Hello! I'm here to provide a summary of everything upcoming in Zenless Zone Zero Patch 1.5! This information isn't in the video, so make sure to read through before diving into the discussion, which I'll include below!
Character Banner: Astra Yao
Other 4-stars on the banner: Anby & Corin
Meta-related information
Element: Ether
Role: Support
Faction: Stars of Lyra
Expected relevance: T0, long-term
Lyra will be the most generic support in the game, starting a new faction that only includes only her and Evelyn, for now. The faction won't be that relevant, though, as Astra will provide everything a team could want from a support.
Design-related information
If you only care about team's effectiveness, then you can skip this chapter! If you also look forward to building thematic teams, then this sub-chapter is for you!
Evelyn Fire Team: she perfectly fits the new Fire meta with Evelyn, as soon as she comes out. The problem with that team is that Lighter is too chaotic for the attitude of the team, and breaks immersion. Among the other stun units, Qingyi is probably the best, as she has an elegant story, centered on elegance, plus her weapon fits well the unusual one Evelyn uses herself. Miyabi's Ice Anomaly Team / Harumasa's Ice Team: she fits elegant teams. I can't really see this character fit into Miyabi's, when it comes to design, which is more of a hero-focused, japanese-themed faction. Soukaku still fits the role the best for her, considering the shared background.
Ellen's Victoria Housekeeping Team: surprisingly, Astra fits okay with the formal, elegant stance Victoria Housekeeping's design element. Both factions care about the aesthetics of their business as a core element of their role in this world: one is about "serving", the other is about "performing", but there are many connections. She fits
Zhu Yuan's Team: Zhu Yuan fits perfectly with Qingyi in lore. Astra doesn't do a good work, as a singer and a police department duo has nothing to share when it comes to theme. Not that Nicole fits much better, though...
Jane Doe's Team: Jane has the opposite vibe when it comes to elegance and its expression, so, design wise, Astra doesn't help.
Funny enough, Astra could be best pairing together with the idol trio of young girls teased a long while back by Hoyoverse, even if the trio has a much more "japanese street fantasy" vibe, compared to Astra and Evelyn, who seem to stem from the real world.
Character Banner: Evelyn Chevalier
Meta-related information
Element: Fire
Role: Attacker
Faction: Stars of Lyra
Expected relevance: T1 or T0, mid-term Other 4-stars on the banner: Anby & Corin
Evelyn will replace Soldier 11 in the role of attacker DPS for the fire element, pairing well with the same units: Lighter and a good support, like Astra or Lucy. She will keep the role up until a new Fire Attacker will come out - which will be in a while, if I know Hoyoverse enough!
She is not a top priority if you already have a built Soldier 11, especially if Soldier has Mindscapes or signature W-Engine.
There's to consider Soldier's damage is pretty low, compared to the new meta DPSs like Miyabi and even Jane - counting around 1/3 on old calculations on Prydwen. Lighter probably makes her much better, but I expect Evelyn M0 to outscale her damage by a really hefty amount.
Working on an entirely new element you don't have a weakness on could still be a better investment for future Shiyu Defense runs. There's to say you could switch off discs and party to Evelyn as an easy upgrade. Not an easy decision!
Design-related information
As a main DPS, Evelyn "defines" her team, so we should consider her potential companions. She is an elegant character from the show business industry. She matches the best with:
Astra Yao: her lore partner. They work together, and are meant to be in the same team. If you have Astra, Evelyn benefits from her a lot... from a design perspective!
Qingyi: her lore is elegant more than her current job, plus her martial arts fit well enough Evelyn's style. The stunner of choice from a design perspective.
Lighter & Lucy: I wouldn't recommend Sons of Calydon in general: they're so far away in theme, that it would be strange to play them together, when thinking about a themed team.
Character Banner Rerun: Ellen Joe
Meta-related information
Element: Water
Role: Attacker
Faction: Victoria Housekeeping
Expected relevance: T1, midterm
Other characters on the banner: Anton & Nicole
As the first unit in the game, there's no crucial reason to pull for Ellen, when Miyabi, a DPS of the a better element that includes ice, has been released. The reason to get Ellen would, in fact, be not having Miyabi. It's still not a very solid investment for the future.
Design-related information
Ellen is a very peculiar design, stemming from street fantasy and human-creature crossovers. I would say it's the most creative Zenless Zone Zero has so far. As a main DPS, let's see with who she pairs up well with!
