Wuthering Waves |OT| Punishing Gray Impact

[I KILL PXLS]

This game definitely hooked me in a way Genshin never did and I feel like it's mainly down to how fun the combat is. Just really damn responsive, fun, and flashy. I am a sucker for perfect dodges and parries so that's the real linchpin for me. The world is also fun to explore and I'm definitely getting that "Ooh Look! A squirrel!" mentality running around with all these activities to do. Only real complaint besides a little jank that's easy to ignore is holy shit the talking. Jesus lord, does this game's dialogue need an editor.

 

[Richardi]

hoyo is just barely safe being so big that they don't need to bend a knee to these folks

Click to shrink...

But, they did?

 

[Saiyaman]

I'm so glad I don't engage with the gacha community outside of Era, and even then, I mostly just pop in here and there.

Now, with that said, I'm jealous of anyone with 3 or more five stars. My pull rate is abysmal.

 

[Chainshada]

The 2nd main stat is fixed, right? Like the 4 cost are always a random stat + attack? I've looked at a few gear guides and they say crit rate/crit damage, I assume this is like Genshin and is 1 or the other, and you can't get super lucky and get double crit main stats?

 

[Moara]

Game is fun so far but I just dont get why Kuro literally wholesale lifted Genshins UI, even the font looks the same. PGR has its own unique look and vibe compared to something like Honkai 3rd so its not like they had to do this. Very puzzling lol. Feel the game would have benefit from a UI with a bit more edge.

Click to shrink...

Literally everything is lifted from Genshin wholesale, down to the most minute details lol. It has the same exact 5 dollar daily pass that gives the same exact currency each day, the battle pass is identical down to the tier rewards being exactly the same, the overworld chest have the same tiers that each give the same amount of currency.

Actually listing everything that isn't just inspired by but straight up lifted from Genshin would take hours

 

[katsu044]

But, they did?

Click to shrink...

it happens so many times i forgot what ones actually worked like that bunny thing right? remember them renting out trucks or something as well

 

[Divvy]

What does Genshin have that's more casual friendly that's not also in this game? Just curious? Technically with this game you can actually do more without the use of daily energy.

Click to shrink...

I think it's not really missing much gameplay, but it's the lack of compelling characters or narrative that the general audience can vibe with. It took a while but PGR was able to build up a decent cast of characters and the plot did eventually get better so there's hope for this game. I just hope they haven't stretched themselves too thin.

 

[Herr Starr]

The 2nd main stat is fixed, right? Like the 4 cost are always a random stat + attack? I've looked at a few gear guides and they say crit rate/crit damage, I assume this is like Genshin and is 1 or the other, and you can't get super lucky and get double crit main stats?

Click to shrink...

The echo system guide on Prydwen is very detailed, though it seems like there might have been changes since it was written (I rolled an Energy Regen% substat, which their guide doesn't list).

To answer your question, the second main stat is indeed fixed and depends on the echo class. For most classes, it's flat ATK, but Common echoes have flat HP instead. Importantly (very importantly), the first main stat also depends on the echo class. The best main stats are found only on Overlord and Calamity class echoes only, contrasted by Common class echoes only able to generate one of three stats (HP%, ATK%, DEF%). You mention crit main stats; those are only available on Overlord and Calamity class echoes (as main stats. All echoes, regardless of class, can generate them as substats), so you're only going to see a maximum of one of those in most echo setups.

You can still have overlapping main stat combinations, such as ATK% with ATK.

 

[Rickyrozay2o9]

I think it's not really missing much gameplay, but it's the lack of compelling characters or narrative that the general audience can vibe with. It took a while but PGR was able to build up a decent cast of characters and the plot did eventually get better so there's hope for this game. I just hope they haven't stretched themselves too thin.

Click to shrink...

Yeah, I can agree with that. First thing I noticed when starting the game was the voice acting and writing weren't great and there was too much talking. When I first jumped into Genshin on release the intro was all around easier to understand and very streamlined with good production.

 

[Xils]

It didn't "just" happen, they were removed a while ago. The replaced characters were logistics officers (i.e., just something you equip to your character so a literal .jpg and nothing more) so it's not like they removed all male characters from the game (for instance, there are a handful of story NPC's that are guys and still in-game). Super strange move, though. I honestly thought it was an early April Fools joke when I saw the post, but nope.

