FOR DUMMIES

Intro

This guide is aimed at people who want to get into Wuthering Waves and learn the basics outside of the tutorial, even though the game lays down everything perfectly, this will be a more simplified and straight-forward explanation with some examples so people can understand them better. Genshin Impact will be used as a comparison since it’s their biggest competitor and popular overall.

If something is BOLD, it’s important. If it’s underlined, it’s even more important.

If it’s both, you get the point.

THIS GUIDE WON’T COVER ANYTHING STORY OR GACHA RELATED, ONLY SYSTEMS AND PROGRESSION.

ALL OF THE INFORMATION MENTIONED HERE IS BASED ON MY CBT2, 1.0 AND +2.0 EXPERIENCE.

Please PM me on Reddit if I got a fact wrong.

How different is Wuthering Waves?

In terms of progression, grind, combat and exploration, it isn’t as different as Genshin Impact’s but it is “breath of fresh air” with a different movement system and ways to explore a vast post-apocalyptic world in a colder tone that slowly grows warmer. Combat is significantly more complex and the grind is free but complicated; and based on how much time you want to put in daily and what you want to focus on, you can get a lot of value from your playtime.

Movement

The main differences are:

Sprint doesn’t consume stamina outside of combat

You have a grapple that covers medium-tall distance (consumes stamina)

Wall-running (depletes more stamina but lets you climb faster)

Mid-air jump (consumes stamina and resets once you touch the ground)

More control over your movement while sliding off an incline

While wall-running, if you hit a roof ledge, your character may grab from it and lift themselves above it.

When you stop gliding, if you hold any movement input (WASD) you’ll still move towards that direction as you fall. You can also stop at any time.

The Gadget Menu can slow-time as you pick a tool

Exploration

As for exploration, everything is divided in zones and %s for each one, increasing based on chests and puzzles you complete. Your progress will reward you points every 20% up to 80% per zone at the Pioneer Association, similar to the Reputation System in Genshin Impact but instead of levels, it’s based on points. After reaching a certain amount of points, you’ll unlock new gadgets and recipes that will help your exploration and speed things up in other regions!

I won’t go over each kind of puzzle since it contains minor spoilers and they’re all self-explanatory, some use gadgets even- these are NOT locked by the Pioneer Association rewards.

In later regions and zones, exploration is handled via a list of tasks and objectives. Once all of them are completed, your exploration is counted as 100%, obtaining additional rewards as well- However, this doesn’t imply you’ve collected all chests around the map. Some chests are counted separately from this list

Relics

While exploring, you might find Sonance Caskets. These are similar to the “Oculus” collectibles in Genshin Impact. You’ll hand them over to an NPC, per region, and after every set amount of them, you’ll rank up and gain rewards. The major difference is that you’ll Resonance Chains (Constellations in Genshin) through this while your max. Stamina increases through the Terminal.

Combat

Characters, also known as Resonators, hold an attribute, while the Main Character “Rover” can hold all attributes.

Characters don’t deal “Physical damage”, instead they do their elemental damage in all attacks except Echo Skills. We’ll cover Echoes later.
As for attributes there are:

Spectro (Light)
Havoc (Dark)
Fusion (Fire)
Aero (Wind)
Glacio (Ice)
Electro

Note: after CBT1, they scrapped their “elemental system” for Intro and Outro skills entirely.

Enemies

Enemies are divided into 3 types: Common, Elite and Overlord/Calamity Class. Each one contains a different and more proactive moveset, some small even use special abilities that help other small enemies. There are pure-elemental enemies that are immune to their element while some are more resistant to their own element. This resistance system also applies to bosses.

Enemies’ Stagger and Vibration Strength

Elite and Overlord/Calamity-class enemies have a STAGGER meter, this is called Vibration Strength. Once depleted, the enemy will be Immobilized and open to all attacks. By dealing Vibration Damage through Heavy Attacks, certain Skills and/or Counter attacks, you can deplete this meter faster. Once depleted, you’ll have a set amount of time for damage until the enemy fully recovers. This is VERY important for the endgame.

Flawed Attacks

Flawed Attacks are highlighted by a golden ring on certain enemies' attacks. These attacks can be parried by attacking at the right time- dealing Vibration Damage to the enemy’s Vibration Strength.

