Summary
Two years after its initial reveal,Zenless Zone Zerois finally set forrelease on July 04, 2025. The second major title developed by HoYoverse after the success ofGenshin Impactin 2020,Zenless Zone Zerotakes a few noticeable departures from the studio’s recent efforts, with a stronger focus on action and more episodic storytelling. Like the other games that HoYoverse is well-known for, however,ZZZfollows the gacha monetization model, so long-term players will want to keep the game’s pity system in mind when pulling for characters or weapons.
Set in the post-apocalyptic setting of New Eridu,Zenless Zone Zerofeatures siblings Wise and Belle as dual protagonists - although,setting itself apart fromGenshinandHonkai: Star Rail, neither character is actually playable in the game’s combat encounters. Instead, when engaging in combat, players will select a team of up to three Agents, characters with distinct combat styles and abilities that belong to specific factions, and who are attained through pulling on specific banners. And although the setup for pulling characters is very similar to other HoYoverse games, there are a few key differences.
Zenless Zone Zero Preview: Ambitious, Chill Gameplay With Immaculate Vibes
Zenless Zone Zero is both the most ambitious and chill effort from HoYoverse yet, a delightful blend of urban fantasy and high octane combat.
How ZZZ’s Pity System Works
Soft & Hard Pity Limits
Taking cues from their most recently released game beforeZZZ, HoYoverse has designed the game’s pity system to be practically identical to that ofHonkai: Star Rail, which, itself, has a system only slightly modified fromGenshin Impact.A-rank Agents (equivalent to 4-star units inHSRorGenshin) or W-Engines (weapons) are guaranteed at least once every 10 pulls, with a standard 0.6% chance to pull an S-rank (5-star) Agent or W-Engine. Around 75 pulls in, however, “soft” pity will start to kick in, where each subsequent pull increases the chances of pulling an S-rank.
At 90 pulls (or 80, for W-Engine banners),players will hit “hard” pity, where they are guaranteed to pull an S-rank. On standard banners, pulling an S-rank just gives one of the standard offerings, with no bearing on the next S-rank pull, but limited banners work differently. The first time a player pulls an S-rank on a limited banner, they have a set chance to pull the featured item. If they “lose” that gamble and get a standard banner offering instead, their next S-rank draw on that banner is guaranteed to be the featured item.
Zenless Zone Zero Pity Can Carry Over Between Certain Banners
Standard & Limited Banners
Pity “carries over” between limited banners of the same type, so a player who pulls 20 times on a limited character banner without getting an S-rank Agent will only need 70 more pulls on the next banner to hit hard pity. This carrying over doesn’t function for different banner types; for example, pulls on an Agent banner don’t influence pulls on a W-Engine banner.
As a result, the amount of pulls necessary to absolutely guarantee getting a specific limited Agent or W-engine is 180 and 160, respectively - enough to hit hard pity twice over, in the case that player pulls a standard offering for the first time. In practice, though, the increased odds offered by soft pity starting at around 75 pulls means that only especially unlucky players will have to spend an entire 180 pulls on a single banner. Gacha is a contentious monetization model, and knowing howZenless Zone Zero’s pity system can be helpful for making in-game decisions.
