Should You Pull for Castorice

Castorice is out, and honestly, she’s been out for a week, and I’m a bit late with my breakdown of her, but I hope that you will forgive me this once. Now, with that aside, let’s get straight into my thoughts on Castorice and whether you should consider pulling for this shiny new addition to the Honkai: Star Rail roster.

Is Castorice Strong?

As usual, we’ll start with a quick look at Castorice’s place in the game and tier list. When it comes to Castorice, I have to admit that she’s one hell of a unit. Despite being an HP-scaling character, she’s able to output a boatload of damage, and the ridiculous amount of max HP she has just helps her stay alive that much longer. I was honestly surprised how good she was compared to my Blade, who I’ve sadly had to bench in the recent months due to him being so bad, and mind you, he too is an HP scaling unit.

Castorice is honestly great. Her damage is ridiculous, her survivability is great, her debuffs are phenomenal, and the only downside I find with her is that she requires specific supports that focus more on healing than shielding, but that isn’t much of a problem for me, given that I’ve been building and using Luocha as the main healer for my Blade ever since Blade’s release almost two years ago now. So I don’t really suffer that much from the lack of good teammates for Castorice, but I do recognize that it can be a downside for some people.

Should You Pull for Castorice?

Now this is where things get a bit more interesting. Honestly, there was no doubt about Castorice’s strength. She’s a hyped character that has had a ton of promotion from HoYo’s side and is a unit that was almost guaranteed to be strong. Generally, Castorice would be a must-pull unit for any Star Rail player. She’s a powerful unit, and her only downsides are that she lacks decent F2P light cones and some supports, but those are all things that can be and will likely be addressed in the future. In terms of investment, she’s great. The problem with Castorice comes from the controversy that surrounds her. Castorice is a unit that brought the dreaded [Global Passives] into the game. She opened the floodgates and has therefore garnered huge backlash from players who believe that Global Passives should have never been a thing. Whether you agree with that statement or not is of no concern to me, but global passives are indeed a hot topic among the community and something that has drastically changed players’ views on Castorice.

As such, pulling for Castorice is a slightly touchy subject. For one, if you’re a player who does not care for the controversy and is simply looking for a good unit to invest your resources into, then Castorice is a must-pull for you. On the other end, if you’re upset with HoYo for introducing Global Passives to the game and do not wish to support such practices in the hopes of the company recognizing this as a mistake and continuing with it in the future, then you might want to skip Castorice and see what the future holds for you. I wish the best to all of you, whether you decide to pull or not, and look forward to seeing you in the future!