Honkai Star Rail’s Pity system explained

There is hope for free-to-play players

Trying to figure out how long until you are guaranteed your next five star character? You’re in luck, because we have Honkai Star Rail’s pity system explained in full detail.

It’s important to know how the pity system works so you can use it to your advantage. This is increasingly important if you’re trying to get the best DPS in Honkai: Star Rail.

How does hard pity work in Honkai Star Rail?

Fans of Hoyoverse’s Genshin Impact will feel at home with Honkai: Star Rail’s pity system. In fact, both appear to use virtually identical systems.

The game tracks how many times you have pulled since your last 5-Star, and you are 100% guaranteed a 5-star drop every 90 pulls. Fans refer to this system as “hard pity,” for reasons that will make sense shortly. Similarly, you will absolutely receive a 4-star drop every ten pulls (this does not require using a Warp x10 to trigger).

Note that for Light Cone Events, hard pity occurs at 80 pulls.

This system is beneficial for both free-to play players and the biggest spenders on the game. For example, if you just pulled a 5-star character, you can build up your pity on a banner that features 4-star characters you need. Then, right before you enter the range of triggering your pity, you can hold until a 5-star character you want comes along.

This does come with some risks, as you can get “lucky” and ruin your pity by rolling a surprise 5-star. It’s up to you to decide if you want to roll the dice.

How does soft pity work in Honkai Star Rail?

Complicating matters further, there’s also a “soft pity” system that kicks in before hard pity does. Though not officially stated in-game, players anecdotally have noticed that 5-star characters begin to appear much more frequently sometime after your 70th pull. Few players actually get all the way to their 90th pull before getting their next 5-star. A community Warp tracker suggests most players will get a 5-star drop around pull #78.

Additionally, Light Cone Events appear to enter soft pity range at pull 65.

Regardless of whether you hit hard pity or soft pity, your pity counter will reset the moment you get a 5-star. You can check how close you are by clicking the “View Details” button on the banner of your choice, and then pressing “Records” in the window that pops up. Unfortunately, you’ll have to manually count your pulls from the last 5-star that pops up on the list. Pity is banner specific, so pulling on an Event Warp has no impact on the Standard Warp (and vice versa).

Honkai: Star Rail pity system for Event Warps

“Event Warp” banners add a few extra mechanics to the pity system. On a Character Event Warp, all 5-Star drops will be characters. Similarly, all 5-Stars on Light Cone events will be Light Cones.

By default, you have a 50% chance to obtain the featured character on Character Event Warps. Meanwhile, the odds of getting a featured Light Cone on its respective Event Warp is 75%. If you don’t get the 5-Star in question, your next 5-Star is guaranteed to be the featured character or item.

All pity counters for Event Warps will carry over to subsequent banners of the same type. For example, if you didn’t roll Seele on her Event Warp banner and spent another 70 Warps without getting her, you’ll be within pity range when the next banner rolls around with a 100% chance of getting the next featured character.

Honkai: Star Rail pity system for Regular Warps

The normal banner called Stellar Warp uses the same soft pity and hard pity system, but does not contain a featured unit. Characters and Light Cones may both appear as 5-Star drops.

Additionally, the Regular Warp features another exclusive pity system. Once you’ve reached a total of 300 pulls on this banner, you may choose a specific 5-star character. Your choices are Himeko, Welt, Bronya, Gepard, Clara, Yanqing and Bailu.

Related: How to Fix ‘Login Error Please Try Again’ in Honkai Star Rail on Prima Games