What You Need to Know About the Honkai Star Rail X Zenless Zone Zero Collab

Honkai: Star Rail Is Getting Ellen Joe and Astra Yao

Honkai: Star Rail and Zenless Zone Zero, two of miHoYo's biggest properties, announced their collaboration event two months ago in July. Technically, it already started with Pom-Pom stepping out of the Astral Express and visiting Random Play to interact with the Proxies and their Bangboo.

And now, a short teaser provides more details of the event, with the reveal of two ZZZ Agents who you will be able to play as in a future update of HSR.

Astra Yao, New Eridu's sparkling diva, and Ellen Joe, Victoria Housekeeping's one and only shark maid, will be coming to Honkai: Star Rail in Version 4.8, which is expected to arrive around December 2026 or January 2027.

Gameplay and Story

Their elements and Paths haven't been officially confirmed yet, but there are rumors of Astra Yao being Quantum-Harmony, and Ellen Joe being an Ice-Hunt character. That would make Ellen a pretty welcome addition, considering the only other Ice-Hunt character so far is Yanqing. That's three whole years with only one Ice-Hunt character.

Some leaks say Ellen Joe might be a free character, which is amazing news for fans of the sharkgirl if it turns out to be true.

As for the story of how they got to the Astral Express and the universe of Star Rail, that unfortunately hasn't been revealed yet either. It will be interesting to see how the two Agents fit in and interact with the rest of the cast. You can just feel a Robin x Astra duet is probably in the works.

The Good: Vibrant Stylistic Art Style

First, we'll see what Honkai: Star Rail did really well. Visually, when looking at a still image of either Astra or Ellen, their models look really good.

Zenless Zone Zero is known for its vibrant and colorful aesthetic, and somehow Honkai: Star Rail's version of Astra and Ellen are even more vibrant than their ZZZ counterparts. The way they're rendered almost makes them look like drawn 2D characters, which translates surprisingly well.

The Not-So-Good: Stiffer and Simpler Animations

It's really no secret that Zenless Zone Zero has some of the smoothest and liveliest animations of all miHoYo games, and just anime-style games in general. So yes, unfortunately, Star Rail's animations don't really compete, and it shows with Ellen's Ultimate Attack from the teaser.

During the attack, Ellen is missing the eye roll she does before launching herself into the air. Instead, her irises barely even move and are just pointed straight forward even as her body is making rapid and exaggerated movements. Now, that might not sound like much, but it takes away from Ellen being a low-energy sharkgirl who just wants to get things done as quickly and effortlessly as possible.

The attack is also missing her "swimming" animation and the awesome shark impact frame right before she dive-bombs the enemy with her scissor blades, making the attack look less flashy.

Astra Yao's Ultimate seems to be different from her Zenless Zone Zero counterpart, so it's a little harder to assess, but it still looks like her irises barely move and are constantly pointed forward.

Now, admittedly, it was stated during the reveal that this was all still in development and is "not indicative of the final product". So there's definitely still a chance that the Star Rail developers could still improve the animations before release.

Which Honkai: Star Rail Characters Are Coming to Zenless Zone Zero?

With Astra and Ellen now confirmed to be the Agents visiting Honkai: Star Rail, fans are all eager to learn which Star Rail characters are visiting Zenless Zone Zero.

Unfortunately, as of the writing of this article, it hasn't been officially confirmed which Star Rail character will be selected for the collaboration. However, it seems likely that the collab characters will be unveiled in the Zenless Zone Zero 3.4 Special Program.

A lot of leaks seem to point to Robin being the most likely pick. She's an incredibly popular character at the moment and is also basically Star Rail's equivalent to Astra Yao: a character that fights through singing.

If that's true, then Robin would most likely be a Wind-Support Agent, which is something Zenless currently lacks since Wind only just recently got added into the game in Version 3.0.

The second character could honestly be anyone, but Silver Wolf is another fan-favorite who already matches the ZZZ theme and aesthetic. Her being a hacker makes her a perfect fit for ZZZ's modern world and the two Proxies, who are also skilled hackers in their own right.

Silver Wolf being a Quantum type would likely translate to her being an Ether Agent, presumably with a Support or Anomaly role, but only time will really tell.

Either way, the collaboration characters are still a few months away. In the meantime, why not check out this Ellen Joe 1/7 Scale Figure and this Astra Yao 1/7 Scale Figure, which are for sale right now?