BUILD HER NOW! THE BEST Nicole Guide (Teams/Combo/Disk/W-Engine) - Zenless Zone Zero

[@richardjohnson8991]

Nicole is absolutely cracked out nuts and will carry your DPS if they aren't leveled yet. I can't wait for our ether anomaly unit so my M6 Nicole value will skyrocket. Learn that 360 tech it's really good in a lot of cases. I specifically have slot 6 mastery so I can use her as pseudo anomaly unit

[@ryusorata]

Most important nicole trick is to trigger the chain with Nicole EX Special, and finish it with Nicole doing quick assist for the dps.

[@theroses00]

I've been wondering about that, maybe it's better to trigger the chain with Zhu Yuan quick assist? I've been practicing combos and I found you can: Nicole Ex Special tap into hold e (to not trigger chain), space to trigger Chain with Zhu Yuan, Nicole chain into Zhu Chain. You end the chain attack with Zhu Yuan on field AND starlight engine passive.

[@Charmlie.R]

Chain cancels can be used sometimes to further optimize dps or uptime on specific chars, i use it on Corin very often. Something like support triggers chain and activates their passive, corin chain1, cancel chain2, corin EX but dont chain, swap to support to trigger chain3. So you get all your support uptime, as well as your dps getting 2 chain attacks. A lot of the time your non support/dps char doesn't need a chain attack. Stunners like Qingyi don't do anything special with their chain, getting a second dps chain attack would be better. And if your support can get away with not using a chain for their benefit, either something like nonEX rina special, or doing one dash attack with nicole and tapping uncharged special or just using EX with charge, they don't need a chain attack either. Your dps chain attack is probably stronger than their quick assist, and ending on field can be good. Like for corin, she can follow up her chain with the last hit of her basic string for a lot of damage. Out of quick assist, you skip to 4 instead which ends up slower. For Zhu Yuan or Jane, getting an extra chain attack means extra bullets or passion respectively, making their double-chain rotations stronger as well. Ofc it doesn't always apply. If you can have Seth's buff up without needing his chain attack, thats great. But if its down, it might be worth chaining him anyways. Either way, its worth considering how your rotations could play out, including breaking the mold of normal chain attacks. One note tho, preemptively hold a key before hitting chain cancel if you want to cancel after ZYs chain. Alllll the tiny rockets trigger, so you cancel and instantly retrigger and just waste all the chains lmao.

[@_car5323]

I hope there’s eventually a weapon lore episode about how she got her suitcase gun. Also I still think it’s crazy that her normal attacks are her swinging it around and randomly spraying in all directions.

[@7HFEstorque]

Well shes rich. But also broke at the same time

[@weebaliba8589]

​@@7HFEstorque she's like Mona, her pay is high but her spendings are just as high leading her to be broke

[@HeyyQuincyTV]

Glad to finally see an updated guide of an A rank. It’s either test server guides for new releases or zzz launch guides for a ranks. Personally, I like to see character guides outside of hype periods. Hearing updated insight is alway useful. Thank you. I think it would be useful to recommend efficient investment. It's helpful for a few reasons. Example: Nicole Support, level 40/50, skill: only special attack lv8 or higher, core passive C/D , and etc.

[@cannaaaa]

thank you for the feedback and compliment. will take that into consideration!

[@PHyN1151]

Wdym old? This game isn't even 1 year old😂 There's no such thing as minimum requirements. Higher level need more maximum agents too. There's only skill priority or smth like that. If you have the resources, just max it out. If don't, so resources management is the answer.

[@joshymellow4291]

Loving the videos, I want to suggest maybe like some additional info on future guides. Mostly like showing how the agent's stats page look at low, average, and high investment for some benchmarking

[@Franklin_Johanessan]

Definitely would be an amazing help

[@yoshineitor]

I don't think supports get "powercrept" in the same fashion as DPS (or stunner) characters do, DPS characters only matter for their DMG, that's what you expect from them. Stunners compete for how much daze they can build and Stunned bonus damage, but Supports? They can adapt to so many niches that powercreeping them would require Developers to copy and paste their stats and raise those numbers, or literally make an Omnibooster support that combines all the current Supports and each current Support is currently the best at supporting a different DPS The best part of supports is that they are the best F2P/Low Spend Player friendly, most of them just require one stat to focus on and you can raise just 1-2 skills to make them effective. They are also splashable anywhere even if they are not the most optimal.

