underleveledjosh

[underleveledjosh]

i made a little aven emoji based on a hi3 sticker (higocry)

blurry ref pic

[underleveledjosh]

"How much crit is too much crit"

No such thing. Have as much atk and crit stats as possible. Absolutely demolish your foes with that gamble gremlin.

Also, this is quite the impeccable team comp. Qingque is quite the sleeper unit and is secretly one of the top hyper carry DPS characters. Sparkle and Sunday give her so many turns and so much crit, and Sparkle's SP generation from ult basically nullifies Qingque's biggest weaknesses of eating through skill points like I eat through delicious hershey's chocolate bars. It is an off meta team, but also a really strong off meta team.

So I've been experimenting with team comps in HSR for a hot minute and I have one that I think would just shred everything I put in front of it.

Qingque (Another Day/Poet/Rutilant)

Sunday (Sig LC/Sacerdos'/Lushaka)

Sparkle (Sig LC/Sacerdos'/Keel)

Aventurine (Sig LC/Knight/Penacony)

How much crit is too much crit? I think if I ever get Sparkle (rerun in Feb, if my math is correct, prob Coterie) I would just cry. Swap QQ for DHIL and suddenly I have two hypercarry units that just melt everything. Give my Acheron team a run for it's money.

[underleveledjosh]

The Herta's emotes ❄️

Like or Re-blog if you want.

[underleveledjosh]

Dr. Ratio ✨

[underleveledjosh]

A short Acheron x hanahaki because why not?

_

Lotus flowers and desert roses dyed in red.

When Stelle had asked her about them, urged on to do so by her twin, Acheron hadn't really known what to say.

"Don't be rude, Stelle," Dan Heng sighed.

March shook her head as well. "Yeah, do you like it when people point out the stellaron in you?"

But Acheron chuckled briefly and told them, "It's fine. I...believe it's a manifestation of hanahaki."

Stelle, Caelus, and March had worn identical looks of perplexity while Dan Heng had hummed thoughtfully. "I've read a little about that illness that originated in Izumo or Takamagahara. A sickness that comes from...unrequited love?" he'd half-explained, half-asked.

"Hmm," Acheron agreed. "Well, that's one of the ways it can manifest. It's a disease born of the Nihility. When one recognizes the futility of their emotions, then that futility itself takes shape to consume them."

There was no immediate response except for the shifting expressions. March, voicing the discomfort that had marked all the Trailblazers, then had whispered, "That's...terrible."

"In a sense, yes," Acheron acknowledged. "But it's not so bad."

Caleus' head had tilted in the childlike way it did when he knew he was about to ask a slightly rude question. That knowledge, however, hadn't stopped him from going, "So...were you in love with someone, Acheron?"

Again, Dan Heng had sighed, but he still joined them in leaning forward, intrigued by this development. It was a little endearing, really, and Acheron couldn't help smile before answering.

"I don't...remember," she admitted, her hand hovering over the hilt of her blade before deciding against it. "I know I certainly loved many people, but if there was one person who didn't love me back, then...I don't remember them."

"What?!?!" March had screeched. "That's even ten times worse than just having hana-hanana--uh hanahaki."

"Good job," Dan Heng had complimented dryly, prompting March's glare at him.

Acheron laughed at their antics again and shook her head. "As I said, it's not too bad. It's proof, after all, that even though they are likely gone from this world and gone from my memory, I loved them enough to love them today. It may not have been a single person either. It may have been my people or a family or perhaps a group of companions..."

The words trailed into a contemplative quiet.

She didn't remember.

But, futile as it was - and she didn't really believe that it was, even if she was drowning in it - Acheron still loved them.

Let the flowers bloom, then. They were a streak of red blooming from the colorless ocean of Nihility, to choke her veins with the reminder of what never could be, to be a streak of color in that world of nothing.

A manifestation of futility...and yet?

They remained.

[underleveledjosh]

I got a vision before the 3.0 release. The only way I would accept Dr. Ratio's absence from the Amphoreus story is if they include him somewhere in the background, without explanation. You just see him from time to time.

Chilling in a bath, reading a book, standing in front of a bookshop. You can't talk or interact with him. Game doesn't acknowledge his presence in any way. He's just there, in all his weirdness. And when we meet him again in a different part of the galaxy, there is no dialogue option to ask him about what he was doing there.

That would be funny. Arguably not as funny as adding him and then removing him as a bug, but still.

