Honkai Impact 3rd

Honkai Impact 3rd (Chinese: 崩坏3; pinyin: Bēng Huài 3; lit. 'Honkai 3rd') is a free-to-play 3D action role-playing game (originally a mobile exclusive) developed and published by miHoYo, and later ported to Microsoft Windows. It is the spiritual successor to Houkai Gakuen 2, using many characters from the previous title in a separate story. The game is notable for incorporating a variety of genres, from hack and slash and social simulation, to elements of bullet hell, platforming, shoot 'em up and dungeon crawling across multiple single and multiplayer modes. It features gacha mechanics.

In addition to the game, the storyline of Honkai Impact 3rd spans multiple supplementary media including an anime series, multiple manhua series, and promotional videos.

The word "Honkai" based off of the Japanese 崩壊 (ほうかい, "collapse" or "decay"), pronounced "hōkai", which is the direct translation of the Chinese 崩坏 (bēng huài) used in the original Chinese title. The "Impact" part of the title is absent from both the Chinese and Japanese versions, but may be a reference to Neon Genesis Evangelion. Additionally, in the game, Honkai Impacts, also referred to as Honkai Eruptions and Outbreaks, are large-scale Honkai disasters that coincide with the birth of a Herrscher. The game starts out in the post-3rd Impact era.

Honkai Impact 3rd has players control a team of up to three characters, known as "Valkyries", in real-time combat against various enemies. During battle, players may freely move their character around the battlefield and switch between their three deployed Valkyries in real-time. Each Valkyrie has unique attack, evasion, switch, and ultimate skills, as well as a type. The three types Mech, Biologic, and Psychic are based off of a rock-paper-scissors-based system where types are advantaged and disadvantaged depending on both the enemy type and their own type. Additionally, the two types Quantum and Imaginary exist and are disadvantaged over each other, neutral towards the above three types, and advantaged over themselves. Valkyrie stats and skills can be changed with various weapons and equipment, which can be improved by using in-game resources. New equipment (known as "Stigmata"), weapons, and Valkyries can obtained either through in-game crafting or through a gacha system.[citation needed]

Single-player game modes include the "Story" campaign, consisting of stages punctuated by dialogue in cutscenes and full motion videos (FMVs), "Chronicles", a series of brief side stories that explore Valkyries' backstories or other aspects of the world, and "Open World", allowing exploration of a several large open-ended fields to gather materials and complete various challenge tasks, coupled with their own storylines.

The game features various multiplayer cooperative and competitive modes such as "Co-op Raid", where players team up to progress through several stages and obtain legendary weapons and related rewards; "Memorial Arena", where players compete against a set of bosses for the highest score across the server; and "Abyss", where players attempt to progress as far as possible through a gauntlet of battles to compete for high scores against others in a small group. Players are able to join groups of other players, called "Armadas", which allow for more opportunities for events and rewards. Armadas allow for limited requesting of materials and resources from other players in the Armada.

Outside of battles, Honkai Impact 3rd allows players to interact with the Valkyrie and Stigmata characters through the "Dorm" mode. Upon completing character specific tasks, different characters may be able to move into the dorms, whereupon new character information and dialogues between those characters can be seen. Players can craft various pieces of furniture and design the layout of the dorm rooms to increase the "comfort" of the Valkyries and Stigmata therein. Greater comfort levels allow players to level up their dorm limits for more elaborate decoration. Players are able to visit and view each other's decorated dorm layouts.

Secondary gameplay mechanics include various minigames incorporating bullet hell, platforming, and shoot 'em up elements that allow players to gather various crafting and experience materials. Limited-time seasonal events may also include gameplay styles such as dungeon crawling and battle royale which are not normally seen in the main gameplay modes.

Each Valkyrie can equip one type of weapon. The weapon types in the game are pistol, katana, heavy (cannon), two-handed (greatsword), cross, gauntlet, scythe, lance, and bow.

Players can obtain weapons through shop purchases, the gacha, crafting, and other ways.

After players obtain weapons, they can upgrade the weapons to improve their attribute effects.

After reaching player level 81 and weapon level 50, some weapons can be further upgraded into Pri-Arms, changing their design, attributes, and effects.

Each Valkyrie can equip three Stigmata. Players can increase their characters' attack, defense, critical chance, and other attribute effects while those characters wear various Stigmata.

The Stigmata system can be divided into three types: top, middle, and bottom, which correspond to the types of attack, defence, and auxiliary. Players can also activate different set effects when wearing two or three Stigmata of the same set. Players can obtain Stigmata through the gacha, stage completion, events, and crafting. After players obtain a Stigmata, they can enhance, upgrade, and refine it to improve the Stigmata's stats and effects.

Players can enhance Valkyrie stats by "enhancing" (leveling-up) weapons and Stigmata. Stigmata level up requires a different exp item type than weapons. Upon "enhancement", the equipment can get a better attribute effect bonus.

Players can improve the attribute effect of equipment by upgrading weapons and Stigmata. All weapons or Stigmata can upgrade the star level through an "upgrade". After upgrading, maximum level limit increases, allowing stronger effects. More advanced weapons and Stigmata require more advanced upgrade materials. Players can obtain upgrade materials by challenging stages, pulling in the gacha, and purchasing in stores.

The main currencies are crystals and coins, which has various non-premium obtaining methods. Asterite is a currency obtained from various miscellaneous sources throughout the game and can be exchanged for supplies in specific shops. Many of the game's gameplay modes and events each have their own corresponding currencies and shops.

Honkai Impact 3rd is set in an alternate version of Earth, plagued by catastrophes resulting from "Honkai" (in Chinese translates as "Chaos", while in Japanese, it is said "Houkai".). Honkai is largely viewed as a malevolent force with a will of its own, able to corrupt humans into undead creatures, manifest itself in the form of various monsters, and select various individuals known as "Herrschers" to imbue with god-like powers able to trigger apocalyptic events. The Honkai is a cyclic phenomenon, returning to end civilization on Earth each time it gets too advanced - the Previous Era ended 50,000 years prior to the game's start, after the 14th Herrscher defeated humanity.

In the present day, various global factions exist to combat or take advantage of the power of Honkai. These include "Schicksal", a European-based peacekeeping organization that deploys human warriors known as Valkyries to combat the Honkai; "Anti-Entropy", formerly the North American branch of Schicksal that objected to the use of human soldiers in favor of mechanized robots; and "World Serpent", a shadow organization manipulating events since the end of the Previous Era.

Prior to the story's start, three Herrscher awakenings (or "Impacts") have occurred in the Current Era: the Herrscher of Reason who became the leader of Anti-Entropy instead of fighting humanity, the Herrscher of the Void who was defeated by Schicksal and Anti-Entropy in 2000, and the Herrscher of Thunder who was prevented from fully awakening and sent to train her powers as a Valkyrie at Schicksal's St. Freya Academy.

