Zenless Zone Zero Tier List: Ranking Every Agent for Endgame

Zenless Zone Zero is carrying a big roster these days. Version 3.1 pushed the pool past 50 agents, Season 3 opened a brand new element, and a lot of names that owned the top of the charts through 2025 have slid down a rung. A ranking you saved last year is stale. This one is built around the two modes that actually pay out: Shiyu Defense and Deadly Assault. That's where the Polychrome lives, and it's where the gap between a fine agent and a great one really shows.

Quick caveat before the names. Sites don't agree on exact order, and that's normal. Game8 rewards agents who are cheap to run and slot into anything, so their top tier leans flexible. Icy Veins weight raw damage ceiling harder and let the price tag fall where it may, which is how they end up parking Caesar down in T3 while other boards keep him top ten. The clusters line up across sources though. Build and pull off the cluster, not the exact rank.

S-Tier Agents for Shiyu Defense and Deadly Assault

The top bracket in 3.1 is less "one god unit" and more a set of pillars: two or three carries, a couple of stunners who pull double duty, and supports so good they lift whatever team they land on.

The main carries

Ye Shunguang is the bar setter right now. She dumps a ton of damage during her Enlightened Mind state, and she comes with an innate CRIT Rate stat, so she's one of the easiest damage dealers in the game to gear. No weird team demands either. If you pull one carry this season, most boards point at her.

Yixuan plays completely differently. She's a Rupture agent, and her Sheer Force damage ignores enemy DEF, which means she cuts through the tanky bosses that make everyone else sweat. She's technical to play and punishes sloppy rotations, but she needs almost nothing from her teammates, which is its own kind of luxury.

Remielle is the newest Void Hunter and the strongest Anomaly agent around. Her Lumiflux attribute can swap between other attributes, so she bends into whatever the rotation wants. The catch is that she only hits her real ceiling in triple-Anomaly squads, so she eats your whole team and locks out the supports other carries get to use.

Velina brought the Wind element into the game with 3.0, and being first through the door on a new element is a huge deal. She's an off-field debuffer who props up almost any Anomaly carry. Just know her pairing is basically fixed: both of her standard team recipes keep Yuzuha locked in and only swap the third slot.

Sigrid debuted in the second half of 3.1 and landed at the top of Icy Veins' board immediately. Big burst off her Enhanced Basic Attack, and she somehow runs 66% CRIT Rate by default at Core Skill F and level 60, so gearing her is trivial. She's also the first Attack agent in ages who actually wants the classic Attack/Stun/Support setup instead of an Anomaly pile.

Miyabi is the interesting one. Game8 still rates her top tier off the back of Frostburn and her Shimotsuki basic attack. GameVika dropped her a notch with a note that the new on-field wave passed her. Either way she's elite in Shiyu, where Anomaly teams keep damaging through stagger phases, and she's still a top five carry for most accounts.

Aria and Evelyn round it out. Aria is an Ether Anomaly carry who loops damage through her Perfect Pitch attack as long as she has Fandom Power. Evelyn hits like a truck with her Chain Attacks and handles both mobs and bosses. Just budget for her team, not just her: her ceiling assumes Astra Yao and Lighter alongside her, and the budget replacements for those two are clearly weaker.

Stun agents who earn the slot

Norma is the best of them right now. She's a stunner and a damage dealer at once, hands out a 30% Stun DMG multiplier, applies Daze from off-field, and her Preheated Chamber resource triggers free Chain Attacks for the squad. There's barely a team in the game that says no to that.

Dialyn boosts Attack and Rupture damage and has a Chain Attack that upgrades into an Ultimate. Ju Fufu buffs the whole team's CRIT DMG from off-field, pumps 1000 decibels into the squad, and refunds 300 of it when an Attack or Rupture teammate fires their Ultimate. Nangong Yu triggers extra Abloom and Disorder instances for Anomaly teams and doubles down during stun windows. Trigger and Lighter are the older pair, and both still work - Trigger sniping Daze from off-field, Lighter shredding with big Daze plus Fire and Ice damage buffs.