(here is my artistic rendition of this idea. It's not real, it's photoshopped)

[underleveledjosh]

Being a multishipper means I can ship Blade with many characters including but not restricted to Dan Heng, Jing Yuan, and Kafka, but it also means I have to see more than double the amount of shipping drama and arguments.

[underleveledjosh]

You can’t tell me the Trailblazer wouldn’t ask the shopkeep for a pink (or blue) Little Chimera to give March later and help her feel better—

[underleveledjosh]

Playing the hsr amphoreus quest and I noticed that the Receptionist’s name is Xenia

We know that Amphoreus is inspired off of Greece so with that

Xenia meaning - Guest-friendship, hospitality. It’s an Ancient Greek social custom in which any stranger could be a god in disguise, so you should treat everyone respectfully. So basically just means to be kind to strangers.

I don’t know if this is common knowledge but I thought it was a cool and clever that they named a bath receptionist Xenia and wanted to share :3

[underleveledjosh]

Amphoreus scenery

(since i posted it on hoyolab for the event, might as well put it here too)

[underleveledjosh]

Honkai Star Rail is a turn-based game

There's only one turn and Feixiao is the only one allowed to use it

[underleveledjosh]

If I recall correctly, there is also somebody named Hekate somewhere.

I know Amphoreus is based on Greece and Rome, but I honestly didn’t think I’d find quite a few references (and parodies) to mythology (and probably some history and literature):

Hades and Persephone: there’s an old woman named Demetria who runs a small grocery stand whose daughter and son-in-law, spelled Possephone and Hadez (lol), went missing some time ago, triggering an adventure quest that has us tracking down their whereabouts

Gorgo, Queen of Sparta: Mydei’s mother, Gorgo, was queen of Castrum Kremnos

Hephaestus and Aphrodite / Vulcan and Venus: in Marmoreal Market, there is a seamstress named Aphrea, who is married to a Mountain Dweller named Vulcan

Dionysus / Bacchus: the man selling ambrosia to visitors in the bath house is named after the Roman god of wine and revelry, Bacchus

Cicero: I cannot remember this man’s significance other than him being an excellent speaker 😅 Also a character in The Tragedy of Julius Caesar

Cassandra: the priestess cursed by Apollo to make perfect prophecies, but have no one believe her — there’s an NPC named Cassondra who often has people questioning the accuracy of her predictions

Diogenes: a philosopher who lived in a ceramic jar (or pithos) and known for taking cynicism to the extreme — you might also recognize the name as the silent character in the game Getting Over It 😅 there is NPC named Diogena who has taken to living in a woven basket in one of the alleys of Marmoreal Market

There’s probably plenty more that I missed (and likely more that will be added in future updates) but this is what I spotted for now. (I feel like Brutus and Marcus near the entrance road to Okhema could be referencing Julius Caesar, but I wasn’t sure. 😅)

Also 100% NOT sure what Nympha and Aelius could be referencing. (I just know that their quest is basically Romeo and Juliet, but with a happy ending of them running off together.)

[underleveledjosh]

My headcanons for Sampo Koski's Backstory!!!

These are all just for fun btw!!

1) Kalevala spaceship

I keep thinking that if he is from Kalevala, the ice planet that only just recently started space-exploration with the help of the IPC (correct me if I'm wrong)

Then, how did he get out of there?

I wonder if he fixed up the Cloud Knight's broken space ship somehow and spluttered off the planet like Himeko did the express!

2) Sampo and Aha actually know each other

With the implication on Hoyo's designs that grey hair = old/revived (Fugue) I wonder if Aha, before Aeonhood, knew Sampo. I really want him and Aha to be close, practically tied to one another through threads of fate or something. Like Emantaor-level connection.

Either through ha-ha funnsies you're now my Emanator, Sampo. Whether you like it or not. Or Aha liking him so much that he gives Sampo emanator status.

The implication that Sampo gave up his mask for years, turning his back on Elation, maybe trying to keep his faith in his Aeon by trying to figure out what he finds fun after doing it all. Ugh. (Insert 5* Sampo Koski)

And then he gets it back from Sparkle (who he hates!!) To help belobog from an upcoming terrible catastrophe. (Insert more 5* Sampo koski)

3) my most crack theory

Sampo was the baby Aha laughed at to ascend to Aeonhood

[underleveledjosh]

[underleveledjosh]

She is the most beautiful woman on Amphoreous.

[underleveledjosh]

[underleveledjosh]

well, she /does/ like it🤭

(link for the bonus)