As soon as you start playingHonkai: Star Rail, you’re thrown into the interstellar world where the Stellarons dropped by the Aeon of Destruction are causing problems everywhere. However, as soon as the main character is introduced, you learn that there’s a Stellaron in their body as well.
As you journey through different planets trying to uncover various secrets, you eventually land on Penacony, the Land of Dreams, as your fourth stop. This is the region where things start getting quite serious from the first part itself.
Entering The Dream-Filled Land
Once you’re done with Tingyun’s funeral in The Xianzhou Luofu, the Express starts getting ready to depart for the destination that they were supposed to reach before Kafka changed their path. As you’re getting ready for the journey,you get to meet Duke Inferno for the first timeduring the Trailblaze Continuance on Herta Space Station.
The end of this Continuance mission hints at the fact thatyou’ll get to see him again in Penacony.
During the meeting regarding Penacony, Pom-Pom mentions three things:
After the meeting, you talk to the crew members and learn thatHimeko has something to discuss with everyone later, and Dan Heng is staying out of this one. The Express starts heading toward the planet and you instantly getdragged into another realm where you find Acheronfor the first time. She mentions that you’re currently on the border of reality and memory zone, which is called a dreamscape.
As you follow Acheron out of the dreamscape, you learn thatyou can walk on walls and she can hear your thoughts. You also get to witness a few voices belonging to some strangers. At the end, Acheron asks you if you’ve met her before, andyour answer to this changes her answer. She also mentions that she forgets things and uses her emotions to capture memories.
She also mentions that you’ll witness alot of tragedies in the upcoming days, and you’ll start seeing everything in black and white.
However, there will be a glimpse of red that appears whenever you make a choice.
As this conversation ends, you witness Acheron tearing up while the Trailblazer’s bodyexplodes and they wake back up in the Express. You then head down to The Reverie, which is the main hotel in Penacony for all the guests. Here, you meet one of the strangers you saw in the dreamscape, Misha. He says the same lines he did before to welcome you to The Reverie.
However, there’s a small drama at the reception desk right after where the receptionist mentions that the Trailblazersonly booked a room for Dan Heng, so Trailblazer doesn’t necessarily have a room. She also refuses to provide Dan Heng’s room to the Trailblazer due to strict rules. Coincidentally, Aventurine appears at the scene right after.
He mentions that the hotel staff cannot do anything and he’s been waiting in line for quite a while for this to resolve. Himeko, on the other hand, sees this as an opportunity and requests him to vouch for the Trailblazer in return forhaving some powerful friends in the form of the Nameless. Aventurine agrees to this and gets the Trailblazer a room on his account.
He mentions that he has a meeting with Sunday where he can settle this, but before the receptionist can say anything,Sunday himself arrives at the scene. He comes alongside Robin and takes Aventurine for the said meeting. Robin offers everyone to rest their feet but March recognizes her as a famous singer. You also learn that Robin had left Penacony, but was invited recently for the Charmony festival.
When Robin isn’t around anymore, March mentions thather voice doesn’t sound quite the sameas she remembers it.
Once they’re checked in, the Trailblazer and March head to their rooms as you get to witness a talk between Himeko and Welt. Himeko mentions that the invite from Penacony featured a music box, but it had some off-key notes that resulted in themdeciphering it to be a distress call used by the Nameless. Welt also mentions Robin’s voice not being the best.
After talking to the crew, you also learn that theWatchmaker is the most important figure in Penacony, and some even believe that he’s the creator of dreamscape.
Preparing For The Dream
As you enter your room to witness your first dream, you find Aventurine there who boasts abouteverything he did to book a lucky room just to give it to you. He asks for your help in taking back something that belongs to the IPC. He also baits you into essentially telling him that you’re the one with the Stellaron inside. Aventurine then gives you some time to ponder.
However, before he leaves, he tries to play a game with you where you have to guess the hand he’s hiding a chip in. However, before he can go too far with this little game, Acheronarrives at the scene and asks what you’re doing in her room. Aventurine leaves the scene, and after a small talk with a few familiar dialogues, Acheron does the same.
After all this, you finally sit in the pool and enter your first dream. However, before you get there, you see some random sceneswith a person constantly shouting “Mikhail”. You also witness a talk between Dr. Ratio and Aventurine where you learn that a gray-suited fellow has taken the cornerstones, which also makes Aventurine nothing but a normal human. You also hear a few group names from him:
With all these big names at play,something huge is bound to happenin this region.
