I don’t know what it is that makes a game within a game so enticing. If I’m literally in the middle of playing Zenless Zone Zero, why am I so excited about the prospect of heading to a virtual arcade and playing an entirely different game? But, weird psychology aside, it certainly is exciting – and ZZZ’s Bizarre Brigade, the latest addition to Godfinger Arcade, is my favorite yet.
Bizarre Brigade is a roguelike game very similar to Vampire Survivors. It challenges you to survive the relentless onslaught of “nightmares” throughout a certain number of waves, dictated by the difficulty you select at the beginning. Defeating nightmares earns you coins, eggs, and treasure chests. Then, between each wave, you can spend those coins and eggs to summon companions to fight alongside you or purchase items that provide special buffs.
There are also a heap of different protagonists for you to try out, each with their own unlock conditions. You start with only a few, but the full roster has some very fun protagonists, including a cabbage that benefits from recruiting little cabbage pals, a dog that gets the zoomies after knocking nightmares back, and more.
However, this is a roguelike, meaning every time you die you have to start over again. And until you get to grips with what you’re doing, you’ll probably die a lot. In fact, before I watched a very helpful video from Mattjestic MultiGaming highlighting which items to prioritize, I was just about going insane as I watched my 2D bulldog die for the 200th time.
Luckily, beyond unlocking new protagonists, there is a certain sense of progression. If you manage to defeat a stage boss, there’s a chance it’ll drop candies. If you pick up those candies, your current protagonist’s health, attack, and other attributes permanently increase, meaning you can grind with your favorites to get their stats up.
It’s an incredibly addictive gameplay loop consisting of very quick, chaotic stages, and the RNG-based nature of the upgrades and companions you can pick up means no two rounds are alike. Throw in the multiple unlockable protagonists and bountiful achievements offering polychromes, and I’ve honestly put more time into Bizarre Brigade than the base game since the start of Zenless Zone Zero’s 1.2 update. Much more time. Whoops.
Bizarre Brigade is the first new arcade game to arrive in Zenless Zone Zero since the game’s release. It joins the two that were available from launch – Snake Duel (which basically allows you to play snake between beating up ethereals), and Soul Hounds III (a puzzle game where you play as a dog digging through colored blocks).
To mark the minigame’s introduction, there’s currently an event called Don’t Walk Alone, which not only features a fun series of side missions revolving around ZZZ’s Billy and his obsession with rom-com dramas, but also offers a heap of rewards, including three boopons and an additional 300 polychromes on top of the achievement rewards. So, if you’re desperately trying to save up for ZZZ’s Caesar or ZZZ’s Burnice, you better get your butt to Godfinger Arcade right now, as the event ends on Monday. Who knows, if you’re anything like me you might just spend the whole weekend whacking nightmares in Bizarre Brigade instead of whacking ethereals and hanging out in the Outer Ring.
To learn more about Don’t Walk Alone and what other limited-time events are happening right now, be sure to keep an eye on our Zenless Zone Zero events guide. We’ve also got a full list of all the new Zenless Zone Zero codes, so you can snap up all those polychromes in time for the next Zenless Zone Zero banner. That is if you can stop playing Bizarre Brigade for long enough – it’s a truly addictive game.