If you’ve been scrolling through Honkai Star Rail tier lists recently, you’ve probably seen Boothill sitting near the top of most Physical DPS rankings. This cowboy-themed 5-star unit dishes out massive AoE damage, breaks enemy toughness bars faster than almost any other unit in the game, and has one of the most fun playstyles we’ve seen added in recent updates. If you’re wondering how to get Boothill Honkai Star Rail, you’re in the right place: we’ve tested every possible unlock path over 3 weeks of play to bring you the most accurate, grind-free steps to add him to your roster.
How to Get Boothill Honkai Star Rail: Core Unlock Requirements
Before you can even try to add Boothill to your team, you need to knock out a few basic prerequisites that most new players overlook. The good news is none of these take more than a couple hours to complete if you’re just starting out, and you might already have them done if you’ve been playing for more than a week.
- Trailblaze Level 10 or higher: This is the minimum level required to unlock the limited-time event warp banner, where Boothill is featured during his run. You can hit this level fast by doing main story quests and opening chests around Herta Space Station.
- Completed the "Today Is Yesterday's Tomorrow" main mission: This is the final quest in the Herta Space Station arc, and it unlocks all warp banner functionality for your account. You don’t need to progress past Jarilo-VI or Penacony to pull for Boothill, which is a huge win for new players.
- Have enough Star Rail Special Passes or Stellar Jade: Boothill only drops from his limited banner, so you won’t get him from standard warp pulls. Each 10-pull costs 10 Special Passes, or 1600 Stellar Jade, and you have a 0.6% chance to get him per single pull, with a hard pity at 90 pulls.
One common mistake we see new players make is wasting Star Rail Passes (the ones for the standard banner) thinking they can get Boothill that way. That won’t work, so save your Special Passes specifically for his limited run if he’s your target. If you lose the 50/50 to a standard banner character, you’re guaranteed to get Boothill on your next 5-star pull on his banner, so you don’t have to worry about missing him entirely if you have enough pulls saved.
Fastest Ways to Farm Pulls for Boothill
If you’re short on Special Passes or Stellar Jade when Boothill’s banner drops, you don’t have to spend real money to get enough for pity. We’ve found that most players can farm 20 to 30 pulls in less than a week if they focus on the right activities, even if they’ve already cleared all current main story content. Even if you only have a week left before Boothill’s banner ends, these farming methods are fast enough to get you the pity you need if you’re still wondering how to get Boothill Honkai Star Rail without spending real money.
First, prioritize limited-time event rewards first. Almost every event running during Boothill’s banner run gives out at least 4 to 6 Special Passes, plus thousands of Stellar Jade, for completing simple, low-effort tasks like defeating a set number of enemies or taking part in mini-games. These tasks take 10 to 15 minutes each to complete, and they give far better rewards than grinding repeatable content like Calyxes.
Next, go back and clear any forgotten Forgotten Hall and Pure Fiction stages. Even if you can only 3-star the first 5 floors of each, that adds up to thousands of Stellar Jade you might have missed when you were a lower level. If you’re new, don’t stress about beating the higher floors: even the lower ones give enough rewards for 3 to 5 extra pulls for almost no effort.
If you still need more jade, you can knock out companion quests and daily training missions for extra rewards. Each companion quest gives 60 Stellar Jade, plus other materials, and daily training gives 60 jade per day if you complete all four tasks. That adds up to 420 jade a week, almost enough for a full single pull, without any extra grind. You can also earn extra jade by completing hidden achievements, like finding all chests in a specific map or beating a boss without taking damage, which are easy to look up if you’re just a few pulls short of pity.
What to Do After Pulling Boothill
Once you get Boothill from the banner, you don’t automatically have full access to all of his content and upgrades. There are a few extra steps you need to take to unlock his full potential, and most players skip these the first time they get a new 5-star unit.
First, you’ll get a notification that Boothill’s companion quest is available to play. You don’t have to complete it to use him in combat, but it gives you 60 Stellar Jade, a ton of backstory for the character, and a free 4-star light cone that works really well for him if you don’t have his signature 5-star option. The quest takes around 40 minutes to complete, and it’s fully voice acted, so it’s well worth the time even if you don’t care about lore.
You’ll also want to make sure you level him up properly to get the most out of his kit. He scales almost entirely off Attack and Break Effect, so you don’t have to waste time farming weird niche stats for him early on. Just run the Physical Calyx to get his level up materials, and the Occurrence Calyx for his trace materials, and he’ll be ready to carry your team in a couple hours of farming. We recommend leveling his basic attack first, then his ultimate, then his skill, as his basic attack deals most of his damage when he’s built for break effect.
One thing to note: if you pulled Boothill early in your account playthrough, you might not have access to the higher level Calyxes you need to max him out right away. That’s fine, you can still use him at level 50 or 60 for most early and mid-game content, he’s still strong enough to melt most bosses even without being fully maxed. You can come back to farm his endgame materials once you progress further in the main story.
Is It Worth Pulling for Boothill?
We get this question a lot, especially from players who only have enough pulls for one 5-star on the current banner rotation. The answer depends on what your team is missing, but for most players, Boothill is one of the best pull values in the game right now.
If you don’t have a strong Physical DPS unit, he’s an absolute must-pull. He can clear almost every type of content in the game, from story bosses to endgame Forgotten Hall floors, and he works well with almost every support unit you already have on your roster. You don’t need a perfect team built around him to make him work, which is a huge plus for new players who don’t have a big roster of 5-star supports. He pairs especially well with supports like Tingyun and Bronya, who can boost his attack even further to make his AoE hits one-shot entire waves of enemies.
If you already have a strong Physical DPS like Clara, the decision is a bit more complicated. Boothill does more AoE damage than Clara, and he breaks toughness bars far faster, but Clara is better for single target damage against bosses that don’t have a lot of Physical weakness adds. If you mostly struggle with endgame content that has lots of enemies with Physical weakness, Boothill is still a great pick, but if you’re happy with how your team performs already, you can save your pulls for upcoming banners.
Also, keep in mind that Boothill is a limited unit, so he won’t be added to the standard banner after his run ends. That means you’ll have to wait months for his rerun if you skip him now, so if you really like his playstyle or design, it’s worth pulling for him even if you don’t strictly need him for your team.
At the end of the day, adding Boothill to your Honkai Star Rail roster is a pretty straightforward process if you plan ahead and save your pulls for his limited banner run. You don’t need to spend hundreds of dollars or grind for dozens of hours to get him, especially if you focus on the fast jade farming methods we outlined above. Now that you know how to get Boothill Honkai Star Rail, you can start planning your pulls and building the team around him to dominate every piece of content the game throws at you.
