Honkai Star Rail 4.0 Delay: How to Claim Your Free Stellar Jades Now
HoYoverse has delayed Version 4.0 by two weeks, a surprise reveal during the Honkai Star Rail 3.8 Special Program—players will pocket 1,000 Stellar Jades and 10 Fuel for the wait.
HoYoverse just hit pause on its usual clock. Honkai Star Rail is stretching Version 3.8 to eight weeks, which pushes Version 4.0 back by two. The upside: everyone gets a nice stack of free currency and some fuel to burn.
The short version
- Version 4.0 is delayed by two weeks; Version 3.8 now runs eight weeks instead of the usual six.
- Compensation: 1,000 Stellar Jades and 10 Fuel for every player who has unlocked in-game mail.
- How to get it: log in after Dec 8, 2025 at 12:00 (UTC+8) and claim the items from your mailbox. No event or tasks required.
- Timing ripple: HoYoverse apologized and confirmed 4.0 won’t land until early 2026.
- What to do with the freebies: spend on the extended 3.8 banners (there’s even a newly added third phase) or save for 4.0’s new-region lineup. The Dahlia’s arrival in 3.8 might push Weakness Break teams back into the meta. Also, silhouette teasers hint at multiple newcomers and maybe a new Sparkle variant.
What happened
During the Honkai Star Rail 3.8 Special Program, HoYoverse made it official: Version 4.0 is slipping two weeks, and 3.8 will stay live for a full eight. If you wanted extra time to farm or hoard pulls, congratulations, you just got it.
'Hello, Trailblazers! We sincerely apologize for the poor experience and inconvenience caused by the extension of Version 3.8. The Express Crew will issue Stellar Jade x1,000 and Fuel x10 to every Trailblazer who has unlocked the mail...'
That message went out on Dec 8, 2025, alongside the compensation plan.
How to claim the freebies
It’s as simple as it sounds. If your account has the in-game mail feature unlocked and you log in any time after Dec 8, 2025 at 12:00 (UTC+8), those 1,000 Stellar Jades and 10 Fuel will show up in your mailbox. Open the mail, hit claim, done. No mini-event, no hoops, no expiration runaround mentioned here.
Spend now or stash for later?
There are two clean paths. You can throw the Jades at the extended 3.8 banners — including that surprise third phase — especially if you’re eyeing The Dahlia and want to lean into a potential Weakness Break resurgence. Or you can bank everything for Version 4.0, which should debut at least one character tied to the next region. HoYoverse has already teased silhouettes for multiple units, and yes, one looks suspiciously like a new Sparkle flavor.
Why the delay: the official line and the fan theory
Publicly, HoYoverse says the extra time is about making the next stop, Planarcadia, land properly. Internally, the studio describes Planarcadia as a strange realm influenced by the Aeon Aha with an amusement-park vibe — and it’s still deep in development. That tracks with the longer patch length.
The community, meanwhile, has been connecting dots for days. A widely shared summary by Reddit user u/ArcticFox19 (in the HonkaiStarRail community) lays out a different angle: escalating late-2025 tensions between China and Japan may have tightened Chinese media rules, complicating HoYoverse’s plans for a Japan-inspired area — nicknamed Edo Star or Benzaitengoku — that was reportedly being built for 4.0. The claim is that the studio shelved or replaced that region for now.
None of that behind-the-curtain stuff is confirmed by HoYoverse. Still, the unusually long patch cycle, a sudden shift in teases, and no expected reruns for Japan-coded characters (names like Rappa or Sparkle keep coming up) all line up with what players think is happening.
The takeaway
Delays are annoying, sure, but 1,000 Jades and 10 Fuel take the sting out a bit — and the extra two weeks give you time to either chase 3.8’s final banners or plan a surgical strike for 4.0 in early 2026. What are you spending yours on?