Cartridges

Overview

Cartridges are the named, set-based component of Console Equipment in Neverness to Everness. Every Cartridge belongs to a themed set, and equipping multiple pieces from the same set on a character's Console grid activates powerful set bonuses. Unlike generic Modules, which only contribute raw stats, Cartridges are the part of the loadout that actually shapes a character's playstyle. Twelve Cartridge sets are currently catalogued, spanning every Esper element and role from burst damage dealer to off-field enabler to dedicated healer.

Like Modules, every Cartridge piece ships with a main stat and up to four sub-stats, and every piece can be enhanced from Level 1 to Level 20. The piece's set affiliation is what determines which 2-piece and 4-piece bonuses the character can unlock, so the first decision in any Console build is picking the right Cartridge set for the intended role.

Set Bonus Mechanic

Every Cartridge set grants two tiers of set bonus. The bonus text is tied to how many pieces from the same set are equipped on the character's Console grid at the same time.

Players can mix and match across sets as long as the grid math works out. A common build pattern is to run a full 4-piece of the carry's primary set, then complement it with 2 pieces of a secondary set that provides a flat bonus. Hybrid 2+2 splits are also legal and sometimes optimal for characters whose 4-piece effect is weak relative to a second set's 2-piece.

All Cartridge Sets

Twelve Cartridge sets are currently catalogued. Each row links to the full article for that cartridge with its complete 2-piece and 4-piece text, main stat ranges, sub-stat list, rarity breakdown, farming notes, and role guidance.

Possible Main Stats

Every Cartridge piece carries one main stat and up to four sub-stats. The main stat is fixed when the piece drops; only its level scaling can be raised through enhancement. The full pool of possible main stats is shared across all 12 Cartridge sets and is listed below. Players choose Cartridge pieces to keep based on whether the rolled main stat matches the wearer's intended scaling stat.

Two main stats roll as flat values: Essentia (used for charge-rate and resource generation) and Destabilization (used to amplify Break and reaction setup). The other twelve main stats roll as percentage bonuses tuned to specific build axes. Six of them are element-specific DMG Bonus rolls; only the bonus matching the wearer's element actually contributes to that character's damage, so element-mismatched DMG Bonus rolls are usually salvaged for enhancement materials rather than kept.

Possible Sub-Stats

Every Cartridge piece rolls up to four sub-stats from a shared pool. Sub-stat values are randomized when the piece drops and are visible before any enhancement materials are committed, so players can screen pieces against a target sub-stat profile before investing. The full sub-stat pool is shared across all 12 Cartridge sets and across all three rarity tiers.

• HP (flat)

• ATK (flat)

• DEF (flat)

• HP% (percent)

• ATK% (percent)

• DEF% (percent)

• CRIT Rate

• CRIT DMG

• Essentia (flat)

• Destabilization (flat)

• Universal DMG Bonus (percent)

The sub-stat pool tilts heavily toward generic offensive and defensive rolls. Crit-scaling carries chase CRIT Rate and CRIT DMG sub-stats. ATK-scaling characters look for the ATK% line, with flat ATK as a secondary target. Tanks and shielders chase DEF% and HP% rolls. Reaction-driven and Break-focused builds look for Essentia and Destabilization rolls respectively. Universal DMG Bonus is a flat damage multiplier that applies regardless of element or skill type, which makes it a strong filler sub-stat on any DPS build.

Rarity Tiers

Every Cartridge in the game drops in three rarity tiers. Higher rarity pieces roll higher base main-stat values, carry more sub-stat slots, and reach higher final values when fully enhanced. The intended endgame loadout uses 5-Star pieces across all four cartridge slots, with 4-Star pieces filling the gap during mid-progression and 3-Star pieces used as placeholders or enhancement fodder.

How to Obtain

Cartridges drop from the Rabbit Hole activity, the regular boss and enemy farming mode used to acquire Console Equipment. Runs cost Stamina (the recharging energy used for repeatable rewards), and the player claims drops at the end of each run rather than mid-fight. Each Cartridge set is tied to a specific Rabbit Hole domain, so farming the right domain is the most efficient way to chase a complete four-piece loadout.

As with other Console Equipment, rolls on each piece are randomized when the piece drops. Multiple farming sessions are normally required to land a four-piece set with desirable main stats and useful sub-stat lines for the intended carry. Duplicates of lower-rarity pieces are not wasted: they feed into enhancement to push keeper pieces toward Level 20.

How to Choose a Set

The right Cartridge for a character is decided by the 4-piece bonus more than the 2-piece. The 2-piece is always live, but most 2-piece bonuses are interchangeable flat boosts. The 4-piece is where each set earns its identity, and it should be read as a condition the character's kit must satisfy. A Cartridge whose 4-piece demands frequent Ultimate casts is wasted on a character that rarely reaches Ultimate. A Cartridge whose 4-piece stacks from team-wide elemental damage is wasted if no teammate shares the element.

Use the following rough checklist when pairing a cartridge with a character:

• Match the element. If the 2-piece bonus boosts a specific element, the wearer should deal that element's damage. Otherwise the 2-piece is wasted.

• Match the trigger. Check whether the 4-piece triggers on Ultimate, Skill, Basic Attack, taking damage, or a reaction. The character's kit should generate that trigger reliably.

• Match the role. Defensive sets go on tanks and shielders. Healing sets go on healers. Off-field stackers go on carries who rotate out after a burst. Team-wide buff sets go on battery supports.

