Zenless Zone Zero (ZZZ)BanyueBuild and Guide

Intro & Unique Mechanic

Banyue is a Fire Rupture Agent who brings with him many unique mechanics: he has 2 separate Basic Attack strings, no regular Specials, and uses a string of inputs to access different EX Specials for high-damaging combos.

On top of that, he has a normal dodge and a unique on-field parry skill that can be used in place of his dodge, leading to Assist Follow-Ups without needing to be swapped out of then back in via Defensive Assists.

Underneath his portrait in combat, a gauge will measure Banyue’s “Wrathful Fires”. This is built by getting Perfect Dodges, Defensive Assists, and landing his on-field parry, as well as by consuming Adrenaline through his EX Specials. 

Once it hits a threshold, Banyue can enter his “Visage of Wrath” state, where he gains stacks of “Mountain’s Might”, increasing his Fire DMG dealt when consumed and making his EX Specials cost no Adrenaline, while also unlocking 2 highly damaging enhanced Basic Attacks.

This leads to a cyclical playstyle: stay on-field to build Banyue’s gauge, then when it’s topped up, unleash a series of EX Specials and end with his enhanced Basic Attacks - ideally in stun.

Core Passive & Additional Ability

Banyue’s Core Passive is where his Wrathful Fires and Visage of Wrath mechanics are outlined. Wrathful Fires’ generation is a standard 4 points for:

• Perfect Dodges

• Defensive Assists

• “Immovable Mountain”, Banyue’s unique on-field parry skill

However, if Immovable Mountain is timed perfectly, it will generate 6 points instead. All of these have a 1-second cooldown on their Wrathful Fires generation.

It is important to note that this cooldown is per skill, hence it is not shared! It is possible (and in fact encouraged) to get a Perfect Dodge, then parry an enemy attack immediately after, leading to both of them granting Wrathful Fires even if done within 1s of one another.

Banyue also gets 0.5 Wrathful Fires per Adrenaline spent, which is where most of his generation comes from.

It has a cap of 150, but Banyue only needs 120 to enter the Visage of Wrath State, and can do this by using some of his Basic Attacks, his Chain Attack, or his Ultimate.

When entering the Visage of Wrath state, he gains 4 stacks of “Mountain’s Might”. Normally, Banyue’s EX Specials consume anywhere from 20 to 40 Adrenaline, but if Mountain’s Might is used, not only do they not consume any Adrenaline, but they regen 10 Adrenaline per cast instead. Note that while in Visage of Wrath, Banyue cannot generate Wrathful Fires by any means!

These EX Specials can be done with either Quick Inputs (which we’ll cover in a bit), or merely by holding the Special button while there are Mountain Might stacks, leading to an “Auto Combo”. By either holding Basic Attack or at the end of the Auto Combo while in Visage of Wrath, Banyue will use his enhanced Basic Attack “Toppling Mountain” for a large burst of damage, consuming 120 Wrathful Fires and exiting the state.

On top of all of this, it provides some decent buffs too, namely 300 Combat Sheer Force, 36% Fire DMG Bonus, and 36% CRIT DMG for 30 seconds after an EX Special or Assist Follow-Up, meaning it’s guaranteed to have permanent uptime.

His Additional Ability needs a Support or Stun character, and it’s a minor but helpful damage gain. It is this that gives him more Fire DMG Bonus when consuming Mountain’s Might, with 5% per stack consumed, stacking up to 3 times and lasting 8 seconds. The ramp-up does mean it isn’t up in full when his burst begins, but it is a welcome increase nonetheless.

Basic Attack

Banyue has 6 Basic Attacks in total. To begin with, there are 2 sets of regular Basic Attacks.

He has a standard Basic Attack string, “Towering Peaks”, which is accessed by pressing the Basic Attack button. However, he also has an alternate Basic Attack string, “Majestic Summit”, which is accessed by pressing the Special button.

Banyue does not have a non-EX Special, with the button instead being reserved for this alternate Basic Attack string. It hits harder than his standard Basic Attacks, but is a fair bit slower, which means it isn’t often worth using.

There are situations in which it should be used, though. After all, if Banyue’s Special button is reserved for his alternate Basic Attacks, how does he access his EX Specials?

By pressing the opposite button from a specific string, Banyue will perform an EX Special depending on where in the string the button was pressed. For example, a standard Basic Attack strings has 4 hits:

• BBBB

Pressing Special after the 1st or 2nd hits of this Basic Attack will yield the “Lion’s Roar” EX Special:

• BS or BBS

Pressing Special after 3rd or 4th hits gives a different EX Special, “Earth Shaker”:

• BBBS or BBBBS

The same is true in reverse; pressing Basic after the 1st or 2nd hits of the alternate Basic Attack yields the “Mountain Tremor” EX Special:

• SB or SSB

Whereas pressing Basic after the 3rd or 4th hits gives the EX Special “One’s Path”:

• SSSB or SSSSB

So, depending on which EX Special you want to use, different Basic Attack strings must precede them.

