|OT| Zenless Zone Zero | Welcome to New Eridu!

[Ascheroth]

About

Official Website: Zenless Zone Zero Officially Releases on July 4 on All Platforms
Developer: Hoyoverse
Publisher: Hoyoverse
Release Date: July 4th 2024
Platforms: PC (Standalone Launcher), Android, iOS, PS5

Zenless Zone Zero is an Urban Fantasy Action RPG set in New Eridu, the last city on Earth after supernatural disasters called Hollows started appearing out of thin air and caused the destruction of almost all civilzation.
Players assume the role of a "Proxy" who guides agents in exploring the disordered dimensions within these Hollows.

Launch Trailer

Coffee Ad (because they can)

Official Gameplay



Gameplay

New Eridu serves as a hub area, from which players have access to various shops, build Trust with their favorite agents, do side quests, find collectibles, play mini-games in the arcade, etc.

From there they take on missions about exploring these hollows. This is either done in full 3d maps, or in the so called "HDD" - Hollow Disk Drive - where maps are presented in an abstract, TV-themed grid that contain different puzzles, challenges, events and combat.

In combat, players field 3 agents and 1 Bangboo ("pet"-like robot companion).

Players attack enemies with various abilities to fill their Daze gauge while dodging and parrying the attacks, which allows them to unleash powerful chain attacks.
Additionally there is an elemental system (called Anomalies) that triggers special effects if enemies are attacked often enough with an element.


Playable Characters

More Stuff

Pre-Release Special Program

Creators Roundtable with Street Fighter 6

Live Action Trailer

Character Teasers

Character Trailers


Pre-Release Web-Event: Stock Up - Zenless Zone Zero Prize Event

 

[spindoctor]

Personally, I think I've done a very good job making this OT. Well done to me!

 

[Dandy]

Great OT, spindoctor!

Looks great Ascheroth!

I'm excited to try ZZZ, though I'm still not sure if it will be something I like. A big part of that will depend on if they release any characters I like.

 

[Ascheroth]

In hindsight I'm glad they had the livestream this close to release instead of 1 month before like Star Rail did it, cause the wait would have been way worse

I'm very excited - was a bit bummed when they showed the 2 Sons of Calydon girls cause I thought it was gonna be 1.1 banners already, but they revealed quite a few new characters in the stream I like, so that's good. But ngl, the trailer/music video was what won me over immediately xD
Very curious about the story and also how the updates are gonna look like.

I expect it to be "smaller/more niche" than both Genshin and Star Rail. But it still oozes style and has small details everywhere.

 

[texhnolyze]

Thanks for the OT, Ascheroth.

I fell off Wuthering Waves after a few days because despite a new game, I feel like I've played it too many times before. Let's see if ZZZ can give me a fresh experience. Game looks good and unique, but it's the gameplay loop that make it break it for me.

 

[Ascheroth]

Preload is now available via the HoyoPlay-Launcher on PC, as well as on PlayStation and phones.

 

[EdwardTivrusky]

i'd forgotten all about this until a while ago and then i thought it was Epic only and was going to give it a miss until i read that it has it's own non-Epic installer so i went for it.

I've wanted to try a Hoyo game for years but always ended up experiencing the games vicariously through watching streamers, vtubers and youtubers.

I think i'm set up correctly for ZZZ but i seem to have like 3 places to login lol so i can't tell.
I have the predownload done, ran up the game, gave login details and it gives me a maintenence message which is good. I think.

Hopefully i'm setup to get the pre-reg/download/whatever bonuses in a day or so, fingers crossed.

No idea who or what company i wanna get or join either lol but based on the designs alone i'm leaning towards Victoria Housekeeping or Hollow Ops.

Let's see how long this game keeps my attention. ha

 

[Ascheroth]

i'd forgotten all about this until a while ago and then i thought it was Epic only and was going to give it a miss until i read that it has it's own non-Epic installer so i went for it.

I've wanted to try a Hoyo game for years but always ended up experiencing the games vicariously through watching streamers, vtubers and youtubers.

I think i'm set up correctly for ZZZ but i seem to have like 3 places to login lol so i can't tell.
I have the predownload done, ran up the game, gave login details and it gives me a maintenence message which is good. I think.

Hopefully i'm setup to get the pre-reg/download/whatever bonuses in a day or so, fingers crossed.

No idea who or what company i wanna get or join either lol but based on the designs alone i'm leaning towards Victoria Housekeeping or Hollow Ops.

