Honkai: Star Rail 2.5 ending explained

The plot thickens

HoYoverse

Version 2.5 of Honkai: Star Rail brought the Trailblaze Continuance Mission from 2.4 to its end – and what an end it was. Aside from simply closing the ongoing narrative, this latest story arc is driving the main plot forward in a big way, looping back to our previous excursions to the Luofu.

Obviously, this article will contain big spoilers for the story contained within HSR 2.5, so please make sure you’ve played it before reading on.

With that out of the way, let’s move on and dive into the thick of things to explain the ending of HSR 2.5.

The Godslayer Protocol

HoYoverse dropped a few nuclear lore bombs in the final five minutes of this mission, so let us begin there and talk about the phone call between Jing Yuan, Feixiao, Huaiyan and Yaoguang – the fourth Arbiter-General we’ve now met in the story.

Yaoguang tells the three others what Jingliu and Luocha have been up to since the last time we saw them on the Luofu. They’ve been interrogated and – like they wanted – taken to Marshal Hua for an audience, where they revealed their plans for destroying Yaoshi, Aeon of The Abundance, once and for all: the Godslayer Protocol.

According to Yaoguang, Jingliu and Luocha plan to use the contents of Luocha’s coffin to destroy Yaoshi. What’s in the coffin? Apparently, remnants of the divine body of The Propagation – that is the massive bug guy that almost destroyed the universe in the past, as we’ve learned in our time in the Simulated Universe’s Swarm Disaster mode.

Who else is connected to The Propagation, because they tried resurrecting its Emanator for a little experiment? Oh, yes… Genius Society #81, Ruan Mei, who desires to ascend as an Aeon herself.

Ruan Mei will be very interested in the Godslayer Protocol. / HoYoverse

What a coincidence that Ruan Mei is arriving at the Xianzhou Luofu at this precise moment – and she isn't alone. Remember when Feixiao told Yukong in version 2.4 that Ruan Mei found Tingyun, who we thought was dead? The final sentences of version 2.5 revealed that Tingyun has indeed been found by Ruan Mei and that the Foxian is somehow alive – though we’ll have to be patient to learn more about what happened to her after Phantylia snatched her body. 

Let’s just say that we should all hope that Stingyun remains a silly meme.

With Ruan Mei arriving at the Luofu, Himeko and Welt are probably going to be back as well – they were making a delivery to her, after all.

It looks like the scale of things is about to change upwards with the Xianzhou potentially using the remnants of one Aeon to destroy another. That’s totally not going to backfire, right?

Feixiao’s vow

Feixiao’s confrontation with herself after devouring Hoolay’s heart saw her praying to Lan, Aeon of The Hunt, at a critical moment – and the Aeon answered. The scene looked identical to when Trailblazer was glanced at by The Destruction, The Preservation, and The Harmony, which gets me to assume that Feixiao has, in fact, been glanced at by The Hunt in the same way.

There is some confusion about whether or not the Arbiter-Generals are Emanators of The Hunt, but after this scene I believe we can assume that Feixiao is one in any case – Lan glimpsed at her and allowed her to use his power, so that’s pretty much the textbook definition.

Feixiao's faith in The Hunt paid off. / HoYoverse

Feixiao also made a vow to Jiaoqiu during this mission. The healer sacrificed his eyesight in a brave gamble to poison Hoolay and further his quest of curing Feixiao. Recognizing his efforts and sacrifice, Feixiao swore to find a way of curing his blindness to pay back her debt to him.

She made another vow as well – one that fits in with what the Arbiter-Generals discussed during their conference call: Upon her return to the Xianzhou Yaoqing, she’ll take her Verdant Knights to slay one of the Antimatter Legion’s Lord Ravagers as revenge for their plotting. It looks like a big confrontation between the forces of The Hunt and those of The Destruction is coming up – and with the Godslayer Protocol being in play as well, the “War Between Aeons” that the IPC’s Ten Stonehearts are preparing for may be near.

Jing Yuan’s gambit

Remember, Jing Yuan let this entire prison break play out to bring all of his enemies on the Luofu into the light – and it kind of worked, but seemingly not really. Receptor Taoron confessed that he worked with Phantylia and betrayed the Alliance, but he definitely made it seem like he wasn’t the only one to do so. The Alliance’s inner works still seem strained and Jing Yuan will likely have a lot more to do to smooth things out from here on.

However, with this victory in hand and a trustworthy new ally in Lingsha – as well as Bailu, who seemingly got a little more confidence out of this whole affair – his position is stronger now than it was before, especially as the Xianzhou Alliance as a whole is now much more aware of the threat that Phantylia and The Destruction poses.