Gameplay Tips#

Various Waker gameplay tips that were not explained in-depth in the Skill Tree and Moveset sections.

Managing Treble Clef Marks#

Constantly applying a Treble Clef Mark to an enemy is important for three main reasons:

  1. Marked enemies take 3% more damage and 20% more down from your own Harmonizer Photon Arts

  2. Igniting a mark using Treble Clef Ignition restores a lot of PP, which makes it essential for PP management and lessens the need for PP-regeneration-focused Subclasses

  3. Igniting a mark with Treble Clef Ignition summons a Familiar Support crest, which can be amplified with Familiar Support Amplifier by summoning another crest while one is already active

Note

If you do not yet have a maximally-amplified Familiar Support crest, you should prioritize igniting the crests as soon as possible to create one. A crest will passively build Fredran or Wulfen focus to enable more frequent usage of Familiar Harmony, which not only increases your damage output but also further helps with maintaining a Treble Clef mark on enemies in the long-run thanks to Familiar Harmony Marking Clef.

To apply a Treble Clef Mark to an enemy, you need to build it up by attacking the same enemy multiple times. Generally, two held Photon Arts plus one or two Linear Drives is enough to Mark an enemy. The primary exceptions are long-held Wulfen Demolition and Familiar Harmony with Familiar Harmony Marking Clef, which can Mark an enemy in a single hit.

For exact Treble Clef application numbers of each attack, refer to the Frame Data spreadsheets.

Example DPS Rotation with Familiar Harmony Marking Clef#

With the introduction of the skill Familiar Harmony Marking Clef, Waker’s DPS has been able to reach new heights by utilizing Familiar Harmony after Treble Clef Ignition to maximize Mark uptime. This allows for the following example DPS rotation against bosses (non-boss enemies will not generate enough Fredran or Wulfen focus to sustain this rotation):

  1. Have or create a maximally-amplified Fredran Familiar Support.

  2. Short-held Wulfen Demolition if it is a stationary target, otherwise use Held Wulfen Raid

  3. Held Wulfen Raid x2 (+1 more if needed to get 1 Wulfen Stock)

  4. Tapped Fredran Riding. Repeat until 1 Fredran Stock is obtained

  5. Backwards Linear Drive

  6. Treble Clef Ignition (Summons a Fredran Familiar Support crest)

  7. Familiar Harmony

  8. Repeat from step 2

In this rotation, Wulfen is the primary damage dealer actively generating Wulfen Focus and applying Treble Clef if the enemy is not already Marked. Fredran Focus is generated by a Fredran Familiar Support crest and with Tapped Fredran Riding. This rotation will upkeep a Treble Clef Mark on an enemy while simultaneously generating Harmonizer Focus to regularly use Familiar Harmony. Regular usage of clef mark ignition, Linear Drive, and Familiar Harmony also upkeep the PP needed to sustain this rotation.

If your Fredran focus is (nearly) full and you find yourself having trouble getting enough Wulfen focus, then you should adjust the rotation so that you make a Wulfen Familiar Support crest instead of a Fredran crest to help generate more Wulfen Focus to use more Familiar Harmonies.

Prioritize guarding attacks with your Weapon Action and/or Hot Marmelo Parry even if it means interrupting your rotation.

Marmelo Focus Gauge management#

As with most other classes, if an enemy is attacking, prioritize using your Weapon Action to guard the attack. You also have the option to use Hot Marmelo Parry during any action to guard an attack without being interrupted.

Guarding attacks will increase Marmelo’s Focus Gauge to allow you to perform Marmelo Strike or Familiar Harmony Marmelo+ for massive damage. A successful Weapon Action guard also allows you to perform a strong counter attack with Harmonizer Parry Counter.

If your Marmelo Focus Gauge went from zero to Stage 1 after guarding just a single attack, prioritize using Familiar Harmony Marmelo+ for huge damage at the cost of just the one successful guard. This is worth doing even if it will cause you to miss your next opportunity to guard an attack (due to the iframes from Familiar Harmony) because it is less wasted time performing a Weapon Action guard for no extra benefit.

