DragonSword: Awakening Progression Guide
Quick answer
Power in DragonSword: Awakening comes from four separate systems: hero level and ascension, Karma cards socketed into a hero's signature weapon, gear with its stat affixes and reforging, and temporary food buffs. Karma and gear carry most of your power spike once the story tutorial ends.
Updated · Verified on Patch 1.0.x · Sources: in-game testing, Steam store page, Hound13 announcements
DragonSword: Awakening has four separate upgrade systems, and they do not contribute equally. New players routinely pour materials into hero levels while ignoring Karma, then wonder why their damage plateaus after the story.
The four systems
| System | What it gives | Material cost | When it matters |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hero level & ascension | Base stats, skill unlocks | Hero EXP, ascension materials | Constantly, but with diminishing returns |
| Karma | Reshapes how a hero's signature weapon behaves | Fragments of Memory, Whirling Thoughts, duplicate Karma cards | The biggest post-story spike |
| Gear & reforging | Raw stats, set bonuses, affixes | Ore, Trait Stones, molds | Immediately after the story tutorial |
| Food buffs | Temporary stat boosts before a fight | Ingredients | Free power, chronically under-used |
The short version: Karma and gear carry most of your power once the tutorial ends. Levels are the floor, not the ceiling.
Karma is the system people skip
Karma cards socket onto a hero's signature weapon and change how that weapon actually behaves in combat. It sits apart from both your gear and your hero's own level, which is exactly why players miss it.
Two rules matter more than everything else:
- Karma must match the hero's element. Mismatch it and some of its bonuses simply do not apply. This is the single most common Karma mistake in DragonSword: Awakening.
- Ascension needs duplicates of the exact same Karma card. Levelling uses Karma EXP materials; ascension unlocks and strengthens the card's special trait and raises its rank.
Exclusive Karma is hero-specific and goes further — beyond raw stats, it buffs signature skills, sometimes changing animations or burst windows outright. Full detail on the Karma page.
Gear: match the affix to the role
Gear raises raw stats and provides set bonuses, and reforging plus Trait Stones let you push specific affixes. The affix that matters most is Ailment Buildup Rate, which controls how fast your status ailment gauges fill.
Put Buildup Rate on your setup hero, where the difference between applying an ailment in one skill cast versus two changes your whole rotation length. Put raw damage affixes on your burst hero. Reversing these is the most common gearing error, and it makes a correctly-composed team feel sluggish. See best team comps for the role definitions and status ailments for why Buildup Rate matters so much.
Food buffs are free power
Cooking produces temporary stat buffs, and the ingredients are found while doing the exploration you are already doing. Eating before a Tower of Trials push or a Raid is one of the cheapest power increases available in DragonSword: Awakening, and most players forget it entirely. See cooking.
The order these systems unlock
Progression in DragonSword: Awakening is gated in a way DragonSword: Awakening does not spell out. Gear and levels are available from early on. Karma is not usable at scale until you unlock the Tower of Trials, which is itself gated behind Cerese's Bond Quest — the Tower is the only source of Fragments of Memory and Whirling Thoughts. Players who leave that quest in the log spend the mid-game with their largest power system switched off and no warning that it has happened.
Where to start
If you have just finished the story tutorial and do not know what to spend on, read upgrade priority — it gives a spending order rather than a list of systems. If you know what you want and need to know how much it costs, use the material planner. If you need to know where the materials come from, see the farming guide.
Concentrate rather than spread
The single most common way DragonSword: Awakening players waste materials is spreading them evenly. You field three heroes at a time, so a fourth hero at the same investment level contributes nothing until you change composition. One fully-built trio outperforms six half-built heroes at every point in the game, and it is not close.
FAQ
How do you upgrade heroes in DragonSword: Awakening?
Through four systems: hero level and ascension, Karma cards on the signature weapon, gear with reforging and Trait Stones, and temporary food buffs.
What gives the biggest power increase in DragonSword: Awakening?
Karma and gear, once the story tutorial ends. Hero levels provide the baseline but have diminishing returns compared to a correctly-matched Karma card.
Does Karma have to match the hero's element?
Yes. If the Karma card's element does not match the hero's, some of its bonuses will not work.
What is the most common progression mistake?
Levelling heroes while ignoring Karma, and putting Ailment Buildup Rate gear on a burst hero instead of a setup hero.