The Best Way To Play Honkai: Star Rail

I have to confess. I do have quite the gaming addiction when it comes to Mihoyo, or now known as, Hoyoverse. It definitely all started with Genshin Impact and honestly, it is an amazing game. But recently, they’ve launched yet another new IP that perhaps tug at the heartstrings of many veteran players. We’re talking about Honkai: Star Rail, the next series that’ll add on to the immensely deep lore that is Honkai.

Now if you’re a fan of Honkai Impact 3rd, Honkai: Star Rail isn’t anything like it.

Honkai Star: Rail adopts the turn-based strategy mechanic which is a huge change in gameplay for sure, but it retains the 4th-wall breaking, fun, whimsical, light-hearted nature while marrying that to the deeply engaging story that Honkai is known for. If you’re a fan of turn-based games with a really powerful and interesting story with lovable characters, definitely give Honkai: Star Rail a try.

But now you might be asking, what are the ways you can actually go about playing Honkai: Star Rail and are there any key differences in the experience? Well, that’s what this video is about so let’s quickly get into it.

The first option is something that pretty much all of us should have access to, and that’s your smartphone. Honkai: Star Rail is available to play on either Android or iOS so pretty much any smartphone should be able to run it and get you up and running. In fact, playing it on mobile makes you part of the majority and it is also a big reason as to why Honkai: Star Rail and Genshin Impact are so popular.

It’s just that readily accessible.

And don’t worry, you can still get a really decent experience even with a budget smartphone such as the Poco X5 Pro 5G which features the Snapdragon 778G. It’s a phone that costs just about US$300 or roughly S$400.

In terms of the actual resolution rendered, we don’t actually know the exact numbers as with most other games on mobile. But in general, it should be somewhere in the neighbourhood of 720P once you hit the High preset.

With the Poco X5 Pro 5G, we would however suggest using the Medium preset and setting the FPS to 60. Overall, this setting provides a good balance between visual quality and performance, whether you’re exploring in the overworld or in combat.

If you would like to enjoy the best Honkai: Star Rail has to offer on Android however, definitely go with a powerful smartphone such as the Redmagic 7S Pro which features a Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1. Here, you can basically run Honkai: Star Rail on the Very High preset setting with the FPS set to 60.

The visual quality is noticeably better as compared to our budget smartphone and the frame rate is going to be much more consistent.

Next, we do have the iPhone 14 Plus here while you’ll essentially be able to run Honkai: Star Rail on the Very High preset with the FPS set to 60, just like with the Redmagic, it is interesting to note that the resolution rendered seems to be just a hair lower on iOS as compared to Android.

Again, we aren’t too sure of the exact differences but there are pros and cons here. While the iPhone produces a very slightly less sharp image, it does however provide a much more consistent 60 frames per second no matter what you do or where you are in game.

Essentially, no matter which camp you’re in, you’ll be able to enjoy Honkai: Star Rail. But let’s take it a step further, so let’s head down.

This here is a USB-C hub which has HDMI output and this here is a Lightning to HDMI adapter. With either of this adapters, depending on your device, you can actually play Honkai: Star Rail on the big screen. So let’s do that! All you have to do is really simple. Simply plug in the appropriate adapter to your smartphone, plug in a HDMI cable from the adapter to your TV and there you go. Simple as that.

Honestly, if you’ve yet to try it, it’s a pretty surreal experience. But of course, it isn’t perfect.

For one, the resolution that’s being outputted to the TV is still the same as what’s being rendered natively on your smartphone. So essentially, you’re driving a 720P image onto a 4K display here and it definitely is far from the definition of sharp. And two, Honkai: Star Rail unfortunately doesn’t support controllers as of yet. That means that in order to interact and actually play the game, you have to be holding onto your smartphone. You might also find it somewhat difficult to be precise while looking at your TV and tapping on your screen.

Though you might be surprised that you can get pretty good at it with some practice. Even so, you're playing Honkai: Star Rail on the big screen, all powered by just your smartphone and that’s pretty amazing.

But now let’s take it up a notch and here, we have the iPad Pro.

One thing about Honkai: Star Rail and even Genshin Impact for that matter, is the fact that if you’re using an iPhone or iPad with a 120Hz refresh rate, you can actually run the game at 120 frames per second. Something which even the PC client do have access to as of yet.

Why that is so, is beyond us.

Anyways, here with the iPad Pro with M1 and it runs Honkai: Star Rail admirably. You can basically max all the settings out at 120 frames per second and it looks and feels incredible. Part of that is also due to the fact that if you’re using an iPad Pro, Honkai: Star Rail does push a resolution of 1080P or higher, which means the visual quality is absolutely stellar on this 12.9” display.

But again here, you can technically take it up a notch by plugging in a USB-C hub and running it off HDMI to your TV. As with the phones, there still isn’t support for controllers here which is a bummer but you’re getting way better visual quality and performance. Though whether the aspect ratio is of fancy is really up to preference.

Thankfully however, with the recent 1.1 update, Hoyoverse has now implemented controller support for iOS and so you can now simply hook up an Xbox controller and play Honkai: Star Rail on the iPad Pro.

But now we have probably the ultimate way to experience Honkai: Star Rail.

This here is the ROG Ally with the AMD Ryzen Z1 Extreme and don’t let its looks fool you. It is actually a full blown Windows 11 PC that you can take on the go with built-in controls no less.

And here’s the best part. The PC version of Honkai: Star Rail does have full controller support.

So you can just pick the ROG Ally up and just play at the highest possible settings at full 1080P and it looks amazing on the 7” IPS display. But say you want to just chill on your sofa. Simply plug in a USB-C hub, connect the HDMi to your TV and pair an Xbox controller via Bluetooth.

And that right there is a home console. Honkai: Star Rail on a 55” 4K TV running at proper 1080P with everything setting dialed up to the max without a single drop in frame rate. It’s an amazing experience unlike anything else. And perhaps the best part. The ROG Ally is way more affordable than the iPad Pro. A little something to think about.

Ultimately however, no matter which platform you’re playing on, Honkai: Star Rail is still immensely fun and the fact that it’s so readily accessible makes it really easy to get into.

Though of course, whether or not you’re fan of gacha in general is probably a story for another day.

So have you been gaming lately? And what device do you primarily use and spend the most time on? Feel free to leave a comment down below. Don’t forget to subscribe to us and like this video and follow us on all our social channels. See ya!