DragonSword: Awakening gives you a roster of heroes to build around, but the real depth comes from how you grow them. Leveling is just the starting point — awakening, karma, and skill upgrades each add a layer of customization that can completely change how a character performs. Here's how every system works and where to find the materials you'll need.
Leveling Up Heroes
Leveling is the most straightforward way to boost base stats. You'll need Combat Texts, which drop from quests, chests, and general progression. Feed them to a hero and watch their numbers climb.
The catch: every hero hits level caps. The first wall arrives at level 20. To push past it, you need a Breakthrough — a separate upgrade that consumes its own set of materials earned through grinding. There are five total caps on the road to the maximum level of 80. Plan your resource farming around these checkpoints so you're not stuck waiting on Breakthrough materials when you hit a wall.
Awakening Heroes
Awakening is where heroes really start to diverge. Each character has six awakening levels that reshape their playstyle, strengths, and weaknesses. Theresia, for example, gains The Mace of Branding at the first tier — a tangible shift in how she functions.
To awaken, you need Stigma Awakened Stones. Each stone costs 200 Fragments of Sacred Light, which come from Sudden Missions. The fragment flow opens up significantly once you're past the early game, but fully awakening a single hero to all six tiers is a massive investment. My advice: spread your awakening resources across your core team rather than maxing one character. A balanced roster handles more content than a single over-invested carry.
The Karma System
This is the most flexible customization tool in the game. Every hero wields a signature weapon, but its traits and exclusive effect depend entirely on the Karma you slot in. Think of it as a weapon mod system that lets you pivot a character's role without changing their kit.
Karmas come in two flavors:
- General Karmas — Crafted using Fragments of Memory, found in the Tower of Trials and Treasure Chests. These are your bread-and-butter options, available to any hero.
- Exclusive Karmas — Locked to specific heroes. Materials drop from Hero Quests and transportation runs. To access transportation, head to Shanoa.
Experiment with different karmas on the same hero. A damage-focused karma might turn a support into an off-DPS, while a defensive karma could make a squishy attacker viable in front-line content.
Upgrading Hero Skills
Each hero's abilities define their combat identity. Upgrading those skills unlocks advanced effects and raw power increases. The currency here is Record of Battle.
The most reliable source: Hunts. These unlock after the early game and require a team of level 20 heroes. Clear them, collect your Record of Battle, repeat. Since Hunts are repeatable, you can grind exactly what you need for whichever hero you're building next. Prioritize skill upgrades on your main team first — the marginal returns on bench warmers rarely justify the investment.
Putting It All Together
Progression in DragonSword: Awakening isn't linear — it's a web. Leveling unlocks Breakthroughs, which unlock higher Hunt tiers, which fund skill upgrades, while Sudden Missions feed awakening, and Tower of Trials feeds karma. The game rewards rotating your focus: push a hero to their next Breakthrough, swap to farming karma materials for another, run a few Hunts for skill points, then circle back.
If you're just starting, concentrate on getting a full team to level 20 so Hunts unlock. From there, the resource economy opens up and you can start making meaningful choices about which heroes get awakened, which karmas define your playstyle, and which skills deserve the Record of Battle investment. The systems are deep, but they're also transparent — every upgrade tells you exactly what it needs and where to find it.
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