Less Is More, Simple Is Key. Complexity has no place here. Just keep everything simple. Work Smart and Rest More. Take breaks at the right time... to minimize the annoyance of working. Work With Focus, Prevail With Caution. Whether she takes it too seriously or not seriously enough, it's her enemy who ends up suffering from it. Unleash Sweet Delight, Unwrap and Indulge. Savoring the lollipop and concealing her true thoughts.
To learn more about Ellen check the sections below. Use the tabs to quickly switch to the kind of information you're looking for.
Ellen has at least one video guide available, so if you prefer this sort of medium to learn more about a character, check it out:
Ellen profile has been last updated on November 6th, 2024.
To learn more about Ellen check the sections below. Use the tabs to quickly switch to the kind of information you're looking for.
Profile
Review
Build
Shiyu Defense
Rotation & Teams
Calculations
Profile
Core Passive Sharp-Toothed
When Ellen launches a charged scissor strike during Dash Attack: Arctic Ambush, or consumes a Flash Freeze Charge to activate Basic Attack: Flash Freeze Trimming, the skill's CRIT DMG is increased by 50%.
CRIT Rate: 0
BASE ATK: 0
Additional Ability Rising Storm
When another character in your squad shares the same Attribute or Faction:
When Ellen deals Ice DMG, subsequent Ice DMG increases by 3% for 10s. This effect can stack up to 10 times, and repeated triggers reset the duration.
Basic Attack: Saw Teeth Trimming
Basic Attack: Flash Freeze Trimming
Dodge: Vortex
Dash: Roaming Hunt
Flash Freeze
Dash Attack: Arctic Ambush
Dash Attack: Monstrous Wave
Dash Attack: Cold Snap
Dodge Counter: Reef Rock
Special Attack: Drift
EX Special Attack: Tail Swipe
EX Special Attack: Sharknami
Chain Attack: Avalanche
Ultimate: Endless Winter
Quick Assist: Shark Sentinel
Defensive Assist: Wavefront Impact
Assist Follow-Up: Shark Cruiser
Glacial Omen
Mindscape 1
Arctic Ocean Predator
Mindscape 2
Overtime-Intolerant
Mindscape 3
Endless Hoarfrost
Mindscape 4
Adequate Sleep
Mindscape 5
The Feast Begins
Mindscape 6
Ellen Stats at level 60 (including Core passive bonuses).
Ellen images aren't available yet. They will be added soon!
Review
Has the highest damage output in the game at the time of her release,
Is part of the best team in the game at the time of her release (Mono-Ice),
Has incredible mobility while in the Roaming state, which allows for quick movement through levels and repositioning around bosses,
Many abilities have movement and dodging components built into them, making Ellen more challenging for enemies to hit.
Has the strongest self-buffs built into her kit in the game at the time of her release,
Only Ice damage dealer at the time of her release.
Is a combo-based character with a variety of attack sequences that are all viable. This means Ellen has a slight learning curve compared to other characters,
Has small moments of vulnerability unless played carefully when executing charged attacks or her fairly long Basic Attack part 3,
Ellen's Chain Attack is notable for its extended cast time compared to other characters, which can potentially sacrifice valuable opportunities during the enemy's Stun window.
Ellen is an S-Rank Ice Combat Agent specializing in delivering high amounts of pure Ice damage through her unique burst rotation and her ability to execute EX combos with the team’s Ultimate. Additionally, she maintains a consistent damage output against less formidable foes using a powerful sustained combo.
Ellen boasts high mobility, thanks to her signature sprinting state, which positions her as one of the fastest characters in the game. Her gameplay is centered around managing Flash Freeze charges, a resource exclusive to her, which powers her Enhanced Basic Attacks. Mastering this allows Ellen to achieve one of the highest damage outputs in the game, cementing her status as a top-tier DPS in the endgame mode, Shiyu Defense.
Due to nuances of her kit, Ellen is considered one of the more complex characters ingame.
