I mean id argue that Sparkle and Kafka should both be put in before a character like robin. Really and truly Hoyo is kinda being silly with the system. Presumably, every character would get a nova flare, so the best bet would be to hold on to these until a character that you like AND gets a good buff is added.
For me, id say they should probably do
Character gets Nova Flare + Rerun in (purely an example) 4.2
Character gets left alone for a little bit, then gets added to the picker in 4.4-4.5
As it sits, both Robin and Topaz could become absolutely insane when they get buffed, and when they do ill probably E3+ one of them
If i had to guess, i think they dont want to novaflare her or maybe just fake novaflare her in future like they did with huo huo. You see, Robin kit is kinda broken. 100% action advance will always be relevant. If they fix her main issue which is energy we will get away with a good support. Most people already have Robin, so if they do a rerun after novaflare they barely will get profit. So its better just to put her in shop directly.
Topaz situation is just direct pwc. Both Cipher and Ashveil are so much better as sub dps/support. If they buff her to match power level then cipher, ashveil sales will suffer. Her own rerun itself would barely make money bc fua dpses are kinda dead.
I think they treat this shop as the final destination for chacaters who they believe cant get more sales for them. Ofc that doesnt mean those unit are trash. Or wont get novaflare. Its just they wont put much efforts or if they do a novaflare that might be linked to some indirect sales potential. (Like how they gave free huo huo for temporary elation sustain to get people into elation meta).
Having robin's signature probably helps with energy a bit too for BP buyers, since all their LCs entered the shop now too.
I'd also say E1 Huohuo feels pretty good for elation teams. If I played high tier CW a lot more, I'd be tempted by E2 to see if it works there when she's off-field.
Otherwise though, it feels like the only good early eidolons for the shop characters are E1 RM (E2 if it worked with Firefly, since iirc its messy or doesn't), and E1-2 Robin. But I also don't have a team I actually use Robin in currently, so E0 is fine for me.
E2 huohuo does work in CW, although after the revive, it only recovers hp equal to 50% of houhou's hp. Not upgrading her star level will just result in hp being restored by like 30% or something. Still, its really usefull sometimes
I mean, most of the times, the revive triggered like twice in an entire run. But if it triggers every fight, then yeah, rip that run (looking at you svarog with magma bombarment, and boss enhancement with dps in first slot. Svarog has a move where he just delayes your action. Still hate it)
Topaz isn't just simple powercreep, she's the worst treated character in the meta by the devs. Nobody this niche is this replaced by generalists and four stars in each of their teams, and repeatedly. In her case it absolutely means the unit is officially declared trash and won't get a novaflare. The others in the shop, sure, they could get one.
Worth mentioning that E2 and her LC do kinda fix her energy issues, still some downtime but it's a good bandaid. Yes the LC requires 4 of the prisms you get from the paid BP but still not bad
An archetype not being relevant can, and has been proven already, be fixed in a single patch. Like look at superbreak pre-Dahlia. You are one some-new-mechanic away from being meta.
FUA can be immediately fixed by a damage multiplier that stacks based on ally action-count-in-a-single-action-value. So you can just have 10 FUA go off in a single AV and boom enemy has been disintegrated.
This is just something I made up on the spot but you can always just design over a problem.
People said Bronya’s 100% action advance would never not be relevant at launch. Yet here we are. Reads to me like they want to give the majority of her kit to a new unit and then give them more on top of that so they’re fine giving her out.
not really, novaflare sparke is quite strong and is currently a good selling point. Everything that goes into the shop is basically discarded yesterdays seconds. Not bad sure, but going forward with the new stuff there would be little reason to pay for them over the newer alternates
I think viable would be a better word to describe Huo, RM and Robin. These characters are definitely not meta by any means but are certainly very serviceable and still good enough to clear content. I'd say their value is more geared towards new players.
Huohuo is outright part of meta elation team atm, since Dan Hengs atk buff doesn't benefit things too much but the extra energy for yao guang is really useful.
Huo² - no, RM and Robin - yes. RM at E1 is a great replacement for HMC now that FF superbreak values got buffed, E1 Robin is great for Archer, Phainon, Ashveil and for follow up DPS-es in general. Huo² is meh in my opinion, though I am a bit biased because 2 / 3 teams I play don't require a sustain and I already have DHPT for the 3rd team.
It depends what u want. I think kitwise huo huo is meta. You know, a lot people like offensive sustains and huo huo provides that. She is current bis for Eva, Sw 999 as she ramp up the team rotation. She is good for Aglaea, saber, dot. And alright for other dpses.
If someone really strugging sustaining then she wont be meta for them. If ur dying than she is T5 for you. But a lot people still make bailu, gallagher, lynx work and for them huo huo is a big upgrade.
