Bronya

Bronya
Honkai character
Official artwork of the latest Bronya iteration as she appears in Honkai: Star Rail
First game	Guns Girl Z (2015)
Voiced by	EN: Madeline Reiter ZH: Xie Ying JA: Kana Asumi KO: Lee Bo-hee
In-universe information
Full name	Bronya Zaychik (GGZ and HI3) Bronya Rand (HSR)
Weapon	Rifle
Relatives	Cocolia (adoptive mother)
Origin	Siberia (GGZ and HI3) Jarilo-VI (HSR)
Types	Wind (HSR)
Paths	Harmony (combat) Preservation (lore)

Bronya (/ˈbrɔːnjə/ BRAWN-yuh, Chinese: 布洛妮娅; pinyin: Bùluònīyà) is a character in the Honkai video game series developed by miHoYo. Several iterations of Bronya have appeared throughout the series, the first of which was in Guns Girl Z. In Honkai Impact 3rd, Bronya Alexeievna Zaychik (布洛妮娅·阿列克谢耶夫娜·扎伊切克; Bùluònīyà Ālièkèxièyēfūnà Zhāyīqièkè) is from Siberia and is a Valkyrie, a warrior trained to fight against the supernatural force known as the Honkai. In Honkai: Star Rail, Bronya Rand (布洛妮娅·兰德; Bùluònīyà Lándé) is the current Supreme Guardian of Belobog, a city on the ice-encased planet of Jarilo-VI. She formerly served as the right-hand woman of her adoptive mother, Cocolia, before revolting against her with assistance from the game's protagonist the Trailblazer.

The Bronya in Honkai: Star Rail was generally received well for her strength, selflessness and character growth, with critics praising the tragedy and maturity of her character arc. Fans and commentators also highlighted her recurring presence across the Honkai series and her close relationship with the character Seele.

Creation and design

Bronya Zaychik

Bronya first appeared under the name Bronya Zaychik in the 2013 game Guns Girl Z (also known as Houkai Gakuen 2), a zombie shooting game that Yahoo News commentator Yan Ku described as leading into the alternate reality seen in Honkai Impact 3rd. She was the third playable character in the Honkai series to be released. Ku described her as a kuudere, in reference to the Japanese term for characters that show little emotion. Bronya appeared in Honkai Impact 3rd, which was released in 2016.

A different version of Bronya, whose last name is Rand, was revealed to be in Honkai: Star Rail when she appeared in a trailer for the character Seele, which was released on April 22, 2023. The next day, miHoYo released a video analyzing this Bronya's combat abilities. Bronya Rand was released as a playable character upon the game's release on April 26; she was added to the game's standard character gacha banner.

Bronya is voiced in Chinese by Xie Ying and in Japanese by Kana Asumi, both of whom voiced the character in Honkai Impact 3rd. For Honkai: Star Rail, additional voices in English and Korean were provided by Madeline Reiter and Lee Bo-hee, respectively.

Appearances

Honkai Impact 3rd

Bronya Zaychik is a Russian orphan who was forced by criminal gangs to become an assassin. She was given a mission to kill Cocolia, the leader of an orphanage connected to the military organization Anti-Entropy. Bronya fails in her attempt, but Cocolia took pity on her and let her live in her orphanage. At the orphanage, Bronya became close to a girl named Seele Vollerei. When the latter disappeared during a dangerous experiment called Project X-10, Bronya underwent the same experiment to try to rescue her. She failed to bring Seele back and suffered severe damage to her legs and the part of her brain responsible for emotion, leaving her unable to walk without help and causing her to act in a cold, expressionless way. The experiment also gave her control over Project Bunny, a powerful robot made for combat.

