Zenless Zone Zero Combat System Explained
Welcome to our guide, where we cover everything you need to know about the combat system in Zenless Zone Zero. ZZZ is an urban-fantasy action RPG developed by Hoyoverse, the same makers of Genshin Impact and Honkai Star Rail.
While the game mechanics of these three are all similar, the combat is what sets ZZZ apart from the other games. In this article, I’ll cover every mechanic you need to know about.
While I won’t dive into every mechanic in depth, I’ll cover the basics so you understand everything at a base level. In the future, I’ll write more guides detailing the more nuanced mechanics, so stay tuned on our Zenless Zone Zero Guides.
Agent Info
To start off, let’s look at the Agent information window. Characters are referred to as Agents, and they all will have the same information window.
The top will include basic information like the Agent name, their faction, and what level you have them at. Here’s a rundown of all the other stats and properties.
Attributes
Every ZZZ character will have an attribute. This determines what damage type they deal. While Ellen is an Ice attribute, she still does some Physical damage. Ice will simply be the damage type of her stronger moves.
- Fire
- Electric
- Ice
- Physical
- Ether
Fighting Styles
Every character will also have a Fighting Style. This helps determine their role on a team and also what weapons they can equip. Support Agents will equip Support W-Engines, Defense will equip Defense, etc.
Here’s also a quick breakdown of the roles for each Fighting Style.
- Attack: “Skilled at dealing massive damage directly though attacks, defeating enemies, and bringing combat to a swift end.”
- Stun: “Skilled at accumulating Daze quickly to Stun enemies, creating opportunities for the squad to deal damage.”
- Anomaly: “Skilled at accumulating Anomaly Buildup to trigger Attribute Anomalies, weakening enemies and dealing damage.”
- Support: “Skilled at providing buffs to allies and improving the squad’s combat efficiency.”
- Defense: “Skilled at unleashing counterattacks when being attacked, with strong survivability.”
Stats
Here’s a breakdown of all of the characters stats you see on the Agent Info. If you don’t know what some of these mean yet, that’s ok. We’ll go into more detail on some mechanics down below.
- HP: Stands for Hit Points. Determines how much damage an Agent can take before they die.
- ATK: Attack determines how much damage is done with attacks.
- DEF: Defense decreases the damage taken from monsters.
- Impact: Determines how much Daze is applied to enemies.
- Crit Rate: The Chance of doing a Critical attack. Default is 5%.
- Crit DMG: The amount of increased damage dealt by a Critical attack. Default is 50%.
- Anomaly Mastery: Determines how much Anomaly buildup is done by a character. (similar to Crit Rate)
- Anomaly Proficiency: This determines how much damage is done by Attribute Anomaly. (similar to Crit DMG)
- PEN Ratio: Allows Agents to penetrate enemy Defense, dealing more damage.
- Energy Regen: Determines how much Energy per second an Agent gains when on the field.
Core Passive & Additional Ability
Lastly, every character will have a Core Passive section. Leveling up this will increase your passive, additional ability, and assist moves.
The Core Passive will generally be character unique and provide an additional aspect of their kit. In the case of Ellen, she uses charges to increase her skill’s Crit DMG.
Additional Abilities are effects that grant bonuses when your team has Agents of the same attribute or same faction. This incentivizes you to build teams a certain way, maximizing your bonuses.
Zenless Zone Zero Combat Mechanics
Energy
In the top left corner of the screen, you’ll have the breakdown of your team. The Green bar represents your HP, and the Blue bar underneath is your Energy.
Every character will have a specific Energy Requirement for their EX Special Attack. In this image, you can see that Ellen only requires about 1/3rd of her bar, while Nicole requires about 2/3rds of the bar.
Decibel
The Decibel system is another form of “Energy.” This will be used to cast your Agent’s Ultimate ability. As you attack enemies, the Decibel rating will increase. Once it reaches the “Maximum” rating of 3000, you can cast any Agent’s Ultimate.
Unlike Genshin Impact, you don’t build up Decibel for each character. Instead, the Decibel system is teamwide. As such, you can decide which Agent Ultimate to activate when your rating is at max.
Daze
When attacking enemies, they will also have an HP bar. Below their HP bar is an orange bar that indicates their Daze. When you attack enemies, you will inflict Daze on them.
When you inflict enough Daze (bar reaches full), you will stun them. During this time, the enemy will take increased damage, and you can launch Chain Attacks that deal massive damage.
As previously mentioned, the Impact stat will determine how much Daze an Agent will inflict. The more Impact, the more Daze they apply.
Attribute Anomaly
When dealing Attribute damage to an enemy, they will build up “Attribute Anomaly.” There is a different Anomaly for each Attribute, and once you build up enough, the enemy will be inflicted with the Anomaly. This is similar to a status condition in other games.
As previously mentioned, Anomaly Mastery will increase the buildup your character does, while Anomaly Proficiency will increase the damage done.
