If miHoYo wasn’t already dominating the action RPG gacha scene with Genshin Impact and Honkai: Star Rail, it has yet another potential success on the way. Zenless Zone Zero launches on July 4th as a free-to-play title for iOS, Android, PC and PS5 (though console owners can spend $10 to obtain materials and currency for use at launch). Unlike the developer’s other titles, it has a more exaggerated and vibrant art style alongside its fast-paced real-time combat. Here are 15 things you should know before playing.
Setting
Zenless Zone Zero takes place in a post-apocalyptic future where strange beings known as Ethereals have wiped out most of humanity. The survivors have holed up in New Eridu, utilizing the Ethereals’ technology while also harnessing the mysterious Hollows to fight back. As Belle or Wise, players take on the role of Proxy and seek to guide Agents through the Hollows to complete missions.
Agents
The Agents in question hail from different factions, each with different goals and backstories. Victoria Housekeeping takes on various requests and is skilled at retrieving items, “cleaning” up bad guys and getting the job done under any circumstance. Belobog Heavy Industries is a construction company working in areas affected by Hollows, with Koleda Belobog as the president (after her father went missing). Section 6 is a division of H.A.N.D. and is led by Hoshimi Miyabi, which is all about tackling Hollow-related missions.
The Criminal Investigation Special Response Team is part of New Eridu’s Public Security and maintains order in the city. Finally, there’s Gentle House, aka the Cunning Hares, founded by Nicole Demara, who are smaller in scale but also take on Hollow-related jobs. Not much is known about the OBOLS Squad or the emotionless Soldier 11, but it’s one more mystery to unravel.
Gameplay Loop
The general gameplay loop will be familiar to those who played Honkai Impact 3rd. At its core, Zenless Zone Zero is a hack-and-slash action title where you select a team of three characters. Though only one is playable at any given time, you can freely swap to the others. There’s a story mode, with the chapter offering different maps and commissions to complete and additional activities to level up and improve your characters.
Bangboo
A new part of the formula is the Bangboo. Assigned as helpers in New Eridu, they complete and specialize in various tasks. In combat, they serve as the fourth member of your party – they can unleash skills automatically, activate a passive effect under certain conditions and even provide another chain attack periodically. Bangboos are also notable because you can pull them with Coup-Ens earned only from in-game activities and not real money.
Fighting Styles
However, your core team composition will ultimately carry you through the story and other content. Each Agent has a unique Fighting Style, similar to the Paths from Honkai: Star Rail. Some are attackers who are all about piling on damage, while defenders can counterattack and soak up damage. Supports will buff party members; Stuns can crowd-control foes; and Anomaly Agents are all about building up Anomalies – more on that later.
Elements
Of course, it wouldn’t be a HoYoverse game without elements and enemy types that are vulnerable to the same. Zenless has five elements – Fire, Ether, Physical, Electric and Ice. Thus far, it’s known that Mutant enemies are weak to Ice, while Electric attacks are effective against Machine enemies. Meanwhile, Fire is good against Organic and Corrupted foes.
Anomalies
Depending on the element and whether the Agent specializes in Anomaly Mastery, you can build up certain Anomalies on enemies. Think of them as status effects – dish out enough Physical damage, and you can afflict either Assault – which interrupts an enemy – or Armor Break – which reduces Physical damage resistance for a period. Fire damage will trigger Burn, dealing continuous damage over time. If you exploit an enemy’s weakness to a specific element, they’ll be unable to move while debuffed by an Anomaly.
Combat Basics
Each character has a Basic Attack and Special Attack, though you can hold down the former to execute an alternate charged attack, which varies between Agents. Attacking enemies will build up Energy, and you can also dodge attacks. Dodge perfectly, and you can attack afterwards with a Dodge Counter. As noted earlier, you can switch between characters at any point. It’s deceptively easy to get into, but there’s plenty of nuance.
Chain Attacks, Ultimates, Assist Attacks and Perfect Assists
Each character has an Ultimate ability built up with Dodge Counters, Chain Attacks and more. The resource is shared between the whole party, so you can’t trigger an Ultimate with one character, and then switch to the next for another. Chain Attacks trigger after hitting a Stunned enemy with a Special Attack – you’ll see an indicator to switch to another party member, who will jump in and perform a powerful attack. They can then hit the Stunned enemy and trigger another Chain Attack. You also have Assist Attacks, available if you’re hit and capable of dishing out some damage to provide a breather.
Then there’s the Perfect Assist, where switching to another party member before an attack connects will activate a unique Assist (depending on the Agent). For example, Nicole can perform a Defensive Assist to parry an attack and build up Daze on an enemy. Perfect Assists depend on the number of Assist Points available, which are recovered by performing Chain Attacks.
Daze, Energy and EX Skill Variants
Enemies accumulate Daze as they take damage. Once it hits 100 percent, they’ll be Stunned and vulnerable to Chain Attacks. As you build up Energy from attacks, you can use it for EX Skill Variants – stronger versions of Special Attacks which deal exceptional damage. It’s thus important to know when to unleash them and against which enemies.
Disk Drives
Disk Drives are your de facto gear, which affects an Agent’s stats. You can equip up to six at a time on an Agent, and if they’re part of a set, then equipping a certain number from the same will provide set bonuses. These range from increased attack and energy regen to increasing critical hit chance against a Burning enemy by 28 percent or dealing 30 percent more damage to enemies when their HP is 50 percent or higher.
W-Engines
Similarly, you have W-Engines, your weapons and the Light Cones of the game providing unique, potentially game-changing passives. Each is coded to a specific Fighting Style, and only one can be equipped by an Agent. Also, like Disk Drives, they add stats to your character and can be refined further to increase the potency of their effects.
Additional Activities
Outside of the story, a large portion of the end-game in Zenless Zone Zero will go towards farming stages for XP, currency and materials to upgrade skills. There are some twists on the formula – the Combat Simulation lets you farm separate stages for specific materials, or a Custom Stage, where you can specify different materials and earn them all at once. Of course, you also have the gear farming stages, bosses that grant character ascension materials, and the weekly boss challenges for currency to purchase W-Engines, among other rewards.
Shiyu Defense
If you enjoyed Honkai: Star Rail’s Memory of Chaos, say hello to Shiyu Defense. Ten stages, each that must be cleared within a set time and that award 300 Polychromes each (if you get three stars, that is). Each stage has an attribute that provides an edge, like increasing Stun damage multipliers or Agent Anomaly Buildup rate, and a Boosted Element, with the corresponding element dealing more damage (thus encouraging the use of certain Agents). The higher you go, the more challenging stages become, and you’ll need two separate teams to clear the very last levels.
Hollow Zero
Then there’s Hollow Zero, Zenless Zone Zero’s take on the Simulated Universe. Pick your team and venture through different encounters, picking up buffs en route to the final boss. It’s rogue-like in structure, so death results in the end of a run. One intriguing change of pace is that you start with only one character. The others are added to your party after clearing later encounters. You can also suffer Corruption upon progressing, not unlike the Swarm Disaster’s Countdown Timer, though its debuff can be removed.
