The best Encore build in Wuthering Waves requires much less active field time than you'd expect from one of the game’s best DPS characters. This 5-star Rectifier-wielder of the fusion attribute may look innocent, but on a quick-swapping team centered around her Resonance Liberation ability, and she’ll obliterate enemies.
From weapons to Echoes, here’s how to get the best Wuthering Waves Encore build. And, if you want to check what Wuthering Waves codes are currently live, I can help you there too.
Encore’s abilities and rotation
- Basic Attack: perform up to 4 consecutive attacks, dealing Fusion DMG. Press the Basic Attack button a fifth time to perform a Wooly Strike, which throws a bomb in front of Encore.
- Resonance Skill: first, performs ‘Flaming Woolies’, which summons the Cloudy and Cosmos puppets to attack with burning rays, dealing Fusion DMG. Cast the Resonance Skill again to perform ‘Energetic Welcome’, an additional attack dealing Fusion DMG.
- Forte Circuit: Encore can hold up to 100 “Mayhem” stacks, which she gains by hitting targets with the Wooly Strike, Resonance Skill, Intro Skill, and Resonance Liberation. When the Mayhem bar is full, cast a Heavy Attack to consume Mayhem and enter the Mayhem state: incoming damage is reduced by 70% and Encore deals ‘Cloudy Frenzy’ damage when the status ends. If Mayhem is triggered during the Resonance Liberation’s Cosmos Rampage, Encore enters Cosmos Mayhem instead, resulting in 70% incoming damage reduction and a ‘Cosmos Rupture’ attack instead of Cloudy Frenzy.
- Resonance Liberation: starts ‘Cosmos Rave’. The Basic Attack, Heavy Attack, Dodge Counter, and Resonance Skill are replaced with more powerful attacks (they’re still considered as a Basic Attack, Heavy Attack, Dodge Counter, and Resonance Skill respectively).
- Intro Skill: pounces at the enemies with Cosmos, dealing Fusion DMG.
- Outro Skill: generates a Thermal Field centered around the skill’s target, with a radius of three meters. Targets inside the Thermal Field are continuously burned, suffering Fusion DMG equal to 176.76% of Encore's ATK every 1.5 seconds for six seconds.
Don’t fall for the apparent simplicity of Encore's Basic/Heavy/Dodge Attacks, Intro- and Outro Skill, and Resonance Skill, as they don’t deal a lot of damage without the Liberation’s Cosmos Rave state. Furthermore, Encore’s Basic Attack can’t counter during boss fights. Instead, Encore’s real value lies in her Resonance Liberation, which greatly enhances all other attacks during a ten-second window.
As a result Encore should spend as little time as possible on-field when she isn’t using her Resonance Liberation. Instead charge her Resonance Liberation by quick-swapping Encore with another DPS - swap her in, use her Resonance Skill, and immediately swap her out again. You can cast the Skill, swap Encore out and use another DPS’s attack while the Skill remains active, swap Encore in again, and cast the attack again - the Resonance Skill doesn’t automatically cancel when Encore leaves the field (as the picture above demonstrates, both Encore and Spectro Rover are on the field at the same time). This quick-swapping combo will save you from taking damage during the attack animations too. To counterattack during this sequence, you can rely on Intro Skills and the other DPS’s attacks.
Don’t worry if this sounds too complex; you can also swap Encore in, use her Resonance Skill twice, then swap to another ally. It’s less efficient, but very easy. If timing attacks isn’t your thing, just spam the Resonance Skill button after the first use - this will do the trick.
Just one successful Resonance Skill sequence (both attacks) is enough to fill more than half the Mayhem meter, which means you’ll be able to cast her enhanced Heavy Attack before too long. You don’t need to save this attack for the Resonance Liberation (it can also be charged during Cosmos Rave), but do try to swap out immediately after casting it since it’ll trigger a lengthy attack animation. Swapping characters will prevent incoming damage during the animation.
Once you’ve triggered Encore’s Resonance Liberation, use Basic Attack combos to deal damage. Following a Basic Attack combo, trigger Encore’s Resonance Skill to quickly fill the Mayhem meter; at the end of the Cosmos Rave, use an enhanced Heavy Attack to consume Mayhem and trigger a massive explosion. You can swap out after initiating this attack - again, there’s no need to wait out the animation.
To sum up Encore’s rotation: swap into combat, cast Resonance Skill, swap to another DPS, use attack, swap back to Encore, cast Resonance Skill (repeat until Liberation is ready for use). The Mayhem Heavy Attack is optional. Trigger Resonance Liberation, trigger Resonance Skill, do a Basic Attack combo, trigger Resonance Skill, do another Basic Attack combo, trigger Resonance Skill again, use the enhanced Heavy Attack, swap Encore out, and watch your enemies explode.
Encore’s Resonance Chain and upgrade priority
- Wooly’s Fairytale: when the Basic Attack hits a target, Encore's Fusion DMG Bonus is increased by 3%, stacking up to four times for six seconds.
- Sheep-Counting Lullaby: Encore additionally restores 10 Resonance Energy when casting Basic Attack ‘Woolies Attack’ or Resonance Skill ‘Energetic Welcome’. This can be triggered once every 10 seconds.
- Fog? The Black Shores!: The DMG multipliers of ‘Cloudy: Frenzy’ and ‘Cosmos: Rupture’ (Heavy Attack during Resonance Liberation) are increased by 40%.
- Adventure? Let’s Go!: ‘Cosmos: Rupture’ increases the Fusion DMG Bonus of all team members by 20% for 30 seconds.
- Hero Takes the Stage!: Resonance Skill DMG Bonus is increased by 35%.
- Woolies Save the World: During Resonance Liberation’s Cosmos: Rave, Encore gains one stack of "Lost Lamb" every time she deals damage, each stack increasing her ATK by 5% for 10 seconds, stacking up to 6 times.
