Burnice in ZZZ: Best Build Guide

IN Zenless Zone Zero (ZZZ) Burnice is 5 star character, which is an Anomaly type and uses the Fire attribute. In a team, she is able to play the role of a secondary damage dealer, dealing damage from the pocket by accumulating anomaly on enemies. In this guide, you will learn about her best build, amplifiers And drive discs, as well as recommended units with it

Burnice's Key Features

How to get Bernice

In the second phase of version 1.2 (October 16th), this hot lady from the "Sons of Calydon" appeared in banner, which increased the probability of her dropping. In the future, this character can only be obtained through Signal Search. Unfortunately, HoYoverse has never held an event in which the reward would be a 5-star fighter, so you definitely won’t be able to get the burning blonde for free.

Key Features of Bernice

Bernice's abilities and their development priority

You can read about the heroine's abilities in the game itself, so we decided to add it under the spoiler so as not to increase the size of the article. We also recommend that you study our combat system guide, to better understand it.

As for pumping up the heroine's talents, the priority is there must be some potential , as they are the main source of her damage. Next in importance are the special attacks, as you will use them most often to activate the special mode and deal significant damage to enemies.

Once you've maxed out these abilities, you can move on to upgrading your chain attacks (ultimate), increasing Bernice's overall damage output. Upgrade Assists, Basic Attacks, and Dodges last, as they don't provide much benefit compared to other abilities.

Bernice's Mental Picture

To open it, you need to accumulate Agent Profiles, which are given out when duplicates of the heroine fall out, which, of course, is random. Considering the small chance of getting 5-star characters, you will need to spend a lot of time and money to unlock all the mental girls. However, even without them, Bernice can easily play the role of a sub-DD.

The table below lists all the mental abilities, their descriptions and benefits for the heroine.

If you still decide to try your luck, you can stop at M1 and M2 , thanks to which you can significantly increase the usefulness of Bernice as a sub-DD, since the damage from Charring will increase significantly. If you have a choice between a starting mental weapon and a signature weapon, then everything depends on the situation. If you have a suitable alternative, then it is better to knock out the M1, and if you don’t, then take the signature.

How to play as Bernice

Basic combinations

The heroine's main feature is her main passive, which allows her to apply Burn to enemies (using a held basic attack, chain attack, ult, and enhanced special attack), which turns into Charring (when they are attacked by another agent) and deals fire damage to them, depending on Bernice's attack power. Thus, she deals most of her damage outside the battlefield, and she can even cause Burning while being an inactive character.

Before she can do all that, however, you'll need to build up her Heat meter, which hangs underneath her icon, to activate the Nitro Cocktail state. The maximum you can get is 100, which is enough to trigger 13 Chars (each activation costs 8), meaning the mark will be able to hang on an enemy for at least 19.5 seconds.

After this, you will have to accumulate the Heat bar again. This can be done as follows:

• Super ability - gives 50 units of Heat at once, but this is a rather situational thing, because first you will need to gain a sufficient number of decibels, so you can’t exactly call the ult the main way to gain points.
• Enhanced Special Attack - Spending 1 Energy will generate 1.4 Heat, so using these attacks will be your main way to build up that gauge.

At the same time, you should not waste energy in vain. If your Heat bar is almost full, you should not use the enhanced special attack. Plus, you should remember that the finishing blow gives a powerful burst of points (fills about 15-20% of the bar), so try to release the ability button or use assistance a little earlier.

How do you gain energy? Regular basic attacks are not very effective, so we recommend using defensive assist, chain attacks, or a held basic attack (if Nitro Cocktail is active), since after these moves you can immediately perform a strengthened special attack with shooting from two flamethrowers (you need to press the "E" key), receiving Heat points.

So your rotation will look like this:

1. Build up Bernice's energy by performing basic attacks or the above actions, then use her enhanced special attack to build up Heat and enter the Nitro Cocktail state.
2. Apply Burn to enemies with a held Basic Attack, Chain Attack, Ultimate, or Empowered Special Attack. We recommend using the first option, as Fire Blend generates additional energy at the cost of 20 Heat.
3. Then switch to your main DD and start hitting the enemy with Scorch to trigger Charring. This will deal additional damage to the enemy, plus they will accumulate a fire anomaly, which can lead to the application of the Burning debuff or even Chaos.
4. If you're running low on Heat, you can perform a Defense Assist or Chain Attack to then use Bernice's enhanced special attack to fill up the gauge a little more.
5. When you run out of Heat points, simply repeat the first steps.

This information will be enough to deal a lot of damage to enemies. If you want to maximize Bernice's damage, you can learn more advanced tactics for playing her.

Advanced Combinations

If you press and hold the enhanced special attack button once, the heroine will only fire from one flamethrower, but you can press the ability again to use the second flamethrower, but in this case, the energy costs will double. True, Heat will also accumulate faster.