The game's story starts with three Valkyries-in-training (Kiana Kaslana, Raiden Mei, and Bronya Zaychik) boarding the Selene, a hostile flying battleship. The three take control of the battleship, then subdue Bronya when she is abruptly controlled malevolently. Following the successful mission, the girls take a graduation exam, during which a mysterious voice contacts Kiana and informs her of her lost parents, Siegfried Kaslana and Cecilia Schariac.

The Valkyries then dispatch to Schicksal's Oceania Branch to recover the Gem of Desire following a local Honkai Eruption that decimated the area. The trio discovers Wendy, who was implanted with the Gem of Desire, and learn that Wendy triggered the Honkai Eruption due to a hatred of Schicksal, which had crippled Wendy. Bronya is controlled again and attacks, causing Wendy to transform into a Herrscher. Although Mei and Kiana are able to subdue both girls, Anti-Entropy forces appear and Bronya kidnaps Wendy and Mei. The Valkyries subsequently track Anti-Entropy to the hijacked ME Corp with Bronya's assistance. There, Bronya destroys the biochip in her brain to free herself from Cocolia's control and enable the Valkyries to escape while leaving Wendy behind.

Searching for a way to revive Bronya, Theresa Apocalypse creates a virtual datascape to find data on the biochip. Kiana is transported to a recreation of Siberia during the year 2000 in the midst of the 2nd Honkai War. Kiana meets virtual recreations of her parents, Siegfried and Cecilia. While Siegfried is badly injured, Kiana and Cecilia team up and successfully defeat a recreation of 2nd Herrscher, Sirin. Upon Sirin's defeat, it is revealed that the events that Kiana experienced were a hallucination created from Kiana's desires by Sirin. Fu Hua captures Kiana and takes her to Schicksal HQ.

Theresa, Mei, and Himeko ally with Anti-Entropy forces and storm Schicksal HQ to save Kiana, breaching its defenses with the Selene and the Hyperion. While the Valkyries are successful in infiltrating Schicksal HQ, Rita Rossweisse and Fu Hua captures Himeko and Tesla. Otto Apocalypse successfully reawakens Sirin using Kiana's body as a host. Angered by this, Fu Hua interrogates Otto about his motives. Using the First Divine Key, The Void Archives, Otto imitates the Judgement of Shamash and shoots Fu Hua point-blank on the head, seemingly killing her. Sirin dispatches Mei, Theresa, and the Anti-Entropy forces and engages Fu Hua in combat, stealing the 3rd Herrscher's power back in the process. Himeko and Tesla, with Fu Hua's help, obtain a vial of anti-Honkai serum and a prototype battlesuit imbued with the Gem of Haste' power. Himeko dons the battlesuit and engages Sirin, fighting her to a standstill. Einstein uses the Selene's cannon on Sirin, forcing her to retreat into "Imaginary Space" with Himeko being pulled in as well. Himeko duels with Sirin in the Imaginary Space and injects the anti-Honkai serum into Sirin, causing her to revert to Kiana. Suffering massive losses, the remaining Valkyries and Anti-Entropy mechs retreat, and the world is left devastated in the wake of Sirin's attack. Himeko and Kiana both go missing. Kiana now possessing 3 Herrscher cores in her body.

Four months after Sirin's attack, Mei, Theresa, and Bronya attempt to meet with an intel dealer named Gray Serpent in Arc City who claims to have seen the Herrscher of the Void, unaware that Otto Apocalypse had dispatched Rita to obtain his information as well. Rita appears to kill Gray Serpent and steals his cybernetic implants, leading the Valkyries to capture a cyborg girl called the Ningyo. Before they can extract the Ningyo's information, Rita intercepts the Valkyries, steals the data, and formats the Ningyo's memory. While Einstein and Tesla attempt to retrieve the Ningyo's lost memories, the team is contacted by Cocolia, who convinces them to help find the Gem of Desire. Gray Serpent, seeking payment for the Valkyrie's theft of the Ningyo, hacks into the Selene. When Bronya follows Gray Serpent into virtual space, he traps Bronya in a data labyrinth formed from her memories to deter her. Bronya is able to escape with the help of the Divine Key in Fu Hua’s possession, Fenghuang Down, though she witnesses a record of the 1st Herrscher, Welt Yang, and Einstein battling the World Serpent, who is sealed within the Sea of Quanta.

Bronya, Theresa, and Einstein travel to The Deep, where Bronya is reunited with Cocolia and childhood friends Rozalia and Liliya. Cocolia informs the trio that the Gem of Desire was lost in the Sea of Quanta, and must be retrieved. While Einstein prepares to enter the Eye of the Deep, a portal leading to the Sea of Quanta, Bronya attempts to reconcile with Cocolia. When Einstein discovers Cocolia scheming with Gray Serpent, Gray Serpent attacks Einstein and she vanishes. A swarm of Honkai emerges from the Eye of the Deep and attacks, leading Bronya to dive into the Sea of Quanta alone. In the Sea, Bronya is greeted by Joachim, a fragment of Welt Yang. Joachim sends Bronya to multiple pocket universes as a test, during which Bronya is reunited with Seele Vollerei (Bronya's childhood friend who became stuck in the Sea of Quanta following a failed experiment, the X-10 Project, years ago). In efforts to guide Seele out of the Sea, they resolve to escape together. Bronya then finds out that Seele had been sent by the leader of the World Serpent, Kevin Kaslana (a Honkai-fighting MANTIS soldier from the Previous Era and the first wielder of the Judgement of Shamash) to retrieve the Core of Reason. Bronya fights Seele and gets separated from Seele due to the latter's hesitation to fight. Bronya finally absorbs the Core of Reason and becomes the Herrscher of Reason. She fights against an ancient beast of the Sea of Quanta and wins due to her Herrscher abilities and decides to traverse the Sea of Quanta to locate Seele.

Seele, meanwhile, is trapped in a bubble universe recreation of Kevin Kaslana's memories from the Previous Era 50,000 years ago during the attack of the twelfth Herrscher, the Herrscher of Corruption. She encounters a MANTIS named Sakura and reads reports of the projects undertaken by the Previous Era to save humanity from extinction. Sakura is killed by the Herrscherr of Corruption, who had used her sister Rin as a host. As Sakura bleeds out while crying, Kevin comforts Seele and tells her that humanity must win against the Honkai at any cost. Bronya enters the bubble universe and fights against Kevin to retrieve Seele. Welt Yang emerges from the Core to protect Bronya from Kevin's attack, and Kevin allows them to leave without fighting.

Seele and Bronya reunite and try to escape the labyrinth. The two girls reach the edge of the Quanta but are caught by tentacles. Bronya makes a sacrifice and cuts the tentacles binding Seele, succumbing to the tentacles herself. However, Seele dislikes her powerlessness and the Dark Seele (Veliona) finally agrees to lend her power to Seele, and they use their combined power to rescue Bronya. While Seele, Bronya, Rozaliya, and Liliya reunite, Einstein is released from her prison by Schrodinger and places Cocolia under arrest for treason. Meanwhile, all the girls decide to join the crew of the Hyperion.

