Havoc Rover Guide – Builds, Teams, and How to Play

While in the Dark Surge state, Rover gains a new Resonance Skill - the aforementioned Lifetaker - and a new set of basic attacks featuring a familiar spear and scythe. Both moves ditch their individual node scalings and take their numbers exclusively from the Forte Circuit node. Dark Surge can also be further upgraded with Rover’s Inherent Skill nodes to also grant more Havoc damage and flat Resonance Energy regeneration on hits within its duration. When Rover’s Forte bar (shown above) runs out, Dark Surge ends and they revert to their default state.

Rover’s Havoc variant’s quality and viability came as a surprise to many, as new versions of protagonist characters usually don’t amount to more than a token handshake. However, Wuthering Waves’ main hero proves themselves to be a strong foundation you can rely on as you continue to build your roster of characters during the patches to come.

Rover Rotations

Rotations should always be taken with a grain of salt. Enemies are NOT sandbags and WILL ATTACK YOU. Several factors such as Parries, Dodge Counters, and being knocked back will affect how you approach the rest of your rotation.

Forte Circuit Loop Switch-In

This is Rover’s primary skill rotation, used in the main DPS role. While lengthy, it allows Rover to consistently enter Dark Surge state regardless of how full their Forte bar is when swapping them in. Keep in mind that if you opt to use Mech Abomination, you should use it near the beginning of your combo instead.

Note: The rotation assumes you have at least two Resonance Chain nodes unlocked to capitalise on the Resonance Skill cooldown reset.

Given the overall inflexibility of the rotation and Rover’s lack of stagger mitigation, sooner or later an enemy will force them to dodge an attack. This will interrupt the flow of the combo and force you to make a decision on the fly on how to salvage the situation. Luckily, recovering from the interruption is not too difficult. Simply treat the Dodge Counter as if it was a Heavy Attack within the combo, as executing it will have Rover chain their basic attacks directly into Basic Attack 4 and 5 regardless of Dark Surge.

When trying to reduce the length of the combo, the primary problem comes from the amount of Umbra points generated by Rover’s moves, as Intro (20) and Wingblade (40) are not enough to fill Rover’s Forte bar by themselves. In order to remove the basic attack chains before using Devastation, the only realistic solution is to briefly switch to Rover during another character’s combo and use their Resonance Skill so that when it’s their turn to take the field, they start with 40 (or more) Umbra points already charged.

In addition, some sources claim that it is possible to squeeze in a third basic attack chain into the Dark Surge period by cancelling the recovery animation of Basic Attack 5 with a dodge or dash move. While theoretically possible, in practice the slight animation delay (aka hit feedback) happening on every successful strike prevents it from being feasible.

Parry Windows

Disclaimer: This is a work-in-progress section and will be updated as we learn more.
Animations and parry timings are the same between male and female Rover!

Character Synergies

Recommendations

	Verina
	Verina, being an universally strong support, synergises well with all main and sub-DPS characters thanks to the ATK and All DMG Amplify effects that she offers. Rover, who likes dealing damage, and preferably a lot of it, is no exception to that.
	Buffs
	• 15% Team-wide All DMG Amplify • 20% Team-wide ATK Bonus • Rejuvenating Glow and Bell-Borne Geochelone

	Shorekeeper
	The Shorekeeper, being a more offensive sidegrade to Verina, offers the same All DMG Amplify effect as the resident botanist, though sporting a much more desirable Crit Rate and Crit DMG bonus instead of ATK. Uniquely for Rover, she also boosts their Energy Regen stat while they’re affected by her Resonance Liberation.
	Buffs
	• 15% Team-wide All DMG Amplify • 5%~12.5% Team-wide Crit Rate Bonus • 10%~25% Team-wide Crit DMG Bonus • 10% Energy Regen Bonus (Rover-exclusive) • Stagger breakout • Rejuvenating Glow and Bell-Borne Geochelone

	Baizhi
	Baizhi, being usually an alternative or backup support pick, shares similar buffs with Verina, albeit with the caveats of not being team-wide and needing interaction with an on-field item she drops.
	Buffs
	• 15% All DMG Amplify • 15% ATK Bonus • Rejuvenating Glow and Bell-Born Geochelone

