⚔️ Shiyu Defense Team Recommendations – Best Comps for Current Rotation

🏛️ Shiyu Critical Overview

Shiyu Defense (Critical Node) is the primary endgame challenge mode in Zenless Zone Zero. It resets every two weeks — typically on the 1st and 16th of each month — with a completely new set of rotation buffs, enemy lineups, and stage modifiers. Clearing Shiyu Critical is the primary source of Polychrome income for F2P and light-spender players.

Key Mechanics:

• Two-team requirement: You must field two separate teams (one for each half). Agents and W-Engines cannot be shared between halves.
• 7 Floors total: Floors 1–4 are considered "easy" and can be cleared with moderate investment. Floors 5–7 (Critical Nodes) demand optimized teams and good rotations.
• Scoring: Each floor awards up to 3 stars (S-rank) based on clear time. Earning 6 total stars across floors 5–7 unlocks the maximum Polychrome reward (720 Polychrome per rotation).
• 3-star targets: For floors 5–7, you typically have 5–8 minutes total (split between both halves) to earn all 3 stars. Each half has its own timer.
• Rotation buffs: Each Shiyu Defense cycle gives massive damage bonuses (+40% elemental damage) to specific elements. Building teams that match the current rotation is the single most impactful thing you can do to improve your clear times.

This guide covers the v1.4 current rotation with Ice and Electric weakness phases. We provide team recommendations for every element so you can build around your strongest available agents.

🔄 Current Rotation Buffs (v1.4)

Each Shiyu Defense cycle has unique stage modifiers for the first half (Team A) and second half (Team B). Matching your teams to these buffs is the fastest way to improve your clear performance. Below is the full breakdown of the current v1.4 rotation.

Key takeaway: Your strongest Ice team should go Team A and your strongest Electric team should go Team B. If you lack a strong Electric team, any team that can clear within time will work — the buffs are strong but not mandatory for clearing floors 5–6.

🏗️ Team Archetypes Explained

Every competitive Shiyu Defense team falls into one of three archetypes. Understanding these archetypes helps you evaluate which teams you can build with your roster and which playstyle suits you best.

⚡ Hypercarry (Attack + Stun + Support)

Core structure: One primary DPS (Attack class) + one Stun agent + one Support agent.
How it works: The stun agent builds daze to trigger the Stun window. During the stun, all incoming damage is multiplied (typically 150% of normal). The support agent applies ATK buffs, DEF shred, or energy regeneration. The DPS dumps all their EX Specials and Ultimate during the stun window for massive burst damage.
Examples: Ellen Joe + Lycaon + Soukaku; Zhu Yuan + Qingyi + Nicole; Soldier 11 + Koleda + Lucy.
Pros: Highest burst damage during stun windows; straightforward gameplay; easy to gear (ATK% + Crit).
Cons: Poor damage outside stun windows; very dependent on stunner quality; struggles against enemies that resist stun.

🌪️ Disorder (Anomaly + Anomaly + Support)

Core structure: Two Anomaly agents (different elements) + one Support/Defense agent.
How it works: Each Anomaly agent builds up their element's anomaly bar. When a second anomaly is applied while the first is still active, it triggers Disorder — consuming the first anomaly and dealing massive bonus damage scaled off the consumed anomaly's remaining duration and stack count. The team cycles between applying Anomaly A → Anomaly B → Disorder → repeat.
Examples: Jane Doe + Burnice + Caesar; Yanagi + Burnice + Rina; Piper + Lucy + Grace.
Pros: Sustained damage with no downtime; excellent against enemies with high stun resistance; benefits from Anomaly Mastery scaling.
Cons: High field time requirements; needs high Anomaly Mastery and AP stats; harder to build (requires specific stat thresholds); can struggle against multi-enemy waves.

🔨 Stun-Burst (Stun + Flex DPS + Flex)

Core structure: One Stun agent + one or two damage dealers who capitalize on stun windows. This is a variant of Hypercarry optimized for extremely fast stun rotations.
How it works: The stun agent is built for maximum daze application rate (Impact% main stats, high energy regen). The team aims to stun the enemy within 15–20 seconds, then unleashes everything during the stun window. This archetype is particularly strong in Shiyu Defense because the mode's timer heavily rewards burst windows.
Examples: Qingyi + Harumasa + Rina; Lycaon + Ellen + Soukaku; Koleda + Soldier 11 + Lucy.
Pros: Fastest clear times for well-invested teams; benefits most from stun DMG multiplier buffs.
Cons: Requires very high investment on the stunner; poor performance if stun takes too long; struggles against stun-immune enemies or multi-phase bosses.

