Deadly Assault Guide and Best Agents for Zenless Zone Zero

Deadly Assault is a high-stakes, endgame challenge mode in Zenless Zone Zero, designed for experienced players seeking more challenge. It is a much higher difficulty than Shiyu Defense, and you will need to come prepared.

Deadly Assault acts currently as the Pinnacle Endgame activity, it is not really accessible to all players, as it requires you to master every aspect of Zenless Zone Zero. There is also no lower difficulty version, so it is not suited for beginners or low level agents.

Deadly Assault consists of time-limited battles against enhanced versions of story campaign bosses, each possessing new mechanics and increased difficulty. The objective is to accumulate as many points as possible within a three-minute timeframe, with rewards based on performance.

Deadly Assault will reset every other Friday. The current Deadly Assault Stages are available from February 07, 2025 until February 21, 2025.

Reset will erase all your progress, allowing you to challenge bosses, and receive all the rewards again! Some of the Bosses and Buffs may change upon reset. We will update this guide accordingly each time.

In order to access Deadly Assault, you need to reach Inter-Knot Level 40, and unlock the Shiyu Defense mode. After Shiyu Defense is unlocked, you will have to complete the Deadly Situation commission.

Once completed, you can access Deadly Assault at Scott's Outpost.

Deadly Assault is a time-limited challenge against Story Bosses. You will have 3 minutes per boss to score as many points as possible. The bosses are more aggressive, have more health, and new mechanics, giving you a serious challenge.

The Enemies will be level 70 versions of Story Bosses. The mode will NOT scale for lower-level agents, and you will not manage to complete it if your agents are not properly equipped.

The three bosses have 30 life bars. The goal is not to actually kill them. You can try, but even with top tier teams you will likely not get all the health down to zero. The goal is to do the most points in a very short time-frame.

There is three point thresholds you need to reach:

• B-Rank: 6000 points
• A-Rank: 14,000 points
• S-Rank: 20,000 points

You can get 3 stars per challenge, and each star gained will give you access to a reward.

You will also need three different teams. Each time you pick a squad for a boss, the agents gets locked to this specific boss, and you will need one squad per boss. You can reset the teams if you picked the wrong ones, but this means loosing your progress. The rewards previously obtained can still be claimed even after you reset a team.

You will also be able to pick between three different buffs for each team. Which one you choose will depend on your squad and the boss you are fighting:

The system is different from everything you have played so far in the game. You will earn points by doing damage, however, the most points will come from completing specific tasks that will depend on the boss.

Those tasks can be things like interrupting a specific attack, or killing adds that spawn during the fight.

Each boss has different weakness and resistances, as well as new mechanics that differ from their story version, forcing you to use specific squads and strategies to get through each boss. Here is a detailed look at the bosses and the recommended squads and strategies:

Make sure your squad are fully leveled, with good W-Engine and Disk Drives sets, and leveled Skills! You will not be able to get maximum points with agents that don't have a very good build!

5.

Bosses, Mechanics, and Recommended Squads

Notorious Dead End Butcher Autonomous Assault Unit - Typhon Destroyer Notorious - Marionette

5.1.

Notorious - Dead End Butcher

The first boss you can face is Butcher. He is weak to Ice and Ether Damage, and has no specific resistances.

5.2.

Enemy Details

DMG dealt to boss enemies by Attribute Anomaly is increased by 50%.

While Notorious - Dead End Butcher is in Ether Enhanced state, the DMG it takes is reduced by 15%, and the Daze value dealt by Agents to it is reduced by 30%.

Triggering Disorder on Notorious - Dead End Butcher immediately forces it to exit the Ether Enhanced State.

5.3.

Special Mechanic

If you successfully trigger Perfect Dodge you earn 200 Performance Points. You can obtain a maximum of 5000 Performance Points this way.

Use teams that can easily trigger disorder. Try to do perfect dodges, as this will give you additional points.

5.4.

Recommended Squads

Buff	DPS	Sub	Support	Bangboo
Interrupt	Zhu Yuan	Qingyi	Nicole Demara	Resonaboo Officer Cui
Interrupt	Zhu Yuan	Nicole Demara	Astra Yao	Officer Cui
Rapid Aid	Hoshimi Miyabi	Tsukishiro Yanagi	Alexandrina Sebastiane	Agent Gulliver
Rapid Aid	Hoshimi Miyabi	Lighter	Astra Yao	Agent Gulliver Sharkboo
Interrupt	Ellen Joe	Lighter	Astra Yao	Sharkboo
Interrupt	Ellen Joe	Von Lycaon	Soukaku	Sharkboo

5.5.

