Honkai: Star Rail – Cornerstones and Ten Stonehearts explained

Who are the IPC’s elite?
HoYoverse

HoYoverse’s writers once again cooked something special with Honkai: Star Rail 2.1, weaving a story full of twists and turns that left players at the edge of their seats – and chewing on a couple of cliffhangers, just like a middle act should. Aventurine was the central character in this act and his gambits to expose The Family’s hidden dirt revolved around the use of something called the Cornerstones.

In this Honkai: Star Rail explainer, we’ll lay out what a Cornerstone is, why it’s so important, and who the Ten Stonehearts are.

Honkai: Star Rail – Cornerstones explained

A Cornerstone is a powerful item imbued with the strength of Qlipoth, Aeon of The Preservation. It has the form of a large, precious gem and therefore looks like it’s literally been broken off from Qlipoth’s body – and perhaps they have been.

Someone granted a Cornerstone can use it to gain immense power for a short period of time, as we’ve seen Aventurine doing at the end of update 2.1’s story arc. Despite his Cornerstone being broken into pieces and haphazardly glued together, it nevertheöess granted him enough strength to battle the Trailblazer, Himeko, Welt, and March 7th to a standstill and unleash an attack mighty enough to lay waste an entire district of the Dreamscape.

We also saw the limits of a Cornerstone’s power, though: Acheron easily dealt with Aventurine, cutting him and his massive attack down with a single strike – a Cornerstone can’t equalize an Emanator’s might.

Speaking of Emanators: Cornerstones are granted to an elite group of people by Diamond, head of the IPC’s Strategic Investment Department and an Emanator of Preservation. It’s likely that a Cornerstone allows its user to borrow some of Diamond’s powers for a bit. As for who is worthy of receiving a Cornerstone? That brings us to the Ten Stonehearts.

Honkai: Star Rail – Ten Stonehearts explained

The Ten Stonehearts are an elite among the IPC – they are the core members of the Strategic Investment Department and handpicked by Diamond himself, who is their overall leader. Each Stoneheart receives a Cornerstone from Diamond, which at the same time gives them a new name. When Kakavasha received the aventurine stone from Diamond, he became Aventurine.

Having a Cornerstone at their disposal makes each of the Ten Stonehearts a very powerful entity that is not to be taken lightly.

Aside from Aventurine, we’ve already met another Stoneheart in Topaz. You can find all known members of the Ten Stonehearts below:

  • Diamond
  • Aventurine
  • Topaz
  • Jade
  • Obsidian
  • Opal
  • Pearl
Honkai: Star Rail screenshot of Jade talking to Aventurine.
Jade is the latest member of the Ten Stonehearts to be shown. / HoYoverse

Each Cornerstone seems to hold powers suitable for the personality and role of its wielder – so Aventurine’s Cornerstone is known as the Aventurine of Stratagems, Topaz’s as the Topaz of Debt Retrieval, and Jade’s as the Jade of Credit.


Published
Marco Wutz
MARCO WUTZ

Marco Wutz is a writer from Parkstetten, Germany. He has a degree in Ancient History and a particular love for real-time and turn-based strategy games like StarCraft, Age of Empires, Total War, Age of Wonders, Crusader Kings, and Civilization as well as a soft spot for Genshin Impact and Honkai: Star Rail. He began covering StarCraft 2 as a writer in 2011 for the largest German community around the game and hosted a live tournament on a stage at gamescom 2014 before he went on to work for Bonjwa, one of the country's biggest Twitch channels. He branched out to write in English in 2015 by joining tl.net, the global center of the StarCraft scene run by Team Liquid, which was nominated as the Best Coverage Website of the Year at the Esports Industry Awards in 2017. He worked as a translator on The Crusader Stands Watch, a biography in memory of Dennis "INTERNETHULK" Hawelka, and provided live coverage of many StarCraft 2 events on the social channels of tl.net as well as DreamHack, the world's largest gaming festival. From there, he transitioned into writing about the games industry in general after his graduation, joining GLHF, a content agency specializing in video games coverage for media partners across the globe, in 2021. He has also written for NGL.ONE, kicker, ComputerBild, USA Today's ForTheWin, The Sun, Men's Journal, and Parade. Email: marco.wutz@glhf.gg