The next set of 2 Basic Attacks are situational. Rather than strings, they interact with his unique mechanic, as if holding down the Basic Attack button while Banyue is at over 120 Wrathful Fires, he will use “Inflame” and enter Visage of Wrath.

This isn’t recommended, as it’s quite time-consuming, but may be needed at times where a Chain Attack or Ultimate isn’t available.

If holding Basic Attack and at over 50% HP out of combat, Banyue will cast “Immolate” instead, consuming his health and generating up to 120 Wrathful Fires. Once he hits 120, he will then enter the Visage of Wrath state.

This is usable only once per fight (or once every 180 seconds in Investigation Zone mode). As it needs to be done out of combat, once a fight begins, this can no longer be used.

The last 2 Basic Attacks are enhanced variants, “Crushing Peaks” and “Toppling Mountain”. Both of them are accessed by holding Basic Attack in the Visage of Wrath state and are the only way to end the state.

If 2 different EX Specials were used through these “opposite” Basic Attack inputs, or through “Quick Inputs”, Crushing Peaks is used first and will always link into Toppling Mountain. If not (such as by Auto Combo or by holding down Basic without doing EX Specials), Toppling Mountain alone is used. Note that Banyue cannot be swapped out during these attacks!

Special

It’s worth covering the “Quick Inputs”, as they are key to Banyue’s mechanics. Using a singular input after a Basic Attack string (e.g. BBS) leads to an EX Special, but they can also be accessed without any Basic Attacks being used. If a string of inputs is done while Banyue is in any attack animation that isn’t a Basic Attack string or Crushing Peaks/Toppling Mountain, he will shortcut to an EX Special.

So for example, if Banyue is casting a Chain Attack, inputting BBS before the animation is over will lead to the “Lion’s Roar” EX Special once the skill ends. The same is true if done during a Quick Assist, Assist Follow-Up, Ultimate, and even other EX Specials.

These inputs are:

• BBS for Lion’s Roar

• SSB for Mountain Tremor

• BSB for Earth Shaker

• SBS for One’s Path

When done during an EX Special though, rather than queuing the skill and having it play out once the skill ends, it will immediately interrupt the currently cast EX Special. This is the Cancel mechanic that is unique to Banyue.

All of these EX Specials have quite long animations, but their attacks are offset. After a certain point, even if they are interrupted, they will still do their damage in full - a “Perfect Cancel”.

So linking multiple EX Specials in quick succession is possible and, in fact, ideal.

2 of these EX Specials can also be enhanced if used via Quick Inputs after certain EX Specials. Lion’s Roar becomes “Lion’s Roar - Wrath” when used after One’s Path, and Mountain Tremor becomes “Mountain Tremor - Wrath” when used after Earth Shaker.

These cost 40 Adrenaline, whereas normally all EX Specials only cost 20, but do a fair bit more damage. As Mountain’s Might makes EX Specials cost no Adrenaline, getting at least 2 of them in every Visage of Wrath state is important to get the most damage out.

Mountain’s Might also makes it impossible to mess up the timing, as if inputting EX Specials too early, it will queue the skill and use it on the first frame that Perfect Cancel is available - which is actually quite important for combos, as Banyue can be swapped out of before the skill is cast!

Dodge

Banyue’s Dash Attack, Perfect Dodge and Dodge Counter are rather unremarkable, but as Perfect Dodges give 4 Wrathful Fires, it’s always good to make use of it - be it via Assist Counters or before doing Immovable Mountain, the unique on-field parry.

This parry is accessed by pressing Dodge without any directional inputs being held down when Banyue is in the middle of a skill animation. It takes priority over almost every single skill and will interrupt them when used. If landed, it leads to an alternate Assist Follow-Up, “Pierce Heavens”.

It’s important to get as many of them as possible out of stun, as it is the most effective way to build Wrathful Fires without consuming resources, owing to its 6 Wrathful Fires generation when timed “perfectly”.

Banyue also has a “taunt” Dodge; by doing a half-circle input on a joystick (→↓← on keyboard), an alternate Dodge is used. This has little to no use out of stun, being for style points only, but it has a niche high-level application where it is able to interrupt the recovery frames of EX Specials, allowing for faster transitions into Crushing Peaks/Toppling Mountain when properly timed.

Assist

Most of Banyue’s Assists are regular, with his Quick Assist, Defensive Assist and standard Assist Follow-Up having no standout features. Like with his Perfect Dodge, the Defensive Assist generates 4 Wrathful Fires, so swapping out of Banyue isn’t always a loss as he can still generate some when being swapped back into.

He does, however, have an alternate Assist Follow-Up: Pierce Heavens. Unlike the standard Assist Follow-Up, this generates Adrenaline and Banyue can be swapped out during its cast, but generates only 1/3rd of the Decibels of his standard variant.

Chain & Ultimate

Banyue’s Chain Attack does some decent damage and - most importantly - is a way to enter the Visage of Wrath state. Using this in combo openers is staple to Banyue’s combos as a result, and despite it not being too outstanding a skill, its fairly decent damage, Decibel generation and reasonably fast cast speed means it’s often preferable to use 2 of them when possible.

