It’s a great day if you’re a Mana series fan. Square Enix has done the deed; the developer has hopped on a fresh nostalgia-laden bandwagon to make your Mana crossover dreams into a reality.
Announced in 2021, Echoes of Mana is a free-to-play action RPG making its way to Android and iOS in 2022. In celebration of the Mana series’ 30th anniversary, Echoes explores the many lands and characters from previous games while offering a new story in the franchise. It’s time to save the Mana tree once again, and so you’ll set out on a heroic journey to hunt down the Mana Sword. Pre-registration is available on the Play Store in anticipation of the upcoming launch.
Seeing that the game will likely launch soon, we at AP have prepared a handy guide to help you traverse the game’s many systems. This guide covers all of the basics, such as the essential upgrade systems to use/build upon, as well as the ins and outs of forming your dream Mana team.
Getting started
This time around, you get to pick between two characters, Quilto (male) or Quilta (female), who’ll represent the main protagonist in Echoes of Mana. If you prefer adding more flair to your hero, you can add a nickname.
Before sending you off to the deep end, you’re provided with a series of tutorials that cover how the battle system works. You’ll uncover more periodic tutorials once you’ve progressed further into the story. Luckily for you, Baashear, the game’s mascot (literally the Mana Goddess’ doll), is there to keep you on track.
Battle system
You can move up, down, left, and right on a 2D plane to perform normal attacks, and you can evade enemy attacks by tapping the corresponding buttons outlined in the image below. The sword icon is the normal attack button, and the smaller button to the left of the sword icon is for evading.
Six characters can join your party through the character pairing system (main and sub), but you’ll only use three at a time. In battle, you can switch between your three active characters at any time, playing into the familiar Mana mechanic where you want to build a team by pairing characters that compliment each other with their unique skills.
Every character brings two skills to the table, a special technique and a support skill (passive party bonuses). The support skill utilizes magic points (MP), and the special technique consumes the ST gauge. Performing special techniques also fills up the Mega Spirit Magic gauge (for performing an ultimate attack).
Quest mode
Quest mode is where your search for the Mana Sword takes place. Each part of the story is split into chapters, focusing on an Echo (memories that re-tell past events and worlds). This mode provides an exciting opportunity to encounter familiar and new faces during your Mana adventures.
Every chapter breaks into Story (dialogue-filled segments), Quest (battle and limited roaming), and Battles (monster waves and bosses). Anything involving a battle consumes stamina. One stamina point is recovered every 5 minutes.
Acquiring more characters
Creating your dream team takes time and luck, as Echoes of Mana is a gacha game. If you invest in every character you pick up, your resources will run dry, thus leaving you to spend most of your time playing catch up by grinding. So it’s not a smart move to invest in everyone (even though it’s tempting). We recommend you acquire and focus on strengthening a few characters at a time.
Categorized by rarity
Characters are categorized by rarity. Rarity refers to how many stars a character possesses. The fewer stars displayed on your character card, the lower your level cap. Once you’ve hit your character’s cap, it stops gaining levels (which potentially means they remain weak as the game’s difficulty raises). There are methods to boost your character’s rarity and level cap, discussed in today’s guide under the ‘Upgrading your party and gear’ section.
Harvesting fruit
Acquiring new characters uses Spirit Crystals. You can perform single pulls or 10x-pulls (Summon x1 or Summon x10). Summoning or pulling is referred to as harvesting in this game. Always harvest in bulks of 10 to ensure a 3-star or higher ally/Memory Gem on your 10th pull.
Tip: If you’re lucky enough to unlock a 4-star Ally-Echo Harvest Ticket, use it to guarantee yourself a 4-star character!
Every time you harvest, you obtain Trade Points. Gather enough points to acquire a 4-star character of your choice. Beware that some harvest banners are only offered for a limited time, so you’ll have to redeem any featured 4-stars during that period.
Putting together a party
With a vast cast of characters to choose from, putting together a party can get complicated. Consider these factors when making your party:
- Each character has an equipped weapon type. The weapon type is displayed on the ally’s stats screen.
- Weapon types include boomerang, sword, staff, polearm, flail, glove, axe, knife, and bow. Your weapon type determines your fighting style, such as a front-line fighter (short-range melee units) or a back-line fighter/supporter (ranged characters and mages).
- Party pairings are useful for unlocking bonuses like stat boosts. Consider the following when choosing pairs: same element for resonance, synergy with equipped Memory Gem, and complementary fighting style.
- Every character is paired with an element. Elements decide the nature of your skills. Your character’s element is found on the ally’s stats screen.
- Elements are light, fire, dark, water, wind, earth, moon, and wood. Your elements determine your matchups against other elements/monsters.