Let's see how long this game keeps my attention. ha

You can check out the Stock Up web-event I linked in the first post for some extra goodies.
You basically just have to login for a couple days to collect all the important goodies.
Something like this is kinda how you want your inventory to look like: (The A and B items are the big ones, the left over 2 slots can be filled with whatever basically).

Also you don't really select a faction, you'll pick one of the main characters (Wise, the guy, or Belle, the girls) and the rest is somewhat up to look.
Though of course the game has a bunch of free characters everyone gets:

Nicole, Billy and Anby are the default starter team.

Then we get Corin per mail from the preregistration rewards:

Soukaku and Ben from some game-modes

And it looks like Lucy from an event.

Beyond that you'll randomly get one of these fairly soon:

And can select one after a while (see the counter at the bottom right).

Beyond that it's gonna be gacha.
First banner is Ellen, 2nd banner will be Zhu Yuan. We don't know anything beyond that

I'll be going for Zhu Yuan
And have no idea who I'd actually want from the standard banner characters. I'm pretty happy with what we get for free already.

 

[EdwardTivrusky]

I found an article with details of a redeem code.

Zenless Zone Zero Redeem Codes (November 2024)

Zenless Zone Zero codes can help players amass Polychromes faster to get the Agents they want to get.

gamerant.com

"ZZZFREE100"

Limited in number so you may miss out regardless but it's worth a shot and hopefully i'm awake at 3AM uk time to give it a go ha.

 

[ZKenir]

I saw the leaks, I'll roll for Lucia

 

[spindoctor]

Hopefully i'm setup to get the pre-reg/download/whatever bonuses in a day or so, fingers crossed.

Everyone gets the bonuses even if you do nothing in terms of pre-registration and all.

"ZZZFREE100"

Limited in number so you may miss out regardless but it's worth a shot and hopefully i'm awake at 3AM uk time to give it a go ha.

I would not stay awake till 3AM just to redeem this code. Odds are it will just give some consumables and credits which won't be super important in the grand scheme of things. Also, the code will probably remain active for many days or even weeks. Practically speaking, this kind of stuff is 'limited' only in name. The only time they do actual time limited codes are after livestreams and even those are active for 24 hours.

In short, probably not limited and even if it somehow is, the goodies it gives will not be substantial. Don't ruin your sleep over it.

 

[texhnolyze]

Any countdown to the launch time? I'll never get all these time zone differences.

 

[Ascheroth]

Any countdown to the launch time? I'll never get all these time zone differences.

~26 hours at the time of me writing this apparently: Countdown To Zenless Zone Zero | Release Date
(More for me since I'll have to wait until after work anyway )

 

[texhnolyze]

~26 hours at the time of me writing this apparently: Countdown To Zenless Zone Zero | Release Date
(More for me since I'll have to wait until after work anyway )

Cool, thanks. So that'll be 3PM here. I won't be able to play until later around 5-6PM but that's good enough to me.

 

[EdwardTivrusky]

In short, probably not limited and even if it somehow is, the goodies it gives will not be substantial. Don't ruin your sleep over it.

I watch VTubers. My sleep schedule is already wrecked!

 

[Cacher]

I like Lucy's design. Need fanarts.

 

[Ascheroth]

I found an article with details of a redeem code.

Zenless Zone Zero Redeem Codes (November 2024)

Zenless Zone Zero codes can help players amass Polychromes faster to get the Agents they want to get.

gamerant.com

"ZZZFREE100"

Limited in number so you may miss out regardless but it's worth a shot and hopefully i'm awake at 3AM uk time to give it a go ha.

Don't think it's gonna be limited in the sense of actual amounts, but it will probably only be available for a couple days after launch (I think they mentioned it in the stream, but can't recall).
Nothing to worry about though, and nothing you'd need to adjust your sleeping schedule for

 

[Ascheroth]

Cool, thanks. So that'll be 3PM here. I won't be able to play until later around 5-6PM but that's good enough to me.

Looks like that timer was off by 6 hours. It's gonna release in 6 hours earlier than that, unless I fucked up again - stupid timezones

 

[texhnolyze]

Looks like that timer was off by 6 hours. It's gonna release in 6 hours earlier than that, unless I fucked up again - stupid timezones

Wow, so it's 9AM then. Oh well.

 

[EdwardTivrusky]

Looks like i was able to start at 2am not 3am, woot?
Got a bunch of rewards in my in-game mail to claim.