📊 Top Team Comps – Rated by DPS, Ease of Use & F2P Friendliness

The table below ranks the best Shiyu Defense teams for the current rotation. Ratings are based on the v1.4 meta with moderate investment (M0W1 for S-rank agents, M6W1 for A-rank agents).

☃️ Ice Teams – Frostburn & Freeze

❄️ Miyabi Frostburn Disorder

Team: Miyabi (Main DPS, Anomaly) + Yanagi or Soukaku (Sub-DPS/Support) + Flex Support
Archetype: Disorder

Miyabi is the undisputed queen of Shiyu Defense in v1.4. Her Frostburn mechanic applies a powerful Ice DoT that stacks up to 3 times. Each stack deals 12–18k damage per tick (at moderate investment), and triggering a Disorder resets the Frostburn duration while dealing a bonus explosion. With the current rotation granting +40% Ice DMG and +50% Frostburn DMG on Floor 7, Miyabi's damage output is unmatched.

Rotation: Soukaku applies ATK buff → Yanagi builds Shock with EX Specials → swap to Miyabi for dash attack + basic combo to stack Frostburn → when both Frostburn and Shock are active, one more anomaly trigger creates a Disorder → massive burst damage. Repeat every 10–12 seconds.

🦈 Ellen Joe Hypercarry

Team: Ellen Joe (Main DPS, Attack) + Lycaon (Stun, Ice RES Shred) + Soukaku (Support, ATK Buffer)
Archetype: Hypercarry / Stun-Burst

Ellen Joe remains one of the most reliable Shiyu Defense DPS options. Her gameplay revolves around building Afterimage stacks through her dash attack and basic combos, then spending them on enhanced EX Specials during stun windows. Lycaon provides 25% Ice RES shred (massive for the Ice-weak rotation), and Soukaku gives 30–50% ATK buff. At equal investment, Ellen clears about 20–25% slower than Miyabi, but her gameplay is much easier to execute consistently.

Key tip: Save Ellen's Ultimate for the stun window when both Lycaon's RES shred and Soukaku's ATK buff are active. A full buffed stun rotation can deal 400k–600k damage.

🔥 Fire Teams – Burn & Explosion

🔥 Soldier 11 Hypercarry

Team: Soldier 11 (Main DPS, Attack) + Koleda (Stun) or Ben (Defense/Stun) + Lucy (Support, ATK Buffer)
Archetype: Hypercarry

Soldier 11 is the premier Fire Attack agent. Her kit revolves around marking enemies with her Supply Fire debuff, then consuming it with enhanced basic attacks for bonus damage. She has excellent energy economy and can spam her EX Special frequently. The full fire team (Soldier 11 + Koleda + Lucy) gets the full Additional Ability benefits since all three are Fire or Belobog Industries members.

Rotation: Lucy boar summon (ATK buff) → Koleda builds stun with EX Specials and dodge counters → during stun: refresh Lucy buff → Soldier 11 EX Special → basic combo (consuming Supply Fire marks) → repeat. Soldier 11's Ultimate should be used during stun for maximum damage.

🔥🔥 Burnice Disorder Engine

Team: Burnice (Sub-DPS, Fire Anomaly) + Main DPS (Jane Doe / Yanagi / Miyabi) + Support (Caesar / Lucy / Rina)
Archetype: Disorder

Burnice is unique in that she functions best as a sub-DPS / anomaly enabler rather than a main carry. Her off-field EX skill throws Molotov cocktails that build Burn anomaly while she's swapped out. This makes her the perfect partner for any anomaly DPS — she applies Fire while your main DPS applies their element, creating constant Disorder procs. Burnice + Jane Doe is arguably the strongest Disorder duo in the game.

Why it works in Shiyu: The current rotation doesn't have a Fire buff, but Burnice teams are element-neutral — they work well on either half. Burnice + Jane Doe on the second half (Electric-weak) still clears fast because Disorder damage ignores elemental resistance.

⚡ Electric Teams – Shock & Stun Supremacy

⚡ Harumasa Stun-Burst

Team: Harumasa (Main DPS, Attack) + Qingyi (Stun) + Rina (Support) or Nicole (Support)
Archetype: Stun-Burst

Harumasa is the premium Electric DPS who excels in the Stun-Burst archetype. His EX Special deals massive damage (especially when targeting stunned enemies), and his Ultimate has one of the highest single-target damage multipliers in the game. With Qingyi providing the fastest stun application in the current roster, this team can stun-lock most Shiyu bosses and clear floors in under 90 seconds.

