Zenless Zone Zero Season 3 and Roscaelifer are just around the corner. At the moment, the game is going through Version 2.8, serving both as the epilogue for Season 2 and the introduction for the transition to Lady Sunbringer’s flying utopia, Roscaelifer, in the upcoming Version 3.0.
There are still a few weeks until the special program filled with the reveals and teases, but we already have a rough idea of what to expect: a new region, new element: Wind, new mechanics, characters and stories await!
Before the official announcement of all the things awaiting us in 3.0, this is the best time to share a list of grievances and wishes for the upcoming Season. I have already done something similar for Honkai: Star Rail before Planarcadia released, and, unsurprisingly, quite a few elements match. Whether it is a HoYoverse thing, a gacha thing, or a me thing, it’s interesting to note, regardless.
Let’s dive right in!
Freebie – Hollow Zero Expansion
Hollow Zero, ZZZ’s weekly roguelike, has enjoyed developers’ attention repeatedly since the launch of Zenless Zone Zero. Withered Domain, Lost Void, Arpeggio Vault (we don’t talk about it, ever), character equipment, Resonia, events, and more.
However, there are still plenty of characters, especially those on the older side, that have no gear to pursue, or bosses that you are unlikely to encounter. Additionally, it is likely that the game mode will be updated with the new mechanics when Season 3 launches – so let’s consider this one a freebie.
Less Character Tampering, Miyabi-Style
Those who have played on since Season 1, know of the great Miyabi incident of Season 2. Zenless Zone Zero’s first Void Hunter turned out to be quite expectedly strong – too strong for her own good and the general health of the game.
Come Season 2, HoYoverse started to course-correct, sometimes aggressively so. With few exceptions, endgame was ruthlessly clipping Miyabi’s ears by giving bosses Ice Resist, Anomaly Resist, extremely fat defense, or everything at once. And Miyabi was not the only character suffering from this approach – to a lesser degree, Ellen and Hugo got hit by the Ice bat, while other Anomalies frequently ran into unfavorable bosses. With the exception of Yixuan’s undead sister, that fiend is unfavorable to everyone.
Now, as we are entering Season 3, there are two other Void Hunter level characters that might require the developers to shut them down: Yixuan (Auric Ink, Rupture) and Ye Shunguang (Physical, Attack), and a whole new element with its own mechanics to tackle.
What are the chances we will see the repeat of Miyabi’s treatment, except for two characters/archetypes at once? Shutting down Yixuan would require enemies with paper thin defense and huge HP pool- and, perhaps, some kind of debuff to crits? Throw in Physical resistance to counter Ye Shunguang or, better yet, Anomaly requirements, and we’re golden.
Just make sure it is focused on Ablooms/Vortex so that Miyabi drowns as well. And, if Banyue, Manato, Yidhari and Starlight Billy (double cursed by being both Physical AND Rupture) among others choke with the Void Hunter-level trio, well… such is the price of the meta.
Of course, I jest. It is a given that new bosses will be catered to the new characters, the shilling tactic as old as time itself. The endgame revolving around new releases will naturally favor certain archetypes, elements or playstyles – but the way the developers have treated Miyabi is certainly a choice. I do hope that Yixuan and Ye Shunguang avoid that fate, because what the developers don’t seem to understand is that being unable to score an S in Shiyu or 9-stars in Deadly Assault is unlikely to prompt players to throw Polychromes at whoever is on the banner.
It is, however, likely to annoy – perhaps even enough to stop engaging with it at maximum level, or at all.
Figure Out the Identity of Defense and Stun Specialties
Zenless Zone Zero has six Agent specialties: Attack, Anomaly, Defense, Stun, Support and the recently added Rupture. Some of them have strong class fantasies, namely the three attacking ones, while the rest are getting ever muddier overtime.
Say, you’re expecting HoYoverse to release the latest drip marketing that will outline an upcoming character’s Specialty and Attribute. Seeing Attack, you can expect a classic crit-using direct damage dealer, albeit with the possibility of extra mechanics such as Aftershock, Totalize or Cissia’s unique poison.
Anomaly? Even considering Miyabi’s unique status as a Crit Anomaly, it is a class that accumulates Anomaly Buildup and deals damage by triggering Attribute Anomalies. Sure, then it splits into few sub categories such as Miyabi, Disorder, Polarity Disorder, Abloom and now Vortex, unique to the new Wind attribute, but it still gives a rather clear expectation.
Rupture, HP & Crit scaling damage dealer that utilizes Sheer Damage and ignores enemy Defense. Neat.
And then we get to Stun, Defense and, to a lesser degree, Support. HoYo defines the Support Specialty as Agents that specialize in providing buffs, which fits. Although there’s still a great difference between, say, Yuzuha and Lucia and Astra Yao. But still, it’s mostly about figuring out the niche.
Defense is described as “Agents who are proficient at withstanding attacks while counterattacking enemies, gaining an advantage for the squad in intense battles.” That does seem to have been the idea behind this class early on, if you look at Season 1 characters: Ben Bigger, Caesar King, and Seth Lowell.
