Zelda Echoes of Wisdom: Should you upgrade your sword or energy first?

Might Crystals are precious, so choosing which Swordfighter skill to upgrade is important

Nintendo / GLHF

The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom gives you dozens of echoes to use as tools and in combat, and there’s an echo for seemingly every situation. That said, there are times where you’ll want to be a little bit more hands-on, and that’s what Swordfighter form is for, letting you transform into Link and hack and slash your way through enemies and obstacles. 

But Swordfighter form isn’t super powerful right from the get-go, and you’ll only be able to stay in the form for a few moments at first. Thankfully, you can upgrade the form using Might Crystals, with players able to choose from upgrading your energy or your sword at first, with more upgrades coming later in the game. 

In this guide we’ll go over whether you should upgrade your sword or your energy first in Zelda Echoes of Wisdom, and the ideal upgrade order for the rest of the game. 

Make sure you check out our guide for all outfits in Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom and how to get them so you can adventure through Hyrule in style.

Zelda Echoes of Wisdom: Should you upgrade your sword or energy first? 

You should upgrade your energy first. While sword upgrades are helpful, as they increase your damage and capabilities, upgrading your energy allows you to stay in Swordfighter form for longer, allowing you to deal more damage overall and rely less on energy-restoring smoothies. 

There are three additional levels to your energy bar, and when fully upgraded, you’ll be able to stay in Swordfighter mode for up to a minute at a time. 

Zelda Echoes of Wisdom: Best Might Crystals upgrade order 

Later in the game, you’ll unlock a bow and bombs for Swordfighter mode, giving you more to upgrade and making the order in which you upgrade them a much bigger choice. Thankfully, there’s a pretty clear path for upgrades, and after having played through the game, we know exactly what that is. 

You should upgrade your Swordfighter abilities in the following order, prioritizing earlier abilities over later ones at every opportunity: 

1. Energy 
2. Sword
3. Bow 
4. Bombs 

Energy, as discussed above, allows you to stay in Swordfighter form for longer, and the sword upgrades allow you to deal more damage and offer a few more skills like sword beams and circle slashes. Bow upgrades do the same, but you’re almost always better off summoning a flying or ranged echo instead of using the bow, and bombs are largely useless — the bomb fish echo will suffice in most scenarios, and you get the bomb upgrade far too late in the game for upgrades to be worthwhile.