What is the next Honkai Star Rail banner? Within Honkai Star Rail, you can always expect a number of limited time events and exclusive characters to grab. The Honkai Star Rail banner schedule is constantly changing and rotating so staying on top of when the next banner is, and which characters are arriving, can be challenging to say the least. HoYoverse's typically cryptic and long-winded character reveals don't help matters either, as there's always several upcoming banners and updates being teased at once. Nevertheless, it sure does make the Honkai Star Rail banner a fun time for all, at least if luck is on your side.
Don't worry though, we've made it easy for you to keep track of the banners as below you can find a full breakdown of the current banner which is taking place, as well as the next Honkai Star Rail banners. These will help fill out the Honkai Star Rail characters list, which grows as each new month passes and each new update drops for the RPG game.
Honkai Star Rail banner schedule
The Honkai Star Rail banner schedule currently is:
- January 17, 2024 – February 5, 2024 – Dr. Ratio
- January 17, 2024 – February 5, 2024 – Kafka
- February 6, 2024 – February 28, 2024 – Black Swan
- February 6, 2024 – February 28, 2024 – Imbibitor Lunae
- February 28, 2024 – March 19, 2024 – Sparkle
- February 28, 2024 – March 19, 2024 – Jing Yuan
The banner schedule is absolutely packed, with 1.5 having seen several anticipated characters eating all our Stellar Jade before 1.6 even arrived, bringing even more great characters. Following the HSR 2.0 reveals, we also have a good idea of who to expect in the first major update to our favorite interstellar RPG.
This follows on from the excellent 1.4 HSR banners that saw great new characters like Jingliu and Topaz & Numby (the first 'duo' character), as well as the return of the all-mighty Seele. The first-ever rerun was particularly important as it was the first time that Honkai Star Rail PS5 players were able to get this top-rated character. We're still holding out hope for Luocha so that PS5 players can get this meta unit.
Current Honkai Star Rail banner
The current Honkai Star Rail banner is Dr. Ratio in the Panta Rhei banner from Wednesday, January 17, 2024, to Monday, January 5, 2024. Alongside this new character is a rerun of Kafka in the Nessun Dorma banner. Both banners are joined by four-stars Sushang, Natasha, and Hook.
The HSR 1.6 banner characters for phase two are:
- Dr. Ratio – five-star, Hunt (Imaginary)
- Kafka – five-star, Nihility (Lightning)
- Sushang – four-star, Hunt (Physical)
- Natasha – four-star, Abundance (Physical)
- Hook – four-star, Destruction (Fire)
While Dr. Ratio is being given to every player for free, he's a surprisingly stellar character. Typically, free characters, even five-stars, come with disappointing stats, but Dr. Ratio breaks to curse to become one of the best damage dealers in Honkai Star Rail right now. So, even if you've claimed Dr. Ratio for free, you might still want to get some Constellations to upgrade him further.
On the other hand, a rerun of Kafka is great news for those looking to build a damage-over-time team. Kafka is the DoT unit, capable of dealing massive damage when your team is set up correctly. Kafka is certainly more niche, however. With Honkai Star Rail PS5 players missing a vital meta unit in Luocha, we're hoping his rerun is coming soon.
The current Honkai Star Rail Light Cone banner includes:
- Brilliant Fixation – five-star, Hunt (Dr Ratio's signature)
- Bygone Reminiscene – five-star, Nihility (Kafka's signature)
- Landua's Choice – four-star, Preservation
- Only Silence Remains – four-star, Hunt
- Perfect Timing – four-star, Abundance
Next Honkai Star Rail banner
The next Honkai Star Rail banner is Black Swan, running from February 6, 2024, until February 28, 2024. At the same time, Imbibitor is also receiving a rerun. These two five-star characters will be headlining Honkai Star Rail 2.0 with the HSR 2.0 phase one banners.
Black Swan is a new five-star Wind DPS and Nihility debuffer while Imbibitor Lunae is a returning five-star Imaginary Destruction DPS.
That's not all though, as these two units will be joined by Misha, a brand-new four-star Ice Destruction character. This clumsy clerk will hopefully be a great addition to several existing teams, while also enabling fresh new teams, though we'll have to wait and see how they compare to the five-star competition.
Honkai Star Rail banner history
Here is the full Honkai Star Rail banner history of featured five-star characters:
- 1.0 – Seele, Jing Yuan
- 1.1 – Silver Wolf, Luocha
- 1.2 – Blade, Kafka
- 1.3 – Imbibitor Lunae, Fu Xuan
- 1.4 – Jingliu, Topaz & Numby, Seele
- 1.5 – Huohuo, Argenti, Silver Wolf
- 1.6 – Dr. Ratio, Ruan Mei, Blade, Kafka
Having an idea of the banner history for featured five-star characters is surprisingly helpful. In fact, we often use it to predict which characters will be returning for reruns. So, if you've got eyes on a certain character, take a look at when they were last featured. If it's been quite some time, chances are they're due for a rerun very soon.
For example, Seele debuted HSR Version 1.0 phase one, the very first banner in the game. This was an incredibly popular banner, not just because it was the first ever banner players could pull for, but because it was also home to Seele, a great DPS character. With the launch of the PS5 version coinciding with the release of Version 1.4, PlayStation players have missed out on Seele and several other important banners.
Though Seele was up first for a rerun, we'll see Silver Wolf next, and then possibly, Luocha, Blade, and so on get rerun over the next few Versions so console players can catch up.
Once these players are caught up, reruns should happen at least every Version update, so you'll have plenty more opportunities to get these previous banners again, though the four-star characters might be different each time.
Honkai Star Rail Stellar Warp banner
The following characters are permanently available in the Stellar Warp Honkai Star Rail banner:
- Bailu – five-star, Abundance (Lightning)
- Bronya – five-star, Harmony (Wind)
- Clara – five-star, Destruction (Physical)
- Gepard – five-star, Preservation (Ice)
- Himeko – five-star, Erudition (Fire)
- Welt – five-star, Nihility (Imaginary)
- Yanqing – five-star, Hunt (Ice)
- Arlan – four-star, Destruction (Lightning)
- Asta – four-star, Harmony (Fire)
- Dan Heng – four-star, Hunt (Wind)
- Herta – four-star, Erudition (Ice)
- Hook – four-star, Destruction (Fire)
- March 7th – four-star, Preservation (Ice)
- Natasha – four-star, Abundance (Physical)
- Pela – four-star, Nihility (Ice)
- Qingque – four-star, Hunt (Quantum)
- Sampo – four-star, Nihility (Wind)
- Serval – four-star, Erudition (Lightning)
- Sushang – four-star, Hunt (Physical)
- Tingyun – four-star, Harmony (Lightning)
- Yukong – four-star, Harmony (Imaginary)
- Luka – four-star, Nihility (Physical)
With so many powerful characters in the Honkai Star Rail banner schedule, we've never had more choice when it comes to the best Honkai Star Rail team comps and best Honkai Star Rail builds.
Now you know when the next Honkai Star Rail banner is, why not take a look and see where these characters rank in our Honkai Star Rail tier list? And, if you want a breakdown of even more about the game then take a look at our explainers on Honkai Star Rail's Undying Starlight and Honkai Star Rail's Stellar Jade, which are useful for getting new characters. Happy pulling, Trailblazer.