Wuthering Waves’ Beginner’s Choice Convene allows players to target a specific standard 5 Star character. The 5 Star options include Jianxin, Calcharo, Verina, Lingyang, and Encore. Without further ado, let’s take a look at how Beginner’s Choice Convene works and the best 5 Star character to select.

What Is Beginner’s Choice Convene?

The Beginner’s Choice Convene is a one-time banner that allows players to target a specific standard 5 Star character, guaranteed after 80 pulls. This option unlocks after players complete the Novice Convene, which guarantees a random standard 5 Star character after 50 discounted pulls. Novice Convene becomes available during the main quest ‘First Resonance’. Fortunately, players are given enough free currency, Lustrous Tides, to complete both Convenes by simply playing the game and progressing through the story.

Additionally, players were gifted a Voucher of Reciprocal Tides, via in-game mail, allowing one free standard 5 Star character to be redeemed from a special Beginner’s Choice Convene. The voucher becomes available to use even before Novice Convene is completed and is valid until May 21, 2025. This means players are essentially given three standard 5 Star characters for free to aid in their journey through Solaris-3. It is recommended to complete Novice Convene first, since it is random, and any other Featured Convene pulls before using the voucher to avoid any unwanted duplicates.

Jianxin

Jianxin is a versatile Aero Gauntlet unit capable of dealing out damage, crowd control, shielding, healing, and buffing. While she is most often played as a support, Jianxin can also adequately perform as a main damage dealer or sub-DPS.

The main draw for Jianxin is the shielding and healing provided by her Forte Circuit, Primordial Chi Spiral, which can be activated by holding Heavy Attack. While channeling Primordial Chi Spiral, Jianxin drains her Forte Circuit to deal AoE damage around her and reduce the damage she takes. Jianxin can reach four different stages depending on the amount of Forte Circuit consumed, providing increasing amounts of shield and damage. The shield persists through character swaps and provides healing every few seconds as long as it holds.

Unfortunately, regardless of how long Primordial Chi Spiral is channeled, when the Heavy Attack is canceled, the entirety of the Forte Circuit is depleted. Channeling one stage costs the same amount of Forte Circuit as four Stages. Another downside to this ability is the long field time, which can be less than ideal when playing her as a support or sub-DPS

Jianxin’s Resonance Skill is another highlight of her kit as it allows her to enter Parry Stance, preventing incoming damage and counter attacking instantly. Her Resonance Liberation provides a large AoE wind field that continuously deals damage and pulls in smaller enemies. This is one of the best crowd control abilities currently in the game and extremely useful for gathering spread-out enemies. Jianxin’s Intro Skill and Basic Attack also slightly pull smaller enemies in range, while her Outro Skill grants the next character a damage buff to their Resonance Liberation.

Overall Jianxin is a decent pickup for newer players to action games due to her ease of use and multirole toolkit. However, Jianxin falls victim to the age old ‘jack of all trades, master of none’. Her damage multipliers are relatively lower than other main damage dealers, while her sub-DPS and support roles come with certain sacrifices. The long field time requirements and the suboptimal energy regeneration for Concerto and Resonance Energy hinder her potential at the highest level of content. While she is by no means a bad character, Calcharo, Verina, and Encore all perform better in their respective roles, which calls into question Jianxin’s longevity in the game.

Calcharo

Calcharo is an Electro Broadblade unit and a damage dealer with extremely high player skill expression. Along with a high skill floor and ceiling, Calcharo’s damage potential is also exceptional. Much of Calcharo’s difficulty revolves around precise timing and animation canceling to get the best out of this kit.

Calcharo’s rotation centers on his 3-gauge Forte Circuit, which can be filled with each activation of his Resonance Skill. Upon filling three gauges, his Heavy Attack consumes them to perform an enhanced version called ‘Mercy’. His Resonance Liberation replaces the Forte Circuit with a 5-gauge version and enhances his Basic Attacks, allowing them to fill a gauge with each attack. After reaching 5 gauges, his next Basic Attack becomes an enhanced Heavy Attack called ‘Death Messenger’.

The goal is to fit in three Death Messengers during the duration of his Resonance Liberation to reach his maximum potential. This can be achieved through various animation canceling with Dodge and character swaps.

Calcharo is an extremely good pickup for those that require a main DPS and doubly so for skilled players that enjoy a rewarding challenge. His Resonance Chain is not necessary for him to excel, but Sequence Node 1 (S1) is a decent quality of life option. For newer players that want an easier DPS to pilot, Encore may be a better choice.