Encore’s Resonance Chain passive abilities can be unlocked by obtaining Encore duplicates from the Wuthering Waves wish banners. Since Encore is a 5-star character it takes a very large amount of Astrite/Lustrous Tides to unlock all six Resonance Chain abilities.
Should you wish to upgrade the Resonance Chain levels on your Encore build, note that ‘Wooly’s Fairytale’ is quite strong as it consistently grants a 12% Fusion Damage Bonus during the Resonance Liberation’s Cosmos Rave status. An even better Cosmos Rave damage boost is granted by ‘Woolies Save the World’, which easily stacks up to a 30% Attack bonus. ‘Fog? The Black Shores!’ and ‘Hero Takes the Stage’ offer decent damage bonuses as well, though not quite as good. ‘Sheep-Counting Lullaby’ can be a great help if your Encore build lacks Energy Regeneration, but ‘Adventure? Let’s Go!’ is only useful if you have another Fusion DPS on your Encore team.
Be sure to upgrade Encore’s stat bonuses, which provide extra Fusion Damage as well as Attack Power. Her Inherent Skills (passives) on the Forte Circuit skill tree are important too: they will increase the damage dealt during Cosmos Rave by 10% as long as Encore’s HP is at least 70% (add a good healer to your Encore team) and increase Encore’s Fusion Damage when the normal or Cosmos Rave version of the Resonance Skill are cast.
When upgrading the active abilities for your Encore build, prioritize Resonance Liberation, followed by the Resonance Skill, Forte Circuit, and finally her Basic Attack. Her Intro Skill is nothing special and doesn’t play a role in her rotation, so it’s not important to upgrade.
Best weapon for Encore
- Best 5-star weapon: Stringmaster. Increases Critical Rate by 8-36% and increases the DMG Bonus of all Resonance Attributes by 12-24%. Also increases Attack by 12-24% (stacking two times) whenever the Resonance Skill hits a target. When the equipped character is not on the field, increases their ATK by an additional 12-24%.
- Best 4-star weapon: Augment. Increase Critical Rate by 4.5-20.5%. When Resonance Liberation is released, increases the caster's ATK by 15-48%, lasting for 15 seconds.
Encore uses Rectifier weapons and the best 5-star weapon for your build is the Stringmaster, as it grants a much-needed Critical Rate boost, increases all the Resonance Damage, works well with Encore’s frequent Resonance Skill usage, and grants a damage bonus when Encore leaves the field (which you’ll do during the animations).
The 5-star Cosmic Ripples isn’t bad either, and since this is the Rectifier currently on the Permanent Convene Banner, it’s easier to obtain. Cosmic Ripples offers Attack instead of Critical Rate (which means you can’t get a Critical Damage Echo), but it also increases Energy Regeneration, which will help you cast the most important ability more frequently.
The best 4-star weapon for your Encore build is Augment, which offers a 15% Attack boost when Resonance Liberation is activated plus a permanent Critical Rate increase. Since Augment is a Battle Pass weapon, you can also go for Jinzhou Keeper, which offers a smaller Attack and HP boost whenever the Intro Skill is released - as Encore triggers her Intro Skill a lot, the effect is always active.
Best Echoes for Encore
- Best Echo set: the full Molten Rift set. Increases Fusion Damage by 10%. Also increases Fusion Damage by 30% for 15 seconds after releasing a Resonance Skill.
- Best Echo ability: Inferno Rider. Transform into Inferno Rider and deal Fusion DMG with three slash attacks. After the final hit, increase the current character’s Fusion DMG by 12% and Basic Attack DMG by 12% for 15 seconds. Long-press the Echo Skill to enter Riding Mode and deal 12% Fusion DMG to enemies in front. Cooldown is 20 seconds.
- Echo stats: Energy Regeneration Rate, Fusion Damage, Critical Rate, Critical Damage, Attack %.
The best Echo set for your Encore build is Molten Rift, which increases Fusion Damage and since Encore uses her Resonance Skill a lot, it’ll be easy to activate the additional 30% Fusion Damage. As the only Echo offering a Fusion Damage bonus as part of its ability, Inferno Rider is by far the best choice to put in the main slot.
Try to get better Energy Regeneration stats on your Encore build; this will help her trigger the Resonance Liberation faster. Without it, you may have to continue the quick-swapping sequence outside of Cosmos Rave for quite some time. Of course, Critical Rate and Critical Damage are important to a DPS like Encore. Most Encore builds should go for Critical Rate as an Echo stat, but if you’re using a fully upgraded Stringmaster or Augment weapon and have excellent Critical Rate substats, focus on Critical Damage instead. Fill the remaining Echo slots with Fusion Damage and Attack.
Best Encore teams
- Best Encore team: Encore, Sanhua, and Verina.
- Best Encore free-to-play team: Encore, Sanhua, Baizhi.
Encore doesn’t need much active field time and switches often, so it’s good to have another ally capable of dealing high damage in a short amount of time on her team. This means you can match Encore with someone like Jiyan, who can use a fast attack combo (and has a nice crowd control ability to boot) and swap back to Encore, but not Calcharo, whose long field time doesn’t work with Encore’s quick-swapping rotation.
As quick-swapping means there’ll be plenty of Intro/Outro Skills, however, it’s best to find a sub-DPS teammate with a supportive Outro Skill, such as Sanhua or Spectro Rover. While Spectro Rover’s ability to slow enemies is certainly handy, Sanhua’s 38% Basic Attack boost is even better as it improves Encore’s most important damage source. Finally, remember that Encore needs an HP of at least 70% to receive a damage bonus, so make sure you’ve got a brilliant healer on the Encore team, such as Verina or Baizhi.
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