Honkai Impact 3rd is getting a Part 2, with a new combat system and story that leaves previous protagonist Kiana behind.

Scheduled to release in February 2024, Part 2 will debut its new storyline on Mars, a new location for Impact 3rd, which previously contained its galactic adventures on Earth and its moon. Previously thought uninhabitable in Honkai lore, Mars actually offers a "unique civilization and nature" where "there may also be mysteries hidden behind the daily lives of residents that have yet to be discovered".

In addition to expanding its reach further into the solar system, Part 2 debuts a cast of "new partners from different cultures", introducing brand new main characters and NPCs alongside our shiny new playable character, a Martian native team supporter named Dreamseeker.

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Although labelled as Honkai Impact 3rd's Part 2, this future update "starts anew", seemingly leaving all story and characters previously introduced behind, so no knowledge of the events of Kiana and her fellow Valkyries is needed to follow along with Part 2's Martian adventures.

Honkai Impact 3rd's fast-paced action combat is also getting a revision in Part 2, including the ability to jump freely, and the addition of a new Astral Ring system. Astral Ring enables the simultaneous burst skills of multiple characters, with bursts currently only activatable by switching to another character.

Your abilities aren't the only upgrade to combat, as enemies will "no longer be simple-minded opponents" and will "react in more interesting and intelligent ways".

Here's an overview of Part 2, including a trailer and the new combat system in action.

Reading between the lines and watching the demo footage, this combat upgrade seems to resemble a flashier version of HoYoverse's most popular game, Genshin Impact, which is more about combining the skills of various characters than it is building one character to use as your main damage dealer.

Honkai Impact 3rd released in 2016 for mobile devices, then received a PC port in 2019, but it never really escaped the look and feel of a mobile game. Part 2 seems like it might finally drag Impact 3rd in line with HoYoverse's more recent offerings, Genshin Impact and Honkai: Star Rail.

Bet there's still a character called Bronya, though.

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