Note: Parrying does NOT deal additional damage, deals increased vibration damage proportional to their vibration strength.

Materials

There’s so far 4 different materials used for weapons, abilities, etc; each associated with a different kind of monster which i’ll categorize in an unofficial manner to simplify them:

TD-Core (Disc Monsters)
Cell-Core (Infected Animals)
Rings (Humanoids/Rebels)
Masks (Fractsidus faction)

Dodging

If you dodge at the right time during an attack, you’ll trigger Extreme Evasion. This will slow time for a brief moment and allows you to skip to the last step of your Normal Attack combo. Your i-frames (frames of invincibility) will stay as long as you DON’T attack and keep dodging. You may only dash to dodge twice before it enters on an internal cooldown.

Note: Attacking after a dodge counts as a Basic Attack

Character Systems

Characters are divided in different sections to make things simpler along with comparisons.

Weapons
Normal, Heavy and Plunge Attacks
Forte Circuit | Character System
Intro and Outro Skill
Resonator Skills and Liberation | Skill and Ultimate
Resonance Chain | Constellations

Weapons

There are 5 different weapon types: Sword, Broadblade, Gun, Rectifier and Gauntlets.

Each one having a different playstyle, animation and attack pattern as well as amount of Normal Attacks.

Keep in mind that most Guns resonators and some Rectifiers attacks do NOT parry enemies’ flawed attacks.

Note: All weapons can mine any kind of ore or break any stone, unlike Genshin’s where you must always use plunge attacks or Claymore.

Normal, Heavy and Plunge Attacks

Normal attacks have a pattern of 3 to 5 or more attacks.
Heavy attacks behave similar to Genshin Impact’s Charge Attack.
Plunge Attacks can be done on the spot by jumping, there’s no height-requirement.
Landing any of these will grant you energy towards 3 things: Forte Circuit, Concerto and Resonance Liberation.

Note:

If you have absolutely no idea as to what your character does, there’s a tutorial button at the bottom right of your character’s menu screen when pressing “C”. It sends you to an instance and explains all the abilities and rotations in basic detail. This guide section will cover the basic terms and how everything interacts with each other.

Forte Circuit

Every character has an unique Forte Circuit that defines their playstyles entirely. Some Forte Circuits are activated through their Skill as you Press or Hold, some through Heavy Attacks. This mechanic is unique to each character and it’s core to their playstyle and rotation as you swap in and out your party mid-combat.

Note: If the Forte Circuit has a set duration, you can swap between characters and this Circuit will remain active even if you swap back to that character.

For example: Rover, after completing their normal attack pattern, they’ll fill their Forte Circuit significantly. Their Forte Circuit can be filled up to 2 meters. Using your Resonance skill, consumes 1 meter and allows their skill to perform a different version, dealing more damage and changing its animation and amount of hits.

Another example is Yangyang’s Forte Circuit: After completing a normal attack pattern or a heavy attack or Resonance skill or Intro skill, she’ll fill 1 out of 3 meters of Forte Circuit. Once you have all 3 meters filled, her next Heavy Attack or Intro skill will activate her Forte Circuit, releasing a flurry of slashes mid-air into a Plunge Attack.

Sanhua’s Forte Circuit Skill: As you hold your Heavy Attack, you must time it within a certain part of the Forte Circuit gauge like a Quick-Time Event. This part becomes bigger as you use her Resonance Skill and Resonance Liberation, leaving a trail of ice, you can break this trail with a well-timed Heavy Attack to shatter it and deal AoE Glacio damage.

Your Forte | Talents also have upgrades in two forms:

Upgrading Normal Attacks, Resonance Skill, Resonance Liberation, Forte Circuit and Intro Skill base values.
After the 1st Ascension and beyond, you can unlock a 1-time upgrade on each of these abilities. For Normal Attacks, Skill, Liberation and Intro Skill, you’ll gain a multiplier or effect on top of the base values (ATK% increase or Crit Rate%).
Forte Circuit gains additional effects instead of multipliers that can radically affect your playstyle and the character’s potential in combat.

Materials used for all these upgrades are a mix of enemy materials, weapon materials and weekly materials.

Note: By 1-time, you only need to unlock it once and that’s it. It doesn’t have any multiple upgrades unlike your other abilities.

