How To Complete The Troubles Of Ellen The Shark Event In Zenless Zone Zero

Agent Stories in Zenless Zone Zero give greater insight into the game’s world, all while bringing us closer to the characters in it. They can vary wildly in tone, but Ellen Joe’s story, The Troubles Of Ellen The Shark, is more lighthearted. It also comes with a small combat challenge event that awards a modest but welcome number of Polychromes.

Completing Ellen’s story and event shouldn’t take more than an hour, but the combat challenges can be tricky if you’re unfamiliar with Ellen’s gameplay. We’ll give you all the details you need to know in this guide.

It’s Me… Leave A Message Story Walkthrough

Ellen’s TV Schedule event, available during the 1.5 update period, takes place across two parts: her Agent Story, “It’s Me… Leave a Message,” and four combat challenges.

You don’t need to complete one to attempt the other, but you do need to finish both if you want all the available rewards. It’s available on the TV in the HDD room or via the Video Archive to the right of the TV.

Ellen’s Agent Story section has a softer tone than some others in the game. It shies away from exploring the seedier parts of a character’s past, like Lycaon or Harumasa’s stories. Instead, it deals with the themes of acceptance and friendship found in Nekomata’s story, but with an anime high school twist.

Like all Agent Stories, Ellen’s is split into three parts. All have a dialog section, and the first and third have a combat section. The dialog sections are entirely narrative-focused, with the only gameplay being moving the dialog along or walking from one location in Lumina Square to another.

How To Complete It’s Me… Leave A Message Part One

The first part of It’s Me… Leave a Message will take about ten minutes to complete if you let all the voice-acted sections play. Here are all the steps in part one.

1. Ellen will come into the video store to discuss a commission she’s working on: collecting an item in the Hollow. She will also share some details about her friends.
2. You’ll then head into a section of the Ballet Twins Hollow. Take a left from the starting point and follow the hallway until you enter combat with two waves of Ethereals. The quest item will appear near the window when you’ve defeated all enemies.
3. Ellen’s friends Ruby, Lynn, and Monna will call. Listen to their conversation or skip it to return to Hollow exploration.
4. Go over the bridge near where you found the previous objective to spawn a wave of Ethereals, followed by a miniboss enemy. When the area is clear, the objective will appear near the angled desks by the window.
5. The conversation between Ellen and her friends continues, then takes an awkward turn.
6. Head through the doorway and down the ramp to the left, then make a right to reach the round area. Three waves of Ethereals will spawn. The final wave has a miniboss.
7. Ellen and her friends will continue their awkward conversation. Part one ends once it’s over.

How To Complete It’s Me… Leave A Message Part Two

You’re headed to Lumina Square to start this part of Ellen’s story. There’s no combat in this part of the Agent story, and it should only take about five minutes if you let the dialog play.

1. Listen to Ellen and her friends speak, then chat with them by the teamilk store. It’s awkward, but that’s part of the charm.
2. Return to the metro staircase, speak to Ellen and her friends at the vending machine, and help them pick out videos back at Random Play.
3. There are multiple choices for each video selection, but the only differences we saw in our playthrough were the responses Ellen and her friends gave. Your choices have no major effect on the story‘s outcome.
4. After Ellen and her friends leave (and said friends make some ill-advised plans), this part of the story is complete.

How To Complete It’s Me… Leave A Message Part Three

In a surprise visit, Lycaon has a request for another Hollow delve. Depending on your build, this part could take up to ten minutes.

1. In the Hollow, start by taking a right into the large chamber, then take out the two waves of standard Ethereals that appear.
2. Head down the ramp beyond the large hole in the wall and keep left. You’ll enter a Special Event dialog when you reach a larger platform and discover Ellen’s friends. They are decidedly not Hollow investigators and have found themselves between a boss-level Ethereal and a hard place.
3. Defeat the Ethereal, an Armored Hati, to free the three girls.
4. Listen to Ellen and her friends chat about keeping secrets from one another, then watch the final comic strip cutscene, and you’ll complete Ellen’s Agent Story.

Best Teams For To Complete It’s Me… Leave A Message

For the combat portions of Ellen’s story, you can use Ellen as a trial character or bring your own team. The enemies in the story are weak to Ice and Ether damage, so the following options are your best bet:

Premium Ellen Story Team

As the premiere Ice damage team as of the release of Ellen’s Agent Story, you should expect little resistance from enemies with this setup.

