Guides › Guide
Aniimo Catching Guide: Aniipods and Alpha Hunting
Every Aniimo in your collection is one you threw a pod at. Here is how to make those throws land.
The short version
- Approach undetected, ideally from behind or while the target sleeps, before you throw anything
- Depleting HP and dealing break damage both raise capture chance, so fighting first is a valid plan
- Higher-tier Aniipods have higher base capture rates, and a merchant trades lower tiers up at two-to-one
- Defeat an Alpha Aniimo, then throw an Aniipod Ultra: that is a guaranteed 100% capture with high IV stats
- Group appearances are all or nothing. Every creature has to be caught before cultivation advances
Aniimo are not pulled. They are caught. There is no character banner and no pack to open, so no amount of real money puts a creature on your team. That holds for legendaries too. If you want one, you go out and find it.
That makes catching the core system rather than a side activity. Almost everything you do to a wild Aniimo before the throw changes whether the throw sticks.
This guide covers the levers in the order you use them: finding the creature, weakening it, picking the right pod, and the one situation where the odds stop mattering because the capture is guaranteed.
Everything is caught in the open world
Wild Aniimo live in the open world, and you capture them there by aiming and throwing an Aniipod. There is no gacha layer sitting between you and a creature, legendaries included.
What is available to catch is not fixed. Which Aniimo appear changes with the in-game day-night cycle, with the weather, and with other special natural phenomena. Weather is the one to watch, because it is what brings out unique Aniimo. If you are hunting something specific and it is not around, the answer is often to come back under different conditions rather than to search harder.
Stealth, HP and break damage
Getting spotted costs you. Sneaking up on a wild Aniimo without being detected raises your chance of a successful capture, and approaching from behind raises it further. Sleeping creatures can be caught too, and a sleeping target approached from behind is the best opening the game gives you.
When stealth is not an option, fight. Depleting an Aniimo's HP improves capture chances, and so does dealing break damage. That is the standard approach for anything stubborn: knock it down, break it, then throw.
There is one lever that works while you are not even hunting. Upgrading regional branches increases Aniimo capture rates, so the time you put into them pays out on every throw afterwards.
Which Aniipod to throw
Aniipods come in tiers, and the tier sets the base capture success rate. Higher-tier pods carry higher base rates, which is why they are the recommendation for difficult captures and why it is worth holding some back rather than spending them on whatever wanders past. If you are short, a merchant converts lower-tier pods into higher-tier ones at a two-to-one exchange ratio.
Models differ in more than raw catch power. Catch rate bonuses, throw ranges and throw speeds all vary between models, so different pods suit different situations.
Two models are built around utility instead of raw catch power: the Aniipod Track and the Aniipod Tumbler. The Track doubles capture chance. The Tumbler is a capture item that can catch multiple Aniimo at the same time, which makes it the one to keep in reserve for crowds.
2 to 1
Merchant exchange ratio for Aniipods
Alpha Aniimo and the guaranteed catch
An Alpha Aniimo such as Stellarys can be caught with a pod other than the Aniipod Ultra. It just is not reliable, and an Alpha is not the fight you want to redo. The dependable route is to defeat it first and then throw an Aniipod Ultra, which secures a guaranteed 100% capture.
Ultras do a second job. Capturing with one guarantees high IV stats, so what you walk away with is a good specimen rather than merely a caught one. They are obtained through vouchers, at 20 vouchers for a single Aniipod Ultra.
Catching an Alpha also costs Primegy, Aniimo's energy resource. Primegy regenerates over time and is separate from the stamina bar you spend in combat, so the two never compete. In practice it means your Alpha hunting is paced by how much Primegy you have banked, not by how well the fight went.
Throw a non Ultra Aniipod
- An Alpha such as Stellarys can be caught with an Aniipod other than the Aniipod Ultra.
- Works, but not reliably.
- Still costs Primegy, the energy resource that regenerates over time.
Defeat it, then throw an Aniipod Ultra
- Secures a guaranteed 100% capture.
- Requires defeating the Alpha first.
- Still costs Primegy, which is separate from the in combat stamina bar.
Group spawns and the branch bloom
Some Aniimo turn up as a group appearance, and a group is all or nothing. Every creature in that appearance has to be caught, all 20 of them in a full spawn, before cultivation advances and the branch blooms. Missing even one leaves the whole thing unfinished.
This is the situation the Tumbler exists for, since it takes several Aniimo at once instead of one per throw. It is also where every other lever compounds. Branch upgrades, break damage and an undetected approach all matter more when you need a clean sweep rather than a single lucky catch.
20
Creatures in a group appearance
Where to start
Stack what you can before every throw: unseen approach, HP down, break damage in. Save high-tier pods for hard targets, keep a Tumbler for group spawns, and never spend an Aniipod Ultra on anything but a defeated Alpha.
Every fact on this page was re-checked against the released game on 18 September 2026.