Zenless Zone Zero is free to play, and unlike some HoYoverse games where that phrase comes with seventeen footnotes, it mostly holds up here. You can clear all story content, reach competitive endgame floors in Shiyu Defense, and land your first S-Rank agent within a month of starting, without spending anything. What trips people up is not the game being stingy. It is spending Battery Charge on Drive Discs at level 15, or burning Polychrome on the standard banner, or skipping events because they seem optional. Those mistakes cost you weeks of progress, sometimes more. This guide is about avoiding them.
Version 3.0 launches June 17, 2026, which makes right now one of the better times to start. New patch means fresh login rewards, event Polychrome, and a clean slate for planning your first banner target.
What Polychrome Actually Is and How Much You Need
Polychrome is the premium currency. Each pull on the Signal Search banner costs 160 Polychrome. Hard pity on the Exclusive Channel limited banner sits at 90 pulls, meaning a worst-case guarantee costs 14,400 Polychrome. With the 50/50 system, if you lose the coin flip your first time, the next S-Rank on that banner is guaranteed, which pushes the absolute worst case to 180 pulls and 28,800 Polychrome for a specific limited character from zero pity.
That sounds like a lot. In practice, soft pity starts kicking in around pull 75, which is where most S-Ranks land. The 180-pull figure is the ceiling, not the average. Most players hit in the 80 to 100 range across two attempts.
How much can you earn for free per patch? Consistent F2P play through dailies, Shiyu Defense, and events brings in roughly 13,000 to 15,000 Polychrome per three-week phase, and around 26,000 to 30,000 across a full six-week version. That is roughly 81 to 93 pulls per patch. Over two patches of saving without touching a banner, you are in range for a guaranteed character. Players who cleared everything in version 2.8, including the Bootopia event, the Deadly Assault cycles, and active redeem codes, hit over 90 pulls in that window alone. It takes discipline, but the math works in your favor if you do not panic-spend.
Your First Pulls: Where to Spend and Where Not to
New accounts get a free S-Rank selector early in the game. The two names that come up most consistently in community recommendations are Lycaon and Ellen Joe. Lycaon is one of the best dedicated stun agents in the game, and since stunning enemies is the core of how ZZZ combat works, he fits into almost any team that needs a stun slot. Ellen Joe is a strong ice DPS who synergizes with Lycaon directly. Either works. The important thing is picking one and not agonizing over it too long, because the starter agents you get for free, Anby, Nicole, and Billy, are genuinely capable of carrying you through early story content while you save toward your banner target.
Where not to spend your Polychrome: the Standard Channel banner. It is always there, it has no time limit, and you will accumulate standard pulls naturally through milestones and leveling agents to 20, 40, and 60 (each of those checkpoints drops a Master Tape). Save your actual Polychrome for the Exclusive Channel limited banner, where the time pressure exists and where the pity carries forward to the next limited banner if the current one ends before you hit.
One more thing worth knowing: pity does not reset when a banner ends on the Exclusive Channel. If you get to 40 pulls into a banner and it rotates, those 40 pulls count toward the next one. The 50/50 status also carries. This makes saving across multiple patches viable in a way it is not in some other gacha games.
The Daily Loop and Why You Cannot Skip It
The daily loop in ZZZ is short. Most players clear it in 15 to 20 minutes. The problem is that it is also the foundation of your entire F2P income, so skipping it consistently is the fastest way to fall behind your own banner timelines.
The core of the daily loop is your Daily Errands, which pay out around 60 Polychrome per day when completed. That adds up to 420 per week and roughly 1,800 per month from dailies alone. Weekly tasks on top of that bring in additional Polychrome and materials. Neither number is exciting on its own, but across the weeks of saving toward a banner, missing days starts to matter.
Events are where the math gets interesting. Events pay out Polychrome at a rate of roughly 5 to 8 times what dailies do per minute of active play. The Operation: Save Bootopia event in version 2.8, for example, paid around 1,000 Polychrome plus a free A-Rank Bangboo for about 90 minutes of total playtime across the patch. Compare that to commissions, which trickle 60 Polychrome a week. Events are not optional side content for F2P players. They are the biggest income source in the game.
The rule here is simple: clear events before their deadlines. Login events in particular have no catch-up mechanic, so log in on day one of a new patch even if you are not planning to play that day.
Battery Charge: Spend It in the Right Order
Battery Charge is ZZZ's stamina system, similar to Original Resin in Genshin Impact. It caps out and starts wasting if you do not spend it, so it is worth having a clear priority order for what you spend it on.
For the first two to three weeks of a new account, spend Battery Charge on agent promotion materials and Denny (the in-game currency used for leveling). Getting your core three agents to level 40 and beyond should be the focus before anything else. You cannot raise agent skill levels without the character being at certain level thresholds, so the promotion materials are the bottleneck that unlocks everything downstream.
After your main team is leveled and promoted, the next priority is agent skill chips and then W-Engine materials. W-Engines are the character weapons in ZZZ, and they provide both stat boosts and passive effects. Level the W-Engine for your main DPS first, then your stun agent, then supports. Do not spread upgrade materials thin across every character you own. Pick a team, level that team, and only branch out once they are solid.
Drive Disc farming should wait until Inter-Knot Level 30 at minimum, and ideally until Inter-Knot Level 40. Here is why: at IL35, the Tuning system starts giving you A-Rank Discs, and at IL40 it guarantees S-Rank Discs. Drive Discs you farm before that threshold will be replaced quickly, and their substat rolls are worse on average. Spending Battery Charge on Drive Disc domains before IL30 is the most common way new players burn resources without getting anything useful back. Hold off.
