Whether this is your first gacha RPG or you’ve come directly from a Hoyoverse favorite like Genshin Impact or Honkai Star Rail, the terms and names of items in Wuthering Waves can feel a bit confusing. Wuthering Waves is a futuristic post-apocalyptic open world that players can explore as the main character — Rover — while gaining new companions and items.
Wuthering Waves character terminology
For the standard terms that replace the names of places, your character’s title/name, attacks and skills, and leveling, start here:
Rover
The main character is given the name Rover, though you will be referred to by your chosen account name later in the script. This is never voiced, so you’ll still hear “Rover” when your name is mentioned. At the beginning of a new game, you may choose either a male or female Rover to represent you.
Resonator
Resonators are your companions in Wuthering Waves. They can become part of your team and offer their own unique set of skills when you’re fighting. A Resonator is a person who has the ability to resonate with various objects and manipulate the frequency that they use. To explain this better, understand that everything in the world vibrates on its own frequency — Resonators can find that frequency and change it.
Union Level
Your Union Level is your overall account level. You raise it by gaining EXP as you play, which you can collect by completing quests, finishing your Daily Activities and Milestones, going through Tutorials and Simulation Training, opening Chests, activating Resonance Beacons, and progressing the main story.
If you do not raise your Union Level, you will be blocked from accessing additional story quests.
SOL3 Phase Level
Your SOL3 Phase Level will increase every 10 Union Levels. Without raising each of your Resonator’s SOL3 Phase Level, they will be stuck at lower levels, unable to grow stronger.
The first Ascension — which raises a Resonator up from the previous 20 levels, hits at level 20. This is the same in Genshin Impact, Honkai Impact, and Honkai Star Rail. You always need to Ascend your companions to level them up further.
When your Union Level reaches levels 20, 40, and 60, you need to complete a SOL3 Phase Ascension quest to continue gaining further Union Levels.
Attribute
There are six Attributes in Wuthering Waves. Each Resonator has an Attribute assigned to them — this is their “type,” but you could also consider it to be each character’s elemental alignment.
The six Attributes in Wuthering Waves are: Fusion, Glacio, Aero, Electro, Spectro, and Havoc. These roughly translate to skills in Fire, Ice, Wind, Electric, Light, and Darkness.
Data Bank & Data Bank Level
Your Data Bank in the black and white gourd that sits on your Rover’s lower back. You can absorb some enemies — called Tacet Discords — into your Data Bank to grow your Data Bank’s level. Once a Tacet Discord becomes an Echo (which appears as a golden, translucent version of itself), you can absorb them using your Data Bank to help raise your Rover’s and Resonator’s stats.
Your Data Bank also records the Echoes you’ve collected and the skills you’ve gained from each Echo.
When you absorb an Echo, you gain EXP to raise your Data Bank Level. You can collect rewards from each level up and increase your Echo drop rate to get more Echoes when you defeat enemies.
Echo
An Echo is what remains after a Tacet Discord is defeated. These are monsters that roam the world of Wuthering Waves, and you can find them anywhere outside of cities.
After defeating a Tacet Discord, the ones that you can absorb with your Data Bank or your own Rover powers will turn into a golden version of themselves, as shown in the image above.
Echo Skill
Once you’ve absorbed an Echo, you can go to your character screen and equip an Echo to your Rover or one of your companion Resonators. Each Echo has a number assigned to it — this is the Echo’s level, and it “costs” that amount to equip the Echo.
Once equipped, you will gain access to a special skill to aid you during combat. Though you can equip up to five Echoes, you will only gain one Echo skill. Every other boost you get from the additional four Echoes is called a Sonata Effect.
Sonata Effect
A Sonata Effect is the additional passive skill or status boost that you get from equipping more than one Echo. Your first Echo will give you your Echo Skill, which you can actively use in combat, while your Sonata Effect is not assigned to a button in combat and doesn’t need to be activated.
Forte
The Forte menu is available for your Rover and each of your companion Resonators. “Forte” is just the special skill menu for each character. There are five skills that you can level up for each character: Basic Attack, Resonance Skill, Forte Circuit, Resonance Liberation, and Intro Skill.
You need to level up your characters to raise their Forte levels, which will strengthen their attacks.
Basic Attack and Intro Skill are fairly self-explanatory, so I’ll just go into the other three skills below:
Resonance Skill
A Resonance Skill is a character’s special ability, based on the attribute that they resonate with. It can be used frequently, and it’s stronger than your Basic Attack.
