Zenless Zone Zero (ZZZ)ManatoBuild and Guide

Manato is an A-rank Fire Rupture Agent whose gameplay revolves around extended Assist Follow-Ups and Enhanced Basic Attacks consuming his HP in this process to increase their damage. His kit is rather straightforward to use at a baseline, but optimizations exist as always which will require his kit to be fully understood.

Key Mechanics

As one of the recently introduced Rupture-class Agents, Manato is able to deal Sheer damage, scaling off of the stat exclusive to the Rupture class called Sheer Force. All Sheer damage ignores enemy defense and Manato accesses this damage via all of his Fire element attacks (this makes PEN and DEF Ignore-related stats useless). To recap the functioning of Rupture Agents and particularly Manato, by default, 30% ATK and 10% Max HP are converted into Sheer Force (the HP scaling is more advantageous and preferred). Additionally, all mechanics regarding Energy don’t apply since Energy is instead replaced by Adrenaline (which functions the same but all Energy Regen related stats and other mechanics that specifically mention Energy don’t apply to it).

Manato possesses a unique resource called Blazing Heart which stores up to 100 points, and at 75 points or higher, Manato automatically enters the Molten Edge state which consumes 3.3 Blazing Heart per second until depleted, at which point Molten Edge ends. Molten Edge provides access to his EX Special and Enhanced Basic Attacks for him to use to deal increased damage, alongside a 10% CRIT Rate and 20% Fire DMG boost while the state lasts thanks to his Core Passive.

Additionally, via his Core Passive he gains access to 50% increased CRIT DMG and 100% increased Adrenaline Generation Rate, but only when he consumes HP from his enhanced Basic Attacks and extended Assist Follow-Ups (which we will detail shortly).

Via his Additional Ability, he can restore HP using certain attacks using a mechanic called Remnant Flame. Stacked up to 20 times, they can be consumed one at a time to restore 2% of his Max HP on every Assist Follow-Up slash or Enhanced Basic Attack that he does. These stacks are restored at a rate of 8 per Ultimate, 4 per Chain Attack, and with his Mindscape 6, 4 when using his Special Attack during Stun, but at a maximum of once every 20 seconds.

Attacks that consume HP

During Molten Edge state, Manato gains access to enhanced Basic Attacks that deal Fire DMG (and hence deal Sheer DMG) while also accessing all of his Core Passive buffs (detailed earlier) provided he consumes HP when using them. In this instance, he consumes HP at a rate of 3.5% max HP per attack.

His Assist Follow-Up allows him to perform up to a maximum of 7 extra consecutive slashes by repeatedly pressing Basic Attack, each consuming HP at a rate of 2% max HP per slash. At Mindscape 6, he gains 3% increased Fire DMG for 8s on each slash up to 15% at 5 uses.

However, in both instances, none of the attacks will consume HP if Manato is at 30% Max HP or lower. This means that he will not access his Core Passive self-buffs (50% CRIT DMG and double Adrenaline Regeneration) if he is under this threshold, making these attacks less impactful.

How to restore Blazing Heart

Blazing Heart is easily restored via Manato’s hold Special Attack (100 Blazing Heart) and his Defensive Assist (75 Blazing Heart). At Mindscape 6, it is also possible to restore 75 Blazing Heart once every 20 seconds via hitting an enemy with his Special on a Stunned enemy. This same Mindscape 6 allows him to immediately follow with his Assist Follow-Up.

Using his hold Special consumes 10% of his Max HP (but will not bring him below 30%) and will release his pressed Special Attack afterwards for some damage. Additionally, if Manato is hit as he performs either his hold or EX Special, he will restore 20% of his missing HP at a cooldown of 20s (press Special). They additionally deal increased damage under this same condition or if he fully channels his held Special.

At Mindscape 2, when getting attacked by an enemy while using his Special will additionally allow him to trigger an Assist Follow-Up by pressing Basic Attack. 

EX Special

Manato’s EX Special costs 80 Adrenaline and deals large amounts of damage but is only accessible during Molten Edge. This tremendous cost however comes at the reward of restoring 33% of Manato’s Max HP when used, ensuring that his HP-consuming combos are almost always available. Remember this EX Special must always be available during Stun windows.

Unused/Redundant parts of his kit

Manato’s regular Basic Attacks outside of Molten Edge deal really low damage and should simply never be used for this reason alone. With that being said, they can only be used outside of Molten Edge and Manato always wants to stay in Molten Edge so that is another reason as well.

Similarly, all of his Dodge-related moves should stay unused and do nothing special for Manato.

His Chain Attack and Ultimate are always used in his rotations, but do nothing special other than dealing damage/Daze/Anomaly, the usual properties of any attack. With that being said, they do a very good job at those things and are rarely available, both will be exclusively reserved for Stun windows (because Ultimates are usually ideally used during Stun windows!).

Meta Position & Conclusion

Manato’s kit has many properties, but overall it sums up to the following steps:

• Use Defensive Assist & Specials to restore Blazing Heart and cast Assist Follow-Up;

• Use Special & EX Special as well as Remnant Flame to restore HP and keep his HP consumption at bay;

• Use Enhanced Basic Attacks when nothing else is available to do;

• Save EX Special and Ultimate for Stun windows to deal optimal damage.

In the meta, Manato is a surprisingly potent Rupture DPS but he is highly dependent on Ju Fufu and particularly Lucia to display strong performance — this is particularly true at the time of his release due to current Endgame Content buffs strongly favouring Lucia’s unique mechanic, Ether Veil. His fair amount of teammate options and strong, easily accessible W-Engine choices unfortunately don’t compensate for this issue at all, and his Mindscapes additionally change how he plays, providing several new combat options and combos that elevate his potential to new heights.

This means Manato is definitely usable, and can perform quite well at that, being one of the better A-rank Agents we’ve seen. However, he requires a lot of conditions to display such a performance and as a result may not be suited for all Proxies. With that being said, if your account is suited to giving him a chance, then he may just be the Fire DPS you are missing in certain Endgame Content matchups and giving him a chance can definitely be considered!