Honkai: Nexus Anima Gacha Guide: Banners and Pity
How the Honkai: Nexus Anima gacha works: the Eidos and Anima Standard Bonds, Aspect Gem and Nexus Wisp currencies, pity, and spending pulls wisely.
Honkai: Nexus Anima runs a gacha, and it runs two of them side by side. The client calls a pull a Bond, and there are two permanent banners: the Eidos Standard Bond for characters and the Anima Standard Bond for the creatures that fight for you. Each has its own pull ticket, each guarantees at least one 4-star or better every 10 pulls, and both are marked Permanent, so nothing currently in the pool is about to rotate away.
The short version of where to spend: Eidos are the banner that matters. They set and amplify your team Aspect synergies, which is the single biggest lever on how a formation performs. Anima pulls are a convenience, because a lot of the roster can simply be caught out in the world.
Key takeaways
- Two permanent banners, not one. The Eidos Standard Bond pulls characters, the Anima Standard Bond pulls creatures, and both are labelled Bond Type: Permanent.
- They use separate tickets. Nexus Trace pulls Eidos, Nexus Wisp pulls Anima, and the two do not convert into each other.
- Six 5-star Eidos are in the pool, including Blade, Parayaya, and Olympia, with Kiana and Otto sitting at 4-star.
- The 10-pull guarantee is confirmed. Both banners state that every 10 Bonds includes at least one 4-star or higher.
- There is no 5-star pity yet. No counter exists in the client, and the 80-pull figure you see quoted is borrowed from other HoYoverse games rather than measured here.
- Aspect Gems are the premium currency, and they also fund the deterministic 5-star picks covered in our reroll guide.
- Prioritise Eidos. They drive Aspect synergy, and many Anima are catchable in the overworld for free.
The two Standard Bonds
Open the Encounters screen and you get two tabs down the left side. The top one is the Eidos Standard Bond, presented as “Those You’ve Met”, an open notebook of character cards. The lower one is the Anima Standard Bond, presented as “Anima of the World”, a boxed creature display on a desk.
Both are permanent Encounters features, and the Eidos side is the one people plan around.
| Eidos Standard Bond | Anima Standard Bond | |
|---|---|---|
| In-game name | “Those You’ve Met” | “Anima of the World” |
| Bond Type | Permanent | Permanent |
| What you pull | Eidos, the humanoid characters | Nexus Anima, the creature companions |
| Rarities | 4-star and 5-star | 3-star, 4-star, and 5-star |
| Pull currency | Nexus Trace | Nexus Wisp |
| Stated guarantee | At least one 4-star or higher every 10 Bonds | At least one 4-star or higher every 10 Bonds |
| Duplicates | Convert to Eidothread | Stack as extra copies |
| Pull options | Bond x1, Bond x10 | Bond x1, Bond x10 |
Both screens also carry a Bond History button and a Preview button, so the full pool is inspectable in the client rather than being a black box. That is a small thing, but it means the odds and contents are checkable by players once the game publishes them.
The Eidos Standard Bond presents its character pool as an open notebook, with Blade, Parayaya, and Hungrille among the featured 5-stars.
The full Eidos Standard Bond pool
The banner’s details panel lists the whole pool, so there is no guesswork about who you can hit.
| Rarity | Eidos in the pool |
|---|---|
| 5-star | Olympia, Herocrates, Bai Mei, Blade, Parayaya, Hungrille |
| 4-star | Breadhead, Nanafey, Hua, Kiana, Maple Manybell, Shilian, Otto |
Honkai Impact 3rd players tend to do a double take at that second row: Kiana and Otto are both 4-star here, not 5-star. Familiar name recognition is not a rarity signal in this game.
One quirk worth knowing before you spend: the Eidos banner can also hand you 3-star and 4-star Anima, so it is not a pure character banner. The Anima Standard Bond does not work in reverse, and yields only Anima.
The Eidos Standard Bond details panel lists the full pool and the 10-Bond guarantee in plain text.
Eidos and Anima: getting the terms straight
Two words, two very different things, and mixing them up is the most common mistake new players make.
| Term | What it means |
|---|---|
| Eidos | The humanoid characters you pull and build. They buff your squad, cast active skills, level their own skill trees, and set your Aspect synergies. The client names them possessively, as “Blade’s Eidos” or “Olympia’s Eidos.” |
| Anima | The creature companions, full name Nexus Anima. These are the units that do the actual fighting on the board. |
The rarity spread is the quickest way to keep them apart. Eidos come at 4-star and 5-star only, while Anima run 3-star, 4-star, and 5-star. You can browse both on our character roster and in the Anima dex.
One correction worth making: we previously described Eidos as a system for letting a friend’s Anima assist you in battle. That was incomplete. Eidos are playable characters with their own banner.
