As we all know, Zenless Zone Zero 1.1 update will be officially released on August 14, 2024. This update will bring brand new maps and optimizations, as well as three new characters: Qingyi, Jane Doe, and Seth.

Here, we will focus on Qingyi, looking at her equipment, how she works, and some of our thoughts on her Signature W-Engine. This is more of a first impression, so with this guide you will be able to quickly understand whether she is worth your time.

Overview

Qingyi is an S-Rank Agent in Zenless Zone Zero 1.1. Qingyi is a very fast-paced Stun unit. She has a lot of smooth combos and abilities that can be synchronized with each other. She is really fun and powerful in both daze and damage. Not only that, but she also provides damage amping ability, which is always a great thing for a Non-Support unit.

If you’re looking to try out this new character, picking up a Zenless Zone Zero account will help you get there as quickly as possible.

Basic Attacks

Qingyi’s basic attack has 4 hits, and during the 3rd basic attack, you can keep tapping the attack button to continuously repeat her basic 3. You can then keep sending it, which is fun. But if you let go, you’ll reach her 4th basic attack.

Letting go after the basic 3 duration will empower it into a Big Slam Dunk. You’ll want to keep sending this basic 3 until the flash appears, then let go to use that empowered basic 4.

She also gains another basic 1 after completing a full basic string combo. Next up is her charged attack, Enchanted Blossoms. It’s nothing special, but it’s a free heavy attack, which means you can chain attacks with it.

Mechanic Explanation

Flash Connect is Qingyi’s unique gameplay mechanic. In the top left corner of the battle, you’ll see a meter that gradually fills up as you inflict Electric DMG. Her first few basic skills deal some physical damage, then basic 3 spam will continue to deal Electric, building up very quickly. Her EX Special Attacks and Ultimate, as well as anything that deals Electric DMG, will fill up the meter.

This meter is capped at 100, and when it’s over 75% you enter Flash Connect, which gives you a brand new charged attack, which you can use by holding down Basic. You can do up to 5 Quick Attacks, followed by a Finishing Strike, which you can cancel early.

Additionally, if you manage to time your Finishing Strike during an enemy attack, you’ll also get Perfect Dodge at the same time. You want Maximum Voltage to stack with her skills, then make sure to consume it as quickly as possible to get a huge Daze effect as well as damage amping.

Skills

Qingyi’s Dodge is pretty simple, as are her Dash Attacks, which don’t deal any Electric DMG. But her Dodge Counter is as powerful as all Stun units, with Stun ability, and it will cause Electric DMG to our Voltage meter.

Her Dodge and Dodge Counter are really cool! Because when using them, you can instantly link to her basic attack button, and her basic 3 spamming can start directly without having to go through basic 1 and 2. This means you can keep dodge attacks and then keep holding basic 3.

Also, Quick Assist can help her launch into the air and cause more Electric DMG, and it can also be directly combined with basic 3 spamming.

For her EX Special Attacks, it allows her to do a cool spin in the air and then slam down. If you hold down EX, it adds an extra spin, which of course causes more daze and damage, but costs more energy. Her EX costs 60 energy, and if you want to extend it, you need to add another 20 energy. If you want the maximum daze, you can only extend it.

But during the battle, using a normal EX will also work. This is because after EX you can also go straight into her basic 3. Her Chain Attack at the end deals a ton of Electric DMG and is even enhanced by her Core Passive.

Her Ultimate is Daze, and you can use your Ultimate on your main Carry.

Core Passive

Qingyi’s Core Passive is Eternal Seasons. Once her Voltage counter is over 75%, she can do an enhanced charged attack, which will increase the enemy’s Stun DMG Multiplier. You can get up to 20 of these stacks of Subjugation, and at level 7 each stack increases Stun Multiplier by 3%, which means a potential 60% increase in Stun Multiplier, almost double that of Lycaon.

Therefore, we usually only have these stacks of Subjugation applied on the last hit, and at least 5 will be applied. It applies up to 5 more, depending on how many Rush Attacks you did before.

If you get a Perfect Dodge on the last hit, it applies 10 more, up to the cap. But if you’re against a normal or elite enemy, you’ll double the stack, so you’ll always get 20 if you do a full combo.

The only time you don’t get the full 20 is against a boss, but you can definitely do two of these combos before the boss is Dazed. And Qingyi’s combos are pretty fast, so this really isn’t a problem.

