Is Sparkle / Hanabi Capable of Replacing Bronya in Honkai: Star Rail?

Information from leakers has revealed what is purported to be Sparkle's skill set (formerly known as Hanabi), one of the three characters set to debut in patch 2.0 of Honkai: Star Rail alongside Black Swan and Misha. The disclosed details indicate that Sparkle shares similarities with Bronya and Hanya, making her highly valuable.

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Sparkle's Utility

As you may know, miHoYo has announced Sparkle as a Quantum character, embodying the Harmony fate. This means she will focus on buffing teammates, helping them deal greater damage to enemies. Sources from leakers say her skill set is as follows:

Inflicts Quantum damage on an enemy.

Prioritizes action for an ally, while boosting critical damage for that character based on Sparkle's stbk for 1 turn.

Restore 4 skill points for the entire team and grant the Cipher effect. Each teammate with Cipher will increase damage to Sparkle's talents.

With Sparkle on the field, increase maximum skill points by 2 (total of 7). When a teammate uses 1 skill point, it will boost damage for the entire team for 2 turns. This effect can stack up to 3 times.

Grant teammates the ability to go invisible for 20s. Invisible characters will not be detected by enemies, and upon entering battle, all teammates will receive 1 skill point.

• Restore 10 energy points upon normal attacks.
• Critical damage buff effect lasts until the beginning of the next turn.
• Boost critical rate for the entire team. Increase Quantum damage based on the number of characters in the team.

Currently, these are just initial information, and the testing phase of patch 2.0 has not even started yet. It's almost certain that Sparkle (as well as Black Swan, Misha) will undergo changes during the 4-week beta. The predictions in the next section of the article are based on what we currently know.

What Can Sparkle Do?

Based on this initial information, we can see that Sparkle is a combination of Bronya and Hanya. She can't immediately push turns for teammates like Bronya, but she can regenerate a significant amount of skill points for the team. Sparkle's skill point regeneration ability is also double that of Hanya's, and it doesn't require many conditions.

Especially, providing damage to the entire team based on the consumed skill points almost suggests to players that she will be a very suitable support character for Dan Heng Yin Yue or Qingque. This allows players to place Sparkle in 2 DPS team compositions or alongside skill point-consuming support characters (e.g., 'speedy' Bronya) to deal tremendous damage.

In general, according to Mytour, Sparkle is a worthwhile addition even if you already have Bronya. These two characters can be paired together to accompany a Quantum DPS (Seele or Qingque), or help Dan Heng Yin Yue unleash damage without worrying about running out of skill points.

At the current time, you may consider building teams like Qingque / Seele, Silver Wolf, Fu Xuan, Sparkle to take advantage of the Quantum damage buff effect. Dan Heng Yin Yue will also greatly appreciate being accompanied by Sparkle, especially if you have his 2 soul. Imagine how powerful Long Teng will be when both fueled by Sparkle's skill points and buffed by Bronya.

However, there's a small detail you may not have noticed: Sparkle's critical damage buff effect lasting until the beginning of the next turn is extremely useful for characters specializing in follow-up attacks like Clara, Jing Yuan, Topaz, and even Dr. Ratio that you will receive for free in about 3 weeks. These characters may not need Sparkle's skill points, but they will certainly appreciate her critical stats buff effects.

Conclusion

In summary, Sparkle seems to be an extremely useful character for various team compositions in Honkai: Star Rail. In the future, there will undoubtedly be more characters suitable for Sparkle introduced, and her value can only increase, never decrease. If you feel the need for stronger support to face tougher challenges in Memorial Arena 11 – 12 and Abyss Chronicles, start saving Starlit Astrologites now and welcome Sparkle in patch 2.0.