Wuthering Waves Calcharo Character Guide

WuWa. Wuthering Waves Calcharo Guide Character Build. Electro DPS.

Calcharo is a 5-star character that wields a Broadblade and uses Electro as his elemental damage. He is a main DPS character with extremely long-winded damage phases, allowing him to be one of the best damage characters if he can be supported properly.

Pros – Deals massive burst and sustained damage.

Cons – Can be difficult to play because of reliance on long animations and animation cancels.

Team Compositions – Design your team around Calcharo because he needs plenty of time to get his damage out. Sub DPS who can quickly swap in and do their abilities quickly then swap back to Calcharo work best. Anyone who can give him Resonance Energy or Resonance Liberation Damage is also great.

Skills and Playstyle

Basic/Heavy Attack – The Heavy Attack is better for damage than the Basic Attack. However, the backward step of his Heavy can move him out of range of the enemy, and the Heavy does more damage when you are right next to the enemy because the effect hits multiple times as it travels. Use the first part of the Basic Attack to move closer to the enemy. This first attack in the Basic Attack Chain is also great for Parrying because of its double-hit and forward lunge.

Basic Attack Chain > Heavy Attacks > Basic + Heavy

Resonance Skill (E) – Series of three attacks. Each attack will grant one of the three Forte bars if they land. There is a small cooldown before you can use the next Resonance Skill in the series, but if you don’t use the next within several seconds the entire chain goes on cooldown and you must wait to start the entire chain again to gain more Forte.

E > E > E

Forte Circuit – At full Forte, your Heavy Attack will add an extra move to the action, dealing much more damage and consuming all three bars. This is a long animation that you often want to cancel by swapping characters. You can Swap Cancel as soon as your Forte Heavy animation begins and get the full effect safely.

Resonance Liberation (R) – Deals a large amount of damage instantly in front of Calcharo, then enter him into a form that enhances his Basic Attacks and Dodge Counters, and will introduce a new Forte with five bars instead of three. Every Basic Attack in the chain will have a multi-hitting quick animation and will give one bar of the Forte. Once at 5 bars, the next Basic Attack will perform the same animation as his Heavy Attack and deal massive damage. You can generally get two rotations of the Basic Attack chain off before the Ultimate ends.

R > Basic Attacks

Rotation

E > Heavy Attack > E > Basic > Heavy > E > Forte Heavy Attack
Q > R > Basic Attack until Ult ends

Use the first Basic Attack at any point if you need to Parry or get closer to the target because of it’s quick lunge forwards. Otherwise avoid using the entire Basic Attack chain and focus on landing all Resonance Skill hits.

Since you want to use your Resonance as soon as possible but there is a small window of time before you can use each part of the chain, it is best to fill in the gaps with Heavy Attacks. The aftercast of your Heavy Attack can be animation canceled by using the Resonance Skill as soon as you see Calcharo’s sword hit the ground and before the slash animation finishes.

E > Heavy > E > Heavy > Basic > E > Forte Heavy

Calcharo Build Guide Progression

Ascension Materials

Thundering Tacet Core – Defeat Thundering Mephis in Desorock Highlands – Costs Waveplates
Iris – Pick these flowers around the Fallen Grave in Whining Aix Mire or buy at the Shifang Pharmacy
Rings – Looted from Exiles

Weapons

Verdant Summit (Convene 5-star) – Crit Damage – Increases Resonance damage by 12% and after every Intro or Resonance Liberation is cast your Heavy Attack damage increases by 24%, stacking twice.
Lustrous Razor (Convene 4-star) – ATK – Increases Energy Regen by 13%. Also increases Resonance Liberation damage by 7% for 12 seconds after a Resonance Skill is used, stacking twice.
Autumntrace (Insider Podcast Lvl 30 4-star) – Crit Rate – Increases ATK by 4% when dealing Basic or Heavy Attack damage for 7 seconds, stacking up to 5 times.

Echo Skill (Q) – Electro – Tempest Mephis – If the second claw attack hits, increase Electro and Heavy Attack damage by 12% for 15 seconds.

Echo Main Stat Priority

4 – Crit Damage
4 – Crit Rate
3 – Electro Damage
1 – ATK %

Sub Stat Priority

Crit Damage
Crit Rate
ATK%
Resonance Liberation Damage

Skill Leveling Materials

Rings – Looted from Exiles
Waveworn Residue – Forgery Challenge: Eroded Ruins in Wuming Bay – Costs Waveplates
Monument Bell – Defeat the Belle-Borne Geochelone in Gorges of Spirits – Costs Waveplates

Inherent Skill 1 – Increases his Resonance Liberation’s initial damage by 10% for 15 seconds after casting his fully Forte Heavy Attack.

Inherent Skill 2 – Death Messenger which is used during his Ultimate skill grants 15% damage reduction to Calcharo for 5 seconds if the attack lands.

Skill Priority – Skip leveling Inherent Skill 2 because the damage reduction is not very relevant

Resonance Liberation
Forte Circuit
Basic Attack
Resonance
Intro

Sequence 1 – Once every 20 seconds the Resonance Skill gives 10 Resonance Energy if it hits.

Sequence 2 – After using an Intro Skill, his Resonance Skill deals 30% more damage for 15 seconds.

Sequence 3 – Electro DMG increased by 25% while in Resonance Liberation.

Sequence 4 – After Outro, all team members deal 20% more Electro DMG for 30 seconds.

Sequence 5 – Intro deals 50% more damage.

Sequence 6 – Summon 2 Phantoms when using Calcharo’s Resonance Liberation, dealing 100% of his ATK as Resonance Liberation damage.

Should you try to pull extra sequences for Calcharo?

Every sequence addition deals more damage, and as Calcharo is a purely DPS character this will always benefit your Calcharo. However, unless you’re willing to pay a lot, you’ll want to decide how far you want to go.

The second and third sequences are some of the better ones, and they are early on and don’t require you to play any differently to benefit from them. The fourth sequence is potentially very good, but requires you to change your playstyle a bit to maximize it. You’ll want to swap off of Calcharo when he has full Concerto to give the Electro DMG boost to his team, and then immediately swap back to Calcharo and go into his Ultimate. The fifth sequence is underwhelming, but the sixth will add a lot more burst damage to the beginning of his Ult, allowing you to stack up tons of damage modifiers for it.

The playstyle of Calcharo doesn’t really change much whether you progress his sequences or not. He won’t be more fun to play, and he already deals great damage. Sequences aren’t really needed, but if you really want to optimize damage, then go for the third or all the way to the sixth.