Grace Howard Guide and Best Builds for Zenless Zone Zero (ZZZ)

Most, if not all, of Grace's Mindscape levels are beneficial to her in some way. For example, Grace's M1 gives additional Energy to both her and the squad, while Grace's M4 further increases the Energy Generation for Grace herself. If players want to increase Grace's personal damage output, they can look into either the M2 or M6 upgrades.

Grace's best W-Engine available permanently is her signature Fusion Compiler. Players can obtain this W-Engine through Signal Searching, or exchanging Residual Signals at the Signal Shop.
This W-Engine is a significant upgrade over other W-Engines currently available, as its advanced stat can provide up to 24% PEN Ratio alone, when upgraded to Lv. 60.

In addition to helping Grace's PEN Ratio, the base ATK and Data Flood Effect also increase Grace's damage output significantly. The Base ATK is comparable to Attack speciality W-Engines, despite being an Anomaly W-Engine. The Data Flood Effect additionally provides an ATK % buff, and can improve Grace's Anomaly Proficiency by 25 three times, up to a maximum of 75. The duration of each stack is calculated separately, so Grace can effectively maintain the Effect, as long as she is able to do Special or EX Special Attacks regularly in her rotation.

If players are able to obtain Timeweaver, it is a better Best in Slot option than Fusion Compiler due to its added Electric Anomaly Buildup and Disorder DMG effects. With at least 375 Anomaly Proficiency, Timeweaver would significantly improve Grace's damage output in any Mono-Electric or Disorder Anomaly squads. The only downside to Timeweaver is the lack of Fusion Compiler's PEN Ratio. When fighting targets with higher DEF pools, stacking multiple ATK % sources will not be as strong as having more PEN Ratio.

While other W-Engines are also possible to slot in, they do not provide the same amount of maximum synergy that Fusion Compiler or Timeweaver can achieve.
However, players can substitute with most -Rank W-Engines, as Grace will benefit from any of them. For specifics, see below:

1. While not listed in the BiS summary, Sharpened Stinger deserves a special mention as another S-Rank W-Engine. Grace can activate the effect fine, as her Basic Attack Combo can be executed with Dash Attacks. However, she will not benefit as much from the Physical DMG bonus, as most of her Anomaly Buildup and damage multipliers are based on Electric DMG.

2. Weeping Gemini has a higher Anomaly Proficiency potential than Fusion Compiler, and is an excellent alternative. However, the W-Engine's base and maximum ATK stat potential is lower due to being an A-Rank. As well, stacking too many ATK% buffs may have diminishing returns.

   The main issue with Weeping Gemini is that the effect only lasts until the target recovers from Stun or is defeated. So if targets recover or die too fast in combat, you will need to re-build the stacks once more. It is also easier to achieve the stacks if you have other Anomaly Agents in the squad, as the effect can be activated by any of them.

3. Electro-Lip Gloss increases Anomaly Proficiency and ATK significantly, but is locked behind the New Eridu City Fund.
4. Rainforest Gourmet increases Anomaly Proficiency, but she will average 10% ATK maximum approximately every 2-4 Basic Attack combos, due to her EX Special's 40 Energy Cost. Grace would need significant Energy Regen bonuses to continuously do EX Special attacks each combo, which the W-Engine does not provide.
5. Roaring Ride is good only if you can do EX Special Attacks regularly to maintain all 3 buffs. Otherwise, the buff(s) you receive will be random.

6. Flamemaker Shaker is an okay alternative, but not as useful as Grace's other options. It has a similar issue to Roaring Ride, where Grace requires maximum Energy to maximize on the Effect's buff potential.

   From off-field with 4 EX Specials (at 120 Energy), Grace can build about 5 stacks within 6s. It would be difficult for her to sustain all 5 stacks without Energy Regen, as well as reaching 10 stacks for the maximum DMG buff.

While B-Rank W-Engines can be considered, they will not be able to achieve the maximum potential an S-Rank W-Engine like Fusion Compiler can, due to the differences in Ranks. Players are advised to upgrade when possible, as Grace has many A-Rank and above W-Engines she can use.

If players want more information on W-Engine calculations, see Additional Notes.

