Zenless Zone Zero (ZZZ) Shiyu Defense Guide and Overview for Critical Nodes

The Critical Node is comprised of stages that rotate on a twice monthly basis. Critical Node stages focus on killing enemies within a certain amount of time, and meeting certain thresholds will grant you the maximum rewards. You will be able to gain up to 720 Polychrome from this content, provided you manage to clear all five stages on S-Rank. Each stage has 3 sets of rewards that you can gain at B, A and S-Grades respectively.

Clearing any stage at any grade will unlock the next one for you, so don't fret if you do not manage to get an S-Grade immediately. Depending on how many stages you have cleared in the previous cycle, you may be able to skip some stages. S-ranking all 5 Critical Node stages will allow you to skip the first 3 stages in the upcoming cycle.

In this guide we will provide detailed information on each of the 5 stages, highlighting the weaknesses of the enemies in each stage, as well as potential team recommendations that might make your life a little easier in order to claim the mode's rewards.

Keep in mind that a well built character may perform better than others, even if it does not match the enemies weakness. Just make sure to not pit them against enemies that are resistant to their damage type.

There are 5 stages in the Critical Node section of the Shiyu Defense. Each stage has its own set of enemies, buffs and effects that boost your characters, as well as their own Challenge Target time-limits. In each stage you will have to field 2 teams, requiring 6 Agents and 2 Bangboos total. You cannot use the same Agent or Bangboo twice. The final stage requires 3 teams instead.

Disclaimer: Depending on your account, you may only have a handful of characters leveled and equipped. While this guide will recommend different teams for different stages, you are more likely to succeed by playing your highest level characters that you have the most practice with, instead of the ones that match the stage's bonuses and vulnerabilities. Simply make sure to not field a team that the enemy units have resistances against, and try to take advantage of the bonuses granted each cycle.

Use the Stage-Slider to select the stage you would like more information on.

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The first 4 nodes of this rotation of Critical Nodes heavily emphasize stun focused Crit scaling DPS who want to do lots of Chain Attacks and Ultimates.Because of this characters like Norma and Dialyn to enable your DPS to do lots of Chains or Ultimates. If you dont have both of either of these two, characters like Evelyn Chevalier and Yixuan will be good alternatives to take full advantage of this buff. However just about any character can benefit from bonuses to Chain Attacks and Ultimates.

The final node includes fights with the following bonuses:

• Room 1: Agent's Ultimate and Chain Attack DMG increase by 40%. When Chain Attack hits an enemy, the enemy's Stun DMG Multiplier increases by 20% and Daze recovery speed slows down by 15% for 15s.
• Room 2: Agents Anomaly Proficiency increases by 20 points, and Attribute Anomaly DMG increases by 15%. When there are 1/2 Agents with the Anomaly specialty in the squad, Attribute Anomaly DMG dealt to the enemies ignores 5%/15% of their All-Attribute RES
• Room 3: Agent Ice DMG and Ether DMG increase by 30%. Agent Basic Attack and Chain Attack DMG increase by 20%, and CRIT DMG increases by 35%.

5.

Critical Node: First Frontier

Time Limit	Bonus Effects	Weakness	Resistance
S-Rank: >300s remaining A-Rank: >180s remaining B-Rank: Defeat All Enemies	Agent's Ultimate and Chain Attack DMG increase by 40%. When Chain Attack hits an enemy, the enemy's Stun DMG Multiplier increases by 20% and Daze recovery speed slows down by 15% for 15s.	Team 1 Ice, Ether Team 2 Electric, Ether	Team 1 None Team 2 None

5.1.

Recommended Teams for First Frontier

DPS	Sub DPS/Stun/Support	Support
Team 1
Pyrois Orphie & Magus Starlight - Billy Kid	Norma	Sunna Nicole Demara Lucia
Promeia	Vivian Nangong Yu Tsukishiro Yanagi	Sunna Ukinami Yuzuha Astra Yao
Pyrois Zhu Yuan	Dialyn Norma	Astra Yao Zhao Nicole Demara
Team 2
Pyrois Orphie & Magus Starlight - Billy Kid	Norma	Sunna Nicole Demara Lucia
Seed	Cissia Orphie & Magus	Trigger Sunna
Pyrois Zhu Yuan	Dialyn Norma	Astra Yao Zhao Nicole Demara

6.

Critical Node: Second Frontier

Time Limit	Bonus Effects	Weakness	Resistance
S-Rank: >300s remaining A-Rank: >180s remaining B-Rank: Defeat All Enemies	Agent's Ultimate and Chain Attack DMG increase by 40%. When Chain Attack hits an enemy, the enemy's Stun DMG Multiplier increases by 20% and Daze recovery speed slows down by 15% for 15s.	Team 1 Ether Team 2 Ice, Ether	Team 1 Physical Team 2 None

6.1.

