Wuthering Waves is an exceedingly immersive open-world gacha RPG where you can collect a variety of unique characters (i.e. Resonators), explore a vast world filled with dangerous enemies and friendly NPCs, and collaborate with other players to hunt down tough bosses.
If you're new to Wuthering Waves (or just gacha games in general), then scroll down and read more to learn everything you need to know as a beginner—including some tips that'll help you play the game more efficiently and avoid traps that might stall your account's progress!
What to Do First in Wuthering Waves
This section will discuss all the tasks that you should be prioritizing during your first several hours of playing Wuthering Waves as a beginner.
Play Through The Story
Progressing the story in Wuthering Waves should always be your number one priority as soon as you get into the game, as only by doing your Main Story Quests do you unlock most of the other features in the game.
Not only does playing the story grant you a variety of growth materials and Astrite, but it also increases your Union Level fast, which is a requirement if you want to upgrade your Data Bank further.
Increase Your Union and Data Bank Level
Your Union Level determines your map's level (i.e. SOL3 Phase), and the higher it is, the stronger the monsters in your map will be, but the more loot you can farm from them.
SOL3 ‘s progression can be divided into Phases (e.g. Phase Rank 1, Phase Rank 2, etc.), and you can advance the Phase every 10 Union Levels. Every 20 Union Levels, you'll have to do Phase Ascension Challenges to progress SOL3's Phase further.
In addition to your SOL3 Phase, your Union Level also influences the maximum level your Resonators can be leveled up to, as well as the quality of the dungeons you can access.
You can increase your Union Level by:
- Playing through the Story
- Consuming Waveplates
- Completing Daily Tasks
- Completing Side Quests and Exploration Quests
- Completing Companion Stories
- Opening chests
- Solving Puzzles
WARNING: Do NOT rush your SOL3's progression. Monsters gain around 10 levels everytime you level up SOL3's Phase, so remember to gauge whether or not you'll be able to handle stronger enemies before you complete the Phase Ascension Challenges. For beginners, we recommend staying at SOL3 Phase Rank 2 for a bit, then powering up your Resonators to prepare them for further SOL3 rank-ups.
Your Data Bank in Wuthering Waves, on the other hand, allows you to absorb Echoes from monsters you have defeated anywhere on the World Map.
Echoes can be equipped by your Resonators and give them the ability to either transform into or summon the monster a specific Echo belonged to, aiding them during battle.
You get a 6% chance of absorbing a slain monster's Echo once you unlock the Data Bank, but you may increase this up to 20% by increasing your Data Bank Level.
Higher Data Bank Levels also give you higher chances of absorbing Echoes of higher rarity, ranging from 1★ to 5★. The rarer the Echo, the more EXP it allocates to your Data Bank once absorbed.
Your Resonators' COST Limit is also increased proportionately with your Data Bank Level, which allows them to equip more Echoes—providing them more stats and buffs via Sonata Effects.
You can increase your Data Bank Level by absorbing one copy of each Echo. Again, the higher the rarity of the Echo you absorb, the more EXP your Data Bank gets.
Unlock Resonance Nexus and Beacons
Resonance Nexus are scattered all over SOL3, and activating them gives you the surrounding map data, revealing the area around them. It also functions as a respawn or recovery point whenever you have a fallen or damaged Resonator on your party, as well as a fast travel point.
Resonance Beacons, once activated, can be used to fast travel points that'll allow you to switch locations quickly just by pulling up your map while out of combat, so don't forget to interact with them whenever you see them!
Kill Monsters On Sight
Killing mobs of monsters in your map does not consume your Waveplates (i.e. stamina) and at the same time gives you various loot, so try to kill as many of them as you can—especially once you've unlocked your Data Bank and are able to loot Echoes.
Monster spawns reset every 24 hours, so make sure you clear as many of them out before the daily reset. We recommend specifically targeting monsters who you don't have the Echo of yet, just so you'll be able to increase your Data Bank Level faster.
Moreover, battling monsters as a beginner will allow you to practice Wuthering Waves' combat mechanics and will allow you to get a feel of every Resonator you have early on, which might influence your decision on what Resonators you'll want to invest in and use for your teams.
NOTE: As you explore your map, you may encounter some monsters that glow red (i.e. Special Monsters). AVOID these monsters if you're only a few hours into the game and are underleveled, as even though you may be able to bring them down eventually, you'll just be wasting time as you can just come back and kill them more easily once your party's overall DPS is higher.
