Zenless Zone Zero – Nicole build and promotion guide (2024)

Make some profit with the best Zenless Zone Zero Nicole build and lead the Cunning Hares into a glorious future of financial security. As a Support character, Nicole excels at improving the party’s damage output through various means.

• Role: Support
• Damage Type: Ether
• Faction: Gentle House aka. Cunning Hares
• Rarity: A-Rank

Nicole’s key mechanic revolves around her Enhanced Basic Attack, which temporarily lowers the DEF of hit enemies substantially, hence making them vulnerable to your damage dealer’s main assault. Nicole can enhance her Basic Attacks by using her Special, EX Special, Chain Attack, or Ultimate, after which you’ll see a number of bullet icons below her portrait in the character bar at the top of the screen. These represent how many Enhanced Basic Attacks you have at the moment.

Aside from that, her EX Special Attack is her second key move: It acts as a crowd control skill, sucking nearby enemies into a black hole and dealing Ether DMG to them as well as having the same DEF reduction feature as her Enhanced Basic Attacks.

Putting Nicole into a team with fellow Cunning Hares or Ether Agents allows her to massively increase the party’s Ether DMG.

Getting duplicates of Nicole allows you to level up her Mindscape Cinema and further boost her effectiveness. Level 1 buffs Nicole’s EX Special Attack DMG and Anomaly Buildup, allowing her to inflict Corruption more easily. Level 2 provides some Energy whenever her Core Skill triggers, while Level 4 increases the radius of the energy field she creates with her various moves, which improves her crowd control capabilities. Level 6 massively increases Nicole’s Support value, as it contributes a stacking, temporary CRIT Rate buff for the entire team against targets damaged by her energy field.

Though her important debuff can be triggered by Enhanced Basic Attacks alone, Nicole’s most crucial skill is her EX Special Attack, so you’ll want a lot of Energy Regen on her. Her signature W-Engine, The Vault, provides a substantial boost to Energy Regen on top of a passive effect increasing the damage dealt by the entire team to targets that have suffered from Ether DMG caused by an EX Special, Chain Attack, or Ultimate. On the same condition, the wearer gains even more Energy Regen temporarily.

Best W-Engines for Nicole:

• The Vault (A-Rank)
• Weeping Cradle (S-Rank)
• Kaboom the Cannon (A-Rank)
• Slice of Time (A-Rank)
• Unfettered Game Ball (A-Rank)

Zenless Zone Zero – Nicole: best Drive Discs

The Swing Jazz set comes with a useful Energy Regen boost as well as a teamwide DMG buff, making it an excellent choice for Support Agents like Nicole. More Ether DMG is always good, as Nicole’s core abilities all benefit from that, but once you’ve unlocked Level 1 of her Mindscape Cinema, it may be worth investing into Anomaly Proficiency instead to further increase the damage dealt by Corruption.

While offensive stats won’t ever make Nicole a premium damage dealer, they’re likely a better investment than defensive attributes, as they’ll help raise her contribution to the party’s DPS – though if you’re feeling no confidence in your dodging and countering, then stacking HP and DEF will make you more comfortable.

Best Drive Disc sets for Nicole:

• Swing Jazz (4) + Chaotic Metal (2): +20% Energy Regen, +15% DMG for all allies for 12 seconds after launching a Chain Attack or Ultimate, +10% Ether DMG.
• Swing Jazz (4) + Freedom Blues (2): +20% Energy Regen, +15% DMG for all allies for 12 seconds after launching a Chain Attack or Ultimate, +30 Anomaly Proficiency.

Best Drive Disc stats for Nicole:

• Partition 1 – HP (Primary), Anomaly Proficiency, ATK %, CRIT Rate %, CRIT DMG %
• Partition 2 – ATK (Primary), Anomaly Proficiency, ATK %, CRIT Rate %, CRIT DMG %
• Partition 3 – DEF (Primary), Anomaly Proficiency, ATK %, CRIT Rate %, CRIT DMG %
• Partition 4 – Anomaly Proficiency (Primary), ATK %, CRIT Rate %, CRIT DMG %, PEN
• Partition 5 – Ether DMG % (Primary), Anomaly Proficiency, ATK %, CRIT Rate %, CRIT DMG %
• Partition 6 – Energy Regen (Primary), Anomaly Proficiency, ATK %, CRIT Rate %, CRIT DMG %

Nicole is a great general Support character thanks to her universal DEF reduction – even more so after reaching Mindscape Cinema Level 6, which adds that CRIT Rate buff to her arsenal. Of course, the additional Ether DMG she can provide in the right composition makes her even better in combination with fellow Ether Agents (as none of the Cunning Hares aside from Nicole herself can benefit from the additional Ether DMG).

• Zhu Yuan (Main DPS), Anby (Sub DPS), Nicole (Support)
• Bangboo: Resonaboo

Zhu Yuan will make use of the entire palette of support skills Nicole has to offer. Even the crowd control provided by Nicole is great for her, allowing her to damage several enemies at once with her Enhanced Basic Attack. A Stun Agent like Anby is a great choice to round out this combo to facilitate Chain Attacks and create some more breathing room for the team – and since Nicole and Anby both belong to the Cunning Hares, Anby can benefit from her Core Skill’s additional Energy Regen.

Zenless Zone Zero – Nicole: promotion materials

After obtaining Nicole, you’ll want to level her up as quickly as possible to make use of her talents in combat. Here are the materials required to upgrade her to Level 60:

• Basic Support Certification Seal x4
• Advanced Support Certification Seal x32
• Ruler Certification Seal x30
• Dennies x800,000

You can obtain Certification Seals from the VR Combat Simulation. Advanced materials may be crafted using lower-level materials as well. Dennies can be earned in the VR Combat Simulation as well as through operating the Random Play video store.

Leveling Nicole up is only half the game, though – you’ll want to upgrade all of her skills as well to get the most out of her performance in battle. Here are the materials required to max out her Basic Attack, Dodge, Assist, Special Attack, and Chain Attack – we’re giving you the total you need, so just divide everything by five to get the materials needed for a single skill:

• Basic Ether Chip x25
• Advanced Ether Chip x75
• Specialized Ether Chip x250
• Hamster Cage Pass x5
• Dennies x2,500,000

Chips can be farmed in the VR Combat Simulation with Advanced and Specialized Chips also being available through crafting. Hamster Cage Passes are a rare material that can be grabbed from time-limited events as well as the New Eridu City Fund.

Finally, you can upgrade her Core Skill six times to make Nicole stronger, for which you need the following materials:

• Higher Dimensional Data: Murderous Obituary x60
• Ferocious Grip x9
• Dennies x405,000

Higher Dimensional Data: Murderous Obituary is available from the Expert Challenge: Notorious – Dullahan, while Ferocious Grip must be acquired through Notorious Hunt: Newborn Dead End Butcher.