Glimmer vs Lumin Crystals: free and paid currency

Lumin Crystals, also spelled Lumen Crystals, are Aniimo's premium currency. You cannot earn them by playing. They come only from real money, through shop top-ups, the Monthly Pass and event bundles, and you spend them in the in-game cash shop.

For a sense of scale: 980 premium currency is the price of a 980-currency costume, and it costs about £15, or €17.99 as a bundle.

Real money also buys shop packs directly. These hold cosmetics, capture items and progression materials such as Sparkling Crystals and Sparkling Cubes. Radiant Dream Shadows, the paid transmog material, are sold in store packs bought with Lumin Crystals too.

Glimmer is diamond-shaped and separate from Lumen. You earn it in-game through exploration and daily activities.

You spend it in two places. The first is the Glimmer tab of the premium shop, where it buys things without any real money involved. The second is vendors, outpost vendors included, and NPCs, who exchange it for valuable items, cosmetics and materials.

Because it sits inside the premium shop, Glimmer is easy to mistake for a paid currency. It is not. Anything with a Glimmer price is something you can work towards just by playing.

The two currencies do touch. Buying premium crystals awards bonus Glimmer, and first-time purchases yield a higher bonus than repeat purchases. On top of that, a first-time premium purchase grants a bonus equal to the amount bought, paid in a secondary currency. If you plan to spend at all, the first purchase is the one that stretches furthest.

The paid Weekly Value Supplies pack is another route. It contains Glimmer, a box of coins and two Vein Essences.

Kureo's Corner Shop uses a third currency again: Vauxilo (voxel) coins. Those can be earned for free or bought with real money, so that shop is open to you either way.

Irisalis transmogrification is where the free and paid split matters most, and where it is easiest to slip.

Transmog uses two appearance gacha materials, a yellow one and a purple one. Radiant Dreamshadow is the paid material. It costs 200 Lumin Crystals each in the item shop and is used to transmogrify and alter the appearance of legendary Aniimo such as Irisalis. Its free counterpart is the Glimmering Drift Shadow (also called Shimmering Driftshadow), which costs 200 Glimmer from the Glimmer tab of the shop and is used to roll and unlock Irisalis transmogs that change its colours.

The catch is how far free gets you. Glimmering Drift Shadows can progress transmog only up to the third step, the headgear slot. Past that, it is paid.

Two things can push you onto the paid track early. Locking any transmog slot stops free currency from being used for that reroll track, so every roll then needs Radiant Dreamshadow. And the transmogrification menu can uncheck the free currency toggle automatically, which means a roll you thought was free can spend paid currency. Look at that toggle before every roll, not just the first.

Spending money makes rarer creatures such as Prismana easier to get, and that matters most at endgame.

The main reason is the Sparkling Cube, a premium Anipod purchasable with real money that also goes by Sparkling Pod, Gleam Cube, Shiny Cube and several other names. It has a guaranteed 100% catch rate, so throwing one at a spawned Prismana always captures it.

What else it guarantees is not settled. Whether it always makes the Aniimo sparkling, or only gives a strong or partial chance of it, is unclear. Whether it guarantees perfect potential and perfect stats is just as unclear; it may only ensure elite potential or a minimum starting stat value of 8. The one thing that is consistent is that it does not lower quality. Buy one for the guaranteed catch, and treat anything beyond that as a bonus rather than a promise.

06Where to start

Play for Glimmer and spend it in the Glimmer tab and with vendors. If you do buy Lumin Crystals, make your first purchase count because its Glimmer bonus is the largest. In Irisalis transmog, free currency stops at the headgear slot, and both slot locks and the menu's habit of unchecking the free toggle can spend Radiant Dreamshadow for you, so check the toggle before every roll.