Aniimo's beta is over and the gacha question never got answered

The third closed beta ended on July 25 with the servers wiped. It shipped a Legendary creature behind buyable draws, disclosed rates and a 99-stack pity counter, four weeks after the executive producer said creatures would not be locked behind pulls. Pawprint never addressed the contradiction on the record.

Pawprint Studio spent months telling people Aniimo is not a gacha game. In a Summer Game Fest interview, executive producer Jovi Zhang said the team did not think a gacha system fitted the way players are meant to find and bond with creatures in an open world, and that monetisation would centre on cosmetics. Jonathan Lemberg, speaking for the team at the same event, was more careful: monetisation was "not fully nailed down yet," it would be tested in the upcoming beta for the first time, and "the goal is definitely not a gacha game."

Those two statements did a lot of work. They are the reason a free-to-play creature collector got the benefit of the doubt from an audience that usually gives none.

Then the beta tested it, and the test did not match the promise.

What Rift Explorations actually did

The event was presented as a Challenge Dungeon called Rift Exploration: Irisalis. It ran on a timer, required account level 20, and each attempt cost one Crevice Beacon.

The in-game framing was careful. A newly born Legendary Aniimo has been sent into a frenzy, its form is unstable, and you are asked to use Aniipods to absorb the chaotic energy and help it calm down. During the process, the text said, the Legendary Aniimo "may offer you rewards, and could even recognize you as an ally."

Stripped of the language, the loop ran like this.

You entered and fought the creature. The stage objective read "Defeat the Frenzied Legendary Aniimo."

Then came the phase that mattered. Step two was "Prepare for calming," and it asked you to throw Aniipods at the creature to fill a meter. This was not capture in the ordinary sense: you could not catch Irisalis with an Aniipod. You were spending a stock of consumables across five tiers, and the tier you spent determined how much you got back. Spend the scarce Aniipod Ultras and you maximised the draw. Spend lower tiers and, by the original poster's account, you settled for roughly half.

Then a results screen resolved the draw, titled "Investigation Results," with the subheading "A Gift from the Legendary Aniimo."

That screenshot is a loss. The run paid out 42,000 gold and a handful of crystals instead of Irisalis. In gacha terms those crystals are the consolation drop, and they are the point.

The part that settled it

Two details moved this from "randomised reward" to something with a specific name.

The first was the pity system. Materials accumulated from failed runs were spent in a Crevice Exploration Shop, where Irisalis sat at the top of the list at a fixed price of 99. The screenshot below was taken at 52 of 99, Buy button still out of reach. The item description promised "the Legendary Aniimo Irisalis with a Perfect potential guaranteed."

A hard counter, a guaranteed payout at the top, and a currency that carried over to the next event is not an incidental drop table. It is pity, implemented the way every gacha on the market implements it.

The second detail was where Crevice Beacons came from. The item tooltip listed three sources, and the first was "Purchase from Crevice Exploration Shop."

Nobody spent real money on this. Premium currency in the beta was handed out by the developers for testing, and Western testers were not charged. But the plumbing was connected: premium currency bought gems, gems bought the Beacon, and the Beacon bought more pulls. That purchase path is what separated this from ordinary MMO loot rolls.

One thing worth crediting throughout: the rates were disclosed.

The case against calling it gacha

The community thread never reached consensus, and the dissent deserves to survive the beta.

The strongest objection came from a tester who cleared the event on day one without spending premium currency, using a stockpile of mid-tier Megas rather than Ultras. Their argument was definitional: gachapon means randomised prizes drawn from a pool, this was a single unique item, so the label did not apply.

It is a fair point that does not quite survive the screenshots. The Investigation Results screen shows a pool, because the outcome is either the creature or the materials, and the materials feed the counter. Modern gacha has worked this way for years. A Genshin limited banner is one featured character sitting on top of a consolation pool, and nobody argues that one out of the category.

Another tester also finished on day one without touching beta premium currency, and read the event as tedious rather than predatory. Their sharper worry was elsewhere: a creature named Fulmintis sitting behind paid battle pass content. Hold that name.

The most substantive counter pointed at the official Discord Q&A and community item databases. Their argument was that the event version is Irisalis Prismana, a perfect-stat variant, and that a normal Irisalis with random stats might be obtainable another way, with an Irisalis egg listed as a drop from Holo-Battle Interlink. The original poster replied that the egg comes from a fun box in the stamp shop and had been in the beta since launch.

At the time we called that dispute unresolved and the single thing most likely to change the story. Two weeks later there is a data point.

What the Bond Pact list shows

In the beta's final days, Pawprint ran a farewell event: Bond Pact, Seal Your Aniimo. Pick one creature you raised during the test, seal it in an egg, and reclaim it when the game launches. It ran July 24 to 25, and it is the one piece of continuity surviving a full data wipe.

The FAQ carries an exclusion list. Sealing does not apply to "Certain Special Aniimo: Helion, Lunara, Irisalis, Fulmintis, Dazmand, Besauce, Somniwing, etc."

Both names from the monetisation argument are on it. Irisalis, the pity-counter Legendary. Fulmintis, the battle pass creature. Whatever else "Special Aniimo" means internally, the practical effect is that the two creatures players identified as monetised are the two they cannot carry across the wipe for free.

