The latest leaks, shared by Leifa, clarified a lot of the confusing mechanics around Seed! She is one of Zenless Zone Zero‘s upcoming Obol Squad member. The leak reveals how her abilities behave regarding Aftershock effects and team synergy buffs.
Mecha Assault = Aftershock Damage, but Not an Aftershock Skill?
Seed’s basic attack “Mecha Assault”, and her Super Attack variant, is officially considered both basic attack damage and Aftershock damage, even though this is not clearly stated in the in-game description.
However, these attacks are not classified as Aftershock skills and do not count as casting an Aftershock. That means multiple things:
- They can trigger passive effects tied to Aftershock damage types, like the Shadow Harmony Drive Disc’s 4-piece bonus.
- They won’t trigger effects that require an actual Aftershock cast, such as Orphie‘s buff duration extension.
The current hope is that this might be a leftover from older versions of Seed’s kit and may eventually be adjusted. Because otherwise it kind of ruins the interactions between Seed and Orphie, and even other characters.
Partner Buff Limitation Discovered
Another clarification involves Seed’s Partner Buff. This buff is supposed to scale dynamically based on the highest ATK stat, and it appears that the buff does not activate at all unless there is at least one Attack agent in the squad.
This means that teams running Seed without an attacker might miss out on her buff entirely, even if she should just give the buff based on the highest ATK stat.
Right now it is not really clear if these interactions are working as intended or simply unresolved leftovers from previous phases. As always, until official information comes from HoYoverse, take these with caution, especially ahead of future balance updates.
