As one of the best and most versatile support characters in Zenless Zone Zero, Astra Yao is making her return with the release of Zenless Zone Zero 2.5 Update Patch. In this guide, we will go over the best W-Engines, Drive Discs and Teams for players to max Astra Yao’s amazing support abilities in Zenless Zone Zero.
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Astra Yao Skill Kit & Playstyle Analysis
General Introduction
Astra Yao is a S Rank Ether Elemental Support character that can provide the team with a massive amount of damage amplification thanks to her quick and easy to use skill kit. Astra Yao’s powerful damage buffs and versatile abilities make her one of the game’s most versatile support characters.
Skill Analysis & Leveling Priority
 | Basic Attack: Deal Ether Damage to enemies, up to 3 times. On the 3rd strike, hold basic Attack to charge the attack and deal more damage. Enhanced Basic Attack: While in Idyllic Cadenza state, press to deal Ether damage to enemies, triggering Quick assist. Enhanced Hold Basic Attack: While in Idyllic Cadenza state, hold to deal Ether damage to enemies, consuming EX Special Gauge. This attack is considered an EX Special Attack. Exits Idyllic Cadenza state afterward and grants Astra Yao’s Core Skill buffs. |
| Leveling Priority: High | |
| Basic Attack | |
| Reason: Astra Yao’s only means of dealing damage, leveling this up will help her to deal better damage when she is on field. | |
 | Special Attack: Press to deal Ether damage to enemies, move away and enter the Idyllic Cadenza state. Hold to draw enemies in and deal even more damage to enemies. Idyllic Cadenza: Increases the party’s damage and critical damage. Astra Yao cannot move while in this state. When switching off the field, Astra Yao will remain on the stage with invulnerability and follow up allies’ attacks with her own, accumulating Chord. Astra Yao can consume Chords to grant the party Quick Assists. |
| Leveling Priority: Medium | |
| Special Attack | |
| Reason: While this is one of Astra Yao’s main abilities, leveling this up will only improve Astra Yao’s own damage output, so players don’t need to level this up unless you have materials. | |
 | Chain Attack: Deal Ether damage to enemies, trigger a quick assist and enter the Idyllic Cadenza state. Ultimate: Deal Ether damage to enemies, heals allies and enters the Idyllic Cadenza state. Triggers a quick Assist when this skill hits enemies.The next 2 Quick Assists are replaced with Chain Attacks. If any ally uses Chain Attack or Ultimate before these replacements chances are used up, trigger a Quick Assist. |
| Leveling Priority: Medium | |
| Chain Attack & Ultimate | |
| Reason: Similar to her Special Attack, leveling this up only boost Astra Yao’s own damage output, so only level this up if players want to max Astra Yao’s damage. | |
 | Dodge: Dodge the enemies’ attacks. Dodge Counter: Performs a perfect dodge, dealing Ether damage to enemies. |
| Leveling Priority: Low | |
| Dodge | |
| Reason: Leveling this up does not boost Astra Yao’s support capabilities much, so only level this up if you have extra resources. | |
 | Evasive Assist: When the on field character is about to be attacked, switch in and dodge the enemies’ attack. Assist Follow Up: Dodge the enemies’ attack, dealing Ether damage to enemies. |
| Leveling Priority: Low | |
| Assist | |
| Reason: Leveling this up does not boost Astra Yao’s support capabilities much, so only level this up if you have extra resources. | |
 | Core Skill: While Astra Yao is in the Idyllic Cadenza state, when other characters switch in via Assist, Quick Assist or Chain Attacks, increases the Attack of the switched in character and Astra Yao based on Astra Yao’s attack. Additional Ability: When another character in the squad is an Attack, Anomaly, or Rupture character: When Energy is consumed to trigger a Precise Assist or Basic Attack: Finale, Astra Yao will additionally follow up with 1 Tremolo and 3 Tone Clusters. |
| Unlock Priority: Highest | |
| Core Skill & Additional Ability | |
| Reason: Unlocking this Ability to the max helps to maximize Astra Yao’s attack boosting effect, helping to supplement the team’s overall damage output. | |
Playstyle Guide & Rotation
Astra Yao is a very universal supporting character that is very simple to use. She functions primarily as a character that can help the team even while she is off the field.
Astra Yao’s main gimmick lies in her Idyllic Cadenza state, which allows her to stay on the field even when she is switched off field in order to boost the damage output of the team. During this state, Astra Yao can’t move but is invulnerable to damage when she is not the active character. To enter this state, players can use her EX Special Attack, Ultimate or Assist to get her to activate this state.
While in Idyllic Cadenza state, Astra Yao will constantly generate Chords for herself and allow the team special Quick Assist windows whenever she consumes Chords. These Quick Assist windows can be used to quickly switch between characters on the field, granting them special attack boost and allowing characters to trigger their assist abilities.
Finally Astra Yao’s Ultimate allows her to heal all allies and turns the next 2 instances of Quick Assist of characters into Chain Attacks, allowing other characters to trigger their Chain Attack effects even when they have yet to stunned the enemies, helping to enable more damage for the team.
