Synduality Echoes of Ada – Beginner Tips You Need to Know Before Playing

Synduality Echoes of Ada, developed by Game Studio and published by Bandai Namco Entertainment, officially launches on January 23, 2025. This anime-inspired extraction shooter offers a friendlier introduction to the genre compared to games like Escape from Tarkov. However, it still has its challenges, as losing your gear upon death remains a core mechanic.

After spending time in early access, I’ve compiled these essential beginner tips to help you start your journey as a Drifter on the right foot.

All You Need Is One Weapon

At the start, the game may automatically equip two weapons on your Cradlecoffin. While having two weapons has its perks, beginners focused on PvE will benefit more from carrying just one weapon.

Weapons consume around 250 units of your weight capacity, meaning an extra weapon limits the space for valuable materials or AO Crystals. A single weapon with enough ammunition is sufficient for handling the threats in the game’s two maps.

Mine AO Crystals During the Rain

Rain in Synduality Echoes of Ada reduces your Cradlecoffin’s Resist gauge and can drain your mech’s health when fully depleted. However, rain showers are short, and Sealing Kits can replenish your Resist gauge.

Take advantage of the rain to mine higher-quality AO Crystals, which are more likely to contain higher quality nodes during these periods. Treat the rain as an opportunity to gather resources instead of a hindrance. Keep an eye out for patches or events that might make rain more dangerous in the future.

Greet Fellow Players

With Synduality Echoes of Ada, it’s only natural to share the map with other players and do their own objectives. If you’re not out to take out players for their loot, be sure to greet them with the game’s in-game emotes as when you meet another player, you’ll both wonder if you are friend or foe.

This eases the possible tension when random players meet face to face, and based on my experience, players are slowly making it a point to greet and show friendly behavior. This is great to do as showing friendly behaviour can make it more likely that they will help out with co-op objectives found in the map.

If you find a friendly player, simply use the Magus wheel and invite them to a co-op event. If they are keen (and most of them are at the early stages of the game), you and your new ally can take on a co-op event that rewards the group for completing it. I found it to be valuable as it’s an extra reward waiting for you when you extract successfully.

For bandit players, if you’re out for blood, also say hello! Give your prey a false sense of security as playing nice at the very beginning might give you a clear shot at their back, the Crandlecoffin mech’s weak for all players.

Simply put, there’s benefits for both play styles to simply greet other players.

Use the Wishlist Feature

Tracking required items for crafting, base upgrades, or Requests can be overwhelming. Use the wishlist feature to highlight necessary items with a heart icon while exploring maps. This makes finding specific resources much easier, as their locations are randomized. This feature can help with items needed for even crafting and base building.

Prioritize White Chests

The two maps contain various chests from a grey chest, an orange chest, a barrel chest, to even a white chest. Each container contains random items but what I’ve figured out is that white chests mostly contain more valuable materials or items.

The best thing is that chest locations in each map are fixed, so if ever you find a location of a white chest, remember its location for your next sorties as I found it very valuable to always revisit these white chests for the chance at higher valued items and materials.

Always Use Your Safety Pocket

Your safety pocket guarantees that any item placed inside is safe, even if you die. At the start, this pocket holds up to 100 units of weight, which can be upgraded later.

Store key items like crafting materials or high-value loot in the safety pocket to ensure you’re always bringing something valuable back from your sorties. Though small, at least a loss will still grand you slight progress towards your objectives.

Upgrade Stash Space and Crafting Slots First

Once you get in the groove of Synduality Echoes of Ada’s gameplay loop, you’ll quickly find yourself losing stash space for all the loot you bring back. Stash space fills up quickly, especially after successful runs. Focus on upgrading your stash and crafting slots early to avoid inventory issues. This allows you to manage your resources efficiently as you progress.

Unlocking crafting slots will also allow you to craft key items for crafting more powerful gear as crafting is done in real-time. So it would be best to unlock more than one slot so you won’t be stuck waiting for a slot to be freed.

Always press the ‘Manage Items’ option when organizing your stash

After each sortie, use the Manage Items option to stack identical items properly in your stash. This simple step prevents unnecessary clutter and maximizes your storage space.

When you return from a sortie, all the materials you gathered are automatically placed in your stash. But for some unusual reason, the game doesn’t automatically stack identical items together. You still need to press ‘Manage Items’ to make the game sort all your items properly in the right stack.

Doing this will save so much space as without pressing the Manage item function, you’ll have space being taken by a single grenade when there’s also a stack of two grenades taking a slot (item stacks are maxed at five).

Fight AI Bandits for Valuable Loot

In each map, you’ll come across bandit AI or Cradlecoffins corrupted by Enders, these enemy mechs are positioned at particular locations in the map. Defeating them often rewards you with high-value materials and rare items like B-Grade Cradle Parts Debris, which can be sold for quick cash. It’s also good practice

Upgrade Your Excavators

Excavators are essential for mining AO Crystals. Upgrading to green-tier Excavators early on unlocks access to higher-quality crystals, ensuring your sorties are more rewarding.

Having a constant supply of green excavators for all your sorties is a good starting point and a great goal to have in the early game.

Hold Off on Insurance

Insurance is a feature well-known in some extraction shooters as Insurance can compensate for lost gear, but it’s not cost-effective early on. Save this feature for when you’re using blue-tier items to avoid unnecessary expenses.

Save your insurance money when you are swimming with blue items as the cost for these items is a big jump from how much green items cost.

Always keep your health at least above 80%

In extraction shooters, you can easily go from full health and striving to death in seconds. This is also true in Synduality Echoes of Ada as you’ll soon learn that a single hit can take a good chunk out of your health. Whether its attacks from PVE monsters or enemy players, never think that any total health pool below 80% is enough to survive an ambush.

As much as possible, always use your healing items to fully health yourself as you’ll never know when you’ll be hit by someone stronger than you. Remember, you are matched with random players who can either join your game with the best gear or the weakest. Expect the worst.

Consider the Cradle Support Magus

When you start the game, you are given your first Magus, the AI assistant that follows you everywhere you go. There are different Magus types as each one features a Magus ability that serves as a trump card for when you find yourself in a dicey situation.

The Cradle Support Magus is a good beginner choice as it’s ability triggers a healing bubble, healing any Cradlecoffin within its bubble radius. It’s a great healing option but it’s a double-edged sword as it heals any mech, even enemies and hostile players, so be mindful where you place it.

This type of Magus also increases the repair speed, and those who love PVP will get to see the items of a player with the scan function.

If healing isn’t your thing the Weather Gazer Magus is another strong choice as it has the biggest scanning range for AO Crystals. This type also can tell you a crystal’s rarity without the need to go close, saving time if it’s worth going to that specific node.

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Synduality Echoes of Ada offers a unique blend of anime aesthetics and extraction shooter mechanics. With these tips, you’ll be better prepared to navigate its challenges, maximize your loot, and enjoy your time as a Drifter.

Playing Synduality Echoes of Ada? What do you think of it so far? Share your thoughts or additional tips in the comments!

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