The city of New Eridu awaits you in Zenless Zone Zero. As humanity’s last bastion against the cataclysmic effects of the Hollows, it’s up to siblings Belle and Wise, known as Proxies, to aid various agents in navigating a dangerous world. We know you’re eager to hop in and start your adventure, but there are a few concepts you might want to check out. Here’s our Zenless Zone Zero tips and beginner’s guide to help you as you begin your journey.
Zenless Zone Zero tips – 20 things to know before you start playing
Our Zenless Zone Zero beginner’s guide is filled with tips to help newcomers familiarize themselves with the challenges posed by the Hollows. We discuss various gameplay mechanics, including combat, grid-like exploration, minigames, and more.
Familiarize yourself with the Hollow Deep Dive (HDD) System
You’ll spend a lot of time in the Random Play video store. This is also where you’ll find the Hollow Deep Dive system or the HDD, a terminal that grants access to various missions. These are generally broken up into three categories:
Story Commissions – Main quests that advance the story further. These tend to have cutscenes and dialogue, as well as combat and exploration portions.Combat Commissions – These lead directly to battles against the denizens of the Hollows. Some scenarios are straightforward, while others have a clear objective, such as time trials or challenges (e.g. defeating a number of opponents via specific types of attacks).Exploration Commissions – These are presented in grid form, where your Bangboo avatar moves across tiles. More on this gameplay mechanic later.
Consider additional passive activations when building your three-person squad
Your Zenless Zone Zero squad is comprised of up to three characters, also known as agents. Agents from the same faction, or those with similar elemental attributes, have their additional passives activated for the duration of that mission. This is denoted by a yellow smiley face icon in the upper-right corner of the screen. This means you must think properly about your squad setup in case you want to have certain buffs present.
Here are some examples based on the image above:
Soukaku and Lycaon are from the HSOS6 and Victoria Housekeeping factions, respectively. However, because they both use the Ice element, their extra passives are in play if they’re in the same squad: Soukaku: Group Set Meal – When Soukaku consumes a vortex to activate Fly the Flag, the Ice damage of the squad is increased by 20% for 22 seconds.Lycaon: Elegant Predator – When Lycaon hits an enemy, the target’s stun damage multiplier increases by 35%.Conversely, the third member, Billy Kid, comes from the Cunning Hares faction and he uses Fire as an element. Because of this, you won’t be able to make use of his Third Starlight passive.
Take note of agent specializations when leveling them up
Our Zenless Zone Zero beginner’s guide wouldn’t be complete if we didn’t mention agent specializations (or specialties):
Attack types are pure DPS characters, able to dish out a lot of damage in a short span of time.Defense types help with survivability, protecting teammates when the need arises.Stun types have extra perks that further build up an opponent’s daze/stun meter, leading to chain attacks (more on this later).Support types have additional buffing capabilities or utility functions.Anomaly types excel at applying weakening debuffs to your foes.
As for leveling up, you’ll notice similarities if you’ve played other HoYoverse games, such as Genshin Impact and Honkai: Star Rail. Characters use items known as Investigator Logs to gain XP. Upon reaching a threshold (i.e. every 10 levels), you need to use a Certification Seal to “ascend” them to the next threshold.
Related guides:
How to unlock all free charactersTier list – Best characters in the game
W-Engines and Drive Discs further boost your characters
Agents in Zenless Zone Zero already have a default weapon that’s equipped. Gearing up, therefore, is relegated to giving various components to your characters:
W-Engines – These are singular core components for certain specializations. For example, the Deep Sea Visitor W-Engine is for Attack specialty characters, greatly increasing the Ice damage that they deal.Drive Discs – You can equip up to six of these, so think of them as accessories or artifacts. They even have 2-piece and 4-piece bonuses.
Note that high-tier W-Engines come from gacha banners. However, you can also purchase a few from the Gadget Store on Sixth Street. Drive Discs, meanwhile, can be purchased from the Music Store just across from the Random Play building.
