Zenless Zone Zero (ZZZ)Billy - StarlightBuild and Guide

Intro & Unique Mechanic

Starlight Billy is a Physical Rupture Agent who is able to quite literally ride a motorcycle in combat, with drifts, flips and wheelies that are integral to his gameplan. 

By consuming his own HP for resources then healing it back up, he gets to build up Determination, seen as a gauge with a cap of 120 points. All of his skills but one will generate Determination, with the exception being his enhanced Basic Attack: “Full-Throttle Starlight”. This is the attack that consumes Determination, costing 100 points to cast and dealing some heavy damage as a result.

In addition to this, Billy has multiple Specials and EXs that can weave into one another: some are used to sustain his buffs, others for resource generation or damage, where knowing when and where to use each skill is key to his gameplan.

Overall though, he’s a rather straightforward character that epitomises the Rupture archetype: he has on-field parries, as much of his damage be loaded on Specials and Ultimate, and has both high in-stun burst and decent sustain that comes from building his resources.

Core Passive & Additional Ability

Billy’s Core Passive nodes build CRIT Rate, which is especially important for him. While Attackers and Rupture Agents generally want all their skills to CRIT, it’s especially important for Billy because of the obscene amount of CRIT DMG that he gets.

When Billy’s HP drops below 25%, he takes 50% reduced DMG, and with good reason, for as long as his HP is above this threshold, he can consume it to use Special Attack: “Drive Suppression”, being his trademark bike riding skill, being what much of his gameplay revolves around.

As part of his Core Passive, it also increases Billy’s own CRIT DMG by 90% for 45s, being the primary reason as to how he gets so much of the stat.

Given that his Special is consuming HP, Billy needs a way to recover it, and he does so by landing any of his regular Basic Attack strings, his regular Dodge Counter: “Duel King” if it is triggered by a Perfect Dodge, and either of his Adrenaline EX Specials.

It’s here that his Determination gauge is outlined, and while most skills have their own build-up value associated with them, a few have additional bonuses, namely his EX Special Attack: “Cool Wheelie”, his Chain Attack, as well as either getting a block (with his Drive Suppression Special) or Perfect Dodging.

These bonuses are all tied to a given skill, with the exception of the Perfect Dodge, which generates a blanket 3 Determination regardless of the means used to get it - something that’s relevant as Billy has multiple ways to Dodge. It is also the one bonus that has a cooldown associated with it, at 0.5s, so multi-hit attacks often won’t help build extra gauge.

As for his Additional Ability, it demands Stun, Defence or Support Agents in the team, and it builds a stack of “Starlight” whenever the Cool Wheelie EX, Chain Attack, Ultimate or his regular Basic 4 hits an enemy, capped at 2. 

Each stack increases Billy’s Chain Attack, Ultimate and all EX Special damage by 20%, for 40% total. This functions as a buff with a 45s duration, so it doesn’t need much thought to maintain it.

Basic

Billy has 2 Basics, the aforementioned Full-Throttle Starlight enhanced Basic and a regular string, being “Knight’s Technique”.

The enhanced Basic is split into a bike ride section first and a bike exhaust beam second. The first is slightly stronger than the second, which can influence how it's integrated into combos, as it has a very long animation - well over 3 seconds in total.

This is made up by its strong damage, and given it only costs Determination, is used often.

The regular Basic has low multipliers, but comes with slight healing on all its hits. As other healing skills are dependent on either enemy behaviour (Perfect Dodges) or resources (Adrenaline), it’s an accessible filler string if needing to recover.

It also has a unique property where it will half the HP cost of the Drive Suppression Special, which can be situationally useful.

Special

Most of Billy’s kit revolves around his different Specials, of which he has 5.

2 of which come in a pair: the Drive Suppression Special costs 16% Max HP to use, and it’s both slow and weak. It can function as a gap closer, but the real reason to use it (besides refreshing the Core Passive buff) is that it will automatically lead to the Cool Wheelie EX once it ends.

It also has a parry property, where if Billy is hit while in Drive Suppression, he will block the enemy, build an extra 5 Determination, and transition into the Cool Wheelie EX immediately.

Not only is this used for Billy’s Additional Ability buff, it also deals surprisingly good damage and builds a lot of Determination, more than 10 if it lands in full.

As it’s an EX, it can also be used to sustain Yunkui Tales’ 4-piece buff, making it an integral part of how Billy plays. Getting as many Cool Wheelie EXs as HP allows out-of-stun to deal damage, build Determination and maintain buffs is ideal.

The next set are the Adrenaline EXs. Pressing Special leads to Drive Suppression, but holding it when over 60 Adrenaline will go into “High-Traction Wheels”, a high damaging bike slam.

Pressing or holding Special after the Cool Wheelie EX however, leads to “Rocking Footwork”, an alternate Adrenaline EX that’s a little slower, but also hits a little harder.

Both of these skills will heal Billy a significant amount, but their primary purpose is in their high multipliers. Look to save up Billy’s Adrenaline for stun periods to unload these EXs during it for the most damage.

