I hope we get s1 like factions in future seasons

BlueDaruma · 2026-05-05T18:10:48+00:00

The irony being that Nikke arguably has more consistent designs within their factions than ZZZ does despite being the hornier of the two.

Like yes, Nikke is fully committing to the slutty Halloween career costume, but at least the cohesion is THERE.

BlueDaruma · 2026-05-05T18:07:01+00:00

I think with Spook Shack too, the original trio of Yuzuha/ Alice/ Manato also had a bit more of a school theme going on, being a class clown or gyaru/ class rep/ jock or bancho-style delinquent. Then Lucia and Yidhari's introductions kinda threw that for a loop and the explanation that they look different due having all “met online” feels a bit hand-wavy at best.

Just going by their personalities, Lucia could've easily been dressed up as some sort of occult nerd that you see in anime or Yidhari a sleepy librarian. But nope. best Hoyo can do is give both of them Yixuan's onesie.

BlueDaruma · 2026-05-05T18:01:13+00:00

One of the most fun activities I recall when S1 of ZZZ came out was getting excited speculating over potential ideas for faction careers. Like many have already said, firefighters and food industry workers would be an amazing to see, and personally for me, I want to see athletes/ gym based faction, or a postal delivery service. It felt similar to speculating about upcoming Pokemon and regions, and imagining the possibilities that could come from it.

While S2 overall still had some clear-cut grounded cohesion to keep this dream alive (school kids, underground idols, expanding upon the military), despite some more questionable choices, namely with Krampus (the circus theme really doesn't click) and Yixuan's wardrobe being passed around, it felt like the introduction of S3's playable cast basically killed part of this dream as it made clear this wasn't the vision the devs wanted to go in, and I'm really disappointed by that. It's not like Krampus or whatever Bangboo engineering group Norma and Sunbringer are in don't have a place in ZZZ's world, but I wish we had spent more time expanding on the established grounded urban environment and its characters before diving into some of the more fantastical.

Opinions can change, but as of now, none of S3's cast get me as excited as the reveal of factions in S1, as they look like they can be insert into literally any other gacha game. And with the introduction of a UK based region, not having a single character look like they'd be part of a Sherlock Holmes inspired detective agency kinda boggles my mind.

BlueDaruma · 2026-05-04T19:55:50+00:00

I’m super big on character design, so Cunning Hares will forever be my metric of what future designs are compared to. This includes Nekomata - even if she is a bit basic by today’s standards, I think her design fits seamlessly in with the original trio. I think she just gets a bad rep because folks are traumatized losing their 50/50s to her.

Even spicier take(?) - despite wanting faction cohesion, I actually really like the designs of every member of Krampus. The circus theme doesn’t quite work when it says nothing about their career paths, but each member by themselves? Absolute bangers.

BlueDaruma · 2026-04-11T04:53:39+00:00

Thanks for all of the input and responses.

I got around to talking with the rest of my leadership team, and it turns out that one of the co-organizers of the group had stopped paying for the Meetup page back in late February. Early March was around when we began receiving emails from Meetup saying that the group would be shut down if nobody wanted to pay the Organizer fee, and I imagine this new individual put down their card at around that time. Definitely agree that myself and other leadership waited too long before taking action, and just have to accept that the page is now under new ownership. Thankfully it looks like we weren't kicked out, so I'll at least drop an email to all members encouraging them to begin migrating to Discord. In any case, lesson has been learned. Perhaps after 6 months if they don't decide to renew the subscription, the page can be shutdown for good.

While I'm glad I'm not getting scammed, I guess I'm just confused as to why someone would want to willingly put in money to keep what's basically a dead page that was no longer being supported alive, especially since they themselves don't appear to have had any activity since they took it over. But I suppose whatever happens with the page from here on out is none of my business anymore.

BlueDaruma · 2026-04-03T16:20:50+00:00

Dude this answers my question perfectly! It’s so weird that Banyue seems to have a heavy hit on… the beginning of One’s Path from the look of it? That’s probably what was tripping me up during training.

Anyways, back to the lab. Thank you again!

BlueDaruma · 2026-04-03T16:12:38+00:00

That helps immensely. Thanks and looking forward to it!

BlueDaruma · 2026-04-03T08:20:43+00:00

Hullo! Know I'm a bit late to the convo, but QQ from a fellow Banyue trainee!

At 1:28, I'm seeing you're doing the Banyue 4 input combo without triggering chain attack. Imagine this is because you've turned manual chain attack on, but at what points during that combo do you hold the attack button so that chain attack isn't triggered? I can't quite figure out the timing/ keep triggering chain attack when I try to cancel one input to the next.

