Beginner Guide
Sword X Staff is an Idle RPG with gacha elements, in which you take your customizable character on adventures through various regions, summoning skills, pets, and relics along the way to make yourself ever more powerful!
The game features auto-battling and no manual control of your character during fights, in PVE and in PVP. PVE modes range from Adventure (story) and co-op Dungeons, to the well-known Tower climbing modes, as well as Raid Bosses, both Solo and in groups. For PVP, there is a Solo Arena, but also a 3v3 Tournament mode! There’s also a Guild system where you can form communities with like-minded players and friends, slowly building your headquarters and getting stronger together.
As with most idle games, expect the game to take up a lot of time early on with all its content unlocking and few restrictions limiting the player, afterwards shortening to anywhere between 15-30 minutes to multiple hours daily, depending on the events and how much exploration you’re up to! Exploration will start to be frequently gated by Account level after you’ve progressed far enough into the 2nd region, and there’s no obligation to rush through it or spend hours trying to RNG your way through a tough fight, so feel free to take your time!
Characters Classes
In Sword X Staff, each player possesses a single character slot per server, so everything is done with the same character from beginning to end. You’ll get to customize your Character for free at the start (you can later on buy an item to change your appearance with Dawnium, the main currency of the game), choosing a unique name for them, and then through the tutorial, you’ll get to pick your first Tier 1 Class, Warrior or Mage. The main way to get skills for your class will be through the gacha banners, namely the Standard and Premium banners, which both feature skills of your selected class.
So what’s up with those Tiers for the classes? Sword X Staff’s Class system follows a model of progressively ranking up through your chosen Class Path, starting at Tier 1 (T1) and going up over time, with new Tiers unlocking alongside the new seasons. We’ll be getting access to T1-3 at launch, while servers like TW are already progressing through T7 and beyond!
Each T1 Class will branch out into 2 upon unlocking T2, and then each T2 will follow a single Path, with each Class offering different styles of gameplay, both within the Class and compared to other Paths:
The Warrior will either become a Knight, a powerful Sword and shield-wielding protector specialized in getting hit and hitting back even harder, or the Duelist, whose offensive power in close range will make quick work of anyone standing too close!
The Mage will have to choose between the Sage Path, the Healing specialist who’ll rely on summons and damage over time (DoT) to whittle down their foes and keep their team in top shape, or they can opt to become a Sorcerer, a powerful AoE Specialist whose elemental magic will vaporize both swarms of enemies and Big bosses alike!
For more info on each Class Path and what they offer, check out our Classes and Roles guide here:
Important! In the Sword X Staff community, each Class Path is usually referred to by its T2 name, regardless of the maximum Tier unlocked. You’ll often see any Tier of Duelist be called the T2 or T3 Duelist, for example, as the main difference between the tiers is the new set of skills unlocked, with little to no changes to the role of the Class.
Rerolling
Rerolling is an age-old practice of gacha games, but how does it work in Sword X Staff, and is it worth it?
The short answer: If you want to play with friends, rerolling is not worth it.
The long answer, taken from our Reroll guide: Each server has a limited capacity! Following a ‘first-come, first-served’ model, you will not be able to play with your friends/community in co-op content if you end up on different servers due to rerolling. In such cases, rerolling is definitely not worth it.
Now, if that doesn’t concern you, then Rerolling itself is a pretty good way to kickstart your progress during the first few days/couple of weeks. Some Skills are formidable early on, most notably the AoE skills. In contrast, others like the Charms (passive skills) offer either great boosts to survivability or remain key components of higher Tier builds, and so securing them early on can be worth the time spent.
Speaking of time, you’ll be looking at about 15-20 minutes per reroll, with enough pulls to get pretty close to the pity. For more exhaustive info on the rerolling process and what to look for specifically, check out our Reroll Guide here:
Not rerolling is also perfectly fine, as you’ll be showered in hundreds of pulls within the first week of play, and obtaining all T1 skills will only be a matter of time, as all the skills from unlocked Tiers remain present in the Standard gacha.
Gacha
So what’s the Gacha like in Sword X Staff? In essence, aside from Gear, which is obtained through the Cart, the Adventure, and the Dungeons, almost all of your power is unlocked through diverse Gachas:
Skills are obtained from the Standard and Premium Gachas. Obtaining enough skills of each Tier is mandatory to unlock the next Tier.
Fantomons, often called Pets, are obtained from their own Fantomon Gacha. These little critters provide both Passive Skills and Stats, as well as unique active Skills to complement your playstyle and help you in battle.
Relics, a collection-based system rewarding the player with a wide range of passive stats, have their own Relic Gacha.
There’s also a Gacha for various miscellaneous items, like upgrade materials and pull currency, which is the Affection Gacha, where you’ll spend your friend tokens.
