Basic Combat Guide and Tips

Here is a basic combat system guide for Zenless Zone Zero (ZZZ). See all the combat mechanics and some tips for defeating enemies!

ZZZ Basic Combat System Guide

All Basic Combat Mechanics

• Attack Types and Controls
• Agent Energy and HP Bars
• Purpose of Basic Attacks
• Enemy Daze Bar Mechanic
• Attribute Anomaly Debuffs
• Chain Attack Mechanic
• Dodge and Dash Mechanic
• Special Attack and EX Special Attack
• Ultimate Mechanic
• Switching Mechanic
• Perfect Assist and Quick Assist
• Character's Core Skill

Click a link to jump to a section!

Listed above are all the basic combat mechanics that you need to understand and master to easily defeat enemies!

Types of Attacks and Controls

Action	PC	Xbox
Basic Attack	Left-click	X
Dodge	L Shift	A
Special Attack	E	Y
EX Special Attack Character has enough Energy	E	Y
Ultimate	Q	RT
Switch Agent	Space	RB

These are the default controls listed in-game.

Other than movement controls, characters can perform five type of attacks while in combat. So far, there are no characters in the game that uses an extra button to trigger a certain ability.

How to Play With Controller on PC and Mobile

Certain Abilities Have Extra Requirements

EX Special Attack, which shares the same button as the Special Attack, and Ultimate have extra requirements before they can be used.

For Ex Special Attack, characters need to have enough Energy while for an Ultimate to be used, the team needs to have a 300 Decibel Rating.

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Agent Energy and HP Bars

Your characters' Energy and Health (HP) bar can be seen at the top left corner of the screen. Make a habit of looking at them occasionally to know how your agents are faring in combat.

Energy Bar is the Purple Gauge

The purple or grey gauge is a character's Energy bar. Initially, the Energy bar will be greyed out, indicating that the character has yet to gain the required Energy to use their Ex Special Attack.

While Energy is also automatically gained over time, certain actions such as Basic Attacks can generate Energy for Agents.

How to Gain Energy

HP Bar is the Green Gauge

The HP bar, located above the Energy bar, displays the amount of health your Agents currently have. The numbers below the HP bar dictate the on-field character's current and maximum health.

The character falls in battle when their current health is zero or the bar is depleted.

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What are Basic Attacks?

Basic Attack	・Generates Energy for Agents to use Ex Special Attacks. ・Fills up the enemy Daze bar in order to stun enemies. ・Increases the Decibel Rating to eventually use an Agent's Ultimate.

Basic Attack is the attack type that your Agents will mostly use in combat. Listed above are all the important uses of Basic Attacks in combat.

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Enemy Daze Bar Mechanic

The Daze bar is exclusive only to enemies and it can be filled up whenever your characters hit them. After filling up the Daze bar completely, the enemy will become Stunned, increasing the damage they take while immobilized.

How to Daze and Stun an Enemy

Stun Characters Accumalates More Daze

Like dealing damage, certain characters can fill up the Daze bar much faster. Stun characters should ideally be used to accumulate daze since they have higher-than-normal Impact scaling.

Impact is a stat that dictates how much the Daze bar accumulates. Anby, a free character, is an example of a stun unit.

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Attribute Anomaly Debuffs

Attribute Anomaly are debuffs that can be applied to enemies after accumulating Attribute damage. The Anomaly Gauge is located near the HP bar of an enemy.

Attribute Anomaly Debuffs

Debuff Depends on the Attribute

Attribute Anomaly will only trigger once the gauge is full and the effect depends on the Attribute of the attacking character. You can fill up the gauge by simply dealing damage!

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Chain Attack Mechanic

Performing Chain Attacks lets you do combos with the other party members to deal heavy damage to your target. Once an enemy's Daze bar is full, hitting a Stunned enemy with heavy attacks can trigger Chain Attacks.

How to Do Chain Attacks

Heavy Attacks Trigger Chain Attacks

Certain abilities are considered heavy attacks. Special Attacks, Ex Special Attacks, and the last hit of Basic Attacks are commonly used to start Chain Attacks!

Upcoming Manual Chain Attack Mode

Version 1.1 will include a button for Manual Chain Attack mode at the squad lineup interface before you enter combat. If you have this mode active, your attacks will not trigger other Agents' Chain Attacks when an enemy gets Stunned.

