Two agents can share the same weapon, the same Drive Discs, and the same Mindscapes, and still put out wildly different numbers. The gap is almost always the stats. Zenless Zone Zero hides a lot behind clean menus, and the game never sits you down to explain why an Impact main stat is a trap on your DPS or why your Anomaly agent feels weak despite a full crit build. This is the sit-down.
Here is the one-line version before the detail: build the stat your agent's specialty actually scales from, not the stat that has the biggest number. An Attack agent lives on CRIT, a Stun agent lives on Impact, an Anomaly agent lives on Anomaly Proficiency, and putting the wrong one first is how you spend a month farming and feel nothing change.
The attributes, one by one
Every agent sheet lists the same core attributes. Most players can name them; far fewer can say what each one feeds into.
| Attribute | What it does | Who cares |
|---|---|---|
| ATK | The base multiplier almost all damage scales off | Everyone who deals damage |
| HP | Survivability, and the damage base for a few HP-scaling agents | Tanks, a handful of specialists |
| DEF | Reduces incoming damage; almost never a damage stat | Defense agents |
| Impact | How fast your hits fill an enemy's Daze bar | Stun agents |
| CRIT Rate | Chance for a hit to crit | Attack agents |
| CRIT DMG | How much extra a crit deals | Attack agents |
| Anomaly Proficiency | How fast you build an element's Anomaly gauge, and the damage of the Anomaly you trigger | Anomaly agents |
| Anomaly Mastery | The damage multiplier on the Anomaly effect itself | Anomaly agents (secondary) |
| PEN Ratio / PEN | Ignores a percentage (or flat amount) of enemy DEF | Agents fighting high-DEF enemies |
| Energy Regen | Speeds up how fast you charge EX Specials and Ultimates | Fast-rotation supports and sub-DPS |
| Sheer Force | The damage stat for the Rupture specialty; converts other stats into raw output | Rupture agents |
A few of these deserve more than a table row.
Impact is not a damage stat. This is the single most common ZZZ build mistake. Impact only speeds up Daze buildup, which is the Stun agent's entire job. On an Attack agent it does nothing but sit there looking like a number. If you are not building a dedicated stunner, ignore it.
Anomaly Proficiency and Anomaly Mastery are different jobs. Proficiency controls how quickly you apply an Anomaly (Burn, Shock, Corruption, Assault, Shatter, and so on) and scales the damage of the Anomaly you personally trigger. Mastery scales the damage of the Anomaly effect regardless of who triggered it, and it also improves your Anomaly buildup efficiency. For a main Anomaly carry, Proficiency comes first because you want to trigger the reaction yourself and you want to trigger it often. Mastery is the follow-up stat once Proficiency is healthy. Our Anomaly teams guide covers how the two agents in an Anomaly duo split that work.
CRIT wants a ratio, not a pile. A crit build is only efficient when Rate and DMG grow together. The target is roughly 1 part CRIT Rate to 2 parts CRIT DMG, landing somewhere around 65 to 75 percent Rate with the matching DMG once your weapon and EX passive are counted. Stacking CRIT DMG while your Rate sits at 40 percent means most of your big numbers never fire.
Drive Discs: where the stats come from
Your gear is six Drive Discs, split into fixed and flexible slots. The first three are locked; the last three are where builds are won or lost.
- Slot 1 always rolls a flat HP main stat.
- Slot 2 always rolls a flat ATK main stat.
- Slot 3 always rolls a flat DEF main stat.
- Slot 4 is your choice: CRIT Rate, CRIT DMG, ATK%, Anomaly Proficiency, and the defensive options.
- Slot 5 is your choice: an Elemental DMG bonus, PEN Ratio, ATK%, and the defensive options.
- Slot 6 is your choice: ATK%, Impact, Anomaly Mastery, Energy Regen, and the defensive options.
Substats on every disc roll from a shared pool: flat and percentage HP, ATK, and DEF, plus PEN, CRIT Rate, CRIT DMG, and Anomaly Proficiency. Discs come in two-piece and four-piece sets, and matching a 4-piece set to your agent's role is usually worth more than one perfect substat line. For which sets pair with which agents, work from the tier list; for the farming itself, the leveling and material priority guide keeps you from burning Dennies on the wrong discs.
Build priority by specialty
This is the part to screenshot. Match your agent's specialty to the column and build top to bottom.
Attack (the main DPS)
Slot 4 CRIT Rate or CRIT DMG, Slot 5 the matching Elemental DMG bonus, Slot 6 ATK%. Substats chase CRIT until your ratio is right, then ATK%. Impact and Anomaly stats are wasted here. Attack agents are the clearest case of "CRIT ratio first, everything else second," and they are the reason the combat mastery guide spends so long on landing full combos: your damage stat only matters if the hits connect.
Stun
Slot 4 ATK% or CRIT, Slot 5 Elemental DMG or ATK%, Slot 6 Impact. The Stun agent's contribution is the Daze bar and the Stun window it opens for your DPS, so Impact is the one place it becomes a real main stat. You still want some ATK behind it so the stunner's own hits are not dead weight, but Impact is what earns the slot.
Anomaly
Slot 4 Anomaly Proficiency, Slot 5 Elemental DMG or ATK%, Slot 6 Anomaly Mastery. Substats favor Anomaly Proficiency and ATK. This is the role most often built wrong: players slap a crit set on an Anomaly agent because crit "feels" strong, then wonder why their Burn ticks for nothing. Anomaly damage does not crit off your CRIT stats; it scales off Proficiency, Mastery, and ATK.
Rupture
Slot 4 and Slot 6 lean on the stats that feed Sheer Force, with ATK and the agent's own conversion passive doing the heavy lifting. Rupture is the newest specialty, so treat any build sheet (including this one) as a starting point and verify against your specific agent's kit before committing a full set of discs.
Support and Defense
Supports split between ATK% and Energy Regen depending on whether they buff off their own ATK or just need to fire their EX Special on cooldown; a fast Energy Regen habit is what lets a support keep its buff uptime high. Defense agents want survivability and enough of a damage stat to not vanish from the rotation. Neither role should be chasing CRIT DMG.
The mistakes that cost the most
- Crit on an Anomaly agent. The gauge does not care about your CRIT Rate. Build Proficiency.
- Impact on a non-stunner. It is a stat that does nothing outside the Stun role.
- CRIT DMG with no CRIT Rate. A 1:4 ratio wastes half your gear. Fix the ratio before you push DMG.
- Ignoring set bonuses for substats. A clean 4-piece beats a scattered "perfect substat" build in almost every case.
- Over-capping Energy Regen. Once your support fires its EX on schedule, more Energy Regen is dead. Roll the surplus into a damage stat.
Where to go next
Stats are half the equation; the other half is who you pair them with and where you spend them. If you are still deciding which agents deserve the discs, start with who to pull and the current tier list. If your rotations are dropping combos before the stats even matter, the combat mastery guide and the Shiyu Defense guide are the better next reads. And when a new agent drops, check the current banners and free codes before you spend.
Get the stat that matches the specialty right, keep your CRIT ratio honest, and stop letting Impact squat on agents that will never stun anything. That alone closes most of the damage gap you have been feeling.
