Our 7 favourite pop culture references in Honkai Star Rail
Finding these fun little easter eggs is honestly one of the reasons why Honkai: Star Rail has been such a hit with so many players.
Honkai: Star Rail has been a smash-hit for HoYoverse so far, with millions of players around the world busy with adventures across the universe aboard the Astral Express. Certain players are even choosing Honkai: Star Rail over playing professional matches in other games.
One of the big reasons why Honkai: Star Rail has been a hit with players is how fun it is.
On top of having a protagonist with an actual personality, the game is also teeming with tons of pop culture references and easter eggs that have both surprised and amused players who would get them.
Here are seven of our favourites!
Wind Glider, greatsword, phone case
Eagle-eyed HoYoverse fans noticed little callbacks to their previous titles. In a certain area in Herta Space Station, you will find a familiar looking Wind Glider as well as pieces of a broken greatsword. The Wind Glider comes from Genshin Impact while the greatsword pieces come from Honkai Impact 3rd.
Curiously enough, Honkai: Star Rail Himeko havers will have a unique interaction with the greatsword pieces, as it once belonged to her in Honkai Impact 3rd’s universe.
Pela havers would also notice that her phone case has familiar characters on them, that being the boys of NXX from HoYoverse’s Tears of Themis.
Players can find more references in other areas too. When interacting with certain areas that are unaccessible, there will be references to the "let's explore the area ahead of us later" line uttered by Genshin Impact's Paimon.
1, 2, 3, 1, 2, 3, drink!
When you interact with a certain researcher in Herta Space station who is counting, one of the dialogue options you can pick is quoting Sia’s 2014 hit song Chandelier, that being “1, 2, 3, 1, 2 , 3 drink!”
Rickrolled in outer space
Even HoYoverse has a knack for rickrolling their audience. A book you can collect called “Masked Fools: Elation” has a very curious introduction written by one named Ast Rickley (you know… Rick Astley…), the quoted text reads:
“Even an organization like the Masked Fools sing praises of their Aeon. The Aeon will never give you up, never let you down, or abandon you. They will never make you cry, say goodbye, or tell a lie and hurt you.”
You can check out the book here.
The first rule
When first encountering Hook and the Moles while in search for Dan Heng, she indulges you in a certain open secret of the adults, that being a “fight club”.
The dialogue options between you and March 7th will let the player say the most iconic line of the hit movie “Fight Club”, that being the first rule of Fight Club is to not talk about Fight Club.
“Forever and ever and ever and ever…”
One of the most out there references you’re going to experience is when knocking at all the doors of Belobog’s Goethe Grand Hotel.
If you listen closely to some of the muffled sounds, you will hear someone quoting lines from the classic horror movie “The Shining”.
The first door will have a Jack Torrance equivalent noting something about a certain room 237. Another door will yield you the sound of someone furiously slamming their fingers against a typewriter while muttering “All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy”.
While the next door will have you listen to a Wendy Torrance equivalent sob as Tony tells her “Danny isn’t here, Mrs. Torrance”.
After interacting with the rest of the doors (where one you can hear Jack and Wendy arguing about his nightmare about him wielding an axe, the sound of Danny’s ball hitting the floor in the other) you will get an undeniable chill down your spine as identical twins suddenly appear before you in the hallway, both uttering
“Come play with us…”, referencing the ghost of the Burns twins inviting Danny to play with them forever and ever and ever and ever…
I am the one who knocks
In the underworld branch of Goethe Grand Hotel, players will have an option of answering a survey regarding hotel service and quality for a Praise of High Morals trophy.
Upon leaving a name, players will have an option of choosing “Heisenberg”, a reference to the main character of the show ”Breaking Bad”.
Red pill or blue pill
Be warned about this section, there’s spoilers! But if you’ve already cleared all of the quests in Herta Space station, then you may know what we’re talking about.
In the quest “To The Faint Star”, a certain researcher named Rocky is pining for a girl named Lesley, whom he has yet to receive a reply about his confession.
Tasked with finding out if she had replied, a chain of events will bring us to Rocky’s mentor Bernard, who had withheld Lesley’s reply from Rocky in fear of his heartbreak, as a cosmic event had rendered the two literally star-crossed from each other.
He gives us an option in the form of a red or blue drive, an obvious callback to Neo’s choice of a red pill or blue pill from “The Matrix”.
If you're still just starting with Honkai: Star Rail or want to try the game out for yourself, we've got you covered!
You can check our beginner's guide, guide to building the starter characters, guide to its gacha system, and guide to building Seele, the game's first banner character.
Yan Ku is a full-time dog parent, part-time (gacha) gamer, and part-time writer.
For more esports news updates, visit https://yhoo.it/YahooEsportsSEA and check out Yahoo Esports Southeast Asia’s Facebook page and Twitter, as well as our Gaming channel on YouTube.
