History VideoGame / HonkaiImpact3rd

''Honkai Impact 3rd'' (aka ''Benghuai 3rd'' or ''Houkai 3rd'') is the SpiritualSuccessor to ''Guns [=GirlZ=] - Mirage Cabin'' (alternatively known as ''Honkai Gakuen 2''), developed by Creator/{{miHoYo}}. It is also their third entry in the ''Honkai Gakuen'' universe. It was released first in China in 2016, in Japan and Southeast Asia in 2017 and globally on March 28, 2018 for [[MobilePhoneGame iOS and Android]]. A PC port with cross-play capability was later developed and was released globally on December 26th, 2019, with Southeast Asia getting it in 2020.

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* AbnormalAmmo:
** Some of Bronya's cannons shoot unusual things, such as Ai-chan's Cannon (shoots {{Rocket Punch}}es) or Dumpling Wrapper (shoots sticky rice dumplings that slow down enemies).
** While handguns shoot normal bullets when they're used to shoot, their weapon skills may have them [[TrickBullet shoot something else]], such as Energy Leapers (shoots down a stunning bomb), Thunder Kikaku (shoots a HitodamaLight that encircles the target and deals constant damage), or Jingwei's Wings (shoots fireballs to the air that fall down one by one onto the target). [[spoiler:Keys of the Void (Herrscher of the Void's "signature weapon") is said to shoot "commandments" instead of bullets that can tear through spacetime. Its weapon skill shoots 3 explosive waves that deal considerable damage.]]
* AbortedArc: Chapter 1 of the game involves an unmanned flying CoolAirship that our Valkyries try to stop before it could endanger the city. Inside, they find out that someone sent that ship specifically "for Kiana" and that it talks about "4 gems" to power the ship up, which leads them to find Herrscher Cores, starting from Wendy. This only serves as {{Foreshadowing}} to [[spoiler:Kiana being the vessel for the Herrscher of the Void (who used to have those 4 gems)]]; the story after the Wendy plot goes to other directions and said mysterious ship is never addressed again.
* AbsurdlyCoolCity:
** The Arc City is a highly technological city in Shenzhou that remained untouched by the Honkai even after the Third Honkai War. [[spoiler:Kiana flees there after her Herrscher powers are suppressed.]] In one of the Raid stages, it's shown that the city has [[GeniusLoci a supervisory AI]] called "ARC".
** The Coral Island is said to be a sprawling artificial island city meant to be a business central in Southeast Asia and Oceania. It is also home to a SpaceElevator project. However, in ch. 18, a Honkai eruption struck this city.
* AbsurdlyShortLevel:
** The last level of Chapter 12 only has story cutscenes in it and has no gameplay at all.
** The last area in the "Gemina Invasions: Deep Paradise Arc" event, unlike the others, only consists of you chasing Rozaliya and Liliya to the end of the stage while avoiding Durandal, without any facility building or encounters with enemies. After you get to them, there'll be an ending cutscene, and the story ends afterwards.
** In story mission 19-9, all you need to you to complete it is just slamming Mei's weapon skill against the boss in a QTE and the level ends afterward.
** One level in Chapter 21 only has Hua(?) (you) and Phoenix walking on the clouds as they talk to each other, with no fights.
* AceCustom: The "Knight" battlesuits (more apparent in the original Chinese)[[note]]Knight Moonbeam, Shadow Knight, "Twilight Knight: Moonglow" (aka Twilight Paladin), Vermilion Knight: Eclipse, Argent Knight: Artemis, Bright Knight: Excelsis[[/note]] are all renowned as powerful suits in-universe. Vermilion Knight (Himeko) in particular is the SuperPrototype to all of the other suits in this class, as it is used to be the "Key of Blankness" (or the "Numberless Divine Key") from the Previous Era and all the other suits are based on this one. In chapter 9, in the deeper parts of Helheim Labs, Himeko finds a chamber that contains the data of many of these battlesuits, as well as a capsule that contains the Vermilion Knight suit. They're all fairly strong in gameplay as well.
* AchievementSystem: There is a list of achievements that will give you some coins and crystals if you manage them, such as leveling up your captain's level, gaining a number of A, S, SS and SSS rank Valkyries, completing a number of missions, and much more.
* ActionBomb:
** The {{Mecha Mook|s}} called Spider Mecha and its variants are robotic suicide bombers; they either do high damage when they go boom, or leave a patch of slow debuff on the ground on their wake. A stronger version of them can act as mines, too.
** Whenever the HOMU variant HOLA appears as mooks, they also have "exploding near you" as a tactic.
* AdvancingWallOfDoom:
** In the higher difficulties of the Matrix Space co-op raid stages, the last stage has you and your team outrun a wall of "data deletion".
** In the middle of ch. 19, Mei has to outrun a wave of ice spikes from the Herrscher of Ice while avoiding ones that suddenly grow on her way.
* AgeStereotypicalFood: During the International Children's Day (June 1st) and a few days after, Kiana, Bronya and the Olenyeva twins will ask for kids' meals when you put them on the bridge and tap the "!!" button. [[spoiler:Herrscher of Reason, however, claims that she has grown up and refuses a kids' meal.]]
* AirborneMook: In Post-Honkai Odyssey, with the ability to jump and do air attacks, there are naturally enemies in the air to take care of, such as "Mage" or "Lovers".
* AKA47:
** Subverted since a few of Kiana’s early handguns are based off real world handguns and retain their real world names, such as the "[=USP45=]", "Desert Eagle", and "Colt Anaconda".
** Inverted with the "Mosin Nagant"; in-game it's a futuristic dual handgun instead of the real life early twentieth century bolt action rifle.
* AlertnessBlink: The game has multiple ways in which enemies' alertness of your presence influences gameplay:
** In Open World, while you're in stealth mode you can sneak up on enemies and perform a OneHitKill on them. However, this requires you to get into a round zone directly behind the enemy, and if you get too close from anywhere else, the enemy will react to your presence with a red exclamation point over its head. This cancels stealth mode and the enemy will attack you.
** Certain stages are populated with enemies that you either have to evade entirely or sneak up on to kill, and cannot be completed unless they're all evaded or dispatched, respectively. These enemies have a red awareness zone in front of them representing their field of vision, and if you get into this zone, a red gauge will fill showing the enemy becoming more aware of you. If it fills all the way, you're considered to have been seen and will be reset to either the beginning of the stage or the last checkpoint.
** Post-Impact Odyssey features a combination of these. Several enemies have an awareness zone and will attack you if you spend too long in this zone. Also, while there's no stealth mode, you can sneak up to some enemies and perform a OneHitKill on them, but it requires avoiding their awareness zone.
* AlienInvasion: The "Alien Space" supplementary comic, set some time after the events of Post-Honkai Odyssey, has "Otto" [[spoiler:(Void Archives)]] explain to Welt that the "Sky People" are a civilization from a faraway planet, who have apparently conquered the Honkai of their own planet and used them as an energy source. They're also looking for Honkai energy in other planets to try to harvest them; they send interplanetary vessels shaped like natural space rocks to random planets filled with their "scouts" in order to analyze the Honkai energy levels and the stage of civilization in said planets. Those "scouts" are the monsters you find in the Post-Honkai Odyssey.
* AlliterativeName: Three of the Kaslanas go with this trend, namely Kiana Kaslana, Kallen Kaslana, and Kevin Kaslana. Aside from them, there's also Rita Rossweisse.
* AllJustADream:
** Chapters 5 and 6 are revealed to be this, at least partly. While it's clear from the start that they take place in a "simulation of the past", [[RevealingContinuityLapse a lot of what happens in said simulation doesn't seem to be possible given its simulation nature]], such as Kiana's parents recognizing the grown-up Kiana and her helping her mother beat the 2nd Herrscher (while historically she could only hold the Herrscher back for long enough for Otto to bombard the facility, killing them both). It's because, as Fu Hua reveals to her in the end, [[spoiler:the mind of the Herrscher [[SharingABody inside Kiana's mind]] is [[ThroughTheEyesOfMadness messing with her perception and is actively shaping what she sees]].]]
** The special story in the DatingSim storyline that takes place in the past is revealed to be set in the "Captain's" dreams, but they're actually "scenarios" put inside their head [[spoiler:by Rita and Otto]]. The Captain is only aware of this once they wake up for the third time; in the first two times they're still trying to figure out what happened, in the third one, they've put the infos they get in the previous scenarios together in order to resolve all of the problems between the people they meet. In the end, though, [[spoiler:you (as the Captain) are given the SadisticChoice of either shooting Kallen or Theresa (Luna Kindred), and no matter who you choose, [[MortonsFork they both]] lead to the DownerEnding where Kallen died. After this, you wake up again to see Otto monitoring you, saying that he has been facing failure in [[SeeksAnothersResurrection trying to find a way to resurrect Kallen]] countless times, but he won't stop until he succeeds and he will stop at nothing to see his goal become reality]].
** "St. Freya's Fiesta" ends with [[spoiler:the Captain apparently about to dance with Rita]], but just as they begin, the scene suddenly changes to [[spoiler:Rita offering the Captain a cup of tea while Theresa and the twins are playing a board game in the background that looks exactly like the four areas in the Fiesta]], implying that the entire event was solely in the Captain's mind.
** Himeko's 2020 birthday event (only in China) has the Captain and Himeko talk in a pub about "growth", what growing up means and how one handles life, particularly when talking about her students. Then [[spoiler:it ends with the Captain waking up alone to a glass of alcohol and a rose, implying that the talk occurred some time before Himeko's death]].
* AllThereInTheManual: Much of the game’s lore isn’t explained in the actual game itself, instead being explored in more detail in the numerous manga, comics, and visual novels based on the game. The bios of some of the battlesuits also refer to stories outside of the game, or (in case of battlesuits that debuted in an event) to certain in-game events that newer players may have missed. The official Website/YouTube channel eventually started posting a series of videos piecing the lore found in all media together, dubbed ''Honkai Chronicles'', but only 2 episodes have been released thus far.
* AlternateCharacterReading:
** While the international versions keep the Chinese names of characters and items as such, the Japanese voice actors pronounce them with the characters' Japanese reading (which is common in Japanese media), hence why Fu Hua becomes "Fuka", "Xuanyuan" becomes "Ken'en" or "Jingwei" becomes "Seiei". In the same way, the Chinese voiceovers pronounce the Japanese names with their Chinese reading, with "Mei" becoming "Yáyī" (芽衣), "Sakura" becoming "Yīng" (桜/樱) or "Himeko" becoming "Jīzǐ" (姫子).
** The city of Nagazora is pronounced in Japanese with its alternate reading, "Choukuu".
* AlternateUniverse:
** The game takes place in a parallel universe which retells mankind's struggle against nature, with nature being replaced by the Honkai. Geographical locations names remain the same as their real life counterpart, and historical events like the Black Plague and Apollo 11's Moon landing are still present, although they're revealed to be related to the conflict with the Honkai.
** The "bubble universes" in the Sea of Quanta are essentially pocket universes simulating the effects of ForWantOfANail.
** The "Sanka Saga" event is implied to take place in a different universe, or at least in an AlternateTimeline. The events that occurred as Sakura's backstory[[note]]like Kallen coming to Yae Village and becoming close to Sakura, Sakura becoming corrupted by the "black box" and possessed by Hellmaru[[/note]] still happened here (they're said to happen 500 years ago, just like in the main story), but ended differently; Kallen still lives on to the present day thanks to the "Zakti Rune of Deva" and is the head of "Yae Machi" (or "Yae Town"), and a different version of Sakura (called "Kasumi") is officially part of Schicksal, who's on a mission to collect the Zakti Runes. Later on, during the trip to the "Saha World", the Ferryman says that their native world may just be one of the many worlds out there; Kasumi says that she finds it hard to stomach.
** "Honkai Kingdoms" and subsequent related events happen in another world. "The Day You Vanished with the Stars" eventually makes it clear that the Captain ends up becoming a DimensionalTraveler in the Sea of Quanta.
** In one of the supplementary comics, Schrodinger is exploring one of the bubble universes in the Sea of Quanta. She enters a world where [[HumanitysWake humans are extinct]], leaving only strange creatures called "[=ELFs=]" as the sole kind of sentient beings on this world. Schrodinger is only lucky that she meets Jingwei's Wings, the only ELF who cares about the world's history; the latter then guides her around, leading Schrodinger to deduce things that happened in this world. She then finds a recording which Jingwei's Wings claims holds the secret of the [=ELFs=]' creation; after she hacks its password system, it shows that world's version of Einstein, announcing that the Honkai was threatening the world and she had created the [=ELFs=] as her attempt to combat it. While at first the [=ELFs=] proved to be an effective solution, they were no match for the 9th Herrscher, who could control gravity; as a last resort, Einstein was forced to cut out the continent where she lived in from the rest of the world and move it into the Sea of Quanta. Humanity in that continent then slowly died out of the lack of supplies and resources, while the [=ELFs=] had no such problem and thus can live for much longer.
** The 2nd Divine Key is a futuristic train that allows the user to travel and see through multiple worlds and possible futures. Its current user, Director Su, is looking for a world where humanity prevails against the Honkai, so that he can acquire an effective solution against the Honkai threats.
** The "Gemina Invasions: Deep Paradise Arc" event takes place in the Sea of Quanta's worlds, where Rozaliya and Liliya opened the Eye of the Deep in one particular bubble universe and causes dimensional anomalies to occur in other worlds. It's up to Dr. Tesla to save the day after she was "trapped" into it by Einstein.
** The "Rosemary's Floriograph" event is hinted to take place in a different universe. The story is told from the perspective of Creator/ArthurConanDoyle, but he has Fu Hua (as Hawk of the Fog) as his partner, and Irene Adler (a fictional character in Doyle's Literature/SherlockHolmes novels) is a real person in this world (portrayed by Rita as Fallen Rosemary). The story's beginnings have him and Fu Hua traveling by train to the city of St. Fountain, but it looks different from the same city in the Post-Honkai Odyssey open world. This world's version of Anti-Entropy is an anti-Honkai protection system built by one of Schicksal's labs, Lab 42, in St. Fountain (which was devastated by a Honkai event 5 years from the story's beginning) to protect it from Honkai beasts. Later on, however, after Welt Joyce discovered how Schicksal was behind the inhuman experiments on orphans in St. Fountain's church, Lab 42 breaks ties with Schicksal and allies with its North American branch, and together, they create a new organization named Anti-Entropy [[spoiler:mirroring the creation of the organization in the main story]]. Also, [[spoiler:"Irene Adler" is actually an alias; she is Rita Rossweisse from another world]].
* AlwaysAccurateAttack:
** Gyakushin Miko (Sakura), Sixth Serenade (Kallen), Sakuno Rondo (Theresa), Argent Knight (Rita) and Stygian Nymph (Seele) can "mark" enemies with their attacks. If they're marked enough, they can then use their branch/charged attack onto the enemy to trigger an effect that consumes the mark, usually dealing some damage; this "mark explosion" will hit the center of the enemy's body without fail, which is important for fighting certain bosses such as Assaka or MHT 3-PAX.
** [[spoiler:Herrscher of the Void]]'s ChargedAttack has her trigger a damaging spatial collapse directly at the center of the target, making it nigh-unavoidable as long as the enemy is in her range. The 5th part of her combo also has her creating a black hole right at the target's position, followed by a ReverseShrapnel of spikes.
** Hawk of the Fog (Valkyrie Accipiter's augmented form)'s Ultimate Skill will make her teleport close to her opponent to make sure the attack will hit. The only times it can miss are if the opponent is moving too quickly or if it's too high in the air (the attack doesn't have much vertical range).
* AmazingFreakingGrace: The CG animation of [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wk397xetYwk Chapter 11-EX]] plays John Newton's "Amazing Grace" in the background.
* AnachronicOrder: For the events that feature the elements from "Honkai Kingdoms" ("Honkai Kingdoms" itself, "Odd Drifter", "Honkai Kingdoms: Zero", "The Day You Vanished with the Stars"), "Honkai Kingdoms: Zero" is meant to be a prequel that happens before all the others. The twist, however, is that the event's prologue happens in the present where the Captain goes back to the past to help the young Zhuge Kongming; this present presumably is placed after "The Day You Vanished with the Stars". Meanwhile, the aforementioned event's ending ties to "Honkai Kingdoms: Zero"[='s=] prologue, i.e the Captain is shown to have come back from the past to help the young Zhuge Kongming.
* AncestralWeapon: The Judgment of Shamash is a powerful weapon that belonged to the Kaslana family. Kallen's father once wielded it, and in the present Kiana's father Siegfried wields it. It's a pair of [[PlayingWithFire fire]]-[[ElementalWeapon elemental]] [[GunsAkimbo guns]] that can hold massive amounts of Honkai energy and can turn into a {{BFS}} when "released", but using its maximum power is a DangerousForbiddenTechnique that can cause massive collateral damage and kill its user. In-game, the weapon is available both in dual guns form and the greatsword form, and their skills let the user deal immense fire damage but with [[CastFromHP some HP cost]].
* AncientConspiracy: While Schicksal and Anti-Entropy operate in the open against the Honkai in their own ways, there is one more human organization that hides in the shadows through the events of the game, biding their time and making covert moves that carry a lot more influence than they suggest. The World Serpent are an order of cultists that believe in the existence of the Primordial Snake that was said to be the first being in the universe, and [[BeenThereShapedHistory have been behind several myths that spawned from witnesses trying to comprehend their exploits]]. Not only that, they're also led by [[spoiler:the unequivocally greatest hero of the Previous Era, Kevin Kaslana]].
* AndNowForSomeoneCompletelyDifferent:
** After an update, one level in ch. 1 has Bronya hack into one of the Titan Mechas; Kiana then gets to pilot it to smash enemies.
** One level in Chapter 5 allows you to ride (and play as) a Titan Mecha, and another in the same chapter has you play as the "missile robot mook".
** A few Chapter 6 levels also let you play as different characters; see UnexpectedGameplayChange below for details.
** One stage in ch. 9-EX and one in ch. 13 has you playing as Phantom Iron (Rita)'s Stalker Carbon robot.
* AndTheAdventureContinues: The ending of "Gemina Invasions: Deep Paradise Arc" has Roza and Lili jump into another spatial rift (or, more accurately, accidentally get knocked into it by Bronya and Tesla), looking for their next adventures. They end up in, [[WhamShot of all places]], [[spoiler:the ending of "Honkai Kingdoms: Zero"]].
* AndYourRewardIsClothes: A few events give you costumes for your Valkyries. Some of them are available after you finish some event quests, while with some others you have to purchase them with in-game currency or with real money.
* AndYourRewardIsInteriorDecorating: In the Dormitory, increasing the "dorm acceptance" number of certain Valkyrie suits to a certain point will net you a reward of interior appliances or furniture for your dorm.
* AnimalMotifs:
** Kiana insists on a cat motif for herself, which shows in her SuperMode as White Comet and Divine Prayer where she summons giant mechanical cat paws out of nowhere (dubbed "Neko-Charm") and sometimes says "meow". Her Knight Moonbeam variant outfit Bastet's Secret is also heavily cat-themed, as it includes cat ear-shaped hair ornaments and a long tail. She's also jokingly associated with ''tuna'' as a result of MemeticMutation. The cat theme also extends to Kallen and Theresa, as Kallen's Snow Fairy outfit has a headband with extensions that resemble cat ears and Theresa occasionally puts her hands up like cat paws when she's trying to look cute.
** Bronya is heavily associated with rabbits. [[MeaningfulName Her last name means "bunny" in Russian]], she's a fan of the plush rabbit HOMU, and her support robot is called Project Bunny 19c.
** Fu Hua is associated with various kinds of birds. One of her battlesuits, Valkyrie Accipiter, is named after a type of hawk, and another is called Phoenix. As a part of her powers, she leaves "feathers" in people's minds which connect her consciousness to theirs.
** Kallen's Sixth Serenade battlesuit has a strong crow/raven motif, to go along with her PhantomThief persona.
** Yae Sakura is associated primarily with foxes, with her having long animal-like ears, wearing a fox mask on her waist and even being controlled by a fox-like Honkai Beast. This theme is shared by Yae Kasumi, who as Darkbolt Jonin has the same long ears and fox mask accessory.
** Rita’s Dusky Murmurs alternate costume is associated with bats; its skirt has two large bat wings protruding from the back, and she leaves a trail of bats whenever she performs an evade.
* AnimationBump: Chapter 22 act 2 features more dynamic in-game-model animations for its scenes, an improvement from chapter 17 act 3's scenes.
* AnInteriorDesignerIsYou: In the Dormitory, you're given three rooms (two bedrooms and a commons room) and, as an event reward, a house on the beach, with three bedrooms and an outside pool area, for your SuperDeformed version of the Valkyries (and, later, Stigmata) to live in. Furni-Bitz and Honkai Blocks are spent to obtain blueprints for furniture, appliances, and accessories, which earns "comfort points" which are used to determine your dorm's "comfort level", while building up Home Materials allows you to renovate your dorm's rooms, which will let you put in more furnishings. The comfort level determines the regeneration rate of Onigiri, which is spent to do Errands which earn "Work Points Cards" that can be used to buy goodies from the shop.[[labelnote:Prior to 3.5...]]The comfort level formerly determined how much the dorm's energy supply regenerated, which was used for essential appliances in the commons room: the stamina and technique training machines (increased your Valkyries' EXP and skill points respectively), the weapon and Stigmata enhancement pods (increased the EXP for weapon or Stigmata), and the vending machine (if your stamina is full, it would store a portion of the excess stamina from the natural stamina regen).[[/labelnote]] Aside from that, sometimes the Valkyrie chibis will ask for certain appliance-related requests (such as wanting to eat, sleep or play games) which will earn you a few affection points for the specific Valkyrie and some goodies. This means you need to buy certain appliances and furnishings to fulfill the requests.
* AntiDebuff:
** The Rowland M Stigma gives a 51% chance to remove debuffs if equipped.
** In the Dirac Sea game mode, there's an item you can pick up, literally-named "Anti Debuff", that allows you to dispel any kind of trap debuffs that you took, as well as providing immunity to any other trap debuffs until you've cleared an "enemy cluster".
* AntiFrustrationFeatures:
** For most game modes that use stamina, the stamina point is only subtracted after you get into the victory screen. If you fail the stage, or quit midway, you won't lose the stamina.
** While 10-part draws in the Standard Supply gacha guarantee an A-Rank Valkyrie unit, an S-Rank Valkyrie is guaranteed after the first 33 draws. In Focused Supply, 10-draws will guarantee a 5-star weapon or Stigma at random (selected from the list in the particular gacha banner). In the Expansion Supply, you'll also be guaranteed an S-rank Valkyrie in the next draw if you don't get any for the past 99 draws, and this "draw count" will extend to the next rate-up gacha.
** A majority of the Valkyries can be obtained by grinding out their fragments, which means that players don't have to rely completely on the gacha to obtain new playable characters. Furthermore, once you rank one of your characters to SSS-rank (even the base-B-rank ones, which are easy to rank up), the "Witch Corridor" shop is opened for you, which sells most B- and A-rank Valkyrie fragments, as well as a selection of S-rank Valkyrie frags (those ones change every patch); you can get the special currency for them by converting the fragments of the SSS-rank Valkyrie(s) that you have.
** For that matter, unlike a vast number of hero collector-style games, ''[=HI3=]'' features ''no'' inventory limits whatsoever -- there's certainly no limit on the battlesuits you can have, [[GameplayAndStoryIntegration since in-lore your fighters total around a dozen people or so who ride on a large battleship]], so accommodating your Valkyries and storage for their suits is not exactly an issue. Similarly, there's no limit on the amount of gear you can hold, since presumably the ''Hyperion'' has all the armory space you could possibly need. The game, therefore, does not monetize things like "storage upgrades" at all, a welcome change for players of games like ''VideoGame/AzurLane'' or ''VideoGame/GranblueFantasy''.
** When you complete a stage, all the other uncollected items on the floor will [[PowerUpMagnet automatically be magnetized to your Valkyrie]], so you won't have to waste time picking them up one by one in the middle of a fight.
** In the Schicksal HQ open world map, it's possible to skip the enemy encounters by moving to the border of the enclosed area for a few seconds. If successful, the player is allowed to to roam again freely while the previously-provoked enemies drop their aggro. This is helpful in the tight parts of the map where it's difficult to avoid being detected.
** In the "Path of Apotheosis" game mode, if you fail a stage for the first time, your next run on it will have its enemies weakened. The boss stages in said mode will not make the boss regenerate their HP if you fail to defeat them under the time limit.
** After an update, you can earn comfort points for your Dorm simply by ''purchasing'' the dorm appliances, not necessarily by placing them in the rooms.
** A patch gives the option to turn off QTE for individual characters. Switching in through QTE gives a 10 seconds cooldown for the switched-out character, while normal switching only gives a 5 seconds cooldown. For high-level gameplay where quick switching is key for supporting the main offensive character and thus deal big damage, this feature is very helpful; not to mention that certain characters' QTE attacks either take too long, or just aren't strong or useful enough for the given player's strategy.
** As the usage and limit of Skill Points for upgrading Valkyries' skills were seen as superfluous[[note]]they had a cap in how much skill points could be held at a time, to increase the cap you had to allocate resources and "base power", and when you ran out of skill points and didn't want to wait for them to regenerate, you had to spend some Crystals to refill them[[/note]], an update omitted said system. Now you only need coins (and, for Awakened characters, a certain upgrade item) to level up the Valkyries' skills, the base's section dedicated to increasing the skill points' cap was changed to increases for the limit of making friends, and the "skill point machine" in the Dorm now gave coins instead. Furthermore, version 3.5 outright omitted the "base upgrades" and "skill point machine"; you no longer have to use upgrade materials or allocate energy to get stat increases for your Valkyries - instead, all of them get 35% increase in stats by default, and can be further increased (applies to every Valkyrie you have) by collecting the "Dorm Emblems"[[note]]acquired by raising the Valkyries' ranks, leveling them up, and finishing their trial stages[[/note]] to level up your Dorm. The "coin refinery" and "stamina reserve depot" are now tied to the dorm level, i.e no longer requiring upgrade materials to level them up.
** Version 3.5 gives "upgrade levels" to Valkyries themselves, akin to the weapons and Stigmata. Between each rank up, there are "upgrade stars" that can be filled by collecting enough Valkyrie fragments; with each star filled, the Valkyrie will get increased stats (when previously, stat upgrades for the Valkyries could only be acquired when you ranked them up). The total number of fragments required to rank up Valkyries remains the same, and skills are still locked behind ranks.
** If you don't like certain gacha weapons or Stigmata that you acquire (or if you don't need duplicates of them), you can choose to "convert" them into a rare item called "Resonators", which come in two variants. Collect enough of them and you can buy a different gacha weapon/stigmata in the shop.
** In the Bounty Mark game mode, you can craft certain weapons and Stigmata that are normally gacha-only, and for most of them you'll need to sacrifice one certain 3* weapon/stigma and one certain 4* weapon/stigma that you have (and they tend to be the ones you can get by grinding). If you've previously upgraded the equipments that are about to be used to craft the new equipment, the game will give the upgrade materials back to you after crafting. In addition, as you can only acquire "Resonators" (see above) from converting gacha equipment[[note]]the only other ways are getting them from events (and they're still rare), or from weekly Open World rewards (which only gives a few amounts of them)[[/note]], you can thus use Bounty Mark to farm Resonators more reliably.
** An update gives you "booster" cards that you can acquire through playing in the events. They can be used to automatically finish Open World tasks and daily quests.
** Version 3.6 introduced the option to buy items from the shop in multiple amounts at once, where previously you had to tap multiple times to bulk-buy items.
** When 3.5 first introduced the Dorm system and dorm errands, you couldn't cancel an errand you'd already started (unlike the base missions in previous versions). 3.6 fixed this so you could cancel them[[note]]but you couldn't cancel errands from the previous day that are still ongoing[[/note]].
** The grindable Stigmata pieces Picasso B and Zhang Heng M used to be locked behind special boxes that randomly contain either the stigmata, or their "fragments". The 3.7 update makes them craftable with the same crafting material as other craftable Stigmata. Likewise, the Jingwei's Wings and Blood Embrace ELF fragments used to be locked behind similar "random boxes" (or in their case, "eggs") which may contain ELF-growing materials instead. After the update, the eggs are omitted and all quests/tasks that reward them and all shops that offer them will now reward/offer the fragments themselves.
** As of the 3.7 update, every time the Co-op Raid stages change into a new one (on Fridays), the stages' progression will be immediately reset without having to spend a certain material (Time Structure), so you get to replay the stages again for free once a week. Subsequent replays in the same week still require resetting the progress with said material.
** Version 3.9 allowed you to unlock the "Gene Limit" buffs on the Divine Keys for up to 3 days or even a week by spending more materials. You also no longer have to reset them if you want to change the buff you desire[[note]]for each Divine Key, activating Gene Limit will activate [[MutuallyExclusivePowerups one of the two available buffs]][[/note]]. You can also access the Divine Key interface directly from the "briefing" screen in Memorial Arena and the "Abyss" game modes instead of having to go to the home screen first.
** Version 3.9 now saves the conversations you've had in Post-Honkai Odyssey, whether in the story missions or in the base, so you can review them again anytime.
** The 3.9 update gives you options for replenishing stamina with the stamina button at the top of the screen. Now you can directly access the stamina reserve in your base, or your stamina potions, from said button.
** Previously, in Q-Singularis, you could only fill the "Evadion" gauge from Ultimate Evasion; Perfect Defense (for those with the DefendCommand: Yamabuki Armor, Dimension Breaker and Bright Knight) won't fill the gauge. Version 4.0 enabled Perfect Defense to also fill the gauge.
** Version 4.0 enabled text logs for the story parts of the game, so you can check on what the characters or narration have said if you missed or forgot them, a problem for the previous versions of the game.
** Version 4.4 adds a slider for usage of multiple items at once (such as for upgrading weapons or stigmata, leveling characters, converting items to Asterite, etc), making said procedures quicker.
* AntiGrinding:
** Daily quests are limited to one free run per day. While the player can simply use Planeroid Tokens to gain more tries, said tokens are {{cap}}ped to prevent grinding out the daily quests ad infinitum.
** Hard and Supreme difficulty stages of the story mode (where you can grind materials and Valkyrie fragments) can only be played 3 times and twice, respectively, for each individual stage. You can play beyond that limit by spending Crystals, though.
** The "Time Base" co-op stages can only be played 10 times per day.
** Certain event stages can also only be played a limited number of times per day, usually three. Events that are supposed to be played in weeks (usually 2 or more) also tend to be "time-gated", with its stages being locked until certain dates, so that you won't finish the event's story too abruptly.
** Crossing with AntiHoarding, items in the shop can only be bought a set number of times per day, week or month depending on the item in question.
** In a variant, if you want the specific material drop from the Co-op Raid stages, you have to pay a certain amount of Time Structures to "reset" the playthrough so that you can play from the start again and get the item drops again. The game gives you "Time Structure boxes" that you can buy with certain materials, and beyond that, the Time Structure itself can be bought with a certain rare material.
** There are three open world modes ("Sakura Samsara", "Schicksal HQ" and "Post-Honkai Odyssey"), each giving a maximum of five "adventure tasks" on Mondays, Thursdays and Saturdays, that reward you with various materials in exchange for stamina points; the harder the task, the more stamina you have to spend. However, you can only do tasks for one open world of your choice every week, while the other two will be marked as "inactive". On top of preventing excessively easy grinding, it also works as an AntiPoopSocking feature, as higher-level tasks can be quite time-consuming, let alone stamina-consuming.
* AntiPoopSocking: Like many online game contemporaries, this one has [[FreemiumTimer a "stamina" system]] to prevent the players from doing too much in one sitting. Many gameplay modes cost a certain amount of stamina to play, and it regenerates at the rate of one unit every 6 minutes. The [[{{Cap}} stamina limit]] is increased by upping the captain's level. You can buy more stamina by spending crystals, but the more you buy in a day, the more expensive it'll get. In a later update, the Valkyrie you set on your bridge may sometimes remind you to not play the game for too long.
* ApocalypseMaiden: The "Herrschers" (German for "Sovereigns" or "Rulers") are humans who are "chosen" by the Honkai (usually against their will) to become their "agent" of spreading Honkai's influence. They naturally use vast amounts of Honkai energy and each has an unique ability, such as the 3rd Herrscher that wields lightning or the 4th Herrscher who commands the winds. They can also [[TheBeastmaster command Honkai Beasts]], and people who don't have Honkai resistance will turn into mindless zombies just by being near a Herrscher's presence.
* ArbitraryAugmentationLimit: In-game, Valkyries can only equip up to 3 Stigmata at a time.
* ArcWords:
** In chapter 17, there are three: "changes" (including "you haven't changed"), "looming storms" (and its variants, brought from ch. 16), and "walk into darkness" (and its variants). The teaser for the "Lament of the Fallen" video also gives the words "I'll enter the darkness and return you to bliss". They're all {{foreshadowing}} for [[spoiler:Mei's re-awakening as Herrscher of Thunder, presented as her making a big change for herself and walking down to a dark path past a point of no return to save the "light" (Kiana), and the cause of a new storm]]. Later, the aforementioned quote is also said by [[spoiler:Herrscher of Thunder, if you tap on her icon in character selection]].
--->''Mei left by the kitchen. The corridor was dark except for the medical bay flickered in the distance[[note]]Kiana is inside[[/note]]. She turned around and walked towards the darkness[[note]]to go outside and meet Raven[[/note]].''
** "Rosemary's Floriograph" has the poem left by Welt Joyce, but especially the last line: "We were deceived, and so are you." When Doyle enters a ForcedSleep state, he meets a ghost (Seele) in his dreams, who first asked for help, but then her SplitPersonality takes over and recites the poem. Later, Welt is revealed (through his writings) to have dreamed something similar about the girl; it's implied that he learned the poem from her.
* AreaOfEffect: Some Valkyries, enemies, weapons, and occasionally Stigmata effects have area-of-effect damaging skills or buffing/debuffing abilities.
* ArmorMeter: Some stronger mooks, EliteMooks, and bosses have shield gauges that will reduce the damage taken and make them resistant to flinching until the gauge is depleted; bosses will also become stunned/dazed when it happens. The shield will eventually regenerate, so you gotta give it your all while they're still vulnerable. Some of your Valkyries' attacks may [[AntiArmor deal extra damage to the shields]], while elemental attacks won't damage the shields and instead [[ArmorPiercingAttack deal direct damage to the enemy]].
* TheArtifact:
** As part of the Dorm overhaul in 3.5, the "strengthening machines"[[note]]Valkyrie level-up, Valkyrie skill up, Stigmata/weapon level up[[/note]] as well as the "link-to-the-base board" are no longer functional, but they still exist inside the "main room" of the dorm. The "vending machine" also still exists, but its function (storing excess stamina) is moved towards the new "main interface" of the base. Strangely enough, the tutorial still tells you how to use them even though you can't anymore.
** Playable characters are still called "Valkyries" even though the term, lore wise, only applies to the female warriors of Schicksal. Yae Sakura has no direct ties to the organization, and later, more playable characters are introduced that aren't part of Schicksal.
* ArtifactCollectionAgency: One of the things the Schicksal Organization does is searching for and collecting artifacts of the Previous Era, ranging from {{Unobtainium}}s, {{Lost Superweapon}}s (such as the "Sacred Relics" and the "Divine Keys"), and {{Lost Technolog|y}}ies (such as AIs made in the past or the "silver orbs" that are quantum computers).
* ArtShift:
** While story cutscenes and the natural gameplay display the Valkyries in their realistic proportions, the Dorm section of the game turns them into SuperDeformed chibis.
** Certain (web) events have the characters and the scenery being drawn with different art styles (from different artists of the game). The "Gemina Invasions: Deep Paradise Arc" event, however, makes it a minor plot point: in the beginning, the event is drawn in a cartoony style following the "Gemina Invasions" spinoff comic, but then the art shifts into the one commonly used by the game. Einstein even lampshades it.
* AscendedMeme: miHoYo has shrewdly incorporated several of the game's memes into actual content, such as an animation of Rita [[Manga/JoJosBizarreAdventure doing a JoJo pose, complete with Crescent Harvest as her Stand]]; acknowledging delays of Seele actually becoming a playable character; and multiple nods to the fandom treating Theresa's Oath of Judah weapon as an actual character. In the case of the "cabbage hair Ai-chan" jokes, not only has this meme been acknowledged, it was incorporated into the "Empyrean Legends" event by making Ai-chan a cabbage farmer, and then taken even further in the "Timeless Garden" event that lets you farm different varieties of cabbage, several of which are shaped like Ai-chan's head. In "Durandal's Pilgrimage", the "Durandal's a goose" meme is acknowledged when the sword Durandal, after having a few of the gems of power attached, gains white bird wings.
* AssassinationSidequest: In Sakura Samsara, one of the tasks you can take is to stealthily kill a number of roaming monsters. By activating "stealth mode", the monsters are less likely to be aware of your presence, and you also get the BackStab mechanic which can kill said monsters in one hit. Post-Honkai Odyssey also has tasks that require you to stealth-kill enemies.
* ATasteOfPower: Some of the time-limited events allow you to use higher level and rank versions of a certain character along with their optimal equipment for a test run. One of the rewards for the "cadets" for the "Shishou/Sensei System" is also a special trial character card which lets the cadet use a fixed-level, -rank and -equipment Valkyrie for a few days in normal levels.
* AwesomenessMeter: Some of the gameplay modes have a "rank counter" that goes from D to SSS as you attack enemies and perform certain techniques. While this normally has little effect in gameplay beyond increasing your coin prize after the stage ends, in Post-Honkai Odyssey, some of the characters' skills are tied to getting S-rank or above in battle, so that the better you perform, the stronger your characters become.
* BackForTheFinale: In the final chapter of the "Empyrean Legends" event, the stages' stories have characters from the previous chapters coming back, corresponding with the stage (i.e the 1st stage has the return of the 1st chapter's characters, and so on). Each time, [[BigDamnHeroes they appear to defend the Celestial and Book of Fuxi from incoming monsters]].
* BackStab:
** In the Sakura Samsara game mode, with Stealth Mode activated, you can sneak behind the roaming enemies (including Rare Monsters) and do a powerful attack (with good timing) that deals massive damage to them. Most enemies die in one hit with it, while that may not always happen with the Rare Monsters as they have high HP (although the attack can deal a CriticalHit that increases the damage immensely). ''A Post-Honkai Odyssey'' uses a similar system of backstabbing, but without the need for a dedicated Stealth mode.
** In Schicksal HQ, Ai-chan can do a similar thing, but it'll cost some of her energy whenever she does so. She also can't assassinate Rare Monsters directly.
** Certain missions in story chapters 13 and 14 allow players to perform stealth kills on enemies from behind, complete with unique kill animations for them.
* BagOfSpilling: Chapter 13 and 14 are part of the same story arc in the same setting, have the same {{Required Party Member}}s (Kiana and Rita, plus Mei in chapter 14) and the same internal mechanics for character upgrades; yet even when you have fully upgraded your characters and equipment in chapter 13, you need to do it all over again in 14. This is most likely so that the latter isn't ''too'' easy.
* BaitAndSwitchBoss: In the "Empyrean Legends" event's third chapter, the story seems to lead to an eventual battle with a monster inside of the cave Rita and Mei are in. However, Rozaliya and Liliya (who are resentful of Book of Fuxi for not letting them having one of her cool weapons) steal a few of the [=ELF's=] weapons and unwittingly reduce the monster to ashes with them. The two then get into a power trip and become the bosses.
* BalanceSpeedStrengthTrio: The three playable characters in ''A Post-Honkai Odyssey'' Open World. Mei is the speed who is more effective on mid-air combat and against force field-bearing enemies, Carole is the strength who is more effective in ground fights and against heavy armored enemies, and "X-Member" is the balanced guy.
* {{Bathos}}:
** In the Dorm, if you put Mei and Kiana together on the same bed, they will have a talk where Kiana is having difficulty sleeping and wants Mei to talk with her. But when Mei asks her what they're going to talk about, Kiana ends up sleeping. Mei then says "now I can't sleep."
** In the Dorm, if you put Mei as [[spoiler:Herrscher of Thunder]] with [[spoiler:Herrscher of the Void]] together, the two will have a dramatic talk where the latter points out how Mei has taken on "that power" and tempts her to "join us". Mei swears that she's going to take [[spoiler:Kiana]] back from her "evil claws". Then [[spoiler:HOV]] says that Mei is getting closer to her, as the latter goads her into a fight... But then she hears the doorbell, thinking that it might be her food delivery. The "dramatic engagement" is averted as Mei thinks to herself "this [[spoiler:Herrscher]] is weird."
* BattleInTheRain:
** Some of the later stages in Theresa's side story "Everlasting Memories" are set during rain.
** The middle part of ch. 11-EX has Kiana fight around while there's rain in Arc City.
** Fitting the "stormy" theme of the chapters, ch. 16 and 17 have a few stages where rain falls down, but most notably in the latter chapter's final stage where strong wind blows and lightning cracks the sky as well [[spoiler:as Herrscher Mei uses her powers]].
* BeachEpisode:
** The Summer Wars event. In this event, you can acquire swimsuits for your Valkyries, and there are event stages set at the beach.
** A special Imaginary Maze mode (which replaces Matrix Explore for the duration) is also set in a beach, where the playable characters look for hidden treasures.
** Played with in the dorms, as one is set on a beach and one of its "rooms" is a large seaside deck with a pool and volleyball court; {{subverted|Trope}}, though, in that the Valkyries' chibis don't include options for their swimsuits.
* BeautyBrainsAndBrawn: Within the main PowerTrio, Mei is the beauty (the oldest and most feminine out of the three), Bronya is the brains (the more knowledgeable and rational person), and Kiana is the brawn (the physically strongest out of the three).
* BeefGate: In the "explore" mode of Post-Honkai Odyssey, some paths will be blocked by special monsters with an "intel level number" on them, and you can only go through after beating those monsters. If your "intel level" (an exclusive ExperienceMeter increased by playing PHO's story mode, or completing the tasks) matches or surpasses them, you'll have an easier time beating those monsters; you can try attacking them when your intel level is lower, but the challenge would be much harder. In a variant, there are also virtual walls that block your way until you can reach high enough intel levels (depending on the specific wall) to pass through them.
* BeginWithAFinisher:
** Downplayed in Dirac Sea or Q-Singularis (or the later introduced Superstring Dimension). You begin each fight in those modes with 90 SP in each character; many characters' Ultimate Skills cost 100 or more SP. Depending on the character you use and your strategy, you may have to attack the enemies with normal attacks first before you can do an Ultimate Skill. However, the 90 SP allows you to do it ''quickly'', unlike in most other gameplay modes. Note that Lightning Empress or Shadow Knight's leader skills that give starting SP for the team do not work here.
** This can be played straight in the open world stages, where you're free to fill the SP of your characters before any major battle, such as the periodic tasks or the world boss fights. In Post-Honkai Odyssey's "Ruins Mode", it's also common to conserve SP in the lower floors so that you can use them immediately on the boss on the final floor.
* BehemothBattle: Some scripted stages require you to pilot a giant mecha to take on other giant mechas.
* BenevolentPrecursors: The people of the Previous Era (primarily Dr. Mei) were shown to be genuine in their efforts to pass their knowledge to the future generations when they saw that their extinction was inevitable. [[spoiler:The few survivors from the era would then go on to guide the new humanity in general knowledge and science, and help them in surviving against the Honkai.]]
* BettingMiniGame:
** Played with in both halves of the "Odd Drifter" event, which incorporated Sir Gacha, a piece of Anti-Entropy tech in the form of a "one-armed bandit"-style casino machine. Completing tasks in the event earned you Tesla Chips as rewards, which were then given to Sir Gacha one at a time; it would then randomly give you up to three selections for chibis to add to your roster. Selecting a duplicate chibi increased that chibi's stars by 1, to a max of 5, which increased her stats.
** The Himeko birthday event in 2020 also involves a "one-armed bandit"-style casino machine. You have to acquire special cards from the event missions to use this machine, and it gives materials as rewards.
* {{BFS}}: Himeko and the Olenyeva twins use huge swords as their weapons of choice, with Himeko swinging them two-handed while the twins wield them with their cybernetic tails.
* BigBad: Otto Apocalypse, the supreme leader of Schicksal, is the one behind many of the tragedies happening in the present, and he's got his own EvilPlan for the whole war against the Honkai.
* BigBadEnsemble: As the game's story goes on and more print media are released, the power struggle between the antagonists becomes clearer. On one side, you have the Honkai, led by a gestalt will bent on exterminating humans as it has always been doing across several eras. Then you have Otto Apocalypse, who first appears as the big good, but is then revealed to subtly sabotage humanity's efforts against the Honkai for his own personal agenda. ''Then'', the World Serpent organization slowly emerges from their millennia-old secrecy, intent on leading humanity against the Honkai, but also employing dubious methods in the process.
* BladeBelowTheShoulder: One variety of the zombie mooks has a mechanical harness covering its arms which sports a pair of large blades that the zombie uses to make stabbing attacks.
* BlessedWithSuck: In many cases, Herrschers are otherwise innocent people who wouldn't wish to harm others, but they usually can't stop their {{Superpowered Evil Side}}s from wreaking havoc without some help. Average people who know of them may shun them at best, or try to kill them at worst. As for the first Herrscher, however, instead of a SuperpoweredEvilSide, he takes a [[CastFromLifespan heavy toll on his body each time he uses his power]].
* BlindIdiotTranslation: The French translation (in Global server) suffered heavily from this, especially early on, with a lot of lines that were visibly translated literally from English and have never seen a proofreader, and others who were only half-translated or barely match what the voices say, not to mention the general disregard for grammatical genders and speech registers − such as female characters being referred to with male pronouns or close friends talking like complete strangers. This could make the story nigh-incomprehensible in some parts, although gameplay instructions are generally better handled, thankfully. The translation has also noticeably improved in later chapters.
* BokeAndTsukkomiRoutine: In events, Einstein and Tesla sometimes take this role. The former, while not an idiot, is rather eccentric and occasionally likes teasing Tesla, who gets easily agitated with her words.
* BonusDungeon:
** Chapter 14 has "SP stages" that contain tougher enemies; not only that, all of them have the "Soul Link" buff. They cost no stamina, but they'll only give a reward when you beat the stages the first time.
** The "Empyrean Legends" event has two: one in chapter 2 and the other in chapter 4. The former is the harder version of the chapter's last level, where [[AdvancingWallOfDoom you have to escape from a collapsing bridge while avoiding obstacles]]. The latter is a BossRush where you have to fight the 4 main bosses of the event, one after another; if your team dies, you have to start from the first boss again. Their attack power is also buffed. You'll get some prizes if you can manage to beat the stages for the first time.
** Chapter 16 has "EX-stages" that consists of harder versions of the normal stages. It also has a series of stages in a separate menu that are challenging and have their own gimmicks; they'll give you some rewards when you first clear them.
* BoomHeadshot: In Sakura Samsara, when in stealth mode, Valkyries who use guns will assassinate zombies with a point blank shot to the back of the head.
* BossInMookClothing: Occasionally, you may find enemy versions of Kiana, Mei or Bronya as a mook in the levels. Their attacks are slower than the playable version's (but still faster than the average mooks), but with their ability to use combos, Ultimate Evasions and Ultimate Skills, they're as much of a pain as "Dark Bronya" (an actual boss, of Chapter 2).
* BossOnlyLevel:
** In the main story, major bosses tend to have levels dedicated to fighting them (Ganesha, Dark Bronya, Wendy, Wotan, etc.).
** In both Infinite Abyss (and its successors) and Matrix Explore, there are designated "boss floors" where you fight only a boss (or 2-3 {{Elite Mook}}s).
** Some levels in the Co-op Raid stages are about fighting bosses without any mooks around/preceding them.
** The final story level in Post-Honkai Odyssey only has your characters running straight to the villain's lair and then fighting the FinalBoss. The BigBad lampshades it, saying that the path is free of obstacles and he's going to have them be "delivered directly".
** The 2nd half of Chapter 22 consists of 3 back-to-back boss fight against [[spoiler:Herrscher of Sentience]] as Void Drifter Kiana.
* BossWarningSiren: Whenever you're about to face off against a boss enemy (usually before the last wave in a stage), a siren will play on the background, accompanied by a warning text surrounding your character.
* BottomlessMagazines: Kiana, Kallen and Bronya can fire their weapons without ever worrying about ammo.
* BottomlessPits: Some parts of Post-Honkai Odyssey's stage have pits that you or the enemies can fall/be thrown into. While falling into the pits mean instant death for the enemies, your characters will just take a little damage and respawn back onto the platform if they fall into them.
* {{Bowdlerize}}: The KR and Global versions of the game lack the "touch the Valkyrie on the home screen" feature, which, among other things, makes the achievement of raising their affection level take longer. At least, there's another feature where shaking the screen will cause the Valkyries to react in a similar way. The original CN server also lost it after a patch. While the SEA and JP servers still have it, a patch makes touching their chest or groin area not increase the affection level, even if they still react. Also, starting with the release of [[spoiler:Herrscher of the Void]], any newly released Valkyries will not come with the ability to touch their body.
* BraidsOfAction: Another running theme of the Kaslanas, as both Kiana and Kallen wear their hair in waist-length braids; Kiana has two while Kallen has one. [[spoiler:Kiana's hair comes unbraided when she's taken over by Sirin. Once Sirin is defeated, Kiana rebraids her hair, but when she becomes Void Drifter her hair is worn loose again.]]
* BribingYourWayToVictory: ''Honkai Impact 3rd'' runs on a gacha lottery system, so this trope naturally applies, as players who top-up with premium currency obviously have more chances of obtaining Valkyries, weapons, Stigmata and other resources on the Supply gachas than those who grind them instead. The rarest and most powerful Valkyries can only be obtained in the gacha, unlike most of the farmable Valkyries. In addition, the game also sells "bundles" of materials with special currency, which itself can only be bought with real money.
* TheBridge: The home screen is set on ''Hyperion''[='s=] bridge, with the BridgeBunnies in the background and a Valkyrie of your choice standing in front of you.
* BulletTime: The "Time Fracture" effect can slow down time around the user for a few seconds, which helps with navigating around enemies; this can also slow down the timer for a TimedMission. Some Valkyrie suits can activate Time Fracture with an Ultimate Evasion, while others trigger it with their QTE skills (which have shorter durations), and Divine Prayer Kiana has it as part of her Ultimate Skill.
* CallBack:
** In the supplementary comic about the [=ELFs=]' world, Schrodinger examines the magazine she finds and she notices something peculiar: the "[[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mu_(lost_continent) Mu continent]]", which she thinks was [[{{Atlantis}} a lost world in the middle of the sea]]. Jingwei's Wings says that that was the name of this world back when humanity was still around. It's an oblique reference to another comic set in the Previous Era, where it's mentioned that there existed a continent called Mu that was lost due to the activity of the 9th Herrscher, who can control gravity. In the next chapter of the ELF comic, the previous era's Einstein (the [=ELFs=]' creator) warped the whole continent into the Sea of Quanta so the people there could survive the Herrscher's attack, but sadly, their grounds have been contaminated heavily with the Honkai and can no longer sustain organic life. Humanity slowly died over the years, leaving only the ELFs and their new civilization in its wake.
** In the special video at the end of ch. 14, there's one of the brief shots of the citizens, including a mother and her baby looking up to the night sky as Kiana runs above the rooftops. It's a reference to one chapter of the ''2nd Eruption'' comic where a similar scene happens with another mother and child (implied to be Mei) looking up to the sky as Sirin dropped space debris onto the earth. Kiana's action itself--using her power to neutralize the Honkai energy bomb by flying up to the atmosphere and then destroying it there--is one to the Anti-Entropy VisualNovel, where Edison did the same thing to save Manhattan (at the cost of her life).
** In ch. 16, when Mei asks Tesla on what they could do to help the children in the Roost, she says that AE's Salt Lake base is taking in some orphans and that they may be running low on supplies. It refers to the end of ch. 12 where the ''Hyperion'' crew is planning to take the kids in Cocolia's orphanage to the Salt Lake base.
** The "Shattered Samsara" short animation gives a call back to multiple scenes in the past:
*** When Kiana sees [[spoiler:Herrscher of Sentience]]'s incoming "giant phoenix" attack, she reacts with an OhCrap face as she says "This is Fu Hua's..."; a call-back to [[spoiler:Sirin in 2nd Eruption when she saw Fu Hua about to use Edge of Taixuan against her.]]
*** When Fu Hua is about to [[spoiler:[[SealedEvilInACan seal Herrscher of Sentience together with her]]]], she tells Kiana that this is her final goodbye; after all, "it's my mission". It's [[MeaningfulEcho the same thing that Kiana says to Mei]] in the "Lament of the Fallen" video, which left the latter enraged as she can't accept that her "most important person" had to sacrifice herself, even "for the greater good"; now Kiana gets to feel how Mei felt.
*** After Fu Hua [[spoiler:did the aforementioned sealing]], leaving a Fenghuang Down feather behind, Kiana [[spoiler:uses her void powers to "enter" the feather to save her friend, like what Sirin did in 2nd Eruption (although for different reasons)]].
*** The scene afterwards where Kiana "punches" a floor to rescue Fu Hua is one to the "Seele" video where Seele did the same thing to get to the trapped Bronya.
*** Near the end, Fu Hua warns Kiana about [[spoiler:the Herrscher of Sentience]] possibly breaking free if Kiana tries to pull Fu Hua out; the Kaslana girl then claims that "I can just beat her again", the same reassurance that she gave Mei years ago (shown in a flashback in ch. 16).
* CallForward:
** In Chapter 16, Mei and Tesla set up a few Honkai energy detectors to try to detect Kiana in the ruins of Nagazora City; they specifically talk about finding "somewhere wide and flat" to place them, and Tesla claims that it's still a new tech. However, they could only find Mei's trace of Herrscher energy instead. This is a reference to the early part of Post-Honkai Odyssey, where the older Mei and the protagonist set up multiple detectors on different places in the St. Fountain (specifically wide and flat places) to find the missing Welt, and they expect to find two results: Welt, and Mei herself.
** The end of Bright Knight's event in version 3.9 (set some time before the game's main story) has a scene where the data of the Bright Knight suit in one of the capsules in a certain chamber in ch. 9 is deleted, leaving the message "project transferred to other labs" behind.
* CameraLockOn: By default, your character will lock on to the closest enemy they're facing when they attack. You can change the settings to either disable this or give you manual lock-on (by tapping the enemy's body), although it's usually better to keep it automatic.
