Unsurprisingly, HoYoverse delivers Zenless Zone Zero with a roster of diverse and unique characters. These units are not only unique with their personalities, but they also have their own mechanics and can synergize together to create some beautiful teams.
Of course, with every game that heavily relies on combat, it’s natural for people to wonder who’s the best among its characters. For that, this ZZZ tier list will rank all the Zenless Zone Zero 1.0 characters.
Updated on September 28, 2024, by Nahda Nabiilah: Ellen was the obvious top-tier Agent in ZZZ 1.0, but how does the meta evolve with the release of newer characters? Thankfully, as of version 1.2, there’s no clear power creeping yet, at least in terms of DPS. Meanwhile, when it comes to supportive Agents, the debut of Caesar marks the beginning of an overpowered S-Rank support. This is because Caesar is too good at what she does. Although listed as a Defense unit, she does more than just shielding, which quickly dethrones characters like Soukaku and Nicole from the spots of the top-support. Thankfully, although Caesar is clearly better than all the current supports in ZZZ, she doesn’t make anyone less relevant. Here’s the updated ZZZ tier list for Zenless Zone Zero 1.2.
S-Tier
S-Tier characters in Zenless Zone Zero are capable units that can perfectly fulfill their roles and synergize well with others.
Jane Doe
Jane Doe is like the better version of Piper in ZZZ. This is mostly thanks to her ability to Crit her Assault Anomaly, placing her damage far greater than the Sons of Calydon lady. Although Anomaly is generally slower compared to pure DPS, Jane Doe’s powerful Assault potential places her in the S-Rank, equal to both Zhu Yuan and Ellen.
Zhu Yuan
Zhu Yuan is an excellent DPS in ZZZ who deals damage swiftly with her Shotshells. She works well with practically any Stun and Support characters. However, as of version 1.1, her best teammates are Qingyi and Nicole. Qingyi helps quickly stun the enemies, while Nicole boosts her Ether damage and reduces the enemy’s DEF.
Caesar
Caesar’s kits feel like the definition of Defense Agent ceased to exist. Not only amazing protection, Caesar also grants crazy buff and debuff. The developer also decided to make her scale with Impact, which allows her to easily stun the enemies. As if that’s not enough, Caesar has a way to crowd control as well, which collects small enemies in one spot. All of this easily makes the head of the Sons of Calydon the leader of the support tier list.
Qingyi
Qingyi is a universal Stunner who works in any squad that has an Attack Agent in it. Her movements are fluid, and she can quickly build up Daze with her Basic Attack spam. Additionally, Qingyi can also apply a massive DMG multiplier when the enemy is stunned, far higher than Lycaon and Koleda. However, she still doesn’t outperform Lycaon in Ellen team, since the wolf has extra effects for Ice characters.
Lycaon
Lycaon is an Ice unit with a Stun style of combat. He mostly relies on his charged Basic and EX Special Attacks to apply Ice and Daze on enemies, which greatly helps the Anomaly reactions during combat.
What makes Lycaon so good is his ability to reduce enemies’ resistance to Ice while increasing allies’ Daze DMG on that enemy, which makes him a must-have in any Ice team in Zenless Zone Zero.
Ellen
Ellen is an Attack Agent that relies on the Ice element to deal DMG in Zenless Zone Zero. Her amazing synergy with Lycaon and Soukaku is one of the main reasons why she sits at the top of any ZZZ tier list.
When Ellen makes it to the field after Lycaon stunned enemies and Soukaku gives her a huge buff, she hits hard with each one of her hits, especially her EX Special Attacks and Ultimates.
Soukaku
Soukaku is a decent Support in Zenless Zone Zero. She mainly operates as a buffer who can help build some Ice Anomaly on enemies due to her Icy hits from multiple sources.
When Soukaku is matched with other Ice units like Ellen or Lycaon, she grants them an extra Ice buff that makes her one of the best buffers in Zenless Zone Zero.
Grace
The process of building Anomaly on enemies might look slow and unrewarding until you meet Grace, a strong Anomaly character in Zenless Zone Zero.
Grace has the ability to quickly Shock enemies, which triggers a continuous decent DMG each time you hit them with Grace or other characters. Also, if you match Grace with other characters that are good at building Anomalies, you can trigger Disorder, which can hit really hard.
Rina
As a Support, Rina deals a good amount of DMG while giving her allies PEN, which is the ability to ignore enemies’ defense. Her high DMG comes from her requirement to share a portion of her PEN with her allies, which makes it a priority to build Rina with PEN Ratio in Zenless Zone Zero.
Additionally, Rina is also good at building Shock Anomaly and buffing Shock reactions. That makes her a valuable ally to Electric characters who benefit from applying Shock on enemies.
