ZZZ: The best W-Engine, Drive Discs, and builds for Caesar

Caesar can fill almost any role in ZZZ from stunner to DPS to support, but to maximize her potential, she needs to have the best Drive Disc and W-Engine build and a strong team composition.

The leader of the Sons of Calydon, has officially joined Zenless Zone Zero as a playable character. She’s the first S-rank defense unit in the game, and it’s she effortlessly fits into multiple roles. Her versatility is on another level, which has a lot of players rushing to pull her from her featured banner. With all that potential packed into a single unit, it’s no surprise everyone wants her on their team.

Caesar King has many components and layers in her kit, and it can be tough to understand how everything fits together. Here’s the best Caesar build guide, including breakdowns of her abilities, the best Drive Discs and W-Engines, and the ideal ZZZ team compositions. 

How to play Caesar in ZZZ

Caesar is an S-rank defense agent with abilities that can be leveraged in either a supporting or DPS fashion. She may not be a stun unit, but her impressive impact stats allow her to become the squad’s main or secondary stunner.

While Caesar’s kit looks straightforward, she can be challenging to play. Her arsenal mainly revolves around parries, so timing is everything.

Caesar’s bread-and-butter mechanic is parrying an attack into a perfect block, and using her second EX called Overpowered Shield Bash. A well-timed parry using EX Special: Parry Counter triggers perfect block, which then allows her to use her second EX without consuming energy. 

Alongside her regular EX special, her second EX can be triggered through Retaliation which is done by parrying an attack during a dash attack or assist follow-up. It might take some practice, quick reflexes, and timing to get these down, but it’s definitely worth it. Overpowered Shield Bash builds up a lot of daze, interrupts enemy attacks, and keeps Caesar in perfect health when done consistently.

Another key part of Caesar’s kit is her core skill. As a defense unit, she offers sustain, and unlike Seth, she provides team-wide shields. Her core passive grants a base impact-scaling shield that prevents the active character from getting interrupted or taking damage. ZZZ fans who also play Genshin Impact will find it similar to Zhongli’s shield, but without the resistance shred.

With Caesar on the team, any on-field character is pretty much untouchable thanks to the shield’s 60-second uptime. It also states that any single instance of damage can’t exceed the shield value, providing low-health agents with insurance against potentially lethal blows. Additionally, she can keep the shield up most of the time by casting EX special 1, chain attack, ultimate, or EX special 2.

With no reapplication cooldown, this only means that players can keep the shield active for the entire battle as long as Caesar’s alive. On top of that, this shield comes with a flat ATK increase, which is a solid buff for everyone right now.

Alongside Caesar’s core skill, she can also apply a debuff effect within limited range that makes them more vulnerable to damage through her additional ability. Her additional ability requires another member from her faction, or another unit who can use defensive assist, which covers a decent number of playable characters. Hence, it’s easy to build a team around her. 

Moreover, she also offers decent crowd control by holding her basic attack, which pulls enemies to her. While its only effective against smaller enemies, it’s particularly useful in timed challenges. As for Caesar’s ultimate, her shield does a spinning attack dealing physical damage, and increased daze dealt to shielded enemies. As for ZZZ Caesar’s build, it’s highly recommended to prioritize upgrading her core skill, special attack, and assist.

Best Caesar Drive Disc builds

The best Caesar drive disc sets are a 4-piece Proto Punk and a 2-piece Shockstar Disco.

Caesar brings a lot to the table, offering flexibility when it comes to team compositions. While this is her current top set, there are other options that might work better in specific teams. Here are the best Drive Disc Caesar build to use on her.

Flex support and stunner Caesar build: 4-piece Proto Punk, 2-piece Shockstar Disco

4-piece Proto Punk and 2-piece Shockstar Disco are Caesar’s best-in-slot drive discs as they focus on amplifying her strength as a buffer, shielder, and stunner. It’s a universally good set, making it a top option regardless of the composition.

Proto Punk’s 2-piece set enables thicker shields, while its 4-piece effects grant a team-wide buff that increases squad’s damage by 15% for 10 seconds after triggering Defensive or Evasive assist. Players can pair this set with Shockstar Disco, which significantly increases her impact, thereby making her more effective as a stunner.

Anomaly Caesar: 4-piece Freedom Blues, 2-piece Shockstar Disco

On the other hand, a combination of the 4-piece Freedom Blues and the 2-piece Shockstar Disco is the best Caesar build for anomaly-based teams. The 4-piece Freedom Blues boosts Caesar’s anomaly proficiency and reduces the target’s anomaly buildup resistance to the equipper’s attribute. This means that this set is effective only with anomaly teams that feature physical DPS characters, particularly Piper and Jane.

Dark Souls DPS Caesar: 4-piece Swing Jazz, 2-piece Shockstar Disco

Sometimes, Swing Jazz is a great match for Caesar because it boosts energy generation and allows the team to receive more damage buff from it. This allows players to flex their Soulsborne muscles, having more opportunities to land big parries and making the ripostes that much more devastating.

