Haru Urara Mod Brings Umamusume to Zenless Zone Zero in Slick Fan Crossover

Haru Urara sprints from Umamusume into Zenless Zone Zero — courtesy of one determined fan

A pink‑haired racing idol just sprinted into a neon sci‑fi brawler. Modder ArcDestiny has turned Zenless Zone Zero’s S‑Rank agent Ju Fufu into Haru Urara from Umamusume: Pretty Derby, and the result looks surprisingly official. The project, shared across Reddit and mod hubs, swaps models and textures while leaving gameplay untouched, giving players a clean crossover that blends two fandoms without breaking combat balance.

ArcDestiny kept the pitch simple: they’ve been hooked on Umamusume since its global rollout and wanted to see Haru Urara show up in HoYoverse’s newest action game. Ju Fufu provided the right silhouette and animation set, so the creator built a full cosmetic replacement. It’s a straight visual mod—no stat tweaks, no skill changes—but the attention to detail carries it. Haru Urara appears in her recognizable three‑star racing outfit, complete with the cheerful color palette that made her stand out in Cygames’ horse‑girl phenomenon.

In gameplay clips posted to the Umamusume subreddit, Haru Urara performs Ju Fufu’s standard combos and the EX Special Attack with the long title fans of ZZZ know well: Tiger Seven Forms Alt – Mountain‑Descending Savage Tiger. The animations sync cleanly with the new model, the rigging doesn’t wobble, and there’s no visible clipping in the showcased sequences. It feels polished enough that if you didn’t know, you might assume it was an alternate skin.

There’s one catch: you need Ju Fufu in your roster. Because the mod replaces that agent’s assets, players have to pull Ju Fufu through Zenless Zone Zero’s gacha before they can see Haru Urara appear on the battlefield. Once installed, though, the experience is seamless—Haruka Urara inherits Ju Fufu’s abilities, timing, and frame data, so co‑op balance and enemy interactions remain exactly as designed.

The files are available on GameBanana, where modders often host cosmetics for PC releases. That alone tells you the target platform: this is a PC‑side swap, intended for players who are comfortable moving files and testing fan content. No code injection is required for this one, just the usual asset replacement pipeline most PC cosmetic mods rely on.

Beyond the novelty, the mod lands at a moment when both games are riding momentum. Zenless Zone Zero has been building a large PC community since launch, and Umamusume’s long‑awaited global push has pulled in waves of new players. Haru Urara, a real‑world cult hero who famously never won a race but won over fans anyway, has become the face of the franchise’s underdog charm. When supporters found a way to send food to the actual horse, demand spiked so hard it took the donation site offline. That kind of cultural footprint travels well—and modders are the ones ferrying it across game worlds.

How the mod works, how to use it, and why it matters

On the technical side, ArcDestiny’s work is a classic example of model replacement done right. The creator had to adapt Haru Urara’s proportions to Ju Fufu’s animation skeleton, retarget weights so the limbs and cloth move naturally, and rework textures so lighting and materials fit Zenless Zone Zero’s art direction. It’s detail‑oriented work: if the mesh is off, you see elbow bends collapse, shoulder joints pop, or skirts clip through the body during spins. The showcased footage suggests those pitfalls were avoided.

Voice is another tell. Because this is a visual swap, Haru Urara still uses Ju Fufu’s voice lines and combat barks. That’s expected for a cosmetic mod, and it keeps file editing light and compatibility high. It also avoids a common headache—replacing voice assets in games with anti‑tamper checks can trigger crashes or integrity warnings.

If you’re thinking about trying it, here’s the bird’s‑eye view of what players typically do with cosmetic swaps on PC:

• Back up your original game files so you can roll back fast if something breaks.
• Drop the provided replacement assets into the specified folders, following the creator’s readme closely.
• Launch the game and test in a quiet area first to check for animation bugs, flickering textures, or crashes.
• Keep your mods updated—game patches can change file paths or asset hashes and silently break cosmetic swaps.

There are also the usual caveats with online titles. HoYoverse games on PC include anti‑cheat, and while purely visual mods are common in many communities, they’re never officially endorsed. Using third‑party modifications can carry risk, especially in online modes. If you mod, stick to cosmetic changes, avoid anything that touches memory at runtime, and be ready to restore stock files when updates arrive.

So what exactly does the Haru Urara swap change—and what does it keep? In short:

• What changes: character model, outfit, and textures for Ju Fufu; what you see in combat, idle, and skill animations.
• What stays: gameplay mechanics, hitboxes, frame timings, damage formulas, talents, and skills.
• What you need: the Ju Fufu agent unlocked, a PC installation of Zenless Zone Zero, and comfort with replacing game assets.
• What you don’t get: new voice lines or new moves; it’s still Ju Fufu under the hood.

