Unlike other Companion Missions in Honkai: Star Rail, the Jingliu Companion Mission, “Clouds Leave No Trace,” feels like a full continuation of the game’s central story. It not only answers many questions that players might have had in the main Trailblaze Mission, but it also gives major hints at what key characters might be up to in the future. Compared to the Trailblaze Mission from Version 1.3, this feels like a very satisfying conclusion to the Xianzhou Luofu saga.
To start Jingliu’s Companion story, you must finish the Trailblaze Mission, “Obsequies Performed, A Long Road Ahead.” This was the quest that debuted in Version 1.3. You can officially begin the Companion Mission by checking out the anonymous letter in the Parlor Car. However, I had to clear out a Pom-Pom Mission first before I could talk to them about the letter. So, if you don’t see the quest active, make sure you are all caught up with the Astral Express mascot. Once you do so, speak to Dan Heng in the archives, and the scene will shift to the Xianzhou Luofu. There are no choices or diverging paths in this Companion Mission, making it fairly easy to complete.
The High Cloud Quintet
While hints throughout the game gave us a broad understanding of the High Cloud Quintet’s heroics and decline, Jingliu’s Companion Mission pretty much lays it all out. This Mission really requires you to have played Dan Heng’s Companion Mission beforehand to understand the full story. Their reunion, which I had been looking forward to, was a little depressing. I mean, can you imagine going to a high school reunion and ending up having to watch people you care about brawl to the death? That doesn’t sound like a good time to me. Granted, the cutscene between Jingliu and Blade was really epic.
Based on how HoYoVerse tends to tell its stories, I don’t know if we’ll get any more information about the supposed taboo actions that Dan Feng and Yingxing committed. There aren’t many mysteries left after Jingliu’s Companion Mission about what happened, and she made her peace with Baiheng (and Bailu). Although there were a few details about what she said to Dan Heng that was odd, it’s not hard to put together what she meant by reading various materials I found on the Luofu. Any additional lore we will get in the future will likely focus on the debt that Blade, Dan Heng, and Jingliu have to pay rather than the mystery of the past itself.
I’m not sure if I just read too much into fan theories or what, but the Companion Mission left me a little bit confused. I had been under the impression that Blade didn’t have his full memory back because of his mara and Kafka’s Spirit Whisper, but in the quest, he seemed to remember everything quite well. Dan Heng, too, didn’t seem to know that Blade and Yingxing were the same person in past missions. But if you talk to him about Cloud-Piercer in his Imbibitor Lunae form, he says that he has unfinished business with the maker of the spear. Since Yingxing made the weapon, I assumed he would know it was Blade all along. However, I can’t tell how much of this is foreshadowing or if this is just a plot hole.
The Jingliu Companion Mission reveals future locations in Honkai: Star Rail
More importantly, the Companion Mission directly continues the plot of the Version 1.3 Trailblaze Mission and gives us a tease of Jingliu and Luocha’s plans. With the Astral Express’ plans to visit Penacony next, we might not see anything from the Xianzhou Alliance for a while. However, we know the next step of their story now. Although Jingliu and Luocha wanted to visit the Xuling, Jing Yuan managed to send them to Yuque instead.
This neatly sets up which Xianzhous the Astral Express crew will visit next, as well as providing a reason to do so. Jing Yuan also hints at Luocha’s real identity as Otto Apocalypse (maybe), which means we’ll definitely see more of this guy in the future. Hopefully, he won’t trigger Welt too much, though. It appears that, for the time being at least, we will no longer see any more of Jingliu or any of the Xianzhou Alliance (in a main story capacity) for a while.
Honkai: Star Rail is available on the PS5, Windows PC, and mobile devices.