Cancel Chain Attack Combos in Version 1.1

In Version 1.1, a new Cancel Chain Attack Combo function will also be implemented. This allows you to select whether to use the Manual Chain Attack Mode based on your preferences.

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Dodge and Dash Mechanic

Dodging allows you to evade enemy attacks and the on-field character is invulnerable for a few seconds. After dodging multiple times, it will go into a brief cooldown period.

Do a Perfect Dodge to Use a Dodge Counter

When a character is about to be attacked by an enemy, press the Dodge button to trigger a Perfect Dodge. After triggering a Perfect Dodge, follow it up with a Basic Attack to perform a Dodge Counter.

Your character is invulnerable when performing a Dodge Counter and the attack will also generate Energy for your character.

How to Do Perfect Dodges

Dash to Move Faster or Deflect Bullets

Your character can dash after running for a period of time or when they dodge forward. Dashing allows your characters to deflect incoming bullets or perform Dash Attacks by pressing the Basic Attack button.

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Special Attack and EX Special Attack

The Energy bar dictates whether your character will use a Special Attack or Ex Special Attack. If you press the Special Attack button when the Energy bar is greyed out, a character will use their Special Attack.

Gaining enough Energy to exceed the Energy Icon (the red icon on your Energy bar) allows your Agent to use their Ex Special Attack.

How to Do EX Special Attacks

Difference of Ex Special Attacks

Ex Special Attacks deals more damage and will usually have additional mechanics compared to Special Attacks. For example, Soldier 11's Ex Special Attack deals massive Fire DMG and will also trigger the Fire Suppression status effect.

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A Character's Ultimate

Ultimates are unique moves that deal massive damage to enemies. Other than dealing damage, a character's Ultimate has extra effects such as Ben's Ultimate which provides Assist Points.

Decibel Rating and Ultimate Guide

You Need 3000 Decibels to Use Ultimates

The team's Decibel Rating is displayed at the top left corner of the screen and you need 3000 Decibels to cast an Ultimate.

Do note that Decibels are shared between characters, once you cast an Ultimate, everyone's Decibel Rating goes down to zero!

You can build up the Decibel Rating by performing Basic Attakcs, Special Attacks, and other abilities.

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Switching Mechanic

The Switch button summons the next character in line, as shown in the image above. Doing this switches out the character previously on-field. With this, the order of your characters on the Character Selection screen matters.

Main DPS Should Come After a Support

Ideally, you want the team's Main DPS to come after the Support. This way, the DPS can switch in after the Supports triggers a Quick Assist, usually after a Chain Attack or Ex Special Skill.

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Perfect Assist and Quick Assist

Perfect Assist	Defensive Assist Switch to a teammate quickly and have them block an attack before following up with their own. Evasive Assist Dodge an enemy's attack and immediately switch to a teammate who will follow up with an attack.
Quick Assist	Switch to the character in the next position and quickly follow up with an attack.

As shown above, there are two types of Assists, Perfect and Quick Assists. To trigger Quick Assists, the on-field character should become Staggered after an enemy's attack. Also, certain abilities of Support units can also trigger it.

How to Do Perfect and Quick Assists

Switch on Time to Trigger Perfect Assists

Timing the switch right before an enemy attack hits triggers a Perfect Assist, which can be a Defensive or an Evasive Assist. Perfect Assists can be done if you have Assist Points from doing Chain Attacks or using an Ultimate.

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Understand a Character's Core Skill

To have an idea of a character's playstyle, read their Core Skill in the Skills tab. The Core Passive dictates a mechanic of a character that should be utilized during combat.

For example, Zhu Yuan uses Enhanced Shotshells which increases her DMG during Suppressive Mode. You then need to identify how to trigger Suppressive Mode and also the abilities that provide Enhanced Shotshells.

If you are having a hard time understanding a character's kit, Game8's character pages have a dedicated section on how to play them!

List of All Characters

Additional Ability Depends on the Team Comp

A character's Additional Ability is an extra passive that will only activate depending on the requirement mentioned.

Usually the requirement is based on having another character on the team having the same type, attribute, or Faction. With this, team composition in ZZZ is important!