Recommended Teams for Second Frontier

DPS	Sub DPS/Stun	Support
Team 1
Pyrois Orphie & Magus Starlight - Billy Kid	Norma	Sunna Nicole Demara Lucia
Pyrois Zhu Yuan	Dialyn Norma	Astra Yao Zhao Nicole Demara
Aria	Sunna Zhao	Velina Nangong Yu
Team 2
Promeia	Vivian Nangong Yu Tsukishiro Yanagi	Sunna Ukinami Yuzuha Astra Yao
Pyrois Zhu Yuan	Dialyn Norma	Astra Yao Zhao Nicole Demara
Pyrois Orphie & Magus Starlight - Billy Kid	Norma	Sunna Nicole Demara Lucia

7.

Critical Node: Third Frontier

Time Limit	Bonus Effects	Weakness	Resistance
S-Rank: >300s remaining A-Rank: >180s remaining B-Rank: Defeat All Enemies	Agent's Ultimate and Chain Attack DMG increase by 40%. When Chain Attack hits an enemy, the enemy's Stun DMG Multiplier increases by 20% and Daze recovery speed slows down by 15% for 15s.	Team 1 Ether Team 2 Fire, Physical	Team 1 Physical Team 2 Ice

7.1.

Recommended Teams for Third Frontier

DPS	Sub DPS/Stun	Support
Team 1
Pyrois Zhu Yuan	Dialyn Norma	Astra Yao Zhao Nicole Demara
Pyrois Orphie & Magus Starlight - Billy Kid	Norma	Sunna Nicole Demara Lucia
Aria	Sunna Zhao	Velina Nangong Yu
Team 2
Starlight - Billy Kid	Norma Dialyn Pulchra	Lucia Pan Yinhu
Ye Shunguang	Sunna Zhao	Dialyn Astra Yao
Pyrois Orphie & Magus Starlight - Billy Kid	Norma	Sunna Nicole Demara Lucia
Banyue	Dialyn Ju Fufu	Lucia Pan Yinhu

8.

Critical Node: Fourth Frontier

Time Limit	Bonus Effects	Weakness	Resistance
S-Rank: >300s remaining A-Rank: >180s remaining B-Rank: Defeat All Enemies	Agent's Ultimate and Chain Attack DMG increase by 40%. When Chain Attack hits an enemy, the enemy's Stun DMG Multiplier increases by 20% and Daze recovery speed slows down by 15% for 15s.	Team 1 Ice, Ether Team 2 Wind, Ice	Team 1 None Team 2 Ether

8.1.

Recommended Teams for Fourth Frontier

DPS	Sub DPS/Stun	Support
Team 1
Pyrois Zhu Yuan	Dialyn Norma	Astra Yao Zhao Nicole Demara
Pyrois Orphie & Magus Starlight - Billy Kid	Norma	Sunna Nicole Demara Lucia
Aria	Sunna Zhao	Velina Nangong Yu
Team 2
Velina	Promeia Jane Doe	Ukinami Yuzuha Astra Yao
Promeia	Vivian Nangong Yu Tsukishiro Yanagi	Sunna Ukinami Yuzuha Astra Yao
Hoshimi Miyabi	Nangong Yu Tsukishiro Yanagi Von Lycaon	Astra Yao Ukinami Yuzuha Sunna

9.

Critical Node: Fifth Frontier

Time Limit	Bonus Effects	Weakness	Resistance
S-Rank: >25,000 Score in all 3 Rooms A-Rank: >16,000 Score in all 3 Rooms B-Rank: >8,000 Score in all 3 Rooms	Room 1: Agent's Ultimate and Chain Attack DMG increase by 40%. When Chain Attack hits an enemy, the enemy's Stun DMG Multiplier increases by 20% and Daze recovery speed slows down by 15% for 15s. Room 2: Agents Anomaly Proficiency increases by 20 points, and Attribute Anomaly DMG increases by 15%. When there are 1/2 Agents with the Anomaly specialty in the squad, Attribute Anomaly DMG dealt to the enemies ignores 5%/15% of their All-Attribute RES Room 3: Agent Ice DMG and Ether DMG increase by 30%. Agent Basic Attack and Chain Attack DMG increase by 20%, and CRIT DMG increases by 35%.	Team 1 Fire, Physical Team 2 Ether, Wind Team 3 Ice	Team 1 Ether Team 2 Electric Team 3 Physical

9.1.

Recommended Teams for Fifth Frontier

DPS	Sub DPS/Stun	Support
Team 1
Pyrois Orphie & Magus Starlight - Billy Kid	Norma	Sunna Nicole Demara Lucia
Starlight - Billy Kid	Norma Dialyn Pulchra	Lucia Pan Yinhu
Evelyn Chevalier	Dialyn Norma Lighter	Astra Yao Sunna Zhao
Team 2
Aria	Sunna Zhao	Velina Nangong Yu
Velina	Promeia Jane Doe	Ukinami Yuzuha Astra Yao
Team 3
Pyrois Zhu Yuan	Dialyn Norma	Astra Yao Zhao Nicole Demara
Promeia	Vivian Nangong Yu Tsukishiro Yanagi	Sunna Ukinami Yuzuha Astra Yao
Hoshimi Miyabi	Nangong Yu Tsukishiro Yanagi Von Lycaon	Astra Yao Ukinami Yuzuha Sunna