Zenless Zone Zero tier list for the best characters (2024)

Ranking every character in Zenless Zone Zero.

Our Zenless Zone Zero tier list for the best characters covers who the top Attack, Support, Stun, Anomaly, and Defense characters currently are, to help you decide who to use on your squads.

Although the story and casual combat commissions in Zenless Zone Zero provide you with trial characters, and aren't that hard to begin with, you'll want to study who the very best are if you want an easier time taking on the Shiyu Defense, Hollow Zero, and Notorious Hunt modes.

Below, you'll find our Zenless Zone Zero tier list, as of its launch version 1.0 in July 2024.

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Zenless Zone Zero tier list

We have far more details below in each individual tier list that we highly recommend reading before deciding anything on what characters to upgrade, but to give you a general idea of what characters to prioritise building during the 1.0 launch version, we've abbreviated this information in a simple table below.

At a glance, here's our current Zenless Zone Zero tier list:

We'll update the rankings should anything major shift in the post-release meta, and we'll also add Zhu Yuan when she releases in the second Banner Phase of version 1.0.

Divided into their tiers, here's detailed information of what we think of every character in Zenless Zone Zero:

S-tier characters

Here's our Zenless Zone Zero tier list for S-tier characters:

• Ellen - S-Rank Ice Attack with Slash-type damage. Ellen is the best Attacker in Zenless Zone Zero, not only because of her huge personal damage output, but because she's part of one of the best teams when paired with Lycaon and Soukaku. Just remember to enter her special Roaming state by holding or double-tapping the dash button, as this is where Ellen can perform her most powerful attack combos and build Flash Freeze Charges quickly. These combos can be a little tricky to learn at first, but once you've mastered them, it'll be a quick death for any poor Ethereal caught in Ellen's path of destruction.
• Lycaon - S-Rank Ice Stun with Strike-type damage. A brilliant character to build right now, Lycaon provides incredible Daze support, increased Stun duration, has Ice Resistance Shred almost all the time, synergises with some of the best Attackers out there, and can even be used outside of Ice and Victoria Housekeeping squads thanks to his huge Daze capabilities. Even if you're not timing his attacks properly, Lycaon is still a boost to your team, but remembering to charge up and chain his Basic Attacks makes him even better.
• Rina - S-Rank Electric Support with Strike-type damage. Despite initially feeling like a slow attacker, your damage potential is actually boosted quite a lot if you're playing Rina correctly in a sort of sub DPS role. That is, you use one of her special attacks and then swap to another squad member quickly. Her attack will then continue to cause damage while you're fighting with another character, making her an excellent, almost off-field attacker. Rina can even work in teams other than Electric and Victoria Housekeeping-focused, thanks to the Penetration Ratio buff the whole squad gains when her Drusilla and Anastella Bangboos cause when they're deployed.

A-tier characters

Here's our Zenless Zone Zero tier list for A-tier characters:

• Grace - S-Rank Electric Anomaly with Pierce-type damage. Grace is actually a pretty tricky character to play correctly, as there's a lot of swapping and building of Zap stacks that you need to account for if you want the best sub DPS and Shock application from her. If you can master this though, Grace is amazing in Electric teams, as she can cause damage and build Shock even when she's not on the field.
• Lucy - A-Rank Fire Support with Strike-type damage. For an A-Rank, Lucy has some amazing Support buffs and sub DPS damage that can be applied to any team, but she's especially useful when paired with fellow Fire squad members. As long as you raise her attack stat enough, and summon her guard boars with her regular and EX Special Attack, Lucy is one of the easiest characters to play. As all you need to do is swap out to another character when she summons her boars and continue fighting with other characters. The little boars will continue attacking (they even scale off Lucy's Crit Rate and Damage), and your team still has a huge attack boost. Repeat this loop and your squad's DPS will be constantly boosted.
• Soldier 11 - S-Rank Fire Attack with Slash-type damage. As the only Fire Attacker in the game at the moment, Soldier 11 is the best DPS you can take into a fight against enemies with the Fire weakness. To really get the most out of her Fire-damage buffed kit, however, you have to time her basic attacks correctly by pausing at the right intervals to perform the correct combo. Otherwise, she does Physical damage, which you don't want, as her kit is designed around boosting her Fire damage! It's not a difficult basic attack combo to achieve, however, so don't let it put you off trying Soldier 11. Overall, Soldier 11 is a great Attacker with a relatively simple kit.
• Soukaku - A-Rank Ice Support with Slash-type damage. Although it can be a little tricky to master the exact attack pattern you need to activate Soukaku's best support capabilities, those Support buffs are quite to the boon to have, as she boosts the attack of the next character by a huge amount, when you swap to them at the end of her best attack combo. This is good in any team, but she also boosts Ice damage, so Soukaku is best paired with Ice squad members. Additionally, her buffs last quite a while, freeing you up to deal damage with your other squad members more often than other supports let you.

