Dragon Ball Sparking! ZERO – How to fix crashing issues

Now that Dragon Ball Sparking! ZERO is finally available, fans of the iconic anime series have jumped right in to experience the “heart-pounding, high-speed” 3D battles Bandai Namco promises. Unfortunately, several of you haven’t been able to taste the experience yet thanks to incessant crashes.

Those who haven’t been able to load past the tutorial or complete a full multiplayer match, we understand your frustration and have got just what you need—a bunch of potential fixes.

Here’s what you can try to get rid of crashing errors in Dragon Ball Sparking! ZERO.

How to fix Dragon Ball Sparking Zero crashing

While Bandai Namco is to blame for most of the reported optimization issues, some workarounds can help mitigate the crashes if the trigger is on your side. 

There are several things that could go wrong and lead to crashing errors in Dragon Ball Sparking! ZERO. For starters, the game may fail to run successfully due to outdated software and drivers, background apps hogging resources, and internet hiccups. While there’s nothing you can do about server bottlenecks and other internal errors, you can certainly rule out the possible factors on your side. 

Here’re the workarounds we recommend:

Check if your system is up to date

First and foremost, make sure your PC or console is up to date. If it’s a console, check for any pending updates to the system. If you’re running the game on a PC, make sure Windows and your system’s video drivers are updated to their latest versions.

For NVIDIA GPUs, download the Geforce Experience app to download the latest available game driver. For AMD GPUs, download the Radeon app instead.

Restart your device

Whether it’s a PC or console, we recommend restarting your platform to fix any temporary system hiccups that may be causing the crashes.

Run the game as administrator

Right-click on the Dragon Ball Sparking! ZERO launcher app and select “Run as administrator.” If this works, you can add this action as a permanent setting. Right-click and go to Properties. Under the Compatibility tab, check the box beside Run this program as an administrator, save, and exit.

Close background apps and disable overlays

Make sure you close all unwanted background apps before launching Dragon Ball Sparking! ZERO to spare as many resources as possible and prevent performance issues and crashing errors. Third-party screen recording tools like Shadowplay or Bandicam can cause these errors too, so we recommend not using them until Bandai Namco further optimizes the netcode.

In addition, disable game overlays like Discord, NVIDIA, AMD, or others. Some overlay tools can disrupt the game, causing crashes and other errors. 

Add DirectX launch options

Open Steam and go to your library. Right-click on Dragon Ball Sparking! ZERO and go to Properties. Under the General tab, type “-dx11” in the Launch Options text box, save and exit. Try launching the game again and check if the issue persists. 

If this doesn’t work, try putting “-dx12” instead of “-dx11.”

Verify integrity of game files

Open Steam and go to your library. Right-click on Dragon Ball Sparking! ZERO and go to Properties. Under the Installed Files tab, click on the Verify integrity of game files. Wait for the process to complete before trying to launch the game again.

Check your network quality

Make sure you’re connected to a stable network, or the game may face crashes. You can try rebooting your router and modem to check if it fixes the issue for you. If not, try switching to a different DNS like Google or Cloudflare to rule out certain ISP-related hiccups. Also, make sure you aren’t connected to a VPN.

Change your game settings

Make sure your game settings are set according to what your system can handle. If your PC has two video cards, check if Dragon Ball Sparking! ZERO is set to use the high-performance card and not the integrated one. 

Allow Dragon Ball Sparking! ZERO through firewall

The anti-virus protecting your PC may be a silent culprit. Whether it’s Windows Defender or a third-party tool, make sure it isn’t blocking Dragon Ball Sparking! ZERO from running smoothly. Check the firewall settings and allow the game through it manually.

If none of the aforementioned workarounds work, the crashing errors are likely happening due to a server bottleneck, which isn’t your problem to solve. New releases of this nature usually attract a lot of traffic, causing odd errors that developers don’t anticipate. All we can do in this case is give them some time to fix things up. We recommend trying to launch the game after a few hours.