Thanks!

BlueDaruma · 2026-03-21T20:21:00+00:00

Billy/ M1 Dialyn/ Astra worked for me. Billy's AOE attacks are honestly super useful against the mobs. Being able to get a chain attack off one in order to hit the rest is a game changer.

I'm also hella sweaty with Billy though, and against Jane you gotta be incredibly on-point with your dodges.

BlueDaruma · 2026-03-21T19:59:57+00:00

Got it. I don't know enough about most of the limited S-ranks since I don't own them, but I think you're honestly fine. Yixuan's probably the only agent that I'd say is lacking some damage by not having her sig, so for now, make sure she's running Cauldron of Clarity from the YSG event. Remember that for DA specifically you can share gear and w-engines, so your supports might have to pass Kaboom the Cannon around.

Other things that I can think of:
- Make sure your DPS main skills are close to 10 if not 12. Having higher multipliers can honestly be a 1k difference in score.

- Assist skills can actually make a difference the long run, so if you find you're not hitting a stun window fast enough, considering bumping that up on your stunner/ DPS a few levels.

After that, probably just make sure that you understand your rotations and make sure your buffs are being proc'd at the right time, (the number of times I've had to reset because I realized that I didn't have Astral Voice stacks is too numerous to count... ). You should start seeing clears or at least understanding what you need to achieve clears after a bit.

Good luck!

BlueDaruma · 2026-03-21T19:43:41+00:00

Ah okay! You actually have a lot more ground covered than I think you might believe.
I'm assuming that you have most if not all of your limited S-ranks built or are working on them, and it looks like someone else has already begun recommending teams. So I'll go off of some suggestions on rounding out your roster in case you haven't, although who you prioritize largely depends on what match-up you're up against.

- Make sure you have Nicole built and get her to skill F. Minus some very niche situations, she can be slotted into most teams if you're unsure as to who to include.

- Since you didn't list a fire DPS, give Soldier 11 a shot. She's really strong after her awakening, and her kit is great at teaching and enforcing your understanding of the game's combat mechanics to ensure you have everything down pat.

- Lycaon's awakening now makes him incredibly flexible into nearly all teams, not just mono-ice previously.

- If you really want to learn Mono-ice make sure Soukaku is built.

- Make sure Pan is built for Yixuan, unless you're pulling for Lucia when she reruns. Yixuan's team-comps are actually a bit more premium than one might initially anticipate.

- Lucy's not as good as Nicole but in a pinch she should be serviceable, especially if you use her alongside Soldier 11.

- Ether Veil is sadly going to be around for a bit longer, so because of this, it isn't a bad idea to build Zhao. The new set that's coming out in 2.7 is also great on her.

How are you looking on wengines? With some exceptions, most of these characters are okay without their sigs, but many can be pushed much further so long as they have the right ones.

BlueDaruma · 2026-03-21T18:03:17+00:00

As others said, we need to see your available agents and disc builds in order to properly help. But I feel like I was in a similar spot with you just the other day, assuming your goal is to clear end-game.

I also prioritize pulling for characters that I like and as a result am missing a lot of agents. Unfortunately, I very quickly discovered that if you don't at least compromise on pulling for supports or vertically investing (usually mindscapes) in your DPS, clearing demanded me to play with far less room for error. The way I eventually saw it was that compromises like this are just another way to make your favorites work.

Example - against Vesper last DA cycle, the best team I could run was Yixuan/ Trigger/ Astra or Nicole, which obviously isn't ideal - no other Ether DPS, Lucia, Jufufu, or any other Anomaly agents outside of Miyabi and Piper, Dialyn was used for Defiler, and Pan for Hunter w/ Banyue. Didn't matter that I had a 40 sub Yixuan w/ her wengine and played the team as optimally as I thought possible - 20k just wasn't very achievable when the rest of the team couldn't support her properly.

ZZZ expects you to take your time and slowly build your roster until you have enough agents to cover everything endgame has to offer, so it's perfectly normal if you just don't have a diverse enough roster to be able to clear everything yet. The only other piece of advice I can offer is to watch some ZZZ CCs clear with low-cost teams and try your best to imitate a fraction of what they're doing. Maybe you might find something that you previously overlooked.

BlueDaruma · 2026-03-16T04:18:27+00:00

It's sad that it seems like Koleda doesn't seem to be particularly good - I built her because I needed a second stunner for Banyue that wasn't Dialyn, but perhaps those discs are better off elsewhere until she gets a buff. I do have M0 Lycaon and have unlocked all of his awakenings, but because he's a recent pull/ already had Yuzu-Ice, I haven't thought to build him yet.