Team Build

As a Stun unit, it’s natural for Qingyi to just run 4 Shockstar Disco Set and 2 Swing Jazz. Maybe some players will want to use 2 Thunder Metal, but that’s hard to do early in the game because of the potential 80 energy cost. And from our initial look at her, CRIT Electric DMG and Impact seem like the best options.

Signature W-Engine

Next, let’s take a look at Qingyi’s Signature W-Engine. When a basic skill hits an enemy, you gain 1 stack of Tea-Riffic, which provides 0.7% Combat Impact.

Combat Impact% is pretty crazy, and it stacks up to 30 times for a total of 21%. It lasts for 8 seconds, but with Basic 3 spam, she’ll instantly max this stack out.

Not only that, but at stacks 15 or higher, your team gets a 20% damage buff that lasts for 10 seconds. That’s not too crazy, but it’s still a damage amp on a stun weapon, and it’s really cool to have.

Is Qingyi Worth Pulling?

Finally, let’s talk about why you may or may not want Qingyi.

Qingyi is a very comfortable unit to use. She’s a relatively simple unit, but has a lot of hidden features that allow for a very fluid playstyle.

She’s really fun to use because she can do so many things and can do them repeatedly in a short period. You really feel like you’re running circles around your enemies when using her. And her daze potential is huge, which can prevent your combo from being interrupted and broken.

Qingyi also has a nice AoE stunning power and has basic 3 spam. I mean, if you pair her with Nicole, it’s even easier. And her damage is also good, the highest damage output among Stun units, which is a considerable advantage compared to other units.

But Limited Stun unit can’t save you from serious damage. At this time, maybe Limited DPS will be more beneficial. Pushing Shiyu Defense and Qingyi’s damage amp will help, but having a unit like Zhu Yuan or Jane Doe is a better choice because they also have the potential to provide Limited Support.

Anyway, please tell us whether you will eventually choose her. Let’s look forward to what surprises this Zenless Zone Zero 1.1 update will bring! See you next time!

When entering Zenless Zone Zero, every player may want to know about Ellen and Zhu Yuan in Zenless Zone Zero.

Ellen is an S-Rank / 5-Star Ice Attack Character who excels at dealing a lot of ice damage to enemies and keeping up her Flash Freeze stacks. On the other hand, Zhu Yuan is an S-Rank / 5-Star Ether Attack Character who focuses on dealing a lot of Ether damage and excels at using her Shotshells stacks to deal more damage.

Today, we will cover Ellen and Zhu Yuan’s equipment, team examples, and whether they are worth using in Zenless Zone Zero. Let’s get straight to it!

Ellen

First, let’s take a look at Ellen. Ellen is an ice attack character who is a member of Victoria Housekeeping group. She excels at using her dash attacks to get Flash Freeze stacks, turning her physical basic attacks into ice basic attacks.

Ellen can stack up to 6 flash freeze stacks at a time, so you only need to use her charged dash attack twice to get the maximum stacks.

Ellen has a nice advantage in that her critical hit damage increases when she launches a charged scissor attack from the dash or consumes Flash Freeze stacks for a freeze basic attack. You can try to hone her high critical hit rate so that she can hit critical hits more often.

In addition, Ellen’s play style is fast-paced, especially when dashing, because when you hold or double-click her dash button, she will enter a roaming state, which will allow you to travel across the map or around enemies very quickly. And it is also very useful for positioning yourself, because you can move quickly and take advantage of her charged dash attacks.

As for Ellen’s ultimate ability, this will deal a lot of freeze damage to enemies. Ellen is a very strong ice damage dealer who can provide a fast-paced fight, and her Flash Freeze stacks have a long duration, which can be fully utilized to always deal ice damage with your basic attacks.

An added bonus to picking Ellen is that if you pair her with a character of the same faction or element in your Zenless Zone Zero Account, then whenever Ellen deals ice damage, it will increase the other person’s ice damage for a certain amount of time.

When it comes to which characters have the same faction or element, Victoria Housekeeping group consists of Rina, Lycaon, and Corin. And for the ice element, you have Soukaku and Von Lycaon. For a high-level ice team, Ellen, Lycaon, and Soukaku are a good choice.

Lycaon is very good at stunning enemies, which is a very valuable mechanic that you can use to immobilize enemies to deal more damage to them.

