Caesar in ZZZ: Best Build Guide

In Zenless Zone Zero (ZZZ) Caesar is a 5-star character belonging to the Defense type and using the Physical attribute. In a squad, she can act as a secondary damage dealer and support, and sometimes even a main DD. In this guide, you will learn about her best build, amplifiers and drive disks, as well as recommended teams with her.

Main features of Caesar

How to get Caesar

In the first phase of version 1.2, this young chapter of the Sons of Calydon will appear in the banner, which will increase the chance of its drop. In the future, this character can only be obtained through Signal Search. Unfortunately, HoYoverse has never held an event in the game that would reward a 5-star fighter, so you definitely won't be able to get this lady for free.

Caesar's Key Stats

Caesar's abilities and their upgrade 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.

Basic attacks

Furious strike

To launch, press the basic attack button (LMB). Caesar makes up to 6 chopping strikes in front of him, dealing physical damage.

Dead End

When you have enough Assist Points, hold down the Basic Attack button (LMB) to spend 1 Assist Point, then throw a shield and attack enemies around you, dealing physical damage and pulling them towards you. The heroine is invulnerable while using this skill.

Evasion

Evasion: Drift

Press the dodge button (RMB or L Shift) to quickly dodge while dashing. The heroine is invulnerable while using this skill.

Dash Attack: Boar Express

To activate, press the Basic Attack button (LMB) while dodging. Caesar slams her shield in front of her, dealing physical damage. While using the ability, the damage she takes is reduced by 40%. When an enemy attacks Caesar, she will block the attack with her shield and be slightly knocked back. Press the Empowered Special Attack or Normal Special Attack button (E) to initiate Block Counter and perform the Roaring Slash special attack or the Empowered Special Attack Shield Slam.

Post-Evasion Counter: Eye for an Eye

To activate, press the Basic Attack button (LMB) after performing a Perfect Dodge. Caesar will slash in front of her, dealing physical damage. The heroine is invulnerable while using this skill.

Assistance

Assistance Attack: Lane Change

To activate, press the help button (Space) when the active character is thrown up. Caesar performs a slash in front of himself, dealing physical damage. The heroine is invulnerable while using this skill.

Defense Help: Saving Aegis

To activate, press the help button (Space) when the character is about to be attacked. Caesar parries enemy attacks, accumulating a lot of stun points on them. This skill perfectly parries enemy attacks and reduces the consumption of help points when holding back intense attacks. The heroine is invulnerable while using this skill.

Additional Attack Assist: Blade of Assistance

To activate, press the Basic Attack button (LMB) after using Defense Assist. Caesar throws a spinning shield in front of him and then performs a slash, dealing massive physical damage. After using the ability, press the Empowered Special or Normal Special (E) button to launch Block Counter and perform the Roaring Slash Special or Shield Slam Empowered Special. The heroine is invulnerable while using this skill.

Special Attacks

Special Attack: Shield Slash

Press the special attack button (E) to activate. Caesar lunges with his shield, dealing physical damage. If an enemy hits it at the start of the skill activation, a perfect block is activated, which absorbs all damage once and automatically activates the special attack “Roaring Thrust”.

After using the skill, Caesar enters a defensive stance that reduces incoming damage by 40%. When attacked by an enemy, she blocks them with her shield and jumps back slightly. Press the Empowered Special Attack or Normal Special Attack (E) button to launch the Block Counter and perform the Roaring Strike special attack or the Empowered Special Attack Shield Slam. When launching a defensive counter, the heroine becomes invulnerable for the duration of the skill.

Special Attack: Roaring Strike

After activating “Shield Smash”, press the Special Attack button (E) again. Caesar lunges forward, dealing physical damage. If neither a Perfect Block nor a Block Counter is successful, the Interrupt Defense level is increased when using this skill. If a Perfect Block or Block Counter is successful, the heroine becomes invulnerable while using this skill.

Enhanced Special Attack: Counter Parry

To activate, press the Special Attack (E) button when Caesar has enough energy. The agent lunges with her shield, then performs a powerful jab, dealing significant physical damage. If she is hit by an enemy at the start of the skill activation, or if the shield strike triggers a counterattack, Caesar will perform a Perfect Block, which absorbs all damage once and counters the enemy with a shield strike. After a Perfect Block is triggered, press the Special Attack (E) button to activate the Shield Slam enhanced attack without consuming energy.

After using the skill, Caesar enters a defensive stance that reduces incoming damage by 40%. When attacked by an enemy, she blocks them with her shield and jumps back slightly. Press the Empowered Special Attack or Normal Special Attack (E) button to launch “Block Counter” and perform the special attack “Roaring Lunge” or Empowered Special Attack “Shield Slam”. The heroine becomes invulnerable while using the skill.

