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Here’s a handy guide to get the most out of Zenless Zone Zero’s combat.

If you’re struggling with getting an S-Rank on Zenless Zone Zero’s harder missions, you’re not alone. HoYoverse’s latest gacha game is an action-RPG with button-mashy combat that might seem simple to get the hang of at first. Eventually, however, more challenging activities like Hollow Zero and Shiyu Defense missions will test your limits. Mastering the game’s combat system is key to surviving late-game missions, but don’t worry - we have a handy guide that should get you up to speed on everything you need to know.

Without further ado, here’s our combat guide for Zenless Zone Zero:

The basics of combat

Thankfully, Zenless Zone Zero's first 10-15 hours are pretty forgiving in terms of difficulty. All you have to do is be aware of your Agents’ combat skills to get by most of the time. To attack, your agents can either use a Basic Attack or a Special Attack. Basic Attacks consume no Energy and are thus used the most during combat, but Special Attacks become more powerful EX Special Attacks when a certain amount of Energy is gained during combat. Your Agents can also Dodge, but when timed correctly, your Dodges can be turned into Dash Attacks, Perfect Dodges or a Dodge Counter.

Agents also come with an Ultimate ability, which can be used once your team racks up 3000 Decibels during combat. You can increase your Decibels simply by actively participating in combat and doing things like parrying attacks and dodging. You can only pick one member of your team to perform an Ultimate before your Decibel meter resets, so choose the most powerful Agent for the job.

Here’s where things get a little more complicated.

Since Agents are grouped together in parties of three, players are free to swap between them at any time. When swaps are timed correctly however, they become Assist skills. For example: after one Agent gets hit by a particularly strong attack, a pop up will appear to let you swap to another Agent for a Quick Assist, which will help bring your previous Agent back from the brink.

Defensive Assists are used when enemies are about to attack and you see a sudden gold flash. When you swap to another Agent at this point, the other Agent will execute a Defensive Assist to parry the attack. They can also perform an Evasive Assist to dodge the attack and slow down time. After that, you can tap the Basic Attack button again to trigger an Assist Follow-up attack. You can parry or dodge enemy attacks this way until you run out of Assist Points, after which you’ll see those golden flashes be replaced by more ominous red flashes. If you see red, you’re better off dodging.

Agents can also use Chain Attacks by stunning enemies and using a Heavy Attack. This will immediately prompt the player to choose another agent to trigger a powerful follow-up attack. Think of these Chain Attacks like a baton, passed around members of your team to land powerful attacks on the enemy in rapid succession. These Chain Attacks come with a timer and are more powerful than Basic Attacks, so be sure to make use of them when the prompt appears.

How to assemble the perfect party

It’s easy to play favourites in Zenless Zone Zero and assemble parties based on who you like. If you really like Nicole, Koleda and Soukaku, you might string them together without realising that there’s little to no synergy between any of these characters, which means that you won’t be dealing nearly as much damage as you could with a better team. Synergy is critical to making the most out of this game’s combat, so here’s how it works.

Synergy can boil down to either picking characters who possess the same attribute (Electric, Fire, Either, Ice and so on) or share the same faction (Victoria Housekeeping, Cunning Hares, Belobog Heavy Industries and so on). These characters tend to trigger unique traits for each other, and allow the player to build up Anomaly damage more easily. For example, having two Fire characters on the same team will allow you to inflict Burn status on enemies more quickly simply by swapping between them. Going from Ice to Fire characters wouldn’t achieve the same effect.

Characters who share synergy with their teammates get special buffs as well. For example, when Koleda shares a team with someone who has the same Attribute (Fire) or Faction (Belobog), her EX Special Attack applies a debuff to the target. All Chain Attacks will then deal 35% more damage to the stunned target. If you’re looking to put together a team, try picking at least two characters who share the same Attribute or faction to enjoy these perks.

Keep in mind that your team should also consist of Agents with different Specialties, which boil down to the roles they play in combat. Specialties range from Attack and Defense to Stun and Support. Stun characters like Koleda can keep enemies from attacking for extended periods of time, while Support characters like Lucy can buff teammates. The best teams have a solid Attack character to deal lots of damage while their teammates either stun, defend or support them. Depending on who you have unlocked, your team composition can differ greatly.

It should be noted that synergy doesn’t matter all that much in Zenless Zone Zero’s early hours, which can be quite easy to get through. Don’t feel bad about throwing whoever you have available together in a team and experimenting a little.

How to build your Agents up the right way

Now that you know how to use your Agents and organise them into neat little parties, how do you level them up? Well, that’s a complicated question. In Zenless Zone Zero, there are a million little ways to make your Agents more effective in combat. Whether you’re levelling them up, upgrading their abilities or tinkering with their Drive Discs, you’ll be boosting their stats in small increments. Over time, all those little upgrades add up to make your Agent as strong as they can possibly be.

Let’s start with levelling up. In Zenless Zone Zero, your Agents don’t gain experience points through combat. Instead, they manually gain experience through the use of Investigator Logs. Every 10 levels, you’ll also need to use Certification Seals to promote your Agents and continue levelling them with Investigator Logs. This is the single most important thing you can do to strengthen your Agents' usefulness in combat.

Once you’ve levelled your Agents up, turn your attention to their Skills page. Here, you can unlock a whole list of Core Passive abilities, which give your Agents unique combat perks like higher damage. These Core Passives will look like A-F icons in the Skill tab, but you’ll also find the rest of your Agents’ combat abilities, like Basic Attack and Dodge, located underneath. You can upgrade each of these abilities to increase useful damage stats.

Once you’re done tinkering with these skills, check out the W-Engine page. W-Engines function as your character’s weapon of choice in this game, increasing their stats while also giving them useful passive abilities so long as they’re matched to the right Agent. For example, Support characters should have Support W-Engines, or they won’t enjoy these extra passive bonuses.

Drive Discs also function as gear, offering useful but less powerful stat boosts. You can equip six Drive Discs in six different slots, but equipping two or four of the same Drive Disc type will often grant you extra perks. You can also upgrade W-Engines and Drive Discs to further boost your Agents’ stats.

Lastly, you have the Mindscape Cinema. This is something you really shouldn’t worry about unless you’re shelling out for Signal Search pulls. Every time you pull duplicate Agents in Signal Searches, you get to upgrade one of their six Mindscape Cinema skills. This can be considered a low-priority upgrade, as it will take you some time to even start pulling duplicate Agents in the first place.

If you’re still trying to get the hang of Zenless Zone Zero, check out our Zenless Zone Zero gacha guide here, or our character tier list here.

Zenless Zone Zero combat guide: How to make the most of your S-Rank Agents