Zenless Zone Zero (ZZZ)NicoleBuild and Guide

Intro & Unique Mechanic

Nicole is an A-rank Ether Support Agent whose primary role is to amplify the damage of your damage dealers in many ways.

Underneath her portrait in combat a series of bullets is listed, which can be consumed via her Basic and Dash Attacks to enhance them. When landing her Energy Fields or enhanced attacks, units get 25% Ether DMG Bonus against the target and a staggering 40% DEF Shred debuff to struck enemies for 3.5s.

Although she’s primarily suited to Ether Agents, having hefty DMG Bonuses, she provides general increases via DEF Shred debuffs and CRIT Rate increases. For those who have the skill to capitalise on it, she also offers a high level of Anomaly application and Decibel generation, unlocking brand new routes and working as a universal Support in both Attacker and Anomaly teams.

Core Passive & Additional Ability

It’s through her Core Passive and Additional Ability that Nicole provides most of her value.

As mentioned before, it’s by hitting enemies with her enhanced Basic and Dash Attacks that her debuffs are applied. This is only the case when bullets are used, however, and the most efficient way to reload them is by using her Special, EX Special, Chain Attack, and Ultimate.

Using up Bullets isn’t the only way to apply debuffs, though, as she also does this via Energy Fields. She can generate them through:

• EX Special

• Ultimate

• Chain Attack

These Energy Fields are particularly important; they have a large vacuum radius (further enhanced by her M4), increase the team’s CRIT RATE against targets by 15%, and most importantly, linger.

The most difficult part about managing Nicole is how short her debuffs last, being only 3.5s. What’s worth noting is that this only begins ticking from the last hit - every hit from an attack that’d apply her debuff will refresh it. This means that in practice, her debuff can last for up to 7 seconds, depending on which skill is used.

As they all do Ether DMG, this also works well with her Signature W-Engine, The Vault, meaning that despite the higher Energy cost for her EX Specials than most other Supports, she can sustain frequent usage of it in fights.

Basic Attack

It’s through Basic Attacks that Nicole can apply her debuffs (if there are bullets to consume), so despite having terrible values, they’re very useful for that alone. It is often better to rely on her Dash Attack (due to its slight linger), but sometimes it can be preferable to fall back on her Basics, like at the start of Shiyu Defence to build enough Energy.

Dodge

Although Nicole will reload when using EX Specials, Chain Attacks and Ultimates, her standard Dash can also reload after a short while. This can be situationally useful in comps that demand many quickswaps as bullets tend to be used quickly. She also has 2 sets of Dash Attacks, which differ based on the directional inputs used. 

Holding any direction will have her spin around and strike enemies; outside of her Energy Fields, this is the primary way to refresh her debuff. It has a minor linger/multihit property, and as the debuff is applied by every hit, this functionally increases its duration slightly.

Attempting to Dash Attack with no directional input will instead have her vault backwards and do a single shot. This does not apply her debuff, but has the added benefit of being one of the fastest (if not the fastest) Heavy Attack in the game, which is important for high level combos in certain team comps.

Her Perfect Dodge is rather unremarkable, as it does not apply her debuff. 

Assist

As far as Support Agents go, Nicole’s Assist and Assist Follow-Up have decent daze application, to the point 2-piece Shockstar and/or Impact % D6 have at times been used in niche scenarios. This is absolutely not recommended for the average player though, but worth observing as giving her a Defensive Assist isn’t a terrible choice depending on the circumstance.

Her Assist Follow-Up specifically is already fast but can be made even faster, as it is dash cancellable once the shot is fired, doubling up as an easy transition to reapply her debuffs.

Quick Assist is unremarkable, but like her neutral Dash Attack, very fast.

Special

Nicole’s EX Special is one of her most important attacks, applying her iconic Energy Field and having really strong values across the board. It does very good damage, applies a fair bit of Anomaly and generates a lot of Decibels.