After recapturing control of Kiana's body, she had been living in exile alone in Arc City. She fights with Honkai beasts one night when Sirin seeks the opportunity to torment and brainwash Kiana, attempting to reawaken the Herrscher. Fortunately, Fu Hua, who had uploaded her consciousness to the 8th Divine Key, Fenghuang Down, which has the ability to manipulate minds, reaches Kiana's mind and helps Kiana drive Sirin away temporarily. Kiana holds hatred towards Fu Hua at first, but Fu Hua tells Kiana that their spirits are combined forever due to the power of Key of Deity, and that Kiana must learn to control the Herrscher power by herself. Under Fu Hua's training, Kiana finally succeeds and returns to fighting against Honkai in Arc City.

Uncovering that a major healthcare and pharmaceutical company in Arc City, Heliopolis Life Sciences, is just a cover for the World Serpent organization, Kiana and Hua hatch a plan to take down their operations. Meanwhile, Otto has dispatched Rita to retrieve Kiana, now designated the Herrscher of the Void. After fighting Rita, Kiana gives Rita intel to investigate the World Serpent. Rita upon investigation finds out about the facade of the World Serpent and deploys her team of Valkyries to take down the operation but they are incapacitated and saved by Kiana. Kiana fights WS lieutenant Raven but gets captured. Finding out about the chaos at Heliopolis, The Hyperion crew arrive in Arc City and investigate. Mei finds Kiana and frees her from the World Serpent. Rita calls on Durandal for backup, who had just retrieved the Second Divine Key. As a last ditch effort to end the abominations of the experiments by the World Serpent , Rita tries to make the Honkai reactor of her ship explode but is saved just in time by Kiana. Kiana then uncovers a further plot of the WS to cause a Honkai eruption in Arc City to awaken Stigmatas among the city’s residents and subsequently grant Honkai resistance to the few that would survive. Kiana embraces the powers of the Void and uses the abilities of the Herrscher to fly the bomb into the stratosphere and absorb some of the impact to protect the people.

Mei runs toward Kiana's unconscious body which is falling from the sky due to the bomb's impact. Durandal arrives exactly then and saves Kiana from death with the power of the Second Divine Key, even fighting Mei to take Kiana back to base. Mei cries about losing her beloved and the Hyperion retreats.

At a Schicksal base in North Africa, ruined from the awakening of the Herrscher of the Void four months ago, Durandal prepares to eliminate Quantum Shadows emerging from the portal created by the Second Divine Key in a Shicksal-created experiment. Later, Kiana awakens imprisoned in the Schicksal base and asks Durandal why she sides with Schicksal. Another round of the Divine Key experiment is announced and Kiana and Durandal spar with each other. After sparring, Kiana is defeated by Durandal and the experiment begins; the Second Divine Key is being used to open the same portal as last time, but further. However, the Divine Key is unable to do so and the portal collapses. The World Serpent then attacks the base to retrieve the Key and kill Kiana, sending Kevin Kaslana to the front lines. Durandal engages Kevin, Kiana escapes, and Otto Apocalypse, the charismatic Overseer of Shicksal, negotiates a partnership between Schicksal and WS.

Kiana meanwhile decides to go back to Nagazora, where she saved Mei from turning into the Third Herrscher and the whole Honkai and Valkyrie mess started, for some peace and quiet. The Hyperion Crew flies to Nagazora as well, sensing increased ambient Honkai leves there and hoping to locate Kiana. After fighting some beasts, Tesla and Mei decide to look for signs of a Herrscher in the city. Mei then finds a child named Sora and realises that Nagazora is still habitable in certain areas and the ambient Honkai levels are rising drastically. Finding out that Raven has build a settlement full of children she has saved in Nagazora, Mei and Raven become acquainted despite being enemies. Mei then teams up with Raven to locate Kiana, and Raven finds out that there is a Herrscherr level Honkai reading in the city , only to realise it is Benares, a Judgement Class Honkai beast. Fighting off Benares, Mei finally reunites with Kiana but realises that the latter is dying from Honkai corruption. She asks Raven for assistance who tells her that the only way to save Kiana is to become the Herrscherr of Thunder, thus allowing one of the three Cores within Kiana to dissipate and extend her lifespan. Kiana then adopts Benares as her familiar, and then a rift opens up in the sky of Nagazora. A giant robot, Nihilus, emerges which has control over time and fights Mei. As the fatal blow is about to be dealt to Mei , Benares selflessly sacrifices itself. Mei finally accepts the powers of the Herrscherr and becomes the Herrscherr of Thunder. She fights of the Nihilus bot and then decides to join the World Serpent according to the terms of the deal she made with Kevin Kaslana in exchange for info about curing Kiana. She fights of Kiana, who refuses to let her friend join the World Serpent who she sees as immoral, in Herrscherr form, and declares that even if it makes her a sinner, she will save Kiana from the Honkai.

Mei takes up her mantle as the Herrscherr of Thunder and becomes an officer of the World Serpent. She is deployed with Raven to an South Eastern island city called Coral, which was a flourishing city of the wealthy prior to a Herrscher event there. Upon their arrival , they see the entire city is covered in ice. Raven tells her that it was caused by a Honkai eruption which created the Herrscherr of Ice. They then leave to rendezvous with their informant named Chen Tianwu, codenamed Owl. Meanwhile, Schicksal has deployed the Immortal Blades, Schicksal's most powerful Valkyrie team, including their leader Durandal and her adjutant Rita. As they attempt to fight off the forces, they learn that the WS has sent assistance their way. Durandal then flies off to meet their reinforcements from WS. Rita fights off the horde of Honkai and runs off to join Durandal. Mei lands in front of Durandal as the Herrscherr of Thunder and they exchange greetings. Rita and Raven pick an argument and then team World Serpent goes to meet Owl, while Durandal investigates the identity of the Herrscher of Ice. Owl has located the Herrscher and has prepared devices to neutralise its abilities for incarceration. Durandal and Rita's investigation leads them to find out that a fellow Schicksal Valkyrie named Ana Schariac became the Herrscherr of Ice and killed her entire team. After pursuit ,Rita confronts the Herrscherr and her team gets decimated within minutes. Mei arrives on the scene and makes Ana flee. Owl betrays the World Serpent because he had previously loved Ana for a long time as she had saved his life during the previous eruption. He sees a vision that is unclear as to whether it is a memory or a hallucination that Ana had saved him but not his sister during the previous eruption and is incapacitated in the battle against Mei and Durandal. In the final battle, Durandal and Mei fight alongside each other and almost kill the Herrscherr. Owl is washed over by the Honkai and realises that Ana had chosen not to save his little sister in the eruption because of her fear of battle. She had saved him reluctantly and escaped the eruption. Owl then sees the source of the Honkai and allows himself to become the Herrscher of Gravity. Still loving Ana, he gives her his Core as well, together they become the Herrscher of Rimestar, giving her monstrous abilities and strength. Mei with Durandal defeats the Herrscher of Rimestar, and the situation is resolved.

