Disk 4
CRIT Rate% > CRIT DMG% = ATK%
Disk 5
PEN Ratio% > ATK% > Physical DMG%
Disk 6
ATK%
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Last updated: 09/September/2026
Best guide and build for Nekomata from ZZZ (Zenless Zone Zero). Nekomata is an
rank character with the Physical attribute who belongs to the
Attack Specialty and who is part of the
Cunning Hares faction.
"The best mackerel is always the one you haven't eaten yet~" — Nekomiya Mana. Spirited and mischievous, she likes to play tricks on others. Your wallet is her wallet. (Really... It's hers now.) Athletic and daring, no Hollow is too dangerous for her. "Cats love fish" is actually an incorrect stereotype. But Nekomata does love fish... She's seen a lot of cat-astrophy and "curiosity killed the cat" moments, and seen many a secret that can't be told.
Nekomata has at least one video guide available, so if you prefer this sort of medium to learn more about a character, check it out:
Last review update
Patch 3.1
Last build update
Patch 3.1
Last teams update
Patch 3.1
Last profile update*
09/September/2026
*Profile update means smaller edits to disk drives, stats or other things that don't require new calculations.
To learn more about Nekomata check the sections below. Use the tabs to quickly switch to the kind of information you're looking for.
Profile
Core Passive Stealthy Paws
When Nekomata's Dodge Counter or Quick Assist hits an enemy, her DMG increases by 30% for 40s. Repeated triggers reset the duration.
Nekomata gains 40 Purr Energy upon entering the battlefield. In Investigation Zone mode, this effect can trigger once every 180s.
While Nekomata is in combat, she gains 1 Purr Energy every second, up to a maximum of 60. Different skills restore different amounts of Purr Energy when they hit an enemy.
When Nekomata has at least 40 Purr Energy and after triggering a Perfect Dodge, press Evade Button to consume 30 Purr Energy and activate Dodge: Disappearing Tail. Then press Normal Button to perform Dodge Counter: Fluffy Piercing Claw once without consuming Purr Energy.
When Nekomata has at least 40 Purr Energy, hold Normal Button to consume 40 Purr Energy and activate Dodge Counter: Fluffy Piercing Claw.
Using Dodge Counter: Fluffy Piercing Claw grants Pawpad Ambush state for 40s. Repeated triggers reset the duration. While Pawpad Ambush is active, all of Nekomata's attacks count as hitting from behind.
While Paw Ambush is active, Nekomata's attacks trigger Super Mean Pawprint, dealing an additional instance of Physical DMG equal to 30% of her ATK. This effect can trigger once every 1s.
Nekomata restores 20 additional Purr Energy when using her Ultimate, 10 when using her Chain Attack, and 5 when using her EX Special Attack.
CRIT Rate 0
BASE ATK: 0
Additional Ability Catwalk
When another character in your squad is a Support character, or shares the same attribute or Faction:
After Nekomata uses Dodge: Disappearing Tail, or after any squad member inflicts Assault on an enemy, Nekomata's EX Special Attack and Dodge Counter deal 35% more DMG on hit. This effect stacks up to 2 times and lasts 30s. Repeated triggers reset the duration.
Cat's Gratitude
Basic
Dodge
Assist
Special
Chain
Basic Attack: Kitty Slash
Basic Attack: Crimson Blade
Dodge: Disappearing Tail
Dodge Counter: Fluffy Piercing Claw
Dodge: Can't Touch Me-ow~
Dash Attack: Over Here!
Dodge Counter: Phantom Claws
Special Attack: Surprise Attack
EX Special Attack: Super Surprise Attack!
Chain Attack: Claw Swipe
Ultimate: Claw Smash
Assist Follow-Up: Shadow Strike
Defensive Assist: Desperate Defense
Quick Assist: Cat's Paw
Bird Hunter
Mindscape 1
Cat & Mouse
Mindscape 2
Curious Left Tail
Mindscape 3
Sharpen Claws
Mindscape 4
Lucky Right Tail
Mindscape 5
Predator Lineage
Mindscape 6
Nekomata Stats at level 60 (including Core passive bonuses).