All in all, the game is generous with pulls for all of the above banners, even though getting duplicates is also a major aspect of increasing your Power.
For a more thorough breakdown of all the banners, please check out our Gacha System here:
Seasons
Sword X Staff uses a Seasonal system to roll out their bigger patches, notably including new Tiers, Regions to explore, and all the content related to it, like new Companions, Gear and Bosses, etc. Overall, you can simply treat a new Season as a new Expansion added to the game. The first Season is especially short, acting as an introduction to the various systems and giving the player some time to become familiar with the game. Expect it to last about 1 month, while the following Seasons will hover around 2-3 months each.
Each Season comes with certain elements of progression being reset, but fear not: the vast majority of your valuable items and investments carry over from one season to the next. For those bothered by the idea that you’ll never make meaningful progress due to the recurring resets, here’s another critical piece of information: the Account Level at which the Seasonal effects/resets take effect increases after a reset. The first one is at Acc lvl 100, but season 2 pushes the floor to Acc lvl 130. This floor goes up with every new Season, so you are guaranteed to always feel stronger over time. It’s only that the powerspikes between seasons aren’t completely uncontrolled, ensuring a more uniform feeling of progression.
Let’s break down what is reset and what isn’t, by using the values of the first Season as a base for the explanation:
Is reset:
Fantomons with levels above 100 are brought back down to 100 at the start of a new season.
Account level above 100 goes back to 100.
Skills above level 100 also go back down to 100.
Relics that have been upgraded above +10 are set back to +10.
Gear Slots upgraded above level 100 also go back to 100. In addition, Gear comes with a natural “Gear Level”, which determines its Base Stats, before your Gear Slot upgrades it. Any Gear with a Gear Level above 100 is automatically scaled down into a natural Level 100 Gear, dramatically reducing its Base Stats.
The Gear reductions are especially noticeable, as most of your Total Power (TP) comes from Gear, greatly influencing every main and substat.
Is not reset:
Any of the above is entirely unaffected by the seasonal reset before going past level 100 or +10 for the Relics.
Skills obtained, alongside their Dupes, are not touched.
Fantomons obtained, alongside their Dupes and Aptitudes, are not touched.
Relics obtained, alongside their Dupes, are not touched.
One-time buffs received from Food are not removed.
Companions’ Affinity levels are not touched.
Guild buffs are not reset.
The list goes on, but by default, consider that everything that is a one-time buff or is acquired through the Gachas is not reset.
You can tell if an item is in the Seasonal range by its color: anything in Green is affected by a Seasonal Buff and will be reset back down to the cap of the season. In this picture, the left staff is fully below the Seasonal reset range, meanwhile the right staff’s level is green, meaning it will go down to the seasonal floor upon reset (in this case lvl100). The player’s Slot upgrade is not green, so that part won’t be subject to the reset if he doesn’t upgrade it further. Set effects can also be affected, as they tend to give better bonuses during the season they’re acquired.
So why invest in the ‘seasonal only’ stuff if it’s going to get reset? Well, first of all, the endgame content will often require you to keep pushing your TP higher, or you won’t be able to engage with it, and secondly, a Seasonal Score is given to you at the end of each Season, representing your overall progress, how strong you are, etc. Then, a certain number of Primostars are handed to you to spend them in a shop where Permanent Buffs are available for sale. The Primostar is a unique currency that is only obtainable from the Seasonal Score. All the permanent acquisitions, the slowly increasing Account level cap, on top of the Permanent Buffs acquired in this Shop, eventually result in your Character growing stronger over time through each Season, without going into exponentially more ridiculous power levels too quickly.
Cart
The Cart is your main way of getting resources passively. Its first few resources are unlocked during the tutorial, with more progressively added as your Account level goes up. It includes Rolla (Gold), Wood, Stone, Raw Ore, Battle Essence, Gear, Chrono Sand and finally Basic Treats.
Each of those resources, except Gear, has its own production level, which can be raised independently by spending a mix of Rolla, Wood, and Stone. The level cap for each resource is set by your Blessing Level, which increases by one for every Goddess Statue you activate. Because each resource isn’t worth the same, and some can be acquired more easily than others, it is advised to focus more on some than others. Here’s our priority list, in order of most important to least important:
Wood and Stone are necessary to upgrade everything, so make them your highest priority, keeping them at a higher level than the rest.
Chrono Sand and Raw Ore are always in high demand; they will always have a high priority.
Rolla is good, and if you’re interested in buying out the shop + refreshing it every day, its priority can go up or down according to how much of it you spend.
Battle Essence and Basic Treats are not only available from multiple sources, but they also don’t give as much power as the other resources.
