Here’s How Planetary Rendezvous Actually Works in Honkai: Star Rail
Sometimes, even HoYo gets the wording wrong.
Who wore it best? Honkai: Star Rail includes an overwhelming variety of equipable gear, including Light Cones. These weapon-like cards store memories that strengthen the wearer with an assortment of stat buffs. You pull for them on banners, just like Star Rail’s growing roster of characters.
One of the Light Cones on the current limited-time Light Cone banner, Planetary Rendezvous, has an ambiguous description that makes it hard to tell if it’s worth using. Here’s what this confusing Light Cone actually does, and whether or not it's a good fit for your Honkai: Star Rail playthrough.
What is Planetary Rendezvous?
The Planetary Rendezvous Light Cone features Asta, a Harmony character and the Lead Researcher on Herta Space Station.
Planetary Rendezvous is one of the three 4-star Light Cones with boosted rates under Jing Yuan’s Light Cone banner. It’s represented by a memory from Lead Space Station Researcher Asta. It's a memory of the young girl escaping her problematic upper-class family with hope for the future.
She had no idea what to expect when she first started out on this journey. All she knew was that she could at long last be rid of the judgmental eyes and petty bickering of her family. She felt she finally understood what the poet was trying to say. "One day, we would grow wings and forget what it was like to walk." The light in her eyes became the glittering stars.
That’s secondary to the ability it offers, though. Any Harmony character that equips Planetary Rendezvous can take advantage of the following ability:
Upon battle entry, if an ally deals the same DMG Type as the wearer, DMG dealt increases by 12 percent.
So what are the different damage types? Which ones qualify for the 12 percent damage boost? The damage boost percentage will rise with the more Superimpositions you have for the Light Cone (18 percent, 24 percent, and so on).
What does Planetary Rendezvous actually do?
Planetary Rendevous’s DMG type refers to the wearer’s element. For example, if Tingyun equipped it, then all team members would automatically receive a Lightning DMG buff.
It could be useful for teams with more than one Lightning character like Jing Yuan, Serval, Arlan, or Bailu. As seen in YouTuber Akinaga Mori’s video, all the characters also have Tingyun’s Lightning DMG buff.
Is Planetary Rendezvous worth it?
Planetary Rendezvous is only worth it under certain circumstances. It won’t do you much good unless you have multiple characters of the same element on your team. It’s a Harmony Light Cone, meaning you can only take advantage of its ability with characters that follow the Harmony Path.
They typically support teams with attack, speed, and energy regeneration buffs. Therefore, they focus less on dealing damage compared to Destruction, Hunt, and Erudition characters, who you would ideally use to deal the majority of your damage.
If you have a team without overlapping elements, Planetary Rendezvous is basically useless because your Harmony character would be the only one who can take advantage of the buff. It might be less of a problem with stronger Harmony characters like Bronya, but still.
Honkai: Star Rail is available now for PC, iOS, and Android.
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