Soukaku provides a valuable buff as a support character, and she can also help enemies go to Ice Anomaly Buildup by attacking.

As for Ellen, she is, of course, the main damage dealer of the team, capable of dealing a lot of damage to enemies, especially with additional buffs and stunning.

Ice Anomaly will freeze enemies, preventing them from taking actions, and apply Shatter at the end of the effect, which deals a good amount of ice damage. The secondary effect of Ice Anomaly is Frostbite, which will increase the critical damage taken by enemies. Triggering Ice Anomaly will benefit Ellen in dealing more damage to enemies.

If you decide to add another elemental character to the team, they can help your own element build up an anomaly to trigger Disorder. Disorder refers to two Attribute Anomalies of different attributes occurring, which will cause a large amount of damage to the enemy.

Overall, Ellen will be a very strong ice damage dealer.

Zhu Yuan

Now let’s discuss Zhu Yuan. Zhu Yuan is an Ether Attack Character and is part of N.E.P.S faction. She is the only other Ether element character currently besides Nicole Demara.

Zhu Yuan has ranged attacks and some melee attacks with her skill kit, has great mobility, and focuses mainly on her Shotshells, as she will deal huge Ether damage by consuming Shotshells stacks.

Zhu Yuan’s basic attack combines physical and ether attacks. Her basic attack also has an Assault Mode and Suppressive Mode. Assault Mode will allow her to gain Shotshells, while Suppressive Mode will consume Shotshells. In Suppressive Mode, she will consume a stack of Shotshells when launching an attack, which will deal huge Ether damage after consumption.

Her dash attack can also consume a stack of Shotshells to deal huge ether damage. As for ways to gain more Shotshells stacks besides basic attacks, she can gain them through her special attacks, chain attacks, auxiliary follow-up attacks, and ultimate skills. She has many ways to gain Shotshells stacks.

Of course, besides dealing nice ether damage when consuming stacks, Zhu Yuan can also deal extra damage when starting a Suppressive Mode. The damage is further increased when attacking stunned enemies.

As for the additional benefits of choosing Zhu Yuan, when she is paired with someone of the same attribute or faction, her critical hit rate will increase after using a special attack, ultimate skill, or chain attack.

However, when it comes to having someone of the same faction or attribute, Zhu Yuan now has only one choice, and that is Nicole. However, the good news is that Nicole is free and a very good support character.

Therefore, you can definitely make F2P team with Zhu Yuan. You can choose Anby as your stun character, which is also a faction that matches Nicole. And Nicole as Zhu Yuan’s support to fill the ether attribute condition, Zhu Yuan as your main damage dealer. This is an excellent choice for all free to play players.

Overall, Zhu Yuan will also provide a fast-paced combat style with more ranged attacks, and have a pretty good F2P team that you can use right away.

Analyzing The Future Potential Of Ellen And Zhu Yuan

Speaking of the value of Ellen and Zhu Yuan, both characters are good choices, but I want to talk about some important aspects of their future potential.

Ellen’s current faction is already quite full, and unless we get more Victoria Housekeeping characters, Ellen already has potential partners in faction.

In terms of attributes, the ice characters that can be released in the future may help Ellen or compete with Ellen. In closed beta 1, an ice character named Hoshimi Miyabi was shown. We are not quite sure when she will be released, but she may become a rival to Ellen in the future.

As for Zhu Yuan’s situation, her faction is actually not fully fleshed out yet. We did get some hints of characters that will join her faction, but we don’t actually know what they will do. So Zhu Yuan may get stronger synergies in the future, thus improving her future value.

However, if you end up getting Von Lycaon from the discounted standard banner, then this improves the value of choosing Ellen. Because you will have one of her best partners who can help you with amazing abilities, this ice team will be very powerful.

Overall, in the future value scenario, I think Zhu Yuan has more future synergies and advantages in comparison, but it also ultimately depends on which play style you prefer between the two.

Either way, honestly, both are sound choices for your account. But I will say that if you decide to skip Ellen, I recommend waiting until near the end of Patch 1.0 to look at the potential characters in Patch 1.1, as they may actually be more interesting to you compared to Patch 1.0 lineup.

Personally, I really liked how Ellen played in the previous beta, so I’m more interested in Ellen. So which one would you like to get the most from Ellen or Zhu Yuan, or is there a chance you’d skip? Hope to see you guys next time!