Zenless Zone Zero (ZZZ)BurniceBuild and Guide

Intro & Unique Mechanic

Burnice is an S-rank Fire Anomaly Agent who specializes in dealing damage and applying Anomaly from off-field via her Afterburn mechanic. Taking part in occasional short bursts of field time to restore her resources and proc “Ablooms” while letting the primary damage dealer of the team shine is what defines her playstyle.

Burnice has her own unique resource called Heat, tracked via a gauge underneath her portrait in combat and building up to 100 points. She enters the battlefield with 100 Heat and per point of Energy consumed, she restores 1.4 Heat.

When at 50 Heat or above, Burnice is in the “Nitro-Fuel Cocktail” state and will remain in it even after dropping below the threshold, exiting only when all Heat is expended.

In this state, hitting an enemy with an EX Special, Chain Attack, Ultimate or Charged Basic Attack applies the Scorched effect to enemies, which lasts until she exits Nitro-Fuel Cocktail state. 

Any squad member’s attacks other than her own will consume 8 Heat to trigger “Afterburn”, with a 1.5s CD, but by Potential Awakening 2 and above, this reduces to 1.35s CD. This is an instance of damage that functions like a regular attack hit, building Anomaly and being able to critically hit despite Burnice being off-field. 

It scales with Burnice’s ATK and gains a DMG Bonus for every 10 points of Anomaly Proficiency she has, maxing out at 30% DMG Bonus when at 300 AP and above. All damage from it is treated as Assist DMG.

With her Additional Ability active - requiring either Anomaly or same Faction Agents - the Anomaly Buildup of her Afterburn as well as those from her EX Special and Charged Basic Attack gain 65% extra Anomaly Build-up rate. In addition, the duration of Burn is increased by 3s, which also influences the maximum damage dealt by Burn Disorders.

As her Potential increases, Burnice also gets more Anomaly Mastery and DMG Bonus for every 0.1 point of initial Energy Regen over 1.8, capping out at 25% and 20% respectively.

Kit Breakdown

Burnice’s Charged Basic Attack has some unique properties. Despite it being a Basic Attack, like her Afterburn it is treated as Assist DMG. It costs 20 Heat to use - being the only non-Afterburn skill in her kit that consumes Heat - but in turn it will trigger an Afterburn that does not consume Heat nor share a cooldown with it.

As her Heat can get depleted quickly while using it, it needs frequent refills. 

Burnice’s Ultimate can generate 50 Heat on cast, and has the added benefit of triggering a Quick Assist. This prompt should always be taken as doing so will extend the duration of her Ultimate, increasing its value. Her Chain Attack does not have any Heat generation, but it has some of the highest Anomaly build-up in the entire game (higher than even her Ultimate’s). Since Heat can also be restored by consuming Energy, EX Specials will make up the majority of its maintenance. By default, pressing the Special button with at least 40 Energy available will cast EX Special: Intense Heat Stirring Method, a single flamethrower stream that will consume 12.5 Energy p/s to deal damage and apply a fair bit of Anomaly.

Pressing it again will transition into EX Special: Intense Heat Stirring Method - Double Shot, consuming double the Energy but also dealing roughly double the damage, Daze and even more Anomaly. Some skills however, namely her Charged Basic Attack, Quick Assist, Assist Follow-Up, Chain Attack and EX Special: Intense Heat Tossing Method can bypass the base skill and shortcut to Double Shot.

The last on that list is brought about by Burnice’s Potential Awakening. When Afterburn is triggered 12 times, Burnice will gain Emberflow, indicated by the glowing dot on her gauge. Her Hold Basic Attack’s extra Afterburn triggers count for this too. 

While she has it, Afterburn procs won’t build up to another Emberflow, so using up is the priority, This is done by switching into Burnice, which then casts EX Special: Intense Heat Tossing Method to deal a decent amount of damage, Daze, Anomaly and trigger an Abloom. Despite it being an EX Special, this cast-on-swap behaviour has it function like an Entry Skill, and therefore it’s considered a Quick Assist.

An Abloom is an extra tick of Anomaly damage: whenever a character is suffering from any Attribute Anomaly of the 5 standard elements (Ether, Electric, Fire, Ice, Physical), Abloom will deal a percentage of the existing Anomaly currently inflicted. For Burnice, if an enemy is taking 10,000 DMG Burn ticks, the scaling rate on her Heat Tossing Method means it’d trigger a 60,000 DMG Abloom..

The more Heat Tossing Methods Burnice gets in a fight, the higher her total damage contribution becomes, being an additional source of damage besides her raw multipliers or Anomaly and Disorder triggers.

Burnice’s gameplan then amounts to a pretty simple flowchart:

• Apply Scorch to enemies (most likely with her Hold Basic Attack at the start of combat to reserve Energy).

• Stay off-field and allow squad members to trigger Afterburn procs to build Emberflow.

• Swap in occasionally to restore Heat via EX Special casts, ideally with a skill that allows her to shortcut to Double Shot (like an Assist Follow-Up or a Chain Attack).

• If there’s enough Energy Regen to allow for frequent refills, using the occasional Hold Basic Attack for more Afterburn procs can help.

• Once Emberflow is stocked, use it up immediately for an Abloom trigger.

There are some optimisations that can be done to her general play. As she’s likely to be running Chaos Jazz 4-piece, the 7.5s CD on its effect upon switching in should be respected else risk losing its bonus when coming in to refill Heat.

Ultimate is always a good option for an immediate top-up that is independent from Energy consumption, buying time for resources to recover. Keep in mind that ideally it shouldn’t be used when at over 50 Heat so as to not waste gauge.

Anything more would be comp and encounter specific, like looking to balance out Defensive Assists with the main damage dealer for Decibel management which may require Burnice to come on-field slightly more frequently, or making use of her Ultimate to bypass Anomaly/Disorder ICDs with Alice.

The greatest gains in score for Burnice are less about how she in particular is played and more on how to route a fight, specifically by getting good at sustaining Heat and balancing out Anomaly build-up across the team.