If you’ve ever stared at your Honkai Star Rail roster wishing you had that limited 5-star everyone is raving about, or even just a solid 4-star support to fill a gap in your team, you’re not alone. I’ve played since launch, and I’ve built a roster of 42 characters without spending a dime outside of the occasional battle pass, so I’ve tested every trick in the book to pull consistently without wasting resources. Figuring out how to get more characters in Honkai Star Rail doesn’t have to mean dropping hundreds of dollars on warps every banner, either. This guide breaks down all the legitimate methods, from completely free sources to small-spend hacks that give you the most value for your money.
How to Get More Characters in Honkai Star Rail With Free, Permanent Warp Sources
If you’re wondering how to get more characters in Honkai Star Rail without spending money, these permanent free warp sources are your most reliable option, available no matter what patch or event is running. First, Stellar Jade grinding routes most new players miss: you don’t just get jade from main story quests. Chests scattered across every map, Simulated Universe clears, Forgotten Hall challenges, and even daily training give steady jade every single week. Daily training alone gives 60 jade a day, which adds up to 420 jade a week, enough for almost three pulls if you save consistently.
The Herta Store is another massively underrated free resource. Every month, you can exchange Simulated Universe points for 5 Star Rail Special Passes and 5 regular Star Rail Passes, no extra effort required beyond running a few Simulated Universe worlds each week. Achievement hunting is also worth your time: hidden achievements for things like defeating a boss without taking damage, or using a specific character’s ultimate three times in a fight, give anywhere from 5 to 20 jade each, and there are over 600 achievements in the game right now. I’ve earned over 30 special passes just from clearing hidden achievements over the last two years, which is enough for two full 5-star pity pulls if you save them up.
Don’t forget guild rewards either, even if you join a casual guild that doesn’t require high activity. Weekly guild missions give you guild currency that can be exchanged for regular warp passes, and you can get up to two passes a month from the guild store for just doing your daily guild check-ins. It’s a small reward, but it adds up faster than you think.
Maximize Limited Event Rewards For Exclusive Characters
Every Honkai Star Rail patch brings at least one limited event that gives away a free 4-star character, and sometimes even extra special warp passes or hundreds of extra Stellar Jade. The best part? Most event stages scale to your account level, so even level 20 new players can complete the event and claim the free character reward, no high-level roster required. Events also often give limited-time character ascension materials that you can use to level up your new pulls right away, so you don’t have to spend weeks farming materials to use them in your team.
I used to skip event stages until the last minute, until I missed out on a free Yukong because I forgot to finish the event stages before the patch ended. Don’t make that mistake. Every event has a clear priority order to make sure you get the most character rewards possible:
- First, complete all story stages for the event as soon as they unlock — these give the bulk of the event currency and often give free warp passes as stage completion rewards
- Second, save your event currency for the free character first, before buying ascension materials or relics — you can farm those later, but the event character will be gone once the patch ends
- Third, don’t skip the daily event check-ins — most patches have a 14-day check-in event that gives at least 2 special passes, plus extra Stellar Jade and regular passes for just logging in
- Fourth, join any official HoYoverse web events — these take 5 minutes to complete and often give 120+ Stellar Jade and extra passes for free, no in-game grinding required
Web events are especially easy to sleep on, but I earned 3 extra special passes from web events in a single patch last year, which got me my first Bronya pull. Even if you only have 5 minutes a day to play, make sure you check for new web events every time a new patch drops.
Use The Pity System To Your Advantage, No Luck Required
Most players know the basics of the Honkai Star Rail pity system, but very few use it to its full potential to get consistent character pulls. Let’s break it down simply: for limited character banners, soft pity vs hard pity works differently than many players think. Soft pity starts at pull 75, where your chance of a 5-star jumps from 0.6% to 30% per pull, and hard pity is at 90, where you’re guaranteed a 5-star no matter what. 4-star pity is at 10 pulls, so you’re guaranteed at least one 4-star character or weapon every 10 pulls.
This is one of the most underrated tricks when learning how to get more characters in Honkai Star Rail, because it lets you plan your pulls months in advance. Pity carries over between banners of the same type, so if you pull 70 times on a limited banner and don’t get the 5-star, that 70 pulls counts towards the next limited character banner, not the weapon or standard banner. If you lose the 50/50 (get a standard 5-star instead of the rate-up limited character), your next 5-star on that banner type is guaranteed to be the rate-up one.
Never pull on the standard banner unless you have extra regular passes lying around. The standard banner has no rate-up characters, so you’re just as likely to get a 5-star weapon you don’t want as a character you do. Limited banners have way better value, because you can target specific characters you want, instead of wasting pulls on random rewards you won’t use. If you’re saving for a specific 5-star, don’t waste pulls on banners you don’t care about even if the 4-star rate-ups look good — you’ll regret it when your favorite character’s banner drops and you don’t have enough pulls saved.
Smart Resource Management To Avoid Wasting Pulls
One of the biggest mistakes new players make when figuring out how to get more characters in Honkai Star Rail is wasting Stellar Jade on unnecessary purchases that don’t contribute to their pull count. The most common waste is resin refills: one resin refill costs 50 Stellar Jade, which is half of a single pull. If you refill resin 3 times a day, that’s 150 jade a day, which adds up to almost 3 extra pulls a week you’re throwing away. If you’re f2p, only refill resin if you’re trying to finish an event that’s ending soon, or you need a specific material for a character you just pulled.
Another common mistake is pulling on weapon banners without enough jade saved to hit pity twice. Weapon banners have a 75/25 rate up, and you have to earn fate points to guarantee the weapon you want, which means you could end up spending twice as much jade on a weapon as you would on a limited 5-star character. For most f2p and low-spend players, character banners are always better value, because a new character will improve your team way more than a new weapon for a character you already have.
Make sure you claim all your free rewards every day, too. I once forgot to claim 200 Stellar Jade from a maintenance mail because I didn’t log in for 3 days, and that was enough for one extra pull that could have gotten me a 4-star I wanted. If you’re willing to spend a small amount of money, the monthly supply card is the best value by far: it gives 90 Stellar Jade a day for 30 days, plus 300 jade upfront, which works out to 3000 jade total for $5, way cheaper than buying jade directly. Skip the expensive jade packs unless you have extra money to burn, the monthly card gives you 10x more value for your money.
At the end of the day, building your dream roster takes time, but you don’t have to spend a fortune to do it. By using all the free warp sources available, prioritizing event rewards, playing around the pity system, and managing your resources wisely, you’ll be able to pull almost every character you want without stress. Learning how to get more characters in Honkai Star Rail is less about luck and more about being consistent with your grinding and smart with your pulls. I’ve gotten 12 5-star characters as a f2p player over the last two years, and almost all of them came from saving pulls for specific banners and not wasting jade on unnecessary things. Don’t get discouraged if you lose a 50/50 every now and then — the guaranteed rate-up is right around the corner, and that next pull could be the character you’ve been waiting for.