	Jianxin
	While not the best synergy for Rover in terms of raw damage output, Jianxin still provides quite a lot of quality of life thanks to a wide-range pull and strong shields that help Havoc Rover avoid interrupting their combo in order to dodge.
	Buffs
	• Gather • Shields • Moonlit Clouds and Impermanence Heron OR Rejuvenating Glow with Originite: Type IV

	Danjin
	Thanks to boosting all of Rover’s damage with her Havoc DMG Amplify effect granted on Outro and Chaoscleave’s high Concerto Energy gain allowing her to apply said effect with little downtime, Danjin finds herself as the prime sub-DPS choice in teams featuring Havoc Rover.
	Buffs
	• 23% Havoc DMG Amplify • 20% Team-wide ATK Bonus (Resonance 6) • Moonlit Clouds and Impermanence Heron

	Sanhua
	With a lot of Rover’s damage being classified as basic attacks, it should come as no surprise that Sanhua’s Basic Attack DMG Amplify is a desirable effect to have. Additionally, her rotation is quick and generates a respectable chunk of Resonance Energy, letting Rover consistently cycle their combo.
	Buffs
	• 38% Basic ATK DMG Amplify • 10%~30% Teamwide ATK Bonus (Resonance 6) • Moonlit Clouds and Impermanence Heron

	Mortefi
	Unlike their Spectro variant, Havoc Rover has a reasonable amount of room to make use of Mortefi’s Heavy Attack DMG Amplify effect. More importantly however, they are able to trigger his Violent Finale’s Coordinated Attack at a high frequency due to using a lot of basic attacks in their skill rotation.
	Buffs
	• 38% Heavy ATK DMG Amplify • 20% Teamwide ATK Buff (Resonance 6) • Moonlit Clouds and Impermanence Heron

	Encore
	A rather strange and not immediately obvious kind of synergy. Both Encore and Rover have kits featuring attacks with animations lasting long enough to swap out and use the other character’s moves during a casting or recovery animation, instead of cancelling them with another attack as is usually the case in hypercarry setups. As such, they can be used together to good effect in a quickswap team. For more information on how to make the two work together, please refer to Senea’s Encore guide.
	Buffs
	• N/A

Honourable mentions

	Yinlin
	Although her Resonance Liberation DMG Amplify effect does not synergise particularly well with Havoc Rover, Yinlin’s Chameleon Cipher is a great secondary source of damage thanks to Rover being able to trigger its effect on cooldown due to the majority of their attacks being multihit. With that in mind, Yinlin offers Rover little else outside of her admittedly high individual damage, and as such should be considered only as a rather expensive fallback in most circumstances.
	Buffs
	• 25% Resonance Liberation DMG Amplify

	Yangyang
	A less-than-stellar pick even as far as budget options go. Without all of her Resonance Chain nodes unlocked, Yangyang fails to bring anything to the table that would outweigh the benefits of any other previously mentioned character, and by the time she does, one might realise that other characters do much more for less. Even her Resonance Energy bonus on Outro does not come in handy in 99 out of 100 scenarios as Rover should never have problems in the energy department with a proper Echo setup. Still, if you have absolutely nobody else available, she’ll do in a pinch.
	Buffs
	• 20 Resonance Energy regenerated over 5 seconds • 20% Teamwide ATK Bonus (Resonance 6) • Moonlit Clouds and Impermanence Heron OR Rejuvenating Glow with Originite: Type II

Team Comps

As main DPS

As sub-DPS

Skill Priority

1. Forte Circuit
2. Resonance Liberation
3. Resonance Skill
4. Basic Attack
5. Intro Skill

The bulk of Rover’s damage comes from their attacks in the Dark Surge state, which take their damage modifiers solely from the Forte Circuit node and make it the highest priority for investment. The second in line, though not less important, would be their Resonance Liberation, as its levels offer the biggest damage gain outside of Umbra attacks. Finally, Rover’s Resonance Skill node pulls ahead in priority by the skin of its teeth, as while non-Umbra basic attacks are potentially skippable, the skill will always be present in the combo.

