Stunners are dominating Zenless Zone Zero after a long lull and with a good build, Nangong Yu may be the toughest yet.
Lighter, Trigger, and Dialyn may be great and usable in many top ZZZ teams but anomaly teams have largely had to look elsewhere. Though Miyabi and Lycaon remain a powerful duo, the other S-rank stunners are largely earmarked for attack and rupture teams. Anomaly has a variety of strong support options, but the traditional anomaly team composition built around dealing damage during the stun window has been left wanting.
That’s changing with Nangong Yu. The final Angel of Delusion serves as both a stunner and a potent anomaly sub-DPS. Here’s how to approach building and playing this unique agent.
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How to play Nangong Yu
Nangong Yu is built around delivering massive abloom attacks during stun windows. This is done through Vibrato stacks, part of her core skill. Vibrato stacks with each instance of an attribute anomaly. Vibrato stacks convert to damage during the stun window, when either the enemy hits four Vibrato stacks or when the stun window ends.
Fittingly, Nangong has the means to contribute on both of these fronts. In addition to her naturally being a potent stunner, her daze increases based on her anomaly proficiency. This means she’s very capable of triggering corruptions while also staggering bosses.
While her kit is elaborate, her gameplay loop isn’t particularly difficult. Nangong Yu has a unique resource in downbeats. This replenishes over time and when anomalies are triggered. Downbeats can be spent using her held basic attack combos, which can be triggered off basic or EX attacks. The best approach with this is to stock up on downbeats and unleash three-hit combos with her held basic attacks. A three-hit combo applies significantly more daze and anomaly buildup than three single hits.
Best Nangong Yu W-Engines
Nangong Yu has a variety of W-Engine options, though her signature W-Engine is a massive upgrade over any alternatives. Here’s a full breakdown of which ones work the best.
Neon Fantasies
Nangong Yu’s signature W-Engine offers her great base stats as well as a big boost to anomaly mastery. Similar to Trigger. Nangong has unique stat needs in terms of her scaling, with anomaly mastery being the stat to go after. No stunner W-Engine offers anomaly mastery, meaning there’s no strong alternative for her.
The Simmering Pot
The Simmering Pot offers is Nangong Yu’s second-best W-Engine option, though there’s a significant drop-off in terms of damage potential. What makes The Simmering Pot a great option for her is the fact that it doesn’t really work on anyone else. This event-limited W-Engine is functionally identical to every other alternative, whether A-rank or S-rank. Since The Simmering Pot doesn’t work well on Trigger, Dialyn, Koleda, or any other viable stunner, it’s worth giving it to her to keep Hellfire Gears, Steam Oven, and Precious Fossilized Core available for other agents.
Precious Fossilized Core
Precious Fossilized Core is the best W-Engine option for Nangong Yu in free-to-play builds. It is barely out-performed by standard S-rank W-Engines The Restrained and Hellfire Gear, and holds up favorably even against limited S-rank options like Ice-Jade Teapot and Blazing Laurel. That’s fortunate in some ways, but the reality is just that Neon Fantasies is just the best option for Nangong Yu by a mile.
Best Drive Disc builds for Nangong Yu
Nangong Yu’s best Drive Disc build is centered around four-piece Phaethon’s Melody. Past that, a variety of two-piece options are viable.
Rather than a stun agent, Nangong Yu is effectively built like an anomaly agent. While one might expect Freedom Blues to be the go-to four-piece option, Phaethon’s Melody is the right choice. There are plenty of two-piece options to roll with beyond this. Here are the best combinations:
- Four-piece Phaethon’s Melody, two-piece Freedom Blues
- Four-piece Phaethon’s Melody, two-piece Chaos Jazz
- Four-piece Phaethon’s Melody, two-piece Shining Aria
- Four-piece Phaethon’s Melody, two-piece Chaotic Metal
- Four-piece Phaethon’s Melody, two-piece Hormone Punk
- Four-piece Phaethon’s Melody, two-piece Astral Voice
- Four-piece Phaethon’s Melody, two-piece Swing Jazz
- Four-piece Phaethon’s Melody, two-piece Moonlight Lullaby
- Four-piece Phaethon’s Melody, two-piece Dawn’s Bloom
All of these options are roughly similar in terms of their damage. That makes it easy to simply roll with whatever discs offer the best substats. On that note, here is the ideal main stat for each Drive Disc slot:
- HP
- Attack
- Defense
- Anomaly Proficiency
- Pen Ratio / ATK% / Ether DMG%
- Anomaly Mastery
In terms of substats, anomaly proficiency is the most desirable, followed by ATK%. PEN is also useful, though things drop off precipitously from there.
Best Nangong Yu teams in ZZZ
Nangong Yu is built to work with the Angels of Delusion faction, but a good build lets her work with a number of other agents. The key to this is that while Nangong Yu is a strong anomaly supporting piece, she doesn’t jive with all elements equally and she eats up loads of field time. While she can hypothetically slot into disorder compositions, she’s mostly meant to open up the stun window for crit-focused anomaly agents. Here are her best teams:
The Angels of Delusion – Nangong Yu, Sunna, Aria (Devilboo)
For the most part, factions are designed to complement each other much more than they did in early Zenless Zone Zero updates. The best example of this is the Angels of Delusion, with the idol group standing as one of the best ZZZ teams in the game. The team doesn’t actually afford much room for skill expression, but the extra animations and sound effects make them very fun to play as a group.
Hoshimi Miyabi and friends – Miyabi, Nangong Yu, Yuzuha/Sunna/Soukaku (Penguinboo)
When it comes to Miyabi, Nangong Yu stands as a major upgrade over Lycaon. This is a huge jump, as Miyabi didn’t mesh especially well with other limited S-rank stunners. Nangong Yu is now her best-in-slot stunner.
This general framework actually applies to a number of other teams. Nangong is a best-in-slot teammate for every field-hungry anomaly agent, including Alice and Jane Doe. Plug in a support option that activates everyone’s skills and it makes for a powerful team.
Best Nangong Yu free-to-play team – Nangong Yu, Lucy/Burnice, Piper (Red Moccus)
Nangong Yu serves as a solid sub-DPS partner for Piper, and players can add another Son of Calydon to make a solid free-to-play team. Lucy keeps this as a true F2P squad, but players who manage to get a free Burnice from the in-game shop can slot her in to make a threatening, disorder-heavy squad.