* {{Cap}}:
** Your Valkyries' max level is capped at whatever your current level is as Captain, and can't go higher than 80 although your Captain level is capped at 85 (as of Version 4.4).
** The max upgrade levels for weapons and Stigmata are denoted by stars. 4-star equipments' upgrade level cap is 35, while 5-star ones is 50. PRI-ARM versions of weapons are capped at 65.
** In Post-Honkai Odyssey, the amount of Krystallums and Regulators you can get from the Explore mode per "cycle" are capped; the cap will increase as you raise your "intel level". Note that the total amount of those items in your inventory isn't capped, while the number of those items you get outside of Explore mode won't count towards that cap.
* CastFullOfGay: Out of all playable characters, only Himeko and later Carole (in Post-Honkai Odyssey) are confirmed to be straight. The rest...
** Kiana adores Mei and is not shy at all about expressing it. [[spoiler:This somehow extends to Sirin's dormant Herrscher core within Kiana, which is attracted to Mei's Herrscher self and feels entitled to take it--because back in the 2nd Honkai War, Sirin used to possess the core of the 3rd Herrscher (among other cores) to empower herself.]] She also jokes that Fu Hua might be a contender, if not for the fact that Kiana's soul and body already belongs to Mei. A few other quick jokes in the game (such as her being not angry but ''jealous'' upon hearing the rumor that her dad touched the butts of a lot of Valkyries) clearly indicate which way she swings. Mei is much more subtle about her feelings[[note]]the most she showed are her NightmareSequence from one of the supplementary comics (which has been kicked out of canon) where she appears to be marrying Kiana, but then the latter dies; and Herrscher Mei's inner thoughts in another comic, where she thinks of how much Kiana has dug into her despite her irritation[[/note]], though later story chapters slowly uncover her feelings of gratitude for her first meeting with Kiana. Then Chapter 17 comes around and she reveals in the tie-in animated short that [[spoiler:Kiana means ''the world'' to her (and she makes it clear in front of Kiana), so Mei [[BreakHisHeartToSaveHim is willing to antagonize her to save her from her fate as a Herrscher and from her self-destructive tendencies]]]].
** Bronya and Seele are so close that they end up kissing each other before the latter disappears from reality, with Seele promising that this wouldn't be their last kiss and Bronya will find a way to restore Seele, becoming one of her main motivations throughout the story. In the "Stygian Blooms" event, in the "Album/Seele's Notebook" section, there are writings of negative emotions and other things ("Solitude", "Anger", "Fear", etc), and among them is "Seele loves Bronya".
** Kallen bonds with Yae Sakura due to their similar circumstances, and they spend most of their screentime together like a couple. It's saying something when most official works have them kissing each other at least once.
** Theresa was very close to Cecilia back in the past, as the one person who befriended her when most other people (other than Otto) only treated her professionally at most, due to her being a clone partially made of Honkai genes. She was just as devastated as Siegfried when she learned about Cecilia's demise in the 2nd Honkai War, and she secretly holds some jealousy towards him for "stealing Cecilia away from her". Her theme song (back from the ''Guns Girl Z'' days) tells about how important Kiana's mother was to her life, and how much losing her felt like.
** Downplayed with Fu Hua. She doesn't exactly show attraction towards anyone, but she's often close to Himeko (who simply sees her as one of her students). [[spoiler:In the previous civilization 50000+ years ago, she used to be a newbie soldier under the command of a Himeko lookalike, who turned out to be the Herrscher of Flame and had to be slain. Her commander taught her a lot of things and was protective of her, which causes Fu Hua to look up to her, even after her death.]] Though more recent events seem to have shifted to pairing her up with Kiana more often than not, with one event having the Captain note how he senses a "special chemistry" between the two.
* CataclysmBackstory: The supplementary comic centered around the Divine Keys shows that there used to be [[AdvancedAncientHumans a much more advanced human civilization 50000+ years ago]] that had dealt with numerous Honkai threats, including Herrschers. Back then, humans, thanks to the previous world version of Mei, who's a renowned scientist, had many technological breakthroughs such as the creation of the special alloy "Soul Steel" and [[LostSuperweapon the weapons derived from it]], the study of the [[PowerCrystal Herrscher Cores]] and their use in creating the [[LegendaryWeapon Divine Keys]], as well as the "M.A.N.T.I.S" project, which created powerful SuperSoldiers. Despite their best efforts, however, they eventually faced extinction at the hand of the final Herrscher [[spoiler:("God Kiana" of the previous game, ''Guns [=GirlZ=]'')]], but not before Mei [[FlingALightIntoTheFuture flung a light into the future]] in the form of Stigmata[[note]]which contained the fruits of her researches and projects and were implanted into select humans, who were then put into cryostasis[[/note]] and her "child"[[note]]She mixed her DNA with that of her trusted friend Kevin Kaslana and then raised the embryo ''in vitro''; Kevin then put both himself and the child into [[HumanPopsicle cryostasis]][[/note]].
* TheCavalryArrivesLate: In ch. 18, when Durandal and Rita arrive at where the Snow Lotus valkyrie squad lost contact, the two see the squad members dead beneath the ice. The two have a moment of silence, then Durandal tells Rita that they have to bring the dead Valkyries home. When Durandal finds one of their comm devices and replays the recording in it, a voice says that they've tried contacting the Oceania Branch and they were waiting for reinforcements, when suddenly, another voice identified as "squad leader" started acting bizarrely as she desperately yelled at the other to get away from her... before the voice went static.
* ChallengeRun:
** The first time you play most stages (story mode, Chronicles stages, daily missions, certain events, etc), there'll be "medals" that you can obtain by doing challenging tasks, such as doing a number of combo hits, [[SpeedRunReward finishing the stage under a number of seconds]], not taking more than X amount of hits, etc. Successfully getting the medals would give you a few Crystals each, and in story mode and Chronicles mode, getting enough medals from a cluster of stages will give you some more rewards.
** In the "Empyrean Legends" event, many stages have signboards which will clue you on what you have to do to get extra rewards.
* ChangingGameplayPriorities: You'll spend your lower captain levels learning about your Valkyries' skills and how they work in battle, and you'll gain crystals and coins rather quickly. The game unlocks more and more things as you level up, from the Dormitory and Base to the Armada (basically guilds) and their related features, and various gameplay modes such as Memorial Arena and Infinite Abyss. Once you're at level 40+, leveling your Valkyries (including their skills) requires more resources, and you also have to start planning about getting better gear for them (at worst, the 3-stars-base ones).
* CharacterAlignment: The chibis of the Stigmata characters [[InvokedTrope are each assigned]] one of the classic ''[[TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons D&D]]''-style alignments. For instance, Sirin and Elizabeth Bathory are ChaoticEvil since Sirin is the Herrscher of the Void and Elizabeth Bathory is based on the historical murderer [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elizabeth_B%C3%A1thory Elizabeth Báthory]].
* CharacterLevel: Each of the Valkyrie suits have their "levels", which can be increased by playing as them or by special EXP chips, the latter method being faster. Leveling up means increasing their stats and available skill levels, as well as increasing their "load point" so that [[LevelLockedLoot they can equip more powerful weapons and Stigmata]]. [=ELFs=] also have their levels, which are increased by feeding them special food. Their level is capped by their "star grade" (which are increased by collecting their fragments), akin to weapons/stigmata.
* CharacterSelectForcing: For the more competitive side of the game (the "Abyss" modes and Memorial Arena) specifically, quite a number of bosses are practically designed to be beaten by specific characters, especially the one they're trying to "sell" in the Expansion Supply. The gimmicks for each "Abyss" modes (WeatherOfWar in Dirac Sea, the "Evadion buff skill" in Q-Singularis) also tend to steer players into fighting the boss with characters of specific attributes as they'll get buffed and thus can potentially beat the boss quicker to score more points. If you don't own said specific characters, prepare to improvise.
* ChargedAttack: Some characters have this, done by holding the main attack button. Some character skills, weapon skills and Stigmata effects specifically enhance charged attacks.
* ChekhovsGag: The "HOMU Rush!" event mentions "[[Videogame/SekiroShadowsDieTwice Sekigo: Sakura Dies Twice]]" as one of the games that Bronya plays in a lifestream, and as part of the "Beach Empress" (aka the "desert genie")'s video game collection. The "Sanka Saga" event's final act is called "Sekigo", and its only normal stage is named "Sakura Dies Twice".
* ChekhovsGun:
** In "Winter's Rhapsody" and "Odd Drifter", if the particular item you get from the adventure isn't immediately useful, it will become useful later on.
** The "St. Freya Fiesta" event features a board game-like gameplay, with you following a linear path (with occasional branching that leads back to one path), deciding how long you can go with randomized means (from 1 to 4 squares), and various things that could happen when you stop on a particular square. The significance of this is in how [[spoiler:it's revealed in the end that the Captain is just daydreaming while Theresa and the Olenyeva twins are playing a board game]].
** In the early part of Post-Honkai Odyssey's chapter 1, Mei mentions that Welt was last seen by the Schicksal's satellites taking off in the Sa'ad Station in St. Fountain before they lost contact with him. The team finds out that there's some kind of barrier surrounding the city that blocks off normal means of long distance communications. The "gun" comes off later on, where Carole's recon job results in her finding a "hole" in this barrier: the Sa'ad Station's subway, which they use to evacuate Welt and his son Joey out of the city.
** The "gacha" currency for Post-Honkai Odyssey is golden keys. You may think they "open boxes", but those who have seen [[spoiler:Void Archives (which takes shape of a golden key)]] in the manga will be alerted by them. [[spoiler:Void Archives is revealed to be behind the whole St. Fountain incident.]]
** In ch. 16, Mei finds an Anti-Entropy assistant drone lying around in the ruins of Nagazora; when Tesla checks it, she says that it still looks quite new. The drone is later revealed to be the RobotBuddy of Sora, one of the refugees in the city, who asks Mei to retrieve it for her.
** In the trailer for Version 4.1, there's an image of a pair of pendants shaped like halves of a heart. In ch. 18, Durandal finds one of them lying around on Coral Island's ruins, cluing her to what happened: its owner, Ana Schariac, has become the 5th Herrscher. Near the end of the chapter, the other half of the pendant is revealed to be held by [[spoiler:Owl]].
* ChekhovsGunman: Some of the weapons' FlavorText mentions the designer as neither Schicksal nor Anti-Entropy, but "Mikoyan Design Bureau", who's affiliated with the organization called "World Serpent". Chapter 9-EX is where the story directly tackles said organization for the first time, by first showing one of their agents/informants called "Gray Serpent" and his subordinate called "Ningyo". Version 2.9's introduction video also puts emphasis on them and the serpent theme. Version 3.5 also puts them in a bigger spotlight, coming complete with a new side comic that focuses on them.
* CherryTapping: Using the base B-suits like White Comet or Crimson Impulse (who have a very limited moveset and subpar damage) in high difficulties is a popular way to impress the viewers.
* ChurchMilitant: The Schicksal Organization, at least at its core/in its earlier days, has some Christian (particularly Catholic) themes, and is led by an Archbishop. They're also the foremost group on fighting the Honkai phenomenon.
* CivilWarVersusArmageddon: The two major organizations, Schicksal and Anti-Entropy, are both fighting against the "Honkai" phenomenon, a force that tries to eliminate humanity. The two are also constantly scheming against each other because of the friction that occurred between the two years before the game's present; both of them have done questionable deeds in the past, supposedly for stopping the Honkai threats, and both have good and bad members of their own.
* CivvieSpandex: Some of the Valkyries' costumes seem to be fitting more for vacations rather than combat. This is given a nod in the Durandal-themed side event "Schicksal Mystery"; in a conversation between Rita and Durandal, all of the Valkyries' outfits are created by Schicksal, coming from a variety of collections similar to clothing lines, and are designed to be combat capable, so the Valkyries can fight the Honkai should the need arise no matter where they are or what they're doing.
* ClickHello: This is [[PlayingWithATrope played with]] in ch. 14, when Mei makes her presence known to Rita by putting her sword to Rita's neck. While Rita has sent her a message about Kiana's whereabouts, she's still wary about having had the maid as an enemy (who was hunting Kiana) back in ch. 9-EX.
-->'''Rita:''' Miss Raiden, it's been a long time.
* CliffHanger:
** The Sakura Samsara's extra story ends like this: Sakura manages to defeat the sword-turned-demon Jizo Mitama and free Higokumaru from "her" influence, but then a masked thief (Kallen as Sixth Serenade) steals the cursed sword away. The Raid stages "Soul Throne" continues from this, as Sakura goes to chase the thief.
** The "HOMU Rush!" event ends in one, as the ship the Captain and the girls are on is swept away by a huge wave. The next event, "Odd Drifter", picks up in the aftermath, as Yae Sakura finds the Captain washed up on a beach which becomes the first area in the event.
** The end of ch. 9 has Himeko preparing herself to fight [[spoiler:Herrscher of the Void]]. The cutscene only shows glimpses of the fight; the full video is in the official Youtube channel, called [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8dmvNGxYPCU "Final Lesson"]]. Likewise, the end of ch. 14 has Kiana preparing to [[spoiler:use Herrscher of the Void's full power with Fu Hua's aid]]; it then cuts with an announcement for the associated animated short, [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nbRlNQ1oZVY "Meteoric Salvation"]]. There's also an in-game CG of the aftermath of "Meteoric Salvation", [[spoiler:with Mei rushing to where Kiana fell, only to find that Durandal beat her to the punch, setting up a confrontation between the two as Chapter 14 truly ends]].
** Post-Honkai Odyssey's "Part 1" ends this way. [[spoiler:Both Mei and the Protagonist are heavily injured after fighting the FinalBoss, and Carole can only hope that they can stay alive.]]
** Ch. 18 ends with the Herrscher of Ice blasting Mei and Durandal with a massive frigid blast. The next thing shown was her and Owl walking away. Ch. 19 shows that Mei and Durandal get out fine, however.
** In the end of chapter 20, Kiana and Bronya walk into a door in a building in Mount Taixuan, only to find "dark Fu Hua" inside, setting up for their meeting and confrontation. Chapter 21 ends the same way from Hua(?)'s side, showing how she got there before Kiana and Bronya did.
* ChunkyUpdraft: In one cutscene in ch. 17, the activation of the 2nd Divine Key causes the ruined buildings in Nagazora to get uprooted and float up.
* ClothesMakeTheSuperman: Aside from their weapons and stigmata, the big source of power for the Valkyries lie in their battlesuits. Different suits give them different abilities.
* ColorWash: Certain attacks/effects by the Valkyries or the [=ELF=]s will tint the surroundings with certain color. Time Fracture effect will [[ColorCodedTimestop dim the lights and give a subtle purple tint]], the ELF Blood Embrace's Ultimate Skill will tint the screen red until it finishes, Arctic Kriegsmesser's special mode (after using her ChargedAttack) will tint the screen blue until the mode stops, and so on.
* CombatResuscitation: In the CoopMultiplayer stages, when one of the player characters is downed, they can be brought back up by one of their co-op friends by walking towards them and waiting for a few seconds until they get back up. There's a 20-second time limit to this state, however; once those seconds pass, they can't be revived unless their player pays a certain amount of Crystals that increases with each subsequent death. Some of the "Co-op Skills" affect this mechanic in many ways, like increasing the speed of resuscitation, or providing some temporary buffs after successful resuscitation, etc.
* {{Combo}}: These can be executed by repeatedly tapping on the attack button. Variations require some sort of unique input like delayed taps or tap-and-holds. There is also a combo counter in-game, which is tracked by certain stage objectives. Certain Valkyrie skills and weapon and Stigmata effects are tied to how many combo hits you make; most of them are about [[GatheringSteam giving you buffs after reaching a number of combo hits]]. Some of the "medal missions" are also about doing enough hits in a combo.
* ConservationOfNinjutsu: In the Dirac Sea mode, the clusters that contain only 1 enemy and the clusters that contain "duo elites" are harder than the normal ones, which house more enemies. The "solo warrior" cluster's enemy will have a lot of HP, and two special buffs: one that [[ManaBurn burns your characters' SP]] and temporarily weakens them if said enemy damages you, and another that gives them resistance towards most StandardStatusEffects [[AdaptiveAbility whenever said enemy gets debuffed]]. The "duo elites" cluster's enemies have the [[GeminiDestructionLaw Soul Link]] buff and there might be multiple pairs of them, though you fight them one pair at a time.
* ContinuityNod: The event stories tend to reference previous ones, but "Odd Drifter" makes it a plot point because the Captain is dealing with some amnesia, with him getting flashbacks to the previous events' stories every now and then. In particular, seeing the "vampire Theresa" reminds him of the events of Soukai City where [[spoiler:he couldn't save Luna Kindred no matter what he does]] and thus he strives to help her in however way he can, including giving her his own blood.
* ContractualBossImmunity: Most bosses are immune to many status effects, making [=QTEs=] harder to use (as they're triggered by status effects). The few ones that they aren't immune to are "bleeding", "ignite", "time-slow" (and a few bosses are immune to even that), "impaired" and "weakened" (lowered attack power). They also can only be [[LauncherMove launched up]] if their ArmorMeter is broken, and even then (most of the time) they aren't "launched" per se, merely enough that it'll trigger launch-based QTE. In a lesser variant, some of them are also attribute-less, so that none of your Valkyries have [[TacticalRockPaperScissors advantage]] against them (but neither would they).
* ConvenientlyTimedDistraction: In the middle of ch. 15, after Kiana (who's been abducted to Schicksal's Vimur Base) and Durandal have a talk about Schicksal, there's a sudden incoming attack from World Serpent's mechs. As the mechs break in and cause rubble to fall down, Durandal calls Kiana, only to find out that Kiana has taken the opportunity to escape the base.
* CoolAirship: ''Hyperion'', which doubles as your HomeBase.
* CooldownManipulation: Some Stigmata effects reduce the cooldown of Ult. Evasion/Perfect Defense, such as Zhuge Kongming T or the 2-SetBonus of Shakespeare. Some others reduce the cooldown of weapon skills, such as Theresa: Origins M or Siegfried M.
* CoOpMultiplayer: Players can join lobbies of 3 and battle enemies in real-time.
* TheCorruption: This is one of the main ways the Honkai manifests and tries to eradicate humanity. Exposure to Honkai energy will make common people (without any Honkai protection) succumb to the Honkai's will, becoming like a mindless zombie that can spread the corruption to others. In certain cases, however, the Honkai [[MoreThanMindControl may have a more sophisticated approach]] that turns humans into Herrschers, "agents" of the Honkai's will who are controlled to cause mass destruction and havoc. In particular, the Herrscher of Corruption (in the Previous Era) worked by implanting her mind into anything, even machinery and electronics, to "corrupt" and control them to do her bidding.
* CoverVersion:
** Seele's theme "Dual Ego" has a [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MK2xU8bOTuI cover version]] sang by Hanser, Bronya's voice actress.
** miHoYo also sponsored a cover of [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=raj0tAKRtq4 "Honkai World Diva" by Rainych]].
* CounterAttack: In a variant, for certain characters, if they've successfully evaded an attack, by pressing the attack button right after, they can perform a special attack to hit whoever attacked them previously. E.g Phoenix (Fu Hua) has a DeadlyLunge attack (based on one of her special combos) that she can do twice in a row, while Sündenjäger (Kallen) instantly segues into the 4th part of her basic combo after evading an attack. In another variant, for certain characters, the Ultimate Evasion effect itself is an attack of its own, e.g Twilight Paladin (Theresa) summons a spinning blade where the attacker stands to hit them multiple times, while Shadow Dash (Mei) creates a shadow clone to attack her attacker.
* CrapsaccharineWorld: This setting may be placed in a generally thriving TwentyMinutesIntoTheFuture, but no one is safe here, as there's Honkai all over the place, and the organizations opposing them are not much better. Also, the Valkyries [[RedshirtArmy are extremely expendable]], and generally, their lifespans get [[YourDaysAreNumbered cut off for good measure]] by artificial Stigmata augmentation[[note]]although among playable characters, only Himeko (presumably) has this problem[[/note]].
* CrapsackWorld: In comparison to the current era, the Previous Era is this, as the Honkai threats occur much more frequently, forcing humanity to advance just as quickly. Even with their best efforts, there was always the feeling of looming Honkai threats, they're forced to adopt desperate and extreme measures, and humanity dwindled - and eventually went extinct - in the span of little more than a decade (compare Kevin and MEI at the time of the 3rd Honkai outbreak, to the end of the era).
* CriticalHit:
** In the traditional sense, physical attacks have a chance of dealing critical hits, shown by the damage number glowing gold. The CRT stat determines the chance and damage a critical hit does. Some Valkyries' skills, some weapons and Stigmata can increase the critical hit chance and damage directly, or increase the CRT stat; some others have effects that trigger upon dealing critical hits[[note]]for example, the Rinaldo and Kepler stigmata sets can trigger extra damage and paralysis on a small area, as well as small self heal, by dealing critical hits; Imayoh Ritual (Kallen) has a passive where her special gauge (for her branch attack, a WaveMotionGun) will fill up if her normal attacks deal critical hits[[/note]].
** In a variant, when you're leveling your weapons and Stigmata up using level-up materials, there'll be a chance that you'll fill it by 1.5 times the amount, and a much more rare chance to fill it by 2 times. If you're lucky enough, this would mean that you can level up your equipments using lower amounts of money and materials.
* CreatorCameo: In the first Summer event, the miHoYo building exists in Soukai City. In the story, you can sometimes see miHoYo advertisements and logos in Arc City.
* {{Crossover}}: Version 4.5 features a crossover event with ''Anime/NeonGenesisEvangelion'', titled "New Century"[[note]]Named after the original Japanese title, ''Shinseiki Evangelion'', lit. "''New Century'' Gospel"[[/note]]. [[OutsideContextProblem Angels suddenly appeared in the Honkai world]] and the Anti-Entropy, representing NERV, has to fight them off to protect humanity; fortunately, they have help in form of Asuka, who also stumbled into this world and knows a thing or two about the Angels. The event's story parodies that of Evangelion's, with Honkai characters and concepts in place of Eva's: Mei as Shinji, Bronya as Rei, Himeko as Misato, Kiana as Asuka, Ryoma (Mei's father) as Gendo, and so on.
* CrystalLandscape: In Post-Honkai Odyssey, the city of St. Fountain is littered with strange crystal growths. They apparently contain small amounts of Honkai energy, and they're said to be an unnatural phenomenon.
* CurbStompBattle:
** At the end of Chapter 8, [[spoiler:Sirin fully takes control of Kiana's body and awakens as the Herrscher of the Void]]. Mei tries to fight her while being assisted by her Herrscher self, but gets utterly trounced no matter how well the player performs in the boss battle. In the following cutscene, Anti-Entropy's army of mechs also gets wrecked when [[spoiler:the Herrscher of the Void]] sends all of their firepower back at them.
** Similar to the above, at the beginning of Chapter 15, Mei tries to intercept Durandal as the latter is about to retrieve an unconscious Kiana, but she's no match for Schicksal's strongest Valkyrie, and can only cry while clinging to Kiana's jacket as Durandal departs with Kiana. You can whittle down a lot of health bars during the short fight sequence, but it's made moot by Durandal interrupting all controls and activating her Ultimate.
** In the ''London Holiday'' comic, Stan the bio-engineered cat is infuriated that his fight against Rita always gets interrupted by some inconvenience, so when he runs into Durandal on his way out, he decides to pounce on her... [[spoiler:only to get swatted off with a nonchalant hit from Durandal's wrist, who's still in her civvies. This sends Stan flying into the ceiling so hard, the collar that allows him to transform into a Honkai Beast shatters and he's left powerless before Durandal, who fortunately treats him like any other cat.]]
* DamageDiscrimination: Most of the time, enemies' attacks wouldn't harm each other, with few exceptions: the "scythe zombie's" swings, "chariot Honkai Beast's" roar attack, "catapult Honkai Beast's" ball explosion (only if you attack it enough), and "spider mecha's" self-destruct move.
* DamageIncreasingDebuff: The "Impaired" debuff, indicated by downward yellow arrows near the body (whether the playable characters or the enemies'). This debuff increases physical damage done onto the one with the status. Some Valkyries have ways to inflict this debuff (with Theresa's Celestial Hymn suit specializing in it), while some weapons and Stigmata have effects/skills that can also do so.
** Kiana:
*** Valkyrie Ranger's QTE has her shooting at her enemies rapidly, with a final shot that inflicts the common "impared" debuff.
*** Divine Prayer has a passive skill where, whenever she's inactive, [[ShockAndAwe a lightning bolt]] will periodically strike the closest enemy, dealing lightning damage and the "impaired" debuff.
*** [[spoiler:Herrscher of the Void]]'s ChargedAttack will leave a special debuff on all enemies hit that makes them take more damage from her attacks for 10 seconds.
*** Void Drifter (Augmented Valkyrie Ranger) can inflict a special debuff through her normal attack, Ultimate Evasion, QTE, or Ultimate Skill. Aside from increasing the damage the enemies take from attacks, it also empowers her branch attack and allows it to inflict the Time Slow debuff on them.
** Mei:
*** Her Lightning Empress suit is the only character that can naturally inflict the "conductive" debuff on enemies, which makes the afflicted enemies take more lightning damage. Her "signature" weapon, Mag-Typhoon, can also do this.[[note]]The only other sources of this debuff are one of Himeko's greatswords and one of Kiana/Kallen's guns.[[/note]]
*** [[spoiler:Herrscher of Thunder]] can inflict "Narukami's Mark" onto enemies with many of her moves. The mark will let her deal more lightning damage onto them and fill her special gauge with her attacks.
*** Danzai Spectramancer (Augmented Shadow Dash) can inflict a special debuff onto enemies with her branch attack or QTE, that makes them take increased physical damage. After she does her Ultimate Skill, her "special clones" (summoned whenever she or her teammates use a branch or ChargedAttack) can also inflict said debuff.
** Bronya:
*** In a variant, enemies that are trapped in Valkyrie Chariot's black hole will take increased damage from ranged attacks.
*** Yamabuki Armor's uncharged shot gives enemies the "impaired" state that lowers their defense. After her Augment Core upgrade, however, it gives an enemy an AreaOfEffect that weakens their damage output, makes enemy in the AOE less resistant to flinching and increases damage taken to their ArmorMeter (and [[HealThyself slowly heals the whole team]] whenever the DeflectorShield "beats" and hits the affected enemies). Her Team Skill also puts the "impair" state on nearby enemies.
*** Snowy Sniper's Ultimate Skill, if she's ranked SS, will also inflict a debuff on all enemies in the radius that increases physical damage done to them.
*** [[spoiler:Herrscher of Reason]] can inflict a unique "analyse" debuff on enemies (through various means) that increases ice damage against them.
** Theresa's Celestial Hymn suit specializes in dealing the "impaired" debuff on enemies through various means. Her signature Oath of Judah cross can also give a debuff that increases lightning damage taken by enemies.
** As Azure Empyrea, Fu Hua can inflict a debuff that increases elemental damage taken with one of her branch attacks. Her Ultimate Skill gives the whole party a buff for their attacks that applies the "elemental breach" debuff onto enemies. The Fu Hua Margrave B stigma also applies a total damage-increasing debuff onto nearby enemies in a radius if its 2-piece SetBonus effect is triggered.
** Darkbolt Jonin (Sakura) can inflict a special debuff onto enemies with either her kunai-throwing attack, her QTE or Ultimate Skill, that increases the damage taken from her attacks.
** Sündenjäger (Kallen)'s normal combo attack ends with her doing a MultiDirectionalBarrage that gives the enemies hit around her the "impaired" debuff. Her branch attack and Ultimate Evasion also gives a special debuff that increases her damage output against them and makes her Ultimate Skill do additional laser attacks from the sky.
** Seele's Swallow Phantasm suit's ChargedAttack effects give her enemies a special debuff that slows their movement and makes them take more damage from her attacks.
** The Blood Dance greatsword's active skill makes affected enemies take extra elemental damage of any kind.
* DamageTyping: Two types, physical and elemental damage.
** Physical damage is affected by the attacker's ATK stat, the defender's DEF, and whether or not they have an Elite Shield or some other protection. Physical damage can be affected by CriticalHit and will also [[AntiArmor damage and break Elite Shields]].
** Elemental damage sources are rare, with only certain Valkyries specializing in dealing them. They may or may not depend on the ATK stat (depending on the applicable formula), but they will [[ArmorPiercingAttack ignore DEF, physical shields, or Elite Shields]]. However, they cannot break Elite Shields nor deal {{Critical Hit}}s, and they can be resisted by certain equipments or buffs that give elemental resistance. A few bosses are also highly resistant or immune to elemental damage.
* DamnYouMuscleMemory:
** When using Bronya's Yamabuki Armor and Dimension Breaker battlesuits, the DefendCommand makes her Project Bunny raise up a [[LuckilyMyShieldWillProtectMe deflector shield]] to block attacks instead of the usual [[VideoGameDashing dash/evade]].
** Post-Honkai Odyssey has modified gameplay elements and controls which are different from the rest of the game.
*** Here, the playable characters can jump (there's a new HUD icon/button for this), {{double jump}}, or air-dash. This opens a lot of aerial attacks, juggling, or combos similar to StylishAction games like the ''VideoGame/DevilMayCry'' series. Holding down the attack button manually [[LauncherMove launches enemies in the air]] or sends them [[MeteorMove crashing back to the ground]]. There's also a new CounterAttack mechanic known as "Ultimate Jump" that requires jumping to avoid the attack (instead of evading), followed by a brief QuickTimeEvent scene where a unique button is tapped.
*** Carol has a bunch of {{grapple move}}s, and some of them can be executed with a tap of her basic attack after weakening the target (e.g when a Chariot's horns are broken). Compare that to Valkyrie Gloria, whose grapple mechanic is tied to a skill button.
* DangerousForbiddenTechnique: The Divine Keys each have a LimitBreak on their own, collectively called "Zeroth level release". Triggering it will release the full extent of the power of the Herrscher themselves, which tends to have devastating effects on everything within vicinity, including the users themselves.
** Oath of Judah's zeroth release is to shut down every sort of energy, Honkai power and all. Sirin temporarily loses her Herrscher powers, becoming completely powerless upon the activation, while Theresa can barely stand, and would've died if she activated it any longer.
** Judgement of Shamash's zeroth release is to release a large blast of fire that destroys everything in its path, including its user.
** Star of Eden's zeroth release is nothing short of a miniature black hole. [[spoiler:Bronya used it in "World 3" in Ch. 11 to end the bubble universe she's in, stopping the AlternateUniverse Welt in the process.]]
** This also occurs in Ch. 11-EX: [[spoiler:Fenghuang Down's zeroth release is to merge the entirety of one's consciousness onto someone else's, bonding their souls until their death.]]
* DarkerAndEdgier: World 3 in Chapter 11 is significantly bleaker than the other two. The initial premise is the Second Honkai Eruption occurring in the present-day, meaning Bronya is fighting alongside Kiana and Mei, with Anti-Entropy allying with Schicksal to put down the Second Herrscher. [[spoiler:And then Welt gets to Sirin, steals her core, kills her, and ''then'' turns on the Valkyries, with the intent of destroying Schicksal out of revenge. You know shit has hit the fan ''hard'' when Mei is just straight up ''[[DroppedABridgeOnHim obliterated]]'', and Kiana apparently dies ''offscreen''. Bronya barely avoids being corrupted by this world's Welt, who has apparently ''succeeded'' in destroying Schicksal. The one saving grace is that Bronya stops his mad rampage and ends the bubble universe in the end.]]
* DatingSim: The Anniversary event gives a new game mode that's basically a dating sim lite. Set in Soukai City near the beach, complete with maps like in dating sims, you can date your Valkyries, experience various (humorous) event stories and give them gifts (gained from event stages in the city) to increase your bond levels with them, which will give you some event prizes. A patch, however, adds a new VisualNovel layer to it with deeper storylines.
* DeathIsCheap: If you die in Post-Honkai Odyssey, the game would usually recommend you to level-up the playable characters then retry later on. But since the revival items here (1 Suscitarin or 1000 Krystallum per character) are exclusive to the mode and doesn't involve gacha currency, it is possible to stockpile enough of them to keep on reviving your dead teammates until you complete the stage (although in the gauntlet mode "Ruins" you can’t use revive more than 3 times in the same run).
* DefectorFromDecadence: Anti-Entropy, which used to be [[spoiler:Schicksal's American branch]], which split off when their leaders were convinced that [[spoiler:Overseer Otto]] was not dedicated to the fight against the Honkai.
* DiabolusExMachina: In Ch. 3, our heroes corner Herrscher Wendy and convince her to turn normal so that she can be brought to ''Hyperion'', have her legs healed, and have a better life. Due to Bronya's words, Wendy is convinced and willing to go with them... just in time for Cocolia to command Bronya to beat Wendy, causing Bronya to attack the latter. An angered Wendy turns Herrscher again and you have to fight her for real. Worse, after the battle, a squadron of Anti-Entropy robots come in and strike your Valkyries and Wendy down after they're exhausted, and they and brainwashed Bronya then go away with Wendy and Mei in their clutches.
* DialogDuringGameplay: From chapter 5 onwards, many stages (including event ones) may have the characters (both playable and non-playable ones) talk to each other (or occasionally themselves) during a battle. There are also {{Boss Banter}}s for certain stages where you fight certain bosses (usually humans).
* DieChairDie: Post-Honkai Odyssey features destructible environment objects.
* DifficultButAwesome: Players at high levels are often found using tricky but powerful strategies to get better scores at the competitive modes.
** The Schrodinger T stigma gives either 52% or 205% total damage multiplier for the character's basic attacks (including branch and charged attacks) for 1-2 seconds with 6 seconds cooldown. Good timing is key to using this move, particularly if a character has a powerful branch/charged attack that isn't readily available. Such is the case of Twilight Paladin (Violet Executer's augmented form), who has a very powerful charged attack that is only available after "building up"[[note]]she has to be in her SuperMode and has done 100+ hit combo[[/note]] and, once she uses it, she has to build it up again afterward. You have to time her charged attack so that it comes right when the stigma's buff is available again, but if you can do so, the damage can be ''phenomenal'', especially with the right supports.
** The "Triple Newton B" strategy: all of your characters use a Newton B stigma, which, upon any attack, places a debuff onto a single enemy that makes them take 41% more total damage from any attack, including the attack of another character that doesn't trigger it. The debuff lasts only 5 seconds with 10 seconds cooldown. This debuff can be stacked so that the enemy can take ''123%'' extra damage from any attack, but the difficult part is that your characters would have less than 5 seconds to take advantage of this. In a team composition with this strategy, the main offensive character tends to be one with high burst damage potential (such as Void Drifter, Hawk of the Fog, Stygian Nymph, etc) while at least one of the supports have to be able to trigger the stigma's effect ''while off-field'' so that the debuff can be stacked more easily.
** For that matter, the "off-field supporting" tactic itself can be tricky to use, but can be rewarding when done right. The idea is to equip a character with "effect-on-attack" stigmata and then have her use a certain attack that does a lasting effect on the battlefield (usually for more than a few seconds), so that said attack can re-trigger the effect even after she switches out. Only certain characters and weapons can do it (usually Celestial Hymn, but certain weapon skills such as Jingwei's Wings or Star Shatterer: Vikrant can also do so), and the tricky part is to time the "lasting-effect" attack so that the equipped stigmata's effects can be triggered (after a cooldown) when the offensive character is switched in and has their strong attack ready to use. This tactic would depend on the duration of the lasting attack, and the duration and cooldown of the stigmata in question. Starlit Astrologos (Theresa), introduced in 4.0, is intended to be the go-to character for off-field supporting, with her special QTE making her act like an AssistCharacter in tag-based fighting games (i.e you can still control your current character as SA enters and attacks the enemy).
** Certain stigmata give a high damage boost with a strict condition. E.g Zhang Heng B gives the user 120% increased lightning damage, but only for 2 seconds after Ultimate Evasion and when the combo count is < 20. Lier B gives the user 46% increase in physical damage as long as their HP is full.
* DifficultyLevels: Usually comes in Normal, Hard and [[HarderThanHard Supreme]], which each being increasingly harder while giving better rewards for completing stages.
* DiscardAndDraw: The "Augment Core" upgrades for the Valkyrie battlesuits tend to replace a good number of their skills with other, usually better, ones. [[PowersAsPrograms They can be switched on and off, too.]]
* DiscOneNuke: Quite a few A-rank Valkyries you can get early on are powerful enough to wipe out early game contents in a breeze, such as Gyakushin Miko or Night Squire. However, the "Valkyrie Muster" event (for newcomers) gives you a chance to get some Valkyries early and build them up to S-rank (if not more), with the biggest case being Swallowtail Phantasm (Seele), who is otherwise costly to farm normally.
* DomedHometown: In Post-Honkai Odyssey, the city of St. Fountain is surrounded by a strange dome that allows outsiders to enter but prevents exit. However, Carole manages to find a "hole" on the dome: in the underground maglev train tracks, which the team uses to evacuate Welt and Joey out of the city.
* DoomedHometown: Or more like "Doomed HomeBase", but this is implied to be what happened to St. Freya Academy after ch. 9: [[spoiler:in between the TimeSkip, Schicksal bombarded and destroyed the school, as seen through Bronya's memories.]]
* DrivingQuestion: Downplayed as this runs more on the background of the lore, but a big question is given in chapter 17: "What is the Honkai?" Otto has been searching the answer to this his entire life, for 5 centuries. Much of the narration is dedicated to how unfathomable the "force of Honkai" is, how Otto understood little about it despite his knowledge, and there are so many unanswered questions about its nature. However, in his search of its nature, he came across a clue - the "Imaginary Tree". It leads him to discover what it is - a "[[PowersThatBe selective and corrective system]]" inside the Tree, which counters the growth of civilization. He then says that humanity will never escape the Honkai, and they have to keep pressing forward as those who "fail" will become part of the Sea of Quanta.
* DualWielding: One variant of the zombie mooks dual wield katanas. Certain Schicksal mechas are also armed with blades on each arms.
* DualWorldGameplay: The special "Helheim Labs" game mode has this as its main gimmick. It has "Real Space" (the real world) and "Imaginary Space" (an alternate dimension to the real world) that you can switch between by pressing a button. There are some things in the Real Space that you can access/affect by going to the Imaginary Space and then interacting with the "imaginary" version of the things. Imaginary Space also lets you avoid the Real Space's enemies and dangerous obstacles, but beware: the Imaginary Space has their own {{Patrolling Mook}}s that, if they spot you, you'll get paralyzed and forced back into the Real Space.
* DubNameChange:
** Downplayed with 天命 and 律者 which are translated to "Schicksal" and "Herrscher" and mean "destiny" and "ruler" in Chinese/Japanese and German, respectively.
** Played straight with Negentropy, which becomes "Anti-Entropy".
** A lot of the Valkyrie battlesuits' names aren't direct translations from the original Chinese.
** The [=ELFs=] are simply called as "armed dolls" in Chinese and Japanese.
** The Arc City is called "天穹市" in Chinese and Japanese, meaning "Tianqiong/Tenkuu/Heaven City".
* DungeonShop: In the Matrix Explore game mode, you may come across the HOMU Shop (indicated by a glowing golden portal, while others are blue) where you can buy things from HOMU with the Honkai Energy cubes you collect throughout the play. HOMU will sell 3 items at random, from a selection of: health pickups, SP pickups, special "buffs" that strengthen your characters, or "cards" that can be activated to generate different effects.
* DynamicEntry: Certain characters have "switch attacks", attacks that they'll perform as they're tagged in. The QTE system allows the characters to do a more powerful attack as they're tagged in, but they need a "trigger condition" (different for each battlesuit; a few have two of such conditions). This is also applied in Post-Honkai Odyssey Open World, where the switched-in character will [[DashAttack automatically dash towards the target and attack it]], even if the target is in midair. One of the tutorials of this game mode even shows that you can exploit it to dash towards distant targets and use it as an extra "jump" in midair.
* EasyLevelTrick: Urgent Missions in Sakura Samsara will pit you against a "boss monster" that has really high defenses. The fight is also a semi-TimedMission where, after 90 seconds have passed, they'll have increased stats, be ImmuneToFlinching and deal continuous fire elemental damage just by being in your vicinity. There are tricks to defeating them quickly, however:
** The boss may appear next to a Rare Monster (keyword being "may"). The trick is to perform a Stealth Kill to the Rare Monster while the boss is in the vicinity so that they'll get hit by the high (collateral) damage. Higher adventure level bosses may teleport somewhere else after their health is depleted by a certain percentage; if the new place has another Rare Monster in it, you can use the Stealth Kill method again. Note that the level 27-29 bosses highly resist it.
** You can try acquiring "soul cannon" from one of the available tasks, which lets you launch highly damaging exploding fireballs. After you get the item, you can teleport out of the area where you get it and into where the boss is located; you can then use the soul cannon to hit the boss safely from afar, for huge damage. (The boss may teleport to another place, like the above.) Note that the stuff does elemental damage, and the level 27 boss is immune to them.
* ElaborateUndergroundBase: In ch. 15, there's Schicksal's Vimur Base, located in northern Africa. It's used to be a sleepless sprawling metropolitan, but after the Honkai eruptions it has turned into a GhostTown, which Schicksal took advantage of to build a base in it. The bulk of the base lies 1 km underground, to protect it from external threats. It has been used for Otto's experiments with the 2nd Divine Key, which they use to open a hole to the Sea of Quanta and look for some specific data among countless others.
* EldritchOceanAbyss: "The Deep" (as shown in ch. 10) may not exactly be a deep dark abyss (it's a bright UnderwaterCity of the previous civilization), but it's sprawling with aquatic Honkai Beasts. The "Eye of the Deep", however, looks the part more, with a darker, more eerie look and even more Honkai Beasts, including a gigantic one, Tlaloc.
* ElementalWeapon: Many of the equippable weapons (especially high level ones) have elemental properties, usually suited to one of the elemental Valkyrie suits. E.g [[FlamingSword Ruinous Sakura, Godslayer: Surtr]], Tranquil Arias (ice dual guns), Skadi of Trymheim (ice scythe), Oath of Judah (lightning cross), Nuada's Revenge (lightning gauntlets), and Book of Fuxi (cannon that can utilize all 3 elements).
* EliteMook: The "elite monsters", who have [[MultipleLifeBars 2-3 bars of health]] instead of just one and have "elite shields", a gauge that will reduce damage taken until the gauge is depleted from taking hits; the gauge will regenerate after some time, as well. They also have more powerful attacks than regular mooks.
* TheEndingChangesEverything: The "Rosemary's Floriograph" event seems like a standard detective mystery fare, even with the truly supernatural elements behind the crime case. The final scene, however... [[spoiler:Irene Adler makes a note about how some of the key people in the case aren't who they seem, and then goes to say "what if Irene Adler is not Irene Adler, and Conan Doyle isn't Conan Doyle?" She then proceeds to ask Doyle who he is, and when he's about to say anything, he suddenly falls silent - as he has a warped view of the Irene in front of him briefly "flashing" into Rita (with the same shot as in the "Sanguine Nights" event) - before he lost consciousness. It then cuts into a text-only scene where "Irene" reveals her real name is Rita Rossweisse - but [[AlternateSelf not the same Rita that we know (i.e the "Schiksal's Maid" and Durandal's second-in-command)]]. She's talking to ''Kongming'', who had a deal with her to bring "Doyle" back - as he's actually ''the Captain'' who used his [[MentalTimeTravel consciousness mapping]] to enter the event's world and "become" Doyle. Kongming then says that Rita is different from most people in ''Hyperion'', but she's closer to the Captain himself. Kongming then warns her about doing or plotting something shady in the ship, but also thanks her (in Kongming's own way) for bringing Captain back.]]
* EnemyMine:
** Chapter 7 shows that Theresa is willing to cooperate with Anti-Entropy in order to go against Otto. They fully became allies in the storyline of Schicksal HQ Open World.
** In Chapter 8, [[spoiler:the 3rd Herrscher lends her power to Mei against Herrscher Kiana. [[CurbStompBattle It doesn't help her at all.]]]]
** In the supplementary comic set in the 2nd Honkai War in Schicksal's facility Babylon Tower, Anti-Entropy's leader came to the Schicksal members already there (mainly Siegfried) and struck a deal with them to fight the 2nd Herrscher together. Otto, while [[spoiler:he has his own plans in this battle]], approved it.
** In ch. 16, Otto and the leader of World Serpent make a deal to ally their groups together to fulfill their own ends. Ch. 17 shows their conversation in detail: the World Serpent's Sire ([[spoiler:Kevin]]) wants Schicksal to aid them in their "Project Stigma", in exchange, Otto asks for the "beacon" for the 2nd Divine Key so he can use its Zeroth Power to "go up the Imaginary Tree".
** In ch. 18, in the Honkai eruption event in Coral Island, Schicksal's Valkyries - under Otto's orders - are going to ally with the World Serpent's agents in order to combat the Honkai, where the Serpents are going after the Herrscher while the Valkyries are doing standard anti-Honkai operations (fighting Honkai Beasts and evacuating survivors). This leads to Mei and Raven allying with Durandal and Rita, whom the former two have faced as opponents in the past; while Mei can behave just fine in front of Durandal and propose the alliance peacefully, Rita and Raven have a PassiveAggressiveKombat that Durandal has to break them out from. This is referenced in the Dorm: if you put Mei as [[spoiler:Herrscher of Thunder]] with Durandal as Bright Knight, they will have a little talk; Mei says that she isn't in the mood for a "friendly chat" and it's implied that their partnership only goes as far as respecting each other's ways.
--->'''Mei:''' You have your belief, and I have my duty. I won't stop you, but if you stand in my way... \\
'''Durandal:''' Right back at you. \\
'''Mei:''' Ha, I'll remember that. Enough said. I'm leaving now.
* EquipmentUpgrade:
** Your weapons and stigmata have "enhance levels" and "upgrade stars". They all start out as 1-star grade lower than their maxed state and in enhance level 1; leveling them up means increasing their stats, and if you've leveled it to the max, you can "upgrade" it with certain materials, giving them 1 "sub-star". Repeat the process until all the sub-stars are lit, and doing it once again will raise their grade by 1 star. Each sub-star upgrade, until the max upgrade, will also enhance the weapon's skill effects. Higher rarity equipments have better stats, but they also have higher max levels and thus require filling more sub-stars before they can be fully upgraded.
** Version 3.4 introduces "PRI-ARM" weapons, upgraded versions of existing weaponry that have 6-star rarity. They have a max level of 65, higher attack power and upgraded skills, but to make them available for crafting, it requires you to have the corresponding existing weaponry in question[[note]]E.g Magstorm for MAG-Typhoon, Ice Epiphyllum for Frozen Naraka[[/note]] and they consume new upgrade materials that take quite some time to farm. Every PRI-ARM seen so far is a ''significantly'' improved version of the "[[WeaponOfChoice signature weapon]]" of older S-Rank Valkyries and clearly intended to be used by them, having abilities that are tailor-made to address their weak points and make them much more viable in the endgame.[[labelnote:For Example...]] Some of Lightning Empress's biggest failings are her short range, complete lack of stopping power and needing to use her full combo to apply a powerful debuff. The improved Magstorm PRI-ARM (dubbed "MAG-Typhoon") can apply this debuff by itself, temporarily grants Lightning Empress a considerable amount of [[ImmuneToFlinching Ignore Interruption]], paralyzes enemies, moves her closer to the target ''and'' deals significant damage all with the press of its ''completely-free-of-SP-cost'' active skill, which even leads straight into LE's powerful combo move and can be used up to three times in quick succession, single-handedly turning what was primarily a support character into a top tier elemental damage dealer.[[/labelnote]] However, the ability to upgrade these weapons into the PRI-ARM stage is locked until the player reaches Level 80, so these are exclusive to very long-time players deep into their endgame experience.
** In a variant, you can upgrade your [=ELFs=] the same way (use specific leveling and upgrading materials), with a twist: they also have "ELF Fragments" like Valkyrie battlesuits, and in order to increase their star rank (and thus max level and stats), you have to acquire enough of their fragments. Unique to them is the "ELF Talents", skills that can [[PowersAsPrograms be equipped to your ELFs]] and leveled up by their own, with specific materials. To equip the talents, you have to unlock their talent slots, which also costs materials. Version 3.7 gives a big overhaul to the ELF mechanics following Book of Fuxi's release: their [[{{Cap}} max level]] is no longer dependent on the star rank (which is upgraded by collecting their fragments), and each ELF now has a predetermined skillset instead of having to take skills from the "talent bank" and slot them in. Each of the ELFs' skills (basic attack, Ultimate, passive, team) have sub-skills that can be unlocked and upgraded with materials, and with leveling the ELF up to certain levels, upgrading their star rank, and leveling up the previous sub-skill as a prerequisite.
* EscortMission:
** One side mission in Theresa's side story (Everlasting Memory) requires you to protect Theresa from several waves of zombies and Honkai beasts as she slowly walks across the courtyard of St. Freya's toward the main building.
** One possible Sakura Samsara mission is to find a "Red Fox Soul" wandering around the Sparrow Hill area and escort it into the nearby town, requiring the player to avoid entering battle until the soul enters the town's boundary.
* EvilIsAngular: Robots built by the antagonistic Anti-Entropy look very blocky, while those made by Schicksal (where our heroes belong to) are sleeker, with the humanoid ones being close to human in proportions and outline. Played with in that our heroes end up going against Schicksal while [[EnemyMine allying with Anti-Entropy]].
* ExperienceBooster: For players of Lv. 50 or below, the game will give you "EXP boosting chips" that can help newer players quickly level up. A few events may also give more general EXP booster chips that can be used for anyone.
* ExpressiveHealthBar: For the enemies, whenever they get hit by a "heavy attack", their life bar will flash white and shake.
* ExtradimensionalPowerSource: One supplementary comic mentions that the Herrschers draw their powers from the Imaginary Space through their Herrscher Cores.
* ExtraNormalInstitute: St. Freya Academy is meant for teaching and training young girls to become strong Valkyries to combat the Honkai threats. Theresa built it as a shelter for victims of Honkai testing, and to teach them how to control the Honkai energy inside them.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:F - J]]
* FacelessGoons: A later update introduces the "Immortal Blades" mooks, the Valkyrie squad led by Durandal and Rita. They all wear masks similar to that of Fu Hua's Shadow Knight outfit, although their hairstyles are different. As they're trained human soldiers as opposed to the zombies or robots, they have various attacks and tactics, and can be surprisingly fast as well.
* FacialCompositeFailure: In the "Honkai Kingdoms Zero" event, all three factions present an illustration of Zhuge Kongming to you (the Captain), telling you to find and capture her. Durandal's side gives a normal image of her, Rita's side gives an image of her doing a double VSign pose, and Kiana's side gives the memetic "derpy chibi" image of her.
* {{Fanservice}}: An entire essay could be written on the volume of fanservice elements in the Valkyries' battlesuits and alternate outfits, the Stigmata, and even Ai-chan, with BareYourMidriff, CleavageWindow, {{Stripperiffic}} and VaporWear as four of the most prevalent. More specific instances include:
** You can pick up swimsuits and beach attire for the Valkyries as alternate outfits, as well as Stigmata of some of the Valkyries in these clothes, along with other characters such as Cecilia and Durandal in swimsuits. While some can be purchased, these are mostly given out as event prizes, or bought with event currency. That said, the original swimsuits[[note]]for Kiana, Mei, Bronya, Himeko, Theresa, and Sakura[[/note]] in early versions of the game never made a return, although they're all preserved in different event stigmata.
** Tesla, Einstein, and Schrodinger's normal outfits are fairly conservative, but their Band Stigmata sets each have one or two pieces that feature them wearing midriff-baring outfits, although Tesla's is downplayed since her tummy is mostly covered by her bass guitar and one of Einstein's is similarly obscured by both her shirt and pose.
** Himeko is the subject of an incredibly blatant instance in the battle against her BrainwashedAndCrazy self in Chapter Xuanyuan (which gets homaged in the "Imaginary Rumble" event's stage "The Unexpected"), in which you fight her first as Scarlet Fusion and then as Blood Rose. When she bursts out of the crystal she's sealed in and becomes Blood Rose, for a few seconds the view is just a close-up of her torso, with her barely-covered bosom front and center in the view.
** Durandal is the most consistent source of BareYourMidriff among the Valkyries. The first Stigmata released featuring her, Durandal: Vacation (M), features her in a fancy bikini. Lord Paramount, the first alternate outfit released for Valkyrie Gloria, has a [[WesternAnimation/Thundercats1985 Lion-O-esque]] belly window, while in its other alternate outfit (Purrfect Holiday) and the casual outfit she wears in the "London Holiday" event[[note]]which is also featured in the Kitten Fun Stigmata set[[/note]], she wears her shirt pulled up and tied to one side. In her visual novel, her default outfit includes a vest over a tube top, which her chibi version also wears in the "Target: Durandal" event.
* FantasyCounterpartCulture:
** The tourist brochure you find, with its references to temperate penguins, "Lion's Head Bay" and Swahili (and just outright referencing [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Table_Mountain Table Mountain]]), make it fairly obvious that St. Fountain in "A Post-Honkai Oddysey" is a stand-in for [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cape_Town Cape Town, South Africa]].
** The country of Shenzhou, which Fu Hua originates from, is a very thinly-veiled equivalent of China, with the same festivities, dress codes, martial arts and cuisine.
* FightingTheLancer: There are a few instances where Kiana and Mei get to fight each other, but two are most notable: ch. 8's final stage where [[spoiler:Mei tries to free Kiana from the Herrscher of the Void]], and ch. 17's final stage where [[spoiler:Kiana tries to stop Herrscher Mei from joining the World Serpent]].
* FightingYourFriend: There are many instances throughout the story where your player character(s) would have to fight their friend as a boss, starting from "Dark Bronya" in chapter 1, Kiana vs her closest people in her nightmare in ch. 2, and so on.
* FinalBossNewDimension: Downplayed in that it's only the ClimaxBoss of the chapter, but the boss "Husk - Nihilism" in ch. 17 creates an "imaginary singularity" around as it goes active and attacks Mei (the player character).
* FireIceLightning: The three main elements that your Valkyries can use (those who don’t use any are classified as "physical"); some of the weapons are imbued with one of the three elements and a number of Stigmata either focus on one element or all of them in general. Himeko is notable in that she can wield all three in her different battlesuits, and as her boss self, she can summon 3 clones of herself, each of them wielding one of those elements. As of Darkbolt Jonin's introduction, Sakura can also wield all three. Some enemies may also come in elemental variants. The Herrschers' command of natural elements aren't limited to those three, however.
