A free account reaches the same direct Potential ceiling as a paying one. Capture grade changes the material bill, not the destination. What a no-spend player has to get right is which four creatures deserve the materials.
These are destinations, not catches. The early catch guide covers which base stages to grab and where. This post is what those base stages become and who eats the materials first.
Why these four, and why not letter grades
The community board mirrors 227 entries, and 667 raw ballots sit behind the whole thing. Spread that out and most creatures are carrying single digits. Scorchhowl's base entry has exactly three votes, and they read S, B and C. A board that thin ranks nothing; it records that three people had opinions.
So we pick on kits, roles and funding cost, because that is what pre-launch votes cannot settle. Four criteria, applied in order:
- Role coverage. DPS twice at different ranges, Heal once, and one attacker built to profit from BREAK. Four jobs, four lines.
- Catchability of the base stage. Three of the four bases share Nimbus Fields. That is one loop, not four expeditions.
- Funding cost. Every pick evolves on level and a clearable condition. None of them wait on a rarity gate.
- Kit evidence. Published skill text, trait text and stat lines, read directly rather than inferred from a rank.
- Destination picks
- 4
- Regions needed
- 2
- Evolution levels
- 18, 20, 21, 45
- Stellarys ATK
- 125
- Board entries
- 227
- Raw ballots
- 667
The four destinations
| Job | Destination | Base catch and where | What it brings |
|---|---|---|---|
| Fire carry | Scorchhowl | Emberpup in Nimbus Fields | Hustle travel, plus fire, earth and electric attacks |
| Ranged magic | Stellarys | Celestis in Nimbus Fields | 125 ATK, a decoy clone, dark, ice and water coverage |
| Team healer | Gracewing | Flutternym in Nimbus Fields | Off-field healing plus a 30% whole-team Ultimate |
| BREAK payoff | Pawney | Helmut in Russet Highlands | 128 ATK and 30% extra damage into controlled targets |
Scorchhowl, the first full investment
Emberpup evolves into Flameruff at level 12 after clearing the First Spark Sanctum, then into Scorchhowl at level 20 once you beat the Alpha Scorchhowl. Both gates are ordinary progression, so the whole line finishes on things a free account does anyway.
The finished kit is DPS with 115 ATK, a 170 might Ultimate in Falling Star, and Scorching Flames, a trait worth 15% extra damage against enemies weak to your element. It keeps Hustle the whole way up, so the carry you fund first is also the one that shortens every route you walk.
Stellarys, range without a second farm
Celestis shares the Nimbus loop and evolves directly into Stellarys at level 18 after an Alpha Stellarys kill. One catch, one fight, one stage.
Its current entry reads 125 ATK. The 145 figure still circulating belongs to an older build. Shadow Magic breaks control, retreats and leaves a clone that copies your attacks for 20% of your damage, and you can swap back to it while it stands in range. Dark, ice and water attacks cover the elements the fire line does not, which is the real argument for this slot over a second melee attacker.
Gracewing, the slot that stays useful off field
Flutternym evolves at level 21 with no other condition attached, the cheapest upgrade of the four. The Flutter Heal trait survives the evolution: while Gracewing is off field it appears as a phantom and restores 0.5% of max HP every time another Aniimo casts a skill or Ultimate.
On field, Healing Dance lays a warm wind area that heals the whole team for 9% of the caster's max HP over 8 seconds, and the Ultimate restores 30% of max HP to everyone at once. With 110 HP and 100 EP Regen on the stat card, the percentages it pays out are worth having.
Pawney, the one that needs the rest of the team
Helmut is the BREAK catch, and it lives in Russet Highlands rather than Nimbus Fields. At level 45 it branches: pull the Sword of Bravery and you get Pawney, while the other branch becomes Rookey.
Pawney is DPS, not a breaker. Pursuit gives it 30% extra damage against targets under control effects or in BREAK, Elastic Sword pulls normal targets into position, and its Ultimate adds another 30% against BREAK targets for 15 seconds. Level 45 also makes it the last slot you finish, which suits a unit whose whole design assumes the rest of the team already works.
The flex mention: Nimbi
Beta signal Nimbi is #018, Wind, official role Support, 93 EP Regen, and it carries no rank on the board at all. Beta-era community chatter treated it as a support anchor, and that read is provisional, from beta voting rather than from anything published.
The kit is on the record. Shrouded in Mist builds after six basic attacks, and the next skill consumes it for an enhanced effect. Nimbi spawns across Nimbus Fields, the Argent Strait, Sea of Flowers and Rosetower Woods, so testing it costs almost nothing. Treat it as a fifth line to try, not a slot to fund.
Funding order, applied to these names
The mechanics behind each step live in the F2P spending order. Here is who stands where.
- 1Scorchhowl takes the cheap Awakening first
Buy the marked recommended attributes on the fire line only, and stop at the first jump to a scarcer material grade.
- 2Gracewing takes every open Resonance star
The healer is the one other line worth advancing early, because it has to survive the same content the carry does.
- 3Scorchhowl gets the one carried item
Choose the core effect that matches its fire damage plan, enhance it far enough to open sockets, and do not split enhancement cores across a second Aniimo.
- 4Stellarys waits for the leftovers
Its value is range and elemental coverage, both of which work at low investment. Expensive points here come after the carry clears its own material content.
- 5Pawney comes last, on purpose
Level 45 and the Sword of Bravery arrive late anyway, and Pursuit only pays once a teammate is reliably creating control or BREAK.
- 6Inherit when a better copy lands
A stronger same-family catch takes the trained profile instead of restarting it. Read what actually transfers before you move anything.
Compare copies with the Potential guide before you commit materials, and sanity check the shape of the squad in the team planner.
What to re-check after launch
The board fills in fast once retail players arrive. Three things are worth revisiting on the live tier list once ballot counts reach double and triple digits.
Ballot volume first. A creature with three votes tells you nothing. Wait for entries to carry enough ballots that a letter means something, then read the letters.
Scorchhowl's fire carry read. Stellarys at 125 ATK and Pawney at 128 both out-stat it. Scorchhowl earns the first investment on availability, Hustle, elemental breadth and a trait that pays on any weak target. If retail play shows the fire line falling behind, the funding order changes before the roster does.
Where Nimbi lands. An unranked Support with 93 EP Regen either shows up in real lineups or it does not. That is a question retail ballots can answer, and beta chatter cannot.