Fu Hua's corpse at Schicksal has been restored to life and looks slightly different in terms of personality, power and appearance. She has retained her memories but has lost her cautious and calculating personality. She kills Otto but he revives in a backup body somewhere else, and destroys half of Schicksal's base to fly off and meet with Kevin.

She meets Kevin and he asks her if she is who she says she is. They fight, and Kevin returns the feather of the Fenghuang Down she had given him. She flies off, and speaks to the original cautious, quiet and polite Fu Hua whose consciousness was in the feather. She asks the original Fu Hua about betrayal and how her life will change. She reaches her old abode Mount Taixuan and destroys the legion of Beasts swarming the area. She gets into an argument with the feather about who is the real Fu Hua, and comes to the revelation that she is a Herrscher herself. She sees the Hyperion in the sky and tells the feather that they should have a second opinion.

Meanwhile, the crew of the Hyperion is searching for Mount Taixuan to train Kiana and Bronya. Upon reaching the Mountain, the two come into contact with Fu Hua's disciple who tells them to collect the feathers of the Fenghuang Down, the 8th Divine Key. Upon doing so and entering the monastery, they see that they are standing in the palm of a giant Fu Hua and she marvels at their arrival.

Fu Hua then tells them that she is indeed alive and asks them to judge who is the real Fu Hua: the Herrscher personality or the Feather personality. As the three Herrschers fight, Feather Hua hatches a plan with Kiana and Bronya. As the fight ensues, Kiana finally defeats the Herrscher of Sentience and the Herrscher realizes she is not the real Fu Hua. Fu Hua asks for The Herrscher of Sentience's help to fight against the Honkai, but she refuses and returns Fu Hua her old body.

After a short amount of while. Kiana, Bronya and Fu Hua went back to Salt Lake Base. It is here that Seele found the Theater of Domination while shopping with Kiana. Seele and her other persona, Veliona was temporarily separated. The puppets of the Herrscher of Domination convinces Veliona that Seele doesn't need her anymore, and she is just making her feel good. Veliona unleashes the full potential of Seele's body's power and break out of the Theater of Domination. Seele then investigates a puppet named "Jerry". They found that "Jerry" was dead, and that the Herrscher of Domination has a lot of individuals, even around thousands of them, each possessing a bit of the Domination Core's power. Seele and Bronya then go into the Theater once more. After being in there for so long, Bronya lost the power of the Herrscher of Reason, even though the core is still inside of her. The Theater can drain someone's Herrscher powers, and use it while letting the host of the core suffer the side effects. Seeing this, Seele tried her best to protect Bronya. Bronya found the weak point of the Theater, so Seele went to break it. However, Seele is not strong enough to break it. At a desperate moment, Seele gave full control of her body to Veliona. Veliona then breaks the weak point and together with Bronya, they escaped the Theater. Bronya noticed every small detail that makes Veliona different than Seele, even with the same body. Veliona explains that she is a "demon" born out of Seele's stigma and desire of protection. Bronya knows that Veliona just wants to keep Seele safe, so they have agreed to call Veliona "Seele".

The production team for Honkai Impact 3rd grew from a 7-person start to employing over 200 employees in 2018. miHoYo offers small amounts of in-game currency to users that fill out surveys about their experience in the game, allowing the game's developers to adjust future events and tweak the game. As a result, Honkai Impact 3rd is under a continuous-update system, patching bug fixes and changing or adding content multiple times per year. The game has had many significant changes since launch, including rewriting the entire first two chapters of the story in a December 2018 update. The developers stated that their decision to make Honkai Impact 3rd be in the free-to-play monetization system (rather than a premium, or paid, game) with the purpose of making the game more available to players. Devil May Cry and Bayonetta significantly affected the game makers' ideas for the fight system of Honkai Impact 3rd.

After a few years of users emulating Honkai Impact 3rd on computers[9][10] and an update making emulation more difficult, the game's official PC version was developed, releasing to the public on December 26, 2019.

Honkai Impact 3rd features an ongoing serialized manhua of the same name in Chinese and in English. The manhua begins before Chapter 1 of the main game story arc that aims to supplement and flesh out the in-game plot, and often includes character origins. Several in-game battlesuits worn by the Valkyries are illustrated in the manhua as well. The manhua has three prequel titles and one main title.

A non-canon slice of life cooking television anime series featuring 19 short episodes Cooking with Valkyries (Chinese: 女武神的餐桌-, Nǚ Wǔshén de Cānzhuō) was released from July to September 2020. The Bilibili releases are available in Mandarin Chinese, while the Japanese broadcast versions are in Japanese.

The game first attracted a large fanbase in Asia before spreading globally: first released in China in late 2016, it reached 1 million downloads in Japan 11 days after release, and IGN reported that Honkai Impact 3rd gathered a total of 35 million downloads worldwide as of March 28, 2018. The game has been released in Korea, Taiwan, Southeast Asia, North America, and Europe, and supports multiple languages including Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese, English, Japanese, Korean, Vietnamese, Thai, French, German, and Indonesian.

In an article from 2017, Ungeek.com says that the game has some later-game systems that are unintuitive, and cites the large download size for a mobile game as a negative. The review praised the game's visual quality and the ease of learning to play the game, as well as the overall quality of the game, and positively recommended it. The article mentioned that the quality of the game was comparable to console games.

On April 22, 2021, as part of the 3rd anniversary of the game's global server, a music video titled "Brilliant Bright" in collaboration with Myth & Roid, was released on miHoYo's Honkai Impact 3rd YouTube channel. While the video featured characters wearing bunny-girl outfits, none of the outfits were actually made available in-game - the cosmetics were solely for the purpose of the video. The backlash from the Chinese players was immediate and severe, with many considering it insensitive and unfair to release content for international players only, despite the Chinese players historically receiving significantly more content and rewards for celebrations. Two days later, on April 24, one Chinese man; armed with a knife, was reported to have infiltrated the developers' office of miHoYo in Shanghai; in a allegedly planned, but foiled attempt to assassinate the miHoYo founders, before he was apprehended on the spot and is currently in police custody.

Since the incident, the special video from Honkai Impact 3rd was removed from their channel, although the video itself is still available online, through fan reuploads. The Japanese band Myth & Roid have pulled out from the collaboration, and also had their special video single removed, but Brilliant Bright will still be available through streaming platforms and will be released as their digital single. In the game, any content related to 3rd-anniversary bunny girls, with the exception of the correlating event stigmata, are now removed as according to the game's official statement and was instead given 500 crystals for every GLB player as compensation. Chinese server players were given greater compensation (10 focused supply cards = 2800 crystal), despite not actually having any content removed in the Chinese version.