Intro and Outro Skills

As said before, CBT2 scrapped the Elemental System for the Intro and Outro system, allowing a more dynamic and strategic playstyle by reducing the Party Size from 4 to 3 characters and focusing on a proactive playstyle. What does that mean?

By landing any attack, dodging and parrying, you gain Concerto Energy. Once full, swapping to any character will activate the Intro skill of whoever you’re swapping in (Damage) while activating the Outro skill of whoever got swapped out (Buffs the active player). Keep in mind that only 1 Outro Skill may be active since most of their effects are removed once you swap whoever just went into battle.

Intro Skills: Most of them are self-explanatory, they swap-in and deal damage. However, Intro skills can activate and affect some characters’ Forte Circuit, like gaining energy to activate their Forte Circuit.

Outro Skills: This skill is probably the most important for team compositing, as some are direct buffs or elemental buffs to whoever you’re swapping in or special skills like Vibration Damage. These buffs are removed once you swap to a different character or until its duration ends.

Resonance Skills and Resonance Liberation

Resonance skill, along with their Force Circuit, is what defines a character’s role in the party. By enabling other characters, creating a shield, generating their own energy off the field, disrupting the enemy in some way or even dealing damage with coordinated attacks off the field. There’s a wide variety of skills which flourish even more when their active character uses it with their Force Circuit.

For example: Yinlin’s skill enables her Normal Attacks to deal increased damage and fill her Forte Circuit. Once full, if you perform a Heavy Attack, she’ll mark enemies around her. Any damage taken by marked enemies will perform a coordinated attack and each mark has their own independent cooldown between attacks.

Another example is Yuanwu’s skill: Tapping the skill places a totem with a radius, which fills his Forte Circuit. Any damage dealt within the radius performs a coordinated attack. Once his Forte Circuit is full, holding the skill will enable him to deal more damage, and if there’s any totem, it will consume the totem dealing Electro damage to nearby enemies. This totem may remain while Yuanwu is off the field and his Forte Circuit will continue filling as long as the active character remains within the radius

Resonance Liberation, also called “Ultimates” or “Bursts” in Genshin Impact, are the character’s signature move, dealing massive damage in a short-animation with low amounts of i-frames OR they could enable the character’s kit like Skill, Forte Circuit and Normal Attacks. Keep in mind that animations are short, they’re not as reliable as dodging in terms of i-frame usage. Similar to skills, this ability can also benefit the character’s Forte Circuit while aiding other active characters.

Note: Some Resonance Liberations that buff the character for a set duration will still affect the character even when swapping between characters.

For example: Mortefi’s Resonance Liberation enables all party members to deal Fusion damage as he stays on OR off the field. Swapping out and triggering his Outro Skill will increase all party member’s Heavy Attacks damage as well as filling Mortefi’s Forte Circuit.

Sequence Chain

These are identical to “Constellations” in Genshin Impact when obtaining a duplicate character from the Gacha or event. As for the Rover’s Resonance Chain, they’ll be unlocked through exploration, the relic system and main story.

For comparison, Genshin Impact constellations are formed by 4 additional effects and 2 level increases on talents.

In Wuthering Waves, all Chains contain an additional effect, some add towards the character’s Resonance Skill or Liberation, some simply add a multiplier on top of the skill when certain conditions are met or buffs the whole party for a set duration after using a specific ability.

For example: Yuanwu’s Resonance Liberation deals 50% additional damage when his Resonance Skill is on the field.

Keep in mind, Standard Banner characters and Main Story characters Chains can be purchased through Afterglow Corals- which is a currency you obtain from duplicate items or through gacha naturally.

You can also buy the current promotional banner’s Sequence Chains through this store up to 2 times but you MUST OWN the character first. It does NOT restock.

Echo System | Artifacts

The Terminal

It’s a device that lets you capture echoes left by defeated enemies. All enemies have a 6% chance to drop their echo. The Terminal’s level increases the drop rate and rarity at which it drops.

There’s Rank 1 through 5 in rarity. Think of them as 1* to 5* rarity with items.

To Level your terminal, you must catch 1 Echo of each enemy. The rarer the Echo, the more EXP for your terminal. Think of it as a “Catch them all” minigame.

Every few levels, starting from Lv0, will increase the drop rate up to Lv10 at 20% chance and the max. Rarity of the echo, as well as a % chance to be said max. Rarity.