How Inter-Knot Level Works and How to Push It
Inter-Knot Level is the account level in ZZZ. It caps agent levels, unlocks content, and controls what difficulty of content you can access. Raising it faster means getting to the better reward brackets sooner.
The fastest sources of Inter-Knot Credits, which is what fills the XP bar for your account level, are story commissions and main missions. When you first start the game, following the story naturally is the best way to push Inter-Knot Level because every mission gives a chunk of credits. Combat Simulations and Expert Challenges also give credits each run and are worth doing when your Battery Charge is capped and you have nothing else queued.
Daily Errands give around 600 Inter-Knot Credits per day and are part of the daily loop anyway. Do not skip them. Weekly tasks add another 300 on top. None of these numbers are the main driver of your account level, but they compound over time.
One tip that saves frustration: if you are approaching a rank-up milestone (Inter-Knot levels 20, 30, 40, etc.), finish the rank-up commission before spending more Battery Charge on promotion materials. The rank-up missions often reward materials directly, and completing them first avoids burning Battery Charge on farming materials you were about to receive for free.
Hollow Zero: The Endgame You Should Start Early
Hollow Zero is ZZZ's roguelike mode. It unlocks at Inter-Knot Level 10 and is worth starting as soon as it opens, not because the early rewards are spectacular, but because learning how it works before the content scales up saves a lot of pain later.
The mode sends your team through randomized dungeons with modifiers that change each run. You pick buffs at decision points, fight through floors, and push as deep as you can for rewards at each tier. The Polychrome output from Hollow Zero compounds over a patch. Running it consistently through Battlefront Purge can add thousands of Polychrome per month. It is not fast, exciting content, but it is reliable income if you run it regularly.
The other reason to start early is that Hollow Zero is where you actually learn the combat loop, specifically how to build Daze efficiently and time your stun windows. The game gives you a relatively forgiving space to experiment with team rotations before Shiyu Defense starts demanding that you have those patterns down.
Shiyu Defense and Why It Matters for F2P
Shiyu Defense is the main endgame mode. It runs on a reset schedule and gives Polychrome every time you clear floors on time. If you are not clearing Shiyu Defense regularly, you are leaving a meaningful chunk of your F2P income on the table each reset.
The floor structure splits your team across two sides, so you need two workable teams rather than one stacked roster. This is the main argument for not going too narrow on character investment early. Having a strong main team and a half-decent second team that can clear easier floors is more valuable for Polychrome income than having one perfect team and a bench full of neglected characters.
You do not need S-Rank agents on both teams to clear the early Shiyu floors. Anby, Nicole, and Billy on one side with your free S-Rank selector pick on the other can clear the lower floors, which still pay out Polychrome. The goal for a new account is to get Shiyu rewards coming in as soon as possible, not to hold out until you can clear the hardest floor perfectly.
Redeem Codes: Free Polychrome You Should Always Claim
HoYoverse releases redemption codes alongside version livestreams, major events, and occasionally through social media. Each code is usually worth 300 Polychrome plus some materials. They expire, and you can only redeem each one once, so the only mistake is not knowing about them.
The reliable way to catch codes is to watch or follow the official version preview livestreams, which happen a few days before each new patch. Three codes drop during those streams that expire quickly, sometimes within a day or two. The code ZENLESSGIFT is a permanent new-player code worth 50 Polychrome and some starter materials. Redeem it if you have not.
To redeem codes in-game: Menu, then More, then Redemption Code. Codes are case-sensitive and region-locked. Rewards go to your Mailbox with a 30-day claim window.
What to Skip as F2P
Signature W-Engines. The S-Rank W-Engine on the weapon banner for a limited character is almost always an upgrade over free alternatives, but the weapon banner has a separate pity system and a separate resource drain. For most F2P players, the free W-Engines available through gameplay are good enough to clear all content. The gap between a signature weapon and the best free option is real but not game-breaking. Spending your Polychrome stack on weapons instead of characters is generally the wrong trade.
Mindscape upgrades (Constellations in Genshin terms) for limited S-Rank characters are in the same category. Getting a character to C1 or C2 sometimes adds notable power, but the cost in pulls is high. Most limited characters at base kit clear all current content. Only chase Mindscapes if you have already hit the character you want and have surplus resources, which for genuine F2P is rare.
Early Drive Disc farming has already been covered, but it is worth repeating because it is where the most wasted Battery Charge goes on new accounts. Wait until IL40. The gear you farm before then will be replaced. The Battery Charge you spend on it will not come back.
The Honest F2P Timeline
Week one through two: follow the story, complete the Proxy Primer, do your daily loop, start Hollow Zero, and do not spend Battery Charge on anything except promotion materials for your starter team. Pick a banner target and start saving Polychrome immediately.
Week three through six: you should be at or approaching Inter-Knot Level 30. Start light Drive Disc farming if you have a stable team composition locked in. Keep doing events, keep doing dailies, keep clearing Shiyu floors for Polychrome. Your pull count toward your banner target should be building.
Month two onward: with disciplined saving across a full patch, you are in range for a guaranteed S-Rank on the limited banner of your choice. From here, the loop is consistent. Each patch gives you roughly 80 to 93 free pulls if you clear all the content. One character every one to two patches is a realistic pace for a player who does not spend.
The game does not require you to be playing meta compositions or chasing every new banner. The starter A-Rank agents carry early content fine, and a single well-built S-Rank team with a passable second squad clears enough Shiyu Defense floors to keep Polychrome coming in. Getting from new account to that state takes four to six weeks of consistent play. After that it is mostly maintenance: dailies, events, Hollow Zero, Shiyu resets. Pick your next banner target and let the pulls build. That is the whole F2P loop and it genuinely works.
