In the character ecology of “Honkai Impact 3: Star Railway”, there is a type of character that always wanders in the gap of “being misunderstood”: they are not immature in mechanism, nor are their numbers not strong enough, but because the players’ “first impression” of them is too strong, which eventually leads to the solidification of labels, and it is difficult to update the character cognition, falling into a vicious circle of impression slavery. Huang Quan and Huo Huo are the two most typical victims.
If you open a discussion post about Huang Quan in any player community, you will most likely see words like this:
“You can only output when you use your ultimate, weakling.”
“You’ve waited too long, it’s better to drink the moon.”
“Who still plays her, she’s out of the race.”
And Huo Huo is even worse:
“It can only restore health, it’s useless.”
“The little green bottle restores health too slowly.”
“She was completely beaten by Fu Xuan.”
In this atmosphere of public opinion, even if you try to refute, you will be swallowed up by a kind of “public opinion inertia” – you say she is strong, they say “she has been on the list for a long time”; you show your data, they say “that’s a crushing victory due to training, not referenceable.”
This is like a kind of “collective hypnosis”: once a character is labeled as “mediocre”, “impractical” and “slow in mechanism”, it is difficult to reverse the impression even if the numbers are optimized, the system is reconstructed, and the team is formed.
Behind this is actually a chronic disease of “Star Dome Railway” and even the entire two-dimensional mobile game circle:
Impression takes precedence over experience, labels precede data, and the fate of the character is locked by the initial public opinion.
Let’s disassemble this mechanism in detail, first look at Huang Quan.
When Huang Quan was first launched, it was designed as a “starting charging harvest” design of the hunting system. Her mechanism revolves around the final burst after breaking, and is deeply bound to “accumulate power first and then kill people in seconds”. At first glance, the mechanism is extremely delicate; but compared with “zero threshold and burst” characters such as Yinyue and Blade, she was labeled as “slow rhythm” and “slow start”.
Players are naturally unwilling to accept a character who “waits for three rounds to open the big move”, even if her big move can produce a devastating AOE burst.
Once this cognition is established, it is almost impossible to reverse. Even if Huang Quan later formed a very strong two-speed school with characters such as Huahuo and Fu Xuan, and even achieved excellent results in a specific abyss, it still could not escape the weird conclusion of “slow start = weak”.
Huo Huo is more complicated.
As a life recovery character, her healing mechanism itself has no flaws. On the contrary, she is extremely strong in certain environments because of triggered healing and passive dispel. However, because her skill set seems to be “non-functional” (i.e. no control, no damage reduction, no taunt), players quickly labeled her as a “tool man”.
She is not like Fu Xuan who can control violence resistance, nor like Luosha who can heal + eliminate status + restore blood + pull the bar. She is just a “green auxiliary” who quietly throws bottles at you. And this “seemingly unproductive” setting is simply the original sin in the mainstream rhythm of “all members are tools”.
Therefore, even if she can maintain a stable survival rate in automatic battles, even if she has a stable healing presence in high-pressure battles, players are still more willing to say: “Fu Xuan is much better than her.”
This mindset comes from a deep psychological mechanism:
When a character’s “use threshold” and “positive feedback cycle” do not overlap, players will automatically label it as “difficult to use” or “ineffective”.
Huang Quan’s positive feedback cycle is after 3 rounds, and players have long been accustomed to characters that finish work in 1 round, so they naturally reject them.
Huo Huo’s positive feedback depends on the residual blood trigger, which is far less secure than Fu Xuan’s “visible hard milk shield”.
But in terms of the mechanism itself, these two characters actually have considerable room: Huang Quan is the core in the fast-cut burst system, especially in conjunction with Black Swan to form a “mixed damage and mixed control burst axis”; and Huo Huo is extremely suitable for low-level players to steadily advance the main line in non-main control formations or low-configuration automatic battles.
The problem is that no one is willing to spend time to understand them.
And once a big V says “this character starts slowly”, a certain speed list does not have her name, and a certain anchor says “I feel not as good as so-and-so”, these characters will be thrown into the “non-mainstream” trash can forever.
They have become synonymous with “certain team must not be used”.
Their users will be ridiculed as “garbage collectors”.
Their online data, damage performance, and team flexibility are all drowned in a sea of ”weak reputation”.
This is the “impression slavery mechanism”.
Once a character is labeled, it loses the right to be evaluated equally.
Players do not look at data or performance, but only at “community rumors”.
Even if the designer re-changes the values, adjusts the mechanism, and strengthens the module, it is difficult to escape the net of “inherent bias”.
Whether it is Huangquan or Huohuo, they are actually just a microcosm of this mechanism. In such a game ecosystem driven by traffic, no character’s fate is completely determined by strength.
What determines everything is the first 30 seconds of impression, the first wave of community reputation, and the casual complaint of “weak” in the live broadcast room.
Who can resist this kind of cultural violence?
Who is willing to reshape cognition against the wind for a “labeled” character?
The answer is: almost no one.
Everyone just wants to play the “strong” character, and no one wants to prove that the “said weak” character can actually be strong.