The much-awaited turn-based RPG of Hoyoverse,  Honkai: Star Rail has just released globally! Players are flocking the servers in millions to try out the game as we speak. Fluid animations, mesmerizing semi-open world, professionally voice acted characters, and a gripping storyline full of twists and turns await your arrival in the fictional spaceship Star Rail. Honkai: Star Rail is available as a free-to-play game on both the Google Play Store and iOS App Store. Play Honkai: Star Rail on your PC or mobile without downloads! Click and start playing instantly for a smooth and hassle-free experience.

Table of Contents

1. Understanding the Warping Summoning System
2. Combat System and Mechanics Explained
3. Major Currencies and their Uses

In this beginner’s guide for Honkai: Star Rail, we are going to be going into detail regarding the basic systems that many players might be confused about as to how they function. Although the game does a fairly good job at showcasing these systems, there’s still a lot more to be learned about. Players can find majority of the tactics associated with the combat system in the tutorials located at the top left-hand side of the menu. Early game progression is going to be our main focus when writing this guide.

Understanding the Warping Summoning System

Honkai: Star Rail inherently is a gacha game, much like its sister games Genshin Impact and Honkai Impact 3. Players are required to summon different rarities of heroes from the in-game gachapon stylized system known as “Warp”. Warp is unlocked after player finish the tutorial. This feat should take you easily 30-40 minutes, depending on if you look at the story or choose to fast-forward the dialogues. The Warp system is one of the only systems in the game that allows you to collect heroes. Some heroes can otherwise be collected via the active events running at any given point of time.

The purpose of the Warp system is to provide players with stronger heroes over time. As usual with any similar game, there exist different types of summoning banners, each with their own specialty. Currently, the main banners that a new player will see are as follows:

• Starter Warp Banner (1-time) – This type of summoning banner is used for summoning 4-5 Star rarity heroes and 3-5 star light cones. This summoning banner is available only for new players and players can summon on the banner using their Star Rail passes at a discounted rate. The banner allows players to guarantee themselves a 5-Star hero within 50 summons made. Keep in mind that each 10-pull will only cost you 8 Star Rail passes, giving a 20% discount. There are no single summons on this banner. This is a great system to encourage a strong start for the player. The banner will disappear when players get any 5-Star hero from the summons.
• Rate-Up Character Warp Banners – This type of summoning banner is used for summoning 4-5 Star rarity heroes and 3-5 star light cones. The featured hero will have a higher chance of being summoned if players are able to summon a 5-Star hero. Every 10 summons made on the banner guarantees 1 4-Star entity. The pity for a guaranteed 5-Star hero is at 90 summons. The pity carries forward if you are unable to reach it in time before the banner disappears.
• Rate-Up Light Cone Warp Banners – This type of summoning banner is used for summoning 4-5 Star rarity heroes and 3-5 star light cones. The featured light cone will have a higher chance of being summoned if players are able to summon a 5-Star light cone. Every 10 summons made on the banner guarantees 1 4-Star entity. The pity for a guaranteed 5-Star Light Cone is at 80 summons. The pity carries forward if you are unable to reach it in time before the banner disappears.
• Stellar Warp Banner – This type of summoning banner is used for summoning 4-5 Star rarity heroes and 3-5 star light cones. Every 10 summons made on the banner guarantees 1 4-Star entity. The pity for a guaranteed 5-Star hero or 5-Star Light Cone is set at 90 summons. This banner is permanent and does not disappear.

Players can get a lot of summoning currency in the form of Star Rail passes, Special Star Rail Passes, and Stellar Jades. This is due to the fact that the game throws a lot of events and rewards for new players. We would highly recommend players to spend their summoning currency in the rate-up recruitment banner for a chance to get Seele if you are planning to re-roll. Players can refer to a detailed re-rolling guide for Honkai: Star Rail.

Now that you understand know-how of the Warp system, let’s get into the details. Players can summon for different rarities of both characters (heroes) and Light Cones from all warp banners. Being a mixed gacha, it has its own negatives and positives. However, a general rule of thumb always exists – the rarity of the entity defines the probability. In such a system, the highest rarity of entities has the lowest probability of being summoned while the lowest rarity of entities has the highest probability of being summoned.

The rate of summoning both entities are as follows:

• 5-Star Heroes – 0.3% Probability of being summoned
• 4-Star Heroes – 2.550% Probability of being summoned
• 5-Star Light Cones – 0.3% Probability of being summoned
• 4-Star Light Cones – 2.550% Probability of being summoned
• 3-Star Light Cones – 94.3% Probability of being summoned

Players require different types of summoning currencies to summon on different recruitment banners. The different currencies which are used during summons in the Warp system to obtain entities are as follows:

• Star Rail Pass – Astral Express Universal Pass. Travel as far as the Star Rail stretches. Players can spend their Star Rail Passes on either the Starter Warp Banner or the Stellar warp banner to summon their favourite entities. Players can choose to summon 1 time or 10 times at a time.
• Special Star Rail Pass – Direct ticket for the Astral Express with coordinates of specific worlds, suitable for passengers who just want to go from Point A to Point B. Players can spend their Special Star Rail Passes on the Rate-Up Character Warp Banner or Rate-Up Light Cone Warp Banner. Players can choose to summon 1 time or 10 times at a time.
• Stellar Shard – This is the official freemium currency of Honkai: Star Rail. Players can use it to purchase other summoning currencies Star Rail Pass and Special Star Rail Pass.