Although there are multiple viable strategies, we prefer to recommend maximizing the Wood and Stone production as long as you’re fine with improving your account in a slow and steady manner. Some other strategies, like focusing entirely on Raw Ore (and Stone to improve its level) or Chrono Sand (and Wood for the same reason), are catered to players who know exactly what they want and are willing to invest more than just time into the game to compete. In the end, unless you’re hell-bent on going down an obscure and unadvisable path like focusing on Treats and Battle essence, you’ll still do just fine at the very least, so no worries.
Pets (Fantomon)
Fantomons, that we regularly call Pets, are small companions of different rarities and roles who provide multiple boosts to your character, ranging from passive stat increases to active and passive skills used in battle. The Fantomon gacha opens at Account level 51, and with it, you’ll obtain Pets and upgrade materials for them. Upon getting your first few Fantomons, you'll experience a big jump in power, however as time goes on, Fantomons will have less impact on your direct power, even though their skills and aptitudes will always remain important.
The active Fantomon Lineup, with the deployed Fantomon joining you in battle and the sub-mons sharing part of their stats.
For more info on Fantomons, check out our guide here:
Relics
Relics are unlocked at Account level 30, and are a great source of passive bonuses, with the classic ATK/DEF/HP, but also including effects such as DMG Boost/RES, or even increased EXP/dungeon drop rates.
What are Relics?
Relics are collectible set items that come in different rarities and elements, each providing stats as you collect and upgrade them, but also offering powerful set bonuses when you manage to assemble a full set.
Here’s the quick and dirty to get you started:
Each Zone in the adventure mode, other than the tutorial, has its own batch of Relics.
Each batch of Relics features sets, divided into Elements (Wind, Fire, Light, etc).
Each Element has multiple Sets, composed of a single Rarity: a set for Rare Relics, one for Epics, etc. Mythic Relics follow a different format of Sets, with the sets being divided between 2 Regions (so 2 Mythic Relics of one Set in one Region, and the other 2 in the next Region).
Collecting a full Set grants extra Bonuses.
Upgrading the Relics with Shards improves the Stats they give passively.
Upgrading a full Set with Shards unlocks more Set Bonuses.
On top of that, keep in mind that Relics’ buffs and sets are collection-based. You do not need to equip a full set of Relics to activate their bonuses, nor do you need to equip a Relic to get its passive stats. What you do get from equipping the relics are small additional bonuses, with the higher rarities providing a little more boost.
How are the Relics upgraded?
Relic Slots require Chrono Sand and Rolla to be upgraded, each level increasing in cost. The levels of unequipped Relics are also adjusted to be the same as the lowest Slot level of the corresponding Element. For this reason, it’s important to level up equally all the Slots of your “main” Elements, meaning those that either cater to your Elemental Damage or those you have the most relics of.
Why mention Elemental Damage?
In Sword X Staff, there exists a “Mastery” stat, namely physical mastery and elemental mastery. These stats increase the damage of your attacks of the corresponding element, and your Elemental Affinity plays a decisive role in improving your elemental damage. Elemental Affinity is improved by getting/upgrading Relics of each Element, which is why it’s a good idea to focus on your preferred Element first before diversifying your investments.
Physical Mastery is very slightly improved by each Elemental Affinity, so if you’re using almost exclusively physical attacks, you can level up any and all Elements.
Don’t forget that any Relic Slot upgraded beyond +10 eventually goes back down to +10 at the start of every new Season.
Companions
Companions are significant NPCs you meet on your journey and whom you’ll befriend through story progression or completing Commissions (a type of Daily Mission). Once befriended, a Companion will give you extra Stats passively, and you’ll be able to level up their affection for you by giving them gifts, which will grant bigger bonuses. Gifts are obtained through various means, including events, shops, missions, and the Affection Gacha, among others.
Companions also come in different rarities, with some having Gold outlines; those give higher Stats than average, so focus on them first. Different types of buffs are also given by Companions; you can check what they provide on their info pages in-game by clicking the small exclamation mark next to their Stats. It’s highly recommended to prioritize Crit-giving Companions for DPS Classes, and Block-giving ones for Knights. Sages are fine for building any kind. With lvl20, 50, 70, and 100 giving better Stats (Crit/Block, DMG Increase/Reduction, etc.), it’s best if you hyperfocus on a few key Companions before spreading your resources too wide. As a rule of thumb, select one Companion for each Gift type and stick to them until level 50/70.
Upon reaching certain milestones in your affection level, Companions will have small conversations with you and will give you some free resources like Stellatie.
Equipment
Equipment, or Gear, is acquired in a few ways: exploring a Region, over time through the Cart, and from Daily Dungeons, which are the main ways to get significant Equipment upgrades, thanks to the presence of Mythic rarity Equipment (and later on, even higher rarities). You can also buy Shards/Gear from other players at the Trading/Auction Houses, but they usually cost Paid Currency (Luminium).
