Zenless Zone Zero: Wave-Riding Summer Splash guide — Lucy's free outfit before September 7

Open since update 3.1 on July 29, the summer event "Wave Rider Rush" delivered its fourth and final day of content on August 4. Everything has therefore been accessible in one block for a week now, and there are exactly four weeks left to finish it: the closing date is set for Monday, September 7 at 03:59 server time, or 4:59 a.m. in Paris. That's two days before the end of version 3.1 — don't count on the changeover weekend to catch up if you fall behind.

The loot is the biggest of the version in terms of pull volume: 1,050 Polychromes, the free outfit "Lucy: Princess Getaway", the exclusive theme "An Eternal Summer Flame", a Hamster Cage Access, and around 340,000 Denny. The figure of 1,050 Polychromes is displayed in black and white on the official French banner for the event.

The real trap isn't the difficulty, it's the interlocking design. The two mini-games feed off each other: beach gathering fills up your stock of marine materials, and those materials are the only currency accepted by the Treasure Trove Sale, the souvenir shop which in turn unlocks the reward tiers. Sticking only to the shop leaves you dry in two sessions; sticking only to the beach unlocks nothing at all.

What the event gives, and what disappears on September 7

The rewards are split into two blocks that don't have the same status at all. The permanent block is marked Ridu Chronicles: once the event ends, this content moves over to Events > Polychrome Progress > Polychrome Guide and remains playable indefinitely. The time-limited block, on the other hand, vanishes on September 7 — and that's the one containing the outfit, the theme, and most of the Polychromes.

In other words: if you were to do only one thing before the end of the month, it's clearing the time-limited missions. The rest will still be waiting in version 3.2 without you losing anything.

Access requirements and starting point

You need to have reached Inter-Knot Level 20 and completed Chapter 1: Intermission of the main story. HoYoverse also recommends finishing Season 3, Chapter 1, "Sleepwalking Confessions," before diving in: the event takes place after it, and a few lines reveal details from that chapter.

The trigger is an invitation to pick up in front of the video store. It takes you to the Reverie resort, reopened for the season, where you help prepare a bonfire party with Sigrid, Lucy, and Miyabi while running a souvenir shop. Good news for lighter rosters: the three agents are lent out by the event, and the mini-games require no build, no Drive Disc, and no W-Engine. Sigrid, whose banner doesn't arrive until August 19, is therefore already playable here.

Beach gathering: it all comes down to the Fever state

A session is set up with three choices: the collection zone, the agent and the collection tool. The game displays collection information for each zone — read it, as it shows which type of material is favored there, and therefore which agent is most profitable. Tools and zones unlock as you progress, and all four zones have been open since August 4.

Out in the field, the principle is childishly simple: move the agent close to the marine materials to pick them up within the time limit, while avoiding the wooden crates. Floating bonuses temporarily grant speed or widen the collection area. But the one setting that really makes the difference is the Fever state: by collecting without interruption, a gauge fills up and triggers a state lasting around ten seconds that ignores all obstacles, greatly increases movement speed and extends the tool's range.

The practical takeaway: never play it by going for the “nearest” item. Spot the clusters and plot a route that chains up collections without any downtime, even if it means ignoring an isolated item. Breaking the chain for three stray shells in a corner costs more than those three shells are worth.

The three agents play very differently. According to data from Game8 and Icy Veins:

• Lucy — her skill spawns two items in front of her (cooldown of about 20 seconds) and her passive adds three marine materials with each pickup. The "raw volume" pick, for restocking before a shop session.
• Sigrid — a sprint state lasting about 8 seconds (15-second cooldown), which widens her range and grants bonus materials. The best option for large areas where items are scattered.
• Rémielle — she sucks up all materials within a radius of about 7 meters, twice per session, and her passive boosts Fever efficiency by 20%. The agent for record scores: she refills the gauge when the chain is about to break.

Each zone applies its own modifier: one speeds up material spawns, another extends the sprint state with regular bonus materials, a third increases the rank 4 and 5 drop rate, and the last one improves Fever output and spawns a giant crab. For quality, prioritize the zone with a boosted rank 4-5 rate; for quantity, the one that speeds up spawns. A side achievement also rewards collecting 400 marine materials along the way.

