Honkai: Star Rail: 10

3 hours ago 1

Published Jul 16, 2026, 1:26 PM EDT

Daniel Trock is a Contributor at DualShockers specializing in PC games, lists, and reviews. He has been writing professionally since 2018 and covering games since 2020, with previous work spanning guides, news, lists, and reviews across multiple publications.

Before joining DualShockers, Daniel contributed guides to GamerJournalist and lists to TheGamer. He currently covers tech topics for SlashGear and BGR. He holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Psychology from Marist College and a Master of Fine Arts in Creative and Professional Writing from Western Connecticut State University.

Over the last few years, many popular gacha and mobile games have found a pretty consistent path toward enticing users both new and current: crossover events. Ranging from simple costumes to full character inclusions and themed missions, these events are generally a treat for all involved, even if you aren’t already tuned into both involved IPs. For instance, Honkai: Star Rail, the only gacha game I like, has managed to secure two separate crossover events with Fate/Stay Night, culminating in multiple fully-voiced characters, new cinematic missions, and even permanent game modes. Archer even ended up being a top-tier Hunt unit.

Compared to the other bigshots in the gacha game scene, HoYo doesn’t dabble as much in crossover stuff, but when they do, they go pretty big with it. Considering how monumental the Fate collabs have been, I naturally can’t help but wonder what other games, anime, and other assorted IPs Star Rail could cross over with, either in similarly large capacities or in smaller ways like cosmetics. Though, personally, I’d prefer the former, because you didn’t have to pay real money for anything in the Fate collabs.

10 NieR: Automata

Hey, Everyone Else is Doing it

When it comes to IPs getting on the crossover wagon, few have been as ubiquitous as NieR: Automata. 2B has popped up in games across the spectrum, not just in gacha stuff like Nikke and Azur Lane, but even major releases like Stellar Blade and Soulcalibur VI. With that in mind, if HoYo ever wanted a fairly easy candidate for another crossover, I’d think NieR: Automata would be on the shortlist.

It’d be very interesting to see 2B and 9S in the Star Rail setting, primarily because it’s kind of an inverse of their own. Across Star Rail’s settled worlds, there are all kinds of mechanical lifeforms, from mechs to Intellitrons, and despite a well-documented war many years ago, they’re all living more or less on good terms now. It runs counter to everything a YoRHa android understands about the world, and it’d make for some interesting “what if” character writing. Plus, 2B would make a great Hunt unit with her massive arsenal of weaponry.

9 Street Fighter

Several Fighters Would Fit Right In

Most of Star Rail’s planets and major locales are inspired by particular countries or real-life analogs. Belobog is Space Eastern Europe, the Luofu is Space China, Amphoreus is Space Greece, and so on. Considering all of these different locales inspired by different nations, perhaps a multinational approach to a crossover is in order, and it doesn’t get much more multinational than Street Fighter.

Street Fighter’s characters have been slipping all over time and space in crossovers for decades; they’re basically used to it by now. We don’t really need to think about the “why” of it, so we can focus more on the what. Specifically, we could have Chun-Li clobbering dudes aboard the Luofu, Zangief showing off his muscles on the cold streets of Belobog, Manon turning heads on the billboards of Penacony, and Marisa busting dudes Pankration-style on the streets of Amphoreus. Or, well, she could, if Amphoreus weren’t currently locked in a state of nonexistence.

8 Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End

Frieren and Herta Could Have Some Interesting Chats

While your first pick for a crossover subject with Star Rail would probably be something with a similar sci-fi-fantasy slant, the Fate crossover shows us that’s hardly a hard requirement. Star Rail has plenty of its own magic-adjacent systems, not to mention multiple means of conjuring literal fictional characters out of nowhere, so it’s not especially hard to conceive of a high fantasy character like Frieren dropping by for a visit.

Frieren has all the makings of a Genius Society-level Pathstrider of Erudition. She loves books and learning, even if the knowledge she accumulates doesn’t have any obvious practical value. Obviously, she’s a lot nicer than someone like Herta, though I think the two of them could have some very interesting interactions. After all, they’re both legends in their fields, they’re both impossibly powerful, and they’re both a lot older than they look. Admittedly, I’m not sure if we could concoct a story mission to go with Frieren’s presence, but knowing her, she’d be content to just hang out for a while until someone figures out how to send her back to where she’s supposed to be.

7 Guilty Gear

The Aesthetic’s Pretty Similar

The power systems used by Star Rail’s characters are nearly as dense as the lore itself, if not moreso. Half the stuff these people do seem completely incomprehensible even with the blanket excuse of “Path energy,” but it all looks cool enough that you just don’t feel particularly inclined to question any of it. That’s a very similar kind of rule-of-cool aesthetic to Guilty Gear, come to think of it.

Much like Star Rail’s characters, Guilty Gear’s characters wield a myriad of wild, seemingly impossible abilities, with the explanation generally being “it’s magic, don’t worry about it,” so we could probably just skip the explanations and have them start pummeling folks right away. The tricky part is that, unlike Street Fighter, we have less of an overt multinational tinge here, so we might need to try a little harder to match characters to appropriate locales. Not that much harder, mind you; as long as we get the major faces like Sol, Ky, and maybe May, the rest will just work itself out.

6 Hatsune Miku

Aha’s Favorite Emanator

Hatsune Miku: Project DIVA Mega Mix+

If ever there were a universal force of positivity and good in this world or any other, it’d be Hatsune Miku. Every Miku is canon, and every Miku is beloved. In fact, Miku has already been used in promotional material for Star Rail, appearing in music videos celebrating the game’s third anniversary. While those music videos were cute, though, I think it’s a wasted opportunity not to have Miku appear in the actual game.

