Hoyoverse surprised everyone with a special announcement during their latest Special Program livestream for Honkai: Star Rail. Dr. Ratio suddenly appeared, announced that everyone would get a copy of him in the next patch, and suddenly vanished as quickly as he appeared. And no, the man was not kidding.
What seemed like an unreal joke at first was real, and everyone will be getting their own free 5-star character during the next patch. No, this is not a drill! This is a special thank-you gift for all the recent prize nominations that Honkai: Star Rail received in the last few weeks, such as Best Mobile Game on The Game Awards.
The curious part is that Dr. Ratio is one of the new upcoming characters for the 1.6 version. The 5-star Imaginary Hunt character will make his debut during the update’s second half, which is precisely the day when the in-game mail gifting him arrives.
To claim him, all you need to do is unlock the email function, which is done halfway through the tutorial section. Players have enough time to pre-farm for him, and given that he’s a limited character, he’s bound to be stronger than your average Standard Banner 5-star.
The announcement was particularly shocking for Genshin Impact veterans. Those resilient souls have recently been frustrated with the lackluster rewards for their game’s third anniversary, while the younger sibling gets all the shiny stuff. Players have lashed out their frustration in comments, but while this is the same company, the game’s teams are completely unrelated and chances are that nothing will be done to “make up” for that.
And giving out this character brings the stakes even higher for HSR’s upcoming anniversary next year. Rumors about giving out a standard 5-star character were already popular before, and will probably get even stronger from here on out. Hoyoverse hasn’t said a thing yet and probably won’t until next April, but everyone has high hopes for the future, so let’s just wait for the best.