Koleda
Koleda is a reliable Fire/Stun character in Zenless Zone Zero. With her natural ability to swiftly build enemies’ Daze, Koleda can be included in any team composition, especially the ones that have another Fire character. Her synergy with Ben isn’t only by stats, she also gains some new flashy movesets.
A-Tier
A-Tier characters in Zenless Zone Zero are units that are great in one combo, but good at their roles, in general.
Nicole
Nicole is a nice Ether Support in Zenless Zone Zero. Some of her abilities can pull enemies into her energy fields, which can be valuable for AoE units, such as Nekomata. On the other hand, she greatly shreds enemies’ DEF and increases the team’s Ether DMG on them. Unfortunately, as an Ether Support that boosts Ether DPS units, other DPS units will only get a fraction of how good Nicole is.
Seth
Seth easily excels in his role as a shielder and support, but not at the same level as top-tier buffers like Soukaku and Caesar. This is especially due to Seth being a niche for Anomaly DPS, whereas ATK buffers are still beneficial for an Anomaly team, given Anomaly damage scales with ATK.
Lucy
Lucy is a Support unit that can deal off-field DMG. With her Guard Boars, she can apply a decent ATK% buff to the entire team that lasts up to 15 seconds while continuously dealing off-field DMG. Her DPS increases if Lucy synergizes with another character in Zenless Zone Zero to activate her Additional Ability.
Soldier 11
Soldier 11 is a simple character to play in Zenless Zone Zero. While she deals tons of DMG, Soldier 11 is as straightforward as it gets with her mechanics.
When activating her Chain Attack, Ultimate, or EX Special Attack, her Basic Attacks become infused with Fire. You can still infuse her Basic Attacks with Fire by properly timing your hit, but it’s not worth it since you can easily bypass it with one EX Special Attack hit. Unless, of course, you’re looking for a fun challenge.
Nekomata
As an Attack unit, Nekomiya Mana, or Nekomata, can deal a lot of AoE DMG but relies heavily on her team to do so. As of the 1.0 tier list in Zenless Zone Zero, Nekomata suffers to find teammates that can feed enemies to her, mostly because of her Element and Faction.
At release, Physical is packed with DPS units, but her Faction only offers Nicole as a useful Support. However, there’s no doubt that Nekomata is bound to become better in future patches when more Supportive Physical characters are released.
Piper
Although Piper’s entire kit can be reduced to her EX Special Attack only, it’s still one of the best attacks in Zenless Zone Zero. Once Piper starts spinning, nothing will stop her until she triggers Assault and builds around another 80% Physical Anomaly for the next Assault. This style of gameplay works perfectly if she is matched with other Anomaly units to create a steady occurrence of Disorder.
B-Tier
B-Tier characters in Zenless Zone Zero are units that have something to give, but other characters can do it better.
Anby
Anby is one of the best characters in Zenless Zone Zero, but not for her combat abilities, mostly because of her comedic timing during the story quest. Of course, she’s not at all weak during combat, instead, she’s really reliable as a Stun unit in her team. Anby’s combos are nice, quick, and get the job done, and for additional fun/utility, she deflects bullets while running.
One bad thing about her is how easily she gets interrupted, especially compared to Agents of the same specialty. She would’ve sat higher on the ZZZ character tier list if other Stun Agents like Qingyi, Lycaon, and Koleda didn’t exist.
Ben
Ben is the only defensive character in Zenless Zone Zero 1.0. He is fun to play because of his ability to parry and punish enemies. He also gives Koleda some new movesets that are also fun. Combat-wise, Ben is very slow and can’t offer any benefit to the team outside his Crit Rate buff. The shield is a decent protection, but while playing ZZZ, it’s better for players to master dodging than relying on a shield.
C-Tier
C-Tier characters in Zenless Zone Zero are units that have nothing to offer so far.
Corin
Corin is an Attack character who deals Physical DMG in Zenless Zone Zero. Her DMG excels when she’s doing a continuous extended slash DMG to Stunned enemies. You can do that by holding on to her EX Special Skill. The sad part is there’s already a Nekomata, which is a much better Physical Attack unit that can deal AoE DMG, and Piper, who is also much better at applying Physical Anomaly.
Billy
Billy sure does shout and shoot a lot, but doesn’t deal DMG that much for sure. As an Attack character, Billy works well in quick-swap teams where his Chain Attacks can be hurtful to enemies. However, many DPS characters, even Attack Physical ones, do a much better job at dealing DMG than Billy.
Anton
While Anton has an interesting Core Skill that allows him to continuously trigger Shock DMG, he suffers from a lack of DPS in his attacks. As an Attack/Electric unit, Anton needs to be the main DPS who takes the field and enemies by storm. Unfortunately, Anton is also a single-target unit, which further limits his DPS during combat.