Master fast-paced and fluid combat by way of normal attacks, special attacks, and dodges
One Zenless Zone Zero tip to remember is that combat moves at a frenetic pace. You’ll have to make use of each character’s normal attacks, often pressing the spacebar to swap to other teammates. Dodging enemy blows is also a given, as these animations grant temporary immunity from the damage that you’ll otherwise receive.
Meanwhile, activating special attacks requires energy, which is seen in gauges/pips just below a character’s HP meter:
Pressing the “E” key when you don’t have the energy causes the character to do their special attack.However, if the energy meter has been filled up, pressing the “E” key triggers their EX special attack, which deals more damage and can interrupt a target’s actions.
Stun opponents and choose allies for your chain attack
As you continuously hit enemies, their respective daze meter builds up until they’re stunned. When you follow this up with another heavy attack (i.e. the last hit of a basic attack sequence, special/EX specials, and the like), you’ll trigger a chain attack instance.
When the chain attack prompt appears, choose another agent in your squad who will do the action (i.e. left-click or right-click, depending on the teammate). Since agents have their own chain attack effects, you need to be mindful of which character does that particular action.
Note that you can trigger two consecutive chain attacks when fighting elite foes, and up to three consecutive chain attacks when you’re up against bosses.
The ultimate ability gauge is shared among teammates
In battle, you should see a point system on the left-hand side of the screen. This represents the decibel resource. At 3,000 points, you can unleash an agent’s ultimate ability by pressing the “Q” key. Note that the decibel gauge is shared across your whole three-person squad, which means you can swap to a different character if you prefer to use their ultimate at that moment.
Bangboos act as a fourth party member of sorts
When creating your squad, it’s possible to include a Bangboo (i.e. small creatures that look like rabbit dolls). These Bangboos act like a fourth party member of sorts. You can’t control them, but they can independently attack hostiles. Moreover, when you trigger a chain attack, the combat Bangboo will also be part of the sequence.
Buy food from General Chop to gain temporary buffs
Instead of tackling one battle after another, we recommend visiting General Chop’s noodle store on Sixth Street. This fella sells different kinds of food in exchange for dennies, the game’s basic currency. The noodles you eat grant temporary buffs:
Here are some examples of dishes that you can buy:
Vegetable Noodles: +30 ATKPumpkin Soup Noodles: +15% HP and +15% physical damage.Red Chili Meat Noodles: +15% HP and +15% fire damage.Green Pepper Meat Noodles: +15% HP and +15% electric damage.Seafood Noodles: +15% HP and +15% ice damage.Fried BBQ Noodles: +15% HP and +15% ether damage.Bone Broth Noodles: +30% damage against bosses.
Exploration has a grid structure with roguelike mechanics
In general, Exploration Commissions, as well as some Story Commissions, present a grid structure. No, you’re not going to roam around a massive open-world environment. Instead, your Bangboo avatar is meant to navigate and move across several tiles to reach objectives.
Certain events may occur depending on the current mission (i.e. you have to push blocks or avoid corruption that lowers your team’s HP). Enemies, represented by red or purple “demon slime” tend to be present as well. Likewise, icons that look like funnels usually mean that they transport you to another layer or floor of the grid. In some cases, it might be possible to check all tiles or go back to the previous layer in case you missed rewards.
Some tiles offer rewards and others need to be unlocked via coins
While navigating across tiles in the grid, you might pick up some rewards, including Dennies (basic currency), Polychrome (akin to Primogems/premium currency), and Gear Coins. The Gear Coins are used to unlock tiles that have a particular cost, and these paths tend to have extra rewards, too. Additionally, you could find Ether Dewdrops, which fully restore the HP of all party members.
Resonium cards grant boosts and they can be fused together
Other exploration-type grids, like the Qualification Assessment in Scott Outpost, let you collect Resonium. These are cards that provide beneficial effects to your party. Examples include:
Critical: Tactical Goggles – +2 stacks of insight.Critical: Muzzle Compensator – Deal +15% crit damage when hitting enemies from behind.Critical: Doombringer – Gain +20% crit damage.Duel: Baseball Bat – Basic attacks inflict +10% more daze.Duel: Ergonomic Brick – +30% chain attack damage.Duel: Gong of Jubilation – Reduce an enemy’s attack by 15% for 30 seconds after it has recovered from being stunned.
