It’s 2026, and I still find myself staring at the same old character tier lists, wondering if the choices I made back in version 2.2 of Wuthering Waves were the right ones. You know the feeling, right? That nagging sense that you might have missed out on a game-defining unit. The triple banner threat of Camellya, Cantarella, and the return of The Shorekeeper was a seismic event for any F2P player’s account, and honestly, it still echoes through today’s meta.

Back then, my account was in a weird spot. I had a decent roster but lacked a true, no-excuses main DPS and a support that felt indispensable. My Verina was holding things together, but whispers of Shorekeeper’s god-tier buffs made her feel like a band-aid. Then came the announcements: Camellya’s first rerun and the brand-new Cantarella, with Shorekeeper right around the corner. My Astrite stash was limited, and I had to make a choice.

The Temptation of the Bloom-Bearer: Camellya

Camellya was the first to arrive, a Havoc DPS whose entire identity screamed AoE devastation. In early 2.2 discussions, everyone described her as a "selfish" carry who demanded field time but rewarded you with earth-shattering damage. Her best team was practically handed to us on a silver platter: Sanhua and Verina. That’s it. No limited 5-star weapons required, no convoluted swap-cancelling tricks. Just pure, F2P-friendly power. I remember watching showcase videos and wondering: could a version 1.4 character still hang with the shiny new releases of 2026? The answer is a resounding yes. Even now, Camellya anchors my Tower of Adversity clears. Her damage ceiling feels almost abusive when I chain her resonance skill into the spinning bladestorm, and that AoE coverage still trivializes multi-wave content in ways newer, more conditional characters can’t match.

But she’s not without her frustrations. If you swap her out too early, you lose her self-buffs and the whole rotation crumbles. This stubbornness can feel like a liability in today’s game, where quickswap comps and dual-DPS setups reign supreme. Still, when I’m staring down a room full of elite Tacet Discords, no one delivers that reliable, screen-filling carnage quite like Camellya.

The Jack-of-All-Trades Who Mastered None: Cantarella

Then there was Cantarella, the flashy new 2.2 debutante. Her kit read like a cheat code: a Havoc DPS who could also buff, heal, and dish out coordinated attacks. Brant’s success had proven that a versatile unit could warp the meta, and Cantarella was clearly designed with the same philosophy. My fingers were itching to pull for her, but a closer look at her Outro buff gave me serious pause.

Cantarella buffs Havoc damage and Skill damage when she leaves the field. Here’s the catch: in 2.2, there wasn’t a single character who could fully capitalize on both. Jinhsi could use her coordinated attacks, but that role was already filled perfectly by Zhizhi. It felt like Cantarella was a solution waiting for a problem. I asked myself: do I really want to pull a character whose best teammate might not exist for months—or years? Even now in 2026, with an expanded roster, her situation has barely improved. Sure, we’ve gotten a few Havoc-centric skill users, but none that make her an irreplaceable linchpin. She remains in my roster as a fun-for-overworld unit, but every time I see her in my character select, I feel a pang of regret.

The Juggernaut I Almost Skipped: The Shorekeeper

After Cantarella and Camellya’s banners, The Shorekeeper made her triumphant return, and this was the moment my account changed forever. In the current 2026 meta, calling her a "must-pull" feels like an understatement. She’s a pure Spectro Support whose ult provides massive, team-wide CRIT buffs and healing that scales with her energy. The first time I popped her Stellarealm, my jaw dropped. My previously average Camellya started hitting numbers that made me check if I’d accidentally equipped a 6-star weapon.

What truly sets Shorekeeper apart is her universality. Unlike Verina, who offers similar sustain but lackluster offensive utility, Shorekeeper can slot into literally any team and elevate it. Hypercarry? Check. Quickswap? Double check. A scuffed free-to-play comp with random echoes? She somehow makes it viable. I’ve paired her with Havoc, Spectro, Fusion, you name it—she never feels out of place. If Camellya is the beatstick of my account, Shorekeeper is the beating heart. She makes every new DPS I pull feel like a powerhouse from day one.

So, If I Could Only Pull One in 2026…

Looking back, the answer is painfully clear. If you have a solid support foundation (even just a well-invested Verina), Camellya remains an outstanding hypercarry pull. Her damage holds up, and her ease of use is a breath of fresh air in a game that increasingly demands frame-perfect inputs. But if you missed Shorekeeper like I almost did? Prioritize her rerun at all costs. She’s the only character in the game that I’d genuinely call future-proof. New DPS units will powercreep Camellya eventually; it’s the nature of gacha games. But an enabler who turns any DPS into a more powerful version of themselves? That’s timeless.

As for Cantarella, my advice in 2026 remains the same as it was in 2.2: skip her unless you’re a dedicated collector or you’ve seen leaked future characters who explicitly complete her kit. Her time might still come, but until then, she’s a luxury item, not a necessity.

In the end, I walked away from 2.2 with Camellya and Shorekeeper, and my account has never struggled with endgame content since. Every time I see a new player agonizing over the same trinity of banners, I tell them this story. Don’t chase hypothetical synergy. Choose the proven protector—or the unkillable bloom that refuses to wilt. You won’t regret it. 💪