Bronya later joined the heroes Kiana Kaslana and Raiden Mei at St. Freya Academy, a school that trains fighters known as Valkyries to fight the Honkai, a supernatural force that can corrupt people, create monsters and destroy civilizations. Although Bronya often appears emotionless and overly logical she is very loyal to her friends, particularly Seele and Mei, and repeatedly risks her life to protect them. Eventually, she became the Herrscher of Reason, a powerful being able to use Honkai energy to recreate machines and weapons. This transformation repairs her body and restores her ability to walk and experience emotions. Throughout the game, Bronya uses several different armored combat suits that represent various stages of her life and give her different abilities. Bronie, sometimes called Haxxor Bunny, is a separate, alternate-universe version of Bronya who is a hacker rather than a soldier; this version of Bronya later inspired the character Silver Wolf in Honkai: Star Rail.

Honkai: Star Rail

In Honkai: Star Rail, Bronya Rand lives on a planet called Jarilo-VI, which has become encased in ice due to the presence of a Stellaron. A Stellaron is a mysterious object capable of causing massive changes to ecosystems and civilizations, as well as creating corruption referred to as "Fragmentum". She resides in Belobog, Jarilo-VI's largest city. Bronya was raised in an orphanage in Belobog's impoverished Underworld, where she was adopted at a young age by Cocolia, Belobog's Supreme Guardian, or ruler. Bronya becomes the commander of the Silvermane Guards, Belobog's security service. Players first see Bronya talking with Cocolia shortly before the arrival of the Trailblazer. Cocolia welcomes the group to the area, and seemed to want to eliminate the Stellaron; however, she secretly orders Bronya to arrest them. The next morning, Bronya leads the guards outside the Trailblazer's hotel in order to arrest them on Cocolia's orders, shocking the group. She chases the group into a restricted area corrupted with Fragmentum, resulting in an ambush. One of the Trailblazer's acquaintances, Sampo, uses a smoke bomb to knock everyone out, and Bronya, the Trailblazer and the rest of the group are taken to the Underworld. In the Underworld, Bronya clashes with Seele, a member of the local organization Wildfire, which protects the area’s residents. Seele confronts Bronya about the poverty and suffering caused by the wealthy Overworld’s neglect of the Underworld. Bronya accompanies the Trailblazer and Seele to Rivet Town for medical supplies, where she visits an orphanage and helps a young child buy Geomarrow, an energy-producing ore used to heat and power Belobog. She realizes it is the same orphanage where she was raised before Cocolia adopted her, leading her to heavily question Cocolia's actions and the Underworld's suffering. It is revealed that Cocolia, under the Stellaron's influence, planned to destroy Belobog to create a better future, intending to banish researchers seeking to uncover the truth about the Stellaron and kill the Trailblazer and their friends when they try to neutralize the threat. Bronya returns to the Overworld ahead of the group to confront Cocolia, when she herself begins hearing the Stellaron's voice. Cocolia also intended to brainwash Bronya and have her succeed her as Supreme Guardian. Bronya resists the brainwashing attempt. After the pair finish combat, Cocolia frees herself from the Stellaron's influence. After the Stellaron tries to possess Bronya instead, Cocolia manages to hold it back to protect her from its influence. After Cocolia's defeat, Bronya, now the new Supreme Guardian, chooses not to reveal her adoptive mother's corruption to the public; instead, she announces that Cocolia died bravely while fighting the Stellaron. As the new Supreme Guardian, she unifies Belobog and reopens the passage between the Overworld and the Underworld.

Gameplay

In Honkai: Star Rail, Bronya is a 5-star rarity character who deals Wind damage and walks the Path of Harmony. She uses a rifle to shoot at enemies. Bronya's basic attack deals Wind damage to a single enemy and also activates her Talent, which makes her next action occur sooner in the game's turn order. Her Skill dispels a debuff from an ally character and also advances her next action in the turn order. Additionally, this increases her damage for the next action. Her ultimate boosts the attack and critical damage statistics of ally characters for two turns.

Players can also face her as a boss in both the game's main story and Simulated Universe combat mode.

