Honkai Impact 3rd

Honkai Impact 3rd (CN: 崩坏3; pinyin: Bēng Huài 3), also called Houkai 3rd in Japan and Honkai Impact 3 in Southeast Asia, is a 2016 Chinese free-to-play 3D Action RPG by miHoYo Co., Ltd. for mobile and Windows.

On an alternate Earth, humanity has been plagued since time immemorial by "Honkai", a phenomenon with a malevolent will that can zombify people, create monsters, and turn selected targets into godlike "Herrschers" to advance its apocalyptic goals, but can also be harnessed as energy. In the present day, a variety of organisations exist to either combat or exploit the Honkai; the most prominent of these are Schicksal, a Europe-founded group that uses superpowered warriors called "Valkyries" to combat the Honkai, Anti-Entropy, the former North American branch of Schicksal that relies on robots instead, and the mysterious Ancient Conspiracy World Serpent.

The game initially follows Valkyrie-in-training Kiana Kaslana (CN: Dian Tao; JP: Rie Kugimiya) as she battles alongside classmates Mei Raiden (CN: Jiang Jingju; JP: Miyuki Sawashiro) and Bronya Zaychik (CN: Hanser; JP: Kana Asumi) to stop the hostile flying battleship Selene attacking the city of Nagazora. They return to their education at the Extranormal Institute St. Freya Academy under Shicksal's Far East branch afterwards, but secrets about themselves, those around them and the world soon come to light, and they quickly find themselves very far from home.

The player takes the role of the Captain of the flying battleship Hyperion, managing a stable of Valkyries, whose ranks are grown by pulling on Gacha banners, equipping them with weapons and the Power Tattoos called "Stigmata", and deploying them. Gameplay primarily involves teams of up to three Valkyries engaging in Hack and Slash in short, linear missions, where one character is on the field usually but can be tagged out at will. A semi-Wide Open Sandbox mode called "Open World" and a variety of minigames in other genres also exist; the latter are used mainly for gathering resources.

In addition to the game proper, a number of supplementary animations and comics exist, expanding on the backstory and the setting.

Warning: Honkai Impact 3rd is full of Reveals, twists and Wham! Episodes, and the official website and social media are not shy at all about advertising Late Arrival Spoilers. Read on at your own risk.


 * Anti-Frustration Features:
 * Most missions that cost stamina to start will only deduct stamina once you reach the victory screen, so you won't be penalised for failure or quitting or restarting halfway.
 * Similarly, missions that give limited times to play them only deduct the counter on victory or defeat, so you can try again without penalty if you restart before it's too late.
 * Most gacha banners have a pity system where you will automatically pull the featured Valkyrie or equipment after a certain number of failed pulls.
 * EXP chips can be used to quickly level Valkyries, so you don't need to drag around a low-level deadweight just to get her to the point where she won't crumble at the slightest touch from a high-leveled mook.
 * After completing a mission, all drops will be automatically collected, so you don't need to worry about missing any that haven't been manually collected or needing to go back to pick them all up.
 * Authority Equals Asskicking: The leaders of the three main anti-Honkai organisations conform to this. Anti-Entropy's Sovereign Welt Yang is the Herrscher of Reason, able to conjure legions of war machines from thin air, create and survive near a black hole, and hold his own against the Herrscher of the Void. Schicksal Overseer Otto Apocalypse has replicas of some powerful Lost Technology weapons. World Serpent Sire
 * Black and Gray Morality: The Honkai is undeniably malevolent and seeks to destroy humanity, but some of those it turns into Herrschers have legitimate grievances that one can understand why they want to get vengeance on their tormentors even if it doesn't excuse the collateral damage. Among the groups opposing it are those who carry out unethical human experimentation, though, and
 * Boobs of Steel: Zig-zagged. Many of the strongest S-rank Valkyries like Durandal, Rita and the late Cecilia are well-endowed, while Long-Range Fighter Support Party Member Bronya is flat. However, so are Bare-Fisted Monks Carole and Fu Hua, and what makes the inversion of the last one even more significant is that
 * Conspiracy Redemption: It is eventually revealed that
 * Difficult but Awesome: The Elysian Realm mode has the Signets of Vicissitude, which build up to 40 stacks of buffs over time but lose 10 stacks every time you take damage. The buffs are big, though, like extra 1.0% total damage per stack for a whopping 40% when maxed out. Anything else that comes close has another Necessary Drawback like only lasting for a short period of time. Good players who can avoid damage ride on those big buffs to do well; poor players who get hit often suffer and would have done better choosing Signet sets that aren't so skill-demanding.
 * Dramatic Irony: In the Elysian Realm, Mei asks Those who have played the story mode up to the latest chapter at the time of the Elysian Realm's release in version 5.0 will know that exactly the opposite happened;
 * The Ending Changes Everything: The "Estival Seaside Amusement Park" event starts out cutely as the Captain and Seele go around catching Honkai beasts Pokémon-style for a competition. Strange things start happening along the way, but it isn't until the end that the truth is revealed:
 * Faustian Rebellion: A number of Herrschers chose to fight for humanity rather than fall in line with the Honkai.
 * Late Arrival Spoiler: The official website and social media has no qualms whatsoever with advertising new content that only exists because of spoilers.
 * Loads and Loads of Characters: As of August 2021, there are 15 playable characters in the main mode, almost all of whom have multiple battlesuits to equip. Add in NPCs of varying importance and the count grows even larger.
 * Masquerade: Most of humanity is kept in the dark about the true extent of the war against the Honkai. This is made especially clear in Chapter 23 where Welt and Bronya investigate an exhibition of Honkai beast statues and none of the visiting civilians express the kind of alarm or disgust one might expect from encountering replications of the monsters terrorising them.
 * Necromantic: plots, which have caused much harm and killed or hurt many people, are driven by his desire to resurrect The Lost Lenore.
 * Someone to Remember Him By: A gender-flipped take from the supplementary comics:
 * Sorting Algorithm of Evil: The Honkai may seek the destruction of humanity but it has a twisted sense of fair play. It clearly has room to escalate, as seen from how more strong Honkai beasts appeared after the Previous Era survivors tried introducing their technology to the Current Era, but reduced the potency of the attacks when the survivors stopped doing so instead of continuing to attack at full force.
 * Stealth-Based Mission: Some missions require you to avoid being detected. In addition, the Open World maps and some other missions have the option to sneak around mooks and Back Stab them.
 * Tom the Dark Lord: Two of the most dangerous and influential people are named Kevin and Otto.
 * Tomato in the Mirror:
 * Virtual Ghost: The Elysian Realm stores sims of the Flame-Chasers, 13 legendary Super Soldiers from the Previous Era.
 * World of Action Girls: Almost all playable characters are female. The in-universe justification is that women are more likely to be resistant to Honkai than men and there are thus more female Valkyries.