Explore Your Map
Aside from hunting down different types of monsters in different locations and activating your Resonance Beacons/Nexus in Wuthering Waves, you should also watch out for NPCs who can give you Side Quests and pick up or interact with the collectibles scattered all over the map while exploring.
Examples of these collectibles are the variety of Synthesis materials scattered all over SOL3, as well as the Chests and Sonance Caskets where you can get tons of items from.
Focus Your Resources On Your Main DPS
In the early stages of Wuthering Waves, prioritizing power-ups for your DPS units is a must, as they'll be the ones to carry you until you've farmed enough growth materials for the other members of your team.
To conserve growth materials as a beginner, we highly recommend setting one Resonator as your Main DPS, then feeding them most—if not all of the growth materials (especially skill upgrade materials) you get within your first few days of playing.
Here are some of the best starting Main DPS units that you should consider investing in as a beginner:
| Best Starting Main DPS Units for Beginners | |||||
 Rover Element: Spectro |  Calcharo Element: Electro |  Jiyan Element: Aero | |||
 Lingyang Element: Glacio |  Encore Element: Fusion |  Danjin Element: Havoc | |||
Plan Your Main Team
Wuthering Waves incentivizes you to build at least 3 teams for other game modes such as the Tower of Adversity, but as a beginner, all you really need is to build one team capable of clearing the Story and beating early game bosses.
Although the most optimal beginner team builds require you to pull for top-tier characters, do note that you can easily get through the early game just by utilizing the characters you get for free.
For example, here's a great starter team that features characters that you'll get access to without spending Astrites or Tides in the gacha:
| All-Free-Characters Starter Team | |
| Main DPS Rover Element: Spectro | |
Energy Battery/Sub-DPS Yangyang Element: Aero | Support Sanhua Element: Glacio |
NOTE: Keep in mind you can get two 5-star Resonators at a mose cost-effective rate than other Character Convenes through the Novice Convene as well as the Beginner's Choice Convene that all beginners have access to. Use them wisely and pick a Main DPS that you want to build your team around or a Sub-DPS/Support who synergizes well with your Main Team if you already have the Main DPS you want. Get Verina if possible, as she's currently the best Support in the game and performs well no matter what team you put her in!
Complete Milestone Missions
You unlock the Milestone feature upon reaching Union Level 6 in your Guidebook, which is a godsend for beginner players.
Completing Wuthering Waves Milestone missions allows you to claim precious growth items in exchange for completing tasks that gradually increase in difficulty, making it a fantastic guide on what tasks Wuthering Waves beginners should prioritize.
What to Do Daily
In this section, we will discuss everything you need to do every day as a beginner in Wuthering Waves.
Complete Your Daily Quests & Activity
Aside from the Main Story Quests, Side Quests, and Exploration Quests that you absolutely must try to clear every day, just like any other gacha game, Wuthering Waves features a variety of Daily Quests and Activities that you can complete within 24 hours in exchange for various rewards.
Among the various rewards that your Daily Activity gives away in particular is Union EXP, which you'll need a lot of if you want to increase your Union Level fast.
Both the Daily Quests and Daily Tasks can be pretty decent guidelines of what tasks must be done every day, so feel free to use them as your reference if you're lost on what to do during your first few days of playing.
Kill as Many Monsters as You Can (Farm Echoes)
As we've mentioned before, Monster spawns reset every 24 hours in Wuthering Waves, so make sure you're clearing out as many of them as you can every day so you can farm Echoes and level up your Data Bank faster.
Making use of Resonance Beacons for fast travel will allow you to switch from location to location, which makes Echo farming go a lot faster.
NOTE: If you don't have any monsters left to kill in your world, remember that you can join another player's world and continue your farming there—essentially bypassing the monster spawn limitations.
Deplete Your Waveplates
Lastly, you want to get your Waveplates down to 0 every day or at the very least not leave them at max capacity to not waste the amount you could've otherwise regenerated.
Here are the game modes where you can spend your Waveplates, as well as how many Waveplates they consume:
| Game Modes That Consume Waveplates | Amount of Waveplates Consumed |
|---|---|
| Tacet Field | x40 Waveplates |
| World Bosses | x60 Waveplates |
| Weekly Bosses | x60 Waveplates |
| Training Zone | x40 Waveplates |
How to Get More Characters
Here are all the ways you can get more characters (i.e. Resonators) in Wuthering Waves. Take advantage of these so you can build your ideal team early on.
