Honkai Star Rail ‘New Zealand trick’ – can you play it early?

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The Honkai Star Rail launch is not too far away at all, so you might be wondering if you can play it early with the ‘New Zealand trick.’

The NZ trick is a little technique that has historically been used in the past to get onto games early. By using a VPN, you can change your console or PCs system time-zone. If you’re then trying to play a game which is set for a launch at specific times across the globe, you can then play it early. Is the New Zealand trick going to be possible with Honkai Star Rail?

Can you play Honkai Star Rail early with the New Zealand trick?

The New Zealand trick worked well with Dead Island 2, though we’re not confident in how it’s going to work with Star Wars Jedi: Survivor. In light of that, we’re between two rocks: will it work with HSR, or will it flop?

Honkai Star Rail release time

To find this out, we’re going to have to look at the release times for the game across the globe.

  • UK: 26th April, 3am (BST)
  • Europe: 26th April, 4am (CEST)
  • East Coast US: 25th April, 10pm (EDT)
  • Central US: 25th April, 9pm (CDT)
  • West Coast US: 25th April, 7pm (PDT)
  • Australia: 26th April, 2pm (AEST)
  • New Zealand: 26th April, 4pm (NZST)
  • Japan: 26th April, 11am (JST)

It seems that there is a set global release time set for the game, with the time difference between each region being accounted for. This means that the New Zealand trick is not going to work with Honkai Star Rail.

About the Author

Amaar Chowdhury

Amaar is a gaming journalist with an interest in covering the industry's corporations. Aside from that, he has a hankering interest in retro games that few people care about anymore.