Urban RPG Zenless Zone Zero Is Totting Up Tons of PS5 Playtime

@get2sammyb I had no idea Genshin could do that! Who needs a girlfriend?!

Now I understand why PC gamers are the “master race”, no Roblox, no CoD, no Minecraft, no Fortnite; they’re just better than us. 🤪

I’ve been playing ZZZ every day for about an hour but I’m beginning to wonder why? 🤷🏻‍♂️ I think they need to do a MUCH BETTER job of explaining what I’m supposed to be doing with all of these currencies. I went into “channels” yesterday and got another 29 W engines and Soldier 11 but I’m still not sure why. I dig the story and fighting but there’s a lot that could be explained better. I’m at 52%, beginning of chapter 2, finally have a list of missions to do, so things may be picking up, but also, I’m stuck w/ all my agents at 20 but the missions are higher than that. Just got my Internet level up to 25, my bangboo at 20, but even playing on easy mode things are starting to get tough.

Maybe the game needs a warning: Please play Genshin Impact or Hinkai Star Rail before starting to play this so you know how to play, b/c we’re not explaining it again. 😝

@rjejr tip: when it says "you need X of these to level up", if you click on the thing you need, you have quick links to where you can get it.
It's easier to manage just tackling one necessary resource at a time at first

@get2sammyb Thanks, I'll read the guide after lunch. Not sure If I tried that screen, the odds seemed against me, so I've been trying the others. Good luck w/ the guide, hopefully people on this site will still be playing it by the time you're finished, this comment section is kinda small. 😢

@Carck "if you click on the thing you need, you have quick links to where you can get it."

Well that should help, as long as I can get it. I have 1.5 million denny, 6,000 polcrhome, but none of the b&w monochrome. I do understand how to look around the screens at stuff but there's a lot of stuff. Thanks.

@themightyant " you should probably focus on levelling one team "

My agents are the 3 Hares, Anton, Soldier 11 that I just got, and I think maybe the maid girl and the chainsaw girl, both of which may still be at level 10 b/c I don't have the required "things" to get them to 20. I really only use the 3 Hares b/c they are at 20. Well unless I'm in VR and the game is having me play as someone else. And I got 1 Bangopoo up to 20, the dart one that looks like a target, didn't feel like buying anymore from that guy next door to Random Play. Thanks.

@glassmusic I'd say play ZZZ. The game has only been out for a little bit and you'd be able to stay current with upcoming events and/or characters. Genshin has been out for a while and may need to play 'catch up' on it more.

I've been playing it since Day 1 on ps5 and it feels really good to play with a controller. It is missing some aspects but overall it's a solid gacha game imo and I'm looking forward to more of the story. ZZZ and HSR are pretty much the only gachas I play on PS5

@glassmusic I'd agree with the others here and say ZZZ. Genshin is fun but it was quite bloated with content and the sprawling map at launch and that's only gotten better/worse since launch. What Star Rail did well, and ZZZ does even better, is cut down the bloat, refine the core of the game and make the whole thing more accessible.

I haven't played Genshin in the better part of two years now, but one of its most glaring and persistent flaws was in how many of its underlying systems didn't really respect your time; their subsequent games have done a much better job of letting the main game flow more smoothly while offering timesinks on the side - most notably in HSR's ever-expanding Simulated Universe and ZZZ's equivalent Hollow Zero, essentially pseudo-roguelite modes.

@get2sammyb I hope MiHoYo is paying you with polychrome for writing up all of that. It helped a little, in that you pointed out how convoluted everything is - we buy monochrome to exchange them 1:1 for polychrome which we then exchange 160:1 for Encrypted master tapes, not to be confused with master tapes, to then pull things to hopefully get things we can then hopefully level up with other things of various shapes and colors. 🤪

Decided I’m just going to go keep doing what I’ve been doing and when I get bored, stop playing. Maybe go try out 1 of the others, or First Descendant, or FF14. Free is free.🤷🏻‍♂️

@rjejr
Yeah usually when you want to level up something or upgrade a skill the game will show you the "thing" you need. If you click in R3 it will tell you where you get it. Click that and it'll warp you to the location and even pick the correct monsters for you to fight. This is where you'll start needing to spend stamina, which replenishes slowly which is why people usually only focus on the 3 main people they want to use because otherwise it'll take way longer to make progress. Luckily a lot of the later story chapters just let you use trial characters that are pre leveled anyways so you don't have to worry too much if you just want to get through the story, which does pick up a bit by the end.

@ATaco Thanks. For all of that. 👍

I'll assume by stamina you mean the battery charges that we get from drinking a cup of coffee a day? I only play for an hour a day so don't think I'll ever need to worry about running out.

I spent my hour today, well besides from opening the store and rubbing off a lottery ticket, in the new work area w/ the new Meowmee cat cop waiting for nightfall to check out a rambunctious cat. Night never fell so maybe tomorrow?

No matter how long I play this game don't think I'll ever understand it all. You ever look at those 4 storage pages? 😱I've been playing Fortnite for 3 1/2 years, still don't know how to build. 😂

@glassmusic If you scroll up a few comments, Sammy linked one that PushSquare did. Probably better than anything I/we could mention in limited characters here.

@get2sammyb If for some reason you ever decide to continue writing your guide for ZZZ may I suggest hitting up @ATaco and @Carck for some pointers. Took me reading both of their comments and putting them together to finally figure out what I think is the most important aspect of the game, Agent leveling up, or as the game calls it Promotion. Despite playing on Easy Story Mode I was stuck with all my Agents at level 20 b/c I had “Insufficient items” and couldn’t figure out how to get them, but thanks to messing around and reading the comments I finally figured it out. And dying and failing all of the level 25 and 26 missions was not fun.😝

So here goes.

Access your Agents by either: L2 and Square, or, Options button, select Agents
Select the Agent you want to Promote, then with Base Stats and their LV highlighted, go to the promotion screen, then hit R3 to highlight the required item icon, then Item details, then choose either “Craft” or Combat Simulation to teleport to a Challenge Level screen (which takes places in HIA using Berthas VR machine). The game seems to highlight which fight you need this way. Then fight, using up your batteries, you can get free every day from drinking coffee.

Or, go to HIA using R1 and choose HIA Club, then talk to Bertha, then choose “Agent Promotion”, and the fight of your choice to get the items you need and some items to craft the items you actually need, ugh. Oh and choose how many waves to fight, the more waves the more items.

Edit: Or, With L2 and X, or the Options button, or Errands book in the back of the store, go into your Z Compendium, then under Training choose “Combat Simulation” and Agent Promotion” which will bring you to the battle screen.

Why have 1 way to do something when you can have 3 or 4 or 5? 😁

And that’s all I’m doing to try and get thru the other 48% of this game.

Thanks everyone.👍

@get2sammyb Hopefully someone will use it? By the way I added yet another way, or 2, to reach the Combat Simulation above, it’s after the edit.