Why Eidos matter more than Anima
Aspect synergy is the mechanic that decides whether a formation works. Anima that share an Aspect buff each other, and your Eidos amplifies units matching its own Aspect on top of that. Pulling an Eidos therefore does not just add one unit, it changes which of your existing Anima are worth fielding.
Anima pulls are softer. The Anima Standard Bond currently holds 19 5-star Anima, but plenty of the roster, 5-stars included, is catchable during exploration or handed out through events and progression rewards. That banner mostly accelerates a collection you can build for free.
Eidos skills are the part you cannot farm. They are gacha-exclusive, they carry the passives and actives that swing a fight, and the characters you pull are the ones you get to run around the overworld as. If you are choosing where a limited budget goes, the Eidos side compounds and the Anima side does not.
The currencies
Three currencies matter here: one premium currency above both banners, and one pull ticket per banner. Conflating them is the easiest mistake to make.
Aspect Gems are the premium hard currency. The item description reads that it is a gem which hastens the birth of Nexus Anima and is accepted as hard currency across the Planes, with a second line about the Nexus crystallising and the light and shadow of Aspects converging. It is a 5-star item, and its detail panel routes onward to three destinations: the Apex Club, the Infinite Vortex, and Thesophool’s Riddles.
That last one is worth noting, because Riddles is also the endgame content players report clearing without a full 5-star roster. Aspect Gems are not purely a gacha currency, they are the general spending currency the game funnels you toward.
Aspect Gem is the premium hard currency, and its detail panel routes to the Apex Club, the Infinite Vortex, and Thesophool’s Riddles.
Aspect Gems also fund the milestone 5-star picks at account Levels 18, 21, and 24. Those picks are deterministic: you choose the unit rather than rolling for it. That system is a separate track from the banners and it is covered in full in our reroll guide.
Nexus Wisp, the Anima Bond ticket
Nexus Wisp is the pull ticket for the Anima Standard Bond, and the item text says exactly that. It describes them as tiny wisps of fate collected via sundry actions in the current version of the universe, which is a florid way of saying you accumulate them from ordinary play.
They are also buyable. A Nexus Wisp costs 80 coins with a purchase cap on the transaction, so the store route is a top-up rather than an unlimited faucet.
Nexus Wisp is the Anima Standard Bond ticket, earned through ordinary play and also purchasable in limited quantity.
Nexus Trace, the Eidos Bond ticket
The Eidos Standard Bond runs on its own ticket, Nexus Trace. The banner’s own details panel spells it out: it is a permanent Encounters feature where you use Nexus Traces to Bond. That is why you can be flush on one banner and empty on the other, and tickets do not convert between the two, so hoarding on the Anima side does nothing for your Eidos pulls.
Nexus Trace, the gold four-pointed star that funds Eidos pulls. Easy to mistake for a Nexus Wisp at a glance, so check the colour before you spend.
Aspect Gems sit above both. They are the currency you redeem downward into either ticket, which is why the gem balance shows in the top bar of both Bond screens regardless of which banner you have open.
Pity and guarantees: what is confirmed and what is not
This is where most gacha guides start inventing things, so we will be blunt about the line between the two.
Confirmed on screen. Both banners display the same guarantee: every 10 Bonds is guaranteed to include at least one 4-star or higher. On the Anima banner that reads as 4-star or higher Anima, on the Eidos banner as 4-star or higher Eidos. That is a real, quotable, in-client guarantee.
Not present. There is no 5-star pity counter in the client at all, no published rate table, and no soft pity behaviour anyone has demonstrated. Nothing tells you how close you are to a 5-star.
The likeliest reading is that pity simply has not been implemented yet rather than that the game intends to ship without it. Every other HoYoverse title has a hard pity, and the details panel says outright that the current version does not represent the final release. Plan as though pity will exist, but do not plan around a specific number.
| Detail | Status |
|---|---|
| Banners are permanent | Confirmed in client (Bond Type: Permanent) |
| 4-star or higher every 10 Bonds | Confirmed in client |
| Separate ticket per banner | Confirmed in client |
| Nexus Wisp store price of 80 | Confirmed in client, subject to change |
| Eidos pool contents | Confirmed in the banner details panel |
| 5-star pity threshold | Not implemented |
| Published pull rates | Unknown |
| Rate-up or featured mechanics | Unknown |
You will see a figure of roughly 80 pulls for a guaranteed 5-star quoted in community discussion. That number is an extrapolation from how Genshin Impact, Honkai: Star Rail, and Zenless Zone Zero settled, and it is a reasonable guess about a studio that has been consistent. It is not a Nexus Anima measurement, and we are not going to print it as one. Treat it as a planning assumption, not a fact.
