While Honkai: Star Rail might be technically free-to-play, its nature as a gacha game means that players who do spend money may end up getting significantly more mileage out of it. Despite the game being a large departure from past HoYoverse titles in terms of gameplay and combat, Honkai: Star Rail's monetization remains extremely similar to games like Genshin Impact, with several currencies and systems for players to make sense of, and many of them involving the spending of real-world money. Factoring in aspects like currency farming, character rates, and more, it can be difficult to gauge how "free" Star Rail actually is.
Much like Genshin Impact, the main draw of Star Rail is its playable characters, with each one having a unique design, different abilities, and their own place in the story and world of the game. However, while Honkai: Star Rail has several free characters that are provided to players both at the start of the game and at select points throughout the game's progression, the vast majority must be randomly obtained from the game's gacha banners, which is where most of the game's monetization will come into play - meaning that a player who spends money might have a different experience from one who doesn't.
Honkai: Star Rail Can Be Played For Free
Luckily, for the most part, Honkai: Star Rail is free-to-play. Stellar Jade Star Rail's main currency, which can be converted into Warp Passes for the game's gacha system, is frequently rewarded to players for doing in-game quests, puzzles, and exploration, and Warp Passes, while somewhat more infrequent, can also be obtained by leveling characters and passing certain milestones. While the game is playable with the provided free characters and the free gacha pulls afforded by Star Rail's rewards, however, players who want specific characters, especially the rarer five stars, may find themselves tempted to spend.
The Monetization Of Honkai: Star Rail
In keeping with its free-to-play, gacha-based nature, Honkai: Star Rail has a few different models of monetization, the first and simplest of which is buying the game's premium currency, Oneiric Shards, which can be converted to Stellar Jade at a one-to-one ratio. Prices for differing amounts of Oneiric range from $0.99 to $99.99 USD, with $29.99 being the price for ten pulls' worth - although it should be noted purchasing any of the separate amounts of Oneiric for the first time will have doubled value. Despite being fairly standard values for gacha games like Star Rail, however, straight-up buying the currency for more pulls can certainly seem steep.
For players willing to pay, but wary of the steep prices of simply buying Oneiric Shards, Honkai: Star Rail has two other options that can provide more value. The first, the Express Supply Pass, can be found in the game's store along with the Oneiric Shard purchases, and costs $4.99. In turn, the Supply Pass provides players with an immediate value of 300 Oneiric Shards and 90 Stellar Jades per day for thirty days, totaling 2700. The other, Nameless Glory, is the game's battle pass, with one tier of free rewards, a paid tier costing $9.99, and an extra $11.99 purchase that rewards bonus icons and 200 Stellar Jades.
Money Isn't Required To Play Any Of Star Rail's Content
For players who are willing to be patient or are simply content with what the game's free experience provides, however, there's little need to spend any money on the game - especially for those who re-roll their Honkai: Star Rail accounts for better beginner pulls. While some of the game's more powerful character customization options, such as Eidolon levels or five-star Light Cones, may be mostly out-of-reach for non-spending players, they are also strictly unnecessary for even some of Star Rail's most challenging content. While certainly nice to have, the majority of the game's characters don't need them to be truly effective.
Additionally, Honkai: Star Rail has plenty of free rewards which will serve non-spending players well in getting through the game. Daily and weekly challenges provide a fair amount of both Stellar Jade and standard Warp Passes, so while players avoid spending money might have less resources at their disposal, pulling for characters is still very much possible, and while the game's several free characters may not be as flashy as characters pulled through gacha, most of them remain fairly effective at their intended roles. However, free players who want specific characters off of limited banners may have to save up for quite a while to guarantee their success.
Spending Money Can Ease Honkai: Star Rail's Grind
While Honkai: Star Rail doesn't require any money, players who don't spend may find themselves having to grind the game's activities more. Leveling characters, for example, is vitally important to the Star Rail's progression, and, similarly to Genshin, is achieved largely through using resources on characters rather than simply fighting enemies. While the resources can be obtained from Golden Calyxes, a stamina system limits the amount; and, as a result, players who spring for the Nameless Glory battle pass or simply pay for more stamina will inevitably find themselves with more readily available resources for strengthening characters.
Likewise, while the story of Honkai: Star Rail is accessible to any player regardless of whether they spend money, certain story chapters can't be started until the player has reached a certain Trailblaze Level. While side quests and the Simulated World are both decent sources of Trailblaze Level experience, players who pay for extra stamina will also gain experience more quickly, speeding their progression throughout the game and avoiding potentially hitting a wall in terms of story. However, with the currently limited amount of story in Star Rail, any player investing a decent amount of time will reach the end of current content comfortably before updates.
Like most other gacha games, Honkai: Star Rail inevitably encourages players to spend real money on limited character banners, extra resources, and faster progression. Especially for players seeking out a specific rare character, there is a heavy temptation to speed up or guarantee the process. For those with tighter wallets, however, all of Honkai: Star Rail's content is still perfectly playable - although they may have to get lucky if they want some of the rare five stars.
Source: Honkai: Star Rail/YouTube