I do enjoy the game though, as it offers something I can't really get anywhere else in the gacha space.

Click to shrink...

Thanks for the info. I don't play the game so I didn't know exactly what "logistics officers" are when I read about that and thought they were actual characters and this is still only a couple months ago so it's still pretty much a recent thing.

Holy shit, that's so pathetic. Is that real? And I thought the western incels were bad.

Click to shrink...

A bit more context for Snowbreak above from Chrono but here's the announcement:

News Wire: CN Snowbreak Ditching Male Logistics Officers, Global Maybe To Follow | Snowbreak: Containment Zone

Putting the "man" in "manslaughter"

snowbreak.gg

And yeah, GFL2 is one of the most hilarious and pathetic "controversies" I've seen lol

Spoiler: video

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w7U0YjNjh7o

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1nv122ayPNA

it happens so many times i forgot what ones actually worked like that bunny thing right? remember them renting out trucks or something as well

Click to shrink...

Truck and a fucking blimp.
That's more of a Korean thing though (also not exclusive to gacha/gaming. They do this kind of thing to protest anything). In China, they got death threats, people staking out their office and even an armed man (I think it was a knife?) storming in for that bunny girls fiasco so it's no wonder that works. That must've been a terrifying experience.

More context on the truck and blimp renting incident. tl;dr They saw the behind the scene video about making of Furina and recognize the artist as a feminist who used to spread "hate speech" on men, which is a big no no right now in the midst of their "gender war" so they got super pissed at Hoyo for that.

 

[katsu044]

Thanks for the info. I don't play the game so I didn't know exactly what "logistics officers" are when I read about that and thought they were actual characters and this is still only a couple months ago so it's still pretty much a recent thing.


A bit more context for Snowbreak above from Chrono but here's the announcement:

News Wire: CN Snowbreak Ditching Male Logistics Officers, Global Maybe To Follow | Snowbreak: Containment Zone

Putting the "man" in "manslaughter"

snowbreak.gg

And yeah, GFL2 is one of the most hilarious and pathetic "controversies" I've seen lol

Spoiler: video

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w7U0YjNjh7o

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1nv122ayPNA

Truck and a fucking blimp.
That's more of a Korean thing though (also not exclusive to gacha/gaming. They do this kind of thing to protest anything). In China, they got death threats, people staking out their office and even an armed man (I think it was a knife?) storming in for that bunny girls fiasco so it's no wonder that works. That must've been a terrifying experience.

More context on the truck and blimp renting incident. tl;dr They saw the behind the scene video about making of Furina and recognize the artist as a feminist who used to spread "hate speech" on men, which is a big no no right now in the midst of their "gender war" so they got super pissed at Hoyo for that.

Click to shrink...

these people are insane, think my point is despite the amount of crazy shit gets thrown at them they are still far too big to fail but i don't really follow the fandom much to know how angry they are half the time anything like this pops up

 

[Aly]

Smh I'm trying to hang out with Scar.Can I dump Yangyang?

 

[Xils]

I have been saying that I don't really like any of the character designs and the story is just serviceable but the quest before the level 21 gate changed everything.

I kinda wrote off Jinhsi before the game launch because I saw her art and was "eh, not really feeling it" but that kinda changed to "she looks kinda nice" once I saw her model in the hologram at the beginning, which is pretty rare since I rarely like 3D model more than 2D art.

But holy shit, the scene where you're actually meeting her for the first time overlooking the city under the night sky really sold her hard. The atmosphere, the lighting (back lighting in this game is just so pretty) and her mannerism tick all the right box. You also got to see her summoning dragons to fight so she has that badass factor too.

The story is also picking up and I'm pretty invested now, which essentially solved my main concerns of the game and I can confidently say now that I'll be sticking with this for now.


That said, I hope they don't over correct things. People were complaining about not noticing the skip button and now it's like the biggest button on the screen. I'm sure this change made a lot of people happy but as someone who won't be using that, it's too distracting, especially in those cutscenes with no dialogue box and the only button on the screen now is that big ass "SKIP".