Honkai Impact 3rd (Chinese: 崩坏3; pinyin: Bēng Huài 3; lit. 'Honkai 3rd') is a free-to-play 3D action role-playing game (originally a mobile exclusive) developed and published by miHoYo, and later ported to Microsoft Windows. It is the spiritual successor to Houkai Gakuen 2, using many characters from the previous title in a separate story. The game is notable for incorporating a variety of genres, from hack and slash and social simulation, to elements of bullet hell, platforming, shoot 'em up and dungeon crawling across multiple single and multiplayer modes. It features gacha mechanics.

In addition to the game, the storyline of Honkai Impact 3rd spans multiple supplementary media including an anime series, multiple manhua series, and promotional videos.

The word "Honkai" based off of the Japanese 崩壊 (ほうかい, "collapse" or "decay"), pronounced "hōkai", which is the direct translation of the Chinese 崩坏 (bēng huài) used in the original Chinese title. The "Impact" part of the title is absent from both the Chinese and Japanese versions, but may be a reference to Neon Genesis Evangelion. Additionally, in the game, Honkai Impacts, also referred to as Honkai Eruptions and Outbreaks, are large-scale Honkai disasters that coincide with the birth of a Herrscher. The game starts out in the post-3rd Impact era.

Honkai Impact 3rd has players control a team of up to three characters, known as "Valkyries", in real-time combat against various enemies. During battle, players may freely move their character around the battlefield and switch between their three deployed Valkyries in real-time. Each Valkyrie has unique attack, evasion, switch, and ultimate skills, as well as a type. The three types Mech, Biologic, and Psychic are based off of a rock-paper-scissors-based system where types are advantaged and disadvantaged depending on both the enemy type and their own type. Additionally, the two types Quantum and Imaginary exist and are disadvantaged over each other, neutral towards the above three types, and advantaged over themselves. Valkyrie stats and skills can be changed with various weapons and equipment, which can be improved by using in-game resources. New equipment (known as "Stigmata"), weapons, and Valkyries can obtained either through in-game crafting or through a gacha system.[citation needed]

Single-player game modes include the "Story" campaign, consisting of stages punctuated by dialogue in cutscenes and full motion videos (FMVs), "Chronicles", a series of brief side stories that explore Valkyries' backstories or other aspects of the world, and "Open World", allowing exploration of a several large open-ended fields to gather materials and complete various challenge tasks, coupled with their own storylines.

The game features various multiplayer cooperative and competitive modes such as "Co-op Raid", where players team up to progress through several stages and obtain legendary weapons and related rewards; "Memorial Arena", where players compete against a set of bosses for the highest score across the server; and "Abyss", where players attempt to progress as far as possible through a gauntlet of battles to compete for high scores against others in a small group. Players are able to join groups of other players, called "Armadas", which allow for more opportunities for events and rewards. Armadas allow for limited requesting of materials and resources from other players in the Armada.

Outside of battles, Honkai Impact 3rd allows players to interact with the Valkyrie and Stigmata characters through the "Dorm" mode. Upon completing character specific tasks, different characters may be able to move into the dorms, whereupon new character information and dialogues between those characters can be seen. Players can craft various pieces of furniture and design the layout of the dorm rooms to increase the "comfort" of the Valkyries and Stigmata therein. Greater comfort levels allow players to level up their dorm limits for more elaborate decoration. Players are able to visit and view each other's decorated dorm layouts.

Secondary gameplay mechanics include various minigames incorporating bullet hell, platforming, and shoot 'em up elements that allow players to gather various crafting and experience materials. Limited-time seasonal events may also include gameplay styles such as dungeon crawling and battle royale which are not normally seen in the main gameplay modes.

Each Valkyrie can equip one type of weapon. The weapon types in the game are pistol, katana, heavy (cannon), two-handed (greatsword), cross, gauntlet, scythe, lance, and bow.

Players can obtain weapons through shop purchases, the gacha, crafting, and other ways.

After players obtain weapons, they can upgrade the weapons to improve their attribute effects.

After reaching player level 81 and weapon level 50, some weapons can be further upgraded into Pri-Arms, changing their design, attributes, and effects.

Each Valkyrie can equip three Stigmata. Players can increase their characters' attack, defense, critical chance, and other attribute effects while those characters wear various Stigmata.

The Stigmata system can be divided into three types: top, middle, and bottom, which correspond to the types of attack, defence, and auxiliary. Players can also activate different set effects when wearing two or three Stigmata of the same set. Players can obtain Stigmata through the gacha, stage completion, events, and crafting. After players obtain a Stigmata, they can enhance, upgrade, and refine it to improve the Stigmata's stats and effects.

Players can enhance Valkyrie stats by "enhancing" (leveling-up) weapons and Stigmata. Stigmata level up requires a different exp item type than weapons. Upon "enhancement", the equipment can get a better attribute effect bonus.

Players can improve the attribute effect of equipment by upgrading weapons and Stigmata. All weapons or Stigmata can upgrade the star level through an "upgrade". After upgrading, maximum level limit increases, allowing stronger effects. More advanced weapons and Stigmata require more advanced upgrade materials. Players can obtain upgrade materials by challenging stages, pulling in the gacha, and purchasing in stores.

The main currencies are crystals and coins, which has various non-premium obtaining methods. Asterite is a currency obtained from various miscellaneous sources throughout the game and can be exchanged for supplies in specific shops. Many of the game's gameplay modes and events each have their own corresponding currencies and shops.

Honkai Impact 3rd is set in an alternate version of Earth, plagued by catastrophes resulting from "Honkai" (in Chinese translates as "Chaos", while in Japanese, it is said "Houkai".). Honkai is largely viewed as a malevolent force with a will of its own, able to corrupt humans into undead creatures, manifest itself in the form of various monsters, and select various individuals known as "Herrschers" to imbue with god-like powers able to trigger apocalyptic events. The Honkai is a cyclic phenomenon, returning to end civilization on Earth each time it gets too advanced - the Previous Era ended 50,000 years prior to the game's start, after the 14th Herrscher defeated humanity.

In the present day, various global factions exist to combat or take advantage of the power of Honkai. These include "Schicksal", a European-based peacekeeping organization that deploys human warriors known as Valkyries to combat the Honkai; "Anti-Entropy", formerly the North American branch of Schicksal that objected to the use of human soldiers in favor of mechanized robots; and "World Serpent", a shadow organization manipulating events since the end of the Previous Era.

Prior to the story's start, three Herrscher awakenings (or "Impacts") have occurred in the Current Era: the Herrscher of Reason who became the leader of Anti-Entropy instead of fighting humanity, the Herrscher of the Void who was defeated by Schicksal and Anti-Entropy in 2000, and the Herrscher of Thunder who was prevented from fully awakening and sent to train her powers as a Valkyrie at Schicksal's St. Freya Academy.

