in causing the Bleed DoT effect on enemies, having an especially potent version of this in store, so he should go well with characters like Kafka and Sampo.

Sampo

HoYoverse

Sampo focuses on boosting his team's DoT damage, making him a lethal support character for some teams.

Serval

HoYoverse

Serval is great at causing splash damage, afflicting several enemies at once with the Shocked status effect.

Be sure to check our Honkai: Star Rail codes page to get that extra Stellar Jade to maximize your pulls.


Published
Marco Wutz
MARCO WUTZ

Marco Wutz is a writer from Parkstetten, Germany. He has a degree in Ancient History and a particular love for real-time and turn-based strategy games like StarCraft, Age of Empires, Total War, Age of Wonders, Crusader Kings, and Civilization as well as a soft spot for Genshin Impact and Honkai: Star Rail. He began covering StarCraft 2 as a writer in 2011 for the largest German community around the game and hosted a live tournament on a stage at gamescom 2014 before he went on to work for Bonjwa, one of the country's biggest Twitch channels. He branched out to write in English in 2015 by joining tl.net, the global center of the StarCraft scene run by Team Liquid, which was nominated as the Best Coverage Website of the Year at the Esports Industry Awards in 2017. He worked as a translator on The Crusader Stands Watch, a biography in memory of Dennis "INTERNETHULK" Hawelka, and provided live coverage of many StarCraft 2 events on the social channels of tl.net as well as DreamHack, the world's largest gaming festival. From there, he transitioned into writing about the games industry in general after his graduation, joining GLHF, a content agency specializing in video games coverage for media partners across the globe, in 2021. He has also written for NGL.ONE, kicker, ComputerBild, USA Today's ForTheWin, The Sun, Men's Journal, and Parade. Email: marco.wutz@glhf.gg