I hope this is just them scaling the skip button to the touch/kb+m ui because it's not like it's bigger than other icons in that mode but in controller mode it's way bigger than auto-play and hide. They could just add a tutorial or something telling people "you can skip by pressing here" instead of enlarging it. Or at least give us an option to hide the button.

It's also kinda weird that this is one the first noticeable changes to the game especially when we're still getting cutoff lines so it made it seems like they put more focus on letting people not experiencing what they made fix the stuff that'd make people who enjoy the story appreciate it more. Heck, it's not just about the story because character tutorials also got cutoff and a bunch of achievements/trophies have overlapping text that made them almost impossible to read.
I get that those are probably more work to get right than the skip function so it makes sense that it'd take time but still.


And yeah, bring back Scar's onigiri crotch.

 

[Herr Starr]

I've been completely obsessed with this game since its release and can't stop thinking about playing it. The moment-to-moment gameplay just feels so good, even while grinding. Getting to the "endgame" stuff at UL30 gives the game a fresh coat of paint, too.

Going back to Genshin Impact to do my dailies feels weird now, almost alien.

 

[Anoxida]

Phew the Union grind to 15 is real. Just hit union 30 and enemies take long to kill need to get me some legendary echoes and start putting together some decent pieces. Having a good time tbh. Main story was a mess that ended well but the game outside of it aint bad. Combat gets better and better, the event is fun, a lot of optional fights that are challenging and fun. Traversal is great. Good stuff.

 

[Buttons]

Got the free Sanhua today, will try her out later. Tossed one wish on the limited banner and got another Sanhua copy lol.

I'll continue to enjoy the game at a leisurely pace for now, but I already notice that it does not hook me as much as Genshin and it's a struggle to play 3 gacha games, I may just default back to Genshin and Star Rail. Definitely want to experience more of the story in WuWa though.

 

[texhnolyze]

Phew the Union grind to 15 is real. Just hit union 30 and enemies take long to kill need to get me some legendary echoes and start putting together some decent pieces. Having a good time tbh. Main story was a mess that ended well but the game outside of it aint bad. Combat gets better and better, the event is fun, a lot of optional fights that are challenging and fun. Traversal is great. Good stuff.

Click to shrink...

Yeah, the further you play there are more unique stuff that this game has to offer other than just action combat and fast traversal. If Kuro manage the game well enough, it might become a long-term success for them. Not actually challenging Mihoyo's behemoths, per se, but at least it will have a healthy enough player base. Their recent hiring for a better writer and editor was a good move, to polish their future story chapters.

 

[Chairmanchuck (另一个我)]

Game is fun so far but I just dont get why Kuro literally wholesale lifted Genshins UI, even the font looks the same. PGR has its own unique look and vibe compared to something like Honkai 3rd so its not like they had to do this. Very puzzling lol. Feel the game would have benefit from a UI with a bit more edge.

Click to shrink...

I mean its on Kuro, but a lot of the feedback they got over the Betas was "Make it more like Genshin".
If you check out CBT 1, you see that, while it was copying the general UI, it still had own fonts and different icons.

 

[Oghuz]

This is gonna be my main Gacha game now. You know a gacha game is good when it doesn't feel like a gacha game.

 

[Moara]

This is gonna be my main Gacha game now. You know a gacha game is good when it doesn't feel like a gacha game.

Click to shrink...

Guess that's the one upside of taking so much from Genshin lol

 

[Chairmanchuck (另一个我)]

This is gonna be my main Gacha game now. You know a gacha game is good when it doesn't feel like a gacha game.

Click to shrink...

I usually hear this with the bigger gachas, till they finished 100% and then do daily/weekly stuff every time.

 

[Oghuz]

I usually hear this with the bigger gachas, till they finished 100% and then do daily/weekly stuff every time.

Click to shrink...

At my pace I doubt I'll ever catch up with all the main content lol. I still play non-gacha games as well.

 

[Print_Dog]

I'm really enjoying my time with this one so far. The story is kinda hard to follow because of all the complicated ass names for everything. I'm liking what I've heard tho. The main story doesn't go too deep and leaves some questions. Some of the side quests explain locations and enemies. I like the world they've built and how it'll allow for variety in almost every aspect.