The game's story starts with three Valkyries-in-training (Kiana Kaslana, Raiden Mei, and Bronya Zaychik) boarding the Selene, a hostile flying battleship. The three take control of the battleship, then subdue Bronya when she is abruptly controlled malevolently. Following the successful mission, the girls take a graduation exam, during which a mysterious voice contacts Kiana and informs her of her lost parents, Siegfried Kaslana and Cecilia Schariac.

The Valkyries then dispatch to Schicksal's Oceania Branch to recover the Gem of Desire following a local Honkai Eruption that decimated the area. The trio discovers Wendy, who was implanted with the Gem of Desire, and learn that Wendy triggered the Honkai Eruption due to a hatred of Schicksal, which had crippled Wendy. Bronya is controlled again and attacks, causing Wendy to transform into a Herrscher. Although Mei and Kiana are able to subdue both girls, Anti-Entropy forces appear and Bronya kidnaps Wendy and Mei. The Valkyries subsequently track Anti-Entropy to the hijacked ME Corp with Bronya's assistance. There, Bronya destroys the biochip in her brain to free herself from Cocolia's control and enable the Valkyries to escape while leaving Wendy behind.

Searching for a way to revive Bronya, Theresa Apocalypse creates a virtual datascape to find data on the biochip. Kiana is transported to a recreation of Siberia during the year 2000 in the midst of the 2nd Honkai War. Kiana meets virtual recreations of her parents, Siegfried and Cecilia. While Siegfried is badly injured, Kiana and Cecilia team up and successfully defeat a recreation of 2nd Herrscher, Sirin. Upon Sirin's defeat, it is revealed that the events that Kiana experienced were a hallucination created from Kiana's desires by Sirin. Fu Hua captures Kiana and takes her to Schicksal HQ.

Theresa, Mei, and Himeko ally with Anti-Entropy forces and storm Schicksal HQ to save Kiana, breaching its defenses with the Selene and the Hyperion. While the Valkyries are successful in infiltrating Schicksal HQ, Rita Rossweisse and Fu Hua captures Himeko and Tesla. Otto Apocalypse successfully reawakens Sirin using Kiana's body as a host. Angered by this, Fu Hua interrogates Otto about his motives. Using the First Divine Key, The Void Archives, Otto imitates the Judgement of Shamash and shoots Fu Hua point-blank on the head, seemingly killing her. Sirin dispatches Mei, Theresa, and the Anti-Entropy forces and engages Fu Hua in combat, stealing the 3rd Herrscher's power back in the process. Himeko and Tesla, with Fu Hua's help, obtain a vial of anti-Honkai serum and a prototype battlesuit imbued with the Gem of Haste' power. Himeko dons the battlesuit and engages Sirin, fighting her to a standstill. Einstein uses the Selene's cannon on Sirin, forcing her to retreat into "Imaginary Space" with Himeko being pulled in as well. Himeko duels with Sirin in the Imaginary Space and injects the anti-Honkai serum into Sirin, causing her to revert to Kiana. Suffering massive losses, the remaining Valkyries and Anti-Entropy mechs retreat, and the world is left devastated in the wake of Sirin's attack. Himeko and Kiana both go missing. Kiana now possessing 3 Herrscher cores in her body.

Four months after Sirin's attack, Mei, Theresa, and Bronya attempt to meet with an intel dealer named Gray Serpent in Arc City who claims to have seen the Herrscher of the Void, unaware that Otto Apocalypse had dispatched Rita to obtain his information as well. Rita appears to kill Gray Serpent and steals his cybernetic implants, leading the Valkyries to capture a cyborg girl called the Ningyo. Before they can extract the Ningyo's information, Rita intercepts the Valkyries, steals the data, and formats the Ningyo's memory. While Einstein and Tesla attempt to retrieve the Ningyo's lost memories, the team is contacted by Cocolia, who convinces them to help find the Gem of Desire. Gray Serpent, seeking payment for the Valkyrie's theft of the Ningyo, hacks into the Selene. When Bronya follows Gray Serpent into virtual space, he traps Bronya in a data labyrinth formed from her memories to deter her. Bronya is able to escape with the help of the Divine Key in Fu Hua’s possession, Fenghuang Down, though she witnesses a record of the 1st Herrscher, Welt Yang, and Einstein battling the World Serpent, who is sealed within the Sea of Quanta.

Bronya, Theresa, and Einstein travel to The Deep, where Bronya is reunited with Cocolia and childhood friends Rozalia and Liliya. Cocolia informs the trio that the Gem of Desire was lost in the Sea of Quanta, and must be retrieved. While Einstein prepares to enter the Eye of the Deep, a portal leading to the Sea of Quanta, Bronya attempts to reconcile with Cocolia. When Einstein discovers Cocolia scheming with Gray Serpent, Gray Serpent attacks Einstein and she vanishes. A swarm of Honkai emerges from the Eye of the Deep and attacks, leading Bronya to dive into the Sea of Quanta alone. In the Sea, Bronya is greeted by Joachim, a fragment of Welt Yang. Joachim sends Bronya to multiple pocket universes as a test, during which Bronya is reunited with Seele Vollerei (Bronya's childhood friend who became stuck in the Sea of Quanta following a failed experiment, the X-10 Project, years ago). In efforts to guide Seele out of the Sea, they resolve to escape together. Bronya then finds out that Seele had been sent by the leader of the World Serpent, Kevin Kaslana (a Honkai-fighting MANTIS soldier from the Previous Era and the first wielder of the Judgement of Shamash) to retrieve the Core of Reason. Bronya fights Seele and gets separated from Seele due to the latter's hesitation to fight. Bronya finally absorbs the Core of Reason and becomes the Herrscher of Reason. She fights against an ancient beast of the Sea of Quanta and wins due to her Herrscher abilities and decides to traverse the Sea of Quanta to locate Seele.

Seele, meanwhile, is trapped in a bubble universe recreation of Kevin Kaslana's memories from the Previous Era 50,000 years ago during the attack of the twelfth Herrscher, the Herrscher of Corruption. She encounters a MANTIS named Sakura and reads reports of the projects undertaken by the Previous Era to save humanity from extinction. Sakura is killed by the Herrscherr of Corruption, who had used her sister Rin as a host. As Sakura bleeds out while crying, Kevin comforts Seele and tells her that humanity must win against the Honkai at any cost. Bronya enters the bubble universe and fights against Kevin to retrieve Seele. Welt Yang emerges from the Core to protect Bronya from Kevin's attack, and Kevin allows them to leave without fighting.

Seele and Bronya reunite and try to escape the labyrinth. The two girls reach the edge of the Quanta but are caught by tentacles. Bronya makes a sacrifice and cuts the tentacles binding Seele, succumbing to the tentacles herself. However, Seele dislikes her powerlessness and the Dark Seele (Veliona) finally agrees to lend her power to Seele, and they use their combined power to rescue Bronya. While Seele, Bronya, Rozaliya, and Liliya reunite, Einstein is released from her prison by Schrodinger and places Cocolia under arrest for treason. Meanwhile, all the girls decide to join the crew of the Hyperion.