This means if you don’t get the echo, try again. If you get the echo but you DON’T get the max rarity, you get the one below it. So if your max rarity is a 5* and you don’t get a 5* echo, you get 4*. Same applies for every rarity/rank

.
Note: Once your Databank is Lv21 at Union Level 40 or above, all obtaind Echoes are 5*.

You can get a set amount of enhanced drop rates per day for Overlord and Calamity class bosses to get their echoes at max. Rarity based on your Data Bank level

Your terminal won’t level up if your Union Level isn’t high enough. Make sure you level your Union Level first, then your Terminal. You can check your data bank and see which echoes and their ranks you’re missing.

Collecting the highest rarity echoes of your Data Bank level grants EXP to your terminal. Make sure to collect them once your Terminal Level is high enough.

Your terminal ALSO gives you rewards from leveling it. Such as currency towards Gacha, +10 max Stamina up to Lv10 and a 60 Wavematter Refresh every few levels and more!

Echoes

Similar to the Artifact system in Genshin Impact, every character has 5 slots and every set has 2 effects. The major difference is the first effect takes place at 2 pieces and the second at 5 pieces instead of 4. This means you need all 5 slots to be the set you want.

Note: Each echo must be unique. If you equip the same echo twice, you won’t get your 5-piece effect. However, the “Shiny” version of an echo counts as a different echo.

Out of your 5 Echo slots, your first slot allows your Echo to use their Echo Skill!

You can also recycle echoes into random ones at a 5:1 conversion rate with a chance for additional ones and the rarity is based on your Data Bank’s max rarity.

All echoes have a predetermined skill, whether it's a transformation, summon, heal or any damage of sorts, they will always have their own skill.

The damage dealt is NOT the same as your Resonator, their damage is based on their natural element. If the Echo is an Aero monster, it’ll deal Aero damage.

However, you can use an Echo skill and when timed correctly with the Echo skill’s animation, you can swap to another character and the Echo skill will still remain on the field until its animation is over as you have full control of the character you swapped in. This way you can make the most out of the Echo and your party.

Also, some Echo skills can Counterattack the enemy, parrying their flawed attacks and dealing vibration damage. However, it must be stated by the Echo skill, not all skills can do this.

Cost System

There’s also Costs. Your characters start with 8 Cost capacity and go up to 12 as you level up your terminal. This cost increases to 10 at Lv2 and to 12 at Lv9.

You can place either Cost 1, 3 or 4 echo on your first slot as your echo skill and it won’t affect your set’s effect.

Cost 4 echoes are World Bosses which you kill for Character ascension material, they can be farmed every few minutes indefinitely.

Cost 3 are Medium enemies with Vibration Strength (Stagger), they’re limited in quantity per day so you better farm them daily and in co-op with friends or strangers.

Cost 1 are Small enemies, they’re everywhere around the map in higher quantities than Cost 3. Because of this, they’re the easiest to farm most of the time.

Although, you cannot stack more than 2 bosses in a set, you’ll have to manage them as you see fit. Ideally, your Echoes should be:

Early game: 4, 1, 1, 1, 1
Mid-game: 4, 3, 1, 1, 1
Endgame: 4, 3, 3, 1, 1 or 4,4,1,1,1.

Keep in mind that rarity plays a HUGE factor as it affects base stats and substats.

Main Stat and Sub Stats

Each echo has 2 main stats, the first one is RNG, the second is predetermined. Depending on the cost, their first main stat can roll into a different list of affixes and the second stat will always be the same.

Cost 4 Echoes have ATK and can roll into:

Crit Rate
Crit Damage
ATK, DEF or HP
Healing Bonus

Cost 3 Echoes have ATK at a lower amount and can roll into:

Elemental Bonus Damage (of any element regardless of the set)
ATK, DEF or HP
Energy Regen

Cost 1 Echoes have HP and can roll:

ATK, DEF or HP

This generally simplifies the grind and each cost, based on their set, makes grinding for certain elements harder or easier. This will change as new sets and monsters get introduced!

Rank | Rarity

Depending on the rarity, 1* to 5* echoes, each has a max. Upgrade from +5 to +25. Each +5 adds a Tuning Slot. You must use Tuners equivalent to the echo’s rarity in order to unlock their substats.

