Zenless Zone Zero Nicole builds

A good Zenless Zone Zero Nicole build gives your party a competent – and free – support character who helps your strongest fighter shred even the toughest of foes. Nicole isn’t much for dealing damage herself, but she debuffs targets with her passive and groups mobs together so her teammates can slice through them with ease.

Our ZZZ Nicole build explains which W-Engines and Drive Discs work best for Nicole and how to get the most from her kit.

For more ZZZ help, check out our Billy build and Anby build guides. Make sure to get all 180 pulls from Zenless Zone Zero's launch rewards, too.

ZZZ Nicole build

Zenless Zone Zero: Nicole kit

Nicole has a few useful tools to help parties, including one that won’t be useful for a little while. Her core passive is the most important one. After Nicole lands a hit with her special, EX Special, chain attack, or ultimate, she can reload, which happens when she dodges while moving. Doing that enhances her basic and dash attacks, and if those or her energy field land, they debuff the affected enemy by 25 percent.

Those enhanced attacks are a fair bit more powerful than her standard basic attacks as well. Nicole’s standard basic attack combo is just three hits with her case that deal physical damage. Her dodge reloads, and her dodge attack deals a single instance of physical damage. Nicole’s quick assist and assist follow-ups deal ether damage to enemies in front of her, and her special is a ranged attack that deals ether damage. The EX Special version creates a field that pulls enemies in and deals ether damage.

If you put Nicole in a party with another ether or Cunning Hares character and her core passive inflicts a debuff, the affected enemy takes 25 percent more ether damage. Nicole is the only ether character as of ZZZ 1.0, though the second banner will introduce Zhu Yuan, another ether character.

ZZZ Nicole W-Engines

Nicole comes with a free A-rank W-Engine called The Vault, which is a nice complement to her kit and expands the kind of support she can provide. When the equipping character deals ether damage with their ultimate, EX Special, or a chain attack, which Nicole always will, all party members deal 15 percent more damage against that target. The equipping character also recovers 0.5 energy per second for two seconds, which is just a convoluted way of second they get 1 additional energy.

Unlike Anby’s and Billy’s free W-Engines, you can’t buy more of Nicole’s. That limits just how much of a buff your party gets from the Engine’s special effect, though even 15 percent more damage on top of Nicole’s passive skill ends up being a lot. The Vault’s extra energy regen makes up for the difficulty in finding more copies of it as well.

If you want to aim higher and send Nicole into battle with even more special effects, Weeping Cradle is the W-Engine for you. This S-rank Engine increases the user’s energy regen when they’re off-field by 0.6 per second, and since Nicole is mostly useful in brief bursts when her energy is full, she’ll be off-field most of the time. When the equipping character lands a hit on a target, the whole party deals 10 percent more damage to that target for three seconds. The effect increases every half second for a total of an additional 10 percent extra damage.

Slice of Time is a solid option for those struggling to keep Nicole’s energy up. Any time a party member uses a dodge counter, EX Special, chain attack, or assist attack, the equipping character’s energy regen increases by 0.7, and the attacking character generates more decibels for triggering ultimates.

Nicole also has some good B-rank options. [Reverb] Mark I gives the party extra Impact when the user lands an EX Special, and [Reverb] Mark II increases the party’s Anomaly mastery and proficiency by 10/16 when the equipping character lands a hit with their EX Special or a chain attack. B-ranks are much easier to come by, so you should be able to max out these effects without much trouble.

ZZZ Nicole Drive Discs

Nicole has fewer Drive Disc options as of ZZZ’s launch version, but there is one set that works perfectly with her kit: Swing Jazz.

Four-piece: Raises energy regen by 20 percent and increases the party’s damage by 15 percent for 12 seconds when the equipping character uses a chain attack or ultimate

It’s a nice fit if you’re using Slice of Time, which makes using ultimates easier, or a Stun character, since they inflict daze often.

You can supplement this with a two-piece set that raises Nicole’s attack, but I prefer Freedom Blues and its +30 buff to Anomaly proficiency. It helps round off Nicole’s support potential and doesn’t waste slots or stats trying to buff her attack, the latter of which doesn’t do her much good.

ZZZ Nicole stats

Since Nicole is a support character, her stat needs are a bit different compared to the likes of Anby and Billy. She benefits from energy regen, but she can also make good use of Anomaly proficiency and Anomaly mastery. You’re free to buff her attack, crit rate, and crit damage as well, but since Nicole isn’t a primary damage dealer, the returns likely won’t do you as much good.

• Disc IV: Anomaly proficiency, attack
• Disc V: Ether damage, PEN, attack
• Disc VI: Energy regen

All of those work for Nicole’s substats as well.

If you're looking for other ZZZ characters to team up with Nicole, check out our up-to-date selection of Zenless Zone Zero codes for some free Polychrome.