The gameplay is really good. Combat is great. Perfect dodging and countering is so satisfying. I keep stopping to fight where normally in games like this I'm doing the opposite. The puzzles are simple but fun and it doesn't take long to get from place to place. The depth of the world is impressive. My jaw dropped when I got to Tiger's Maw the first time.

I like that Rover actually talks quite a bit in 1.0. I picked the girl on my first account and made it to the City Hall before I rerolled. Second account picked the guy. I have to say that I definitely prefer the latter's voice acting. I really hate how some of the lines get cut off at the end. Some were mixed up from the order of the subtitles also.

Characters look and sound older than Genshin and that's a big plus for me. Enemy design is the weakest overall in my opinion. They do fit in with the world with the combination of nature, technology, and calamity. I really hope to see an artbook from this game one day.

Overall I'm really impressed. The pros far outweigh the cons. I'd been following the game from the beginning but only from the official channels. Happy to finally have it here. Looking forward to seeing where it all goes.

 

[VanillaCakeIsBurning]

So it looks like every week you get 15 increased drop rate chances on Overlord/Calamity bosses.

So when weekly reset happens you should target the bosses that you really want echo drops from since you get 15 increased drop rate chances then goes down to the normal drop rate for the rest of the week.

 

[Carlquincy]

I gotta say, the final act is really well done.

Spoiler

Fighting with everyone at the frontier is a nice set up to the final battle.

The grappling hook to pull platforms is very thematic

Boss fight with qte cutscenes are well executed. Cool sequences when switching between Rover and the General

Havoc Rover intro is pretty hyped.

 

[Shinrou]

So it looks like every week you get 15 increased drop rate chances on Overlord/Calamity bosses.

So when weekly reset happens you should target the bosses that you really want echo drops from since you get 15 increased drop rate chances then goes down to the normal drop rate for the rest of the week.

Click to shrink...

Wait, it was weekly and not daily reset? I thought it was too good to be true.

 

[VanillaCakeIsBurning]

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T0IfPDR0wmM

 

[Herr Starr]

So it looks like every week you get 15 increased drop rate chances on Overlord/Calamity bosses.

So when weekly reset happens you should target the bosses that you really want echo drops from since you get 15 increased drop rate chances then goes down to the normal drop rate for the rest of the week.

Click to shrink...

I checked this morning and saw that it hadn't reset yet, so I'm curious what the timing is for this.

 

[Falk]

The echo system guide on Prydwen is very detailed, though it seems like there might have been changes since it was written (I rolled an Energy Regen% substat, which their guide doesn't list).

Click to shrink...

fwiw the picture itself shows an Energy Regen substat, and a lot of character build dives talk about not needing as many hits into it so i'd wager it's more of an oversight than anything

i'm just at the stage the game's taking its training wheels off and feeling i made a few mistakes in investment. trying to brain a second team to get through the double tower while stamina starved is making me seriously consider a couple gem refreshes a day (which didn't kill me in either Genshin or HSR anyway lol)

on the flipside Havoc Rover + Dreamless seems like it's absolutely busted for its investment so that's a great backstop, although it does require investment into Danjin whom i really don't want to play at all

 

[Buttons]

Hit lv25 and used the wishes it rewards to see if Encore would come home from the standard banner guarantee. No luck unfortunately, 30 more wishes until she is guaranteed.

I did however get more dupes, my Mortefi is almost maxed and Danjin got two as well. :D

My roster is still pretty much the same, pretty happy with it although I still would like Jiyan since his gameplay is the most fluid.

I will need to continue the main story now, it continues at lv21 and I hit 25 already. xD

 

[Shinrou]

Seems like my Genshin luck from ages past has pretty effectively transfered from there to this game.

Literally has been going like this:
- Beginner banner went straight to 50 and I got Calcharo (the only shining point)
- Weapon banner is at 70+ already, have been getting pretty much only Chixia (who I have no intention of using) and worthless 4-star weapons
- Limited banner is at something like 50-60 pulls now, also getting Chixia and Mortefi (who I also have no intention of using). Zero Danjin who I actually tried to get here...

