Acheron and Black Swan dance in animated trailer for Honkai Star Rail update 2.1

With about a week to go until the debut of Honkai: Star Rail's version 2.1 update, HoYoVerse is releasing more material to promote its arrival. The latest trailer for the game features a dose of story and character moments and an elaborate animated dance sequence featuring an intense interaction between the characters Black Swan and the upcoming addition to the roster, Acheron.

Titled "Rondo Across Countless Kalpas," the animated short was produced by a collaboration between developer miHoYo's in-house crew at miHoYo Anime and Fantasier Animation. MiHoYo Anime and its partners also produced animated shorts to promote characters like Jing Yuan and Dan Heng • Imbibitor Lunae when they were new to the game.

Here's the English-dubbed version, featuring the voices of Arryn Zech as Black Swan and Allegra Clark as Acheron.

The Japanese-dubbed version features the voices of Hitomi Nabatame as Black Swan and Miyuki Sawashiro as Acheron.

The trailer recounts an incident that occurred shortly before the player character and their companions arrived in Penacony. Black Swan approached Acheron, a drifter who claims to be a member of the Galaxy Rangers (and who later plays a role in the player's adventures involving Penacony). As a Memokeeper following the Aeon Fuli, Black Swan attempts to glean information about Acheron and her involvement with the powerful factions gathering on Penacony. She does so by involving Acheron in a dance and using the opportunity to peer into her memories. The rest is impressionistic, and set to an intense montage of animated predatory action.

When the Honkai Star Rail version 2.1 update arrives on March 27, 2024, Acheron will be on the main Warp gacha banner. She joins the playable roster as a 5-Star Quantum-element Nihility character, who uses peerless swordsmanship to build up charges whenever the party inflicts a debuff on an enemy, then spending the charges to unleash a powerful Ultimate.

Besides Acheron, the character Aventurine will arrive in the 2nd phase of the update rollout, following Acheron's time on the banner. Like Topaz and Numby from the 1.4 update, Aventurine is an executive of the Interastral Peace Corporation. He can grant party members a stacking shield that charges up his special follow-up ability, Blind Bet, as well as increase allies' critical damage against debuffed targets.

Honkai Star Rail is available on PC, mobile, and PS5.