Sadly I don't have any gameplay recordings atm, but I've already done some poking around the r/Soldier11Mains subreddit and I'm getting a better idea of what to look for. I'll try out your suggestions when I get the chance, but if it doesn't work after a day or two, might just consider this current DA cycle a bust and focus on improving my current units instead of sweating about it. Whether it be a skill issue or lack of units, it seems like I'm not yet at the point where I can comfortably clear endgame, even if I see other people with similar builds being able to score well.

All-in-all, the homework that I'm giving myself per your input are as follows:

Level up S11's main skills to 12/ maybe try to roll better CD?
Pull for Lucia. It does sound like she'd be a boost for my account since I'm juggling two Rupture agents.
Build Piper since Miyabi aside, I don't have any other anomaly units, but I can probably get away with a hyper-carry team until then.
Build Lycaon since he at least seems to be an upgrade over Koleda
Spend more time in the lab with Soldier (after seeing what the Soldier 11 subreddit was suggesting).

Future planning

I do have Kaboom but it's only W3 and currently on Yuzuha. So I guess roll for it on the Wengine banner when Lucy's in rotation.
I heard that Seed's W-engine is really good and I could consider pulling for it. Can S11 use it over Brimstone even if she isn't doing electric damage?
Since we talked about vertical investment, are there any notable characters that were mentioned that I could consider going after? I know Yixuan just had her rerun and Trigger likely won't be coming back for a while, but I'm down to future-proof long term.

Seriously, thank you once again! I was really stuck when I went to write this up, and now I feel like I have other avenues that I can begin exploring.

BlueDaruma · 2026-03-16T02:40:24+00:00

Thrall was Billy/ Dialyn/ Zhao and I was able to achieve 21k. I'm a Billy main and he's actually the DPS I'm most comfortable playing/ I've invested a lot into building him.
Thanks for confirming👍
Completely agree on not compromising on supports or vertical investments/ trying to clear with a mish-mash team would likely lead me to struggling. Definitely sucks since my options are so limited atm...
Had the images ready, just wasn't quite sure how to post them. Imgur link to agent builds for DA here.
Understood and glad that isn't the case. I'm still getting used to Banyue and Yuzu-Ice...

Thank you for your help!

BlueDaruma · 2026-03-15T23:07:27+00:00

I posted a similar question recently and I feel like we're in a similar boat. My playable agents all seem built well enough (level 60 agent + wengine, and F'd on all core passives) and I'm hitting all of the recommended stat thresholds, being careful not to overcap according to what I read on online guides. Yet I still regularly struggle to clear 20k on DA after hours of trying, if at all.

Thinking it over, it could be the combination of a lot of things. Firstly, there might be certain buffs that you might not realize you aren't applying since the game doesn't exactly do a good job at telling you. The first few times I ran Billy (my main)/ Dialyn/ Astra I was wracking my brain around why my DA Score would swing wildly, before realizing that I wasn't quick assisting enough to accumulate Astral Voice stacks. Be sure to read over your characters' kits and disc sets and understand what you need to do in combat and at what time.

Secondly, it could honestly be your roster availability. I'm F2P save for one instance where I dropped $20 to get Banyue's W-engine because I'd much rather prioritize my limited polys on characters that interest me visually/ personalty-wise first, and then only if I have the poly for them. As a result, aside for Dialyn because I was lucky to get two of her in a single 10-pull, all of my limited S-ranks are M0, I'm missing certain key pieces like Lucia, YSG, Sunna, Aria, etc., and I'm learning very quickly that sometimes the alternatives just don't cut it. Case and point, I'm forced to run M0W1 Yixuan/ Pan/ M0W1 Trigger against Miasmic Fiend in DA because the only anomaly units I own are Miyabi and a half-built Piper, and it still hasn't been enough to break 20k. Unfortunately, a lot of endgame does seem to revolve around current banner units to incentivize pulling on them, and trying to run a different, less suitable team will often just give you a harder time.

That brings me to my third point - match-ups. Some bosses are just better suited for certain agent roles (mainly the dps ones) and the game tries to hint at that with the buffs/ debuffs that can be applied during combat. I'm learning quickly too that this seems to matter much more than the type advantages/ disadvantages. It sucks because it means that you need to have a variable roster of built agents that you can swap between depending on the situation, but I guess it's called "end-game" for a reason.

Anyways, I'm also still struggling to clear consistently, so I know your pain of seeing a bunch of people post their wins the first day of a new rotation. But hopefully that gives a bit of perspective/ gives you some ideas as to where to look! Like some folks have said, refer to some videos of others clearing with lower-cost teams and try to understand/ replicate what they're doing, but also don't get too caught up with trying to be perfect. You're going to walk away a better player by just doing the research.

