honkguide

0. Combat Guide
https://walkthrough.honkaiimpact3.com/article/show/48/6968	Essential
https://walkthrough.honkaiimpact3.com/article/show/48/7310	Physical Damage
https://walkthrough.honkaiimpact3.com/article/show/48/7711	Elemental Damage
https://walkthrough.honkaiimpact3.com/article/show/48/6442	Total Damage

1. The Game
	1.i.	Versions
	1.ii.	Rerolling
	1.iii.	Characters
	1.iv.	Gear
	1.v.	Crystals
	1.vi.	Spending
	1.vii.	Endgame
	1.viii.	Notes



1. The Game
	1.i. Versions
	Pick whatever region is closest to your own for ping or active lobbies.  Simple option
	is to install off of google play or the app store; if you want to play on computer,
	NA/EU/SEA have native PC ports, or you can download the apk directly from the SEA site.

		NA/EU:	https://honkaiimpact3.mihoyo.com/global/en-us
		SEA:	https://honkaiimpact3.mihoyo.com/asia/en-us
		*EU supposedly has the easiest PvE endgame due to low pop,
		 but gl finding co-op lobbies.  Also, play SEA if you want to
		 uncle-bad-touch the early valks.


	1.ii. Rerolling
	Don't.	With the first two dorm-gacha guarantees at 25 pulls, it really isn't worth it
	anymore.  If you're a masochist, there are guides on youtube, it involves cycling guest
	accounts and playing	the first chapter til you have 600-800 crystals.  If you really
	want a powerful	start, buy an early game SN account.


	1.iii. Characters
	There are three different character rarities in the game: B, A, and S.  These are roughly
	similar to other games R/SR/SSRs.  There is also a rock-paper-scissors type matchup, but
	the ingame tutorial will explain.  New characters can be acquired either by farming stages
	for fragments or by rolling the gacha.  Some S-rank characters can also be farmed by playing
	the endgame boss time-attack known as memorial, but it's more of a marathon than a sprint.

	Quick list follows - format is: Name (Abbreviation) / Base Character

		Characters (as of v4.4, ordered by base character)
		B-valks:
			White Comet (WC) 				/ Kiana
				Weak.  Like, really weak.  Mostly useless, but sees a little use
				in higher level memorial due to her on-dodge SP battery and time
				fracture.


			Crimson Impulse (CI)				/ Mei
				Useless.  First character you get from the tutorial gacha.
				Isn't it sad, Mei?


			Valkyrie Chariot (VC)				/ Bronya
				Best of the B-ranks, solid single target damage dealer with a fast
				dodge cooldown.  Ultimate has the big succ, great for gathering
				wayward enemies for your dps to slaughter.


			Battle Storm (BS)				/ Himeko
				Abbreviation is apt.  Useless without specific gear, and then
				only useful as a sword carrier, not a dps.


		A-valks:

			Valkyrie Ranger (VR/VD) 			/ Kiana
				Weaker gatherer.  Semi-useless to start, then becomes one of the better
				burst damage dealers with her augment, Void Drifter (hence the VR/VD)

			Divine Prayer (DP)				/ Kiana
				Healer/physical supporter.  While her ultimate heals, she's mostly
				used for her off field "impair".  This condition applies every few
				seconds when she's benched, letting a physical damage dealer do a
				shitload more damage.  Very useful.


			Valkyrie Bladestrike (VB/SFM)			/ Mei
				Bad, but gets better with her augment, Striker Fulminata (SFM).  Base
				VB sucks, since she knocks back enemies, but doesn't chase, roots while
				attacking, but can't dodge.  Striker Fulminata is much better, good chase,
				fast attacks, mostly used in co-op for her massive SP-battery skill.
				Still not top-tier.

			Shadow Dash (SD/DS)				/ Mei
				Bad, but your only option for blue physical damage early on.  Will get an
				augment later in 4.2 to Danzai Spectramancer, physical semi-support/dps.
				Might be a good carrier for 70% impair Sky Breaker with augment.


