Banyue Guide and Best Builds

Banyue Guide & Best Builds

Welcome to our Banyue build guide for Zenless Zone Zero. Banyue is a special S-Rank Fire Rupture Agent who has very specific Basic Attacks and Ex Special combos that allow him to deal massive DMG. In our guide, we will cover everything you need to know to get the most out of your Banyue, from building the best Drive Discs and W-Engines to important stat priorities and combos.

Banyue's Best W-Engines

Listed below are Banyue's best W-Engines. While W-Engines are listed in a priority order, what is best to build on your Banyue can vary slightly depending on your team composition.

Wrathful Vajra

Purging Karmic Fire
CRIT Rate increases by 20/23/26/29/32%. When the equipper launches an EX Special Attack, their Fire Sheer DMG increases by 9/10.35/11.7/13.05/14.4%, stacking up to 2 times and lasting 20s. The duration of each stack is calculated separately.

Qingming Birdcage

Cloud Flow
CRIT Rate increases by 20/23/26/29/32%. When the equipper launches an EX Special Attack, the character gains 1 stack of Qingming Companion effect, stacking up to 2 times and lasting 15s. On entering combat, immediately gain 2 stacks. Repeated triggers reset the duration. Each stack of the Qingming Companion effect increases the equipper's Ether DMG by 8/9.2/10.4/11.6/12.8%, and increases Ultimate and EX Special Attack Ether Sheer DMG by 10/11.5/13/14.5/16%.

Grill O'Wisp

Caged Fire
The equipper's Fire DMG increases by 15/17.25/19.5/21.75/24%. When the equipper's HP decreases, their CRIT Rate increases by 15/17.25/19.5/21.75/24% for 5s.

Puzzle Sphere

Ingenious Craft
Upon launching an EX Special Attack, the equipper's CRIT DMG increases by 16/18.4/20.8/23.2/25.6% for 12s. Additionally, if the target's current HP is below 50% of their Max HP, EX Special Attack DMG increases by 20/23/26/29/32%.

Radiowave Journey

Easy Strides
When launching a Chain Attack or Ultimate, the equipper gains 1 stack of a buff effect. Each stack increases the equipper's Sheer Force by 80/92/104/116/128, stacking up to 3 times, and lasting 12s. The duration of each stack is calculated separately.

[Cinder] Cobalt

Dim Flame
Upon becoming the active character in combat, the equipper's ATK increases by 7.2/8.2/9.3/10.4/11.5% for 10s. This effect can trigger once every 20s.

Best Drive Discs for Banyue

Yunkui Tales

2-Piece Set: HP +10%
4-Piece Set: When using EX Special Attack, Chain Attack, or Ultimate, CRIT Rate increases by 4%, stacking up to 3 times and lasting 15s. Repeated triggers reset the duration. When having 3 stacks of this effect, Sheer DMG increases by 10%.

Banyue's Stat Priority

When building Banyue, CRIT and HP are the most important stat to focus on. You wan to reach 100% CRIT Rate in combat. After that you can invest in CRIT DMG instead.

Banyue's Skill Priority

Banyue's most important skills to level are his Core Skill, Basic Attack, and EX Special Attack.

How to Play Banyue

Banyue is a Fire Rupture on-field DPS built around combo inputs, tight resource management, and stun window burst damage. On paper his kit looks overwhelming, but in practice he follows a very clear game plan once you understand what actually matters.

The first thing you need to know is that Banyue does not work well as a quick-swap or burst-only character. He needs field time to function properly. On top of that, most of his damage happens during enemy stun windows.

You need to be extremely careful on Stun windows with Banyue. If you have teammates that stun too fast, you will have no resources to unleash Banyue's best combo. And if you stun too slowly, you will loose a ton of damage.

Banyue's Resources

Banyue has two unique Resources:

• Wrathful Fires (Max 150)
• Displayed as the bar under his HP
• Required to enter Visage of Wrath
• Generated by:
• Defensive Assist, Perfect Dodge, or On-field Parry (+4)
• Perfect Block with on-field parry (+6). You can trigger this by pressing dodge without movement as well. For Banyue it will count as a Perfect Block.
• Spending Adrenaline (50% converts into Wrathful Fires)
• You want at least 120 Wrathful Fires before every stun window.
• Mountain's Might (Max 4 stacks)
• Displayed as four squares under Wrathful Fires
• Gained when entering Visage of Wrath
• Consumed by EX Specials inside Visage of Wrath
• Leaving Visage of Wrath clears all Mountain's Might

Visage of Wrath

Visage of Wrath is Banyue's main damage mode. If Banyue has 120+ Wrathful Fires, he enters Visage of Wrath when using:

• Chain Attack
• Ultimate
• Certain Basic Attacks (but we mostly ignore these for this part)

When you enter Visage of Wrath:

• Gains 4 Mountain's Might
• Can no longer generate Wrathful Fires
• EX Specials:
• Cost Mountain's Might instead of Adrenaline
• Restore 10 Adrenaline
• Gain Fire DMG + CRIT DMG bonuses

Leaving Visage of Wrath:

• Consumes Wrathful Fires
• Removes remaining Mountain's Might

You want to be in Visage of Wrath during stun, and exit it with a finisher. This is when Banyue will deal the most damage.

