• Guide

Should you pull for Caesar or Burnice in Zenless Zone Zero 1.2?

Time to choose. Sword and shield, or billowing flames? Who will be the next addition to your Zenless Zone Zero team?

Aidan O'Brien

September 19, 2024 5:43 AM

Shacknews

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It’s that time, Proxies, when you must decide which Banner you wish to pull on during update 1.2 of Zenless Zone Zero. This is not an easy decision, as the HoYoverse 1.2 pattern has struck again, and both of these characters seem like viable long-term investments. 

Should you pull for Caesar or Burnice in Zenless Zone Zero?

For fans of HoYoverse games, it feels like the 1.2 update characters are always powerful, and this is once again the case for Zenless Zone Zero. Both Caesar and Burnice have tremendous potential, and you honestly couldn’t go wrong pulling for either of them. That said, there is nuance to all things, so let’s check out why each character is good and what they offer.

Let’s take a look at Caesar King first. She is an S-Rank, Physical, Defense character who actually plays a lot like a stunner. The leader of the Sons of Calydon, she’s a badass biker who will beat enemies down with her sword and shield combo.

For Caesar, she is very strong all around. The pre-release gameplay videos have started to hit, and she can do it all. Caesar has incredible utility, can tank forever, shield her entire team (this shield scales with Impact, so she’ll also break enemy shields), and buff her team's damage. Caesar also has an additional ability called Battle Spirit that debuffs enemies, causing them to take 25% more damage when a friendly unit uses a Defensive Assist. This pretty much makes her synergize with any team comp. Caesar also has very high anti-interrupt, so she doesn’t care about getting hit very much. 

So, Caesar works well with most characters, protects them, makes them hit harder, and isn’t very greedy for on-field time so that you can cycle her kit and then go back to the main DPS dealer in your team. She is a fantastic long-term investment as she is likely to pair well with any future character.

Burnice has her own upsides, however. She is an S-Rank, Fire, Anomaly character and is a also member of the Sons of Calydon. One of the biggest benefits to Bernice is that she is an off-fielder who fits in really well with Anomaly teams. If you are currently running an Anomaly team, then Bernice is a fantastic addition to your group.

So far, what we know about Burnice is that she will inflict Scorch on enemies, and then when other friendly units attack those enemies, it will cause a further damaging state called Afterburn. This means you’ll be applying Anomaly and Burn damage while off-field, which is a super potent combo. That’s the crux of what Burnice offers, so an intensely greedy on-field DPS will work perfectly with her. I also feel like the A-Ranks on Burnice’s Banner are a little stronger, with Lucy and Nicole versus Piper and Anton on Caesars.

So, it really boils down to this. If you run an Anomaly team, Burnice is the way to go; everyone else would likely benefit more from Caesar. Both characters seem pretty strong in the long term, but it’s hard to know exactly what way the power creep will go or if future patches and reworks will elevate other characters above them.

The important thing here is always patience. You will have a few weeks with Caesar's Banner before she is gone, so plenty of time to see if she will fit in with your style or not. For more Zenless Zone Zero news and guide, be sure to check out our Zenless Zone Zero page.

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.