Physical DPS Caesar build: 2-piece Fanged Metal, 2-piece Woodpecker Electro, 2-piece Hormone Punk

For ZZZ players that want to build their Caesar as a DPC, a hodgepodge of two-piece combos is the way to go. Fanged Metal, Woodpecker Electro, Hormone Punk, and Swing Jazz all contribute to Caesar’s DPS potential. Fanged Metal and Woodpecker Electro are must-haves, but players can opt for Hormone Punk or Swing Jazz in the final two slots based on what’s best for their team, and what they actually have on-hand.

Best W-Engines for each Caesar build in ZZZ

The top W-Engine for Caesar build is the Tusk of Fury. As ever, Caesar has a signature W-Engine that is difficult to come by for anyone who isn’t a whale. Thankfully, there are a few decent alternative for low-spend players.

The Original Transmorpher, Springs Embrace, and Hellfire Gears are all decent options that provide Caesar with some key boosts. But because Caesar’s best build varies based on the team composition, there isn’t a one-size-fits-all option outside Tusk of Fury.

Tusk of Fury (S-Rank)

The Tusk of Fury is Caesar’s go-to W-engine and easily her best-in-slot. Right now, there’s a noticeable gap in strength compared to the other options. 

ToF makes Caesar’s shield harder to break, and the squad also receives a teamwide damage and daze buff for 20 seconds, after triggering interrupt or perfect dodge. Caesar can trigger this effect pretty easily, which means that this effect can have a nearly permanent uptime.

Original Transmorpher (A-Rank)

Original Transmorpher is an A-rank craftable W-engine with HP% as one of its stats. While it won’t do much for Caesar, this W-Engine’s passive increases her impact by 10% for 12 seconds if she gets attacked by an enemy. Note that Caesar can trigger this effect even while she’s shielded. 

Springs Embrace (A-Rank)

Springs Embrace is an A-rank W-Engine from the battle pass that cuts down on the damage she takes. This also increases her energy generation rate, allowing her to use her EX specials and stun enemies quickly. When she swaps to another character, this effect carries over to them. 

Hellfire Gears (S-rank)

It might seem a bit unusual, but Caesar can actually use Stun W-Engines to great effect. Most of these W-Engines pack a good amount of impact in their stats, so equipping them lets Caesar fill the daze bar much faster. However, since she’s a defense agent, she won’t be able to take advantage of their passive effects.

For this option, any stun W-Engine with impact will work. The top choice here is Koleda’s signature weapon, Hellfire Gears, which provides a whopping 18% impact.

Best Caesar team compositions in Zenless Zone Zero

With Caesar being a universally good defense unit, she can easily pair with any traditional pure DPS or anomaly DPS in the game. The leader of the Sons of Calydon excels in almost any team composition with few downsides, all thanks to her offensive and defensive buffs, and her ability to stagger enemies.

Ideally, players should use her on teams with another Sons of Calydon faction member, Alternatively, this could be another unit that can use defensive assists, which are melee agents. Since melee agents fill up most of the roster, Caesar shouldn’t have any trouble finding the best team for her.

Jane Doe, Seth, and Caesar team form the ultimate Anomaly hypercarry team

This hypercarry team has excellent synergy, and once players get the hang of it, they are potentially wielding the strongest party possible in Zenless Zone Zero. Jane and Seth can activate each other’s additional abilities, and even though they’re not part of the Sons of Calydon, they let Caesar use her additional ability since both of them can use defensive assists.

Caesar turns into a great all-rounder for Jane, acting as a stunner and buffer while grouping enemies together. Her shields and increased interruption resistance are rather handy because getting interrupted often leads to DPS loss. Seth, on the other hand, adds extra shielding and boosts anomaly proficiency. Compared to other Jane teams out there, this one feels way less clunky, and both Seth and Caesar can support Jane without hogging her field time.

To further increase the team’s damage output, the player can opt for Officer Cui, or Bangvolver bangboos. 

The best fire Caesar team includes Solder 11, Caesar, and Lucy

With Caesar and Lucy hailing from the Sons of Calydon, it’s clear they’ll always be the core duo when building teams around this faction. Any physical or fire DPS will be lucky to have them both, as they provide excellent daze application, a flat ATK boost of 1600, some off-field damage, and sustain, all with minimal field time. For the main DPS slot, players can use Soldier 11, who’s also a fire unit like Lucy. With two members from the Sons of Calydon on the team, Red Moccus becomes the perfect bangboo to offer crowd control and physical damage.

Caesar, Piper, and Lucy make up the best free-to-play Caesar team composition

A full team with three Sons of Calydon could also be one of Caesar’s best teams, and it’s free-to-play, low-spender, and beginner-friendly! 

This team composition is similar to the one above, with Caesar and Lucy being the main source of buff, daze and sustain. Kick off the rotation by activating Caesar’s shield and attack buff, cast Lucy’s special or EX special to gain access to more damage buff, then swap into Piper and let her spin-to-way her way into building Assault procs. Piper’s special attack makes sure that she has increased interruption resistance while spinning, but Caesar’s shield will still be useful as it will prevent her from taking damage at all for as long as the shield’s active.