When I first started playing Honkai: Star Rail, I spent three weeks pulling on the wrong banner and missed out on Seele entirely because I had no clue how the unlock system worked. If you’ve ever stared at your roster wishing you had that limited 5-star carry to clear endgame Forgotten Hall floors, you’re not alone. Figuring out how to get new characters in Honkai: Star Rail doesn’t have to be confusing, even if you’re a free-to-play player who never spends real money on the game. This guide breaks down every valid method, from free permanent unlocks to gacha banner rules, so you can build the exact team you want without wasting resources.
How to Get New Characters in Honkai: Star Rail Via Gacha Banners (Pity System Explained)
Gacha banners are the primary way to unlock limited and rare 5-star characters, and they operate on a set pity system that guarantees you rare units after a certain number of pulls. There are two permanent character banner types and one rotating limited banner, and each has its own pity counter and rules. If your main goal is unlocking characters tied to specific patches, the limited character event banner is the only place you can get them during their initial run.
Soft pity kicks in at pull 75 for 5-star characters, which means your odds of pulling a 5-star increase drastically after that point, so most players get their 5-star between 75 and 80 pulls instead of the hard pity cap of 90. Limited banners also have a 50/50 rule: your first 5-star pull on a limited banner has a 50% chance of being the featured rate-up unit, and a 50% chance of being a random 5-star from the standard banner pool.
Lost 50/50 pity carries over across all limited character banners, so if you lose the 50/50 on one patch’s banner, your next 5-star on any future limited character banner is guaranteed to be the featured rate-up unit, no matter how many patches pass. You don’t have to worry about your pity resetting if you skip a banner entirely, so you can save up for months for a character you really want without losing progress.
Free Characters You Can Unlock Without Spending Stellar Jade
You don’t have to rely on gacha pulls to build a viable team, because Honkai: Star Rail gives away more than 10 permanent free characters just for playing through content and completing challenges. Many of these free units are even meta-viable for endgame content, so new players can easily clear all story and most challenge content without spending a single Stellar Jade on pulls.
- Trailblazer (Physical/Fire/Imaginary): Unlocked automatically as you progress through the main story and complete specific path unlock quests
- March 7th, Dan Heng, Asta, Herta: All unlocked within the first two hours of gameplay during the Herta Space Station arc
- Natasha, Serval, Qingque: Unlocked by clearing specific floors of the Forgotten Hall permanent challenge mode
- Yukong, Lynx: Unlocked by completing full main story arcs for their respective planets
- Limited time event characters: Typically offered as free rewards once per patch for completing event story and challenge stages
You don’t need to spend a single penny to get a full viable team of 4 and 5-star characters for all early and mid-game content, which is a huge win for F2P players. Some free units like Natasha and Qingque are even considered top-tier picks for their respective roles, so don’t sleep on them just because you didn’t pull them from a banner. If you miss a limited event character, they usually get added to the standard banner pool a few patches later, so you might pull them randomly down the line.
Tips to Farm Stellar Jade Faster for More Pulls
Stellar Jade is the premium currency used to buy Star Rail Passes for gacha pulls, and there are dozens of ways to farm it for free every patch if you know where to look. The average F2P player can earn between 60 and 80 pulls per patch just by completing regular content, which is enough to hit pity for a 5-star character every two patches if you save consistently.
Daily training missions give 60 Stellar Jade per day for completing 4 simple tasks, and weekly Simulated Universe runs give up to 1200 Jade per week depending on how many worlds you have cleared. Forgotten Hall and Pure Fiction reset every two weeks, and they give up to 2400 Stellar Jade total for clearing all floors each rotation. Open world chests, hidden achievements, and event rewards are also massive sources of extra Jade, with most events giving enough Jade for 8 to 10 free pulls just for playing through the event story.
Avoid wasting Stellar Jade on light cone banners unless you have extra to spare, since character banners have the guaranteed pity carryover that lets you plan for specific units. You can also get free Star Rail Passes from the in-game shop using Undying Embers and Undying Starlight, which you earn every time you pull a duplicate character or light cone. Even duplicate 4-star characters contribute to your next free pull, so don’t get frustrated if you pull copies of units you already own.
Common Mistakes to Avoid When Trying to Unlock New Characters
Most new players waste hundreds of dollars or months of saved Stellar Jade on easily avoidable mistakes when they first start playing. The biggest mistake I see new players make is pulling on every new limited banner that drops just because the character looks cool, instead of saving for units that fix specific gaps in their team. If you already have a strong DPS unit, you’re probably better off saving for a support or healer that makes your whole team stronger, instead of pulling another DPS you don’t need.
Another common mistake is not tracking your pity count. You can check your exact pity count for every banner in the Warp Records tab, so you don’t accidentally start pulling on a new banner when you’re 70 pulls into a 50/50 for the character you’ve been saving for. A lot of new players also don’t realize that the standard banner has its own separate pity counter that doesn’t carry over to limited banners, so pulling on the standard banner won’t help you get closer to a limited 5-star unit.
Never spend real money on pulls unless you’re 100% comfortable with the possibility of losing the 50/50, because there’s no way to guarantee a featured unit before you hit pity. Don’t fall for the urge to spend extra money to “chase” a character right before a banner ends, because you can always wait for their rerun 6 to 12 months later if you miss them. It’s also a good idea to avoid buying single Star Rail Passes with Stellar Jade if you’re close to pity, because you might end up spending more Jade than you need to if you pull the character early.
At the end of the day, building your dream roster is one of the most fun parts of playing Honkai: Star Rail, and you don’t have to drop hundreds of dollars to get the characters you love. Whether you’re a strict F2P player saving up for your favorite limited unit or a low spender who buys the monthly pass for extra jade, knowing how to get new characters in Honkai: Star Rail helps you make smarter decisions with your resources and avoid wasting months of savings on the wrong banner. Take it slow, track your pity, and don’t forget to claim all the free characters and jade available to you every patch. You’ll have that stacked roster before you know it.