The supports that hold value

Astra Yao is still the best all-round support in the game. ATK and DMG buffs, an Ultimate that heals, energy restore, and a trick that lets teammates fire their Chain Attacks as Assists. She slots into nearly anything, which is why every board keeps her at or near the top.

Yuzuha is the Anomaly version of that. ATK, Anomaly DMG, and Anomaly Buildup Rate in one kit, which is exactly what every Anomaly carry wants. Sunna inflicts Cat's Gaze on enemies to jack up team damage and adds an ATK boost through her Ether Veil. Lucia stacks Ether buffs, triggers Aftershocks, and heals. And Caesar is still Caesar: a fat shield, an ATK buff riding on it, and enough Impact to stun things herself.

Shiyu and Deadly Assault want slightly different things

Shiyu Defense is 20 floors in five blocks of four, and each floor needs two separate teams that can't share a single agent. That constraint matters more than any individual ranking, because your sixth best agent suddenly has to carry a node. Deadly Assault is a boss rush with one squad per node, a reset every other Friday, and a 5,000 Performance Point cap per stage.

The seasonal buffs swing Deadly Assault hard, so check them before you pick. The current Mutation buff gives a squad with three Anomaly agents 30% bonus Attribute Anomaly DMG plus 15% ATK, which is a big thumbs up to Remielle-style squads. Icy Raid hands Attack specialty agents 30% more Basic Attack and Ultimate damage and lets them ignore 20% Ice RES. Heartcrusher is a flat 30% CRIT DMG bump. That's why the mode-specific boards move agents around: Burnice, Yanagi and Jane climb on the Shiyu list, while Evelyn, Trigger and Hugo do better on the Deadly Assault list.

A-Tier Agents Worth Building

A-tier is not the discard pile. It's mostly former meta kings, specialists, and agents who need one specific teammate to pop. A fully built A-tier agent beats a half-built S-tier one every single time, and that's not close.

The former kings

Ellen, Zhu Yuan, Qingyi, Lycaon, Harumasa and Jane all ran the game at some point, and all of them still clear hard content with real investment. Ellen's Ultimate still hits anything regardless of size. Zhu Yuan still shreds stunned targets with her Enhanced Shotshells. Qingyi still builds Daze fast and bumps the stun multiplier through Subjugation.

The reason they slid is mostly power creep and role competition, not a nerf. Game8's own change log tells the story: Qingyi and Caesar dropped from their second tier to their third the day Ye Shunguang released in late December 2025, and Seth and Rina fell a tier the same day. Nothing happened to those four. The bar just moved.

Specialists worth a roster slot

Vivian is an off-field Ether Anomaly unit who pumps Disorder damage and wants a second Anomaly teammate. Alice triggers Assault constantly and can even set off Disorder alongside other Physical units. Yidhari and Starlight Billy are both Rupture carries who get scarier below half HP, which is a fun but slightly nerve-wracking way to play. Banyue is a Fire Rupture carry who stacks Wrathful Fires into her Visage of Wrath state. Hugo punishes stunned enemies about as hard as anyone. Orphie & Magus do respectable off-field Fire damage and buff team ATK through Zeroed In.

None of them are generalists. All of them are legitimately strong the moment the boss or the buff lineup favors them.

The cheap end of A-tier

Seed, Cissia, Soldier 0 Anby, Yanagi and Burnice sit right on the S/A boundary depending on which board you read. Yanagi and Burnice in particular still show up in the top bracket of GameVika's Shiyu-specific list, because Anomaly pressure through stagger phases is exactly what that mode rewards. Cissia is worth a mention for anyone short on pulls: real damage plus CRIT buffs and a debuff that lets Electric damage ignore enemy DEF.

Budget-Friendly Agents for Free-to-Play Rosters

You can clear a serious chunk of the endgame without a single limited S-Rank. Not full stars on everything, but way more than most people expect.

