The air in New Eridu still carried the faint chill of autumn when Proxies first glimpsed the jagged silhouette of the Timesworn Hills on their maps. It was October 15, 2025, and Zenless Zone Zero had just rolled out Version 2.3 — a patch that would linger in memory long after its events ended. By 2026, veteran players still speak of it in hushed tones, recalling the stories it told and the Agents who stepped out of the shadows.

HoYoverse had named the update “Memories of Dreams Bygone,” and the title was no exaggeration. The newly unlocked region pulled Proxies into a haunting investigation: miners and Porcelumex employees had vanished without a trace, and only fragments of supernatural lore offered clues. The Timesworn Hills weren't just a backdrop — they were a puzzle box wrapped in folklore, and every crumbling ruin whispered something the game’s writing team had carefully buried months earlier.

A wanderer named Luca spent his first evening there simply staring at the shattered lantern posts. He was not alone. Across all servers, Proxies pieced together the same eerie narrative, and the community lit up with theories. The map design rewarded patience. Hidden nooks held voice logs, and certain phantom echoes only appeared if a player stayed motionless for a few seconds. It was environmental storytelling at its most delicate, and it turned the Hills into a place players kept revisiting even after the main quest chains were finished.

What made 2.3 truly magnetic, however, was the sudden introduction of three Agents from the Spook Shack. They arrived not as strangers, but as figures already tangled in the region’s strange events.

Lucia stepped forward first — an S-Rank Ether Support who didn’t just heal; she summoned Ethereals to fight beside the squad. Her kit boosted allies’ maximum HP and amplified team-wide damage, making her an instant staple in high-level content. For many F2P players, she became the anchor that let their A-Rank teams punch far above their weight. She shimmered into the meta with an elegance that felt almost unfair.

Then came Yidhari, an S-Rank Ice Rupture Agent who demanded a very particular kind of trust. Her damage scaled inversely with her HP — the lower her health, the more devastating her Sheer DMG. Watching a skilled Yidhari main dance through a boss arena at 15% health became a spectator sport on streaming platforms. Her playstyle was high-risk, high-reward, and the community nickname “Glass Dancer” stuck almost immediately.

The third addition was a surprise that felt like a gift. Komano Manato, an A-Rank Fire Rupture Agent, arrived not through the gacha’s main spotlight but as a free reward in the event “When Dreams Remain Unfinished.” His HP-scaling Sheer DMG made him a perfect partner for Yidhari, and budget-conscious Proxies suddenly had a formidable Rupture core without spending a single Polychrome. Manato’s straightforward kit concealed a surprising skill ceiling, and by early 2026, speedrunners had adopted him for several Forgotten Hall floors.

For those who missed earlier banners, 2.3 also opened reruns for Vivian (Ether – Anomaly) and Ju Fufu (Fire – Stun). The double rerun pattern had become familiar by then, but seeing these two return felt like the devs were quietly acknowledging that team diversity mattered more than FOMO. Veteran players could refine their synergies; newcomers could finally grab the pieces they needed.

Zenless Zone Zero didn’t stop at new characters. Version 2.3 introduced gameplay systems that fundamentally changed how Proxies approached combat.

Threshold Simulation became the test many players didn’t know they craved. In this mode, players had to deploy multiple squads across interconnected battles — a single misstep in one node could cost the entire run. Strategy meetings erupted in Discord servers. Roster depth, once a luxury, became a necessity. Luca remembered spending three evenings fine-tuning his B-team’s relics because his A-team couldn’t carry the final node alone. The satisfaction of clearing all thresholds was a trophy that no in-game achievement could fully capture.

Then there was the event that truly blindsided everyone: “When Dreams Remain Unfinished.” This wasn’t real-time combat at all. It was turn-based. Proxies commanded monsters — ethereal beings with their own traits and positioning demands — in a tactical grid reminiscent of classic strategy games. The shift felt radical for an action RPG, yet it worked. Players obsessed over monster synergy combinations, and the leaderboard-style scoring gave the mode an addictive competitive edge. To this day, some community polls rank it as the best limited-time event in Zenless Zone Zero history.

The creative energy spilled into the returning SNAP! Shining Strike photo mode event. What had once been a simple snapshot tool gained expanded camera controls, new filters, and frames that turned New Eridu into a photographer’s playground. Gallery threads flooded social media. For the first time, some players logged in just to capture the sunrise over Lumina Square. The mode’s resurgence proved that downtime content could be just as valuable as combat.

Among combat overhauls, one Agent received the kind of attention usually reserved for anniversary patches. Soldier 0 – Anby was rebuilt from the ground up. New mechanics unlocked her full potential, smoothing out the clunky rotations that had held her back since launch. For dedicated Anby mains, it felt like vindication. Their underdog had become a powerhouse overnight, and move-set analysis videos swamped newcomer guides for weeks.

Perhaps the quietest yet most tantalizing part of the 2.3 patch notes was the tease of future faces. Names floated through the narrative: Banyue, Dialyn, Zhao, Ye Shunguang. No kits, no release dates — just names that lodged themselves in the collective imagination. By 2026, some of those characters had debuted, but back in October 2025, they were only ghosts of possibility. The speculation threads from that era are a time capsule of wishful thinking and wildly incorrect predictions that make modern readers smile.

And then, of course, there were the rewards. A simple login bonus of 600 Polychromes, 10 Encrypted Master Tapes, and 10 Boopons. It wasn’t flashy, but it was generous enough to lower the barrier for anyone still hesitating to pull. In the grand economy of gacha games, these gifts felt like a handshake — gentle, confident, and perfectly timed.

Looking back from 2026, Version 2.3 stands as a moment when Zenless Zone Zero dared to be strange. Phantom miners, turn-based detours, a free Agent who reshaped team-building — these were choices born from a development team unafraid to experiment. The snowy breath of the Timesworn Hills has long since melted into subsequent patches, but the memories remain. Proxies still trade stories about the Glass Dancer and the Threshold Simulation runs that almost broke them. And every time dusk settles over New Eridu, someone inevitably wonders what else is buried in those hills, waiting to be remembered.

Zenless Zone Zero is available on PlayStation 5, PC, Xbox Series X|S, and mobile devices via iOS and Android.