Ellen’s Basic Attack is a 3-hit combo integral to both her standard and burst rotations. It features two variants: a standard form dealing Physical damage and an enhanced form consuming Flash Freeze charges to deal Ice damage instead (requiring 3 Flash Freeze for a full 3-hit combo). In both forms, the first and second strikes are swift and relatively weak, while the third strike is a lengthier attack that can be extended further with continuous tapping. The third hit deals the majority of the combo's damage and triggers Ellen's teleportation behind her current or a new target if the original is eliminated or moves.
Ellen possesses standard Dodge, Dodge Counter, and Dash attacks common among characters. Unique to her is the ability to hold down her Dodge to enter a special sprinting state known as the Roaming State. This state allows her to remain indefinitely sprinting and transforms her standard Basic Attack into Arctic Ambush, a critical component of her kit. Activating Arctic Ambush exits the Roaming State, delivering a chopping attack with her scissors that generates 1 Flash Freeze charge on hit. Alternatively, holding the Basic Attack button charges Arctic Ambush, increasing its damage and generating 3 Flash Freeze charges (ideal for executing a full Enhanced Basic Attack combo). Charging Arctic Ambush costs Ellen considerable field time, but executing a Perfect Dodge grants her the "Quick Charge" buff, significantly speeding up her next Charged Arctic Ambush from roughly 2 seconds to about 1.5 seconds.
Ellen’s Defensive Assist, Assist Follow-Up, and Quick Assist are standard attacks among melee characters, dealing Ice damage and/or inflicting Daze. Notably, when she performs a Quick Assist, she also gains the "Quick Charge" effect mentioned before, in addition to the usual Perfect Dodge bonus.
Ellen possesses 3 Special Attacks: 1 Standard Special and 2 EX Specials. She utilizes her Standard Special sparingly, focusing instead on her EX Specials during burst rotations and situational use within her standard combo. The first EX Special can be activated when having sufficient energy, dealing Ice damage ahead of her, generating 1 Flash Freeze charge, and allowing an immediate Follow-Up with the third Basic Attack of her Basic Attack combo. This sequence allows Ellen to quickly deal damage, generate a Charge, and then immediately use it via her powerful Basic combo, making her entire rotation go in a concise sequence. Ellen’s second EX functions similarly but with increased damage and the ability to induce Daze, requiring immediate use after her first EX. This choice gives Ellen flexibility: she can opt for EX1 followed by a Basic 3 or EX1 + EX2 followed by a Basic 3.
Ellen’s Chain Attack and Ultimate, smilar to her Assists, deliver substantial Ice damage and Daze. However, her Chain Attack requires more time to execute compared to other characters.
Ellen’s Core Passive is very strong, making it a nice incentive to approach 100% Critical Hit Rate without damaging her other stats. This passive grants up to 100% Crit damage to Arctic Assault, all her Flash Freeze-Enhanced attacks, including her Basics. Her Additional Ability is also formidable and should be activated as a priority. It grants a buff increasing her Ice damage by 3% each time she deals any Ice damage, stacking up to 10 times for 10 seconds. This ability is easily maintained, effectively providing a consistent 30% boost to Ice damage.
Ellen is unquestionably at the frontline of the meta upon her release as a DPS. Once mastered, she proves to be invaluable both in present and in future gameplay. For optimal strategies for combining all of Ellen’s abilities, refer to the Rotation & Teams section of this guide.
This tier list assesses characters based on their combat potential in Zenless Zone Zero’s current most demanding content, Shiyu Defense (SD). SD is a mode similar to Genshin Impact’s Spiral Abyss or Honkai Star Rail’s Memory of Chaos and requires multiple teams, Disk Drives and good W-Engines. This mode offers a reasonable mix of Boss encounters (single target) and Elite packs (2-3 targets), allowing multiple characters to find a niche but in the end, there is a bias toward single target focused characters at the top-end and tier list ratings will reflect that.
Please keep in mind Zenless Zone Zero is a skill-based game and each character has a different playstyle, difficulty level and even special tricks and combos. Zenless Zone Zero is also a team based game and it's only by combining both these factors to the highest level a character can reach optimal performance.
