The Short Answer
Shiyu Defense is Zenless Zone Zero's primary endgame challenge and the main source of Polychrome outside of new content drops. You need two separate teams of three Agents that cannot share characters. Success comes down to having at least one well-built Anomaly or DPS team, understanding this rotation's faction discount, and matching your second team to the elemental weaknesses on each floor. If you have not settled on your roster yet, start with the who to pull guide and the ZZZ tier list before reading further.
How Shiyu Defense Works
Shiyu Defense is divided into 20 floors, grouped into five sections of four floors each. Each floor has two nodes (Node A and Node B) that you must clear with two separate teams in a time limit.
The key rules:
- No Agent can be used on both nodes of the same floor. Your six Agents split into Team A and Team B. This is the hardest constraint for most rosters.
- Each node has a time limit. Failing to clear within the time kills your rating for that floor.
- Enemies have elemental vulnerabilities that change each rotation (every two weeks). These are shown on the pre-battle screen.
- Bangboos. Each node lets you bring one Bangboo companion for passive and active bonuses. Bangboos with faction synergies (for example, a Cunning Hares Bangboo with Cunning Hares Agents) give stronger bonuses. Always bring the Bangboo that matches your team's faction where possible.
Clearing all 20 floors with a passing time on both nodes earns the maximum Polychrome reward for the rotation.
Faction Discounts: The Mechanic Most Players Underuse
Every Shiyu Defense rotation features a Faction Discount that grants Agents from specific factions a damage bonus or damage-taken reduction on every floor. The discount does not make unfeatured Agents bad, but it can swing difficult floors into comfortable clears.
How to use faction discounts:
- Check the current discount at the start of each rotation from the Shiyu Defense menu.
- Look at which of your built Agents share that faction.
- Slot discounted Agents into the node where enemies are hardest, not the easier node.
- If you have two discounted Agents that are both DPS, consider which node needs more firepower and split accordingly.
A practical example: if the discount covers the Sons of Calydon faction, an Agent like Piper or Corin goes into the harder node even if your other team is slightly stronger overall. The discount can be worth 15 to 25 percent more effective damage on those fights.
Faction affiliation for every Agent is visible on their character page in-game and on the ZZZ wiki.
Building Two Teams: The Core Challenge
Most players fall into one of three situations:
Situation 1: You have a strong main team but a weak second team. This is the most common early endgame problem. Fix it by identifying which role your second team lacks. The minimum viable second team is:
- A DPS Agent with enough built Drive Discs to deal meaningful damage.
- A support or healer to sustain.
- A third slot for another attacker or utility Agent.
You do not need a second fully-optimized team to clear Shiyu Defense. A rougher second team with correct Drive Disc main stats and C0 5-stars can carry floors 1 through 15 while your main team clears 16 through 20.
Situation 2: You have strong Anomaly Agents on both teams. Version 3.0 has made Anomaly teams one of the strongest archetypes in Shiyu Defense. If you have built Anomaly Agents (Physical, Fire, or Ether element Agents with the Anomaly Proficiency stat), split them so each team has one Anomaly enabler and one amplifier. Do not stack all your best Anomaly Agents on a single team while the other team has nothing.
Situation 3: You have strong attackers but no sustain. Some squads try to run double DPS plus no healer and rely on killing enemies before taking lethal damage. This works on lower floors but fails on 17 and above where enemy damage scales up sharply. Add at least one Nicole, Lucy, Soukaku, or another sustain/buffer to each team.
Drive Disc Builds and Why They Matter in Shiyu Defense
Drive Discs (ZZZ's gear system) directly control how fast enemies die in Shiyu Defense. For Shiyu Defense specifically, prioritize:
- CRIT Rate and CRIT DMG on attack main stats where available.
- ATK% or Anomaly Proficiency Sands/Goblet depending on whether your Agent is an attacker or Anomaly dealer.
- Full 4-piece Drive Disc sets for your main DPS. A 4-piece bonus is almost always stronger than mixing and matching.