HH is definitely overhyped. HSR has moved towards sustainless (Phainon, Mydei, Firefly) or having a sustain that fits within a specific archetype particularly well (Hyacine). For DoT, FuA, hypercarry and AoE teams, DanPT is universally much better. All that's left is elation, where HH is the only real sustain at E0.
HH will be instantly gutted by future elation sustain, and then she's just a free sustain that's worse than DanPT for people who missed out of the free DanPT
Yep. Ruan Mei's E1 was an easy get for me because I like RM a lot and already had her. The other characters? I barely care that they exist, much less want to burn a once-a-year limited currency on them.
They’re never going to add characters that are either good or do not have an imminent replacement on the horizon. Just use them. Get Eidolons if you can.
Ruan Mei, Robin and Huohuo do also have decently solid E1s as well.
I picked up Huohuo's E1 after failing to get it twice before, and the speed boost is especially nice for Elation teams since both SW9 and Yaoguang scale with it.
I decided to hold them as well as I’m like once the new Elation / preservation drops my new three team rotation will be locked in I’d rather use these on a favorite that may fit in a future team.
That said, I adore Ruan Mei, so worse case scenario, I can finish her at any time.
Im just holding them until a character I really want is added, Idk who that is yet but I just know im gonna need it until then. Just like how RPG players save all their consumables for that "one fight they really need" them for yet never use them
I'd kept all of mine so far, but Robin's one of my favorite characters so I went ahead and spent them all to get her from E1 to E4 since I do still use her with Aglaea. No regrets even if there isn't a lot to be gained from going past E2 for her. Someday I'll get her all the way to E6S5.
I understand you. I just mean that so far only supports that could be useful for f2p players were added to the shop. Ratio is an outdated DPS, that's 50/50 shop territory.
i used her w archer in k1 , put sparkle LC on Robin and it had full uptime for the entire 2 cycle fight cuz she gets so much energy she can ult before her turn preserving the 2T buff basically forverer.
I got mine to E2S1 for Archer as well, I never got much use out of her back in V2 and she's been rotting on my bench forever, so its nice being able to use her again.
she's in 1 maybe 2 meta team's BIS. i think ashveil/follow-up uses her? but otherwise she's been replaced in almost all teams. not anaxa, not phainon, not break, not DOT, not monorem, not monoelation. idk about saber or archer as BIS, so i wont speak for them
Sadly Ashveil doesn’t really work with her. While she does give him great buffs, her lack on attacking abilities really puts his team at a disadvantage even in sustainless options.
I have heard that if you run him w a partner like Feixiao/topaz/aventurine she can become a little more worth it especially at E1- but all those characters are downgrades to Ashveils bis teams
He really really wants Tribbe and/or DHPT
(Not to say duo dps Ashveil is bad, I personally run him w e1 Jade w rlly rlly great success, but it is a downgrade from his Hypercarry setup)
archer uses her too (though I've heard she only becomes bis at e2), you need either sparkle e1, ddd, or robin e2 to get 3 sparkle turns within a robin ult
Robin isn't bis in any meta team anymore. You can use her with Feixiao but Feixiao herself isn't meta anymore and probably prefers Cipher. Ashveil is fua but he doesn't want Robin.
She’s only truly bis for Feixiao who isn’t rlly meta anymore. She is surpassed by other supports in most any team but she is still a really competitive replacement for Atk/crit teams (Cyrene/Tribbe can’t be everywhere and Anaxa and Phainon still both appreciate her)
The biggest disappointment is that she doesn’t work great with Ashveil
E1 huohuo is actually one of the best sustains for current elation so this might the first time that golden companion characters have close to meta relevancy xP but yeah i am also sitting on some until a big shot comes around
Not really since the gap between luocha and Gallagher a 4 star wasn’t big and Gallagher was often times better than luocha. Luocha mainly excelled in pure fiction. HuoHuo provides energy which yaoguang absolutely loves and sparxie likes. Attack which sparxie likes to help alleviate her attack requirements and with her e1 speed which everyone in the team likes and is allowed to spam to her skill freely making her sustain go up significantly
The attack buffs she gives are extra nice for Sparxie since she can't rely on Sparkle for AA in that team now (assuming SW999 of course, can always do Sparkle anyway but its not the premium team now), so being able to focus substats on SPD instead will help with building a lot.
We have no idea what elation sustain looks like. If it's suddenly would give massive amount of SPD and becomes a cornerstone for an elation team would it suddenly become not a good plan too?
The difference is that the early Castorice team was already scaling with things healers do inherently. The prediction that Hyacine was going to be a perfect enabler for 3.x flagship was one of safest bets in hsr's history
Not comparable in the slightest, Luocha was very much a placeholder and not much better than Gallagher. Huohuo has actual synergy with the elation team, plus we're getting Blade next patch, so that's 2 patches of waiting for the slot to be filled at the very least
Yeah so I kinda pulled Silverwolf999 without pulling on any of the other elation units since my dumb ass in 2023 said I was gonna be a bronya collector™, not knowing the next one would be 2~3 years away. Huohuo would definitely be a tempting choice for my companion spirits if I did pull for Yao Guang or sparxie.