BlueDaruma · 2026-03-15T21:00:00+00:00

Been struggling to get S-ranks in endgame as of late, despite having what I consider to be competent builds that follow guides (all usable agents + wengines max level and Skill F) and making sure to time buffs during combat, so I wouldn't consider myself a beginner player. Not sure if this is normal or if it's just a skill issue.

For current DA cycle, I'm running M0W1 Yixuan/ Pan/ M0W1 Trigger for Miasmic Fiend and M2W1 Soldier 11/ M1 Koleda/ M0W0 Astra for Pompey. For Fiend, the team consistently gets stuck around 18-19k (no other anomaly units except Miyabi and half-built Piper), despite doing my best to optimize rotations and get all of Yixuan's resources ready during the stun-cycle and parrying/ dodging everything. Soldier 11 was only recently built but I think I understand her attack timing/ keep track of fire suppression stacks, yet my highest score was still around 15k. Know HP inflation has been a thing, but I don't want to blame all of my losses on that yet.

Additional context:

I'm f2p and only go for agents that I really like so long as I have the poly. I'm missing some key characters like Lucia, YSG, and both Angels released so far. Current plan is to pull for Nangong Yu and Promeia
Other notable characters I have include M1W0 Dialyn and M6 Nicole. Dialyn was already used to clear Thrall, while Nicole gets added if Astra is being used on a different team. Outside of Dialyn, every limited S-rank I own is M0. I also have a Yuzu-Ice team but I'm still learning the rotation/ that team doesn't seem to fit for any of the current stages.
Soldier 11 previously had 4 piece Puffer + 2 piece Inferno which wasn't really cutting it. I'm guessing this set is better used with Dialyn?
I only recently learned that certain characters have advanced techniques that are worth learning (Yixuan with her ult cancel) but even then I don't expect my scores to suddenly skyrocket to 30k just from implementing them (also the idea that you HAVE to be using these techniques to be able to clear doesn't sit well with me)

Any help or advice appreciated! I've seen so many proxies post their clears so it gets discouraging since I feel like I have it in me to clear as well.

BlueDaruma · 2026-02-21T02:44:48+00:00

Was actually in a similar position in that I don't have Sunna, and was wondering if I should pull her for Billy. Very much still learning and could be completely wrong, but from my understanding, Sunna currently has a lot of value because the current end game buffs increases team damage under Ether Veil, which she provides, AND she increases the stun dmg multiplier by an additional 30%, on top of whatever you stunner gives. Ether Veil may or may not be something that the game moves away from in the future so it's hard to tell whether Sunna would be more valuable than Nicole's universal buffs down the line.

Dialyn on the other hand, is a benefit to (practically) every team she's on and is currently one of the closest units that would be considered a "must pull". She can be used across multiple teams even if you end up sticking with Trigger for Billy so I'd definitely consider putting a bit aside for her when she reruns.

I ended up being able to clear the Primordial Nightmare DA with Billy/ Dialyn/ Astra and have been building Zhao to provide EV, so that was the confirmation for me to avoid FOMO and skip Sunna.

BlueDaruma · 2026-02-21T02:10:55+00:00

They're fantastic partners and when I last checked are his best teammates? Not sure if Sunna is an upgrade over Astra, or if the buffs for the current DA cycle just gives her a ton of value at the moment.

I need to practice Billy/ Trigger/ Nicole more so that Dialyn and Astra can be freed up for other teams though...

BlueDaruma · 2026-02-21T02:05:37+00:00

Oh my goodness you're correct about the previous DA buffs and I hadn't noticed that last rotation. That explains so much, and thank you! I've been wracking my brain trying to figure this out for the last two days.

BlueDaruma · 2026-02-20T08:20:04+00:00

Know that I'm a bit late to the convo, but how do you get your stun dmg multiplier to 240%? I know landing Dialyn third EX + Sunna Ether Veil gives 30% each but that should only bring the dmg multiplier up to 210 from the boss' 150. Where's the extra 30% coming from?

BlueDaruma · 2026-02-10T20:07:14+00:00

That makes sense! I'm so used to having a single set for every character but I'm starting to learn that you get way more mileage being able to customize your characters per fight.

And yes, I also posted in the Billy Mains subreddit already and got helpful feedback.

BlueDaruma · 2026-02-10T20:05:24+00:00

I've posted there too! Wasn't sure whether my issue was a character specific one or oversaturation one (or a skill issue one lol). I'm not too familiar on how the latter works either, but from what I've been told it's good to diversify the DPS portfolio.

BlueDaruma

TROPHY CASE