Combat is one of the core gameplay elements of Wuthering Waves, as it’s how you defeat enemies and progress through the game. If you’re still learning the ropes on controlling your Resonators in battle or want a refresher, then look no further.

Absolute Basics

Every Resonator has a basic attack that's all other attacks are based off of. Repeatedly pressing the basic attack button will make your Resonator perform a basic attack combo. While in midair, basic attacking will also make your Resonator do a ground attack, which costs stamina. As well, you can hold down the basic attack button to perform a heavy attack instead. This does more damage than a basic attack, but will typically cost stamina. You can also mix heavy attacks into your basic combos to perform new attacks, but more on that later.

Gun characters do not have a heavy attack. Rather, holding down the basic attack button will instead put you into manual aim mode, firing a shot when you release the button. You can also swap in and out of this mode by pressing the corresponding button (the default key is G on PC). This can be useful for completing certain puzzles, though usually not in combat.

Gun characters also do not have a mid-air ground attack, instead allowing you to rapidly attack an enemy while also slowing your fall. Each attack will cost a bit of stamina so you can’t do it forever, unfortunately.

Abilities

Resonators also come with two unique skills. After all, it would be lame if all they could do was just attack, right? Your Resonance Skill does not have a cost to activate by default, but Resonance Energy (generated by doing damage or dodging) is required to use your Resonance Liberation skill. This energy is not shared between characters, and each has their own Resonance Energy meter. Do note that some skills may specifically cost a special resource to activate, though. 

The Resonance Skill is what you’ll be using more often between the two. It has a shorter cooldown, but also less impact. Try and weave these between your basic attack combos.

If the Resonance Skill is more of a basic ability, the Resonance Liberation serves as an ultimate move. It has a longer cooldown and requires you to have sufficient Resonance Energy, but it makes up for it with much stronger effects.

Fancy Stuff

Special Attacks

Each Resonator also has their own resource bar known as a Forte Gauge:

This can be filled in combat through attacking and dodging, and can be used to enhance their attacks and abilities in different ways.

Resonators also have unique special attacks that can be performed by doing special inputs, using their Forte Gauge, or both.

To get the hang of a Resonator’s special attacks, you can enter a tutorial by pressing a button on the bottom right of their overview page.

Completing a tutorial will grant you a one-time reward, which includes ten Astrites. Therefore, it’s recommended to clear it for every Resonator you have, even if you feel that you’ve mastered how to play them.

You can also check an overview of a Resonator’s special attacks by pressing the corresponding button on the bottom right of their Forte page.

Bob and Weave

As great as attack and doing damage is, not dying is also pretty important. Thankfully, you have some pretty cool ways of preventing your demise.

Dodge Counters

Pressing your dodge key (right click or shift by default on PC) will let you quickly dash out of enemy attacks (it also lets you double jump!). However, if you time your dodge to be right as an attack is about to hit you, you’ll perform a special dodge, complete with a fancy flip, time slow, and a period of invulnerability. You can then attack to do a special counterattack.

Parry Counters

Additionally, certain enemy attacks will produce a glowing ring that shrinks onto a smaller one (the game calls this a “Weakness Halo”). If you’re piloting a character with a melee weapon*, time your attack to land when the two rings touch to parry the attack. This will grant you a period of invulnerability and also chip away at the enemy’s Vibration Strength. When an enemy’s Vibration Strength is depleted, it will enter a downed state. You can then freely attack it, but be careful of the attack it will do when it eventually recovers.  While doing damage normally will also reduce an enemy’s break bar, parry counterattacking will be massively more effective.

*Some ranged characters are still able to parry attacks, like in the clip below featuring Verina.

As always, test out your characters to find unique features and quirks that they may have!

Tag Teaming

When in combat, you can swap to one of your other characters, who will perform a special attack when entering the field.

Additionally, you’ll generate Concerto Energy from dodging attacks and dealing damage. How much Concerto Energy you have can be seen to the left of your health bar.

When you have a full Concerto Energy meter, it will be consumed on the next character swap, causing both the character leaving the field and the character entering the field to perform a special attack. The attack that the character entering performs is called an Intro Attack, while the one that the departing character does is called an Outro Attack.

Each Resonator has a unique set of Intro and Outro Attacks. You can view them on a Resonator’s Forte page, as well as on the party setup screen, which will show all of the Intro and Outro Attacks of the Resonators in the selected party.

The game treats each of the Resonators in your party as a separate character in combat. This means you can usually swap to a different party member even while your current Resonator is in the middle of an attack or Resonance Skill animation. For those looking to squeeze out every bit of DPS, this is something to keep in mind.