For example:

If you have a 4* Echo, it can be upgraded up to +20. That grants you 4 Tuning Slots. You spend 4 4* Tuners and it’ll unlock 4 RANDOM substats from that echo.

As for substats, all echoes, regardless of cost, can roll from this list of affixes:

Flat HP, ATK or DEF
% HP, ATK or DEF
Bonus Heavy or Normal Attack Damage
Bonus Resonance Skill Damage
Bonus Resonance Liberation Damage
Crit Rate
Crit Damage
Energy Regen

And yes, you can roll both Flat and % of the same stat (e.g ATK% and Flat ATK) and duplicate main and sub stat (e.g double Crit rate).

Note: All, if not most, sets share Cost 1 echoes across 3 different sets. This means that every drop is between a 33% or a 50-50 chance whether it's in the set you want or not. Not taking in account their main stat.

Data Merge

Data Merge allows you to ‘combine’ 5 echoes of any Cost and set into 1 new echo in a 5:1 ratio. For each echo, there’s a chance to gain an additional echo and it’ll be labelled ‘Extra’ underneath.

You can also ‘Batch Merge’, on the bottom right, it allows you to do multiple merges at once by simply auto-selecting any non-locked echo or marked as ‘Discard’ echo in your inventory.

Note: All merged echoes, regardless of rarity, will create echoes of the highest rarity if your Data Bank allows it. (If you can only obtain 4* Echoes, all Echoes from Merging will be 4*).

Data Modify

Data Modify allows you to change the Main Stat of a non-upgraded Echo of any Cost to the Main stat of your choice. Each Data Modify requires the Modifier item, acquired from Events, Battle Pass and Oscillated Coral store.

Disclaimer: You cannot change the main stat of an upgraded Echo or it’s substats with this item. It must be a +0 (non-upgraded) echo. Modifiers from the Oscillated Coral store are restocked per patch.

Wavematter | Resin

The cap for Wavematter is 240 instead of Genshin’s 200. You recover 1 Wavematter per 6 minutes and you can only refresh 6 times a day, every 2 refreshes increases the refresh price to 60/120/240. Crystal solvents (equivalent to Fragile Resin) recover 60 wavematter.

However, the costs are significantly different. For comparison, i’ll put Genshin’s between parenthesis ()

The minimum amount you can spend is 40 (20) and the maximum is 60 (30 up to 3 times, then 60 on weekly).

Here’s a list of content where you spend Wavematter:

Training Zone: 40.
Weapon | Forte materials: 40.
Tacet Field: 60
World Bosses: 60.
Weekly Bosses: 60.

Training Zone is similar to Leylines in Genshin Impact, it gives you character EXP, weapon EXP and currency for upgrades and purchasing items!

Weapon and Forte materials are self-explanatory. If your character uses a Sword, their skills upgrades will also use the materials used for their weapons.

Tacet Fields is a small horde mode where you kill 3-4 waves of enemies, the last wave grants a buff and you obtain 1 and 3 Cost Echoes of 2 specific sets at random and Echo EXP based, the rewards rarity and amount is based on your SOL3 Phase and Data Bank Level.

World Bosses can be farmed for their Echo for free, spending Wavematter gives you materials for ascending characters as well as Echo EXP and some currency.

Weekly Bosses, these are unlocked based on the story and some are in the open or unlocked from a quest. They give you Weapon molds to craft 4* weapons and materials used to unlock Forte Circuits 1-time upgrades and high level upgrades for abilities. Weeklies can be done up to 3 times per week and they’re repeatable.

Progression

Union Level

Similar to Adventure Rank and World Level, you’ll start at Union Level 1, all the way to 80.

Every 10 levels, you’ll gain rewards and your SOL3 (World Level) will advance in Phase from Phase Rank 1 to Rank 5.

For Example: You’ll start your journey at UL1, Phase Rank 1. Then level up to UL10 and go to Phase Rank 2.

Every 20 Union Levels, you’ll have to do the Phase Ascension Challenge at the Training Area. Simply fight bosses and Rank up your world.

As your Phase Rank goes up, so does enemies by 10 levels approximately and increases the drop rate and rarity of the drops. Echoes drop rate and rarity are not attached to Phase Rank, only the terminal.

As for Union EXP, you obtain 150 Union EXP per 20 Wavematter spent. Main Story, Side Quests, Chests and Puzzles also grant Union EXP based on the rarity of the chest.

