Can Aniimo inherit stats across families?

The practical effect is that a lucky roll is locked to the line it was born in. If you pull an Aniimo with a great spread and pour resources into it, none of that reaches a different family later. Plan the target before you spend, because the investment only ever moves sideways within the same group.

What makes this restriction sting is the thing being moved. Resident Star Up is how a stat gets past the standard combined cap of 20 between Initial Potential and Acquired Potential, reaching up to 24 on a favorable stat, the ones marked with a thumbs up icon on the stat screen. That extra ceiling is real power, and Inheritance is how you hand it to a better-rolled body. Just not one from another family.

Duplicates are therefore worth keeping rather than releasing on sight. Two Aniimo of the same species, even two good ones, vary in stat distribution, potential ratings and traits, so the spare you were about to dismiss is the transfer target for the work you already did.

Picking the body you inherit into

Check what you actually have first. An individual Aniimo's stats and type are only revealed by reporting captured creatures at the Research Outpost, so do that before deciding which one becomes the keeper.

Innate potential is the tiebreaker. It scales enhancement costs, and a higher starting value lowers the total Astranite needed to max a stat out. Between two candidates in the same family, the one with the better innate numbers is cheaper to finish, regardless of what you inherit onto it.

Routes that do not need a second Aniimo

Not everything has to come from a donor. Astranots raise acquired potential or growth value up to a maximum of 10 per stat on the Aniimo you feed them to. Certain adventure events, such as the Cross Tea Party, raise innate or Initial Potential on a single Aniimo, up to four times.

Both work on the creature in front of you, which makes them the fallback when there is no same-family donor worth consuming.

Not settled: "Family" is the game's own grouping, and where the boundary falls for Aniimo with branching evolution paths is not settled. If two specializations from the same split count as one family for Inheritance, that is not stated.