Entering The First Dream
As soon as you switch back to the Trailblazer, you find yourself in a small room with a note. On the other side of the room, youfind Misha once again who leads you to the Golden Hour, your first destination. This area’s time always remains the time before midnight. The clock never strikes midnight and so, the next day never comes.
You find yourself having a rough landing in the Golden Hour area where you meet Robin and Sunday right after. You tell them that you didn’t get hurt from the fall at all, and Robin tries toget you more accustomed to the dreamscape using her powers. Sunday refers to this as being tuned by the Harmony, which helps you use the laws of physics in the dream world.
Once the conversation with Robin and Sunday ends, the Trailblazer starts looking around the area upon March’s request and eventually stumbles upon a place where a girl is being surrounded by some people. Sheasks for your help and you fight the people off for her. Gallagher enters the scene right after the fight and you realize that both he and the people surrounding the girl are a part of the Bloodhound family.
They were trying to look for a stowaway and thought that the girl was the suspect. Once Gallagher leaves, the girl introduces herself asFirefly, an extra stage performer from the Iris family. She requests to be your guide and takes you around various places in Penacony including the Grand Theater, which is one of the most popular places in Penacony.
After a bit of sightseeing and gacha, you end up at a place with Firefly where she tells you that someone’s been following you from the start. A lot of suspense is built upjust to realize that it has been none other than Sampo all along. When Sampo introduces himself, Firefly asks who he is, and he mistakes her for March 7th.
The Trailblazer clears the confusion and introduces the two, and Sampo then asks you tofollow him to witness the “adult side of things” in Golden Hour. He first tries to take you to the Peppy Pepeshi’s Salon, but the guard refuses to let anyone without a VIP card in. He then asks the guard to get something from someone called Miss Thunderbolt.
For the final item Sampo needs, he asks you to interact with an arcade machine that turns you into Hanu. You have togo through a small Hanu’s Adventure to get the item. Once all the items are in Sampo’s hands, he takes you to Dr. Edward and requests him to put you in his dreamscape. In the dream, you’re back to Underground Belobog, except the only living things around are buffed trashcans.
A trashcan called Shatana narrates the tale of the humble Garbage King Tatalov, who gotturned into an evil ruler because of the “thing from beyond the sky”. You have to gain a few Proofs of Trust and battle against the king in this dream. It turns out that the garbage king is none other than Sampo, and Firefly pulls you back out just before you’re about to fight him.
Outside the dream, Sampo tries to relate the dream to modern-day Penacony, butyou notice that Firefly is missing before you can think too much about it. He tries to tell you that Firefly is suspicious, and you have to find her again. At the next meeting, Firefly reveals that she is indeed the stowaway that the Bloodhound family was after, and she’s not a local of this world.
She then asks you to follow her to the secret base, but you end up getting interrupted by Clockie on your path. Only the Trailblazer can see Clockie, andhe asks for your help to prevent Misha from trouble. You get introduced to the Clockwork mechanic here and use it to save both Misha and Acheron. The latter then reveals that she was investigating the Masked Fools when there were some misunderstandings.
Acheron also reveals that after the initial dream, she spotted alady in a black veil inside a mirror who left something in the Trailblazer’s mind. You finally get to head to the secret base right after, but before you get there, you witness a conversation between a lady in red and Aventurine. The former seems to be a Masked Fool, and the two seem to not like each other very much.
After following Firefly for a little while and reaching the secret base, she reveals a huge secret. She’ssuffering from a condition called Entropy Loss Syndrome. The people suffering from this slowly fade away from this world, and no one around them notices it. She mentions that she stays in this dream because she can free herself from the icy medical cabin and live life normally.
It’s also important to remember that Fireflymentions all the big parties present in Penaconyincluding the Masked Fools.
She also hints at the fact thatshe has her own agendafor being a part of this.
Firefly then reveals that she’s also after the Watchmaker’s Legacy, but she can’t tell you some things still. You take a picture with Firefly at the secret base andboth of you head back to Golden Hoursince you need to leave the dreamscape and meet the crew. As you reach Golden Hour, you notice that it’s quite empty suddenly and destiny has some other plans for you.