Verina

Verina is a Spectro Rectifier unit and currently the best support in the game, providing various buffs and heals, and a cheat death for her teammates. Her kit is strong and easy to use while not requiring much field time, allowing her to fit in with all the top team compositions. Furthermore, Verina’s healing scales off her ATK, allowing her to deal respectable damage as a support.

Verina heals through several ways. First, her Resonance Liberation deals AoE damage and heals all party members, while marking enemies hit with a ‘Photosynthesis Mark’. Whenever party members deal damage to marked enemies, Verina also deals damage to the target and heals the active character. Secondly, Verina’s Heavy Attack heals all party members whenever it consumes a charge of Forte Circuit. She can hold up to four charges and regenerates a charge for each Basic Attack 5, Resonance Skill, or Intro Skill hit. Lastly, her Outro Skill provides a six second healing over time for the character that swaps in.

In addition to the healing, Verina’s Outro Skill also provides a 15% damage increase to all party members for 30 seconds. This is an extremely strong buff with a very high uptime. Another buff that Verina provides is a 20% increase to the party's ATK after casting an enhanced Heavy Attack, enhanced mid-air Heavy Attack, Resonance Liberation, or Outro Skill.

While Verina’s S1 is negligible, her S2 provides some quality of life improvements to her Forte Circuit and Concerto Energy. Furthermore, S4 boosts the Spectro damage of her party members.

Verina is arguably the best choice among the five due to her utility and flexibility. With gacha games generally following similar trajectories, good supports often have incredible longevity. Damage dealers often lack the staying power to keep up with increasing end-game difficulty and eventual power creep of newer units.

Lingyang

Lingyang is a Glacio Gauntlet unit with a unique playstyle that involves temporary aerial combat. His kit is simple to pick up for novice players yet contains plenty of depth for maximizing damage.

The main gist of Lingyang’s rotation revolves around weaving enhanced Resonance Skills with his Basic Attack 3, 4, and 5. Successfully hitting an enhanced Resonance Skill, followed by a Basic Attack, will allow Lingyan to start his next Basic Attack cycle with the third part, persisting even through character swaps.

The bulk of Lingyang’s damage comes from activating his Forte Circuit during his Resonance Liberation duration. When his Forte Circuit is full, a Heavy Attack puts Lingyang in the Striding Lion state, changing his Basic Attacks and Resonance Skill while also allowing him to fight in mid-air. Additionally, Lingyang’s Resonance Liberation grants increased Glacio damage and Striding Lion duration.

Although Lingyang deals decent damage when played well, his overall output still falls short of characters like Calcharo and Encore. His aerial combat, while fun, can also be a hindrance for some, as the character can become harder to control. In combination with different enemy hitboxes and a buggy camera system, Liangyang’s aerial ability can make it challenging to land and dodge attacks.

In terms of damage performance, there is no compelling reason to pick Lingyang over Calcharo or Encore. However, for players seeking an interesting and unique playstyle, Lingyang has plenty to offer.

Encore

Encore is a Fusion Rectifier damage dealer that possesses both ranged and melee Basic Attacks. Her playstyle is very easy to pick up for new players while also providing comparable damage output to Calcharo during her Resonance Liberation.

The majority of Encore’s damage profile lies with her Basic Attacks during Resonance Liberation, which swaps her normal ranged version for an enhanced melee variant. Additionally, her Resonance Skill, Heavy Attack, and Forte Circuit are also replaced.

Encore’s Forte Circuit can be activated by her Heavy Attack once the gauge is filled up to deal considerable Fusion damage. However, this ability has an incredibly long cast time, making it risky and suboptimal to cast outside of her Resonance Liberation. The best time to cast Encore’s Forte Circuit is right before her Resonance Liberation ends, allowing the player to cancel the cast time animation with a character swap.

While Encore is incredibly strong during her Resonance Liberation, her Basic Attacks outside of it are considerably weaker and provide no parry capabilities. To cover for this downtime, players can utilize frequent character swaps with a strong on-field sub-DPS like Sanhua, who additionally provides Basic Attack buffs for Encore, or another main DPS like Rover (Havoc).

Encore is a strong DPS choice and a relatively easier unit to play than Calcharo and Lingyang. Despite her main downside, players have access to free characters that can aid her efficiently, like Sanhua, Rover, and Yangyang.

Conclusion

For most players, Verina will be the best and safest option in terms of power and longevity. However, the optimal choice depends on what each player has received from the Novice Convene and any Featured Convene pulls. Calcharo and Encore are excellent options for those needing a damage dealer. Keep in mind that the end-game Tower of Adversity requires three teams, meaning it will take a very long time before Verina becomes replaceable, if she ever will be.