Weapons

Havoc Rover is a curious case of a non-pistol character where their best-in-slot weapon has not changed since the launch of the game. Emerald of Genesis, despite being passé and so last patch, continues to reign supreme over its competitors thanks to the crit rate secondary stat, with extra ATK and Energy Regen bonus serving as good quality of life features that solidify its position over Blazing Brilliance, which fails to play to Rover’s strengths. Even so, the difference between the two is not that big, with Emerald’s lead mostly depending on equipped Echoes' substats.

The 4★ sword camp meanwhile looks the same as always. Commando of Conviction still finds itself at the top spot in all non-quickswap teams and its flipside Lunar Cutter still dominates in quickswap teams, both thanks to the high amount of ATK they provide. Battlepass-exclusive Lumingloss, while a really good sword overall, only starts to shine at higher ranks due to its main value coming from its weapon skill’s high basic attack damage bonus buff. Meanwhile, Sword#18’s base stats prove to be just enough to make it a usable, if somewhat comparatively underwhelming option even without its active effect.

If none of these options are available, Sword of Night is as always a reasonable stand-in until a better weapon can be acquired.

Weapon Name	Comparison	Notes
Emerald of Genesis	100%	The generic 5★ sword surprisingly finds itself at the top of the game, in major part due to having crit rate as its secondary stat, with the added energy regen giving more wiggle room when rolling Echo substats.
Blazing Brilliance	99.84%	Changli’s signature weapon, while barely worse than Emerald of Genesis in raw performance, fails to play to Havoc Rover’s strengths and is better kept on either Changli or Danjin.
Commando of Conviction	77.92% (Rank 5: 82.83%)	Currently the budget sword, offering a lot of ATK with the trivial activation condition of an Intro skill cast. Will beat out Lunar Cutter in quickswap teams if the ATK buff can be maintained.
Endless Collapse	76.65% (Rank 5: 80.04%)	A different flavour of Commando of Conviction, trading a bit of ATK for more Resonance Energy on skill use. Depending on your team's energy economy, it might end up serving you better.
Lumingloss	75.44% (Rank 5: 76.26%)	A slightly more premium bonking stick, serving as a strong alternative to Commando of Conviction if gacha luck is not on your side.
Lunar Cutter	74.33% (Rank 5: 75.65%)	A sidegrade to Commando of Conviction, offering a smaller boost in exchange for triggering regardless of Intro Skill usage.
Sword#18	72.74%	A sword carried by its ATK% secondary stat, which proves to be just enough to keep it relevant. You’ll likely end up being unable to utilise its active effect, but the bonus is nothing spectacular anyway, applying only to heavy attacks (and rather modestly as well).
Sword of Night	68.24%	Reasonable alternative if no other offensive options are available.
Originite: Type II	63.55%	An overall terrible sword that in practice ends up making you play without an active effect while also providing much less ATK than Sword of Night.
Overture	57.36%	A utility-focused sword that enables faster rotations for certain characters by granting them more Concerto energy. Unfortunately, Havoc Rover, being a main DPS, is not one of those characters and is better off using another weapon.
Guardian Sword	55.50%	Bringing to the table a terrible base ATK stat, a useless HP% secondary stat, and two Echo substats’ worth of Resonance Skill DMG Bonus that Havoc Rover cannot even effectively use, Guardian Sword finds itself a comfortable niche in being a decent XP fodder for a better sword.
Sword of Voyager	54.53%	A sword so sad and bottom-of-the-barrel that it’s better suited as a source of psychological damage. Offers no offensive stats or effects, and its base ATK is so low that it barely wins against Tyro Sword (!). Best fed to a better sword and forgotten about.

Echoes

Sonata effects

Damage

Set Effect	Comparison	Notes
Sun-Sinking Eclipse 5p	100%	The current best option for the main DPS Rover. It offers a sizable Havoc% bonus at the condition of hitting an enemy with a basic or heavy attack, which gives it a slight ramp-up period.
Lingering Tunes 5p	98.90%	An alternative set suffering from a 6 second ramp-up period. Even with Rover’s kit and rotation playing exactly to all of its strengths, it still fails to impress. In a hypothetical ideal world where Kuro removed the ramp-up period, Lingering Tunes would still score less than a 3% increase over Sun-Sinking Eclipse.
Sun-Sinking Eclipse 2p + Lingering Tunes 2p	98.41%	This combination should only ever be used as a transition set.