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ZZZ Combat Tips

All Combat Tips
Look for Visual Cues Animation Cancel to Save Time Add a Bangboo to the Team

Look for Visual Cues

Some enemies will emit a gold flash right before their attack hits that you can use as a visual cue. Timing your Dodge or Switch Agent correctly to defend yourself against this type of attack can trigger a Perfect Dodge or a Perfect Assist.

If you run out of Assist Points, a red flash will instead appear. You can still switch out to another character to trigger a Perfect Dodge!

Animation Cancel to Save Time

There is a lot of combat-related content like Shiyu Defense that requires you to finish a stage at a specific time to get all the rewards.

A lot of characters allow you to switch out to the next character even before the animation of their abilities is done.

For example, Rina's EX Special Attack can be animation canceled. Rina will stay on the field until her Ex Special Attack animation ends while you take control of the next character.

Rina Best Builds and Teams

Add a Bangboo to the Team

Bangboos are companions or assistants for Proxies within the Hollows. Bangboos will also help your characters in battle by using their active skills. They can also do Chain Attacks!

All Bangboos and Guides

Zenless Zone Zero Related Guides

Tips and Tricks Guide

All Zenless Zone Zero Tips and Tricks

Gameplay Guides
How to Level Up Characters	How to Build and Enhance Characters
How to Ascend (Promote) Characters	How to Recover Battery Charge
How to Raise Your Inter-Knot Level	All Inter-Knot Level Rewards
Daily and Weekly Server Reset Times	How to Change the Time
List of All Achievements	Trophy Guide
Missing Mini Cargo Truck Locations and Rewards	Reroll Guide
Microtransactions and Best In-App Purchases	How to Increase Agent Trust Level
Fast Travel Guide: How to Teleport	How to Modify and Upgrade W-Engines
How to Gain Energy	How to Heal Characters
Compendium Guide	List of Primer Trials and All Rewards
Best Standard Banner Character Guide	How to Get Promoters for Random Play
Exploration Elements	Workbench Guide
How to Level Up Drive Discs	How to Upgrade Core Skills
How to Pet Cats	Public Telephone Guide
How to Change Your Name	All Stats Explained
How to Raise Your Proxy Rank	Immersive Storytelling Mode Guide
How to Get and Change Namecards	Skill Enhancement Guide
How to Take Pictures	How to Level Up and Ascend Bangboos
Best Battery Priority Guide	Best A-Rank W-Engine to Get from the Bundle
San-Z Studio and Display Stand Guide	-
Combat Guides
Basic Combat Guide	How to Daze and Stun
Chain Attack Guide	Ultimate and Decibel Rating
Perfect Dodge and Counter	Perfect Assists and Parries
Attribute Anomaly	What are Additional Skills?
How to Destroy Enemy Parts	How to Do EX Special Attacks
How Do Shields Work?	-
Items and Collectibles
How to Farm Polychromes	How to Get and Use Residual Signal
How to Get and Use Fading Signal	How to Get and Use Encrypted Master Tape
Best Ways to Farm Denny (Money)	How to Get and Use HIA Commemorative Coin
How to Get and Use W-Engine Chip	How to Get and Use Ether Battery
How to Get and Use Boopon	How to Get and Use Bangbuck
How to Get and Use Monochrome	Exclusive Skins for W-Engines
How to Get Dynamic Wallpapers	How to Collect Observation Data
How to Use Photowall	How to Get Cat Food Cans
HIA Coins Sixth Street Locations	HIA Coins Brant Street Locations
HIA Coins Lumina Square Locations	HIA Coins Ballet Twins Road Locations
HIA Coins Blazewood Locations	-
Game Modes and Dailies
Dailies - Errands Guide	Hollow Deep Dive Explained
Officer Mewmew Medal Locations and Challenges	Notorious Hunt Guide
Routine Cleanup Guide	Casual vs Challenge Mode
Frequently Asked Questions
Should You Choose Belle or Wise?	Does Zenless Zone Zero Have Crossplay?
Are There Multiplayer Features?	How to Transfer Data
How to Exit the Game	How to Play With Controller on PC/Mobile
Birthday Guide: What Do You Get On Your Birthday	Which Server Should I Use?
New Eridu City Fund Battle Pass Guide	Can You Reset an Account?