Honkai: Star Rail reveal upcoming characters Acheron, Black Swan in Penacony sneak peak

The Honkai: Star Rail stellar hype train is ramping up, as developer HoYoverse has unveiled Acheron and Black Swan as two new playable characters coming with the game's next planet, Penacony, in version 2.0!

HoYoverse gave players their first look at Penacony in the "A Story That Never Grows Dull" trailer that premiered on Friday (8 December) during The Game Awards 2023. Honkai: Star Rail notably won the Best Mobile Game award, with players getting 1,600 Stellar Jade in celebration.

Penacony will be the next world in the Astral Express' journey across the stars after the Herta Space Station, Belobog, and the Xianzhou Luofu. Penacony is known as the Planet of Festivities and is inhabited by a faction known as ‘the Family’, which follows Xipe the Aeon of Harmony.

The planet was supposed to be the Astral Express' next destination after Belobog before they were diverted to the Xianzhou Luofu when the Stellaron Hunter Kafka informed the crew of a Stellaron Crisis happening in the worldship.

The reason why the Astral Express was going to Penacony is that the Family issued a formal invitation to many of the galaxy's factions for the first time in its history, which should also explain the presence of Acheron and Black Swan in the planet.

But enough about Penacony, all eyes are on the two mysterious beauties Acheron and Black Swan, so here's everything we know about them so far!

Acheron

In the Penacony teaser, Acheron introduced herself as a member of the Galaxy Rangers, a group that travels around the cosmos to uphold justice and protect innocents.

Acheron is notably also the name of a river in Greece that is believed to be one of the rivers of the underworld in Greek mythology, also known as the 'river of pain'.

Fans of other HoYoverse games should see a very familiar face in Acheron, as she seems to be Honkai: Star Rail's version of Honkai Impact 3rd's Raiden Mei and Genshin Impact's Raiden Ei, also known as the Raiden Shogun.

Acheron, Raiden Mei, and Raiden Ei all share striking similarities, as they all have purple hair and eyes and wield a katana in battle.

Both Raiden Mei and Raiden Ei also have electricity powers, with Raiden Mei being the Herscherr of Thunder in Honkai Impact 3rd and Raiden Ei being the Electro Archon in Genshin Impact. Therefore, we can also expect Acheron to wield the Lightning element in Honkai: Star Rail, though her Path is still unknown.

The connection between Acheron and the two Raidens can also be seen in their voice actresses.

In the game's Japanese dub, Acheron is voiced by Miyuki Sawashiro, who is also the voice actress for both Raiden Mei and Raiden Ei. However, Acheron is not voiced by Anne Yatco, the voice actress of Raiden Ei, in the English dub and is instead voiced by Allegra Clark, who notably voiced another Genshin Impact character in Beidou.

With Raiden Mei and Raiden Ei both being huge fan favourites in their respective games, we already expect Acheron to have built up quite a fan club for herself this early on. I should know, I am one of them. With beauties like Kafka and Serval also wielding the Lightning element, Lightning enjoyers sure are eating good.

Black Swan

While the Penacony teaser marked Black Swan's first appearance with an in-game render, this is not the first time that she has graced Trailblazers with her presence. She first appeared in the "Myriad Celestia Trailer: Fables About the Stars" in May, where she told players about the various Aeons of Honkai: Star Rail.

Black Swan is a Memokeeper of the Garden of Recollection, a faction that worships the Aeon of Remembrance Fuli. Members of the Garden of Recollection surrender their worldly bodies and travel the cosmos in the form of memories to order to find and collect the most precious memories of the universe's many beings — all in an effort to ensure the universe is remembered should it fall to destruction.

Black Swan isn't the first member of the Garden of Recollection that we meet. Our first encounter with them is in the form of the mysterious 'Messenger', an NPC with the body of a woman but with her face hidden behind a mask that introduces the Trailblazer to the Forgotten Hall.

Unlike the Messenger, Black Swan's face isn't hidden, which may hint at her being a higher-ranking member of the Garden of Recollection. Instead, Black Swan wears a veil and appears more like a fortune teller, even using what looks like tarot cards as she talks about the Aeons in the Fables About the Stars trailer.

We can only guess as to what element or Path Black Swan will be, but we're still excited to see what she brings to Honkai: Star Rail's story and gameplay!

With HoYoverse confirming that Penacony will be released in version 2.0, we can expect that the upcoming version 1.6 will be the last update before the Astral Express finally heads to a new planet!

Version 1.6 is expected to be released on 27 December. Assuming that it will have the usual 40-day duration, then we can expect version 2.0 in early February 2024.

Honkai: Star Rail is currently in the second half of version 1.5 with the Physical Erudition character Argenti as the banner 5-star character. The second half of this update also feature the debut of the 4-star Physical Harmony character Hanya.

Version 1.6 in December will also see the release of three new characters in Ruan Mei, Dr. Ratio, and Xueyi.

Yan Ku is a full-time dog parent, part-time (gacha) gamer, and part-time writer.

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