Wuthering Waves beginner guide Part 1: Union Level, Waveplates, Convene, Guidebook

Key points

• Union Level is your account level. Story quests can stay locked until you reach a set Union Level, and a new SOL3 Phase becomes available every 10 Union Levels, though some also require a phase ascension quest.
• Waveplates refill at 1 every 6 minutes up to 240. Once the bar is full, Waveplate Crystals build up at 1 every 12 minutes, up to 480, and trade back 1:1.
• The Novice Convene guarantees a non-promotional 5-star Resonator within 50 convenes, and a 20% discount cuts its cost from 50 to 40 Lustrous Tides.
• Each Resonance Beacon you activate becomes a fast travel point and pays Union EXP ×30 and Astrite ×5 the first time.
• The Data Bank opens in the Prologue Main Quest Utterance of Marvels: II, and every Echo you absorb for the first time gives Data Bank EXP.

How Union Level rises and what it unlocks

Union Level is the player leveling system in Wuthering Waves, and it has been in the game since Version 1.0. It can stop your story progress, because some quests stay blocked until you reach a specific Union Level. If a story quest is blocked by a Union Level requirement, you need to reach that level before you can continue.

Every 10 Union Levels a new SOL3 Phase becomes available. Some phases do not switch on by themselves when you hit the level. They also ask you to finish a phase ascension quest first, so look for that quest in your log when a phase does not open.

This guide covers two sources of Union EXP. Each Guidebook Milestones task gives Union EXP ×100, and each first-time Resonance Beacon unlock gives Union EXP ×30.

How Waveplates refill and what you spend them on

Waveplates are the energy you spend to claim rewards after you clear challenges. They regenerate on their own at 1 every 6 minutes of real-world time, up to a cap of 240. Time spent at the cap is not fully lost. Waveplate Crystals start to collect at 1 every 12 minutes, up to 480, and you can exchange them for Waveplates one for one.

For a faster top-up, one Crystal Solvent restores 60 Waveplates. You can also spend Astrite on refills. The challenge activities listed for Waveplate rewards are Simulation Challenge, Boss Challenge, Weekly Challenge, Tacet Field and Forgery Challenge.

What each Astrite refill of Waveplates costs

The Astrite price per refill doubles from the third purchase on, as this table of the six listed refills shows.

The first two refills cost 60 Astrite each for up to 60 Waveplates. The last four cost 120 Astrite each for up to 60 Waveplates.

Which Convene banners to pull on first and which Tides they use

Convene is the Gacha in Wuthering Waves. You spend Tides on it to get Resonators and Weapons from a set item pool. Here are the beginner, standard and featured Convene options and the Tides they use:

• The tutorial guarantees Baizhi from one convene on the Standard Resonator Convene banner.
• The Novice Convene "Utterance of Marvels" stays open until you have made 50 convenes on it. It guarantees a non-promotional 5-Star Resonator within those 50, and a 20% discount lowers its cost from 50 to 40 Lustrous Tides.
• A 5-star that drops before your 50th convene closes the Novice Convene early. Beginner's Choice Convene then takes its place.
• Beginner's Choice Convene also runs on Lustrous Tides and stays open until you make 80 convenes, unless it closes early. It guarantees a non-promotional 5-star Resonator within 80 convenes. You choose which non-promotional 5-star Resonator is your target and can switch that target at any time. Our characters and builds page can help you pick one.
• "Tidal Chorus", the Standard Resonator Convene, is permanent and takes Lustrous Tides.
• The Standard Weapon Convene is always open and also takes Lustrous Tides. You set a non-promotional 5-star Weapon as your target and can change it whenever you like.
• Featured Resonator Convenes hold one promotional 5-star Resonator and three featured 4-star Resonators. Featured Weapon Convenes hold one promotional 5-star Weapon and three featured 4-star Weapons.
• Both featured banner types use Radiant Tides. Each runs for a limited period and then goes on a hiatus of unknown length.
• Either kind of Tide costs 160 Astrite in the Convene menu or the Store. Other in-game methods give Tides too.

In short, Lustrous Tides feed the Novice, Beginner's Choice and standard banners, while Radiant Tides feed the featured ones.

How the Guidebook pays out for daily Activity and Milestones

The Guidebook helps you work through activities and rewards you for doing them. Each of its parts does something different:

• Activity: you claim a Stage Reward at every 20 Activity Points, up to 100. That makes five claims in total.
• Milestones has several phases, and each phase has more tasks than the one before. Every task pays Union EXP ×100 plus a small extra reward. Clearing all tasks in a phase adds a larger reward on top.
• Recurring Challenges lists the challenges you can run again, such as Whimpering Wastes, Tower of Adversity and Fantasies of the Thousand Gateways. Some of them need a certain Union Level before they open.
• Material Spots lists Nightmare Purification, Weekly Challenge, Tacet Suppression, Boss Challenge, Simulation Challenge and Forgery Challenge. The page also labels this tab Recurring Challenges.
• Enemy Tracing marks where specific world-spawning Tacet Discord appear on the map. You can sort them by Threat Level and filter them by Threat Level and Category. You can use it to locate Tacet Discord to fight for Echoes.
• Path of Growth holds Basic Training, Skill Training and Tactical Hologram, which are activities that teach you the combat system.

Milestones tasks are a direct line to Union EXP, so working through them also pushes you toward the next SOL3 Phase.

Why you should activate every Resonance Beacon you pass

Resonance Beacons stand all over Solaris-3. The Black Shores built them to watch The Lament and pass information to Resonance Nexuses. Once you activate a Beacon, you can open the Map and fast travel to it.

The first unlock of each Beacon gives Union EXP ×30 and Astrite ×5, so every Beacon adds to both your level and your Convene budget. Fast traveling to an activated Beacon also restores injured or downed Resonators. The tutorial notes that a Resonance Nexus heals injured or downed Resonators too.

Activating every Resonance Beacon in Jinzhou earns the World Travel: Jinzhou Trophy in Exploration: Huanglong. Touching each one as you walk past saves you a trip back later for that trophy.

How to get your first Echoes into the Data Bank

Echoes come from the Tacet Discord you fight, and the Data Bank tracks them and makes your drops better over time. Follow these steps:

1. Play through the Prologue Main Quest Utterance of Marvels: II. The Data Bank opens during that quest, and after that you reach it from the Terminal Menu.
2. Defeat Tacet Discord in the world. A defeated one may leave a frequency that you can turn into an Echo.
3. Look for a Reverberation when you shatter a Tacet Discord. The Pangu Terminal's Data Bank can turn that Reverberation into an Echo.
4. Absorb each new Echo. The first absorption of any Echo grants Data Bank EXP. More EXP comes from leveling milestone phases, unlocking new Echoes with the Pangu Terminal and unlocking higher Ranks of Echoes you already own.
5. Put the Echo whose Echo Skill you want in the top equipment slot. A Resonator can only use the Echo Skill of the Echo in that top position.
6. Level the Data Bank by absorbing Echoes. Higher levels raise the Echo Drop Rate and the highest Rarity you can absorb, award Resources, and raise Maximum Stamina and your characters' Echo Cost Limit.
7. Spend your enhanced absorptions on 4 Cost Echoes. Data Bank levels raise the Enhanced Drop Rate, which gives 15 chances per week at a higher drop chance for 4 Cost Echoes. After those 15, their rate falls back to the current Base Drop Rate, and the count resets every Monday at 04:00 server time.