			Snowy Sniper (SS)				/ Bronya
				Was once a meta damage dealer, but no longer.  Now, she's only used for
				the damage malus on her ultimate.

			Yamabuki Armor (YA/DK)				/ Bronya
				Very useful, was meta before for her shield, and her augment, Drive
				Kometa (DK) is still meta for her massive melee physical damage buffs
				and gathering ultimate.  Team SP on shield block.  Get her to SS-rank
				minimum.

			Wolf's Dawn (WD)				/ Bronya
				Awakened form of YA, shares some skills, but needs an increased number of
				fragments to unlock.  Shield provides off-field elemental damage boost.  OK,
				but a bitch to farm, and has lost a lot of ground in endgame.  SS-rank min
				for any serious use, possible pass.


			Valkyrie Triumph (VT)				/ Himeko
				Bad.  Was meant to be a hybrid healer/physical supporter with her ultimate,
				but lags behind badly these days.  Ultimate also costs way too damn much.

			Scarlet Fusion (SF)				/ Himeko
				Rhythm games, ahoy.  Mixed electric/physical damage, but still bad.

			Arctic Kriegmesser (AK)				/ Himeko
				Alt name: Polar Warblade.  Ice melee, subpar.  Has some use as a filler
				character to carry debuffing greatswords.  Passive skill can add some
				damage vs frozen/slowed enemies - bosses are usually immune.  Disable
				her QTE and learn to dodge-cancel the switch skill.


			Gyakushinn Miko (Miko)				/ Yae
				Decent early physical damage dealer.  Awakened-type character, but you'll
				be flush with her frags by playing Open World.  Falls off hard endgame.

			Flame Sakitama (FS)				/ Yae
				Only fire-type creature unit, so get used to her.  Awakened, can only be
				acquired through open world missions or by spending asterite.  Needs SS
				to be useful.  Only free valk that has type/elemental advantage vs Rimestar.

			Darkbolt Jounin (DJ)				/ Yae (Kasumi)
				Middling creature lightning elemental - needs SS, double Typhoons and LE - with
				everything, she's p. good.  Excellent at killing Clocc Boi with a paralyze
				nuke build.


			Valkyrie Pledge (VP)				/ Theresa
				Worlds Cutest.  Primarily a Judah carrier (5* lightning cross), demoted to
				supporter endgame with specific gear.  All Theresa's are very cross reliant.

			Sakuno Rondo (SR)				/ Theresa
				SP-hungry fire damager, unfortunately weak, even with endgame equipment.

			Luna Kindred (LK)				/ Theresa
				Smashes enemies with a giant axe.  Unfortunately in a competitive niche, decent
				but not	fantastic.  Easy to rank up, though, the second open world drowns you
				in her frags.

			Starlight Astrologos (SA)			/ Theresa (Zhuge)
				Cannon wife.  First off-field QTE unit, super useful with varied on-hit support
				stigs (JST/Newt B, etc.)  At a minimum, get her zither.  Mandatory support if you
				have BKE.


			Valkyrie Accipiter (VA/HotF)			/ Fu Hua
				Shield debuff support base, when augmented becomes the second best lightning
				damager in the game as Hawk of the Fog (HotF).  Full upgrade recommended.

			Night Squire (NS)				/ Fu Hua
				China numba-wan.  Best ST-creature physical damage dealer, works well with F2P
				gear.  Fully upgrade.


			Imayoh Ritual (IR)				/ Kallen
				Awakened unit, mecha ST-melee physical with some I-frames.  Falls behind quickly.

			Sundenjaeger (SJ)				/ Kallen
				Another awakened mecha kallen, ranged physical this time.  Not too useful, since
				she's a	field-hog, and most of the damage in this game comes from switching and
				applying your supporter's debuffs - better now with SA's off-field support and the
				changes to her sustained impair.