• Check stack economy. Sets with stack counters need time and hits to ramp. If the character only spends a few seconds on field per rotation, a ramping set may never reach full stacks.

• Consider hybrid splits. 2+2 hybrid builds are legal. If a character's 4-piece is mediocre but two unrelated 2-piece bonuses both apply, a split may out-damage the full set.

Activating Set Bonuses with Tetris Pieces

The 2-piece and 4-piece bonuses described above do not become live simply by dropping cartridges into a loadout. Each character's console has a visible screen grid, and a cartridge's set bonuses activate only after the matching Tetris-shaped pieces are slotted into that screen in the correct configuration. The cartridge alone is not enough. The Tetris pieces complete the set when both their shape and the slot they fill align with what the cartridge expects.

In practice this means a Console build has two parallel decisions. Picking the right cartridge set determines which 2-piece and 4-piece effects the character is chasing. Picking and slotting the right Tetris pieces then converts those dormant effects into active bonuses. A mismatched Tetris piece that does not complete the shape requirement leaves the bonus inactive, so players plan the grid layout before committing upgrade resources to any piece.

Four correctly placed Tetris pieces are enough to light up both the 2-piece and 4-piece tiers on a dedicated cartridge set. Mixing cartridges from different sets is still legal, as covered earlier, but each set's bonus tier requires that set's own minimum shape coverage in the grid.

Rabbit Hole Source for Tetris Pieces

Tetris pieces are purchased with game coins earned from the Rabbit Hole game mode, the same activity that drops cartridges themselves. Rabbit Hole runs consume Stamina, so the farm cadence is gated by how much Stamina the account has available at the time. Coins spent at the console exchange the energy investment from earlier runs into shape pieces that fit a specific grid plan.

Because both cartridges and their Tetris pieces flow out of Rabbit Hole runs, a typical loadout session alternates between clearing Rabbit Hole for cartridges at the right domain and spending accumulated coins on piece pulls. The mode therefore drives the whole Console progression loop, not just the cartridge drop side.

Tetris Piece Rarity (Blue, Purple, Gold)

Rabbit Hole difficulty controls both the rarity of the Tetris piece reward and whether the player can pre-select the piece shape. Easy runs return a random blue-rarity piece, so the player has no control over which shape the console returns. Medium and Hard runs unlock the ability to choose the specific purple-rarity or gold-rarity piece the player wants before committing to the pull, which removes the shape randomness entirely at the cost of a harder fight.

This structure rewards clearing the higher difficulties not just with better base pieces but with the ability to aim at exactly the shapes the intended loadout needs. Blue pulls from Easy are still useful as enhancement fodder and as emergency fills when a shape is missing, but the optimized endgame grid is built from purple and gold pieces chosen deliberately on Medium and Hard.

Substat Transparency

Both cartridges and Tetris pieces display their full substat lines before any upgrade resources are committed. The player can read every sub-stat that a given piece will carry, in the exact values those sub-stats start at, prior to spending enhancement materials. There is no blind gambling on what a piece will roll into after leveling.

This transparency matters for two reasons. First, it means players can screen raw drops directly against a target sub-stat profile and discard pieces that do not fit, saving enhancement materials for keepers. Second, it lets a player commit to a four-piece grid plan with full knowledge of what each slotted piece will contribute at maximum enhancement, so a build decision made before upgrading does not get undone by a bad roll later.

Character Shape Preferences and Extra Slots

Four correctly placed Tetris pieces are enough to activate a cartridge's 2-piece and 4-piece tiers, but the console screen typically has open space remaining after those four pieces are slotted. Those remaining slots are not wasted: each character has a listed preference for a specific Tetris shape, and filling the extra slots with pieces of that preferred shape grants additional bonuses beyond the set tier effects.

The character's unique preference is listed on the top left of the console screen, so it is visible before any pieces are slotted. Some characters benefit from two-block pieces, while other characters want three-block pieces. The preference is per-character, not per-cartridge, so the same cartridge layout can call for different extra-slot fills depending on which character is wearing it.

The practical implication is that a complete Console build has two layers of piece selection. The first four pieces need to satisfy the cartridge set's shape requirements to light up the 2-piece and 4-piece tiers. The remaining console slots then need to be filled with pieces of the character's preferred block shape to capture the extra-slot bonuses on top of the set effects.

In-Game Recommendation Guide

The console system includes a built-in recommendation guide that surfaces the best cartridge choice, the best Tetris piece combinations, and the ideal substat profile for each character. The same guide also recommends the best suited Arc, the weapon category that pairs most effectively with that character's kit. Players who do not want to plan a full loadout manually can rely on the guide's suggestions as a reliable starting point and adjust from there if they prefer a different playstyle.

The guide does not remove player agency. Cartridge choice, piece shape, and substat priorities remain fully editable, and the grid math described in earlier sections still applies. The guide's value is in collapsing the initial research step for new characters into a single in-game screen, which is especially useful for anyone building a newly pulled character without a prepared plan.

Related Pages

• Modules and Consoles: broader overview of the Console Equipment system, including the grid and generic Modules that sit alongside Cartridges.

• Equipment Enhancement: the KongMu equipment system that runs in parallel with Console Equipment.

• Combat System: how set bonuses interact with attack rotations, swaps, and reactions.

• Elemental Reactions: reference for Nova, Stain, Scorch, Blossom, Remora, and the other reactions named on several Cartridge bonuses.

• Esper Cycle System: how element pairings drive the reactions that many Cartridges hook into.

• Tier List: character rankings to help match a cartridge to the right Esper.