In 2026, the waves still murmur the same timeless lullabies, but my heart often drifts back to a season of frost and thunder—the Version 1.2 days of Wuthering Waves, when the Convene banners burned bright and my Astrite hoard was a fragile hope. Back then, every pull was a whispered incantation, every four-star pity a small miracle, and I lived by the rhythm of those fleeting rate-ups, charting my wishes across the calendar like a sailor reading the tides. Now, as I look upon my roster of Resonators, I see the ghosts of that August and September 2024, and I want to tell you the story of Zhezhi and Xiangli Yao, the two souls who defined a patch, and the weapons that danced alongside them.
The Frostflower’s First Breath: Zhezhi and Phase One
She came on a cold wind, her Glacio Rectifier shimmering with unspoken poems. The first half of the Version 1.2 update stretched from August 15 to September 7, 2024, and it belonged entirely to Zhezhi—a five-star maiden wrapped in ice and elegance. I remember staring at her banner art, the way the light caught the crystalline edges of her attire, and thinking that she looked like a winter dawn condensed into a human form. The Convene promised her, and for those twenty-three days, every Astrite I earned from daily commissions and event quests was a step closer to the frost.
Accompanying her were three four-star stars, each a familiar comfort. Chixia, the fiery Fusion Pistols user with a laugh that could ignite gunpowder, offered a blazing contrast to Zhezhi’s chill. Baizhi, another Glacio Rectifier wielder, felt like a soft echo—a healer whose purity could mend both wounds and spirit. And Sanhua, the Glacio Sword dancer, her blade painting silver arcs in the air, rounded out the quartet with lethal grace. The rates were up for all of them, and I found myself pulling not just for Zhezhi, but for the constellation of these four-star fates, each one a brushstroke on my account’s canvas.
In those weeks, my ritual became sacred. I would stand on the highest cliff in Jinzhou, let the virtual sea spray touch my character’s face, and then open the Convene menu with trembling fingers. The shimmer of the portal, the swell of the music—every single pull was a heartbeat. When the golden meteor finally streaked across my screen and Zhezhi emerged, I felt not just triumph but kinship. She was mine, a testament to patience. Her playstyle, so delicate and deliberate, taught me that Wuthering Waves rewards those who weave their abilities like verses. The Glacio damage bloomed, and I would watch enemies freeze into sculptures, their destruction a silent symphony.
The Thunder’s Echo: Xiangli Yao and Phase Two
And then, as September's leaves began to turn in the real world, the second phase unfolded from September 7 to September 28, 2024. The banner shifted, and a new five-star Electro Gauntlets user stepped into the spotlight: Xiangli Yao. If Zhezhi was a sonnet of frost, he was a thunderous epic. His fists crackled with the promise of storms, and I was drawn to his intensity—a warrior whose every movement spoke of lightning trapped in human sinew. The Convene now offered him at the rate-up, and my heart, still half-frozen from the previous banner, ignited anew.
The four-star lineup changed, too, bringing Danjin, Aalto, and Yuanwu into the limelight. Danjin, my beloved Havoc Sword wielder, was a whirlwind of dark energy, her attacks a chaotic dance. Aalto, the Aero Pistols trickster, could vanish and reappear like a playful gale, his bullets riding the wind. And Yuanwu, another Electro Gauntlets user, felt like a younger brother to Xiangli Yao, his fists sparking with a similar, if softer, voltage. Together, they formed a crew of elemental fury, and I delighted in building teams that could chain Resonance Liberation after Resonance Liberation, the screen erupting in color.
I still recall the night I pulled Xiangli Yao. A storm was raging outside my window, as if the game had reached through the screen to touch the sky. My Astrite count was dangerously low after the Zhezhi chase, but the free pulls from the Moon-Chasing Festival event had been generous, and I had scrimped every glimmer. The pity counter was in the high sixties. I clicked, the portal yawned open, and for a moment, the world went silent. Then came the gold, the electrifying silhouette, and Xiangli Yao was there, fists clenched, ready to fight beside me. I shouted something—I don’t remember what—and my neighbor probably thought I’d lost my mind. But that is the power of a well-timed Convene: it turns an ordinary night into a celebration. Playing with him was a revelation. His gauntlet combos flowed like a thunderstorm’s crescendo, and I could almost feel the static prickling my palms as I guided him through Tacet Field after Tacet Field.
A Weapon’s Oath: Rime-Draped Sprouts
No memory of Version 1.2 is complete without the shimmer of steel and spell. From August 15 to September 7, 2024, a Weapon Event Convene ran alongside Zhezhi’s banner, featuring the five-star Rectifier Rime-Draped Sprouts. This was Zhezhi’s signature armament, a thing of frozen beauty that looked like a crystalline branch kissed by winter. I remember gazing at its design—the way light refracted through its facets—and knowing that to fully unlock her potential, I needed this weapon. The weapon banner also brought three four-star instruments at a higher rate: Dauntless Evernight (Broadblade), a massive blade that seemed to drink in the dark; Jinzhou Keeper (Rectifier), a booklike tool pulsing with protective magic; and Hollow Mirage (Gauntlets), a pair of ghostly gloves perfect for Electro or any brawler. I pulled, my Astrite supply whimpering, and though I did not get Rime-Draped Sprouts in the end, the Dauntless Evernight that came home became a staple for my Calcharo, its weight a comfort in long battles.
The weapon banners in Wuthering Waves have always felt like altars of commitment. You don’t just pull for power; you pull to complete a vision. Zhezhi with her signature Rectifier was a cohesive artwork, and Xiangli Yao, though his signature weapon came later, was no less a masterpiece even with the four-star Gauntlets I gave him. Every time I equipped a weapon from that Convene, I thought of the story it told—the wait, the gamble, the sweet resolution.
The Echoes Remain
Looking back from 2026, the 1.2 banners are not just data points in a patch history. They are fossils of joy, each pull a fragment of my past self still glowing with anticipation. I learned planning from those days: hoarding Astrite, studying the phase durations, measuring the odds. The first phase from August 15 to September 7, and the second from September 7 to September 28, taught me the rhythm of Wuthering Waves’ generosity and stinginess. I remember the community buzzing with speculation, the shared spreadsheets calculating pity, the celebratory posts when someone got a double five-star in a ten-pull. Those were days of collective dreaming.
Today, my account has newer characters, shinier weapons, and the meta has shifted like sand. But I still use Zhezhi in my Glacio team, and Xiangli Yao remains my go-to Electro DPS, his gauntlets crackling just as fiercely. Whenever a new Convene appears, I think back to that 1.2 experience—the frost, the thunder, the fragile beauty of limited resources. Wuthering Waves is a game that asks you to choose, to invest your heart and time, and those banners were the first time I truly understood that.
So if you are a new player now, in 2026, reading these words, know that the waves still carry the same lessons: save your Astrite, watch the cycle, and pull only for the ones who call to your soul. Whether it’s a new Resonator yet to be revealed, or a returning spectral from the past, the dance of the Convene endures. And somewhere in the data, Zhezhi’s frost still blooms, and Xiangli Yao’s thunder still echoes, waiting for a dreamer to reach out and pull.