Also, literally zero additional 4 stars per 10 pulls out of all of this.

Kinda depressed about my luck once again since all I'm getting is pretty much stuff that I have no intention of ever even using and the trajectory seems to be that I'm just hitting hard pity with no extra rare pulls on everything either way. Such are these casinos though.

The combat is hard carrying this game though so I'll stay around at least for a while.

 

[Dofy]

I think another thing that may have screwed with expectations here is that Kurogame's previous title (Punishing Gray Raven) felt like one of the best-optimized mobile games I had ever seen. Seriously, it was a 3D action game that ran well enough on years-old hardware, even when much more simple-seeming games would struggle to run. At least for their older fans, going from that experience to what sounds like a blurry, chuggy mess would definitely be jarring and disappointing.

Going from a focused action game to a much larger open-world game would obviously demand way more from hardware, but casual players aren't going to really think about that, especially if Genshin is playable on those same phones.

I do hope they figure it out though (and not completely burn out at this point). I would presume some of those developers have been crunching on updates/changes since at least the last beta (especially since it seems like the launch date was not changing), and now for who knows how much longer for hotfixes... oof

Click to shrink...

100% agree on this, PGR is such a ridiculously well made game and the way it has run on every phone I've played it on is crazy. Like I genuinely think there is some magic in play with how well it runs and how little it heats up the phone and drains battery whilst having some of the craziest visual effects going on.

 

[Dofy]

Hit lv25 and used the wishes it rewards to see if Encore would come home from the standard banner guarantee. No luck unfortunately, 30 more wishes until she is guaranteed.

I did however get more dupes, my Mortefi is almost maxed and Danjin got two as well. :D

My roster is still pretty much the same, pretty happy with it although I still would like Jiyan since his gameplay is the most fluid.

I will need to continue the main story now, it continues at lv21 and I hit 25 already. xD

Click to shrink...

Ooh I also got Mortefi to the fourth dupe (not sure what to call them on this tbh, I always just default to constellation lol) and it seems like a big one with it's increase of time for his coordinated attacks.

Hope you enjoy Sanhua, I got a copy of her on launch and absolutely love her. Tbh she's probably my favourite character design wise and I love her gameplay too, seeing as you need three teams at end game I'm thinking a Jiyan team, a Calcharo/Yinlin team and then a Sanhua/Encore team.

 

[Buttons]

Ooh I also got Mortefi to the fourth dupe (not sure what to call them on this tbh, I always just default to constellation lol) and it seems like a big one with it's increase of time for his coordinated attacks.

Hope you enjoy Sanhua, I got a copy of her on launch and absolutely love her. Tbh she's probably my favourite character design wise and I love her gameplay too, seeing as you need three teams at end game I'm thinking a Jiyan team, a Calcharo/Yinlin team and then a Sanhua/Encore team.

Click to shrink...

Yeah, I am glad I got so many Mortefi copies since he seems to be the best off-field damage dealer. Mine is now RC 5. Only one more copy to go lol. The only problem is I do not intend to use him right now. xD
Also glad with the Danjin copies I got, since she seems to be very strong with Havoc Rover. :D

 

[Herr Starr]

Ooh I also got Mortefi to the fourth dupe (not sure what to call them on this tbh, I always just default to constellation lol) and it seems like a big one with it's increase of time for his coordinated attacks.

Click to shrink...

Dupes are called Resonance Chains, with each individual dupe called a Sequence Node. The shorthand is SX, ranging from S0 to S6. My Mortefi is S5, and I'd love to push him to that final S6 tier since it looks so good for team damage.

 

[Moara]

Fire Xingqiu seems pretty good. I have up to the third constellation (or w/e it's called in this game) so I'd definitely like to get the 4th one. Already have Jiyan though, but from what I heard the next banner's 4*s aren't that great? Might keep building pity on the current one

 

[Herr Starr]

but from what I heard the next banner's 4*s aren't that great?

Click to shrink...

I didn't know this info was out there, but I just checked, and... wow, her banner is like a who's who of the lowest-rated characters in the game (Taoqi, Aalto, Yuanwu). The devs must be banking on the thirst for a top-tier female character.