Ben, Seth and Caesar apply shields, with Ben granting additional crit, Seth offering a big Anomaly Buildup resistance debuff/efficiency bonus, and Caesar boosting Interruption Resistance and granting a flat 1,000 ATK buff. Using them efficiently would involve staying on top of the Defense Assists and tracking the buffs/shields.
With Season 2, Defense characters have turned into Supports in disguise (even more so than Seth and Caesar). Pan Yinhu shares the role with Lucia as the Sheer Force/Rupture buffer while Zhao is a generalist support with an Ether Veil that offers 1000 Combat Attack and Damage Bonus that works with Anomalies and Attackers alike.
Forget about shields, forget about utilizing Defense Assists to refresh buffs, just plug-in and play. Additionally, both Pan Yinhu and Zhao offer healing – something that previously only been available for Astra Yao, a Support.
At the moment, Defense feels like “Support, but worse, with no good easily-available W-Engines”, a Specialty that you’d add for more restrictive additional abilities and to have people pull their signatures. When you see the Defense specialty on a character you were waiting for, are you glad or disappointed? And can you predict, even roughly, what they are going to scale off or offer for your characters?
However, if you think things are muddy on the Defense front, just wait will we get to the Stun section. According to HoYo, Agents with the Stun specialty excel at quickly accumulating Daze, causing enemies to enter the Stunned state.
That much is true, of course, but the interesting things happen beyond the Daze gauge abuse. There are currently 10 stunners in the game, with Norma joining the roster as the 11th in Version 3.0. Let’s quickly go over what they offer in the order of release:
- Anby: nothing besides some energy refund for herself. She’s the starter stunner with relatively high Daze and easy combos to get you through the early game.
- Koleda: impressively high Daze + applies debuff to Stunned enemies that increases Chain Attack DMG received by 35%, stackable to 2 times.
- Lycaon: target’s Ice RES reduced by 25%, increases DMG to target from other attributes by 30%. When Lycaon hits a Stunned enemy, the target’s Stun DMG Multiplier increases by 35%.
- Qingyi: incredibly high Daze application, self-buffs on Additional Ability. Queen of shocking enemies into compliance.
- Lighter: can increase the Ice DMG and Fire DMG of Agents by a maximum of 75%. Increases Stunned duration for 3s, reduces the target’s Ice RES and Fire RES by 15%. Signature W-Engine further plays into this effect.
- Pulchra: increases Aftershock damage against the target by 30%, has general supportive capabilities on M6.
- Trigger: universal Stun DMG Multiplier debuffer with the entirety of Nicole kit in-built into her Signature.
- Ju Fufu: the maximum Decibels for all characters in the squad increases by 1,000. When an Attack or Rupture character uses an Ultimate, that character gains 300 Decibels. Additionally, can increase the party’s Crit Damage by up to 30%.
- Dialyn: DMG dealt increased by 40%, Stun extension, extra Ultimate.
- Nangong Yu: Anomaly Abloom sub-DPS with high Daze pretending to be a stunner. Attacks and Chain Attacks against a Stunned enemy have 30% increased Anomaly Buildup Rate. Plethora of self-buffs, extra damage and shortcut combos. Ether Veil for the shilling buffs in Shiyu/DA.
As you can see, early on Stunners had been offering some enemy Debuffs, as opposed by the party buffs from the Support Agents. Things have started changing around the release of Lighter, where Stunners have started receiving not-insignificant party buffs of their own while also featuring increasingly easy gameplay and their signature high Daze application.
In Season 2, the buffs and damage increase from stunners can compete with that of Supports, especially when it comes to the two latest released units: Nangong Yu and Dialyn. In fact, Nangong is a bit of everything, Support with her buffs and self-buffs, sub-DPS with the amount of damage she can do, especially if you’re rocking the Signature, and of course, Stun due to the high Daze.
I shudder to think what Norma is going to offer if this trend continues, automatically raising the gameplay ceiling with her release and pushing out already struggling characters – mainly other stunners, while hopefully uplifting some struggling heroes.
Still, the Stunner powercreep needs to noticeably slow down. Just the difference between Ju Fufu and Dialyn & Nangong Yu is pretty intense, let alone when you compare them to characters that came before.
More Potential Unlocks
Likely an extremely expected point, but with the enemy HP, Anomaly and Daze bars stretching to infinity, new mechanics, and more, there are quite a few characters that have fallen off never to be seen again. Or are simply missing out in a pure numbers game.
This is not unique to Zenless, of course, there are plenty of gacha games that come back to buff older characters, including both of its older siblings: Genshin Impact and Honkai: Star Rail. So far, ZZZ buffed 7 characters with varying degrees of success: Soldier 0 Anby, Ellen Joe, Harumasa, Burnice, Soldier 11, Lycaon and Grace. However, plenty more barely see any play at all. Leaving aside 4-stars and Standards (even though they desperately need help, too, especially Nekomata), there are quite a few Agents that have aged like milk.
