How to unlock all the free characters in Honkai: Star Rail
Honkai: Star Rail has many characters to collect, but thankfully players can get a headstart with these characters that you can grab for free.
Honkai: Star Rail has a wide roster of characters, most of which are procured through grinding and microtransactions. Free characters can be unlocked throughout the game, some are early gets and others are later acquisitions. Here are all the Honkai: Star Rail free characters and how to unlock them.
All free characters
There are 8 free characters that you can acquire in Honkai: Star Rail. You will get a handful to begin with, as well as some more as you progress through the early game, complete tutorials, and as you progress further. The list below is in order of when you can unlock the characters
The free characters are as follows:
- The Trailblazer
- March 7th
- Dan Heng
- Asta
- Serval
- Natasha
- Herta
- Qingque
These characters make up a pretty impressive party, so rest assured that you can indeed play the game without spending money and have a good time. You should unlock most of these characters just by putting some time in, but if you want to know the specifics then we have more info below.
How to unlock all the free characters
Below is a table detailing each free character, their types, and what you must do to unlock them. Be sure to grab each one to round out your group.
| Character | Path/Type | How to unlock |
| Trailblazer | Destruction/Physical, and Preservation/Fire | Main character, acquired immediately |
| March 7th | Preservation/Ice | Unlocked very early in the story |
| Dan Heng | Hunt/Wind | Unlocked very early in the story |
| Asta | Harmony/Fire | Guaranteed drop from tutorial |
| Serval | erudition/Lightning | Found in your inbox as soon as you gain access |
| Natasha | Abundance/Physical | Unlocked during Jarilo-VI story |
| Herta | Erudition/Ice | Complete World 2 of Simulated Universe |
| Qingque | Erudition/Quantum | Complete Memory Stage 3 of Forgotten Hall |
Some of these characters, namely Herta and Qingque, cannot be acquired until much later in the game. That said, you will have most of these characters available to you within the first few hours of playing the game.
For more on the game, check out our Honkai: Star Rail planets guide.
About The Author
Dave McAdam
Dave is a Senior Guides Writer at GGRecon, after several years of freelancing across the industry. He covers a wide range of games, with particular focus on shooters like Destiny 2, RPGs like Baldur's Gate 3 and Cyberpunk 2077, and fighting games like Street Fighter 6 and Tekken 8.