The Floor 7 second-half buff is tailor-made for this team: +40% Electric DMG, +35% EX Special DMG, and +20% Stun DMG Multiplier. Harumasa's EX Special spam during stun windows reaches absurd damage levels.

⚡ Yanagi Disorder

Team: Yanagi (Main DPS, Electric Anomaly) + Burnice (Fire Anomaly) + Rina (Support, PEN Ratio) or Caesar (Defense, Shield)
Archetype: Disorder

Yanagi is the premier Electric Anomaly agent. She applies Shock very rapidly with her EX Special and unique basic attack chain. Her Polarity Disorder passive makes her Disorder procs deal 20% more damage than standard disorders. Paired with Burnice, they create a constant Fire↔Shock disorder cycle that deals massive sustained damage regardless of the enemy's elemental weaknesses.

F2P alternative: Grace instead of Yanagi. Grace is a standard S-rank Electric Anomaly agent. She applies Shock slightly slower than Yanagi but is available through the standard banner and lost 50/50s. Grace + Piper (Physical Anomaly) + Lucy is a solid budget Disorder team that can clear Floors 5–6 comfortably.

⚡ Qingyi Hypercarry Flex

Team: Qingyi (Stun) + Any Attack DPS + Any Support
Archetype: Stun-Burst (Flex)

Qingyi is arguably the most flexible S-rank stun agent in the game. Her Additional Ability works with any Attack-class agent (not just Electric). This means you can run Qingyi + Zhu Yuan or Qingyi + Ellen Joe if you lack a strong Electric DPS. Her daze application speed is still the fastest in the game, making her invaluable for any Shiyu Defense team that needs quick stun windows.

💥 Physical Teams – Assault & Disorder

💥 Jane Doe Hypercarry / Disorder

Team: Jane Doe (Main DPS, Physical Anomaly) + Burnice (Fire Anomaly) + Caesar (Defense, Shield + DMG Amp)
Archetype: Disorder

Jane Doe is the best Physical Anomaly agent in the game and one of the top 3 DPS characters overall. Her Passion State mechanic gives her massive stat steroids (ATK, AP, and Crit Rate on her anomaly procs) after dodging attacks with precise timing. Once in Passion State, her Assault build-up rate nearly doubles.

Why Caesar is her best teammate: Caesar provides a beefy shield that prevents interruption (so Jane can stay in Passion State), a 25% damage amplification debuff on enemies, and the all-important Additional Ability trigger (Caesar is a Defense agent who works with any faction — she's the universal flex slot).

Rotation: Caesar shield + debuff → Burnice EX Special (off-field fire application) → Jane Doe dodge-counters to enter Passion State → basic combo + EX Special to build Assault while Burnice builds Burn → Disorder proc on Assault trigger → massive initial hit + DoT. Repeat.

💥 Piper Budget Disorder

Team: Piper (Main DPS, Physical Anomaly, A-Rank) + Lucy (Support, ATK Buffer) + Caesar or Seth (Defense/Shield)
Archetype: Disorder / Hypercarry

Piper is the single best A-rank DPS in the game and the cornerstone of F2P Shiyu Defense strategies. Her hold-basic-attack spin deals rapid Physical damage that builds Assault very quickly. At M6 (C6), Piper gets a massive 30% Physical RES penetration when spinning, making her competitive with some S-rank anomaly agents.

Budget core: Piper + Lucy + either Caesar (if you have her) or Seth (A-rank Defense, provides shield and Anomaly Proficiency share). This team costs 0–1 S-rank agents and can clear up to Floor 6 with good drive discs.

✨ Ether Teams – Exploit & Execute

✨ Zhu Yuan Hypercarry

Team: Zhu Yuan (Main DPS, Ether Attack) + Qingyi or Anby (Stun) + Nicole (Support, DEF Shred)
Archetype: Stun-Burst

Zhu Yuan is the only Ether Attack DPS in v1.4 and one of the hardest-hitting burst characters in the game. Her Enchanted Buckshot mechanic loads special rounds (up to 6) that fire during her EX Special and Ultimate. Each buckshot hits multiple times and has excellent per-hit damage. During a stun window, a fully-loaded Zhu Yuan can empty all 6 rounds for 300–500k total damage.

Best rotation: Nicole EX Special (DEF shred + Ether application) → Qingyi builds stun → during stun window: Nicole reapplies DEF shred → Zhu Yuan EX Special (dump ammo) → Ultimate → chain attack → EX Special again (if energy available). The DEF shred from Nicole is critical — it boosts Zhu Yuan's damage by approximately 35–40%.