Standard now, limited later
Every character currently in the pool appears to be standard, meaning permanently available. Both banners say Permanent on the tin, and there is no rotating or featured banner alongside them.
The reasonable expectation is that this changes. Every other HoYoverse title runs time-limited character banners on a patch cycle, with reruns arriving months later if at all. If that pattern holds, the current standard pool is the floor of what will always be available, and new arrivals will be the ones that pressure your savings.
Plan for that rather than around it. Resources spent on a permanent pool are resources you cannot spend on a limited unit you actually want, and a permanent pool is the one thing that will still be there when you get back to it.
Duplicate copies
Duplicates are not dead pulls, but they are also not gates. The two banners handle them differently.
Duplicate Eidos convert into Eidothread, the material that enhances that specific Eidos. That sits alongside Eidognosis, each Eidos having its own skill tree to level. Duplicate Anima simply stack as extra copies of the creature.
- Extra copies unlock bonus abilities. Community reporting describes effects such as crowd control, anti-heal, and stronger area damage unlocking at the second or third copy.
- The base copy is complete. A single copy is fully functional for clearing content. Duplicates improve a unit rather than finishing it.
- Low rarity units want stacking more. 3-star and 4-star units benefit from multiple copies, and conveniently they are the easiest to accumulate, both from pulls and from catching more Anima in the overworld.
- Mixed rarity is fine. Because synergy keys off Aspect rather than rarity, a team blending 3, 4, and 5-star units is often better than an unsynergised board of 5-stars.
That last point is the one that saves people money. Check the Aspect synergy guide before assuming you need a rarity upgrade, because the fix is frequently a cheaper unit that shares an Aspect.
Is it free to play friendly?
On the evidence so far, yes, with the usual caveat that monetisation is the part of any gacha most likely to tighten between versions.
Endgame content, Thesophool’s Riddles included, is reported as clearable without a complete 5-star roster. A small, well-constructed team is enough. Several 5-star Anima are obtainable free through overworld exploration, events, and progression rewards, which is a meaningful difference from a game where every top-rarity unit sits behind a banner.
Damage dealers also exist at every rarity. 5-stars have stronger base stats and richer kits, but the role is not locked to them, so a free account is not structurally short of a win condition. Browse the Anima dex and the tier list and you will find capable units well below the top rarity.
The honest caveat: the economy is not finished, and generosity is the easiest thing for a gacha to tighten later. Take the above as a signal about design intent rather than a promise.
How to spend your pulls
- Favour the Eidos Standard Bond. It is the banner that changes how your whole roster performs, because Eidos drive Aspect synergy.
- Hold a reserve. Both current banners are permanent and will still be there later. Anything time-limited that arrives will not be, so a stockpile is worth more than a full collection of units you could have pulled at any time.
- Pull in tens, not singles. The only confirmed guarantee triggers on a 10-Bond, so single pulls give up the one piece of certainty the system offers.
- Do not spend Aspect Gems before Level 18. The milestone picks are deterministic 5-stars, and gems spent early are picks forfeited. Our reroll guide covers which unit to take.
- Catch before you pull. If an Anima you want is available in the overworld, the exploration guide is a cheaper route than the banner.
- Decide your Aspect first. Work out the formation you are building in the formation planner, then pull toward it rather than pulling and rebuilding afterwards.
Frequently asked questions
Does Honkai: Nexus Anima have a gacha?
Yes. The game runs two pull banners, both called Bonds: the Eidos Standard Bond for characters and the Anima Standard Bond for creatures. Both are labelled Permanent, so everything currently in the pool stays available rather than rotating out. Anima are also caught in the overworld, so the gacha sits alongside exploration rather than replacing it.
What is the difference between the Eidos and Anima Standard Bonds?
The Eidos Standard Bond pulls Eidos, the humanoid characters, using Nexus Trace. The Anima Standard Bond pulls Nexus Anima, the creature companions, using Nexus Wisp. Eidos matter more because they set and boost your team Aspect synergies, while many Anima can simply be caught in the overworld instead of pulled.
Which 5-star Eidos can you pull from the Eidos Standard Bond?
Six: Olympia, Herocrates, Bai Mei, Blade, Parayaya, and Hungrille. The 4-star pool includes Breadhead, Nanafey, Hua, Kiana, Maple Manybell, Shilian, and Otto. Honkai Impact 3rd players should note that Kiana and Otto both sit at 4-star rather than 5-star.
What are Aspect Gems used for in Honkai: Nexus Anima?
Aspect Gems are the premium hard currency. The in-game description calls the gem something that hastens the birth of Nexus Anima and is accepted as hard currency across the Planes, and its detail panel routes to the Apex Club, the Infinite Vortex, and Thesophool’s Riddles. They also fund the deterministic 5-star picks at account Levels 18, 21, and 24.
