Zenless Zone Zero Finally Makes Its Protagonist Playable

Two full seasons. Hundreds of hours of story content. And until now, the character you picked at the start of Zenless Zone Zero has been little more than a menu screen operator who watches everyone else do the fighting. That changes with Version 3.0, as HoYoverse revealed on HoYoLab that Belle and Wise will finally become a playable combat Agent under the name Phaethon Pyrois.

I cannot think of another gacha game that waited this long to make its protagonist usable in the thing you spend most of your time doing. Genshin Impact had the Traveler from hour one. Honkai: Star Rail gave you the Trailblazer immediately. ZZZ's Proxies have spent two entire seasons dispatching other Agents into Hollows while sitting in a video rental shop. The new unit is an Ether Attack type, and according to HoYoverse's description, your chosen protagonist will appear alongside Pyrois, an Etheric Other that manifests as a result of prolonged Ether exposure during the Season 2 campaign. A YouTube Short shows off both the Belle and Wise versions of the character art, though no actual combat footage yet.

Season 3 itself is set on Roscaelifer, a flying island tied to Lady Sunbringer, and introduces a new environmental mechanic called Singularity Leakage that warps localized areas into Hollow-like spaces. HoYoverse says this will affect both exploration and combat. Three new Agents arrive in 3.0 alongside Pyrois: Velina (Wind Anomaly), Norma (Fire Stun), and Pyrois itself. The Season 3 teaser, titled "Before the Wind Rises," drops tomorrow, April 30 at 12:00 PM UTC+8. Before any of that, though, Version 2.8 closes out Season 2 on May 6, bringing S-rank Agents Starlight Billy and Promeia. ZZZ is also heading to Steam natively for the first time, though no date has been confirmed for that yet.

Making the protagonist playable after this long is a strange flex, but I'm glad it's finally happening. The lore justification through Ether corruption is at least more interesting than just flipping a switch, and tying it to the Season 2 story gives it narrative weight. Whether Pyrois is actually competitive in the meta is a separate question entirely, one we won't be able to answer until we see real gameplay.