Honkai Star Rail Wiki:Manual of Style

This is the Manual of Style for all articles on the Honkai: Star Rail Wiki. This wiki is generally written in American English — in accordance with the English localization of Honkai: Star Rail — and may use some specific rulesets which may be different from other wikis or communities. Please read this page carefully to maintain the consistency across the wiki.

Feel free to discuss improvements to this guide in this page's Talk page, the discussion board, or the wiki's Discord server.

Section Order

For consistency, all articles must follow a general layout.

1. Tabs
2. Notices
3. Hatnotes
4. Infobox
5. Introduction or general description
6. Article content (See the Page Layout guides for specific sections)
7. Trivia
8. Gallery
9. Video Guides
10. Notes
11. See Also
12. Other Languages
13. Change History
14. References
15. Navboxes
16. Categories
17. Interwikis

Article Titles, Sections, and Headings

Titles and Headings

• Use title case for article titles and section headings, unless the in-game title is not in title case.
  • For example: Welt's Blond Companion, not Welt's blond companion, but External communication records
• Page titles must be singular by default; page introductions may be plural if desired.
  • For example: Aeon, not Aeons.
  • Exceptions are:
    • Item names (Backup Batteries)
    • Organization names (The Cremators, Masked Fools, Mirror Holders)
• Do not use "A," "An," or "The," as the first word of an article title or section heading, unless it is inseparable or part of the in-game title.
  • For example: Masked Fools, not The Masked Fools, but The Reverie (Dreamscape) and The Hunt
• Do not use links or references in section headings.
• Do not add whitespaces before or after section headings.
  • For example: ==Section==, not == Section ==.

Section Organization

Main page: Category:Page Layout Guides

Redirects

• Full name redirects of characters should only be made if they are used in in-game material such that a convenient link would be acceptable to add.

Article Content

• Bold the first use of the page title in the article, which is typically in the first sentence.
  • Do not include links within this bolded portion.
• The usage of most magic words in articles is disallowed, with the exception of the following:
  • Behavioral Switches
    • __TOC__ — shows the Table of Contents at the position of its usage
    • __NOTOC__ — hides the Table of Contents
  • Technical Metadata Variables
    • {{DISPLAYTITLE:text to display as the page's title}} — commonly handled by infoboxes
  • Page Name Variables, only to be used with subst: to avoid issues on transclusion, should be used inside {{subst:#titleparts:magic word}} to avoid HTML entities being left on the article.
    • {{subst:PAGENAME}} — full page name without namespace (e.g., Module:Card/items → Card/items)
    • {{subst:FULLPAGENAME}} — full page name with namespace (e.g., Module:Card/items → Module:Card/items)
    • {{subst:BASEPAGENAME}} — full page name without the lowest subpage (e.g., Welt/Voice-Overs/Chinese → Welt/Voice-Overs)
    • {{subst:SUBPAGENAME}} — lowest subpage's name (e.g., Welt/Voice-Overs/Chinese → Chinese)
    • {{subst:ROOTPAGENAME}} — root page's name (e.g., Welt/Voice-Overs/Chinese → Welt)

Vocabulary

• Avoid using second person (i.e., "you"). Possible alternatives include using "players" or "the Trailblazer" or rephrasing the sentence to use passive voice.
  • For example, replace "(If you have completed Simulated Universe: First Closed Beta)" with "(If Simulated Universe: First Closed Beta has been completed)."
  • Second person in the form of commands is acceptable in the following cases:
    • Navigational aids (e.g., "See Also").
    • Additional instructions to help players in the "Steps" section of mission pages (e.g., when players must locate an NPC without a mission marker).

