Things are heating up a bit in Honkai: Star Rail's new version. The Fate collaboration banners go live on July 24, with new characters Rin and Gilgamesh making their debut. To help Trailblazers assemble their collaboration team faster, the devs have brought back the free character selector.

Compared to the previous single-choice format, this time they've switched to a pick-one-of-two format with more candidates on the shortlist — which has left quite a few players scratching their heads. So let's break down how to choose between the options for this new Fate banner!

The free characters this time are Archer and Gilgamesh. From a basic value standpoint, if we choose Archer, since the official team previously gave away a copy at Eidolon 0, obtaining him again will result in a duplicate. This means we will receive two Star Rail Special Passes and one Eidolon for Archer. As a brand-new character, if we choose Gilgamesh directly, we will unlock his entry in the collection and can obtain three Star Rail Passes through leveling up. Combined with the previously acquired Archer, we will then have two collaboration characters in our roster.

Looking at it from a power level perspective, both Archer and Gilgamesh require spending to pick up their respective teammates. If you want to fully experience the collaboration's new mechanics, building up Archer means you'll also need to pull for Rin to go with him; Gilgamesh, meanwhile, will need a Saber to round out his team.

However, one thing to note here: if a low-investment Archer urgently needs a power boost to handle the current content, Rin is a top-tier upgrade card that comes to the rescue. Even at E0S0, she can significantly increase Archer's numbers and provide some mechanical enhancements. But if Archer already has a certain level of investment, this card becomes somewhat optional instead. So when making your choice, Trailblazers should decide based on their own team composition plans. After all, collaboration characters also require spending to acquire, and whether they can reach the power level of the version's flagship units is hard to say.

Let's also talk about the limited-time cosmetic news: According to the official announcement, this back ornament "Karmic Fire of the Distant Shore" will be obtainable from June 1 to June 24. After the limited-time event ends, if you haven't claimed it, the gift will be sent via in-game mail. In other words, this ornament is a time-limited reward — miss it and it's gone for good! Since there's already a precedent, it's very likely that future characters will come with corresponding Trailblazer accessory gifts as well. Looking forward to it!