Resonance Solstice on Steam: What I Wish I Knew on Day 1

I didn’t understand Resonance Solstice at first.

The screenshots make it look like a hero-collector with auto-combat, but once you get into it, you realize you’re also running a train network, a trade route, and a crew economy — all while trying to keep your fatigue and clarity from running dry.

So instead of giving you a feature list, I’m sharing what actually mattered while I played — the small details that made the game smoother, less confusing, and a lot more enjoyable.

Getting Comfortable Early On

The very first thing I did was switch to full screen:

• Press: ALT + Enter

Then I changed how story scenes play, because the narrative pacing is slow by default:

• Settings → Cutscene / Dialogue
  • Speed: 4x
  • Control: Auto

You can skip entirely if you want, but I ended up using the Train Log to rewatch scenes later (Click Avatar → Train Log). This became helpful when I wanted context for new characters I pulled.

The intro/tutorial is 1–2 hours long and introduces systems gradually. I recommend not rushing it — there’s more going on here than the game first shows.

The Game Isn’t Only Combat — Trading Matters

At some point, I realized I was spending more time managing my train route than fighting. The good news is, that’s where most of your money comes from.

What I check every time I arrive in a city

Place	What I Do	Why
NC Shop (HQ + Local tabs)	Buy limited daily/weekly/monthly items	Many are useful long-term; some are hard to get later
Market	Sell items with green price; Buy items with red price	Basic profit loop
Freight Office	Pick up freight missions	Easy money while traveling anyway
Interior Car	Use Bento Boxes + Feed pets	Both help with travel sustainability

If you try to play without trading, the game begins to feel slow. Trading is how everything moves forward — train upgrades, crafting materials, money for gacha pulls. Combat rewards alone can’t carry progression.

Managing the Train While Traveling

Traveling isn’t just “choose destination and wait.” The train controls actually matter.

Here’s what I ended up using the most:

• Rapid Bullet: Temporary high-speed boost
• Brake: To stop cleanly near combat nodes
• Reverse: To back up if I overshoot lost cargo
• Return Button (after stopping): Sends me back to the departure city

Once I got used to stopping and reversing, I stopped missing loot on the tracks entirely.

Towing: The Feature I Ignored for Too Long

You find Towing when selecting a destination on the World Map (same screen as “Embark”). I thought it was only for emergencies—but it’s actually a huge time-saver.

What Towing Does

• Travels at max speed automatically
• Avoids obstacles and ambushes
• Still lets you pick up lost cargo
• Still allows using Rapid Bullet for even more speed

You get two free tows per day (through daily login rewards), and you can buy more if needed. I use towing for long routes and “busy days” when I want to play efficiently without burning out.

Fatigue & Clarity — The Two Real Limiters

Your playtime per session revolves around these:

Resource	Used For	How It Feels In Practice
Clarity	Combat encounters	Once it runs out, you pick your fights more intentionally
Fatigue	Trading, traveling, crafting, and some interactions	This is what limits long trade chains and crafting marathons

Small tip: If I planned a trade route first, combat later, I always got more done than when I just reacted to whatever appeared on the tracks.

Crew Progression: Simple but Thoughtful

Crew level is tied to your Conductor Level, not duplicates.
So no need to sacrifice units or feed fodder to unlock level caps — which is refreshing.

• Duplicates go toward Awakening automatically.
• Resonance upgrades change how units play, sometimes dramatically.
• Affixes on gear matter more than the gear tier early on.

Once I stopped chasing tier numbers and started looking at what effect triggers when, my teams felt more consistent.

The Train Itself Is a Major Character

Your train expands based on its Power Level.

• The first four cars are fixed.
• Additional cars unlock as you increase overall train power.
• There are cargo cars, passenger cars, specialized cars, and auxiliary modules.

Gadgets I Found Most Useful Early

Gadget Type	Why It Helps
Transport Drones	Pick up cargo from farther away; lets you overfill cargo past the capacity number
Recon Drones	Apply helpful effects when combat starts during travel
Speed Boosting Modules	Makes every route feel shorter

It’s easy to ignore train customization early, but once I upgraded the cargo capacity and drone pickup range, my trade loops became faster and more profitable.

Engine Cores — The First Real “Skill Check”

This is where the game surprised me.

To progress certain crafting recipes or train gear, your Engine Cores need to be leveled, and leveling them requires completing challenge fights that ask you to trigger specific debuffs repeatedly.

This forced me to build multiple teams, not just one “best squad.”

For example:

Core	What the Challenge Wanted	What I Needed to Adjust
Overload Core	Trigger Electricity many times	Added two characters who apply Shock reliably
Chill Core (later)	Trigger Freeze / Slow effects	Needed utility units rather than DPS

The moment I accepted that “off-meta units” are actually specialists, progression smoothed out.

