The wait for an S-rank support in Zenless Zone Zero is over, as Astra Yao is officially on her way. Here are the best builds and team setups for Astra Yao, New Eridu’s brightest star in ZZZ.
Supports don’t easily fade away in Hoyoverse titles, as shown by the likes of Ruan Mei from Honkai: Star Rail and Kazuha from Genshin Impact. Now it’s Zenless Zone Zero’s first-ever S-rank support’s time to shine. With a kit packed with multiple offensive and defensive utilities, the new S-rank Ether support is expected to become a staple in current and future teams in ZZZ. Meet Astra Yao.
Agent Combat Intel: Astra Yao | Zenless Zone Zero
While Astra Yao isn’t a huge leap over M6R5 supports such as Soukaku, Lucy, and Nicole, her flexibility is surely her main selling point. She is able to work with any DPS, be it an anomaly or an attacker, regardless of their attributes. Being an S-rank support, she’s likely to stay relevant in almost every situation, and that is unlikely to change anytime soon. This makes her a character worthy of long-term investment for ZZZ players.
Astra Yao’s an all-rounder support for Zenless Zone Zero with a bunch of tricks, including healing, boosting damage, and making quickswap rotations smoother.
The Stars of Lyra member is the only agent in ZZZ capable of restoring health. Previously, agents could only heal themselves through bangboos, healing tiles, and events. For many players who’ve grown accustomed to fast-paced combat and surviving through their quick reflexes alone, this isn’t an especially big deal. And it’s worth considering that Astra Yao only heals through her ultimate, and still just for about 2,000 HP.
What most players really value about her are her buffs. First, she gives up to 1,200 flat ATK, which is much higher than what Caesar or Soukaku can offer. On top of this, the whole squad gets 30% crit damage and a 20% damage bonus with her in the lineup.
Another key part of her kit is how Astra Yao makes rotations smooth with quickswapping thanks to her Chord mechanic in the Idyllic Cadenza state. With enough energy on hand, Astra Yao allows other agents to jump in and out with quick assists. This also means that she can keep the Astral Voice set effect active 100% of the time.
Astral Voice paired with Swing Jazz is the go-to drive disc for the an Astra Yao support build. Astra boosts flat attack which scales directly with her attack stats, making it her main stat priority. Energy regen comes next to help with her quick assists and EX special.
These are the recommended main stats for each partition for Astra Yao:
Newer agents usually receive a set that’s made just for them. For Astra Yao, that set is Astral Voice, which automatically makes it her best-in-slot.
With a 24% damage bonus for the entire trio, Astral Voice beats out Swing Jazz, formerly the go-to choice for supports. Astra’s the best at keeping the buff going thanks to her chord mechanic that lets the team pull off more quick assists in a short time window than other supports such as Lucy and Nicole. For the two-piece set, toss in Swing Jazz for some energy regeneration.
Swing Jazz isn’t as strong as Astral Voice for an Astra Yao build, but it’s a good temporary piece when players don’t have Astral Voice. Swing Jazz only gives a 15% damage boost, compared to Astral Voice giving significantly more. Players can pair it with 2-piece Hormone Punk or Astral Voice for some extra attack potential.
The best W-engines for Astra Yao build are Elegant Vanity, Kaboom the Cannon, and Bashful Demon.
Here’s what to keep in mind about each.
By using Elegant Vanity, Astra Yao users can easily hit their needed attack stats thanks to it having the highest base attack among all w-engines. The extra energy from its passive also makes it easier to focus on stacking up attack numbers. Moreover, it gives the whole team a 20% damage bonus.
While it’s just as universal as Astra and is definitely a nice upgrade to have, Astra Yao doesn’t need to rely on her signature weapon to be viable. Like any other support, she can work just fine with cheaper options.
Players who can’t afford to pull for Astra Yao’s signature weapon will do just fine with Kaboom the Cannon, especially if it’s max refined.
Kaboom the Cannon is an A-rarity energy regen w-engine, so players can just go for an all-attack drive disc set without stressing too much. It also gives the whole team up to a 16% attack buff. Since all DPS characters in Zenless Zone Zero scale up with attack, it works in pretty much any team composition and setup.
Bashful Demon comes in second as far as the best A-rank w-engine possibilities for Astra Yao. While it gives a slightly smaller attack bonus to the whole squad, it boosts Astra’s attack attributes more, making it easier for her to hit her threshold.
Astra Yao’s flexibility with team compositions in Zenless Zone Zero is among her strongest attributes. With her healing and universal damage buff, she rarely struggles in any team setup, though she does pair exceptionally well with a few specific allies. Here are some of the best ZZZ teams for Astra Yao.
Astra’s team-wide damage boost and quick assists mean she’s the perfect piece for a dual DPS quick-swap team. In Zenless Zone Zero, there’s no other duo that fits this description beyond Miyanagi, or Miyabi and Yanagi. Through Astra Yao’s quick assists, the two anomaly DPS can seamlessly split field time, dishing out electric and frost damage while triggering disorders along the way.
It’s no shock that Astra Yao and her Stars of Lyra faction assistant Evelyn have great synergy. Slot in Lighter, and the team just gets better.
Evelyn and Lighter make for a killer combo, as Lighter powers up her damage with fire buffs, debuffs, and longer stuns. Throw in some extra damage boosts and crits from Astra Yao, and Evelyn’s ready to burn everything to the ground.
Evelyn and Lighter being able to follow up with their chain attacks after Astra’s ultimate is a massive bonus as well, thanks to their immense damage and daze multipliers.
An Assault-based team built around Nekomata, Piper, and Astra Yao is one of the better teams for ZZZ’s newest support that is closer to being free-to-play.
Nekomata fits right in with Piper and Astra Yao for a quick-swap team. Piper’s spin-to-win attacks stack power and trigger assault procs, which crank up Nekomata’s damage. Astra Yao on the other hand buffs damage for the both of them while she’s off-field as they rotate in and out.
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