[@lemeres2478]

Then again, after the new school thing made me realize that Ellen/Lycaon/Caesar works... Sadly, some supports fall to the wayside when their main thing is stats. Nicole not so much. She is a gatherer who is good for burst builds. She will have lasting power.

[@ElseeKay]

i dont think powercreep is applicable here because elemental resistance gets rotated in and out. currently ice is weak and phys/fire is strong but ice could come back. caesar also opened up anomaly teams even if she herself isnt particularly crazy. tldr more things are viable and elemental resistances are seasonal.

[@electricitybomb]

Caesar can is strictly better than lycaon, sokaku, lucy, and seth. Shes a sidegrade for qingyi. The only one that caesar cant replace is nicole

[@MrHiimo9]

Caeser, Nicole, Zhu Yuan is actually an insane comp. You get up to 1000 attack boost on ZY which is further enhanced by Nicole's 40% (if maxed core passive) def shred. ZY turns into Obelisk the Tormentor

[@drsjx7495]

Obelisk is the best way to describe that 😂

[@FunZenCh]

yep i dont have qingyi and use caesar for ZY too 😁

[@ogredanhibiki]

One thing you didn't mention for her alternate EX Special is that you can stop it immediately to have her shoot the ball a short distance away where you can switch to another agent while she is still invincible while sitting in the ground. i believe it can be faster than shooting the tap version of her EX Special.

[@Everfrost9]

The only issue with this is that with this particular version of her EX Special is that it doesn't provide "Quick Assist" that the other versions provide. Where this could become an issue is with F2P Zhu Yuan players who tend to use Starlight Engine that gives her a damage buff after doing "Quick Assist". I'm sure that there is probably a use case for that version of the EX Special that exists, but I don't know that it's worth giving up the Starlight Engine buff in this particular situation.

[@Nudgarrobot]

It does, just you'll not proc it if you swap THAT quickly (prior to the skill actually landing) The other thing about tapped alt-EX is that it does more muzzle and impact damage as compared to the normal tapped/held or the alternate held EX specials. What I'm not so sure about is how that extra muzzle and impact damage stacks up against the improved duration from the held variant, but even so, it's a way faster skill and is still comparable to the held ones Edit: What I WILL say is that the improved muzzle/impact damage makes it better for stunned enemies, since the burst gets leveraged better with the damage multiplier, and the improved DPS fielder uptime with the from-the-sky hit makes for better stunned enemy rotations

[@Everfrost9]

@@Nudgarrobot I just double checked myself and it was distance that matters. If you do it from too far away, it doesn't work. That was my issue.

[@KawabungaDude]

another thing to mention is that nicole can reload her enhanced bullets by simply sprinting

[@WTFGODDEM]

bro have you ever seen billy clear shiyu before, all of them are GOAT man

[@GeneralGhost001]

Here's a little fact If you hold down the dash with Nicole she reloads automatically and you'll see the suitcase click with a red light signifying that she reloaded

[@GatsuRage]

8:28 it also does constant dmg while casting it if u do it almost point blank which is how u should always use this if u were to use it.

[@lrdalucardart]

I dunno why only now, ppl are finding out how Nico is fking broken since Day 1...

[@bakataco1818]

Because the content creators don't have to release content based on when you personally started playing? Because not everyone has been playing since day one? Pick whichever.

[@SuilongV3]

Yeah.. A Nicole guide coming out whenever this came out, does not mean that the content creator JUST found out that Nicole is really good.. it just means they just made a video talking about it?? Wtf.

[@mustang_5197]

Having only briefly played Genshin while waiting for TOTK to come out, one huge difference i’ve noticed is that the first three characters you get by default are some of the best for med-casual builds, like 2/3rds of my team is cunning hares and a 5 start i pulled, they’re just that solid of a choice.

