Guaranteed catch pods: Sparkling Cubes and Departure pods

The Sparkling Cube goes by several names: Sparkling Pod, Twinkle Cube, Shiny Cube. Whatever you call it, its one firm promise is the catch. It has a guaranteed 100% catch rate, so throwing one at a spawned Prismana always captures it. It sits above the standard line as an upgraded version of the Aniipod Ultra.

The Wind Chaser's Departure Anipod makes a different promise. It is a premium pod, and any Aniimo you catch with it is guaranteed to appear in sparkling form. Its guarantee is the appearance, not the capture.

So the choice is simple. If the creature getting away is the problem, you want the cube. If a sparkling version is what you are after, the Departure Anipod is the pod whose sparkle is certain.

The cube's name suggests it makes things sparkle, and in the current game that part is not settled. One version of it guarantees the sparkling trait: it forces the Sparkling variant with sparkling Prismana quality on anything caught or hatched with it, with high potential and perfect rarity, and turns an Alpha, including one hatched from an Alpha egg, into a Perfect Sparkling Alpha. Another version only makes a shiny easier to capture, or only gives a chance of hatching one. Which of those you get is not settled.

The same goes for stats. Whether a cube always guarantees Perfect potential and perfect stats is not settled either. One thing that does hold: using a cube on an Aniimo that already has perfect stats grants additional potential.

How the cube is used on Prismana Aniimo is also not settled. It works both as the item required to capture a Prismana and as an item used on Prismana you have already caught. Plan around the catch guarantee, which is firm, and treat everything else as a possible bonus.

Cubes work on eggs as well as wild Aniimo, and here the rules are more specific. Hatching a non-Umbral egg with a Sparkling Cube gives a 1% chance of a dazzling sparkling style. Using one on a Prismana egg can trigger a shadow sparkling mutation.

The trap is doubling up. If an egg already guarantees a sparkling result or perfect potential, putting a cube on it wastes the cube's guaranteed effects. You pay for a promise the egg was already keeping. Check what an egg guarantees before you commit a cube to it.

You do not need to spend real money on either the Aniipod Ultra or the Sparkling Cube; both can be had by trading in-game currency with outpost vendors. Sparkling Cubes are bought with Glimmer from Joff, under the item exchange menu at the Outpost, or from the item exchange vendor at headquarters. They also come from gameplay modes, the battle pass, elite training, handbooks and various shops.

The exact prices are not settled. The shop price of a Sparkling Cube is listed as both 1,680 and 1,500 Lumen, the game's star currency. Sparkling Crystals can be exchanged for Sparkling Cubes at the Outpost Vendor, and there a Sparkling Cube is listed at both 1,000 and 100 Sparkling Crystals, with one Sparkling Anipod carrying the same pair of prices. For which shop purchases are worth it overall, see the site's guide to the Glimmer and Cash Shop.

Sparkling Cubes are a limited resource and harder to come by than standard Anipods. Throwing one at an early monster nobody has confirmed as useful is one of the easier ways to waste one. Save them for confirmed meta picks or Prismana eggs.

For tough targets that do not need a cube, the Aniipod Ultra is the top of the standard Aniipod line and improves capture odds against harder Aniimo. Whether it guarantees a catch is not settled: it has a 100% capture rate in one version and no stated guarantee in another, where the assured catch belongs only to the Sparkling Cube. A branch upgrade that improves catch rates for certain Aniimo can also help close the gap.

06Where to start

Use a Sparkling Cube when the catch has to happen, and use the Wind Chaser's Departure Anipod when the sparkle has to happen. Keep cubes for meta picks and Prismana eggs, and never spend one on an egg that already guarantees sparkling or perfect potential.