Obtaining Resonium cards of the same type unlocks a fusion variant with stronger effects. All of this ties into the roguelike nature of grid exploration.
Explore new locations and tackle side quests
One of the most important tips in Zenless Zone Zero is to check all the areas that you’ve unlocked in case there are new side quests and activities. This can be done by pressing the “M” key to bring up the locations that are available and then fast-traveling to those spots.
You might discover that NPCs have errands that can be completed. Likewise, there might be a few area-specific tasks that are part of the Mewmew’s Medals objectives.
The Inter-Knot might have new tasks for you
The Inter-Knot can be accessed by pressing the “E” key. This is akin to a social media app or a message board of sorts, where you can see posts from other citizens of New Eridu. If you click on the drop-down list in the bottom-right corner of the screen, you can select the “Help Request Info” option. This brings up posts that lead to side quests.
VR combat simulations in the HIA Club grant Inter-Knot XP, but you need to be mindful of battery charges
All activities in the HDD, as well as the side quests that you tackle, grant Inter-Knot XP. Think of this as akin to “World Level” or a means of overall progression.
However, there will be moments when you feel that you’ve already done everything, yet you still lack XP. If this is the case, then you need to head to the Hollow Investigation Association or the HIA Club. The VR simulations in the HIA Club allow you to select from different combat challenges. These allow you to farm for materials, such as Investigator Logs (character XP), W-Engine components (W-Engine leveling), and Plating Agents (Drive Disc leveling). Moreover, completing these runs nets you Inter-Knot XP, too.
However, be forewarned that farming for materials in Zenless Zone Zero also depletes your energy meter. While energy points are restored gradually, it will likely take hours for the meter to be filled up. To alleviate this, you can buy coffee from the Coff Cafe on Sixth Street. Alternatively, you can spend Ether Batteries or Polychrome to restore +60 energy.
Text and meet up with other agents to build relationships
Pressing the “Q” key while exploring New Eridu brings up your phone. In it, you can see text messages from other characters, including agents that you’ve unlocked. Texting agents allows you to meet up with them, scheduling the activity depending on the time of day. Your interactions here also helps boost their trust in you (i.e. affinity), which leads to further interactions and companion missions.
To view your relationship/affinity with an agent, go to the Random Play hub, interact with the Workbench, and select Partner Archive.
Check the arcade to play minigames like Snake
God Finger arcade on Sixth Street has minigames for those who want to take short breaks. These include Snake Duel, which is akin to playing the old Snake game on mobile phones, and Soul Hounds, which is a bit like Dig Dug. Events may also appear from time to time.
Use the Camera gadget to take photos of the world
You obtain the Camera gadget early in the Zenless Zone Zero campaign. Once you have it, hold the “F” key, select it, then left-click for activation. This lets you take pictures of your surroundings in New Eridu. Some errands even require you to photograph people and pets in the area.
Use the Video Archive to replay cutscenes and dialogue
Eager to fight enemies and don’t have time to sit through dialogue? That’s fine, you can skip those parts if you want. But if you want to rewatch them, you can do so via the Video Archive in the Random Play hub. The chapters and scenes that you’ve completed appear as VHS tapes.
It’s a free-to-play game with gacha mechanics, so be wary of potential spending
An important thing to keep in mind when playing Zenless Zone Zero is that this is still a free-to-play game with gacha mechanics. That means there’s always a chance that you might feel compelled to spend extra, and you need to beware of potential expenses. Currently, we’ve seen the Star-Studded Cast banner, which has six S-tier (i.e. 5-star) agents available: Grace, Rina, Koleda, Nekomiya, Soldier 11, and Lycaon. Because of RNG, you might end up with rewards you don’t even need (i.e. low-tier W-Engines).
In any case, that does it for our Zenless Zone Zero beginner’s guide. We hope these tips help prepare you for your adventures in New Eridu and beyond. Of course, if you’re worried that you might spend extra, note that there are unlockable free-to-play characters. Lastly, if you want to learn about the ideal agents to have in your party, you can take a look at our best characters tier list.