Honkai: Star Rail Power Creep Sparks Player Backlash: Are Early Characters Really Useless Now?

Over the past few weeks, Honkai: Star Rail has found itself at the center of a storm brewing in the player community. The cause? A growing feeling that the game’s early characters — the ones players invested time, resources, and even emotional attachment into — are now being pushed into irrelevance.

As power creep becomes more and more noticeable, long-time players are beginning to ask the painful question:

"Are my favorite characters from the early game completely useless now?"

Power Creep : What’s Really Happening?

For those new to the term, power creep refers to the gradual increase in the strength of new characters, items, or mechanics in a game — to the point where older content becomes obsolete. In Honkai: Star Rail, players are beginning to feel this very tangibly.

Here’s what that looks like in-game:

- Early characters struggle to keep up with newer content (Deep Dive, Memory of Chaos, Simulated Universe stages).

- New enemies and mechanics are designed to match the latest characters, leaving older ones underpowered or completely incompatible.

- Old characters lack scalability — there’s no way to meaningfully “upgrade” them into competitive shape.

Who Are the “Forgotten Heroes”? A List of Once-Great Characters Falling Behind

Let’s take a look at some of the early-game units that are now frequently labeled as “power crept” or “benched” by the community:

• Dan Heng (4★, The Hunt)

Once a top-tier free-to-play DPS option, Dan Heng could clear early content easily with speed and high burst damage. But in late-game content with tanky enemies and complex debuffs, his kit simply lacks punch. Even at E6, many players say he just doesn’t hit hard enough anymore.

• March 7th (4★, Preservation)

A beloved character with shielding and freezing abilities. She was a staple in early gameplay, but her shield scales poorly later on, and many endgame bosses are immune to her CC. She’s now mostly seen in memes, not in meta teams.

• Himeko (5★, Erudition)

One of the OG 5-stars, Himeko was built for AoE and counter-based clearing. That worked great — when mobs had low HP. But now, in late-game where enemies are spongy and fights drag on, her strength feels diluted. And her follow-up attacks don’t scale fast enough.

• Sushang (4★, The Hunt)

A single-target unit that was once a decent alternative to 5★ DPS characters. Now, her scaling falls flat compared to newer releases with multipliers, DoT synergy, or better speed scaling.

• Others falling out of favor:

Characters like Pela, Natasha, Hook, and Serval are being increasingly benched in late-game content due to the shift in difficulty and mechanics. It’s not that they’re unplayable — it’s that they’re underperforming compared to the flashy, hyper-synergized new units.

Bottom line: It’s not that old characters are bad. It’s that the game is changing around them, and they’ve been left behind.

“I Didn’t Stop Playing Them — The Game Forced Me To”

One of the most painful realizations for players is that they’re not abandoning their favorite characters out of preference — they’re being pushed away by design.

From a psychology standpoint, this creates a phenomenon known as "emotional dissonance" or even “investment betrayal.” Players who invested hours — sometimes months — into building and bonding with a character feel punished for their loyalty.

Many players describe it like this:

- “You told me to love these characters, to build them — and now you tell me they’re not good enough.”

- “I didn’t drop Dan Heng because I wanted to. I dropped him because I literally couldn’t beat Chaos with him anymore.”

- “March 7th carried me through the early game. Now, she’s dead weight.”

- This disconnect — between emotional attachment and mechanical viability — is what’s truly stinging the community.

High-End Content Now Feels Like: “Bring New Units or Don’t Bother”

Late-game content in Star Rail is no joke. But many players feel like it’s no longer about strategy — it’s about whether you pulled the latest unit.

Examples:

- Deep Dive stages require debuffs or DoTs that only newer units (like Black Swan) can reliably apply.

- Bosses are designed around specific break types, forcing you into narrow team comps.

- Old units lack break effects, DoT synergy, and often can't match the sustain/damage scaling of newer teams.

- In short, content is now being designed with the newest characters in mind, and the rest? They’re just not part of the plan anymore.

It’s Not About Power — It’s About Trust

No one’s saying new units shouldn’t be strong. Power creep happens in gacha games. What players are asking is simple:

Please don’t erase our past investments.

The frustration is less about meta viability and more about feeling discarded. When the game constantly tells players “your old team isn’t good enough anymore,” it sends a loud, unintended message:

“What you did before doesn’t matter.”

This destroys player trust — and once that’s gone, no amount of new banners can fix it.

What Can Be Done?

The player base isn’t being unreasonable. Many have offered thoughtful, actionable suggestions:

1. Add a “Resurgence” or “Rework” system for old characters — something like alternate skill trees, resonance unlocks, or retrofitted kits.

2. Design diverse endgame mechanics that reward multiple playstyles instead of hard-locking team compositions.

3. Improve dev-to-player communication — and be mindful of phrasing. Phrases like “gamble responsibly” or “you knew the odds” rub players the wrong way, especially after losing.

Players Aren’t Data, They’re People

Many players have been with Honkai: Star Rail since version 1.0, not because the game is perfect, but because it initially gave them a sense of “companionship” and “growth.” But now, too many players feel left behind, discarded, and ignored.

We want the game to keep improving, but we hope that everyone improves together — not that old friends are left behind.

It’s okay if they’re no longer meta — just don’t design a game that makes them worthless.

Honkai: Star Rail is still a gorgeous, content-rich game. But if it keeps leaving old characters — and by extension, old players — behind, then it’s not just power creep we’re dealing with.

It’s emotional erosion.