Best Team Comps in Zenless Zone Zero

The early game in Zenless Zone Zero doesn't ask much of your teams, nor should it. The endgame, however, all but requires you to use the best teams available. Knowing what those are ahead of time ensures you know who to pull for and when.

How teams work in Zenless Zone Zero

Teams in Zenless Zone Zero are made up of three Agents plus a cuddly robot rabbit thing called a Bangboo. Each Agent plays one of the archetypal roles: Main DPS, Sub DPS, or Support. The difference is in how they play those roles. As of update 1.6, there are five built-in Agent types in ZZZ:

• Attack Agents, who are more traditional damage dealers. There are a few additional gimmicks with more recent options, but the basic rule is that if you hit an attack button, the Attack Agent will do some amount of damage.
• Anomaly Agents, who only deal a modest amount of damage with their attacks, instead get the majority of their output via Attribute Anomaly elemental damage effects. Most anomaly Agents also focus at least partly on causing Disorder damage, which occurs when two different Anomaly types interact when an enemy's Anomaly gauge fills. This causes the Anomaly effect and a Disorder, potentially doubling the damage received.
• Stun Agents, whose primary purpose is to build an enemy's Daze gauge until it reaches the Stun window, where the enemy cannot move and receives double damage. The best Stun Agents also apply debuffs and enable their damage dealers to, well, do more damage.
• Support Agents are party-wide buffers, healers, and general enablers. The best of them make an already great team composition better by giving it new tools or additional modifiers to its damage or combat style.
• Defense Agents focus on protecting their other party members via shields and buffing allies while that shield is active. The best of them play a hybrid role, protecting their party and giving top-tier damage and anti-interruption buffs.
• Bangboo are AI-controlled supportive units capable of applying different effects designed to synergize with specific team compositions.

The teams listed here are mostly made up of limited S-Rank characters, but we're not expecting you to have spent additional resources on their Cinema Mindscapes. All of them are, therefore, M0 and E0, meaning you've also not put any stock into their signature W-Engine, which can be the other resource sink.

One final note: almost all of these teams ask for Astra Yao as their Support, but Caesar is an excellent substitute, as are Lucy and Nicole.

Best premium team: Miyabi, Yanagi, Astra Yao

If you absolutely, positively must defeat every enemy in your current zipcode, accept no substitute from the meta Miyabi team. Miyabi's damage multipliers and the range and speed of her attacks are such that she can and has soloed the hardest content in the game. With teammates all but designed to improve her sky-high power ceiling, it's hard to think of what could be better.

Miyabi is the team's main DPS. She's an Anomaly Agent by designation, but her damage output outside of Attribute Anomaly effects is also absurd. If any member of Miyabi's team applies an Anomaly effect, she gains a stack of Fallen Frost. At six stacks, she can charge a huge attack that can disintegrate boss health bars. She also gains two stacks via her EX Special and three from her Ultimate. Most importantly, she gains Fallen Frost whenever an enemy is affected by Disorder.

Yanagi was already a powerful Anomaly DPS. However, her role in Miyabi's team is to ensure the captain of Section 6 has as many free Disorder activations as possible. Miyabi's EX Special can cause Disorders not once but twice, as the attack can cause a unique Polarity Disorder that activates separately from standard Disorders. More Disorder means more Fallen Frost for Miyabi and more heavy bursts of damage.

Astra Yao was immediately crowned the best Support unit in the game when she was released. Not only does she grant a massive attack boost to the entire team, but she also allows them to quick swap for free. In this team, that means Miyabi can get more attacks on target without having to spend resources, and both she and Yanagi can get a bit of extra EX Special energy without needing to be on-field for too long.

Agent Gulliver is the ideal Bangboo for this team, as having two Section 6 members on a team boosts its personal Anomaly buildup and increases Electric Anomaly buildup.

Best alternative premium team: Evelyn, Lighter, Astra Yao

Evelyn is one of the most technical characters in Zenless Zone Zero, requiring a lot of coordination within her team and her kit to function at her highest level. However, you don't need to optimize too much with her best team online.