Forte Circuit
Your Forte Circuit is a unique skill. Each character has a different one, and you can see the charge bar for the skill above your health bar. When the bar is full, you’ll be prompted to press a key to release the power. It’s a special attack and can only be charged by using other attacks and damaging your enemies.
Forte Circuit also boosts the damage of your other attacks, so it’s a good idea to level it up when you can.
Resonance Liberation
Resonance Liberation is a character’s ultimate skill or strongest attack. It has a longer cooldown time than the Resonance Skill and has extra effects that can help you during combat.
It takes a while to fill out the gauge that allows you to use the skill (which can be found in the bottom right corner of your screen). You can fill the gauge by striking your enemies with other attacks. Like the Resonance Skill, your character’s Resonance Liberation is an attribute-based attack.
Resonance Chain
The Resonance Chain is a set of abilities that you can unlock if you pull multiple versions of the same character from a banner. You will earn Rover’s organically as you continue to play.
Forte Examination Report
A Forte Examination Report evaluates each character’s status as a Resonator. All of your Resonator companions will have their own Forte Examination Report, which details their powers when they experienced their Awakening as a Resonator, where their Tacet Mark is, and what their Resonance Spectrum Pattern looks like to others who can see them.
Intimacy Level
The Intimacy Level is just the friendship level that you have with each of your Resonator companions. It doesn’t have much use at the moment.
Wuthering Waves world terminology
Learn about the wider world of Wuthering Waves and some of the items you will come across in Solaris-3:
Solaris-3
Solaris-3 is the setting of Wuthering Waves. It’s the third planet from the sun in this universe, with three known nations at this time: Huanglong, the New Federation, and Sepunia.
Sentinels
Sentinels have been serving as the guardians of mankind for centuries. The people of Solaris-3 see them as a beacon of hope in dark times. They are thought to be immortal beings who help humanity in dire times, share wisdom, and speak prophecies.
Resonance Nexus
There are fewer Resonance Nexus towers than Resonance Beacons across Solaris-3. These large towers act as a fast travel point and can heal your characters.
The primary function of a Resonance Nexus is to uncover more of the map surrounding it. The towers record information about the area around them, which becomes available to you when you activate one.
Resonance Beacon
A Resonance Beacon is a smaller version of a Resonance Nexus. They cannot heal you or offer more map information, but they do allow you to travel fast between points across the map.
The Lament
When characters in Wuthering Waves speak about The Lament, they are talking about past and current events that have made the world more dangerous. It is believed that the first Lament, and those after, altered matter, gravity, and even information on Solaris-3; this changed energy into vibrating frequencies that beings could resonate with.
Tacet Field
Tacet Fields are the home to all Tacet Discords. It’s easy to spot a Tacet Field — there is always a deep cross-shaped mark on the ground, and the sky looks like the sea. In these areas, you are likely to face several Tacet Discords at the same time.
Every Tacet Field gives you a unique stat buff.
Waveworn Phenomenon
The Waveworn Phenomenon is used to describe the effects that The Lament has had on Solaris-3. These include the Tacet Fields, Tacet Discords, and even the Tacet Marks that started to appear on humans.
Tacet Mark
Tacet Marks appear on humans that have the ability to Resonate with their surroundings. When a Resonator has their Awakening, it is noted that many of them gain unique features and abilities. Such as Chixia gaining red hair alongside her Fusion abilities.
Rover has a unique ability that allows them to absorb Echoes through their Tacet Mark as well as their Data Bank. It’s made clear at the beginning of the game that this ability isn’t a common one.
Shell Credit
Shell Credit is the gold of Wuthering Waves. You can find Shell Credit just about anywhere — chests, from enemies, as various rewards… Shell Credit is primarily used to Ascend your characters, level up your characters, level up your weapons, and more.
Tidal Heritage
A Tidal Heritage is a floating purple or blue rock that you can find near large Tacet Discords while exploring. If you haven’t beaten the nearby Tacet Discord(s), there will be a floating red “lock” around the Tidal Heritage. Once you interact with an unlocked Tidal Heritage, you’ll gain various rewards such as Astrite, Shell Credit, and Sealed Tubes.
Sonance Caskets
Sonance Caskets are given to you as a reward for completing the various puzzles that are dotted around the map. Once you have them, you can take them back to Chixia’s Uncle Chenpi, who will offer to trade for them.