** AnIcePerson: Goshinsou Memento (Yae Sakura), Argent Knight (Rita), Arctic Kriegsmesser (Himeko), Sixth Serenade (Kallen), Blueberry Blitz (Liliya), Snowy Sniper and [[spoiler:Herrscher of Reason]] (Bronya).[[note]]Note that BB and SS only deal small ice damage and are primarily physical-type[[/note]]
** PlayingWithFire: Sakuno Rondo (Theresa), Flame Sakitama (Sakura), Blood Rose and Vermilion Knight (Himeko), Phoenix and Azure Empyrea (Fu Hua)[[note]]Both of her Stigmata sets also enhance fire damage[[/note]], Valkyrie Gloria (Durandal)
** ShockAndAwe: Lightning Empress and [[spoiler:Herrscher of Thunder]] (Mei)[[note]]she also shows minor lightning abilities in other battlesuits[[/note]], Valkyrie Pledge (Theresa), Scarlet Fusion (Himeko), Phantom Iron and Fallen Rosemary (Rita), Shadow Knight and Hawk of the Fog[[note]]Valkyrie Accipiter's augmented version[[/note]] (Fu Hua), Darkbolt Jonin (Sakura)
* FisherKing: The "Sakura Samsara" is a "stigmata realm" that is primarily formed by Sakura's memories, with the people inside them being the {{living memor|y}}ies of the people she knew in life (primarily Kallen), but is also influenced by the "Honkai will from the box" that was sealed with her and was referred to as "Hellmaru". The latter warped things inside the realm and [[GroundhogDayLoop looped the time passage multiple times]] in order to [[MindRape break Sakura's mind]] so that one day it can [[GrandTheftMe take over her body]] and break free. During the events of the story, Kiana (who jumps into the realm with Bronya's help) finds the space around her warping multiple times, confusing her. After Hellmaru's defeat, the realm starts becoming unstable, which (among other things) causes Kallen to disappear, and Sakura [[IWillFindYou tries to find her]]. Among other things, she discovers the "Celestial Castle" which she never visited before in life; the castle, its environment, and its "tower guardians", are the creation of the "will in the box".
* FlavorText: The game gives some lore for the equippable weapons, as well as each of the Valkyrie suits you can obtain, although the latter has to be unlocked by increasing their affection levels.
* FloatingContinent: Schicksal's main HQ is located in the skies above Europe, consisting of a set of floating artificial islands.
* {{Foreshadowing}}:
** In Chapter 6, which takes place in a "simulation" of the past, Kiana sees a robot that's similar to Anti-Entropy's Titan Mechas inside Schicksal's Babylon Lab. She questions how an Anti-Entropy robot could be there. Then Chapter 8 and the "Schicksal Invasion" event reveals that [[spoiler:Anti-Entropy used to be Schicksal's North American branch before they separated due to inner conflicts and became their own organization]].
** In Chapter 9, in one of the capsules that Himeko found, there's a data about a battlesuit named "Argent Knight: Artemis", whose user is listed as "classified". Chapter 9-EX shows said battlesuit for the first time - it's Rita's.
** For the "Odd Drifter" event:
*** One of the early scenes in the event has someone offscreen talking about "formation" and "eight trigrams", with two other characters saying that they don't understand any of them. Then, throughout the event, you encounter Roza and Lili multiple times, who's working for a "master". Near the end of the event, the "master" is revealed: it's Zhuge Kongming (also known as [[Literature/RomanceOfTheThreeKingdoms Zhuge Liang]]), who's known for the "Stone Sentinel Formation". She apparently has appeared before, in the Honkai Kingdoms event (in the Emberya side).
*** When the Captain's group approaches the strange tower in Part 1, they noticed a piece of ripped clothing near the trap door, suggesting that someone else was there before them. In Part 2, during the story on the tundra, the Captain says that he's seeing someone similar to himself near the beach, but Tesla thinks he's hallucinating. At the final chapter of the event, the two different groups meet each other and deduce that there are two of the same Captain (one of them was captured by the Olenyeva twins). Later, they discovered the "other" Captain being BoundAndGagged. The two "captains" then stare at each other, causing his memories to be restored; by the time he opens his eyes again, the bound Captain is gone.
** In Ch. 13, in the first act, Rita's subordinate Alvitr contacts her, saying that among the zombies she found in Arc City, some of them have Stigmata, but Rita dismissed it, thinking that she might've been seeing it wrong[[note]]because the technology behind Stigmata should've been a tightly guarded secret of Schicksal[[/note]]. Then when she encounters Kiana, the latter gives Rita a glass tube containing a kind of serum and an access card, while saying that something else has been causing the Honkai outbreak[[note]]Rita previously accuses Kiana to be behind it[[/note]]. In the second act, Alvitr confirms that what she saw on the zombies she found are indeed stigmata, and thus Rita decides to follow Kiana's intel. The end of the second act confirms her suspicions. Upon discovering the deepest chamber of Heliopolis building, she acquires some valuable data about the company, which reveals that [[spoiler:the company belongs to the World Serpent, and they've been secretly performing Stigmata-related experiments on people of Arc City]].
** In the prologue of the "Sanka Saga" event, the Hanafuda Oyabun (Rita) claims that Kasumi is the second person who has managed to sneak that far into her mansion. The epilogue has Kasumi recounting this, and the Ferryman (Kasumi's assistant) admits that he was the "first infiltrator".
** In the "Empyrean Legends" event, the Celestial and Book of Fuxi check upon the monsters they fought; they have strange blue liquid pouring from their blood and mouth. Kallen and Bronya explain that it's because of the "crystalium" poisoning after they ate some of Ai-chan's crystalium-fertilized cabbages. In a later chapter, in another place, they find other monsters with the same dripping blue liquid; they then recall that Ai-chan used to acquire the crystalium from a certain someone, who wished to "make the Celestial disappear" and paid Ai-chan with the crystals so she can work for said goal. [[spoiler:That someone is the "Nian" beast that the Celestial had defeated some time ago, who's now trying to pay it back, and is disguised as Seele.]]
** In the trailer for Version 3.9, a shadow of a flying dragon can be seen crossing the landscapes of Nagazora City. In chapter 16, one of the refugees in the city tells Mei that she saw a "giant purple Honkai Beast". They foreshadow the appearance of Benares in the middle of the chapter.
** In "The Day You Vanished With The Stars", in the third scneario, both Roza and Lili say that they come across a similar looking villager in black with an umbrella in separate times. The Captain at first feels suspicious, but then dismisses it due to the twins' TheDitz nature. Later on, however, in the fourth scenario, said villager shows up again as the "craftsman" who makes special lanterns. The lanterns that, in the third scenario's end, were revealed to be the cause of the fire that engulfed the Qixi Festival and killed Kongming and many others. That "villager" was Gray Serpent, who hints that there's something bigger happening behind the scenes.
** In ch. 17, as part of his deal with [[spoiler:Kevin]], Otto wants the 2nd Divine Key to be moved to the ruined city of Nagazora, as the high Honkai energy levels there are perfect to be used to fuel the key's power. It later becomes instrumental in [[spoiler:re-awakening Mei as a proper Herrscher]].
** In the beginning of ch. 18, Alvitr informs Durandal and the Immortal Blades squad that they have lost contact with Snow Lotus squad garrisoned on Coral Island. Moments after they arrived, she detected a Herrscher's energy signature inside the city and sends the coordinates to Durandal; Rita points out that the place is where they lost contact with the Snow Lotus. When the two arrive there, they find the dead bodies of the Snow Lotus members beneath ice. Durandal then looks around for clues; she finds one of their comm devices, which shows a recording of what happened. A voice says that they're waiting for reinforcements to arrive, but another voice identified as their "squad leader" is acting oddly and telling them to leave her. The first voice - the squad member - identified a rising Honkai energy level in their squad leader's body. The squad leader then screamed "GET OUT OF HERE!!" and let out more painful shrieks before the comm goes static. After that, Durandal finds a particular necklace, which, as she says, belonged to Ana Schariac, the aforementioned squad leader. This leads Durandal to conclude that Ana might have become the Herrscher in Coral Island.
* ForWantOfANail: Chapter 11 has multiple "bubble universes" in the Sea of Quanta, demonstrating how the world might have turned out had things been different:
** World 1 is a timeline where Cecilia actually survived the Second Honkai Eruption, and founded St. Freya. As a result, this timeline is actually better than reality in some ways, including Cocolia being a Valkyrie and a genuinely heroic person.
** World 2 is a timeline where Otto and Theresa are running what is implied to be the same orphanage Cocolia owned in the main timeline, and Otto, unlike his real self, is a genuinely good person.
** World 3 is a timeline where the Second Honkai Eruption happens several years later than it should, and Anti-Entropy was slaughtered by Schicksal, with Welt being the only survivor. [[spoiler:Welt rebuilt the organisation, stole Sirin's core, and proceeded to return the favor, basically annihilating Schicksal and slaughtering nearly all of its Valkyries, including Kiana and Mei.]]
* FreezeFrameBonus:
** Around 0:38 in ''Reburn'', images of Mei and Himeko are on two of the soda cans.
** In one of the brief shots in the "Meteoric Salvation" video, a random person wears 3 badges of Kiana, Bronya and Mei.
** In one cutscene in ch. 17, in the reflection of separate pieces of cracked glass, there's a silhouette of an unknown woman, and then - of all things - the dragon Stormterror from ''Videogame/GenshinImpact''. Meanwhile, there are shadows of a giant serpent in the flood waters. The unknown woman is later revealed to be a version of Rita, presumably from an AlternateUniverse.
* FreudianTrio: Within the main three girls, Kiana is the Id (being more emotionally-driven), Bronya is the Superego (being more rational) and Mei is the Ego (trying to mediate between the two).
* FriendlyRivalry: Kiana and Bronya have [[SitcomArchnemesis a bit of a rivalry]], namely over Mei’s attention and affection, as well as other things (such as the fact that Kiana's air-headedness does genuinely drive Bronya up the wall sometimes). Despite that, the two are friends who will help each other when they need it.
* FullHealthBonus: Note that trying to use these bonuses will be hard to nigh-impossible (depending on the case) in the Q-Singularis mode because of the "health drain" mechanic.
** Shadow Dash (Mei) and Goshinshou Memento (Sakura) have a leader skill that grants the team increased critical rate if your party's average health is over 80%. Valkyrie Triumph (Himeko)'s leader skill grants the team increased physical damage if your party's average health is over 80%.
** The individual pieces of the Elizabeth Bathory [[PowerTattoo Stigmata]] have different effects that only occur when the user's health is over 80%. The Lier stigmata pieces also have different effects that occur when the user's health is at or over 60%, 80% or 100%, depending on the piece.
* FunWithAcronyms:
** ICHOR - "Intra-Chromosomal Honkai Repeats"
** MOTH - "Myrmidons of Taskforce Honkai"
** MANTIS - "Massively Augmented Neo-Tech Integrated Soldiers"
** ELF - "Equipment: Living Form"
** HDA-007 SPECTER - "Self-powered Suit for Emergency Confrontations, Tactical Engagements and Raids"
* FutureSpandex: This is the general look for the MECH-type battlesuits[[note]]exceptions being Shadow Dash (Mei) who wears samurai armor and Valkyrie Ranger (Kiana) who wears a modified St. Freya Academy uniform[[/note]], as well as Mei's BIO-type Crimson Impulse suit and Bronya's PSY-type Yamabuki Armor suit. Most of these suits also have a ColorfulThemeNaming in one way or another (e.g "Yamabuki" is a yellowish color).
* GainaxEnding: The "Odd Drifter" event ends with one. [[spoiler:From the tower, Zhuge Kongming supposedly warps the Captain to his world, but he instead finds himself inside a computer system(?) where he encounters a BadBoss version of Ai-chan, called "Bug Fixer" who overworks the "debugger" workers under her. You (as the Captain) eventually "fight" her and bring an end to the "tyranny" (by deleting the app "Bug Fixer" in your phone), with the workers thanking you. Then you walk out of the place... and the story ends.]] The months-earlier event "Winter Rhapsody" had a similar sequence, but there, [[BigLippedAlligatorMoment it wasn't the ending]]--there's still more stories after that that led to a proper ending. The much later event "The Day You Vanished With The Stars" is implied to be the real continuation of Odd Drifter, as the Captain of that event remembers things up to Odd Drifter's ending.
* GaiasVengeance: The Honkai grows with civilization and seeks to destroy it. As shown in the previous civilization, the Honkai forces were way stronger than the present era because humanity progressed more rapidly, and when the survivors of said era tried to teach the new humanity their knowledge and technology, it resulted in resurgence of powerful Honkai outbreaks and beasts that they chose to put it to a halt.
* GameBreakingBug:
** There's a bug in the open-world maps where, if you lag while transitioning between planes/platforms, your player character may "sink" beneath the map, making you unable to move or do anything else. Your only option is to exit the stage.
** In the Schicksal HQ open world, you sometimes have to fight bosses in a closed, elevated octagonal platform that serves as an arena − problem is, sometimes a glitch causes you to be locked ''outside'' of the arena, walking on air but unable to hit the boss unless it's close to the edge. Again, your only options are exiting the stage or letting yourself be killed.
** In co-op stages, Darkbolt Jonin's QTE may cause her to teleport far away from the intended enemy instead of close to them. This is not normally game-breaking, but in the Soul Throne stages, using said QTE may cause her to teleport ''outside'' the bounds of the stage (as they're considered part of the whole stage as well), and she wouldn't be able to attack the enemies unless both she and the enemies can get close to the "walls".
* GameplayAndStorySegregation:
** Due to the gacha nature of the game, you can obtain and use gacha characters (some of them ''highly'' spoileriffic) before they are properly introduced in the main story.
** The "Valkyrie Muster" event introduced in 2020, and especially the version alongside the second global anniversary and onward, can get especially awkward/hilarious about this. Once a new player hits level 15, they have to do a single instance of the newbie-exclusive co-op Muster quest, and as a reward, they get Seele Vollerei. Who, er, in-lore isn't exactly recruitable (and specifically [[spoiler:is still trapped in the Sea of Quanta]]) until well into the double-digit chapters. New players in 2020 will usually hit 15 and gain the potential to get her around about halfway through chapter ''two''.
** In the early chapters, what happens in the story is more or less completely disconnected from what you do in the game; you can play with a Valkyrie who's supposed to be not present, out of commission or already there as an NPC, and you can form your team regardless of which characters the story is currently focused on. This is averted in the main story stages after chapter 6 though, which force you to use the {{Required Party Member}}s (see below for details). The revised chapters 1 and 2 are a bit better about this, if only because the way the tutorial progression locks parts of the interface means that you're highly unlikely to ''have'' anyone except Kiana, Mei and Bronya for most of both chapters (and story mode characters are enforced in a few instances), though, as noted above, the particularly industrious and/or lucky can have Seele, Sakura or even [[spoiler:Herrscher of the Void]] running around for some of the final fights of chapter 2 still.
** Most of the Co-op Raid stages don't explain how you can get a Divine Key as the reward for finishing them. Except for one: The "Soul Throne" story ends with the sword Jizo Mitama flying out from the stigmata world to the real world. Incidentally, it is the first Co-op Raid that gives out a free Divine Key; other pre-existing Co-op Raids are modified so that you get different Divine Keys for playing them again (only once for each), and newer Co-op Raids (Squad Snowwolf and Operation: Striker) also have Divine Keys attached as a one-time reward.
** In Post-Honkai Odyssey, Carole has a sidequest where she invites the Protagonist to collect resources while Mei supposedly stays in the base. However, it is still possible to bring Mei as a party member during this sidequest, yet the dialogue lines afterwards imply that she only became aware that the two left somewhere after they returned.
* GameplayAutomation: In the Schicksal HQ Open World, once a week, there's the "Mecha Defense" battle, where you can put the mechs you've built in the Hangar into an automated battle. The WeatherOfWar system in this mode might give bonuses to certain robots you may bring, i.e either it buffs ranged-types or melee-types, or Anti-Entropy mechs or Schicksal ones, etc. Once you bring them into battle, the robots will move by their own, trying to demolish the waves of enemies that appear. You can support them in 3 ways (depending on how far you've progressed Ai-chan's tech level): either [[DeathFromAbove support bombardment]], [[TheParalyzer paralyzing all the enemies present]], or [[QuadDamage temporarily strengthening all of your robots]], each with their own cooldowns. Once you're done, you'll get prizes depending on how long you took to finish it. 3.8 has it closed, however.
* GhostTown: The setting of Post-Honkai Odyssey is the South African city of St. Fountain, a city said to be sprawling with people of different cultures. Except that, when our characters enter it, it has become a dead and lonely city where monsters roam around and a giant crystalline structure floats in the center of it. Joyce's experiences in the city implied that he met people there, meaning that the satellite images of it (that shows the city as normal) may be right, and that all of this disaster happened in a short time, with him and Welt as the only survivors.
* GoodTimesMontage:
** In a variant, one stage of ch. 11-EX takes place inside Kiana's mind. In the background, there are many flying photos of her together with her friends, representing her memories of them.
** In the "Cyberangel" video, when Bronya is walking towards [[spoiler:the Herrscher Core of Reason]], there are many pictures in the background; pictures of a possible alternate timeline where Bronya has a happier life as a normal girl.
** In the final stage of ch. 17, in the middle of Kiana's fight against Boss Mei [[spoiler:as a Herrscher]], when Kiana breaks the boss' shield with Void Drifter's lance, it cuts to a few images of the two girls' scenes together (from the previous stages) before the fight resumes. When Kiana does it a second time later on, it cuts to another set of images of their past times in Nagazora, including their "fateful moment" where Kiana saves Mei from falling from a tall building by [[TakeMyHand taking her hand]]; Mei then [[BreakingTheFourthWall "cuts" this image in half]], symbolizing her "letting go of Kiana's hand" and "falling into the darkness". Also, in the "Lament of the Fallen" video (at the end of the chapter), when Mei slowly [[BreakingTheBonds breaks out of the spikes that Kiana used to pin her down]], it cuts to a series of 4 images of her and Kiana together in the past, as she declares that "Kiana is more important to her than the whole world". The "credits" part of said video (only in Youtube) also ends with the images of moments between the two girls on "glass fragments", including their "fateful moment".
** In the trailer video for the "Lost Gems of Memory" fanart contest, there's Mei standing in front of a glass window while pictures of her times together with her friends (i.e the past official arts) float in the background, and the text over them reads "They're the memories of a girl named [Raiden Mei]". Then it turns into a SadTimesMontage when the pictures turn into those of Mei's sad moments in the story, while the text now reads "[[spoiler:They're the memories of a girl named [Herrscher of Thunder].]]"
* GottaCatchEmAll:
** The "Sanka Saga" event focuses on Kasumi's mission from Schicksal to retrieve all 6 of the "Zakti Runes", collectively called the "Raksha's Rage". The main bosses of the event are said to have one of those runes. [[spoiler:Later in the epilogue, after she gets them all, she discusses them with the Ferryman, where he implies that all but one of them are (their world's equivalent of) Divine Keys[[note]]"Consciousness, binding, domination, destruction and creation"[[/note]], while the last one is a Herrscher Core (that can suck anything into the Sea of Quanta).]]
** In ch. 18, Jackal explains to Mei that the World Serpent's "[[ProjectBlank Project Stigma]]" requires them to subdue and capture all Herrschers. This explains Raven's account in the "Thunderous Sanction" mini event where she says that everyone in the group is serious about Herrschers.
* GratuitousEnglish: A handful of Valkyries have English phrases mixed into their in-game dialogue. For instance, Kiana says "Aye aye, sir!" and "Locked and loaded!", Bronya says "Yes, master", or "Yes, Captain." [[spoiler:as Herrscher of Reason]], and Theresa shouts "Hide and seek!". Kallen, as Sixth Serenade, shouts "Showtime!" and "It's my time!", and as Imayoh Ritual she says "Nice timing!" when you pick up HP drops. Roza also occasionally says "Yes, Captain" in gameplay. In the dorms, Kallen's chibis will sometimes say "Victory!" when you successfully perform an action with them.
* GratuitousGerman:
** As part of a DubNameChange on the English SEA server, certain in-game terms are in German like Schicksal, Herrscher and Kriegsmesser.
** ''Reburn'' ends with the phrase "Ich liebe dich.", which translates to "I love you." in German. It's also the ArcWords of Chapter 6.
* GratuitousRussian: Since Bronya, Seele, and the Olenyeva twins were raised in the same orphanage in Siberia, they all pepper their dialogue with Russian words; for instance, Bronya almost always uses "Da", "nyet", and "spasiba" instead of "yes", "no", and "thank you". The others are less obvious about it but still use "nyet" regularly.
* GravityMaster: The power of the 9th Divine Key, Star of Eden, is to control gravity. It normally takes form of an orb, but Einstein built a special harness around it that allows it to be used like a "cannon" of sorts. You can acquire said cannon in-game for Bronya, which shoots powerful gravity orbs instead of rockets. Later, it also comes in a dual guns version.
* GreyAndGrayMorality: The two rival organizations, Schicksal and Anti-Entropy, both have a fair share of good and bad seeds in them, and both have done ethically questionable things in order to fight the Honkai phenomenon and protect humanity. The later introduced organization, World Serpent, also goes similarly. The Honkai forces, meanwhile, like the Gohma from ''Videogame/AsurasWrath'', believe that humans are a plague that has harmed the planet and they aim to exterminate them.
* GrimyWater:
** In Post-Honkai Odyssey, you may find puddles of blood-red water on the ground in different places. If you step onto it, your character will slowly take DamageOverTime and build up "core radiation". If the "radiation gauge" is full, your character will have both their HP and MP drained until the state stops. The puddles are apparently "maintained" by red orbs that float just above them; they can be attacked, and if they're destroyed, the puddle disappears.
** In ch. 16, some parts of the stages have Honkai-contaminated water puddles that slowly drains your characters' health when they stand on them.
* GroundhogDayLoop: In ch. 11, Seele reveals that the "bubble universe" she's in apparently loops multiple times; specifically, it'll loop when she and the other Valkyries choose to take the kidnapped boy Joachim to Schicksal HQ. It takes Bronya (who comes from the real world) to notice it and convince the others to not give the boy to Schicksal, because he's apparently a runaway Schicksal experiment who had faced a lot of torturous experiments. The St. Freya Academy higher-ups agree with her and choose to take the boy to the academy instead, and the bubble universe "pops", leaving Bronya back in the Sea of Quanta.
* GroupedForYourConvenience: The "Honkai Kingdoms" event and later "Honkai Kingdoms: Zero" event had the players being put into one of the 3 factions. All sides have to try to capture places (by playing the stages within them enough times); the factions will get different amount of flags per day depending on how many places they could capture, and at the end of the event, the faction with the most flags will win more rewards than the others.
* GuideDangIt:
** The Witch's Corridor Shop[[note]]where you can buy fragments of most A-rank Valkyries, as well as select few S-rank ones that change each patch[[/note]] only appears once the player possesses an SSS-Rank Valkyrie[[note]]The extra fragments of said SSS-rank Valkyrie can be converted into a special currency for Witch's Corridor[[/note]]. Even if the Valkyrie is promoted to that rank, there are no immediate tutorials to remind the player of that shop's presence.
** Some of the controls and tooltips for battlesuits can also be a bit bad about this; one of the most obvious examples is Swallowtail Seele, because while the tooltips tell you her Veil resource ''exists'', and explains that her form change will consume it per-second, nowhere does it tell you that she needs to consume a full bar of 250 (out of 500 total) in order to use her mid-combo charge special attack. This can leave new players flailing and trying to figure out why they can't seem to consistently use her charge move.
* GunsAkimbo: Yet another theme with the Kaslanas. Kiana and Kallen both use paired pistols, and Siegfried used the Judgment of Shamash. [[spoiler:Herrscher of the Void also carries dual pistols, but uses her spears as her projectile weapons; her idle animation has her summon the pistols out of {{Hammerspace}} as if to briefly examine them, then send them away. She only uses the pistols in her weapon skill's animation.]]
* HalfwayPlotSwitch: In chapter 20, at first, Kiana and Bronya are going to Mount Taixuan to find Fu Hua's old notes and teachings that could possibly help them control their powers. But when they go there, they find "feathers" that contain Fu Hua's old memories instead. Thinking that Fu Hua might've put some of her teachings inside those feathers, they go to find more feathers and see more of Fu Hua's old memories. They later find out who put those feathers in the first place and said person's motives, and their initial motivation of "finding Fu Hua's teachings" is all but forgotten.
* HappyHolidaysDress: Some costume dresses available in the game are holiday-themed. Mei has a Christmas-themed one for her Shadow Dash suit, while Bronya has a Halloween-themed one for her Snowy Sniper suit, and Himeko as Vermilion Knight has a China dress for the Chinese New Year.
* HardModePerks: The Hard and Supreme difficulties for the story mode chapters add Valkyrie fragments and other rare materials in the drop tables that you can't otherwise obtain from playing the Normal Story difficulty. Also, the higher difficulties of the Co-op Raid stages reward better materials.
* HeadsIWinTailsYouLose:
** Even though you have to beat [[spoiler:Fu Hua's Shadow Knight form with Honkai-possessed Knight Moonbeam Kiana]] at the last stage of Chapter 6, the chapter ends with [[spoiler:Fu Hua defeating Kiana and taking her to Otto]].
** A similar thing happens in Chapter 8. [[spoiler:You control Scarlet Fusion to fight Shadow Knight and you have to win the boss fight, but the cutscene afterwards still shows that Himeko loses and is apprehended by Fu Hua.]]
** Played with in the final battle of Chapter 8, [[spoiler:Mei (you) vs Herrscher of the Void. The battle stops ''before'' you can deplete the boss' health, after which it's shown that the latter is trouncing Mei]].
** This happens again in Ch. 11, where [[spoiler:the first battle with Seele would end with Bronya below her heel even if you win]].
** The battle between Mei (you) and Durandal in ch. 15 plays with this. When Durandal's HP reaches around half, the fight stops, then there's a scene where she uses her ultimate attack to strike Mei down.
** Also played with in ch. 16 in Mei's battle vs. Raven, both times. The battles end before you can deplete Raven's health.
* HealthDamageAsymmetry: Your playable Valkyries may only have an average of 4-digit maximum health, but the enemies can have health in the tens or hundreds of thousands. The asymmetry goes to the point where a few thousand damage per attack is common for end-game players.
* HelloInsertNameHere: In the "Sakura Season" event, when Higokumaru asks for Darkbolt Jonin's name, there'll be a prompt where you have to type a name for her. After that, the UI and story texts will display the name that you put for her, but Higokumaru notes that it's just an alias, befitting a ninja.
* HeroicFatigue: {{Downplayed|Trope}} in the dorms. If a Valkyrie is sitting on the floor and has a blue speech bubble with a white chair over her head, she's extremely tired and wanting to rest. Dragging her to a bed or something she can sit on will fulfill the request, and she will either sit happily or stretch out and go to sleep. Some of the Valkyries say something relating to this before the trigger bubble appears, such as Kiana and Bronya talking about how much they've been deployed and Mei bemoaning having to cook for everyone while being tired.
* HeroicLineage:
** The Kaslana family is stated to have been dealing with the Honkai threats for centuries; it helps that they have natural resistance against Honkai energy. It's implied that the other core family of Schicksal, the Schariac family, also goes similarly. In particular, the Kaslana family seemingly has a kind of trait where [[ChronicHeroSyndrome they're always ready to become]] "[[DeclarationOfProtection the shield for the people]]", even if they have to [[HeroicSacrifice sacrifice their lives]] in the process. Otto, who witnessed Kallen's father dying in battle by using the Judgment of Shamash to kill a giant Honkai Beast, realized that a similar fate will befall Kallen as well and thus he became protective of her.
--->'''Kiana:''' My old man once told me that "the Kaslana blood boils when they see people in trouble".
** Kallen's father once told her how the Kaslana family goes in a PosthumousNarration:
--->''We hail from [[AncientOrderOfProtectors an ancient line far older than you can think of]]. Our Great Sires fell in battle against the Honkai, but never for tyranny. Will you let the strong feast on the weak? Watch closely, progeny. This is our path. [[HurtingHero The path is bitter and cold. It was never easy.]] They say that the heavens wept when our first great sire took the Oath. Though conceived in pure love, he knew he was bound to the Kaslana path. "I do not fear death. We Kaslanas die and never yield." But I fear the day when you, my sweet girl, choose to take the Oath and wield the Judgment as a Kaslana.''\\
''I'm proud of you, Kallen. I can sleep in peace knowing that you will defend the weak in my place. Take the Oath, my sweet daughter. It is yours now.''\\
'''Kallen:''' Our sires sleep in the fields as [[DeclarationOfProtection humanity's brave shields]]. By the Judgment of Shamash, Kaslanas die and never yield.
** Kevin, the "Sire of the Kaslana family", gets to talk about it [[spoiler:with Mei]] in ch. 17. [[spoiler:He explains that as long as the Honkai and Herrschers exist, Kiana will keep fighting and risking her life no matter what help she might get, and he had witnessed his "progenies" dying to protect the masses and fight the Honkai. Mei says that she doesn't want that to happen to Kiana, which is why he asks her to join the World Serpent, to help him purge the Honkai and "starve the Void Queen". Kevin promises that once his Project Stigma is complete, both her and Kiana can be normal girls again, and they don't have to fight anymore.]]
* HighAltitudeBattle: The first chapter of the game takes place on top of a battleship. Chapter 7 has you fight on top of a Helios fighter aircraft, while Chapters 8 and 9 take place in Schicksal HQ, which is located in the skies above Europe.
* HistoricalGenderFlip: Most Stigmata are female versions of male {{Historical Domain Character}}s and legendary figures like Galileo, Attila the Hun, Charlemagne, Sakamoto Ryouma, Zhuge Liang, etc. Others that are around in the present time like Einstein are ambiguous if they are the real deal or simply descendants of those scientists. Meanwhile, Tesla and Edison are both descendants (their first names are Frederika and Nancy respectively).
* HolodeckMalfunction: In the penultimate stage of ch. 2, for the Valkyrie exams, each student fights a kind of enemy with a simulator device. When it comes to Kiana, however, the synchronization value of her device reaches 120% and causes a malfunction where it creates a simulation of the Emperor-class Honkai Beast Ganesha, for her to fight. Himeko and Theresa think that it shouldn't happen, as such a Honkai Beast could be too strong for the students (especially Kiana) to beat. Since forcefully turning it off could be risky, Kiana decides to fight it anyway; Mei and later Bronya later comes in mid-battle to assist her. After they successfully beat the monster and get out of the simulation, Kiana is suddenly "brought" into her dream world (again) where the "mysterious voice" inside her makes a comment about how Ganesha used to appear in India in 2012 - hinting that said voice was the one behind the malfunction in the first place.
* HopelessBossFight: In the 3rd stage of the ''Anime/NeonGenesisEvangelion'' event, you can't really win the one-on-one fight since the Wotan's sluggish movement can't catch up with the 4th Angel's attacks. It's meant to lead to the 4th stage, where, after being seemingly defeated, Wotan's synchronization level goes to 200% and reveals its "stronger" form, which proceeds to beat up the 4th Angel until it dies; a good part of the battle becomes [[ScriptedBattle scripted]], as well.
* HorizontalScrollingShooter: The weekday bonus mission "Aerial Battle" is one, as you control the RPC-6626 hovercraft and shoot down satellites.
* HostileWeather: In the middle of ch. 16, there's a harmful rain that causes DamageOverTime to your playable character that lasts throughout the stages.
* HulksCooldownHugCorollary: In Chapter 3, the girls manage to talk Wendy down from the Herrscher state, only for Bronya to suffer a VillainOverride and attack her. Angered, Wendy goes Herrscher again, leading to a boss fight.
* HumanSacrifice: In Sakura's backstory, the people of her village performed this ritual, according to a legend where, whenever a child is sacrificed, the "fox god" will descend and call forth the rain. When Sakura was young, her sister Rin was one of the sacrifices, causing her to become bitter and resent the village. Some years later, when Kallen heard of an upcoming ritual, she tried to stop this, but she was too late as a fox beast had eaten the sacrificed girl.
* HyperactiveMetabolism: After completing a certain questline in the Schicksal HQ Open World map, Mei can take over a food van that helps refill your Valkyrie's HP.
* IcarusAllusion: In Post-Honkai Odyssey, the characters' skill names are [[ReligiousAndMythologicalThemeNaming themed after various figures in]] Myth/GreekMythology, and some skill names for all characters are named after Icarus. As part of the allusion, the skills either grant bonuses the longer the character stays in the air (and are lost if they fall down), or when they can reach S or above in their AwesomenessMeter.
* IdleAnimation: The playable characters, if left idle while in gameplay, will have a special animation (different for each character).
* ImmuneToFlinching:
** Downplayed for the most part. Monsters with shield gauges are highly resistant to flinching, but certain attacks and/or buffs of the Valkyries may still be able to flinch them. When the gauge is depleted, any attack will flinch them. Most Valkyries that have a SuperMode as their ultimate skill will also have resistance (i.e not immunity) to flinching when it's active, and Himeko's {{Charged Attack}}s and some of her weapon skills also make her resistant to flinching.
** Played straight with bosses, who won't flinch until their shield gauge is depleted; for bonus points, they tend to be stunned/dazed when their shield gauge is broken. The rare "Iron Body" buff also gives total immunity to flinching; a few monsters may briefly gain this buff during their attacks, while the "Titan Mecha" mook will gain the buff when it TurnsRed (after you deplete its health enough).
* ImperialStormtrooperMarksmanshipAcademy: In the "Bronya" video[[note]]only shown in-game in the background "screen" in one of ch. 11's stages[[/note]], she goes through a number of armed troops; none of their shots ever hit her despite them wielding assault rifles.
* InexplicableTreasureChests:
** In Sakura Samsara, there are "hidden chests" that can only be seen by activating the stealth mode. They contain a few Mithril, Asterite, and certain crafting materials.
** In Schicksal HQ Open World, there are different kind of hidden chests that you can only detect and pick up if Ai-chan's tech is high enough. They contain similar things to Sakura Samsara's chests.
** In Post-Honkai Odyssey, there are special chests covered in crystal spikes littered about on the stage. In the Story mode missions, you may occasionally find them if you take a few detours. In the Explore mode, many of them are locked behind the "intel levels" that you have to reach first. They contain "Krystallum" (mineral resources that are normally dropped from enemies), a few crafting materials, and occasionally collectible informations that you can view in the "base".
* TheInfiltration:
** Ch. 4 has your group (Kiana, Himeko and Theresa) trying to infiltrate ME Corp building in order to rescue the kidnapped Mei and Wendy. Thanks to Bronya, they manage to get in, but later on Cocolia tried to control Bronya from afar to attack them; Bronya fries the control chip inside her brain in response, while telling Kiana to take Mei away. [[spoiler:They didn't manage to rescue Wendy, however, whose Herrscher Core has been pulled out to be used to power up Wotan.]]
** Half of ch. 9 is focused on Himeko and Tesla trying to infiltrate Schicksal's Helheim Labs, guided by Fu Hua. There, Himeko finds the special battlesuit Vermilion Knight, while Tesla manages to replicate an anti-Honkai serum that she finds in their database. They need both to fight [[spoiler:Herrscher of the Void]].
** In ch. 12, in the Sea of Quanta's bubble universe that is set in the Previous Era, Seele (who entered the universe) accompanies the era's version of Sakura in infiltrating the Fire Moth building to find the latter's quarantined sister. [[spoiler:By the time Sakura arrives in her sister's cell, however, the latter's already dead.]]
** In ch. 13, following the intel that Kiana gives her, Rita decides to infiltrate the Heliopolis Life Sciences building to find hidden infos about them. Some of the stages become a StealthBasedMission. Her mission there is to find hidden infos related to the company's contribution to the Honkai problems; she ended up finding a secret basement and traces of zombies inside them, confirming her suspicions about the company. The twist is that the company's high ranking members had already known from the start (shown in the earlier stages, even) that Rita is infiltrating the building; they simply plan to "let her in" and then give her a "gift". That "gift" being the anti-Honkai serum that Schicksal developed, in form of gas bombs, in order to weaken Rita and her Valkyrie squad.
** In ch. 14, in separate stages, Kiana and Rita infiltrate the Heliopolis building again. Kiana is looking for one of its members, Raven, while Rita is looking for the antidote for the anti-Honkai gas that she got affected with.
* InMediasRes:
** The game begins in this way, ''especially'' in the revised intro cutscene introduced in the 3.x patch line -- when you start the game, you're thrown into Schicksal's desperate attempt to keep a rogue battleship that has evidently been commandeered by Honkai Beasts from crashing into and obliterating Soukai City in the Far East. Before we learn what Honkai, Herrschers or Valkyries are, we join our heroine, hopping a ride on a drone aircraft on the way to the ship. You are more properly introduced to the particulars of the world as you proceed through the Selene adventure in chapter 1, and chapter 2, '''especially''' the revised one, is all about getting the player on-board with the world and its lore.
** Ch. 9's first stage starts with Himeko in her Vermilion Knight suit tearing large swathes of Honkai Beasts. A few stages later, we see how she ended up getting the suit: by sneaking into the Helheim Labs, helped by Dr. Tesla.
** Ch. 12's first stage starts with Bronya [[spoiler:as Herrscher of Reason]] running through the Sea of Quanta to look for the missing Seele. The next stages focus on Seele's whereabouts, i.e in one of the "bubble universes". Near the climax, after Seele goes out of the bubble universe and encounters [[spoiler:Kevin]], Bronya finally meets her.
** The prologue of "Sanka Saga" event starts with Kasumi infiltrating a large mansion/castle in order to retrieve an important item, only to get trapped by the "Hanafuda Oyabun". The next few stages are about the beginnings of her mission; later in the middle, the scene in the prologue occurs again (though with a few differences) as Kasumi starts infiltrating the same mansion.
* InterfaceScrew:
** "Confused" is an uncommon status effect which will make your character's controls reversed momentarily.
** During some of the fights in chapter 18, the edges of the screen will be covered in frost, blurring your view, [[spoiler:due to the proximity of the Herrscher of Ice]].
* InterfaceSpoiler: We do consistently tag the spoilers here on TVT, because the story treats them as ''major'' reveals, but just browsing through the available battlesuits as of the late 3.x patch series in 2020 and beyond is going to throw a spoiler right in your face that [[spoiler:Kiana is linked somehow to the Herrscher of the Void, and Bronya outright becomes the Herrscher of Reason... ''and they both end up playable in this state'']].
* InYourNatureToDestroyYourselves: One supplementary comic focusing on Schicksal in the middle ages opens with young Otto saying that he doesn't believe that the Honkai, despite its potential to destroy humanity, is their greatest enemy.
-->...That accolade goes to humanity itself. We have waged war against each other since the beginning of history.
* InsultOfEndearment: In the "Honkai Kingdoms Zero" event, Zhuge Kongming initially calls the Captain "Mr. Assassin" because of a misunderstanding… but keeps calling him that even after the misunderstanding has been lifted. By the end, she clearly uses the name very affectionately.
* ItemCrafting: By collecting certain rare materials of specified amounts, you can forge weapons and Stigmata of your own choice in the Foundry.
* ItemFarming: Typical for an ARPG gacha title, a lot of good stuff can, and in many cases, has to, be farmed. Although in this game, you can also farm Fragments to obtain new playable Valkyries.
* ItsQuietTooQuiet: in the "Honkai Quest" event, Delta notices this when she, Seele and the Water Djinn enter the ruins.
* JigglePhysics: On the screen where a Valkyrie's costume can be swapped, you can rotate the Valkyrie to get a full look at the costume. Do it fast enough, and it becomes very evident that several of them have noticeable sway, although not to the extreme of actual {{Gainaxing}}. It's also quite noticeable in several cinematics, especially ones starring Kiana.
* JustifiedExtraLives: In Post-Honkai Odyssey, there are items called "Suscitarin" that you can use to revive a fallen teammate should they die. They're shaped like injectors, presumably containing healing liquid.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:K - O]]
* KansasCityShuffle: In the fourth scenario in "The Day You Vanished With The Stars", the Captain suspects that the Star Pavilion might've been littered with explosives, and tells Rita about it; the two then look for them and then neutralize them. However, the two then realize that, due to how the explosives seem to be put in plain sight, they might've been distractions for the real ones. He then remembers about the lanterns[[note]]supposedly the cause of the fire that engulfed the kingdom in the third scenario[[/note]] and tells Rita to check them, and they find out that they're filled with highly flammable oil under the wax, basically making them time bombs. Rita notes that there's one particular lantern maker who made them all, so she suspects that that person might be the culprit.
* KickingAssInAllHerFinery:
** An event-only costume for Valkyrie Bladestrike is her in a beautiful white dress.
** Kiana's Winter Princess costume (for Divine Prayer) decks her in a white dress adorned with icy-looking crystals. [[spoiler:Herrscher of the Void also has a costume (as part of the "Winter's Rhapsody" event) that makes her look like a WinterRoyalLady, as well as giving icy effects to her attacks (although without them dealing ice damage).]]
** Bronya's Nightfall Witch costume (for Snowy Sniper) is a Halloween-themed dress. Black Nucleus has the Fleurs du Mal costume, an ElegantGothicLolita-styled black dress. [[spoiler:Herrscher of Reason's default outfit is also adorned with big frills.]]
** Himeko's Blood Rose suit is a tattered, red-and-black version of this, but still looks rather elegant in its own way. Vermilion Knight also has a red China dress costume adorned with a feather boa (and her hair is also put in a PrimAndProperBun). In late 2019, an event prize was a wedding dress as an alternate outfit for Blood Rose.
** Theresa has multiple outfits that fit this. As Twilight Paladin, she wears an elegant black and blue dress with a long gown. Combined with the multiple floating blades she uses, her fluid movements in this battlesuit are reminiscent of a dance. Celestial Hymn also wears a regal-looking white dress, while Luna Kindred's attire makes her look like an ElegantGothicLolita, fitting for a "vampire". A good number of her costumes are also rather fancy dresses.
** Umbral Rose (Rita)'s Dame de Coeur outfit is a regal-looking red dress with a red coat and a small crown. Her Maid of Celestia (for Argent Knight) outfit is a heavily modified white China dress with a CleavageWindow, detached sleeves, and NavelWindow. She also gets a wedding dress-like outfit for Argent Knight after an update.
** Yae Sakura's Sublime Lotus outfit (for Gyakushin Miko) is a fancy white kimono, while her Dream Raiment outfit (for Flame Sakitama) looks like a wedding dress.
** One of Sündenjäger (Kallen)'s outfits is a Halloween-themed dress.
** Seele's Papilio Lily outfit (for Swallowtail Phantasm) is a beautiful white summer dress, complete with NiceHat. As Stygian Nymph, she gets a white dress adorned with many flowers and [[ChainedByFashion chains]], which turns black and red as "Dark Seele".
* KillEmAll: [[AlternateUniverse World 3]] in Chapter 11 is basically this. [[spoiler:Driven home by Mei just being ''obliterated'' out of nowhere, resulting in Kiana being driven right to the DespairEventHorizon, and even ''she'' doesn't have the luxury of dying on-screen, as she's just ''gone'' the moment Bronya takes her eyes off her in the heat of battle.]]
* KillEnemiesToOpen: Moving through the story chapters and most Co-op segments will have you locked in a border until you defeat all enemies within. Subverted in the Open-world maps, as you are free to roam but only get trapped in a border once you attack the roaming enemies or get into their lines of sight, to which this trope is played straight afterwards.
* KungfuProofMook:
** Most Anti-Entropy robots are immune to stunning. Titan Mecha and its variants, after [[TurnsRed Turning Red]], are immune to most status effects like bosses would.
** The Quantum-type enemies are immune to most status effects, up until you induce a "Quantum Collapse" on them[[note]]done by evading their "special attack" (different for each kind of enemy) which gives you a temporary buff that is used on the first attack that hits an enemy; if the attack hits any Quantum-type enemies, they'll "turn white" and lose their immunity to status effects, and their defense gets reduced. Seele as Swallow Phantasm or Stygian Nymph can also do it with her Ultimate Skill, as does Durandal as Valkyrie Gloria[[/note]].
* LagCancel: Most characters' normal attacks can be canceled into the dodge move in case there's an attack coming their way. It can also be used to cancel parts of a combo into the starting part of the combo so that you can keep comboing an enemy (usually a juggled one) without knocking them down. Many basic attacks (including branch/charged attacks) can also be canceled into the weapon's active skills.
* LateArrivalSpoiler:
** Due to the large amount of updates, new battlesuits are introduced with a video explaining their abilities and narrating their context, which inevitably give out massive story spoilers. Fu Hua's Phoenix and Azure Empyrea battlesuits, for example, are blatantly presented as [[spoiler:the manifestation of her true power and nature as an immortal defender,]] while Kiana's [[spoiler:Herrscher of the Void]] is the product of a WhamEpisode, as is Bronya's [[spoiler:Herrscher of Reason]] and Seele's Stygian Nymph.
** Post-Honkai Odyssey, near the beginning, gives away infos that are spoilers in the main story, such as [[spoiler:Welt Yang's real identity, the real 1st Herrscher, and clones of the latter, including Welt's adopted son, Joffrey]].
** It's hard to talk about Chapters 20 and 21 without talking about Fu Hua's major secret: she's one of the few survivors of the Previous Era and she has lived different lives for millennia.
* LauncherMove: Several Valkyries can launch enemies into the air with their attacks, which lets your team juggle said opponent and/or activate certain other Valkyries' QTE. Some weapons also have skills that do the same. All 3 characters in Post-Honkai Odyssey can do the same, and then combo the enemy in midair.
* LegendaryWeapon: The "Divine Keys" are weapons of lost civilizations from the past that hold incredible power. In-game, they can be obtained easily through certain events, and they have good stats and weapon skills. The use-able versions of the weapons are mentioned to be "dormant" and no one is able to bring out the weapons' full potential; they're unique, however, in that you can power the weapons up by not just leveling and upgrading them like other weapons, but also by going to the "shrine" (next to the Base in the menu) and using certain materials to unlock useful passive skills for the weapons. The Kaslana family's Judgment of Shamash is mentioned to be one such Divine Key; others include the Jizo Mitama sword and the Xuanyuan Sword. One of the supplementary comics serves as the OriginsEpisode for the weapons, detailing what they are and how each of them are made.
* {{Leitmotif}}: Post-Honkai Odyssey's [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_igh3VB24j4 Main Menu theme]] is a short instrumental sample taken from [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i8sHx32pKj8 "Oaths"]], an insert song that plays during the FinalBoss fight.
* LetsSplitUpGang: After Chapter 9-EX, our hero group (consisting of our Valkyries and some Anti-Entropy members) are still planning to find more information about [[spoiler:the missing Kiana]], but Cocolia sends them a distress call, asking them for help in defending the Gem of Desire from Schicksal's forces. They decide to split their forces for this: Mei and Dr. Tesla go to find more information about [[spoiler:the missing Kiana]] (and Mei gets her upgrade to her Valkyrie Bladestrike suit in-story), while Bronya, Theresa and Dr. Einstein go with ''Hyperion'' to Cocolia's location.
* LettingTheAirOutOfTheBand: The ninth episode of ''Cooking with Valkyries'' is a BeachEpisode, starting with Kiana and Bronya duking it out on the beach with water guns. Kiana inadvertently splashes Mei, and when the former goes to check up on her, the sequences plays out like a dream for Kiana -- at least until Mei turns around and checks up on Fu Hua instead, who also got soaked by Kiana's antics. By this point, the dreamy music dies out and Fu Hua calmly prepares to hand out punishment to Kiana.
* LightFeminineDarkFeminine:
** Kiana and Mei play it clearly straight, combining it with HairContrastDuo: the former is white-haired and has a bright, [[GenkiGirl excitable]], earnest, childish, straightforward, stubborn and chivalrous personality. The latter is dark-haired; she was previously depressed, moody and emotionally withdrawn due to her DarkAndTroubledPast, but after Kiana befriended her, she became more gentle, caring, reserved and well-mannered.
** Played with in regards to Bronya and Seele. The former is an EmotionlessGirl who had faced hardships ever since she was young; she used to be a cold and aloof ChildSoldier, but her interactions with Seele brought out some emotions in her, before her brain got damaged in the X-10 experiment, which made it hard for her to express emotions in the first place. The latter is best described as "very emotional", whether the "bright" kind (happy, curious and cheerful) or the "dark" kind (meek, demure, easily startled/saddened). Meanwhile, Seele's SplitPersonality is also "dark feminine": ruthless, sadistic and likes teasing her host, but also very protective and wants the best for her host.
* LightLiegeDarkDefender:
** Seele and Bronya respectively - the former is an innocent, demure and timid young girl while the latter is a cold hardened former ChildSoldier. The twist is that Seele has a SuperpoweredEvilSide who also acts as her own Dark Defender.
** Inverted with Mei and Kiana: the former is associated with "darkness" and used to be gloomy and depressed due to her DarkAndTroubledPast before the latter girl - who's associated with "light" and has a bright, cheerful and chivalrous personality - saved her and became her "protector". After that, Mei is still the "dark" one, but in a more gentle and nurturing way, akin to the night sky. However, Mei later tries playing it straight as a way to [[NowLetMeCarryYou repay Kiana's kindness]]: as she [[spoiler:becomes the Herrscher of Thunder]] to save Kiana (both from her condition and from her "fate"), she has now become colder, more aloof and seemingly uncaring, even towards Kiana herself, as well as going to work for one of the villains' group.
* LimitBreak: The Valkyries each have their own Ultimate Skills, powerful skills that require large amounts of SP (with a few exceptions) to perform. They either do a lot of damage, act as a SuperMode, control enemies in a large area, or (occasionally) a combination of them. The [=ELFs=] introduced in 3.0 also have their own Ultimate Skills that can be used when their SP reach the appropriate amount (after attacking).
* LiterallyShatteredLives: Enemies affected with the Freeze status debuff will shatter when their HP is depleted.
* LoadsAndLoadsOfSidequests: There's a ''lot'' to do outside of the Story mode that encourages the player to farm numerous items and upgrade their Valkyries, along with various events.
* LootBoxes: The "Supply" is the game's gacha system. It comes in a variety of forms, each with some cost:
** The Standard, Expansion, and Focused Supply types cost Crystals to use, with each Supply giving two prizes. You can purchase individual Supplies, or 10 at once; you can also pick up Supply Cards for each which give you one for free. They differ based on the prizes given:
*** Standard Supply contains a wide variety of items, including Valkyrie character cards (especially the S-rank ones), Epic-grade weapons and Stigmata. This Supply will guarantee an A-rank Valkyrie card or higher (i.e S-rank) if if you haven't successfully pulled any for the past 9 rolls ("pity 10th roll"), which will become fragments for that Valkyrie if she's already unlocked. After an update, there's also Equipment Supply, which contains only equipments and guarantees an Epic-grade equipment as the pity 10th roll.
*** Expansion Supply appears less often and has only certain Valkyrie cards as its grand prize. In particular, certain Valkyries (especially Awakened versions) appear only in Expansion Supply. This supply guarantees an A-rank Valkyrie or higher as the pity 10th roll, and the current supply's promoted S-rank as the pity 100th roll[[note]]this "pity count" will carry over to the next Expansion Supply[[/note]].
*** Focused Supply contains specific weapons and Stigmata as the grand prize, noted by the daily announcements. A later update introduced "Expansion Focused Supply", which features the weapon and Stigmata specific to the current Expansion Supply's rate-up Valkyrie. Both versions will guarantee an Epic-grade equipment as the pity 10th roll.
** Prior to version 3.5, there was also a Friendship Supply which cost Friendship Points (acquired by choosing one of your friend's characters to accompany you in gameplay, as well as playing CoOpMultiplayer) to spin. It only provided 1-2 starred materials, and occasionally a few Valkyrie fragments, and only gave one prize per Supply. Since it was discontinued, "Friendship Supply boxes" are now purchasable in the shop with Friendship Points, which work similarly.
** Event Supply requires event-related items to use. What they may contain also tends to be less random.
** In some updates, there's a "special costume supply" that has a beautiful costume for one of the Valkyries as the grand prize. It costs special tickets that can only be acquired by participating in events (and there are only a limited number of them), or by purchasing them with increasing amount of crystals; the first attempt is free. Unlike the other supplies, there are only 10 prizes, which are arranged by pyramid hierarchy; you're more likely to get the bottom prizes first before the ones at the top. You can only roll this supply 10 times, and you're guaranteed to get the grand prize with your last roll (if only because you've gotten the other 9 beforehand).
** Version 3.5 introduces "Dorm Supply", which costs less than Standard Supply. Its gimmick (other than "guaranteed A-rank Valkyrie as the pity 10th roll") is that, like Expansion Supply, it'll guarantee an S-rank Valkyrie as the pity 100th roll (25th roll for the first and second time). If you happen to roll S-rank Valkyries that you already have twice, the 3rd S-rank you get will be a brand new one you haven't had yet. The catch is that it only contains Valkyries that were added before the [[spoiler:Herrscher of the Void]] update, so there are only 31 of them; this includes "Awakened" valkyries that normally aren't available in Standard Supply. Version 3.6 deletes the Standard Supply in favor of Dorm Supply, while Version 3.7 added a few more Valkyries into the supply (and the new Dorm system). Version 3.7 also replaces the Equipment Supply with "Dorm Equipment Supply", which only contains useful equipments (particularly to the Valkyries available in the Dorm Supply). Version 4.1 also adds more Valkyries into the supply.
** An update introduced "FOCA Select" and "EXPA Select", variants of Focused and Expansion Supply respectively. Most of the rules regarding the latter two also apply to the former two, but the gimmick is that there's a selection of "rate-up lineup" in each one, and you can choose between 3-5 lineups with different grand prizes; this is basically covering multiple Focused and Expansion supplies in one (each). Another difference is that while in Focused Supply you aren't guaranteed to get the supply's grand prize, the FOCA Select has a "pity 50th roll" that covers it.
** A more "traditional" example of loot boxes exist with some boxes you can buy with materials in the in-game shop, as well as the boxes dropped by playing Dirac Sea or Q-Singularis, such as the Time Structure Box (contains either Time Structures[[note]]A material used to "reset" plays of Co-op Raid stages to make them drop Raid-specific materials again[[/note]], high-grade EXP chips, or some money).
* LootMakingAttack: Some Stigmata in the game will make the enemy drop something (depending on the Stigmata) by the user's attacks, usually with a cooldown. One example is the Theresa: Gluttony Stigma, which makes your successful attacks drop candy every 5 seconds that can be picked up to increase your damage output.
* LostInTranslation:
** Perhaps intentionally in this case. "Honkai" means "wish/desire" in Japanese, but the literal reading of the kanji in Japanese is "Houkai"("Benghuai" in Chinese), i.e "collapse".
** "Herrscher of the Void" is a common and valid translation of "空 之/の 律者" ("Kōng Zhī Lǜzhě/Sora no Ritsusha" in Chinese and Japanese respectively) in most languages, and refers to her powers of manipulating space. However, 空 can also mean "sky". This second meaning simply doesn't translate outside of those two languages, so the symbolism regarding [[spoiler:all the sky-related imagery around Kiana]] is likely to be lost to players of most language versions.
* MacrossMissileMassacre: The "missile robot" mooks' main purpose is simply to shoot lots and lots of missiles toward you. They do, however, have other attacks as well, such as dropping floating mines that can paralyze you, and a ShockwaveStomp to protect themselves at close range. Taken UpToEleven with the strongest of the missile robot you can acquire in Schicksal HQ Open World, whose Ultimate Skill is a nonstop missile barrage that only ends when its SP is depleted.
* ManaBurn:
** Some enemies have the "SP Drain" buff which drains your character's SP when you're close to them.
** One type of the Immortal Blades mooks can throw a special grenade at your position. It creates a blue field on its wake that not only burns through your SP, but also make you unable to switch out unless you move out of the circle.
* ManualLeaderAIParty: In a few stages, all three Valkyries in your squad will be out at the same time as opposed to just one at a time; you still control one while the other two are played by the AI. In general, the AI members are good enough at attacking, evading, and using Ultimate Skills, but they may get overwhelmed at times, they may attack a target that [[TacticalRockPaperScissors has an attribute advantage against them]], and they will only use weapon skills at random. There are two ways in how this goes, depending on the stage and game mode:
** In one, you start playing as the designated "leader" of the squad, but you can tap the other Valkyries' icons in order to switch the controls over to that Valkyrie. This can be useful to make a Valkyrie attack a better target, or to use their weapon/Ultimate skills with better timing, or to move them out of trouble. In this type, the QTE system is disabled, however.
** In another, you can only play as the designated "leader" of the squad, but the gameplay is akin to the CoopMultiplayer mode in that you're given access to powerful Team Skills in order to support your whole team, and the QTE system also works like in that mode[[note]]i.e when the AI Valkyrie's attacks trigger your QTE condition, there'll be a flashing button that you can press to activate your QTE; when your attacks trigger the AI Valkyrie(s)' QTE, they will automatically activate it when it's not on cooldown[[/note]]. You're also given [[SquadControls a special button]] that lets you activate your AI Valkyries' team skills and Ultimate Skills whenever available.
* MarkedChange: The first signs of Honkai corruption is a spread of pinkish lines over one's body.
* MartyrdomCulture: The Kaslana bloodline seems to have this, as they have sworn to be "humanity's brave shields" and that they "die and never yield". They will try and help/save other people, oftentimes without paying heed to their own lives. As shown with Kallen and (indirectly) Theresa, however, the growth of the individual members of the bloodline is about finding the right cause for their martyrdom, to understand exactly what they're helping/protecting and why. Otto, Kallen's friend, found this to be a big problem as it meant Kallen would die following her father's way - and sure enough, she did, by protecting citizens from Honkai Beasts at the cost of her life.
* {{Mascot}}:
** Kiana Kaslana is one for miHoYo as a whole, being featured from their very first game (in 2011) and used here as the game's icon.
** Ai-chan, the AI of the battleship ''Hyperion''. She acts as the "system voice" and also helps with the tutorials with her rather casual style of speaking. She also has her own Twitter account.
** The plush bunny named HOMU is an in-universe example, with Bronya being a huge fan. He has multiple variants, such as HOLA (red colored, likes playing with explosives) and HOMEI (pink colored female). HOMU and his variants may appear in certain stages as mooks, be playable in certain other stages, and used as a thematic decoration in the Dormitory. They also play a major part in the co-op Raid stage "HOMU Fantasy" and the Extra Stage "Dilemma Dreamland". You can also acquire HOMU treasures which give you varying amounts of coins when used. HOMU and his variants also have various comic books, cartoons and games based on them.
* MassMonsterSlaughterSidequest: Some stage objectives require you to kill certain amount of enemies.
* TheMaze: The "Imaginary Maze" gameplay mode, which only appears in certain patches of the game, tied to events, takes place in a grid-style maze where your Valkyries walk around on the squares, encounter monsters, find InexplicableTreasureChests and advance through floors. Certain events put their twists to the maze: the summer event has a beach-themed one, the Halloween event has a gothic, spooky-themed one, the winter event has a winter-themed one that is also a parody of ''Literature/AliceInWonderland'', the 2019 summer event (HOMU Rush!) is another beach-themed maze, and the "Odd Drifter" event has multiple ones that introduces the "block-pushing" puzzle.
* MeaningfulEcho:
** In chapter 16, Sora is surprised and delighted that Mei's curry that she eats isn't spicy. Tesla points out that it's only bell pepper curry. In chapter 17, Mei makes another curry for Kiana and the latter tells her that it tastes spicy and good like always. Then, when Mei goes out, she tells herself that it's only bell pepper curry, hinting at Kiana's loss of taste - and especially [[StepfordSmiler Kiana's attempt to act like what Mei knows her better as, in spite of her condition]], [[LyingToProtectYourFeelings to not make her friend feel bad]]. Mei had already suspected it when she eavesdropped Kiana's conversation with the Anti-Entropy's scientists, and the curry is a test in disguise. This is the last straw for Mei, that convinces her to take Raven's offer to help her save Kiana from her condition.
--->'''Mei:''' You lie like an idiot... sweet pepper curry isn't spicy at all.
** In the middle of ch. 17, when Nagazora City is engulfed in a "giant light" as the 2nd Divine Key is activated, the narration reflects back to MEI's speech in the flashback about the InsignificantLittleBluePlanet and how meaningless humanity is in the face of the universe.
--->''Life perishes and is created in each and every beam of each and every instant. Every single individual, the people they meet, the people they love... memories, sacrifices, promises made and broken, victories, defeats, every existence and death... the entire history of the human race... the summation of human legacy... every piece of evidence that points to the very essence of humanity... is naught by a lonely leaf caught within this light.''
* MeaningfulName: The school that teaches and trains potential Valkyries is named St. Freya. Freya is a goddess in Norse myth who is connected to the valkyries; she gathers all of the slain warriors' souls that the valkyries retrieved into her realm.
* MechaMooks:
** Robots appear as mooks starting from Chapter 2. Anti-Entropy apparently prefers building robots to do their dirty work, as they deem the whole Valkyrie business (i.e turning humans into disposable soldiers against the Honkai) as unethical; their robots, however, cannot handle as much Honkai Energy as a human body would, making them weaker potentially. They're weak against Psychic-type Valkyries, and usually [[DefeatEqualsExplosion explode when defeated]].
** In Chapter 8 and the Schicksal HQ Open World, we see Schicksal's own robot mooks that guard the Schicksal HQ. They're much less "blocky" and stiff than Anti-Entropy's robots, although they're lighter in frame.
* MechanicalAbomination: In "Post-Honkai Odyssey" Open World, the enemies are strange amalgams of creatures and machines that are "put together the wrong way". They're described as akin to a child's nightmare.
* MercyKillArrangement: In one of the supplementary comics, it's explained that Valkyries who fight in the frontline against the forces of Honkai will always be under the threat of succumbing to Honkai corruption and turning into mindless, murderous zombies. It's a common arrangement that, if a Valkyrie ends up getting corrupted by the Honkai, their comrades will immediately execute them. In Ch. 11-EX, in a flashback, Himeko drilled this knowledge to the students.
-->'''Kiana:''': ...But what if you're the one experiencing the cascade thing, Miss Himeko? \\
'''Himeko:''' Then you MUST do the same thing and end my life right there! \\
'''Kiana:''': But if I... you know... get that cascade thing... I wish you're the one to do it, Aunt Himeko. \\
'''Himeko:''' It'll never happen, sugarplum. As your instructor and squad leader, [[DeclarationOfProtection I won't let any of you get in trouble]].
* MindManipulation: This is the ability of the 8th Divine Key, Fenghuang Down. With it, the user can manipulate people's mind in all sorts of ways, including [[JourneyToTheCenterOfTheMind entering someone's mind]], causing them to stop perceiving time for a moment, putting them in deep sleep, creating dreamscapes (up to whole LotusEaterMachine levels), and so on. The primary user of this Divine Key is [[spoiler:Fu Hua]], but others have used this weapon as well, such as [[spoiler:Sirin (after Fu Hua used it on her; Sirin could only use it at limited amount) and Otto (through imitating it with his 1st Divine Key)]].
* MissionBriefing:
** 2 kinds of this occur in ch. 18: once in the beginning where Alvitr holds one with the rest of the Immortal Blades squad regarding their mission in the Coral Island, and once in the middle where the World Serpent members (Mei, Raven, Owl) set up a plan to capture the Herrscher of Ice in said island.
** Story missions in the Post-Honkai Odyssey will begin with your characters having a briefing first before they go out.
* MissionControl: In Chapters 1 to 3 in the Story Mode, Himeko and Theresa take turns to talk to Kiana, Mei and Bronya in the missions, [[GameplayAndStorySegregation even if you use any of the two]]. In the Chapter Xuanyuan side story, Himeko joins Kiana, Mei and Bronya in the field, while Fu Hua becomes part of the mission control.
* MoeAnthropomorphism: An in-game example. Version 3.0 introduced the [=ELFs=] ([[FunWithAcronyms short for "Equipment: Living Form"]]), anthromorphized versions of existing weapons in FunSize. They function similarly to Open World's Higokumaru and Ai-chan, as they can join battles and fight alongside the Valkyries. The lore mentions that they acquire said forms after a strange interaction with [[EldritchLocation the Sea of Quanta]] and their behavior and mannerisms seem to be (as Einstein thinks) based on what "image" their creators think of the weapons; e.g Jingwei's Wings acts like a wise old lady (emulating the legendary Jingwei) with slips here and there; while Blood Embrace is literally bloodthirsty (she tries to make up for that image by drinking tomato juice, though).
* TheMole: [[spoiler:The Heliopolis Life Sciences]] is a humanitarian organization/company that dedicates themselves in treatment of people's injuries and diseases. In particular, they have been researching ways to treat and prevent Honkai-related illnesses; the anti-Honkai organization Schicksal has affiliated themselves with said group since early 2000s, providing them with funds and materials for research and development. Unbeknownst to Schicksal, however, said group actually belonged to a secret organization, "World Serpent", which secretly uses the company to conduct Honkai-related experiments on the people.
* MoneySink:
** Higher levels of skill upgrades cost thousands of coins. If you're planning to max out a Valkyrie's skill tree upgrades, prepare to have a hefty sum of currency.
** Unlocking and leveling up the [=ELFs=]' skills are also going to be a strain on your money and resources, particularly for the S-rank ones.
** In Post-Honkai Odyssey, as you will eventually unlock and upgrade all of your characters' skills given enough time, you'll end up hoarding Krystallums and Regulators. Version 3.9 introduces the "tuning factors" that will cost you hefty amounts of those two items the more you upgrade them.
* MonoNoAware: For all of its saying of "fighting for all that is beautiful in the world", one subtle theme of the story seems to be that "every beautiful thing will eventually come to an end".
** One episode of "Cooking with Valkyries" in season 2 has this theme. While seeing the withered becoming "alive" again[[note]]Sakura preserving cherry blossom flowers in brine so that they can bloom again when she gives them water, which she does to make her sister Rin happy[[/note]] is good and all, seeing them "becoming" something else[[note]]Sakura using the salted cherry blossoms as an ingredient for sakura wine or other food[[/note]] is just as good, as Kallen points out.
** Chapters 8 and 9 is where the story's tone changes drastically as the Battle of Schicksal rages and [[spoiler:Kiana becomes the Herrscher of the Void]], and in the aftermath, the world becoming ruined due to a "Great Honkai Eruption". Himeko puts it in her own words in the "Final Lesson" video:
--->''Kiana, everything would've changed once you wake up. The world will no longer be a pretty place. Life as you know it will be replaced by something else. But don't ever, ever give up.''
** Chapter 17 of the game covers the topic of "change", primarily about how Mei is going to make a big change. She treasured her past with Kiana greatly, and she was alienated by Kiana's own change (prior to this chapter) that the latter goes to try to [[StepfordSmiler act like the "Kiana" that Mei used to know]] in order to ease her feelings and not make her worry, despite Kiana's deteriorating condition. Mei gets to know this, however, and feels bad about herself for "not changing at all", which - she believes - contributed to their whole current situation. In order to save Kiana's life, Mei ends up making tough decisions - cutting away her past life and attachments, including towards Kiana herself - and changing drastically [[spoiler:into the Herrscher of Thunder]]. It's also symbolized with 1) her defeating the Husk - Nihilism boss, a mechanical construct that can reverse time; and 2) her [[spoiler:"cutting" the image of her and Kiana's fateful moment, of the latter [[TakeMyHand taking the former's hand]], signifying her "falling into the darkness"]].
** As shown in a flashback, Kevin used to be a "man of the present" (typical for a guy at high school age like him) who didn't want to think too much about the future, because he fears that he could lost sight of the things around him. However, he ended up fighting to protect the world from the Honkai, and he ultimately failed; he would then put himself in cryosleep and wake up eons later to try to guide the new humanity and protect them from the Honkai. [[spoiler:As he finds little personal attachment to the current era, he's now seemingly more obsessed in defeating the Honkai than protecting the people, to the point that after all the other Previous Era projects have either failed or not bear any good result, he resorted to the one that would "doom" the current humanity in order for them to survive the Honkai. In short, he's now the man who has lost everything close to him and has faced the thing that he once feared: losing the sight of things around him as he focuses more on the "bigger picture".]]
** Even the "Post-Honkai Odyssey" side-story cannot escape from this issue. Near the end of Mei's S-rank dialogue, Squad 3 enjoys their food supplies from Schicksal, with Mei reminiscing her youth days. Near the end of the conversation, Mei then gives a bit of friendly advice to the Protagonist:
--->'''Mei:''' Cherish what you have, [Protagonist's name]. No one knows what might happen next. What we take for granted may be gone in the future. Enjoy every moment, don't leave any regrets. Just be like ''her''[[note]]Kiana[[/note]].
* MonsterCompendium:
** The "Post-Honkai Odyssey" Open World has a section where you can view the monsters you can find and the infos on them. They also have {{Flavor Text}}s given by the in-universe characters.
** An update gives a catalog of enemies you've faced before, in the "Collection" part of your account menu. It shows their attributes, traits and attacks.
* MoodDissonance: The fifth scenario of "The Day You Vanished With The Stars" ends like this: The Captain finds Kongming's dead body near a river after her carriage went out of control. This is while there are fireworks in the background as the festival is still ongoing on the city.
* MoodWhiplash:
** The third scenario of "The Day You Vanished With The Stars" ends this way. Captain and Zhuge Kongming are outside of the village; she runs back to the village to pick up some ink and brush while the Captain waits. The narration then notes about the beautiful floating lanterns lighting up the night sky fro far away... before suddenly ''the kingdom bursts into flames,'' presumably due to the lanterns and other flammable materials. Kongming is implied to be KilledOffscreen, along with many other people there; he could only think of running back to the palace to find Tesla-Zero again.
** In the "Alien Space" comic, when Ryusuke (Himeko's father) and his alien partner sensed that Welt is about to enter his place (Himeko's dorm), he prepared for the worst as he [[FusionDance slowly fuses with the alien]] while Welt slowly emits Honkai energy... before Himeko patted Welt from behind and invited him into her dorm, leading him to meet Ryusuke again. When the two men sit face to face, they can only awkwardly exchange their greetings.
* MoreThanMindControl: Several cases of [[SuperpoweredEvilSide Herrscher mind-takeovers]] involve the person's original self being in a state of anguish or rage (usually both), so that they're in their MomentOfWeakness which either makes them give in to their anger and willing to use the Herrscher's power to "get back" at who/whatever upsets them, or makes them weak-willed enough that they can't resist the Herrscher self taking over. It didn't help that they tend to be wronged in one way or another, turning them into WoobieDestroyerOfWorlds. This makes FightingFromTheInside potentially harder to do, as the Honkai knows to "tempt" potential Herrschers when they're at their "lowest". [[spoiler:Herrscher of the Void in Kiana's body, specifically, repeatedly tries to [[MindRape break the latter's mind]] so that "SHE" can freely take over her body. Meanwhile, Herrscher of Corruption (from the Previous Era) was driven by Rin's lingering grudge right before she succumbed to her wounds.]] In the 2nd Honkai War, Sirin entered a strange sphere where she saw an image of her mother dying on a sickbed, and then...
-->'''Sirin:''' I don't want to feel weak again...\\
'''Inner voice:''' Very good, Sirin. Tear apart your human heart and become a true Herrscher...
* MotiveDecay: As mentioned in one supplementary comic, the Schicksal organization used to be genuinely helpful, offering protection against the Honkai to various kingdoms in Europe. However, it eventually became engrossed in so many aspects of life and culture that the Overseer and other aspects of its leadership became DrunkWithPower, its once noble motives becoming tainted with ambition and greed.
* MoveInTheFrozenTime: The rare "Shuttle" enemy buff makes them immune to the Time Slow and Time Fracture effects. You can try activating Time Fracture, but they'll still move in a normal speed. The boss Benares also heavily resists such effects, and after it TurnsRed, it's effectively immune. A good number of other bosses (especially ones introduced later) also has increased resistance to Time Slow effects.
* MultiMookMelee:
** The Infinity Abyss gameplay mode, where you descend down "floors" as you fight increasingly stronger mooks and EliteMooks and, every certain floor (differing with your character level group), encounter boss enemies as well. There'll also be the "end" floor (higher level groups mean more floors to descend) where you fight a boss that's tougher than the previous ones. It's also possible to "skip" floors by finishing the current floor under a time limit. In this gameplay mode, the active Valkyrie's HP will also drain at an increasingly rapid rate[[note]]Every 1 minute or so, the health drain rate per half a second will increase, up to the maximum of level 8[[/note]], which forces you to either kill the enemies quickly (so that they'll drop HP pickups) or use Valkyries that can heal others. You're going to compete against other players to see how many floors they've completed; you'll be given consumable items that will either help you advance faster, or hinder other players' progress. You'll get rewards when the game's time limit ends (the "challenge" occurs twice a week) and, if you manage to place yourself in the top 5 or 3, the right to descend to a lower, tougher "level" of the abyss to get even better rewards. There are 4 levels of this abyss (plus one exclusive to Captains of level 70-80); the deeper it gets, the hotter it gets, which means the enemies are tougher and your HP depletes quicker.
** The second-to-last stage of Chapter 10 involves Theresa fighting off repeatedly-spawning Honkai Beasts, up to 100.
** An update introduces the "Dirac Sea" mode, which combines this with the open world system. There are only 4 floors, but each floor is wide and has a number of "enemy clusters" that you have to beat in order to score points. Once you engage in combat in one enemy cluster, you won't be able to get out until you beat all enemies in said cluster or you exit the stage[[note]]and if you exit, the cluster you fought in will be reset to how they once were, with you starting outside of the cluster's boundary[[/note]]. Some clusters are true to the trope--multiple respawning enemies up until a specified number of them--while some others are either a fight against a single, strong EliteMook or against 2 mooks (at a time) with the [[GeminiDestructionLaw Soul Link]] buff. Once you beat all enemy clusters on a floor, you can enter the boss room, then beat the boss to advance to the next floor. [[note]]You can also choose to go straight to the boss floor, beat the boss, and gain all the points from the floor's enemy clusters as a bonus, but the boss will be buffed significantly; beating all enemy clusters before going to the boss will dispel these buffs[[/note]]. In the final floor, the fight against its boss will also give you extra points depending on how fast you defeated it. It has the same "HP drain" mechanic as the Infinity Abyss, but played differently: your health won't deplete until about 2 minutes have passed, after which there'll be a "heat level" where your health depletion rate increases every 30 seconds or so; the longer you take to beat an enemy cluster or a boss, the more dangerous to your character's health it'll be. Like Infinity Abyss, the game mode opens twice a week, each being active for 3 days; there'll be a degree of "disturbance" based on the how quickly the players were progressing in the previous cycle (which would affect the enemies' strength and HP drain's intensity) and the "depth" you're in, and you'll compete against other players to see who can get the highest score; the reward and "level" system in this mode is also similar to that of Infinity Abyss (see above).
** A few events have a variant where you and another player fight off multiple enemies in a CoOpMultiplayer while ascending floors. You can "skip floors" if you can beat the current floor's enemies in a time limit, although "boss floors" cannot be skipped. There are 100 floors to ascend, and you'll stop if you take too long to clear a floor. The last 10 floors are also [[BossRush filled entirely with bosses]].
** Version 3.2 introduces Q-Singularis, which replaces Infinity Abyss. It plays similarly to the latter (multiple floors, the ability to "skip" floors, boss floors, degree of "disturbance" and the same grading/depths & reward system and opening schedule), but with some elements of Dirac Sea mixed in (some floors would have waves of "Soul Connection" mooks or "single EliteMook" instead of plain multiple mooks, and you'll earn points depending on how much you've progressed), as well as a few new ones: 1) there'll sometimes be Quantum-type enemies (which most valkyries deal neutral damage to, save for Quantum-type characters), and 2) you can have access to a "special skill"; this skill comes with a gauge that is filled by performing Ultimate Evasions, and once it's full, you can activate it to support your gameplay in some way[[note]]The skill's details would differ in certain stretches of floors; each "cycle" of Q-Singularis would also have different skills[[/note]]. Every time the heat level increases, there'll also be "quantum vibrations" where there are two "AreaOfEffect attack" circles (coming one after another) that are harmless, but can be "evaded" to fill the skill's gauge.
** In the "Empyrean Legends" event, there are "EX Stages" in each chapter where you ascend up to 20 floors and fight multiple enemies in each. It has a CheckPoint in floors 5, 10, 15 and 19 (exiting the stage will make you start at the checkpoint when you enter again), and the last floor will contain a boss.
** Like many things it takes from ''Devil May Cry'', Post-Honkai Odyssey's "Ruins Mode" is similar to that game's Bloody Palace. There are multiple floors to ascend, each with its own sets of enemies. Like Dirac Sea, it has a WeatherOfWar system that will affect some of your abilities, as well as a varying additional buff (such as damage increase buff after certain hits in a combo, or after Ultimate Evasion, etc), and each floor may have their "lose condition" such as a timer, or getting knocked down. Every few floors is a CheckPoint wherein you can restart if you quit midway and you can get rewards, and if you have finished the last floor, you can "reset" your playthrough up to the last checkpoint so you can get better points. The points are then put in a leaderboard that resets each week; the higher you place, the better the weekly rewards you'll get.
** Version 4.2 gives a significant modification for the "Abyss" modes' ranking system for players of lv. 81 and up, called "Exalted" tier: each Abyss "grades" (Forbidden, Sinful, Agony, etc) now have "sub-grades" (Agony I, II, III, etc)[[note]]the exact number of sub-grades depend on the number of players, which differ per server[[/note]]. You'll also get a different, better-looking emblems for the grade you're currently in. In each "bracket" (consisting of 20 players at a time), players are given an incentive of actually getting higher ranks instead of just getting a high enough rank to retent the position: the "Trophies" system, where getting higher ranks will award you with more trophies, and being placed at lower ranks can make you lose trophies. You'll need enough number of trophies in order to advance to a higher, more rewarding (sub-)grade of the Abyss.
** Version 4.2 also gives another "Abyss" mode for players of lv. 81 and above, called "Superstring Dimension", a more developed version of the "Honkai Lab" events in previous versions. In it, there are 4 stages, three with a similar WeatherOfWar "theme" and one with a different theme from the other 3. In each stage except the last one, there are 5 floors to ascend, each with either a number of mooks or a single EliteMook, and the last floors in each will have certain bosses. In the last stage, there are only 2 floors, one "multi-mook" floor and one "big boss" floor; in this stage, the faster the clear time, the higher points you'll get, and the higher rank you can potentially gain. Unlike other Abyss modes, however, this one lacks a "health drain" mechanic, but in its place it has [[TimedMission a timer of 5 minutes]].
* MusicalNod:
** In "The Day You Vanished With The Stars" event, which stars Zhuge Kongming, the main background theme is the instrumental version of "Hoshi to Kimi ga Kieta Hi" (literally meaning "The Day You Vanished With The Stars"), Theresa's theme song from ''Guns Girl Z''. Later, [[spoiler:in the final stage of the event, the full music (with lyrics) is played as its background theme]].
** The themes played in "Cyberangel" and "Lament of the Fallen" videos are remixes of Bronya and Mei's themes from ''GGZ'', "Angel of Sin" and "Honkai World Diva".
* MutuallyExclusivePowerups: In Post-Honkai Odyssey, some of the skills you can get for each character need to be "activated" first, and there are 3 kinds for each character: one for 2 selectable Ultimate Skills, one for 3 selectable passive skills, and one for 3 other selectable passive skills (which are stronger than the previous set).
* MyRulesAreNotYourRules: Enemy Valkyries usually have the same movesets of their playable versions, except that they are usually in Iron Body status. Certain Valkyries, however, have their boss version fight with very diverse movesets like Gyakushinn Miko, Black Nucleus, Shadow Knight, Blood Rose, Umbral Rose, Argent Knight, and [[spoiler:Herrscher of the Void]], where they have [[SecretAIMoves moves that the playable versions can't perform]].
* MysticalWhiteHair:
** The Kaslana family is noted as being very resistant to Honkai corruption, and Siegfried, Kallen, and Kiana all have white hair. This also applies to Theresa since Kallen's genes were used in her creation (although her hair [[PowerDyesYourHair turns pink]] as Sakuno Rondo due to Higokumaru's influence).
** As Phoenix, Fu Hua's hair is white [[MulticoloredHair with red streaks]].
* MythologyGag: In ch. 17, during their walk on the Nagazora City ruins, Mei talks about facing zombies together with Kiana in the shrine and the bridge of the city. They are gameplay stages in the previous game, ''Guns Girl Z''. Later, one of the stages are done in sidescrolling style, akin to ''Guns Girl Z'', and [[spoiler:part of the final battle with Herrscher Mei has the stage's camera briefly changing into the sidescrolling style, hearkening back to the boss battle with ''GGZ'''s version of Herrscher Mei; during that segment, the Mei of this game even does a similar attack to that of her ''GGZ'' version]].
* NakedPeopleAreFunny: The miHoYo staff publishes a series of online parody [[{{Yonkoma}} 4koma]] comics based on the game which feature the characters wearing skin-colored bodysuits over their actual clothes. The gag [[StylisticSelfParody is pointed out a number of times in-series]].
* NerfArm: Mei and Sakura have a number of blades from events that appear like {{Joke Item}}s, like a candy cane or even a ''really stiff fish'', yet they are 5-star weapons, thus powerful blades (although less powerful than "regular" 5-star blades). There are also other goofy-looking event weapons as well, such as one of Bronya's cannons that shoot sticky rice dumplings (that slows down enemies), or one of Kiana's guns that are shaped like megaphones.
* NiceJobBreakingItHero: In Post-Honkai Odyssey, our heroes escort Welt and Joey to the Sa'ad Station so that they can get out of the city. However, the main villain [[spoiler:Void Archives]], who had spent his time trying to find Welt, has been secretly waiting inside the train, and he gets to have a deal with Welt for his grand plan. Some time later, our heroes meet the main villain in the "Arcane Castle" (in the giant crystalline structure floating above the city), with him saying that thanks to them, he could find the Herrscher of Reason.
* NightOfTheLivingMooks: Zombies appear as enemies in the levels. [[OurZombiesAreDifferent They aren't your regular zombies, either]]: They move as normally as humans would (except for two of the kinds, which [[PowerFloats float in the air]] instead), they merely have [[UndeathlyPallor pale and sometimes cracked skins]], and they use their weapons well (again, except for two of the kinds, who use some magical powers). [[MonogenderMonsters They all seem to be female, too.]] They are normally BIO-type enemies, making them weak against MECH-type Valkyries.
* NonCombatEXP:
** [[RareCandy EXP Chips]] allow you to directly fill the EXP bars of your chosen Valkyries.
** You can get EXP by finishing daily tasks and Open World tasks, some of which don't involve combat.
* NonEntityGeneral: The player assumes the role of Captain of ''Hyperion'', which is mostly unseen. The Captain is also uninvolved in main and side stories, only showing up in events.
* NonstandardGameOver:
** Two stages in Ch. 11-EX have a variant of this: there's a special gauge that fills whenever Kiana attacks. If it's filled to full, the stage ends in failure--[[spoiler:[[ItsAWonderfulFailure her Herrscher self re-awakens and the narration says that the world's end is nigh]]]]. It slowly empties itself when she's not attacking, which [[spoiler:Fu Hua]] tries to remind you.
** In Post-Honkai Odyssey, in the fight against the FinalBoss, you get to enter a QuickTimeEvent scene after you deplete the boss' health, where the "protagonist" struggles to break the boss' barrier. If you take too long in the scenes where you have to press the appearing buttons, the protagonist will collapse and then it cuts to [[ItsAWonderfulFailure one of the two screens of "defeat narration"]].
* NoPeripheralVision: The enemies in the Open World stages have a limited line of sight, and they can simply ignore you if you don't step into the red arcs or rectangles in front of them. This limitation plays a big part in the stealth mechanics of Sakura Samsara and Post-Honkai Odyssey.
* NotActuallyCosmeticAward: You can acquire "emblems" by doing certain tasks, which you can display in your "account screen" so people can see your achievements. They can also be "equipped" and give a little stat boost depending on the emblem.
* NoticeThis: Items that you can pick up or interact with in Sakura Samsara or Schicksal HQ will have an icon floating over them which varies depending on how you interact with them. When you get close enough to them, a button will appear that allows the action to be taken.
* NostalgiaLevel: Chapter 22 has 2 levels that relive certain levels of the past [[spoiler:courtesy of Hua(?)'s power over the mind]]: one of them recreates Chapter 9's events[[note]]Fu Hua's battle against Rita and then [[spoiler:Herrscher of the Void]], but with [[spoiler:Hua(?) in place of Fu Hua]][[/note]], while the other recreates chapter 13's[[labelnote:Spoilers]]Fu Hua is given some power from Hua(?) to recreate the scene where Kiana tries to infiltrate Heliopolis while Fu Hua guides her from inside her mind. The twist is that Hua(?) fails to help Kiana infiltrate and decides to just beat up the guards[[/labelnote]].
* OddlyShapedSword:
** Some katanas in the game may have weird shapes, such as Galactic Nova (a stand mike with a blade attached under it), Vorpal Sword Type-11 (a sword with trapezoid shape and straight edge), or Mag-Typhoon (straight sword with a few mechanical bits). That's not counting the {{Nerf Arm}}s.
** A few greatswords also go similarly, such as Judgment by Dawn (a huge [[ChainsawGood chainsaw]] with a sword hilt), Ranger's Sawtooth (a greatsword lined with [[SerratedBladeOfPain big blue spikes]]), or Betrayer (more of a missile launcher on a hilt).
* OminousCube:
** The item "Honkai Piece" is an aggregate of Honkai energy in an uneven cuboid shape, consisting of smaller cubes and blocks of varying sizes. Another item, "Honkai Cube", is a rarer variant that is larger and holds more power; it is used to upgrade high level weapons.
** In a supplementary comic set in the Middle Ages, there was the "Honkai box" that Schicksal had discovered; they were trying to find out how to use the power of the box to empower themselves. One of the Valkyries, Eleanor Schariac, managed to harness its power in form of a PowerCrystal that came out of the box; she turned into a powerful Honkai Beast with it. When the crystal got broken in battle, it releases dark fumes, which is revealed to be the true essence inside the box. [[spoiler:Said "true essence" was the power and will of the 12th Herrscher of the Previous Era, which took form of [[TheVirus a viral corrupting agent]] that can take control of humans, animals and machines alike, until it was trapped inside a special box by the previous incarnation of Mei (Dr. Mei).]] After Kallen defeated the will inside said box, she decided to bring it far away from Europe and ended up in Japan, where she met Sakura; the box later corrupted Sakura, turning her into a pseudo-Herrscher whom Kallen had to put down. After the events of Sakura Samsara, it's shown that [[spoiler:the true purpose of the box - aside from being [[SealedEvilInACan the can to seal the 12th Herrscher]] - is to turn it into a Divine Key, which is only possible after the 12th Herrscher's will is pacified; it and the box become the sword, Jizo Mitama]].
** Also in the past, Schicksal had a "golden cube" that the Overseer at the time kept in the chapel of Schicksal. His son, Otto, stumbled into it; the cube then spoke to him, claiming that it can help him with anything he needs if he offers his soul. Otto accepted it, and then its contents flowed into his body. It was the 1st Divine Key, "Void Archives", that holds a lot of knowledge from the Previous Era.
* OminousFloatingCastle: In Post-Honkai Odyssey, there's a strange crystalline BigDumbObject that floats in the middle of the city of St. Fountain, inside which lies a cathedral-like castle and a few buildings surrounding it (according to Carole's observations). This castle is seemingly the (literal) center of the weirdness happening in the city: it's the center of the [[DomedHometown "dome" that surrounds the city]], the crystal growths found on the city is seemingly related to this castle, and it may have been the thing that disrupts normal means of long distance communication (our characters can only use Honkai-powered comm devices while in the city) and fools the satellite imagings. Carole calls this castle "Arcane Castle", after the SupervillainLair of the same name in the ShowWithinTheShow, the anime "Arahato".
* TheOneGuy: Among the Herrschers, only one of them is male: the first one, Walter "Welt" Joyce, who apparently fought Otto in the past. He's unique in that his human consciousness overcame his Herrscher side, allowing him to preserve his mind while still commanding the vast power from his Herrscher Core at the cost of him being unable to control Honkai Beasts. [[spoiler:He was then succeeded by a Finnish boy named Joachim, who received Welt's Herrscher Core, giving him Welt's powers, albeit without the Honkai influencing him due to him not actually merging with the core unlike other Herrschers. He later went by the name "Walter Young" and became Anti-Entropy's leader.]]
* OneHandedZweihander: Played with by Himeko and the Olenyeva twins, who all wield huge swords in their combat styles. Himeko, during battle, will swing her sword by both hands, but in her victory pose for most of her battlesuits, she's balancing the sword on her shoulder with one hand and with no apparent effort. The Olenyeva twins, on the other hand, each have a tail with a cybernetic claw that they use to wield their swords for attacks, but in their victory poses, while Roza is holding her sword over her head with one hand (by the body and not the handle), Liliya is doing a SwordDrag with both hands and struggling to heft it without her tail.
* OrwellianRetcon: After Chapter 8 was incorporated into the game, Chapters 1 and 2 were rewritten (complete with modifying the stages within, at least for the normal mode). Chapter 1 now includes Chapter 2's scenario where Bronya gets BrainwashedAndCrazy, while the new Chapter 2 focuses entirely on the "mysterious voice" inside Kiana. Newer characters Fu Hua and Rita were also inserted in the storyline, complete with new cutscenes.
* {{Ouroboros}}: The World Serpent's logo consists of a snake eating its tail. The organization's name also refers to Jormungand (aka Midgardsormr), the gigantic serpent of Myth/NorseMythology that encircles the world. The supplementary comic that focuses on them starts with the legend of the "serpent" in various mythologies, as well as the description of the Ouroboros by Plato.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:P - T]]
* PatchworkMap: The map of the island in the "Odd Drifter" event consists of [[PalmTreePanic a beach area]], a village in a forest, [[ShiftingSandland a desert]], [[SlippySlideyIceWorld a frozen tundra]] and [[LethalLavaLand a volcanic area]]. In-universe, Einstein theorizes that this involves a space-time/dimensional anomaly and that [[TheTower the tower at the center of the island]] is the cause of this, as well as the urban legend of "people who got randomly teleported from one side of the world onto another". [[spoiler:The strange tower is revealed to be a space-time warping device from the "previous era", and the reason for the strange map is that the Captain (back in the "Honkai Kingdoms" event) inadvertently warped space and time when he subconsciously wished for happy endings for his "girls" while Zhuge Kongming is activating the warp device, causing the different environments [[AllOfTimeAtOnce to be warped into the island as well]], and the Captain to be "split" into two separate versions, forcing Kongming to orchestrate the whole event to try to fix it.]]
* PantyShot:
** Ai-chan may claim that the player will never be able to see the Valkyries' panties, but for the Valkyries whose battlesuits and alternate outfits have {{Dangerously Short Skirt}}s, it's quite common to see what they're wearing under them, whether from walking[=/=]running[=/=]fighting[=/=]VictoryPose animations, the costume screen, or some of their animations while on the bridge.
** The stages where all three of your characters are out at the same time can be exploited to make your characters' panties be exposed on the screen, by having a CPU-controlled character stand behind your current character and close to the walls while the camera focuses on your current character, so that the CPU-controlled character's model stands really close to the camera that some of their clothes "phase" out, potentially revealing their panties. The characters' panties can sometimes have surprisingly intricate patterns.
** Enemies are not safe from this either as certain zombies have their underwear visible in a glimpse. You can also see [[BlowYouAway Wendy]]'s throughout the fight against her as she tends to breeze her skirt up with her own power.
** Theresa gives a blatant, if unintentional, one to the Captain during the animated sequence at the start of the "St. Freya Festival" event, courtesy of the Captain running into her hard enough to knock both of them to the ground.
** Stygian Nymph's alternate outfit Mirrored Flourishes gives Saule and Veliona qipaos which are cut so high on one side that it's basically impossible for either to not show her underwear, especially in the finishing screen after weekday events.
** {{Exaggerated|trope}} by both Stygian Nymph (as Veliona) and [[Anime/NeonGenesisEvangelion Asuka Shikinami Langley]] in combat. Veliona's slashing attacks and Asuka’s throw animation cause their dresses to flip up high enough to not only show their underwear but part of their bellies.
* PeninsulaOfPowerLeveling: Some daily stages reward you with [[NonCombatEXP EXP Chips]] to help you level-up Valkyries. In a variant, some other daily stages reward you with upgrading materials for weapons and Stigmata. Playing in CoopMultiplayer also gives your character more EXP per run.
* PensieveFlashback: These are peppered throughout chapter 20. Kiana and Bronya travel to Mt. Taixuan to find clues about Fu Hua, and encounter feathers which, when touched, allow them to experience memories that Fu Hua has excised from her mind for one reason or another, ranging from her teenage years in the Previous Era (Valkyrie Accipiter) to her time as a MANTIS soldier (Shadow Knight) to when she was the "Celestial" and training students on Mt. Taixuan (Azure Empyrea). When they get to a particular feather at the end, however, they suspect that something is wrong with this feather as its nature is "different" from the others.
* PeopleJars:
** The end of ch. 2 has Kiana being trapped in a nightmare; there, she's inside the corridors of an unknown building, where she sees people inside glass jars. Some of them come out from their jars, and they somehow resemble Kiana, which then proceed to attack her.
** In ch. 6, inside the "simulation" of the 2nd Honkai War, she enters the Babylon Tower; in one stage, she comes across jars lined together with dead bodies inside them. Some of them are zombies that proceed to attack Kiana.
** At the start of the side story "Everlasting Memory", Theresa was first seen inside such a jar, depicting the moment of her "birth".
** At the end of the comic focusing on the 2nd Honkai War, Otto is monitoring a glass jar that he's experimenting on. Inside it is [[spoiler:K-423, who gets implanted with the 2nd Herrscher's core, giving her sentience]]. This gets referenced at the start of ch. 7 of the game, where Otto monitors [[spoiler:the captured Kiana]] inside a jar, aiming to [[spoiler:awaken Herrscher of the Void]].
** The trailer for Version 3.5 shows the inside of a building's room with multiple glass jars, with a prominent one where a person in a suit of armor is suspended inside it. In ch. 13, Rita infiltrates the Heliopolis building and finds a secret room, inside which lie lots of people in jars; some of them have a bit of Honkai flesh grafted to them, a few of them have Stigmata, and yet others have their limbs replaced with robotic ones. Rita is horrified when she sees this. Then in one of the stages, Rita's enemy releases one of the special cyborg zombies from such a jar to attack her.
* PercentBasedValues: With certain exceptions, many attacks - whether normal ones, weapon skills or [[LimitBreak Ultimate Skills]] - go by a percentage of the user's Attack stat.
* PervertRevengeMode: On TheBridge, if you touch an affection lv. 1 Valkyrie's chest or groin area three times in a row, she will send you back to the loading screen. (At higher affection levels, they'll act embarrassed and blush.) The method of doing so depends on who you've put on the bridge:
** Kiana simply kicks you out.
** Special mention goes to Mei, where it's implied that her [[SuperpoweredEvilSide Herrscher]] [[SplitPersonality side]] proceeds to ''[[ShockAndAwe electrocute]] you''.
** Sakura [[IaijutsuPractitioner slices]] you [[BladeSpam in seconds]].
** Theresa clutches her fist and punches you out.
** Himeko gives you an ArmorPiercingSlap.
** Bronya summons her Project Bunny and then shoots you with its cannon.
* PhysicalMysticalTechnological: The game plays with the 3 attributes: BIO (Biologic), PSY (Psychic) and MECH (Mecha) respectively, for both the Valkyries and the enemies. They also form TacticalRockPaperScissors, with BIO beating PSY beating MECH beating BIO.
* PlayEveryDay: There are daily and weekly challenges that players can complete to gain EXP for their Captains and small amounts of Crystals. There are also events where players can gain leveling materials for their characters, Stigmata and weapons that change everyday.
* PlayerNudge: Many of the stages tell you what you need to do to complete them, and/or the particular gimmick of the stage. This also includes when you're fighting bosses.
* PlayingWithSyringes:
** Back in the 15h century, Schicksal (including Otto) tried to devise a cure for the Black Death plague by experimenting on the sick. Many of the patients went berserk (likely due to the Honkai) and had to be {{Mercy Kill}}ed. Later, they also secretly experimented on multiple people to find a way to use the mysterious "Honkai box" and its hidden powers. When Kallen questioned a Schicksal priest about this, he bluntly told her that Schicksal is going to use the power of the box to avenge their defeat in the East and unite the world under their name, and then purge the Honkai from the world.
** Ch. 13 shows that [[spoiler:the World Serpent (through Heliopolis) has been experimenting on people of Arc City for some time, particularly Stigmata-related ones. It's later called "Project Stigma"]].
** In the middle of the "Rosemary's Floriograph" event, Doyle finds some of Welt Joyce's research notes, which reveals that the church orphanage of St. Fountain (which is now rebuilt as Welt's manor) once performed various inhuman experiments on the orphaned children, on behalf of the institute that owned the church--Schicksal. Einstein tells him that it's supposed to be top secret.
* PlotMandatedFriendshipFailure: This happens at the climax of chapter 17, between Kiana and Mei. The former, who's already in a bad condition and [[YourDaysAreNumbered only has a few months left to live]], tries to stop an impending disaster with her "hidden powers", even if [[TheLastDance it might be her last moments]]. The latter, who wishes to [[NowLetMeCarryYou repay Kiana's kindness to her]] and save her friend's life, ends up having to deal with a villainous organization, World Serpent, to [[FindTheCure find a way to treat Kiana's condition]]. Mei succeeds with their help and Kiana is now better off, but as part of their deal, Mei would have to join their group. Kiana is disheartened when she finds out about this; Mei, who wishes for Kiana to not [[ChronicHeroSyndrome push herself to death to help her friend]] anymore, decides to BreakHerHeartToSaveHer. They end up [[FightingYourFriend having a bitter fight]], as Kiana tries to stop Mei from joining the Serpents while Mei tries to beat some sense into her friend -- particularly about how Kiana means ''the world'' to her. In the end, Mei wins and leaves Kiana away. In the aftermath, after Kiana is found by the ''Hyperion'' crew, she's said to be still grieving over what Mei did.
* PowerCreep: Like any gacha RPG title, many later-introduced Valkyrie suits are superior to the ones that came before. Along with new gameplay mechanics introduced like "augment cores", all those additions have profoundly transformed the way players approached the game, making a lot of the early battlesuits obsolete in the process (such as "Dimension Breaker" Bronya, who lost the status of powerful support she had in the early days) or changing their role significantly (like "Lightning Empress" Mei going from dedicated damage dealer to a lightining damage buffer for other characters). A good number of newer weapons and Stigmata also have many assorted effects while earlier ones tend to be simpler, although some of them still see use because they're SimpleYetAwesome and straightforwardly powerful.
* PowerEqualsRarity: Higher-rarity units have higher base stats and have more available skill tree nodes from the start than the low-rarity units. Higher-rarity weapons and Stigmata will also have higher base stats than lower ones when they're upgraded to the max.
* PowerLevels: They're presented in form of CP (Character Points), which are increased by leveling your Valkyrie up, leveling their skills up, increasing their rank and equipping them with powerful weapons and Stigmata. A few game modes recommend you to have Valkyries with big enough CP in order to fight more comfortably.
* PowerTattoo:
** The "Stigmata" are memories and powers of certain people that manifest in form of a set of tattoos on the Valkyries' backs. When equipped, they give the selected Valkyrie additional stats and effects, and they have {{Set Bonus}}es if you can make a set of 2-3 Stigmata of the same type.
** One supplementary comic reveals more about the Stigmata's nature: they can be either natural[[note]]only a very few percentage of the world's population were born with it; they also [[SuperpowerfulGenetics tend to be passed down through families]][[/note]] or artificial[[note]]from Schicksal's research on the Kaslana and Shariac family's Stigmata, they create artificially-made ones[[/note]]. They're the outward sign of the "Honkai antibody" inside them that lets them resist corruption from Honkai energy and use said energy as a power source. The artificial ones are flawed--they aren't as powerful as the natural ones and don't offer as much resistance to Honkai corruption, and for this reason (and the fact that they're fighting Honkai phenomenon on the front lines), Valkyries tend to have short lifespans.
** The comic that focuses on the AdvancedAncientHumans of the past shows that Stigmata were the information of most of scientific progress and advancement by the previous incarnation of Mei, coded into genetic data, put inside select humans, who are then put into cryostasis in order to [[FlingALightIntoTheFuture spread the knowledge of their civilization and technology to the future]]. They're what the current people would call "natural Stigmata".
** Ch. 13 further expands on this: As the Stigmata is planted into genetic data, the "anti-Honkai genome" would be diluted by process of breeding from generation to generation, and thus become weaker the further down the generation it goes. Nowadays, most common people are said to only have parts of the genomes inside them, mixed from various different stigmata; they aren't enough to give them protection from the Honkai and powers to oppose them. This is why people who have "natural stigmata" are rare nowadays. [[spoiler:The World Serpent has a plan of rearranging the stigmata genome inside people in order to bring their potentials, but in their experiments, many of them ended in failure; either the experimented people die from the shock, or turn into zombies. They also have a plan of doing it in a city-wide scale: they distribute special vaccines that they ordered from Schicksal and modified, then they would detonate a big Honkai-powered bomb (with the Honkai engine they took from Rita's airship) to spread Honkai energy on a large scale to trigger the "stigma rearrangement" onto people who had the vaccines.]]
* {{Prequel}}: The "Honkai Kingdoms: Zero" event (in version 3.9) is one to the "Honkai Kingdoms" event (in version 3.0). It shows how the kingdom of "Emberya" came to be, as well as introducing the mystery behind "Zhuge Kongming", the "Grand Seeress". The epilogue gives a brief history on how the three sides of Honkai Kingdoms (Emberya, Schicksal and Jormungond) came to be. Its ending is also tied to the original Honkai Kingdoms, where [[spoiler:Kongming tried to reactivate the ELF Tesla-Zero with her ritual, only for the Olenyeva Twins - Captain's companion in HK - to appear somehow]].
* ProductPlacement: The special Chinese New Year episode of ''Cooking with Valkyries'' has Himeko eating in a Lawson convenience store, and later, the girls drink Pepsi when they're having their feast.
* PromotedToPlayable: Each version brings in a new playable character or battlesuit that was either present in the background beforehand (such as Fu Hua or Durandal) or made her debut in that version's new story chapter (such as [[spoiler:Herrscher of Reason]]). From a measly 4 characters and 16 battlesuits in the first version of the game[[note]]Kiana with White Comet, Valkyrie Ranger, Divine Prayer and Knight Moonbeam; Mei with Crimson Impulse, Shadow Dash, Valkyrie Bladestrike and Lighning Empress; Bronya with Valkyrie Chariot, Yamabuki Armor, Snowy Sniper and Dimension Breaker; Himeko with Battle Storm, Valkyrie Triumph, Scarlet Fusion and Blood Rose[[/note]], the roster has inflated to 14 characters and 49 battlesuits (not counting Post-Honkai Odyssey) by version 4.0.
* ProtectionMission: Several missions, both in Story mode and side quests, have a stationary object with a certain number of hit points that the player must defend from multiple waves of zombies and Honkai beasts that are closing in to destroy it.
* ProtectionRacket: Around 500 years before the present, the Schicksal organization lost a lot of their members and resources after their "crusade" (read: invasion) to China failed. They had to resort to extorting money from the closest people (in Europe) at the time to cover their losses, under the pretense of "buying 'indulgences' as a means to pay for their 'original sins' for those who didn't go to the war". This caused the populace to start resenting Schicksal.
* PyrrhicVictory: A running theme throughout the series is that every victory against the Honkai comes with some sort of sacrifice. This is what doomed the humanity of the Previous Era − even if they fended off the Herrschers, it was always as such a heavy cost that by the twelfth one, there was pretty much nothing left to save. The narration sums it up as "humanity winning every single battle, but losing the war".
* QuickTimeEvent:
** The "QTE" system allows your playable characters to tag in (or teleport close to your friend in co-op) with a powerful attack after you inflict the enemy(ies) with a certain condition, such as getting launched to the air or paralyzed.
** Post-Honkai Odyssey has 3 examples of this: one is similar to the above, the other is the [[CombinationAttack "joint attacks"]] where, after you hit enemies with the last strike of the current character's ground combo (or with the attack after an Ultimate Evasion), the other characters' icon will flash; pressing the icon of a character will cause that character and your current one do a special attack on the target before the current character switches out. The last one is the "ultimate jump": certain enemies have certain attacks that will cause your jump button to flash. Hitting it at the right time allows you to avoid the attack in time, and then you enter a scene where, after you press the attack button, your character dives down with a CounterAttack of their own. An upgrade allows you to [[JustFrameBonus time the attack button press just right]] to deal extra damage.
** Post-Honkai Odyssey's part 1 finale also has a "playable cutscene" version of this trope: whenever the Protagonist (i.e you) try to hit the barrier surrounding the FinalBoss a few times, he'll be knocked back and there'll be a prompt to make him wake up, with more intense button taps each time it happens again. Then [[spoiler:he resorts to [[DangerousForbiddenTechnique overclock the power of his special sword]] to give him enough strength]]; this also comes with multiple button taps, and after this, he finally manages to break through the boss' barrier and he becomes empowered afterward for the refight.
* RandomNumberGod: Apart from the [[LootBoxes gacha]] and [[RandomDrop item drop]] mechanics, Stigmatas involve RNG when it comes to their Wafer Affixes. Normal Crystal Cores are used to reshuffle Affixes, but the results will always have randomized stat names and values. It's also possible to unlock a second Affix slot when reshuffling with Normal Crystal Cores, but it occurs at a small chance. There exist items that can let you defy the randomness to an extent, such as an item that guarantees ATK bonus for the affix, or an item that locks one of the affixes so you can reroll for the other affix.
* RankInflation: The story has at least acknowledged B-, A-, and S-rank Valkyries. You'll start your game with B-ranked ones (Kiana at the start is also a B-rank), then as you collect "fragments", you can either upgrade your existing Valkyrie suits' rank or get new A-rank or even S-rank suits. The inflation comes in the SS and SSS-rank Valkyries, which require you to collect a boatload of Valkyrie fragments. The ranks here are used to upgrade the Valkyries' Leader Skills and unlock new sub-skills for them, making them more powerful and useful.
* RapunzelHair:
** Kiana and Bronya as [[spoiler:Herrschers of the Void and Reason]] respectively have their hair grow longer; the former's hair reaches her ankles, while the latter has it curled into big drills, but they still reach her lower back.
** Normally, Fu Hua's hair only reaches her back, but as Azure Empyrea, it reaches her hips, even when tied into a ponytail.
** Durandal's long blonde hair reaches her hips.
** When Mei [[spoiler:becomes the Herscherr of Thunder again]], part of the transformation includes her hair lengthening to where it would drag on the ground if it didn't float in the air behind her.
* RareRandomDrop: Stages such as Befall, Time Swirl, Post-Honkai Odyssey, and a few others have rarer items that may drop by chance.
* RealEventFictionalCause: The "Black Death" plague in 14th century Europe is revealed to be part of the Honkai phenomenon.
* RecycledSoundtrack: The song "Lyin" that was previously used in ''Gun [=GirlZ=]'' during the cutscene where [[spoiler:God Kiana [[KillEmAll kills everyone]]]] is used in 9-17 when [[spoiler:Himeko must conquer her inner demons to wear the Vermillion Knight - Eclipse Battlesuit without allowing it to corrupt her]].
* ReduceAggro: All cases overlap with DrawAggro.
** Shadow Dash (Mei) can use her [[DoppelgangerAttack shadow clones]] to attack and distract opponents, making them attack the clone instead of her.
** In co-op play, Yamabuki Armor (Bronya) has a team skill that draws the enemies' aggro towards her while [[DamageIncreasingDebuff lowering their defenses]], making them open to her teammates.
** Wolf's Dawn (Bronya) has her Project Bunny 19c detached from her, which will make the enemies attack it instead of her. In co-op plays, her team skill is to make the enemies attracted to Project Bunny.
** Battle Storm (Himeko)'s team skill in co-op play is an attack that draws the attention of the enemies hit towards her, while also buffing her defense.
* RedHerring: Ch. 2 has the official reports claim that the Honkai energy in the Selene battleship (back in ch. 1) caused Bronya to turn berserk and attack her teammates, and later in the chapter, Rita claims that the same thing may have happened to Kiana as well, which caused her to faint after the exams. However, they're all (in universe) deliberate misdirections: the first case was because Bronya had a case of VillainOverride by Cocolia to fulfill Anti-Entropy's mission; [[SecretKeeper Kiana hides this]] from Himeko and Theresa, who only know this later in ch. 4. The second case was due to the activity of the "mysterious voice" inside Kiana.
* ReferenceOverdosed: The game has a healthy number of references to various anime and games. From the achievements alone you may find more than a dozen, such as [[Webcomic/OnePunchMan Consecutive Normal Punches]] or [[VisualNovel/FateStayNight Gate of Babylon]]. Kiana's White Comet and Divine Prayer variants have a few of VideoGame/{{Bayonetta}}'s attacks and techniques, including the Wicked Weaves and Witch Time. A good number of events liberally throw around more references.