I like the style and presentation, seems energetic and fun too. Only problem is it's 3am now and i need to find how i can quit so i can get some sleep before work tomorrow lol

 

[hersheyfan]

Argggh, its lunch time and I'm still stuck here at work. My Hoyo playing friends are all stuck in and having a blast... just need to get through this afternoon's meetings and I'm free to take off for home.

Need new Hoyoverse game...

 

[texhnolyze]

Put 30+ minutes into the opening, did the first mission and had to put it down for work. Feels so polished, like a proper JRPG.

 

[Dandy]

I played for a bit this morning. Enough to unlock the gamba. I got 2 Billys, 2 weapons, and then Grace. Not what I wanted, but better than the gremlin I suppose.

I chose Wise, and may re-roll as Belle. While I hate Belle's running animation, Wise is pretty boring.

I went with casual difficulty, but I'll be switching cause it feels like it's so easy that I'm not learning what to do.

 

[Line]

My thoughts haven't changed much since the betas, except it's clearly much more polished.

And it sure looks very good, sounds great with really fitting sound design (except Billy's guns that feel weak) and an excellent soundtrack... but the combat is still pretty limited and it just lacks the flavour you'd expect from an action game like that, the TV minigame is just weird and still not very fun (even if they took some steps to limit its presence).
Even some zones like HSR would have helped, because it makes the game feel kinda shallow to not really do anything but combat in arenas and boring TV "puzzles", even in the city you're constantly loading chunks and menus...

It's decent I guess, and the much much higher quality cut scenes + quick motion comic parts is a tremendous upgrade over the eternal sluggishness of the other Hoyo games and their stiff animations, in general even account progression is faster and less clunky.
I'm not sure I like it well enough for the long term, but it is entertaining early on?

Not sure what the characters mean in the scheme of things but I got Piper and a bunch of weapons, and the third 10 rolls gave me

I do like their designs, and it seems both are good supports? Soukaku gives 1000 flat ATK and +20% ice damage, that sounds like a Bennett in the making.
Rina seems like a more generic support with extra shock support, which I assume will be a longer term generalist...

 

[Ascheroth]

I'm really loving the game! Played to the end of chapter 1, Account Level 16.
The style is just off the charts and is right up my alley. The presentation, music and vibes are just super fun.
I like the story and characters so far.
I enjoy the TV sections quite a bit. They are stylish as well and I'm looking forward to see what creative mission designs they come up with. The Train mission was already really cool.

Combat feels amazing. The audio-visual feedback from parrying and just attacking in general is insane, it's like I can feel it in my bones.
I think the system is pretty simple on a surface level and especially now in story-tutorial land "Press A for Awesome" is totally a viable thing, but I think I can see enough depth baked in the general system that make me look forward to seeing how it will be utilized and feel later on.
Characters also seem to offer a good amount of stuff you can "learn" if you want to be efficient and stylish.

Like Ellen already has quite a few things going on with a special dash that has its own basic and Charged attack that build up different amounts of a resource she expends to give her alternative basic attacks Ice damage instead of Physical. Her basic combo chain is 3hit but can be extended if mashing or holding down after the 3rd hit, a perfect dodge gives her a small window in which her special dash charged attack charges faster.
Her quick assist lets her swap in, deal some damage and immediately puts her into the special Dash state with the same buff from a perfect dodge, her EX Special Attack can be chained twice and diretly combo into hit 3 of her basic attack chain each time, and a parry can be combo-ed into a Special. Like, there's quite a bit to work with I think, and that's only 1 character from a team of 3.

It doesn't hurt that my pulls were insane.
Got Koleda from the Beginner pulls, which I'm quite fine with and her and Ben together are crazy fun.
Then I did a 10 pull on Ellen's banner just cause (and I also wanted Anton to complete the Koleda team). No Anton, but got Ellen!
Was going to skip her cause I wanted Zhu Yuan more, but I did really like her and now I can have both

Really happy overall. Can't wait to dig into it more over the weekend!

 

[Line]

Well

That's two S ranks in less than 60 rolls... I guess the game wants me to play it?

 

[Dandy]

I re-rolled on the Euro server and tried out Belle. I think I like her better than Wise, even with the stupid running animation. I played long enough to get my 50 pulls and ended up with Anton, Lucy, and the spooky maid.... which is probably the character design I hate the most.

Right now, I'm not sure if I will re-roll again on a new account, or just go with my original NA one. Side tangent, but I wish Hoyo just accepted that people will re-roll, and let them do it without making multiple accounts. I want all of my Hoyo games on one account, so I'll probably just accept Wise and Grace and M2 Billy and carry on.

