List of Contents
  • Aria Basic Information
  • Core Mechanics and Combat Rhythm
  • Skill Upgrade Priority Overview
  • Aria's Key Materials - What You'll Need to Build Her
  • W-Engines for Aria - Our Pick of the Best
  • Best Drive Disc Sets for Aria
  • Best Team Comps for Aria
  • Final Thoughts
List of Contents
  • Aria Basic Information
  • Core Mechanics and Combat Rhythm
  • Skill Upgrade Priority Overview
  • Aria's Key Materials - What You'll Need to Build Her
  • W-Engines for Aria - Our Pick of the Best
  • Best Drive Disc Sets for Aria
  • Best Team Comps for Aria
  • Final Thoughts

The Aria Build Guide – Nailing Ether Anomaly DPS in Zenless Zone Zero

Leo

02/15/2026

  • Zenless Zone Zero(zzz)
  • 1 Min Read

Aria’s finally here in Version 2.6, and she’s shaking things up with her dual-form combat style. She can switch between her quick Maiden Form and the heavy-hitting Mecha Form, and if you want to get the most out of her, you’ll need to master both. This Aria build guide dives into the top builds, which skills you should focus on, and the team setups that really let Aria shine. Ready to send your enemies packing? Let’s jump in.

6480+1600 Monochrome 2.6 Sale | Zenless Zone Zero 6480+1600

6480+1600 Monochrome 2.6 Sale | Zenless Zone Zero 6480+1600

  • Enjoy Up To 22% Off On Game Top-ups.
  • 3-minute Delivery For Non-stop Gaming.
  • Trusted 4.9/5 On Trustpilot, 10/10 Among Players.
  • Official Partnership Route, Protect Your Game Wallet.
$66.49 Top Up With Discount Now!

Choose the best Zenless Zone Zero(zzz) product.
Zenless Zone Zero(zzz)
5/5.0 917 Sold 1+ reviews
  • 6480+1600 Monochrome 2.6 Sale | Zenless Zone Zero 6480+1600 -34%

    6480+1600 Monochrome 2.6 Sale | Zenless Zone Zero 6480+1600

    6480+1600 Monochrome 2.6 Sale | Zenless Zone Zero 6480+1600
    $66.49
    $99.99
  • SUNNA Guarantee Bundle -18%

    SUNNA Guarantee Bundle

    SUNNA Guarantee Bundle
    $299.67
    $364.95
  • YIXUAN Guarantee Bundle -18%

    YIXUAN Guarantee Bundle

    YIXUAN Guarantee Bundle
    $299.67
    $364.95
  • Signature Weapon Guaranteed Bundle -23%

    Signature Weapon Guaranteed Bundle

    Signature Weapon Guaranteed Bundle
    $127.77
    $164.97
  • Outfit Guaranteed | Zenless Zone Zero Outfit Guaranteed -27%

    Outfit Guaranteed | Zenless Zone Zero Outfit Guaranteed

    Outfit Guaranteed | Zenless Zone Zero Outfit Guaranteed
    $14.55
    $19.98
  • [V2.5 Limited] Inter-Knot Membership -18%

    [V2.5 Limited] Inter-Knot Membership

    [V2.5 Limited] Inter-Knot Membership
    $4.07
    $4.99
  • New User Discount! Inter-Knot Membership -30%

    New User Discount! Inter-Knot Membership

    New User Discount! Inter-Knot Membership
    $3.49
    $4.99
  • All-In-One bundle -20%

    All-In-One bundle

    All-In-One bundle
    $159.91
    $200.94
  • 6480+1600 Monochrome -27%

    6480+1600 Monochrome

    6480+1600 Monochrome
    $73.05
    $99.99
  • 6480+1600 Monochrome * 3 -19%

    6480+1600 Monochrome * 3

    6480+1600 Monochrome * 3
    $242.85
    $299.97
  • 6480+1600 Monochrome * 5 -17%

    6480+1600 Monochrome * 5

    6480+1600 Monochrome * 5
    $414.75
    $499.95
  • 60 Monochrome -26%

    60 Monochrome

    60 Monochrome
    $0.73
    $0.99

Aria Basic Information

Aria is a top-tier S-Rank Agent, packing the Ether attribute and the Anomaly specialisation. She's specifically built to be a main damage dealer who's all about rolling in resources and getting that anomaly party started. Aria's playstyle is all about destroying the bad guys either by yourself or with your team and then switching to all-out damage mode as soon as she hits that Enhanced State. This is the point where she sucks in all that accumulated Support Energy to unleash the full fury of her max-level charged attacks. For those of you who love playing around with resource loops, timing up your big attacks and just generally blowing things up, Aria is a real treat to get hold of and build.