[@Nudgarrobot]

Hey! I know a few people point it out, but I do think that you've missed out on Nicole's alternate release EX. I'm fairly sure that it's not only faster than the normal tap animation (especially when cancelling into it out of something like a dodge counter), but something I don't see people talking about or noticing is that ***it actually deals more muzzle/impact damage than any other variant of the EX***. This in addition to its quick speed, safe field exit since the sit has invuln, and slight delay in field landing all contribute to much better instant DPS uptime

[@Nudgarrobot]

Another interesting thing is that, at least pairing with Soukaku, ending a chain attack with Soukaku -> Nicole can allow you to get two quick assist attacks off (In my team I run it as Anby/Nicole/Soukaku order, which means that it quick assists Soukaku in first and then immediately allows Nicole to be quick assisted in again as well. Which ends up looking like [chain attack soukaku]+[chain attack nicole] -> quick assist soukaku ->quick assist nicole+ optional forward dashattack+360tappedEX ->quick assist soukaku+3tapEX+holdEX+dashattack(to cancel spin) into soukaku's basic attack loop] for stun damage (Using Soukaku as DPS since both Nicole and Soukaku are cinema 6)

[@goblez5900]

Enhanced bullets are very useful for the destroying boxes combat missions as well as for the tentacle phase of Nineveh.

[@justmatrix3402]

Nicole is such a great character! She'll last long for ether support and be good in general. Thanks for the guide!😃

[@supersoncuh559]

Thanks for this! My nicole was just kinda in limbo not really built but i hit all those numbers to get the most out of her 🙏🏽

[@ElseeKay]

something to talk about nicole : her basic attack sucks and her forward dash attack sucks BUT her backwards dash attack is FAST and does decent dmg to a solo target, and you can instantly dodge cancel and do it again for two very fast and hard hitting blasts and leads into all of her secret input attacks. this creates a lot of space however. theres 3 variations of the secret input, the charge attack (it doesnt show up on the move list but you've probably done this a few times) which deals a burst of ether dmg, done by simply holding down the attack key after any basic attack or dodge attack. it looks similar to her backdash attack but the damage is in fact ether instead the other 2 variations are the sitting shot EX special, and the mortar shot. during the charge attack you can input a 360 to transition into nicole's sitting shot, which counts as an EX move with increased invincibility duration letting you literally sit through multiple dangerous moves like a queen. since it's an EX attack it also increases the duration of the energy field the longer you hold it and triggers quick assist. if you let go of the sitting shot early into its animation nicole will instead do a mortar shot, this puts nicole's ass on the ground for a long time unless you cancel it into a dodge OR more important into a manual swap (not a quick assist). you could wait for the shot to land and do a quick assist, but if you manual switch you could use the time before the mortar shot falls to sync up an attack and squeeze out more time with nicole's buff up (this is in fact the same thing lucy can do with her flyball), which i use for squeezing an EX attack before an ultimate or a full held salchow from jane or whatever you want. on the implication of the charge attack, nicole's energy field doesn't trigger corruption until the last hit of her energy fields and probably wont pop if you quick assist, so holding down the charge attack without using a field is there to quickly trigger it without using yet another EX move you might not have the energy for, so if you're trying to pop 3 elements for a fat discord (such as nekomata assault, anby shock, and nicole corruption for a cunning hare team) and you NEED it to pop fast such as during a 200% dmg stun about to run out, do a secret charge attack.

[@lolitsBilly]

as a player who hasn’t pulled yet thank you for the guides for these characters 😅

[@Fouad.Alherz]

We heard from the developer thought about allow each character has its own ultimate gauge in future, may that time make Nicole ultimate and others character more valuable.

[@7HFEstorque]

WOOOOOOOOAAAH Thatll be big

[@deering4445]

They testing by removing the cap of decibel in HIA

[@Fouad.Alherz]

@@deering4445 I tried it, it was crazy that Billy ultimate was making the decible always full against the three thiren bosses. I pressed it repeatedly several times.

[@GhostEmblem]

Billy doesn't lack dmg everyone is playing him wrong. His core passive make everyone think you are supposed to spam his crouching shots which are weak. But his ex special is really strong and his dodge attack builds energy and his team synergy allows him to double his ult damage if he does 2 chain attacks first, even without double the dmg the multipliers on his ult are comparable to Zhu Yuan. If you focus on his ex special and his 2x ult he is a solid DPS. Stick him with Corins w-engine and an ER main solt 6 disc drive and dont bother with his crouching shot then test the clear times.