The free squad you already own

Every account gets the Cunning Hares trio for nothing: Anby (Electric Stun), Nicole (Ether Support) and Billy (Physical Attack). All three share a faction, so their Additional Abilities stay switched on with zero effort. Anby builds Daze fast when you fire her Special Attack right after the third hit of her basic string. Nicole groups enemies with her EX Special and shreds DEF with her enhanced Basic and Dash Attacks. She struggles a bit against heavy enemies but she's free, and her DEF shred is a real damage gain for whoever you pair her with.

You also get one free standard S-Rank from a pool of six: Nekomata, Soldier 11, Koleda, Lycaon, Grace or Rina. For most accounts Nekomata is the pick, because she's Cunning Hares too - drop her into Billy's slot and the faction bonus stays live while your damage jumps. If you'd rather build around Fire, Soldier 11 plus Koleda plus Lucy is a clean mono-Fire axis. Ice is the weak free lane; there's no strong standard Ice damage dealer, so only take Lycaon if you're planning to pull an Ice carry later.

Two rules make free teams work. Keep two agents sharing a faction or attribute so the Additional Ability stays on, and commit to one element lane instead of half-building six people.

A-Ranks that punch up

Soukaku is the standout. An ATK buff on a support who also brings Ice damage buffs and freezing, and she pairs with any Ice carry you pull later. Lucy summons guard boars that deal off-field damage and hand the squad an ATK buff when they explode. Seth shields the team and buffs Anomaly Proficiency, which makes him a genuine Anomaly-team pick. Piper stacks her own Anomaly Buildup and buffs the squad once her Power stacks are up. Pulchra applies off-field Daze through Aftershocks. Manato, an A-Rank Rupture unit, trades his own HP for damage.

The launch-era bottom of the pool - Corin, Anton, Ben, Billy - is fine for story and early floors, but they're the first things to replace once you own anyone better in the same role.

The free S-Rank everybody should grab

Pyrois deserves a headline. Added in 3.0, it's a free Attack agent with multiple Ultimates you pick between per situation, it comes with a free signature W-Engine, and its Mindscapes are given out for free up to M2. GameVika puts it in their top overall tier. It also actually uses the free Ether damage from Nicole's Additional Ability, which almost nobody else does. For a new or low-spend account that's absurd value - an endgame-viable damage dealer that costs you nothing but materials.

How Weapon Engines Change Agent Rankings

W-Engines are the gear slot that moves an agent's rank the most, and not evenly. Some agents are basically fine on a cheap A-Rank engine. A few are quietly half-finished without their signature.

The signature gap

The clearest case is Miyabi. Her signature engine, Hailstorm Shrine, is so far ahead of her other options that Icy Veins flatly recommend pulling the engine before pulling her Mindscapes. The catch is that its payoff wants teammates regularly applying Anomaly effects, which her standard teams already do. If you run Miyabi on a budget engine you're leaving a huge chunk of her damage on the table, and that's exactly why a "Miyabi is S-tier" claim always carries a small asterisk.

Velina is the other one. Her signature engine brings Energy Recharge, and without it her rotation and damage both feel noticeably worse - Icy Veins call it a significant gameplay difference, not just a stat loss. Norma is the opposite: her engine is rated completely optional as long as your CRIT Rate substats get you near 100%. Sigrid's Knight's Extolment is strong but she's already swimming in free CRIT Rate, so she's forgiving.

That engine dependency is a real input to rankings. Icy Veins explicitly move agents up when the gap between their free options and their signature is small, because an agent who's strong at zero extra cost is worth more to a normal account than one who needs a second gacha pull to feel finished.

