The new Stoneheart character in Jade in Honkai: Star Rail, three important Stoneheart characters, but there are still eight more units to meet. This includes the group’s leader, Diamond. The developer has already teased all of them.

Near Jade’s release, HoYoverse presented a teaser trailer that showed the Ten Stonehearts assembling to determine Aventurine’s fate after his Cornerstone was shattered. Characters like Sapphire, Amber, and Opal were presented, each demonstrating a bit of their personalities and mindsets. These Stoneheart characters will likely be gradually released over the next few years as the game’s story progresses. Now, there have been rumors about who may be the next playable Stoneheart in Honkai: Star Rail and the leaks indicate they may have a unique gameplay mechanic that puts them ahead of other versatile characters in the game.

Opal May Be The Next Stoneheart Character In Honkai: Star Rail

The Character’s Details Have Allegedly Been Leaked

Details about the next Stoneheart character were obtained by the leaker known as Uncle G7DD8tV, which was posted on Reddit. The leak talks about how Diamond is set to be the next playable unit from the faction, though a follow-up post on Reddit clarifies that Uncle G7DD8tV was referring to Opal and not the leader of Ten Stonehearts. In the first leak, several details about Diamond, who may actually be Opal, were revealed, including possible information about their body type and, most importantly, a portion of their rumored gameplay kit in Honkai: Star Rail, which may be revolutionary.

It would make sense for Diamond’s release to be held back more than the rest of the Stonehearts considering he is their leader and an Emanator of Preservation.

Honkai: Star Rail Leaks Indicate Opal Can Switch Paths

The Swap Is Rumored To Occur During Combat

The original leak, which allegedly refers to Opal as Diamond, indicates that the next Stoneheart character release will occur in Version 3.0 or forward. This makes some sense considering that the next few leaked characters for the game include Sunday, Tingyun’s 5-star form, and Aglaea, which may be a codename for the final version of a playable unit. As such, the lineup during the next few updates seems a little crowded for a new Stoneheart character release – especially considering how impactful Sunday and Tingyun’s 5-star form in Honkai: Star Rail may be to both gameplay and the game’s narrative.

According to the leak, Opal’s body type may be similar to that of Yanqing’s, though he is rumored to be slightly shorter. This would mean that Opal is shorter than the Trailblazer, but around the same height as Arlan, Herta, and Pela, for example. Other than that, the leaker mentions that they are not confident enough to make more assertions about Opal’s design since they previously made a mistake involving the body type of Feixiao in Honkai: Star Rail. As such, the only rumored information about them so far is related to their height.

The most important part of the leak, however, is not related to Opal’s alleged design, but the first outlines of their rumored gameplay kit. According to Uncle G7DD8tV’s leak, Opal may have the ability to switch Paths or gameplay modes during combat. The leaker draws a comparison to how the Trailblazer swaps from Fire to Physical or Imaginary and how March 7th changes from Ice to Imaginary, but this would apparently be able to happen during combat and not necessarily through the character’s menu in the game. If this is true, Opal could forever change Honkai: Star Rail.

Opal’s Leaked Mechanic In Honkai: Star Rail Could Be Revolutionary

Currently, Players Have To Manually Swap Paths Via Character Menus

This is because no other character can actually swap their entire gameplay kit on the go during combat. Players usually need to plan out how they will use a character who can follow different Paths. For instance, if players enter a battle with Trailblazer on the Path of the Harmony dealing Imaginary DMG, they are not able to suddenly make that unit into the Fire Trailblazer on the Path of the Preservation. If they want to use the Fire Trailblazer in Honkai: Star Rail, they need to exit the battle and swap the main character’s chosen Path.

This limits how characters with multiple Paths are currently used, perhaps for the better. Each Path alignment a character has also has its own build. As such, players need to plan out what they will equip the Trailblazer or March 7th with before heading into battle. Of course, the game does save presets for each different build, but using a Preservation build on Harmony Trailblazer simply does not work. This could be one of the problems with Opal’s leaked gameplay kit. Unless the same stats affect both Path alignments they use, their skills in Honkai: Star Rail could get messy.

If Opal’s first Path scales off of DEF, for example, and then they switch to another Path that scales off of ATK, one of the playable Paths may suffer consequences due to the fact that builds are usually constraining and do not change stats on the go. This could be circumvented if both Paths used by Opal scale off of the same stat, however. While some characters effectively operate in two roles in team comps, the Path swap during combat could substantially change how party dynamics work, as Opal could go from a to a DPS, for example.

If the leak is true and the mechanic is successful, the introduction of a character with two swappable Paths during combat could affect future releases. In fact, it could even affect past releases. Leaks have indicated that HoYoverse is working on implementing new Paths for older characters in Honkai: Star Rail, as a way of solutioning powercreeps. This would allow older characters to be brought up-to-date with the game’s meta and allow players to use their favorite characters. Opal’s rumored gameplay kit could make this more practical.

Of course, the details about Opal are leaks and should be treated as such. The information seems highly subject to change if it is not entirely wrong. Nevertheless, the game is adapting quickly and constantly introducing new gameplay mechanics, so it would not be such a surprise if a new character could essentially have two kits at once, even if it is, indeed, revolutionary for Honkai: Star Rail’s gameplay at the moment.

Source: Reddit (1, 2)