Core Mechanics and Combat Rhythm

Aria's core gameplay revolves around a loop that goes something like this: "Generate Support Energy, use it to boost your attacks, then keep looping." To play Aria at her best you've got to get a hang of her rhythm of piling up resources, letting loose with a big burst, and then starting over from scratch.

Aria makes most of her Support Energy through her basic attacks, especially the fourth hit and through the use of her special move. When you start charging up an attack for a big hit, all that Support Energy she's been collecting gets chucked into the pot and that lets her charge up even faster, up to a max level of 3. The higher she is charged the more damage she'll do and the quicker she'll build up those Anomalies that are the real core of her game.

By getting her Decibels up through working with her allies and getting in on the action, Aria can get into an Enhanced State. That boosts the damage she does with her charged attack and makes it easier for her to build up those Anomalies even quicker. While she's on the field, she'll be dropping Anomaly Vulnerability on any enemies that are already infected by Ether Anomaly.

When it comes down to it, in a live fight, you want to switch to Aria to start building up that Support Energy, then have your allies start chucking out Ether Anomalies to get the enemies clustered. Then you pop off a Level 3 Charged Attack during Enhanced State and watch the fireworks. Her charged attacks also have a nice bit of protection to them, both against interruption and damage, so you've got some room to breathe while you're doing big damage dumps.

Skill Upgrade Priority Overview

Here's a handy table breaking down Aria's skill upgrade priorities and what's really important to getting that damage loop going.

Skill Type

Priority

Description

Charge Attack

5/5

Core burst damage source and main trigger for Abloom

Special Attack

4/5

Generates Support Energy quickly and supports rotation flow

Basic Attack

3/5

Provides Support Energy through the fourth hit

Ultimate

2/5

Supplementary damage and team energy restoration

Support Skill

1/5

Minor Support Energy bonus with limited impact

 

A Detailed Breakdown of Aria's Skill Priorities

 Aria's Core Skill should always take top priority and be maxed out first. This skill essentially determines how her Bloom damage scales and how efficiently her Anomaly Mastery feeds into bonus anomaly damage. In other words, getting this skill right is crucial for maximizing her overall damage per second, especially when fighting stunned enemies you really can't afford to skimp on it.

 Next up, her Special Skill is a big deal it forms a core part of her rotation and is one of her main ways to get her hands on Support Energy. As you level this skill up, you'll be improving both her damage output and her resource generation, which lets her get to those high level charged attacks more frequently.

 Basic Attack upgrades are also well worth investing in, given how much time Aria spends on the field and basically, by getting this skill right, she'll end up with a more consistent and sustained damage output.

 In contrast, Chain Attack, Assist and Dodge upgrades are pretty low down the list. Now, Chain Attacks do do some decent damage and throw in some Daze for good measure when enemies are stunned but they're not central to her charge focused gameplay. Assist skills offer some situational utility, but don't really have a meaningful impact on her damage loop. And as for Dodge upgrades, to be honest they're largely unnecessary.

Aria's Key Materials - What You'll Need to Build Her

Building Aria involves sourcing a bunch of specialized materials that you'll need for ascension and skill upgrades think Controller Certification Seals, Specialized Ether Chips, Hamster Cage Passes, Clouded Crystalline Substances and Higher Dimensional Data: Falling Fist. If you can plan ahead and get hold of these materials early, it'll really help to smooth out her progression and get her up to full speed a lot quicker.

For detailed material requirements and farming locations, please refer to our dedicated guides:

 

W-Engines for Aria - Our Pick of the Best

 Angel in the Shell (The Best of the Bunch)

Angel in the Shell is undeniably Aria's top W-Engine choice and it fits in perfectly with her "Charge Burst + Ether Anomaly Linkage" playstyle. For starters, it gives her a healthy base ATK of 713, a 30% Anomaly Mastery bump, and a further 18% ATK bonus to boot. Plus, its effect boosts the damage she does against anomaly affected enemies by 15%, with an extra 15% on top for Ether Anomaly targets.

What really gets Aria's most out of this W-Engine is that its 15-second effect, which means every single one of her Level 3 Charged Attacks will get the benefit of the damage boost. And don't even get me started on the backline switching; the effect ends as soon as she retreats to the backline, so this really encourages some tight frontline rotations and reinforces her burst-centric design. This W-Engine form makes it the go-to choice for maximizing her output.

Different W-Engine Choices

 Fusion Compiler is a top-notch alternative W-Engine that really gives an S-Rank boost to Anomaly Mastery which in turn directly boosts the bonus damage from Aria's core passive. Not to mention its penetration effects which make it way easier to whittle down those high defense targets Aria likes to focus on. It all fits hand in glove with Aria's special skill to charge attack loop.

