Zenless Zone Zero: "A dangerous fugitive's quiet vacation" opens Monday, August 24 at 11 a.m. — the two prerequisites to clear this weekend

HoYoverse published on Friday, August 21, 2026, the details page for its upcoming event for Zenless Zone Zero: "A Quiet Vacation for a Dangerous Fugitive". The content is not yet accessible. It is set to open on Monday, August 24, 2026, at 10:00 server time: for an account hosted in Europe, that comes out to 11:00 in Paris. It will close on Monday, September 7, at 03:59 server time, i.e. 04:59 in France.

Two conditions gate entry, and the announcement states them without nuance: "Reach Inter-Knot Lv. 20 and complete the Chapter 1 Interlude of the main story." An account that doesn't check both of these boxes on Monday morning will see nothing appear, regardless of what time they log in. This is also the only progress a player can still make this weekend.

The announced loop fits in one line: go to Bouastrum, talk to the business specialist, then provide leads on the fugitive. The rewards mentioned are Polychromes, Boopons and "various upgrade materials". No total, no tier, and no character name are given.

Three bullet points: everything HoYoverse has published so far

The official page consists of three blocks — duration, participation requirements, details — and the third contains only three bullet points. The first describes the route: "you can head to Bouastrum and speak with the business specialist to provide leads on the fugitive". The second warns that "event commissions will be unlocked progressively over the course of the event". The third lists the rewards.

That's not much, and it's better to say so than to fill in the gaps. We don't know how many commissions make up the event, at what pace they unlock, how long each one takes, or whether any given reward is capped. A guide that would put forward today a figure for Polychromes from these commissions would not have found it on this page: it would have estimated it, or picked it up elsewhere.

A point of vocabulary, because it changes how the announcement should be read. HoYoverse talks about commissions, not levels. The distinction is not cosmetic: the August 5 announcement for "Click! Showdown at the Summit!" separated the "prerequisite commission" from the "combat event" it unlocks, then detailed six themed levels and challenge objectives. There is nothing like that in the August 21 text.

Bouastrum is a district, not a character

The point deserves clarifying, since the announcement's condensed wording lends itself to misreading. The release writes "head to Bouastrum": it's a destination, not a person to talk to. The official HoYoLAB knowledge base confirms this, with two entries — "Bouastrum District" and "[Restricted Zone] Bouastrum" — both filed under the Districts section of New Eridu.

The character, meanwhile, has no name. HoYoverse refers to her only by her function, the business specialist, and leaves it at that. Same silence regarding the fugitive named in the title: the publisher says neither who she is, nor what she is fleeing, nor whether she belongs to an already known cast. We won't invent an identity for her just to add another sentence.

What the press release describes, however, is clear: information is reported to a fixed contact, in a given district. Nothing states that this is a combat event, and the announcement mentions no score, no difficulty, and no challenge tier — whereas the one for "Click! Duel at the Summit!" opened onto levels and a Hyperfocus mode. Take this as a reading of the text, not as a certainty: the exact nature of the commissions won't be known until Monday.

Inter-Knot Lv. 20 and Chapter 1 Interlude: one gateway, three events

This is the only point over which a player retains control before Monday, and it has the merit of applying several times over. The same pair of conditions guards the entrance to "Crispy Delights Service Plan", open since August 19 and which we detailed yesterday. It already guarded the entrance to "Click! Duel at the Summit!", whose August 5 announcement called for "Inter-Knot Lv. 20" and "Chapter 1: Main Story Interlude". The wording varies from one press release to another; the story milestone targeted is the same.

Level 20 is earned simply by playing, with no particular detour required. The Chapter 1 Interlude is different: it's a story sequence that must be played, and no amount of accumulated experience replaces it. On an account left idle all summer, this sequence is the first thing to fit in on Saturday or Sunday — not on Monday at 10:59 a.m.

A useful corollary: this weekend is also the last chance for "Click! Duel at the Summit!", which closes on Monday, August 24, at 3:59 a.m. server time — 4:59 a.m. in Paris, just a few hours before the "peaceful holiday" opens. Its six themed levels have been open for a while now, with the announcement having planned for one level to unlock per day starting August 7: there's nothing left to wait for, only to finish.

What the announcement doesn't promise

Three clarifications are worth more than three disappointments come Monday noon.

No proxy accessory. The neighboring event, "Crispy Delights Service Plan", names its own in black and white in its press release: "K's Illusion Tempo". The one from August 21 mentions nothing of the sort. Nothing stops HoYoverse from adding one later, but as things stand, the list of rewards stops at Polychromes, Boopons, and upgrade materials. Carrying something over from one event to the other would be pure invention.

No figures. No total Polychrome count, no number of Boopons, no breakdown by commission. This is a constant across Zenless Zone Zero's event pages, and it holds true for this one just as it did for the previous ones in version 3.1.

No unlock schedule. Commissions will arrive "gradually", without the pace being published. The practical consequence can be summed up in one sentence: the event won't be completable on August 24, and planning a single session in early September will run into a pile-up of tasks just hours before closing.

The schedule, from August 24 to September 9

HoYoverse's communications mix two clocks, and this is the most frequent source of error at the end of a version. Almost all reference points are given in "server time": on the European server, this corresponds to UTC+1, which is one hour behind Paris for as long as daylight saving time remains in effect. The end of the version, meanwhile, is dated in UTC+8. An account hosted on another server must align itself with its own server's clock.

Two discrepancies to keep in mind. The first: "The Quiet Holiday of a Dangerous Fugitive" and "Crispy Dish Service Plan" end at the same minute, on September 7, 03:59 on the server clock. The two commission-based events of this phase will therefore need to be carried out simultaneously over the same two weeks, rather than one after the other.

The second: this closing falls more than a full day before the closing of the Phase 2 channels, and nearly two days before version 3.1, "A Long Farewell," comes to an end. Using the version's end date as a reference point for planning your commissions amounts to showing up two days too late, with rewards permanently out of reach.

What to do before Monday, August 24

1. Sort out the two prerequisites today, Saturday, August 22. Without Inter-Knot Level 20 and without having completed the Chapter 1 Interlude, nothing will appear on Monday, and the commissions already open will pass you by.
2. Finish "Click! Duel at the Summit!" before Monday at 04:59, Paris time. All six of its levels are available, and it closes on the very morning the new event opens.
3. Locate Bouastrum before Monday. The district is the event's sole meeting point; knowing how to get there avoids wasting the first session looking for the business specialist.
4. Plan for spread-out sessions, not one big final push. The gradual unlocking of commissions makes any large-scale catch-up on the eve of September 7 impossible.
5. Note the correct end date: Monday, September 7 at 04:59, Paris time. That's the date that counts, not September 8 or 9.

One unknown remains that no one will resolve before Monday: the actual volume of content. HoYoverse announces commissions spread over two weeks without specifying either their number or their duration. We'll revisit the event once it opens, when the first batch of commissions is visible in-game and the Polychrome amounts can finally be verified rather than guessed at.