Honkai: Star Rail Dev Explains Aha & Discusses Future Playable Aeons

Genshin Impact brought the world of HoYoverse games to a much larger audience than ever before, but Honkai: Star Rail was the game that proved the company’s staying power. Several years later, Star Rail is still going strong, even after the launch of Zenless Zone Zero and the impending release of games like Petit Planet and Honkai: Nexus Anima.

At a HoYoverse press event in Seoul, ScreenRant sat down in a group interview with Honkai: Star Rail‘s lead game designer Chengnan An to discuss the state of the game and future plans. Honkai: Star Rail‘s introduction of the first playable Aeon, Aha, naturally came up in the conversation, and the developers offered some details about both Aha’s development and the potential for future playable Aeons.

First, Chengnan An addressed the tricky subject of making an Aeon playable in combat without upsetting the balance. While power creep always tends to come into the conversation with ongoing live-service games, HoYoverse doesn’t want to simply drop an Aeon into the mix and “overcome all the existing characters.” In Aha’s case, focusing purely on destructive strength would also fail to “fit her personality as an Aeon of Elation.”

Aha was chosen as the first playable Aeon due to her status as “the most human-like one,” making her a less “abstract concept” to most people in Honkai: Star Rail‘s world than other Aeons might be. That being said, it doesn’t sound like other Aeons are off the table at all in future updates. “When we design different Aeons, there would also be different ways to showcase them.”

As for the nature of Aha’s role in-game, An established that the plan was always for her to be a support character, as “Aha is closely connected to other characters.” Ultimately, “Path of Elation is also about bringing happiness and all these emotions,” so having Aha focus on dealing damage might not have fit the bill quite as well.

An didn’t offer any teases about which Aeons might have the potential to become playable in the future, but the community can probably guess at the subject with a reasonable amount of expertise. Nous might be the prime possibility, as the idea of Nous taking on a human form has been hinted at previously. There’s also plenty of speculation around theoretical reveals of the Trailblazer and other primary characters ascending as Aeons, which could open another can of worms.

Regardless, the introduction of Aha is more than enough for players to worry about at the moment. The Aeon is set to debut with the Honkai: Star Rail 4.7 update on November 11, 2026, so there isn’t long to wait now until the Path of Elation truly unfolds. Beyond that, fans will just have to wait and see what the future plans for other Aeons in Honkai: Star Rail might be.

Honkai: Star Rail