Astra Yao is a new S-Rank Support Agent coming to Zenless Zone Zero in 1.5, being part of the Stars of Lyra, she is a singer and celebrity finding her way in the New Eridu. From being presented to Proxies in-game by posters as new versions come out, to her debut at the 2024 Video Game Awards, Astra Yao’s kit has leaked and so have some of her animations for 1.5. Astra Yao’s kit has been leaked thanks to users like Seele-leaks on Reddit and Twitter.
Disclaimer: Everything here are leaks and are subject to change. This article will be updated as new information becomes available and the release approaches.
Abilities and Skills
Astra Yao is a Support Ether Agent. Below is what is known about her leaked kit currently. I will go over everything briefly. If you expected her to wack her enemies with a microphone, you would be close. Astra Yao will use her Ether powers to use range attacks with her microphone, kinda like a magic wand.
Astra Yao will be using her Performance Status to support her team. This will give her team a 30% buff. While in this state when you switch out of her she will stay on the field in almost like a ghost/phantom-like afterimage. You will see her singing in place while providing the buffs. While in the Performance state, she will gain Anti-Interrution and 40% damage reduction. This very well states that she will more than likely take damage, but thanks to the other 40% DR, she shouldn’t go down at all. It is like Robin from Honkai: Star Rail, but instead, she can be used, it’s curious if she will also change the battle music while in this state.
Obtaining Music Notes will be important as it will allow teammates to regain energy, and it will help keep the uptime on all their abilities. Moonlight Strike, will trigger as Music Notes are consumed and deal damage. As she is on the field, the Music Notes can be seen appearing on her side like stars. Keeping up her Performance buff will be key to keeping her buffs active for your entire team.
| Performance State | When Astra Yao enters this status, the team’s damage is increased by 30%. She gains anti-interruption and 40% damage reduction. When being swapped off-field, she is invincible. She is unable to move, but she can dodge and attack in this state. Holding dodge can also cancel this state. |
| Music Note | When under the Performance status, and she has sufficient energy, the scenarios below can trigger quick support and obtain [Music Note]: When the on-field character hits an enemy with Basic Attacks or when the on-field character uses a Heavy Attack.
With a limit of 3 Music Notes When above the cap or do not have enough energy, only the quick support is triggered, When teammates parry or quick support to enter the field, all notes will be consumed and 20/28/35 energy will be deducted depending on the number of notes. Every note consumed will release a Moonlight Strike. When triggering quick support like this, pressing swap in a short time frame will make this into a perfect dodge and will release 3 Moonlight Strikes per note consumed. |
| Normal Attack | When not under the Performance Status: Press Attack to deal Ether damage up to 3 instances forward. Holding the Basic Attack the 3rd attack in the combo will be used instantly.
When under the Performance Status: Press attack to deal Ether damage up to 3 instances forward. The 3rd attack can trigger quick support. Triggering a n Attack when under the Performance Status, after triggering a perfect dodge, deals large quantities of Ether damage to enemies. The start-up of this attack has invincibility frames. |
| Curtain Call | When under the Performance Status, hold down the attack button to consume all Music Notes, and according to the amount consumed, apply the core ability of Astra Yao to herself. This also deals ether damage and takes Yao out of the Performance status. |
| Special | Press or Hold Special to activate: Quickly dash backward, release Moonlight Strike dealing Ether damage, and enter the Performance status. You can do directional inputs to change the dash direction. You can hold down Special to charge up and release multiple Moonlight Strikes. When there is enough energy in the charge-up, she can gain up to 3 Music Notes. She is invincible during the attack. |
| Passive | When there is an Attack or Anomaly Agent in the team: Under the Performance Status, if the teammate swaps in with a parry/chain/quick support, the character will recover 4/5/6/7 energy depending on the number of notes consumed. |
| Ultimate | Astra Yao will deal damage. She will heal the team for x amount of HP. Her next 2 quick supports will be turned into a chain attack. After the use of her Ultimate, she will enter Performance State. |
Mindscapes and Core
Astra Yao‘s Core from her leaked kit is as follows: “Under the Performance status, her energy recharge will be increased by 0.5. When teammates swap in via parry or quick support, Astra Yao and the on-field character will gain an attack buff of 40% of Astra Yao’s base attack + 60 (Up to 1500), and depending on the number of notes consumed, the effect will last 10/20/30s. When triggered repeatedly, time will be added to the total timer, but will not exceed 30s. After swapping via quick support or chain, Yao won’t be able to gain energy within a 0.1s window.”
This is under the idea that it is maxed out. The Core, from beginning to end, only gets stronger rather than adding or changing effects.
Astra Yao’s leaked kit Mindscapes is there to increase her usage as support. M1 will add a debuff to enemies reducing their Elemental Resitances by 6%, 2 times for (assuming) 12 seconds. M2 increases the damage from a quick support for 5s allowing them to dish out a move at a stronger rate, so use it sparingly, probably when an Ulitmate is ready for your main damage dealer. At M4 her Core will increase the damage buff from 40% to 50%, and grant her team a temporary invincible buff.
Her M6 will further increase her Crit Rate and Cooldowns allowing for more attacks and buffs. If you end up getting her to M6, it will be a powerful upgrade for her.
| M1 | Whenever Yao hits an enemy, the enemy’s elemental res will be decreased by 6% stacking up to 3 times. Repeated triggers will refresh the duration. Astra Yao can trigger quick support after a parry/chain or ult even if she doesn’t have enough energy within 15s. |
| M2 | While under the Performance State, the next quick support attack will have its damage buffed by 400% of Yao’s attack, this can be triggered every 5s. |
| M3 | Adds 2 Points to Skills |
| M4 | Her Core Skill will now Convert 50% of her base ATK into the buff, After using her Ultimate the team will gain a stack of protection. When taking hits from the enemy, a stack will be consumed granting invincibility for 1s. |
| M5 | Adds 2 Points to Skills |
| M6 | Adds CRIT RATE 30% and reduces cooldowns by 50%. Some of her attack multipliers will be multiplied by 1.4. When she gains a note, it will additionally trigger said attacks once and 3 times per use. Every 3 notes consumed will automatically trigger the 3rd hit of her normal attacks. |
W-Engine
Astra Yao’s Leaked Kit also included her W-Engine, now this one is a MUST when you take things with a grain of salt. While the Engine won’t heavily change, it will be updated closer to their release. Astra Yao’s Signature Engine is as stated:
“For Support Characters, the following effects can be triggered: When any character in the team enters the field with Quick Support, the wearer will be restored 5/5.8/6.5/7.2/8 points of energy, up to once every 5 seconds. When the wearer consumes more than 20 points of energy, the damage caused by the whole team will be increased by 15%/17.5%/20%/22%/24%. to 2 times, lasting 15 seconds and the duration will be refreshed on repeated triggers.”
This is powerful for an engine, so it’s safe to say numbers will get adjusted in the long run, if at all.
Team Comps
For Team Comps, she is almost universal. As she isn’t out yet I won’t give full team recommendations but I will say any Anomaly agent will do as her passive will require a Stun or Anomaly Agent. Jane Doe, Burnice, Lighter, Yanagi, and soon, Miyabi will be top agents currently out before Astra Yao’s release.
With them, depending on who you use Lucy, Soukaku and even Seth will be good choices to back up the support. While Lighter is more of a Stun Agent, he can dish out powerful combos. Even Attack Agents like Harumasa, Ellen, and Zhu Yuan will be useful as well, but don’t forget to slide in a Stun Unit so Yao can be her best out there.
Zenless Zone Zero is currently getting prepared for its 1.4 release with, the long-awaited Miyabi and Harumasa arriving.
