WuWa 3.7 Simulacrum Nexus: New Area Guide
The Simulacrum Nexus is 3.7's new area, and as of this week it is still almost undocumented. Kuro's region preview from September 26 broke it into seven Heart realms, each with its own memory, its own look and, in three cases, its own Key ability. Here is what the official posters actually say, before anyone has walked it.
A new area with no map and no wiki page
Version 3.7 arrives September 30, and the Simulacrum Nexus ships with it. It sits in Mengzhou, the province 3.6's story opened up, and the maintenance notice lists its seven sub-areas by name: Heartscape Labyrinth, Heart of Flames, Heart of Frost, Heart of Bloom, Heart of Stillness, Heart of Ruin and Heart of Appearance.
That list is also the problem. There is no in-game map to look at yet and, as of September 27, no wiki page for the region, the realms or the mechanics below. Everything here comes from two official sources published this week: the region preview Kuro posted on September 26 and the 3.7 maintenance notice from September 22. When the patch goes live, the in-game exploration tracker will know more than any guide does, this one included.
What the Simulacrum Nexus is supposed to be
Kuro's own framing is hardware, not scenery. The Nexus is described as a nexus of ordered design, the pivot on which everything turns, and it turns out to be Xuanfang Hold's control mainframe, called the Manifold Sanctum, where things are simulated and released to keep the Hold running.
The area preview adds the other half. Mengzhou's mountains and rivers, its woods, its pavilions and towers, all meet there. Every feeling attached to the place settles into a Heart Realm of its own and keeps going, and the Court of Savantae and Hsin are, per the poster, shaping the face of Mengzhou anew inside it. That is the in-fiction justification for seven themed pockets of one region, each shaped by a different memory rather than by a biome.
How you get in
Access is story-gated rather than level-gated. The maintenance notice says you reach the Simulacrum Nexus during Main Quest Chapter IV Act IV, "Simulacrum of the Heart". The new Tales Quest sitting in the area, "Moonlike Heart, Mortal Longing", has a harder gate on top of that: Union Level 14 plus completion of the main quest step "Simulacrum of the Heart: Epilogue".
So if you are behind on the main story, September 30 will hand you a locked door. Our Chapter IV Act III guide covers the act that comes before it, and the gate chain has been real all patch, so finish the story before the update rather than after.
The seven Heart realms
Each poster pairs a realm with a mood line and, for four of them, a named location or mechanic. The flavour text is doing actual work here: it tells you which realm has a puzzle system and which is just terrain.
| Realm | Built around | Named feature |
|---|---|---|
| Heartscape Labyrinth | The entrance. Forest paths twist and interweave, shifting with each heartscape | You can walk in circles and end up back at the start without noticing |
| Heart of Stillness | A stable inner realm. Mengzhou's mountains, rivers and living things follow the Sanctum's order | Mengxuan Vale, the gathering place for Celestials and "phantoms", with the Repair Workshops that rebuild the Civilization Capsule |
| Heart of Flames | Memories of the Waking Moon Festival. Light turning across jade, shadows becoming stars | Dream Fox Statue, which holds the Heart of Flames Key |
| Heart of Frost | Memories of the old Land of Xuanfang. Snow on buried paths, cities stirring under the frost | Dream Kernel Puppet, which holds the Heart of Frost Key |
| Heart of Bloom | Memories of Xuanfang's flora. Blooms follow your footsteps | Dream Jade Rootstone, which holds the Heart of Bloom Key |
| Heart of Ruin | Memories of unresolved regrets. A broken shuttle, long silent | Cloud Shuttle |
| Heart of Appearance | Listed by name in the maintenance notice | Nothing published beyond the name |
The three Key abilities, and why they work the same way
Three realms run on the identical loop. You take a Key from a statue, puppet or rootstone, the Key grants one world-manipulation ability, you use it to repair anomalies nearby, then you put the Key back where it came from and the holder transforms into its finished form. The preview spells this out for all three, which makes them the area's puzzle backbone.
| Key | Taken from | Ability | When you return it |
|---|---|---|---|
| Heart of Flames Key | Dream Fox Statue | Reconstruction: restore nearby anomalies. Switching it off, Deconstruction, returns reconstructed objects and creatures to their previous state | The statue rebuilds itself into its original form |
| Heart of Frost Key | Dream Kernel Puppet | Stasis: freeze nearby objects and creatures in place | The puppet resumes activity |
| Heart of Bloom Key | Dream Jade Rootstone | Proliferation: make nearby objects and creatures grow. Grown targets can then be destroyed, and anything proliferable or destructible stands out more in the environment | The rootstone grows into a Dream Jade Tree |
The Deconstruction toggle on the Heart of Flames Key is the detail worth remembering. Reconstruction is not a one-way state change: you can flip it back and the world returns to how it looked before, which is the usual shape of these puzzle powers when a game wants you to re-read a room.
