Last Updated on August 10, 2022
Square Enix just launched a new gacha titled Echoes of Mana. So let’s take a look at how to upgrade your allies.
Upgrading Allies
From the main screen, tap Allies, then tap on a character.
When on the character’s page, you will see their art, memory gem currently equipped on them (to the top left of art), and 5 tabs. The first tab shows their overall stats, element, weapon type, rarity, level, and what gear is equipped. It also lets you change the AI strategy. This is great for optimizing how you want the unit to automatically work during auto battle. You can tweak with this until you find something that works for you.
Before moving on to the next 4 tabs, let’s take a quick look at elements, stats, and weapon types.
Ally Elements
There are 8 elements: Earth, Wind, Water, Fire, Light, Moon, Wood, and Dark.
In regards to combat, element match ups are as follows:
- Water vs Fire / Fire vs Water
- Dark vs Light / Light vs Dark
- Wind vs Earth / Earth vs Wind
- Moon vs Wood / Wood vs Moon
As you can see, this does not work like many other gachas where it usually only goes one way for elements or a specific cycle (such as Lightning beats Water that beats Fire etc) outside of Dark/Light.
For example, if you are facing Water enemies in Echoes of Mana, you should use Fire – as you will deal more damage, not less. In Echoes of Mana, it is about pairs of elements that oppose each other.
Ally Stats
Allies have 7 stats: HP, MP, STR, CON, INT, SPR, and LCK. So what do they mean?
- HP – Hit points, or health.
- MP – Magic points, used for skills during battle.
- STR – Strength, the amount of physical damage that you will deal.
- CON – Constitution, your resistance to physical damage. The higher this stat is, the less physical damage you will take.
- INT – Intelligence. The amount of magic damage you will deal.
- SPR – Spirit. Your resistance to magic damage. Increase spirit to reduce the magic damage you receive.
- LCK – Luck. The higher your luck, the higher your critical hit rate.
Ally Weapon and Attack Types
Each ally specializes in a certain weapon type. There are 9 weapons with specific attack types:
- Axe (Slash)
Tap and hold attack to fill ST gauge - Boomering (Slash)
Attacks from a great distance - Bow (Piercing)
Attacks from the farthest distance - Flail (Blunt)
Normal attacks restore MP - Glove (Blunt)
The higher the combo number, the higher the attack speed - Knife (Piercing)
Easier combos with normal attacks - Polearm (Piercing)
Deals normal attacks when dodging fowards - Staff (Blunt)
Normal attacks restore MP - Sword (Slash)
Grants Super Armor skill (dodge attacks/avoid getting knocked down)
Now let’s take a look at the next 3 tabs for ally upgrading.
Ally Level
The simplest of ally upgrades comes with leveling the ally. There are 3 kinds of experience tomes – S, M, and L, with bigger tomes giving more XP. You can get Experience Tomes from Quests>Daily Training Quest>Ally Upgrade.
Ally Mana Board
The mana board is where you upgrade an ally’s stats (HP, MP, etc). A new section unlocks every 10 ally levels until level 70, where it unlocks every 4 levels until level 99. So prioritize leveling and upgrading your ally to be able to further upgrade the mana board. The items needed depend on the ally’s element. There are 3 types of mana board coins to get – Copper, Silver, and Gold. You can get these coins from various main story quests, as well as the training area under Quests>Training>Vigil. The vigil quests are split by element. So for example, 4* Riesz is a wind unit, so she requires Sylphid Copper, Silver, and Gold coins for her mana board.
Luna and Dryad coins are not farmable. Instead, you go to Menu>Shop>Dryad/Luna Coin Trader. You will need Lumina (Light) coins to trade for Dryad, and Shade (Dark) coins to trade for Luna.
Ally Ascend, Unleash, and Awaken
The last tab has 3 types of upgrades – Ascend, Unleash, and Awaken.
Ascend – Raises level cap and unlocks new mana boards. This also raises their star rarity.
Unleash – Raises level cap, levels up skills and ST (special techniques)
Awaken – Increases rarity from 5* to 6*
To ascend an ally, you will need multiple copies of another ally of the same rarity. For example, a 3 star unit will need 3 units that are also 3 stars. There are generic forms of these called Knitwit Icons, and can be used for any element. The unit that is being ascended must be leveled first.
To unleash an ally, you use a duplicate of the same ally, or a Benevodon statue of the same element as the ally.
To awaken an ally, you will need 100 awakening orbs. You also have to have already fully completed:
- Ascension
- Unleashing
- Leveling
- Mana Board
Stat Serum
The stat serum tab is for using serums that increase the ally’s stats (HP, MP, and so on). You can see what stats are increased from serums on the left side. You can acquire stat serums in event exchange shops and by selling allies.
This covers the basics of how to currently upgrade an ally in Echoes of Mana.