HP
DEF
ATK
CRIT Rate
CRIT DMG
PEN Ratio 
Impact 
Anomaly Mastery 
Energy Regen 
Review
This tier list assesses Agents (characters) based on their combat potential in Zenless Zone Zero's most demanding contents - Deadly Assault (DA) and Shiyu Defense (SD). Please keep in mind Zenless Zone Zero is a skill-based game and each character has a different playstyle, difficulty level and even special tricks and combos. Zenless Zone Zero is also a team based game and it's only by combining both these factors to the highest level a character can reach optimal performance.
Standard Agent that’s easy to get and isn’t overly dependent on a single Agent or synergy to do well, being an accessible DPS for all accounts.
Can keep up and even surpass many limited Attackers in damage output.
Incredibly good vertical throughout, making losing the 50/50 to her a passable consolation prize.
Remember all of those “NEKOMATA IS BROKEN” YouTube thumbnail memes with Astra as the punchline? Turns out Nekomata got the last laugh.
Maintaining her Additional Ability can be difficult while still managing enough Purr Energy for multiple enhanced Dodge Counters in stun.
Steep CRIT Rate demands, which can make building her effectively difficult.
Reliant on Mindscapes and W-Engine dupes to truly shine, with a sizable performance gap between M0W1 and M6W5.
Now that her Mindscapes are worth something, all your 50/50 failures are doomed to be Koleda instead.
Nekomata is an S-rank Physical Attack Agent who has a strong focus on Dodge Counters, having an incredibly high damaging variant that can be used on demand.
With her Potential Awakening, Nekomata gains a unique resource: Purr Energy. This is generated passively as well as through certain attacks, and it can be consumed to unleash an enhanced Dodge Counter that hits almost as hard as her Ultimate!
Doing so will give her a stacking DMG buff to her EX Specials and Dodge Counters and also put her in the Paw Ambush state, giving her a CRIT DMG buff, making all of her attacks count as Back Attacks, and giving a weak but frequent extra tick of damage when she hits enemies, which adds up to a high multiplier over the course of a fight.
To get the most out of her, manage Nekomata’s Purr Energy and unload as many of her enhanced Dodge Counters in burst periods, using its high multiplier to mow enemies down.
Nekomata gets significant changes across the board with her Potential Awakening: it makes her Basic and hold Basic always repeat on stunned enemies, unlocks her Purr Energy and Pawpad Ambush State, enhanced Dodge Counter and completely revamps her Core Passive and Additional Ability.
Its stat bonus though is straightforward: a 60% CRIT DMG increase while in the Pawpad Ambush state.
As previously mentioned, Nekomata gets a Purr Energy gauge. She starts with 40 when entering the battlefield and generates this passively at a rate of 1/s with a cap of 60, but can also generate extra with certain abilities:
20 on Ultimate
10 on Chain Attack
5 on EX Special
If she Perfect Dodges an enemy with 40 Purr Energy, pressing the Dodge button will trigger a unique Dodge: Disappearing Tail, consuming 30 Purr Energy but letting her link straight into her enhanced Dodge Counter: Fluffy Piercing Claw for free.
Alternatively, holding Basic will consume 40 Purr Energy and lead to the enhanced Dodge Counter immediately, no Perfect Dodge required.
Whenever this enhanced Dodge Counter is used, Nekomata enters the Pawpad Ambush state, which lasts 40s. The state will:
Make all of her attacks count as Back Attacks (which applies to her Signature W-Engine’s effect).
Trigger Super Mean Pawprint when attacking, with a 1s cooldown, dealing a hit with a 30% multiplier.
On top of all this, when any Dodge Counter or Quick Assist hits an enemy, Nekomata gains a 60% general DMG buff for 40s.
As for her Additional Ability, it demands Support, same Attribute or Faction Agents, and when Nekomata uses her Dodge: Disappearing Tail or an Assault is inflicted on an enemy by any squad member, she gets a stacking 35% DMG boost to her EX Specials and Dodge Counters, lasting 30s with a cap of 2.
Repeated triggers reset the duration (stacks are not counted separately), but keep in mind that this demands use of her Disappearing Tail! As it consumes Purr Energy to use, it may not always be ideal to try and build up stacks. Whether or not it’s worth using will depend on if Nekomata can build enough Purr Energy back on time to have access to her enhanced Dodge Counter in burst periods.
Much of Nekomata’s Dodge functionality has already been covered by her Core Passive.
Her regular Dash Attack and Dodge Counter are middling, but Disappearing Tail can be worth using to sustain her Additional Ability at times, and her enhanced Dodge Counter: Fluffy Piercing Claw is key to her burst.
