throughout "zone of the enders: the 2nd runner", the player controls jehuty, the orbital frame piloted by dingo, from a normally behind-the-back third-person viewpoint that centers itself between the player and enemy when locked on. jehuty now possesses the ability to attack several enemies at the same time and interact with the environment by grabbing objects and use them as weaponry. the gameplay is linear, eschewing the "world map" of "zone of the enders" in favor of consecutive stages in which the player must defeat large numbers of robotic enemies, as well as other orbital frames and combat vehicles. the player can fully repair jehuty by collecting metatron, and save their progress at the beginning of each stage. the player can level up by destroying enemies, and collects "sub-weapons" by defeating bosses. depending on the player's storyline progress, the capabilities of jehuty can change. after certain missions, the player's performance is ranked with a letter rating; the entire game is given a score as well.