Shiyu Defense
Build and teams
The W-Engines are listed in order of priority. Sometimes the percentages appearing near them won't reflect their performance as pure damage or Stun output isn't the only thing we're looking at - the utility of the W-Engine might be more important than the calculations imply.
The top number shows the performance of the W-Engine in the Burst rotation while the bottom number in the Standard rotation. You can find more information about them in the Calculations tab.
100%
100%
Increases Ice DMG by 25/31.5/38/44.5/50%. Upon hitting an enemy with a Basic Attack, the equipper's CRIT Rate increases by 10/12.5.15/17.5/20% for 8s. When dealing Ice DMG with a Dash Attack, the equipper's CRIT Rate increases by an additional 10/12.5.15/17.5/20%for 15s. The duration of each effect is calculated separately.
79.53%
93%
Upon hitting an enemy with a Basic Attack, Dash Attack, or Dodge Counter, the equipper's ATK increases by 3.5/4.4/5.2/6/7% for 8s, stacking up to 8 times. This effect can trigger once every 0.5s. The duration of each stack is calculated separately.
80.04%
81.62%
Launching a Dodge Counter or Quick Assist increases the equipper's ATK by 12/13.8/15.6/17.4/19.2% for 12s.
81.87%
82.36%
Increases Physical DMG by 20/25/30/35/40%. The equipper's DMG increases by 25/31.5/38/44/50% when attacking the enemy from behind.
77.33%
80.12%
Increases ATK by 7.5/8.6/9.7/10.8/12%. Attacks that land a CRIT on an enemy will inflict an additional 200% of ATK as DMG. This effect can only be triggered once every 8/7.5/7/6.5/6s.
79.79%
70.20%
Whenever a squad member launches a Chain Attack, the equipper gains a Charge stack, stacking up to 3 times. Upon activating their own Ultimate, the equipper consumes all Charge stacks, and each stack increases the skill's DMG by 15/17.2/19.5/21.7/24%.
The top number shows the performance of the Disk Drive in the Burst rotation while the bottom number in the Standard rotation. You can find more information about them in the Calculations tab.
100%
100%
Great option for all direct damage dealers that make use of some form of Basic ATK and EX frequently. The set grants 8% permanent CRIT RATE% from the 2-PC and a 9% increased combat ATK% buff for 6 seconds when triggering a CRIT with each a Basic Attack, Dodge Counter or EX Special Attack from the 4P. Each buff belongs to an attack type so you'll need to CRIT with each type every 6 seconds to maintain 3 stacks. You can expect 2 stacks of this set most of the time one from basics and one from either EX's during a burst window or Dodge Counters during downtime granting 18% combat ATK% that multiplies all ATK stats like FLAT ATK and ATK% ((Base ATK * (1 + ATK%)) + Flat ATK) * (1 + Combat ATK%).
Despite all this, the set has ramp-up time and can quickly fall off without access to energy for EX's making it most suitable for characters with cheap EX's, frequent Dodge Counters or concentrated burst damage windows.
Best combined with your choice of 2-PC Set:
90.11%
101.38%
Reasonable option for direct Ice damage dealers specializing in Dash Attacks and Basic attack specifically. The set grants 10% permanent Ice DMG% from the 2-PC and 20% increased DMG with Basic and Dash Attacks from the 4P. Upon Freezing or Shattering an enemy, the bonus from the 4P increases from 20% to 40% for 12 seconds. Due to the very specific nature of the buffs of this set it can fall behind other more powerful damaging options.
Best combined with your choice of 2-PC Set:
102.63%
83.87%
A top option for burst damage characters aiming to deal most of their damage in a short window following their Ultimate. The set grants 8% permanent PEN Ratio% from the 2-PC, 15% increased combat ATK% for 12 seconds after using an Ultimate and 20% increased Ultimate DMG from the 4P. When evaluating this set we assume you'll gain and save your damaging Ultimate for the enemy Stun window and use it before executing the rest of your combo. If you're unable to gain your Ultimate every stun window, this sets value will drop compared to its listing.