The clean fit matters because Zenless Zone Zero has a fast, animation‑driven combat system. If the rigging fights the move set, you feel it instantly in dodges, parries, and chain attacks. The mod’s smooth EX showcase—yes, the Mountain‑Descending Savage Tiger—the big, cinematic strike—shows the creator spent time matching the skirt physics and hand poses to avoid the uncanny look that plagues rushed swaps.

It also highlights how art styles can meet in the middle. Umamusume leans bright and cute; ZZZ leans neon and gritty. Slotting Haru Urara into that urban future shouldn’t work on paper, but the cel‑shaded readability of both games helps the eye accept the swap. Strong silhouettes and saturated palettes do the rest.

Why does this crossover resonate so much? Part of it is Haru Urara herself. The real racehorse became a national symbol in Japan not for winning, but for showing up—112 starts, no victories, and stadiums still packed to see her try again. In Umamusume, that spirit is played straight: the character is chipper, relentless, and impossible to root against. Dropping her into a high‑speed action game turns that energy into something you can pilot, which is a neat trick for player psychology.

Part of it is timing. Umamusume’s global launch rekindled interest in legacy fan favorites, and Zenless Zone Zero is the new shiny arena where players are eager to customize. Where those curves meet, mods thrive. GameBanana and other hubs are filled with similar projects—a constant stream of skins that let fandoms jump walls. You see it in fighting games, RPGs, even soulslikes: a steady undercurrent of community mashups that developers don’t officially ship but also can’t stop people from imagining.

This raises the evergreen question: where do devs land on cosmetic modding for online games? Publicly, studios tend to keep it vague. The safest route for players is to treat mods as single‑player‑only and accept the risk. The practical reality is that cosmetic swaps are common on PC, especially early in a game’s life before studios lock down file structures. If you stream or create content, add a note that you’re using a visual mod and keep an eye on update days, when patches can put modded installs into a crash loop.

Could we see official crossovers down the road? HoYoverse is no stranger to collaborations and limited‑time cosmetics, and Cygames knows the power of putting fan‑favorite faces in new contexts. For now, though, the community is doing the heavy lifting, prototyping the ideas on their own time. If a publisher wants proof there’s demand, this mod’s traction is a decent data point.

It also helps that the choice of host character—Ju Fufu—makes sense. She’s an S‑Rank agent with a flashy, readable kit, which means any skin looks dramatic immediately. Big attacks sell a model swap better than subdued animations do. That’s marketing logic modders understand instinctively: pick a crowd‑pleaser, and your work spreads farther.

For players curious about performance, cosmetic replacements like this one rarely hit frame rates on decent PCs, since they don’t add logic or spawn extra effects. The risk lives elsewhere: compatibility. When the game updates, expect to re‑apply the mod or wait for the creator to push a refreshed version. Keep your backups, and don’t layer multiple model swaps that touch the same files unless you know exactly how they interact.

Community reaction so far mirrors what you’d expect for a well‑made fan skin: lots of “this looks official,” plenty of “I need to pull Ju Fufu now,” and the usual install questions. It’s the kind of mod that doesn’t just please Umamusume fans—it plants a seed for players who’ve never tried that game to go look up why this character matters. That cross‑pollination is the real win for the scene.

At a higher level, it’s another sign that the modern PC mod ecosystem is the connective tissue between hit games. Official collaborations take months of contracts and QA. A skilled creator with the right tools can turn around a tasteful, lore‑aware crossover in a fraction of the time, with zero risk for either studio. If the reception is warm, everyone benefits: players get more variety, creators build portfolios, and publishers see fresh engagement without lifting a finger.

As for what’s next, expect iterations. A version with alternate outfits. Texture tweaks that better match ZZZ’s lighting. Maybe optional accessories or colorways for streamers who want to stand out. If the project stays active, those are the low‑hanging fruit. Full voice replacement is the heavy lift, and in a live‑service context, it’s also the riskiest part to tinker with.

For now, though, the headline stands: a community creator took a global fan favorite and slotted her into a fast, stylish action game, cleanly and confidently. If you’ve been waiting for a sign to revisit your ZZZ roster—or to finally chase that Ju Fufu pull—this might be it. The city lights are on, the combat loop sings, and Haru Urara, of all characters, is ready to dodge, parry, and throw hands. As crossovers go, the Haru Urara mod is both simple and smart—and that’s why it works.