Zenless Zone Zero: Gacha System Guide

The character design is likely one of the main reasons for you to play Zenless Zone Zero, and even if it's not, you'll still need various characters upgraded if you want to beat the hardest content in the game. Most of these characters can only be acquired through the different banners in the game.

You'll find a total of four main banner types once you progress enough in the game, and while these share some similarities with each other, they're also very different. It's important to learn which banner you should spend your currency on if you want to be efficient.

Exclusive Channel, Explained

As you play Zenless Zone Zero, you'll spend most of your time grinding to get pulls on the Exclusive Banner. You'll have to use Encrypted Master Tapes to pull here, and you can also buy these pulls using Polychrome. It's highly recommended to only spend Polychrome to buy Encrypted Master Tape and nothing else.

On this banner, you can get various S-tier agents, A-tier agents, A-tier W-Engines, and B-tier W-Engines. The probability of getting each one of these with every pull is as follows:

While these low chances might be off-putting since you hardly have a chance of getting S-tier Agents, there's a pity system to incentivize you to keep going. Essentially, you're guaranteed to get an S-tier Agent once within every 90 pulls and an A-tier agent or W-Engine once every ten pulls. This count resets if you get an early agent or W-Engine of the respective rarity.

Much like other popular HoYoverse games, it seems like Zenless Zone Zero also has a soft pity mechanic .

This essentially means that you have a higher chance of getting an S-tier Agent past 75 pulls on the banner .

Exclusive Channel banners are time-limited, and you can see how long an Agent's banner is going to last. Whenever you get an S-tier or A-tier Agent on this banner, there's a 50 percent chance of it being the featured agent. Since there are two A-tier featured Agents, you have an equal chance of getting both of them.

If you end up losing this 50:50 and getting a non-featured character, your next Agent is guaranteed to be the featured one. It's important to remember that both your pity and the 50:50 situation are shared between all the Exclusive Banners. For example, if you lose your 50:50 on one banner and get 35 into the pity, you're guaranteed to get the next featured character within the next 55 pulls.

This is true even when there are two Exclusive Channel banners with different featured characters at the same time.

Finally, whenever you get a copy of an Agent or get any W-Engine, you can get certain currencies:

• When you pull an S-tier Agent from the second to the seventh time, you'll get one Focus for that Agent and 40 Residual Signal. This changes to 100 Residual Signal starting from the eighth copy.
• Upon getting an A-tier Agent from the second to the seventh time, you can get their Focus and eight Residual Signal, which goes up to 20 Residual Signal from the eighth copy.
• For each A-tier W-Engine you get, regardless of the number of times you've gotten it, you'll get an extra eight Residual Signal.
• Finally, for each B-tier W-Engine you get, you'll get an extra 20 Fading Signal.

Residual and Fading Signals can be used in the Signal Shop to purchase more Master Tapes, S-tier W-Engines (only for the former), and various other items.

The Master Tapes you can purchase with Fading Signals are limited and reset every month , and it's recommended to claim them each month.

W-Engine Channel, Explained

Right below the Exclusive Channel, you'll commonly see a W-Engine Channel, and both these banners reset at the same time. Much like the Exclusive banner, the W-Engine banner also features one S-tier W-Engine and two A-tier W-Engines. The S-tier featured Engine usually belongs to the character currently featured on the Exclusive Channel.

The pity to get the S-tier on this banner goes down to 80, and you also have a 75 percent chance of getting the featured W-Engine when you trigger the S-tier. Similar to the character banner, you're guaranteed to get the Engine on your next S-tier if you lose the 75:25. The chances of getting the items on this banner for each pull are as follows:

You have to use the same pulls on this banner as the Exclusive Character banner, which generally makes it not worth going for if you're an F2P player .

The Residual and Fading Signals you get from A-tier and B-tier items on this banner are the same as the Exclusive Character, and you can also get 40 Residual Signal whenever you get an S-tier W-Engine, regardless of the number of copy. The pity on the W-Engine banner is also shared with every other W-Engine banner, but is separate from every other type of banner in the game.

Stable Channel, Explained

The Stable Channel is the permanent banner in Zenless Zone Zero that uses a unique type of currency called the Master Tapes. This banner also has a beginner benefit for new players that stays on it permanently until you pull for the first 50 times. This benefit allows you to enjoy a 20 percent discount on these 50 pulls as long as you're doing ten pulls at a time.

You're also guaranteed to get an S-tier trigger within these 50 pulls, and while this banner can give you both S-tier Agents and W-Engines, this first trigger is guaranteed to be an Agent. Even if you get the S-tier Agent trigger early, you can still enjoy the 20 percent discount for the first 50 pulls.

This banner also has a special mechanic where you can choose one of the standard Agents of your choice after you've pulled on it 300 times.

Apart from everything mentioned above, the Stable Channel is largely similar to the Exclusive Channel when it comes to pity, chances, and the amount of Signals you get for each item. However, when you do get an S-tier trigger here past the first one, you have an equal chance of getting one of these items:

The main reason why it's not worth spending Polychrome on this banner even after the free choice in 300 is that you can end up getting consistent W-Engines and not knowing what to do with them. Moreover, this banner is permanent, and the developers give you some free Mixed Tape in every update to pull here and slowly build your pity.

Whenever a new A-tier Agent is featured on the Exclusive Banner, they join this banner after their first featured banner.

Bangboo Channel, Explained

This is a special banner introduced in Zenless Zone Zero, and unlike every other banner, you cannot use your Polychrome or any other currency to get Boopons, which is the currency required to pull here. The only way to get Boopons outside of what the game gives you for free is if you buy the premium tier of the New Eridu City Fund.

For this banner, you can choose the S-tier Bangboo you want, and whenever an S-tier triggers, you're guaranteed to get that Bangboo. It also shares the same pity and S-tier and A-tier chances as the W-Engine banner. You can switch the S-tier Bangboo you want at any point without losing pity on the banner.

When you're choosing a Bangboo, read their b ability as this tells you the perfect condition for them.

This lets you choose one based on your current roster and the characters you're upgrading.

You can get 50, ten, and two Bangbucks whenever you get an S-tier, A-tier Bangboos, and B-tier W-Engines respectively. These can be used in the Signal Shop to obtain various items. Upon receiving up to five copies of the S-tier and A-tier Bangboos, you'll gain a Core for them, but you'll instead get an extra 75 and 15 Bangbucks respectively past that.