Important! If this set's damage numbers are larger than sets ranked higher than it, it's because our team doesn't consider the damage increase to be worth the restriction of requiring your Ultimate to gain the bonus. Use this set if you consider the increase to burst damage to be worth it for you.
Best combined with your choice of 2-PC Set:
Substats: CRIT RATE = CRIT DMG > ATK% > PEN = ATK
ATK: 2700-3100+
HP: 9500+
DEF: 780+
CRIT RATE: 75-100%
CRIT DMG: 120-180%+
Chain Attack
Special Attack
Basic Attack
Dodge
Assist
Rotation & Teams
Ellen, like most combat characters, has a Burst Rotation she aims to execute while the boss is Stunned and a Standard Rotation she uses against smaller enemies not worthy of her full burst potential or to use during any downtime she has (waiting to Stun the enemy again, dealing with foes who die even before being Stunned or to fill extra time during a Stun window if you don’t have enough energy to execute a full combo).
In both rotations, you’ll be using Ellen’s Basic Attacks a lot and it’s imperative you only do so when you have Flash Freeze charges to consume to empower them. Here is a comparison of what 3 un-enhanced Basic Attacks deal against an enemy compared to 3 Enhanced Basic Attacks both with a full endgame build.
Ellen’s standard rotation doesn’t require the use of any energy or your team's Ultimates, making it ideal for building and conserving energy when you have downtime and are getting ready for your next burst rotation while you build Daze to Stun the enemy. Ellen’s most optimal standard rotation consists of a fully charged Arctic Assault to generate 3 Flash Freeze charges followed by 3 Enhanced Basic Attacks, repeat. Your sequence of attack should look like this:
- Dash Attack: Arctic Ambush: Spinning Slash
- Dash Attack: Arctic Ambush: Charged Scissors
- Basic Attack: Flash Freeze Trimming P1
- Basic Attack: Flash Freeze Trimming P2
- Basic Attack: Flash Freeze Trimming P3
While executing Ellen’s standard rotation if you find yourself full on energy don’t waste it by over-capping it. Instead spend it on an EX Special followed by a Basic 3. This is also a valid tactic against enemies close enough to death as Stunning them again would be slower than taking them out earlier with the use of Ellen’s energy.
- EX Special Attack: Tail Swipe
- Basic Attack: Flash Freeze Trimming P3
Ellen’s Burst Rotation comes into play after you Stun an enemy and is what we recommend you save your team's Decibels and Ellen’s energy for in order to deal maximum damage. As the enemy is only Stunned for a short while, charging Arctic Assault and executing a full sequence of Basic Attack 1, 2 and 3 isn’t time efficient. Instead we want to make full use of Ellen’s EX + Basic 3 combo and string together as many of these alongside her Ultimate as possible. Assuming Ellen has a full energy gauge (120 energy) and 3000 Decibels available an optimal burst combo should look similar to this:
- Chain Attack: Avalanche
- EX Special Attack: Tail Swipe
- Basic Attack: Flash Freeze Trimming P3
- Ultimate: Endless Winter
- EX Special Attack: Tail Swipe
- EX Special Attack: Sharknami
- Basic Attack: Flash Freeze Trimming P3
Or alternatively, if you’re okay with your burst combo being longer but dealing more damage (higher overall damage, lower dps) you can also utilize a combo similar to this one instead:
- Chain Attack: Avalanche
- EX Special Attack: Tail Swipe
- Basic Attack: Flash Freeze Trimming P3
- Ultimate: Endless Winter
- EX Special Attack: Tail Swipe
- Basic Attack: Flash Freeze Trimming P3
- EX Special Attack: Tail Swipe
- Basic Attack: Flash Freeze Trimming P3
In each of these combos, Ellen is dealing the maximum possible damage in the shortest possible time by burning through her and her teams resources, but if you go in without enough energy to unleash a full combo or without Ellen’s Ultimate, skip what you can’t do and revert to Ellen’s standard rotation for the remaining time the enemy is vulnerable.
