WuWa 3.7 Pre-Download Guide: Sizes and Times

The four dates that matter

Version 3.7 "Prism's Illusion, Heart's Illumination" launches September 30. The official Update Maintenance Notice was published September 22, eight days ahead of the patch, and it pins down the logistics. All times below are UTC+8, the server timezone.

The two-day gap between pre-download and maintenance is the same shape 3.6 had, when pre-download opened August 18 for the August 20 patch. What you can start moving earlier is the download, not your pulls: the current banners close on September 29 at 11:59, roughly sixteen hours before maintenance begins. Our banner end-date guide has the full list if you are still deciding where your Astrite goes.

What those times are where you live

Seven hours offline, same as 3.6. One thing to watch: on September 30 Europe is still on CEST and North America still on daylight time. The offsets only shift in late October, which affects Phase 2 planning rather than launch day.

Pre-download sizes for 3.7, and how they changed

The notice separates the space you must free up from the size of the actual download, and those two numbers did not move in the same direction as last version.

In 3.6 the asks were 50 GB of free space and a 22 GB download on PC, and 33 GB of space for the same 13 GB on mobile. So the PC package is now heavier by 4 GB even though you need less room reserved, and mobile is the opposite: the same 13 GB download, but 13 GB less free space demanded up front.

The reserve exists because the launcher merges resources during maintenance. Kuro is blunt about the consequence: pre-download may not start at all if you are short on space, and if the reserved space runs out mid-merge, the update maintenance will not complete. The extra space is freed automatically after the update finishes, so you only need the full 46 GB temporarily.

The new part: tiered resource downloads

3.7 introduces "Tiered Client Resource Downloads" as a limited test. Once it is live you will be able to pick a specific graphics-quality tier to download instead of taking the whole HD package. The feature goes live in stages: PC on the official launcher first, then all iOS and Android devices after the update, and non-official PC launchers later still.

That sounds like a storage win, and it is, but this version it comes with two real catches you should know before September 28.

• Mobile pre-download no longer grabs everything. The notice states that once 3.7 pre-download is available, only a portion of the resources will be pre-downloaded on iOS and Android. The remaining tiered resources download separately after the update, based on the package you select. If you play on phone, plan for a second download on launch day rather than a single clean handover.
• Some PC players lose the 3.7 pre-download entirely. If you were granted access to the limited test and update the official launcher during 3.6, pre-download will be temporarily unavailable for 3.7, which Kuro attributes to cross-version functionality differences. You pick a resource tier after the update instead. So if your launcher updates early and the pre-download button never shows up, that is the documented behaviour, not a broken client.

Everyone who is not in the test keeps pre-download, and it will pull the HD resource tier by default. Once you gain test access, you can drop to a lower tier if you want. Kuro also says that from 3.7 onward the feature behaves normally, and the resources you pre-download match whatever tier you currently have selected. Just remember the caveat about PC launcher versions, since it applies to this patch specifically.

How to pre-download

• PC: open the launcher. A "New Version Pre-download" option appears below the Start button. Select it and let it run.
• Android / iOS: press the Pre-download button on the title screen after logging in, or in the in-game Terminal page, then confirm.

You can keep playing while it downloads and pause at any time. Even a partial pre-download shortens the maintenance step, so starting it on a slow connection still helps.

How to update once maintenance starts

• PC: close the game, restart the launcher, click Update.
• Android: launch the game and follow the pop-up instructions.
• iOS and Mac: download or update through the App Store.
• PS5: home screen, select Wuthering Waves, press OPTIONS, choose Check for Update.
• Xbox Series X|S: home screen, My games & apps, Manage Updates, find Wuthering Waves, update it.
• Xbox PC: Xbox app, My Library, select Wuthering Waves and open Manage, go to the Files tab, select Check for Update.

Storage and device requirements

These come from the same notice and are worth checking before you start moving files around, since the total install footprint is larger than the download.

Minimum PC spec is Windows 10 64-bit with an i5 (9th gen) or Ryzen 2700, a GTX 1060, RX 570 or Arc A380, and 16 GB of RAM. On mobile the floor is Android 7.0 with a Snapdragon 835-class chip and 4 GB of RAM, or iOS 14 on an iPhone 11 or newer; the recommended tier is a Snapdragon 8 Gen 1+ with 6 GB. Macs need macOS 12, an M1 chip and 16 GB of RAM.

Compensation: 300 Astrite and 2 Crystal Solvent

Compensation is Astrite ×300 and Crystal Solvent ×2, the standard amount. In pull terms that is one convene with 140 Astrite left over, since a single pull costs 160. The two solvents are worth 120 waveplates, which is half a day of natural regen.

To qualify you need a character created and the Mail feature unlocked before September 30 at 04:00 (UTC+8). Claim it from Mail after the patch. The notice says compensation stays claimable until the next version update, so it will not vanish the moment you log in, but it is not permanent either. If maintenance runs long, Kuro will post a follow-up notice and adjust the compensation.

What else the notice confirms

The maintenance notice doubles as a text version of the version preview, so a few details in it are new or sharper than what the September 19 posters carried.

• The new area is Simulacrum Nexus in Mengzhou, and its seven sub-areas are named: Heartscape Labyrinth, Heart of Flames, Heart of Frost, Heart of Bloom, Heart of Stillness, Heart of Ruin and Heart of Appearance. You reach it during Main Quest Chapter IV Act IV, "Simulacrum of the Heart".
• There is one more new Echo than we knew about. The notice repeats the five from the September 20 enemies notice, then adds "one new COST 4 Echo" without naming it. Our 3.7 Echo guide covers what the five named ones do; the cost-4 one is still officially unnamed.
• Two Phantom Echoes ship, not one: Phantom - Skywatch Lancer and Phantom - Smolder.
• The Tales Quest "Moonlike Heart, Mortal Longing" requires that you finish Act IV first, so it is not something you can rush on day one at a low Union Level.
• Quality-of-life additions include Replay Mode for the 1.1, 1.2 and 1.3 main quests, Echo Stack storage, a 3D lineup display mode and reworked camera controls.
• The banner lineup is unchanged from the version preview: Hsin, Chisa and Iuno in Phase 1, then Suoming, Lucilla and Lynae. Our 3.7 preview has the full schedule with the weapon banners paired to each phase.
• Two cosmetics come free from the Cubie Wars leisure event: Sigil: Showtime and Avatar: Wooly's Blessing.

FAQ

Sources

• Wuthering Waves Version 3.7 Update Maintenance Notice (official, September 22) — maintenance window, compensation and eligibility, pre-download time and per-platform sizes, tiered-download test details, update steps, device requirements
• Wuthering Waves Version Preview | Version 3.7 (official) — banner lineup and version contents
• Post-Lament Anthropocene: Enemies — Collection of Small & Medium Size Echoes in Mengzhou (official) — the five named new Echoes
• Version 3.6 Update Maintenance Notice (official) — the 3.6 sizes used for comparison
• Our own guides: pity system, Astrite per patch, banner end dates