Wuthering Waves Beginner Guide: What to Do First

Your first session should be about unlocking systems, not chasing raw power. Progressing the main story raises your Union Level, which is the account-wide gate that opens almost everything else in Wuthering Waves.

• Clear early story chapters to raise Union Level — this unlocks Data Bank upgrades, which raise the rarity of Echoes that drop when you beat enemies.
• Open the Data Bank tab and register every Echo you pick up; a higher Data Bank tier means better drops going forward, so don't ignore it.
• Spend your Waveplate (the game's stamina) every day instead of letting it sit at the cap — it stops accumulating once full, so log in and burn it on Tacet Fields or resource nodes before it overflows.
• Check the mail and event tabs for free Astrite, EXP items, and Shell Credits — new players tend to skip these and leave easy resources unclaimed.

Verdict: treat the first stretch of the game as an unlock rush. Union Level and Data Bank progress compound over time, while raw combat power can always be fixed later with better Echoes and builds.

Wuthering Waves is generous with free resonators, and you do not need to gacha at all to have a working team.

• Rover — your player-avatar, starting as Spectro and unlocking the Havoc form after Chapter 1 Act 6. A further element opens up even later in the story.
• Yangyang — a free Aero sub-DPS with grouping utility, handy through the opening chapters.
• Chixia — a free Fusion sub-DPS built around fast Resonance Skill spam.
• Baizhi — your first free healer, with team-wide Liberation healing and an Outro buff.
• Sanhua — obtainable through story and events, and one of the best budget supports in the entire game thanks to how quickly she builds Concerto Energy.

Verdict: none of these are filler. Rover-Havoc, Sanhua, and Baizhi alone can carry you well into the endgame before you pull a single limited character.

Don't spread your resources across the whole roster — pick one team and commit Echo farming and leveling to it.

• Rover-Havoc + Sanhua + Baizhi — the core free team. Rover-Havoc brings real main-DPS burst, Sanhua's Basic Attack Deepen buffs the rotation, and Baizhi keeps everyone alive.
• Encore + Sanhua + Verina — built around Encore, a standard 5★ Fusion DPS whose Basic Attack burst rivals limited units, buffed by Sanhua and sustained by Verina.

Both teams share Sanhua as the glue support, so she's worth building first no matter which main-DPS you end up running.

Verdict: go with Rover-Havoc + Sanhua + Baizhi for the fully free path, and fold in Verina and Encore once you've claimed or pulled them — Verina is the strongest standard-5★ support in the game.

At Union Level 45 you get a one-time box that lets you choose a free 5★ standard weapon. It's a permanent pick, so choose carefully.

• Emerald of Genesis (Sword) — Crit Rate and Energy Regen, the most broadly useful choice for sub-DPS and hybrid units.
• Cosmic Ripples (Rectifier) — strong for Fusion and Electro-adjacent DPS and sub-DPS builds.
• Static Mist (Pistols) — Crit Rate plus an Outro buff, good for burst-window teams.

Skip Lustrous Razor and Abyss Surges — both sit in the same standard pool but are rated well below these three for actual team value.

Verdict: match the weapon type to whichever main-DPS you're building around; if you're not sure yet, Emerald of Genesis is the safest all-rounder pick.

Echoes replace the artifact or relic system from other gacha games, and they're where most new players waste resources.

• Every character equips 5 Echoes, each carrying a cost of 4, 3, or 1 — the standard beginner cost spread is 4-3-3-1-1.
• Echoes carry a Sonata set effect: 2 pieces give a flat bonus, and 5 pieces unlock the full build-defining effect.
• Substats only appear once you spend a Tuner to "tune" an Echo — tuning is expensive, so don't tune every Echo the moment you pick it up.

Verdict: farm and level Echoes freely, but hold off on tuning until late game, once you know exactly which 5-piece set and main stats you're keeping. Tuning an Echo you'll replace next week just burns currency you'll want later.

Wuthering Waves has one standing code every new player should redeem right away.