Grace's best Drive Disc set is Thunder Metal, as it can provide a permanent Electric DMG% bonus, as long as targets stay Shocked. This is easy for Grace to do if she has Energy Regen, as she can build EX Special Attacks relatively quickly.
Players can also consider Freedom Blues, if they are building other Anomaly Agents, or prefer the 4-Piece set bonus more. The same can be applied for Hormone Punk; it saves resources over time (as your Battery is only used for 1 Drive Disc set). However, the Freedom Blues effect does not stack with others of the same attribute, so only 1 Agent on a squad can utilise the 4-Piece set bonus. Whereas with Hormone Punk, players may have diminishing returns if there are too many ATK or ATK% bonuses.

The Chaos Jazz 4-Piece set may also be considered if you primarily play Grace as an off-field Agent. For example, in Anomaly or Disorder teams where the other Agents prefer on-field time more than Grace, she may opt to switch into combat often, benefiting from the Drive Disc effects.

2-Piece Sets with Thunder Metal and Freedom Blues also work, if you are unable to get a complete 4-Piece Set of your preference, or prefer the 2-Piece set bonuses more.
Alternatives include Hormone Punk and Puffer Electro. If players require more Energy Regen, they may consider Swing Jazz; or Chaos Jazz for more Anomaly Proficiency.

Puffer Electro's 4-Piece set bonus does not impact Grace much; while her Ultimate has powerful scaling, her frequent damage output is from EX Special Attacks and Basic Attack combos. To benefit from the 4-Piece set, she would need to have a build similar to Attack Agents, which is difficult to achieve with an Anomaly Agent's base stats and scaling. However, it is a possible alternative for players who do not wish to spend their Battery on Anomaly focused Drive Discs.

Assuming both W-Engines are at Lv.60, the primary differences between Timeweaver and Fusion Compiler are:

Comparing Fusion Compiler with Weeping Gemini:
The table below provides the minimum and maximum ATK potentials of each W-Engine, independent of other stat bonuses available.

Rainforest Gourmet's ATK% potential is calculated based on the following for EX Special Attacks:

Regarding Grace's Base Potential, completely independent of other Bonuses:

• Grace averages 8-9 Zaps every 3 Basic Attacks (3 Zaps per 1 Basic Attack, capped at 8 Zaps)
• A full Basic Attack combo (4 hits) is approximately 3-4 seconds, depending on latency or frame rate
• Mindscape 1: Doing the 4th-hit of her Basic Attack combo will provide 0.25-2 Energy (depending on number of targets)
• Grace's EX Special Attack uses 40 Energy, with no possible discount or increase
• Grace's Special Attack uses 0 Energy, but multiplies time due to rebuilding Zaps for the next Special/EX Special Attack
• Grace has a Energy Limit of 120
• At base M0, Grace recovers 1.2 Energy per second

Regarding Grace and the W-Engine Rainforest Gourmet:

• The W-Engine provides 2.5% ATK per 10 Energy for 10s; the ATK% is stackable up to 10 times
• ATK% drop-off begins to occur when minimum Energy for her EX Special cannot be used every 10 seconds
• Without cancelling her combo, Grace would need to build 40 Energy every 10 seconds to keep the ATK% stacks
• Starting from 0 Energy at 1.2/s Energy Regen, M0 Grace would need to do approximately 3-4 full combos to reach 40 Energy
• Assuming a player takes the time length of 5 full Basic Attack combos (due to latency or gameplay), they will need additional Energy Regen to keep the ATK% buff without any drop-off

Regarding Flamemaker Shaker:

Assuming Grace receives the double stack effect from beginning off-field, at W0:

If Flamemaker Shaker is at W5, the Anomaly Proficiency buff increases to 100. In comparison,

• A Lv.60 Sharpened Stinger reaches 90 Anomaly Proficiency
• All Lv.60 Advanced Stat A-Rank W-Engines reach only 75 Anomaly Proficiency
• At maximum buff stacks, a Weeping Gemini can have an Anomaly Proficiency from 120 (W0) to 192 (W5).
• With the Anomaly Proficiency buff, Roaring Ride can have an Anomaly Proficiency from 40 (W0) to 64 (W5). As well, this buff is not guaranteed to be always active due to its random effect.