Inner Way Cultivation Ledger

Four ways.
One gold note at a time.

Every Inner Way starts at Tier 0 and carries a type, a path affiliation, and a long climb to Tier 6. This ledger lays out where the notes come from, what each tier costs, how conversion trades one Inner Way for another, and where to spend the Bookplates you recycle along the way.

4
Equipped Slots
0–6
Tier Range
400
Notes to Tier 6
~713
Chests / Week
01

Anatomy of an Inner Way

Every Inner Way — support, attack, defense, whatever its function — is built on the same skeleton.

Any Inner Way4 equipped at once
Type
Support, Attack, Defense, etc. — fixed on acquisition
Locked
Affiliation
Path-specific, or Universal — usable on any path
Locked
Tier Progress
Climbs from Tier 0 to Tier 6 by feeding it Inner Way Notes
0→6
Equip Slot
One of four active slots on your character
×4
01
Always keep your primary weapon's Inner Way equipped. Whether you equip your secondary weapon's is a build call.
02
Fill the remaining slots with Inner Ways that provide consistent buffs with high uptime — not situational spikes.
03
This is the slowest facet of character growth — it lives and dies by the RNG of note acquisition, so a steady weekly pipeline matters more than any single lucky pull.
02

Weekly Note Chest Income

The majority of your Inner Way Notes come from Inner Way Note Chests, opened for a random note. These repeatable sources refill every week.

Energy & Combat — Scales with Play
Energy Consumption
~1260 energy cap/wk≈ 63 chests
Sword Trial
3 per 60 energy
Outposts
1 per 20 energy
Campaign Bosses
1 per 20 energy
Fixed Weekly Rewards
Hero's Realm
weekly clear5 chests
Season Shop
weekly limit40 chests
Legacy Exchange
Taiping Mausoleum5 chests
Inner Way Tips Exchange
recycled notes600 chests
Total Weekly Chests
≈ 713
Assumes you recycle enough spare notes to afford all 600 Tips Exchange chests every week.
Non-repeatable sources: Path Guide challenges, Path Trial season & first-clear rewards, limited-time Events, Abyss Trial challenges, Zhao Feiyan's Warehouse, the Gourmet Food Stall, the Chess Stall, the Fireworks Festival, and Weiyang Merchant Tang Lun.
03

Upgrading, Tier by Tier

Each Inner Way climbs from Tier 0 to Tier 6, and every step costs more notes than the last. A full ascent to Tier 6 takes 400 notes in total.

Tier 1Cost 10 · Running total 10
Tier 2Cost 20 · Running total 30
Tier 3Cost 30 · Running total 60
Tier 4Cost 40 · Running total 100
Tier 5Cost 100 · Running total 200
Tier 6Cost 200 · Running total 400
Gold Quality
~8 weeks
Tier 0 → 6, opening 600 chests weekly nets ~40–80 gold notes toward one focus.
Purple Quality
10–16 weeks
A meaningfully slower climb — budget for it accordingly.
Priority: always bring your primary weapon's Inner Way to Tier 6 first — everything else can wait.
04

Conversion — Gain & Loss

One Inner Way can be swapped for another of the same quality. Same affiliation trades 1:1 — crossing affiliations always costs or pays a premium.

Universal → Path (Loss)
  • Gold: 3 Universal notes → 2 Path notes (33% loss)
  • Purple: 5 Universal notes → 4 Path notes (20% loss)
Converting Universal into Path always costs more notes than it returns.
Path → Universal (Gain)
  • 1Gold: 2 Path notes → 3 Universal notes (50% gain)
  • 2Purple: 4 Path notes → 5 Universal notes (25% gain)

Gold Path → Universal

Only 267 Path notes are needed to reach Tier 6 on the resulting Universal Inner Way — versus 400 notes going direct.

267 notes to Tier 6

Purple Path → Universal

The same trick applies at Purple quality — only 320 Path notes are needed to reach Tier 6 on the Universal result.

320 notes to Tier 6

Reverse Direction

Going Universal → Path costs more than it saves: 600 Universal notes are needed to convert into a 400-note Path Tier 6.

600 notes required
Resetting tiers: converting resets both selected Inner Ways to Tier 0, but their accumulated notes return to you in reverse — a Tier 1 piece and a Tier 4 piece, once converted, yield 100 notes and 10 notes respectively. You are, in effect, swapping their tiers. 8 conversions are free each season (4 per half); beyond that, each costs 500 Echo Jade, up to 16 paid conversions. This exists mainly to ease switching between paths — using it purely to speed-run a Path Inner Way to Tier 6 is possible, but rarely worth the extra effort.
05

Recycling into Vintage Bookplates

Unwanted notes recycle into Vintage Bookplates — the currency spent in the Tips Exchange, where note chests are purchased.

Priority Pick

Custom Swap: Chest

The only chest that lets you choose a specific Path branch — Bamboocut · Wind or Bamboocut · Dust. Exchange this one every week without fail.

600 Chests / Week
Everything Else

Focus 3–4 Inner Ways

Recycle every note you're not actively investing in. Spreading upgrades across too many Inner Ways just slows every single one of them down.

Discipline > Greed

Recycle rate depends on quality and affiliation — Gold Path notes return the most Bookplates per note.

Gold Path15 Bookplates
Gold Universal10 Bookplates
Purple Path5 Bookplates
Purple Universal4 Bookplates
Blue (any)3 Bookplates