Empowered Special Attack: Shield Slam

After activating “Parry with Retaliation”, press the Special Attack button (E) again when Caesar has enough energy. Caesar lunges with her shield, dealing significant physical damage. If she is hit by an enemy at the start of the skill activation, or if the shield strike triggers a counterattack, Caesar will perform a Perfect Block, which absorbs all damage once and restores the energy spent on using the skill. If this skill is activated with a Perfect Block or Counterattack from Block, the Perfect Block will not work again. The heroine becomes invulnerable as part of the skill.

Stance Change

When Caesar activates Perfect Block, Block Counter, or Defense Assist, her Momentum is increased by 9-20% for 3 seconds.

Attack Chains

Attack Chain: Dangerous Driving

Target an agent to activate while the attack chain is active. Caesar performs a powerful downward strike on enemies in front of her, dealing massive physical damage. She becomes invulnerable while the skill is active.

Ultimate Ability: Barbarian Strike

To activate, press the Ultimate button (Q) at maximum decibel level. Caesar throws the shield in front of him, performing a powerful spinning attack on enemies in front, followed by a downward strike that deals massive physical damage. When hitting enemies protected by the shield, the Stun effect inflicted is increased by 45-120%. The heroine becomes invulnerable as part of the skill.

Inclinations

Main Passive Skill: Durable Barrier

When Caesar activates the enhanced special attack “Retaliate Parry”, a chain attack, or a super ability, or when she activates the enhanced special attack “Shield Slam” with a Counter from Block, she buffs the entire party with Radiant Aegis, granting a shield equal to 300-1400% of her base momentum +200-1400. This shield is granted to the active character and lasts for 90 seconds, with the value shared among all party members. While Radiant Aegis is active, the protected character gains a bonus to Interrupt Defense and their attack power is increased by 40-1000. After Radiant Aegis ends, its bonus lasts for 5 seconds.

Extra Ability: Fighting Spirit

Activates if there are other agents in the party who can activate Defense Assist or are from the same faction. When Caesar activates Perfect Block, Block Counter, Defense Assist, or Basic Attack: Deadlock, she places a debuff on enemies within 7 meters, increasing their damage taken by 25% for 30 seconds.

As for leveling up the heroine's talents, the priority should be inclinations and special attacks, since the former determine the strength of the shield and increase the attack power of allies, and the latter allow you to parry enemy attacks, activate “Counterattack from the block” and stun opponents. Next in importance is Help, since you will often use it in the Caesar rotation.

Once you have maximized the specified abilities, you can move on to pumping Basic attacks and Chain of hits (ultimate) to increase the heroine's overall damage. Pump up Dodges last, because you will use them quite rarely.

Mental picture of Caesar

To open it, you need to save up Agent Profiles, which are given out when duplicates of the heroine drop, 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 mentals. However, even without them, Caesar can easily play the role of a sub-DD and support.

The table below lists all the mentals, 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 heroine's effectiveness as a support, allowing her to strengthen her allies even better. If you have a choice between a starting mental and a signature weapon, we advise you to take the second option, since there is simply no good alternative to the signature in the game.

How to play as Caesar

Basic Combinations

The main ability of the heroine is to impose a shield on the active character, the strength value of which is displayed as a bar hanging to the right of the character. It has one unique feature – if the barrier has little strength left and the incoming damage significantly exceeds it, then all damage will still be blocked. True, the shield will then immediately collapse. On its own, it can exist for exactly 90 seconds.

Its advantages also include increased resistance to interruption, meaning enemies will not be able to knock your fighter down, and an increase in his attack power to 1000 units. However, the shield has one small drawback – it only works on the active character, moving from one agent to another. Therefore, we strongly advise you not to switch to other characters until you completely complete the main DD combo attack, because otherwise he will lose not only the shield, but also the attack power bonus.

You can activate the shield in the following ways:

• A chain of attacks and superpowers – instantly provide a shield, however, given their situational nature, this is definitely not the best method of activating the barrier.
• Enhanced Special Attack – Simply hold down the “E” key when you have enough energy, and you will instantly get a shield. A more convenient method, but again, you won't be able to use it instantly, since you will have to accumulate energy first.
• Defense Assist and the subsequent “Shield Slam” is the main method of activating the shield, since it allows you to not only get a shield, but also deal considerable damage and stun the enemy.

As a result, you will need to act like this: select a hero walking in front of Caesar, wait for the enemy to attack and use Defense Assist (Space) to move to the leader of the Sons of Calydon, and then immediately press the special attack button “E” to perform “Shield Slam”.

This way, you will not only get a shield, but also with a high probability stun the enemy. After that, switch to the main DD and deal the main damage with it. When the shield falls or the enemy comes to his senses again, simply repeat this technique again. In fact, this will be Caesar's basic combo, which you will have to constantly use.

If you don't have any energy, use basic attacks after Defense Assist, as you will immediately go to the 3rd hit, and the 6th will allow you to gain a lot of energy, which will give you the opportunity to perform “Shield Slam” in the next rotation.

You should also not forget about the additional passive skill, which allows you to increase the damage received by nearby enemies. Remember that it is activated not only by Defense Assist, Perfect Block and Counterattack from Block, but also by the basic attack “Dead End”, that is, by holding down the normal attack button (LMB).

