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Honkai Star Rail "Custom Relic Loadouts" Menu
Custom equipment configurations made faster & easier for both casual & competitive players
Impact Goals:
Make Relic-equipping player flow more efficient & easy
Enable players to spend more time playing, and less time equipping
Solution caters to both casual & competitive player types
Smoothly integrate solution into current game interface & brand
My Role:
Design Relic-customization feature
Gather current player research
& testing feedback
Prototype interface design
& interactions
Tools:
Figma, FigJam
Adobe Illustrator
Adobe Photoshop
Team:
1 UX & UI Designer (Me)
Timeline:
Personal Project
3 weeks (June 2025)
Design Overview
Designing a more efficient equipment customization menu to help players spend less time equipping, and more time playing!
"Honkai Star Rail" (abbreviated as "HSR") is a video game played on PC/desktop, console, or mobile devices. In this game, the player can equip their combat characters with stat-boosting equipment called "Relics". Relics are equipped in sets of 4-&-2, and each individual Relic's stats are randomized, meaning players oftentimes spend a lot of time collecting & picking out the best Relics possible for their characters.
The "Custom Relic Loadouts" menu I designed aims to make this Relic-equipment process faster & easier for players, enabling them to spend more time experiencing the actual gameplay, combat, and story instead.
Quickly Swap Between Your Saved Relic Loadout Plans
Players can quickly swap their character's equipped Relics between entire saved configurations. Previously a multi-click process, now reduced to just 2 clicks!
Freely Modify Your Loadout Plans to Find the Perfect Fit
As the player collects more Relics with better stats over time, they can easily swap individual Relics or modify parts of any of their saved Loadout Plans.
Create Custom Loadout Plans for Every & Any Type of Build
Especially useful for characters that can be built differently as damage-dealers or supports! Create different Loadout Plans to easily adapt your character for any team build.
Set Stat Goals and Get Optimized Recommendations
No longer need to have a calculator open by your side! Players can set goals for their character's stats, and the system will recommend Relics that add up or exceed your desired stats.
Problem & Research
Players don't want to spend a lot of time fiddling with their Relics and equipping their characters!
As a current HSR player, I've observed many fan discussions and feedback asking developers for a "custom loadout" feature that will allow them to save different configurations of Relics for each of their characters. Currently, if players want to swap their Relics, they have to do it one-by-one, which ends up being severely time-consuming considering the total number of different pages, clicks, and mental calculations needed.
I interviewed 6 current HSR players about their current experiences with choosing & equipping Relics for their characters and what kind of playing commitment & experiences they expect from HSR:
3 Types of Players Want to Make Relic-Equipping Faster!
Casual Player:
Wants to quickly put on any good enough Relics to immediately start playing.
"I'm not really interested in min-maxing my characters with THE perfect stats. I just care about playing the game!"
Average Player:
Wants help choosing the most suitable Relics available for their characters.
"I wish I could just tell the system that I want my character to be as fast as possible, and the system would just pick out pieces to match."
Competitive Player:
Wants to efficiently combine Relics that best optimize their characters' stats.
"I farm & collect a lot of Relics, so it takes a long time to find the right combination that add up to the exact stats I'm looking for."
How might we make the process of choosing & changing Relic equipment faster & easier so that players can spend more time playing the game instead?
Brainstorm & Ideation
My Answer: Create a menu feature that enables players to quickly swap between entire sets of Relics they've self or system-configured beforehand.
Step 1: Pinpoint & Analyze Current Pain Points
Currently, HSR's Custom Relics Loadout menu called "Smart Equip" allows players to switch between their currently equipped Relics and 1 custom Loadout Plan. However, the 1 custom Plan is automatically created by the game system, rather than the player themselves. For players looking to have complete customization freedom or want to modify the system's recommendations more to their liking, this current menu falls short of player expectations.
The lack of custom Plan options is is also particularly frustrating for players who own characters that require different types of Relics depending on which team or strategy the player wants to use. Offering only 1 system-created custom Plan means that players have to replace entire Relic sets one-by-one to use different strategies for different types of game content.
Step 2: Brainstorm Opportunities
to Delight
I mapped out HSR's current interaction flow with the Smart Equip menu, taking notes of what each interactive element on each page does. Throughout this process, I brainstormed where in the interaction flow could be redesigned to address the player pain points I had identified earlier and ideated solutions ranging from rewording and rearranging buttons to creating new interaction flows entirely.
Step 3: Ideate New Interaction Flow
Among the solutions I had brainstormed, the ability to allow the player to freely customize their Loadout Plans from scratch or modify an existing/system-created one was an interaction not yet existing in HSR. So I needed to create a new interaction flow that would reflect this new functionality and show how it would smoothly integrate into the current HSR interaction flow and interface.
Sketches & Wireframes
Step 4: Identify Content Requirements & Sketch Wireframes
I then sketched out wireframes for what the redesigned screens would look like, highlighting the changes and content I added that would help solve player's pain points. Some design & content requirements I made sure to address included:
Choice between system-created Plans or player-customizing Plans from scratch
Option to set numeric goals for calculated stats
Edit name of player's custom Loadout Plans
Ability to view stats of each individual relic in inventory
Indicate what Relics are currently equipped by other characters
Set Stat Goals for Plan
Customize Plan Layout 1:
Customize Plan Layout 2:
User Testing & Feedback
Conducting Player Testing to Iterate & Finalize Prototypes
Player testing was conducted with 6 different players who currently play HSR. Users tested the 2 Customize Plan Layouts I had wireframed and chose which option they found most intuitive to use for a functionality they're using for the first time. I observed if the players were able to successfully & easily go through my new interaction flow as intended, and I also asked them for feedback about whether they would use my redesigned Custom Relic Loadouts menu if released in the game.
Change 1: Currently Equipped Relic Loadout Plan
Giving players the ability to create more than 1 new Custom Plan and adding more clarifying context to what Plans are and what players can do with them.
Before:
Only 1 Custom Plan slot available
Unclear if Custom Plan is editable
After:
Add 3 more Custom Plan slots
Label which Plan is currently equipped
Provide context what "Popular Plan" means
Change 2: Swapping for a Different Loadout Plan
Removing redundant or misleading interactions, and offering the player new, useful options to equip, modify, or rename their Loadout Plans.
Before:
Misleading "edit" icon & button
Access to inventory is redundant here
No option to modify Loadout Plan
After:
Player can rename Custom Plans
Click here to adjust Plan & modify Relics
Swapped for system-consistent wording
Change 3: Creating a New Custom Loadout Plan
Enable players with the option to create their own Custom Plans or use/modify system-generated ones, appealing to all types of players casual or competitive.
Before:
Only 1 option for system-generated Plan available
After:
Can create custom name for new Plan
Option for system-generated Plan
Option for completely player-created Plan
New Design 1: Modifying or Customizing Player-Created Relic Loadout Plans
New interaction design for players who want to modify any of their Loadout Plans or start customizing a new one from scratch.
Can switch back to system-generated
Marks this Relic as part of Loadout Plan
Indicates if different character using Relic
New Design 2: Setting Stat Goals
for System-Generated Recommendations
New interaction design for players who want to give more direction to the system-generated Loadout Plans with what kinds of stats they want for their characters.
Darken BG to improve visual accessibility
Explains how Plan will be system-generated
Set 'goals' for min. stats to be achieved