Wuthering Waves Vs. Honkai: Star Rail - Which Game Is Better? (2024)

Although each game shares the gacha character rolling system with each other, Wuthering Waves and Honkai: Star Rail couldn’t be more different than one another. Wuthering Waves focuses on an open-world adventure with traversal at its forefront and a combat system similar to Genshin Impact, where you need to hack-and-slash your way through massive boss battles in a futuristic post-apocalyptic setting.

On the other hand, Honkai: Star Rail is known for its turn-based JRPG-like gameplay, where turn order is one of the most essential things to manage. The world harbors plenty of planets that differ from one another in aesthetics and history.

6 World

Winner: Wuthering Waves

Honkai: Star Rail’s setting taking place in the open space lends to being an excellent device to incorporate a variety of worlds with different and interesting locales for each one. From the snowy mountains of Jarillo-IV to the bourgeois of Penacony, you’ll find yourself taking in the sights with each passing patch.

Given that Star Rail’s focus is on its highly strategic turn-based combat, the world exploration is quite lackluster. You can walk around the world and gather tidbits of lore from NPCs, but it is nowhere as massive as Solaris-3 in Wuthering Waves.

Solaris-3 gives you a sandbox for your Rover to run amok and find every nook and cranny within the world. You can find Beacons to reward you by adding to your world map, caves with secret treasure, and even hidden bosses holed away out of sight.

5 Characters

Winner: Honkai: Star Rail

Honkai: Star Rail has been in service for far longer than Wuthering Waves, so the number of characters that you can acquire for your Trailblazing team is way higher. Not only that, but the characters in Star Rail offer more variation from character to character. From a small child with a fatherly robot to a devilish cowboy, Star Rail’s characters have tons of fun to offer players.

Wuthering Waves’ character design is just as good as Star Rail. The first characters introduced are a bit tropey, but they feel fun to play as soon as you add them to your party.

4 Combat

Winner: Tie

The combat category is a hard one to compare. Each game offers completely different experiences when it comes to battling.

In Honkai: Star Rail, combat will focus on a four-member party that will revolve around turn-based battles. You’ll be equipped with a basic attack and a skill, which will require stocked-up skill points to perform. As you attack, you will gain energy that can be spent on using your character’s ultimate ability, demolishing the enemy before you.

Wuthering Waves’ combat is a completely different style. The combat in Solaris-3 uses hack-and-slash battles, where you control one character at any given time, with the opportunity to switch between your three party members and unleash Intro and Outro attacks.

3 Story

Winner: Honkai: Star Rail

Wuthering Waves’ story carries a hint of edgyness from its dark and almost brooding atmosphere. Its post-apocalyptic setting lends itself to creating an atmosphere of despair, leaving players a bit hopeless yet eager to find out the mysteries behind where the Rover came from and what the mischievous duo is trying to accomplish.

While it’s not bad by any means, the delivery of the characters’ dialog, plus the cramming of lore and world-specific terms, can become a bit jarring after a while. In a game that is so action-focused, learning about the world and its lore feels secondary.

In Star Rail, you’re there for the pulls, sure, but the story of the Astral Express and all the different factions found all over the universe is fascinating. Every time Hoyoverse introduces a new world with a new conflict, it is always welcome.

2 Side Quests

Winner: Wuthering Waves

There are plenty of side quests in both games, but the ones in Wuthering Waves stand out far more than the ones in Star Rail. Wuthering Waves has a handful of boring fetch quests, but then, as you explore, you’ll find a long and winded side quest that will make you care about an NPC who you will never be able to roll for.

These moments of taking you into the depths of a cave system just to fight giants Echoes and prove that the NPC’s brother was not a coward really stand out. The writing is compelling and entertaining when it's not throwing random world terms at you, and the quests hold your attention, unlike the ones in Honkai: Star Rail.

1 Verdict

It’s Up To You!

It is quite easy to place both of these incredible games in the same box since they are gacha games, but in reality, they are quite different from each other, making a comparison a tough ordeal.

The real answer is to play both and decide for yourself. One will offer hours and hours of open-world exploration, an excellent traversal system, and a rewarding action combat system, while the other will be for hardcore strategists who love to min-max values in their characters and don’t care for too much stuff outside of battle.