Zenless Zone Zero (ZZZ)ZhaoBuild and Guide

Intro & Unique Mechanic

Zhao is an Ice Defence Agent who offers universal buffs to Attackers and Anomaly Agents, with the strength of some of her attacks and buffs scaling with her HP.

Underneath her portrait in combat is a gauge that when full, Zhao can consume it to activate Ether Veil: Wellspring, which is important to maximise her buff value.

Despite having Ether Veil: Wellspring, Zhao is best suited to Attackers and Anomaly teams rather than Rupture, giving a team-wide 1000 Combat Attack increase and up to 40% in DMG Bonus that are tied to Ether Veils. On top of that, she can contribute some damage and daze through her Basic Attack: “Final Verdict”, a heavy-hitting charged move that can be done while inactive after certain skills.

Core Passive & Additional Ability

Zhao’s Core Passive provides 1.4% CRIT Rate for every 1000 initial Max HP (that is what you see on the stat sheet, before any combat bonuses are applied). This is an uncapped bonus, so it could in theory grow infinitely, but it will most likely be around 35-40%.

Aside from this bonus, it’s here that the specifics of her unique mechanic is outlined. 

The gauge used for Ether Veil: Wellspring triggers is tracking the Frostbite Points resource, having a cap of 100. It fills up with 6 points whenever a currently active character hits an enemy, with a 3s cooldown. Some skills will also provide bonuses, namely her Chain Attack - generating 5 points - as well as her EX Special and Ultimate - generating 20 points each.

Although Zhao can activate Ether Veil: Wellspring once 100 points are stocked, there are a few important aspects that must be kept in mind. Activation consumes all Frostbite Points and the resulting Ether Veil: Wellspring lasts for 40 seconds. Re-activation does not increase its duration, but is considered a re-activation, ending any existing instances before applying a new one.

It also does not get activated automatically, with different ways of going about this.

The easiest method is done simply by swapping to her, which will cast an “Entry Skill”, doing a hefty amount of damage and triggering an immediate Quick Assist. If swapping to Zhao via a Defensive Assist however, the Entry Skill will not cast. This isn’t an issue, as her Assist Follow-Up will also consume Frostbite Points to activate Ether Veil: Wellspring. In case Zhao is the currently active character, there is no need to swap out and back to her. When using her:

• EX Special

• Ultimate

• Basic Attack: Final Verdict

If Zhao is at 100 points or builds up to it through the generation of one of these skills, she will also activate Ether Veil: Wellspring.

All of these different ways of triggering it come in handy, as the 1,000 Combat Attack bonus that Zhao provides lasts 50 seconds and is applied whenever she activates Ether Veil: Wellspring. This means that at the minimum, Zhao must be cycling though activations frequently to maintain her buff, especially when her Additional Ability is factored in.

Scaling with her initial Max HP, capping at 27,000 HP, Zhao can give up to 40% DMG Bonus to the whole team when she is in an Ether Veil when Attack, Anomaly or Support characters are on the team. It’s this steep requirement that mandates HP % Drive Discs on slots 4 and 5.

This Ether Veil does not need to be her own, nor does it need to be the Wellspring variant, but in Zhao’s teams, she will likely be the only one who is able to supply one. The end result is that, despite her Combat Attack bonus lasting 50 seconds, to benefit in full from Zhao’s buffs, you would need to be activating it every 40 seconds, making resource management very important for her.

Basic Attack

Zhao has 2 Basic Attacks, namely “Glacial Judgement” - a standard string - and “Final Verdict” a charged strike.

The standard Basic Attack string is unremarkable and has few, if any, practical applications, but Final Verdict will see frequent use. It is normally accessed by holding down the Basic Attack button while Zhao is active, but casting it this way is inefficient. This is because it will begin charging automatically after:

• Assist Follow-Ups

• EX Specials

• Chain Attacks

• Ultimates

• Entry Skill

It can charge for up to 5 seconds, but you are free to swap out of Zhao while she does so, as it will continue without player input being needed. If manually released (as the active character) or once it hits the maximum charge, it will hit the enemy for a pitiful 140% in DMG Multiplier.

The catch is that for every second of charge time, 24% of Zhao’s Max HP is added to the attack as additional damage.

In practice, its damage is not all that significant, but as it effectively needs no time commitment and occurs automatically, it’s a nice-to-have. Zhao is also not swap locked during its charge-up (but is during the strike itself, so be careful!), which does make it rather flexible to use.

Dodge

There is genuinely nothing noteworthy about Zhao’s Dodges. They have poor multipliers and do not directly contribute to Frostbite Points generation, and so shouldn’t really be used.

Assist

When it comes to her Assists, it gets a bit more interesting. Her Quick Assist and Defensive Assist are as standard - with her Defensive Assist using up only 1 Assist Point as is the case for most Defenders - but her Assist Follow-Up is able to trigger a Quick Assist to the next character when in an Ether Veil.

This does not need to be done as part of its Ether Veil: Wellspring activation properties, but at any time. The attack itself is quite slow, so it isn’t always worth using, but it can be useful depending on the Drive Disc set.

Her Entry Skill is also considered an “Assist”. In fact, activating it is treated the same as activating a Quick Assist, hence related effects (like Astral Voice stack build, not application) work with it.

Special

Both of Zhao’s Special and EX Special will consume 5% of her HP to grant a 1.7% per second Max HP regen buff, which lasts 5 seconds. There is a 30 second cooldown for this effect which is shared across both skills, but this property alone isn’t all that important.

Similar to her Assist Follow-Up though, Zhao’s EX Special can trigger a Quick Assist regardless of Frostbite Points if in an Ether Veil. As it’s one of the few skills that generates them, it should be used as often as possible.

Chain & Ultimate

Neither Zhao’s Chain Attack or Ultimate are particularly good, and in fact can sometimes feel detrimental to use owing to their long animations. 

The Chain Attack, despite generating 5 Frostbite Points and giving a free Quick Assist when in an Ether Veil, is better left unused. It does have a high DMG Multiplier, but Zhao’s focus on HP % means that it doesn’t hit particularly hard.

Her Ultimate, on the other hand, should be used. It suffers from many of the same problems, but the 20 Frostbite Points it generates makes it worthwhile, and sometimes a necessity to cycle Ether Veil: Wellspring quickly enough.

Zhao is a very straightforward character to play: the less time you spend on her, the better she’ll do.

As almost all of her attacks lead to Final Verdict, which itself is cast while Zhao is inactive, it's always better to spend time productively on another Agent. She does need to be occasionally swapped to, such as for EX Special use when Energy allows for, the occasional Ultimate, and - depending on the fight and Decibel requirements - some Defensive Assists and Assist Follow-Ups owing to the reduced Assist Point cost.

Be sure to consume her Frostbite Points to activate Ether Veil: Wellspring often. There’s little active management required, as it rarely ever builds faster than 40 seconds, meaning that in most circumstances, it should be used whenever points max out so as to avoid overcapping.

That is truly all there is to her. Cycle through her resources quickly so that she can maintain Ether Veil: Wellspring up at all times. If that isn’t possible, then some planning may be required to make sure it is at the very least activated in time for critical burst periods, but even then, the way Zhao is played remains the same. 

The decision of when and how often to swap to her, rather than what exactly to do when playing her, is most critical to her best performance.