What other teams can you build if you don't have the recommended agents?
In gacha games like HoYoverse's Zenless Zone Zero, it’s tempting to chase the latest and strongest characters. But not everyone has luck on their side or the funds to keep rolling. Don’t worry—being F2P (Free-to-Play) is slower, but you can still build effective teams as you gather resources and your luck improves.
Making the Most of Your Roster
Even without S-rank agents, you can succeed by understanding agent synergies and exploring alternative team compositions. Teams in ZZZ consist of three characters and don’t follow the usual DPS-support-healer model, making team-building a bit less intuitive.
A typical ZZZ team includes an attack unit, a stun unit, and a flex unit (support, defense, or anomaly). Use your stun unit to daze enemies, then bring out your DPS unit to capitalise on the increased damage window. With strategic team-building and a bit of patience, you can enjoy all the game’s content without relying on luck.
Here's a breakdown of the five agent specialities:
- Attack Agents: These are your main DPS units, dealing massive damage with high base attack and scaling with crit stats.
- Stun Agents: Focuses on daze to stun enemies, making them take 150% more damage. This is crucial for maximising team DPS through chain attacks.
- Anomaly Agents: Apply elemental effects like fire burn, which deals continuous damage and interrupts enemies.
- Support Agents: Provide buffs to enhance combat efficiency.
- Defense Agents: Unleash counterattacks and boost survivability. While only Ben is available at launch, this role isn’t critical early on.
Here are some team compositions you can take based on Attributes:
Fire
The best fire team composition that can burn it all down consists of S-Rank DPS Soldier 11, S-Rank Stun Agent Koleda, and A-Rank agent Lucy.
If you got lucky and got both Soldier 11 and Koleda, you have three options to keep your team ablaze for support: Lucy who buffs your team’s attacks, Rina, who adds PEN to your team, or Ben.
Take note that currently, Solider 11 is alone in the Obol Squad faction, but this may change as the game progresses.
Also, don’t frown on the clunky A-rank bear Ben: If you have Koleda the pair can become OP-tier and you can take any other team members from their faction to round it out.
If you lack a stun type and don’t feel like going for Anby (last resort), having Soldier 11 collab with Piper and Lucy also works out— Since Assault increases Stun, Piper is a decent alternative to an actual Stun-type. Here are the team comps you can try:
Prepare to Burn! (Recommended): Soldier 11, Koleda, Lucy/Rina/Ben
Collab with the Sons of Calydon: Soldier 11, Piper, Lucy
Military Budget cut (F2P friendly): Soldier 11, Lucy, Ben/Soukaku
All A’s (last resort): Any strong DPS, Lucy, Ben
Ice
One of the trickiest for F2P folks is the ice team compositions. Unless you lucked out on Ellen, the most ideal and strongest DPS in the game so far, and Lycaon, the most potent Stun agent so far (who also happens to be from Ellen’s faction, and has the Ice Attribute), you’re most likely going to have a little gap.
The coolest trio will definitely include Ellen, Lycaon, and Soukaku/Rina. With Rina being an all-around support and of the same faction as Ellen, she’s also a good alternative.
If you weren’t lucky and didn’t get Lycaon on your team, Anby is always a viable stun option, along with Koleda, while Lucy (although she’s Fire) buffs everyone’s damage output.
Without either Ellen or Lycaon though, it will be hard to trigger Soukaku’s effects, so you might need to rely on building your strongest team with Physical attribute, aided by Soukaku.
The Coolest Trio (Recommended): Ellen, Lycaon, Soukaku
Victoria Housekeeping: Ellen/Corin, Lycaon, Rina
After Winter: Ellen, Anby/Koleda/Lucy, Soukaku
Defrosting: Corin, Lycaon, Soukaku
Airconditioning Maintenance Needed (Last Resort): Any strong DPS/Corin, Piper, Soukaku
Electric
Probably the most F2P friendly-team to build is the Electric team. With Anby as a free and Anton being the agent you lose the 50/50 to in the last banner, It’s most likely that you have one or the other. That being said, if you did get lucky (or chose to splurge on your rolls), the most optimal team would include Grace, Anton, and Rina.
Grace, Anton, and Anby also synergise well with many agents in the roster so switching them up with Nicole and Piper or each other is always an option.
Here are some team compositions you can experiment with:
IT’S BRO TIME (Recommended): Grace, Anton, Rina
Class-A Gadget (F2P): Grace, Piper, Anby/Nicole/Anton
Cunning Hares Crossover (Last Resort): Anton, Anby, Nicole
Ether
If you have Zhu Yuan, making team compositions would be a walk in the park because the best Ether composition is also the F2P one: Zhu Yuan, Anby, and Nicole.
Most especially, because Nicole is the only other Ether agent aside from Zhu Yuan, she is a vital support agent that can amplify Zhu Yuan’s abilities and shred the defense of the enemies.
Otherwise, you can also try pairing Zhu Yuan with Lycaon and Rina, who are both all-rounders in their roles as Stun and Support agents. You can check our full guide for Zhu Yuan here.
If you lost the 50/50 to Zhu Yuan, however, you’d have to once again invest in your strongest Physical team, to make up for what you lack.
The best Ether teams so far include:
Fire at Will! (Recommended and F2P): Zhu Yuan, Anby, Nicole
DPS-fest: Zhu Yuan, Lycaon, Rina
Physical
Physical teams also have F2P options, but not all of them could be the best ones. Building a great Physical team is vital in surviving Shiyu Defense rounds where you don’t have the most optimal team compositions, so make sure you don’t snub them.
The best physical team is Piper, Rina/Koleda, and Lucy—with Piper syncing well with Lucy, who buffs the team’s damage, with Rina/Koleda as support/stun.
You can also take Nekomata, who might be your next best choice (S Rank), who only currently synergises with the Cunning Hares.
Girl Power (Recommended): Piper.Corin, any strong support
A cat among the boars: Nekomata, Piper, Lucy
The Cunning Hares: Nekomata, Anby, Nicole
Return to Factory Settings (Last Resort, difficult for harder levels): Billy, Anby, Nicole
Hopefully, this will tide you through until you have better luck and collect more to complete your teams. If you need a review of all the agents in the game for v1.0, you can check it out here. Good luck!