This does not prove a launch gacha. It is a beta event with its own rules, and excluding event-exclusive creatures from a preservation scheme has an innocent reading. But it is the studio's own document, published after the controversy, sorting Irisalis into a separate class rather than treating it as an ordinary creature. That is the opposite of the reassurance the moment called for.

Why this is a trust story

The most interesting thing about the original thread is that the person who started it likes gacha games.

"This post is not intended as a bash on the game," they wrote. "I love the game and want our discourse to lead to feedback for the developers." Later: "I'm not saying gacha is an issue necessarily, but rather it's an issue of trust."

That framing is the whole thing. The complaint was never that Aniimo monetises. It is that the studio drew a line in public and the beta stepped over it, which leaves players unable to price the risk of investing in a game a quarter out from launch.

The counter-history is messier than either side allowed. One commenter pointed out that the Discord Q&A says the team does not want players to "win Aniimo via gacha," which is narrower than no gacha at all. A player who has been in the Discord since before the first beta, three betas deep, said community chatter was always about what the gacha would be, never whether there would be one.

Both can be true. A carefully worded Q&A answer, a producer telling a press outlet creatures will not be behind pulls, and a business lead saying monetisation is not nailed down are three different commitments. The second one is the one that travelled.

Where it stands now

The beta ended July 25 at 23:59 UTC+8, 11:59 UTC-4 for North America and 15:59 UTC+0 for Europe. Pawprint's closing notice describes it as "a limited-entry, free, data-wipe test," and confirms that "after the test ends, the servers will close and all game data from this test will be deleted."

On feedback, the notice says the team "recorded and sorted the issues and suggestions shared across all channels, followed up on them one by one, and addressed them through daily updates and targeted optimizations," and that player feedback will "remain one of the most important guides for improving Aniimo."

That is a thank-you note, not an answer. The closing notice says nothing about monetisation, nothing about the shop, and nothing about whether Rift Explorations represents the launch model. Developers acknowledged the reaction in Discord within a day of the thread, but two weeks on there is still no on-the-record statement reconciling the pity counter with what Zhang told the press in June.

Three things will tell you where this lands, and none of them can be checked until the next build.

Whether the mechanic survives into launch. Whether a non-perfect Irisalis turns out to be farmable, now that we know the studio files it under "Special." And whether real-money pricing appears for Crevice Beacons in a region that is not being handed free currency, which matters more than usual, given at least one tester has already raised how Dutch gambling law would treat it.

Every screen in the beta carried the same disclaimer: "Aniimo is still a work-in-progress! The final version of the game may be completely different." That caveat is real and it cuts both ways. Monetisation tests exist to be changed, and this one did its job by generating exactly this reaction. The question is whether the studio changes the mechanic, or just stops describing it.

Aniimo launches globally in Q3 2026 on PC, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X and S, iOS and Android. We will update this piece if Pawprint responds on the record.

FAQ

Is Aniimo a gacha game?

Pawprint Studio says no. Executive producer Jovi Zhang told press that creatures would not be locked behind pulls and that monetisation would centre on cosmetics. The third closed beta then shipped Rift Explorations, an event that put a Legendary creature behind a purchasable entry item, disclosed drop rates and a 99-stack guaranteed exchange. The studio has not reconciled the two on the record.

What was the Rift Explorations event?

A timed Challenge Dungeon in Aniimo's third closed beta, requiring account level 20 and one Crevice Beacon per attempt. You fought a Legendary Aniimo called Irisalis, then spent Aniipod consumables to fill a meter, and a results screen paid out either the creature or materials. The materials fed a counter that guaranteed Irisalis at 99.

Did Rift Explorations have a pity system?

Yes. Materials from failed runs were spent in the Crevice Exploration Shop, where Irisalis sat at a fixed price of 99 with "Perfect potential guaranteed." The currency carried over to the next event, which is how pity works in every gacha on the market.

Could you buy more Rift Explorations attempts with real money?

Not during the beta. Premium currency was handed out free by the developers for testing, and Western testers were never charged. But the path existed: premium currency bought gems, gems bought Crevice Beacons, and Beacons bought attempts. Whether real-money pricing appears at launch is still unknown.

Were the drop rates disclosed?

Yes. The event listed its percentages in-game. That is worth crediting and it is one of the few things nobody disputed.

When did the Aniimo closed beta end?

July 25, 2026, 23:59 UTC+8 for Asia-Pacific, 11:59 UTC-4 for North America and 15:59 UTC+0 for Europe. Pawprint describes it as "a limited-entry, free, data-wipe test," and all game data from it has been deleted.

Can I keep a creature from the beta?

Only through the Bond Pact event, which ran July 24 to 25 and let each tester seal one Aniimo in an egg to reclaim at launch. The FAQ excludes "Certain Special Aniimo," a list that includes both Irisalis and Fulmintis, the two creatures at the centre of the monetisation argument.

When does Aniimo launch?

Globally in Q3 2026, on PC, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X and S, iOS and Android.

Sources

• Aniimo Global Closed Beta End Notice, Pawprint Studio, consulted 26 July 2026
• Aniimo Global Closed Beta Bond Pact Event FAQ, Pawprint Studio, consulted 26 July 2026
• Aniimo producer on monetisation, MMOHuts, consulted 26 July 2026

Written by

Lorenzo Bruno signs this article and takes editorial responsibility for it. Published 26 July 2026, last updated 26 July 2026.