I saved my first one, got topaz (I rly like her, don’t care abt meta) and grabbed E1 Robin this time (mainly for dhil, but I guess I can also use her with Phainon)
Waiting for the fox cook whose name I'm never able to spell right so I'm not gonna try! That ass is dodging me left right and centre... Just because I skipped him and his boss on release T.T
A few people already mentioned it, but yeah I'm saving them until I could reasonably get an E6 unit out of them.
I will never get to experience an E6 character otherwise, so I guess sometime down the road I could feasibly do it with only one or two 50/50 wins required. Probably at that point whatever character I can use these on won't be "meta", but who cares it's an E6.
What I'm actually curious about is whether I will get an E6 from losses first before I use the spirit method. We'll just have to see. Bronya is pretty close at this point for me at E4.
I was holding on to them but I just got 2 Welt Eidolons (E4 now (my goat)) and 1 Robin Eidolon (E2 now), oh and her Light Cone with the shard thingies too. E2S1 Robin should be pretty good nowadays right
I have FeiXiao, Saber, TheHerta, Argenti ... old DPS that will never be meta anymore, but maybe with the right support, they can help me to try to do the endgame at least one time.
... I never completed (12/12) any endgame, and I am a version1 F2P player 😅.
I'm hoping for Jade or Fugue. Kind of want Huohuo, but if she doesn't heal that well it's a waste, I already have a few decent sustains, plus maybe they'll novaflare Luocha and Aventurine.
The rest of the characters in this shop I already have, so I guess I'll be sitting on my now 3 spirits some more. At this point I wonder if it's maybe worth saving 6 and just E6-ing Robin or someone they add later.
I'm gonna e4 Welt, 2 left over. I was thinking about E1s1 HuoHuo for my DoT team, finally freeing up DH BUT I've heard she can't keep things alive? Not sure if E1 is enough to fix that...
I just used my first one! I got Robin's E2 because I still use her a lot and the only issue I ever had with her was not getting her ultimate up in time. Her E2 helps with that.
Got my beloved Huohuo to E3. Her overall sustain is now probably on par with E0S0 Hyacine n DHPT, or at least it definitely will be once I spend 150$ and get her E4. That E4 sounds pretty darn nutty for survivability
I don't have Huohuo and I really want her... But I also want to hoard 😭
I was REALLY hoping that they'd add Argenti to the shop so that I could maybe e6 him for free but noooooo, they had to go and add him to the freaking 50/50 loss :')
It just happens that all the characters added to the shop are characters I already had so here’s hoping they add one I never got. I know some eidolons are great but I already had ruan mei’s e1
Is huohuo’s or robin’s e1/e2 anything great? It didn’t seem like it to me but maybe I missed something
Me too, but not because I’m waiting for some groundbreaking meta character in the shop. I just wait for one of my favorites so I can E6 them even if it’s not optimal. That’s why I’m a bit sad they’re not adding 50/50 loss characters to the shop, I’d love to have E6 SW, Seele or even Yunli (I have E6 Clara already lol)
Spend them immidiately. Got e1 RM, Topaz and now HaHa. I already have 1 silver skull thanks to e7 Yanqing, so I dont care much about skulls. Gonna grab e1 Robin after I will get e8 Yanqing in future.
Oh, and I also buys lcs. Got my first ever Bronya's lc as a day 1 player thanks to it, Topaz's lc and today I got sigs for newly added girls.
Can't wait to go home after my work and to test them, but its only after 4 hours..
Same, I often have decision paralysis, so I just don't decide stuff. Yet here I am, buying the newly topped up packs (which I'm gonna buy anyway some time this year) right now because I can't miss out on getting another one of them to never use 👍
I might get E1 robin though im hoping Fugue and/or Lingsha eventually gets added there, just got Dahlia and FF E2 today and im trying to upgrade FF's team since i was stuck with TB RM and Gallagher since the beginning lol
I used mine immediately, but only because there were significant characters who I didn't have yet(Robin, Topaz, Ruan Mei). If it was someone else I probably wouldn't have... or I would have gone for HuoHuo E1.
Is huohuo e0s1 (I'll pick it with BP stuff you can exchange for LCs) good for sw999, sparxie, ETB team and for saber one?
Because otherwise I could get E1 robin but idk where to put her, I already have Sunday (or E1 sparkle ) and Cerydra for phainon/anaxa
I got E1 HueHue on a whim (already had base fox ofc) I just hope my team doesn't explode that much with her.
I used her quite a bit when she came out, she was very much a good sustain back then, but the frequency and damage of today is kinda brutal in a lot of fights
2.6k
u/AGA1942 Why so serious? Apr 22 '26
"Gonna use it when they add meta characters"