Harmonizer Parry Counter vs. Marmelo’s Strike after a Weapon Action#

After a successful Weapon Action you have two options:

  1. use a normal attack to perform a Harmonizer Parry Counter, or

  2. let go of the Weapon Action to perform a Marmelo’s Strike

The rule of thumb here is to prioritize using Marmelo Strike if the Marmelo focus gauge is full (Stage 2) to avoid having to perform another Weapon Action later (which either wastes time or overcaps the Marmelo focus gauge) to perform a Marmelo Strike. It is more DPS to omit the Harmonizer Parry Counter in such cases than to miss the opportunity to immediately perform Marmelo Strike without delay.

An exception to the rule of thumb is if you are in a bad position for Marmelo Strike (such as not being able to hit a weak spot) after the successful Weapon Action. In this case you might consider using a Harmonizer Parry Counter to deal damage while repositioning to a better location.

If you did perform a Harmonizer Parry Counter, cap your Marmelo’s Focus Gauge with Hot Marmelo Parry, or were simply unable to perform Marmelo Strike after a Weapon Action, the next section discusses how you should spend your full Marmelo Focus Gauge.

My Marmelo Focus Gauge is Full!#

If your Marmelo Focus Gauge happens to be full (Stage 2), is it better to perform a Weapon Action followed by Marmelo Strike or to use Familiar Harmony Marmelo+?

Unfortunately there is no clear-cut answer here to the above question. While both attacks deal the same damage, they differ in resource consumption (which focus gauges are consumed) and time to execute (for DPS). The optimal choice depends on the scenario you are facing.

What can help you decide is knowing exactly what the consequences of the two actions are, and allowing you to decide for yourself what you think is best for the given situation you find yourself in.

Marmelo Strike#

In isolation, a Marmelo Strike is the lowest DPS option of the two because a Marmelo Strike can not be performed without first performing a Weapon Action, which wastes time and could also cause you to overcap Marmelo’s Focus Gauge. However, being the lowest DPS of the two options does not mean it is a bad option by any means.

If you are missing Wulfen or Fredran Focus to perform Familiar Harmony, then Marmelo Strike is your only available option.

Even if you do have sufficient Wulfen and Fredran focus for Familiar Harmonies, you may want to consider saving them for more opportune moments such as if you expect the enemy to become downed or otherwise expose a weak spot. In such cases, you may consider using a Marmelo Strike if you expect to be able to regain Marmelo Focus before the opportune moment occurs to use Familiar Harmony Marmelo+.

Familiar Harmony Marmelo+#

Familiar Harmony Marmelo+ has the advantage of being a faster attack than a Marmelo Strike, and therefore has greater DPS than Marmelo Strike. However, this also consumes 1 of both Fredran and Wulfen focus gauges, as well as 1 stage of Marmelo focus gauge.

A somewhat obvious case for using Familiar Harmony Marmelo+ is when fighting groups of mobs. Familiar Harmony Marmelo+ has a larger area-of-effect than a Marmelo Strike, so you should use Familiar Harmony Marmelo+ for mobbing.

If you have at least two stocks of Fredran and two stocks Wulfen focus, you have the option of using two back-to-back Familiar Harmony Marmelo+. Is it better than first performing Marmelo Strike followed by two regular Familiar Harmonies? Against a sandbag, yes; it’s just much higher DPS. But if you expect the iframes from the Familiar Harmonies will cause you to miss opportunities to Weapon Action guard or Hot Marmelo Parry attacks, then it may be better to perform Marmelo Strike first and then use the incoming attacks to gain Marmelo focus for Familiar Harmony Marmelo+ instead.

Quick Marmelo Stacking#

Against some enemy attacks that deal multiple instances of damage, you can quickly tap the Weapon Action in quick succession to build the Marmelo Focus Gauge more than once. While it may seem obvious from reading, the in-game lack of visuals and sound effects of back-to-back successful Weapon Action guards make it easy to think that it did not work.

Note

This does not work if the attack is a single damage instance that lingers; it must be an attack that deals multiple instances of damage.

Note

This trick also won’t work by performing a Hot Marmelo Parry into a Weapon Action because Hot Marmelo Parry gives invulnerability frames after guarding an attack that will prevent subsequent Weapon Actions from guarding the next attacks.

Guarding against two attacks in quick succession with the Weapon Action to build Marmelo’s Focus Gauge from Stage 1 to Stage 2.