If you’ve just downloaded Honkai: Star Rail after seeing your friends gush about the writing or cool character designs, one of the first questions you might have is how long is the Honkai Star Rail story. I’ve been playing since global launch, and I’ve run through every released story arc twice at this point—once on my main account, once on a reroll alt I made to test out limited banner characters. The playtime can vary a lot depending on how you play, so I put together this guide to help you plan your gaming schedule before you dive into the world of the Astral Express.
How Long Is the Honkai Star Rail Story for Main Quest Only?
We’ll start with the most straightforward playstyle: running only the core Trailblaze Mission questline with no extra side content. Your playtime here depends almost entirely on whether you skip cutscenes or take the time to absorb all the writing and voice acting. Most story beats are fully voiced in four languages, so players who want to experience the full narrative have a lot of content to get through.
If you listen to all voice lines and read every dialogue line without skipping, you can expect 45 to 55 hours of main story content as of the latest released version. This breaks down roughly to 3 to 4 hours for the opening Herta Space Station arc, 12 to 15 hours for the Jarilo-VI arc, 12 to 14 hours for the Xianzhou Luofu arc, and 18 to 22 hours for the currently ongoing Penacony arc. Each new version adds roughly 2 to 4 hours of extra main story content every six weeks, so this number will keep growing as the story unfolds.
Players who skip all cutscenes and dialogue can finish all currently released main quests in 20 to 25 hours total. That said, I don’t recommend skipping unless you’re only playing for endgame combat content. The writing is one of the biggest draws of the game, and you’ll miss a lot of context for character motivations and world building if you rush through the main quest. I skipped most cutscenes on my alt account to get to endgame farming faster, and I ended up replaying most of the story on my main anyway to catch the details I missed.
Extra Playtime for Side Content, Companion Quests, and Events
Most players don’t stick exclusively to the main quest, and Honkai: Star Rail has tons of extra story content for people who want to dig deeper into the world and characters. I almost always run all side content as it releases, since a lot of it adds context to the main story that you won’t get from Trailblaze Missions alone. Here’s a breakdown of how much extra time you can expect to add if you engage with optional content:
If you complete all companion quests, permanent adventure missions, and current event story content alongside the main quest, you can expect to add another 30 to 40 hours to your total playtime. That number jumps even higher if you go out of your way to find hidden lore entries, read all the readable items scattered across maps, or replay your favorite quest lines to see different dialogue choices.
Just note that limited time event stories are not added to the permanent content library right now, so if you want to experience that extra story content you’ll have to play it during the event window. I missed the first couple of event stories when I took a short break from the game last year, and I’m still hoping they get added to a permanent archive eventually.
How Long Does 100% Completion Take?
If you’re the type of player who wants to unlock every achievement, collect every hidden chest, and clear every piece of content the game has to offer, your total playtime will be significantly higher than casual players. I’m currently sitting at 98% completion on my main account, and I have just over 290 hours logged as of the latest version update.
Full 100% completion for all currently released content can take between 250 and 320 hours, depending on how much you grind for hidden achievements and collectibles. Players who use walkthroughs to find hidden chests and complete tricky achievements will land on the lower end of that range, while players who prefer to explore without guides will likely spend closer to 300 hours to hit 100%.
That number doesn’t include the extra time you’ll spend grinding character levels, light cones, and relics to clear endgame content like Memory of Chaos or Pure Fiction. If you want to get full stars on all endgame combat content, you can add another 50 to 100 hours of grind time depending on how lucky you are with relic drops. I’ve spent roughly 70 hours farming relics for my main team, and I still don’t have perfect rolls for all my characters.
You don’t have to go for 100% completion to enjoy the story, of course. Most casual players will be perfectly happy running the main quest and the companion quests for their favorite characters, which will only take 70 to 90 hours total for all currently released content.
Factors That Can Change Your Total Story Playtime
The numbers I listed above are just averages, and your personal playtime might be higher or lower depending on a few key factors. The biggest variable is whether you get stuck on mandatory story fights, which can add a lot of extra time if your characters are underleveled. I still remember getting stuck on the final Cocolia fight on my first run because I was stubborn and refused to level up any ice characters, adding almost two full hours to my Jarilo-VI playtime.
Another big factor is how much time you spend exploring open world maps and interacting with non-essential content. A lot of players love wandering around Penacony taking screenshots, talking to random NPCs, or testing out different character team comps in the open world, and all of that adds extra time that doesn’t count towards quest completion. I regularly spend 30 to 45 minutes just wandering around new maps when they drop, just to see all the little details the devs added.
If you rerun story quests to rewatch your favorite cutscenes or make different dialogue choices, that will add extra playtime that doesn’t count towards first-time completion. I’ve replayed the Penacony arc twice already to catch small details I missed the first time around, which added almost 20 extra hours to my total playtime. The dialogue choices don’t change the main story outcome, but they do give you different character reactions that are worth seeing if you’re a big fan of the writing.
Don’t forget that HoYoverse adds new story content every six weeks with each version update, so the total playtime for the full story will keep growing for years as new planets and arcs are released. You don’t have to rush to catch up, either—old permanent story content stays available forever, so you can play at your own pace without worrying about missing the core narrative.
So if you’re still wondering how long is the Honkai Star Rail story, the short answer is it depends entirely on how you prefer to play. Casual players who only run the main story can get through all current content in under 60 hours, while completionists can sink hundreds of hours into every side bit of content. Either way, the writing is consistently solid, the characters are memorable, and you won’t be wasting your time no matter how much of it you choose to play.