Treasure Clearance Sale: two phases, one goal

The shop alternates between two phases. During the shop opening, you're offered two orders: each one displays its completion conditions, its reward, and above all the bonus it leaves behind. During the crafting phase, you select the marine materials that satisfy the request — orders can be based on colors (blue, pink, yellow), on material types, or on a mix of both — then you confirm.

The beginner's mistake is choosing the highest-paying order. It's the accumulated bonuses that determine the final revenue, because they make the following orders easier and more profitable: pick the order whose bonus sets up the next one, not the one that pays the most right away.

Three interface details save a lot of time:

• Clicking on an agent's avatar triggers their active skill during management — many players finish a day without ever using it.
• The auto-fill button completes an order instantly. Handy for trivial orders, but avoid it on ones with a special condition: it doesn't look for the optimal solution.
• You can refresh the list (three times per day), but doing so makes you lose the current agent bonuses. Save it for stuck situations.

The manager placed behind the counter completely changes the game. Sigrid immediately triggers the effect of all basic techniques and starts with charges of each: a steady, no-surprises profile. Lucy converts an order's excess score into a bonus resource instead of wasting it, which makes her unbeatable as soon as you overshoot. Rémielle works with white and black feathers that change the color of orders and the materials requested: the control manager, the one who unlocks impossible orders.

Finally, a VIP customer can appear when choosing an order. They impose a specific constraint — a single color, a balanced three-color order, a capped number of materials, inflated quantities — but turn the following orders into far more lucrative three-color orders. Nine VIP customers are spread across the shop's days, among them Zhu Yuan, Vivian, Jane, and Burnice. Accepting them is almost always the right call: it's the only way to reach the higher tiers without spending the whole week on it.

The five revenue tiers

The shop's progress is measured in cumulative revenue, with five tiers. Each one grants Polychromes, Senior Inspector Logs, and Denny.

The 590,000 tier is the only truly pivotal one: combined with completing all the event's quests, it's the one that unlocks Hamster Cage Access. If you have to set yourself a single goal before September 7, this is it.

The three-session plan

No energy to spend, no daily lock: you can blast through everything in a single evening. Still, the most comfortable breakdown remains the following.

• Session 1 (≈ 40 min) — the four quests back to back, to unlock all the content, the four gathering zones and the tools.
• Session 2 (≈ 30 min) — gathering with Lucy in the zone that speeds up spawns, then with Rémielle in the zone with boosted rank 4-5 odds, to build up a good-quality stock.
• Session 3 (≈ 45 min) — Treasure Clearance Sale, VIP clients accepted systematically and Lucy at the counter as soon as your orders far exceed the requested score. This is where crossing 590,000 is decided.

If your stock drops back to zero mid-shop, go gather again: your revenue progress is kept.

Vocabulary note: what the French client actually says

Several sites are still copying the English. The official terms, taken from the version 3.1 announcement and the event page published in French, are: « Déferlement des vagues d'été », collecte à la plage, Braderie de trésors, matériaux marins, état Fièvre, complexe hôtelier Rêverie, Niv. d'Inter-nœud (and not « Inter-Knot »), moteur-ampli for W-Engines, disque de poussée for Drive Discs, Boupon, Journal d'inspecteur principal, Accès à la Cage à hamster. The official French announcement also describes Rémielle as a Lumen agent: that is indeed the client's term for her attribute.

On the other hand, no reliable French source gives the names of the four gathering zones, the mission chains or the side achievements: here they are described by their function rather than translated by guesswork.

What to do this week

The window looks wide, but it's not really that wide: on August 19, phase 2 of 3.1 opens Sigrid's banner and attention will shift elsewhere, and the week of August 12 to 17 will be taken up by the zone patrol with tripled rewards. The comfortable slot is now.

Absolute priority: the time-limited missions, Lucy's outfit and the 590,000 milestone. The rest — the 150 permanent Polychromes, the Bangbou widgets, the Denny from the Ridu Chronicles block — will wait patiently for you in the Polychrome Guide after September 7. And for players saving up for Sigrid, these 900 time-limited Polychromes are worth six pulls: that's far from negligible ten days before her banner.