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Power levels in Star Rail
Jul. 1st, 2024 05:39 pmEvery time the topic comes up, I want to facepalm. Lets face it, this game mostly runs on animesque rule of cool than it does paper-scissors-rock or logical numbers system.
Individually, we can sorta say Aeons > Emanators > Pathstriders explicitly blessed/glanced at by an Aeon > Regular Pathstriders > Normal people... except then we have outliers like that time Elation turned a worm into an Emanator for the laughs, or the much debated topic of whether the Xianzhou's Arbiter-Generals count as emanators or not.
But the most we've seen an onscreen emanator (Archeron) do, is overcome the defense of the Aventurine stone (which is less than 1/10 the power of Diamond, Emanator of Preservation, and thus not a surprise), and to slash a conceptual crack in the layers of Penacony's dreamscape.
As for "normal" pathstriders, we see Firefly blow up a planet in her backstory trailer (and then, it's not clear if she had self destruct bombs already on her as she had just come out of a suicide raid mission). We have Argenti poke a hole through a solar system sized bug. Seele literally outrunning a bullet after it's fired. And let's not even get into the madness created by the individual members of Genius Society.
And then, when it comes to factions... Everyone thinks immediately of the IFC because they "own" the universe through the credit system and economics. But, the Antimatter Legion has no need of money when all they do is to attack and destroy everything in their path. So really, the IPC's accumulated soft power only matters with the other factions for which politics and money actually matter too, and that automatically rule out the factions of Destruction, and the remnants of the Swarm... and even possibly the Denizens of Abundance.
Specifically regarding the Xianzhou, they don't seem impressive given on paper, since they've only got 6 planet-ships and are regularly outnumbered and stalemated by the Denizens of Abundance. Except their ace is that the Aeon of the Hunt consistently answers when they call. Most any other faction can do is to call up an Emanator or two. Other Aeons mostly don't get involved in mortal matters, at least not generally at the specific behest of their worshippers. This is what gives the Xianzhou their superpower status on the cosmic stage.
For self reference: https://honkai-star-rail.fandom.com/wiki/Timeline
Individually, we can sorta say Aeons > Emanators > Pathstriders explicitly blessed/glanced at by an Aeon > Regular Pathstriders > Normal people... except then we have outliers like that time Elation turned a worm into an Emanator for the laughs, or the much debated topic of whether the Xianzhou's Arbiter-Generals count as emanators or not.
But the most we've seen an onscreen emanator (Archeron) do, is overcome the defense of the Aventurine stone (which is less than 1/10 the power of Diamond, Emanator of Preservation, and thus not a surprise), and to slash a conceptual crack in the layers of Penacony's dreamscape.
As for "normal" pathstriders, we see Firefly blow up a planet in her backstory trailer (and then, it's not clear if she had self destruct bombs already on her as she had just come out of a suicide raid mission). We have Argenti poke a hole through a solar system sized bug. Seele literally outrunning a bullet after it's fired. And let's not even get into the madness created by the individual members of Genius Society.
And then, when it comes to factions... Everyone thinks immediately of the IFC because they "own" the universe through the credit system and economics. But, the Antimatter Legion has no need of money when all they do is to attack and destroy everything in their path. So really, the IPC's accumulated soft power only matters with the other factions for which politics and money actually matter too, and that automatically rule out the factions of Destruction, and the remnants of the Swarm... and even possibly the Denizens of Abundance.
Specifically regarding the Xianzhou, they don't seem impressive given on paper, since they've only got 6 planet-ships and are regularly outnumbered and stalemated by the Denizens of Abundance. Except their ace is that the Aeon of the Hunt consistently answers when they call. Most any other faction can do is to call up an Emanator or two. Other Aeons mostly don't get involved in mortal matters, at least not generally at the specific behest of their worshippers. This is what gives the Xianzhou their superpower status on the cosmic stage.
For self reference: https://honkai-star-rail.fandom.com/wiki/Timeline