This is the main things you need to know. Once you understand that, you will have to learn about Banyue's very special combos. He basically works sort of like a Street Fighter fighting game character. His combos mostly happen between his Basic Attacks and Special Attacks. On top of that, he can chain his combo attacks even faster if you input your next combo during his Perfect Cancel window. He has one after each attack combo.

How Banyue's Combos Function

For Banyue's combos, we will try to make it as simple as possible. You technically do not have to learn the massive amount of combinations off by heart, especially with there being an auto-combo, but there a few things you need to understand on top of everything we already mentioned. He works like a fighting game character, which means you can input a sequence of buttons to do certain chains of attacks.

Pre-Fight

The first thing you want to do before starting a fight, in case Banyue has over 50% of life hold his Basic Attack. This way you consume his HP and it will directly generate 120 Wrathful Fires and enter Visage of Wrath before the fight.

Finisher Combo - Toppling Mountain

When you enter combat this way, it means you can directly chain into his Finisher Combo - Toppling Mountain

• Upon entering combat, hold again his Basic Attack Basic Attack: Toppling Mountain
• This consumes 120 Wrathful Fires and deals massive damage
• You will end Visage of Wrath after that

You can use this as mentioned after Holding the Basic Attack before entering fight, or during a fight after two different EX Specials (we do not recommend the hold basic attack during fights as it is not very optimal). This how you should end ALL the stun windows!

EX Specials

Banyue has six EX Specials, but realistically you only need to remember four basics + two upgrades.

These are Banyue's "normal" Ex Specials combos. You can use them after most actions, chain them together, or even use them during his perfect cancel windows if you manage to time them properly. You can basically cancel the animations after each combo, but the window is very very small, and if you cancel too fast, you also cancel DMG, but if you are too slow, you loose your transition to the next combo.

Upgraded Wrath EX Specials

These are the upgraded version when you are under Visage of Wrath. They deal cost more, but deal huge damage, and should only used during the Stun window.

Auto-Combo

If Banyue has Mountain's Might, he can enter a sort of automatic combo. All you need to do for this one is Hold his EX Special and Banyue will automatically perform all four of his Basic EX Specials and end it with Toppling Mountain.

It is important to note that while this is fine for casual players and everyday content, it will not allow you to score high or clear all stars in Deadly Assault. However, if you just want to play a little bit chill, this works for any basic content like story or farming materials.

Banyue's Combos

Universal Fight Start

1. Hold Basic Attack outside combat → 120 Wrathful Fires
2. Enter fight
3. Spend Mountain's Might with EX Specials
4. Hold Basic → Toppling Mountain

Casual Stun Combo (Auto-Combo Friendly)

• Requirements: 120 Wrathful Fires before stun
• Steps:
1. Trigger stun
2. Chain into Banyue
3. Wait until Mountain's Might appears
4. Hold EX Special
5. End with Ultimate

This one is easy, consistent, but not the most optimal.

Standard Manual Stun Combo (Recommended)

• Requirements:
  • 120 Wrathful Fires
  • Manual chain control
• Sequence:
1. Trigger stun with Stunner
2. Banyue Chain
3. Earth Shaker → Mountain Tremor (Wrath)
4. Ultimate
5. Hold Basic → Toppling Mountain

This is the best balance of damage and consistency.

Advanced / High-Score Combo (Very Hard)

• Only recommended if you:
• Play with Dialyn
• Are comfortable with chain cancels
• Want to min-max score
• Involves:
• Two chains
• Two ultimates
• Four EX Specials
• Perfect timing

We only mention this one because it is a really high effort combo, but with very small gains. It is definitely not mandatory, and we do not recommend it.

Banyue's Best Mindscapes

Banyue's Mindscapes are good, but generally not groundbreaking and more game-breaking than anything else. This makes them not necessarily worth the investment. His "best" Mindscape would be his M1 as it is a good addition, granting him more Fire RES and Sheer DMG, but sadly it does not include buffs for his most important attacks. The rest of his Mindscapes often clash either with teammates or Banyue's own other skills.

If you have to choose between Mindscape and W-Engine, we definitely recommend you focus on the W-Engine, as it will be a much better bonus for Banyue.

Banyue's Best Teams

To learn all about Banyue's synergies and best team compositions, check our dedicated Banyue team page below:

Changelog