HoYoVerse previews Honkai Star Rail's new characters Luocha and Yukong

The second half of Honkai Star Rail's version 1.1 update is approaching, and with it comes a turnover of the game's premium Warp gacha banners. Publisher HoYoVerse launched previews of the two new playable characters available, Luocha and Yukong. Their banners are expected to launch sometime this week, likely around June 28, 2023.

Check out Luocha's introductory trailer below:

The trailer focuses on Luocha, who introduces himself as a mere "traveling merchant," but is clearly something more. He first showed up when the Astral Express arrived onboard the Xianzhou Luofu. He carries a mysterious coffin-sized box with him at all times but does his fighting with a sword. In HoYoVerse's character preview, Luocha is revealed to be a 5-Star rarity Imaginary-type character on the Abundance Path. His skills are suited to healing the party in combat, removing buffs from enemies, and inflicting Imaginary-element damage. He is the third playable Abundance-path character in the game, after the 4-Star Natasha and the 5-Star Bailu.

HoYoVerse also posted a preview for the new 4-Star character, Yukong. Yukong is a 4-Star Imaginary-type character on the Harmony path. Players first met Yukong visiting the Xianzhou Luofu's Sky-Faring Commission, where she served as Helm-Master. As a Harmony-path character, she can boost the party's attack with her skill, and target single enemies with her Ultimate attack. Her Ultimate also boosts the critical rate and critical damage of the party when used. On the field, she can use her Technique to run across the map very quickly for 20 seconds, and will enter combat with a fully-stacked buff when attacking enemies while under its influence.

Honkai Star Rail is available for PC, iOS, and Android. A PS5 version of the game with cross-save and cross-play support will launch in Q4 2023.