DragonSword: Awakening Material Planner
Quick answer
This DragonSword: Awakening material planner works from the verified crafting recipe — 1 Whirling Thoughts plus 100 Fragments of Memory plus 100,000 Gold makes 1 Fragment of Afterimage. Enter what you currently hold and it reports how many you can craft now, which input is your bottleneck, and what you still need for a target.
Updated · Verified on Patch 1.0.x · Sources: in-game testing, Steam store page, Hound13 announcements
Karma progression in DragonSword: Awakening bottlenecks on one recipe, and the ratio is steep enough that guessing wastes hours. This planner does the arithmetic.
What do you currently have?
The recipe this is built on
1 Whirling Thoughts + 100 Fragments of Memory + 100,000 Gold = 1 Fragment of Afterimage.
Three things follow from that ratio, and they are the reason most DragonSword: Awakening players mis-plan their farming:
Fragments of Memory are the real bottleneck. The 100-to-1 ratio against Whirling Thoughts means you will almost always be Fragment-starved while sitting on spare Whirling Thoughts. Plan your Tower of Trials runs around Fragments.
Gold is a hard input, not a soft one. 100,000 gold per craft is substantial, and players routinely reach the Fragment threshold only to find they cannot afford the craft. Gold farming is covered in the farming guide.
Both materials come from one place. Tower of Trials is the source for Fragments of Memory and Whirling Thoughts alike, which is why unlocking it through Cerese's Bond Quest is a progression priority rather than optional content.
Methodology. The recipe above is verified from the in-game crafting interface on patch 1.0.x. Per-run drop quantities are not published in-game and vary by floor, so this planner does not invent an average — it asks you for your own observed rate and calculates from that. The default of 20 is a placeholder, not a measurement. Track three or four runs at the floor you actually clear, enter your real average, and the run estimate becomes accurate for your situation. We are collecting floor-by-floor drop data and will publish a table with sample sizes once it is solid; contributions welcome via contact.
How to use the result
If Fragments of Memory is your bottleneck — the usual case — your limiting resource is Tower of Trials throughput. Push to the highest floor you can clear reliably, since inconsistent clears at a higher floor return less per hour than clean clears one floor down.
If Gold is your bottleneck, stop crafting and run gold sources for a session. Crafting into an empty wallet then being unable to buy gear upgrades is a common self-inflicted stall.
If Whirling Thoughts is your bottleneck, you are unusual — this normally means you have been crafting aggressively and should simply keep running the Tower.
What to spend Afterimages on
Fragments of Afterimage feed higher-tier Karma work. Before you spend them, confirm two things:
- The Karma card's element matches the hero you intend to run it on. Mismatched Karma silently loses part of its benefit.
- The hero is one you actually play. Exclusive Karma modifies signature skills, so its value is concentrated in heroes you use constantly rather than heroes that rank well on a tier list.
See upgrade priority for the full spending order across all four DragonSword: Awakening progression systems.
Why we ask you for the drop rate
Most material calculators for DragonSword: Awakening quote a single average and present it as fact. We do not, because per-run drop quantities vary by Tower floor and are not published anywhere first-party, which means any single number is either a small unlabelled sample or an invention.
Asking you for your own observed rate produces a more accurate answer than a borrowed average would, and it makes the assumption visible rather than hidden inside the tool. Run your usual floor three or four times, note the Fragments of Memory you receive, average them, and enter that. The estimate then describes your actual situation rather than someone else's.
If your rate changes because you have moved to a higher floor, update the number — the arithmetic above will follow.
FAQ
How do you make a Fragment of Afterimage in DragonSword: Awakening?
Combine 1 Whirling Thoughts, 100 Fragments of Memory and 100,000 Gold. All three are required.
Where do Fragments of Memory come from?
The Tower of Trials, which unlocks through Cerese's Bond Quest. It is also the source of Whirling Thoughts.
What is the bottleneck for Karma progression?
Fragments of Memory, because the recipe consumes 100 of them per craft against a single Whirling Thoughts. Gold is the second most common bottleneck.
Does this planner know the drop rates?
No, and it does not pretend to. Drop quantities vary by Tower floor and are not published in-game, so the planner asks for your own observed average instead.