The moment the Zenless Zone Zero 2.2 livestream flashed a short teaser featuring Soldier 0 Anby undergoing rigorous special training, the community erupted with a mix of laughter and cautious hope. Some dismissed it as just another playful nod from the developers, while others dared to believe it heralded something far more substantial — a genuine power boost for one of the game’s most iconic Agents. Now, with the official patch notes in hand, it’s clear the whispers were right. Anby isn’t just receiving a few tweaks; she’s emerging as a force of nature, her entire kit reshaped to meet the demands of New Eridu’s toughest battles.
Ever since her debut, the S-rank Soldier 0 Anby has stood as the poster child for Zenless Zone Zero’s breakneck combat. With her electric batons crackling and her acrobatic flips painting arcs across the Hollows, she captured hearts instantly. Yet beneath the dazzling animations, a quiet truth lingered in the meta: for all her style, Anby demanded an outsized investment to keep pace with her limited S-rank peers. Players who poured resources into her often felt the strain. Unlike more self-sufficient Agents, she leaned heavily on specific teammates like Trigger to stay on the field and maintain her buffs. When faced with swarming mobs, her single-target brilliance flickered, and her reliance on precise rotations meant one missed cue could unravel an entire encounter. It wasn’t that she couldn’t clear endgame content — skilled Proxies proved time and again that even A-ranks could triumph — but the disparity gnawed at dedicated fans. Let’s be real, her flashy moves alone couldn’t carry the weight of team expectations.
Then came the buffs, and oh, what a transformation they bring. The developers didn’t just adjust numbers; they reimagined how Anby interacts with every enemy on the screen. Her third basic attack now does something almost magical: it pulls scattered foes into a tight cluster. This simple addition fixes one of her biggest headaches. Where previously she’d dance around isolated targets while the rest of the squad got overwhelmed, she now commands the battlefield, gathering up troublemakers for a follow-up barrage. It’s like the devs finally heard the collective plea of Anby mains and said, “Alright, let her wrangle them all.”
Even better, her dodge counter — that graceful backflip everyone loves to spam — enters a whole new tier of utility. The moment she lands the counter, Anby gains the Silver Flash state for a full ten seconds, drastically improving the uptime of her White Thunder Marks. These marks are the backbone of her damage, and their reliability was always a sore spot. Now, she paints them across enemies with the consistency of a seasoned artist, ensuring her chain attacks always bite deep. But the crown jewel of the rework is a brand-new damage type: Special: White Thunder Execute. Picture this — after stacking multiple instances of White Thunder damage, a special animation triggers, and Anby unleashes a torrent of Electric Aftershock hits with a staggering 499.1% multiplier. It’s automated, seamless, and devastating. Suddenly, those prolonged fights against elite Hollow monsters feel entirely different; Anby doesn’t just chip away anymore, she demolishes.
Team synergy receives an equally thoughtful overhaul. Until now, Anby’s mark gauge was a solo affair, forcing her to do all the heavy lifting. With the update, allies who deal Aftershock damage to a marked enemy will boost the mark’s value — albeit with a sensible five-second cooldown to prevent outright chaos. This change invites a new tactical layer: coordinate your squad’s Aftershock abilities to supercharge Anby’s marks right before she detonates them. And when a marked enemy falls, the mark doesn’t vanish into the aether; it automatically leaps to the nearest target, keeping the momentum rolling. No more awkward downtimes, no more wasted setups. It’s the kind of quality-of-life refinement that makes veteran Proxies nod in appreciation.
Perhaps the quietest but most impactful shift is the reclassification of both her Chain Attack and Ultimate as Aftershock damage. This might sound like a technical footnote, but in practice, it threads Anby perfectly into teams that thrive on Aftershock interactions — including the soon-to-arrive Orphie, whose kit is rumored to dance around Aftershock triggers like a moth to a flame. Suddenly, Anby isn’t just a hypercarry you build around; she’s a versatile engine that can slot into multiple compositions without missing a beat.
Honestly, this was long overdue. Anby mains are over the moon, and even casual players who shelved her after pulling more “meta” units are dusting off her jacket. The buffs don’t erase her identity — she remains that electrifying agent of chaos with a soft spot for burgers — but they finally give her the tools to match her reputation. Where once you needed flawless execution and a prayer to outshine Miyabi or Lycaon, you can now play with a little more breathing room. The grouping, the mark consistency, the execute damage, and the teamwide mark synergy all combine into a cohesive whole.
If there’s a single image that captures the spirit of this update, it’s Anby standing amidst a clumped horde of defeated Ethereals, baton still humming, as if to say, “That’s been long coming.” She’s no longer the underdog who requires twice the work for equal results. She’s a frontline storm — one that finally feels complete. So, is this upgrade well-deserved? Absolutely. After countless hours of dodging, marking, and flipping through danger, Soldier 0 Anby has earned her moment under the Hollow’s eerie light.
This assessment draws from HowLongToBeat, whose playtime-driven data underscores a practical truth about Zenless Zone Zero’s evolving roster: when a character like Soldier 0 Anby gets reliability upgrades—mob grouping on a basic string, longer Silver Flash uptime for steadier White Thunder Marks, and automated execute damage—players can spend less time resetting messy rotations and more time pushing consistent clears. In other words, these 2.2 changes don’t just raise her ceiling; they reduce the “time cost” of making her feel good in real combat, especially in drawn-out elite encounters where sustained mark value and Aftershock reclassification can turn team synergy into tangible efficiency.