How to Catch Legendary Aniimo

Aniimo are caught in the open world, legendaries included. There is no gacha banner for them. Instead, catching a Legendary Aniimo follows a fixed sequence. You craft its Legendary Aniipod from legendary tokens. Crafting the pod unlocks the creature's exclusive one-time story encounter. You defeat the legendary in battle, and then you throw the pod you crafted to form a bond with it.

The throw cannot fail. Because you made the pod yourself, the capture is guaranteed rather than random, and special crafted pods always succeed. Irisalis set the template here, and legendary encounters follow the same pattern.

This is a change from the closed beta. Back then, legendary capture was repeatable and came down to luck. At launch it was replaced with Legendary Tokens earned through world exploration and story progress, a crafted Legendary Aniipod, and one scripted encounter in which defeating the legendary and using your crafted pod captures it with 100% certainty. You get one shot at the encounter, but the shot is certain to land.

Irisalis is the legendary attached to the Windchasers Departure Legendary Journey event, which runs until December. It is obtainable only during Season 1, so if you want it, this is the window.

Everything runs through the Legendary Journey section of the event menu. You get Irisalis by completing the missions there, and the Legendary Journey tab on the events page tracks how far along you are. It shows the Iris Petals you have collected and the requirements you still need to meet.

Iris Petals (also called Irisalis Petals) are the currency. Collecting enough of them hits milestones that unlock rewards, and the legendary Irisalis encounter is one of those rewards. You also spend petals in the event menu to craft legendary Aniipods. The first is the Irisalis Aniipod, which appears as the Irisalis cube and is what summons and captures Irisalis. With more petals you can then craft a second pod, Wind Chaser's Departure.

One steady source of petals is Memory: The Faded Rainbow, an investigation in the weekly rotation. You start it by selecting the faded rainbow on the Weekly Rotation tab. It is a refight against the legendary and it costs energy to run.

Each clear awards 3 petals directly, and you can only clear it twice per reset, for up to 6 petals in that period. The catch is that unclaimed rewards are lost when the reset passes, so a skipped run is gone for good rather than banked.

How often it resets is not settled. It is given both as weekly, on Monday at 4:00 a.m., and as every 3 days. Until that is clear, the safe habit is to run both clears as soon as they are available.

Crafting the legendary Aniipod is what starts the hunt. It begins the search for Irisalis, detects its trails, and opens the rift space where you fight it.

The fight is not difficult. It is easier than the weekly investigation boss, so you do not need a perfect team to get through it. Once you win, you use the legendary Anipod during the soothe interaction to make the capture.

The one thing to respect is that the narrative boss encounter against Irisalis can only be completed once. Treat it as a single scripted event rather than something to retry at leisure.

Wind Chaser's Departure, also called Departure of the Wind, is the premium legendary Anipod and the reason to keep collecting petals after the first one. Aniimo caught with it carry exclusive seasonal perks: they are guaranteed to appear in sparkling form and to have perfect innate potential. It is also a crafted pod, so a catch with it always succeeds.

There is also the legendary Ultra Anipod (Annipod Ultra), which guarantees a 100% capture rate, including on boss and Alpha Aniimo.

As for Irisalis in a fight, its Bloom Cluster grants it 1 Dance Power whenever one of its clones lands a hit. At 9 Dance Power, its next skill costs 50% less EP.

Prismana spirits also come from outside the event. Reaching Junior Traveler rank or Pathfinder level 40 lets you choose a regional Prismana spirit.

The legendary's name is spelled several ways in game text and around the community: Irisalis, Iris, Erissalis, Iris Alice and Iris Aalis all refer to the same creature. Its first pod shows up as the Irisalis Aniipod, the Irisalis cube and Iris Solis. The premium pod appears as Wind Chaser's Departure, Windchaser Departure and Departure of the Wind.

Which Aniimo counts as the first legendary is also unsettled. Resalis is described as the first legendary players obtain, and Irisalis as the first legendary introduced to the game. For catching purposes it makes no difference. Irisalis is the one with a live event and a deadline.

07Where to start

Do the Legendary Journey missions, run The Faded Rainbow twice every reset so no petals expire, and craft the Irisalis Aniipod. Then beat the one-time encounter and throw. If you have petals left over, put them toward Wind Chaser's Departure for a guaranteed sparkling catch with perfect innate potential. All of it has to happen before the event ends in December.