As for his Ultimate, it is also a way of entering the Visage of Wrath state, which can be helpful if not enough Wrathful Fires are generated by the start of a combo, as it allows for transition into the state halfway through if needed. It does decent damage and is very fast, being one of the fastest damage-dealing Ultimates in the game, meaning it’s easily slotted into combos.

Banyue may have a lot of complexity to his kit and equally steep execution requirements to go with it, but at its core, his game plan is surprisingly simple. 

More than any other character in the game, Banyue wants to be on the field to build up to Visage of Wrath, so most fights with him boil down to getting as many perfect on-field parries with Immovable Mountain as possible, spending Adrenaline, and trying to line-up stuns so that they’re happening after Banyue is at 120 Wrathful Fires. From there, burst as hard as possible and then make use of the Adrenaline refund from Mountain’s Might to start building his gauge back up and repeat the process.

His ideal stun combo has no Adrenaline requirements, as Visage of Wrath makes EX Specials free and refunds Adrenaline on cast, but Banyue should have enough Decibels for an Ultimate. Manual Chain should not be needed (although it does make it more comfortable!), as you can swap out of Banyue before the delayed Heavy Attacks from his EX Specials land.

• Be on another character to trigger Chain

• Banyue Chain Attack (buffer Earth Shaker during this)

• Cancel

• Earth Shaker (BSB)

• Mountain Tremor - Wrath (SSB)

• Swap to another character to trigger Chain

• Banyue Chain Attack (buffer One’s Path during this)

• One’s Path (SBS)

• Lion’s Roar - Wrath (BBS)

• Crushing Peaks

• Toppling Mountain

• Ultimate

Assuming Dialyn is used, then the Chain Attack can be replaced with an Ultimate conversion. Alternatively, a double Chain + double Ultimate combo is possible depending on resource economy, in which case swap to Dialyn on the second set of EX Special casts (so just before Crushing Peaks) and use her Ultimate conversion then.

If there is enough time after Ultimate (such as if using his M1 or other characters’ Stun extensions, like Dialyn), then loop One’s Path and Lion’s Roar - Wrath with the remaining Adrenaline before stun ends.

If using Auto Combo, then:

• Be on another character to trigger Chain

• Banyue Chain Attack

• Cancel

• Press the Special button and keep it held down

• Earth Shake

• Mountain Tremor - Wrath

• One’s Path

• Lion’s Roar - Wrath

• Swap to another character to trigger Chain

• Banyue Chain Attack

• Ultimate

• Toppling Mountain

Note that, unlike the Quick Inputs combo, Auto Combo requires Manual Chain! Without it, Chains will trigger halfway through the EX Special strings. It also should not end with Ultimate, which has the unfortunate side effect of making it unable for Banyue to link EX Specials right as the combo ends, but it is necessary as the Ultimate must be used to cancel the Chain Attack’s recovery animations. 

It must be done this way, else there isn’t enough time to fit everything in stun without extensions, as the Auto Combo does not execute Perfect Cancels. So while Banyue can do fine with it, players are strongly encouraged to learn Quick Inputs.

That’s really all there is, but just because his game plan is simple does not mean that his gameplay is.

At the start of a fight, you might be tempted to use Inflame to get 120 Wrathful Fires, but this is usually a bad call! In most Deadly Assault encounters, Banyue wants to shoot for 4+ stuns, whereas in Shiyu Defence the faster you’re cycling through stuns, the faster you can get clears. So instead, stop using Inflame shortly before it hits 120 and try to rush to the first stun as fast as possible.

After the first stun, Banyue’s lacklustre Wrathful Fires generation means that it’s very difficult to keep up the pace to balance enough daze application for 4+ stuns and have all of his resources ready.

This means that advanced techniques - like using Assist Counters when swapping out of Banyue to Stunners, or Perfect Dodge + Immovable Mountain on multihit attacks - are crucial to maximise his Wrathful Fires generation without sacrificing daze.

Being aware of the enemy’s AI patterns and learning which EX Specials to use and when helps a lot too. On paper, Earth Shaker is the only move worth using out of stun; it has the highest damage multipliers, daze build and Decibel generation per Adrenaline spent, making it the obvious choice.

It isn’t that simple, though, as despite using Wrath moves or shorter, faster attacks is worse for damage and resources, if the enemy attacks halfway through an Earth Shaker animation, using Immovable Mountain to parry may interrupt it before its Perfect Cancel point, losing out on all of its benefits.

Faster moves also mean Banyue is back to Basic Attacking quicker, hence more Adrenaline generation and the potential for more EX Specials, which in turn means more Wrathful Fires.

This leads to a character that has a clear goal, but the way in which it's attained can be remarkably difficult. 

That is, of course, only for optimised routes - Banyue can still perform decently well by alternating Visage of Wrath across stuns (one has it, the other doesn’t), where a different approach is taken and conserving Adrenaline for when Visage of Wrath isn’t available can work out well (and is in fact optimal for certain bosses).

Banyue can seem overwhelming at first, with a good deal of muscle memory being required to learn all of his moves, but that’s really all it amounts to: execution. The “what” needs to be done part is easy, so it’s in mastering the “how” that he shines brightest.