When is the Honkai Star Rail 2.3 release date? Farewell, Penacony! The 2.3 update winds down our Trailblazing expedition across the Dreamscape after the Charmony Festival’s disruption. However, we’re not ready to depart on the Astral Express just yet. Instead, Trailblazers must join The Family aboard the Radiant Feldspar to wrap up loose ends and restore order to Penacony.

The Honkai Star Rail 2.3 release date brings with it an all-new Simulated Universe courtesy of Screwllum alongside a ton of quality-of-life updates for the gacha game. The debut of the Harmony Trailblazer is on the cards, as well as new planar ornaments, relics, and a four-star light cone. The 2.3 patch also includes banners for Stellaron Hunter Firefly and IPC manager Jade, who are sure to give our Honkai Star Rail tier list a good shake-up. Here’s everything coming to Honkai Star Rail in the next update.

Honkai Star Rail 2.3 release date
The Honkai Star Rail 2.3 release date is Thursday, June 19, 2024. This was confirmed in the “Farewell, Penacony” livestream that aired on official Hoyoverse social media channels.

Honkai Star Rail’s update schedule runs on a six-week rotation, so we anticipate that the 2.3 update will continue from its release date until Wednesday, July 31, 2024.

We expect the Honkai Star Rail servers to go down for scheduled maintenance for the 2.3 update. This usually takes approximately five hours to complete before the servers come back online and the new content becomes available. This downtime is usually compensated with free Honkai Star Rail Stellar Jade to thank players for their patience.

Honkai Star Rail 2.3 livestream
The Honkai Star Rail 2.3 special program aired on Friday, June 7, 2024. The livestream included the usual collection of limited-time codes for viewers to redeem and an overview of the latest story developments in the anime game.

Honkai Star Rail 2.3 banners
The Honkai Star Rail banners are split into two phases that feature headline five-star characters and boosted pull rates for a selection of four-star characters.

The Honkai Star Rail 2.3 banners include:

Firefly (Fire, Destruction)
Ruan Mei (Ice, Harmony)
Jade (Quantum, Erudition)
Argenti (Physical, Erudition)

To prepare for the boosted pull rates of Honkai Star Rail characters that you might have missed in the standard banner, check out our best Honkai Star Rail team comps. These characters will also be accompanied by banners for Honkai Star Rail Light Cones.

Honkai Star Rail 2.3 characters
The Honkai Star Rail 2.3 update includes the debut of two highly anticipated characters:

Firefly
After plenty of dialogue hints and teases since launch, the leader of the Stellaron Hunters has finally arrived. Firefly is a genetic weapon created on the fallen world of Glamoth, encased in a Type-IV Strategic Assault Mech – or “SAM” for short. She suffers from Entropy Loss Syndrome, and searches for the meaning of life. As a Trailblazer party member, she is a fearsome weakness breaker and can sacrifice a portion of her own health to replenish her energy and enter the Complete Combustion state for her ultimate.

Jade
Jade follows Topaz and Aventurine as yet another member of the IPC Strategic Investment Department to become a playable character. As a member of the Ten Stonehearts, Jade is a shrewd loan shark whose elegant beauty hides her cunning ability to manipulate clients for her own gain. In battle, she can strike up an agreement with allies to bestow powerful attack and speed buffs at the expense of their health. She can also inflict damage upon foes with charged follow-up attacks and an AoE burst ultimate.

Honkai Star Rail 2.3 story
The 2.3 update debuts the Farewell, Penacony Trailblaze mission and sees the Trailblazers doing damage control to reassure the public after the Grand Theatre showdown. The Family invites them to the Radiant Feldspar airship to take part in the discussions, though it seems the IPC is finally about to make its move on Penacony during this delicate time.

The immediate danger may have passed, but the future of Penacony still hangs in the balance – and with Masked Fool Sparkle having handed a “Mutual Assured Destruction” button to all residents, it seems we might be in for an explosive finale.

Honkai Star Rail 2.3 events
As with most Honkai Star Rail updates, the 2.3 release will include several limited-time events you can take part in for free rewards. The Gift of Odyssey, Realm of the Strange, and Planar Fissure events also return for the 2.3 update, giving you additional banner pulls, EXP material, and Planar Ornaments.

The Honkai Star Rail 2.3 events are:

Divergent Universe
Apocalyptic Shadow
Origami Bird Clash
Stellar Shimmer

Divergent Universe
The Genius Society brings us a new version of the Simulated Universe aboard the Radiant Feldspar. Divergent Universe is a new game mode that encourages players to use neglected characters. The Arithmetic Mapping feature automatically raises their level to the Equilibrium cap and equips them with complimentary light cones and relics to match, allowing units at the bottom of your roster to take part in battle.

Trailblazers can now select an Equation at the beginning of the run, which allows you to combine blessings from different Paths rather than being restricted to a single reward pool to achieve Path resonance. The Divergent Universe also includes Wealth and Escapade domains, where you can gamble your Cosmic Fragments for potential rewards.

Apocalyptic Shadow
Apocalyptic Shadow is a brand-new permanent challenge mode in Dreamflux Reef, which allows you to go head to head against bosses you’ve previously encountered on your Trailblazing journey. However, this isn’t just a straightforward rematch. Aside from bonus difficulty options, these bosses boast different traits from their ‘canon’ counterparts. Players who clear Apocalyptic Shadow’s set difficulty will obtain the four-star character Xueyi, along with plenty of Stellar Jade.

Origami Bird Clash
The Origami Birds of Penacony have boarded the Radiant Feldspar with a match-three arcade minigame. Every successful match powers up your Origami Bird, which goes head-to-head against your competitor – whether that’s NPCs or other players in Honkai Star Rail’s first brush with PvP.

Stellar Shimmer
The sequel to the beloved Stellar Flare event is finally here, with new combat challenges and trial characters available. Defeat as many waves as possible in a set number of cycles to obtain rewards, and get set to make that damage counter work overtime with undiscovered synergies.

Now that you’re ready to climb aboard the Radiant Feldspar and bring some much-needed peace to Penacony, prepare for the next update by redeeming the latest Honkai Star Rail codes. Alternatively, kick back with our Honkai Star Rail review to get our thoughts on Hoyoverse’s sci-fi adventure, or check out the best free PC games to tide you over until the next update rolls around.