It can be charged by holding down the Special button on cast, and at M1 and above, this has the added benefit of increasing the duration of the Energy Field, meaning even more damage, Anomaly and Decibels.

When used at point blank, the charging animation itself also contributes to all of the above, making it a powerhouse of a skill.

There is also a hidden alternate EX Special that can be accessed by doing a full circle input on the joystick (→↓←↑→ on keyboard). Doing this will have her sit on her briefcase and charge the skill for even longer. Repeating the same input again leads to a “misfire”, a sort of mortar shot that goes up and lands on enemies, but this is not worth using due to the time it takes to get to it.

As for her regular Special, it’s unremarkable and not worth using. It can reload bullets, but it’s even slower than a standard Dash.

Chain & Ultimate

Like with her Specials, both Nicole’s Chain Attack and Ultimate apply Energy Fields and reload her bullets. Compared to the default duration of her EX Special (if tapped), they last longer, making it more forgiving in regards to debuff application timings.

Both of them are incredibly fast - among the fastest Chains and Ultimates in the game - meaning that unless a double Chain Attack is needed in a damage dealer, it is almost always worth using them in combos, as there will often be little to no time loss.

In some circumstances, like if a damage dealer has their Ultimate in stock, Quick Assisting into them through these skills and interrupting the Quick Assist animation with their Ultimate cast can be a time save.

Nicole’s game plan is all about maximising her debuffs for critical periods. Besides that, how she plays tends to ride on the team comp and encounter.

To start with, ensuring that her debuffs are up throughout all of a damage dealer’s stun burst is the most important skill to master early. If using The Vault as a W-Engine, the additional Energy Regen it provides means that it’s possible for Nicole to get multiple EX Special casts in a single stun period.

Each team will have a unique combo, but as a good template, opening with her EX Special and then weaving in a Chain Attack, Ultimate and/or a second EX Special mid-stun serves to both ensure uptime of Drive Discs (be it Moonlight Lullaby or Astral Voice via Quick Assists) and maintain her debuffs.

Merely tapping her EX Special is enough for most comps, but in certain teams where Anomalies are required, it can be useful to hold down her EX Special at melee range to maximise Anomaly application, but be careful to not do so at the cost of damage elsewhere and fit it in while the main damage dealer is taken up in their own attack animations.

Optimising Nicole out of stun is where things get very difficult and what lands her the “Expert” tag. Different characters have different points in which they are taken up in skills but can be safely swapped out of; Zhu Yuan during her triple Shotshell finisher, Miyabi on a level 3 Shimotsuki, Evelyn as she casts her points Chain Attack, Alice on a level 3 Starshine Waltz, etc. Use these as opportunities to swap to Nicole and do Basic Attacks, Dash Attacks, or EX Specials to refresh her debuff and - if using her EX - apply Anomaly and build Decibels on top.

While it may be tempting to try and shoot for 100% uptime of her debuff, it’s not realistic to do so and often comes with a hefty opportunity cost. There’s no need to have her debuff applied on attacks that do little damage after all, so learning when and where to prioritise swapping to Nicole is part of her skill expression.

It’s worth noting that DEF Shred and PEN Ratio negatively affect the impact they have on enemies when paired together due to how damage is calculated - avoid pairing Nicole and Rina in a Double Support team setup for example, or building PEN Ratio on your Disc Drives/W-Engines if Nicole is present in the team.

Even without exploiting Nicole’s Additional Ability reserved to Ether teams (which only adds to her value in those), she remains one of the most versatile Support Agents, and while she doesn’t function with Rupture Agents as they completely ignore her DEF Shred capabilities, with any Attack or Anomaly DPS Agents she’s often one of the strongest options available. 

Fully utilizing Nicole does take skill however, with her debuff uptime being difficult - but rewarding - to manage. As long as you learn how to work around her mechanics properly, she’s one of the best Support Agents in the game.