Names

• The {{Lang}} template should only be used in the introduction sentence for characters whose names are in Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Russian, or Thai. The template should contain the name of the character in the corresponding localization.
  • Characters whose names are not unambiguously in one of the aforementioned languages, should not have the template used.
  • Characters whose names are partially translated, should have the template used if the rest of their name is in one of the aforementioned languages.
• The inclusion of the surnames and titles of a character depends on where it is used.
  • For playable characters:
    • On the character's own page, the first use of their name (in the first sentence) should be their complete full name, including surnames.
    • On pages other than the character's own, the first use of their name should be their display name in-game.
    • Pay attention to name order to help determine what their given name is. While in most Western countries names are written with their given name first, that is not the case in many Eastern countries.
  • For non-player characters (NPCs):
    • Address them by the given in-game name (as an NPC), or, if they are not present in the game, use their name as described in any text or dialogue in-game.

Grammar and Spelling

See also: Project:Chinese, Project:Japanese, and Project:Korean

In accordance with the English localization of the game, the Honkai: Star Rail Wiki follows the following rules:

• Use the American spelling of words.
• Use the serial comma (also known as the Oxford comma).
• Use "neutral" (straight) quotation marks (" " and ' ', not “ ” and ‘ ’) and apostrophes (', not ’).
• Use double quotation marks for quotations. When nesting quotations, use single quotations.
• Place commas and periods within the quotation marks. ("Like this," not "like this".) This does not apply to other punctuation.

Date and Numbers

• Present dates in the format YYYY/MM/DD, or Month DD, YYYY when written out.
• Present times in the format HH:MM AM/PM (UTC±X). The hour should always include a leading zero when it is a single digit. When presenting a time in the 24-hour clock format, omit the AM/PM.
• Delimit numbers exceeding 999 into groups of three digits with a comma.

Symbols

• Use a proper multiplication symbol (× or ×), not the letter X (x).
• Transcribe em dashes (—) as they are shown in the game (written —). Do not replace it with the en dash (–) or two hyphen-minuses (--).

Deviation from In-Game Text

Because Honkai: Star Rail was created by a Chinese business and subsequently localized into other languages, there are occasionally errors in the English version of the game (usually grammar or mistranslation of words.) Grammar and spelling errors should not be corrected, but rather highlighted using the {{sic}} template. Mistranslations should also be noted in the reference section or added to the Trivia section. The Wiki will be updated after HoYoverse (miHoYo) corrects the localization errors.

References

• Do not add explanatory notes into references. Create a reference group for these notes and display them separately.
  • The reference group and the section heading for these notes should usually be named Note and Notes, respectively.
• No more than 2 references should be used for the same claim.
• When placing references or notes in the same group together, they must be ordered in ascending numerical order. (E.g., [2][5] and [Note 2][Note 5], not [5][2] or [Note 5][Note 2].) Note that numbers are automatically assigned, so it is strongly recommended to preview the page to help order references.
• When references and notes are used together, references must be placed before notes. (E.g., [2][Note 1], not [Note 1][2].)
• When placing notes in different groups together, they must have the same order as the invoked lists of notes. For example, if a page lists notes from the Note group first and the Assumption group second, then a claim that has notes from both groups should look like [Note 5][Assumption 3], not [Assumption 3][Note 5].
• Notes should be used sparingly. While attaching something like [1][5][Note 2][Note 3][Assumption 2] to a claim would technically be correct and compliant, there might be better ways to present that information. Alternatives that can be considered are condensing notes, directing readers to Trivia, and even integrating the information into the article body when appropriate.
• {{Ref}} templates are used to automate reference formatting for editors. In addition to missions, most in-game items have templates.