It’s important to note that depending on the W-engine and Disc Drive set you’re using you may want to re-order the use of certain abilities when executing Ellen's Burst rotation. A good example of this would be you would want to use Ellen’s Ultimate as fast as possible while using Puffer Electro to activate its buff but would want to delay the Ultimate until after using an EX and a Basic attack when using Woodpecker Electro.
As you continue to play Ellen more you’ll learn when to save her resources for a big burst combo or burn them all early to take out higher priority smaller enemies. Ultimately the best Ellen players make full use of her kit by combining both her rotations using all or parts of each as the situation demands it.
Ellen and Lycaon have two of the most powerful Additional Abilities in the game so having them mutually activate it is incredible. However, that’s only the beginning of the synergies between these two character’s. Perhaps the biggest one is Lycaon’s absurdly broken 25% Ice Resist Shred debuff that he can keep up near permanently on enemies, allowing Ellen's damage to skyrocket far beyond what a dedicated Stunner should be able to do. True to his role Lycaon dishes out incredible amounts of Daze causing Stuns to enemies incredibly quick thereby allowing Ellen to unleash her full EX empowered Basic Combos better than any other character. On top of this Lycaon also increases the Stun multiplier on enemies from 150% to 185% further increasing Ellen’s burst damage. Finally Lycaon and Ellen both deal Ice Anomaly allowing for Freezes to occur more frequently locking up enemies and when lucky even extending Stun durations.
Soukaku is Ellen’s best support, offering her strong damage gains throughout her kit. The biggest benefit Soukaku offers Ellen is her amazing 500-1000 flat ATK buff which she gains but can transfer to another character via a Chain Attack or Quick Assist. If setup right, it’s incredibly easy to grant Ellen a full powered 1000 ATK bonus right as she begins her burst combo, massively boosting her damage. Soukaku offers Ellen yet more buffs though thanks to her Additional Ability which when played around coorectly will grant Ellen an additional 20% Ice damage on top of all this. Finally Soukaku contributes an excellent amount of Ice anomaly while performing her standard supportive duties, leading to faster and more frequent enemy Freezes.
If a column has multiple characters, the bigger one is the priority choice for the team while the smaller ones are alternatives. If they are the same size, either of them can be used.
F2P Team
Calculations
Don't use the damage output calculations as an indication on who is worth pulling or investing as those are just simulations and in day-to-day gameplay there's a lot variables and also the skill of the player is important. As usual, don't compare the numbers between characters.
Important! Ellen's Mindscape 4 has very little impact on her burst damage capabilities, and only minor/situational benefits for her standard rotation - both of which are difficult to account for in calculations. For these reasons we haven't included it in our calculations. Please note that doesn't mean this Mindscape is useless - just that it's value is difficult to represent in realistic and useful way.
Rotation time: 14.14s for Burst and 10.26s for Standard (8.36s post M1).
Here are the rotations used in the calculations.
Burst rotation (During Stun)
- Chain Attack: Avalanche
- Quick Assist: Shark Sentinel
- EX Special Attack: Tail Swipe
- Basic Attack: Flash Freeze Trimming P3
- Ultimate: Endless Winter
- EX Special Attack: Tail Swipe
- EX Special Attack: Sharknami
- Basic Attack: Flash Freeze Trimming P3
M0 Standard rotation (Downtime)
- Dash Attack: Arctic Ambush: Spinning Slash
- Dash Attack: Arctic Ambush: Charged Scissors
- Basic Attack: Flash Freeze Trimming P1
- Basic Attack: Flash Freeze Trimming P2
- Basic Attack: Flash Freeze Trimming P3
- Dash Attack: Arctic Ambush: Spinning Slash
- Dash Attack: Arctic Ambush: Charged Scissors
- Basic Attack: Flash Freeze Trimming P1
- Basic Attack: Flash Freeze Trimming P2
- Basic Attack: Flash Freeze Trimming P3
M1+ Standard rotation (Downtime)
- Dash Attack: Arctic Ambush: Spinning Slash
- Dash Attack: Arctic Ambush: Charged Scissors
- Basic Attack: Flash Freeze Trimming P1
- Basic Attack: Flash Freeze Trimming P2
- Basic Attack: Flash Freeze Trimming P3
- Basic Attack: Flash Freeze Trimming P1
- Basic Attack: Flash Freeze Trimming P2
- Basic Attack: Flash Freeze Trimming P3
And here are the W-Engines and Disk Drives used in the calculations.