Play Through the Story
You can get the following characters just by playing through Wuthering Waves' Main Story Quest:
These characters in Wuthering Waves are pretty solid starting members to use as stop gaps for your Main Team, especially Chixia who's a great Fusion Main-DPS, and Baizhi—a Glacio Support who can be a decent replacement for when you don't have Verina or Sanhua yet.
Claim Event & Mail Rewards
Wuthering Waves features several beginner-friendly events that give you either characters themselves or gacha-pulling resources.
For example, you get Sanhua—a fantastic 4★ Glacio DPS-Support hybrid—from the Gifts of the Thawing Frost Event if you log in for 5 days consecutively.
Aside from Events that give you actual characters, also watch out for ones that give you pulling resources for Resonator Convenes (i.e. character banners), such as:
- Astrites
- Lustrous Tides
- Radiant Tides
Claim Rewards from Other Game Modes
You can get Yuanwu—a 4★ Electro DPS—by clearing Tower of Adversity: Stable Zone through the Voyage's Beginning event.
Pull From the Gacha
Lastly, you can get more characters simply by pulling in Wuthering Waves' gacha banners, a.k.a. Convenes.
Here are all the Convenes you can get characters from and what resources are needed to pull on them:
| Character Banner/Convene Types | Currencies Required (per 10-pull) | Pity Counter for Characters |
|---|---|---|
| Novice Convene (Disappears after 50 pulls) | x8 Lustrous Tides | x1 5★ Character Guaranteed within 50 pulls |
| Beginner's Choice Convene (Disappears after the target 5★ Character has been obtained) | x10 Lustrous Tides | x1 5★ Character Guaranteed within 80 pulls |
| Character Event Convene | x10 Radiant Tides | x1 5★ Character Guaranteed within 80 pulls |
| Character Permanent Convene | x10 Lustrous Tides | x1 5★ Character Guaranteed within 80 pulls |
| Weapon Event Convene | x10 Forging Tides | None |
| Weapon Permanent Convene | x10 Lustrous Tides | None |
NOTE: You can exchange 160 Astrite for 1 Lustrous Tide or 1 Radiant Tide. The more cost-effective of the two options would be to exchange your Astrites for Radiant Tides, as you'll be able to target specific 5★ Characters you want to pull for in Character Event Convenes.
How to Get More Weapons
Here are all the ways you can get as a beginner Weapons in Wuthering Waves.
Claim Event & Mail Rewards
Just like characters like Sanhua, you can get free Weapons or Weapon Chests from events held in Wuthering Waves—just like the Rangers' Series Weapon Supply Chest shown above, which all players get at the start of the game.
For example, you can get a free 5★ Weapon from the Awakening Journey Event by reaching Union Level 45.
On top of that, all players will receive a free 4★ Weapon in their Mail as the Social Media Milestone Reward.
Open Chests
Opening Chests scattered all over Sol3 gives you a bunch of Weapons in the long run.
While the Weapons you get from Chests might not be as good as the ones you get from the Convenes, they're still pretty decent and are more than enough to help you progress through the early game.
Pull From the Gacha
There are two different types of Convenes where you can get Weapons from:
| Weapon Banner/Convene Types | Currencies Required per 10-pull | Pity Counter for Weapons |
|---|---|---|
| Novice Convene (Disappears after 50 pulls) | x8 Lustrous Tides | None |
| Beginner's Choice Convene (Disappears after the target 5★ Character has been obtained) | x10 Lustrous Tides | None |
| Character Event Convene | x10 Lustrous Tides | None |
| Character Permanent Convene | x10 Lustrous Tides | None |
| Weapon Event Convene | x10 Forging Tides | x1 5★ Weapon Guaranteed within 80 pulls |
| Weapon Permanent Convene | x10 Lustrous Tides | x1 5★ Weapon Guaranteed within 80 pulls |
NOTE: You can exchange 160 Astrite for 1 Lustrous Tide, or 1 Forging Tide. However, we don't really recommend spending your Astrites or Lustrous Tides on any of the Weapon Convenes as a beginner, since pulling for characters is simply more cost-effective.
