Low-Grade Weapons in Wuthering Waves: What to Do With Them

What to do with low-grade weapons in Wuthering Waves is simple once you know their real job: the 1, 2 and 3-star weapons that pile up from Convene, chests and quests are mainly upgrade material. Feed them into the weapons you actually use as Weapon EXP, keep one or two around for brand-new Resonators, and never spend Shell Credits or ascension materials levelling them. Locking your good weapons first makes clearing the rest quick and safe.

This guide explains where low-grade weapons come from, how to use them as Weapon EXP, when one is still worth equipping, and how to keep your inventory under control.

Where Low-Grade Weapons Come From

Low-rarity weapons arrive constantly, especially in the first weeks of play:

• Convene. Every pull that does not land a 4-star or 5-star gives a 3-star weapon, so anyone who pulls regularly ends up with a large stack of them.
• Supply chests and exploration. Chests around the world often contain 1-star and 2-star weapons.
• Quests and early rewards. Story and tutorial rewards hand out basic weapons to get new players started.

Because they arrive in bulk, it is normal to have far more than you could ever use. That is by design: they exist mostly to be consumed.

Use Them as Weapon EXP

The main use for low-grade weapons is levelling your real weapons. On the weapon upgrade screen, you can feed other weapons into the one you are levelling, and each one gives Weapon EXP in place of Energy Cores.

A few points make this efficient:

1. Use the Auto-Select option. It picks old weapons and Energy Cores for you, which saves time when you have dozens of 3-star weapons.
2. Lock the weapons you want to keep first. Locked weapons are protected from being used as material, so lock every 4-star and 5-star you care about before using Auto-Select.
3. Feed low-grade weapons before Energy Cores. Energy Cores take Waveplate to farm, while low-grade weapons are effectively free, so using the weapons first saves your cores for later.
4. Do not worry about overflow. When you add more EXP than a weapon needs, the excess is returned as lower-grade Energy Cores rather than lost.

Levelling still costs Shell Credits, and low-grade weapons only cover the EXP part. The bigger costs arrive at each of a weapon's six ascension phases, where you also need Forgery materials, so it helps to know which Forgery Challenges drop each material family before you plan your Waveplate.

When a Low-Grade Weapon Is Still Worth Equipping

There are a few situations where a 3-star weapon earns a slot, at least for a while:

• A brand-new Resonator. If you pull a character whose weapon type you have nothing for, a 3-star weapon is better than an empty slot until you get a 4-star.
• Early Union Levels. In the first hours of the game, 3-star weapons carry you through the opening content. Once you have 4-star options, switch.
• Testing a character. A placeholder weapon lets you try a Resonator before you commit materials to their real weapon.

Even in these cases, keep the investment low. Leave the placeholder at whatever level it already has, and save your resources for the weapon that will replace it.

What Not to Do With Low-Grade Weapons

• Do not level them for long-term use. Their base ATK, substat and passive are all far weaker than 4-star weapons, so every material spent on them is wasted once you upgrade.
• Do not tune them. Tuning (Syntonize) improves a weapon's passive using duplicates of the same weapon. On a low-grade weapon, the gain is too small to matter.
• Do not feed away duplicates of good 4-star weapons by accident. Those duplicates are better used to tune the weapon they match. Locking, and checking what Auto-Select picked before you confirm, avoids this.

Keep Your Inventory Under Control

A large pile of 3-star weapons is not a problem in itself, but it makes the weapon menu harder to manage. A simple routine keeps it tidy:

1. Lock every weapon you want to keep, including duplicates you plan to use for tuning.
2. Use Auto-Select on the weapon you are currently levelling.
3. Repeat whenever a Convene session or exploration run adds a new batch.

Doing this regularly turns the low-grade pile into steady progress on the weapons that matter.

Where Low-Grade Weapons Fit in Your Progression

Low-grade weapons are a small part of a bigger system. The things that really decide your damage are your Resonator levels, your Echoes and your main weapon's level and ascension, all competing for the same Waveplate each day. If you are still getting to grips with those systems, it is worth learning how Resonators, Echoes and Astrite fit together before spending heavily on any one of them.

If the daily farming is where you fall behind, you can browse Wuthering Waves Accounts with strong weapons and Resonators already built, hand the Waveplate, Forgery and Echo grind to a player through Wuthering Waves Hourly Services, or clear Tower of Adversity and other endgame goals with Wuthering Waves Boosting.

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