Harumasa has landed in Zenless Zone Zero and with a proper build, he’s one of the best attackers in ZZZ.
The 1.4 update gives players quite the gift with S-rank agent Harumasa. The Hollow Special Operations Section 6 character stars in the update alongside his faction mate Hoshimi Miyabi. Unlike Miyabi, players don’t have to pull and pray to get Harumasa, though.
The electric attacker will be available for free to basically everyone who plays the game. But as with every character, players need to take care with how they build Harumasa, otherwise he’s not going to make much of an impact.
Full Harumasa build guide
How to play Harumasa in Zenless Zone Zero
Harumasa is an electric attacker who mixes together ranged and melee attacks to deal enormous damage to stunned enemies. While attacking, he places orbs on the field that can be used to mark enemies with an X icon.
To set this up, players need to build up stun on an enemy, and cancel a chain attack after Harumasa’s attack. This guarantees as much downtime for enemies, and as much Harumasa can then unleash a devastating series of dash attacks, with every two orbs translating to one enhanced dash attack.
As an attacker, he’s specifically designed to deal enormous damage to stunned enemies. The early outlook for Harumasa is that he’ll be a comparatively high-skill character predicated on doing specific combinations, somewhat akin to a character in a 3D fighting game. The exact combo varies to some degree, based on what Mindscapes Harumasa has and his teammates but boils down to rushing down stunned enemies.
With the right build, the right team composition, and properly executed combos, Harumasa can deal enormous damage. Unfortunately, without properly executing his combinations, he’s not radically better than Anton.
Best Harumasa Drive Disc builds
The best Harumasa Drive Disc combination is either four-piece Woodpecker Electro or Hormone Punk, rounded out by two-piece Thunder Metal. These setups are generally solid, but ultimately come down to how much field time Harumasa will have. Meanwhile, the optimal main stat for each slot breaks down thusly:
- HP
- Attack
- Defense
- Crit Rate/Crit Damage
- Electric Damage
- Percent Attack
There are some other Drive Disc combos that might be better depending on players’ go-to team compositions when using Harumasa.
Four-piece Woodpecker Electro, two-piece Thunder Metal
When building out a Drive Disc set, players often default to running a four-piece metal set for the agent’s attribute. That’s very rarely the right idea, and it’s not the right call with Harumasa.
Instead, the centerpiece for Harumasa should be a four-piece Woodpecker Electro. The four-piece bonus works particularly well for Harumasa, allowing him to stack attack buffs as he gets his combo going. Round out the set with a two-piece Thunder Metal set for the flat +10% electric damage boost.
Four-piece Hormone Punk, two-piece Thunder Metal
For team compositions where Harumasa won’t be on field for extended periods of time, Hormone Punk might be preferable to Woodpecker Electro. Hormone Punk offers a 10-second buff of +25% attack with a 20-second cooldown.
For teams running dual stunners, this might be preferable. The buff’s uptime lets him unload his attacks, then switch out to let stunners back in, and then start the process over again.
Four-piece Thunder Metal, two-piece Woodpecker Electro
While a four-piece Thunder Metal Drive Disc set lacks versatility, it’s still potentially preferable on fully built mono-electric teams. There are plenty of powerful S-rank electric agents, most notably S-rank support agent Rina. If players have a combination that can reliably proc shock, switching Harumasa in with +10% electric damage, +28% attack, and +8% crit rate is a winning combination.
Best Harumasa W-Engines
Harumasa has an exceptionally good signature W-Engine with the Zanshin Herb Case. This boosts pretty much every part of his kit, but it’s not the only option available. As ever, the vast majority of Zenless Zone Zero players won’t be pulling for an S-rank W-Engine but there are some workable alternatives.
Zanshin Herb Case
Harumasa is all about critical hits and dash attacks. Harumasa’s signature W-Engine boosts his attack, crit damage, crit rate, and dash attack. Naturally, this makes it the best option available to him by a large margin. It’s also the centerpiece for any fully optimized Harumasa build.
The Brimstone
Soldier 11’s signature W-Engine is a decent option for basically every attacker, and it’s particularly good for Harumasa. Since Harumasa is largely built for doing fast, hard-hitting combos with his dash attack, The Brimstone giving 684 attack and a +30% attack boost as stats at level 60, then an additional +28% attack boost after landing eight attacks works well for him.
Gilded Blossom and Marcato Desire
If players don’t have an S-rank W-Engine on hand for Harumasa, the limited-time Gilded Blossom and Marcato Desire W-Engines are both solid options for Harumasa. Both W-Engines are effectively designed to be uniformly solid on attack agents. They offer good stats, with a catch-all effect that’s useful on all attack agents.
The Marcato Desire is stronger on Harumasa, but the Gilded Blossom is also decent. Both are preferable to any of the A-rank alternatives.
Drill Rig – Red Axis
No craftable or signal searchable A-rank W-Engines work particularly well for Harumasa. The best option available is Anton’s signature W-Engine, the Drill Rig – Red Axis.
This option is somewhat unwieldy, as the only way to use it effectively is to make sure to use Harumasa’s EX special attack to stun enemies and initiate a chain attack. If players can do this, it gives Harumasa a massive boost to electric damage during his combo. If players don’t want to bother with that, they’re better off using Street Superstar or Cannon Rotor.
Best Harumasa team compositions in ZZZ
A Harumasa with a good build can work on almost any team workable team composition, so long as players can make the most of his combinations. So long as players have workable supports and stunners around Harumasa, he has the capacity to burst down almost anything in the game. Here are the best options available.
Best free-to-play Harumasa team: Harumasa, Anby, Nicole (Plugboo)
Anby, Nicole, and any given DPS character is a workable team. Harumasa is no different, but he’s actually among the best honorary Cunning Hare options. Anby offers a bit of electric buildup and a lot of daze, while Nicole offers good buffs for allies and debuffs on enemies. Simply build up stun, initiate a chain attack, cancel the chain attack on Harumasa, and then use the combo.
Mono-electric Harumasa: Harumasa, Qingyi, Rina (Plugboo)
This team works much the same way as the Harumasa-Anby-Nicole, but has two straight upgrades in Qingyi and Rina. The approach to battle remains the same; use Qingyi to build up stun and use Rina to apply buffs before switching in Harumasa on a stunned opponent.
Worth noting is that players may be best served using the four-piece Thunder Metal Drive Disc build on Harumasa when pairing him with Rina. Rina’s passive extends the duration of shock and boosts allies’ attack stat when enemies are shocked. That extra shock duration and buff synergizes well with four-piece Thunder Metal’s effect, giving him a steady +28% attack boost.
Hypercarry Harumasa: Caesar, Qingyi/Anby, Harumasa (Plugboo)
This isn’t the traditional “stack buffs” hypercarry team for Harumasa. Instead, running a pair of stunners guarantees that enemies are staggered frequently, letting Harumasa jump in to unleash his devastating combos as often as possible.
Caesar’s shield remains extremely powerful in all forms of combat both for its buff and protection. Just as importantly, she serves as a solid stunner in her own right and can accelerate the process of knocking down enemies to set up Harumasa combos.