My current pulling plan is to save for the bow guy I think. If he is only A-rank I'll riot.

 

[texhnolyze]

I just wanted to repeat myself that this game oozes Persona in so many ways. I love how there are a lot of dialogues in between the combat and missions. From regular non-voiced, comic book style, visual novel-likes, and the full blown cutscenes, this game offers different ways of storytelling it never gets old. I'm taking it slow so far since I don't want to reach the end of the story too early. The story has been very interesting too so far with fun writing and characters.

Combat and gacha characters? Nah, I don't really care about them.

 

[Ascheroth]

 

[Dandy]

This is my roster after 77 pulls on the stable banner. All I have gotten is dupes or weapons.

 

[texhnolyze]

My pulls have been crap as well. Only got one S (Nekomata), which was from pity anyway, and a lot of dupes.

 

[Line]

Well for once my luck isn't terrible, I got a S Bangboo in 30 rolls again... and I unlocked more modes, thankfully because it takes like 10 hours to get out of the tutorial, not doing much but menial tasks in the city that mostly suck and the basic missions.

And yet again, rogue lite mode with the most barebones elements added to it like in HSR, so it's still basic stat buffs with no flavour. But the TV minigame takes over moving in 3D levels to get the buffs, which was really boring... so now you get to do it in 2D with the TV, which is literally pointless.
That's really the critical flaw of the game for me, the entire concept of hacking as a TV brings nothing. What's the point of moving in a corridor as a TV in the rogue lite instead of seeing your gacha chars? You're only getting buffs and debuffs for them anyway.

There's no strategy nor actual puzzle element, it's just a top down view that doesn't use the levels they already have... if at least it did something interesting but it doesn't. The UI for buffs and events is no different than HSR.
And like in the train mission, there's no timer, no thinking about doing the right movements while the train moves, it's just pushing three blocks on three switches.
All we get is the privilege to not see our characters doing two extra animations... I think the game really needs to scrap it all entirely or at least kick it off to some side mode, it just gets in the way. Just let us act as Bangboo in the levels to do puzzles at least. That would make a lot more sense than what they have.

 

[Dandy]

I got to InterKnot level 20 and got 10 more pulls for the stable banner. Unfortunately, this game hates me, so I got M1 Nicole. That means other than free characters and the guaranteed S-tier, I still only have starter characters.

Edit: Just got another pull from Hollow Zero and got a A! It was a Corin dupe. So I still only have 5 characters lol

 

[EdwardTivrusky]

Some quick questions from someone with no experience in any gacha or Hoyoverse games.

Is there any reason to leave rewards in my email or is it okay to claim them as they arrive?
I thought i would recieve some free pulls?
I have about 3 "Master Tapes" and a ton of those "Polychrome" items not including the 1600 we got for hitting 50M downloads.
Do i get a bunch of pulls at some point in the story or do i have to convert Polychrome items?

 

[Ascheroth]

Some quick questions from someone with no experience in any gacha or Hoyoverse games.

Is there any reason to leave rewards in my email or is it okay to claim them as they arrive?
I thought i would recieve some free pulls?
I have about 3 "Master Tapes" and a ton of those "Polychrome" items not including the 1600 we got for hitting 50M downloads.
Do i get a bunch of pulls at some point in the story or do i have to convert Polychrome items?

Claim all your mail rewards immediately.
The advertised free pulls are mainly from the pre-reg mail, Account Level rewards and the daily login events. Then there's more via the "normal" permanent content.
Use your Master Tapes on the Stable Channel (first do the discounted pulls), but don't convert your Polychromes for that - you want to use those on the Limited Banner (currently Ellen), if you like her or safe them until another character you want pops up.

 

[Cacher]

 

[Ascheroth]

And yet again, rogue lite mode with the most barebones elements added to it like in HSR, so it's still basic stat buffs with no flavour. But the TV minigame takes over moving in 3D levels to get the buffs, which was really boring... so now you get to do it in 2D with the TV, which is literally pointless.
That's really the critical flaw of the game for me, the entire concept of hacking as a TV brings nothing. What's the point of moving in a corridor as a TV in the rogue lite instead of seeing your gacha chars? You're only getting buffs and debuffs for them anyway.

Eh, they can do different sort of puzzles and gimmicks more easily with the TV mode vs. full 3D levels (of which there are some, with their own mini-puzzles and gimmicks too).
I feel like almost every TV quest has had a different gimmick.
Like in this one side quest you had to shoot cannons to stop an onslaught of enemies.

