Every major story arc in Zenless Zone Zero ends with a climactic boss fight against a powerful Ethereal, and you can take on these challenges again as part of the Notorious Hunt activity. You’ll need to do so multiple times to completely upgrade a character — Notorious bosses drop special materials found nowhere else in the game.
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These repeatable encounters can also be much harder than the story fights, as you don’t have access to characters not already in your party. Thankfully, they come in a variety of difficulties, and we’ll go over all that and more today.
How To Unlock Notorious Hunts
You earn the right to take on Notorious Hunts after reaching two milestones:
- Achieving Inter-Knot Level 26.
- Completing Chapter Two: A Call From the Hollow’s Heart and entering Chapter Two: Intermission.
Once you’ve met both requirements, you’ll get an in-game text from Roland at Scott Outpost. Visit him, and he’ll walk you through Routine Cleanup, the Drive Disc farming activity. You’ll also be introduced to Ophelia.
After unlocking Routine Cleanup and meeting Ophelia, return to Sixth Street and unlock Tuning at the Bardic Needle Music Store. From there, wait one in-game day and return to Ophelia to participate in Notorious Hunts.
You’ll have access to all Notorious Hunts as soon as you unlock the activity, which unfortunately comes with some fairly significant story spoilers. If you want to upgrade the likes of Miyabi, Harumasa, or Astra Yao, that’s the price you pay.
All Notorious Hunt Bosses And Rewards
The bosses you fight in Notorious Hunt are much more complex than those you face in the Expert Challenge, befitting their position as story capstone encounters. That complexity ensures there are fewer of them, and as of update 1.5, there are five Notorious bosses to fight.
Each Notorious enemy awards a boss-specific material, which you’ll use to upgrade specific character Passive Skills to their maximum level. You’ll need nine Notorious boss materials per character you’re upgrading.
You have three “free” Hunts every week; the only cost is the time and effort you spend beating the boss. After that, you can toggle the Pursuit to the Depths slider to spend 60 Battery Charge per Hunt and get additional rewards.
Each Hunt has five difficulties, placing the enemy level at 30, 40, 50, 60, and 65. If you only want the unique materials, fight the level 30 version for the fastest possible farm.
Beyond their unique material, Notorious Hunt bosses also all provide Inter-Knot Credit, Master Copy Tuning materials, and Dennies in various amounts.
Lastly, before each boss, you can choose between three Resonia, buffs to your team, or debuffs to the boss, making the fights a bit more comfortable. You’ll also get a single usage of Ether Droplets to revive a character if they go down.
|
Boss |
Weakness |
Resistance |
Resonia Available |
Rewards |
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Newborn Dead End Butcher |
Ice, Ether |
None |
Increase Agent Ice damage by 15 percent. Enemies are stunned 10 percent longer. Perfect Assists increase all characters’ Anomaly buildup by 20 percent for ten seconds. |
Inter-Knot Credit: 600 Material: One Ferocious Grip Audio Booster Master Copy: 5-11 (Levels 30 and 40) Noise Reduction Master Copy: 4-6 (Levels 50-60) Hi-Fi Master Copy: 1-2 (Level 65) Dennies: 3,000-4,500 |
|
Unknown Corruption Complex |
Electric, Ether |
None |
Increase Agent Electric damage by 15 percent. Enemies are stunned 10 percent longer. Perfect Assists increase all characters’ Anomaly buildup by 20 percent for ten seconds. |
Inter-Knot Credit: 600 Material: One Living Drive Audio Booster Master Copy: 5-11 (Levels 30 and 40) Noise Reduction Master Copy: 4-6 (Levels 50-60) Hi-Fi Master Copy: 1-2 (Level 65) Dennies: 3,000-4,500 |
|
Twin Marionettes |
Ice, Ether |
None |
Increase Agent Ether damage by 15 percent. Enemies are stunned 10 percent longer. Perfect Assists increase all characters’ Anomaly buildup by 20 percent for ten seconds. |
Inter-Knot Credit: 600 Material: One Final Dance Shoes Audio Booster Master Copy: 5-11 (Levels 30 and 40) Noise Reduction Master Copy: 4-6 (Levels 50-60) Hi-Fi Master Copy: 1-2 (Level 65) Dennies: 3,000-4,500 |
|
Corrupted Overlord – Pompey |
Fire |
Electric |
Increase Agent Fire Anomaly buildup by 30 percent. Enemies are stunned 10 percent longer. Perfect Assists increase all characters’ Anomaly buildup by 20 percent for ten seconds. |
Inter-Knot Credit: 600 Material: One Scarlet Engine Audio Booster Master Copy: 5-11 (Levels 30 and 40) Noise Reduction Master Copy: 4-6 (Levels 50-60) Hi-Fi Master Copy: 1-2 (Level 65) Dennies: 3,000-4,500 |
|
Sacrifice – Bringer |
Ice |
Physical |
Increase Agent Ice damage by 15 percent. Enemies are stunned 10 percent longer. Perfect Assists increase all characters’ Anomaly buildup by 20 percent for ten seconds. |
Inter-Knot Credit: 600 Material: One Sycophant’s Refinement Audio Booster Master Copy: 5-11 (Levels 30 and 40) Noise Reduction Master Copy: 4-6 (Levels 50-60) Hi-Fi Master Copy: 1-2 (Level 65) Dennies: 3,000-4,500 |
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Best Teams For All Notorious Hunt Bosses
Notorious Hunt bosses can be more difficult than the story fights they emulate, especially at endgame when your characters can be five levels below the boss. For that reason, and to make farming them as painless as possible, you’ll want to bring a good team. If they can exploit the boss’s weakness, that’s even better.