Formatting

Templates

Category	Examples
Characters
Character Story	<ref>{{Ref/CS|March 7th|1}}</ref> yields:
Voice-Over (English)	<ref>{{Ref/VO|March 7th|Greeting}}</ref> yields:
Voice-Over (CJK)	<ref>{{Ref/VO|March 7th|初次见面|zh}}</ref> yields:
Trailblaze Mission	<ref>{{Ref/Mission|Chaos In the Deep}}</ref> yields:
Trailblaze Continuance	<ref>{{Ref/Mission|Future Market (Prologue)}}</ref> yields:
Companion Mission	<ref>{{Ref/Mission|Rarely Affectionate (I)}}</ref> yields:
Adventure Mission	<ref>{{Ref/Mission|Don't Forget About Home}}</ref> yields:
Daily Mission	<ref>{{Ref/Mission|New Teas Coming Up}}</ref> yields:
Daily Mission (Version)	<ref>{{Ref/Mission|Bored to Death|note = Day 4}}</ref> yields:
Items
Light Cone	<ref>{{Ref/LC|Before the Tutorial Mission Starts}}</ref> yields:
Readable (no volume)	<ref>{{Ref/Readable|Asta's Letters From Home}}</ref> yields:
Readable (volume)	<ref>{{Ref/Readable|Glimpses into the Beyond|"Inquiry Into The Gods: An Introduction"}}</ref> yields:
Relic	<ref>{{Ref/Relic|Watchmaker's Telescoping Lens}}</ref> yields:
Character Ascension Material	<ref>{{Ref/Item|Squirming Core}}</ref> yields:
Trace Material	<ref>{{Ref/Item|Worldbreaker Blade}}</ref> yields:
Mission Item	<ref>{{Ref/Item|Fan With Plain Carp Print}}</ref> yields:
Currency	<ref>{{Ref/Item|Strale}}</ref> yields:
Others
Enemy	<ref>{{Ref/Enemy|Cocolia, Mother of Deception}}</ref> yields:
Simulated Universe Secret (no part)	<ref>{{Ref/Secret|Lepismat System: Massacre Saga}}</ref> yields:
Simulated Universe Secret (with part)	<ref>{{Ref/Secret|Gondola: Helping Gods!|2}}</ref> yields:
Loading Screen	<ref>{{Ref/Loading Screen|Gallagher}}</ref> yields:
YouTube
Special Program	<ref>{{Ref/YouTube|special_program = 2.0|date = 2024-02-01}}</ref> yields:
Version Trailer	<ref>{{Ref/YouTube|version_trailer = 1.6|date = 2023-04-18}}</ref> yields:
Character Trailer	<ref>{{Ref/YouTube|character_trailer = Blade|date = 2023-12-25}}</ref> yields:
"Keeping Up with Star Rail"	<ref>{{Ref/YouTube|keeping_up = Jingliu|date = 2024-01-01}}</ref> yields:
Myriad Celestia	<ref>{{Ref/YouTube|myriad_trailer = A Night of Ever-Flame: Scene 33|date = 2024-01-01}}</ref> yields:
Other Videos	<ref>{{Ref/YouTube|Gamescom 2022 - "Nightmare"|date = 2024-03-18}}</ref> yields:

No Template

Category	Examples
Voice Artists
Voice Artist (Announced by HoYoVerse)	<ref>[https://twitter.com/houkaistarrail/status/1529356593791385600 Japanese Character Reveal], Japanese ''Honkai: Star Rail'' Twitter. Retrieved May 25, 2022.</ref> yields:
Voice Artist (Self Announcement)	<ref>[https://twitter.com/DamanMills/status/1669721507562668032 EN VA Self Announcement], Twitter. Retrieved June 16, 2023.</ref> yields:
Investigation Point	<ref>Golden Hour, Investigation: [[Golden Hour#Self-Service SoulGlad Machines|Self-Service SoulGlad Machines]]</ref> yields:
NPC Dialogue	<ref>Dream's Edge, NPC: [[Go-Ray#Dialogue|Go-Ray]]</ref> yields:
Assignment	<ref>Assignment: [[Assignments#Spring of Life|Spring of Life]]</ref> yields:

Interwiki

• Interwikis must be added at the end of the page after a blank line, after categories if there are any.
• List each language in a new line and in alphabetical order.
• Template and module interwikis are listed in the documentation page inside a <noinclude>.
• If the template or module has no documentation, add the interwiki inside an <includeonly> in the main template page.
• Do not add interwikis in File namespace.

See Also

• Wiki Syntax Formatting Guidelines
• Caution Against Visual Editor