Increases Ice DMG by 25/31.5/38/44.5/50%. Upon hitting an enemy with a Basic Attack, the equipper's CRIT Rate increases by 10/12.5.15/17.5/20% for 8s. When dealing Ice DMG with a Dash Attack, the equipper's CRIT Rate increases by an additional 10/12.5.15/17.5/20%for 15s. The duration of each effect is calculated separately.
Substats: ATK (27%), CRIT Rate (26.4%), CRIT DMG (67.2%)
Shiyu Defense
This section contains information about Ellen performance in the latest Shiyu Defense cycle (1.3.1). The page will be automatically updated every patch once enough data is gathered.
If you want to share your clear information with us, you simply need to fill the form below and provide us with your UID and make your Hoyo profile public - we will automatically parse the Shiyu Defense clear information from your profile after that!
Shiyu Defense Stats FormCharacters are ranked with appearance rate, which is how often a character was used in Shiyu Defense by the players who we have scanned, regardless of whether they own the character or not. Ownership rate currently cannot be obtained.
This section lists the characters that were most commonly paired with Ellen in the current phase of Shiyu Defense.
This section lists most popular teams featuring Ellen in the current phase of Shiyu Defense.
Mindscapes data comes from 1693 players we have scanned who used Ellen in the current Shiyu Defense.
72.12%
2.8 scoreMindscape 0
15.36%
2.93 score7.91%
2.94 score1%
2.94 score0.18%
3 score0.06%
3 score3.37%
3 scoreW-Engines usage data comes from 1693 players we have scanned who used Ellen in the current Shiyu Defense.
71.77%
2.87 scoreIncreases Ice DMG by 25/31.5/38/44.5/50%. Upon hitting an enemy with a Basic Attack, the equipper's CRIT Rate increases by 10/12.5.15/17.5/20% for 8s. When dealing Ice DMG with a Dash Attack, the equipper's CRIT Rate increases by an additional 10/12.5.15/17.5/20%for 15s. The duration of each effect is calculated separately.
9.69%
2.61 scoreLaunching a Dodge Counter or Quick Assist increases the equipper's ATK by 12/13.8/15.6/17.4/19.2% for 12s.
6.32%
2.76 scoreUpon hitting an enemy with a Basic Attack, Dash Attack, or Dodge Counter, the equipper's ATK increases by 3.5/4.4/5.2/6/7% for 8s, stacking up to 8 times. This effect can trigger once every 0.5s. The duration of each stack is calculated separately.
4.43%
2.71 scoreIncreases ATK by 7.5/8.6/9.7/10.8/12%. Attacks that land a CRIT on an enemy will inflict an additional 200% of ATK as DMG. This effect can only be triggered once every 8/7.5/7/6.5/6s.
3.43%
2.6 scoreATK increases by 6/6.9/7.8/8.7/9.6%, and DMG dealt by EX Special Attacks increases by 15/17.2/19.5/21.8/24%.
2.89%
2.83 scoreIncreases Physical DMG by 20/25/30/35/40%. The equipper's DMG increases by 25/31.5/38/44/50% when attacking the enemy from behind.
Disk Drives usage data comes from 1693 players we have scanned who used Ellen in the current Shiyu Defense.
56.82%
2.78 score12.11%
2.87 score10.22%
2.79 score9.81%
2.9 score3.19%
2.87 score2.01%
2.88 scoreEllen stats aren't available yet. They will be added soon.
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