Honkai: Star Rail Version 4.3 Arrives 1 June with Mortenax Blade and Planarcadia Finale
Jin Soh
HoYoverse has announced that Honkai: Star Rail Version 4.3, titled The Lethe Below the Living, will launch on 1 June, bringing the Planarcadia arc toward its conclusion with a story centred on Blade’s long-deferred fate and a revelation buried deep within the realm itself.
The version’s main story sends the Trailblazer and Mortenax Blade on separate paths into the World in Canvas, both converging toward a confrontation with the shadow of Lord Ravager Asat Pramad and the seal of the Aeon Voracity. The secret at the heart of Planarcadia reaches its official revelation here: at the realm’s furthest edge lies the divine husk of the Voracity, an ancient entity presiding over desire and consumption, and the very crux of Blade’s wager on this journey.
Bearing the flesh of Shuhu from within two hundred thousand Joy Ascendants, Blade steps onto the board himself, seeking to borrow the Voracity’s power to dissolve the Shuhu within his body and end a curse that has endured across lifetimes. Whether the outcome is death or rebirth remains absent from Elio’s script, and the Trailblazer will witness the answer firsthand.
Separately, the Trailblazer travels to Inkford Hermitage, the boundary between the living world and the World in Canvas, to warn Graphia of the threat posed by Asat Pramad. Graphia, the ancestor of the Murata family and known as the Mother of Imagenesis, has lived in Planarcadia for a full millennium.
As far back as Amber Era 2148, she used a single brush to encanvas all of Ahatopia and repel the Demons From Beyond, at the cost of burdening every subsequent generation of the Murata family with the Weathering Curse. Her debut as a playable-world figure promises new answers surrounding the Graphia family, the Phantasmoon Games and the numerous mysteries surrounding Himeko.
Mortenax Blade makes his playable debut in Version 4.3 as a five-star Fire-type character on the Path of Nihility. His kit revolves around his Ultimate, Fornax Ex Corpore, which deploys a Bounded Field that increases damage taken by all enemies while unlocking an enhanced state for Blade himself. Within this state, he gains access to his Skill, using a Sword Formation to deal additional damage while charging toward a more powerful version of his Ultimate. Each time an ally attacks an enemy, a debuff is applied to the target and Blade accumulates a special Charge. Once full, the Charge triggers an automatic Skill use and restores extra Energy.
Following Mortenax Blade’s Warp debut, the Gift of Tempered Blade event allows players who obtain him to claim a free Trailblaze Outfit, Karmic Fire of the Distant Shore. The first-half Warps also bring a rerun of Yao Guang, while the second half features the limited return of Cyrene and Phainon.
On the activities side, the IPC is setting up the Wispae Amusement Park within the World in Canvas, tasking the Trailblazer as Chief Planner with mapping visitor routes and placing rides across themed zones to draw wispae in. A new Starward Mode is also being added to Memory of Chaos, Pure Fiction and Apocalyptic Shadow simultaneously, requiring three separate teams across three stages. Clearing each mode with full stars yields an additional 100 Stellar Jades per phase, adding up to 300 Stellar Jades in total across all three.
Last but not least, Honkai: Star Rail has announced a partnership with UGREEN, with merchandise and online and offline events set to roll out across multiple countries and regions in the coming months. Further details are yet to be revealed. A second collaboration has also been teased for this summer, with the Holy Grail War set to ignite once again.