Discovering Echoes grant Union EXP based on their rarity.

Note: If you played during 1.0, the changes to echo granting Union EXP is retroactive!

Tower of Adversity (TOA) | Spiral Abyss

This is the meat and grid of the game, similar to Spiral Abyss in Genshin Impact, this is a high level, high difficulty game mode where you challenge a tower and its stages, however it is COMPLETELY different to the Spiral Abyss.

The Tower is divided into 3 different zones:

Stable Zone (1 Tower, 4 stages)
Experimental Zone (2 Towers, 4 stages each; 8 stages total)
Hazard Zone (3 Towers, 4 Stages each except for 1 with 2 stages. 10 stages total)

Similar to Spiral Abyss, you must complete the challenge within the time limit, based on the time, you’ll obtain stars, however, since each tower has different stages with different buffs and challenges, swapping comps, characters and gear per stage is recommended.

Stable and Experimental are permanent stages with a set amount of stars and buffs that you can complete at any time with no rotation- while Hazard Zone rotates every few weeks or per patch, the time between rotations is currently unknown.

Experimental and Hazard Zone, since they have more than 1 tower, their other tower which contains enemies of the same level as the 1st, has 2 or more waves of enemies.

However, Hazard Zone has a middle tower with 2 stages. These contain HIGHER level enemies and bosses, starting at Lv100.

If you do not beat the enemies in time on any stage, you’ll fail and be forced to retry the stage.

Major Differences:

It uses a Vigor System

Characters have 10 Vigor and each Stage consumes 1 to 4 Vigor based on the difficulty.
Vigor is shared across all Towers in one zone. (Stable Zone’s vigor won’t affect Experimental Zone’s)
Characters can recover any spent Vigor by resetting your score on that stage- but you’ll lose all “stars” from that Stage.

Stages are challenged separately, you can use different comps per stage and zones and change all of their equipment too.
After completion, you’ll gain Points that let you buy upgrades and Phantom Echoes (Their “shiny” version)
You cannot attempt later stages without doing the previous stages first.

Fantasy of a Thousand Gateways

Prerequisite: Completion of Chapter 2 Act 1 in Rinascita.

This game mode is a new weekly that grants 160 Astrite per week and plays similar to Depths of Illusive Realm (Roguelite gamemode).

You must go through 13 stages, every 6 you have the option to spend 60 wavematter to obtain a box that contains echoes from 2 sets- but these sets are based on the Tacet Fields sets available and the box yields Cost-1 and Cost-3 echoes from both sets at random. This is completely optional and you may continue just for the rewards.

Every week, the gamemode will favor resonators of a certain element, granting you double points for each resonator of that element. This will allow you to reach 6000 points and obtain all rewards. You only need 1 resonator of the favored element to reach a score of 6000.

During the run, you’re granted Dreamscape Aid and a selected buff on the first stage that triggers once you obtain enough energy from attacking enemies, entering the Lucid Dream state. Every time you clear a stage, you can pick 3 different modifiers that can affect the Lucid Dream state or your base stats directly.

Note: Unlike Depths of Illusive Realm, this gamemode does get affected by your echoes and there are no trial characters.

Whimpering Waves

Prerequisite: Reach Union Level 30 and complete Chapter 2 Prologue in Rinascita.

This game mode is pseudo-monthly, resets roughly every 28 or more days. It consists of stages split into two halves, requiring 2 teams of 3 and picking a Token that grants a buff to your resonators. You’ll obtain rewards based on your score which depends on how many enemies you can kill within the time limit. After the time is over, you must proceed to the 2nd half of the stage.

Whimpering Waves consists of 12 stages and it’s divided in 3 sections: Forbidden Waters, Respawning Waters and Respawning Waters Infinite.

Forbidden Waters, the first 6 stages, are a 1-time clear with permanent rewards.

Both Respawning Waters, the remaining 6 stages, reset and refresh their rewards as mentioned previously.

Respawning Waters consist of 5 stages after the first 6 from Forbidden Waters. As you progress through them, you’ll unlock items that can grant buffs and drastically give you a bump in damage against enemies. Keep in mind, all of these Tokens have 2 uses max.- but resetting your run in that specific stage can refund the usage of that Token.

