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Wild Aniimo Capture and Aniipods
Wild capture in Aniimo rewards preparation over luck, and the top-tier pod turns the hardest catches into a formality.
The short version
- Alpha Aniimo only become catchable after you defeat them in combat, and Legendary Aniimo must be beaten during the encounter before a pod will work.
- A defeated Alpha plus an Aniipod Ultra is reported to be a guaranteed capture. Lower pods can work on an Alpha such as Stellarys, but nothing is promised.
- Stealth matters. Approaching from behind raises your catch rate, as do traps, positioning and using the environment.
- Pods come in tiers, and higher tiers carry higher base success rates. The beta lineup was Aniipod, Pro, Mega, Hyper, Ultra, Trace and Sparkling.
- Aniipod Ultras can be bought with Glimmers, and you can build an Aniipod Maker in your Homeland base to produce pods yourself.
- Hatching an egg with an Aniipod Ultra guarantees the result has a Potential rating of at least Elite.
- Wild Aniimo scale their level and difficulty to your World Level.
- A perk from region collection progress unlocks an alert for nearby Sparkling Aniimo. You do not have it at the start.
Catching wild Aniimo is not one action. It is a chain of small decisions that start well before you throw anything: how you approach, what you set down first, where the fight happens, and which pod is in your hand at the end.
Most of that chain is optional. You can walk up to a creature and throw. But the game gives you several ways to load the odds in your favour, and against the rarest targets the difference between a prepared attempt and a careless one is the difference between a capture and a wasted pod.
This guide covers the mechanics in the order they actually matter to you. Everything here comes from beta footage, so treat the specifics as a snapshot of that build.
Alphas and Legendaries have to be beaten first
Wild Alpha Aniimo are not catchable on sight. They become catchable once they have been defeated in combat, so the pod is the last step of a fight, not a way to skip one. Legendary Aniimo work the same way: you have to defeat the Legendary during its encounter before throwing an Aniipod at it will do anything.
Once an Alpha is down, the pod you choose decides how the story ends. Defeating an Alpha and then throwing an Aniipod Ultra at it is reported to be a guaranteed capture, a flat 100%. Use anything else and you are back to rolling dice. Catching an Alpha such as Stellarys with a lower pod is possible, it just is not guaranteed, and a failed throw on a creature you have just fought is a painful way to learn that.
The practical reading: if you have an Ultra and you are standing over a defeated Alpha, use it. That is the exact situation it exists for.
100%
Capture chance on a defeated Alpha with an Aniipod Ultra
Stacking the odds before you throw
Capture chance is not fixed. You can improve it by approaching an Aniimo without alerting it, by placing traps, by choosing good positioning, and by taking advantage of the environment. These are separate levers and they are all available on ordinary catches, not just headline targets.
The simplest one to build into your habits is the approach. Coming at an Aniimo from behind before you attempt a capture increases the catch rate. It costs you nothing except patience, which makes it the first thing to get right and the easiest thing to forget when a creature you want is standing in the open.
There is also a branch upgrade that improves catch rates for certain Aniimo. It is worth knowing that exists, because it means some of your capture performance is a progression choice rather than a throwing skill.
Pod tiers and where pods come from
Aniipods come in multiple tiers, and higher tiers have higher base capture success rates. That improved base rate is what carries you against stronger creatures, where a standard pod is doing most of the work on hope. During the beta the available variants were the standard Aniipod, Pro, Mega, Hyper, Ultra, Trace and Sparkling, with Ultra sitting at the top of the range.
You have two ways to keep yourself stocked. Glimmers can be spent to buy Aniipod Ultras, and you can build an Aniipod Maker in your Homeland base to produce your own pods. The Homeland route is the reason base building is not a side activity for a catcher. Your production sits there.
Because Ultras are both purchasable and the guaranteed answer to an Alpha, they are the resource worth budgeting. Everything below the top tier is for volume.
Aniipod Ultra
- Top tier of the Aniipod capture devices.
- Purchased with Glimmers.
- Secures the capture of a defeated Alpha such as Stellarys.
- Also guarantees a hatched Aniimo of at least Elite Potential.
Lower tier Aniipods
- Lower base capture success rate than higher tiers.
- Catching an Alpha is possible but not guaranteed.
- Beta variants included the standard Aniipod, Pro, Mega, Hyper, Trace and Sparkling.
- Can be produced yourself with an Aniipod Maker built in your Homeland base.
The other use for an Aniipod Ultra
Pods are not only for wild creatures. Hatching an egg with an Aniipod Ultra guarantees that the hatched Aniimo will have a Potential rating of at least Elite.
That puts your Ultras in competition with themselves. Every one you spend on an egg is one you do not have for a defeated Alpha, and every one you throw at an Alpha is a guaranteed Elite floor you did not take. Neither use is wrong. Just decide deliberately, because a stack of Ultras is worth more than the sum of individual throws.
The overworld moves with you
The level and difficulty of wild Aniimo in the overworld scale according to your World Level. You do not outgrow an area and start collecting free catches in it. If Alphas and Legendaries have to be defeated before capture, then the fight in front of a catch keeps pace with you for as long as you play.
Finding rare targets is partly a progression matter too. An in-game alert tells you when a Sparkling Aniimo is nearby, but that detection is unlocked through a region collection-progress perk rather than being active from the start. Until you have earned it, Sparklings pass you without a word.
Where to start
Save your Aniipod Ultras for Alphas and Legendaries you have already knocked down, and for eggs. Everything else you catch with cheap pods and good habits: come in from behind, set traps, take the fight to ground that suits you.
Questions this answers
Each of these is answered on its own page, with the sources behind it.
Built from 14 facts gathered before launch, each checked against the sources it came from. How we know this, and who we learned it from.