No Key has been published for Heartscape Labyrinth, Heart of Stillness, Heart of Ruin or Heart of Appearance. That is an absence of information, not a confirmation that they have none.
Three things to know before you walk in
- Endless Barrier. The interior is described as intricate and working in ways that are not explained. When you reach its edge you can pass through an Endless Barrier to the other side. Nothing has been said about where the barriers are or what they cost.
- The Nexus Fox Shadow. A towering fox silhouette looms over the whole region watching it "with cold detachment". Lore, most likely, but it is the one thing on the poster that looks like a landmark rather than a zone.
- The labyrinth entrance is a maze on purpose. The Heartscape Labyrinth's paths shift with each heartscape, and the preview's own warning is that without guidance you can return to where you began without realising it. Expect to want a route map, and expect the community to build one on day one.
Echoes and where to farm them
The Nexus brings the area's own Echo infrastructure: Heart of Stillness Tacet Field, Heart of Flames Tacet Field and the Simulacrum Nexus Tacet Discord Nest. Alongside them come five named Echoes, Formrender, Soulfrayer, Skywatch Lancer, Bloomburst Puppet and Jade Nether Serpent, plus one COST 4 Echo Kuro has not named, plus Phantom: Skywatch Lancer and Phantom: Smolder.
Costs, classes and Sonata pools are not published for any of them yet, beyond the new sets Heart of Sworn Vigil, Flash of Electric Reflection and Flower of Tinged Yearning. Our 3.7 Echo guide has the official skill lines and the elements each one carries. Worth noting for 3.7 specifically: unequipped, unupgraded Echoes of the same type, Sonata and main stat now merge into stacks of up to 999, so the backlog this area creates is at least tidier than the last one.
What exploring it pays
Two events in the region preview are tied directly to the Nexus rather than to the patch in general. Both are listed with reward cards, which is more than most 3.7 events have.
| Event | Type | Listed rewards |
|---|---|---|
| Dreams in the Capsule | Area Exploration | Astrite ×500, Forgery Premium Supply - Lahai-Roi, Premium Resonance Potion, Premium Sealed Tube, Bloom of Hearkening |
| Past Dreams, Traced Seals | Photo Collection | Astrite ×180, Advanced Resonance Potion, Advanced Energy Core, Advanced Sealed Tube, Shell Credit |
That is 680 Astrite from the two, or 4.25 pulls at 160 Astrite each. The photo event has a story hook rather than just a camera: Hsin sets Suoming a task, you join her recording the sights of the Nexus, and the trip drags up memories of the Ten Seals Covenant. The patch also adds a permanent event, "Blooms for the Shadow", though nothing published so far ties it to the Nexus specifically.
What is still unpublished
Being straight about the gaps matters more than usual with a region this new. There is no map, no exploration percentage, no chest or puzzle count, no detail on Heart of Appearance, no Key information for four of the seven realms, no spawn tables for the new Echoes, and no numbers at all for Hsin's kit or her signature weapon Blooming Jadehaven. Any guide claiming to have those this week is inventing them.
If you want to be ready on day one, the practical version is: finish Chapter IV before September 30, pre-download if your launcher still allows it, and let the exploration tracker lead once the patch is up. We will fill in the realm-by-realm detail after we can walk it.
With the 3.7 update on September 30, during Main Quest Chapter IV Act IV, "Simulacrum of the Heart". The area is story-gated, not level-gated.
Yes in practice. Act IV is where you enter the region, and the area's Tales Quest additionally asks for Union Level 14 and completion of "Simulacrum of the Heart: Epilogue".
Three of them are one loop: take the Key from its holder, use its ability to repair anomalies, return it, and the holder transforms. Flames gives Reconstruction and Deconstruction, Frost gives Stasis, Bloom gives Proliferation.
680 from the two area events, 500 from Dreams in the Capsule and 180 from Past Dreams, Traced Seals. Exploration and quest rewards on top of that are not published yet.
Sources
- New Region Preview I | Simulacrum Nexus of Mengzhou, Coming Soon! (official, September 26, 2026) — the seven realm posters, the three Key abilities, Mengxuan Vale, the Endless Barrier, and the two area event reward cards
- Wuthering Waves Version 3.7 Update Maintenance Notice (official, September 22, 2026) — the area's seven sub-areas by name, the Act IV unlock, the new Tacet Fields and Tacet Discord Nest, and the Echo list
- Wuthering Waves Version Preview | Version 3.7 (official, September 19, 2026) — the September 30 release date
Related reading: the full 3.7 preview for the banner lineups and patch costs, the 3.7 pre-download guide for sizes and times, and banner end dates if you are still deciding what to pull before the patch.