[@perk2469]

It's a bit unfortunate the passive makes you lean a certain way when he plays best another way. What would you say is his best team in that case as a burst dps?

[@lumberboi8592]

@@perk2469 im really liking billy, caesar and nicole rn

[@ghostgamer0912]

As Cunning Hare squad enjoyer, I approve this message. Me with three of them at lvl 60 now. (including Ellen since she help me farm easily). My only goal right now is to get Billy at Mindscape 6. Other two had already at M6

[@Jokervision744]

I like the maid that floats. Easy to switch around and so. Even if I might dump some dmg or score numbers.

[@Jes9119]

Maybe its just me doing it but imo she shines in a team with Ellen and Soukaku. Ellen's main combos have a nasty habit of spreading enemies all over the place and Nicole has always been my regrouper to get everyone back together for Soukaku to freeze and Ellen to do what she does best; slam and shatter. My Nicole usually hangs out in the 3rd slot for this reason. Start with Ellen, swap to Soukaku for more ice buildup then Nicole for a regroup before back to Ellen for her ex's or ult.

[@chocobo4646]

The combo was also quite useful to learn. I've never considered swapping her back in to recast her debuffs. I've recently been doing what I do with pre-M2 Lucy, EX special right after finishing the chain attack and assist-attack in while still charging. Definitely smarter to swap her back in because of those durations. Will say, you didn't point out the fall down version, where you release while rotating for a black hole from the sky. I don't use the unique spin at all anyway. The animation still feels a bit slow, but worth considering just in case it isn't. Anyway, hoping for 2 more of her from Burnice's banner. Ben blocked me off from that good crit rate boost.

[@Nudgarrobot]

The extra animation time adds additional "charging" time to the EX, which improves its duration As for the case-drop variant, it's very fast to execute since it essentially self-cancels the animation to put her in the (invuln so safe on swap) sit animation, as well as does more muzzle and impact damage than any other variant of the skill. Absolutely worth doing whenever possible IMO; I near exclusively use the spin variants of Nicole specials for those reasons

[@riccco20]

im using billy m6, nicole m1, and qingyi m0 i can clear shiyu 7 second round in 01m 18s, so i think billy is gooood.

[@yoshineitor]

Billy M6 has so many damage on top of damage is crazy, people sleep on him because at M0 he is pitiful but I might argue he is the current A rank that benefits the most from Mindscapes

[@riccco20]

@@yoshineitor agree and maybe people didn't really understand that Billy is burst dps so outside stun state he didn't do damage he's more tricky to use

[@Loyalnacho]

Would you recommend to rize and build up an M0 billy with nekomata's weapon? I really really like billy, but would like an opinion on someone who mains him too

[@riccco20]

@@Loyalnacho I don't know about m0 performance but I use Neko engine too, but if u have Zhu yuan engine it will be better bcs Billy need crit dmg stat engine.

[@TybossMaster]

Feel you that you are sleeping on added group you gain from using the nicoles sitting ex special also its best used on no-stuned enemies

[@ahmadmelhem1499]

You actually forgot to mention you can use Nicole ex special charged Infront of the enemies , while charging she will cause either damage till she release the attack it will continue cause more anamoly damage , I use her for regrouping small enemies .

[@Sinfulserenity11]

Best girl Nicole is our honorary S-Rank

[@kevinvalencia7982]

When I saw Nicole's skills even before Zhu yuan, I knew she is broken for a free A rank, don't know why people ignored or even slandered her back then. Heck, I can't even imagine an S rank Nicole without it being totally unbalanced broken chara.

[@IO-hh3gw]

8:41 I think you missed something on this part. There's a shorter trick for this while still getting the full benefit of the increased duration. You don't have to wait to fully charged the skill as soon as Nicole sat down letting go of all the buttons finishes the whole charge.

[@theroses00]

Good video, but you forgot to mention that you can gain extra decibels when using Nicole ex special at max duration. I also would like to see a damage comparison between crit vs anomaly build (with Nicole sig vs Rina sig)

[@CombatPandaZenlessZoneZero]

I'm also interested in this, I feel like Nicole procs corruption frequently enough that the ap could be worth even without the AM, but I also feel like I like the energy regen a LOT. But yeah disk 4 ap vs crit is interesting.