A Small Detour Before Reality
As you’re trying to head to The Reverie through Golden Hour, your path is intercepted by a disappointed Sampo. He seems quite upset after seeing that you’re still with Firefly after his warning, andthe truth behind his actions is revealed right then. It turns out that this figure is none other than the same lady dressed in red who was talking to Aventurine.
She knocks out both you and Fireflywhile sending you into the “Real Dreamscape”. At first, it seems like you’re back at the hotel inside the dreamscape, but you can’t send or receive messages in here. After meeting back up with Firefly, you attempt to find an exit, but you notice a few things on your path:
After witnessing a gruesome set of repeated rooms in this dreamscape, youencounter the Memory Zone Meme called Something Unto Deathfor the first time. You fight this enemy off and attempt to protect Firefly, but the enemy ends up snatching her and almost impaling her. However, a familiar figure with a black veil saves the two of you at the right time.
The fight starts again and thefigure introduces herself as a Memokeeper, Black Swan. She creates an opening for you and Firefly to leave the dreamscape, and you’re greeted by her face as soon as you wake up in reality. You can’t find Firefly anywhere, but you decide to meet up with the crew first. Black Swan also refers to the place you were in as the Primal Dreamscape.
The girl in red is finally introduced here as Sparkle, aMasked Fool who infiltrated Penacony.
Black Swan points to the fact that Sparkle’s power only causes hallucination,but the Primal Dreamscape actually exists on Penacony. The dreams are carefully designed by The Family, but the place Trailblazer went to was the true dreamscape with its chaotic nature. Himeko mentions that the first stop for everyone while entering the dream is the hotel in the dream itself.
However, the entire hotel is currently under renovation. Listening to this, Black Swan reveals that the entiredreamscape of Penacony is sinking and returning to its original form, which also justifies the existence of the Death enemy. Welt, on the other hand, talks about a certain silver-armored man and shows you a message related to him, except the message is from Silver Wolf, the Stellaron Hunter herself.
Being the hacker girl that she is, Silver Wolf sends you a codethat’ll directly let you enter The Reverie in the dreamscape, which is the same area that’s supposed to be under renovation. It’s also revealed that the silver-armored man is none other than Sam, another Stellaron Hunter who came from Glamoth’s iron Cavalry and possesses superhuman perception.
The Trailblazers decide to act on Silver Wolf’s message and enter the dreamscape again, but Welt decides to stay in reality to ensure everyone’s safety. You ask Black Swan about Firefly’s whereabouts, but sheassures you that she has probably woken up already.
Another Journey To The Dreamscape
Black Swan decides to stay by your side in the dreamscape while also ensuring the safety of March and Himeko. However,not long after you enter the dreamscape, you meet up with Acheron once again. She mentions that she was investigating the rumors surrounding Penacony and ended up in this dreamscape as well.
You decide to tag Acheron along to have anextra pair of hands for any upcoming fightas you attempt to find the dreamscape lobby. After traversing the walls and pillars of the jumbled dreamscape, you end up in front of a locked door. Black Swan attempts to locate everyone’s position in the Dreamscape here including the core, but she also finds that three other people are moving about.
It turns out that Firefly never left the dream, andshe’s still running aroundin this dangerous land.
You hurry over to look for Firefly as it seems like she’s running away from something. However, just before you’re about to reunite with her,you witness the Memory Zone Meme snatch her away and impale her in front of your eyes. Firefly dissolves into water as both Acheron and Black Swan watch the Death fade back into darkness.
After comforting the Trailblazer, Black Swan heads out to meet up with Himeko and March 7th. While she’s away,Acheron mentions that they have to ensure every enemy’s location before The Hunt. Black Swan returns with Himeko’s message to meet at Clockie’s statue once you’ve investigated Firefly’s situation. Before leaving, Acheron goes over to the place where Firefly got dissolved and says these words:
May death be the end of your boundless dream… Guiding you back… to the waking world.
It doesn’t take long for you to try and leave the dreamscapebefore you end up reaching a bunch of enemy corpses, burnt to a crisp. Moving forward, you witness a few memories of Firefly and learn a few things:
By the time you’re done investigating her memory, you reach the location whereyou’d find the Stellaron Hunter mentioned earlier. He mentions both Acheron and Black Swan before asking them to leave, but a fight begins right after. At the end of this fight, Sam tries to reach the Trailblazer but is kicked away by Acheron while Black Swan sends us to another location.
The Second Murder?
