Got your eye on a specific 5-star character but lacking in funds? Use these tips to stock up on Polychromes.
Much like Genshin Impact’s Primogems and Honkai Star Rail’s Stellar Jades, Polychromes are Zenless Zone Zero’s premium currency used for pulling on the gacha banners. All three of these currencies work identically, so if you’re familiar with Genshin Impact or Honkai Star Rail then you’ll feel perfectly at home here. While Polychromes can be purchased using Monochromes (Zenless Zone Zero’s paid currency), there are also a multitude of ways to earn them for free within the game. Here’s our guide to doing so!
Redemption Codes
As with many games, Zenless Zone Zero allows players to redeem codes from special promotions to earn in-game rewards. These very often include Polychrome! Redemption Codes can be found for a variety of different promotions, including YouTubers advertising the game and specific player count milestones. Additionally, each upcoming update of Zenless Zone Zero will receive a Special Program announcing the various features in the new patch. These presentations will show Redemption Codes that give 300 Polychrome, 30000 Dennies, 2 Senior Investigator Logs and 3 W-Engine Energy Modules. These codes expire 24 hours after the Special Program, though, so you’ll need to be quick!
The in-game mailbox can quite often contain goodies like Polychromes! HoYoverse distributes them for a variety of reasons, such as hitting player milestones, the release of a new update, or even as an apology for an unexpected bug in the game. Also, any rewards from Redemption Codes will end up in your mailbox, so you’ll need to claim them there. The mailbox may also feature other rewards, such as Dennies, usually attached to some information about events or a survey.
Main Story
Completing Main Story commissions in Zenless Zone Zero will earn you a variety of rewards, including Dennies, Character Upgrade Materials and, of course, Polychromes! While we highly recommend playing through the main story anyway for the sake of being caught up, these rewards are a wonderful incentive to do so. Also, it’s a great story! What’s not to love?
The game’s main story is also ever-expanding, so there will continue to be more and more rewards as the game updates. This will also allow new players joining the game later to be able to earn tons of Polychromes just by catching up on the story!
Compendium Trials
The compendium keeps track of your progress, and features both Trials and Errands. Trials are progression-based challenges that feature a variety of tasks. These can consist of upgrading characters, completing story missions, or simply engaging with the game’s characters and world. Once you complete a page of Trials, you’ll earn rewards including Polychromes.
Compendium Errands
Also found in the Compendium, Errands are more akin to daily missions, like Genshin Impact’s Commissions or Honkai Star Rail’s Daily Training. You’ll earn rewards based on ‘Engagement’, collecting 400 Engagement points total per day from various challenges. These are very easy, menial tasks such as opening the Video Store for business, checking in with Howl and using a scratchcard, or even just logging into the game. Each of these tasks awards 100 Engagement, while some more demanding tasks may offer more. Players will earn a total of 60 Polychromes through Errands - 10 each for 100 and 200 Engagement and 20 each for 300 and 400 Engagement.
Increase Inter-Knot Level
Inter-Knot Level is the player’s primary means of progression in Zenless Zone Zero, much like the Adventure Rank in Genshin Impact. Players will earn 200 Polychrome at Level 3, 13, 33, 43 and 53, as well as earning Master Tapes (equivalent to 160 Polychrome but can only be used on the standard banner) at various levels. You can earn Inter-Knot XP by completing most types of content in the game, including the Main Story as well as other commissions, Trials, Errands and more.
Tutorials and Achievements
As you encounter new things while playing Zenless Zone Zero, you’ll get pop-up Tutorials. These award 1 Polychrome each. However, the game also has a ton of achievements you can earn, of different difficulties. Bronze Achievements award 5 Polychromes, Silver ones award 10, and completing a Gold achievement will net you 20 Polychromes. While grinding achievements won’t be a quick way of getting Polychromes, they will certainly add up over time, especially as many achievements will be earned through normal gameplay.
Mini Cargo Trucks
Throughout the overworld of New Eridu, you’ll find lots of lost Mini Cargo Trucks. Opening these up will net you a bunch of rewards, including Inter-Knot Credit, Character Upgrade Materials and, of course, Polychromes. We recommend wandering around and finding these if you’re looking for Polychromes to pull for a specific character - you can earn quite a few of them with minimal exploring, especially if you feel like using a guide.
Events
Much like every other HoYoverse game, Zenless Zone Zero has regular limited-time events. So far, these have consisted of a variety of combat challenges, minigames and browser-based Web Events, and will presumably continue to diversify as the game grows and updates. Participating in these events will allow players to earn a great variety of rewards, such as Character Upgrade Materials, Dennies, Polychromes and on occasion, free Characters.
Howl’s Scratch Card
Once per day, you will be able to visit Howl at his newsstand and get a scratchcard. If you get lucky, you might win some Polychromes! On the 3rd, 8th, 15th, 20th and 27th days of the month, you will be guaranteed between 20 and 60 Polychromes. On any other day, you’ll have a 6% chance to roll 10 Polychromes, otherwise winning Dennies. While this isn’t particularly consistent or plentiful when it comes to Polychromes, it’s daily and therefore will add up over time!
That concludes our rundown of 10 ways to earn Polychromes in Zenless Zone Zero! As the game updates, there will likely be many more methods to earn the premium currency, but as of Version 1.1, these are your best bets. We wish you the best of luck with your pulls!
