HoYoverse Announces Character Reworks for Kafka and Beloved Favorites in Honkai Star Rail Version 3.4

During a recent livestream, HoYoverse revealed an exciting update for Honkai Star Rail fans: a set of character reworks slated for release in HSR 3.4, aiming to revive some past favorites. The celebrated lineup—Kafka, Silver Wolf, Blade, and Jingliu—will undergo some changes in response to the community’s frequent calls for these once-dominant characters to be brought back into the spotlight. While HoYoverse hasn’t disclosed the specific details of these updates, the announcement alone has stirred up considerable excitement among players.

If everything goes according to the usual update cycle, we can expect HSR 3.4 to drop in early July 2025. When these characters were first introduced in 2023, they were hailed as top-tier additions to the game. Kafka, for instance, saw renewed popularity in 2024 thanks to new content, but recently, their performance has lagged. Characters like Jingliu need significant investment but don’t quite measure up in damage output. Meanwhile, Kafka’s synergy with other damage-over-time characters has diminished, and Mydei is seen as essentially a replication of Blade.

This phenomenon, often referred to as “powercreep,” where older characters become less relevant over time, is quite common in the world of gacha games. However, HoYoverse typically manages to keep its older characters viable for longer periods. Genshin Impact, another title from the same studio, still allows its early high-tier characters to thrive in current challenging scenarios. Similarly, Zenless Zone Zero enables players to tackle formidable foes with the initial trio of characters. Despite these games evolving over time, they maintain value for legacy characters.

But for Honkai Star Rail, it seems that only a select few will be receiving these revitalizing updates. Characters like Bailu, Yanqing, Natasha, Hook, and Welt appear to have been left behind, and there’s been no word on any forthcoming changes for them.

On another note, keep an eye out for update 3.2, which will offer players the opportunity to choose between two free 5-star characters, Ruan Mei or Luocha, adding a bit more anticipation to the game’s evolving landscape.