ZZZ Basic Combat Guide — The 5 Core Skills, Core Passive & the Stun-to-Chain Loop | Zenless Zone Zero

Every Agent in ZZZ shares the same 5 base skills; only the effects differ per character:

• Basic Attack — the core attack chain, held or repeated to build a combo.
• Dodge — a dash with invulnerability frames; timing it as a Perfect Dodge opens up a Dodge Counter.
• Assist — instantly swaps in a resting teammate; comes in three flavors: Parry/Defensive, Evasive, and Quick.
• Special / EX Special — the Agent's signature move; the EX version hits harder but needs that Agent's own Energy bar to be full.
• Chain Attack / Ultimate — a full-team follow-up once the enemy is Stunned, plus the Ultimate, a very strong finisher that spends the team's shared Decibels.

On top of these 5, every Agent also has a Core Passive — an always-on passive — and an Additional Ability unlocked progressively through Mindscapes.

Every hit adds Daze to a separate gauge next to the enemy's HP bar. The Impact stat controls how fast that gauge fills. Once it's full, the enemy is Stunned — unable to act and taking increased damage. That's your cue to fire off a Chain Attack: your team swaps in one at a time to land a heavy hit, with the number of chain chances depending on the enemy type — typically 1 for Normal enemies, 2 for Elites, and 3 for Bosses.

The loop then repeats: a Stun-role Agent builds Daze, the enemy gets Stunned, Chain Attack goes off, your main DPS uses the Stun window to maximize damage, and the cycle starts over once Daze resets.

ZZZ gates its two strongest moves behind two separate resources:

• Decibels — shared by the whole team; you need a full 3000 Decibels to trigger the Ultimate, and once used, the team's Decibels reset to 0.
• Energy — unique to each Agent; fill it up to unleash that Agent's EX Special (stronger than the regular Special).

Because Decibels are shared, a team that builds them fast (mainly through Basic Attacks, Dodges, and Assists) gets more frequent Ultimates, while Energy for EX Special has to be built up individually for whichever Agent you want to power up.

On base damage stats: every Agent starts with CRIT Rate at 5% and CRIT DMG at 50% before any bonus from W-Engines or Drive Discs — a baseline worth remembering when comparing builds.

The Stun-to-Chain loop above is why the most common team shape uses 3 roles: a Stun Agent that builds Daze fast, an Attack Agent as your main DPS to finish once the enemy is Stunned, and a Support Agent that buffs, debuffs, or heals so the team can sustain longer. An Anomaly team is a variant that swaps the Attack role for an Agent that specializes in stacking Attribute Anomalies instead.

See how to pick Agents by role in the Stun & Daze guide, how to time Chain Attacks in Chain Attack & Quick Assist, and the full team-building framework in Team Building.