Zenless Zone Zero (ZZZ)SeedBuild and Guide

Seed is an S-Rank Electric Attack Agent who fills a new niche in the Zenless Zone Zero meta as a DPS dedicated to fighting alongside other Attack Agents in dual DPS team compositions. While this playstyle already existed before her release, Seed elevates it to the next level and makes it properly meta-worthy thanks to her exceptional buff-sharing capabilities.

Core Passive & Key Mechanics

The main part of Seed’s kit lies in a couple of mechanics contained within her Core Passive, alongside her unique resource called Steel Charge.

Let’s discuss her Core Passive first. At the start of the battle, if another Attack Agent is present within the squad, it is designated as Seed’s partner, called Vanguard. For simplicity purposes, we will refer to this Vanguard as her partner. 

Essentially active all throughout battle provided the player isn’t idle, Seed and her partner will always give each other 1000 ATK, 30% CRIT DMG as well as 25% DMG dealt. This is because the buffs last plenty of time and are easily refreshed. This significantly boosts the damage potential of the affected party members, particularly CRIT hits, however be aware that these buffs only apply if the concerned Agent is actively on-field (there is a grace period on the buff for characters that remain on the field after switching out of 3 seconds - this is helpful when employing things like swap cancels).

Via her Additional Ability, Seed restores 2 Energy to her partner every second when actively dealing damage. Her ultimate and charged punch Basic Attack also deal 30% increased DMG and ignore 25% Electric RES.

Lastly, when Seed’s partner actively consumes 1 Energy or when Seed consumes Energy, Seed recovers 0.5 Steel Charge. This is a perfect segway to discuss what Steel Charge is.

Steel Charge is Seed’s unique resource; this represents the bar below her screen. It has a maximum of 150 points and is recharged by doing almost any attack in her kit, and she can consume 120 of it by executing her charged punch Basic Attack, then pressing Basic Attack again, which will initiate a sequence of 2 strong mecha attacks that deal the majority of Seed’s damage to enemies. This attack can and should be swapped out of, as it allows Seed to deal damage while the on-field character can input actions of their own.

The actions that restore the most Steel Charge include (but aren’t limited to): Seed’s Basic Attack 4, her EX Special, her Ultimate, her Chain Attack and her Assist Follow-Up.

Basic Attack & Dodge

Seed has a 4-part Basic Attack, the first 2 attacks dealing Physical DMG and the last 2 dealing Electric DMG. The 3rd Basic Attack can also trigger a dodge automatically while Seed is retreating. In particular, the 4th Basic Attack is one of Seed’s primary ways to regenerate Steel Charge and will allow her to perform her charged punch Basic Attack, which she can then follow up with her Steel Charge-consuming attacks if she is at 120 Steel Charge or higher.

Her Dodge works like you’d expect it to: the Dash Attack is nothing special and shouldn’t be used, while the Dodge Counter deals a big chunk of Electric DMG and Daze to enemies, which is easily activated by her Basic 3 automatic dodge mechanic, or simply dodging manually as well.

Special & Ultimate

Seed’s regular Special deals too little damage to be considered worth using in her rotations (aside from exceptions with certain W-Engines like Severed Innocence). However, her EX Special is much more interesting. Usable at a cost of 60 Energy, it allows Seed to enter Flight Mode, which allows Seed to unleash a constant barrage of missiles on enemies. This attack can and should be held down all the way in order to consume at least 60 Energy (different with Mindscape 2 unlocked), and deal the maximum amount of damage possible. It will automatically follow up with her charged punch Basic Attack when consuming at least 60 points of Energy, allowing for an easy segway into her Steel Charge-empowered attacks when at 120 Steel Charge or higher.

On the other hand, her Ultimate has a very long animation, but it deals a ton of damage in that time which compensates for its extended duration. It makes Seed automatically regain 60 Steel Charge and once again allows her to segway into her Steel Charge-empowered attacks if it is possible. Remember not to waste the 60 Steel Charge regenerated by this ability!

Assists

Seed’s Assists work exactly like you’d expect them to, not doing anything that stands out in particular from most other Agents. It is nonetheless worth noting that her Assist Follow-Up regenerates a good chunk of Steel Charge, approximately equivalent to her Basic 4, which can be considered in some of her combos. 

Meta Position & Conclusion

Seed is a simplistic Agent to pilot, while of course requiring good resource management, whose kit features a good chunk of invincibility frames and automatic dodges, which makes it more difficult for her to be hit by enemies. Additionally, she really provides massive buffs to the Attack Agent she is partnered with, and packs a punch in her own kit as well. This makes her a dedicated damage dealer and buffer all at once, particularly reinforcing her flexibility with any other Attack Agent, even shedding some light on previously niche Agents such as Nekomata, thanks to their ability to bounce off of each other’s EX Specials and Energy generation mechanics.

Unfortunately for Seed however, the Agents she currently works best with are high-profile Attack Agents who deal a lot of damage. The issue with this is that they want to take up the overwhelming majority of on-field time, and Seed actively goes against this since she wants her own chunk of field time as well. While this is easily compensated for via her massive buffs enabling more niche Attack Agents to shine alongside her, and this downside is negated in heavy quickswap teams, she tends to take already potent DPS Agents out of their best teams and make them perform worse than their usual best option, or she takes Agents that are too niche to stand out as a top competitive option currently. 

