You already know the Echo system. Five Echoes, a Cost budget of 12, one Sonata for the set bonus. If any of that is fuzzy, the full Echo guide is the primer. This is the next layer down, the one that decides whether a Resonator hits like a truck or like a wet towel: which stats go where. Two players can run the same five Echoes and the same Sonata and see a 40 percent damage gap purely from main stat and substat choices. Here is how to be on the right side of that gap.
The one rule that governs everything
Your Cost budget forces a shape: 4 + 3 + 3 + 1 + 1. That gives you exactly five main stats to assign, and only three of them are yours to choose freely (the 4-cost and the two 3-cost slots carry the meaningful picks; the two 1-cost slots are almost always ATK%). Echo main stats are fixed when the Echo drops, so "choosing" a main stat really means farming until the right Sonata drops on an Echo with the right main stat. Know the target before you farm, or you will tune a perfectly good Echo you should never have kept.
Main stats, slot by slot
The 4-Cost slot (your biggest single stat)
This is where most of your ceiling lives. For a damage carry, the choice is between CRIT Rate and CRIT DMG, and the answer depends on what your weapon and Resonator passives already give you. Whichever side of the crit ratio you are short on, that is the 4-Cost main stat you farm for.
- Weapon or kit already loaded with CRIT DMG? Take a CRIT Rate 4-Cost.
- Weapon gives CRIT Rate? Take a CRIT DMG 4-Cost.
- Building a dedicated healer? Take a Healing Bonus 4-Cost instead, and stop reading the crit section.
The two 3-Cost slots (element and rotation)
Standard damage carries want an elemental DMG bonus matching their damage type on at least one 3-Cost, and frequently on both. The exception is Energy Regen, covered below: if your Resonator cannot fire its Resonance Liberation on rotation, one 3-Cost becomes an Energy Regen main stat until the problem is solved. A pure buffer or debuffer who does no personal damage often runs Energy Regen on both 3-Cost slots and lives entirely on uptime.
The two 1-Cost slots (the boring, correct answer)
ATK% on both, in almost every build. HP% and DEF% 1-Cost Echoes exist for the handful of Resonators who scale off those pools, but if you are unsure, ATK% is the safe default. Flat HP, ATK, and DEF main stats on a 1-Cost are a trap; skip them.
Here is the whole thing as a cheat sheet:
| Slot | Damage carry | Healer | Buffer / debuffer |
|---|---|---|---|
| 4-Cost | CRIT Rate or CRIT DMG (fix the ratio) | Healing Bonus | CRIT if it does side damage, else ER |
| 3-Cost | Elemental DMG bonus | ATK% or Energy Regen | Energy Regen |
| 3-Cost | Elemental DMG bonus or ATK% | Energy Regen | Energy Regen |
| 1-Cost | ATK% | ATK% or HP% | ATK% |
| 1-Cost | ATK% | ATK% or HP% | ATK% |
The CRIT ratio, and why piling CRIT DMG fails
Crit only pays off when Rate and DMG rise together. Aim for roughly a 1:2 ratio, landing near 70 percent CRIT Rate with the matching CRIT DMG once weapon, Echoes, and passives are all counted. A build sitting at 45 percent Rate and a mountain of CRIT DMG is leaking damage on every non-crit hit, which is most of them. When you tune substats, treat the ratio as a target you are steering toward, not two numbers you maximize independently.
Substat tuning order
Every Echo unlocks up to five substats as you feed it Tuners and Echo XP, and the roll values are random. Tune in this priority for a damage carry, stopping to reassess after each unlock:
- CRIT Rate and CRIT DMG until your ratio is on target.
- ATK% (the flat ATK substat is far weaker; prefer the percentage).
- Your Resonator's skill-type DMG substat (Basic Attack, Heavy Attack, Resonance Skill, or Resonance Liberation DMG) matching where its damage actually comes from.
- Energy Regen, only if you are still short of your rotation breakpoint.
A practical rule for when to stop investing in an Echo: if the first two substats roll into stats you cannot use (double DEF, HP on an ATK carry), cut your losses early rather than dumping Tuners chasing a turnaround. Tuners are the real bottleneck, and the Echo farming guide plus a healthy Data Bank level are what keep them flowing.
Energy Regen breakpoints, explained without the spreadsheet
Energy Regen (ER) is the most misunderstood stat in the game. It does not increase your damage directly. What it does is guarantee your Resonator has enough Concerto and energy to fire its Resonance Liberation every rotation instead of every other one, and a Liberation that lands on time is often a huge chunk of a character's total output.
The catch is that the right amount of ER is a breakpoint, not a slider. Below it, you drop Liberations and your damage falls off a cliff. Above it, every extra point of ER is wasted stat budget that should have been CRIT or ATK. Your exact number depends on the Resonator, the weapon, and how clean your Concerto and energy rotation is. The workflow that never fails:
- Build the character with no forced ER first.
- Run your rotation in the training room or a Tower of Adversity floor.
- If the Liberation is ever unavailable when your rotation calls for it, add ER (substats first, then a 3-Cost main stat) until it is always ready.
- The moment it is reliably ready, stop. That is your breakpoint.
Sub-DPS and supports who swap in, dump a Liberation, and swap out usually need noticeably more ER than a main carry who stays on field building energy the whole time.
Putting it together: a worked example
Say you are gearing a Fusion main carry whose signature weapon already grants CRIT Rate.
- 4-Cost: CRIT DMG main (because the weapon covers Rate).
- 3-Cost x2: Fusion DMG bonus on both.
- 1-Cost x2: ATK% on both.
- Substats: CRIT Rate first to balance the ratio the weapon started, then ATK%, then the Resonator's main skill-type DMG, and only enough ER to keep the Liberation on time.
Change the weapon to one that gives CRIT DMG and the whole plan flips: the 4-Cost becomes CRIT Rate, and your substats chase CRIT DMG first. Everything downstream of the weapon reads off the same logic.
Next steps
Stats are only worth farming once you know the Resonator is worth building. Sort that with the tier list and, for the weapon side of the equation, the Sequences and weapon investment guide. When you are ready to grind, the material farming priority guide keeps your Waveplate pointed at the right targets, and the current banners tell you who is worth saving for next.
Nail the main stats before you spend a single Tuner, keep the crit ratio honest, and treat Energy Regen as a threshold you clear once and never over-pay for. That is the whole game of Echo gearing.