* RefugeeFromTVLand: Goushinsou Memento and the playable Imayoh Ritual are both from [[FictionalVideoGame an in-universe video game]] called "Kallen Fantasy VII" made by Otto himself. Goushinsou Memento is described as a runaway failed experiment who goes on a rampage until she meets Kallen.
* ReligiousAndMythologicalThemeNaming: Aside from real-life {{Historical Domain Character}}s, the game uses religious and mythological words such as Stigmata and Valkyrie. Many Honkai Beasts are given codenames from different myths, and Schicksal's MechaMooks have a Myth/NorseMythology naming scheme. There also exists "Pantheon-series" weapons themed after various deities, and most of the Divine Keys are also named after myth figures.
* ResourceGatheringMission:
** There are daily missions that change everyday, which (depending on the day) will give you various resources when completed, such as character EXP chips, upgrading materials and ores that level up your weapons and [[PowerTattoo Stigmata]].
** An update introduces "Expeditions", that serves to help you farm Valkyrie fragments and materials in story stages. You can assign some Valkyries that meet the "Character Points" requirements (see PowerLevel above) into a stage in the story mode, then wait for a time (usually an hour), and then you can pick up the stage drops. This is useful for when you're busy and can't take time to play but still want to farm materials. All the rules regarding stage play and item drops are the same (i.e the stamina cost, the drop rate, the stage's cap on how much you can play in it, etc), with the added caveat that 1) you (logically) cannot assign a Valkyrie that is still in an expedition, 2) there's a limit to the usage of "expedition stamina" that increases with Captain's level.
** In the "base", you can assign some Valkyries into missions that take hours to complete (you can simply wait) and then give you some resources when they finish. Version 3.5 gives it an overhaul: when previously you can only take up to 4 missions at a time (i.e you can only take another base mission after any of the 4 has been finished), now there are no hard limits; instead, it's only limited by a separate stamina meter (called "onigiri") that regenerates per hour[[note]]the regeneration rate depends of your dorm comfort and dorm level[[/note]] akin to the "normal" stamina. The base missions, now called "errands", will cost some amount of onigiri to perform.
** Prior to 3.8, the "Open World" stages have pickable items that are required for "completion rewards" of each "cycle" of the open world. After 3.8[[note]]which introduces a new open world map, "Post-Honkai Odyssey", which doesn't feature pickable items[[/note]], the pickable items still exist, but now they aren't necessary for the completion rewards; instead, some of the "tasks" you can get are about gathering those items. Similarly, in Post-Honkai Odyssey, one of the available tasks is gathering Krystallum, commonly dropped from enemies.
* RequiredPartyMember:
** The story mode's normal difficulty from Chapter 6 onward will make the player use either [[SoloSequence a lone playable character]] or 2-3 of them, preset to the levels; the character here would also have preset levels, star rank, skills and equipment.
*** White Comet Kiana (alone) is fixed into your team for the entirety of Chapter 6, though this only applies on Normal.
*** For Chapter 7, you're only allowed to use Himeko's Scarlet Fusion suit for its first act and Fu Hua's Shadow Knight suit for the last stage. Chapter 8 also has you using Scarlet Fusion in most stages except for a few that use Shadow Knight and a few that uses Crimson Impulse (Mei), including the endboss stage.
*** Chapter 9 will have you use only Scarlet Fusion (again) for most stages; the exceptions are the stages where you use Violet Executer (Theresa), Yamabuki Armor (Bronya), Shadow Knight (Fu Hua), Umbral Rose (Rita), [[spoiler:Herrscher of the Void (Kiana)]] and Vermilion Knight (Himeko).
*** Chapter 9-EX is divided in half: you play as Phantom Iron (Rita) in one half and a combination of Yamabuki Armor, Valkyrie Pledge (Theresa) and Valkyrie Bladestrike (Mei) in the other.
*** Chapters [=9-EX2=] and 10 will have you use either Yamabuki Armor (Bronya) Valkyrie Pledge, Violet Executer (Theresa) or both girls.
*** In Chapter 11, you'll use mostly Bronya (either Yamabuki Armor or Valkyrie Chariot) with some others occasionally joining in.
*** In Ch. 11-EX, you're locked to White Comet Kiana (again, by herself) for most stages, except for the penultimate one (where Phoenix Fu Hua assists her) and the last one (where she's now Void Drifter).
*** Ch. 13 has you playing as either Kiana or Rita depending on the stage. Ch. 14 adds Mei to the mix. For both chapters, there's a special mechanic where you can acquire a material drop specific to the stages in them that you can use to unlock Kiana, Rita and Mei's battlesuits, weapons, Stigmata and a special buff, all of them are exclusive to those stages.
*** Ch. 15 has you use either Valkyrie Gloria (Durandal) or White Comet (Kiana), with few exceptions: two stages of Striker Fulminata (Mei) and one stage of Argent Knight (Rita).
*** Ch. 16's stages are exclusive to Striker Fulminata, except for the special "EX stages" (which contain harder challenges) where you're free to use any of your battlesuits. Ch. 17 is mostly the same, except for a few stages with White Comet (Kiana) and one with Valkyrie Pledge (Theresa).
** The Time Swirl game mode forces you to use only a selection of 3 characters (with any of their battlesuits) that you have, depending on the specific stage.
** The "Stalker Files" stages will require your own Rita (any of her battlesuits) in the team, while the "Striker Files" stages will require your own Valkyrie Bladestrike (Mei), although some of them will also give you a high-powered Celestial Hymn (Theresa) and either Yamabuki Armor, Dimension Breaker or Snowy Sniper (Bronya) to accompany her.
** A few event stages will also ask you to play with a certain character/battlesuit, either the one you own or a high-powered preset one the stage gives you.
* RescueArc:
** Chapter 4 focuses on you trying to rescue the kidnapped Mei and Wendy. [[spoiler:Mei gets saved in the end, while Wendy unfortunately doesn't.]]
** Chapters 7-9 and the Schicksal Assault Battle event focuses on the rescue of [[spoiler:Kiana, after she gets kidnapped by Fu Hua in Chapter 6]].
* RewardingVandalism: In Post-Honkai Odyssey, unlike in the main game, you can destroy various props in the environment like benches, cars or the strange crystals that pop up around the city. Most of them don't give you any items (except some special "chests") but destroying them fills up your SP gauge as if you were hitting enemies, which can turn out useful.
* RewardsPass: Starting from version 3.3, a Battle Pass system is implemented. By completing some daily tasks (and some event missions), you'll get "BP Points". Every 1000 points earned gets you some rewards. The twist is that, unlike most Battle Passes in other games, it's free; however, there are two levels of upgrades that you can buy to get bigger rewards.
* RightHandVersusLeftHand: Schicksal and Anti-Entropy both have the same goal: [[WhoYouGonnaCall defending against Honkai forces that threaten to eradicate humanity]]. However, they also oppose each other due to them having different agendas. This apparently stems from how [[spoiler:Anti-Entropy used to be [[WeAreStrugglingTogether Schicksal's North American branch who came to clash with the rest of the organization]] due to suspicions about Otto's motives and then broke off, turning themselves into an independent organization]].
* RippedFromTheHeadlines: An in-universe example in ch. 18. One of the "files" you can collect is an information of a novel called "Dark Tides in the East". Its story is based on the events related to "underground society", i.e criminal gangs. One particular part of its story covers the chronicles of an organization called "Thousand Fists" that were based on events in Singapore, 2016, in which the organization was said to have been annihilated overnight by a mysterious assassin who only left black feathers in the scene. Urban legends and media outlets arose from these events, including Dark Tides in the East. Ch. 18's story later shows that the mysterious assassin was none other than Raven of the World Serpent.
* RivalsTeamUp: In the "[[BeachEpisode Summer Wars]]" event, Kiana and Bronya agree to team up to get the mysterious island treasure for Mei. The narration mentions that there's no knowing what would happen if the two actually get the treasure.
* {{Roguelike}}: Prior to version 3.6, players who joined an Armada had access to the Matrix Explore gameplay mode, consisting of floors of RandomlyGeneratedLevels; whenever you completed a floor, you'd receive a few rewards. The more floors you completed, the more points you got, and the tougher the enemies became. Every 5th floor was a fight against elite mooks, while every 10th floor had a proper boss fight; beating them gave you big rewards. The points were for gaining extra rewards for the Armada; accumulate enough of the points with your Armada mates and you could get even better rewards. The catch was that your healing abilities were disabled; you either had to wait for health pickups to drop or purchase them from the [[DungeonShop HOMU shop]] (which was rare), or gain the buffs exclusive to this mode which let you heal by doing certain actions (which had a slow rate, and came with a price). You were allowed to bring up to 9 Valkyries if your Captain level was high enough (you played the normal 3, the rest were reserves), but once you started playing the mode, you were locked to those Valkyries unless you "reset" the playthrough. The reserves were there in case your main Valkyries died (and [[FinalDeathMode they couldn't be revived/wouldn't respawn if they died]]), and once all of them died you'd have to reset.
* RomanticTwoGirlFriendship: Bronya and Seele have deeply bonded with each other, and although it has been chaste aside from a mutual FirstKiss, there is a strong sense of "more than friends but less than lovers" to their interactions. Seele specifically thinks of herself and Bronya as "sisters".
* RunningGag: "[[BigOMG AMAGAD!]]" is uttered by several characters, but especially the Captain, during dialogue in the various events.
* SavvyGuyEnergeticGirl: A same sex version in Mei and Kiana respectively. The former is a gentle, subdued and sensible girl who's occasionally exasperated at the latter's carefree attitude, antics and troublemaking. Gender inverted with Kevin and the previous era version of Mei--in their younger days, he frequently tried to flirt with her and lighten her up when she just wanted to read and study in peace.
* ScaleOfScientificSins: The fact that the more advanced humanity becomes, the stronger the [[GaiasVengeance Honkai]] gets, makes it this trope in embodied form.
* SceneryAsYouGo: In Post-Honkai Odyssey's "The Verdict" stage, the staircase forms slowly near your character's feet as you approach the FinalBoss' arena.
* SceneryGorn:
** In ch. 15, the city of Maghreb in North Africa is partly covered in sands, many of the buildings are empty and broken, and there are a number of abandoned cars on the street. This was one of the cities wrecked by a Honkai eruption, but Schicksal has repurposed this empty city into their base.
** The [[UrbanRuins Nagazora City ruins]] as seen in Chapter 16 is depicted this way. Most of the city is flooded with Honkai-tainted seawater and many of the buildings are broken, with some having been overgrown with plants. Honkai Beasts and some zombies can be seen roaming around. Mei in particular remembers one building that was damaged by her back when her Herrscher self awakened. However, hidden behind them all is a sanctuary for the refugees called "The Roost" where the surroundings look livelier and notably greener. It's implied to be very well-hidden as Mei claims that Schicksal used to help with relief program on the Nagazora City and they didn't find anything like their living place before.
** Half of St. Fountain city (the western one) in Post-Honkai Odyssey is wrecked beyond all recognition as the very ''ground'' broke into pieces and are seemingly suspended in the air, together with the buildings atop them.
** When you get to the heart of Coral Island in ch. 18, most of the city has been encased in thick frost. It's filled with Honkai Beasts and zombies, including some frozen beneath ice blocks.
* SchoolUniformsAreTheNewBlack: Most of the Valkyries have a battlesuit with a "Valkyrie" [[ThemeNaming naming scheme]] that directly references their being at St. Freya's. For Kiana, Mei, Bronya and Fu Hua, it's their school uniform: Valkyrie Ranger, Valkyrie Bladestrike, Valkyrie Chariot, and Valkyrie Accipiter, respectively. Himeko's Valkyrie Triumph suit is her teacher's uniform, while Theresa's Valkyrie Pledge suit is her normal attire as St. Freya's principal (and based on the old-timey Valkyrie uniforms, such as Kallen's). Valkyrie Gloria (Durandal) isn't a school uniform, but it's still a dress uniform.
* SchrodingersButterfly: The ''Second Key'' comic starts delving into this once the Pioneer projects a simulation of the Previous Era at the time of the 8th Herrscher's appearance. [[spoiler:Just how much truth is there about Durandal's, Rita's, Ragna's and Otto's appearances in this simulation? Are they the real deal from the past, or are they manifestations of how Durandal feels about the people she knows[[note]]akin to the "bubble worlds" in chapter 11 of the game[[/note]]? The events leading to the 8th Herrscher's defeat are more than likely true, but the characters presented in the simulation are of uncertain authenticity. Later chapters imply that these are actually Su's memories of the Previous Era, retold with Durandal and the people she knows as stand-ins for Su and the people he knew.]]
* ScriptedBattle: Two instances in ch. 17:
** The first is Mei's battle against the boss, "Husk - Nihilism". While she (as Striker Fulminata) can damage it reliably, the boss' attacks are too strong and fast for her, but whenever her HP is depleted, she'll have a HeroicSecondWind and wake up with her HP and SP filled. The boss also has a phase where it [[DoppelgangerAttack summons a clone]] that copies its attacks; she can use her SuperMode's attacks to defeat the clone and stun the boss in the process. Then, when the boss' HP is depleted, it tries to use its [[TimeMaster time powers]] to regenerate itself; Mei can try disabling its DeflectorShields and stop its regeneration by destroying the "clock gears", and she has to do it 3 times before the shield breaks and the boss gets stunned, allowing her to attack it again and deplete its HP again. Then you enter a series of cutscenes in which the boss reassembles itself yet again, which end in [[spoiler:Mei re-awakening as Herrscher of Thunder]]. As ATasteOfPower, Mei's normal attacks change drastically to become more powerful, and whenever the boss attacks her, she'll FlashStep away as it takes damage. And, after you deplete its HP, there'll be a QuickTimeEvent where Mei "executes" the boss, destroying it for good.
** The second is the final battle, Kiana (White Comet) vs [[spoiler:Herrscher Mei]]. The boss has layers of HP where there'll be different cutscenes where the boss will make the fight harder in different ways after Kiana depletes each "red dot". The first time Kiana depletes the dot, there'll be a QuickTimeEvent where Kiana activates her SuperMode after a button prompt and proceeds to attack the boss with it, only to get blocked. If Kiana gets hit by the boss' lightning attacks too much, she'll get paralyzed and the boss will "execute" her, dealing high damage. If Kiana's HP is depleted, there'll be a scene where [[spoiler:Herrscher Mei gives Kiana a NeckLift and fries her with lightning]], then a QuickTimeEvent where [[HeroicSecondWind Kiana struggles to wake up; after tapping the button enough times, Kiana becomes Void Drifter and resumes the fight]]. After that, whenever Kiana's HP is depleted again, she wakes up again with half of her max HP. There'll also be a prompt where Void Drifter has to break the boss' shield with her branch attack; when she succeeds, it cuts to a few images of [[spoiler:Kiana and Mei's past scenes together]] before the fight resumes. When Kiana does it a second time later on, it cuts to another set of images of [[spoiler:the two girls' past scenes in Nagazora, including the one where Kiana saves Mei from falling from a tall building by [[TakeMyHand taking her hand]]; [[BreakingTheFourthWall this image is then "cut" in half by Herrscher Mei]], right at Mei's hand in the image]]. When Kiana depletes the boss' last set of HP, it enters a series of Quick Time Events where Kiana gets [[PsychicStrangle "strangled" from afar]] by the boss, then escapes it and tries to get close, before the final part where the two enters a BladeLock and [[SmashingSurvival you have to mash buttons to prevail against the boss]]... but the game will force you to fail at this, and the boss will overpower Kiana, taking her down.
** This makes up the second half (the last 3 stages) of ch. 22. Kiana as Void Drifter is fighting the boss, [[spoiler:Herrscher of Sentience]]; unlike other story stages, the game will automatically make you go into the next stage as all 3 stages' stories are closely connected.
*** At first, the boss only uses simpler attacks; meanwhile, Kiana's black hole summoning is disabled in this battle, her Ultimate Skill has shorter cooldown, and she won't die (her health will stop at 1 if it gets depleted). The boss can only be attacked while she herself is attacking; otherwise, Kiana's attacks will [[IntangibleMan pass through her]]. At certain health thresholds, the boss will interrupt the battle, then disappears and [[DoppelgangerSpin creates 3 shadow clones]] of herself; if Kiana attacks the wrong one, she will get trapped, and the boss and the other clone will strike her. Attack the right one, however, and the boss will get stunned, allowing you to attack her further.
*** When the boss' health is depleted, it then goes to the scene where the boss knocks Kiana away from the platform they're standing on, which cuts to the next stage where Kiana runs towards the boss while dodging/parrying her long range attacks (see UnexpectedGameplayChange below). There's also a series of {{Quick Time Event}}s later on where Kiana tries to dodge a few more incoming strikes before she gets close to the boss, then a SmashingSurvival sequence where she tries to overpower the boss, although the latter then knocks her away (again).
*** Then comes the final stage; the boss now whips out stronger attacks, and if Kiana's health is depleted, Fu Hua uses her power to partly refill Kiana's HP and make her "golden gauge" fill much slower when she uses her branch attack, allowing her to spam it more freely. Also, when the boss attacks with her {{BFS}}, Kiana can use her branch attack to [[{{Flynning}} parry the greatsword attack in time]], shaving off part of the boss' ArmorMeter when successful. The boss also repeats the "guess which me" trick, but this time, Fu Hua gives Kiana hints on which clone to attack (a light will shine on the right shadow).
* SecretHistory: Partly, at least. In this world, the Apollo 11 moon landing is something well-known to most people. What people didn't know, however, is that the the moon landers found "Honkai energy" and strange relics on the moon, which they chose to keep as a secret to the common people. Not only that, Schicksal also secretly launched their own craft to the moon around this time to discover the same thing.
* SelfDeprecation: The progression of the giant robot Wotan in the Schicksal HQ Open World remains at 90% even after you completed all of its story missions. The game's later versions take some digs at this:
** If you go to the enemy gallery, the enemies' info will be locked until you encounter them the first time; the game also tells you where to find it if you tap on the pictures. For Wotan, however, the text says "File loading... 90%... 90%..."
** In Mei's birthday mini-event (in 2020), one of the attacks Mei can perform is "90% Rage" where a giant robot will come in to punch the zombies away.
** In the "Gemina Invasions: Deep Paradise Arc" event, Einstein tries to fight off a giant threat by activating Wotan. However, she gets stuck at 90% and Tesla angrily lampshades it. It does, at least, work out in the end.
** In the ''Evangelion'' collab event "New Century", Wotan was said to be only 90% completed when its original designer, Welt, passed away.
* SequelHook: Officially, due to the licensing agreement with Creator/StudioKhara, none of the ''Anime/NeonGenesisEvangelion'' content of the "New Century" event will return once the event is over. That said, the final cutscene has [[spoiler:Asuka having survived the Angel-induced self-destruct of Wotan and floating unconscious in the Sea of Quanta to be found by ''Hyperion'']], leaving open the possibility of a continuation should another collaboration be successfully arranged.
* ShesGotLegs:
** Darkbolt Jonin (Sakura)'s regular outfit bares her legs.
** Many China dress alternate costumes in the game bare the wearers' legs, to name a few: Himeko's Vernal Brocade (for Vermilion Knight) and Seele's Mirrored Flourishes (for Stygian Nymph).
* SheIsTheKing: The title "Herrscher", following its German roots, is a masculine term[[note]]the female equivalent is "Herrscherin"[[/note]]. While the first Herrscher was a man, subsequent ones have always been female and they're still being called "Herrscher". This isn't the case in the original Chinese/Japanese, which used the gender neutral term "Ruler" instead.
* ShieldBearingMook:
** The "shield Honkai beast" mook (PSY type, name varies) and the "mech zombie" mook (MECH/BIO type, name varies) have shields that protect them from frontal attacks. You have to either attack them from behind or use elemental attacks against them to deal damage. In a variant, the "scythe zombie" and "dual swords zombie" mooks may sometimes attempt to block your melee attacks, and the latter has a CounterAttack should you attack them too much. The "titan mecha" mooks may also sometimes put up a DeflectorShield that will deflect projectiles off them and CounterAttack incoming attacks at point blank. The "catapult" Honkai beasts also block frontal attacks when they are holding a ball until it explodes from consecutive attacks. A later update introduces the "crab Honkai Beast" mooks, who have large pincers that give them high defense against frontal attacks; the twist is that it's hard to go behind them, as they have the tactic of strafing around you (like a crab would).
** In Post-Honkai Odyssey, the "Mage" mook has a special shield that has to be broken by quick attacks; Mei is best suited for breaking its shield. Certain other mooks (such as "Chariot") has a different shield that has to be broken by heavy attacks, which Carole specializes in. In a variant, the "Strength" mook frequently tries to block your attacks with its swords, and if you break its defense, it'll try to perform a CounterAttack (which you can evade in time).
* ShootTheMageFirst:
** The "coffin zombie" mook variant can [[MookMaker summon weaker zombie mooks from her coffin]] and has a potent WaveMotionGun attack. If she isn't beaten quickly, you'll have to deal with many minor zombies while she lasers you from far away.
** The "intangible zombie" mook variants can [[IntangibleMan turn intangible]] to avoid your attacks (although they can't attack in that state), create a slowing AreaOfEffect on the ground, and buff/heal other enemies in the area. A stronger version has potent [[AnIcePerson ice attacks]], while another can deploy "glowing AOE towers" that can either attack you in varying ways, or give them and/or other enemies a buff, or even [[MookMedic heal them]]. Defeating them (and the glowing towers) quickly will help you big time.
** The rare "wizard mecha" mook variant can either give a high defense buff to other enemies, or trigger a Time Fracture of its own, slowing you down to a halt. You'll have a hard time beating the other enemies if you don't destroy that one first. A later variant introduced in Chapter 9-EX has a DeflectorShield that blocks all damage (even elemental ones) until it's broken by physical attacks, and aside from buffing other enemies, it can extend laser-like lines to its fellow mooks that slowly but surely burns through your HP if you touch them.
** In Post-Honkai Odyssey, the appropriately named "Mage" mooks can harrass you from far away while you're busy dealing with other mooks, and they can also give other mooks strong shields. It's recommended to go at them first when you see them among groups. The "Moon" mooks are the Mage's stronger variant, with more annoying attacks.
* SignatureHeadgear: Particularly for the Valkyrie battlesuits' default look:
** Most of Kiana's battlesuits have her wearing a black hairband, with different additional ornaments. White Comet, in particular, also has star ornaments near her ears and rings at the end of her braids.
** Lightning Empress (Mei) wears a purple demonic mask on her hair.
** Bronya has a pair of butterfly-shaped clips which secure her pigtails. It has different patterns in her different suits.
** Himeko has a small black NiceHat in her Blood Rose outfit.
** Fu Hua has different ornaments to tie her (low) ponytail in each of her suits, but her signature one is on Valkyrie Accipiter's default outfit, [[spoiler:[[MagicalAccessory the Divine Key, Fenghuang Down]]]]. Azure Empyrea (who tied her hair differently from other Fu Hua) has a brush-like hairpin to tie her ponytail.
** Rita wears a horned maid headdress as Umbral Rosse. As Argent Knight, she wears a blue crown-like hair ornament that looks like it's made of ice, symbolizing the ice elemental damage she deals with this battlesuit.
** Yae Sakura as Flame Sakitama wears long hairpins to tie her PrimAndProperBun, as well as a horned hair ornament near one of her fox ears. Darkbolt Jonin wears a black fox mask on her hair
** Kallen as Sixth Serenade has a CoolMask that she normally wears to the side of her hair. She also has a purple ribbon tying her braid, while the other Kallen suits lack it.
** Seele as Swallowtail Phantasm has a unique black-and-white one at the left side of her head, which also constantly emits blue flames. As Stygian Nymph, she has a white flower in her hair that turns black and red and moves to the other side of her head when she becomes "Dark Seele".
** Theresa as Starlit Astrologos (also known as Zhuge Kongming) has a white flower hairpin on her alternate costume, "Orchid Night". It is used as the event currency for her event, "The Day You Vanished with the Stars". Her default outfit has a mini NiceHat that is a reference to the original [[Literature/RomanceOfTheThreeKingdoms Zhuge Liang]].
* SignificantDoubleCasting: Creator/MiyukiSawashiro voices both Raiden Mei and Dr. MEI, two characters who [[GenerationXerox resemble each other]] and even share the same name.
* ShowWithinAShow: One recurring show in the Honkai world is "Arahato", a mecha anime that dates back to TheEighties. It apparently becomes a LongRunner up to the present day (2016) and later in Post-Honkai Odyssey (8 years after the present), and by then it has several comic books, spinoffs, merchandise, and video game versions. It's apparently produced by Anti-Entropy as a means of income.
* SiliconBasedLife: Honkai Beasts are made mainly of silicon. As they're the embodiment of GaiasVengeance, they're literally made of the most common element of the earth. And, as one event scene in Chinese New Year (of the Pig) event shows, they're inedible.
* SinisterScythe: One type of the zombie mooks wields a scythe. The [[AnIcePerson icy]] variant of the mook, in particular, can [[ThrowingYourSwordAlwaysWorks throw their scythes like a boomerang]].
* SkillScoresAndPerks:
** Valkyries' skillsets consists of 6 skills: Leader[[note]]passive skills that take effect only when the character is set as the leader of the squad; they also double as "friend skills"[[/note]], Passive, Evasion, Basic Attack, Special Attack and Ultimate. Each of them has "sub-skills" that modify and strengthen each of the skills' properties in different ways. Some sub-skills can only be unlocked by ranking the Valkyrie up, while leveling the skills up will cost money and, for "awakened" characters, certain materials. Awakened characters also share some skills' levels with another Valkyrie suit that serves as their basis. SP Valkyries, introduced later, also has "SP Skills" that give them extra perks.
** In Post-Honkai Odyssey, the skill tree is more expansive: there are more sub-skills to unlock and they have a "branching" system. They're unlocked and leveled up by meeting the required "intel levels" (can be increased by playing the story missions and the weekly tasks) and paying with the resources found in the open world. Higher tier skills [[DoubleUnlock will also require you to have certain Valkyries at certain ranks to unlock or level up.]] The 3.9 update adds the "tuning factors", extra skills available for the whole team (separately) that works like a mix of stigmata (in that it has SetBonus) and "stigmata affixes" (in that the enhancement you get is random and you can "reroll" them multiple times to get the desired enhancement). There are 4 slots of it for each character; each slot can hold one specific tuning factor, which does nothing by itself but will take effect if two, and later four, of the same tuning factor is used in the other slots. You can also mix and match two sets of tuning factors. E.g the "Ladon" set allows for increasing max SP, [[CooldownManipulation shortening cooldown of Ultimate Skills]], and [[ReducedManaCost reducing the SP usage of said skills]].
* SlippySlideyIceWorld: The Coral Island, the setting of ch. 18, has become covered in ice and snow despite being located near the equator. It's due to the Honkai eruption occuring there, and in particular, the activity of the Herrscher of Ice.
* SocialDarwinist: Actually not really "social" as the issue is indeed "physiological" (i.e close to real Darwinism), but the World Serpent (and [[spoiler:Kevin]] in particular) believes that only a few "qualified" ones among humanity can hope to survive the Honkai. This is reflected through their "Project Stigma": [[spoiler:a plan to forcefully rearrange the "stigma genome" in human bodies on people of Arc City at once, in order to awaken the latent power of Stigmata inside them, but as their prior experiments ended with a lot of failure (i.e most of the subjects either died or turned into zombies) they expect that only a few would survive the process and become empowered with Stigmata]]. In a flashback, Gray Serpent said to a young girl that in rough times like this where basic needs are scarce, only those who "deserve" them can live on, while other people have to be "sacrificed". He then told the girl (who he believed "deserves" to live) to survive and live on for those who have sacrificed their lives for hers, and to make them worth it.
* SocializationBonus:
** Making friends with other players will let you summon your friend to help in most missions, and/or use their "friend skills" to enhance your team's capabilities. Doing so will also grant you Friendship Points which you can use for a particular supply drop.
** In the Armada's Boss Invasion mode, playing co-op with your armada mates will let you do more damage than if you're playing alone. Playing co-op also extends the timer to 80 seconds.
** There are also materials, such as those needed to upgrade the various Divine Keys, that can only be acquired through playing co-op stages.
* SocketedEquipment: Stigmata can be "refined" by certain materials to give them additional effects at random, such as increasing (certain character's) attack power, increasing defense or element resistance, increasing max HP or SP, etc.
* SoulJar: Herrscher Cores in general contain the souls of the original Herrschers, which results in a SplitPersonality for whoever is unfortunate enough to have a core [[SealedInAPersonShapedCan shoved into their body]]. Special mention goes to [[spoiler:the core of the 1st Herrscher, which houses ''[[ManySpiritsInsideOfOne three hundred thousand souls]]'', including Welt Joyce himself]].
* SpaceElevator: One of the "files" you can collect in chapter 18's stages describes "[[ProjectBlank Project Galactic Stairway]]", a world project to build a space elevator on Coral Island to support low-earth-orbit space stations. As of 2017 (the game's present, its base has been completed and its tower has arisen to 1300 meters above ground, and it's expected to be completed by 2025. However, as Honkai eruption struck the island, the Herrscher of Ice takes over the tower as her hideout. In the end, she caused a giant glacial formation to erupt out of the tower akin to a blooming snow lotus.
* SpoilerTitle: Knowing that [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Language_of_flowers floriography]] is a fancy term for the language of flowers makes "Rosemary's Floriograph" basically translate to "The meaning of the rosemary", which is a hint to one of the key reveals in the event's climax: [[spoiler:Seele's soul is somehow bound to the patch of rosemary outside Welt Joyce's mansion, and the rosemary is used for body swapping and {{People Puppet}}ry by Bronya in her quest for revenge against Shicksal.]]
* StableTimeLoop: In "Honkai Kingdoms: Zero" event, the Captain implies that the current present where Zhuge Kongming is sitting in front of him won't happen if he didn't go back in time and help her past self. [[spoiler:The ending of "The Day You Vanished With The Stars" confirms it.]]
* StandardStatusEffects: A number of common status ailments show up in this game: Ignite[[note]]dealing fire DamageOverTime[[/note]], Freeze[[note]]freezes enemy in place, while making them immovable by attacks[[/note]], Paralysis[[note]]stops enemy in their tracks, though this only "pauses" their movement[[/note]], Stun[[note]]dazes enemy and interrupts their current action[[/note]] and Bleeding[[note]]dealing physical DamageOverTime[[/note]]. The Post-Honkai Odyssey only has Ignite and Paralysis, and they work slightly differently: You have to "build them up" on each enemy by the "protagonist's" certain attacks (for Ignite) and by most of Mei's attacks (for Paralysis), so the enemies will get inflicted with the status after you have attacked them enough.
* StartingANewLife: For our three protagonists (Kiana, Mei and Bronya), being put into St. Freya to be trained as Valkyries gave them a new direction in life. For Bronya in particular, she also experienced this in the past when she was adopted into Cocolia's orphanage, when she previously was a child assassin. Meanwhile, for Himeko, she changed her life's direction (from wanting to become an astrophysicist) into becoming a Valkyrie after her father's death.
* StealthBasedMission:
** A few stages in Bronya's side story "Dilemma Dreamland" has her try to avoid surveillance drones as she moves towards the destinations.
** Some of the levels in ch. 13 and 14 play like the Sakura Samsara open world where there are {{Patrolling Mook}}s around; the player can activate "stealth mode" to see where the mooks are looking at, which also lets the player character see the mooks behind walls. She can also BackStab them if she walks behind them.
* StealthParody: The special story in the "Summer Memories" event (which takes place 10 years from the present) is actually one for the Sakura Samsara storyline. Both of them involve [[GroundhogDayLoop time looping]] and an outsider (the Captain for the event, Kiana in Sakura's story) is brought in in order to save someone (Kallen in the event, Sakura in her story). However, [[spoiler:while Sakura Samsara ends in a happy note where Sakura is freed from her "nightmare", the event's story ends badly no matter what happened: the Captain couldn't save Luna Kindred, while Otto couldn't save Kallen]]. "The Day You Vanished With The Stars", in turn, is an extended parody of Summer Memories (and a ShoutOut to ''VisualNovel/SteinsGate''), where the Captain loops time multiple times to try to save Zhuge Kongming, facing failures each time. He only succeeded [[spoiler:by taking Kongming to ''Hyperion'' (which is currently situated in the Sea of Quanta) with him, as Tesla-Zero reveals that an unseen force tries to wipe Kongming off the face of the world for being an "anomaly" in time]].
* TheStinger:
** The "Final Lesson" video (at the end of ch. 9) has one at the end: [[spoiler:Kiana is stranded on a beach after Himeko used the Honkai-neutralizing serum on her to free her from the Herrscher of the Void's influence]].
** The "Meteoric Salvation" video (at the end of ch. 14) also has one: [[spoiler:Mei is running towards where Kiana would fall after she gets rid of the Honkai bomb from the Arc City. However, Durandal gets to her first, using her Divine Key to create a tall tree to catch Kiana]].
** Chapter 15 has the final cutscene that you can unlock by playing the challenge stages. [[spoiler:Kiana, dragging herself through a desert, is driven by the thoughts of Mei to go back to [[WhereItAllBegan where they first meet]]: the Nagazora city.]]
** Chapter 16 has the final unlockable cutscene, where [[spoiler:Raven talks with the Gray Serpent about how the Honkai levels in Nagazora has reached the "eruption threshold", which means that they can start with an experiment. Gray Serpent the reveals that he knows all along what she was trying to do in the city, and points out that whatever happens to K-423 is their Master's decision. He then warns her that she's not going to get away with that. She retorts with how Kiana's state as a "partial Herrscher" would make her worthless to the World Serpent, and says that she's found "something else" - the "power" that the World Serpent really needs, that will let the Herrscher of the Void develop.]]
** Ch. 17 has a secret cutscene that happens after the final playable one (the "Lament of the Fallen" video). [[spoiler:It has Otto watching his monitor, which has the image of a mysterious woman and dragon-like creature (see FreezeFrameBonus above) in it. The narration states that the experiment in Nagazora is a success, but comes interruption from Amber about the awakening of Herrscher of Thunder, Kiana being taken by the ''Hyperion'' crew, and the 5th Herrscher about to appear. Despite the balance of the world being potentially disturbed, Otto could hardly care about them as he's more busy with what he sees in front of him.]]
* StockWeaponNames: Some guns and swords are named from real or common terms of weaponry such as Desert Eagle and Muramasa.
* AStormIsComing: Chapter 16 is called "Imminent Storm" while ch. 17 is called "Thunders over Nagazora". In the former, Tesla notes that the Honkai energy levels are rising along with the water level of the flood. In the latter, Kiana goes around the city to check the Honkai energy levels, and feels that something is about to come out. Later, as they're detecting the sudden chaos in the city from a distance, Theresa is overwhelmed at the storm welling over the place and the "quantum shadows", and asks about what's going on in the city, to which Einstein answers "I'm afraid we're dealing with a major disaster, Madam Theresa." [[spoiler:They all signify the re-awakening of Mei as Herrscher of Thunder.]]
* StoryBreadcrumbs:
** In Post-Honkai Odyssey, there are informations that you can get from the boxes you can find in Explore mode (many of which require you to be at the right "intel level" to open). Some of them tells the history of the city-state of St. Fountain, which explains how it gets its name and how the city contains a mix of different cultures. Some others are just there for WorldBuilding.
** Also in PHO, you first get a special recording from one of the story missions; you then get more of them later by finding them in boxes in the Explore mode. They're the recordings of someone who suspiciously sounds like Otto, talking to something that emits strange noises, whom he calls "Lucheni"[[note]]after an infamous Italian assassin; this person claims that this being will kill him after they've reached their mutual goal, which he's fine with[[/note]]. This person tries to teach Lucheni human language so they can talk better, which the latter eventually understands enough. The plan of this person and Lucheni involve opening the "road and the door" and greeting the arrival of the "Sky People" onto the city of St. Fountain.
* StoryDifficultySetting: In the Story Mode, the Normal difficulty also serves as this, as story cutscenes will appear before and/or after the levels' end, while they won't appear in Hard or Supreme difficulties.
* StringTheory: In "Rosemary's Floriograph" event, in the event's "home screen", the room Fallen Rosemary sits in has multiple photos and notes pinned to the wall with strings connecting them. The same room appears in the event's story as Welt Joyce's room. In the event's "story mode", the stages are presented as pictures and notes tied together by lines, evoking this trope. They all show how the stages and the mysteries and informations in them are connected together, befitting the detective mystery theme of the event.
* SuperMode: Some Ultimate Skills make the particular battlesuits enter a powerful mode (usually called "Burst Mode" in game) that strengthens their attacks in some way. Some other battlesuits may also enter a powerful mode in some other way. Not all SuperMode are designated as "Burst Mode" in-game.[[note]]Usually, weapon/stigmata that are said to enhance the character's normal/charged attacks would not affect their attacks while in "Burst Mode". Some other weapon/stigmata effects are said to specifically enhance attacks while in Burst Mode.[[/note]]
* SuperpowerLottery: Herrschers are bestowed with the power to command different aspects of nature itself, and each is a PersonOfMassDestruction.
* SuperSoldier: This is what Valkyries boil down to; they're girls augmented with stigmata in order to empower themselves and resist Honkai's influence, making them powerful anti-Honkai fighters. The AdvancedAncientHumans in the distant past also had their own "[[FunWithAcronyms M.A.N.T.I.S]]"[[note]]Massively Augmented Neo-Tech Integrated Soldiers[[/note]] project, which [[BioAugmentation fuses humans]] [[ArtificialHybrid with DNA of Honkai Beasts]][[note]]the gene construct called "ICHOR" (Intra-Chromosomal Honkai Repeats)[[/note]] in order to give them phenomenal strength and Honkai resistance.
* SupportPartyMember:
** Most Bronya suits are more suited to support her teammates with their inherent skills. The major exceptions to this are Black Nucleus and [[spoiler:Herrscher of Reason]] (both of them being [[PowerEqualsRarity S-rank Awakened characters]]).
** Many of the dual guns' skills are useful for triggering status effects (especially for triggering QTE), so that theoretically any Kiana or Kallen can be this, but Valkyrie Ranger (and its "augmented" form, Void Drifter) and Divine Prayer also have inherent skills that can support her teammates. Downplayed with Knight Moonbeam; aside from being a decently powerful attacker, her ability to trigger [[BulletTime Time Fracture]] without needing to evade helps a lot of characters.
** The Epic-grade greatsword Blood Dance has the rare ability to greatly increase elemental damage towards affected targets with its active skill, so that any Himeko or Olenyeva twin can be this towards elemental Valkyries. Another greatsword, Dark Xuanyuan Sword, has the ability to trigger Time Fracture just by normal attacks (but with a hefty cooldown), making it also a(n otherwise niche) supportive sword for Memorial Arena battles.
** Liliya, in particular, has skills that can support a good number of other Valkyries, but mainly towards Rozaliya (whose gameplay is greatly improved if Lili's around).
** Theresa's S-rank suit Celestial Hymn is the prime physical damage supporter in the game (especially against PSY-type enemies), with many of her attacks being able to give the "impair" debuff onto enemies. Some cross weapons are capable of affecting any teammate (not just Theresa) in the AreaOfEffect, so that she can support her teammates by using her weapon's active skill.
** Fu Hua's Valkyrie Accipiter suit has skills that can heal the whole party, while the Phoenix suit helps other elemental Valkyries become stronger with her skills (while also being a decently powerful attacker herself). Azure Empyrea (Phoenix's awakened form) is a better elemental supporter, with many of her skills providing buffs for the entire team and debuffs for the enemies, but she's a bit more complicated to use than Phoenix. Her two Stigmata sets, with their effects, also let the user (primarily Fu Hua herself) become a good elemental supporter.
** Rita's Phantom Iron suit supports fellow elemental Valkyries mainly with her Ultimate Skill, where she summons a hound-like robot that gives an AreaOfEffect that strengthens your team and weakens the enemies.
** A good number of Stigmata have effects that affect the whole team (or another member of the team), so that anyone who use them can support their teammates--and they tend to be the ItemCaddy for the Stigmata in question. One big example is Newton B, which lets the user apply a special debuff onto a single enemy; this debuff makes the enemy take 41% more total damage multiplier (whether physical or elemental) for 5 seconds, with 10 seconds cooldown. This debuff is effective even when you switch characters, making the user as much a supportive character as a main offensive one.
* SuspiciouslySpecificDenial: In the "Honkai Quest" event, Seele and Delta find, buried in some leaves and 800 m in front of the Water Djinn’s location, a sign which says that the Water Djinn isn’t 800 m in front of them. Delta clears away more leaves and find several more signs saying that the Water Djinn isn't ahead of them, which of course mean exactly the opposite.
* SuspiciousVideogameGenerosity: In Post-Honkai Odyssey, you never get SP and health drops, unlike the main game. The one exception is Chapter 2.0, "The Verdict", where the FinalBoss drops them each time you break one of its leg armors.
* SwordLines:
** Mei and Sakura's own varies by [[TechnicolorBlade the color of the katana]]; certain swords also have unique lines, such as Magstorm's 3 parallel blue lines in each swing or Jizo Mitama's lines that resemble dark snakes.
** For the PRI-ARM weapons (introduced in 3.4), most of them will have the light trails at ''all'' times, even when they are not used in attacks.
** Himeko's own looks rougher than Mei's, because she swings her BFS slower. This is the same for the other BFS wielders, Rozaliya and Liliya.
** Rita's, meanwhile, are tied to her battlesuits rather than her weapon. Umbral Rose's scythe lines are dark rose red, occasionally with rose petals, while Phantom Iron's lines are green with trails of TronLines and Argent Knight's are blue and black lines. Her costumes also change the lines' effects, unlike other characters.
** Swallowtail Phantasm's lines are violet but they turn red and black when she enters SuperMode. As Stygian Nymph, her light version has black lines with swirling white ones trailing her scythe, while her dark version has red and black lines trailing her claw attacks.
** Theresa as Luna Kindred has red trails following her red swords' attack movement. In a variant, Twilight Paladin ("augmented" Violet Executer) will gain light blue trails for her flying swords' swing moves.
** Normally, Fu Hua has simple, yellow-colored "blow lines" in her attacks for all of her costumes. As Phoenix, the lines turn red, while as Azure Empyrea, they resemble inkbrush strokes.
** Like Rita, Durandal's lines are tied to her battlesuits. Valkyrie Gloria's lines are fire red, while Bright Knight's lines are bluish white.
* SwappedRoles: The "Gemina Invasions" spinoff comic has Rozaliya and Liliya being the protagonists. However, in the in-game event "Gemina Invasions: Deep Paradise Arc", the two are now the "villains", and Tesla has to stop them. The twins lampshade it near the end, where Roza says that they're supposed to be the heroes and yet they're now playing as the bad guys.
* {{Synchronization}}: Some enemies have the "Soul Link" buff which links 2-3 of them together. If you kill one, said enemy doesn't immediately die; [[GeminiDestructionLaw you have to kill the others as well]], and if you take too long, the dead one will be revived with half health.
* TagLine: "Fight for all that is beautiful in the world." In one of the supplementary comics, in a flashback with young Kiana and her father, she said that they made an oath that resounds said tagline, and in Post-Honkai Odyssey, they are the words that drive Mei after she has heard it from her friend.
* TagTeam: A major part of the gameplay is that (for single player modes) you can control 3 characters, one at a time, and you can tag in and out between them. Some levels (particularly the CoopMultiplayer ones) have the 3 characters out at the same time instead.
* TakeThat: The 2019 summer event "Game of Honkai" is a WholePlotReference to ''Series/GameOfThrones'', with most of the game's prominent characters in [=GoT=]-equivalent roles in the show. There are also a ''lot'' of not-so-subtle jabs directed at [=GoT=], especially in regards to the [[NeverLiveItDown infamous]] Season 8, via the Captain ragging on ''Game of Honkai''[='s=] horrible writing and someone noting that the books' writer left several seasons prior.
-->'''Captain:''' WHAT?! The worst show ever made it to Season 15? That's ridiculous. I'll stick with ''Cooking with Valkyries'', thank you.
* TarotMotifs: The enemies in Post Honkai Odyssey are code-named after the Major Arcana. The most common enemy is called "Type 0: The Fool", the Heimdall-like boss is called "Type IV: Emperor", and so on.
* TechDemoGame: By virtue of having top notch graphics among mobile phone games, some players have to buy a new phone for it, with some saying that it's suitable to be a PC game. A PC client ''was'' eventually released in late 2019.
* TemporaryOnlineContent: There are a good number of event-only weapons, Stigmata and costumes that usually won't be available again (whether you get them from event quests, event shops, Event Supply, or in-app purchase) after the event ends. Certain later events might see the return of a few of the older events' stuff, but don't count on it. This goes double for ''Evangelion'' contents in 4.5 where, following the agreement, they will never be available again in future versions.
* ThankingTheViewer:
** For the 3rd anniversary in the Chinese version and the 2nd in the other regions, there was a mini-event where the Valkyries gave the players "gifts" and messages, in which they thank the "Captains" for having accompanied them until then. The video is also released in the official Youtube channel.
** In a variant, in 2020, the game gives a [[https://youtu.be/k82YQI-Alpo special cutscene]] for players who are also content creators (i.e gameplay/guide video makers, fanartists, 3D animation makers, etc). In it, the "Captain" is depicted as someone who makes fanarts and 3D animations, and Mei takes him out for a walk in the night. They're visiting a fireworks event, where the narration likens the Valkyries of the past and the present as the "fireworks" that light up the night sky. Then the narration casts a doubt on whether anyone would remember every single firework; Mei then continues with saying that the Captain is probably the one who would try doing so. She then thanks him for making the names and faces of the Valkyries known to the masses through the content he has created. After the cutscene, the chosen players will get a special commemorative emblem.
* ThemeNaming: The "Pantheon-series weapons" are weapons named after various mythological entities, from deities to monsters.
* ThereAreNoBedsheets: In the Dorm, the beds will stay like they are (with their sheets undisturbed) whenever the chibis sleep on them.
* ThingsManWasNotMeantToKnow: In chapter 17, during their negotiation talk, Otto tells [[spoiler:Kevin]] that he plans to reach something called the "[[WorldTree Imaginary Tree]]" using the 2nd Divine Key's Zeroth Power. By doing that, he wants to know "the instant of eternity, the start of the end, and the origins of laws and truth". [[spoiler:Kevin]] inquires him if he knows "what will happen if you do that".
* TimedMission:
** A few missions in the Story Mode and certain event missions are timed, and you fail when the time's up. In a variant, some of the levels' medals require you to beat the level under a certain number of seconds, even if the levels themselves aren't timed.
** In a variant, the Infinity Abyss game mode, and later, Dirac Sea game mode, have each fight depleting your active character's health; the longer the fight goes, the faster the health depletion becomes.
* TimeLimitBoss:
** The [[MonsterArena Memorial Arena game mode]] pits you against a selection of 2-3 bosses each week; you have to beat them under 5 minutes to score points, the faster the better. (Points are still awarded even if you fail.) Each time they're defeated, they'll go up a rank, which will make them pull out more powerful attacks and have more powerful attributes if you fight them again; defeating higher rank bosses means getting more points (although the C, B and A ranks are usually little more than a quick warm-up, with the SS rank being the "actual" boss). You may get prizes from getting certain number of points, and you and the other players will also get ranked with the points; you may win better prizes each week if you get higher in the ranks.
** The Armada-specific "Boss Invasion" game mode had you and your fellow Armada members (individually, or by co-op) fighting a boss with millions of health points. Each Armada member got three chances to fight the boss, each fight lasting for one minute, with the goal being to do as much damage as possible in order to completely deplete the boss' health. Members gained rewards if the boss got under 66% or 33% HP or was taken to 0% HP.
** After an update, the Boss Invasion was replaced with "Sim Battle". This mode appears twice a week, 3 days each. In every cycle there'll be 3 bosses, and you and your Armada members have to beat them under a time limit to score points; the faster you finish, the better your score gets. You earn rewards based on your total score, with higher scores accruing more rewards, and bonus rewards are given out as your Armada's accumulated total score reaches certain tiers. The unique part is that the game gives you preset characters with their "optimal" setting to beat the bosses, but you can choose to not use them if you want to use your own.
** The "Bounty Mark" game mode is a CoopMultiplayer mode where the host player purchases a "boss ticket" [[note]]it comes in B, A and S rank; different ranks have different bosses, chosen at random[[/note]], then said player has to team up with other players to beat the boss under a time limit. The prizes are "fragments" of gacha-exclusive equipments that you can use to craft said equipments. The higher rank the boss ticket is, the more materials you can possibly get after beating the boss.
* TimeSkip:
** There's a 4 month time skip between ch. 9 and ch.9-EX. During it, a large "Honkai eruption" occurred [[spoiler:courtesy of Herrscher of the Void]], causing many parts of the world to become devastated, with the survivors occupying the few large cities left. Kiana and Himeko also went missing, and our Valkyrie group has found intel about Kiana's whereabouts, which prompts them to [[IWillFindYou find her before Schicksal's forces do]].
** The Open World introduced in Version 3.8, "Post-Honkai Odyssey", takes place 8 years from the present. Most of the Honkai (forces and energy) has disappeared from the earth as they're sealed on the moon, Theresa Apocalypse became the Overseer of Schicksal, and the world is in a peaceful era. However, there are still mysteries to solve in the South African city, St. Fountain, which the adult Mei and two of her students (of the New St. Freya Academy) are going to investigate. The gameplay also becomes more expansive, akin to ''Videogame/DevilMayCry'' or ''Videogame/NierAutomata'', where the characters can now jump (including DoubleJump) and do attacks in the air and the gameplay becomes more akin to StylishAction.
* TitleDrop: The title actually refers to the "Third Honkai Impact" that happened two years prior to the story of the game (and is shown in one supplementary comic), also known as "Third Honkai War". In 2014, there were sudden mass Honkai outbreaks, a lot of people in Nagazora city turned into zombies, and Honkai Beasts appeared ''en masse''. It also influenced Mei, causing her Herrscher side to awaken.
* TomboyAndGirlyGirl: The dynamic between Kiana and Mei. Kiana is the tomboy, enjoying games and manga and opting for [[WhoWearsShortShorts shorts]] with most of her battle suits and costumes. Mei is the girly girl; she cooks and opts to wear skirts and dresses for many of her battlesuits and costumes.
* TookALevelInBadass: Different updates to the game did this for some of the Valkyries in the form of "Augment Cores", alternate versions of certain battlesuits that come with unique attacks, skills, and associated outfits:
** Version 2.9 was the first such upgrade, giving Mei's Valkyrie Bladestrike a major overhaul that modified many of her skills and attacks and made her more powerful and useful. It also came with a new outfit called "Striker Fulminata" where [[ExpositoryHairstyleChange she has shorter hair]]. In-story, all of these augments are made by Tesla of Anti-Entropy to aid her.
** Bronya's Yamabuki Armor received one in version 3.0, made by Dr. Einstein of Anti-Entropy. Like Valkyrie Bladestrike, it modified many of her skills and attacks, making her more powerful and useful, especially for support. It also came with a new outfit called "Drive Kometa".
** Version 3.3 introduced Kiana's upgrade for Valkyrie Ranger called Void Drifter. It improves her playstyle greatly, allowing her to dish out much more damage, dash faster and support her teammates better. It also coincides with the moment in the story where, after [[spoiler:some pep talk from "Himeko" inside her mind]], she manages to use some of [[spoiler:Herrscher of the Void]]'s powers by her sheer will, allowing her to overpower the Honkai Beasts around her. Later on, she further takes levels in badass by [[spoiler:commanding Herrscher of the Void's full power with her mind intact, fueled by her resolve, to save the people of Arc City from the Honkai energy bomb]].
** Version 3.4 marks the first Augment Core upgrade for an S-rank Valkyrie: Theresa's Violet Executer suit, called "Twilight Paladin". It increases the range of her attacks and gives her access to a SuperMode that modifies her attacks into more powerful ones; unlike her regular self, this doesn't cost SP and only requires her to fill a gauge. Her new Ultimate Skill is her dealing damage in a large AOE with her blades and her cross that also empowers her afterwards.
** Version 3.5 gives one to Fu Hua's Valkyrie Accipiter outfit, by the name "Hawk of the Fog". It trades her supportive skills for more offensive ones, changing her main role from a support character to a melee offensive [[ShockAndAwe lighting-elemental]] character capable of attacking multiple enemies at once.
** Version 4.2 introduces Mei's second Augment Core upgrade, "Danzai Spectramancer" (for Shadow Dash). It significantly improves her damage dealing capabilities, while also giving her support capabilities (for physical damage teams) as well.
** Rozaliya's Molotov Cherry suit is the second S-rank suit to get an augment core: "Fervent Tempo Delta". It notably makes her no longer heavily reliant on Liliya to deal huge damage by her own. Her fighting style becomes more dynamic where she can keep moving and attacking her enemies for long, and it also incorporates some of Lili's techniques and traits (including physically) as well.
* TheTower: The Tower of Babylon, a Honkai research lab belonging to Schicksal, located in Siberia. It is the main setting of the 2nd Honkai War, and it's shown in-game in a "holographic scenario" in ch. 5 and 6.
* ToxicPhlebotinum: The Honkai can be harnessed as an energy source, but they have to be handled with care or people may suffer from Honkai corruption. There exist Honkai energy reactors and Honkai-powered machinery, although these technologies are limited to the major anti-Honkai powers of the world. The Valkyries are also capable of harnessing Honkai energy to empower themselves, courtesy of the Stigmata technology; however, average valkyries are only fitted with artificial stigmata, which doesn't offer full protection against the Honkai, and they tend to have short life expectations because the frequent exposure to the Honkai will slowly corrupt them. The Herrschers, meanwhile, can [[PhlebotinumBattery freely use them to empower themselves]], because they're already "part of the Honkai".
* TrappedInAnotherWorld: The "Honkai Kingdoms" event has the Captain being whisked off to a different world with only the Olenyeva twins keeping him company. There, they meet the other girls being put in different roles, such as Fu Hua being a king or Himeko being a pirate captain.
* TrappedInTVLand:
** The Co-op Raid stages "Final HOMU Fantasy" has Kiana and Mei enter [[ShowWithinAShow the titular video game world]] in order to find Bronya, who is missing. It turns out that not only does Bronya want to stay inside the game, she hacks it in order to fight her friends.
** The "Winter Rhapsody" event starts with the Captain and the girls playing a game, then everything turns black and they're suddenly in a different world, which the Captain notes might be the game they were playing earlier. [[spoiler:Seele was the one trapping them.]]
[[/folder]]