The final Special is “Run Wild”. It’s used automatically after Cool Wheelie EX or if Billy is swapped out of Drive Suppression before it gets to it.

There’s no particular use to it, being slow and weak, working as a sort of forced recovery to these skills. It can link to Billy’s regular Dodge Counter, but as its not done off a Perfect Dodge, yields no extra Determination or healing.

Dodge

Said Dodge Counter, Duel King, is rather unremarkable. It’s about average with its multipliers, but can be useful to quickly heal Billy, as it recovers far more HP than his Basics.

It can also shortcut into Basic 4 after a Perfect Dodge, so between its own healing, that of Basic 4’s, and the lower HP consumption cost of the Drive Suppression Special that comes after, makes for an HP-positive string.

There is also an alternate Dodge Counter: “Afterfire Spin”. Holding a directional input during the Drive Suppression Special will have Billy drift, and other than the slight movement, changes nothing about the skill: it still leads to Cool Wheelie EX and Run Wild if it ends early.

The difference is that if Billy is hit while drifting, rather than getting a parry like normal, he’ll transition into this alternate Dodge Counter instead.

While it regens no HP, it hits almost twice as hard as a regular Dodge Counter and has some respectable Determination build, so it's more efficient for resources than relying on the parry.

It will then always link into the Cool Wheelie EX, so the only downside from doing it is the extra time that it takes for the skill to land, making it ideal in most circumstances.

Doing Assist Counters off it can be easier than with regular Dodge Counters, but be aware that as Billy needs to be in Drive Suppression to get to it, needs to start far earlier.

Separate from combat abilities, holding the Dodge button has Billy ride his motorcycle, being a unique dash that gives him faster movement.

Assist

Both Billy’s Defensive Assist and Assist Follow-Up work mostly as standard, but aside from weaving them in for Decibels and Daze, they also generate Determination.

The Defensive Assist itself is especially useful, as the Determination is generated on hit. This means that multi-hit attacks where Billy parries multiple times in a single Defensive Assist will generate additional Determination as many times as he’s hit.

Against aggressive enemies, this can be a good way to build up Determination without needing to keep Billy on-field at all times.

While he has a Quick Assist, it’s rarely ever used, as if he is over 25% HP it’s automatically converted into a Drive Suppression Special with a 5 second cooldown. 

Chain & Ultimate

Although Billy’s Chain Attack hits decently hard, it’s the weakest out of his burst skills (enhanced Basic, Adrenaline EXs, Ultimate) and isn’t particularly fast.

It does, however, generate 19.5 Determination on use, making it an integral part of his combos. With it, it’s possible to get 2 enhanced Basics in a single stun window!

As for his Ultimate, it’s a very slow, very flashy and very strong move. That’s all there is to it, best saved for combos for its high damage numbers.

Billy’s general gameplan can be summed up as:

• Look to get as many uses of the Cool Wheelie EX out of stun as possible for everything, be it damage, resources or buffs.

• Do the above ideally through parries on Drive Suppression or with the alternate Dodge Counter for even better results.

• As Drive Suppression consumes HP, make use of the regular Basic string and regular Dodge Counters to heal, with an occasional Special use after B4 to reduce its HP cost.

• Have as much Determination and Adrenaline filled when going into stun, then unload his enhanced Basic, Adrenaline EXs, Chains and Ultimates for the most damage.

On top of the above, making use of Defensive Assists to pad out Determination alongside Decibels, as well as being aware of enemy invulnerability phases and Billy’s HP so as to not drop key buffs can be important.

A standard combo for Billy would be:

• Basic Attack: High-Throttle Starlight

• Swap to another character to trigger a Chain Attack

• Chain to Billy

• EX Special: High-Traction Wheels

• Swap to another character to trigger a Chain Attack

• Chain to Billy

• Ultimate

• EX Special: High-Traction Wheels

• Basic Attack: High-Throttle Starlight

The 2nd enhanced Basic’s exhaust beam would land out of stun, but the first part - which does more damage - should land in full.

It’s unlikely that Billy will have all his resources up on every stun, in which case, being flexible with his skill use works best.

While High-Traction Wheels is the default Adrenaline EX to fall back on, if there aren’t enough Decibels for an Ultimate, or not enough Adrenaline to fit in 2 EXs, using a Cool Wheelie for damage after his second Chain Attack, then cancelling its recovery with Ultimate can be better.

Alternatively, linking into the alternate Adrenaline EX Rocking Footwork can be better if there won’t be time or Determination to get another enhanced Basic.

Since Billy takes a long time to cast his enhanced Basic, it’s a good opportunity to swap to other characters to refresh buffs and debuffs - like a Support for Moonlight Lullaby or a Stunner for King of the Summit - and get back to him via a Quick Assist conversion to Drive Suppression to cut out recovery animations.

Although he has the standard features of a Rupture unit, Billy has a varied kit that allows him to adapt to different situations, and it's in learning how to balance out his skill that one can master his gameplay.