Chaos Zero Nightmare (CZN) Ark City Guide

An in-depth guide on Ark City, Chaos Zero Nightmare’s management/life sim game mode.

Before we get into the details, here are a couple reasons why engaging with Ark City is important for your account progression:

• Increases Aether (stamina) maximum cap. You can increase your Aether cap through the Research Facility.
• More Aether (stamina) per day. The cafe offers 80 Aether or 60 storable Aether once per day.
• Protos Skills. You unlock the ability to undo a card, undo a turn, and redraw Ego Skills through the Research Facility.
• Character Affinity. Building affinity with your characters grants them permanent stat boosts.

Here’s a quick rundown of Ark City’s daily tasks:

• Approve policies in Policy Center
• Restore 80 Aether at Garden Cafe
• Spend all Communication Passes on excursions in Ark City or therapy in the Epione Center
• Buy all Research Notes from Nono’s Shop
• Spend Research Notes in Research Facility

You get 3 Communication Passes per day (Research Facility can increase this to 4).

You can spend a Communication Pass to go on an excursion with one of your Combatants. You cannot go on more than 1 excursion with the same Combatant in one day. Each day, 2 of your Combatants will randomly spawn in each unlocked area of Ark City. You start with 1 area in each of the four zones—Main Street, Vacation Spot, Academy, and Administrative District. Until you unlock more areas in the Research Facility, if you have more than 8 Combatants, you may not be able to go on an excursion with a specific Combatant if they don’t spawn.

Going on an excursion unlocks a short, visual-novel style scene where you hang out with the Combatant for a while. You unlock a different cutscene every time you go on an excursion with the Combatant to a different area. You can rewatch these scenes any time through the Excursion Collection. Excursions also increase your Affinity with the Combatant, which can unlock stat bonuses and animated character wallpapers for your home page.

You can also spend Communication Passes to give traumatized Combatants counseling in the Epione Center.

At the start of the game and every few in-game weeks, Ark City faces a specific crisis that needs to be resolved within a certain number of in-game days.

1. Pick one of three projects

This will set the stat thresholds you need to reach by the time the crisis happens. There are four stats for Ark City: Happiness, Administrative Index, Economic Activity, and Public Order. You get a different rating (S/A/B/C) depending on how well you meet your project’s stat goals, which determines what rewards you get at the end of the project. Getting C rank always grants 80 Crystals, but whether you get Combatant EXP, Partner EXP, or ascension materials depends on which project you pick.

2. Assign three Combatants as Aides

Every Combatant specializes in one of the four stats and will regularly propose policies that increase that stat. When you make a decision on a policy, you gain Affinity with the Combatant who proposed it. You can also just click Auto Formation, and the game will assign three of your Combatants for you.

3. Approve policies

Policies are generated every few hours until you reach the policy cap. They require you to make a choice between two options that change Ark City’s stats. Every policy advances the in-game timer by a certain number of days, so make sure you can reach the stat goals before the crisis occurs. Policies also have different Grades: Special, 1st, 2nd, and 3rd. Occasionally, a policy option can unlock a Battle Mission.

The Combatant proposing the policy will always have an option they like more, and you gain more Affinity points with them if you do what they want. You can tell if a character likes an option if they smile when you select it. The difference between sprites can be very subtle; as a general rule, they’re happy if they are smiling a little and squinting slightly. You can also check a Combatant’s happy sprite in their character profile.

Approving policies grants Policy Points, with better Graded policies granting more. You can spend these points at Nono’s Shop for Research Notes, gifts, and more policies—as well as a few materials. Remember to approve policies regularly so you can buy out all of Nono’s Research Notes every week until your Research Facility is maxed out.

You can purchase food buffs at the Starshine Diner with Units. These buffs apply for your next two Chaos runs, but they do not stack; you can only have one at a time.

Here are some of the options available in the game:

You can get coffee at the Garden Cafe once per day. There are two options:

• Restore 80 Aether (stamina) immediately
• Get a storable item worth 60 Aether that can stack up to 4 times

Most active players should pick the 80 Aether, but the 60 storable Aether is nice for players who cannot play regularly.

When a traumatized Combatant returns from Chaos, you can treat them in the Epione Center. The Psychotherapy tab presents a list of all currently traumatized Combatants who require care. There are two recovery options you can choose from: Delete Memories and Counseling. Both options prompt a short cutscene showing the Combatant’s recovery.

You can spend Units to delete a character’s memories, which will delete the save file that was generated from their last run. This does not unlock any Counseling Record achievements, but you can do this as many times as you can afford.

You can spend a Communication Pass to provide counseling instead. During counseling, you have to choose between treatment options twice; each option stabilizes the character’s psyche by a certain percentage. You can unlock a 50 Crystal reward when you help a Combatant recover from a specific symptom for the first time; each Combatant has three symptoms they can exhibit. When you have unlocked all three, you get 150 Crystals.

You can purchase up to 35 Research Notes from Nono’s shop per week, and we highly recommend that you do so. This is because you can spend these Research Notes to unlock Learning Nodes, some of which can be very impactful to your CZN experience. We’ve listed all Learning Nodes in the table below, but here’s a week-by-week breakdown highlighting the most important nodes you can unlock.

• Week 1 (0–35 RN)
• Protos Skill Learning - Reroll Dice: Mandatory first node. Allows you to spend hourglasses to reroll Dice results in Chaos.
• Advanced Policy Management (unlocks at 1 RN): Increases the maximum number of policies the Policy Center can hold at once, so you don’t have to log in and approve policies every few hours.
• Policy Management Efficiency (unlocks at 1 RN): Decreases policy creation time. More policies = you can buy more Research Notes and other items from Nono’s Shop.
• Week 2 (36–70 RN)
• Protos Skill Learning - Undo Current Turn (unlocks at 40 RN): Unlocks the ability to revert the game state to the start of the current turn for 3 hourglasses.
• Week 3 (71–115 RN)
• Supply Chain Circulation Enhancement Policy (unlocks at 85 RN): Increases purchase limits in Nono’s shop! This means you can buy up to 45 Research Notes per week.
• Week 4 (116–160 RN)
• EXTRA AETHER STORAGE (unlocks at 130 RN): Increases your maximum Aether cap!
• Unofficial Excursion Permit (unlocks at 130 RN): Increases the number of Communication Passes you get to 4 passes per day! Use this to speed up your Affinity or chase Crystal rewards in the Epione Center.
• Protos Skill Learning (unlocks at 145 RN): Unlocks the ability to redraw the Ego Skill pile, potentially reordering them.

All Learning Nodes

Nono’s shop provides a variety of items that you can purchase with the Policy Points you earn from approving policies. Here’s a list of what she offers, in order of importance:

• Research Notes: The only way to progress your Research Facility. It’s very important to buy all of them every week until your Research Facility is maxed out.
• Policies: Extra policies that you can propose at any time.
• Gifts: You can give Gifts to Combatants t/o raise their Affinity.
• Materials: Buying these at Nono’s Shop isn’t particularly efficient.