 The Brimstone is another pretty solid S-Rank option that leans more towards base ATK. Considering Aria's love for spamming normal attacks and using those evade counters, it's no problem at all to stack up the ATK bonus which can reach way up to a 16% increase. What's more, this W-Engine is super versatile and works pretty well even when Aria's special option is MIA.

 Electro Lip Gloss is the A-Rank option that really stands out. Its dual ATK and damage bonus scaling really speaks to Aria's charged attack and EX burst play style, with stable performance all the way from early game right through to mid game, it's also extremely cost-efficient

Best Drive Disc Sets for Aria

 Shining Aria (The best 4Piece Set)

Shining Aria is, no question, Aria's best drive disc set. The 2-piece bonus is even better as it gives Aria a 10% Ether DMG boost which matches right up with her primary attribute. And then the 4-piece bonus kicks in. Anomaly Proficiency gets a boost whenever basic attacks hit, and that's not all you also get a massive damage bonus whenever enemies get stunned

This set is basically made for Aria's mechanics. The fact that normal attacks already help generate Support Energy means that the buffs are easy to keep topped up with near constant uptime and then there's the stun damage bonus which really brings home her burst windows.

 2Piece Combination Options

If getting a full set is just out of reach, combining Phaethon's Melody for Anomaly Mastery and the Freedom Blues for flat Anomaly Proficiency is another viable option. And it works, you'll get strong anomaly scaling all the way till you can get your hands on a full Shining Aria set.

Drive Disc Main Stats and Sub-Stats

Slot

Recommended Main Stat

Drive Disc 4

Anomaly Mastery

Drive Disc 5

Ether DMG Bonus

Drive Disc 6

Anomaly Proficiency or ATK

 

Anomaly Mastery should be put on slot 4 to really give her passive a boost. Slot 5 is locked into Ether DMG, so we can maximize her base damage. If slot 6 is looking for Anomaly Proficiency, then go for it, but if the item is actually quite good overall then using ATK might not be a bad idea either, both of those stats offer pretty similar returns.

When it comes to sub stats, Anomaly Mastery is the number one priority, Ether DMG is second and then ATK. While ATK is a good one to have early in the game, the idea is to start phasing it out in the late game in favour of those anomaly-focused stats to really get the most out of Aria's damage output.

Best Team Comps for Aria

 The go-to team comp for Aria is Billy and Sunna; they both do a great job of supporting her. Billy is key for getting those backline anomaly states triggered which in turn sets Aria's passive off, and then his team ultimate is a nice bonus as she's got a bit of an AoE weakness. Sunna is great for regenerating energy and stacking up her ATK bonuses which really helps with the downtime between bursts and gets that damage really flying.

 If you're on a tighter budget, Anby and Nicolele make a nice early game alternative. Anby is great for consistently applying Ether Anomaly and providing some much-needed energy support. Nicolele is perfect for grouping up enemies and upping that attack; all in all, a pretty solid and accessible team comp for players on a limited budget.

 And lastly, you've also got the option of going with Aria, Anton and Sunna. Anton's Physical AoE damage is a nice bonus to add to Aria's single-target focus, and doesn't interfere with her getting those anomaly states going. Sunna is there to provide some shields, debuff cleansing, and also get her energy topped up so you've got a nice stable and beginner-friendly team that's got all the bases covered.

Final Thoughts

Aria is definitely one of the standout Ether Anomaly DPS characters in Zenless Zone Zero, offering up a really fun and skill-expressive playstyle that relies on getting those charge timings just right. With the right investment, some optimised stats and the perfect team, she's a real powerhouse when it comes to delivering those devastating bursts, and she holds her own in both single-target and multi-enemy fights just fine. If you're the kind of player who enjoys putting together those rotations and unleashing perfectly timed bursts of damage on your enemies, then Aria is definitely worth putting some time into building.

Leo
Leo

Senior game guide author

Game guide creator focusing on Genshin Impact, Zenless Zone Zero, Wuthering Waves and PUBG. All tips are tested and easy to use. Partnered with buffhub.com to bring practical, up-to-date strategies for all players.

Ways to pay:

  • crypto currency
  • paysafe card
  • payment
  • iDEAL
  • klarna
  • google pay
  • apple pay
  • paypal
  • discover
  • JCB
  • mastercard
  • visa

switch languageLanguage & Currency

  • Language

    Language
    English
    中文(繁体)
    日本語
    Bahasa Indonesia
    Bahasa Melayu
    Français
    Italiano
    Deutsch
    Русский
    Español
    한국어
  • Display Currency

    Display Currency
    $ USD
    € EUR
    £ GBP
    C$ CAD
    A$ AUD
    S$ SGD
    Ұ JPY
    ₩ KRW
    SA SAR
    AED AED
    RM MYR
    ₱ PHP
    Rp IDR
    ฿ THB
    NT$ TWD
    HK$ HKD
    ₫ VND
Log in

Or