Each Equipment Slot comes with fixed Main Stats, like ATK for weapons and HP for armors. There is also a Secondary Stat, which can vary among a few options determined by the type of Equipment (you can get more ATK, or Mastery on a Weapon, for example). Equipments also come with a bunch of Substats, the quantities and qualities of which depend on the item’s rarity. Stats play a massive role in the strength of your character, and getting the most relevant Stats for your Class is of utmost importance later on. In the first 2 Regions, however, it’s okay to pick the Equipment that gives you the higher Total Power (TP), considering how often you’ll be changing it as you blaze through the Account levels.
When you “upgrade” an Equipment, what you’re actually upgrading is the Slot it belongs to. That means there is never a worry about upgrading an item that you will quickly discard, since the new item will immediately have the same level of upgrade. To upgrade Gear slots, you’ll need Raw Ore and Rolla, as well as Refined Ore for every 5 levels (+4 to +5, +9 to +10, etc.).
The gear base stats depend on your own Account Level and the maximum level the drops can reach in each Zone/Dungeon. For example, VerdantGlade’s Dungeon in Normal difficulty cannot drop items above level 30, while Cinder Ridge does not have the same limit, making even lower rarity Gear dropped in exploration potentially better than the best Dungeon Gear you could get in the 1st Zone.
Resonance is an extra system that gives very small boosts in power whenever you take all your Gear slots to the milestones (usually every +5/10/15/20/etc), however, they are nowhere near valuable enough to justify evenly leveling up your items. Depending on your Class:
Duelists and Sorcerers = Weapon > Off-hand > Shoes > Armor/Helmet.
Knight = Weapon/Shoes (Shoes are best for counter/buff builds, co-op and PVP, Weapon is mostly for ATK-scaling builds) > Off-hand > Helmet/Armor.
Sage = Armor > Weapon > Off-hand > Helmet/Shoes.
Do note that Gear and Gear slot upgrades become way more relevant in terms of power boost in the later parts of each season. Essentially, the moment your Gear gets into the Seasonal power boost (after it goes above the reset cap of the current Season), the stats dramatically increase, making Gear the best way to get power in the late game.
Food
In SxS, you have 2 ways of recovering your HP: by going back to your home and waiting a few seconds, or by directly consuming food to restore a fixed amount of HP, depending on the food. These recovery dishes are extremely easy to craft by the dozens, if not hundreds, and will only take a couple of minutes to farm whenever you’re running low.
The rest of the dishes serve a completely different purpose: they raise specific stats. Most dishes do so only in certain game modes, for the next fight. These dishes give temporary bonuses like 10% DEF or ATK, are consumed on use, and they’re not handed back to you should you still fail your next battle, so use them sparingly!
The second kind of Stats boosting dishes are the Permanent ones. Those are much rarer, and the buffs they provide are also way smaller (1% DEF, for example), however, they benefit you forever, and multiple of the same kind can be eaten, although being too gluttonous and eating the same dish results in progressively diminishing returns until barely any boost from that dish is received. Those dishes can typically be found rarely throughout the story/exploration, or directly bought from shops like the Arena shop or the Auction House for the spenders.
For more info, check out our Food guide here:
Auction House
The Auction House is where you can bid and sell Gear, Gear shards, ingredients to cook food, Fantomon materials, and much, much more.
Selling gear with correct stats will be a big source of income for F2P players, as the spenders will often want to get perfect items for them or those that give them a big power boost, so they will often buy them for inflated prices.
Sometimes you can even get 20-40 skill pulls worth of currency for a single, well-rolled gear piece!
Guilds
Guilds in Sword x Staff are a great way of passively getting daily resources, extra stats for your character and the most important part, materials for your Fantomons.
Guilds unlock once your character reaches level 15. From there, you can either create or join an existing one, gaining access to features like the guild boss, shop, and even guild wars.
To gain currency for the different shops here, don’t forget to do daily donations, the boss raid and also to AFK farm resources on one of the floating islands. All guild activities also give currency that the guild leader will be able to use to level up guild talents, providing passive stats and higher income for everyone in the guild.
Stamina and Dawnium usage
In SxS, Stamina is used exclusively to farm resources, namely Rolla, Raw Ore, Battle Essence and Chrono Sand. You get a cap of 300 Stam, which recharges over time, as well as free Stamina in the shop every day.
Dawnium, on the other hand, is the main currency of the game, used to exchange for almost everything. Need extra Dungeon entries? Dawnium does that for you. Need some more materials in the mines? Dawnium’s got you covered. Wanna use the Trading House, buy pulls, or use the Vault part of the daily Shop? Again, Dawnium’s never gonna give you up. You get a lot of it, but unlike most games, you’re highly incentivized to spend some every day. For more info on what you should spend your Stamina on, and what’s worth your hard-earned Dawnium, check out the Stamina and Dawnium usage guide over there:
