Zenless Zone Zero: Energy and Decibels Explained - Guide

Zenless Zone Zero is the newest action game by HoYoverse, and it offers unique, fast-paced combat that has players form teams of 3 characters and fight against powerful enemies.

Each character comes with a unique set of skills that make them stand out from the rest. With the diverse cast, you are certain to find one that will fit your playstyle.

However, although the combat is fun, some intricate details are unique to Zenless Zone Zero, and even if you have played previous HoYoverse games, you’ll still find yourself confused.

In this guide, we’ll explain what Energy and Decibels are so that you can up your skills and clear every piece of content ZZZ has to offer.

Energy

We’ll start the explanation by looking at the Energy system in the game. Energy in Zenless Zone Zero is a currency that is built up when you hit enemies, be that through normal, chain attacks, or anything else, and is then expended for EX Special Attacks.

Energy can be found under your character’s health bar. It is represented by a bar with a marker somewhere on it. Before reaching the marker, the energy bar will be gray, but after reaching and surpassing the marker, the energy bar will flash a mixture of blue, red, and purple.

EX Special Attacks

EX Special Attacks are a variant of the Special Attack that each character has, and they are a stronger version of a character’s skill. EX Special Attacks make a huge difference in your damage and sometimes come with unique effects that you won’t get by just using a normal Special Attack.

To unleash EX Special Attacks, you consume Energy. You can see when an EX Special Attack is ready when your Skill button goes from gray to purple. This means that you have enough Energy to use an EX Special Attack.

Apart from EX Special Attacks, Energy is not used for anything else, and it isn’t like in Genshin Impact or Honkai: Star Rail, where you use it to cast your Ultimates. In Zenless Zone Zero, you do that using Decibels.

Decibels

Decibels are the other type of currency that you will see when playing Zenless Zone Zero. While Energy is used for skill, Decibels are used for Ultimate.

Unlike Energy, which is unique to every character, Decibels are shared among the team and obtained by hitting enemies or being hit.

You can see the Decibels on the top left and right under your team’s icons. Decibels are slowly built up as you fight, and once you reach 3000, you can unleash your Ultimate Skills.

As already mentioned, Decibels are shared among your team, so you have to decide which character’s ultimate you want to use in given situations.

Summary

Understanding Energy and Decibels is crucial to boosting your performance in ZZZ, as both of these systems work unlike what we’re used to in games like Genshin Impact and Honkai: Star Rail, where Ultimates are not shared among the team.

Knowing when to use Energy, and when to time your EX Special Attacks makes a huge difference in your damage. Similarly, knowing which character's Ultimate to use to make the most of the situation rather than just using a random character's ultimate will increase your overall damage output and make you clear content more easily.

Having the ultimate feature shared among the whole team is certainly an interesting mechanic, and mastering it will increase your damage potential.

A good tip when using your Ultimate is to use the Ultimate of your main DPS units as they will deal the most damage. However, make sure to use them only when the enemy is in a stunned state because you will do more damage then.

Here is a quick table showing the unique features of both Energy and Decibels:

We hope this guide has helped you better understand the difference between Decibels and Energy and that you can hop into battle more prepared than before!