[1.0 ZZZ] Beginner's Lore Guide to Zenless Zone Zero

I love, love, LOVE the premise and aesthetics of this game, but as a lore enthusiast, I wasn't sure what to expect. But I have done some digging and my dudes - let's just say the story is gonna be a banger! So in preparation for the game's launch, here's a beginner's guide to New Eridu!

**TIMESTAMPS**

00:00 Intro
01:00 New Eridu
02:40 Hollows
04:55 Ether & Ethereals
06:15 Agents, Investigators & Proxies
07:56 Carrots
08:40 Wise & Belle, AKA Phaethon
09:10 Bangboos
10:21 Speculations & Theories

**CITATIONS & ATTRIBUTIONS**
Azrial Vanity was kind enough to let me borrow some footage from later in the game that I didn't have. He has also made a Lore Guide covering some different topics!

[Ashikai]

**NOTES & CORRECTIONS**

- Just to clarify something I think I didn't state well: Hollow Zero is NOT the FIRST Hollow ever. It was the first Hollow in New Eridu (as far as we know) so that statement isn't completely wrong, but it can easily be confused as saying it was the first Hollow. The Zero in its name is likely because it was "ground zero" for the Hollow Disaster that destroyed the old capital.

- This script was written during the third beta and nothing in it has "changed" exactly, but it IS worth noting that several scenes, quests, and even a couple cutscenes that are in the final game were NOT present in the last beta. Things like Fairy being one of four AI keys for example, was not in CBT3. This video is just meant to be an introduction to the general world building though, so the omissions shouldn't matter TOO much for now so I'm going to leave this labeled as v1.0 instead of vCBT3 because the information in it is still correct to the best of my knowledge (having finished playing through the live game).

[Truck-kun]

How much do you want to bet that we will go to the Moon in the future to deal with some SUPER HOLLOW that will swallow the entire earth?

[Ali-cya]

It wouldn't be a HoYo game without metric tons of lore, world-building, foreshadowing and real world references. Which I absolutely adore.

[poliwb]

society advances, disaster decends, society rebuilds, uses the energy from the disaster. wait, it's just honkai 🤣

[jjmitchell]

I will forever remain with my impression that ZZZ in gameplay feels like what HI3 would've been if mihoyo had the budget then that they have now. Also, if everything said here sounds like honkai and honkai energy, consider that the final boss of cbt2 was literally pink, white, and black, like a classic honkai beast. Even the average ethereal's green & grey colour scheme resembles the colour scheme of the honkai beasts created by the Herrscher of Corruption.

And there is not a doubt in my mind that the moon will be a major destination, if not the final one, in a few years' time. From FlyMe2theMoon to HI3 to ZZZ, there is no celestial body mihoyo has shown a bigger obsession with than the moon.

[kuroro]

Hoyoverse and the moon are basically married, so I hope Kiana has prepared seats for all of Hoyo’s MCs on the moon. anyway another great video from Ashi, thankyou for the hard work💥

[foxwhistle]

9:25 Billy is the only known AI (that we the player have met so far) to pass the Foribidden Fruit Test which means Billy has free will and an ego, which Bangboos do not!

[idyotako]

I'm sorry... am I dreaming? Did Ashikai just put out a Zenless Zone Zero video???
OK... now she's just spoiling us. And I'll eat it all up! Thank you Ashikai!

[LittleTilde]

I was already looking forward to this game for many reasons but lore was not one of them before. Needless to say that has changed. Should never have doubted the Hoyo lords of lore cooking.

[arnowisp]

Bruh. Hoyoverse really loves the Idea of an Old Previous and More Advance Civilizations in there games.

[wildfire_]

Is it me or does hollow just sound like an alternate version to honkai? Same thing with the abyss in genshin. There’s probably a reason

[mguitar]

No matter how many times I watched it, i cannot get enough of Bell's animation its such a unique blend of Pixar and Anime!

[EwWeather]

I am SO excited for this game and I adore of you covered and mentioned it’s ancient civilization/mythology references! You’re currently the only person talking about it and my inner high school freshman is screaming cause it’s such an interesting way to call back to it in a post apocalyptic sci-fi universe!!

[Fullmetal_Gacha]

The hollows on the moon are so cool to me because the fact that they chose to show them hints that we might go there at some point.

[kitkat]

Proxies in cn are also called "ropesmiths" which makes me think of the myth of theseus and the minotaur where theseus was able to escape from daedalus's maze thanks to the thread Ariadne gave him to help him find his way out,

Also I love the term "forbidden fruit test" because its such an efficient form of worldbuilding, the name does the work of like a paragraph of exposition. My personal interpretation is that the forbidden fruit test entails presenting an ai with a garden of eden situation, the same situation presented to adam and eve, and if they take the fruit it means they have some level of self awareness because they did the same thing as the first humans of the myth. (I find it somewhat interesting the contrast too that usually presenting someone with this situation is a test for morality where taking the forbidden fruit is a failure, where here instead its a sign of being a person or being on your way to becoming a person)

[airhead]

Crack Theory:

The Hollows may be the Honkai but named and manifested differently. While there's no evidence that this is in the same universe/tree as other Hoyo games as "expies" are non-existent for now, GGZ confirmed that Honkai were actually parasitic and originally from outside the established Imaginary Tree. So it's still possible ZZZ is another separate Honkai-infected universe/tree within the Hoyo multiverse.

[INScrost]

The art style is really distinctive, and I think it's one of the most unique in the whole Hoyo games lineup. Also, both main characters are involved in the main story, which is different from other games where you only get to choose one and the other one disappears (self insert mc yuck). I think it would be better if we didn't get to choose the main character if they're not involved in the main story. I'm glad ZZZ didn't do that because both MCs are involved in the main story.

[pokelover]

Tysm for mentioning the Mesopotamian stuff! I knew Eridu sounded familiar, and I had a feeling Fairy’s “eye” is based on the nazar amulet 🧿 Happy I wasn’t just making things up in my head

[Raaaycat]

whenever souls and fruits are mentioned together I remember that "alma" means "soul" in Spanish and "apple" in Hungarian lmao

[mzshmkn]

just knowing that an ashikai lore video is already out before the game even started would pretty much just condition me to concentrate on the story once it launches so i could get back to this video and see whether i actually understood the central themes