Zenless Zone Zero Shiyu Defense Guide - How To Beat The Highest Stage

With Zenless Zone Zero official launch with its initial version 1.0 game update bringing players to the wonderfully colorful cy-fi world of New Eridu City to join forces with various Agents of different factions and origins to defeat the Ethereals in the Hollow. With players having had moderate amount of experience with the game’s combat system and the various exploration mechanics in Zenless Zone Zero, a portion of the players will have been able to unlock some of the game’s more important game modes that they can experience in order to obtain various important gameplay rewards for their account’s progression and challenge themselves with various challenging battles in these game modes Zenless Zone Zero have to offer. 

One of the most important and rewarding game modes players can unlock and play with in Zenless Zone Zero is the game’s end game challenge gamemode - Shiyu Defense. Similar to the Spiral Abyss in Genshin Impact or Memory of Chaos in Honkai Star Rail, Shiyu Defense serves as Zenless Zone Zero ultimate end game challenge contents where players will have to fully build Agents and teams in order to be able to obtain all of the game mode’s rewards and clear the highest possible of stages.

In this guide, we will go over everything players need to know about the Shiyu Defense end game game mode and show players how they can best take advantage of the all of the game mode’s mechanics to help players clear the highest possible stages in Shiyu Defense they can and obtain all of the game mode’s rewards as best as possible. 

• Zenless Zone Zero Shiyu Defense - Everything You Need To Know
• Zenless Zone Zero Shiyu Defense - How To Beat The Highest Stages

Zenless Zone Zero Shiyu Defense - Everything You Need To Know

Similar to Genshin Impact’s Spiral Abyss or Honkai Star Rail’s Memory of Chaos, Shiyu Defense is Zenless Zone Zero’s main end game content where players will be forced to challenge many different waves of enemies with different teams in order to be able to defeat the enemies as quickly as possible to get high ranks and obtain various important rewards for their account progression like Polychromes, special Shiyu Defense currencies and more.

How To Unlock Shiyu Defense

Shiyu Defense is located together with the Hollow Zero game mode in the Scott Outpost after players have progressed a certain amount in the game’s main story and have reached a certain account level, namely level 23. Once unlocked, players will be able to challenge this gamemode permanently by visiting the Scott Output area at any time they want.

Shiyu Defense is divided into 2 different sections that players will need to challenge in order to obtain rewards, with each sections having different rule sets and buffs depending on which of the sections players decide to challenge: the Blue Frontier and Red Frontier

Permanent Challenges - Blue Frontier

The first half of Shiyu Defense game mode revolves around the different challenges in the blue frontier, or the permanent frontier challenges for Shiyu Defense. As the name suggests, this frontier consists of different challenges that are permanently available for players to challenge and players can only obtain the first clear ranking rewards the first time they finish these challenges.

The Blue Frontier consists of 10 different Challenge Stages, with the first 6 stages requiring players to use 1 team of 3 Agents in order to defeat 4 waves of enemies within 4 minutes in order to be able to obtain the S Ranking to obtain all rewards. After completing the first 6 challenge stages, players can move to the second half of the Blue frontier where they will be required to use 2 different teams of Agents instead to defeat a total of 6 enemy waves in 5 minutes to obtain the maximum S Ranking and obtain all of the rewards.

The rewards for this frontier is one time only for each of the Ranking first clears for each of the stages. If players are able to clear a stage quick enough and obtain the S Ranking, they will be rewarded with up to 300 Polychrome per stage, accumulating to a total of 3000 Polychromes for completing all 10 stages with S Ranking results.

Rotation Challenges - Red Frontier

Aside from the permanent Blue Frontier challenges where players can challenge them whenever they want, once players have managed to defeat the last stage of the permanent Blue Frontier, they will be able to unlock the Rotation Challenges in the Red Frontier section of Shiyu Defense.

Similar in nature, players will be able to challenge 7 different stages in the Red Frontier in order to obtain as high of a ranking as possible in order to obtain various rewards from the Frontier Rewards. However, unlike the Blue Frontier where players can challenge them permanently but can only claim the rewards once, the Red Frontier’s challenge stages and rewards will be reset and changed after a set amount of time. Players can obtain a total of 720 Polychromes each rotation if they manage to complete the different challenges in this frontier at S Ranking. 

Red Frontier will reset every month, so players will be able to obtain more Polychromes from completing these challenges at the start of each month when the rotation happens.

Shiyu Defense - Challenge Exclusive Buffs

When challenging the different stages in Shiyu Defense, each of the stages will have a special gimmick and buff that players can obtain in order to clear the stages much quicker by taking advantage of these effects.

The different effects players can obtain are varied depending on which of the challenge stages players are attempting, but the majority of these buffs and effects correspond to the advantageous element that players should bring to each stage in order to be able to defeat the enemies quickly. 

Shiyu Defense - Association Supply Exchange Shop

Everytime players clear the different challenge stages in Shiyu Defense, aside from the Polychrome and Agents upgrading materials rewards, players will also receive special event exclusive items that can be used to exchange for various important items in the Shiyu Defense exchange shop - Association Supply.

At the Association Supply shop, players can spend their special game mode exclusive currencies - Investigation Merits in order to exchange for various unique and important items like Agents upgrading materials, Drive Disc EXP, W- Engine EXPs and more. Players can also obtain various Boopons that they can use to summon for Bangboos in the Bangboo channel and uniquely, they can obtain the special item Tuning Calibrator.

Tuning Calibrator is an important item for late game progression once players have unlocked S rank Drive Disc. With this item, players can select the stats that they want from a single Drive Disc, helping to cut down on the grinding needed to get the Drive Disc you want by allowing you to customize them.

Zenless Zone Zero Shiyu Defense - How To Beat The Highest Stages

Invest In Multiple Elemental Teams

The main focus of Shiyu Defense is testing the players’ ability to challenge the different types of enemies in the game and their ability to take advantage of the different unique buffs and effects available for each challenge. Therefore, investing in different elemental teams is quite important for players to be able to be quick at challenging these stages and obtain the rewards.

As most of the Shiyu Defense challenge stages require at least 2 different team set ups, it is highly recommended that players at least invest in two different elemental teams in order to be able to clear these challenge stages as quickly as possible.

Take Advantage Of Special Buffs & Enemies’ Weaknesses

Before challenging each of the stages in Shiyu Defense, players need to read up on the different enemies that they will be facing as all enemies have their own unique Weaknesses and Resistances that players need to take note and take advantage of in order to finish them as quickly as possible.

In addition, bringing different teams that can take full advantage of the unique stage buffs and effects during each challenge is also crucial for the success of the players’ attempt at defeating the enemies as quickly as possible.