Here’s a rundown of the 6 Anomaly effects:
Fire |
Burn: Continuously deals Fire DMG for a period of time. Organic enemies’ actions will be interrupted when the effect is triggered. |
Electric |
Shock: Causes the target to receive additional Electric DMG at intervals. Machine enemies’ actions will be interrupted when the effect is triggered. |
Ice |
Shatter: Immobilizes the target and deals Ice DMG when the effect ends. Increases the Crit DMG received by the target for a period of time. |
Physical |
Assault: Interrupts the enemy’s actions and deals massive Physical DMG. Increases the Daze the target takes for a period of time. |
Ether |
Corruption: Causes the target to receive additional Ether DMG. Energy/Ethereal enemies’ actions will be interrupted when the effect is triggered. |
| Disorder: When applying an Attribute Anomaly to enemies that are already afflicted with a different Attribute Anomaly, the new Anomaly will overwrite the original, and trigger Disorder, dealing extra damage and inflicting Daze. |
Enemy Glint
When enemies are attacking, a red or orange glint will appear, letting you know the correct timing to avoid these attacks. Dodging these attacks at the right time will result in a Perfect Dogdge. (More on that later)
Bangboos
For the last Combat Mechanic, we have Bangboos. These are essentially your team’s 4th member. While you can’t switch into them normally, they provide additional skills or buffs to your team.
Some Bangboos also have Chain Attacks. This can extend your Chain Attacks on a Dazed enemy. (More on Chain Attacks below)
Zenless Zone Zero Combat Move Set
Basic Attacks
Basic Attacks are the bread and butter for most characters. Every character will have their own unique Basic Attack Chain. Holding the Basic Attack or pausing will also result in slight variations to these chains.
Dodge
The Dodge button will be used to evade enemy attacks. You can use your basic attack while dodging to perform a Dash Attack. If you Dodge at the perfect time, (when there’s a red/orange glint) you’ll perform a Perfect Dodge.
Use Basic Attack after a Perfect Dodge to do a Dodge Counter. This has a Heavy Attack effect.
Special Attacks
Special Attacks are basically Agent Skills. Unlike Genshin, Skills don’t have a cooldown, and you could use them endlessly. However, it’s recommended to use them when you have the Energy to buff them to EX Special.
Special Attacks also have a Heavy Attack effect, which will start Chain Attacks when hitting a Dazed enemy.
EX Special Attack
As mentioned, EX Special Attacks are buffed up and worth using compared to regular Special Attacks. You use Energy to cast these attacks, and every Agent has different Energy requirements.
Ultimate
Every Agent will have an Ultimate, which is one of your strongest moves. You’ll need a Maximum Decibel Rating to cast your Ultimate. As mentioned, these Decibels are shared throughout your team.
Chain Attacks
Chain Attacks are QTEs (Quick Time Events) that pop up when you hit a Dazed enemy with a Heavy Attack. You can then press on the Agent on the left or right to swap, dealing high amounts of damage with a Chain Attack.
There is a maximum amount of Chain Attacks you can do depending on the enemy.
- Normal Monsters – 1 Chain Attack
- Elite Monsters – 2 Chain Attacks
- Bosses – 3 Chain Attacks
If you use a Bangboo with a Chain Attack skill, this will not count toward your maximum. This is a great way of increasing your damage when Chaining.
Switch
Unlike other games, you don’t press on an Agent to swap to them. Instead, you use the Switch button to switch forward in your team. There is also a hotkey to switch backwards.
Since teams have 3 Agents, the Switch forward and backward will let you swap to any team member. Switching at the correct time will also allow you to perform Assist moves.
Assists
There are a few different types of Assist moves:
Reactive Assist can be performed after being hit by an enemy. Press the Switch button after being hit to swap to a team member. The switched in Agent will perform a Heavy Attack and let you keep attacking.
Perfect Assists can be performed when switching at the perfect time (only Orange Glint). Doing so will consume an Assist Point. You start a battle with 6 Assist Points. (denoted by the border of the Switch button)
If you Switch during a Red Glint, you will simply Switch and Dodge instead of performing an Assist.
Perfect Assists also have subcategories:
- Defensive Assists are performed by melee characters. They will swap in, parry/block the attack, and inflict Daze.
- Evasive Assists are performed by ranged characters, they will swap in, evade, and deal some damage.
Lastly, there is an Assist Follow-Up. Pressing Basic/Special Attack after performing a Perfect Assist (Defensive or Evasive) will trigger the Agent’s Assist Follow-Up Attack.
Assists as a whole are part of the Core Passive section of a character. You can level these moves up along with the Core Passive, and check out each character’s individual Assist Follow Ups.
Closing Words
This wraps up just about everything you need to know about the combat in Zenless Zone Zero. We don’t cover every mechanic in depth, but give you the basics about everything.
There are more niche details like hidden multipliers, skill/weapon interactions, and more. Those topics go much beyond a beginner introduction to the combat, but we’ll cover those topics in future guides.
For more resources, be sure to check out our other Zenless Zone Zero Guides to stay up to date on the current ZZZ meta.
