Wuthering Waves explained for Genshin Impact players

Wuthering Waves 101 for interested Genshin Impact players
Kuro Games

Kuro Games’ upcoming open-world RPG Wuthering Waves is strongly inspired by HoYoverse’s Genshin Impact in terms of its gameplay formula, so it’s not surprising that many players of the title from 2020 are interested in checking out the new release. Of course, it can be daunting to jump into an entirely new gacha game, especially if Genshin Impact is the only one you’ve ever played.

However, just like many concepts and mechanics are easily comparable between HoYoverse’s own games – take Genshin Impact and Honkai: Star Rail, for instance, which both share a good amount of DNA – the genre entry from Kuro Games has lots of comparison points that can used for orientation by Genshin Impact players.

This Wuthering Waves guide will break down the game’s key terms and mechanics for Genshin Impact players, allowing you to quickly understand what’s going on in the title.

Wuthering Waves 101 for Genshin Impact players: Terms

Like HoYoverse’s title, Kuro Games’ challenger has a broad roster of playable characters to offer. These are called Resonators and come in the familiar 5-Star and 4-Star rarity classes – and that's just the beginning of the similarities:

Genshin Impact

Wuthering Waves

Element

Attribute

Elemental Skill

Resonance Skill

Elemental Burst

Resonance Liberation

Talent

Inherent Skill

Constellation

Resonance Chain

Friendship Level

Intimacy Level

Like playable Genshin Impact characters, all Resonators command one of several Attributes and use one of the game’s weapon types. They also have active abilities, passives, and ultimates. As you pull duplicate versions of them from the game’s banners, their power will grow.

Here are some additional terms you may find useful to know, especially when it comes to claiming the Wuthering Waves launch rewards:

Genshin Impact

Wuthering Waves

World Level

SOL-3 Phase

Adventure Rank

Union Level

Spiral Abyss

Tower of Adversity

Oculus

Sonance Casket

Traveler

Rover

Wuthering Waves 101 for Genshin Impact players: Banners

Being another gacha game, Wuthering Waves contains banners from which you can pull new characters and weapons. Here’s how they compare to Genshin Impact:

Genshin Impact

Wuthering Waves

Primogem

Astrite

Acquaint Fate

Lustrous Tide

Intertwined Fate

Radiant Tide

Stardust

Oscillate Coral

Starglitter

Afterglow Coral

Genesys Crystal

Lunite

Blessing Welkin

Lunite Subscription

In essence, you can expect a very similar banner system to that from Genshin Impact: You have two different ticket types for character banners with Acquaint Fate/Lustrous Tide for the standard banner and Intertwined Fate/Radiant Tide for the time-limited banners.

Like Stardust and Starglitter, the two Coral types in Wuthering Waves are side products that are generated while pulling and can be used as in-game currency.

Astrite is your all-important Primogem equivalent. There is one important difference between the games in this respect, though: Wuthering Waves has an extra ticket type for weapon banners – Forging Tide.

Wuthering Waves 101 for Genshin Impact players: Progress

Naturally, Wuthering Waves will have you upgrade your characters along the way with a variety of materials you can collect in the world. Being a gacha game, it contains a regenerating energy resource to limit the amount of daily farming you can do as well. Here’s what’s what in Genshin Impact terms:

Genshin Impact

Wuthering Waves

Original Resin

Waveplate

Fragile Resin

Crystal Solvent

Mora

Shell Credit

Hero's Wit

Resonance Potion

Enhancement Ore

Energy Core

Waveplates are the equivalent of Resin and need to be invested to farm certain materials to advance your characters. Crystal Solvent can be used to replenish the resource quickly.

Knowing these key terms and concepts will hopefully make your start in Wuthering Waves easier if you’re usually adventuring in Teyvat and want to dabble in a different world for a bit.


Published
Marco Wutz

MARCO WUTZ

Marco Wutz is a writer from Parkstetten, Germany. He has a degree in Ancient History and a particular love for real-time and turn-based strategy games like StarCraft, Age of Empires, Total War, Age of Wonders, Crusader Kings, and Civilization as well as a soft spot for Genshin Impact and Honkai: Star Rail. He began covering StarCraft 2 as a writer in 2011 for the largest German community around the game and hosted a live tournament on a stage at gamescom 2014 before he went on to work for Bonjwa, one of the country's biggest Twitch channels. He branched out to write in English in 2015 by joining tl.net, the global center of the StarCraft scene run by Team Liquid, which was nominated as the Best Coverage Website of the Year at the Esports Industry Awards in 2017. He worked as a translator on The Crusader Stands Watch, a biography in memory of Dennis "INTERNETHULK" Hawelka, and provided live coverage of many StarCraft 2 events on the social channels of tl.net as well as DreamHack, the world's largest gaming festival. From there, he transitioned into writing about the games industry in general after his graduation, joining GLHF, a content agency specializing in video games coverage for media partners across the globe, in 2021. He has also written for NGL.ONE, kicker, ComputerBild, USA Today's ForTheWin, The Sun, Men's Journal, and Parade. Email: marco.wutz@glhf.gg