This method allows you to activate the passive faster (when it is needed) and at the same time pull enemies to you (if you are fighting with many ordinary mobs). However, remember that this technique spends assistance points, so you will not be able to use it often. It is best to stop at the method with Defense Assistance again.

Advanced Combinations

They are mainly related to Stance Change, which allows you to get a momentum buff and effectively stun opponents. This bonus is activated as follows:

• Using Defensive Assist – this will be your main method, and we described why above.
• Using a Counterattack from a block, that is, you need to press the special attack button (E) to go into a defensive stance, and after receiving an enemy hit, press the special attack button again to perform a counterattack (it will be more powerful if you have energy).
• Using a Perfect Block, which completely repeats the above method, except that you need to press the special attack button (E) exactly when the enemy hits the heroine, in order to immediately parry it. As a result, you will absorb all the damage and inflict more stunning with the subsequent counterattack, which will not consume energy.

The last method looks quite attractive, however, to use it you will have to keep Caesar on the battlefield more often, stealing time from the main damage dealer, which can negatively affect the overall DPS of the squad. So you can completely forget about ideal blocks or use them only in certain situations, for example, when you need to save help points and energy, but still get a shield.

Advantages and disadvantages of Caesar

With the help of her unique abilities, the young head of the “Sons of Calydon” can strengthen the team in many ways. Her advantages should also include:

• A universal support that can provide the active character with a strong shield that can protect against any attack, and give him a huge buff to attack power (up to 1000 units), significantly increasing his damage.
• Can replace the Intimidation character, effectively stunning enemies with her powerful counterattacks. At the same time, she can independently increase her momentum when rising and changing stance.
• Can play the role of a good debuffer, weakening enemies around her, increasing the damage they receive. At the same time, to activate this effect, only an ally is required who also has help in defense (there are most of them in the game), so she fits into many teams.
• Relatively easy to learn if used only as a sub-DD and support. She takes very little time from the main DD, occasionally entering the battlefield to refresh her shield or stun an enemy.
• Can increase an ally's resistance to interruptions, allowing them to finish their combo attacks without problems.
• Can be a great character for players who have not yet learned how to perfectly dodge enemy attacks or do not like this kind of gameplay.
• She does a great job of being a buffer and shielder without opening her mental picture, which F2P players will surely like.

However, Caesar can't be called an ideal character, since she also has her downsides:

• Applies protection and buff only to the active character, so when switching to another hero, the previous fighter becomes defenseless and deals less damage if he is still on the battlefield. Fortunately, this does not happen often.
• Unlike other supports (for example, Rina or Sokaku), she does not have any bonuses to personal damage (without M6), so turning her into a full-fledged main damage dealer will be problematic.
• There are no suitable alternatives to her signature weapon – the other options are noticeably worse, which is why you will most likely have to spend money on knocking out her signature.

The best build for Caesar

The best amplifiers

Unfortunately, at the time of patch 1.2, there are simply no other 5-star amplifiers of the required category in the game. For this reason, we added a legendary weapon from the “Intimidation” group, which can increase the Impulse required by the heroine. The table below presents the most interesting options.

Best Drives

As for the main characteristics of drive discs, your choice should look like this:

• IV sector: critical hit chance/critical damage in a ratio of 1 to 2.
• V sector: physical damage bonus (priority) or penetration chance%.
• VI sector: impulse.
• Substats: crits > attack power% > penetration chance.

If we talk about recommended values ​​of Caesar's parameters, they should look something like this:

• Attack: 2000+ units.
• Health: 10000+.
• Defense: 800+.
• Impulse: 200+.
• Critical hit chance: 60%+ (ideally)
• Critical Damage: 120%+ (ideally)

Best Teams for Caesar

F2P Team

Thanks to Nicole, who has Defense Assistance, you can easily activate the additional passive Caesar. It will allow you to effectively stun enemies, as well as give Billy a shield (he really needs it due to his low health and defense) and increase his attack power to deal more damage. This is the starting unit, which is later desirable to replace with more powerful combinations.

Teams with Caesar the Universal

We are talking about teams where Caesar plays the role of a sub-DD, stunning opponents, and/or a support, putting a shield on the main damage dealer and increasing his attack power with a buff. This is the optimal squad type for her. This is where you will have to play through Defense Assist and Shield Slam.

All the main DDs listed in these squads like to stay on the battlefield as long as possible, so you don't have to worry about them losing their shield due to rare switching between heroes.

Anomaly Teams

You can easily turn Caesar into one of the damage dealers in the squad on the Anomaly, increasing the attack power of your allies and personally inflicting huge damage to enemies. True, here the role of main DD will have to be shared with Piper.

Leveling up Caesar

The table below shows the materials needed to increase the level, skills and inclinations of the heroine, as well as their total amount.

This is the guide to the best build for Caesar in ZZZ can be considered complete. We hope that this information will help you choose the best amplifiers, drives and commands for the heroine.