Utility

Set Effect	Comparison	Notes
Moonlit Clouds 5p	N/A	Used to buff the main damage dealer of the party on Outro if Rover is used in the sub-DPS role. Given their general counter-synergy with most characters in that role due to their lack of buffs and a lengthy rotation, it sees little use even within quickswap teams.

Active Echo Recommendation

Sun-Sinking Eclipse: Dreamless - The ideal choice of an active Echo for Havoc Rover used in the main damage dealing role. It offers a quick burst of AoE damage which, uniquely due to lore reasons, grows stronger upon Havoc Rover unleashing their Resonance Liberation. Its only major shortcoming is that the opportunity to farm Dreamless unlocks at the same time as Havoc Rover, making it impossible to pre-farm until the end of Chapter I Act VI.

Sun-Sinking Eclipse: Crownless - The other -less and the star of parry showcases, Crownless serves as an early and easily accessible stop-gap while building any Havoc DPS character, partially thanks to the Havoc DMG and Resonance Skill DMG bonuses provided on Echo use. Compared to Dreamless, it suffers from being a whole lot slower to use and trickier to fit into character rotations, although not nearly as bad as Inferno Rider. Depending on rolled substats, Crownless may still be worth considering as a stat stick, however transforming into it is inadvisable as it’s almost always a DPS loss.

Lingering Tunes: Mech Abomination - The only viable choice for the Lingering Tunes set if you insist on using it. It deals a somewhat respectable amount of damage and buffs your attack by 12% for 15 seconds. It's worth pointing out that Mech Abomination provides its benefits without sacrificing character field time or interrupting any actions.

Moonlit Clouds: Impermanence Heron - The best pick for Rover if using them in a sub-DPS role. While it does nothing to buff Rover themselves, it doubles down on the buffing aspect of the Moonlit Clouds set, providing more ATK to the next character you’ll be switching them to.

Mainstat and Substats

4-3-3-1-1

Cost	Stat
4	Critical Rate % / Critical DMG %
3	Havoc %
3	Havoc %
1	ATK %
1	ATK %

When selecting your 4-Cost Echo main stat, be mindful of your equipped weapon’s secondary stat. Swords with innate critical chance bonus will prefer Critical DMG%, while the rest will prefer Critical Rate%.

For 3-Cost Echoes, the preferable setup for Rover is Havoc% + ATK% as the extra attack helps them gain ever so slightly more damage, regardless of weapon used. That however, puts you at a greater mercy of substat RNG, which is something to consider even if Havoc Rover isn’t particularly picky with their rolls. If you do not wish to mald Tacet Fields, you can always opt to run a much easier to obtain double Havoc% setup instead - the difference in damage is marginal if not using a 5★ sword.

4-4-1-1-1

Cost	Stat
4	Critical Rate %
3	Critical Rate % / Critical DMG %
3	ATK %
1	ATK %
1	ATK %

To get the most important detail out of the way: THIS IS A MIN-MAXING SETUP. As such, it is not recommended to build it. The damage gain, under the most perfect of conditions, is a mere 1%~2%. But, for the sake of being thorough...

When using swords with a critical rate secondary stat, both of the equipped 4-Cost Echoes will prefer Critical DMG% as their main stat. This is because of Rover’s 6th Resonance Chain node granting them an additional 25% critical chance in the Dark Surge state. As such, equipping Critical Rate% will cause the chance to overcap, obviously not granting any bonus beyond 100% critical rate. All other swords will prefer a Critical Rate% + Critical DMG% setup, as expected.

In order for the 4-4-1-1-1 setup to surpass its competitor, the substats must include at least 10% of each type of move-specific damage bonus, on top of the usual Crit Rate%, Crit DMG%, ATK% and Energy Regen%. This means a virtually perfectly rolled Echo in each of the slots. Save yourself some time and treat 4-4-1-1-1 only as a theoretical.

Sub stats priority

Sub Stat Priority

Energy Regeneration (until 30%) > Crit Rate = Crit DMG > ATK% > Flat ATK > Basic Attack DMG = Heavy Attack DMG > Resonance Liberation DMG > Resonance Skill DMG