Zankou Build Guide

Increases CRIT DMG by 16% for each Type III Module equipped.

Zankou is Incantation DPS, who can double as a DoT support or a Break DPS. Her teams follow these Archetypes:

Baicang Mono Scorch Team

Zankou, Baicang, Sakiri, Daffodill

This team consists of two elements: Incantation and Chaos characters, focusing on maxing the Scorch three stacks, and applying as many DoTs to get as much as possible from Sakiri's massive DoT DMG Multiplier.

Hexed Team

Zankou, Linko, Sakiri, Daffodill

Zankou, Iroi, Sakiri, Lacrimosa

Linko is upcoming character, releasing in the second half of 1.3, right after Zankou. Her specialty as announced in the livestream is buffing Hexed reaction, and buffing follow-up attacks.

Hexed in itself replicate a portion of all Incantation and Anima damage team already dealt in the 12 seconds following the reaction. With Zankou dealing incantation direct dmg, DoT, and Scorch, Linko can trigger a strong Hexed reaction, buff Zankou's own damage, and apply resistance ignore of enemy.

Iroi is a good alternative buffer that enable Hexed reaction while buffing entire team and provide healing.

Discord Break Team

Zankou, Daffodill, Sakiri Adler

Zankou can build a team focused on Break above all else. Daffodill is a premium breaker with buffs to Discord reaction. Adler gives a break efficiency buff with his passive Temperance, and he can equip The Great Thief to give all Incantation characters in team a massive Break Intensity bonus. So with three Incantation characters in team, it provides 378% Break Intensity.

All these buffs combines to making breaking much faster, and enable Zankou to deal her massive break damage.

Break DMG comes from the accumulation of entire team's Break Intensity stat, so you have the option to build Zankou as a typical DPS, with some Break Intensity on substats, then build allies in the team with full Break Intensity to get the best of both worlds. Or just all go out for Break Intensity on Zankou as well.

Hyper Lacrimosa DoT team

Lacrimosa, Zankou, Sakiri, Haniel

This might come as a surprise, but Zankou can play as support/burst DPS hybrid in a Hyper Lacrimosa team. The goal is to maximize the damage of Lacrimosa's DoTs by buffing CRIT DMG of all DoTs.

Since all DoTs in NTE have a fixed 50% Crit rate, the massive, and Zankou increasesCRIT DMG of all DoT with her Delusion buff, both help Lacrimosa to maximize her own DPS. That, plus adding three Scorch stacks that's further buffed by Zankou's own CRIT DMG and Cycle Intensity

• Limited BiS: Ravenous Blade
• F2P Alternative: Contemplative Cat
• Early F2P: Watch Your Heads!

Zankou's best-in-slot Arc is her limited signature, Ravenous Blade. Another option is Contemplative Cat, Chiz's signature weapon, which works as a CRIT DMG stats stick with high base attack.

• Cartridge: Crimson: Twin Butterflies (S) / Lost Radiance (S)
• Cartridge Main Stat: CRIT DMG
• Substats: Cycle Intensity /CRIT Rate / CRIT DMG / Universal DMG% (Optional: ATK% / Break Intensity)

Crimson: Twin Butterflies (S) is gives high Attack value, even higher than the dedicated attack set. However, Attack has no effect on Scorch DPS, and has small effect on Heartwrech DoT, so there's a strong case made for using Lost Radiance (S) instead, as the Def ignore affects all damage types, direct damage, DoT, and Scorch.

Lost Radiance (S) takes over if Zankou sticks to sub-DPS or off-field DPS role.

Zankou take the ownership of all Scorch DoTs in team, so Scorch scales with Zankou's own CRIT DMG and Cycle Intensity stats. So if we build a DoT focused team, these are the two stats we want to max out between Main stat and sub-stat.

For substats, as a DoT-focused DPS:Cycle Intensity, CRIT DMG, CRIT Rate, Universal DMG%

However there's a third playstyle that focuses on Break Intensity in break teams with Daffodill and discord teams. ATK% is useful as well

Basic Attack = Ultimate > Skill > Support Skill

Most of Zankou's DPS comes from Scorch, which doesn't scale with her skill levels to begin with. However, her Ultimate and Basic Attack contributes a decent portion of DPS that's worth some investment.

Zankou starts battle with full Esper Meter, allowing an instant Scorch to kick off the DoT interactions. Afterwards, for every DoT applied by team, Zankou reapply Scorch on enemy, up to three stacks. So the enemy is virtually under a permanent Scorch DoT

Her own DoT "Heartwrench" has a long 30-second duration, stacks up to 10 times, and each stack refresh the duration. So that's another permanent DoT she applies on enemies.

Zankou can play on-field or off-field quickswap role, which alters how you play her. But the basic gist is:

• She starts In Reality form
• Uses charged attack to enable the gold-glowing skill
• Use enhanced skill to enter Illusion form and gain a buff
• Use normal/charged attacks for less than 8-second until you enable gold-glowing skill
• Use enhanced skill in time to return to Reality, gain a buff, and maintain the buff from Illusion.
• Use Ultimate. (If rotation done right, she gets two casts of Ultimate)
• Repeat

Zankou released in version 1.3 first half, on August 19, 2026 to Global.