Everyone loves Honkai Star Rail so the devs are giving out 10 free Special Passes this weekend

Honkai Star Rail
(Image credit: Hoyoverse)

To celebrate the successful launch of Honkai Star Rail, developer Hoyoverse is giving all players 10 free Star Rail Special Passes and holding a "Departure Festival" on Sunday, April 30.

CEO Da Wei announced the shindig in a new video posted to the official Honkai Star Rail Twitter. "What's going on Trailblazers? It's Da Wei here to say thank you for getting aboard the Astral Express," he begins. "In the past two days, Honkai Star Rail has been getting exceptional reception in all corners of the world. I would like to thank you all for being on this journey with us on behalf of the Honkai Star Rail team, seeing the stars and exploring the galaxy aboard the Astral Express! 

"Naturally, our gratitude cannot just be expressed with words. There should be gifts as well," the CEO continues, perking up the ears of free-to-play players everywhere. "Therefore, we will be holding a Departure Festival on the night of April 30 for all of you, as well as giving out 10 Star Rail Special Passes to everyone as thanks. We hope you will enjoy the experience. It is our wish that everyone can continue to explore the vast expanse, to blaze the trail of your own story. May this journey lead us starward." 

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Honkai Star Rail hasn't been an inescapable mega-hit like Genshin Impact, but it is doing pretty well for itself, already topping app stores and earning a solid 83 on review aggregate Metacritic. I guess this comes as no surprise since it had 10 million pre-registered users before it was even out

If you're still coming to grips with all these gacha currencies, just know that Honkai Star Rail has two types of passes used for pulls: standard and special. Standard passes are given out pretty frequently in-game and can be used on permanent banners to get standard characters, while Special passes are rare and only used for limited-time rate-up banners like Seele's ongoing debut. And hey, a free 10-pull on the rate-up banner of your choice is always welcome. 

It sounds like these free special passes will be automatically distributed via Honkai Star Rail's in-game mail system. But you also only have this weekend to claim another 10 free pulls which you'll have to play a bit to unlock. 

For more freebies, here are all the Honkai Star Rail codes and how to redeem them. 

Austin Wood

Austin freelanced for the likes of PC Gamer, Eurogamer, IGN, Sports Illustrated, and more while finishing his journalism degree, and he's been with GamesRadar+ since 2019. They've yet to realize that his position as a senior writer is just a cover up for his career-spanning Destiny column, and he's kept the ruse going with a focus on news and the occasional feature, all while playing as many roguelikes as possible.