Best Pulchra build in Zenless Zone Zero – Best Drive Discs, W-Engine, and team compositions

The Sons of Calydon's latest addition, Pulchra can be considered both one of the most unique among her class and the best A-Rank stun agent for Soldier 0 - Anby teams in Zenless Zone Zero.

As you can expect, however, bringing the most out of her will demand a very specific build, as well as a solid game plan. Here's the best Pulchra build in ZZZ, as well as an overview of how to play her.

How to play Pulchra

The game's first true-to-form off-the-field daze applicator, Pulchra's biggest strength lies in her ability to enter Hunter's Gait. The state can be triggered by performing her EX Special, Ultimate, Assist Follow-Up, and Chain Attack and will both boost her Daze by up to 30% and allow her to perform off-the-field coordinated attacks. If enabled, her Business Partner additional ability will also allow her to boost the Aftershock damage of the whole party by 30% after performing any of the skills above or triggering her Hunter's Gait Rending Claw - Nightmare Shadow attack.

True to the above, the game plan when using Pulchra lies on quickly swapping her into the field, performing her EX Special (or any Skill capable of triggering Hunter's Gait), and then swapping back to your main DPS before performing a heavy Special to trigger her follow-up attacks and main buffs. As her regular daze output is definitely on the low side, Pulchra must only take the field for one or two interactions at max to avoid diminishing results.

Best W-Engines for Pulchra

Given its high base Impact (18%) and easy-to-trigger 25% daze boost, the best W-Engine for Pulchra in Zenless Zone Zero is Lighter's Blazing Laurel. If you missed the S-Ranker, her signature Box Cutter will then be by far the best via its 15% Impact boost and ability to buff Pulchra's Physical DMG and Daze by 15% and 10% (24% and 16% at R5) after she performs an Aftershock attack. The buff will last for 10 seconds and can be refreshed. Keep in mind that the main and coordinated attacks part of Rending Claw - Nightmare Shadow are considered Aftershock.

Using Koleda's Hellfire Gears can also work in place of Pulchra's signature via its ability to offer the same base impact as her BIS. Just remember that her low base attack daze output and inability to fully use its passive will cause the engine to underperform.

Best F2P W-Engine (& how to get it)

If you did not manage to get any of the above, Steam Oven is by far the best F2P W-Engine for Pulchra via its ability to offer an up to 20% Impact boost (32% if fully refined). The engine's 50% Energy Regen stat will also allow you to boost her EX Special's availability and guarantee you will always have it at hand. You can get and fully refine the Steam Oven in ZZZ by heading to Box Galaxy at Sixth Street.

Best Drive Discs for Pulchra in Zenless Zone Zero

The best drive disc composition for Pulchra is a 4-piece Astral Voice paired with a 2-piece Shockstar Disco. The reason for that is quite simple: while Shockstar's 8% Impact boost will always be valuable for a stun agent, her ability to trigger a Quick Assist after entering Hunter's Gait will allow you to quickly stack the DMG buffs of Astral Voice. You can check out a breakthrough of the effects of each set below:

• Astral Voice: 2-piece effect: 10% ATK boost / 4-piece effect: After any squad member triggers a Quick Assist, the whole party will get one stack of Astral (up to three). Each stack will last for 15 seconds and boost the DMG of the latest Agent, taking the field through a Quick Assist by 8%.
• Shockstar Disco: 2-piece effect: 6% Impact boost / 4-piece effect: Your basic attacks, dash attacks, and dodge counters will deal +20% Daze.

If on teams featuring Astra Yao —and taking into account how the effects of multiple Astral Voice sets will not stack— go with a 2-piece Shockstar Disco paired with either a 4-piece Proto Punk or Swing Jazz for their great party-wide DMG buffs.

Recommended main and sub-stats

Following the baseline for most Stun Agents, I recommend that you go with Crit Rate for your fourth partition, Physical DMG for your fifth, and Impact for the sixth. If you managed to reach the recommended 50% Crit Rate threshold, go with Crit DMG for your fourth disc to maximize your DMG. Substat-wise, prioritize Crit Rate, DMG, and ATK.

Are her Cinema Mindscapes a must?

Although Pulchra can still shine via her high amounts of off-the-field daze application, I believe unlocking her sixth Cinema Mindscape will be a game-changer if you are looking to use her with DPSs apart from Soldier 0 - Anby. Once unlocked, the mindscape will boost the damage of Rending Claw - Nightmare Shadow by 15%, allow her to perform two extra off-the-field Hunter's Gait attacks, and turn her 30% Aftershock DMG buff into a universal one affecting all types of damage.

Keep in mind that even if unlocking the mindscape will make her a great partner for pretty much all main DPSs in the game, pulling for an A-Ranker is not recommended in any shape or form.

The best Pulchra teams in Zenless Zone Zero

As we highlighted at the start, the best Pulchra team in Zenless Zone Zero will revolve around Soldier 0 - Anby, although she can also be considered the best A-Rank Daze sub-DPS for Evelyn and Zhu Yuan. In all cases, we will then use Astra as our main support via her massive buffs and the specifics of Idyllic Cadenza, which will allow you to easily trigger the effects of our BIS W-Engine. Using Caesar can also work via her unmatched shield and equally game-changing ATK buff.

To recap, here's a more in-depth overview of the best Pulchra teams in ZZZ. You can also check out the best F2P team for her by heading further down.

• Soldier 0 - Anby + Pulchra (no matter her CM level) + Astra Yao/Caesar: The BIS team for Pulchra, as Anby's ability to deal constant amounts of Aftershock DMG will allow her to make full use of her passives no matter what. To close the team, we will then have in Caesar and Astra's buffs the potential to take our DPS's damage to a whole new realm.
• Evelyn + Pulchra (Ideally at CM6) + Astra Yao/Caesar/Lucy: A variation of Evelyn's BIS composition, now having Pulchra in Lighter's place. Using Caesar and Pulchra feels great as it mitigates the latter's lower daze output through the former's.
• Zhu Yuan + Pulchra (ideally at CM6) + Astra Yao/Nicole: The way Heavy EX Specials can trigger Rending Claw - Nightmare Shadow makes Pulchra a perfect fit for Zhu Yuan, as she can add an extra punch to most of the hits in the latter's Enhanced Shotshell combos. Astra (or Nicole) will then be here to both enable Zhu Yuan's Additional Ability and further maximize your damage.

Best F2P Pulchra team in ZZZ

The best fully F2P team for Pulchra in ZZZ features Billy as its DPS and Lucy as its support. As you can expect, this team will be extremely straightforward by heaving in Lucy a good doze of ATK, and on Pulchra, the potential to stun enemies relatively fast, boost your Assault potential, enable Billy's Additional Ability, and (if on CM6) provide a massive dose of extra damage to the self-proclaimed Starlight Knight.

No matter your team of choice, make sure to pick a Bangboo that either works as a jack of all trades, such as Knightboo and Buttler when using S0 Anby, or who can further potentialize your DPS. Examples of the latter can be seen when using Snap with Evelyn and Astra, as well as Resonaboo in teams featuring Zhu Yuan and Astra/Nicole.

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