The fastest way to feel stuck in Zenless Zone Zero is to level a little of everything. New Proxies pour EXP into six Agents, half-upgrade three W-Engines, and wonder why nothing hits hard. The game gives you exactly enough resources to make one team excellent or three teams mediocre. Pick excellent.
Here is the order that gets the most power per Battery Charge, top to bottom.
The one-line priority list
- Agent Level on your main DPS, to the current cap you can afford.
- Core Skill on that same DPS. This is the most underrated upgrade in the game.
- W-Engine level for the DPS, matched to their Agent level.
- The DPS's most-used active skills, in the order you actually press them.
- Your support and stun Agents, leveled to keep pace, not to lead.
- Drive Discs, upgraded only once you have the right main stats.
Everything below explains why the order is what it is, and where the sneaky waste is.
1 and 2: Agent Level and Core Skill come as a pair
Raising an Agent's level lifts base ATK and HP, and it unlocks the ascension breakpoints that let their skills scale higher. That part is obvious. What players skip is the Core Skill, the upgrade track ranked A through F that boosts an Agent's signature passive.
Do not skip it. For most damage dealers the Core Skill is a huge chunk of their kit: extra crit, extra multipliers, the bonus that makes their whole gameplay loop function. An Agent at high level with a Core Skill still at rank A is a car with the handbrake on. Level the Agent and push the Core Skill together, using the Notorious Hunt boss materials that feed it. If you only have resources for one DPS to do this properly, it should be the one you actually play.
3: W-Engine, matched not maxed early
The W-Engine is the Agent's weapon, and its base ATK and passive are a large slice of your damage. Level it in step with the Agent rather than sprinting it to max on day one. A W-Engine twenty levels above an Agent who cannot ascend yet is wasted material sitting in a stat you are not using.
Signature W-Engines are ideal, but a well-leveled A-rank or a good drive disc and W-Engine pairing on your DPS beats a maxed signature on a bench Agent every time. Feed the Agent you play.
4: Skills, in press order
Every Agent has several upgradable skills: Basic Attack, Dodge, Assist, Special Attack, Chain Attack, and the Core Skill from earlier. You will never have the materials to max all of them across a team early, so upgrade by usage:
- For a DPS, prioritize the skills their damage rotation leans on. If the character's damage comes from their Special or Enhanced Basic, level that first. Do not dump materials into an Assist you press twice a fight.
- For a Stun Agent, the daze-related skills matter more than raw damage.
- For a Support/Anomaly Agent, prioritize whatever applies their buff or builds Anomaly fastest.
Watch what you actually press in the combat loop and level that. Skills you rarely use can wait indefinitely.
5: Supports keep pace, they do not lead
Your stun and support Agents need enough level to not fall off, apply their buffs, and survive. They do not need to match your DPS's investment. A support's job is uptime and utility, and most of that comes from their kit existing at a reasonable level, not from being maxed. Level them to the point where they stop being the weak link, then stop and put the surplus back into your carry.
If you are still deciding who your carry even is, the team building guide and the tier list will point you at cores worth committing to before you spend a single Battery Charge.
6: Drive Discs, main stat before number
Drive Discs are ZZZ's artifacts, and they are the last thing to sink materials into, for one reason: an unleveled disc with the correct main stat beats a maxed disc with the wrong one. Sort out which main stats your Agent wants first (the slot-4, 5, and 6 discs are where the real choices live), then level the pieces that already have the right stat and a promising sub-stat. Leveling a disc you will replace next week is the single most common way new players burn Dennies.
The Drive Disc and W-Engine guide covers which sets and main stats to chase per role.
Battery Charge: the resource behind all of it
Every upgrade above is gated by Battery Charge, your stamina. It refills over time and caps, so the real inefficiency is letting it overflow while you are offline. Spend it daily on whatever your current bottleneck is:
- Short on EXP or W-Engine mats? Farm the EXP and Engine supply stages.
- Short on Dennies? Run the Dennies stage; you will always feel poor, so top up regularly.
- DPS ascension or skill mats missing? Hit the relevant Notorious Hunt or combat challenge.
- Discs not landing? Farm the disc domain that drops your Agent's set, but only once levels and skills are handled.
The order matters more than the effort. A Proxy who funnels a week of Battery into one finished DPS clears Shiyu Defense and Deadly Assault faster than one who spread the same resources across a whole roster. Build one team all the way up, then start the next.
