What Is Zenless Zone Zero (ZZZ)? A Beginner's Guide | Zenless Zone Zero

Zenless Zone Zero (commonly shortened to ZZZ) is a free-to-play action RPG developed and published by HoYoverse — the same studio behind Genshin Impact and Honkai: Star Rail. It launched worldwide on July 4, 2024.

Its biggest difference from those two is its urban-fantasy style: instead of a sprawling open world, ZZZ leans into fast, stage-based combat with a street-culture, pop-art vibe. It's free to download and play, with a gacha system for collecting characters (see below).

ZZZ takes place in a post-apocalyptic world. Civilization was destroyed by a supernatural disaster called the Hollows — warped dimensions that spawn out of nowhere, where the laws of physics bend and monsters called the Ethereal roam. New Eridu is the last surviving city and humanity's final stronghold, thanks to the technology it developed to fight the Hollows.

You play a Proxy — a guide-for-hire who helps expedition teams cross Hollows safely in search of resources. The protagonists are a pair of Proxy siblings, Wise and Belle (you pick one as your avatar), who operate under the codename "Phaethon." This is the framework through which you meet and recruit Agents — the combat characters you actually control.

The core of ZZZ is real-time action combat. You form a squad of up to 3 Agents, each with an Attribute (Fire, Ice, Electric, Ether, Physical, and more) and a Specialty role such as Attack, Stun, Anomaly, Support, or Defense.

In battle you chain basic and special attacks, and time your dodges and parries to counter. Land enough hits and an enemy gets Stunned, opening the window for a Chain Attack — rapidly swapping between Agents to pile on burst damage. You also field Bangboo, cute robot companions that assist your squad. This dodge–parry–swap loop makes ZZZ easy to pick up for newcomers while staying deep for skilled players.

ZZZ runs on mobile (iOS & Android), PC (Windows), PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X|S. Your HoYoverse account syncs across all of them, so you can play on PC at home and pick up on your phone on the go.

Install size varies by platform: roughly 20 GB on Android, 26 GB on iOS, and 55–71 GB on PC/PS5 (big version updates can add many more GB). If your device is low-end or short on storage, mobile is the lightest option, and the game lets you drop graphics settings to run smoother.

Like other HoYoverse games, you get most new Agents through gacha (called "Signal Search" in ZZZ). Characters come in B, A, and S ranks, with S being the rarest and strongest. The system has a pity (guarantee): you're guaranteed an S-Rank Agent within 90 pulls, so you never pull forever with nothing to show. For the hard-pity, soft-pity, and 50/50 details, see What is ZZZ pity, and you can track your own luck with gamevika's Pity Tracker.

A character's power doesn't come only from "winning the pull" — it comes mostly from gear: each Agent equips one W-Engine weapon and six Drive Discs (like artifacts/relics). Picking the right disc stats is the single biggest step to making a character hit hard; you can grade your discs with the Drive Disc scorer.

If you're completely new, a simple path is:

• Download the game on the lightest platform you have (mobile if your device is weak) and play through the opening to learn the dodge–parry–Chain Attack combat.
• No rush to spend money. Just play the story, earn free Polychrome (the gacha currency), and build up pity.
• Don't fear losing gacha: your pity always carries over, even when banners change. Check your luck status in the Pity Tracker.
• Prioritize farming and tuning Drive Discs for a few core characters — that's what actually decides whether you hit hard. Use the disc scorer to know which discs are worth keeping.
• Want to see your (or someone else's) character profile and stats? Look them up with the UID tool.