Zenless Zone Zero: Is Zhu Yuan Worth Pulling For?

In this article we break down whether it is worth pulling for Zhu Yuan, the first limited S-rank Ether Attack agent, and her signature W-Engine, Riot Suppressor Mark VI, in patch 1.0 of Zenless Zone Zero.

Zhu Yuan arrives as the second limited Attack agent of Zenless Zone Zero, directly competing with Ellen who was the first limited agent of patch 1.0. 

As an Attack agent, Zhu Yuan specializes in dealing high direct damage and will easily rival Ellen for the spot of top damage dealer in the game, noticeably ahead of the standard A or S-rank options. She is also highly mobile and can be tested out by players for free in chapter 2 of the main story. 

The core playstyle of Zhu Yuan revolves around building Enhanced Shotshells. You generate Enhanced Shotshells by completing her basic attack combo or using her EX Special Attack, Chain Attack, Assist Follow-Up, or Ultimate. You can spend these Enhanced Shotshells by holding down her basic attack button, which upgrades her basic attack to do massive Ether damage. 

Her Core Passive, Special Ops Ammunition, boosts her Enhanced Shotshells damage plus her damage against stunned enemies. Her Additional Ability (unlocked when she is on a team with a Support agent or an agent from her faction) boosts her Crit Rate by 30% for 10 seconds after using an EX Special Attack, Chain Attack, or Ultimate. 

Putting this all together, Zhu Yuan should charge up her Enhanced Shotshells, energy, and ultimate, then use them all when the enemy is stunned for massive burst damage. She will want to be teamed up with stun and support agents to enable this playstyle, such as Anby and Nicole.

If you are looking for a top tier damage dealer, then Zhu Yuan will be a great pull for your account. Her damage output will rival Ellen’s and is better than any of the standard A or S-rank agents in the game. 

Much like Ellen, Zhu Yuan is the only damage dealer for her element in patch 1.0. In fact, Nicole is the only other Ether agent in the entire game and none of the agents teased for patch 1.1 look to be Ether agents either. This means that if you want to build an Ether damage team, Zhu Yuan could be the only option for many weeks or even months to come. 

As an agent focused on burst damage against stunned enemies, Zhu Yuan has a strong preference for forming a team with a stun agent and a support agent. She is the first character who does not require a teammate with the same element as her to activate her additional ability. This means that while she is quite limited in the roles of agents that should be paired with her, she is very flexible with their elements and even factions.

Drop rates for the A-rank agents Nicole and Ben are boosted on Zhu Yuan’s exclusive channel. 

Nicole is a fantastic A-rank support agent and is going to be the best-in-slot teammate for Zhu Yuan for a long time due to her defense shredding Core Passive and Ether damage boosting Additional Ability. Nicole is a strong support agent in general and can easily transfer to other teams even if the enemy is resistant to Ether damage. 

Ben, on the other hand, is an incredibly low priority agent right now. His slow movement speed in combat means that a lot of players find him unenjoyable to play and the defense role is also low priority compared to agents which boost your damage. If you have built Koleda then Ben could be a good option for that team due to his special synergies with her, or he could be a good backup option if Anby is your only stun agent, and you need a source of daze on two different teams.

The Riot Suppressor Mark VI is Zhu Yuan’s signature limited W-Engine and it is extremely powerful. 

The main stat on this W-Engine is a large boost to Crit DMG% (48% at level 60) which is incredibly powerful for Zhu Yuan due to the 30% Crit Rate buff she gets from her Additional Ability. 

The unique effects of this w-engine at 1 star are a 15% Crit Rate buff and 8 Charge stacks whenever the equipper launches an EX Special Attack. These charge stacks are consumed whenever the equipper does Ether damage with their basic, increasing the damage by 35%. This is perfectly tailored towards Zhu Yuan since her kit revolves around dealing huge Ether damage with her Enhanced Shotshells through her basic attack. 

This will be a strong W-Engine for any attack agent due to the crit stats it provides but only agents who do Ether damage with their basic attacks will be able to take full advantage of it, and it is currently unknown when another agent who can do this will be added to the game. 

This W-Engine will be a huge boost to Zhu Yuan’s damage and is recommended if you like to spend money on the game, or if you want to make Zhu Yuan your main character. 

Nicole and Ben’s signature W-Engines, The Vault and Big Cylinder, are also boosted on this exclusive W-Engine channel and they are both best-in-slot options for their agents. Nicole’s is the better option between the two since she is such a high-value agent to run alongside Zhu Yuan.

Players should skip Zhu Yuan if they do not need another Attack agent, or if they would rather save for future agents instead. Unless you are willing to spend a lot of money on the game, it is impossible to save enough Encrypted Master Tapes to get every agent, not to mention their W-Engines. 

While Zhu Yuan is currently the core agent for an Ether damage team, it is not essential to have this team to get max rewards from endgame content. 

Finally, as an early-game damage dealer, Zhu Yuan is at significant risk of being power-crept in the future. Damage dealers are the most popular type of character in other Hoyoverse games, and they like to release new ones regularly. Newer characters often slightly power-creep older ones to make them exciting enough for players to spend money on them. If you already have Ellen and are free-to-play, you might be better off saving your Polychrome for later agents instead.