sushang in a tree in HSR
Image via HoYoverse

Is Honkai Star Rail free to play?

Its economic model appears to be similar to other HoYoverse titles.

Honkai: Star Rail‘s release is just around the corner, planned for April 26. It will bring players to new adventures from the Honkai universe in a turn-based combat system.

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Similarly to HoYoverse’s flagship title Genshin Impact, Honkai will feature a growing roster of characters. It’ll already include over 20 playable characters at launch, and will likely introduce more of them over time.

Those will be the center of the title’s economic model. Players will have the opportunity to pay to get the rarest characters or to strengthen the others.

That said, will Honkai: Star Rail feature a price-tag upon download? Here is what we know on the matter.

How much does Honkai Star Rail cost?

Honkai will be a free-to-play game. Users can already pre-register for it here on their platform of choice (PC, iOS, and Android) so the game will directly download upon release. They’ll also be rewarded a free character for doing so. Over 10 million players have already pre-registered ahead of launch.

Players will be able to enjoy and complete the game without spending a cent, with the typical gacha catch. Characters will be available in Banners. Players will be able to use resources to pull for them, but they won’t be guaranteed to get the specific character they want. They might need to make many pulls before getting the right ones.

Like in Genshin, users will have the option to pay real money to get more pulls, therefore unlocking more of their favorite characters. They will be available in both standard (permanent) and limited banners (in rotation). The rarest characters in the game will be five-star ones that will be obtainable in Limited Banners.

Honkai won’t likely be a pay-to-win game, if it follows the same model than the developer’s flagship title. There will be no PvP in it, and players will be able to unlock good teams provided they’re balanced in terms of elements and subclasses, as well as geared up accordingly.


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Eva Martinello
Eva is a Staff Writer from Paris. Her part-time job is charging into walls with Reinhardt. She has been covering League of Legends esports and other titles for six years. She still believes in a Moscow Five comeback. She also fell into the MMO pit and covers FFXIV and Genshin.