There’s no worse feeling in Honkai Star Rail than seeing your favorite limited banner character vanish before you hit pity, right? If you’ve ever found yourself grinding every last corner of the game to stack up Jades, you’ve probably asked how many pulls can you get in Honkai Star Rail before a banner ends. I’ve tested every possible earning method over my 18 months playing the game, both as a F2P and low spender, so I’ve got exact numbers you can rely on, no vague estimates here.
How Many Pulls Can You Get in Honkai Star Rail Per Patch for F2P Players
Let’s start with the base numbers every free-to-play player can hit without participating in limited events, assuming you log in daily and clear all permanent content available each patch. A standard Honkai Star Rail patch runs 42 days, or 6 weeks, and the total base earnings add up to roughly 47 limited banner pulls per patch for F2P users. That breaks down to around 37 pulls worth of Stellar Jade, plus 10 Star Rail Special Passes from the free track of the Battle Pass, plus extra passes from monthly login rewards. If you don’t care about limited banners and only pull on the standard warp, you can add another 6 to 8 regular passes per patch from permanent rewards, bringing that total up to 55 pulls for the standard banner.
Of course, that number jumps if you participate in limited events, which almost always give out extra Stellar Jade and passes. Most patches have 2 to 3 small events and 1 big flagship event, which add an extra 1200 to 1800 Stellar Jade per patch, plus 2 to 4 extra Special Passes. That means if you clear all event content, your F2P pull count per patch jumps to 58 to 65 limited banner pulls. That’s almost enough to hit the 75 pull soft pity for a 5-star character, if you’re saving up for a full patch.
Additional Pulls Available for Paid Players (Light Spenders & Whales)
If you spend small amounts of money on the game, your pull count goes up significantly without requiring a huge budget. The most cost-effective purchase by far is the Nameless Glory Battle Pass, which costs $10 per patch and gives you an extra 4 Special Passes, 680 Stellar Jade, and a pile of upgrade materials on top of the free track rewards. That adds another 8 pulls per patch for only $10, which is the best value you can get for real money in the game.
Next up is the monthly Express Supply Pass, which costs $5 a month and gives you 90 Stellar Jade a day, plus extra credits and materials. Over a 42 day patch, that adds up to 3780 Stellar Jade, or ~24 extra pulls, for $5. If you buy both the Battle Pass and monthly supply pass, that’s an extra 32 pulls per patch, bringing your total per patch (including events) up to 90 to 97 limited pulls – enough to guarantee you hit soft pity, and very likely get a 5-star character even if you have bad luck.
For players who spend more, the one-time top-up bonuses that reset every patch give you double Stellar Jade for your first purchase of each tier. If you take advantage of all reset top-ups, you can add anywhere from 100 to 300 extra pulls per patch, depending on how much you spend. But for most casual players, the monthly pass and Battle Pass are more than enough to get the characters you want without breaking the bank.
Proven Ways to Boost Your Total Pull Count Fast
If you’re coming up short on pulls right before a banner ends, there are tons of easy to miss sources of Stellar Jade you can farm quickly to hit your goal. I’ve used all of these myself when I was 10 pulls short of pity for Silver Wolf last year, and I was able to get enough Jade in 2 days to get her. The fastest ways to get extra pulls include:
You don’t have to grind for hours to get a few extra pulls when you’re close to pity. Even 30 minutes of farming these missed sources can be enough to get you that last pull you need for your favorite character. Keep in mind that hidden achievements are the most underrated source of extra Jade for most players. I’ve found over 80 hidden achievements I missed after playing for a year, which gave me enough for 12 extra pulls total. That’s a whole pity tier’s worth of pulls I would have wasted if I didn’t go looking for them.
Common Mistakes That Waste Your Hard-Earned Pulls
Even if you farm every possible source of Jade, you can end up with way fewer pulls than you expected if you make these common mistakes. The first and biggest mistake is pulling on the limited character banner when you don’t want any of the featured characters. I see so many players waste 20 or 30 pulls on a banner just because they’re bored, only to have no pulls left when their favorite character drops a few weeks later. If you don’t plan to build and use the featured 5-star, save your pulls for a banner you actually care about.
Another common mistake is using Stellar Jade to buy things other than Special Passes. The in-game shop sells upgrade materials, credits, and even fuel for Stellar Jade, but these are all terrible value. You can get all of those items for free just by playing the game daily, but Stellar Jade is the only way to get limited banner characters. Never waste your Jade on anything except pulls unless you’re in a super urgent pinch for a specific material for a character you just pulled.
The last mistake a lot of new players make is not keeping track of their pity count. Your pity count carries over between limited banners of the same type, so if you did 50 pulls on the previous limited banner and didn’t get a 5-star, those 50 pulls count towards your pity on the next limited character banner. If you don’t track that, you might think you need 75 pulls for pity when you only need 25, which can change how you plan your savings for upcoming banners.
At the end of the day, exactly how many pulls can you get in Honkai Star Rail depends entirely on how much time you put into the game and how much you’re willing to spend, but the numbers above are consistent across every patch. Even as a F2P player, you can get enough pulls to get one limited 5-star character every 2 patches if you save consistently, which is more than enough to build a team you love playing with. Just avoid the common mistakes we covered, take advantage of extra Jade sources when you’re short, and you’ll never miss a character you really want again.