Astra Yao Best In Slot W-Engines
Astra Yao Best W-Engines Choices
Some of Astra Yao’s Best W-Engine Choices are:
 |  |  |
| Elegant Vanity | Kaboom the Cannon | The Vault |
| Limited 5* W-Engine | Gacha 4* W-Engine | Gacha 4* W-Engine |
| Main Stat: 713 Attack |
| Sub Stat: 30% Attack | |
| Elegant Vanity | W-Engine Rating: Best Premium W-Engine |
| Effect: When any squad member enters the field through a Quick Assist, Chain Attack, Defensive Assist, or Evasive Assist, the equipper gains 5 Energy. This effect can trigger once every 5s. When the equipper consumes 25 or more Energy, the DMG dealt by all squad members increases by 10%, stacking up to 2 times, and lasting 20s. Repeated triggers reset the duration. Only one instance of this effect can exist in the same squad. | |
| Explanation: Astra Yao’s signature W-Engine and her best in slot Engine as it provides her with a boost to her attack stat and the ability to further boost the damage output of the team while granting herself energy to help maintain her perfect on field rotation. | |
| Main Stat: 624 Attack |
| Sub Stat: 50% Energy Regen | |
| Kaboom the Cannon | W-Engine Rating: Best F2P Alternative |
| Effect: When any friendly unit in the squad attacks and hits an enemy, all friendly units’ ATK increases by 2.5% for 8s, stacking up to 4 times. The duration of each stack is calculated separately, and each friendly unit can provide 1 stack of the buff. Passive effects of the same name do not stack. | |
| Explanation: A good F2P alternative for Astra Yao that helps boost her own attack stat in addition to the entire team’s attack stat while the on field ally attacks enemies. | |
| Main Stat: 624 Attack |
| Sub Stat: 50% Energy Regen | |
| The Vault | W-Engine Rating: Good F2P Alternative |
| Effect: Dealing Ether DMG using an EX Special Attack, Chain Attack, or Ultimate increases all units’ DMG against the target by 15% and increases the equipper’s Energy Regen by 0.5/s for 2s. Passive effects of the same name do not stack. | |
| Explanation: Another good F2P alternative for Astra Yao that helps boost the team’s damage output whenever Astra Yao deals Ether damage to enemies in addition to helping boost her own energy regen. | |
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Astra Yao Best Drive Discs Builds & Stats
Astra Yao Best Drive Discs Set
The best drive disc sets for Astra Yao are her signature 4 piece Astral Voice set, which boosts the damage output of allies whenever they switch in with Quick Assist and the 2 piece Swing Jazz set, which boost her Energy Regen.
 | Astral Voice |
| 2-pc: Attack +10% | |
| 4-pc: Whenever any squad member enters the field using a Quick Assist, all squad members gain 1 stack of Astral, up to a maximum of 3 stacks, and lasting 15s. Repeated triggers reset the duration. Each stack of Astral increases the DMG dealt by the character entering the field using a Quick Assist by 8%. Passive effects of the same name do not stack. | |
 | Swing Jazz |
| 2-pc: Energy Regen +20% | |
| 4-pc: Launching a Chain Attack or Ultimate increases all squad members’ DMG by 15% for 12s. Passive effects of the same name do not stack. | |
Astra Yao Best Main Stats & Sub Stats
As a support character that can boost allies’ attack stat based on her own attack stat, Astra Yao wants 2 main stats: Energy Regen and Attack.
Her preferred stats are as followed:
| Drive Disc | Main Stats |
| #4 | Attack% |
| #5 | Attack% |
| #6 | Attack% or Energy Regen% |
| Priority | Sub Stats |
| 1st | Attack% |
| 2nd | Critical Rate% |
| 3rd | Critical Damage% |
Important Stat Threshold:
– Astra Yao wants as much Attack stat on her as possible to maximize her attack boosting effect on her Ultimate.
– If you are using an Energy Regen W-Engine for Astra Yao, consider using an Attack% 6th disc for her. If you are using an Attack% W-Engine for Astra Yao, use a Energy Regen% 6th Disc instead.
Astra Yao Best Teams
As an amazingly versatile support character that can be slotted into any team due to how powerful and universal her buffs are, Astra Yao can be used as the support character for any team in the game with great success. An example of some of the best team for Astra Yao is:
Evelyn Chain Attack Team
 |  |  |
| Evelyn | Dialyn | Astra Yao |
| Main DPS | Sub DPS/Stunner | Support |
| Essential | Flexible | Essential |
Main DPS: Evelyn is the team’s main DPS option, with her taking full advantage of Astra Yao’s buffs and her ability to turn Quick Assist into Chain Attacks, allowing Evelyn to quickly accumulate damage against enemies thanks to her Chain Attack centric damage skill kit.
Sub DPS/ Stunner: Realistically speaking, any stunner that can help boost Evelyn’s damage can fit into this spot as the team’s sub DPS and stunner. Some of the best options are Dialyn for her ability to allow Evelyn to trigger her Ultimate for free or Lighter for his ability to enhance Evelyn’s Fire damage output.
Support: Astra Yao is the team’s main support with her ability to grant the team a damage up buff, critical damage up buff, constant quick assist and attack buff to allies whenever they enter the field through Quick Assist. Astra Yao also massively boost Evelyn’s damage output with her special Chain Attack enabling Ultimate.
Conclusion
The wonderful idol with amazing songs and performances in Zenless Zone Zero, Astra Yao serves as one of the game’s strongest and most versatile support characters. Therefore, don’t miss out on the chance to enhance all your team’s damage output with this powerful support character with the help of Enjoygm Zenless Zone Zero Discount Top Up today!