Of course, thisnew place greets the Trailblazer with the familiar face of Aventurine. He reveals that Black Swan planned to put Acheron and Sam against each other while delivering you to Aventurine. He also claims that Black Swan didn’t betray you, butinstead, she saved you from the Galaxy Ranger Acheron. According to him, Acheron is an Emanator who brings finality and death.
The biggest revelation comes during this scene regarding the Duke Inferno himself,the entity you were looking forward to meeting in Penacony. Here’s what you learn:
Aventurine then gives you a choice to eitherleave the place or join him if you want to learn the truth. After consulting with Black Swan and learning that she trusts Aventurine, you decide to go with him and make your decision after he shows you the “truth”. He takes you to the same hallway and the same room that you’re staying in at The Reverie in reality.
Inside the room, in the same pool that you’re currently using to enter the dreamscape, you find a familiar figure. You see that none other thanRobin is lying in the pool, with a purple slash across her chestjust before she dissolves into bubbles right before your eyes. Before you’re able to react to that, the scene cuts to Sunday being in Golden Hour as he’s joined by “Robin”.
He asks Robin one question before realizing thatshe’s none other than, once again, Sparkle herself. After revealing her true form, Firefly asks Sunday if the Family is still unwilling to fight even after losing their darling. In the end, Sunday hints at the fact that the malefactor or the mastermind has revealed themselves, and the game has finally begun.
Back in the Dreamscape, Aventurine reveals that he had nothing to do with Robin’s murder,but he was just creating a memory for you to see. He also blames Acheron for the creation of Death, the entity that took away Firefly and Robin. He also mentions that his main goal here is to take over Penacony and get it under IPC’s care like it was once before.
Aventurine leaves after asking your help in his endeavors, and Black Swan advises you to mull it over with your Express crew members. However, before taking you back out,she gives you a special item to help you in times of need.
Acheron’s Past - Part One
From this part, the story starts taking some interesting twists as you’re consistently thrown into past memories,starting with the one where Acheron slays Duke Inferno, which triggers after her small talk with Sam. She asks Duke Inferno to surrender the Music Box, but he refuses even after his “children” are brought up.
It is also confirmed at this point, by Duke Inferno,that Acheron is indeed an Emanator. After a little talk about Destruction, Acheron reveals that she doesn’t truly follow the path of The Hunt as she slays the Duke, and the scene switches back to Penacony where she sheaths her sword back and refuses to defeat Sam.
At this point, Acheron reveals that Sam never wanted to hurt the Trailblazer, but hejust wanted to drive Acheron and Black Swan away.
She offers to help Sam, and when he asks the reason for it, Acheronmentions that she knows who’s inside the armor.
Before parting here, Sam reveals that he was born without the ability to dream, andhe envies Acheron for having them. Back with the Astral Express crew, you decide to accept Aventurine’s offer while also keeping contact with The Family. The Astral Express essentially decides to take a neutral stance until things are revealed further.
After some talk with Aventurine, the crew, and consoling March, the crewdecides that everyone will go back to reality to investigate further except Welt. The reason for this is soon revealed as Acheron pops into the scene. Welt’s sharp eyes and ears caught even an Emanator eavesdropping on them.
This interaction sets quite a few questions in motion, starting with Acheron having an interesting reaction on her face after hearing Welt’s name. She alsomentions that a blade might not be as much trouble as the black hole that Welt wields. After a little threatening, Acheron mentions that she’s only in Penacony to fulfill a final wish and get the legacy.
She seems to know a lot more than she should, including the Stellaron inside the Trailblazer, which is the main reason for Welt to agree to work together with her. The scene then switches to Black Swan being in Acheron’s room trying to investigate the music box, andthis is where Constance is revealed for the first time.. or at least her voice is.
Constance, along with Dubra, are revealed to betwo of the “children” that Duke Inferno was talking about, indicating that they’re still alive.
Constance reveals some truths to Black Swan by taking her to the past of a certain planet called Sigonia. In theharsh environment of the planet, you see a baby in a woman’s lap. The woman asks Gaiathra Triclops (their equivalent of an Aeon) if the child’s presence here means something, which is the moment it starts raining in the scorched land.
She reveals that the boy’s name isKakavasha, meaning child blessed by Gaiathra, as she welcomes him to the sad world.