Unknown Corruption Complex

The second boss you can face is Autonomous Assault Unit - Typhon Destroyer. He is weak to Electric, and resistant to Fire.

5.6.

Enemy Details

Agents inflict Overwhelmed when landing Defensive Assist hit against a Boss enemy, and 3 stacks of Overwhelmed when accumulating 3 Defensive Assist hits and triggering Impaired.

Each stack of Overwhelmed increases Daze by 15%, and Chain Attack and Ultimate DMG taken while Stunned by 10%.

The enemy will fix the impaired parts and reset the impairment level while charging, and will reset its Overwhelmed stacks after recovering from Stun.

5.7.

Special Mechanic

Assist Points are not consumed for this battle.

If you successfully impair an enemy you will earn 600 Performance Points. You can get a maximum of 5000 Performance Points this way.

Use Electric teams if you can, as they will more easily be able to impair the Boss. Focus on using defensive assists when he tries to do his big attacks. Keep your ultimates or big burst DPS for when he is stunned, as he will get 10% more damage during that time.

5.8.

Recommended Squads

Buff	DPS	Sub	Support	Bangboo
Dazing Force	Asaba Harumasa	Astra Yao	Caesar King	Knightboo
Dazing Force	Asaba Harumasa	Qingyi	Alexandrina Sebastiane	Plugboo
Dazing Force	Tsukishiro Yanagi	Qingyi	Alexandrina Sebastiane	Plugboo
Dazing Force	Tsukishiro Yanagi	Seth Lowell	Alexandrina Sebastiane	Plugboo

5.9.

Notorious - Marionette

The final boss you can face is the Marionette. He is weak to Ice and Ether Damage and Resistant to nothing specific.

5.10.

Enemy Details

Damaged dealt by Boss enemies increases by 25%.

When a clone is destroyed or when the main body is stunned, 1/5 stacks of On Thin Ice is inflicted on Boss enemies respectively.

Each stack of On Thin Ice decreases the DMG dealt by the Boss by 5% and increases the Ice DMG and Electric DMG dealt to the boss by Agents by 10%.

On Thin Ice stacks will be reset when the enemy recovers from Stun.

5.11.

Special Mechanic

If you successfully destroy a dance partner, you gain additional 200 Performance Points. A maximum of 5000 Performance Points can be obtained this way.

Zhu Yuan with a good team should work very well for this stage, especially if you have only one Ice team and you used it on the first stage already. If you have two Ice teams, use the second one here too instead.

5.12.

Recommended Squads

Buff	DPS	Sub	Support	Bangboo
Interrupt	Zhu Yuan	Qingyi	Nicole Demara	Resonaboo Officer Cui
Interrupt	Zhu Yuan	Nicole Demara	Astra Yao	Officer Cui
Rapid Aid	Hoshimi Miyabi	Tsukishiro Yanagi	Alexandrina Sebastiane	Agent Gulliver
Rapid Aid	Hoshimi Miyabi	Lighter	Astra Yao	Agent Gulliver Sharkboo
Interrupt	Ellen Joe	Lighter	Astra Yao	Sharkboo
Interrupt	Ellen Joe	Von Lycaon	Soukaku	Sharkboo

Each time you reach a Performance Point threshold you will gain one Star. Each star will give you access to a set of rewards:

Rewards will be obtainable again each time the Deadly Assault mode resets!

Deadly Assault is not really there for the rewards but more for the challenge. If you love spending hours gearing your agents perfectly and want a bigger challenge to test your squads against, this mode is what you are looking for!

It is worth trying out if you wish to get the few Polychromes and Merits you can earn, but otherwise it is only worth if you want a tough challenge for your squads.

Deadly Assault is the hardest challenge of Zenless Zone Zero for the time being. It is perfect if you have high level Agents with very good gear, and want to test your own skills against strong bosses. It can help you identify your own weaknesses, or what your agents my lack.

If you are only looking for rewards, you are better of farming Shiyu Defense, Hollow Zero, or the latest Events.