Reception

Cosplay of Bronya Zaychik in Qingdao, China

Bronya was generally received well by players, who expressed their love for the character via cosplay.

Writer Yan Ku of Yahoo News wrote that Bronya was "that one character that HoYoverse almost always exports into their games". She argued that the company was showing favoritism for Bronya over other characters, using the fact that the number of battlesuits released for Bronya in Honkai Impact 3rd (eleven) was the most for any character. The game's main protagonist, Kiana Kaslana, for comparison, only had eight battlesuits for players to choose from. Ku characterized the Bronya in Honkai: Star Rail as very similar to the aged-up version of Bronya seen in the Honkai Impact 3rd quest A Post Honkai Odyssey 2. She speculated that a version of the character (also known as an expy) may appear as the Tsaritsa in Genshin Impact, one of miHoYo's other games. Ku said that although the Bronya in Honkai: Star Rail was different from the original in that she was no longer the Herrscher of Reason, Bronya was still faced with a "mighty destiny" in becoming Belobog's Supreme Guardian. Ku compared the Honkai Impact 3rd Bronya with her Star Rail counterpart in that they are both powerful, resolved, dedicated, and protective people. Ku also indicated that the Honkai: Star Rail version of Bronya was the adult version of the character, contrasting it with the younger, twin-tailed appearance Bronya has in Honkai Impact 3rd's main storyline. Yuki Kawasaki of Real Sound compared the two; in Honkai Impact 3rd Cocolia and Bronya go their separate ways. Even in the parallel universe in which Honkai: Star Rail is set, their fate remains the same and their relationship is torn apart.

Commentators have characterized Bronya as a highly capable figure who ultimately develops into a selfless ruler. Kawasaki described Bronya's decision to oppose her own mother as "nothing short of a tragedy", particularly because their relationship would have likely remained harmonious under ordinary circumstances. The story acknowledges that the future of Belobog will likely be difficult and that there was little reason for optimism about Belobog and its continuing hardships. They compared Bronya's development to that of Miach Mihie in the 2015 film Harmony and stated that rather than prioritizing individualism, both characters direct their attention toward society as a whole. After the battle with Cocolia, Bronya prepares to assume the position of Supreme Guardian and devotes herself tirelessly to the citizens of Belobog, and she debates municipal policy with Seele, who understands the concerns of ordinary residents and effectively becomes Bronya's right-hand woman. Ken Allsop of PCGamesN observed that Bronya possesses a form of selflessness distinct from Cocolia's, although her rebellious streak may partly stem from her close relationship with Seele, who is seen fighting alongside her in one of Seele's promotional trailers. Despite the difficult future awaiting Belobog, Bronya inspires strong loyalty from players. Kawasaki declared that if the Trailblazer's assistance could reverse Belobog's fortunes, they would gladly come back to help as many times as necessary.

Commentators have also focused on Bronya's relationship with Seele across both Honkai: Star Rail and Honkai Impact 3rd. Ku argued that the Bronya in Honkai: Star Rail resembles her Honkai Impact 3rd counterpart most clearly in her relationships with other characters, observing that the earlier Bronya's connection with Seele Vollerei is reflected in the budding relationship between Bronya and Honkai: Star Rail's older version of Seele by the conclusion of the Belobog storyline. Allsop highlighted Bronya's appearance alongside Seele in the latter's character trailer, noting that the reunion of the Honkai series' "iconic duo" particularly excited longtime fans of the franchise. He cited one fan's comment that seeing "Seele being with Bronya in every universe" was heartwarming, before joking that historians would regard them as merely "really good friends". According to Vikki Blake of Eurogamer, the two have also been described by fans as a power couple. An anonymous writer for 4Gamer also praised the way Bronya, an upper-class soldier, and Seele, a resistance fighter from the impoverished Underworld, gradually open up to one another, describing their developing bond as "truly precious".

External links

• Bronya Zaychik on Honkai Impact 3 Wiki
• Bronya on Honkai: Star Rail Wiki