Hello everyone, I hope you’re all having a great day! I wanted to share with you my latest project - an Echoes of Mana Complete Gears Guide. This guide will teach you how to upgrade your character and tips on how to get the most out of your game. If you’re looking for a comprehensive guide on upgrading your character, then this is the perfect post for you! I’ll be going over each and every step in detail, so be sure to bookmark this page so that you can come back to it later! Anyway, without further ado, let’s get started! (How To Upgrade + Tips)
And this guide on Gears will show you everything:
What they are, how to access them, what kind of gears are best for each unit role, and some tips to maximize their usage.
What Are Gears?
Gears can be equipped to a unit to increase their Combat Power and overall performance. There are a total of six Gear slots for every unit:
Helmets Chest Plates Gloves Necklaces Rings Boots
Each of these slots provides stat boosts that are categorized into Main Stat and Side Stat bonuses.
The Main Stat bonus gets increased every time you upgrade a Gear. Side Stat bonuses, on the other hand, can only be increased or generated every four levels and are picked at random.
Gears also have Set Effects which increase a specific stat as long as you equip at least three Gears of the same set type.
TIP: You Gears can generate either a Flat Stat (e.g. +200 HP) or a Percentage Stat (e.g. +2.47% HP) boost in both the Main Stat Bonus and a Side Stat bonus.
While Percentage Stat boosts are generally more preferable than Flat Stat boosts, Flat Stat boosts are still very much viable, as they often give solid stat increases at low to intermediate levels anyway.
How To Access The Gears Page for Units
To access a specific unit’s Gear page, you must first tap the Allies button on the lobby screen:
Next, select the unit whose Gears you’d like to check or swap out.
In this case we’re going to go with a natural 4★ unit named Duran.
Once you’ve clicked a specific unit, you’ll then be redirected to their Unit Page.
Here you can finally see the Gears they have equipped and swap them out as you please!
How To Upgrade & Sell Gears
If you want to either Upgrade or Sell Gears, all you need to do is tap the Gear button highlighted below:
You’ll then be redirected to the Gear Upgrade page where you can see every piece of Gear you’ve collected and which Gear pieces are currently equipped by your units.
You can now tap on whatever Gear piece you’d like to upgrade or sell.
Once you’ve tapped/clicked on a specific Gear, a Gear Upgrade window for that Gear will appear and you can now click Upgrade as soon as you’ve spent some Altena Alloys to increase that Gear’s level.
Again, keep in mind that while a Gear piece’s Main Stat bonus increases each level, they can only generate or improve a Side Stat bonus at every four levels.
And there you go — you’ve upgraded a Gear Piece!
The stat bonuses your Gears have received after being upgraded will be displayed in the new prompt:
If you want to sell your Gears instead, simply head on over to the Sell Gear page by tapping the Sell Gear (Get Upgrade Material) button (highlighted below):
You will then be redirected to the Sell Gear page where you can simply tap on the Gear pieces you’d like to sell.
Upon selling, you can get Lucre and Altena Alloys which you can then use to upgrade your more important Gear pieces.
How To Gear Up Units Effectively
The most important thing to keep in mind when gearing up units is that you must choose the right stats to prioritize depending on a unit’s role.
To help you with this, here’s a graph of the four basic unit roles in the game, and three of the most recommended stats and set bonuses for each of them:
TIP: Keep in mind that these recommendations aren’t iron-clad. You can prioritize other stats or set bonuses when gearing specific units as you see fit.
Not all characters fit in just one role after all, and sometimes you’ll have to switch gear sets a little to see what sticks just for that specific character!
General Tips for Gears
To help you understand and master the gearing system even better, here are a few important tips that every player should keep in mind.
Tip #1: Farm Your Gear Dungeons Regularly
If you want tons of gears to choose from, or just to use as fodder, then you’re going to have to farm Gear Dungeons as often as you can.
Like most things, not all gears are created equal. So you will have to go through a tedious process of trial and error just to find the right gear pieces for your characters.
Not only that, but farming Gear Dungeons will also give Altena Alloys which you need a lot of to upgrade gears in the first place!
TIP: You can also farm 4★ and even 5★ equipment from the Main Story Quests instead of your usual Gear Dungeons.
For example, clearing Chapter 5 – EXTRA Quest at VERY HARD Difficulty in the Main Story Quests will give you either 4★ or 5★ gear pieces as guaranteed drops. Not bad at all!
Tip #2: Upgrade Gears with Good Main Stat & Bonus Stats Combinations
It’ll most likely be a frustrating experience to grind them out, but you’ll have to look for gears with both great Main stat and Bonus stats if you want to maximize a character’s potential.
If you’d like to know which main stats and bonus stats typically go great together, simply scroll back up and revisit the Recommended Stats and Set Bonuses table & use it as a reference!
For example, the 5★ Maple Boots shown in the image above are a great choice for either Magic DPS units or Healer units, because of the INT and MP stat combination. Neat, right?
TIP: You don’t need to get too hung up on finding the “perfect gear” and hold out on your upgrades while letting your character’s performance suffer in the meanwhile. Instead, pick gears with decent stat combinations and just upgrade them to Level 8 (or 12 if the rolls are good). This will help your units perform better while you search for better gears.
Tip #3: Sell Your Unwanted Gears
So you farmed a lot of Gear Dungeon stages and Main Story Quest stages, got a lot of extra gears, and your inventory space is running low.
What do you do?
Simple. Just sell ’em!
Selling unwanted gears instead of letting them grow mold in your inventory or using them as fodder will be much more efficient.
You’ll need a lot of Altena Alloys to upgrade your better gears after all, and selling your garbage 1★ to even 5★ gears will give you just that.
TIP: While you do get some Lucre for selling gears, I do not recommend this method, as it simply gives you too little to be worthwhile.
We also have a separate guide on how to farm Lucre so check that out for even more ideas.
Tip #4: If You’re Struggling, Join Co-op Matches For Harder Stages
Are you having trouble clearing stages you’d like to farm for gear or gear upgrade materials?
The solution for that is actually very simple — just ask for help from other players and let them do the carrying for you!
Not all players have units that are strong enough to clear stages with tough mobs or bosses on their own. So there’s really no shame in either creating or joining co-op lobbies.
TIP: You can only bring along and switch between three units in Co-op battles, so make sure that you pick your units wisely.