Brute forcing a Notorious fight isn’t recommended, but it’s doable if you aren’t fighting a resistance. If you only have one team to farm with, you may need to knuckle down until you have a second one to farm more consistently with.
|
Boss |
Team |
Description |
|---|---|---|
|
Newborn Dead End Butcher |
Main DPS: Ellen Joe Sub-DPS: Lycaon Support: Nicole |
Ellen Joe was the main Ice DPS when the Dead End Butcher boss first appeared and has remained a solid option since. She’s got good damage, is easy to play and build, and is consistent no matter what activity she’s in. There’s no more accessible top-tier Stun unit than Lycaon, and that’s not his only benefit. He can also increase the Stun window damage bonus and reduce enemy Ice resistance. We’ve swapped Soukaku for Nicole here to bring in a bit of Ether damage, additional debuffs, and the non-zero chance for a Disorder activation for even more damage. |
|
Unknown Corruption Complex |
Main DPS: Grace Sub-DPS: Burnice Support: Lucy |
Grace was a preview of what an Anomaly S-Rank character could be, and she still maintains that status. She can also apply Shock Anomaly to multiple legs, making breaking them a bit easier. Burnice immediately shot to the top of the Anomaly charts when she was released, and combining her passive Burn application with Grace’s more active Shock makes for tons of Disorders and, thus, tons of damage. Lucy can enable both Grace and Burnice with some additional damage following a quick swap, and she can add a bit more Burn Anomaly if you need it. |
|
Twin Marionettes |
Main DPS: Zhu Yuan Sub-DPS: Qingyi Support: Nicole |
Using Zhu Yuan against the Marionettes is a treat. She’s more an Ether damaging single-target specialist with huge Stun window damage, a bit more mechanical depth, but still straightforward gameplay. Qingyi is a natural pairing with Zhu Yuan, primarily because of her ability to increase the Stun window damage bonus to a higher level than any other unit in the game. She also adds the same faction bonus to the team. Nicole offers a few things to this team: Defense debuffs, additional Ether damage from her Skill, and increased Ether damage for herself and Zhu Yuan via her other core passive. |
|
Corrupted Overlord – Pompey |
Main DPS: Burnice Sub-DPS: Lighter Support: Lucy |
Pompey makes the argument for main DPS Burnice a bit more believable, especially with her and the rest of this team’s ability to apply Burn Anomaly or otherwise boost Burnice’s damage potential. Lighter‘s abilities buff Fire (and Ice) damage, and he’s one of the best Stun units in the game. Swapping between him and Burnice for DPS is a workable strategy in this fight. Lucy grants easy quick swapping, Attack bonuses, and even more Fire damage and Anomaly buildup. |
|
Sacrifice – Bringer |
Main DPS: Miyabi Sub-DPS: Yanagi Support: Astra Yao |
Using Miyabi against Bringer is more than just a lore accurate fight, it’s also the best way to take him down. Her colossal Ice damage, ability to quickly shred through his second-phase charging arm, and mobility all add up to make Miyabi the ultimate Bringer-destroyer. Yanagi is a fantastic DPS on her own, but in a Miyabi team, she gets more opportunities to create Disorders, which powers Miyabi’s kit. Astra Yao is an S-tier Support unit for any team, and she takes the Miyabi/Yanagi combo to new heights. Massive Attack buffs, healing, quick-swap synergy between the Section 6 characters — Astra provides all that and more. |
All Characters And Their Linked Notorious Hunts
Every character in the game uses a unique Notorious Hunt material to upgrade their passive skills. And even though each character needs nine of their particular material, you will only get one at a time, no matter the difficulty of the mode you choose. Specifically:
- Dead End Butcher: Ellen Joe, Nekomata, Jane, Lucy, Anby, Nicole, Billy
- Unknown Corruption Complex: Koleda, Qingyi, Yanagi, Zhu Yuan, Grace, Anton, Ben, Seth
- Twin Marionettes: Astra Yao, Soldier 11, Rina, Lycaon, Piper, Soukaku, Corin
- Corrupted Overlord – Pompey: Burnice, Caesar, Lighter
- Sacrifice – Bringer: Harumasa, Miyabi
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