			Umbral Rose (UR)				/ Rita
				Solid psychic melee physical dps.  All Ritas need their gacha weapons.

			Phantom Iron (PI)				/ Rita
				Attempt at a mixed dps/supporter.  Needs all her gacha gear or she sucks, so,
				generally not worth the crystal investment.  Can be used with WD to support an
				elemental solo team.


			Blueberry Blitz (BB)				/ Lilya
				Perfect guard.  Fun, but Void Drifter steps on her toes.  Sometimes misses her
				perfect ultimate due to knockback/low posture.  Needs Swan Lake to support MC/can
				sort-of substitute with Aural Judgement and DXY [M] on qte rotation.  Can nuke AKA
				in Memorial with Uriel PRI.


			Swallowtail Phantasm (SP)			/ Seele
				Only A-rank physical quantum type in the game, get used to playing her.  Usability
				maxes out at SS-rank.  Can use SN's scythe.


			Valkyrie Gloria (VG)				/ Durandal
				First elemental quantum type, middling DPS and shockingly has good gear in the foundry.
				Jingwei [M] / Musician/Fuxi [B] are perfect for her, and Lucia is probably the only
				red core weapon you can spend cores upgrading without feeling cheated *Replaced by
				Endothermic VF*.  Can also share VK's old/new set.  Sieg Goose.



		S-valks:
			Knight Moonbeam (KMB)				/ Kiana	/ Farmable / Egg 1
				Useful for her on-demand timefracture and leader skill.  Gets an OP endgame support
				pistol that can be farmed.  Can be picked from the first valkyrie egg.

			Herrscher of the Void (HoV)			/ Kiana / Dorm Gacha (as of v3.7)
				Original bullshit imba powercreep, hard countered by crabs in endgame abyss.  Needs
				all her gacha gear or is seriously gimped.


			Lighting Empress (LE)				/ Mei / Farmable / Egg 1
				Great leader skill, mandatory lightning supporter, needs SS for secondary damage dealer
				use.  Had a moment as a primo dps unit with her endgame PRI sword, but was quickly replaced
				by HotF.  Isn't it sad, Mei?

			Herrscher of Thunder (HoT)			/ Mei / Limited
				Finally a Mei suit that isn't a bit of a joke or relegated to support.  Deals shitloads
				of damage to mech units, but lacks the type mitigation that HoV and HoR have.  Really
				wants the KoC.


			Dimension Breaker (DB)				/ Bronya / Farmable / Egg 1
				Was a mandatory supporter...2 years ago.  Can be fun, but isn't too critical to have
				these days.

			Black Nucleus (BN)				/ Bronya / Dorm Gacha
				Also known as Xenodark Bronya.  First real whale-only character that was added to the
				game, was used for single-shotting Memorial bosses at SS-SSS rank.  For fun only at
				S-rank, even with her endgame PRI cannon.

			Herrscher of Reason (HoR)			/ Bronya / Limited
				Most recent do-all imba power-creep.  Needs her cannon at minimum, but will need 2pc
				Welt in	endgame.  Slightly less imba due to current abyss boss selections.


			Blood Rose (BR)					/ Himeko / Farmable / Egg 2
				Strong single target fire DPS masochist.  Needs SS-rank, but has fallen off alot
				lately.  Learn to turn off her ult after two/three windmill sequences.  Got a strong
				buff with the release of Surtr PRI - might be worth it now.

			Vermilion Knight (VK)				/ Himeko / Dorm Gacha (as of v4.2)
				Fire AOE with lots of I-frames.  Has an abyss weather all her own - expect to demote
				without her.  Semi-meta due to Mihoyo constantly spamming ice/bio weather.


