Each character has unique weapons that grant stats and sometimes alter their mechanic. Upgrading the ones that fit your build — rather than whatever's newest — keeps your damage on curve through the harder acts.
Gearing up
- Weapons scale with stats and can carry passive effects — pick ones that match your plan.
- Upgrade materials come from exploration and tougher Nevrons.
- Some weapons lean into a character's mechanic (stances, Gradient, Stains) — build around them.
- Keep gear current per act; the difficulty ramps steadily.
Weapon strategy
- Read a weapon's scaling before upgrading — invest in the stat your build already leans on.
- Prefer weapons whose passive amplifies your mechanic (e.g. stance or Foretell synergy).
- Don't spread upgrade materials thin; commit to one weapon per character you actually use.
- Re-check your gear each act — a small upgrade often outpaces a flashy new drop.
How scaling works
- Each weapon scales with one or two attributes — match your level-up points to it.
- A weapon whose passive feeds your mechanic beats a higher-number one that doesn't.
- Upgrade materials are limited, so commit to one weapon per used character.
- Re-check scaling when you swap weapons — your stat allocation should follow the weapon.
The upgrade ladder, and why it ends at 33
Weapons go to level 33 — the game keeps the number even here. Each stretch
of that ladder needs a different Chroma Catalyst, and the last level needs its own.
| Catalyst | Takes you to |
|---|---|
| Chroma Catalyst | Level 3 |
| Polished Chroma Catalyst | Level 9 |
| Resplendent Chroma Catalyst | Level 19 |
| Grandiose Chroma Catalyst | Level 32 |
| Perfect Chroma Catalyst | Level 33 — one per weapon |
One weapon from level 1 to 33 costs 3 Chroma, 12 Polished, 27 Resplendent, 35
Grandiose and 1 Perfect. That is the number that should decide your build: maxing a weapon is a serious
investment, and spreading catalysts across six characters’ favourites leaves all of them mid-ladder.
The letter grades move — that is the part people miss
Scaling runs from D to S, and each weapon scales off only the one or two
attributes it lists. What is not obvious is that the grade itself improves as the weapon levels.
| A weapon whose base grade is C | Becomes |
|---|---|
| Level 4 | B |
| Level 20 | A |
| Level 33 | S |
So a C-grade weapon you like is not a dead end. Judge a weapon by its passive and
by which attribute it scales with — the letter is a function of investment. Point your levels at that attribute:
the definitions are on the attributes page, and a
Recoat undoes the allocation if you change weapon later.
Still to verify
Cross-checked on 5 September 2026 against Game8 and KeenGamer — which agree on the level-33 ceiling and the five-tier catalyst ladder and its thresholds — and re-checked on 3 October 2026 against Fextralife's per-weapon upgrade tables, which give the catalyst count per level (3/12/27/35/1 in total) and the scaling grade stepping up at levels 4, 20 and 33. One source instead describes a three-tier ladder ending in a «Prismatic» catalyst; the five-tier version above is the one whose level numbers the other sources corroborate. What is still unverified is the only thing reading cannot settle — nobody here has played it.