While many players have been discussing the recent censorship controversy with Zenless Zone Zero, the second Closed Beta test has given us plenty of new information about the game’s core systems and mechanics. In particular, one of the biggest things we’ve learned is how the gacha and character rarity systems work, something absent from previous CBTs. While these systems in ZZZ share a lot of overlap with similar features in Hoyoverse’s other titles – mainly Genshin Impact and Honkai: Star Rail – there is some new terminology and additions which may catch players out. With that in mind, we’re here to explain and guide you through everything there is to know.
Here’s everything you need to know about the gacha system and character rarities in Zenless Zone Zero according to the second Closed Beta Test.
Gacha in Zenless Zone Zero
When you use the Film to summon in Zenless Zone Zero, you have a chance of pulling one of three main items: an Agent, a Bangboo or a W-Engine.
Starting with the most basic (and likely the most important for most players), Agents are your playable characters. Each new Agent you unlock will give you a new character to use in combat, broadening your potential team compositions. Duplicate Agents can be used to refine that character, granting them new bonuses and abilities.
Agents, Playable Characters
After Agents, we have W-Engines. If you’ve played Hoyoverse’s other gacha titles, you can liken these to weapons from Genshin Impact or Light Cones from Honkai: Star Rail. In short, they’re items which, when equipped to your Agents, will boost certain stats and grant special abilities or bonuses. W-Engines, especially B-Rank W-Engines, are going to be the bulk of your summons when pulling in ZZZ and, while there are S-Rank W-Engines in the game, they don’t seem to come from the gacha (at least not in the CBT).
Lastly, we have the Bangboos. These little bunny creatures are, for all intents and purposes, the mascots of Zenless Zone Zero and function as helpful buddies on combat excursions. You can choose one Bangboo to accompany your current team into battle, granting team-wide stat buffs to ATK, HP, DEF and Impact with higher-tier Bangboos increasing your stats by more. Whenever you summon, there’s a chance to obtain either a B-Rank or A-Rank Bangboo.
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- W-Engines, Weapon-esque Items
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- Bangboos, Helper Minions
Zenless Zone Zero Banners
There are currently two main banners in Zenless Zone Zero: the Exclusive Channel and the Standard Channel. You can summon on each banner by using the main gacha currency Film, which you’ll need 160 of to do a single pull and 1600 of to do a ten pull. Just like in Genshin Impact, there are also two special items known as Master Tapes and Encrypted Master Tapes which grant you a single wish on either the Standard or Limited banners, respectively.
The Exclusive Channel is where your limited S-Rank characters are going to be available, similar to the Limited Warps or Limited Wishes in HSR or Genshin Impact. Just like in those games, there will be a 50/50 chance of pulling the S-Rank character on rate-up whenever you pull an S-Rank on the Exclusive Channel: if you don’t get the rate-up unit and instead get one of the standard units, then your next S-Rank is guaranteed to be whoever is on rate-up.
Exclusive Channel
Then there’s the Standard Channel, the Star-Studded Cast. This is where you can pull for Standard S-Rank units with the same pity rate as the Limited Banner (as in, you’re guaranteed an S-Rank Agent every 90 pulls) but without any of the rate-up S-Rank or A-Rank characters.
One additional thing to note about the Standard Channel is how it works for newcomers. When you first begin playing Zenless Zone Zero, the Standard Channel will have its first 5 10 pulls reduced to the cost of 8 pulls, instead. On top of that, a random S-Rank Agent will always appear somewhere in those 50 pulls. This is very similar to the Beginner Warp in Honkai: Star Rail but here, in ZZZ, they’ve combined it with the Standard Banner for a more streamlined experience.
As of the CBT2, it is unclear whether or not Zenless Zone Zero is going to have either a Limited Bangboo Channel or a Limited W-Engine Channel. Items of this rarity do exist in ZZZ but, seeing as they aren’t available to earn from the gacha, it is unlikely (at least as of now) that they will have separate banners.
Standard Channel
Gacha Rates
Next, let’s discuss the actual rates and how likely you are to get each item available in the gacha within Zenless Zone Zero.
Before we dig into that, though, let’s go over some important general knowledge about pulling. Firstly, you will always get an A-Rank summon every 10 pulls. This can either be in one single ten-pull or singles. Secondly, you are guaranteed one S-Rank Agent within 90 pulls on any banner, with the probability of pulling an S-Rank increasing the closer to 90 pulls you get: once an S-Rank has been pulled, your chances drop to base probability again.
As for the exact rates and odds of pulling each class of Agent or character, you can find detailed breakdowns of them below:
- S-Rank Signal (Agents Only): 0.6%
- A-Rank Signal: 7.2%
- B-Rank Signal: 92.0%
Victoria Housekeeping Co.
Within the A-Rank and B-Rank categories, the rates are broken down even further. In B-Rank summons, your odds are split between W-Engines or Bangboos, whereas A-Rank summons can potentially net you Agents, Bangboos or W-Engines.
Using the A-Rank category as an example, within the 7.2% base odds for pulling an A-Rank summon, here are the odds for each item:
- A-Rank Agent: 3.6% (or 66% of the time when summoning an A-Rank)
- A-Rank W-Engine: 1.6% (or 33% of the time when summoning an A-Rank)
- A-Rank Bangboo: 1.6% (or 33% of the time when summoning an A-Rank)
Sector 6
All Character Rarities in ZZZ
S-Rank Agents
S-Rank is the highest rarity of item or character available in Zenless Zone Zero and is equivalent to a 5-Star character in Genshin Impact or Honkai Star Rail. Within the S-Rank class, you have Limited S-Ranks and Standard S-Ranks. For Limited S-Ranks, you can only summon them from the Exclusive Channel and they aren’t available outside of their limited banners. Meanwhile, you have a chance of pulling a Standard S-Rank from either the Standard Channel or from losing 50/50 on the Exclusive Channel.
In the second Closed Beta Test, the only limited S-Rank is Ellen Joe but more are certainly going to appear in the official release. As for the standard pool of S-Rank characters, there are six available:
- Nekomata
- Koleda
- Soldier 11
- Lycaon
- Grace
- Rina
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- First Batch of Standard S-Ranks
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- Second Batch of S-Ranks
A-Rank Agents
The only other rarity that Agents come in is A-Rank, which is equivalent to a 4-Stars rating in Hoyoverse’s previous games. This is where the majority of your characters are likely to come from, seeing as all A-Rank Agents are available on both the Exclusive and Standard Channel. It is worth mentioning that two specific A-Rank Agents will be on rate-up on any Exclusive Banner, giving them a massive drop rate boost compared to other A-Rank drops: for example, on Ellen’s Limited Banner, Ben and Corin are the rate-up A-Rank Agents.
You will start the game with three A-Rank units already unlocked – namely the Gentle House crew consisting of Anby, Nicole and Billy – and then have to build up your remaining roster by pulling. In the second CBT, there were seven A-Rank Agents available:
- Anby
- Nicole
- Corin
- Billy
- Anton
- Ben
- Soukaku
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- First Batch of A-Rank Agents
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- Second Batch of A-Rank Agents
That was everything you needed to know about the gacha system and all current character rarities in Zenless Zone Zero based on the second Closed Beta Test. Of course, keep in mind that everything here is subject to change before the official release so don’t be surprised if you see certain things changed when ZZZ goes live for everyone.