• Miyabi’s damage output is absurd, and while her kit is a bit technical, so long as you keep her on-field a lot, she’ll quickly build them up to charge her heavy attack.
• Yanagi is a fantastic DPS in her own right, but her ability to activate Disorders makes building Miyabi’s Fallen Frost stacks much easier. Swapping between the two makes for some wild damage numbers, and Astra Yao makes that process a breeze.
• Astra Yao‘s kit empowers her teammates‘ Attack stat and allows them to seamlessly Chain Attack back and forth. Her ability to deal Ether damage is a nice bonus when you need to build up charge for her Enhanced Skill, but ideally, she stays buffing the whole combat.

Ellen Joe Team

You can use Ellen as a Trial character during her Agent Story. Pairing her with a friend from Victoria Housekeeping ensures you get both the faction and attribute bonuses. Additionally:

• Ellen remains a solid Ice DPS even in a world with Miyabi in it, and she’s much more straightforward to play. Dodge Counters into charged Basic Attacks build Flash Freeze stacks, enabling her to deal Ice damage and empowering her combos.
• Lycaon’s Stunning capabilities are top-tier. He can also reduce an enemy’s Ice Defense and increase the Stun window damage bonus, making him an easy pairing with Ellen.
• Soukaku rounds out the original DPS meta team. She can grant Ellen up to 1,000 extra Attack with her Enhanced Skill and apply respectable Ice Anomaly and Stun buildup.

Free-To-Play Ellen Team

• Ellen’s trial version isn’t perfectly built, but it’s more than usable at any Inter-Knot level. Ellen remains easy to use and offers solid Ice DPS to make her story’s combat challenges smooth sailing.
• Anby doesn’t have quite the Stunning power of her S-Rank compatriates, but if she’s all you have, she’ll do more than well enough. She’s also one of the most mobile Stun units, helping with survivability.
• Soukaku has been a top-tier Support for Ellen since the beginning, and her flat Attack buff remains worthwhile.

How To Complete The Troubles Of Ellen The Shark Special Play Challenges

There are four special combat challenges linked to Ellen’s Agent Story. They’re available via the Special Play button on The Troubles Of Ellen The Shark event page, and Ellen is the only playable character in each. You cannot use your own teams, or indeed any of your own characters, to complete them.

The objective of each challenge is simple: protect Astra Yao from damage. To S-Rank a stage, Astra’s HP cannot fall below 70 percent. Enemies will prioritize Astra over Ellen, but you can bait them into focusing on Ellen for brief periods.

You also get access to a set number of buffs per stage, with the second and third stages introducing new bonuses.

• Stage One buff: Use Astra’s Ally Skill to make her and Ellen invincible for five seconds and increase Ellen’s damage by 50 percent for eight seconds.
• Stage Two buff: If Ellen’s third Basic Attack, EX Special, or Dodge Counter hit, her next attack sends out an Icy Blade. Icy Blade hits reduce support skill cooldowns by up to one second per Icy Blade produced.
• Stage Three buff: Ellen gains 30 energy after a Perfect Assist, and each Icy Blade hit reduces the assist cooldown by up to 2 seconds.

In stages one, three, and four, you face off against Ethereals. Stage two pits you against rebel thugs.

How To S-Rank Each Ellen Event Stage

• Fragrant Gift: This is a three-wave challenge. For the first two waves against smaller Ethereals, use Ellen’s charged Basic and Dash Attacks to group enemies and push them away from Astra. Use Astra’s Ally Skill at the start of the second and third waves, then again as necessary, to keep Astra from taking damage.
• What to Get?: This three-wave challenge pits you against rebel thugs who are not weak to Ice damage. Keep the enemies grouped with Dash Attacks whenever possible, and use Ellen’s EX Skill, Dodge Counter, and third Basic Attack liberally to activate Icy Blade. Focus on the enemies with melee weapons in the second wave, and clear out all the weaker enemies in the third wave so you can lock down the larger elite enemy.
• The Thought That Counts: The Ethereals in this three-wave challenge are not weak to Ice either. Use Dash Attacks and Dodge Counters to keep enemies grouped, and use Astra’s Ally Skill whenever an enemy is about to throw an energy ball at her. Defeat the two weaker enemies first in the boss wave, then lock down the boss by freezing it and using Perfect Assists as they occur.
• Familiar Scent: This four-wave challenge is a time trial. You have three minutes to defeat 13 enemies, with the final two waves containing enhanced standard mobs and the final wave containing a beefy elite. The basic strategy remains the same: group weaker enemies with Dash Attacks, use Astra’s Ally Skill to avoid large attacks, and clear out smaller enemies to get tougher enemies alone. Take Perfect Assists whenever available, and use Ellen’s Ultimate on big enemies during stun windows.

Don’t worry if you need to restart a challenge to reach S-Rank, as the only thing you’ll lose is the minute or so each challenge takes to complete.