- Light opposes dark
- Fire opposes water
- Dark opposes light
- Water opposes fire
- Wind opposes earth
- Earth opposes wind
- Moon opposes wood
- Wood opposes moon
Tip: Don’t forget the Change Strategy button on your ally’s status screen. Choosing a strategy determines the AI behavior in battle, making it significantly easier to manage one character at a time. It’s a good idea to have your supportive units focus on ‘Support’ and ‘Healer’ tactics.
Expect to change your party on the fly depending on the content you’re currently working on and the monster’s elemental types you anticipate encountering. Maintain your party preset options to your advantage to cut down on creating a new party every time you need to switch up strategies.
How to create and switch your party
- Tap on Party on the main menu to access your party.
- Use the arrows (left and right) to toggle between your party sets. Tap on the right arrow to switch to ‘Party 2.’
- Tap on an empty icon (plus sign) to add characters to your party. You can swap characters anytime by tapping on their character profile. Any added or swapped characters are automatically saved to ‘Party 2.’
Upgrading your party and gear
You’ll hit a roadblock quickly if you don’t maintain your characters, gear, and Mana Gems. Here’s a breakdown of what upgrading systems you can expect to incorporate into your gameplay. Remember, everything has a Lucre and material cost, so plan accordingly!
Skills and levels
You can perform three main upgrades directly affecting your character’s skills and level cap. (1) Ascending an ally affects the level cap and unlocks a new mana board. (2) Unleashing an ally, levels up skills and special techniques. (3) Awakening an ally, which raises their rarity (stars) and level cap.
How to ascend an ally
- Tap on Ally and select a character to ascend.
- Scroll to the last tab on the right (two arrows and three stars) and tap on it.
- Tap on Ascend and select the available material to use.
- Tap Ascend > Ascend (confirm upgrade) > Close. Your character has now gained a star and has a raised level cap/new mana board.
How to unleash an ally
Leveling
Character leveling can happen naturally by having them in your party, or you can manually give out experience points. Experience points are delegated through Experience Tomes, which are accessed in the ‘Ally’ menu.
How to level up an ally using an Experience Tome
- Tap on Ally and select a character to level up.
- Scroll to the second tab on the right (the icon with two arrows pointing up) and tap on it.
- Using the plus and minus buttons, pick how many Experience Tomes to use. An Experience Tome is separated into sizes: Small (S), Medium (M), and Large (L). The larger the Experience Tome, the more experience you’ll gain. Choose wisely.
- After determining the size of the Experience Tome you’d like to use, tap upgrade.
Tip: Many upgrades require combining duplicate characters (or characters in the same rarity), be ready to harvest in bulk to keep up with this upgrade system. The same rule of thumb applies when it comes to upgrading Memory Gems (your equipped passives and party stat bonuses).
Mana boards
You can upgrade your character’s stats directly after you’ve unlocked mana boards in Chapter 2. You’ll need the corresponding element medal to upgrade your selected stat. Medals can be obtained as rewards in the story chapters or by participating in training (uses Stamina).
Note: Not all medals are obtained in the Training tab. You’ll have to visit the shop to trade in other medals instead.
Mana board stats:
- HP: Your hit points, I.E., your character’s health.
- MP: Your character’s magic points, necessary for magic attacks.
- STR: Relates to your character’s strength.
- CON: Refers to your character’s constitution (similar to defense).
- INT: Intelligence correlates to your character’s magic output.
- SPR: Spirit covers your character’s supportive magic.
- LCK: And luck indicates your character’s luck level.
Gear
Each character’s ability to equip gear doesn’t unlock until Chapter 2. You’re provided six slots to equip gear. In order to equip gear, select a character on the Ally page, then tap on Equip Gear at the bottom of the status page.
Upgrade your gear at the Blacksmith or by tapping on the gear page. Each gear piece offers a ‘Main Stat’ and ‘Bonus Stats.’ By leveling up your gear, you acquire more stats. Tip: Equipping gear from the same set activates a set stat bonus.
All gear contains a level cap based on its rarity. You can raise the rarity of your gear in the same way you upgrade characters.
To obtain more gear, you can visit the Gear Dungeon within the Training tab. Note: Clear rewards in the Quest mode also drop gear.
Traversing Echoes of Mana
After using our guide as a handy map to navigate your way through Echoes of Mana, you should be well-equipped to tackle your quest to save the Mana Tree.
It’s not every day Square Enix releases an optimized free-to-play mobile game using one of its classic IPs, so you might as well check it out on release by grabbing the game through the Play Store widget below. If the wait is too long, check our hands-on preview if you’d like to view more content.
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