I’ll be real with you: when the Battery Recycling event hit Zenless Zone Zero back in November 2025, I almost slept on it. The event ran from 2025/11/12 10:00 to 2025/11/24 03:59 server time, and honestly, the whole Used Battery loop sounded like just another daily chore. But once I realized it was handing out Polychromes, Boopons, and a pile of upgrade materials for basically playing the game like I already do, I was all in.

The first thing I checked was whether I even qualified. The requirements were simple: hit Inter-Knot Lv. 15 and clear the Agent Story "Mole in the Hole (I)". I had already finished that story ages ago, so no friction there. If you were behind on story quests, that was the first wall.

Here’s the kicker: every day, the first time I spent Battery Charge, I’d get a Used Battery. Not a big grind, just a single daily activation. Once I had that little scrap in my inventory, I’d bounce over to Sjal and trade it in. She was the event NPC, and she was basically running a little battery pawn shop. Hand her the Used Battery, and she’d fork over Polychromes, Boopons, and various upgrade materials. Free stuff? No brainer.

What kept me logging in was the unlock system. The rewards were not all dumped on day one. Instead, new exchange rewards unlocked over time based on my total login days and my current exchange progress. In other words, I had to actually log in each day, finish the previous exchange, and then the next set of goodies would pop up. There were 7 sets in total, and the reset happened at 04:00 server time each day. The early bird gets the worm, and in this event, the punctual Proxy got the Polychromes.

Let me lay out how my week went:

Day	What I Did	Why It Mattered
Day 1	Burned first Battery Charge, got Used Battery, traded to Sjal	Unlocked Set 1 rewards
Day 2	Logged in after 04:00, exchanged again	Unlocked Set 2, kept momentum
Day 3–4	Same loop, no extra grind	Stacked Boopons and mats
Day 5	Turned in my 5th Used Battery	Triggered the Exclusive Reward
Day 6–7	Continued trading	Cleaned up remaining sets

I won’t lie, the daily reset at 04:00 server time meant I had to be a little mindful. If I played late at night, I could do one exchange before bed and then another after reset if I stayed up. But I’m not about to ruin my sleep schedule for a few upgrade mats. Most days I just logged in during my normal evening session, spent a bit of Battery Charge on routine farming, and then made a quick stop at Sjal’s spot.

The extra cherry on top was the bonus for submitting 5 Used Batteries in total. After my fifth handoff, Sjal gave me an additional Exclusive Reward. It felt like a loyalty punch card: turn in five, get a little something special. That reward alone made the first five days totally worth it. I kept going for the full seven sets because, hey, the mats were useful and the Polychromes were just sitting there.

A few things I learned the hard way:

• 🔋 Don’t forget to actually spend Battery Charge before you visit Sjal. No charge spent, no Used Battery, no exchange.

• ⏰ The exchange unlock was tied to server time 04:00, not local midnight. I’m used to local resets, so I had to double-check my clock.

• 🎁 Progress mattered. Just logging in without exchanging the previous set would leave the next reward locked. I had to complete the trade to move forward.

• 🧠 This event was a total no-brainer for anyone already spending daily stamina. If you were skipping it, you were leaving free pulls and upgrade materials on the table.

By the time the event wrapped on 2025/11/24 at 03:59 server time, I had cleared all seven sets, grabbed the Exclusive Reward, and restocked my Boopon stash without breaking a sweat. It wasn’t a massive time sink, and most days it took less than five minutes after my normal farming. In a nutshell, Sjal turned my daily Battery Charge into a little daily gift bag.

If Zenless Zone Zero ever runs a similar loop again in 2026, I’d tell any Proxy to jump on it early. The long and short of it: spend stamina, collect battery, trade with Sjal, repeat. Simple as that.