Respawning Waters Infinite is the last stage from Whimpering Waves and it’s essentially an endless mode that plays the same as previous stages. Based on your score, you’ll obtain a rank. Reaching Rank S (4500 Score) grants all rewards while reaching Rank SSS (+5500 Score) multiple times (on each reset) grants a title on your 1st, 5th and 10th time.

Things to Focus (GUIDE)

This portion of the guide is 100% biased and OPTIONAL. You’re free to follow it or not. You can completely skip it and play however you want- these are simply warnings from my experience in CBT2.

Wuthering Waves does a decent job at introducing you into each system and showing you the ropes but lacks the depth and how to progress from start to finish for someone who has never touched this kind of game.
Therefore, this section is dedicated as a checklist of things to do per Union Level so you don’t get lost around the world.

Union Level 1 - 10

Main Story (Top Priority)
Side Quests
Unlocking Teleport point (Resonance Beacon and Nexus)
Reveal the entire Map
(Optional) Kill enemies on your way to doing these 4.

Recommendations:

Level characters you’re willing to use, try them all since enemies are low level and easy to kill.
DO NOT spend Echo exp on Green nor Blue Echoes, they’re worthless and you don’t need them leveled, ever.

Union Level 11 - 20

Side Quests
Kill every enemy in sight for your Terminal, new enemies that aren’t in your data bank will most likely drop their echo.
Terminal Level

At this point, leveling your Terminal is VERY important. You might even find chests while hunting for rarer echoes.

Equip 3* or 4* weapons and 2 sets of Echoes (2 and 2 piece, you can focus on a full set later).
Exploration and Sonance Casket (They’re important for upgrading Rover and Union Level)
Unlock your character’s Forte Circuit’s upgrades first and DO NOT focus on investing on Forte or multiple characters yet.

Recommendations:

Consider building any 5* or maybe 4* character. (You should research on which 4*s to invest, Sanhua, Lumi, Danjin, Chixia, Baizhi and Mortefi are decent picks.).
Keep in mind that Rover is one of the most flexible 5*s in the entire game and can fit even in compositions for endgame content.
As for builds, just aim for 2 2-piece set with support set and their main element set. It’s faster, cheaper BUT DO NOT EVEN UPGRADE IT. Echo EXP is very expensive and you don’t need to level any Echo yet until 4* and 5*.
You may upgrade weapons instead if you’re in need of damage.

Union Level 21 - 30

Finish the Terminal Leveling

At UL25 - 30, you have a significant higher chance of obtaining 4* echoes. You should focus on acquiring every monster in their 4* rarity. Even if you can’t unlock the Terminal Levels later, the EXP obtained remains and you’ll unlock them once you increase your Union Level. After that, you can focus on farming 5* all over the world.

Build 2 Main DPS Characters and a Support at low investment with either 2 sets of echo or 1 full set and 4* Weapons (craftable or from the ore NPC at the Tiger’s Maw)

Make sure the stats are aligned with the characters’ (Some characters scale off HP and DEF) and the set synergizes with a playstyle you want (Outro, Intro Skill and Forte Circuit).

Finish your exploration %
Attempt Tactical Hologram for Drill Points

Enemies here are more resistant to their own element.

Attempt Tower of Adversity’s Stable Zone

Recommendations:

BE CAREFUL WITH WHO YOU BUILD AFTER UL30. Even though it’s significantly faster at UL40, it gets more and more expensive. At this point, you better have 2 Main DPS built and 1 support for most situations to prepare for UL40.
Consider building an Aero, Fusion and a support character that benefits from the Energy Set. Your best F2P picks are Yangyang, Chinxia and Baizhi since, not only are they free, they’re the easiest to build since Aero, Fusion and Energy sets have more Cost 3 echoes than Electro and Spectro.
Spend your echo EXP sparingly, consider +15 for good main stat on Cost 4 and +10 max for Cost 1 and 3.

Union Level 31 - 39

At this point, you’ll be farming 5* echoes at a chance daily to build your main team or specific characters.
Invest into Forte Circuit and other abilities, weapons and 5* echoes as you see fit for the characters you’ll be using for Tower of Adversity and Tactical Hologram. LIMIT THIS TO 2 DPS AND 1 SUPPORT so you don’t burn resources.
You should be able to finish Stable Zone and Experimental Zone at Tower of Adversity- not fully 3* it however.
Complete your exploration rewards to unlock Lootmapper from the Pioneer Association to find the remaining chests. (It won’t locate Butterfly nor challenges around the map, only chests).

