Today, the official Star Rail account did something unusual by not releasing any new character artwork. Could it be that versions 4.1, 4.3, and 4.4 will each have only one new character? Today, let's take stock of which characters Star Rail is currently missing and see if your team compositions are lacking any roles.

1. Elation Team - Survival Character

The mechanic of an Elation team is: the more Punchline, the stronger the team. A complete Elation team must consist of four Elation characters, all of whom can gain Punchline. Both Silver Wolf LV.999 and Evanescia's teams require an Elation survival character. Currently, the most likely candidate is the CEO of Planarcadia—Pearl—who will debut as the Elation team's survival character.

2. Elation Team - Another Elation Support

Currently, even if you have all Elation characters, with Sparxie teaming up with Silver Wolf LV. 999 and Trailblazer: Elation teaming up with Evanescia, Yao Guang is still not enough to allocate to both Main DPS teams. Therefore, it is highly likely that another Elation support character will be released in the future. For example, a character who can gain Punchline, provides a team-wide SPD buff, and can team up with Silver Wolf LV. 999 to form two reasonable Elation teams:

Silver Wolf LV.999 + Sparxie + New Elation Support + Elation Survival Character 1

Evanescia + Yao Guang + Trailblazer: Elation + Elation Survival Character 2

It is worth mentioning that Nihilux, the "Strictest Mother of the Aeon," is the most likely candidate for the second Elation support character.

3. Follow-Up Attack Team - DPS Role

Currently, it appears that the newly released character in this version, Ashveil, has a kit more suited for a dual-DPS team, requiring another DPS's attacks to trigger Ashveil's follow-up attacks. However, except for Ashveil, the DPS characters whose primary playstyle relies on follow-up attacks do not have high enough numbers, so Ashveil can only serve as a solo DPS for now. If a follow-up attack DPS with high multipliers and damage is released in the future, Ashveil's team composition will be complete. 

(Speculation) It could be Opal of the Ten Stonehearts, as the skills of Ten Stonehearts members are all related to follow-up attacks.

4. Dot Team - Supplemental Characters

The reason for mentioning Dot teams is that, up until now, Dot teams have never had dedicated support or survival characters.

It's worth noting that even though Dot teams are currently less powerful, a dedicated Dot support isn't necessarily guaranteed. This is because with Hysilens, Black Swan, and Kafka on the field together, the team already has enemy Vulnerability, ally DMG increase, and ally ATK buffs, so it doesn't lack support roles too much, making the team composition relatively complete. If the goal is to strengthen Dot teams, the best solution would be to combine the support and survival roles into one character—for example, a character who can increase the team's Dot damage, apply Dots, and also have survival abilities like providing shields or healing. Of course, this concept might just be wishful thinking and may not be implemented in the game.

The character Mortenax Blade, scheduled for release in version 4.3, is a Nihility character. However, judging by the character's style, the aesthetics don't quite match the previous Dot team. To learn more about Mortenax Blade's specific role and skills, we'll need to watch the preview livestream this Friday. We will also summarize the preview livestream, so remember to keep an eye on our new articles!

5. The Herta - Another Erudition DPS

In The Herta's team composition, Anaxa was initially positioned as her best teammate. However, The Herta excels at multi-target scenarios, while Anaxa specializes in single-target, making them completely mismatched. This is also why The Herta teams fall slightly behind Remembrance teams and Phainon teams in the later stages.

So, what kind of Erudition teammate does The Herta need? First, they should have high-frequency multi-target attacks to help The Herta with Energy regeneration and effect stacking. Second, they should provide supportive effects to increase The Herta's damage. Lastly, they need to have decent personal damage output themselves, and cannot be a pure support character. Currently, the new character Himeko • Nova, scheduled for version 4.4, is an Erudition character. In the story, Himeko is also an acquaintance of The Herta. What do you think, Trailblazers, could she be The Herta's new teammate?

Here's a bold guess: The Herta's teammate could also be Stephen Lloyd, as both he and The Herta are members of the Genius Society.

6. Summary

In summary, with so many new characters expected to arrive in the future, Honkai: Star Rail is giving us more and more to look forward to. As a Trailblazer, which roles do you think are still missing in the current version, and which character are you most excited for? Remember to keep following our articles. See you next time!