• WUTHERINGGIFT is a permanent code worth Astrite, Shell Credits, Premium Resonance Potions, and Revival and Energy items.
• You need to reach Union Level 2 before the redemption option unlocks.
• Redeem it in-game only: go to Terminal → Settings → Other Settings → Redemption Code. There is no web-based redemption page.

Limited-time codes also drop during livestreams each version, but they usually stay active for only a day or two, so check back around new patch releases.

Verdict: redeem WUTHERINGGIFT the moment you hit Union Level 2 — it's free Astrite you'd otherwise leave on the table.

Before your first limited pull, it helps to know the real numbers instead of just "save some." Every Convene pull costs a flat 160 Astrite. The realistic worst case to guarantee one specific featured 5★ character is 25,600 Astrite (160 pulls: a lost 50/50 plus the guaranteed follow-up). The weapon banner is far cheaper to fully guarantee, since it has no 50/50 at all.

For the full soft-pity / hard-pity breakdown and why the weapon banner is the safer spend, see this site's dedicated Astrite Budget guide.

New accounts get a discounted beginner banner plus a Novice selector for a free standard 5★ — use both before touching any limited banner.

• The beginner banner is cheaper per pull than a regular banner, so clear it out first.
• On character banners, losing the 50/50 guarantees your next 5★ is the featured unit, and pity carries over between banners of the same type.
• The weapon banner has no 50/50 at all — every 5★ pulled there is the featured weapon, which makes it a safer spend if you already know your main-DPS's signature weapon.

Verdict: don't pull blind on the first limited banner you see. Clear the beginner banner and standard selector first, then aim your first real pulls at whichever unit sits at the top of the current tier list.

• Skipping the Beginner Banner. It costs 20% less per pull and guarantees a 5★ within the first 50 pulls — walking past it for a later banner throws away the best currency value the game offers early on.
• Grinding side content instead of pushing story. Main Quests hand out the largest Union Level EXP per activity, and a chunk of your early Astrite is gated behind chapter completion — treat side content as a break from the story, not the main plan.
• Leveling too many characters at once. Spreading Shell Credits and EXP across five half-built Resonators leaves every team weak; commit to one core roster and level it until it actually clears content.

Union Level is the account-wide gate behind almost every system worth caring about early. These are the milestones actually worth planning around:

When the Tower of Adversity opens, don't rush in underleveled — a realistic entry bar is a Main DPS around level 70, supports around level 60, and your Echoes leveled to roughly +20.

The mistakes that quietly cost new Rovers the most:

• Letting Waveplate cap. It stops regenerating once full, so any overflow is wasted farming time. Spend it daily.
• Tuning and leveling Echoes too early. Wait until you have a keeper main stat and the right Sonata set before pouring Tuners in.
• Spreading pulls across banners. Save toward one guaranteed featured unit instead of half-committing to several.
• Ignoring Union Level. It gates Data Bank tiers, endgame modes, and the free weapon box — push the story to raise it.
• Farming two Sonata sets at once. That splits your Waveplate and finishes neither; do one boss at a time.
• Forgetting the codes. Redeem WUTHERINGGIFT (and each patch's livestream codes) the moment you hit Union Level 2.
• Over-investing in early free 4★. Build enough to clear content, but expect a limited carry to replace them later.

Beyond the 240 daily Waveplate, there is a second free Astrite source easy to miss: the Guidebook's daily activities. Clearing 100 Activity Points worth of daily Guidebook tasks awards 60 Astrite, and the points reset every day.

Stack that with the daily Waveplate routine and it is a low-effort 60 Astrite added to whatever else the day already earns you.

If you would rather follow a plan than a pile of tips, here is the whole first month at a glance. Do the earlier rows before the later ones — the account-wide unlocks compound.

Underpinning all of it: spend your roughly 240 daily Waveplate instead of letting it cap, and keep pushing Union Level — it is the gate that opens Data Bank tiers, endgame modes, and the free weapon box.