These caskets contain a record of the past, surviving beyond the first Lament as the only remaining pieces of history from that time.
Wuthering Waves enemies
Enemies that you’ll find in the world of Wuthering Waves:
Tacet Discord
Tacet Discords are your monster enemies in Wuthering Waves. You’ll come across them in the wilderness, in caves, and during quests that you’re completing. It’s a good idea to fight whatever Tacet Discords you come across because your Rover may be able to absorb their Echo.
Exiles and Cultists
Exiles are one of the human enemies that you’ll find in Wuthering Waves. They dress in brown with black masks and can be found in small groups around the Huanglong region. They’re not particularly difficult to beat, but they do occasionally camp beside Tacet Discords, which means you’ll be fighting two sets of enemies at once if you’re not careful with your footing.
The other type of human enemy you’ll find in Wuthering Waves are Fractsidus cultists. They are dressed in red and have Tacet Discords limbs attached to their own bodies. Because they are part-Tacet Discord, they have the ability to turn themselves invisible. Of the four types of Fractsidus cultists, only the Fractsidus Thruster is not dressed in red — instead, they are dressed in black, with face coverings and glowing, red eyes.
Bosses
Boss fights can be found around the map. Each boss has their own icon (an example of which is shown on the map above), and beating them is one of the special challenges that Wuthering Waves offers to its players.
Wuthering Waves special features and items
The following items and special features help you unlock rewards, characters, and weapons in Wuthering Waves:
Pioneer Podcast
The Pioneer Podcast is an extra way to earn rewards while you play Wuthering Waves. You can complete tasks from the Morning Broadcasts, Weekly Highlights, and Seasonal Special to get EXP and level up your rank on the Public Channel for free. Each level gives you a reward. You can also pay for access to the Insider Channel for additional rewards.
This kind of bonus feature is seen in all popular gacha games — from Genshin Impact to Solo Leveling ARISE. The Morning Broadcasts are daily quests, Weekly Highlights are weekly quests, and the Seasonal Specials are quests that you can complete during the set time period of the feature.
Lustrous Tide
Lustrous Tide sounds fancy, but it’s just for regular banner pulls. You don’t need to focus too much on collecting Lustrous Tide, especially because you can swap Coral and Astrite for pulls, instead.
Radiant Tide
Radiant Tides are used for the limited-time banner pulls. They’re more valuable than Lustrous Tide and give you access to rarer characters.
Forging Tide
Forging Tides are for the weapon banner in Wuthering Waves. Unlike Genshin Impact and Honkai Star Rail, which use the same item to pull characters and weapons, Wuthering Waves separates them.
Astrite
Astrite is the main currency for getting Tides for the banners. You can earn Astrite by doing challenges, leveling up your Union Level, progressing through the story, and solving puzzles. You can also turn Lunite into Astrite, but Lunite costs real money.
Lunite
Lunite is used to get more Astrite at the moment. You can’t earn Lunite in the game, it has to be purchased.
Waveplate
You have a limited amount of Waveplate that builds up throughout the day. Waveplate is used to get rewards from special challenges — the Simulation Challenges and Boss Challenges. If you take on these challenges without the correct amount of Waveplate, you won’t be able to accept the rewards from the challenges.
Wuthering Waves Energy Cores
Energy cores are used to level up your weapons in Wuthering Waves. You can get them in plenty of places around Solaris-3 by completing missions and challenges.
Resonance Potions
Resonance Potions are used to level up Rover and your Resonator companions. They’re more common than their weapon counterpart (Energy Cores), and can be found in chests, and be awarded to you from Simulation Training and quests.
Sealed Tubes
These items are used to level up your Echos. A great way to get them is to beat large Echoes out in the wild and activate the Tidal Heritage nearby. But you can also get them from Tacet Fields and general exploration of Huanglong.
There’s a dual theme in Wuthering Waves. There are plenty of references to stars and other cosmological elements (which is similar to other gacha games like Honkai Star Rail), but there are also references to sound and music. This seems to be the overarching theme behind WuWa, considering that resonances in music mean having a section of music that stands out and can be harsh in comparison to the rest of the song. It’s seen as an error rather than something the composer meant to do.
Looking to learn more about Wuthering Waves at MyFullGames? Try our guide on How to use Voucher of Reciprocal Tides in Wuthering Waves or All World Boss drops & locations (Map) in Wuthering Waves.