It’s happened to every Honkai: Star Rail player at least once. You’ve been saving Stellar Jades for months for your favorite limited 5-star character, you burn through 72 pulls without seeing a single orange drop, and the banner is set to expire in 24 hours. You’re debating whether to save your last 10 pulls for the next patch’s featured character, but you’re terrified you’ll lose all that progress you worked so hard for. If you’re in this exact boat, you’ve probably asked: does pity carry over Honkai Star Rail, and what rules apply to different banner types? I’ve spent over a year playing HSR daily, tested these rules across 6 different patches, and I’m breaking down everything you need to know to avoid wasting your hard-earned pulls.
Does Pity Carry Over Honkai Star Rail Across Different Banner Types?
The short answer is yes, for most banner types, but there are key exceptions tied to what kind of warp banner you’re pulling on. HoYoverse designed the pity system to reward consistent saving, so you won’t lose progress just because a patch ends or a featured character swaps out. That said, each banner category has its own separate pity pool, so progress on one type never counts for another. I’ve broken down the exact carry over rules for every banner type below:
One of the most important things to remember here is that patch updates never erase your accumulated pity progress for permanent banner types. I’ve had multiple runs where I hit 78 pulls on a limited banner right before a patch ended, didn’t pull the character, and the progress was already there when I logged in after the update. You don’t have to rush to pull before a patch ends if you don’t want the current featured character.
Common Misconceptions About HSR Pity Carry Over
There’s a lot of bad advice floating around social media about HSR pity rules, so I’m debunking the most common myths I’ve seen players fall for. The biggest one I see every patch is that pity is separate for concurrent double limited banners. That’s 100% false. Double limited character banners share the exact same pity counter, so if you pull 40 times on the first half of a double banner run, then pull 35 times on the second concurrent banner, your total is 75 pulls, and you’ll hit soft pity. I made this mistake back on the Version 1.6 double banner, and I accidentally hit pity on a character I didn’t want because I thought the counters were separate.
Another common myth is that losing a 50/50 resets your carry over progress. That’s not true either. If you hit pity and get a standard 5-star instead of the featured one, you’re guaranteed the next limited 5-star on your next pity, and that guarantee carries over across all future limited character banners. You don’t lose that guarantee even if you wait 3 patches to pull again. The only thing that resets your pity counter is pulling any 5-star character or light cone, regardless of whether it’s the featured one or not.
Many players also think pity carries over between character and light cone banners, but that’s never the case. These are completely separate pools, so progress on a character banner never counts for a light cone banner, and vice versa. Don’t waste pulls on the wrong banner type if you’re close to pity, because you can’t transfer that progress over later.
How to Track Your Pity Progress to Avoid Wasted Pulls
The easiest way to track your pity progress is through the in-game warp record, which stores your last 6 months of pull history. You can count your pulls since your last 5-star to see how close you are to soft or hard pity. Always count your pulls manually if you’re within 10 pulls of soft pity, because the game doesn’t show you an explicit pity counter, and it’s easy to lose track if you pull irregularly.
If you don’t want to count pulls manually, there are third-party pity trackers that can scan your warp history and calculate your current pity for you. These are safe to use as long as you don’t share your account login credentials, and most only require you to upload your warp history link from the in-game client. I use one of these trackers myself, and it’s saved me from accidentally wasting pulls on banners I don’t want multiple times.
One simple trick I use to avoid mistakes is to keep a note on my phone of my current pity count for character and light cone banners. I update it every time I pull, so I always know exactly how close I am to pity. That way, if a new banner drops that I’m not interested in, I know I can safely skip it without losing any progress.
Edge Cases Where Pity Does Not Carry Over In HSR
While most pity progress carries over as expected, there are a few rare edge cases where you can lose your progress if you’re not careful. The most common one is the new player departure banner, as we mentioned earlier. If you don’t use all 50 discounted pulls before the 30 day window expires, all of your progress on that banner is gone forever, and it won’t count for any other banner type.
Another edge case is cross-server progress. You cannot transfer pity progress across different server accounts, even if you use the same email to sign up. If you have an account on the America server with 70 pulls of pity, and you make a new account on the Europe server, that progress won’t carry over. I’ve seen players make this mistake when they switch regions to play with friends, and they end up losing months of saved pity progress.
One last edge case to keep in mind is if HoYoverse runs a special, one-time promotional banner that’s not part of the standard limited banner pool. These are extremely rare, but they will explicitly state in the banner description if pity does not carry over to other banners. Always read the banner details before you pull on any new, unusual promotional banners to avoid surprises. Losing a 50/50 does not erase your carry over eligibility, so don’t let anyone tell you otherwise. Your guaranteed limited 5-star stays active until you pull it, no matter how long you wait.
At the end of the day, the pity system in Honkai: Star Rail is designed to be fair to players who save their pulls, and the answer to does pity carry over Honkai Star Rail is almost always yes, as long as you’re pulling on the same banner type. The only mistakes you can make are pulling on the wrong banner type, forgetting the departure banner expires, or assuming progress carries over across separate pools. Keep these rules in mind, and you’ll never waste a Stellar Jade on lost pity progress again. I’ve used these tips to pull every limited character I’ve wanted for the last year without spending extra money, and they’ll work for you too.