Recommendations:

As time goes, you could farm for 5* echoes for other characters in the meantime since it's free, SPECIALLY Cost 3 since they’re very low in quantity for most sets.
When upgrading echoes, depending on the character, you should upgrade them to +15 first, tune their sub-stats. If you find 1 favorable substat (for example Crit Rate or Crit DMG) you can consider investing to +20; if you get a 2nd favorable substat for that character, upgrade it to +25.
If you don’t get a 2nd favorable substat, feed this echo to the next echo you want to upgrade. This makes upgrading significantly cheaper.

Union Level +40

This is the endgame part of the game.
You’ll be farming consistent 5*s at 90% chance for your main team and, maybe, all characters.
Fully complete Stable and Experimental Zone for Phantom versions of the Echoes you need.
Complete Tactical Hologram (as far as you can) for Phantom versions of Echoes.
Ascending characters to Lv70 is a lot faster, however, leveling them and all your echoes are SIGNIFICANTLY more expensive in currency and time. This is all a massive timegate until the game fully develops for UL50.

Recommendation:

At this point, lay back and do anything that needs doing or minmax your main characters as you expand and build other and newer characters. As you reach the next Phase to UL50, plan what your next step is on progression and where to invest your resources. It’ll take a LONG time to get there.
Remember that gachas are a marathon, not a race. Every bit counts and every day you can progress a bit further.

Change Log

1.0 Release

Combat section

It is confirmed that Rover can have more than 1 attribute but only use 1 at the time.
Renamed “Elements” to attribute.

Enemies section

Renamed them to Common, Elite and Overlord/Calamity Class

Enemies’ Stagger and Vibration Strength section

Changes to description
Added “Parrying does NOT deal additional damage, deals increased vibration damage proportional to their vibration strength.”
Introduced the Flawed Attack Section.

Materials section

Renamed “Star-core” to “TD-Core”

Dodging section

Added “Attacking after a dodge counts as a Basic Attack”.

Weapons section

Clarified that Guns and some Rectifiers attacks do NOT parry enemies’ flawed attacks.

Intro and Outro Skills section

Added “By landing any attack, dodging and parry, you gain Concerto Energy…”

Forte Circuit

Added “If the Forte Circuit has a set duration, you can swap between characters and this Circuit will remain active even if you swap back to that character”

Resonance Skill and Liberation section

Added “some Resonance Liberations that buff the character for a set duration will still affect the character even when swapping between characters.“

Echo System section

Removed “As of CBT2, the Terminal has 20 levels.”
Added “You can get a set amount of enhanced drop rates per day for Overlord and Calamity class bosses to get their echoes at max. Rarity based on your Data Bank level”
Rephrased “The highest rarity that grant EXP to your terminal are 4* echoes” to “Collecting the highest rarity echo of your Data Bank level grants EXP to your terminal”. This is due to changes in 1.0.

Echoes section

Changed “...at a 5:2 conversion rate” to “5:1 conversion rate with a chance for additional ones and the rarity is based on your Data Bank’s max rarity”.

Rarity section

Changes to the Note “All, if not most, sets share Cost 1 echoes across 3 different sets.”

Wavematter section

Changes to the Wavematter distribution due to 1.0 changes
Changes to Training Zone, Tacet Field and Weekly Bosses’ description.

Union Level section

Changed the first sentence to: “...you’ll start at Union Level 1, all the way to 80.”

1.1 Version

Terminal Section

Added a note referring to guaranteed 5* once your Data Bank is Lv21.

Wavematter Section

Correction on Tacet Fields text “3 waves” to “3-4 waves of enemies”.

Union Level Section

Added a note saying that discovering echoes now grant Union EXP.

2.3 Version

Exploration Section

Added 2.0’s new exploration content.

Weapon Section

Corrected some information (most Gun resonators cannot parry).

Sequence Chain Section

Corrected the name of the section and disclaimer.

Echo System Section

Added Data Merge and Data Modify section.

Fantasy of a Thousand Gateways Section

Section added

Whimpering Waves Section

Section added

Things to Focus

Revised a lot of the information