On July 4, the new game from the creators of Genshin Impact and Honkai: Star Rail, the adventure slasher Zenless Zone Zero, will be released . It will be available on PC, PS5, iOS and Android.
HoYoverse studio experiments with genre and gameplay, but not with the model of its games. ZZZ will be another gacha, where you need to collect characters and form teams from them. Monetization and the update system are built on the uniqueness of playable heroes.
Each of them has a specialty (role), rarity (top S or basic A), elemental attribute (each with its own properties), and also belongs to some faction – if you use group mates together, unique combos are opened, like Kolyada and Ben . In total, your team must have three heroes.
There will be 15 different characters available at release in version 1.0, many of which will be available for free. We’ll give you a quick rundown of each one so you can start picking your favorites for your battle squad.
Enby
Rarity: Rank A
Attribute: Electro
Specialty: Intimidation
Faction: “Sly Hares”
The first playable character, given for free at the start of the game. Has a fairly simple gameplay, which is good at the beginning to immerse yourself in the game – but later Enby is increasingly inferior to other heroes in characteristics and overall usefulness for the team.
Billy
Rarity: Rank A
Attribute: Physical
Specialty: Attacks
Faction: “Sly Hares”
The second of the three free starting heroes, he’s also easy to play and good early on. Fighting with guns helps keep your distance, and at the start, Billy is ready to be your main damage dealer – until you find someone better.
Nicole
Rarity: Rank A
Attribute: Ether
Specialty: Support
Faction: “Sly Hares”
The gang leader is a bit of an outlier – this free support can be relevant even in the late game thanks to a good combination with Zhu Yuan. Nicole allows you to control enemies, pulling them to the center, while being able to reduce their defense and increase Ethereal damage – a great set for a support hero.
Anton
Rarity: Rank A
Attribute: Electro
Specialty: Attack
Faction: Belobog Combine
Anton Ivanov is a decent damage dealer who can be used in a variety of situations. The only problem is that he is clearly inferior to S-rank heroes, so most players will quickly replace him with someone else.
Ben
Rarity: Rank A
Attribute: Fire
Specialty: Defense
Faction: Belobog Combine
A powerful bear, who shows with his whole appearance that he is a good tank. And that’s true: although Ben will add almost no damage to the team, he will be able to protect frail damage dealers like Billy. But the bear reveals himself best in a faction combo with Kolyada.
Corinne
Rarity: Rank A
Attribute: Physical
Specialty: Offense
Faction: Victoria Household Agency
A very weak and niche damage dealer, who occupied the lowest positions in all tier lists before the release. However, this does not mean that you cannot complete the game and close modes for Corin – it will just be a little more difficult than for S-heroes. For waifu gamers, this will definitely not be an obstacle, so if you like Corin, you will be able to get used to her features.
Sokaku
Rarity: A-rank
Attribute: Ice
Specialty: Support
Faction: Section 6
A support that will be very strong in skilled hands – to fully exploit the hero, you will need to get used to combinations and specifics. The hero has low speed and low defense indicators, although if you learn to correctly act for Sokaku on the battlefield, the resources spent will justify themselves.
Lucy
Rarity: A-rank
Attribute: Fire
Specialty: Support
Faction: Sons of Calydon
A new hero who was not present in the ZZZ beta test, and was announced a few days ago. So far, all we know is that Lucy buffs allies’ attack and deals damage with summoned units – a group of little pigs.
Piper
Rarity: Rank A
Attribute: Physical
Specialty: Anomaly
Faction: Sons of Calydon
Another “four-star” hero from the new faction – Piper and Lucy will probably work well together in a team. In battle, he can accumulate anomaly, thereby increasing damage to enemies.
Soldier 11
Rarity: S-rank (standard)
Attribute: Fire
Specialty: Attack
Faction: Obol Squad
High damage is the main advantage of the character, but it is not so easy to use the full potential of the character. The gameplay for the Soldier requires a certain skill, since a lot is tied to timing and can be too difficult for beginners.
Grace
Rarity: Rank S (standard)
Attribute: Electro
Specialty: Anomaly
Faction: Belobog Combine
The accumulation of anomaly that weakens enemies makes Grace one of the most useful characters in Zenless Zone Zero . The girl herself deals damage and increases the potential of the main damage dealer – while not requiring too much time and special conditions on the battlefield, which is very valuable for such a character.
Kolyada
Rarity: Rank S (standard)
Attribute: Fire
Specialty: Intimidation
Faction: Belobog Combine
A good secondary damage dealer who can stun opponents and deal decent damage. However, Kolyada can become a real imba in a team with Ben – their combo opens up additional buffs, strengthening the entire squad.
Nekomata
Rarity: S-rank (standard)
Attribute: Physical
Specialty: Attack
Faction: “Sly Hares”
One of the strongest characters in terms of damage, the cat girl attacks quickly, and thanks to the built-in dash and various enhancements, she can cope with any difficulties in the game. Very quickly inflicts great damage to the enemy, which allows you to free up time on the field for other characters.
Lycaon
Rarity: S-rank (standard)
Attribute: Ice
Specialty: Intimidation
Faction: Victoria Domestic Staff Agency
The wolf is notable for its powerful mechanics of cumulative stuns – this allows you to practically stop all enemies on the field, while the main damage dealer will be free to deal damage to them. Lycaon combines best with other ice heroes and representatives of his faction, where he becomes almost the top-1 sub-DD in the game.
Rina
Rarity: S-rank (standard)
Attribute: Electro
Specialty: Support
Faction: Victoria Domestic Staff Agency
A very strong support that increases the damage of allies – at the same time, the girl hits enemies well herself, especially with the ultimate. Another plus will be help with choosing a position: Alexandrina pushes enemies back, freeing up space for teammates to act.
Ellen
Rarity: S-rank (event)
Attribute: Ice
Specialty: Attack
Faction: Victoria Household Agency
Unlike other S-characters, event heroes can only be obtained from a temporary banner – for example, Ellen will appear in the first three weeks of the game, and then you will have to wait several months for her return. At the same time, such characters are usually stronger than standard “legendaries”.
It is no surprise that Ellen is the strongest and most developed character in Zenless Zone Zero at release. She can dodge enemy attacks, deals massive damage, and is well suited for beginners. The girl is now considered the best damage dealer in the game.
Zhu Yuan
Rarity: Rank S (Event)
Attribute: Ether
Specialty: Attack
Faction: Special Group of the Criminal Investigation Department
The second event character, which can be obtained in a temporary banner from July 25 to August 14 – until the release of patch 1.1. Also a very strong damage dealer, but there is a downside – she has no faction partners, and finding good supports is not so easy yet. This should change in the next patches, but then there will be no opportunity to knock out Zhu.
Miyabi
Rarity: Unknown
Attribute: Ice
Specialty: Unknown
Faction: Section 6
The last of the officially introduced characters has a difficult fate – she had to be removed from the beta test because she was too popular and prevented the developers from getting information about other heroes. Something similar happened with Ayaka in Genshin Impact, who was eventually released only a year after the game’s release – so Miyabi may also stick around for a long time.
Hopefully you’ve managed to pick out a few interesting characters for yourself – now all that’s left is to get them from the gacha in the game itself. However, given the generosity of the developers on the release of Zenless Zone Zero , this shouldn’t be too difficult.