• Guide

The best Zhezhi build and teams in Wuthering Waves

Zhezhi, the shy artist, is capable of doing tremendous damage in Wuthering Waves if you build her right.

Aidan O'Brien

August 15, 2024 4:07 AM

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As the latest character to arrive in Wuthering Waves, Zhezhi is capable of doing huge damage numbers. There is a lot to balance in her kit that we will get to later in the article, but for now, we will focus on the very best weapons and Echoes to use with her.

The best Zhezhi build in Wuthering Waves

• Best weapon - Rime-Draped Sprouts - Increases ATK by 12%. Using Resonance Skill gives her a 12% Basic Attack DMG Bonus for 6s, stacking up to 3 times. When casting her Outro Skill with 3 stacks, consume all stacks to give 52% DMG Bonus to the off-field Basic Attacks performed by the equipped Resonator, lasting for 27s.
• Best Echoes - The main Echo to run is the Lampylumen Myriad that you can get from the boss fight of the same name located below the Tiger's Maw Mine in the Huanglong region. You will then want to back this up with a couple of 3 Cost Echoes and then two 1 Cost Echoes, all of which should give the Freezing Frost Sonata Effect to get the full set bonus. Doing so will give you a double damage boost to Glacio. First, a flat 10% on all attacks, and then an additional 10% that stacks three times after heavy and basic attacks; this can last for up to 15 seconds. 

If you cannot roll on the banner for the Rime-Draped Sprouts and already have something like Stringmaster or Cosmic Ripples, they are very solid 5-star options. If you are looking for a good 4-star option for her weapon, I would suggest Augment from the Battle Pass instead. Just make sure you hold off on the use of her Resonance Liberation until you can fully take advantage of the fully built-up Forte Gauge, which we will discuss shortly. The Freezing Frost Sonata is a must, however. There is no way around that for me.

For substats on the Echoes, you want to build into Critical Rate and Critical Damage where possible, and then ATK%  as well. Anything that bumps Glacio damage is welcome, along with energy regeneration, because there will be a lot of ability spamming in Zhezhi's rotations once you get the Forte Gauge built up.

Understanding Afflatus

Every basic attack that Zhezhi lands will help build Afflatus on her Forte Gauge at the bottom of the screen. You can also earn some with her Intro skill.  A full bar holds 90 Afflatus, which she can then spend by summoning Phantasmic Imprints. When you are close to these imprints, you can hit the skill button to dash to them, performing a highly damaging attack against nearby enemies as you do so.

You can place one Phantasmic Imprint for every 30 Afflatus, and this is where a tremendous amount of your damage and on-field maneuverability comes from. Each time you use an imprint, you get a stack called Painters Delight, and the third one will consume all the stacks and give you a further 18% basic attack bonus. As such, a solid cycle becomes building a full Forte Guage, using the Afflatus to generate three Imprints, dashing between them all to get the bonus, and then using your Resonance Liberation while fully buffed. 

Best team for Zhezhi

When it comes to putting a team together for Zhezhi it is not hugely surprising who some of the best options are. Verina is a superb support for her, benefitting from the instant energy regeneration from Zhezhi's outro skill and also keeping her crown as one of the best healers in the game. I also really like using Zhezhi for pure damage, and that means Sanhua is a great third member of the party.

Sanhua will benefit from the increase in Glacio damage from Zhezhi's Outro skill, while Zhezhi will benefit from the dramatic basic attack damage boost from Sanhua's Outro skill. The reason this is so impactful for Zhezhi is that her damage through Afflatus and her ultimate all count as basic attack damage.

The main key to running Zhezhi is to practice using her Phantasmic Imprints and setting them up correctly. I would highly recommend using the tutorial from her Resonator page to really get to grips with how they work.

Aidan O'Brien

Contributing Guides Editor

Hailing from Ireland, Aidan has been conditioned by local weather conditions to survive hours at his PC grinding through whatever game is offering the lowest possible drop rates for loot. He thinks the easiest way to figure out what fans of games want to read is to just be a fan of games. You can normally find him logged into Warframe, Destiny, or a gacha game. You can reach out to him on X @scannerbarkly.