Common top-performing sets in Version 3.0:
- Chaotic Metal for Anomaly Agents.
- Fanged Metal for Physical Anomaly (works with Assault stacks).
- Shockstar Disco for Electric stun teams.
- Polar Metal for Ice teams.
- Freedom Blues for Ether Anomaly.
Check the ZZZ tier list for individual Agent Drive Disc recommendations and the ZZZ codes page for free Polychrome to pull missing pieces.
Floor-by-Floor Strategy Overview
Floors 1 to 10 (Learning Floors)
These floors exist to introduce enemy types and mechanics. They do not require optimized builds. If you are struggling here:
- Check that your Drive Disc main stats are correct (no flat ATK on a Sands slot, no wrong element on a Goblet).
- Level your Agents to 60 and their skills to at least Level 6.
- Bring a healer or shield Agent in your weaker team.
Floors 11 to 15 (Mid-Tier Challenge)
Enemy HP scales up significantly. Elite enemies and mini-bosses appear with stagger mechanics that break their AI patterns when you build enough stagger gauge. Focus on:
- Learning enemy attack patterns to avoid chip damage.
- Using the stagger window (when the enemy HP bar flashes yellow) to unload burst damage.
- Saving Resonance Liberation for the second enemy wave, not the first.
Floors 16 to 20 (Endgame Floors)
These floors test your full roster. Each floor has two elite-tier enemies per node and strict time limits. Key tips:
- Pre-buff before swapping into your carry. Use your support or buffer's skills before activating your main DPS window.
- Save Special Attacks for stagger bursts. When an enemy enters stagger state, unload all stored abilities at once.
- Anomaly teams shine here. The Anomaly application window stays active through stagger phases, meaning Anomaly teams keep dealing damage even when a physical attacker would have to wait.
- Floor 20 specifically typically has a hard-hitting boss that punishes standing still. Use dodge counters and maintain distance during its telegraphed slam attacks.
Deadly Assault: The Other Endgame Mode
Alongside Shiyu Defense, Deadly Assault is a rotation-based challenge mode that asks you to clear specific encounters under set conditions (limit on certain elements, specific enemy types, etc.). It refreshes weekly rather than bi-weekly and offers additional Polychrome.
Deadly Assault uses a single team of three Agents rather than two, so it is more accessible for players who have one strong team and are still working on a second. The challenges rotate, so some weeks favor Anomaly teams and other weeks favor stun-focused or burst-damage squads.
The strategies for Deadly Assault mirror Shiyu Defense: read the enemy vulnerability, bring the correct element, and pre-buff before your carry's burst window.
Common Mistakes in Shiyu Defense
Putting all your strongest Agents on one team. This leaves your second team unable to clear any node past floor 12. Split strength evenly.
Ignoring faction discounts. Players who ignore the discount miss meaningful free damage and then blame their builds.
Skipping Bangboo. An unequipped Bangboo slot is free performance left on the table. Even generic Bangboos that add flat stats are better than nothing.
Farming Drive Disc substats before fixing main stats. A Drive Disc with the wrong main stat (for example, flat ATK on a Sands slot instead of ATK%) cannot be fixed. Reroll main stats before worrying about substats.
Not using Resonance Liberation at all. Some players forget their ults mid-fight. Liberation is usually your strongest single damage cooldown; in stagger windows it can decide whether you kill the second-wave enemy before time runs out.
Quick-Start Checklist
Before entering Shiyu Defense floor 16 and above, confirm:
- Two teams of three Agents, no shared characters.
- Both teams have at least one DPS and one support/healer.
- Main DPS in each team has 4-piece Drive Disc set with correct main stats.
- CRIT Rate above 60% and CRIT DMG above 120% on your primary carries.
- Faction-discounted Agents are in the harder node's team.
- Each team has an appropriate Bangboo equipped.
Hit those marks and Floors 16 through 20 become achievable even without every banner character. Keep pulling smart using the ZZZ codes page for free Polychrome and track new meta shifts with each version's updated tier list.