So what are the downsides? Firstly, it is harder to control the accumulation of Heat, which is why you will waste energy more often. Secondly, based on the energy units spent, the total amount of anomaly accumulates from one flamethrower is greater than from two, although this happens more slowly.

Thus, you will need to carefully monitor the situation and adapt to the squads. For example, in a team with two or three fire heroes, the fire anomaly will already be in abundance, so you can safely fire from two flamethrowers to quickly switch to the main DD. Otherwise, you can linger on Bernice longer, shooting from one flamethrower and gaining more anomaly points.

Let's add that the chain of attacks allows Bernice to accumulate a huge amount of anomaly on enemies and use an attack from two flamethrowers, so we advise choosing it last in the order of actions. Also, do not forget to immediately switch to main DD after activating the ult, since Bernice will continue to pour fire on the enemy.

Plus, you should know that when using damage dealers who can attack several enemies at once, you can easily cause Charring on all affected enemies at once, and Heat will only be spent as for one. However, there are few such main DDs in the game so far. Billy is one of the free ones.

Advantages and disadvantages of Bernice

With her unique abilities, this fire-loving creature can deal significant fire damage, quickly causing Burning in enemies. Her advantages also include:

• A great secondary damage dealer who can deal a ton of fire damage outside of the battlefield without taking up much of the main DD's time. At the same time, her gameplay is quite easy to master, so she's suitable for beginners.
• She is not only able to accumulate anomaly from her pocket, but even activate it (at the time of patch 1.2, only Bernice has such an ability), which significantly simplifies the game through Chaos if she is in the squad.
• Pairs well with other Anomaly characters, as having them on the team allows her to activate an additional ability. Plus, she's a great asset for a Fire Mono pack, as she increases the duration of Burn.
• Char damage is not only affected by Bernice's attack power, but also by her Anomaly Knowledge stat, allowing her overall damage to be significantly increased by simply increasing these two stats.

However, it is still impossible to call Bernice an ideal character, since she also has her drawbacks:

• It can be difficult to build an effective build, as in addition to anomaly knowledge, anomaly control, and attack power, she may also require: energy regeneration (to use her enhanced special attack more often) and crits if you plan on turning her into a main DPS.
• When using the flamethrower, Bernice has to stay in one place - dashing from side to side does not always allow her to effectively dodge attacks, especially when fighting large numbers of enemies or bosses with area attacks.
• She is a rather narrowly specialized character that requires either a fire main DD or another Anomaly hero. She can be combined with damage dealers of other attributes that deal direct damage from crits, but her usefulness will drop significantly in this case.

Best build for Bernice

The best amplifiers

We recommend choosing a weapon that can increase the attack power and knowledge of the heroine's anomaly, and also, if possible, speed up her energy recovery. The table below shows the most interesting options.

Best Drive Discs

As for main characteristics of drives , then your selection should look like this:

• IV-sector: knowledge of anomaly (priority) or attack power%.
• V-sector: Fire damage bonus (priority) or penetration chance%.
• VI-sector: anomaly control (priority) or attack power%.
• Substats: Anomaly Knowledge > Attack Power% > Penetration Chance

If we talk about recommended parameter values Bernice, they should look something like this:

• Attack: 2400+ units
• Health: 9000+
• Defense: 800+
• Anomaly Knowledge: 300+ units (to get the maximum bonus to Charring damage)
• Anomaly Control: 150-195 units

Best Teams for Bernice

F2P team

A good free squad that can show itself well even in the late stages of the game. Thanks to Bernice and Piper, you can easily call Chaos on enemies, imposing both fire and physical anomalies on them at the same time. At the same time, Piper will be on the field most of the time, waving her huge hammer. Lucy will buff both heroines.

Command for chaos

Bernice pairs well with Jane (Piper), helping her to easily summon Chaos by accumulating Fire Anomaly from her pocket, while Lucy will give a nice buff to the rat, allowing her to deal even more damage.

If Lucy is absent, you can use Caesar or Seth, but we should note right away that both characters are aimed specifically at strengthening Jane, that is, they will give Bernice practically nothing. Unless the cat-boy can increase her knowledge of the anomaly.

Electric Fire Team

This is also a command for Chaos, however, it is somewhat different from the previous option, since Bernice will have to be on the field more often, sharing the role of damage dealer with Grace. Rina increases the chance of penetration, which is useful for Anomaly heroes, but you may have some problems with rotation without Bernice's M1, as her buffs are short-lived.

Fire Team

Unfortunately, at the time of patch 1.2, there is only one main DD of the fire attribute in the game, and you can’t call it strong. For this reason, this squad is still inferior in strength to the Chaos teams. But Bernice will be able to significantly simplify the activation of Inferno Metal for Soldier 11, since she will constantly impose Burn on enemies.

Bernice's Pumping

The table below shows the materials required to increase the heroine's level, skills, and inclinations, as well as their total quantity.

This concludes the guide to the best build for Bernice in ZZZ. We hope that this information will help you choose the best amplifiers, drive disks and commands for the heroine.