Nekomata has a regular 5-part Basic Attack string and a hold Basic, the latter of which is a single attack that allows Nekomata to dash through enemies and reposition to be behind them, a behaviour that is shared with the final hit of her regular Basic string.
Neither are all that strong, but can serve as filler when nothing else is available and work to build up her Energy for EX Special uses. As her Potential Awakening allows for all of her attacks to count as Back Attacks, the hold Basic never sees use.
When hitting Stunned enemies, both the hold Basic and final regular Basic hit will repeat 3 times, which increases their damage output by a fair bit. The hold Basic is still best avoided though, as the multipliers for the regular Basic are higher.
None of Nekomata’s Assists are all that remarkable. Nekomata’s Quick Assist can be used to refresh her Core Passive’s 60% DMG buff, but so too do Dodge Counters. Her Defensive Assist and Assist Follow-Up can be used to help generate some extra Decibels but otherwise is best left to other Agents.
Nekomata’s regular Special is unremarkable, and her EX Special has poor range, but its low 40 Energy cost coupled with decent multipliers and the 5 Purr Energy that it builds makes it worth using in burst periods where possible.
It’s also one of the moves that is boosted by her Additional Ability, but difficulty in maintaining that buff means it doesn’t always see full benefit.
Both Nekomata’s Chain and Ultimate work similarly, as a series of slashes that deal damage to enemies.
Her Chain Attack’s multiplier isn’t very high, being lower than even her EX Special, but it’s an especially fast move and the 10 Purr Energy it generates is important for the best combos, which means it tends to be used twice.
Her Ultimate hits decently hard and is also quite fast. As it generates 20 Purr Energy, it and 2 Chain Attacks combined give 40 total, allowing for an additional use of Nekomata’s enhanced Dodge Counter in stun.
Nekomata’s gameplan revolves around getting as many of her enhanced Dodge Counters out in burst periods as possible. As her Purr Energy generates passively, optimisation lies in management of the resource.
The goal is to go into stun with as much Purr Energy as possible, unleashing her enhanced Dodge Counter, then making use of EX Specials, Chain Attacks and Ultimates to build it back up for 3 uses. Having it be used early is important to get the Pawpad Ambush state active early and keep the natural Purr Energy regeneration going.
Depending on how the fight lines up, it can be worth using her Dodge: Disappearing Tail to activate at least 1 stack of its buff early, but many of the fights Nekomata is best used for (like Thrall) may not afford the time for this to be done without sacrificing on Purr Energy availability in stun. Some fights with low Stun DMG Multipliers and extended invulnerability phases (like Defiler) could allow for an occasional use, so tailor it to the encounter.
A sample combo with 60 Purr Energy at the start would be:
Stun begins
Dodge Counter: Fluffy Piercing Claw
EX Special
Chain Attack
Cancel
EX Special
Chain Attack
Dodge Counter: Fluffy Piercing Claw
Ultimate
Dodge Counter: Fluffy Piercing Claw
As enemies tend to be stunned for almost 15s (12s base, then additional 3 seconds from stun recalcs), the Purr Energy generation should be able to sustain use of a third enhanced Dodge Counter at the very end.
Characters like Dialyn and Norma make this even easier owing to the stun extension, and fitting in an Ultimate conversion or extra Chain Attack respectively gives even more resources to allow for 3 enhanced Dodge Counters in a stun.
Build and teams
For ZZZ calculations we worked alongside Rivyn Elowen - check out her channel here. Any other content such as comments on W-Engines, Disks, etc are our own.
The W-Engines are listed in order of priority. Sometimes the percentages appearing near them won't reflect their performance as pure damage or Stun output isn't the only thing we're looking at - the utility of the W-Engine might be more important than the calculations imply.
The W-Engine calculations below are full team calculations, and here's the team used for them.
112.16%
100.00%
99.64%
96.62%
92.97%
87.23%
1
Always a great option for CRIT-scaling Main DPS characters who will remain on the field for extended periods of time, this Disc Drive set provides extra CRIT Rate and lots of ATK% which can be triggered using very general conditions, making this set versatile and effective.
