Should You Reroll in Honkai: Star Rail? Full 2026 Guide
Straight answer: most HSR players don't need to reroll. The beginner banner (Departure Warp) guarantees a 5-star within 50 pulls, and on regular banners the hard pity caps at 90 pulls with a guaranteed featured character if you lose the 50/50 once. The real cost of rerolling is the unskippable tutorial, which eats 30-40 minutes every time — so if you still want to reroll, switch servers before burning a new email.
What rerolling means, and why HSR makes it painful
Rerolling means creating a new account, pulling right at the start, and deleting it to try again if you don't get the character you wanted — repeating until you land a great opening roster, then committing to that account for real. Simple in theory, but Honkai: Star Rail (HSR) doesn't make it quick.
That's because HSR forces you through its entire opening story — full dialogue, full cutscenes, no skip button. Guides across the board (Prydwen, Game8, Siliconera, and others) agree: from account creation to unlocking Warping (the gacha) takes roughly 30-40 minutes, sometimes closer to an hour if you're reading slowly or new to the menus. Compare that to games where you can skip the tutorial in a minute or two, and it's clear why HSR rerolling has a reputation for being tedious.
A few terms worth knowing first: a Star Rail Pass is your gacha ticket, a Light Cone is gear that boosts a character's stats like a weapon, and a banner is a limited gacha pool currently running for a chance at a 5-star (the rarest tier) or 4-star unit.
Is it actually worth it?
Honest answer: no, not for most people. HSR already gives every new account a generous head start, reroll or not.
As soon as you start, you get the beginner banner, called the Departure Warp. It offers up to 50 pulls, guarantees at least one 4-star or better every 10 pulls, and guarantees one 5-star character before you run out of those 50 pulls — picked randomly from the standard permanent 5-star pool, not the current limited banner. So even without rerolling, everyone ends up with a 5-star after just a few dozen pulls.
On top of that, HSR's pity system is forgiving: on limited character banners, pulling to your 90th pull guarantees a 5-star (hard pity), though most players actually get one much earlier, averaging around pull 77 once the odds ramp up (soft pity) from around pull 73. If that 5-star turns out not to be the featured character (you lost the 50/50), your very next 5-star pull is guaranteed to be the one you wanted. In other words, you're never stuck empty-handed for long, reroll or not.
Rerolling really only makes sense if you're picky about your exact starting lineup and are willing to trade 30-40 minutes for a slightly better opening — not something you need to play HSR well.
If you still want to reroll: the steps
Step 1 - Start the game, create your Trailblazer, and play through the story until you meet Himeko and Asta at the Herta Space Station — that's when Warping (the gacha) unlocks. Your very first pull in the tutorial always gives you Asta (a 4-star), so don't expect a 5-star there.
Step 2 - Check your in-game mailbox for the free Star Rail Passes, then dump them all into the Departure Warp beginner banner for up to 50 pulls, as described above. If you land the 5-star you wanted, stop — that account is a keeper.
Step 3 - Not happy yet? Don't rush to make a new email. Try switching servers first (e.g., between America, Europe, Asia, and TW/HK/MO) on the same account — progress doesn't carry over between servers, so switching effectively gives you a free fresh start without needing a new email.
Step 4 - Once you've run out of servers to try, that's when you need a new email. A common trick is the 'salted email': HoYoverse has blocked the old plus-sign trick (like [email protected]), so that no longer works, but adding periods inside your Gmail name still does (e.g., [email protected]) — Gmail still delivers all of it to your one inbox, but HoYoverse treats each version as a different email, so you don't need to create a new Gmail every time.
Who should reroll, and who shouldn't
Consider rerolling if: you have real free time (at least a couple of hours to try a few rounds), you're a completionist who wants a strong roster from day one, or you're specifically chasing a standard-pool 5-star that the Departure Warp can give you.
Skip rerolling if: you're short on time, you're brand new to gacha games in general (get comfortable with the mechanics first), or you'd rather just start the story instead of waiting. With a guaranteed 5-star within 50 pulls on the beginner banner and a safe 90-pull pity net on every banner after that, a normal, non-rerolled HSR account still grows into a strong account over time.
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How long does one HSR reroll take?
From creating a new account to being able to pull on the beginner banner takes about 30-40 minutes, since the entire opening tutorial and story can't be skipped. If you're slower or reading through dialogue, it can stretch closer to an hour.
What's a salted email, and does it work for HSR reroll?
It's a trick for generating multiple 'different' emails from one Gmail account so you can register new accounts without making a new Gmail. The old plus-sign method (like [email protected]) used to work but HoYoverse has blocked it; adding periods inside your Gmail name (like [email protected]) still works, since Gmail ignores dots when delivering mail to your inbox, but the game treats each variation as a separate email.
Can the Departure Warp beginner banner give you the current limited character?
No. That banner only contains 4-star and 5-star characters and Light Cones from the standard permanent pool — it doesn't include the limited character from whatever event banner is currently running. To get a limited character, you'll still need to pull on that event banner and rely on the normal 90-pull pity.
