How to start well in DragonSword Awakening: first hours, starter team and resources not to waste

DragonSword Awakening has the flaw of its qualities: with nineteen heroes, a tag-team combat system, skill trees, Emblems, multiple resources and a vast world to explore, it dumps everything on the player at once. As a result, the first hours can quickly turn to confusion, and poor early management costs dearly in time and resources. This beginner guide gives you the right order of priorities to start well, without wasting your resources or spreading yourself thin. To go further, pair it with our complete combat guide and our character tier list.

Where do you start in DragonSword Awakening?

Before getting lost in the menus, understand the gameplay loop. DragonSword Awakening revolves around three pillars that feed each other: tag-team combat, exploration of the world of Orbis, and team development. You explore to find resources and treasure maps, you fight to progress and gain experience, and you develop your heroes to take on tougher challenges. The first hours should serve to absorb this loop without scattering yourself.

The golden rule of the start: don't try to do everything or recruit everyone at once. The beginner's number-one trap is sprinkling resources across a dozen characters and ending up with a team weak on all fronts. Instead, choose a core trio from the start and concentrate your efforts on it. It's that discipline, that refusal to spread thin, that makes all the difference between a smooth start and a laborious one. Also use Fate's Invitation sparingly to recruit, rather than spending it on the first comer.

Which first team should you choose?

Several trios make excellent starting choices, by style. For an action, melee-oriented team, more demanding but devastating, Charlotte, Johnny and Raina form a formidable damage trio. If you prefer a calmer pace and ranged play, Sice, Otellio and Dana offer a relaxed approach. And for a simple, effective freeze-based loop, Renia, Lute and Alex chain the Freeze setup, the icebreaker response and the Knockdown follow-ups.

For a safe first pick, a good approach is to complete the trio you already partly have rather than starting a brand-new one: recruit the missing member among those the game gives you early. What matters isn't so much the perfect trio as coherence: choose three heroes covering the setup, break and burst chain, then invest in them. You can always refine your composition later, once the mechanics are mastered and your main characters solidly established. For now, keep the goal simple: a complementary trio, not ten half-leveled heroes.

Which combat mechanics should you learn first?

Combat seems simple but hides real depth, and mastering the basics early will spare you many deaths. Start with the fundamentals: the basic attack, the jump attack and the dodge. Then learn to read the enemies' white poise bar, because emptying it staggers them and opens your best attack windows. It's the pivot of the whole combo system, far more important than mere button-mashing.

The real heart of the game is tag-team, and two reflexes should be built immediately. First, switch characters during long animations, so both heroes attack almost simultaneously and stack status ailments faster. Second, know that switching mid-combo grants invincibility frames, a precious disguised dodge to phase through an attack without breaking your chain. Finally, watch the Signal Skills, which trigger when one hero applies an ailment just before another strikes. Those three reflexes, offensive switch, defensive switch and Signal Skills, form the backbone of combat. For the full detail, our dedicated combat guide digs into each mechanic.

How do you avoid wasting your resources?

This is where beginners lose the most, and a few simple rules change everything. For gold, focus your early farming on Orbis City's bottom-left district, which efficiently clusters the material zones. For Karma, know that it never wastes: dismantle unwanted Karma to obtain exclusive points tradeable for any character's Karma, so don't hesitate to clean house. The most precious resource to preserve is Forging Molds: save them for endgame gear, where you'll feed them with the Fragment of Sacred Light currency to choose your main stats rather than gambling on random rolls. Wasting them early on intermediate gear is a classic, costly mistake.

The general principle is the same everywhere: don't spend a rare resource on something temporary. Your early gear will be replaced, your secondary heroes aren't your priority, and most of your resources should converge toward your core trio and toward endgame. Keep that discipline, and you'll reach the advanced content with comfortable reserves, where the scattered player ends up dry at the worst moment.

What should you upgrade first?

Once your trio is chosen, orient your upgrades methodically. On gear, remember the 3+2 set rule: set bonuses are obtained at three pieces, not five, which allows mixed builds like three pieces of one set and two of another. Favor crit damage on chest pieces, which offer the highest main stats, with legs as the second-best slot. When reforging, stack the sub-stats matching your hero's element, for example airborne damage for an air-oriented character.

On progression, the priority goal is to bring your core characters to level 30, the tier at which Master Skills unlock, which require treasure maps obtained by solving puzzles and hunting chests across Orbis. Better three characters at level 30 than ten scattered halfway. Finally, save Lute, the protagonist, for a bit later: his support and healing shine mostly once your main carries are established, so develop your damage heroes first. With these clear priorities, your start will be clean, efficient and waste-free.

DragonSword Awakening beginner FAQ

Where do you start in DragonSword Awakening?

Absorb the combat, exploration, development loop, choose a coherent core trio from the start, and avoid scattering your resources across too many characters.

Which first team should you choose?

A complementary trio covering setup, break and burst, like Renia, Lute and Alex for freeze, or Charlotte, Johnny and Raina for melee.

Which resources should you not waste?

Forging Molds especially, to save for endgame gear. Karma never wastes, and gold is farmed in Orbis City's bottom-left district.

What should you upgrade first?

Level your core trio to 30 to unlock Master Skills, with 3+2 sets and crit damage on the chest.

Should you play Lute from the start?

No, save the protagonist for later: his support and healing shine mostly once your main damage carries are well established.

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Guide written based on the PC version.