Honkai Star Rail 1.2 release time - here's when the Blade banner starts

Honkai Star Rail's Blade approaches — (Image credit: Hoyoverse)

The Honkai Star Rail 1.2 release time is set for 8pm PT / 11pm ET today, July 18, or 4am BT on July 1, which means we're just hours away from the debut banner for the new five-star character Blade. Bear in mind that, based on previous updates, scheduled maintenance downtime may end up to an hour early.

Blade is one of three new characters coming in Honkai Star Rail update 1.2, subtitled Even Immortality Ends. He's a five-star, Wind-type Destruction character whose abilities revolve around sacrificing his health and soaking up incoming damage. His skill burns a chunk of his health to greatly empower his normal attacks for three turns, making him a skill point-efficient party member. His ultimate does AoE damage based on how much damage he's taken, and it sets his current HP to 50% of his maximum HP.

Blade will debut with four-star characters Arlan, Natasha, and Sushang. Arlan is another HP-burning character, but a much weaker one, as we said in our Honkai Star Rail tier list. Natasha is a solid healer, but one you get for free, though her Eidolons are decent. Finally, Sushang is a good single-target damage dealer and her Eidolons are spectacular, especially her very first one.

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The second half of update 1.2 will see the debut of Kafka, a five-star Lightning Nihility character specialized in damage over time. Her skill can trigger all the DoT effects currently applied to one enemy, and her ultimate applies a hard-hitting shock DoT to all enemies. Kafka's banner features the new four-star Physical DoT expert Luka, Wind DoT specialist Sampo, and shock-extender Serval, making for a synergistic lineup.

Honkai Star Rail update 1.2 will continue the storyline which abruptly ended aboard the Xianzhou Luofu. We'll meet new characters, fight a new weekly boss, and explore more of the destination. If you're planning on pulling Blade, be sure to save your weekly tokens for the new boss, as it drops the materials needed for Blade and Kafka's Traces.

Update 1.2 will also give everyone a free copy of the four-star Imaginary character Yukong, unlock the seventh world of the Simulated Universe dungeon, and add new relic sets. There's a speed set that a lot of Harmony and Abundance characters will want, and an HP set tailor-made for Blade.

Check out the Honkai Star Rail banner schedule to see which characters are coming up next.

Austin has been a game journalist for 12 years, having freelanced for the likes of PC Gamer, Eurogamer, IGN, Sports Illustrated, and more while finishing his journalism degree. He's been with GamesRadar+ since 2019. They've yet to realize his position is a cover for his career-spanning Destiny column, and he's kept the ruse going with a lot of news and the occasional feature, all while playing as many roguelikes as possible.