Best Early Game Aniimo Team - Aniimos You Need to Catch

Aniimo throws a lot of creatures at you in the opening hours, and it's tempting to just catch whatever looks cool and hope four random picks add up to a decent team. Each Aniimo has an elemental and combat type, and mixing and synergising these is key to success. A team of four damage dealers looks strong on paper and then falls apart the moment something needs breaking or your healer's not there to save you.

The good news is you don't need to chase every Aniimo in the game to get through the early hours comfortably. This guide runs through the early Aniimo worth prioritising, what each one does, and where to find them, plus a few honourable mentions worth grabbing along the way even if they don't make your main four.

Your starter, Helion or Lunara, is already your main damage dealer and needs no introduction. What it usually lacks is range, which is where Celestis comes in.

Celestis is a dark-type ranged attacker and it's an easy Aniimo to learn: attack with your basics, spend EP on skills when you have it, then go back to basics. It's one of the most reliable early catches specifically because it's useful outside combat too. It can climb walls and glide through the air, which makes exploring the map considerably less painful before you unlock better traversal tools.

You'll find Celestis in the Forest of Falling Stars just north of the starting area, and also around the Nimbus Fields.

Celestis evolves into Stellarys, a considerably stronger version of the same ranged, dark-damage kit, with better range and reach.

New players tend to skip the break role entirely because it doesn't come with a big attack number to get excited about. It's important for combat however, as breaking an enemy opens a window where your main damage dealer does dramatically more damage, and on top of that, an enemy that's in a broken state is also easier to catch, so a good breaker makes the rest of your catching easier too.

Pomegg fills this role early on. You'll find Pomegg in the Forest of Falling Stars, but if you don't fancy them, Budclaw is a solid alternative: a rock-type breaker with a passive that builds Momentum from landing hits and boosts break efficiency by 30% once fully stacked. It's found in the Argan Strait.

Every early team needs something keeping it alive, and Flutternym is the healer for early game. What makes it worth prioritising is that it does useful work even when it isn't your active Aniimo: while off-field, it appears as a phantom companion and restores a small amount of HP whenever your other team members use skills or ultimates.

When you do want it active, its cleanse ability strips debuffs from nearby teammates and boosts their EP recovery by 20% for ten seconds afterwards. It also has an area heal that restores the whole team's HP over time.

You'll find Flutternym in Nimbus Fields and it evolves into Gracewing, which keeps the same cleanse-and-heal kit but adds a stronger team-wide heal on its ultimate.

Emberpup doesn't necessarily need to be one of your main four, but it solves a problem the other picks don't: a huge amount of Aniimo's world design leans on fire, whether that's burning through obstacles blocking a path or melting ice in colder regions. Without a fire-type on hand, you'll be backtracking to deal with these constantly.

It's also a useful damage dealer in its own right, with a passive that adds bonus damage against enemies weak to fire. Its standout feature, though, is Hustle, a movement skill that boosts speed while consuming stamina, which works out as one of the fastest ways to cross the map in the early game.

Emberpup evolves twice more, through Flameruff and into Scorchhowl / Inferlupa, making it a strong investment throughout multiple stages of the game.

A few more are worth keeping an eye out for, even if they're not essential to your first team.

Nimbi is a wind support found in Nimbus Fields. It's not going to carry fights on its own, but its shield ability reduces your team's stamina consumption, and it comes with a higher jump and an air dash that make exploring noticeably easier. It evolves into Turbo, which leans further into the support role with a team-wide damage and break-efficiency buff.

Skippy is a water healer that some sources suggest as a second option if you haven't found a Flutternym yet, though there's little reason to build both at once since they solve the same problem.

Helmut is a tanky pick with strong break.

Don't fill your team with damage dealers just because they have the biggest attack numbers. A good early team covers four different jobs: your starter as main damage, Celestis for range, Pomegg or Budclaw for break, and Flutternym for healing. There are other Aniimo combinations you can run, but this is a solid option for early game.

The basic rhythm in a fight is simple: lead with your main damage dealer, swap in your breaker when an enemy needs pressuring, capitalise on the broken window with your strongest attacker, and bring your healer in when things get messy.

None of this is your forever team, either. As you catch stronger Aniimo and figure out what you enjoy playing, you'll naturally start replacing pieces of it. Just replace like for like: a new damage dealer competes with your existing damage slot, a new breaker competes with Pomegg, and so on, rather than throwing the whole structure out.