Kuro Game is in the final development stages of its new game, Wuthering Waves. Wuthering Waves is currently in its second closed beta testing with the title expected to be released later this year. However, Kuro has completely changed the gacha system in Wuthering Waves, making it quite different to the system in its first gacha game, Punishing: Gray Raven.
Wuthering Waves‘ summoning system is similar to Hoyoverse’s Genshin Impact and Honkai: Star Rail’s summoning system. You get an event character banner, a character’s signature weapon banner, a standard permanent banner, and a standard weapon banner. Let’s get into each of these and see how they work.
Premium Currency
The premium currency in Wuthering Waves is called Astrite. You can get Astrite by doing your daily tasks, weekly tasks, open-world exploration, completing puzzles, opening chests, and completing achievements. Wuthering Waves is F2P friendly in this regard, as long as you’re willing to explore the world.
If you don’t want to go through all the hassle of exploration and puzzle-solving, you can always pay for the premium currency. 160 Astrite equals 1 Radiant Tide or pull. The limited-time character pulls are called Radiant Tide. The limited-time weapon pulls are called Forging Tide. The standard permanent character and weapon banner pulls are called Lustrous Tide.
You can also get the bulk of the Astrites or pulls by completing the main story quest and side-quest of Wuthering Waves.
Character Event Convene
Character Event Convene, or Character Event Banner, is the main banner where you can pull for the limited-time characters with high summoning probability. You get one 5-star character and three 4-star characters on a single limited-time banner.
For every ten pulls, you are guaranteed to get a character of a 4-star rarity. You can get any 4-star, but the chances of obtaining the 4-stars on the banner will be high.
You are also guaranteed to obtain a 5-star character for every 80 pulls. Unfortunately, as of the second closed beta testing, there is a “50/50.” A “50/50” is a famous term describing the 50% probability of getting the banner rate up character. For example, once you get a 5-star, whether at hard pity (80 pulls) or before, you have a 50% chance of obtaining the rate-up character and a 50% chance of getting any other standard banner 5-star character. The following video shows 5-star Jiyan’s gacha pull animation in Wuthering Waves.
This is the exact same system used in famous Hoyoverse games like Genshin Impact and Honkai: Star Rail. Many players are not fans of the 50/50 system and have voiced their concerns against it. Especially the Punshing: Gray Raven players, as they always have a 100% chance of obtaining a character when it debuts, which is reduced to 70% on its rerun.
If you lose your 50/50 and don’t get the rate up character, you are guaranteed to get the rate up character the next time you get a 5-star character on the banner. So if you want to guarantee yourself a 5-star rate up character, you must have at least 160 pulls saved up. 160 pulls are needed in the absolute worst-case scenario where you will reach hard pity every time, but you may also get the character on a single ten pull. You never know!
Weapon Event Convene
The Weapon Event Convene is where you can pull for the signature weapon of the limited-event character. They always run alongside their wielder. Even if you don’t pull for the character, you can always pull for the weapons, as the same weapon can also be used on other characters capable of using it.
You are guaranteed to obtain at least one 4-star character after every 10 pulls. And you are 100% guaranteed to obtain the banner weapon upon 80 wishes. You may also get it earlier, depending on your luck. Fortunately, there is no 50/50 on the weapon banner and you can be sure that whenever you see a 5-star pull animation, you are getting the weapon displayed on the banner. This is good because the limited-time 5-star weapons of Wuthering Waves are crit stat sticks that bring a lot of value and make building your characters easier.
Like the Character Event Convene, the Weapon Event Convene also has three 4-star weapons. Although you can get any 4-star weapon for every 10 pulls, you have a higher chance of getting one of the three rate up 4-star weapons on the banner.
Character Permanent Convene
The Character Permanent Convene is your standard permanent banner, where you will have all the standard 5-star characters you may get upon losing your 50/50 on a limited-time character banner. The summoning system on the permanent banner is also the same as the limited-time banner, where you are guaranteed to obtain a 4-star or higher rarity item for every 10 pulls and a 5-star item for every 80 pulls.
We say “item” because the Character Permanent Convene also has the weapons in its pool. So, you may either get a character or a weapon when pulling on the permanent banner. Pulling on a permanent banner is risky business – whether you’re a whale or a F2P player – it is best to save your pulls for Character Event Convene.
Weapon Permanent Convene
The Weapon Permanent Convene is your permanent weapon banner, where you can get several 5-star weapons of your choice. That’s right, it has a selector that allows you to choose your 5-star weapon.
Once you’ve selected and confirmed the 5-star weapon you want, you can do your standard pulls to guarantee yourself the selected weapon at 80 pulls. You will also get 4-star weapons (and rarely 4-star characters) for every 10 pulls.
Final Thoughts
I feel like the gacha system we have in Wuthering Waves isn’t too bad, but Kuro Game could spice things up by adding more open-world activities that dish out Astrite for F2P players. To really hit the jackpot with this game, it needs to cater not just to the hardcore combat enthusiasts, but also to the more laid-back casual gamers who make up a big chunk of the player base these days.
Kuro Games has already shown they can strike a good balance between the two with stuff like Tactical Holograms and the Tower of Adversity, which feels a lot like the Spiral Abyss in Genshin Impact or Memory of Chaos in Honkai: Star Rail.
Now, some longtime fans who’ve been with Kuro Game since the early days of Punishing: Gray Raven are clamoring for guaranteed characters right off the bat. I get it, Kuro Games got to make their money — it’s a gacha game, after all. But hear me out, there might be a win-win solution here.
How about Kuro Game ditches the 50/50 chance for the first character copy? If you’re not aware, most gacha games let you beef up your characters by snagging duplicate copies to unlock new talents. We’ve got a similar setup in Wuthering Waves, with what we call the Resonance Chain and Wavebands, which is kind of like the Constellation system in Genshin Impact or the Eidolons system in Honkai: Star Rail.
So, let’s make the first character copy a sure thing, at least when they debut, and then maybe keep the 50/50 setup for duplicates. But even that could be a bit rough, so how about dialing it to a 70/30 split? That way, players would have a 70% shot at scoring that banner character dupe.
It is also important to note that whether we like it or not, Wuthering Waves is directly competing against Genshin Impact as that is the only other open-world gacha game. Wuthering Waves needs to do something better to ensure it’s ahead of their competition and nailing it where it matters the most – the gacha department – and making it better will help them stay ahead of the curve and reel in more players. The same goes for the RNG-infested Echo System.
We are already seeing an influx of player interest in Wuthering Waves from the hardcore player base of Genshin Impact, who have been waiting endlessly for harder content.
