Now that patch 4.0 is right around the corner, it feels like a big breath of fresh air as we basically went from having literally nothing worth talking about to being overwhelmed with content. Like, we went from having one character per patch for almost 5 months at this point to now having four amazing ones, counting the two new buffed characters.
Anyways, in today’s episode, we’re going to talk about all the characters that we’ll see appearing on the limited banners in Honkai Star Rail patch 4.0, while breaking down their kits’ full value advantages or disadvantages, and all that, so you can decide what’s best for your account.
Yao Guang – First Elation Support (Must Pull?)
Let’s start and cover the first character of this patch and our first ever Elation character, Yao Guang. Personally, we think that Yao Guang is a very special character because she is our introduction to the new Elation Path. With its mechanics, she does a great job at not only being interesting but having a really good kit as well.
Her kit mainly revolves around her ultimate, and when you use it, it causes a new type of follow-up attack called an “Aha instant moment” to occur. Now, for those who don’t know what this “aha instant” is, think of it like a Robin ultimate, but only made for Elation characters specifically, so that they can use their Elation skills along with this.
By this point, we think everyone is aware that anything related to a teamwide advance generally ends up being really broken, as it gives so much value to any team that can utilize it properly.
Along with this, we all know how strong Robin was on her release, as she was unarguably the best Harmony character. And we personally think that Yao Guang is a great comparison to her. We’re saying this because we think that Yao Guang will fit into the upcoming Elation meta as the primary teamwide buffer that deals solid SubDPS damage on top of all the buffs that she provides to the team.
Overall, we think that Yao Guang will scale really well into the future as the value of her ultimate only really gets better with the more Elation characters that you have on the team, because the more Elation units you have, the more Elation skills will be used during her Ultimate, which obviously translates to more damage.
All in all, we think Yao Guang has an extremely high pull value, as she’ll probably find her way into at least one powerful Elation team this year. Furthermore, you can’t go wrong with pulling a Support.
Sparxie Pull Value and Breakdown
Anyway, now let’s move on to Sparxie, who is our first Elation main DPS character, and we think her kit is just as good as Yao Guang. So, in our humble opinion, Sparxie as a DPS unit does three things really well.
Firstly, her damage ceiling is completely broken as she can enhance her own basic attack up to 20 times to deal massive amounts of fire damage nukes to enemies on the field. The multiplier of her enhanced basic attack can go from just being solid to literally being one of the highest multipliers in the entire game, even including the ultimate abilities of other characters.
Like a well-built Sparxie, basic attack can easily hit over a million damage in her best-in-slot team. And we’ve even seen above 2 million damage sometimes, which is pretty good.
Next up, the second thing she does well is working great despite not even having a full team right now. At the moment, Sparxie’s best in slot team is the Harmony form of herself, which just got buffed, and Yao Guang as well.
All in all, we think this is a great sign, as when Sparxie does get her full team, she can be even stronger and reach even higher damage ceilings than she already can.
Finally, the last thing Sparxie does well is having a very fun play style, as there’s really nothing more fun than gambling skill points. Overall, we can’t say that Sparxie has a higher pull value than Yao Guang due to her being a main DPS unit, but we will say that she is a great option if you have Harmony Sparkle, as she is currently her own best teammate and enables her entire kit really well.
We would even say that Sparxie is one of the best DPS units at the moment. But honestly, you never know who will get power creep in the future.
Black Swan and Sparkle Buffs are Broken?
Actually, speaking about power creep, a character that was power crept almost immediately after her release was Black Swan. Now, though, after the buffs, we can say that she is a really powerful unit because they addressed most of the problems that she had in her kit with her new Novaflare.
We would say that Black Swan’s Novaflare is quite simple, and they kept things mostly the same. What is new is the fact that she now has some of the strongest debuffing abilities in the game, with tons of vulnerability and defense shred added to her kit.
All in all, we would definitely recommend pulling Black Swan if you’re a DOT enjoyer, as when she is paired with Hysilens and Kafka, you get some of the best performances in the game for such a simple and comfortable team to play.
Finally, we have Sparkle, or you can say the buffed version of Sparkle. So, Sparkle, in my opinion, was a character that was so close to being overpowered on release, but never really reached her full potential up until now.
Her Novaflare changes are quite simple but effective, as they increase the amount of skill points she provides with her ultimate and also make her buffs more universal while being way better.
She has the strongest harmony buffs at E0 and is basically versatile enough to slot into any single team in the entire game with no restrictions at all. Honestly, we don’t even have much to yap about as Sparkle is just broken now, even being Sparxie ‘s best teammate on her release in patch 4.0.
Overall, Sparkle is just an amazing generalist support that’s basically usable wherever you want her.
So, who is Worth Pulling?
Overall, all four of these units are great, but if we were to choose one, we’d probably lean towards Sparkle if you aren’t interested in Elation meta or Yao Guang if you do plan to invest in the Wlation characters.
Other than those two, Sparkle and Black Swan are great characters, too, especially if you’re interested in their respective play style. Let us know if you’re planning to top up Honkai Star Rail to pull for anyone in the next patch or if you’re skipping the patch entirely for other upcoming characters. Also, if you are missing some of the team compositions mentioned here, remember that we have an ample selection of HSR accounts for sale.
She has been involved in gaming for over 20 years. In her teens, she was a professional Counter-Strike player, and since then has maintained a strong passion for video games. She enjoys action games, open-world titles, and resource management games. Currently, she and her partner are deeply engaged in Hazelight Studios’ cooperative games such as It Takes Two and Split Fiction, and she also spends time playing gacha games like Wuthering Waves and Zenless Zone Zero. She enjoys creating articles that provide tips and strategies to help players get the most out of their gaming experiences.