Understanding The Currencies

The major currencies of Honkai: Star Rail are quite tough to obtain but even tougher to spend as they can get quite scarce at times. Having a complete knowledge of the major currencies and their judicious usage tactics will definitely prove to be helpful in the long run. Naturally, as this is a beginner guide, we will keep the explanation in-depth and the language of the content in layman terms. We recommend the veterans of the genre to skip over this part if they wish to. Here are the 2 major currencies of Honkai: Star Rail:

• Credits

• Stellar Shard

Credits are one of the 2 main currencies in Honkai: Star Rail. Their official description reads as follows – “This currency, used by the Interastral Peace Corporation to settle accounts with it’s customers, is now widely accepted as the hard currency for space travel”. Credits are used pre-dominantly to upgrade your heroes and light cones. The most abundant source of getting more Credits comes from the game mode called Calyx Great Mine. The higher the floor farmed, the more Credits you will obtain. Players can also get Credits from their Assignment missions. Credits are consumed at a fast pace, and can vanish before you even realize it. We would recommend spending Credits on upgrading only your mains set of 4 characters.

Stellar Shards are the next major currency. In fact, it is a premium currency of Honkai: Star Rail and it needs to be used very judiciously. Their official description reads as follows – “A fleeting gleam arrowing across the night sky. Catch it before it’s gone. Maybe it can be used to barter?” Players can get Stellar Shards from different activities in-game such as events, redeem codes, achievements, and more. Stellar Shards are majorly used only for summoning in the Warp system. They can be exchanged to get both Star Rail Passes and Special Star Rail Passes.

Combat System and Mechanics Explained

Honkai: Star Rail is a great strategic turn-based RPG that hearts many new mechanics that are not usually seen in similar natured games. Many players coming from graphically similar games such as Genshin Impact and Honkai Impact 3 might be confused with the mechanics of Honkai: Star Rail. Do not worry as they are quite easy to understand and just needs a bit of memorizing. First things first, Honkai: Star Rail is a PvE game where players do not fight other players but rather bosses and minions as they travel around the Star Rail universe. Hence, if you lose battles, it’s nothing major to worry about.

Most of the combat mechanics and tips are provided well enough by the game itself in the initial tutorial. Starting with the basics, players are required to setup a team of 4 different characters in the Team Setup menu. Players can actually view the enemies on the open world map before they choose to fight them. The best way to start any match in Honkai: Star Rail is by hitting the enemy with a better element character from your team. This will inflict different types of effects depending on the element of your character.

A unique aspect of the combat system in Honkai: Star Rail is the Toughness mechanic. We all know all enemies have a HP bar that is lit up by the green color. Under the HP bar, there’s another bar called the Toughness bar that is represented by the white color. This toughness bar refers to the elemental engagement between your heroes and the enemies. Yes, the classic element system can also be seen in Honkai: Star Rail where each hero is assigned an element. Now, each enemy or boss is going to be weaker to several elements. The elements it is weaker to will be displayed over their heads. Hitting the enemies with heroes from elements that they are weaker to results in them taking damage as well as reducing their Toughness gauge/bar. If the toughness bar falls to 0, the boss/enemy will enter a break state. These break state can incur further different effects, depending on the element:

• Physical – Bleed: Deals additional physical damage and apply the Bleed effect. The Bleed effect deals Physical DoT
• Fire – Burn: Deals additional fire damage and apply the Burn effect. The Burn effect deals Fire DoT
• Ice – Frozen: Freezes the enemy, preventing it from taking any actions and apply an Ice DoT.
• Lightning – Shock: Deals additional lightning damage and apply the Shock effect. The Shock effect deals Thunder DoT.
• Wind – Wind Shear: Deals additional wind damage and apply the Wind Shear effect. The Wind Shear effect deals Wind DoT.
• Quantum – Entanglement: Applies the Entanglement effect which pushes the enemy back in the turn order and deal Quantum element DoT.
• Imaginary – Imprisonment: Applies the Imprisonment effect which pushes the enemy back in the turn order and reduces their Speed.

We would highly encourage players to refer to a tier list for Honkai: Star Rail to get a better understanding of the best characters in the game.

The rest of the battle functions in a classical turn-based order where each hero takes a turn depending on their turn order located at the top left-hand side of the battle screen. During the battles, each basic attack dealt by your heroes adds to your Skill Points. Skill points are consumed by using Special skills of heroes. Naturally, they are more powerful than regular basic attacks. As your heroes deal damage and take damage, they also gain Ultimate ability gauge. Once full, their ultimate abilities can be used at the click of a button by pressing on their portrait. Keep in mind that ultimate abilities can be used regardless of the hero’s turn.

That covers all aspects for a beginner in Honkai: Star Rail. To play Honkai: Star Rail on a bigger screen of your PC, it is highly recommended to use BlueStacks along with your keyboard and mouse. You can also Play Honkai: Star Rail in your browser on your PC or mobile without downloading. Click and Play instantly!