[[folder:U - Z]]
* TheUnblinking: With the exception of Durandal[[note]]as Bright Knight Excelsis and Dea Anchora[[/note]] and [[Anime/RebuildOfEvangelion Asuka]], the Valkyries' character sprites don't blink when they're standing still.
* UnderwaterRuins: The Deep, located in the Mariana Trench, holds the undersea ruins of the previous civilization, now occupied by Anti-Entropy. Chapter 10 has the Valkyries visiting it to meet Cocolia.
* UnexpectedGameplayChange:
** Three levels of Story Mode Chapter 6 (only in Normal difficulty) have different gameplay: one has you playing as HOMU in a platformer-style game to get coins and go to the finish, another has you controlling a plane in an UnexpectedShmupLevel, and the last one has you control HOLA to bomb enemies in a ''VideoGame/{{Bomberman}}''-like game. All of them also appear as event stages where you can get weekly rewards.
** Chapter 7 also starts with an UnexpectedShmupLevel and a reference to ''Videogame/{{Ikaruga}}'' with the white and black bullets and lasers that the enemies shoot, and the black and white barriers you can deploy to defend your aircraft.
** The "Winter Rhapsody" event features a RhythmGame-like mode for some of its battles.
** The "Honkai Kingdoms" event has one special level different from the others: a shooter-like game where you're playing as chibi Dorm avatars and wielding a gun that shoots balls, trying to shoot other players of opposing teams in real time. When you die, you'll respawn after a few seconds in a different place, ready to attack again. There are a few pickups that will help you, including a [[SprintShoes speed up item]] and a DeflectorShield item. This gameplay returns in the Slugfest minigame in the "Odd Drifter" event, with the chibi Valkyries able to use the various weapons used in the event's levels.
** "Odd Drifter" itself mainly plays like an overhead shooter game, with different chibi characters using different weapons to run around and shoot multiple enemies (and some bosses). Then there are some special levels where they play like an EndlessRunningGame, where you attack incoming enemies and jump over obstacles until the finish/you defeat the boss. This "running game" mode comes back for a few events later.
** The "Empyrean Legends" event sees the shooter game mode coming back, now with more mechanics introduced.
** Chapter 17 has one stage where the gameplay becomes akin to a RailShooter as you fly in the sky, shooting enemies. [[spoiler:Mei as Herrscher of Thunder rides her new dragon in the air and attacks the Quantum Shadows on her path to Kiana's position]]. You [[spoiler:as the dragon]] have a normal attack where you shoot electric balls, you can do Ultimate Evasion from enemy's attacks, you can do a ChargedAttack (a BreathWeapon of lightning) that requires you to charge a red bar, and an Ultimate Skill where [[spoiler:Mei spams huge {{Sword Beam}}s from her katana]].
** "Gemina Invasions: Deep Paradise Arc" plays like the "St. Freya Fiesta" event, i.e a ''TabletopGame/{{Monopoly}}''-style board game where your walking distance is decided by a wheel roll and you get to build facilities that strengthen your characters in various ways. There are also encounters with enemies that, when you defeat them, gives you event currency to buy things, and "random events" that can either give you goodies or make you lose them. There's an extra "unexpected" layer in that, if you run into HOMU-style enemy on the board, you'll be taken into a stage where, instead of fighting enemies like normal gameplay, you're playing a different minigame[[note]]either "collecting falling coins", "run-and-gun play" (ala "Empyrean Legends"), or "{{Goomba Stomp}}ing monsters" (a variant on the "HOMEI's Fight" material mission)[[/note]].
** The ''Evangelion'' collab event "New Century" has two of these: stages where you're riding a motorbike and speeding to the finish line, and stages where you're controlling Wotan to fight enemies, including the Angels.
** Chapter 22 has an obstacle run-style AutoScrollingLevel where Kiana - after being knocked down from where the boss is standing - is running towards the boss, while the latter attacks her from a distance. Kiana has to slide under the boss' {{Sword Beam}}s and use her Subspace Lance to parry the [[FlyingWeapon flying swords]] that the boss summons.
* UnlockableContent: Many game features get unlocked one at a time as your Captain level increases.
* {{Unobtainium}}: Soulium (aka "Soul Steel") is a special metal alloy that was made from the Previous Era. The technology to produce it is lost in modern times, so Schicksal has to scour the Earth to look for it. It's not only sturdy, it also exhibits many different properties. Einstein claims that it's actually a [[{{Nanotechnology}} semi-intelligent nano-robot composite]] that can change its form depending on its user's need. Many of the in-game weapons were built using this material.
* UnreliableNarrator:
** It's said that Cecilia died fighting and keeping Sirin busy long enough for Otto to order Schicksal to fire the Honkai fission missile upon them, killing them both as a result. The Second Honkai War comic, however, makes it clear that [[spoiler:Cecilia and Siegfried managed to subdue Sirin's SuperpowerMeltdown before they were hit by the missile, and that the missile strike was really Otto trying to kill Siegfried, as he considered Siegfried too powerful to let loose. He even rewrites Theresa's memories with Fenghuang Down to draw her suspicions away from the truth.]] As Otto succinctly puts it:
--->'''Otto Apocalypse''': [[spoiler:... I shall fabricate [[WrittenByTheWinners a version of history that benefits Schicksal most]].]]
** Played for laughs in the ''Gemina Tales'' side comic, where Rozaliya narrates how she and Liliya got their Honkai augmentations and boasts how they've become more powerful than even S-rank Valkyries (with Liliya correcting that they're not). Then she recounts how Cocolia gave her blessings to the twins to leave the orphanage and become idols, when in reality Cocolia flat out rejected Rozaliya's plan.
--->'''Cocolia:''' For the last time! '''нет'''! [[labelnote:*]]Russian for disagreement[[/labelnote]]\\
'''Roza's narration:''' ''Matushka gave us 100% support.''\\
'''Cocolia:''' ''[Sees Roza drag Lili away from the orphanage]'' Roza! Lili! Get back here, now!\\
'''Roza's narration:''' ''She was almost crying when we left the orphanage with her blessings.''
* {{Valkyries}}: The female warriors of Schicksal aren't real Valkyries of the myth, but they've been called such since the Middle Ages.
* VictoryPose: After you complete a solo stage, the camera will pan closer to your Valkyrie as they perform some animation or pose, such as Kiana brandishing her guns and winking at the camera or Project Bunny cradling Bronya in its hand.
* VideoGameDashing: The "dodge" button makes the character do a short dash move: Mei, Bronya and Sakura do a FlashStep; Fu Hua and Kallen slide a short distance; Kiana, Theresa and Himeko do short hops/rolls; and Rita, the Olenyeva twins and Seele briefly disappear and then reappear a short distance later. The first and second cases also have [[SpeedEchoes afterimages trailing from their bodies]]. Aside from aiding with movement, the button is also used to dodge incoming attacks; [[JustFrameBonus if timed right]], it means you've successfully done an "Ultimate Evasion" and will trigger its effects (depending on the character). You can only do the dodge move twice (or once, for a few characters) in a row; it's to prevent the player from spamming it too much. In Post Honkai Odyssey, you can do a dash, as well as Ultimate Evasion, in midair. The air dash has a slight elevation, which can help in platforming in the stage.
* VoidBetweenTheWorlds: The "Sea of Quanta" is theorized to be something like this. Einstein describes it as "when worlds are like drinking glasses, then water is poured into them until they spill, the puddle formed from the spill is the Sea of Quanta". It's part of what Einstein called the "many worlds interpretation" and it's noted to still be a hypothesis. So far, the only access point into said realm is the "Eye of the Deep", a structure located in the heart of the Deep. As shown when Bronya entered it in ch. 11, it's an EldritchLocation where surreal things float in the air, where one's memories can shape its appearance, and where [[AlternateUniverse "bubble universes"]] exist, consisting of the many alternate possibilities of timelines and history. The "Sanka Saga" event implies that the "Saha World" that Kasumi repeatedly jumps into (and, for the last time, deliberately) is none other than the Sea of Quanta. It's rumored that all things that are "missing" in the real world would end up in this space.
* VulnerableConvoy: In a side story about Durandal's Bright Knight: Excelsis battlesuit (taking place sometime before the game's main story), a delivery vessel called "Mazarin" was carrying the project codenamed HDA-007 SPECTER[[note]][[FunWithAcronyms Self-powered Suit for Emergency Confrontations, Tactical Engagements and Raids]][[/note]] towards Schicksal HQ when it came under attack from an unknown group, which stole said project and brought it into their underground hideout. Durandal was dispatched to infiltrate their hideout and retrieve said project, which turned out to be the Bright Knight battlesuit. Otto told her to wear it on the spot as he turned the whole mission into a test run for said suit, telling her to use the suit's capabilities to defeat the enemies in said location.
* WalkingSwimsuitScene: Most of the Valkyries have at least one battlesuit which has a swimsuit or beach-appropriate attire like a sundress as an optional outfit that can be worn into battle. The exceptions are Fu Hua, Kallen and the Olenyeva twins, who (currently) don't have any such option.
* WarpWhistle: In Post-Honkai Odyssey's Explore mode, the map has multiple "teleporter beacons" that you can activate so your characters can start from or teleport there. They usually only appear after you beat certain bosses.
* WeakToMagic: MECH-type entities (whether they're Valkyries or the MechaMooks) take more damage from PSY-type entities.
* WeaponOfChoice: All of the playable characters wield one type of equippable weapon each. A lot (though not all) of the Valkyrie suits have "signature equipment" that are tailored (often exclusively) towards the strengths and abilities of the particular suits, such as Hyper Railguns (for Kiana's Knight Moonbeam suit), Skoll and Hati (for Fu Hua's Night Square suit) or Sleeping Beauty (for Rozaliya).
* WeatherOfWar:
** The Schicksal HQ Open World has a weather system that affects the gameplay. The weather changes thrice a week; this will affect how the enemies work/behave (such as giving them buffs/debuffs or changing their properties), your Valkyries' status, and a buff/debuff for the [[PowerUpMount drive-able mechas]] you may bring in. E.g in snowy days, you'll be hampered by constant snow fall which will deal small amounts of ice damage; staying inside a mecha/chopper will protect you from the damage; and enemies will take increased ice damage from your attacks and periodically get frozen.
** The Dirac Sea game mode also has a simpler weather system; this will affect the kind of enemies present and their increased resistance/vulnerability towards different kinds of damage. A later introduced game mode, Superstring Dimension, also has a similar weather system.
* WebcomicTime: The story started in 2016 and has progressed for only a year (TimeSkip included) as of the game's August 2020.
* WhamEpisode: Chapter 6 in the game ends in a massive doozy as the truth about Kiana is revealed in the most heartrending way possible, [[spoiler:Kiana is captured by Otto, and Theresa orders the Valkyries of St. Freya to get ready for a rescue mission against Schicksal itself]]. From there on, the game's story shifts to a EnsembleCast instead of focusing on Kiana, and moves to a darker, more desperate tone [[spoiler:as the heroes have gone from being supported by Schicksal to fighting them directly]].
* WhamShot:
** In the special chapter "Everlasting Memory", there's a shot of [[spoiler:child Kiana, cuffed and blindfolded, accompanied with [[WhamLine Otto mentioning about how he has Kiana in his custody]]]]. It foreshadows that [[spoiler:the Kiana that we know is actually Experimental body [[CloningBlues K423]].]]
** The ''Evangelion'' collab event "New Century" ends with this. [[spoiler:Kongming and Fallen Rosemary Rita are enjoying tea time on ''Hyperion''[='s=] bridge while the Captain is away, but are interrupted by Ai-chan, who has picked up a signal of a living being drifting in the Sea of Quanta. The scene then cuts to a shot of Asuka floating unconscious in Wotan's wreckage.]]
* WhatHappenedToTheMouse: The end of the Soul Throne raid stages has Sakura rejecting the offer to "walk again in the real world" with the sword Jizo Mitama, and then the sword is seen falling from the sky and landing on the grounds of St. Freya Academy. There's nothing said about what happened to the sword afterward.
* WhereItAllBegan:
** In the "Empyrean Legends" event, the story starts with the Celestial and Book of Fuxi occupying a room in Sakura's Inn in Xanadu Village. After most of the story having them travel to other places, the final chapter is in the village, having been razed while the Celestial was away.
** The end of chapter 15 sets up a major story development for chapters 16 and 17, in the ruins of Nagazora City, the site of the Third Honkai Impact where Kiana's and Mei's fates began to intertwine. Kiana has fled to this city and Mei goes there looking for her, while reminiscing things that happened there, particularly between her and Kiana. Then, after Mei finds Kiana and the latter wakes up, the two have a walk around the ruins, while talking about how their lives were like 3 years ago, and how a lot have changed since then. They also visit their old school, the Chiba Academy, although they could only see it from a distance due to the huge flood. When Mei asks her why she came to Nagazora, Kiana at first implies that it's out of nostalgia and old dreams[[note]]she says that the idea just popped up to her head as she's fleeing from the chaos in Schicksal's Vimur Base, and about how there's the idea of thinking of the past when one feels lost. But after she talks about how she wants to make the world a better place [[spoiler:following Himeko's "last lesson"]], she realizes that that must've been why she came to this city: she remembers the battles here and the oath they made to [[{{Tagline}} fight for all that is beautiful in this world]][[/note]]; however, she then thinks to herself about how the rising Honkai energy in the city feels wrong, as if something huge is about to happen, implying that above everything else, she wants to save this city.
** In particular, in the past, they used to fight each other on their school's rooftop as Kiana tried to free Mei from her Herrscher self (as seen in ''Guns Girl Z'' and the supplementary comics). Then, in chapter 17 of the game, [[spoiler:they end up fighting each other on the same rooftop again... and this time Kiana is fighting Herrscher Mei to stop her from joining World Serpent. This time, Mei has more reasons to win beyond just defending herself against Kiana - and now she has more than enough power to back it up]].
* WholeEpisodeFlashback:
** Chapters 5 and 6 takes place in the "simulation" of the 2nd Honkai War, as Kiana walks through it and witnesses things that happened. The twist, however, is that [[spoiler:it's revealed in the end that the Herrscher inside Kiana's mind is twisting her perception, making her see things that couldn't possibly happen in the past]].
** One stage in ch. 11-EX is, at least in big part, a flashback - this time, about Kiana's time with Himeko in the academy. It would later end with the flashback to [[spoiler:the end of ch. 9 where Himeko sacrifices herself to bring Kiana back from her Herrscher self]].
** One stage in ch. 17 is partly about this, as Mei reminisces of the time she first meets Kiana and then their lives together some time afterward, as she's currently running towards where Kiana is flying with Benares. Mei has a literal trip down the memory lane; during which, [[NostalgiaLevel it cuts to the scenes]] in chapter 1[[note]]Kiana and Mei fighting Honkai Beasts on the Selene battleship[[/note]], ch. 2[[note]]Mei trying to help Kiana study[[/note]], and ch. 8[[labelnote:spoilers!]]Mei trying to free Kiana from Herrscher of the Void, but failed[[/labelnote]] that you will play through. Then an image of Kiana appears to meet her, and they re-enact their conversation in ch. 14 when they met each other again; where Kiana tells Mei that [[ItsNotYouItsMe she's just going to be a danger to her friends]]. Then "Kiana" runs towards the light at the end and Mei follows her, which brings her back to the present.
* WhoYouGonnaCall:
** There are currently two groups that respond to the Honkai threats: Schicksal and Anti-Entropy, the former being founded in the Middle Ages and the latter being more recent. They just as often have conflicts with each other, however. They differ in their fighting methods: Schicksal usually uses their Valkyries, while Anti-Entropy uses MechaMooks.
** In the previous major civilization 50000+ years ago, there existed the Fire Moth (aka "The Moth who Chases the Flames"), which also responded to the Honkai threats. Their troops are called the MOTH, or "Myrmidons of Taskforce Honkai". The previous incarnation of Mei later became the head scientist of this group and created many inventions for fighting the Honkai and especially Herrschers.
* WolverineClaws: One type of zombie mooks fights with a pair of clawed gloves. They can also [[RunningOnAllFours run on all fours]] and generally attack like a wild beast.
* WorldOfActionGirls: All of the playable characters are female, and many significant characters are female fighters. The exceptions are: Siegfried, Kiana's dad and one of the strongest Valkyries; Welt, the first Herrscher and leader of Anti-Entropy; and Archbishop Otto Apocalypse, the leader of Schicksal and owner of the [[AllYourPowersCombined Divine Key Void Library]]. Post-Honkai Odyssey introduces [[HelloInsertNameHere a male character]] while noting that he was one of the few males in St. Freya Academy, as men with Honkai energy resistance are extremely rare.
* WorldTree: Chapter 17 has Otto describe something called the "Imaginary Tree". This tree "emerged" from "an endless Sea of unfathomable depths and boundaries", i.e the Sea of Quanta. The Tree and the Sea have something of a "rivalry"; the Sea seeks to flood, while the Tree seeks to "absorb". As the Tree has grown since time immemorial, it has grown the "branches and leaves", including a certain "unassuming branch" that leads to the birth of the human civilization. Otto's discovery of this "tree" leads him onto the "edge of science" where the only way for him to "keep going" is to look further into the tree. He then expresses his idea of how true peace could be achieved by reaching the "origin of civilization". To "ascend" this Tree is said to be akin to entering the "domain of God".
-->'''Otto:''' Imagine it! The Imaginary as the origin of the human race and the seed of civilization! Time flows in the trunk of the Imaginary Tree and branches out into an infinity of worlds. Every branch is a form of civilization. Every bud is their past and present etched onto the dimension of time. But growth is countered by a force - a selective and corrective system in the Tree's rivalry against the Sea. A natural system based upon the Imaginary mechanics. It breeds, nurtures, tests, and removes. This is what humanity describes as the Honkai.
* YearInsideHourOutside: In the Durandal visual novel, 4 years after Durandal finished her mission in the Sea of Quanta and got out of it, she and Rita visit a particular bubble universe again, and characters in there said that 10 years have passed since Durandal's leave.
* YouRequireMoreVespeneGas: Prior to the Version 3.5 update, the "Base" contained facilities that would help you improve your game[[note]]various locations that increased your Valkyries' base stats; the Refinery, which you could tap for extra coins and upgrade materials; the Command Center, where you could assign Valkyries to background missions for coins, materials, and Valkyrie fragments; and the Hub, where you could increase your roster of in-game friends[[/note]]. They could all be upgraded in order to make them more potent, but they required certain equipment enhancement materials each time, and more and rarer kinds of them to upgrade as their levels increased. Also, they required a certain amount of "power" to unlock their benefits, which was generated by the Honkai Powercore which also had to be upgraded to sufficiently fuel everything. After the 3.5 update, however, the Base (now rolled into the Dorm) no longer requires any material to upgrade[[note]]the game will even give the materials used in previous versions back to you[[/note]]; instead, it is now upgraded by finishing specific Valkyrie-related tasks.
[[/folder]]