Wuthering Waves: 5 Extra Tips for Beginners
Now that you know everything that you should pay attention to as a beginner, here are some of the best Wuthering Waves tips that you should follow to make sure you don't fall into traps that might cripple your account's growth.
Avoid Refreshing Waveplates Using Astrites
Astrites are among the hardest resources to farm in Wuthering Waves, so conserving them should be one of your utmost priorities as a beginner.
This is exactly why you shouldn't use them to refresh your Waveplates, especially since the amount of resources you'll be able to farm by consuming Waveplates as a beginner would pale in comparison with the amount you can get later on.
On a related note, save your Astrites for Event Convenes. Never use Astrites to purchase Lustrous Tides for Permanent Convenes!
Don't Pull on Weapon Convenes (Yet)
Although both the Weapon Permanent Convene and the Weapon Event Convene offer a pretty good value for your pulls (at least compared to other gacha games like Genshin Impact), you'd do best to avoid them early on in Wuthering Waves.
This is because you'll want to spend most—if not all of your pulling resources on Character Convenes, since getting new characters or their duplicates will allow you to build your teams faster.
Settle for lower-rarity Weapons in the early game if you must, especially if you're F2P. You may consider pulling for 5★ Weapons once you've built at least 3 teams for Tower of Adversity runs later on.
Upgrade Your Echoes & Weapons Wisely
As far as Echoes go, remember that they're not really that important in the early game. Still, avoid upgrading low-rarity (1★ to 3★) Echoes and only equip them for the extra stats and Sonata Effects to conserve Echo upgrade materials, as they're quite scarce even in the mid to late-game stages.
Weapons, on the other hand, are more flexible in terms of investment allocation since Weapon upgrade materials are easier to farm. Invest your materials as you see fit, but preferably, use them primarily on 4★ Weapons and 5★ Weapons if you have them.
Always Participate in Events
Clearing Events and claiming the rewards they feature is one of the best ways to farm some of the rarest items in the game, like Astrite and Tides.
Make sure you're keeping up with all the current Events in Wuthering Waves by checking the Events page or stay ahead by joining the Official Wuthering Waves Discord Server and checking the announcements!
Pick Up Synthesis & Cooking Materials and Use Them
Since free Astrites are quite hard to come by, we highly recommend collecting Synthesis & Cooking Materials and making potions/cooking as early and as often as you can.
Not only do brewing potions in particular give you items that allow you to recover HP or gain buffs during combat, but brewing new potion recipes also increases your Potion Making proficiency and gives you free Asterites.
Wuthering Waves: Beginner Do's and Don'ts
To summarize and wrap up this guide, here we have a list of all the things that you should and shouldn't do as a beginner in Wuthering Waves:
Do's
- Do prioritize clearing Main Story Quests first.
- Do all of your Daily Quests and Tasks.
- Do farm Monster Camps every day to get more Echoes.
- Do participate in Events for tons of free rewards.
- Do activate as many Resonance Nexus and Beacons as you can.
- Do plan ahead and pick out your first Main DPS to build your team around.
- Do use the Drifting Inscription feature as a rough guideline on what tasks to prioritize.
- Do explore the World Map (i.e. SOL3) as often as you can.
- Do brew potions for consumable items and free Astrite.
- Do hunt the Inferno Rider Echo ASAP for more mobility while traversing the map.
- Do keep an eye out for Parkour Challenges, Viewpoints, and other minigames while roaming around the map.
Don'ts
- Don't spend Astrites on Waveplate refreshes.
- Don't leave your Waveplates at max capacity.
- Don't invest upgrade materials in low-rarity Echoes.
- Don't waste your Astrite by pulling on different Convenes.
- Don't pull on any of the Weapon Convenes at the start of the game (especially if you're F2P).
- Don't rush your SOL3 Phase progression unless you're confident you can farm stronger Monster camps reliably.
- Don't skip Weekly Bosses.
- Don't forget to join other players' worlds to continue farming Echoes and other items once you've run out of monsters to slay in your world.
- Don't spend Astrite on Lustrous Tides.
- Don't forget to use your aerial attack or swap to a different character right before hitting the ground to nullify fall damage.
- Don't ignore Side Quests, Exploration Quests, and Companion Stories (these give you tons of Resonance EXP).
- Don't forget that you can synthesize Resonator and Weapon Ascension materials you don't have.