			Goushinnso Memento (GM)				/ Yae / Farmable / Egg 2
				Ice bunny.  Great when the game came out, got worse, got buffed, got an endgame weapon,
				still generally worse than HoR.  Still good with her PRI ice-stick against certain bosses
				with a multi Newton [B] switch comp.  Needs SS-rank or you'll never have enough burst
				charges.  All her endgame gear is now "farmable" if you're willing to suffer for 3pc Ana.


			Violet Executer (VE/TP)				/ Theresa / Farmable
				Cutest eviscerator.  Sucked for the longest time, got a core augment (Twilight Paladin).
				Excellent ST-mecha physical dps.  Needs SS-rank, core 5.  Eats Jizo and DXY alive in
				memorial/abyss.

			Celestial Hymn (CH)				/ Theresa / Dorm Gacha
				Critical physical supporter, especially with her endgame PRI weapon.  Impair and succ
				on ultimate, impair on switch, and a number of damage passives.  Mandatory if you use
				physical damage dealers (can replace with SA+DK w/Bri PRI^2).


			Phoenix (PX)					/ Fu Hua / Farmable / Egg 2
				Critical elemental supporter (supplanted in 3.7 by AE, but still the only good farmable
				ele support.)  Good leader skill and provides sp pack support.  Needs SS-rank.  Get her
				from Egg 2 (if she wasn't your dorm guarantee) and farm her.

			Shadow Knight (SK)				/ Fu Hua / Dorm Gacha
				Ora ora that used to solo Red Lotus abyss.  Has endgame gloves, but isn't super critical
				to have.  Nice lead skill, though.  Murders AKA in Memorial.

			Azure Empyrea (AE)				/ Fu Hua / Limited
				Ink Fu Hua.  Gathers and applies a new damage multiplier, the power-creep version of
				Phoenix for big dick elemental damage.  No SP pack drops though, so PX still has her
				uses.  Needs Nebs at minimum for self SP gain.  Mandatory endgame due to bullshit
				mob+boss stages fucking over PX due to lack of gather/root.


			Sixth Seranade (6S)				/ Kallen / Farmable
				Painful to rank up, but only good against mobs of enemies.  Tranquil PRI didn't save
				her from the dustbin (the gather is nice tho.)


			Argent Knight Artemis (AKA)			/ Rita / Limited
				Ara ara and tits.  Solid damage output and constantly freezes enemies, but has no time-
				fracture, so falls behind in time-attack stages like memorial.  Must have her scythe -
				doubly so now, since Skadi PRI covers most of her weaknesses, and she's actually good now.

			Fallen Rosemary (FR)				/ Rita / Battle Pass / Farmable
				Quantum lightning semi-support type.  Similar function to BD+JST, but better for more
				drawn out fights.  Made for the whale trifecta of HoT/AE/FR.  Gear and frags are currently
				readily available through battlepass or	by spending resonators.  Get the scythe.


			Molotov Cherry (MC/FTD)				/ Rozaliya / Dorm Gacha / Farmable
				Was bad, did the fusion dance with Lilya, is now one of the strongest physical DPS units
				as Fervent Tempo Delta (FTD.)  Can do quick, high damage rotations, and Michel [T+B] /
				Ekat [M] work well and are farmable.  Really wants her PRI for forced activation of her
				ult.  QTE still has succ, so she can still be used as a Blood Dance carrier without having
				to switch off the core skills.


			Stygian Nymph (SN)				/ Seele / Limited
				Do-all semi-powercreep character.  AOE as light seele, ST as dark seele.  Released just
				after Twilight Paladin (do you see a pattern here?)  Needs her scythe and full Allan Poe,
				but is neutral to all enemies, so can brute force almost any abyss weather with proper
				team composition.


			Bright Knight Excelcius (BKE)			/ Durandal / Limited
				Big goose.  AOE Physical mecha DPS, but hogs the field, so needs SA and full Dante/Dirac/
				Zorro for the 3pc impair effect to be comparable to TP/SN.  Can skip boss phases by spiking
				them.  Dem jiggle physics.