For starters, Miku’s whole shtick, that being a sort of infinite diva loved by anyone and everyone, is surprisingly thematically consistent with Star Rail’s mythos. She’s not dissimilar from Robin, who channels the power of Harmony into her own successful singing career, nor Sparkle and Sparxie, who regularly change their identities for laughs. She’s got the vibes of the Elation nailed down. Rather than Elation, though, she would make an excellent Harmony unit, uniting her team in song and providing various buffs. Maybe she and Robin could have compounding effects if both their songs are playing at the same time!

5 The Eminence in Shadow

Cid’s Got the Flash Factor

Part of what I like about Star Rail is its exceptionally dense lore, though I admit it can be an acquired taste. The game throws a lot of proper nouns and high concepts at you from the get-go, and it can be kind of hard to wrap your head around if you’re not used to it. If we want a crossover character, it may be good to get someone who’s already well-versed in high-concept gobbledygook, and one of the best guys for the job is my favorite isekai’d tryhard, Cid from The Eminence in Shadow.

Cid’s whole shtick is that he’s stupidly overpowered, yet almost comically ignorant of the machinations of the fantasy world around him, preferring instead to act like a grand-scale villain rather than actually question anything. Knowing what I do of Star Rail, a guy like that could actually get very far by just faking it til it makes it, though unlike in his home series, Cid would be on par with some of Star Rail’s combatants, particularly those like Welt or Kafka. He’d also make a perfect Destruction unit, busting out his slime cape for his skills and the old “I AM ATOMIC” for his Ult.

4 Mobile Suit Gundam

Welt Would Love It

Giant mechs have had an established presence in Star Rail more or less since the beginning, from the ruins of the Engine of Creation on Jarillo-VI to Himeko Nova’s trusty companion, Starblazer. Of course, Welt is the biggest sucker for all things mecha, having previously been a mecha anime artist, and we got to see him have a major geek out in the Mechatron factory in Planarcadia. I think Welt deserves something fun, and if we get a cool Gundam crossover in the process, who’s complaining?

Now, here’s the tricky question: assuming we take this further than simple cosmetics like Char’s helmet, which Gundam, and which pilot, would be the subject of the crossover? The easiest answer is the classic RX-78-2 with Amuro Ray, but Amuro’s not much of a hand-to-hand combatant, so he wouldn’t work that great as a unit outside his Gundam. I think, if we need someone who can fight on the ground as well as in a Gundam for an Ult, the best choice would probably be G Gundam’s Domon Kasshu. Either him or Master Asia and Master Gundam.

3 Like a Dragon

We Need More Grizzled Old Dudes

There’s a particular type of character that is woefully underutilized in Star Rail’s roster: grizzled middle-aged dudes. I know, it’s the young, pretty guys who make the big gacha bucks, but despite being kind of scraggly, characters like Gallagher and Ashveil still manage to be incredibly popular. If we need an easy source of extra grizzled brawlers to add to the pile, I can think of a quality one: Like a Dragon.

Kazama Kiryu may not have any overt superhuman abilities, but his sheer butt-kicking potential can more than make up the difference, especially if he were enhanced with Destruction-path mojo. It wouldn’t even be strange for him to randomly show up somewhere like Planarcadia; he was in Project X Zone 2 with Majima, so it wouldn’t be the first time he got dumped somewhere seemingly above his purview. If not Kiryu, then Kasuga would work just as well. Don’t even act like he wouldn’t have a little Dragon Quest fanboy freakout over encountering real fantasy adventurers like the Nameless.

2 Onimusha

Hire a Samurai

Onimusha: Way of the Sword

It’s kind of surprising that Star Rail hasn’t really gotten any overtly samurai-inspired characters yet, likely because we haven’t visited any Japan-inspired planets. There are samurai-adjacent characters like Acheron, sure, and ninja wannabes like Rappa, but no proper sandal-wearing samurai. Until we finally get to visit Edo Star, the next best move would be to borrow a samurai from elsewhere. Say, hasn't Onimusha made a comeback...?

A crossover with Star Rail would be a great way for Capcom to promote Onimusha: Way of the Sword and its revival of the franchise. Musashi would obviously need a bit of a facelift to be less realistic and more anime-ish, but beyond that, his sword skills and demonic empowerment would fit right in with other sword-wielding characters like Blade and Jingliu. He’d admittedly be a bit out of place without a feudal Japan-inspired planet to appear on, but worst-case scenario, we could just dump him in Fyxestroll Garden on the Luofu and let him slash up the ghosts.

1 Kamen Rider

Zeztz would be Perfect for Penacony

Studio

Genre

Release Date

Toei Company

Tokusatsu

September 2025

In the same vein as mech stuff, tokusatsu shows are an established staple of pop culture in the Star Rail setting. Planarcadia’s most popular daytime TV show, the Daybreak Squadron, is a Super Sentai sendup, with its actors even pulling double-duty as actual peacekeepers in Duomension City. Heck, Welt once mentioned the tokusatsu genre by name in a promo for Firefly. If tokusatsu’s already on the table, we might as well get one of the grand daddies of the genre in the mix, Kamen Rider.

As with Gundam, there are a lot of Kamen Riders to choose from, and it could be a little hard to narrow it down to just one. However, as it happens, the 2025-2026 Rider series, Kamen Rider Zeztz, is set in a world of dreams. You know what else is set in a world of dreams? Penacony. Penacony’s dreamy setting, alongside its bombastic, big-city atmosphere, would mesh perfectly with Zeztz’s super spy aesthetics, and the devs could probably reuse some assets from the Daybreak Squadron to put a character model for him together.

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