After recapturing control of Kiana's body, she had been living in exile alone in Arc City. She fights with Honkai beasts one night when Sirin seeks the opportunity to torment and brainwash Kiana, attempting to reawaken the Herrscher. Fortunately, Fu Hua, who had uploaded her consciousness to the 8th Divine Key, Fenghuang Down, which has the ability to manipulate minds, reaches Kiana's mind and helps Kiana drive Sirin away temporarily. Kiana holds hatred towards Fu Hua at first, but Fu Hua tells Kiana that their spirits are combined forever due to the power of Key of Deity, and that Kiana must learn to control the Herrscher power by herself. Under Fu Hua's training, Kiana finally succeeds and returns to fighting against Honkai in Arc City.

Uncovering that a major healthcare and pharmaceutical company in Arc City, Heliopolis Life Sciences, is just a cover for the World Serpent organization, Kiana and Hua hatch a plan to take down their operations. Meanwhile, Otto has dispatched Rita to retrieve Kiana, now designated the Herrscher of the Void. After fighting Rita, Kiana gives Rita intel to investigate the World Serpent. Rita upon investigation finds out about the facade of the World Serpent and deploys her team of Valkyries to take down the operation but they are incapacitated and saved by Kiana. Kiana fights WS lieutenant Raven but gets captured. Finding out about the chaos at Heliopolis, The Hyperion crew arrive in Arc City and investigate. Mei finds Kiana and frees her from the World Serpent. Rita calls on Durandal for backup, who had just retrieved the Second Divine Key. As a last ditch effort to end the abominations of the experiments by the World Serpent , Rita tries to make the Honkai reactor of her ship explode but is saved just in time by Kiana. Kiana then uncovers a further plot of the WS to cause a Honkai eruption in Arc City to awaken Stigmatas among the city’s residents and subsequently grant Honkai resistance to the few that would survive. Kiana embraces the powers of the Void and uses the abilities of the Herrscher to fly the bomb into the stratosphere and absorb some of the impact to protect the people.

Mei runs toward Kiana's unconscious body which is falling from the sky due to the bomb's impact. Durandal arrives exactly then and saves Kiana from death with the power of the Second Divine Key, even fighting Mei to take Kiana back to base. Mei cries about losing her beloved and the Hyperion retreats.

At a Schicksal base in North Africa, ruined from the awakening of the Herrscher of the Void four months ago, Durandal prepares to eliminate Quantum Shadows emerging from the portal created by the Second Divine Key in a Shicksal-created experiment. Later, Kiana awakens imprisoned in the Schicksal base and asks Durandal why she sides with Schicksal. Another round of the Divine Key experiment is announced and Kiana and Durandal spar with each other. After sparring, Kiana is defeated by Durandal and the experiment begins; the Second Divine Key is being used to open the same portal as last time, but further. However, the Divine Key is unable to do so and the portal collapses. The World Serpent then attacks the base to retrieve the Key and kill Kiana, sending Kevin Kaslana to the front lines. Durandal engages Kevin, Kiana escapes, and Otto Apocalypse, the charismatic Overseer of Shicksal, negotiates a partnership between Schicksal and WS.

Kiana meanwhile decides to go back to Nagazora, where she saved Mei from turning into the Third Herrscher and the whole Honkai and Valkyrie mess started, for some peace and quiet. The Hyperion Crew flies to Nagazora as well, sensing increased ambient Honkai leves there and hoping to locate Kiana. After fighting some beasts, Tesla and Mei decide to look for signs of a Herrscher in the city. Mei then finds a child named Sora and realises that Nagazora is still habitable in certain areas and the ambient Honkai levels are rising drastically. Finding out that Raven has build a settlement full of children she has saved in Nagazora, Mei and Raven become acquainted despite being enemies. Mei then teams up with Raven to locate Kiana, and Raven finds out that there is a Herrscherr level Honkai reading in the city , only to realise it is Benares, a Judgement Class Honkai beast. Fighting off Benares, Mei finally reunites with Kiana but realises that the latter is dying from Honkai corruption. She asks Raven for assistance who tells her that the only way to save Kiana is to become the Herrscherr of Thunder, thus allowing one of the three Cores within Kiana to dissipate and extend her lifespan. Kiana then adopts Benares as her familiar, and then a rift opens up in the sky of Nagazora. A giant robot, Nihilus, emerges which has control over time and fights Mei. As the fatal blow is about to be dealt to Mei , Benares selflessly sacrifices itself. Mei finally accepts the powers of the Herrscherr and becomes the Herrscherr of Thunder. She fights of the Nihilus bot and then decides to join the World Serpent according to the terms of the deal she made with Kevin Kaslana in exchange for info about curing Kiana. She fights of Kiana, who refuses to let her friend join the World Serpent who she sees as immoral, in Herrscherr form, and declares that even if it makes her a sinner, she will save Kiana from the Honkai.

Mei takes up her mantle as the Herrscherr of Thunder and becomes an officer of the World Serpent. She is deployed with Raven to an South Eastern island city called Coral, which was a flourishing city of the wealthy prior to a Herrscher event there. Upon their arrival , they see the entire city is covered in ice. Raven tells her that it was caused by a Honkai eruption which created the Herrscherr of Ice. They then leave to rendezvous with their informant named Chen Tianwu, codenamed Owl. Meanwhile, Schicksal has deployed the Immortal Blades, Schicksal's most powerful Valkyrie team, including their leader Durandal and her adjutant Rita. As they attempt to fight off the forces, they learn that the WS has sent assistance their way. Durandal then flies off to meet their reinforcements from WS. Rita fights off the horde of Honkai and runs off to join Durandal. Mei lands in front of Durandal as the Herrscherr of Thunder and they exchange greetings. Rita and Raven pick an argument and then team World Serpent goes to meet Owl, while Durandal investigates the identity of the Herrscher of Ice. Owl has located the Herrscher and has prepared devices to neutralise its abilities for incarceration. Durandal and Rita's investigation leads them to find out that a fellow Schicksal Valkyrie named Ana Schariac became the Herrscherr of Ice and killed her entire team. After pursuit ,Rita confronts the Herrscherr and her team gets decimated within minutes. Mei arrives on the scene and makes Ana flee. Owl betrays the World Serpent because he had previously loved Ana for a long time as she had saved his life during the previous eruption. He sees a vision that is unclear as to whether it is a memory or a hallucination that Ana had saved him but not his sister during the previous eruption and is incapacitated in the battle against Mei and Durandal. In the final battle, Durandal and Mei fight alongside each other and almost kill the Herrscherr. Owl is washed over by the Honkai and realises that Ana had chosen not to save his little sister in the eruption because of her fear of battle. She had saved him reluctantly and escaped the eruption. Owl then sees the source of the Honkai and allows himself to become the Herrscher of Gravity. Still loving Ana, he gives her his Core as well, together they become the Herrscher of Rimestar, giving her monstrous abilities and strength. Mei with Durandal defeats the Herrscher of Rimestar, and the situation is resolved.

