If you’ve ever stared at a limited-time character banner in Honkai: Star Rail, counting your remaining gems and realizing you’re 20 pulls short of pity, you know how frustrating it can be to grind for currency slowly. I’ve been there too, wasting days doing low-reward activities just to scrape together enough for a single 10-pull, until I tested every possible method to cut down my grind time. For reference, when we talk about gems in this guide, we’re referring to Stellar Jade, the game’s premium pull currency, not the lower-value materials used for upgrades. Learning how to get gems fast in Honkai: Star Rail doesn’t require spending hundreds of dollars on passes or using sketchy hacks that can get your account banned. It just means prioritizing the highest-reward activities first, and skipping the filler that wastes your play time.
Max Out One-Time Permanent Content for Bulk, Instant Gems
One-time permanent content is the fastest way to get thousands of gems in just a few hours of play, especially if you’re a newer player who hasn’t cleared all available content yet. Story quest chapter completions give up to 1600 gems per full chapter, plus extra for individual story segments, that’s 10 full pulls just for playing through the game’s main story line. You don’t even have to beat tough combat encounters to get most of these rewards, just progress through the dialogue and complete required objectives.
Hidden exploration achievements are a huge untapped source for most players, I once got 3000 gems in a single weekend just hunting for hidden achievements on Jarilo-VI that I missed on my first playthrough. Many of these achievements don’t require combat at all, just interacting with specific items, talking to certain NPCs, or completing small hidden puzzles. Simulated Universe world first clears also give 600 gems per world for the first time you beat them on each difficulty, plus extra for completing path-specific challenges. If you’re still building your team, start with lower difficulties first, you’ll still get the same first clear gem reward as you would on harder settings.
How to Get Gems Fast in Honkai: Star Rail With Repeatable Weekly Activities
Once you’ve cleared most one-time permanent content, repeatable weekly and daily activities will be your consistent source of gems for future banners. These activities take very little time to complete each week, and add up to thousands of free gems per month if you stay consistent. The key here is to stick to the highest reward activities first, so you don’t waste time on tasks that give almost no return for your effort.
Below is a list of must-do repeatable activities to maximize your weekly gem income:
- Complete all 4 daily missions every day for 60 gems each day, adding up to 420 gems per week for 5 minutes of play per day
- Clear first two weekly Simulated Universe boss kills for 60 gems each, plus extra upgrade materials for your characters
- Hit 18000 Simulated Universe weekly points for 120 extra gems, you can hit this cap just by running two full SU runs per week
- Full clear Memory of Chaos stages every two weeks for up to 720 gems per reset, even if you only get 3 stars per stage you’ll still get a large chunk of rewards
- Claim all free Nameless Honor track rewards as you level up the pass, the free track gives 1200 gems per 6-week pass cycle with no extra purchase required
You don’t have to do all of these in a single day, spread them out across the week to avoid burnout. For example, I do my daily missions on my lunch break, and run my Simulated Universe runs on Sunday evenings when I have more free time. That way I never feel like I’m grinding, but I still hit all my weekly goals.
Take Advantage of Limited-Time Events for Fast, Extra Gem Rewards
Limited-time events are the highest ROI activity you can do for extra gems, beating even permanent content for gems per hour of play. Most version events give 1000 to 1800 gems just for completing the main event quest line, that’s 6 to 11 pulls for a few hours of casual play. Even if you don’t care about the event’s cosmetic rewards like light cones or character outfits, you should always complete the main quest line for the gems, it’s worth every minute.
Web events are another super easy source of extra gems that most players forget about. Most web events take 2 minutes to complete on your phone, no game login required, and give 100 to 300 gems each. You can find links to these events on the official Honkai: Star Rail social media accounts, or in the in-game news tab. Version livestream codes are also a free, fast source of gems, every 6-week version livestream gives 300 gems worth of codes that expire after 24 hours. I once forgot to redeem a livestream code and lost 300 gems when I was 2 pulls short of a limited 5-star, so I always set a reminder to redeem them as soon as they drop now.
Smaller mini-events that run between big version events also give 200 to 500 gems for very little effort, so always check the in-game events tab at least once a week to make sure you don’t miss any free rewards. Even if an event looks boring, the gem payout is almost always worth the 10 or 15 minutes it takes to complete.
Avoid Common Mistakes That Slow Down Your Gem Farming
Even if you follow all the farming steps we’ve covered, common mistakes can waste hundreds of gems a month and slow down your progress to your desired pulls. The biggest mistake most new players make is spending gems on standard banner pulls unless you already have all the limited characters you want. Standard banner 5-stars are available as off-pity drops on limited character and light cone banners, so you’re throwing away pulls that could go to limited time characters that will disappear from the banner after a few weeks.
Another common mistake is spending hours hunting for every single chest in old, completed areas. Most of these chests only give 10 to 20 gems each, which is way less per hour than you would get from completing event quests or weekly activities. The only exception is if you’re 100 gems or less short of pity right before a banner ends, then hunting for a few quick chests makes sense. Don’t use sketchy third-party gem generators either, every single one of these is a scam. They will either steal your account login information, infect your device with malware, or get your account permanently banned by HoYoverse for exploiting. There’s no such thing as free infinite gems, all legitimate methods are the ones we’ve covered in this guide.
It’s also a bad idea to skip daily missions even if you only have a few minutes to play each day. Those 60 gems a day add up to 1800 gems a month, which is 11 free pulls, that’s almost enough for a full 10-pull every month just for 5 minutes of play a day. I keep the game installed on my phone so I can do my daily missions while I’m waiting in line or riding the bus, it takes almost no time out of my day.
At the end of the day, you don’t have to spend every waking hour grinding to get enough gems for your favorite characters. By prioritizing high-reward permanent content first, sticking to your weekly repeatable activities, grabbing all limited-time event rewards, and avoiding common mistakes that waste your time and currency, you’ll be able to pull way more often than you thought possible as a F2P or low-spending player. If you follow these steps consistently, you'll find that learning how to get gems fast in Honkai: Star Rail is a lot easier than most players make it out to be. Next time a limited banner drops with a character you've been waiting for, you won't have to stress about being short on pulls.
