What is potential on an Aniimo?

You cannot see a new catch's potential right away. Its grade reads "Unappraised" until you submit the creature in a catch report at an Outpost's Research Console. The console then rates it Common, Good, Elite or Perfect, and that Attribute Rank sets the creature's stat ceiling. An Aniimo counts as perfect when both of its inherent potential values are 8.

The two halves go up in different ways. Each Capa (Kappa) fruit permanently adds one point of innate potential, and it can push a Perfect Aniimo past where it started, for example from 8 to 9. Acquired potential goes up through Capability Awakening, which spends stardust to specialize and upgrade individual stats.

Once a stat's innate potential reaches the maximum attribute limit, a crown icon appears next to it. A fully built Aniimo shows crowns across its stats.

Not settled: The ceiling is not settled. Potential appears as a scale from 1 to 10 topped by a crown icon, and also as a standard cap of 20 that favourable stats can raise to 24 through the Resident Star Up tab. Star Essence is part of the same open question: it either levels an Aniimo up or is needed to push Awaken Potential past 10 points toward the 20 cap.