Lycaon: more creature-like than Ellen, but he comes from the same faction, and fits in a creature-themed team
Miyabi: has creature-like elements, and, even if the style is more traditional japanese than street fantasy, they still work okay theme-wise
Soukaku: soukaku is an oni, so you can count that as a creature-like character, from yet another style
Rina: from the same faction, and they both work as maids
Even if off-meta, Ellen opens up many possibilities when it comes to team design. The gameplay feels pretty unique too, and it's not to be underestimated.
Character Banner: Qing Yi
Meta-related information
Element: Electric
Role: Attacker
Faction: Victoria Housekeeping
Expected relevance: T0, midterm
Other characters on the banner: Anton & Nicole
Qinqyi is an incredible generic stun unit. She works the best with her partner, Zhu Yuan, and can work well with any other attacker - or even Miyabi, for extra damage. She also helps Harumasa awesomely.
She will probably be powercrept by more specialized stunner, maybe even in the Zhu Yuan team, but, for now, she help your account a bunch if you didn't get S-Rank stunners so far. If you already have one or two, then Qingyi is less of a priority for you.
Design-related information
Qingyi has an awesome background that doesn't emerge at all from the main story, and you can check here:
I hope they'll give us skins for her. Regardless, this opens up many possibilities for Qingyi. Let's see which are those, with a special focus on DPS units!
Zhu Yuan: her current partner in the main story's lore! Easy pair.
Miyabi: both have a traditionalist background.
Harumasa: both elegant characters that focus on a martial discipline.
Soldier 11: on the military operations side. It's a fine duo.
And we're finally done with the characters! Time to jump on the other announcement.
Character Outfits
Skins are introduced to the game! This is a crazy news for character design lovers, because it gives much more diversity to characters we already own or want.
New outfits: Astra (Chandelier), Ellen (On Campus), Nicole (Cunning Cutie)
If there's something I can criticize about this, is that they don't come with effects, so I hope they won't end up costing too much.
I like that the S-Rank outfits give the "not-at-work" feeling.
The gyaru one for Nicole will be free, so, even if not my favorite, Im glad we get something extra.
Permanent Gameplay Added
All of these will stay even after patch or patch phase end. Rejoice!
Endless Tower: Last Stand
It's unclear if this is a recurring event or not. It's relevant, considering it could be extra constant Polychromes! New Tower stages are a good add regardless, though!
Hollow Zero: Cleanse Calamity
Cleanse Calamity is a boss rush, where you have to play specific character. This is recurring - hopefully, not time-limited, and gives 160 polychrome total, as we can decude from this frame from the live:
Arcade Games
The race minigame, feeling like a Sonic stage, or something coming from F-Zero, feels very fun!
Now the minigame has multiplayer! I'm surprised on how much interaction comes from the arcade, and we still don't have interaction when it comes to borrowing a character from friends.
Optimizations
Dynamic Wallpaper Update
Adds Partner Archive and Ridu Snapshots tabs. Adds a multi-select random playback mode.
Title & Badge Display Optimizations
Optimizes badge and title acquisition methods and adds custom display options.
Streamlined Notorious Hunt Stages
Removes elite enemy waves, streamlining stages and allowing you to confront the boss head-on!
Custom Special Training Plan
Apart from the recommended plans, you will be able to set up a personalized training plan!
Drive Disc System Optimizations
Routine Cleanup Stages will directly show the Drive Disc rewards. Sorting rules for Drive Discs will be optimized. You can view Drive Disc details and mark them on the sweep results screen.
These are all welcome! I was expecting auto-mode, but it looks like it's not there. Maybe in the future!
New patch-related events
A lot of events are scheduled for this patch, gifting a very good influx of polychromes and some extra stamina when it comes to the double rewards ones! Nothing to complain about, a very nice schedule.
The patch has also four rewards events. Each of them grants:
10 encrypted tapes
10 more encrypted tapes (!!)
480 polychromes (equaling 3 encypted tapes)
10 Boopons
23 encrypted tapes from login only is very good, even for Star Rail standards! Considering how little we get from shop packs, in Hoyoverse games, this is great news for who is going for as many character as possible, or W-Englines/Mindscapes.
Other minor things
New partner archives (dating sim) for the new characters, one signature W-Engine each, a new Bangboo, a special episode for Astra and an Agent story for Ellen.
And that's all there is to it! Which banners are you going to pull from?
Which banner are you going to pull from? (multiple answers allowed!)
Astra Yao
Evelyn Chevalier
Ellen Joe
Qinyi
You can vote for more than one answer.
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