A Meeting With The Family
The scene switches back to Dr. Ratiowaking Aventurine up and telling him about a second murder. With all else failing, the duo decides to meet Sunday once again, as he wants to see Aventurine again. They head over to Dewlight Pavilion for the same, but a meeting with Sunday won’t be so easy as you have to go through various puzzles.
After going through a sandpit, you finally enter the chambers with Sunday to find something you’d never expect. Aventurine says thathe plans to use Robin’s murder to get an upper hand on Sunday. He also reveals that he never believed that the murders had any relation with Acheron in the first place, but just wanted someone to keep a check on her.
In the room with Sunday, Aventurine does just as he said. He offers his help to find the traitor among the Family inexchange for the special box that got taken away in the beginning. However, Sunday outright refuses to give him the Cornerstone and also puts a Harmony effect on Aventurine so that he cannot lie before proceeding further.
Sunday asks a few questions, and quite a few things are revealed in this conversation:
Sunday then asks Aventurine to open the box, but the Cornerstones aren’t in there. Instead, Sundayreveals that he has not one, but two Cornerstones in his possession. This takes you back to a time when Dr. Ratio met up with Sunday and betrayed Aventurine for some research findings, giving him all the information about the Cornerstones and Aventurine’s plan.
After opening the box for Sunday, they findTopaz’s Cornerstone in it, which Aventurine initially agreed was his. Ratio also reveals Aventurine’s Cornerstone inside the normal bag, placed right in front of everyone’s eyes by the gambler. Back to the present conversation, Sunday reveals that Aventurine only has 17 hours to live since he lied to the Harmony.
If Aventurine wants to stay alive, he needs tofind out the true culpritinside the family. Sunday also gives him the bag with the rest of the duffel in it.
Aventurine’s Past - Part One
Before Aventurine leaves, Sunday asks him a simple questionsimilar to one of the questionsfrom before:
Do you truly wish to bring about the destruction of this world?
This triggers another flashback to Aventurine’s (Kakavasha) past, this time with his sister. In this one, heretrieves a special necklace for her while fighting the Katicans. In reply to this, the sister reveals that their parents also died from Katicans, and begs him to protect himself and not risk his life again.
She makes him swear to Gaiathra Triclops for the same, but Aventurine asks in returnwhat sins Avgins could’ve possibly committed to deserve such punishmentand hardship. With this, the scene switches to the Trailblazers being back in the Penacony hotel lobby.
In this area, you learn that Penacony hasno information about Firefly in their records, meaning she’s entered the Dreamscape through other methods.
After this small conversation, you’re greeted by afamiliar face in the lobby in the form of Topaz. She mentions that she doesn’t have access to the dream, and has to stay in the lobby while Aventurine handles the stuff inside.
A Meeting With The Hounds
After pulling a few strings, you finally get to meet the head of the Bloodhound Family, Gallagher. He gets straight to the point andtakes you to a different place if you want to discuss the case. However, the scene gets switched back to Welt and Acheron here, two of the most mysterious people present in Penacony’s Dreamscape at the moment.
They talk about how the members of the family see themselves as part of a bigger puzzle. Acheron also mentions that the Beautiful Dream of Penacony is crumbling, and the reasonboils down to human nature and the Family’s refusal to acknowledge it. The two talk about how this dream of providing people happiness has also become a cage for them.
As Welt asks Acheron to reveal everything she’s learned, shequickly unsheaths and sheaths her sword.
She mentions that this is her way of remembering the past, as she forgets them quite easily.
At this point, Acheron reveals quite a few details aboutvarious parts of Penaconyyou haven’t yet seen, though this doesn’t have much relation to the story. In return, Welt shares a story of his own. However, there’ssomething quite different about this story, and it’s made obvious with the sudden change of music.
This story belongs to his home, Honkai Impact 3rd. He talks of a man whowove together everyone’s dreams and shouldered the burden himself. Many people failed to move on to their future in this dream, making the Spiritual Adam standing between Heaven and Earth ever so strong. However, Welt’s presence here meant that the man failed.
The moral of the story was thathumanity always finds a way to move forward, no matter what it takes.
The scene switches back to Black Swan in Acheron’s room, whereshe finally picks up a phone call from someone trying to talk directly with Acheron. The voice reveals that Acheron is an Emanator who should not exist. With this, the scene ends as the voice also asks Black Swan to save him a bottle of Asdana’s White Oak, as he’s about to arrive at Penacony.
