With Evelyn being the newest attacker in ZZZ, everyone’s curious about the best build for her, from her best drive disc to her ideal team composition.
Zenless Zone Zero had its run of anomaly DPS dominating the meta, and now it’s finally circling back to attackers. Midway through the 1.5 patch, Evelyn Chevalier from the Stars of Lyra faction is joining the lineup as an S-rank Fire on-field attacker with a knack for spamming chain attacks.
When Evelyn arrives, she’s set to be right up there with the game’s top DPS, especially with a good set of drive discs, w-engines, and teams that work well with her.
Evelyn is a fire attacker damage dealer in Zenless Zone Zero focusing on spamming chain attacks, and she comes with a kit that’s mostly workable with quick swaps.
Evelyn works by accumulating Burning Embers, the red bar beneath her HP, as she uses abilities. When her Burning Embers meter reaches at least half, holding a basic attack activates Lunalux Garrote, dealing fire damage and earning one Burning Tether Point. At three points, her next held basic attack triggers a chain attack. Chain attacks are Evelyn’s bread and butter, packing her highest damage multiplier next to her ultimate.
When it comes to her chain attacks, Evelyn relies on her ultimate to trigger more of them. When it’s active, she retains one Burning Tether point after each chain attack used. This means that she builds Burning Tether Points faster during this time, leading to even more chain attacks ready to be unleashed.
To start things off with Evelyn, use her Special or EX Special skill. If her core skill is active, players will get a quick 25% crit rate boost right from the beginning of the fight.
Here’s the skill priority for Evelyn in Zenless Zone Zero:
Inferno Metal, Woodpecker Electro, and Hormone Punk are the top drive disc sets for Evelyn. Much like every other Attacker in Zenless Zone Zero, Evelyn should aim to build ATK, Crit and Fire damage stats.
Here’s the best main stats for each Drive Disc partition for Evelyn:
Inferno Metal shines best in mono-fire teams that can maintain a steady Burning uptime. This set grants fire damage bonus and a 28% additional crit rate upon striking opponents affected by the Burning status. Both of these are huge boosts for Evelyn, especially since she’s an attack-focused unit that needs an 80% crit rate to really max out her chain attack damage. Pair it with Woodpecker Electro for an extra 8% crit rate.
80% is the sweet spot for Evelyn’s crit rate, and with the right build put together while keeping her kit in mind, there are plenty of ways to hit that ideal target.
However, be careful not to overcap. Evelyn gains 25% crit rate while in Binding Seal, and Inferno Metal provides an additional 28%. If players don’t struggle too much with building crit rate through Drive discs and W-engines, they can instead opt for Hormone Punk for a nice 10% attack increase.
In teams where Evelyn’s the only fire agent, players can go for a generic Woodpecker Electro set instead. This gives her an 8% crit rate and a nice increase to her attack, so long as she has enough crit on hand. Inferno Metal focuses more on boosting her fire damage.
Evelyn’s best W-engines are Heartstring Nocturne, Deep Sea Visitor, Steel Cushion, Marcato Desire, and Cannon Rotor. We’ll describe each below and why it works best for the character.
Heartstring Nocturne surpasses every existing W-engine in Zenless Zone Zero by a long shot, standing in a league of its own as is to be expected from a signature weapon. This attack w–engine has everything Evelyn needs for an ideal ZZZ build, from crit rate and crit damage to fire resistance shred.
Ellen’s best-in-slot works pretty well with Evelyn. Even though the Ice damage buff doesn’t really do much for her, she can still make use of the high base attack and the crit rate it provides. Other alternative stat sticks include Hailstorm Shrine and Steel Cushion.
If players are lucky enough to secure Marcato Desire and its refinement material during the Into That Pale Wasteland event in 1.4, they can use it to build Evelyn’s stats. Marcato Desire blows all other A-rank W-engines out of the water here, especially in an all-fire team. Besides the paid battlepass W-engine, there’s no other A-rank W-engine offering these crit rate stats.
Players who have access to the New Eridu City Fund battlepass in Zenless Zone Zero can pick up Cannon Rotor for a solid Evelyn build. Like Marcato Desire, it gives Evelyn a 20% crit rate and a good chunk of attack stats.
Proxies who have just unlocked Evelyn will find it easy to build a team around her, as she pairs well with many existing units in Zenless Zone Zero.
No other agent in Zenless Zone Zero pairs better with Evelyn than does fellow Stars of Lyra member Astra Yao. Astra is a versatile support who can provide huge buffs tailored to Evelyn’s particular needs. The best part is that Astra Yao’s ultimate lets her perform more chain attacks during its timing window.
For the second slot, Evelyn will require a potent stunner since she’s an attack-focused unit. Lighter fits the bill perfectly. He brings fire damage buffs and debuffs, and his quickswap play style works seamlessly with Astra Yao’s quick assist mechanic.
A somewhat free-to-play mono-fire team with Evelyn, Koleda, and Lucy is definitely one of her best setups. Like Soldier 11, Koleda is a staple in Evelyn teams. Her stun helps take down enemies faster, and her additional ability boosts Evelyn’s damage during chain attacks when enemies are staggered. To round out the team, add Lucy for off-field fire support and a flat attack buff that barely requires field time to activate.
Even new players relying on free-to-play builds in ZZZ can build a solid team for Evelyn with an A-rank stunner and support. They can start with two of the free characters in the game, Anby and Nicole. Anby can take on the role of the main stunner, while Nicole serves as the debuffer and a crit rate buffer at M6.
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