Or in one side quest the map was split into 2 sections and the robot on the right would copy every move you'd make, so you'd have to move in a way that both you and it would reach the finish line while collecting all items in multiple sub-stages.

The game is just incredibly, incredibly conscious about only gradually unlocking and building upon its mechanics and softly easing players in, for better or worse.
Like it takes 20+ hours before you even unlock weekly bosses. I'm pretty sure the Hollow Zero levels at this point are also still tutorial stages.

 

[hersheyfan]

So... I binged ZZZ last weekend.

I had to do an involuntary reroll because for some reason the PC version defaults the account region to EU. It was a very unpleasant surprise when I started up the PS5 version (expecting a seamless save transfer) and... nothing. I had already bought a welkin on the EU character, too... sigh. Since being able to switch between PS5 and PC is non-negotiable, I did a quick and dirty speedrun to get it out of the way.

It ended up not being so bad, I got Koleda (who I detest, both gameplay and design wise) as my welcome banner 5 star on the EU server. I ended up getting Soldier 11 on the Asia server, then I "lost" my 50/50 on the premium banner in the 20s, and got Lycaon. So I'm now running a Lycaon/Soukaku/Soldier 11 rotation, which has been pretty good at shredding stuff so far.... per friends who are farther into the game I'm going to need a shock character soon though, and since I'm not pulling for the cop I'll probably have to make do with Anton for now.

It also seems very time consuming to level up all the different bits of your character at this point, super resource intensive - however, i remember feeling the same way about Star Rail in the early going, and now its not hard at all.

All in all im happy with the way it turned out, I'm so happy I dropped Genshin Impact as I wouldnt have been able to play all three mainline Hoyogames at the same time.

 

[spindoctor]

I got to InterKnot level 20 and got 10 more pulls for the stable banner. Unfortunately, this game hates me, so I got M1 Nicole. That means other than free characters and the guaranteed S-tier, I still only have starter characters.

Edit: Just got another pull from Hollow Zero and got a A! It was a Corin dupe. So I still only have 5 characters lol

You know what must be done...

 

[Dandy]

You know what must be done...

Pfft! None of the characters in ZZZ are worth my RL money. Yet.

I'm not spending any money on this game until I see what they are doing with upcoming characters, Not even the BP or the Welkin/Express Pass/whatever it's called in this game.

 

[EdwardTivrusky]

Is Ellen "quaranteed"? I still have no Rainbow Master Tapes for the channel she is on.
Are they rewards or unlocks later on or do i gotta spend cash?

edit:
"Work From Home" for the win!
I literally just logged in to the game and checked my email and i have the Pre-reg rewards sat there so - 20 Monochrome Tapes, 5 Boops and Corin.
I'm gonna just claim all the remaining rewards in my email like Ascheroth said to do.

It seems i also got a bit distracted last night poking about the UI and traded some of those Polychrome things for Rainbow Master Tapes, which i have 8 of but they gave us 10 pulls worth of polychromes for free the other day so i may grab two more and try a 10 pull or "Signal Search" as they call it.

 

[Line]

Is Ellen "quaranteed"? I still have no Rainbow Master Tapes for the channel she is on.
Are they rewards or unlocks later on or do i gotta spend cash?

Like any limited, she is guaranteed... if you can reach 160 rolls on her banner.
Which seems to be mighty unlikely without spending right now, there is not much more than that available for free, and that's including completing everything.
But of course, you should get her before that, as that is the worst case scenario, that's one in billions.

She'll come back though, she's not gone forever.

edit:
"Work From Home" for the win!
I literally just logged in to the game and checked my email and i have the Pre-reg rewards sat there so - 20 Monochrome Tapes, 5 Boops and Corin.
I'm gonna just claim all the remaining rewards in my email like Ascheroth said to do.

It seems i also got a bit distracted last night poking about the UI and traded some of those Polychrome things for Rainbow Master Tapes, which i have 8 of but they gave us 10 pulls worth of polychromes for free the other day so i may grab two more and try a 10 pull or "Signal Search" as they call it.

Do indeed keep your polychrome for rainbow master tapes, and try to get her if you like her. Maybe you'll get lucky and get her early, it's only a 0.6% chance... and that chance will improve greatly when you reach 65 pulls and onward on her banner...
But if you somehow don't get her and lose the 50/50... you will have a low chance of getting her this patch.

 

[spindoctor]

Is Ellen "quaranteed"? I still have no Rainbow Master Tapes for the channel she is on.
Are they rewards or unlocks later on or do i gotta spend cash?