✨ Nicole Budget Enabler

Team: Nicole (Support, DEF Shred) + Any DPS + Any Flex
Archetype: Universal Flex

Nicole is the only A-rank Ether agent and one of the most versatile supports in the game. Her EX Special creates an Ether vortex that pulls enemies together (excellent for wave clear) and applies 40% DEF shred to everything inside. She works in any team composition, which makes her invaluable for Shiyu Defense where you need two fully functional teams.

Best uses: (1) Second team support — if your first team uses Soukaku or Lucy, Nicole can fill the support slot on team 2. (2) Ether burst team with Zhu Yuan. (3) Budget Disorder enabler — the Ether element doesn't create its own anomaly yet, but Nicole's vortex grouping is incredibly valuable for Piper spin-to-win strategies in multi-enemy waves.

🆓 F2P Budget Team Comps – Low Investment, High Value

Not everyone has a full roster of S-rank agents. Below are budget teams that require 0–1 S-rank agents and can still clear Shiyu Defense floors 5–6 (and even Floor 7 with good play). All A-rank agents listed are obtainable for free through story progression, standard banner, or Signal Shop rotations.

🎯 Rotation-Specific Advice: Ice & Electric Weakness Phases

🧊 Ice Weakness Phase – Team A (Floors 5–7 First Half)

The current rotation's first half heavily favors Ice teams with +40% Ice DMG and massive Anomaly Build-Up bonuses. Here's how to maximize these buffs:

• Miyabi + Yanagi (Disorder): The 30% Anomaly Build-Up rate on Floor 6 means Miyabi's Frostburn and Yanagi's Shock both accumulate faster, creating Disorder procs every 8–10 seconds instead of the usual 12–15s. Prioritize Anomaly Mastery on both agents to push this even further.
• Ellen + Lycaon (Hypercarry): The 40% Ice DMG bonus applies to all of Ellen's damage. Lycaon's 25% Ice RES shred becomes even more valuable when stacked with the rotation's innate -15% Ice RES. Effective Ice RES reduction: -40% total. Ellen's base damage gets roughly a 1.6x multiplier.
• Enemy patterns: The Floor 7 first-half boss has a dangerous charge attack with a 3-second wind-up. Use the Freeze mechanic (from any Ice anomaly application) to interrupt this attack. One well-timed Freeze can save 10–15 seconds per attempt.

⚡ Electric Weakness Phase – Team B (Floors 5–7 Second Half)

The second half rotation buffs are incredibly strong for Electric Stun-Burst teams. Here's the breakdown:

• Harumasa + Qingyi (Stun-Burst): The +25% Energy Regen on Floor 6 means Qingyi gets her EX Special back faster, leading to faster stun rotations. Expect stun windows every 15–18 seconds instead of 20–25s. The +35% EX Special DMG on Floor 7 directly buffs Harumasa's primary damage source.
• Yanagi + Burnice (Disorder): Even though this isn't a pure Electric team, Yanagi benefits from the +40% Electric DMG and +30% Shock DMG buffs. Her Shock ticks will deal significantly more damage, and the Shock itself lasts longer for more Disorder interactions.
• Enemy patterns: The Floor 7 second-half boss has a teleport-dodge mechanic. It becomes briefly untargetable and teleports behind you. Don't waste your EX Special or Ultimate during this animation — save them for when the boss reappears. Qingyi's stun application persists through the teleport, so keep attacking.

⏱️ Floor Clear Time Targets for 3-Star (S-Rank)

Knowing the time targets per floor helps you gauge whether to retry or move on. Below are the approximate clear time requirements for 3-star (S-rank) on each floor in the current rotation. These assume moderate investment (M0W1 for S-ranks, M6W-engine for A-ranks).

📈 How to Improve Your Clear Times

• If you're 15–30 seconds over the 3-star target: Focus on rotation optimization. Are you wasting time on supports? Soukaku's Fly the Flag swap-cancel saves 3 seconds per rotation. Nicole's EX Special can be animation-canceled with a quick swap. These small optimizations add up to 30–45 seconds over a full floor clear.
• If you're 30–60 seconds over: Your Drive Disc quality needs improvement. Prioritize getting main stat correct on every disk (ATK%/Crit for Attackers, AP/AM for Anomaly, Impact% for Stunners) before worrying about substats. +12 purple discs are better than +0 gold discs.
• If you're 60+ seconds over: Your team composition likely doesn't match the rotation buffs. Consider building a team that aligns with the current Ice/Electric weakness. Even a half-built team with the right element can outperform a well-built off-element team thanks to the 40% damage buffs.