Zenless Zone Zero (ZZZ)LuciaBuild and Guide

Lucia is an S-rank Ether Support Agent whose main characteristics are her abilities to buff Rupture Agents better than any other and scaling off of HP for her damage and numerous buffs ranging from CRIT DMG increase, to Max HP increase, to providing DMG Bonus, healing, Sheer Force and more depending on your build. As one of the strongest Support Agents in the game, she scales particularly well with one of the top meta contenders (Yixuan) as well as Manato, and they make for some of the strongest teams available. However, to make use of the wide array of buffs that she has, understanding her kit is a necessity, so let’s detail it piece by piece:

Key Mechanics: Whim and Harmony

When using Whim skills (we detail them later), her Chain Attack, EX Special, and Assist Follow-Up, and assuming she is not currently in the Dream State Lucia restores Dream Points (she also starts combat at 60). Lucia can also restore 100 Dream Points via her Ultimate, but if used during the Dream state she automatically re-enters it once it expires instead. Upon reaching 100 Dream Points, she automatically enters the Dream state, which activates a unique mechanic called Ether Veil: Wellspring, increasing the combat Max HP of all party members by 5% (a good boost solely tailored towards Rupture Agents, as their damage scales off of Max HP). In practical combat, once set up, this should always be active as the duration can be extended by her EX Special and Ultimate. The Dream state also triggers a Quick Assist every time it is entered - optimally however, Lucia will never exit this state, and hence this will be one-time use provided optimal combos are being performed.

Lucia has 2 skill mechanics called Whim and Harmony, which are types attributed to most of her attacks. If Lucia is in the Dream state, all of her attacks become of the Harmony type, and outside of the Dream State, some are considered Whims, that being her Basic Attack 5, Quick Assist, Special Attack and Dodge Counter. On the other hand, her Chain Attack, EX Special and Ultimate are always considered Harmonies. All Harmonies deal increased damage based on 70% of Lucia’s Max HP - this increase is added to the Base Damage of the damage formula and hence is also multiplicative with other multipliers such as crit and Damage Bonuses.

Additionally, all of her Whim skills inside of the Dream state are upgraded to deal massively increased damage, are then considered of the Harmony type and, like all other Harmony attacks except the ones that are always considered Harmony by default, will consume 25 Dream Points each (we won’t repeat this, but it will always apply). In the Dream state, if Lucia is off-field and another character attacks, she can attack inactively via a Harmony Aftershock attack at the same time every 8 seconds (similarly to a character like Trigger for example, but on a way longer cooldown). However, this cooldown can be reset via upgrading a Whim.

Buffs & How to access them

Aside from the 5% combat Max HP% increase from Ether Veil listed earlier, Lucia additionally provides the following buffs under the following conditions:

• 20% DMG Bonus: Practically always active in combat after upgrading a Whim or triggering an Aftershock.

• Up to 900 combat Sheer Force: When using any Harmony, Lucia gives a state called Darkbreaker to all party members for 20s (refreshed when using any Harmony). The buff starts at 12 points and is increased by 7.4 for every 200 points of initial HP she has (in the stat screen), which makes the buff cap out at 24000 initial HP. This can be expected to be permanently active, thanks to a lot of her attacks (whether on-field or inactive) being considered Harmonies.

• 30% CRIT DMG: Additional Ability buff, given to all squad members in the Darkbreaker state so long as the condition is fulfilled.

Basic Attack

Lucia has a 5-part Basic Attack string which is completely normal save for the 5th part. It is considered a Whim and hence restores 40 Dream Points outside of the Dream state, a property which will be used in her rotations.

Special & EX Special

Lucia’s regular Special provides an extra 20 Dream Points outside of the Dream State as it is considered a Whim. As a result, it may see use in some of her combos, but keep in mind it can only restore Dream Points every 5 seconds.

When it comes to her EX Special, it is always considered a Harmony, deals a solid amount of damage and gives the Darkbreaker buffs listed earlier  - however, triggering ANY harmony type attack will grant the Darkbreaker Buff, which means her EX Special mainly serves to maintain the Moonlight Lullaby 4-piece set effect. It also restores 60 Dream Points outside of the Dream state and during the Dream state, it will extend the duration of Ether Veil by 16 seconds. It also allows her to immediately follow up with the 5th hit of her Basic Attack. 

Ultimate

Lucia’s Ultimate makes her summon an Ethereal figure and ride it until she hits an enemy.  While she is invincible during the initial activation, Lucia is not invincible during this ride, she will be able to take damage but she will be immortal as she will always survive on at least 1HP. When she hits an enemy successfully, she will cast an AoE attack around them, trigger a Quick Assist, and summon a small field called Starlight Convergence, which lasts for 8s. It provides healing equal to 1.6% of her Max HP per second to any active Agent standing inside of it, this healing lingering for 4s if they step out of the circle or become off-field.

When used during the Dream state, Lucia’s Ultimate also extends the Ether Veil duration by 32s, and additionally makes her enter the Dream state once more right as it expires. Outside of the Dream state, it will restore 100 Dream Points, but ideally we will not use it outside of the Dream state.

Unused/Redundant parts of her kit

All of Lucia’s Dodge-related moves should never be used in practice, so we will not detail them as a result.

Her Chain Attack and Assist Follow-Up mostly behave normally, but they will be used, and it is worth noting they are always considered Harmonies and restore 40 Dream Points outside of the Dream state.

Depending on the team, her Quick Assist may be used occasionally or not at all. On the chance it is used, it is considered a Whim, and can restore 20 Dream Points once every 5s outside of the Dream state. 

Meta Position & Conclusion

Lucia is one of the strongest Agents in the game, period. She’s a very strong Support, but she is solely tailored towards the Rupture archetype. For the more casual players, you will be delighted to know that she can be mostly ignored inside of her Dream state and Dream state uptime is the most important part of her kit. So long as this is maintained, Lucia will perform fine. However, it is completely possible to optimize her damage for the more seasoned players, by making sure to maintain Moonlight Lullaby’s Buff by using her EX Special once every 25 seconds.

A lot of the reason why Lucia is very strong (and this is her main meta position), is because her tailored buffs toward Rupture Agents work particularly well with one of the strongest contenders in the meta, being Yixuan. Yixuan and Lucia are a force to be reckoned with, because Lucia buffs Yixuan’s Sheer Force better than anyone else while also making her benefit from her Combat HP increase, CRIT DMG and DMG Bonus as usual. Her buffs in Yixuan teams are so significant compared to other Agents that Lucia gets a meta niche carved out for herself simply by Yixuan existing. And this won’t just apply to Yixuan: Manato is also at his strongest with Lucia, and rest assured that many future Rupture Agents will be at their best by her side. With that being said, outside of Rupture teams, Lucia will always be outclassed by several other Support Agents.

In conclusion, Lucia is the ultimate buffer for Rupture Agents, currently unmatched in this role in the meta. While she has options to take her personal damage a step further for the more advanced players, at a baseline she remains very functional without much effort, and stands out as one of the strongest Support Agents in the game.