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After kindly ferrying you around the world in the Uzra for a while, Zinikr decides to formally join the party after Cheryl and Kina are trapped in the Machine Realm. Like everyone, he has some vague connection with Leo’s father, Bernard, but he’s come along for his own reasons, too.
Zinikr is a core member of the party inFantasian Neo Dimension, able to take a hit like no one else, but he’s not ujst a shield. He hits like a truck too with some set-up, and can even be a worthy support unit if you build him that way. He’s surprisingly versatile.
Zinikr’s Role In Combat
Before Zinikr joins the party, you don’t really have the means to tank a hit. Leo has higher Defence than Kina or Cheryl, so he was the pseudo-tank despite not really having the fortitude for it. With Zinikr’s later introduction, you finally havesomeone who can take all the heat.
There’s no escaping the fact that Zinikr is meant to attract the attention of enemies.He has high HP and Defence, and while Guarding can mitigate the damage he takes by a massive amount. What makes him more versatile is that he can really fight back too, though most of this doesn’t come until Act 2.
The core loop with Zinikr is touse Taunt to make every enemy attack him, and then use Guard the next chance you get. This way, everyone else can focus on buffing and attacking while Zinikr takes every hit like a brick wall. He’s the only character (besides Ez’s grenades) thatcan naturally deal Earth damagetoo, which is massively helpful against certain enemies. By Level 30, he is able to raise the defence of the whole party too, making everyone tha much sturdier.
Zinikr’s Skills
Seeing as you get Zinikr a decent way through Act 1, he already comes with quite a few moves, and not too many more to be learned since most characters stop learning new skills somewhere around Level 30. Here’s all of his skills that he learns by leveling up:
Strikes a single enemy with an Earth-elemental attack
Default
Guard
Allows Zinikr to fortify himself, massively reducing the damage he takes until his next turn.
Taunt
Causes every enemy to focus their attacks on Zinikr for the next few turns.
Charge
Boosts the damage of the next damaging move Zinikr uses. Lasts only one turn.
Casts Defence Up on the entire party.
Level 28
As you can see, heonly naturally learns two more skills. This is because the skills he has by default really are core to the way he’s meant to be played. Taunt and Guard are essential to be used in tandem, andIron Wallmakes sure everyone will survive more.
Charge is particularly interestingbecause it is a massive attack boost in a similar way that Guard is for defence. It only lasts a single turn though, so you have to follow-up with an attack the turn after it’s used. Paired with an Attack Up buff though, and Zinikr really can unleash devastating damage.
Zinikr’s Growth Map
Once you enter Act 2 and start rescuing allies, each of them will unlock their Divine Artefact, which in turn grants them a unique passive skill and their respective Growth Maps. In Zinikr’s case, this grants hima boost to Earth-elemental attacks, and a bevy of powerful upgrades.
Like every other character, aim to unlock theJewel Slot + and Meteorabilities first. The former as having more jewels equipped is always beneficial, and the latter because Zinikr’s Tension skill is incredibly powerful.
After these, you’ll want to aim forSafe Taunt, which automatically has Zinikr Guard after using Taunt.Double Chargeis incredible as well, letting you stack a second Charge to hit with incredible damage on your next turn.Support Chargeis helpful as well as Iron Wall can trigger this, but so can Safe Taunt a times. It basically gives Zinikr a chance of always being buffed.
These are the essentials to aim for, but there are no bad skill in here.Here are some other highlightswe’d recommend you get further down the road:
Make sure to equip Emeralds and Pearls on Zinikr to boost his Defence and HP respectively, and every enemy will have a hard time taking him down.