Best combined with your choice of 2-PC Set:
Puffer Electro
Branch & Blade Song
Fanged Metal
Astral Voice
Hormone Punk
2
Puffer Electro falls behind other sets, but Dialyn can help close the gap. With her, it is possible to always have Puffer's buff up in critical burst periods, and even maintain 100% uptime in stun despite its 12s duration by staggering Dialyn's Ultimate conversion with Decibel Ultimates. A properly managed Woodpecker Electro should still come out ahead, but this can be a usable set if she's available.
Best combined with your choice of 2-PC Set:
Woodpecker Electro
Branch & Blade Song
Fanged Metal
Astral Voice
Hormone Punk
Substats: CRIT RATE (Until 100%) >= CRIT DMG = ATK% > PEN = ATK
ATK: 2500 - 3100+ (Optional)
HP: 9500+
DEF: 800+
CRIT RATE: 70% - 80%+
CRIT DMG: 140% - 160%+
Dodge
Chain Attack
Special Attack
Basic Attack
Assist
Teams & Synergy
Below we list only the most important synergies for Nekomata. The character can work with others if you know what to do and how to use them.
Dialyn - Dialyn is easily the best Stunner for Nekomata and far surpasses any double support comps at the time of her release. Her strong all-around buffs are good as is, but the Ultimate conversion she offers is particularly great, given that Nekomata's damage is loaded on EXs, Chains and Ultimates. As Dialyn is a Physical Agent, she both enables Nekomata's Additional Ability (despite its limited value add) and simultaneously contributes to its activation through Physical Anomaly build-up. When paired with a fast time-to-stun and Nekomata's accessible burst, she's the most optimal choice.
Seed - After her Potential Unlock, Nekomata can be a strong option for the Vanguard spot on Seed teams. Nekomata's new Dodge Counter is fast and very high damaging, which can slot seamlessly into Seed Falling Petals attacks. As Seed's Chain Attacks aren't particularly good, there's room to fit in some of Nekomata's, building her Purr Energy and also doing decent damage on top. Seed's Vanguard buffs are great too, so despite missing out on a Support, Nekomata isn't sacrificing much of her damage, so the two together can make for a good pairing in the absence of more premium partners, like Cissia.
Sunna 
Rina - Sunna is among the best general Support picks for Nekomata. Being a Physical character, her Anomaly build-up can help get more frequent Assaults, although it can come on quite slowly. Her Daze build for a Support as well as buffs are very good though, and with Nekomata now having such strong burst via her enhanced Dodge Counter, the Stun DMG Multiplier increase is a big help. Rina has no direct synergy, but is a strong all around Support Agent that's also on the Standard Banner, offering accessible yet competitive buff value.
Astra Yao 
Nicole - Astra and Nicole can function as general picks for Nekomata and still do well. Nicole's DEF Shred is a very strong debuff, all the while having decent Decibel and Daze for a Support, whereas Astra's own buffs are both high value and not too tricky to manage. As Nekomata generates Purr Energy with her Chain Attack, Astra's Ultimate can help get more uses of her enhanced Dodge Counter in fights and fill out stun time when resources are low.This section lists most popular teams featuring Nekomata in the current phase of Shiyu Defense.
Rank 72
App. rate: 0.3%
Avg. Score: 34558
Rank 74
App. rate: 0.29%
Avg. Score: 30303
Rank 182
App. rate: 0.05%
Avg. Score: 33386
Rank 182
App. rate: 0.05%
Avg. Score: 30965
Rank 182
App. rate: 0.05%
Avg. Score: 28648
Rank 204
App. rate: 0.04%
Avg. Score: 34363
Rank 274
App. rate: 0.02%
Avg. Score: 28472
Rank 335
App. rate: 0.01%
Avg. Score: 28101
This section lists most popular teams featuring Nekomata in the current phase of Deadly Assault.
Rank 27
App. rate: 0.87%
Avg. Score: 25835
Rank 35
App. rate: 0.72%
Avg. Score: 22565
Rank 78
App. rate: 0.27%
Avg. Score: 25493
Rank 87
App. rate: 0.21%
Avg. Score: 23450
Rank 122
App. rate: 0.1%
Avg. Score: 26207
Rank 134
App. rate: 0.08%
Avg. Score: 21612
Rank 134
App. rate: 0.08%
Avg. Score: 21002
Rank 145
App. rate: 0.07%
Avg. Score: 24928
Rank 173
App. rate: 0.05%
Avg. Score: 26968
Rank 183
App. rate: 0.04%
Avg. Score: 21343