* FantasyCounterpartCulture: The tourist brochure you find, with its references to temperate penguins, "Lion's Head Bay" and Swahili (and just outright referencing [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Table_Mountain Table Mountain]]), make it fairly obvious that St. Fountain in "A Post-Honkai Oddysey" is a stand-in for [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cape_Town Cape Town, South Africa]].

** The Arc City is a highly technological city in Shenzhou that remained untouched by Honkai phenomenon even after the Third Honkai War. [[spoiler:Kiana flees there after her Herrscher powers are suppressed.]] In one of the Raid stages, it's shown that the city has [[GeniusLoci a supervisory AI]] called "ARC".

** Himeko's 2020 birthday event (only in China) has the Captain and Himeko talk in a pub about "growth", what growing up means and how one handles life, particularly when talking about her students. Then [[spoiler:it ends with the Captain waking up to a glass of alcohol and a rose, alone; implying that the talk occurred some time before Himeko's death]].

** The "Rosemary's Floriograph" event is hinted to take place in a different universe. The story is told from the perspective of Creator/ArthurConanDoyle, but he has Fu Hua (as Hawk of the Fog) as his partner, and Irene Adler (a fictional character in Doyle's Literature/SherlockHolmes novels) is a real person in this world (portrayed by Rita as Fallen Rosemary). The story's beginnings has him and Fu Hua traveling with a train to the city of St. Fountain, but it looks different from the same city in the Post-Honkai Odyssey open world. This world's version of Anti-Entropy is an anti-Honkai protection system built by one of Schicksal's labs, Lab 42, in St. Fountain (which was devastated by a Honkai event 5 years from the story's beginning) to protect it from Honkai beasts. Later on, however, after Welt Joyce discovered how Schicksal was behind the inhuman experiments on orphans in St. Fountain's church, Lab 42 breaks ties with Schicksal and allies with its North American branch, and together, they create a new organization named Anti-Entropy [[spoiler:mirroring the creation of the organization in the main story]]. Also, [[spoiler:"Irene Adler" is actually an alias; she is Rita Rossweisse from another world]].