[@reinaldosucre3579]

I run my Nicole with crit rate/crit dmg and works perfectly fine, she build up corruption pretty decent without anomaly set

[@CombatPandaZenlessZoneZero]

@@reinaldosucre3579 Yeah I'm also running crit rate/ crit damage..as you say it works fine. I'm wondering how much damage focusing anomaly proficiency instead adds/ subtracts. Ill likely do some testing in a couple of weeks

[@IceColdSight]

Burnice's banner is going to have a rate-up on Lucy and Nicole so it's THE perfect time to get yourself some of the best supports in the game (and their Mindscapes too)

[@progaming-ok8tq]

Amazing

[@TheSprint90X]

i love Nicole

[@Drag0nStorm1]

Since Nicole is literally the only other Ether character than the limited Zhu Yuan, it's been a requirement to build her since a lot of Shiyu defence enemies are Ethereals that are weak only to Ether. And it's been hard, using her as a pseudo damage dealer :\

[@MrBone-afide]

Ok kinda creepy youtube recommended me this when i just thought "it would be cool to build nicole" and couple of minutes this pops😅 up well anyway just got T6 Nicole so i will surely build her

[@upsyedown]

for supports until what level of core passive shud i level them to? Especially the 4 star ones. Is lvl 55 and E core passive enough? level 9 skill levels or maybe 11

[@Kexrus_]

can I run ER/Ether/Crit on nicole instead of AP/ATK/AM? im pairing her with non-ether units

[@Zolfried]

ive seen some guy on a controller show nicole shoot her shot like a mortar.. high up into the air with a delay to impact.. its shorter range then normal, but maybe the delayed activation gives more time for dps? The guy said he could only use it on controller and not on keyboard so its not applicable for most players.. but just thought i mention.. something about rolling the left stick 360 b4 ex or something.

[@Lemintoon]

Yes, doing 360 can extend her EX Special. If you release a special button before she sits you get a mortar shot. Also knowing that her hold nomal attack is just regular special and if you have enough energy you can do 360 and transition into ex special that way

[@edumanz5044]

To late already built it but i hope a lot of people use it

[@hazeysgarden]

So answer me this homie. If you only use her EX special, and not do her enhanced basic attacks, she doesn’t shred the enemy Def? I was under the impression that you just EX special and swap off.

[@ritarossweisse_]

I watch this video right after I got Nicole to M6 😂

[@cdtm1121]

i build freedom blues nicole. suprisingly big disorder damage from her

[@jonathandelrosario5843]

Will a caesar, nicole and neko team do okay?

[@DiogoVKersting]

One thing you didn't mention is that, is that holding her EX special for different durations, has slight different effects. A short hold will have a energy field which lasts just as long as a full hold, and will consume less energy, but at the cost of dealing less damage than a full hold. However, for people looking to maximize her debuff uptime, I'm pretty sure the short-hold is the best version of her Ex Special.

[@Onlyjomo]

Dope can you redo all old units in relation for 1.3

[@etherealist4015]

My Nicole has 3.15 ER, is that over capping?

[@DistrictX23]

Chat what’s the tl;dr?

[@RatchR]

The fact you skip over Kaboom the Cannon is crazy

[@cannaaaa]

Kaboom the cannon is a fine option too, I just thought 3 options of differing ranks would work 😭

[@RatchR]

@@cannaaaa only exhaustive list of all options are allowed 😭😭 haha. 3 differing options is cool, Kaboom the Cannon is just crazy good for Zhu Yuan team

[@BuddyChy]

When something says “increases ether damage to target”, is that exclusive to agents that deal ether damage? For example, her buff would only utilized by either herself or Zhu Yuan currently?

[@Msaber2012]

I would think Energy disk would be best since you want her ex to always be up

[@cannaaaa]

given the rotation used, the energy disk ends up being unnecessary since you can get 2.5 even without an energy disk

[@hogroad]

casesar

[@Cnsmf868]

11:45 i literally just pulled this 20 mins ago.

[@Saturday_Jones]

“Build her now” too late… She’s already 60 with max core and talents 🎉