Manato is finally becoming a playable agent and with a proper Drive Disc build, he’s likely to be the strongest A-rank character in ZZZ.
While there’s been a fair bit of controversy regarding his arrival in the game, there’s no question that players are excited for Manato. He fiills an important niche as the game’s second rupture agent, as well as the first A-rank rupture agent. He’s also the first A-rank DPS agent added to the game since version 1.0.
Expectations are high for Manato, but how do you actually play and build him? Here’s a full guide and breakdown of his kit.
Table of contents
How to play Manato in ZZZ
Manato is a rupture agent designed to deal more damage at low health.
Yixuan established that HP is very important for rupture agents, but Manato will take that to the next level. Alongside the seemingly standard sheer damage boosts that come from boosts to maximum HP, Manato can sacrifice his HP during battle to increase his damage.
Manato can use his special attack to spend HP to fill his unique resource, Burning Core. Once Burning Core is filled, each of his attacks consumes HP while receiving bonus crit rate and fire damage. This ends once Manato’s HP hits 30% or lower. Offsetting this is his core skill which actually refunds a portion of his HP with each attack.
This adds up to players needing to keep Manato’s HP at 30% to 50% to maximize his DPS. This encourages a high-risk, high-reward play style that has a particularly high skill ceiling.
Best Manato Drive Disc build
Manato’s best Drive Disc build starts with four-piece Yunkui Summit. There are a number of viable two-piece options including Woodpecker Electro, Inferno Metal, and Branch and Blade Song.
Manato is relatively easy to build in terms of his Drive Discs. Unlike his banner-mate Lucia who has very specific requirements for her build, Manato is a straightforward DPS agent. This means players can take a generic approach to fleshing him out. Here are the best main stats for each Drive Disc slot:
- HP
- Attack
- Defense
- Crit damage
- Fire damage / HP%
- HP%
The best two-piece Drive Disc set for Manato is likely Branch and Blade Song. Because Manato gets a passive boost to his crit rate, players can lean on substats to get his crit rate up to a good level and should instead focus on crit damage.
Alternatively, players can opt for Inferno Metal. Manato’s fire damage counts as sheer damage, which means that he gets a bit more out of this boost than other characters.
Best Manato W-Engines
Manato’s signature W-Engine is integral to his build and there aren’t really many alternatives available to him. Since rupture agents are new to ZZZ, picking the best W-Engines is extremely easy. There are only two real options available but, thankfully, they both have something to offer.
Grill O’Wisp
Manato’s signature W-Engine is Grill O’Wisp and it’s extremely well-tailored for him, even relative to other A-rank signature W-Engines. Its effect offers a flat +24% boost to Manato’s fire damage, alongside a boost to his sheer damage after he loses HP. This means that it’s a W-Engine that’s extremely good on Manato, but likely won’t be usable on anyone else. At least, not until there’s another fire rupture agent.
Radiowave Journey
The battle pass-exclusive Radiowave Journey is the preferred alternative, but it’s not something that players should go out of their way for. The boosts to base attack and HP% are better for Manato than Puzzle Sphere, but the difference isn’t big enough that players should feel compelled to get it. Especially since the Unfettered Game Ball, Cannon Rotor, and Electro-Lip Gloss are all generally better.
Puzzle Sphere
Puzzle Sphere is the only craftable A-rank W-engine available at this time. Its attack-focused stats aren’t ideal for Manato, who would be better off with an HP% substat, but it’s still a solid option that gives a significant crit damage boost. It also offers a boost to EX special attacks against low-health enemies, which should help Manato in Shiyu Defense runs.
Best Manato team compositions in ZZZ
Manato’s core skills allow him to work well alongside a number of Zenless Zone Zero agents when he has a good build. His additional ability is activated when he’s on the same team as a stunner or support, which effectively means any logical team composition can work well. There are also some solid free-to-play teams that will work well with him.
Best Manato team – Manato, Lucia, Ju Fufu (Miss Esme)
Manato works best alongside S-rank agents Lucia and Ju Fufu. Lucia is specifically designed to be the best-in-slot support agent for all rupture agents for the foreseeable future. Meanwhile, Ju Fufu is the best stunner option.
It’s worth noting that Lighter is not the preferred stunner for Manato. While Lighter offers fire damage defense shred, Manato’s fire damage is counted as sheer damage. This means he doesn’t get increased damage from Lighter. Without that, Ju Fufu is the best S-rank stun option for Manato. In fact, players who picked up Koleda for the one-year anniversary event might be better off running her over Lighter.
Best Manato F2P team – Manato, Pan Yinhu, Pulchra (Miss Esme)
There’s a solid free-to-play Manato team, assuming players have fully built out Pan Yinhu. Pan Yinhu offers a sizable buff to sheer force damage, which works well with any rupture agent. Alongside this, Pulchra offers solid daze and a deceptively decent amount of damage.
While Manato is an A-rank alternative to the S-rank Yixuan, this combination still lets Manato shine in a big way.
