How Aniipod Ultras and guaranteed captures work

Aniipods are cube-shaped consumable devices. You throw one at a wild Aniimo and it either holds or it does not. There is no aiming skill layered on top and no clever trick below it: the item decides.

They come in multiple tiers, and the tier is the whole mechanic. Higher tiers carry higher base capture success rates, which improves your odds against everything and matters most against stronger creatures. Different tiers and types of pod give different success rates, so the standard pod you find lying in the world and the Ultra you have been hoarding are not two versions of the same throw. They are two different probabilities.

That is also why the high tiers are gated behind effort rather than sold freely. Higher-tier pods are what let you capture boss Aniimo at all.

The Aniipod Ultra is the top of the standard Aniipod line, and it is a guaranteed capture. A 100% catch rate on any Aniimo, including Alpha Aniimo and Umbral Aniimo. Throw it and the creature is yours.

The second half is the part players underrate. An Ultra guarantees the Aniimo comes out with Elite potential or higher. So the pod is not only deciding whether you get the creature, it is setting a floor on the creature you get. Catching the same Aniimo with a lower pod can land it, but nothing below the Ultra promises you anything about what you have landed. If you are hunting a species you actually intend to raise, the Ultra buys you both halves of the outcome in one throw.

One thing is genuinely unsettled here. The Ultra's guarantee is given both as a flat 100% capture rate and as something with no officially stated guarantee, with the assured catch belonging instead to the Sparkling Cube, an upgraded version of the Aniipod Ultra. In practice the Ultra is still the best throw you own and the one to spend on a target you cannot get back. But if you want certainty with nothing behind it, the Sparkling Cube is where that certainty is described as living.

Alpha Aniimo are the reason the Ultra is worth carrying. Boss and Alpha Aniimo have very low base catch rates, around 10% per attempt with common Aniipods, unless you use an Ultra. Throwing commons at an Alpha is a way to spend your whole bag and walk away with nothing.

The timing rule catches people out too. You cannot capture an Alpha mid-fight. You battle it, you defeat it, and only then can you throw, and the catch rate on that throw is still low. Each attempt also costs Primegy, Aniimo's energy resource, which regenerates over time and is separate from your in-combat stamina bar. So a failed Alpha catch is not free. It costs the pod and the energy, and the energy is what limits how many Alphas you can work through in a sitting. Finding and fighting world bosses is its own subject and has its own guide on this site; what belongs here is the throw at the end.

Legendary Aniimo work on a different system entirely, and it is the one case where no percentage is involved.

A Legendary must be defeated in battle during its one-time encounter before it can be captured. You then throw a Legendary Aniipod, which you crafted yourself beforehand, and the bond forms. The catch always succeeds. It is guaranteed rather than random.

Irisalis is the worked example: beat it in its story encounter, throw the crafted Legendary Aniipod, and it is bonded. The word "beforehand" is the important one. The pod has to already exist when the encounter happens, because the encounter happens once.

Standard Aniipods are the base tier and can be farmed infinitely, so you should never be short of them. Standard pods and Aniipod Pros also turn up throughout the open world while you explore, which means routine wandering keeps the low end of your bag topped up on its own.

Basic Aniipods can be crafted through Homeland systems using mined shells, and the Homeland produces Aniipods and Growth Fruit over time through facilities staffed by assigned Aniimo, which keep working while you are offline. Assigning those workers is covered in its own guide here; the point for capture is that pods accumulate whether you are playing or not.

For the tiers that matter, there are two routes up. Glimmer can be spent to acquire higher-tier Aniipods. Alternatively, a merchant will convert lower-tier pods into higher-tier ones at a two-to-one exchange ratio, which turns the endless supply of commons into something you would actually throw at an Alpha. That exchange is the quiet reason to keep farming standards long after you stop needing them.

06Where to start

Carry commons for everyday catches, convert or buy your way up, and keep at least one Ultra in the bag for anything that only appears once. Craft the Legendary Aniipod before the story encounter, not after.