			Dea Anchora (DA)				/ Durandal / Limited
				<insert Saint Seiya reference here>  New memorial/abyss stomper for rimestar.  Fire Bio, so
				no real meta alternatives, since FS's kit is so old.  Whalebait, like BKE - really wants her
				full gear, everything else is a 25-40% drop off.


		*Note: Just because a character isn't a do-all or fantastic dps, doesn't mean they have no uses.  Except
		 CI Mei.



	1.iv. Gear
	Too much to list, but to be brief, all characters can be equipped with four types of gear: 1 weapon,
	and 3 stigmata pieces ([T]op, [M]iddle, [B]ottom)  When a character is released, they generally get a
	bespoke set of equipment designed for them.  Until later releases powercreep them, this gear is usually
	the absolute best choice for them - at the very least, their motif weapons are nearly mandatory.  You
	can mix and match if you don't have a character's full set, but you lose out on the set-completion synergy
	bonuses.  Essentially, read the stigmata texts in the ingame encyclopedia, and look for similar effects on
	farmable gear.  Cross-link to a quick overview of the gear you can grind for: https://pastebin.com/UWgvPnZs


	1.v. Crystals
	The jewish lifeblood of the game.  General income breakdown is as follows:

		F2P:
		Dalies:				    40/day					280/wk
		Weekly Login:			    						100/wk
		Armada Member:				    					25/wk
		Memorial Bosses:				    				100/wk
		Abyss (pre-lv81, bi-weekly, more if you promote, less if you relegate)
			Forbidden		    80/cycle					160/wk
			Sinful			    180/cycle					360/wk
			Agony			    260/cycle					520/wk
			Red Lotus		    420/cycle					840/wk
		Battle Pass:		    480/patch(45d avg)					~74/wk

		Paid Options:
		Monthly Crystal Card:		60/day+1330/mo					~730/wk
		Battle Pass:		    680/patch (45d avg)					~105/wk
		Top Up:			As much as you can spend, baby

	So, assuming Agony retention and buying the monthly card and battle pass,
	average income is ~8000/4wk.  This isn't counting events or first clear
	stage bonuses.  F2Pers get about ~4500/4wk with agony retention.

	If you can swing the ~11.5usd/month, it might be worth it to get the monthly card and/or
	battle pass (imo, knight pass is best.)  Assuming you login every day (do NOT miss a day,)
	monthly card gives 3130 total crystals (330 on purchase, 60/day for 30 days, 500/15
	days login- if you miss a day, you WILL lose the second 500)  Passes can stack, so you
	can buy multiple for the 330 crystal bonus if you need it RIGHT THE FUCK NOW - the
	length of active time will be increased by 30 days with each purchase, you still get
	only 60 crystal/day.

	Battle Pass comes in three flavors, F2P, Knight (Minnow), and Paladin (Dumb Whale).
	These passes give assorted items, crystals, and a special currency (Lucion,)
	that can be used to purchase specific older gacha gear.  This currency doesn't
	expire, so you can save it up until something you want is in the shop.

		Notable Battle Pass Rewards:
			F2P:
				480 Crystals
				2 Purple Lucion + 2 Purple Lucion/patch from Dormitory Shop
			Knight (in addition to above):
				680 Crystals
				520 Stigmata Resonators
				8 Purple Lucion (12/patch total, so 1.5 gacha stigmatas)
				Shit-tons of A-rank frags
				Fallen Rosemary Frags (v4.2-4.6)
				2.5 lv of pass/0.5 lv of bravo points per week
			Paladin (in addition to above):
				+20lv worth of pass EXP
				+10lv worth of bravo EXP
				3.5 lv of pass/0.7 lv of bravo points per week

	Note: If you want to buy the pass post v4.2, make certain to buy it early in the season.
	MiHoJew removed the overflow rewards post lv50 and added a 4 patch point ladder (bravo points)
	- knight+ gets bonus points per week towards this - this new system also serves to fuck you
	over if you don't play and have to buy the Paladin upgrade to finish the pass.