Having said that, Yuanwu's ranking might not be correct. He is the only character to receive massive changes between the last beta and release, and Prydwen hasn't updated their review of him yet. For all I know, he might be awesome now.

 

[El Buga]

The "Hades" event kicked my ass hard lol. Stayed up until almost 2AM to try to beat difficulty III with trial Jiyan, got some really kick-ass "boons" and good assists, managed to reach the final boss three times, but couldn't manage it. The mf just one-shots me near the end of its fight.

So many astrites locked behind difficulty IV tho. 💀

 

[trailmix16]

how realistic is it to get 160 limited wishes by the end of the jinlin banner? i dont see exploring and the events giving too much

 

[Dofy]

Yeah, I am glad I got so many Mortefi copies since he seems to be the best off-field damage dealer. Mine is now RC 5. Only one more copy to go lol. The only problem is I do not intend to use him right now. xD
Also glad with the Danjin copies I got, since she seems to be very strong with Havoc Rover. :D

Click to shrink...

Yeah I'm building him up but haven't used him yet either, so early that I'm just using Jiyan, Sanhua and Jianxin for fun really but will switch him in when I get to the hard content.
I think I'm at a similar level with Danjin too, she seems really fun!

Dupes are called Resonance Chains, with each individual dupe called a Sequence Node. The shorthand is SX, ranging from S0 to S6. My Mortefi is S5, and I'd love to push him to that final S6 tier since it looks so good for team damage.

Click to shrink...

Ah that works then thanks, as I play Genshin and star rail too I always forget between C, E or now S lol

Oh god just remembered the weapon refinement as well, R for Genshin and then even worse it's S for Star Rail so we've got a cross over letter on our hands here!

 

[Falk]

Fire Xingqiu seems pretty good. I have up to the third constellation (or w/e it's called in this game) so I'd definitely like to get the 4th one. Already have Jiyan though, but from what I heard the next banner's 4*s aren't that great? Might keep building pity on the current one

Click to shrink...

been referring to him as fire fischl due to the chase nature of his added-attack and buff (in lieu of elemental reactions) support role but xinqiu does make sense considering his ult is what makes it tick

 

[yagal]

I also hope that this game will be successful enough to continue, I'm early in the journey (Onion level 10) but I can already see that they have good ideas

I'm also happy to finally play a gacha with a functioning shortcut wheel 😆

I would like an easier way to open the map on the controller

I got Calcharo, is he good?

 

[Super]

View: https://x.com/wuthering_waves/status/1795062406345044249?s=46

Team seems pretty happy.

 

[Elementje]

For the players who don't own a credit card (a lot of EU players). On their official website there is a Top-Up Center where you can buy the in game stuff and use Paypal as an alternative.

 

[Herr Starr]

For the players who don't own a credit card (a lot of EU players). On their official website there is a Top-Up Center where you can buy the in game stuff and use Paypal as an alternative.

Click to shrink...

Unless something changed over the weekend, you can use PayPal through the game client itself.

 

[darkwing]

I also hope that this game will be successful enough to continue, I'm early in the journey (Onion level 10) but I can already see that they have good ideas

I'm also happy to finally play a gacha with a functioning shortcut wheel 😆

I would like an easier way to open the map on the controller

I got Calcharo, is he good?

Click to shrink...

yes

 

[darkwing]

how do you find more echoes? I'm stuck at lvl14 lol

 

[Herr Starr]

how do you find more echoes? I'm stuck at lvl14 lol

Click to shrink...

Use the Data Bank, look for the monsters that aren't 4-star yet (they're at the bottom of the list), then choose Detect. The game makes it easy to locate the echoes you need.

 

[Elementje]

Unless something changed over the weekend, you can use PayPal through the game client itself.

Click to shrink...

I tried yesterday and couple of days before but there was only credit card option. I wanted to get the Lunite Sub. Just logged in today and now it shows Paypal option in game too. So not sure what happened.

 

[CrazyHal]

The game hasn't even been out for a week and i somehow managed to get every character except for Lingyang. I only bought the Lunite subscription and battle pass.