* {{Prequel}}: The "Honkai Kingdoms: Zero" event (in Version 3.9) is one to the "Honkai Kingdoms" event (in Version 3.0). It shows how the kingdom of "Emberya" came to be, as well as introducing the mystery behind "Zhuge Kongming", the "Grand Seeress". The epilogue gives a brief history on how the 3 sides of Honkai Kingdoms (Emberya, Schicksal and Jormungond) came to be. Its ending is also tied to the original Honkai Kingdoms, where [[spoiler:Kongming tried to reactivate the ELF Tesla-Zero with her ritual, only for the Olenyeva Twins - Captain's companion in HK - to appear somehow]].
* ProductPlacement: The special Chinese New Year episode of ''Cooking with Valkyries'' has Himeko eating in Lawson convenience store, and later, the girls drink Pepsi when they're having their feast.

* PyrrhicVictory: A running theme throughout the series is that every victory against the honkai comes with some sort of sacrifice. This is what doomed the humanity of the Previous Era − even if they fended off the Herrschers, it was always as such a heavy cost that by the twelfth one, there was pretty much nothing left to save. The narration sums it up as "humanity winning every single battle, but losing the war".

* PyrrhicVictory: A running theme throughout the series is that every victory against the honkai comes with some sort of sacrifice. This is what doomed the humanity of the Previous Era − even if they fended off the Herrschers, it was always as such a heavy cost that by the twelfth one, there was pretty much nothing left to save. The narration sums it up as "humanity winning every single battle, but losing the war".

* SocialDarwinist: Actually not really "social" as the issue is indeed "phsyiological" (i.e close to real Darwinism), but the World Serpent (and [[spoiler:Kevin]] in particular) believes that only a few "qualified" ones among humanity can hope to survive the Honkai. This is reflected through their "Project Stigma": [[spoiler:a plan to forcefully rearrange the "stigma genome" in human bodies on people of Arc City at once, in order to awaken the latent power of Stigmata inside them, but as their prior experiments ended with a lot of failure (i.e most of the subjects either died or turned into zombies) they expect that only a few would survive the process and become empowered with Stigmata]]. In a flashback, Gray Serpent said to a young girl that in rough times like this where basic needs are scarce, only those who "deserve" them can live on, while other people have to be "sacrificed". He then told the girl (who he believed "deserves" to live) to survive and live on for those who have sacrificed their lives for hers, and to make them worth it.

** The end of Bright Knight's event in version 3.9 (set some time before the game's main story) has a scene where the data of the Bright Knight suit in one of the capsules in a certain chamber in ch. 9 is deleted, leaving the message "project trasnferred to other labs" behind.

** {{Exaggerated|trope}} by both Stygian Nymph (as Veliona) and [[Anime/NeonGenesisEvangelion Asuka Langley]] in combat. Veliona's slashing attacks and Asuka’s throw animation cause their dresses to flip up high enough to not only show their underwear but part of their bellies.

* TheUnblinking: With the exception of Durandal[[note]]as Bright Knight Excelsis and Dea Anchora[[/note]] and [[Anime/RebuildOfEvangelion Asuka Shikinami Langley]], the Valkyries' character sprites don't blink when they're standing still.

** Stygian Nymph has two different instances:
*** Her outfit Mirrored Flourishes gives Saule and Veliona qipaos which are cut so high on one side that it's basically impossible for her to not show her underwear, especially in the finishing screen after weekday events.
*** {{Exaggerated|trope}} by Veliona in combat. Her slashing attacks cause her dress to flip up high enough to not only show her underwear but part of her belly.

* NostalgiaLevel: Chapter 22 has 2 levels that relive certain levels of the past [[spoiler:courtesy of Hua(?)'s power over the mind]]: one of them recreates Chapter 9's events[[note]]Fu Hua's battle against Rita and then [[spoiler:Herrscher of the Void]], but with [[spoiler:Hua(?) in place of Fu Hua]][[/note]], while the other recreates chapter 13's[[labelnote:Spoilers]]Fu Hua is given some power from Hua(?) to recreate the scene where Kiana tries to infiltrate Heliopolis while Fu Hua guides her from inside her mind. The twist is that Hua(?) failed to help Kiana infiltrate and the former decides to just beat up the guards[[/labelnote]].

** One stage in ch. 17 is partly about this, as Mei reminisces of the time she first meets Kiana and then their lives together some time afterward, as she's currently running towards where Kiana is flying with Benares. Mei has a literal trip down the memory lane; during which, it cuts to the scenes in chapter 1[[note]]Kiana and Mei fighting Honkai Beasts on the Selene battleship[[/note]], ch. 2[[note]]Mei trying to help Kiana study[[/note]], and ch. 8[[labelnote:spoilers!]]Mei trying to free Kiana from Herrscher of the Void, but failed[[/labelnote]] that you will play through. Then an image of Kiana appears to meet her, and they re-enact their conversation in ch. 14 when they met each other again; where Kiana tells Mei that [[ItsNotYouItsMe she's just going to be a danger to her friends]]. Then "Kiana" runs towards the light at the end and Mei follows her, which brings her back to the present.

In-game, you take the role of "Captain" of the flying battleship Hyperion, your Valkyries' home base, and you'll be tasked with managing the Valkyries and completing missions. The gameplay follows a 3D BeatEmUp format ([[SpiritualAdaptation similar]] to Creator/PlatinumGames works) with you being able to deploy up to 3 characters in the levels, along with a simple but powerful control system. The game's content features a Story mode, which is essentially the "main" game; a number of side missions which allow you to earn coins, materials, upgrades for the Valkyries, and other rewards; and occasional events and quests which often contain RPG and VisualNovel elements.

* TheBridge: The home screen is set on the Hyperion's bridge, with the BridgeBunnies in the background and a Valkyrie of your choice standing in front of you.

** In ch. 16, when Mei asks Tesla on what they could do to help the children in the Roost, she says that AE's Salt Lake base is taking in some orphans and that they may be running low on supplies. It refers to the end of ch. 12 where the Hyperion crew is planning to take the kids in Cocolia's orphanage to the Salt Lake base.

* CoolAirship: The Hyperion, which doubles as your HomeBase.

* DiabolusExMachina: In Ch. 3, our heroes corner Herrscher Wendy and convince her to turn normal so that she can be brought to the Hyperion, have her legs healed, and have a better life. Due to Bronya's words, Wendy is convinced and willing to go with them... just in time for Cocolia to command Bronya to beat Wendy, causing Bronya to attack the latter. An angered Wendy turns Herrscher again and you have to fight her for real. Worse, after the battle, a squadron of Anti-Entropy robots come in and strike your Valkyries and Wendy down after they're exhausted, and they and brainwashed Bronya then go away with Wendy and Mei in their clutches.

* TheEndingChangesEverything: The "Rosemary's Floriograph" event seems like a standard detective mystery fare, even with the truly supernatural elements behind the crime case. The final scene, however... [[spoiler:Irene Adler makes a note about how some of the key people in the case aren't who they seem, and then goes to say "what if Irene Adler is not Irene Adler, and Conan Doyle isn't Conan Doyle?" She then proceeds to ask Doyle who he is, and when he's about to say anything, he suddenly falls silent - as he has a warped view of the Irene in front of him briefly "flashing" into Rita (with the same shot as in the "Sanguine Nights" event) - before he lost consciousness. It then cuts into a text-only scene where "Irene" reveals her real name is Rita Rossweisse - but [[AlternateSelf not the same Rita that we know (i.e the "Schiksal's Maid" and Durandal's second-in-command)]]. She's talking to ''Kongming'', who had a deal with her to bring "Doyle" back - as he's actually ''the Captain'' who used his [[MentalTimeTravel consciousness mapping]] to enter the event's world and "become" Doyle. Kongming then says that Rita is different from most people in the Hyperion, but she's closer to the Captain himself. Kongming then warns her about doing or plotting something shady in the ship, but also thanks her (in Kongming's own way) for bringing Captain back.]]

* LetsSplitUpGang: After Chapter 9-EX, our hero group (consisting of our Valkyries and some Anti-Entropy members) are still planning to find more information about [[spoiler:the missing Kiana]], but Cocolia sends them a distress call, asking them for help in defending the Gem of Desire from Schicksal's forces. They decide to split their forces for this: Mei and Dr. Tesla go to find more information about [[spoiler:the missing Kiana]] (and Mei gets her upgrade to her Valkyrie Bladestrike suit in-story), while Bronya, Theresa and Dr. Einstein go with the Hyperion to Cocolia's location.

** Ai-chan, the AI of the battleship Hyperion. She acts as the "system voice" and also helps with the tutorials with her rather casual style of speaking. She also has her own Twitter account.

* NonEntityGeneral: The player assumes the role of Captain of the Hyperion, which is mostly unseen. The Captain is also uninvolved in main and side stories, only showing up in events.

* PlotMandatedFriendshipFailure: This happens at the climax of chapter 17, between Kiana and Mei. The former, who's already in a bad condition and [[YourDaysAreNumbered only has a few months left to live]], tries to stop an impending disaster with her "hidden powers", even if [[TheLastDance it might be her last moments]]. The latter, who wishes to [[NowLetMeCarryYou repay Kiana's kindness to her]] and save her friend's life, ends up having to deal with a villainous organization, World Serpent, to [[FindTheCure find a way to treat Kiana's condition]]. Mei succeeds with their help and Kiana is now better off, but as part of their deal, Mei would have to join their group. Kiana is disheartened when she finds out about this; Mei, who wishes for Kiana to not [[ChronicHeroSyndrome push herself to death to help her friend]] anymore, decides to BreakHerHeartToSaveHer. They end up [[FightingYourFriend having a bitter fight]], as Kiana tries to stop Mei from joining the Serpents while Mei tries to beat some sense into her friend - particularly about how Kiana means ''the world'' to her. In the end, Mei wins and leaves Kiana away. In the aftermath, after Kiana is found by the Hyperion crew, she's said to be still grieving over what Mei did.

* SequelHook: Officially, due to the licensing agreement with Studio Khara, all the ''Anime/NeonGenesisEvangelion'' content of the "New Century" event will not return once the event is over. That said, the final cutscene has [[spoiler:Asuka having survived the Angel-induced self-destruct of Wotan and floating unconscious in the Sea of Quanta to be found by the ''Hyperion'']], leaving open the possibility of a continuation should another collaboration be successfully arranged.

* SheIsTheKing: the title "Herrscher", following its German roots, is a masculine term[[note]]the female equivalent is "Herrscherin"[[/note]]. While the first Herrscher was a man, subsequent ones have always been female and they're still being called "Herrscher". This isn't the case in the original Chinese/Japanese, which used the gender neutral term "Ruler" instead.

* StealthParody: The special story in the "Summer Memories" event (which takes place 10 years from the present) is actually one for the Sakura Samsara storyline. Both of them involve [[GroundhogDayLoop time looping]] and an outsider (the Captain for the event, Kiana in Sakura's story) is brought in in order to save someone (Kallen in the event, Sakura in her story). However, [[spoiler:while Sakura Samsara ends in a happy note where Sakura is freed from her "nightmare", the event's story ends badly no matter what happened: the Captain couldn't save Luna Kindred, while Otto couldn't save Kallen]]. "The Day You Vanished With The Stars", in turn, is an extended parody of Summer Memories (and a ShoutOut to ''VisualNovel/SteinsGate''), where the Captain loops time multiple times to try to save Zhuge Kongming, facing failures each time. He only succeeded [[spoiler:by taking Kongming to the Hyperion (which is currently situated in the Sea of Quanta) with him, as Tesla-Zero reveals that an unseen force tries to wipe Kongming off the face of the world for being an "anomaly" in time]].

** Ch. 17 has a secret cutscene that happens after the final playable one (the "Lament of the Fallen" video). [[spoiler:It has Otto watching his monitor, which has the image of a mysterious woman and dragon-like creature (see FreezeFrameBonus above) in it. The narration states that the experiment in Nagazora is a success, but comes interruption from Amber about the awakening of Herrscher of Thunder, Kiana being taken by the Hyperion crew, and the 5th Herrscher about to appear. Despite the balance of the world being potentially disturbed, Otto could hardly care about them as he's more busy with what he sees in front of him.]]

** The ''Evangelion'' collab event "New Century" ends with this. [[spoiler:Kongming and Fallen Rosemary Rita are enjoying tea time on Hyperion's bridge while the Captain is away, but are interrupted by Ai-chan, who has picked up a signal of a living being drifting in the Sea of Quanta. The scene then cuts to a shot of Asuka floating unconscious in Wotan's wreckage.]]

** "Gemina Invasions: Deep Paradise Arc" event plays like the "St. Freya Fiesta" event, i.e a ''TabletopGame/{{Monopoly}}''-style board game where your walking distance is decided by a wheel roll and you get to build facilities that strengthen your characters in various ways. There are also encounters with enemies that, when you defeat them, gives you event currency to buy things, and "random events" that can either give you goodies or make you lose them. There's an extra "unexpected" layer in that, if you run into HOMU-style enemy on the board, you'll be taken into a stage where, instead of fighting enemies like normal gameplay, you're playing a different minigame[[note]]either "collecting falling coins", "run-and-gun play" (ala "Empyrean Legends"), or "{{Goomba Stomp}}ing monsters" (a variant on the "HOMEI's Fight" material mission)[[/note]].
** The ''Evangelion'' collab event "New Century" has 2 of these: stages where you're riding a motorbike and speeds to the finish line, and stages where you're controlling Wotan to fight enemies, including the Angels.

** The ''Evangelion'' collab event "New Century" ends with this. [[spoiler:It shows Kongming and Fallen Rosemary Rita enjoying tea time in the Hyperion while the Captain is away. Then Ai-chan picks up a signal of a living being drifting in the Sea of Quanta and she notifies the two ladies about it, and it cuts to the shot of Asuka unconsciously floating around the wreck of Wotan.]]

** The ''Evangelion'' collab event "New Century" ends with this. [[spoiler:It shows Kongming and Fallen Rosemary enjoying tea time in the Hyperion while the Captain is away. Then Ai-chan picks up a signal of a living being drifting in the Sea of Quanta and she notifies the two ladies about it, and it cuts to the shot of Asuka unconsciously floating around the wreck of Wotan.]]

* WhamShot: In the special chapter "Everlasting Memory", there's a shot of [[spoiler:child Kiana, cuffed and blindfolded, accompanied with [[WhamLine Otto mentioning about how he has Kiana in his custody]]]]. It foreshadows that [[spoiler:the Kiana that we know is actually Experimental body [[CloningBlues K423]].]]

* {{Crossover}}: Version 4.5 features a crossover event with ''Anime/NeonGenesisEvangelion'', titled "New Century"[[note]]Named after the original Japanese title, ''Shinseiki Evangelion'', lit. "''New Century'' Gospel"[[/note]]. Angels appear in Nagazora and Asuka shows up to fight them. The event's story parodies that of Evangelion's, with Honkai characters and concepts in place of Eva's: Mei as Shinji, Bronya as Rei, Himeko as Misato, Kiana as Asuka, Ryoma (Mei's father) as Gendo, and so on.

* FullHealthBonus: Note that trying to use these bonuses will be hard to nigh-impossible (depending on the case) in the Q-Singularis mode because of the "health drain" mechanic. d

* HopelessBossFight: In the 3rd stage of the ''Anime/NeonGenesisEvangelion'' event, you can't really win the one-on-one fight since the Wotan's sluggish movement can't catch up with the 4th Angel's attacks. It's meant to lead to the 4th stage, where Wotan's synchronization level goes to 200% and reveals its "stronger" form, which proceeds to beat up the 4th Angel until it dies.

* SelfDeprecation: In Mei's birthday mini-event (in 2020), one of the attacks Mei can perform is "90% Rage" where a giant robot will come in to punch the zombies away. It's referring to how the progression of the giant robot Wotan in the Schicksal HQ Open World remains at 90% even after you completed all of its story missions.

* {{Crossover}}: Version 4.5 features a crossover event with ''Anime/NeonGenesisEvangelion'', titled "New Century"[[note]]Named after the original Japanese title, ''Shinseiki''[[/note]]. Angels appear in Nagazora and Asuka shows up to fight them. The event's story parodies that of Evangelion's, with Honkai characters and concepts in place of Eva's: Mei as Shinji, Bronya as Rei, Himeko as Misato, Kiana as Asuka, Ryoma (Mei's father) as Gendo, and so on.