Zenless Zone Zero is about to undergo a metamorphosis with the release of its first major expansion, Version 2.0: Where Clouds Embrace the Dawn. Leave behind Sixth Street and its cozy, homey vibe, and prepare to move to Waifei Peninsula’s Failume Heights.
The new version storms in with a plethora of new updates: new locations, mechanics such as Miasma and Tag Assist, new exciting characters and fearsome enemies, the update to the world map and quick navigation system, events, and bountiful anniversary events.
There are plenty of additions, and it’s impossible to go over all of them in a single article, so instead let’s focus on something familiar: the Hollow Zero weekly content. In Version 2.0, it will receive the Phantom Paths expansion, introducing new gameplay called Task Force Investigation, the aforementioned Tag Assist mechanic, optimized Exclusive Gear for characters (both new and updated), and more!
Without further ado, let’s dive deeper into Hollow Zero v2.0!
Please note that all screenshots in the article are taken from the media review version of the game, and may differ from the final version.
In Hollow Zero: Phantom Paths, the Defense Force finds victims corrupted by Miasma within Hollow Zero. Where did the Miasma come from, and how did the victims come about? These are the sort of quests you will have to find the answers to as the mysteries begin to surface once more.
Yixuan’s unique background and knowledge about Miasma from Lemnian Hollow make her the best person to participate in the investigation… which is why she passes the honor onto her disciples, the Proxies. Through this update, we’ll see more of some familiar faces, such as Trigger, as well as some completely new characters.
With the brief story overview out of the way, let’s take a look at what it brings gameplay-wise, and there’s plenty to talk about.
The first interesting addition is the Tag Assist mechanic. During the early dev talk dedicated to 2.0, the developers have admitted that the game’s current combat design significantly diminishes the presence of characters other than your main DPS.
With characters like Astra or Caesar, you don’t see them participating in the battle much (visually, that is, their buffs are more than helpful!) and showing the result of all your pulling and farming. According to the team, what should feel like a three-person tactical squad instead feels more like a solo operation more often than not.
The solution for the future characters would be staying on the field and contributing to combat, providing a visual indication of their presence. However, what about here and now? The Tag Assist kicks in while the Hollow Zero combat is active, allowing you to consume the proc and use one of your inactive characters to appear and deal damage before returning to the pocket. The on-field character is not switched during this process. Think of it as a more involved manual Aftershock attack, with everyone getting a taste of what it feels like to be Pulchra or Trigger.
To empower this mechanic, General Gear received a new category: Mobile. You can see some of the potential effects in the screenshot below.
In a party of the field-time hungry main DPS like Ellen, Evelyn, Soldier 0: Anby or Yixuan, the new mechanic feels great. You consistently get buffs from the new Mobile gear and a little help from other characters without interrupting your general battle flow. It also feels like off-field characters actually actively help out, instead of passively providing damage boosts.
However, in a quick-swap team like double Anomaly or a comp with Astra (or both at once), it can also be a bit frustrating. A lot of it is probably tied to skill issues and not being used to the mechanic’s presence just yet, but still.
In the first case, the Tag Assist might proc just as you were cancel-swapping or trying for a defense assist, interrupting said flow since you activate it by using Character Swap (Spacebar by default) as well. Sometimes it leads to the situations where the Tag Assist gets activated instead of your intended swap, or the prompt disappears right as you try to use it, resulting in an interrupted or an unintended swap.
And in the second, you’ll pretty much never see it, due to Astra’s own abilities taking priority and constantly proccing the usual Quick Assists.
Hollow Zero was also updated with a new gameplay mode: Task Force Investigation. Previously, only one agent in the party had access to their Exclusive Gear. Say, you have a party of Miyabi, Yanagi and Astra, and you’d have to decide which one gets the spotlight. It’s Miyabi, isn’t it? Of course it’s Miyabi.
In the new update, the Exclusive Gear is reintroduced as Tactical Prisms Programs. Now, multiple Agents in your squad can unlock their Gear as you progress and explore through your Hollow Zero run. In the party mentioned above, all three characters can get their gear so that no one is left out.
But wait, how does it work, since the Gear is usually tuned around turning the chosen character into your main DPS? This is where the second change comes. The Tactical Prisms Program offers branch enhancement, with two present branches: Alpha and Beta. All the existing Agents’ Gear had been updated to reflect this change. Below, you can see an example of Yanagi’s Beta path enhancement that boosts not only her own personal damage and stats, but also her team’s, making it more exciting to bring her alongside Miyabi and experiment with their Tactical Prisms and their interplay.
Yixuan and Ju Fufu also received Tactical Prism Programs, so there will be new goodies to look forward to and unlock!
Of course, the new update means new Resonia. Not only is there a whole new Resonia category mentioned above, there is also a new rare item that you can encounter in Bangboo Stores or in your options after winning a battle: Suction Welding Torch. It directly enhances General Gear to its maximum level.
Speaking of Bangboo stores, now you can find extra rare items in stock – beware, they cost an arm and a leg through, so make sure to keep onto your Gearcoins. Only one such rare item can be bought per run, to keep it relatively fair for your enemies.
And there are certainly some unfair enemies to face. In addition to the new monsters, Proxies and Agents will also have to deal with a new mechanic: Miasma and the related Miasma shields. On the lower levels of difficulty, without cranking up your Ether Activity, it is simply another thing that you’ll sweep on the way to claiming your weekly run.
However, when you encounter bosses with Miasma shields, further powered up by the Ether Activity severely increasing the effects of Miasma… Hopefully, your build is good by the time you run into one!
During the stream, the developers revealed their intent to help everyone claim their weekly Bounty Commission rewards as soon as possible. To that effect, challenges will offer double rewards. That will let you get all your weekly rewards in a single run without ramping up the difficulty with extra Ether Activity until you get used to the new mechanics.
Last but not least, Task Force Investigation will change up the featured roster every week. Completing the investigation with featured Agents will nab you even more rewards. That also ensures that you aren’t always playing the same team, like Miyabi-Yanagi-Astra, or Evelyn-Lighter-Astra, or SAnby-Trigger-Astra… or whoever else you use with Astra until the arrival of the next limited Support.
While it has not added anything revolutionary, the latest update to Hollow Zero will make sure that weekly content does not grow stale. Not only can you take advantage of the new Tag Assist mechanic, but Task Force rewards featuring different characters and the new Miasma gameplay can spice up your runs.