B-tier characters

Here's our Zenless Zone Zero tier list for B-tier characters:

• Anby - A-Rank Electric Stun with Slash-type damage. As a free Stun character, Anby is of course useful in your squads, especially when paired with Electro or Cunning Hares squad members. There's nothing all that special about the rest of her kit, however, but Anby does have one of the easiest combos in the game, which can boost her damage and Daze: After the third hit of her Basic Attack, hold down or pause for a short while, then press Basic Attack again. It's a nice, sort of AOE attack that can hit a lot of enemies around Anby with Electric instead of Physical, so we recommend doing this combo as often as you can.
• Ben - A-Rank Fire Defense with Strike-type damage. Ben's big appeal is the Shield he grants the whole squad when he launches a follow-up attack during his EX Special Attack. This also increases the Crit Rate of the team. It's a great ability to have, for sure, but the big downside to Ben is that he's a very slow character on the field, and there are other Support and Anomaly characters that will help you clear content a lot faster than him. However, if you're not a fan of timing dodges and avoiding enemy attacks, or are maining Koleda (who Ben has a great synergy with) we highly recommend adding Ben to your team! Just be aware than surviving longer isn't usually the main goal in Zenless Zone Zero, it's finishing fights as quick as you can.
• Koleda - S-Rank Fire Stun with Strike-type damage. Koldea is a pretty unique character, as her full damage potential isn't unleashed unless she's paired with Ben. Both are slow attackers, however (especially Ben), so this isn't an ideal pairing in relation to the best teams out there. Still, Koleda is a Stun character, so her Daze potential is very useful, even in non Fire or Belobog Industry squads.



• Nekomata - S-Rank Physical Attack with Slash-type damage. Nekomata is a great pick if you like a speedy playstyle, and her Physical damage potential is currently the best in the game right now - but she doesn't have amazing support potential, outside of Piper. Still, you can clear a lot of content with Nekomata as long as you remember that most of her damage comes from her Dodge Counters and Quick Assists and using her EX Special Attack as often as possible.
• Nicole - A-Rank Ether Support with Strike-type damage. We suspect Nicole will actually be a very useful companion in your Ether teams, but right now, there are no other Ether characters to pair her with, and her buffs with the Cunning Hares aren't that great either. We still find the slight grouping abilities that her EX Special Attack and Ultimate cause useful, but they'll become even better when characters like Zhu Yuan are released and you can build that Ether Anomaly damage up quickly. Remember to use a basic attack after Nicole uses her regular and EX Special Attack, Chain Attack, or Ultimate, as it reduces the enemies' Defense by 20% for a short while when you do!
• Piper - A-Rank Physical Anomaly with Slash-type damage. Piper is incredible at quickly building up and applying the Physical Anomaly effect with her EX Special Attack, and she also boosts your team's Physical damage as part of her Core Additional Ability. You'll want to hold down the EX Special Attack to spin until she causes Physical Anomaly, or swap out right before to another character, as she'll keep spinning for a while even after you change characters. With some nice Stun potential too, Piper is a great pick for boosting your Physical team's overall damage.

C-tier characters

Here's our Zenless Zone Zero tier list for C-tier characters:

• Anton - A-Rank Electric Attack with Pierce-type damage. While he's the only Electric Attacker in the game right now, Anton is almost certainly going to be 'powercrept' as soon as another comes out, seeing as he's only an A-Rank, and has an awkward kit. It's hard to get the most damage potential out of Anton at times, because he needs to be in his Burst Mode to cause any real damage, and actually loses Energy while fighting. Not an awful character right now, but his limited future potential might put you off spending your precious resources on upgrading him.
• Corin - A-Rank Physical Attack with Slash-type damage. Corin is actually quite good in crowd control situations, like when you have to keep enemies outside of the circle for certain commissions, but as an A-Rank in the Attacker role, her damage potential is limited when compared to those in S-Rank. So while Corin can help apply a little Daze with her Assist, and does increased damage against Stunned enemies as part of her Core Additional Ability, you're almost always better off building another Physical Attacker - unless you're utilising her second Mindscape Cinema buff in Physical squads. This reduces the Physical Resistance of enemies when Corin's EX Special Attack, Chain Attack or Ultimate hits them.

D-tier characters

Here's our Zenless Zone Zero tier list for D-tier characters:

• Billy - A-Rank Physical Attack with Pierce-type damage. Although it breaks our heart to put him in D-tier, Billy has the same issues as Corin: good at crowd control, but lacks damage output. He can perform nice ranged attacks, but his damage drops off the further an enemy is from Billy. You can get a nice DPS flow by activating his Ultimate as much as possible, but Billy is more suited as a second member on your squad, not your main attacker - where unfortunately Stun, Support, and Anomaly characters might serve you better than another Attacker.

That's it for character advice, but for more help in your travels across New Eridu, check out our pages on how to get Master Tapes, Sixth Street lost cargo truck locations, and Sixth Street Commemorative Coin locations.