How to unlock Stagnant Shadows in Honkai: Star Rail

By Jess Reyes May 3, 2023

Honkai: Star Rail gradually teaches you to manage your Trailblaze Power, a rechargeable resource that lets you reap rewards from challenges like Calyx and Caverns of Corrosion. These challenges appear as the story goes on, forcing you to strategize about how to spend your Trailblaze Power as it recharges. One of the last challenges to appear is Stagnant Shadows, which rewards you with important materials for leveling up characters.

Contents

How to unlock Stagnant Shadows
Where to find Stagnant Shadows

Some players might be confused on where to find Stagnant Shadows because they don’t pop up until later in the game. Here’s how to unlock Stagnant Shadows and where to find them.

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How to unlock Stagnant Shadows

A Stagnant Shadow quest appears immediately after you reach Equilibrium Level 2, so you need to be at least Trailblaze Level 30 for them to even be relevant to your adventure. You can only raise your Equilibrium Level to Level 2 after reaching TL 30.

Stagnant Shadows are the only way to get certain Character Ascension materials for your characters. You wont’ be able to level up your party members without them, so they become a necessary investment of your Trailblaze Power later on in the game.

Where to find Stagnant Shadows

You start with seven Stagnant Shadows, one for each of the Elements in Honkai: Star Rail:

Shape of Fulmination (Lightning)
Shape of Quanta (Quantum)
Shape of Gust (Wind)
Shape of Blaze (Fire)
Shape of Spike (Physical)
Shape of Rime (Ice)
Shape of Mirage (Imaginary)

You can navigate to them from the Interastral Guide under the Survival Index, which has a separate tab for Stagnant Shadows. More Stagnant Shadows will appear as you explore different worlds. Check under the Stagnant Shadows tab after unlocking a new area. For example, more Stagnant Shadows appeared after I traveled to Xianzhou Luofu that weren’t there before.

Stagnant Shadows are hard to miss. They appear like black masses of corrosion in the middle of spacious areas, typically with a mirage of the enemy standing in the muck. Like with Calyx and Caverns of Corrosion, they automatically activate after you approach them on the map. You can teleport to them at any time from the Interastral Guide or World Map after you initially unlock them.

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Jessica Reyes is a freelance writer who specializes in anime-centric and trending topics. Her work can be found in Looper…

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Does Honkai: Star Rail have co-op?

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Coming from the same team that brought us Genshin Impact, Honkai: Star Rail shares a lot in common with that mega-hit. The most noticeable is the art style and gacha mechanics, but what about the ability to play co-op? After you've added friends to your friends list, will this game let you actually jump in to help your friends out and explore the world together? Let's see how you can, and can't, help your friends out in Honkai: Star Rail.
Is there co-op in Honkai: Star Rail?

The sad reality is, unlike Genshin, there's no direct co-op mechanic in Honkai: Star Rail to allow you and any number of friends to join up together. That begs the question, though, as to what the point of having a friends list even is. Well, while you can't directly help, or be helped, by a friend, there is a way you can assist one another.
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All free characters in Honkai: Star Rail

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Elements, like in Pokémon, have type weaknesses that players should take advantage of to deplete health and break armor. Paths are more like specific roles that characters play, like damage dealers, shielders, and healers. Honkai: Star Rail further challenges the players to experiment with specific abilities and Light Cones for each character once they get comfortable enough with combat multipliers, but that's for later. It gives the player just about everything they need for free before they choose to pull for more powerful characters later in the game.

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How to add friends in Honkai: Star Rail

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After Genshin Impact took the world by storm in 2020 and put developer MiHoYo on the map, the team has been working diligently in the background on a new title called Honkai: Star Rail. This is technically the fourth game in the Honkai series, though it features an entirely new cast of characters and story to allow anyone to jump in. It looks and plays quite similarly to Genshin, with the same addictive gacha mechanics, so plenty of fans are likely interested in giving this new entry a shot. But to experience the game in the best way possible, you'll want to bring some friends along. Here's how you can add friends in Honkai: Star Rail to make playing together a breeze.
How to add friends in Honkai: Star Rail

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