The Part Reviews Get Wrong (Or Leave Out Completely)

When I first looked up Resonance Solstice online, I saw a lot of “it’s just auto-combat” and “you hit a wall unless you pay.”

After actually playing, I realized those impressions usually come from only playing the surface layer.

Here are the things that don’t show up immediately, but absolutely change how the game feels once they click:

1. You get Legendary units very early.
   • One is guaranteed simply by doing your beginner pulls.
   • Another comes from pity at 80 pulls total.
   • A third comes from Day 3 rewards.
     If you’re doing your daily/weekly tasks, you’ll generally hit 70–100 pulls in your first few days without spending.
2. The game is not just “level → auto → win.”
   There’s real depth in:
   • gear affixes
   • resonance choice timing
   • team compositions built around triggers and card cycling
   When my team stopped working, the fix was almost always:
   “I brought the wrong damage type or wrong debuff triggers for the encounter,” not “my level is too low.”
3. Trading is not filler. It’s part of the build.
   Your train, your crew upgrades, and some of your crafting pathways depend on money sources that don’t come from combat.
   Once I treated trade as a system, not a side activity, progression stopped bottlenecking.

And yes — ALT + Enter works to fullscreen.

No, you don’t need to finish the tutorial to press it.

Sometimes the internet just likes being dramatic.

Locked Features & Why They’re Locked (So You Don’t Think You Missed Something)

Things unlock gradually — not because of gacha power, but because of Conductor Level, Reputation, and Story State.

Here are the important unlocks written in a way that makes sense when you’re playing:

Feature / System	When You Actually Get It	What It Means For You
Passenger Transport	Conductor Level 30	Major profit source, but requires Leaflets (daily-limited)
Bounty Board (BRCL Agency)	Reputation Level 5 with that station	Daily combat rewards; can be swept later
Operation Blade	Conductor 35	Reliable source of better equipment materials
Special Supply	Conductor 40	Rotates on schedule; don’t forget to check days
Crime Hunt	Conductor 40, but weekly-limited	Weekly resource injection

The point is: If something isn’t available yet, it’s not missing — you just haven’t reached the permission layer.

The game gates by world progression, not gear score.

Crafting & Recipes — The Trap I Fell Into Early

Crafting seems straightforward at first:

“Trade ingredients → craft trade goods → profit.”

But there’s a subtle catch.

Some recipes look craftable when you unlock them, but you later realize they require a higher Engine Core level before production is possible.

So, my suggestion:

1. Check the Engine Core requirement before buying a recipe.
2. Don’t sell rare materials early just because the “Retrieve Materials” menu offers gold.
3. Only mass-produce items when you’ve checked the news cycle (more on that in a moment).

Why crafting becomes a power multiplier later

Crafting gives you:

• More profitable trade goods
• Materials needed for high-tier train gadgets
• Progress toward higher train power, which unlocks more cars and better travel setups

Once I stopped thinking of crafting as “extra money,” and started treating it as train progression, the whole loop felt intentional instead of grindy.

The Mid-to-End Game Money Loop (What Actually Makes Profit)

Once you hit midgame, simple “buy red / sell green” isn’t enough.

What matters more is the news event cycle shown in the Market.

If an item category is trending:

• You buy or craft that item type in bulk
• You move it across a route where that item is valued high
• You unload gradually, not all at once, to avoid price decay

And if you have Purchase Applications, use them.

They temporarily increase store stock, meaning:

With Purchase Application	Without
You can buy huge quantities	Stock runs out quickly
Makes trade runs worth the fatigue	Runs become inefficient
Supports bulk-profit crafting loops	Everything feels too small-scale

I didn’t use these early because I thought they were rare.

They are what makes trading scale.

The Train Interior Actually Matters (More Than I Expected)

At first I placed decorations because they looked nice.

Later I realized:

Interior System	What It Improves
Bento Box Use	Extends travel efficiency (reduces fatigue pressure)
Pet feeding / affection	Adds small but persistent stat benefits
Passenger comfort quality	Increases fare gain once transport unlocks

Nothing game-breaking individually, but together, they reduce how often you hit burnout or resource starvation.

This is where Resonance Solstice quietly rewards consistency over bursts.

My Daily Routine Now (This Keeps Progress Steady)

• Claim daily login and sign-on rewards
• Buy limited items from NC Shop (HQ + Local)
• Feed pets & use Bento Boxes
• Run 3 freight missions minimum
• Use free towing to travel efficiently
• Use Rapid Bullet only on safe stretches
• Check Market News to see which goods are profitable today
• Do Operation Blade / Special Supply / Crime Hunt when unlocked (use Sweep after first clear)

This routine keeps my resources flowing and avoids burnout.

View the full Steam Insider strategy index