The list includes Caesar, Hugo, Zhu Yuan and Jane Doe at the very least. Though, as mentioned above, I’d love to see more Standards like Rina or Neko get buffed, and some characters that are just starting to struggle unless vertically invested, such as Yanagi.
It makes losing your 50/50 less annoying if the character is at the very least usable, let alone good. And also makes it so players stay interested in reruns for buffed characters, compared to automatically skipping in favor of newer heroes.
As it is, would you really pull for, say, Zhu Yuan when we just got another Ether Attack announced? What about Jane that performs worse than Alice and in certain situations worse than Piper? Disregarding the waifu factor, of course, pure numbers.
World Building & World Quests
The world of Zenless Zone Zero is quite unique: the aesthetics, the vibes, the story – or, rather, the stories. Both the unfolding plot of the Phaethon siblings and the two catastrophes that the world went through, the original appearance of the Hollows and the fall of the old capital and related tragedies.
Through Belle’s and Wise’s eyes, we are slowly learning more and more about New Eridu and its predecessor, including some very ugly truths about shadowy deals. But what I find myself missing are the smaller stories unrelated to the main plot that we had a chance to experience through the early side quests, such as the story of the grandfather whose twin granddaughters died during the Hollow expansion in the Ballet Twins tower. Yes, those twins.
Small personal victories and tragedies that don’t have a huge “save the world” scale, but add plenty to world building and lore. I actively want to learn more – about what happened during the time of the first Void Hunters, about the stories of those who survived the fall of Eridu, of Helios Academy, the four Great AI, and more.
While the main story does move in this direction, it cannot serve as the only way to experience the lore and the world as there is only so much it can cover organically. Roscaelifer will likely be filled with some pretty unique people – I hope we get to learn more about them and from them while at it.
Agent Stories
Tying with the previous point, I hope to see more Agent Stories – you know, the ones that you access through the video archive at Random Play? That is a neat way to interact with said character outside of the main story, maybe learn something more about them.
Despite having played them right as they were released, I still remember and enjoy quite a few, including Harumasa’s and Rina’s. There are several characters that could have really benefitted from having their Agent Stories run alongside the main quest, including but not limited to Orphie & Magus; Dialyn, Banyue and Zhao whose screentime got stolen by Ye Shunguang; Nangong Yu who remains the only Angel of Delusion without real story;
And the heroes of the current patch, Promeia and Starlight Billy. Billy has the screentime and the affection he’d received over almost two years since the release of the game, but it still feels like a loss to not have a chance to witness him, even in the comic form, during his Calydon era.
Promeia has no such bonus. Her involvement had barely scratched the surface of her story. Normally, I’d hope that Krampus’ future involvement between Phoenix and the Boss will give more screentime and opportunities to Promeia, Dialyn and Banyue in particular, but I had already placed my hopes on Soldier-11 getting any story in the Obol patch, and was left disappointed. Not holding my breath this time.
Additionally, this way we could have learned more about certain characters’ pasts that are barely mentioned in the game: in addition to Billy’s own, there’s the time that Yanagi served in the Defense Force or the period of time during which Pan Yinhu had been a Hollow Raider. Sounds like a perfect thing to explore in a short story to me!
Character Design (Subjective)
As noted in the header, this is highly subjective, but I can’t say that I’m extremely thrilled with Zenless’ most recent designs, including the characters revealed to be taking part in Season 3. Perhaps it’s just me, but it feels like over time the unique design that is easily recognizable and fits with what you expect in tech-driven urban fantasy, Zenless has been steadily sliding towards the “generic gacha fanservice bait”.
Yes, it is about Remielle’s and Sunbringer’s old vs new designs, but not only. The process has already been well underway in Season 2, with the worst designs in my opinion being Lucia (whose clothes you can recolor and get Yixuan’s) and Yidhari, whose drip feels like it came from a completely different character but it was too late to redesign at that point.
I hope going forward there will be more cohesion between characters’ story, position, and looks. It’s not about the amount of shown skin – Jane, Neko and Burnice show plenty, yet it fits with their characters quite well. On the other hand, sexy doesn’t equal random chest and thigh windows. Consult people who have worked on designs of Genshin’s Arlecchino or HSR’s Kafka for a master class or look back at Season 1: Zhu Yuan, Miyabi, Evelyn don’t need such cheap tricks to be iconic.
Bonus points:
- Character skins, especially lore-driven, such as the aforementioned Defense Force Yanagi, Calydon S-Billy or Hollow Raider Pan Yinhu.
- Let the protagonists remain the “man/woman in the chair” who fight with their intellect and connections instead of venturing into Hollows just to be a burden on everyone else.
- Continue with the mix of goofy and deep, dark and heartfelt that is the unique vibe of Zenless Zone Zero.
- Bonus faction interactions, like Ben & Koleda Ults, Angels of Delusion unique idles and combat performance.
