Wuthering Waves beginner guide Part 2: levelling Resonators, Forte and weapons

Key points

• Resonators level up on Resonance Potions. Basic gives 1,000 EXP, Medium 3,000, Advanced 8,000 and Premium 20,000, and every EXP point a Resonator takes costs 0.35 Shell Credit.
• Weapons level up on Energy Cores with the same four EXP values, at 0.4 Shell Credit per Weapon EXP point. A spare 3-star weapon used as fodder is worth 1,800 Weapon EXP.
• Maxing one Resonator's skills takes 26 Skill Upgrade Materials. They come from Weekly Boss rewards, which you can claim 3 times per week.
• Simulation Training has a Resonance Potion challenge and an Energy Core challenge. Claiming the Energy Core rewards costs 40 Waveplates.

How much EXP each Resonance Potion gives a Resonator

Wuthering Waves beginner guide Part 1 dealt with Union Level and Waveplates. Resonators are the playable characters you collect, and each one has a level that you raise with Resonator EXP Materials. Those materials are the Resonance Potion family: the game lists Basic Resonance Potion, Medium Resonance Potion, Advanced Resonance Potion and Premium Resonance Potion, and you find them in your Backpack under Development Materials. Each tier gives a fixed amount of EXP, shown in the table below.

Where to get Resonance Potions and what levelling costs in Shell Credits

Potions come from several places, and spending them always costs Shell Credits on top.

• Simulation Training has a Resonance Potion challenge that pays out Resonator EXP Materials. Every Simulation Training location you can reach has 3 Challenges.
• Some Souvenir Shops trade Advanced Resonance Potions for Wood-textured Shards.
• Item Exchange sells Advanced Resonance Potions for Oscillated Coral.
• In Points Exchange, Advanced Resonance Potions cost Hazard Records.
• A few paid Store Bundles, bought with Lunites, include Resonator EXP Materials.
• Every EXP point you put into a Resonator costs 0.35 Shell Credit, so the higher potion tiers carry a bigger Shell Credit bill each time you use one.
• For a worked example, take a Resonator from level 20 to 40. One listed mix for that step is 2 Basic, 2 Medium, 1 Advanced and 8 Premium Resonance Potions, which delivers 175,500 EXP with 500 EXP wasted, and the bill comes to 61,425 Shell Credits.

The 500 EXP wasted in that 20 to 40 mix is half of what a single Basic Resonance Potion gives. A full stack of potions does nothing without the Shell Credits to spend them, so check your credits before a big level-up.

What the Forte menu upgrades

A Resonator gains a Resonance Ability, also called their Forte, at the moment of their Awakening. Forte is the name for all of a Resonator's Resonance Abilities, and no two Resonators have the same one. In combat, a playable Resonator's Forte is their set of Combat Skills. Every playable Resonator has six Fortes:

• Basic Attack is the normal attack, which usually forms a repeated combo dealing the Resonator's Attribute DMG. Two of its variants use up Stamina, a resource: holding Basic Attack spends it on a Heavy Attack with more Attribute DMG, and pressing it in the air spends it on a plunging Mid-Air Attack with more Attribute DMG. Pressing it quickly after a successful Dodge gives a Dodge Counter with more Attribute DMG.
• Resonance Skill builds energy for Resonance Liberation, though how it works depends on the Resonator. Most Resonance Skills have a cooldown, but some do not.
• Forte Circuit has its own ways to fill and spend for each character, and using it gives buffed output in combat.
• Resonance Liberation unlocks when your Resonance Energy is full, and you earn that energy by damaging or defeating enemies.
• Inherent Skill is the fifth entry, and each Inherent Skill consumes 1 Skill Upgrade Material, covered in the next section.
• Intro Skill and Outro Skill count together as the sixth Forte.

Because every Resonator's Forte differs, the details of one kit are on our Wuthering Waves characters and builds page.

How many Skill Upgrade Materials Forte needs and which Weekly Bosses drop them

Skill Upgrade Materials raise the higher levels of a Resonator's Skills. Each Inherent Skill consumes 1 of them, and maxing all of a Resonator's Skills takes 26 in total. They sit in the Development Materials tab of your Backpack.

Each Resonator needs one particular Skill Upgrade Material, so a material that suits one teammate may do nothing for another. You get them by claiming rewards after defeating Weekly Bosses. A Weekly Boss can be fought as often as you like, but rewards can only be claimed 3 times per week, and those three claims can go to the same boss or to different ones. The Guidebook shows the cap as 'Weekly Limit', and the Map shows it as 'Remaining Attempts'.

Every Weekly Boss has its own Skill Upgrade Material. Bell-Borne Geochelone, for instance, drops Monument Bell. Before spending a claim, check which material the Resonator you are raising uses, then put all three weekly claims into the boss that drops it if that one Resonator is your focus.

How much weapon EXP each Energy Core gives

Energy Cores are Weapon EXP Materials, an item type you find under the Weapons category of the Backpack. They come in four tiers that mirror the Resonance Potions. You can craft Basic and Medium Energy Cores with Floramber and Shell Credits from the Construction tab of the Synthesizer menu, while Advanced and Premium Energy Cores cannot be crafted.

Where to get Energy Cores and what weapon levelling costs

• Simulation Training, the group of 3 Challenges in the Northern part of Jinzhou, includes an Energy Core challenge that rewards Weapon EXP Materials. Claiming the rewards costs 40 Waveplates.
• Shilang sells Medium, Advanced and Premium Energy Cores.
• Souvenir Shops trade Advanced Energy Cores for Wood-textured Shards.
• Old weapons also work as fodder: a 3-star weapon gives 1,800 Weapon EXP, a 2-star weapon 800 and a 1-star weapon 100.
• Every Weapon EXP point costs 0.4 Shell Credit, slightly more than the 0.35 for Resonator EXP.

Advanced and Premium Energy Cores cannot be crafted, but you can buy Medium, Advanced and Premium ones from Shilang and trade for Advanced ones at Souvenir Shops. A spare 3-star weapon gives more Weapon EXP than a Basic Energy Core, while a 1-star weapon gives only a tenth of one.

Where Weapon and Skill Materials drop

Weapon and Skill Materials go into Resonator Skills, and they live in the Development Materials tab of your Backpack. Some drop from enemies, and others come from Forgery Challenges. Open-world enemy drops do not appear tied to a Resonator's Attribute, but each weapon type uses specific drops. Inert Metallic Drip is one of the Forgery Challenge materials, and it goes into the Skills of Resonators who fight with swords.