What the top engines look like

S-Rank Attack engines sit at 48 base attack, with A-Ranks down around 42, and the effect text is where the real difference lives. The current top of the Attack list runs Heartstring Nocturne (50% CRIT DMG plus Fire RES pierce on Chain Attacks and Ultimates), Severed Innocence, Cordis Germina, Serpentine Seeker and Deep Sea Visitor. Stun engines peak with Ice-Jade Teapot and Hellfire Gears. Support engines with Elegant Vanity and Weeping Cradle. Anomaly engines with Practiced Perfection, Sharpened Stinger and Flamemaker Shaker.

If you want a rough rule from that list: the best engines either stack a lot of a stat the agent was missing, or they ignore enemy DEF and RES. Resistance pierce is quietly one of the strongest effects in the game against high-end bosses.

Cheap engines that punch up

You don't need to pull engines for most of a roster. Cannon Rotor is a solid A-Rank for a Physical damage dealer. Starlight Engine Replica comes from an event and works fine on Soldier 11. Kaboom the Cannon stacks squad ATK every time anyone lands a hit. The Vortex series, the Magnetic Storm series and the Reverb series are the free filler engines for stun, anomaly and support slots, and they're good enough while you're still farming.

One planning tip. Because engines are pulled separately from agents, an account usually ends up with more "needs their engine" agents than engines. Give the signature you own to whichever carry actually clears your hardest node, not to your favorite.

Reassessing the Tier List After New Banners

Tier lists in this game have a short shelf life, and the last few versions show exactly how fast things move.

What recent versions actually did

Game8's change log is a decent timeline of the shakeups. Yixuan's release in June 2025 triggered a full re-rank that pushed Trigger to their top tier and moved a dozen others. Ye Shunguang and Zhao arriving at the end of December 2025 knocked Qingyi, Caesar, Seth and Rina down a tier each on the same day. Norma's release in July 2026 pushed Velina up into the top tier. Sigrid's debut in August bumped Jane up a tier the same week.

Notice the pattern. New agents mostly move everybody else down, not up. The agents that climb are the ones a new release enables - Velina rose a tier a month after her own release, once people figured out the Wind teams around her.

New element, new meta

The biggest single ranking shakeup in months was Season 3 opening the Wind element in 3.0. Velina was the only Wind agent at launch, which instantly made her near-mandatory for Anomaly teams, and Icy Veins flagged at the time that crit-based carries would dip until they got a way to use the new element. That's a whole class of agents dropping a tier because of one release.

Season 2 did the same thing with the Rupture specialty. Watch for the pattern rather than the specific names: whenever a new element or specialty opens, the first few agents in it get a structural advantage that has nothing to do with their raw numbers.

What 3.2 is about to do

Version 3.2 lands September 9, 2026, and it's bringing two things worth planning around. Claret is an S-Rank Electric agent and the first ever Armorer - a brand new Agent Specialty, the first specialty added since launch. New specialties have historically arrived strong, because the game builds content around selling them. Roxy follows in the second half, an S-Rank Wind Stun agent from Flint Workshop who's already flagged as a partner for Sigrid, since her Additional Ability cares about Contamination.

If you're sitting on pulls, that's the argument for patience. A new specialty plus the game's second Wind agent, in the same patch, is exactly the kind of release that re-ranks half a roster.

Reading a tier list without getting burned

A few habits keep you from chasing the meta in circles. Wait a patch before treating a brand new agent's rank as settled - GameVika deliberately leave brand new releases out of their locked rankings until real build data exists, and Sigrid going straight to T0 on one board while sitting a tier lower on another is what an unsettled meta looks like. Check whether a rank assumes Mindscapes: GameVika's recommended stopping points have Astra Yao marked around M2 while Yixuan and Norma are treated as complete at M0, and that changes what an agent actually costs you. Watch for Potential Unlocks too - version 3.1 handed them to Rina, Jane and Nekomata, and all three jumped a tier off the back of them without a new banner in sight.

And remember what the tier is even measuring. It ranks strength at the ceiling, not usefulness. Your sixth best agent carries half of Shiyu Defense whether the internet rates them or not, so depth on a budget beats a shiny top-tier carry with no engine, no discs, and no team around them.