Honkai Star Rail 2.0’s Penacony Full Guide: Hidden Achievements, Golden Gachapon and Side Quest Walkthrough
Once you’ve wrapped up the dreamy main story of Honkai Star Rail Version 2.0 on Penacony, the “Planet of Festivals”, do you still find yourself craving more of this incredible dream city crafted by the Family? Beneath its bright, bustling surface, Penacony hides countless secrets waiting for Trailblazers to uncover. Many players after beating the main story struggle with the complex map, missing out on hidden achievements, hunting endlessly for Aideen Coins needed for the Golden Gachapon, or have no idea where to start unlocking rewarding side quests. This guide shares a systematic exploration strategy based on zone-by-zone, layer-by-layer clearing that lets you efficiently clear the entire map, collect every hidden achievement, coin, and quest reward, and experience 100% of everything Penacony has to offer.
Penacony’s hidden achievement design is very different from past maps in Honkai Star Rail. Instead of focusing purely on combat challenges, most of these achievements require deep interaction with the environment. Many are locked behind repeated interactions with specific objects, casual chats with seemingly unimportant NPCs, or completing a chain of tiny, easy-to-overlook quests. If you only follow the main story path, you’ll likely miss over 80% of all hidden achievements and their Stellar Jade rewards. If you want to be an achievement hunter, the two most important rules are curiosity and patience: never pass up any interactable object without checking it out first.
To break it down, there are a few common interaction types that almost always hide achievements. First, there’s the fan-favorite “trash can lore” — interact with every trash can you find in the Golden Hour map, and you’ll not only get some hilarious snarky dialogue, but also unlock a whole set of achievements. Second, there are consecutive interactions in specific locations, like the “Why Do Birds Fly?” achievement, which requires you to repeatedly investigate a small blue origami bird on a specific rooftop in the Dreamscape of Innocence map to trigger and complete. This type of achievement really tests your observation skills. On top of that, choosing different dialogue options at the end of many side quests can also unlock different hidden achievements. That’s why slowing down during exploration and treating every interactable spot on the map as a potential treasure is the smartest strategy.
All in all, letting go of the urge to rush through content and approaching every corner of Penacony with an explorer’s mindset is the only surefire way to unlock 100% of all achievements.
The Golden Gachapon is easily one of the most exciting long-term goals in Penacony. It offers the Clockie avatar, a limited Light Cone, and tons of rare materials that every Trailblazer wants to get their hands on. However, its exclusive currency, Aideen Coins, are scattered and hidden all across the map, which is a major pain point for many players. Instead of wandering randomly around the massive dreamscape looking for coins, it’s far better to follow a clear, targeted collection plan. There are four main sources of Aideen Coins: completing specific Dreamscape Puzzles, opening special King Trash Cans around the map, purchasing them from specific vendors like Danci in Golden Hour, and earning them as rewards for completing certain hidden quests.
To maximize your efficiency, we recommend combining coin collection with your general map exploration. For example, when you’re running through Golden Hour, you can prioritize looking for Dreamweavers with special markers above their heads. There’s almost always a Dreamscape Puzzle near them, and solving it will give you Aideen Coins. After that, you can cross-reference an online King Trash Can map to clear all the special trash cans in the area in one go. Like the common example we’ve seen: one player wandered aimlessly for two hours and only found three coins, while another player followed a structured guide and collected over a dozen in half an hour. The difference in efficiency is night and day. This kind of planning cuts down on tons of unnecessary running around and gets you closer to your big prize much faster.
That’s why strategically planning your coin collection route and knowing every possible source is the key to conquering the Golden Gachapon.
If the main story is the skeleton of Penacony, the amazing side quests are the flesh and soul that bring it to life. These quests not only give you tons of Stellar Jade and material rewards, but they also flesh out the light and dark sides of the dream world from different angles, making the entire story experience feel much more complete. Out of all the side content available, two quest series are absolutely unmissable: the Clockie series and the Dreamscape Puzzle series. The Clockie series tasks you with using Clockwork Tricks to fix the warped emotions of Penacony’s dream residents. Every story feels like a tiny, heartfelt movie that explores themes of dreams, loss, and reconciliation, with writing that’s just as deep as the main story.
The way you trigger these quests is also full of clever design. For the Clockie series, for example, you need to look for NPCs with special emotion markers above their heads scattered across the map, and initiate a conversation with them to start the quest. Dreamscape Puzzles are hidden all across every corner of Penacony, and every puzzle has a small story behind it — it could be a tourist’s longing for home, or an employee’s quiet anxiety. Completing these puzzles doesn’t just give you Aideen Coins, it also lets you piece together the real daily lives of Penacony’s ordinary residents like a detective. For example, talking to a worried member of the Hound Faction at the front desk of the Daydream Hotel in the “Reality” zone unlocks a long side quest about internal conflict within the Family, with shocking plot twists and memorable character writing that sticks with you.
So once you finish the main story, make sure you set aside time to dive into these carefully crafted side stories — they’ll give you more emotion and rewards than you expect.
Penacony is famous for its complex 3D, multi-layered map structure, especially in Golden Hour and Dreamscape of Innocence. The game frequently uses the Dreamway and Dream Bubbles to switch between spaces, which makes it super easy to get lost and end up re-treading the same ground over and over. To solve this problem, the most efficient method is the “zone-by-zone clearing, vertical layering” exploration strategy. To put it simply, don’t try to run through the entire giant map in one go. Instead, treat each individual map (like Golden Hour) as its own separate project, and split it into layers within that zone. Start by focusing entirely on the ground level, collect all the visible loot, talk to every NPC, and solve all the puzzles on the ground floor first.
Once you’ve cleared the ground level, you can use the Dreamway to access the paths on the walls and in the sky, and systematically clear all collectibles on the second level of space. During this process, use the map’s marker tool to tag any puzzles you can’t solve right away or any mechanisms that require a specific ability, so you don’t forget where they are. For example, if you find a chest that requires a higher Clockie level to open, tag it on your map immediately, then come back and clear it all at once after you’ve upgraded your ability, instead of searching for it from scratch every time you return. This method turns a confusing 3D exploration experience into a handful of simple, clear 2D tasks, which drastically reduces frustration and wasted time.
All in all, progressing methodically zone by zone and layer by layer, while making good use of the map marker tool, is the best way to conquer Penacony’s complex terrain.
To wrap everything up, Penacony’s charm goes far beyond its flashy main story cutscenes. The real treasures are hidden in the quiet corners that require you to slow down and pay attention to. From cleverly hidden achievements, to the reward-packed Golden Gachapon, to the heartfelt side stories, all of these pieces come together to create the full dream journey experience. The systematic methods shared in this guide are designed to eliminate the confusion and inefficiency you might run into during exploration, so you never have to hold back from exploring thanks to the confusing map. Now it’s time to step back into the dream and collect all the missed surprises and emotions you left behind.
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