What is a Nexus Wisp?
A Nexus Wisp is the pull ticket for the Anima Standard Bond. The item description calls them tiny wisps of fate collected via sundry actions in the current version of the universe. They can also be bought from the store, at a cost of 80 coins each, with a purchase cap in place. The Eidos Standard Bond uses a separate ticket, Nexus Trace, and the two do not convert into each other.
Does Honkai: Nexus Anima have a pity system?
A partial one. Both banners state in the client that every 10 Bonds is guaranteed to include at least one 4-star or higher. Beyond that there is no 5-star pity counter in the client at all, which most likely means it is not implemented yet rather than that the game will ship without one. Figures circulating around 80 pulls come from other HoYoverse titles and are not Nexus Anima numbers.
Is Honkai: Nexus Anima free to play friendly?
It looks that way so far. Endgame content is reportedly clearable without a full 5-star roster, a number of 5-star Anima come free from exploration, events, and progression rewards, and damage dealers exist at 3, 4, and 5 stars. Duplicates unlock extra effects but do not gate content behind them.
Bottom line
Nexus Anima runs a conventional two-banner gacha wrapped in unusually pleasant presentation, and the important structural detail is that both banners are permanent with independent tickets. The only guarantee the game has committed to on screen is one 4-star or better per 10 pulls. Everything past that, including the 5-star pity everyone wants a number for, is still unpublished.
What to do with that: pull tens rather than singles, weight the Eidos banner over the Anima banner, hold your Aspect Gems until the Level 18 milestone, and remember that catching Anima in the world costs nothing. Since both banners are permanent, there is no clock forcing you to spend today.
The most useful preparation is roster knowledge rather than currency. Work out which Aspect you want to commit to with the Aspect synergy guide, test formations in the planner, read up on how bonding and evolution turn a pulled unit into a finished one, and check the beginner progression guide for the order it all unlocks in. We will update this page with real rates and pity numbers the moment HoYoverse publishes them.
Frequently asked questions
- Does Honkai: Nexus Anima have a gacha?
- Yes. The game runs two pull banners, both called Bonds: the Eidos Standard Bond for characters and the Anima Standard Bond for creatures. Both are labelled Permanent, so everything currently in the pool stays available rather than rotating out. Anima are also caught in the overworld, so the gacha sits alongside exploration rather than replacing it.
- What is the difference between the Eidos and Anima Standard Bonds?
- The Eidos Standard Bond pulls Eidos, the humanoid characters, using Nexus Trace. The Anima Standard Bond pulls Nexus Anima, the creature companions, using Nexus Wisp. Eidos matter more because they set and boost your team Aspect synergies, while many Anima can simply be caught in the overworld instead of pulled.
- Which 5-star Eidos can you pull from the Eidos Standard Bond?
- Six: Olympia, Herocrates, Bai Mei, Blade, Parayaya, and Hungrille. The 4-star pool includes Breadhead, Nanafey, Hua, Kiana, Maple Manybell, Shilian, and Otto. Honkai Impact 3rd players should note that Kiana and Otto both sit at 4-star rather than 5-star.
- What are Aspect Gems used for in Honkai: Nexus Anima?
- Aspect Gems are the premium hard currency. The in-game description calls the gem something that hastens the birth of Nexus Anima and is accepted as hard currency across the Planes, and its detail panel routes to the Apex Club, the Infinite Vortex, and Thesophool's Riddles. They also fund the deterministic 5-star picks at account Levels 18, 21, and 24.
- What is a Nexus Wisp?
- A Nexus Wisp is the pull ticket for the Anima Standard Bond. The item description calls them tiny wisps of fate collected via sundry actions in the current version of the universe. They can also be bought from the store, at a cost of 80 coins each, with a purchase cap in place. The Eidos Standard Bond uses a separate ticket, Nexus Trace, and the two do not convert into each other.
- Does Honkai: Nexus Anima have a pity system?
- A partial one is confirmed. Both banners state in the client that every 10 Bonds is guaranteed to include at least one 4-star or higher. Beyond that there is no 5-star pity counter in the client at all, which most likely means it is not implemented yet rather than that the game will ship without one. Figures circulating around 80 pulls come from other HoYoverse titles and are not Nexus Anima numbers.
- Is Honkai: Nexus Anima free to play friendly?
- It looks that way so far. Endgame content is reportedly clearable without a full 5-star roster, a number of 5-star Anima come free from exploration, events, and progression rewards, and damage dealers exist at 3, 4, and 5 stars. Duplicates unlock extra effects but do not gate content behind them.