	Also, new colored Lucion is designed to fuck over F2Ps, since you can only get 16 of them without
	buying a pass before they rotate out in 4 patches.

	Essentially, get monthly card to save for limited valkyries, and/or the battle pass
	to fill out your gear collection.



	1.vii. Spending

	Save your fucking gems starting out.  It costs 28,000 to guarantee a new S-rank,
	and while the guarantee carries over to the next banner, you'll have a far better
	time if you have the newest powercreep.  Later in the game (lv 80+,) you can be a
	bit profligate, but without a solid base, it's going to suck.

	This does not apply to the first 25-pulls in dorm gacha, though.  Get your 2x guaranteed
	S-ranks from that (either by gems or by the dorm cards they throw at you as a new player,)
	then consider buying one or both Land of Wishes Eggs from the bonus tab.  Do NOT do land
	of wishes first - duplicate S-ranks only give a fraction of their value back, make sure
	you know what your guaranteed dorm S-ranks are before buying those eggs.

		Valks Available in Land of Wishes
		LoW 1 Egg:
			Knight Moonbeam / KMB:	On call dodge, which is nice.  Super useful with
						PRI Railguns, but you'll probably have time to
						farm her before lv. 80+

			Lightning Empress / LE:	Mandatory for HotF usage, big starting battery,
						best choice early-on.

			Dimension Breaker / DB:	Avoid, unless you magic both KMB and LE from the
						dorm gacha.

		LoW 2 Egg:
			Blood Rose / BR: 	Single target fire dps, but needs SS-rank and
						PRI Surtr.  Avoid unless you get PX from dorm.

			Goshinnso Memento / GM:	Good with her ice stick, shit without it.  Needs
						SS-rank/Schro T to do damage.  Avoid early game.

			Phoenix / PX:		No Brainer.  Get her here, then farm 100-frags from
						memorial.  Best all-purpose elemental supporter til
						3.7, and still the only farmable one.

	After getting your S-ranks, never spend on the dorm gacha again.  You get 2 dorm tickets
	per month as an armada member/3 per patch from errands, be satisfied with that.  Focus on
	getting your DPS good gear instead - don't bother trying for support
	gear until you have a perfect dps setup, it isn't worth it.

	NOTE: Above is slightly off now - with the rise of dual use sets like Shuijing and the addition
	of competitive damage stigs to bounty as G2-G3 items, your new focus should be on the motif weapon
	for your DPS (to unlock the new OP PRI arms MiHoYo is shilling each patch, and since most bounty
	weapons currently suck, barring PRI arm precursors,) and T1 support valks like AE, CH, YA/DK, SA, etc.
	Lv81+ abyss is mechanically designed to punish you, (e.g. spreading mobs on elemental boost floors that
	need AE to gather,) if you don't have a rounded roster of support units.



	1.vii. Endgame
	Abyss and Memorial are the two PvE endgame modes - most of your crystals will come from Abyss
	after you deplete the story stages, and all of your S-rank farming is done in memorial.  Learn
	to cruise Youtube/Bilibili for whales flexing on Memorial bosses and try to mimic with what you
	have.  Search for "崩坏3" to find chinese tryhards - you can infer alot by watching their
	memorial/abyss runs.

	Don't get sucked in to the idea that you need one more piece of equipment to be good.  This game
	needs a deep roster of gear for the endgame, blowing out for one piece of gear is moronic.  Except
	Newton [B] - buy at least two/three from the resonator shop when you have enough currency - never
	roll for it.



	1.viii. Notes
	Links are in the thread header - use them.
	EXP boosters are a trap - never use them.
	Join an armada (Play the Sim Battle, you lazy faggots.)
	Do your fucking cadet missions.
	You Lost, see line 1.