If you’re brand new to Honkai: Star Rail, figuring out how to structure your playthrough and avoid getting stuck on progression locks is one of the first big hurdles you’ll face on your interstellar adventure. This guide breaks down clear pacing recommendations from a new player’s perspective, covering main story progression, side quest unlocks, feature availability, and character building to help you start your journey as efficiently as possible.
Main Story Quests and Key Progression Nodes
Main story is the core of the game. It doesn’t just let you dive deep into the game’s lore, it’s also the key to unlocking most new maps, dungeons, and core game features. Early in the game, your top priority is following the tutorial and pushing through the main story arc on the planet Jarilo-VI.
After you finish the tutorial chapters on the Herta Space Station, we recommend prioritizing main story progression until you reach the “Earthquake Disaster” arc on Jarilo-VI. Completing this step unlocks the incredibly important Simulated Universe system, which gives you a steady source of Relics and Stellar Jades. After that, the main story will lead you to the Xianzhou Luofu, which is the core area for mid-game resource grinding and character leveling.
Recommended Pacing: Clear Main Story First, Then Explore Side Content
For new players, the safest rule of thumb is to push main story progression all the way to the latest chapter released in the current version first. The biggest benefit of this approach is that you’ll unlock every available map and core game feature all at once, so you never end up locked out of side quests because of your level or progression status. You can knock out a few select side quests whenever you have a break between main story arcs, based on your current level and resource needs.
Priority Ranking For Side Quests and World Exploration
Side quests (which include Companion Missions and Adventure Missions) don’t just give you tons of Stellar Jades and Adventure EXP — they’re also one of the best ways to learn more about your favorite characters and flesh out the game’s world. How you split your time between these side activities directly impacts how quickly you can collect resources.
Top Priority For Stellar Jades: Companion Missions
Companion Missions are side stories tied to specific characters, and they almost always unlock once you hit a certain main story progression milestone. These missions give massive rewards and feature fantastic, character-driven stories. We recommend prioritizing low-unlock, high-reward Companion Missions for early-game characters like Arlan and Herta first. Completing these missions lets you stock up on Stellar Jades very quickly, which you can then use to pull for your favorite characters.
Fill Out Resources and Character Strength: Adventure Missions
Adventure Missions are usually smaller bounties or puzzles scattered across the map, with rewards that typically consist of Credits, EXP materials, and common crafting materials. You can knock these out as you explore a map, and we don’t recommend setting aside huge chunks of dedicated time just for these. If you’re in a rush to raise the strength of a specific character, however, you can grind out all the Adventure Missions on a given planet to get the specific upgrade materials you need.
How Main Story Progression Unlocks Game Features and New Maps
Most of the game’s features aren’t available right from the start — they unlock gradually as you push through the main story. Knowing this ahead of time saves you the frustration of getting stuck trying to find a feature that hasn’t unlocked yet.
Key Feature Unlock Milestones
Simulated Universe unlocks as soon as you reach Jarilo-VI in the main story, and it’s one of the primary ways to farm Relics. Features like Relic Synthesis and Light Cone Enhancement unlock after you finish the main Jarilo-VI arc. Once you arrive at the Xianzhou Luofu, you’ll unlock more advanced progression content like the Pity Arena. We recommend that you pay attention to in-game prompts as you push the main story, unlock these features as soon as they become available, and start stacking up resources early.
Map Unlocking Pacing Recommendations
You don’t need to unlock 100% of every map all at once. After you finish the main story on a planet, set aside a little time to explore the map, clear out remaining side quests, and collect any leftover Stellar Jades. Then you can move on to the next planet. This approach keeps your character strength aligned with main story difficulty, expands your playable area gradually, and avoids that overwhelming feeling of having too much content to tackle at once. Remember, the in-game quest tracking system works across all planets, so you never have to worry about missing an unfinished quest — you can always track it from your quest log later.
Progression Pacing and Resource Management
A sensible progression pace lets you handle main story challenges much more easily and avoids wasting valuable resources. Below we break down the key progression priorities for every stage of the game.
Early Game (Main Story on Jarilo-VI)
During this stage, you should focus all your resources on leveling one to two core damage dealers (like Dan Heng or Herta) plus one survival support character (like March 7th or Natasha). Prioritize leveling the Trailblazer (your main character, either the Preservation or Destruction path) first. Stick to temporary, placeholder Light Cones and Relics during this stage — you don’t need to chase 5-star gold quality gear yet. Save your Credits and EXP materials for raising character levels first and foremost.
Mid Game (Main Story on the Xianzhou Luofu)
This is the stage where you should start focusing on upgrading your character’s Traces (skills) and fine-tuning your Relic setups. Simulated Universe is your most important source of key resources here, so we recommend running it regularly. You can also start thinking about team comps and building a second full team (the standard setup is one main damage dealer, one healer, one shield, one secondary damage dealer) to prepare for late-game Abyss content.
Late Game (Finished Main Story, Challenging Abyss)
The core focus of progression in late game is refining your Relics and Light Cones. Prioritize farming Relics that fit your main damage dealer, and refine your Light Cone selections to match your team. For character progression, focus on pushing Trace levels to key breakpoints (especially levels for your main damage skills) and start accounting for the bonuses from Eidolons when planning builds. When it comes to spending Stellar Jades, we recommend prioritizing pulls for key characters first, with Light Cone pulls as a secondary priority.
Final Summary and Action Checklist
Putting all these recommendations together, we’ve put together a clear action checklist for new players to help you start your journey in an organized, stress-free way.
1. Prioritize Main Story First: Follow the in-game guidance and complete the latest main story chapter available in the current version to unlock all maps and core game features.
2. Complete Side Quests In Downtime: During lulls between main story arcs, focus on clearing any unlocked Companion Missions and open-world Adventure Missions.
3. Don’t Miss Key Features: Every time you arrive at a new planet, unlock and learn how to use core systems like Simulated Universe and Relic Synthesis right away.
4. Follow Stage-Appropriate Progression: Prioritize character levels in early game, skills in mid game, and Relic and Light Cone refinement in late game.
Remember, Honkai: Star Rail is primarily a single-player experience, so you never have to compare your progression to other players. Playing at your own pace and enjoying the story and exploration is what makes the game fun. We wish you the best of luck on your interstellar adventure!