Nonetheless, in conclusion we can safely say that Seed’s team flexibility is nothing to scoff at, and she is sure to satisfy players who prefer to play more niche Attack Agents such as Nekomata or Billy, as well as players who want a generalist alternative to any Attack Agent in the game currently (save for Hugo, who wants to function alongside 2 Stun Agents for extra Daze while retaining good self-buffs).

In other words, Seed is a character whose only real complexity is proper resource management and exploitation of swap windows to reach maximum potential. Beyond this, her combos aren’t difficult to execute, she is invincible for quite a noticeable chunk of her rotation (particularly in quickswap), and she works alongside plenty of strong Attack Agents, enabling a lot of new team compositions, as well as making a unique playstyle stronger than it previously was.

Balancing Seed’s field time with that of her Vanguard can be quite difficult, with the amount of time spent on each varying between teams.

For most Attack Agents, prioritising Seed tends to be the better option. Try to remain on her and get as many Basic Attacks and Dodge Counters as you can, with emphasis being placed on her regular Basic 4. This is the most efficient way of generating Steel Charge, and with proper management, it is possible to get multiple uses of her Basic Attack: Falling Petals - Downfall (at least 1, often 2) while still building back enough by the time enemies are about to be stunned.

Use her EX Special every so often - and especially before Downfalls - as they will be needed to refresh her Dawn’s Bloom 4-piece effect in the out-of-stun period.

While doing so, don’t forget to occasionally swap back to the Vanguard for an EX Special cast, both to help supplement Seed’s Steel Charge generation and so as to not drop the Onslaught and Besiege buffs. This buff ticks down even before a fight has begun, so keep a watchful eye on it. 

The Energy generation she provides to the Vanguard should make it easy to maintain, and given the long animations from Downfall, it’s the perfect opportunity to swap out.

In some situations however, such as if run against Electric Resistant enemies or being used for her buffs (e.g. running with Evelyn vs Pompey), then Seed can sit in the back and be played as a quickswap Agent, coming in during the main damage dealer’s downtime to help supplement their Energy and to expend her own Energy on EX Specials to refresh Direct Strike and get enough Steel Charge for a Downfall cast here and there.

Other highly demanding on-field damage dealers, like Soldier 0 - Anby, can also work well with this playstyle, where Seed instead can make use of her high damage multipliers for burst in stun as opposed to cycling through multiple Downfalls out of stun.

On the topic of stun, Seed’s ideal combo needs 120 Steel Charge and her Ultimate, being:

• EX Special (Full Channel) before Stun begins, to refresh Dawn’s Bloom 4-piece and help build up to 120 Steel Charge

• Basic Attack: Falling Petals - Slaughter

• Basic Attack: Falling Petals - Downfall

• Swap to the Vanguard and use an EX Special (60 Energy)

• Stunner Chain Attack, to refresh King of the Summit

• Seed Chain Attack

• Cancel

• Ultimate

• Basic Attack: Falling Petals - Downfall

• Swap to the Vanguard and use their Ultimate and/or generic burst

The above combo does not need Manual Chain, as the Cancel can be moved up to after Slaughter instead. If using Manual Chain, then it is also possible to do 2 Seed Chain Attacks, however its long animation means it is often not worth using over having more time to burst with the Vanguard.

If no Ultimate is available, conserve Energy and do not do a full channel of her EX Special prior to stun, instead using it where the Ultimate would otherwise fit to generate enough Steel Charge for a second Downfall.

Not all Vanguards are likely to have 60 Energy EX Specials, though. If this is the case, then either build up to 150 Steel Charge before the combo or swap to the Vanguard after Seed’s Chain Attack for another EX Special before swapping back to Seed for her Ultimate/EX.

Note that although the combo specifies 120 Steel Charge, due to awkward Steel Charge breakpoints, this may not be enough. If Seed is at precisely 120 Steel Charge when the combo begins, a single Basic 1 may need to be woven into after the Chain Attack to make sure that there’s enough for a Downfall after Ultimate. This is also needed if running with Trigger, so as to refresh her debuffs.

Although the above is a catch-all combo that should work for any team, there are plenty of optimisations that can be done depending on who Seed is running with. For example, with running with Evelyn and Astra, you can use Astra’s Ultimate into Seed’s Chain Attack shortly before Stun begins, then:

• Basic Attack: Falling Petals - Slaughter

• Basic Attack: Falling Petals - Downfall

• Evelyn Chain Attack (Astra Conversion)

• Astra Chain Attack

• Seed Chain Attack

• Evelyn Chain Attack

• Evelyn Points Chain Attack

• Quick Assist to Seed

• Seed Ultimate

• Basic Attack: Falling Petals - Downfall

• Swap to Evelyn

• Evelyn Ultimate

• Basic Attack: Garrote

Each and every team will have their own “optimal” combo, which best integrates the Vanguard’s own combos with Seed’s Downfall and Ultimate use.

All in all, Seed is not too complex. Either stay on field looping Basic Attack strings with frequent Downfall use and high-damaging combos, or take a backline supportive approach with the occasional EX Special and expend resources for in-stun bursts.