Evelyn is the main DPS of the team, and even though she's an Attack Agent without the enormous area of effect attacks Miyabi can boast, she is a more functionally active character. Her attack mainly focuses on a single target by binding them to her with the Lunalux Garotte, but those attacks also have a large enough effect radius that any grouped enemies will take the pain.

Lighter is the premiere Stun Agent as of update 1.6, thanks to his top-tier Daze and his ability to reduce an enemy's Ice and Fire resistance while buffing his teammates' Fire and Ice damage. He can also extend the length of Stun windows. That his personal damage isn't terrible only adds to his appeal.

Astra Yao is one we've already talked about, but she deserves mention again for her Faction bonus with Evelyn, which allows Astra to activate her to attack and apply her ATK stat damage bonus more often. Additionally, because Evelyn's team has fewer invulnerability windows and counter options, Astra's Ultimate is even more valuable for the healing it provides.

Snap is the go-to Bangboo for this team, as it increases the damage team members can do to enemies while also providing some small but significant healing.

Best new premium team: Silver Soldier Anby, Pulchra or Trigger, Astra Yao

Silver Soldier Anby is a fantastic Attack main DPS who's simple to play and does top-tier damage without too many gimmicks or execution requirements. She's also the first DPS that uses the Aftershock mechanic, making her best Stun teammates units that can buff that damage type, hence the selections here.

Silver Soldier Anby is about as straightforward as DPS characters get among more recent Zenles Zone Zero characters. Hit enemies to apply the Silver Star mark, keep hitting them to charge it, and use your EX Special to spend that charge to do more damage. This mechanic makes S-Anby a bit more of a single-target specialist than Evelyn, but not enough to separate their capabilities for most players.

Pulchra and Trigger are both Aftershock-centric Stun units. Pulchra relies on her EX Special to apply a buff to Aftershock damage, and Trigger builds a gauge using a held Basic Attack that enables additional Aftershock effects. As an A-Rank, Pulchra is a bit less effective than Trigger at applying Daze, but she's also strong enough that if you're saving for another character down the line, you don't strictly need to pull for Trigger. If you do get Trigger, you'll provide Silver Soldier Anby with her best-in-slot partner.

Astra Yao is on Silver Soldier Anby's team for the same reason she's on any team: the damage buffs, Ultimate healing, and free quick swap attacks. In this case, the Quick Swaps are a good way to build additional Energy for both S-Anby and Pulchra. You are, however, probably better off keeping S-Anby on-field as much as possible to ensure she's charging her abilities as much as possible.

Plugboo is your S-Rank Bangboo of choice for the Silver Soldier Anby team, as you'll activate not only its passive Anomaly buildup ability but also its Chain Attack passive. S-Anby and her teammates aren't Anomaly units, of course, but having the additional Shock Anomaly damage is a nice bonus.

Best free-to-play team: Piper, Anby, Lucy

If you don't have any S-Ranks to build the above teams, a Piper-centric Anomaly team is a fine substitute until you do.

Piper has been the preeminent A-Rank DPS since the release of Zenless Zone Zero, outpacing many of the launch S-Rank characters. She's straightforward and satisfying to play, with most of her damage coming from her held EX Special spin-to-win attack. That same attack builds up a surprising amount of Physical Anomaly for an A-Rank and combined with the rest of her team, Piper can be a real menace.

Anby Demara, the A-Rank version, has also kept a relatively good pace with the other Stun units, though she's starting to feel the effects of powercreep. That's especially true with Pulchra in the lineup now. However, A-Rank Anby is a completely free unit that, like Piper, is easy to play. Her main Daze damage comes from her EX Special and the few combos she can build around it.

Lucy remains one of the most versatile Support units in the game alongside Nicole, and her A-Rank hasn't held her back much at all. Between the Fire Anomaly buildup, free quick swap with an attached Attack buff, and solid damage of her own, using Lucy as a substitute for Astra is a no-brainer. Of course, Astra has more to offer, as does Caesar, but if you don't have them, Lucy can elevate any team's capabilities handsomely.

Those are my picks for the best teams currently available in Zenless Zone Zero. The meta constantly changes, so expect these designations to change with it.

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