Fu Hua's corpse at Schicksal has been restored to life and looks slightly different in terms of personality, power and appearance. She has retained her memories but has lost her cautious and calculating personality. She kills Otto but he revives in a backup body somewhere else, and destroys half of Schicksal's base to fly off and meet with Kevin.

She meets Kevin and he asks her if she is who she says she is. They fight, and Kevin returns the feather of the Fenghuang Down she had given him. She flies off, and speaks to the original cautious, quiet and polite Fu Hua whose consciousness was in the feather. She asks the original Fu Hua about betrayal and how her life will change. She reaches her old abode Mount Taixuan and destroys the legion of Beasts swarming the area. She gets into an argument with the feather about who is the real Fu Hua, and comes to the revelation that she is a Herrscher herself. She sees the Hyperion in the sky and tells the feather that they should have a second opinion.

Meanwhile, the crew of the Hyperion is searching for Mount Taixuan to train Kiana and Bronya. Upon reaching the Mountain, the two come into contact with Fu Hua's disciple who tells them to collect the feathers of the Fenghuang Down, the 8th Divine Key. Upon doing so and entering the monastery, they see that they are standing in the palm of a giant Fu Hua and she marvels at their arrival.

Fu Hua then tells them that she is indeed alive and asks them to judge who is the real Fu Hua: the Herrscher personality or the Feather personality. As the three Herrschers fight, Feather Hua hatches a plan with Kiana and Bronya. As the fight ensues, Kiana finally defeats the Herrscher of Sentience and the Herrscher realizes she is not the real Fu Hua. Fu Hua asks for The Herrscher of Sentience's help to fight against the Honkai, but she refuses and returns Fu Hua her old body.

After a short amount of while. Kiana, Bronya and Fu Hua went back to Salt Lake Base. It is here that Seele found the Theater of Domination while shopping with Kiana. Seele and her other persona, Veliona was temporarily separated. The puppets of the Herrscher of Domination convinces Veliona that Seele doesn't need her anymore, and she is just making her feel good. Veliona unleashes the full potential of Seele's body's power and break out of the Theater of Domination. Seele then investigates a puppet named "Jerry". They found that "Jerry" was dead, and that the Herrscher of Domination has a lot of individuals, even around thousands of them, each possessing a bit of the Domination Core's power. Seele and Bronya then go into the Theater once more. After being in there for so long, Bronya lost the power of the Herrscher of Reason, even though the core is still inside of her. The Theater can drain someone's Herrscher powers, and use it while letting the host of the core suffer the side effects. Seeing this, Seele tried her best to protect Bronya. Bronya found the weak point of the Theater, so Seele went to break it. However, Seele is not strong enough to break it. At a desperate moment, Seele gave full control of her body to Veliona. Veliona then breaks the weak point and together with Bronya, they escaped the Theater. Bronya noticed every small detail that makes Veliona different than Seele, even with the same body. Veliona explains that she is a "demon" born out of Seele's stigma and desire of protection. Bronya knows that Veliona just wants to keep Seele safe, so they have agreed to call Veliona "Seele".

The production team for Honkai Impact 3rd grew from a 7-person start to employing over 200 employees in 2018. miHoYo offers small amounts of in-game currency to users that fill out surveys about their experience in the game, allowing the game's developers to adjust future events and tweak the game. As a result, Honkai Impact 3rd is under a continuous-update system, patching bug fixes and changing or adding content multiple times per year. The game has had many significant changes since launch, including rewriting the entire first two chapters of the story in a December 2018 update. The developers stated that their decision to make Honkai Impact 3rd be in the free-to-play monetization system (rather than a premium, or paid, game) with the purpose of making the game more available to players. Devil May Cry and Bayonetta significantly affected the game makers' ideas for the fight system of Honkai Impact 3rd.

After a few years of users emulating Honkai Impact 3rd on computers[9][10] and an update making emulation more difficult, the game's official PC version was developed, releasing to the public on December 26, 2019.

Honkai Impact 3rd features an ongoing serialized manhua of the same name in Chinese and in English. The manhua begins before Chapter 1 of the main game story arc that aims to supplement and flesh out the in-game plot, and often includes character origins. Several in-game battlesuits worn by the Valkyries are illustrated in the manhua as well. The manhua has three prequel titles and one main title.

A non-canon slice of life cooking television anime series featuring 19 short episodes Cooking with Valkyries (Chinese: 女武神的餐桌-, Nǚ Wǔshén de Cānzhuō) was released from July to September 2020. The Bilibili releases are available in Mandarin Chinese, while the Japanese broadcast versions are in Japanese.

The game first attracted a large fanbase in Asia before spreading globally: first released in China in late 2016, it reached 1 million downloads in Japan 11 days after release, and IGN reported that Honkai Impact 3rd gathered a total of 35 million downloads worldwide as of March 28, 2018. The game has been released in Korea, Taiwan, Southeast Asia, North America, and Europe, and supports multiple languages including Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese, English, Japanese, Korean, Vietnamese, Thai, French, German, and Indonesian.

In an article from 2017, Ungeek.com says that the game has some later-game systems that are unintuitive, and cites the large download size for a mobile game as a negative. The review praised the game's visual quality and the ease of learning to play the game, as well as the overall quality of the game, and positively recommended it. The article mentioned that the quality of the game was comparable to console games.

On April 22, 2021, as part of the 3rd anniversary of the game's global server, a music video titled "Brilliant Bright" in collaboration with Myth & Roid, was released on miHoYo's Honkai Impact 3rd YouTube channel. While the video featured characters wearing bunny-girl outfits, none of the outfits were actually made available in-game - the cosmetics were solely for the purpose of the video. The backlash from the Chinese players was immediate and severe, with many considering it insensitive and unfair to release content for international players only, despite the Chinese players historically receiving significantly more content and rewards for celebrations. Two days later, on April 24, one Chinese man; armed with a knife, was reported to have infiltrated the developers' office of miHoYo in Shanghai; in a allegedly planned, but foiled attempt to assassinate the miHoYo founders, before he was apprehended on the spot and is currently in police custody.

Since the incident, the special video from Honkai Impact 3rd was removed from their channel, although the video itself is still available online, through fan reuploads. The Japanese band Myth & Roid have pulled out from the collaboration, and also had their special video single removed, but Brilliant Bright will still be available through streaming platforms and will be released as their digital single. In the game, any content related to 3rd-anniversary bunny girls, with the exception of the correlating event stigmata, are now removed as according to the game's official statement and was instead given 500 crystals for every GLB player as compensation. Chinese server players were given greater compensation (10 focused supply cards = 2800 crystal), despite not actually having any content removed in the Chinese version.