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Carried items: equipping, upgrading and what they give
A held item gives its stats the moment you equip it, but its skill only arrives with a contract costing 10 Mark of the Strong. Here is what to equip and how to upgrade it.
The short version
- Each Aniimo carries a single held item. Its stats apply as soon as you equip it, but its skill needs a contract, which upgrades the Aniimo's core active skill.
- Unlocking a held item pact effect or a Core Skill enhancement costs 10 Mark of the Strong stones, and some contracts add a quick-time event to the core skill.
- Alpha Aniimo caught in the overworld already have an enhanced Core Skill and keep it without any pact, so the contract matters most on normal Aniimo.
- Held items are upgraded by consuming Held Item Cores, which come in Basic, Common and Advanced grades.
- Runes were removed entirely at the 16 September 2026 launch. Rune figures and guides from the closed beta no longer describe the game.
Gear in Aniimo is simpler than it was in the closed beta. Each Aniimo has one equipment slot, and it holds one item. That item gives you two things, and they unlock separately: its stats, which work straight away, and a skill, which takes a contract.
That split is the thing to understand first. If you want better Aniimo stats or a stronger Core Skill, you need to know which half of the item you are actually paying for. After that, the rest of this page covers which items are worth carrying, how Held Item Cores level them up, where items drop, and why the rune system you may have read about is gone.
One slot, two layers: stats and the contract skill
You can equip accessories and items on Aniimo to customise them, but the equipment itself is a single held item that grants effects. There is no stack of gear to juggle. The question is always what goes in that one slot.
A held item with no contract still gives you its stats in full. What it does not give you is its skill. The contract adds the skill, and it does so by upgrading the Aniimo's core active skill rather than handing over a separate ability. So a freshly equipped item is a stat stick until you commit to it.
Binding a contract is how the core skill gets better. Contracts with a legendary held item or a Mutation Mark both enhance the core skill, and in some cases they add a quick-time event to it. Unlocking a held item pact effect or a Core Skill enhancement costs 10 Mark of the Strong stones, so pick the item you mean to keep before you spend them.
No contract
- Still grants the item's stats
- Does not grant the item's skill
Contract bound
- Adds the item's skill
- Upgrades the Aniimo's core active skill
- In some cases adds a quick-time event
Alpha Aniimo skip the contract
Alpha Aniimo caught in the overworld come with an enhanced version of their Core Skill by default. They keep it without needing a pact with their held item. If you have an Alpha, its skill upgrade is already done, and its held item only has to earn its place on stats.
Normal Aniimo are another matter, and how their Core Skill is upgraded is unsettled. Three routes are described: spending 10 Marks of the Strong; a contract with a Legendary Held Item; and Prismatic Stones used together with capability fruit, which upgrade the Core Skill once to boost its damage and add utility. That last route belongs to Capability Awakening, which has its own guide on this site. Until the picture settles, it is safest to treat the Mark of the Strong cost and the legendary contract as linked, since both are tied to the same core skill upgrade.
Held items worth carrying
A few held items have clear, specific effects.
Fission Needle gives every basic attack a 50% chance to deal double damage. That makes it a natural fit for anything that leans on its basic attacks.
Ferocious Fang increases attack damage, and it is a recommended held item for Infergon.
The Floral Rainbow Feather's core effect increases summoned clone damage by 30%. Irysallis is the obvious user, because its clones are exactly what the Feather boosts.
Not every Aniimo needs a particular item. Turbo needs no specific held item for its support role, so you can give it whatever you have spare and keep your best items for damage dealers.
50%
Fission Needle double damage chance
Upgrading with Held Item Cores
Held items, which the closed beta called carried items, are upgraded by consuming Held Item Cores. Cores come in three grades: Basic, Common and Advanced. Carried items sit alongside training, enchantment, resonance and awakening as one of the ways to strengthen an Aniimo beyond levelling, so upgrading your held item is a separate source of power and not something levelling covers.
You find held items in a few places. Open-world chests award Sparkling Crystals, and legendary chests can also yield Anipod Megas and held items. Aniimo you send on Homeland RV trips and automated dispatches can come back with trip materials, including baseline materials and held items. Dispatches keep paying out while you do something else, so they are worth keeping busy.
Runes are gone
Aniimo has no rune system. Pawprint Studio announced on 3 September 2026 that the closed beta's rune system would be removed entirely at the 16 September 2026 launch. Random runes, random rune slots and rune capacity all went with it. You cannot craft or equip runes, and runes no longer belong in any list of ways to enhance an Aniimo.
This matters because a lot of beta material is still around. In the beta, runes were a customisation layer of Uncommon, Rare, Epic and Legendary rarity. You socketed them into the carried item an Aniimo held to boost combat stats, building up orbs that unlocked that item's tiered advanced effects. The first tier was reported at 10 orbs, and higher-rarity runes contributed more. Figures from that period include a Common rune valued at 1 and a legendary rune costing four capacity points. There was no "orange" rarity and no confirmed four-orb value for any rarity. Exceptionally rare Legendary Runes granted superior stats, including large damage increases, and Epic runes could be crafted into a Legendary rune, with one craft in the beta using five.
None of that applies now. If a guide talks about orbs, rune slots or rune capacity, it describes the beta, and its numbers will not match your game.
Where to start
Equip for stats first, because those work without any contract. Spend your 10 Mark of the Strong on contracts for normal Aniimo you plan to keep, and leave Alphas alone because their Core Skill is already enhanced. Feed Held Item Cores into the items you actually use, keep dispatches running for more, and ignore any build advice that mentions runes.
Most of this page was re-checked against the released game on 2 October 2026. The rest has not been re-confirmed since release.