It's very important to understand the gacha system so I'll just explain as much as I can. I'm sure you know most or all of this but just in case...

Monochrome is the premium currency you can buy with real money in the game. You can use monochrome to buy bundles of resources in the shop (which you should never do) or you can convert it into polychrome. In general, monochrome prices are crazy high for what you get and you should avoid spending money on it unless you absolutely love the game and/or desperately want a character in a limited banner.

Polychrome is the currency used for the gacha pulls. You can get polychrome from playing the game, completing quests, login bonuses, events and so on. As mentioned, you can also convert the premium currency monochrome into polychrome although, again, that's not recommended. If you feel like spending money on the game then the $5 monthly Inter-Knot Membership is the best bang for your buck.

There are 2 different types of banners in the game - limited and standard. Limited banners have one 5-star (S-rank) featured character and are only available for 3 weeks at a time. If you want that specific character, you have to get them from the banner within those 3 weeks or else you'll have to wait for a few months until that banner returns. On the other hand, the standard banner is permanently available in the game and it has a pool of 5-star characters and weapons that you can get from it. In this game, the standard banner is known as the Stable Channel while the limited banner is known as the Exclusive Channel.

You can convert polychrome into 'tickets' that you spend on these gacha banners. In this game, the 'ticket' for the standard banner is known as a Master Tape while for the limited banner it is known as Encrypted Master Tape. The one GOLDEN RULE for this gacha system is that you should NEVER convert polychrome into standard banner tickets. Limited banners have better, more desirable characters and they are time limited so you always want to have as many limited banner tickets available as possible. You will slowly get standard banner tickets while just playing the game so it is not at all recommended to use your polychrome currency to get more standard banner tickets.

The main thing to take away from this wall of text is to never convert polychrome into Master Tapes and only convert them into Encrypted Master Tapes.

There's a lot more that can be written about how the probabilities work with the gacha system, what hard and soft pity is and so on. Again, you probably know how it works but in case you would like some clarification, just mention it in this thread and I'll try and explain that as well.

 

[Line]

I was wondering what "optimal" teams would be like early, not in terms of characters but in terms of elements.
Seems like ice/ether and fire/physical are very often the weaknesses, so it's probably better to get a team of each group...I just got Lucy, maybe I'll try to add her to Koleda... not totally sure that Ben is the best partner actually, the moveset change is cool but he also constantly pushes away enemies with his support.

Anyway my main team for now is Anby/Rina/Anton C6. It's pretty devastating and very fluid all around, but Anby is annoying on faster mobs since you can't reliably hit her 3 hit combo + skill for her core passive...

 

[Dandy]

Roster update! Got 12 more stable banner pulls from from hitting IK 25! No new characters - just another Corin dupe lol

This game truly hates me.

 

[Line]

I just realized that my eternal A rank luck to get all of them early is still here (for all the good it does me when I struggle so much with the actual rare S ranks or equivalent - although I don't have anything to complain about in ZZZ for once), and it seems that Piper is a monster in multi element teams... when I have some stamina to spend, maybe I'll use her.

The game sure gets slower after IK30.

 

[Dandy]

I finally won a new character. I threw 10 pulls at the Limited banner and got Anton.

 

[spindoctor]

So how good is Ellen anyway? Is she like Seele who will carry your account for a good 6 months? As in, almost a must pull?

 

[Line]

So how good is Ellen anyway? Is she like Seele who will carry your account for a good 6 months? As in, almost a must pull?

Seele has her own niche carrying her and is quite bad otherwise if there's no extra adds, so I don't think you can really compare as it's not how it works in an action game...? Although I did see W-engines with on-kill buffs, so maybe there's a bit of that.
But she is the queen of DPS for now, although she does need to keep her buff mechanics going so she might not be the easiest to use effectively everywhere. With the added downside of being extremely reliant on Lycaon (which at a glance I might see fall off later with his personal DPS and fairly low Ice anomaly build up).

I'm targeting Zhu Yuan on the second banner of this patch since we literally have only one Ether character and that's Nicole... but she will feel very alone for a long time it seems, so she'll be in a disruption team (multiple conflicting elements).

The only real thing that could help would be to know the elements of future characters, and there's leaked rumours of another Ice DPS like Ellen being not too far off, but that's never too reliable...

 

[Ascheroth]

Ellen is top-tier right now, impossible to say anything beyond that since we have no idea about how this game is going to handle power-creep, new game modes, etc.