With the arrival of Honkai: Star Rail’s Version 4.0, “No Aha At Full Moon”, Trailblazers are in for another wild ride as we arrive at the canvas of creativity , Planarcadia. Here, the Aeon of Elation created a living Phantasmoon to serve as a stage for Fools and performers and when there’s a full moon, the Phantasmoon Games are held. Eight individuals across the cosmos, called Suplicant’s once they wear the games’ mask, compete for the favor of Aha wherein the Aeon will grant the winner their divine authority for one minute.
With the new planet, Trailblazers are introduced to different new things as they explore Planarcadia. From mechs all over the map, to a new puzzle mechanic and a new playable path: here’s what you need to know about Himeko’s home planet.
AHA Instant
Triggered by stacking your team with Path of Elation characters (or through specific stage gimmicks), this mechanic essentially lets the Aeon of Elation, Aha, take a turn on the action bar. When the “Aha Instant” kicks in, every ally capable of an Elation Skill lets loose at once. It’s a coordinated masterpiece of chaos that also—conveniently—dispels all Crowd Control debuffs from your Elation allies. Because who has time to be Frozen when there’s a prank to pull?
But what if your team is lacking that Elation spark? Aha doesn’t care; they’ll just use “Let There Be Laughter,” a move that rains down 10 instances of random Elation DMG. If your own allies get caught in the crossfire, don’t sweat it—they only take 1 fixed damage and get a nice Energy boost for their trouble.
The more Elation characters you bring, the faster Aha climbs the action bar. Every time you gain Punchline points, Aha’s SPD increases, ensuring the laughter never stops (even when changing waves). Once the dust settles, your participating characters gain the “Certified Banger” state for two turns, scaling based on your Punchline points. It’s high-octane, high-risk, and peak Honkai humor. In short: if you aren’t playing with the Path of Elation in Planarcadia, are you even having fun?
With 4.0, we have the first playable Elation character: Yao Guang. Their skill, Hexagram of Feathered Fortune, is a tactical nuke that grants 5 Punchline and forces Aha to take an immediate extra turn with a fixed value of 20 Punchline—all without actually consuming your stack. This chaotic guest appearance doesn’t just look cool; it shreds enemy defenses by boosting all allies’ All-Type RES PEN by up to 22% for three turns.
Cosmicon Collective
Honkai: Star Rail is introducing its own card game, the “Cosmicon Collective”. In the story, Cosmicon Collective is Planarcadia’s hottest card game, with tons of player guilds all over the city. Trailblazers can begin playing Cosmicon Collective all over the map after beating Sparkle during the Trailblaze Mission.
Before each duel, select a primary character to determine your available dice pool (ranging from d4s to d8s). Each turn is a “Roll-Off”: you roll to set your Attack power while your opponent rolls for Defense. To win, your total must exceed their shield; otherwise, your turn is wasted. Focus on leveling up your Character Cards to unlock larger dice and higher base multipliers.
Success relies on triggering Pattern Combos rather than just hunting for high numbers. Aim for specific sets like “All Evens,” “Matching Pairs,” or “Full House” to activate massive bonus damage and extra actions. If RNG is against you, strategically deploy Prismatic Dice—these are limited-use stabilizers that provide guaranteed “Max Rolls” or fixed values. Always save your Prismatic Dice for “Finisher” turns where a Pattern Combo is one die away from completion.
The recent version also introduces the Cosmicon, Roll On! event that lets Trailblazers face off against familiar companions in Cosmicon Collective battles. Please note that even if the event will move to Finality’s Vision after some time, limited-time rewards will no longer be available during the event period.
Interplanar Jump
Interplanar Jump is Planarcadia’s standout exploration mechanic, effectively turning Honkai: Star Rail into a 2D platforming mini-game. When you enter a Jump portal, the camera shifts to a side-scrolling perspective and your character transforms into a Trailblazemon—a stylized version of yourself with a completely different skill set. While “phased” into these alternate dimensions, you’ll ignore standard physics to perform double-jumps, triple-jumps, and even walk across the surface of neon-lit waterways to reach hidden areas.
The gameplay is fast-paced and arcade-inspired, revolving around the collection of Pixcoins and Nameless Wispae (jelly-like creatures scattered across the maps). Each Interplanar area features unique environmental gimmicks, such as musical floor tiles that must be stepped on in sequence or icy surfaces that require precision sliding. Surviving these stages is key to progression: failing—like getting squashed by a cat-shaped mechanism—will send you back to the start, but mastering the “hardcore” scoring challenges will net you Stellar Jades and rare materials used to lower the difficulty of other games like Star Rabbit.
One key-note would be playing on mobile, you may change your joystick to a fixed one (which doesn’t effect your usual map joystick when exploring the area). This is recommended as sometimes simply moving down does not let your character crouch to phase through some platforms.
The Power of Imagination
Imagenae (singular: Imagena) are intelligent beings in Planarcadia that are born from human imagination. They represent things originating from stories, myths, anime, and video games that manifest into reality through a phenomenon called “imagénesis”.
In exploring Planarcadia, you will encounter many of these from robots to Furbo journalists following you around and even the powers of imagination can leave trails with scattered Wishpower fragments (gold coins) suddenly spawning to be collected around the map.
Be sure to interact with everything that pop-ups and you might be in for some rewards.
With the release of Honkai: Star Rail’s Version 4.0, it’s just the beginning of what Planarcadia has in store. As the players of the Phantasmoon Games are introduced, we are sure to uncover more about the planet that has the Aeon of Elation’s favor.
