{"id":2488,"date":"2026-07-26T12:02:57","date_gmt":"2026-07-26T10:02:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.goranked.gg\/en\/news\/honkai-nexus-anima-first-look-open-world-auto-battler\/"},"modified":"2026-07-26T12:02:57","modified_gmt":"2026-07-26T10:02:57","slug":"honkai-nexus-anima-first-look-open-world-auto-battler","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/goranked.gg\/en\/news\/honkai-nexus-anima-first-look-open-world-auto-battler\/","title":{"rendered":"Honkai: Nexus Anima first look: open world and auto-battler"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">A tester who participated in HoYoverse\u2019s Evolution Test played an early build of Honkai: Nexus Anima on an Android tablet and detailed the game\u2019s core systems, presentation and controls. The playtest offered a look at open-world exploration, a creature-collection loop centered on Anima, and an auto-battler combat layer.<\/p><p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The game is set in a fragmented universe formerly called the Nexus. The tester described environments and character models as brightly colored and peaceful, and noted frequent short cutscenes during story segments. Anima designs were reported to reflect individual abilities and personalities, and bonding sequences include stylized visual effects and animations.<\/p><p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Exploration uses Anima-specific traversal skills. When players encounter wild Anima, the session moves into a bonding sequence that transitions into an auto-battler encounter. The tester outlined a formation-based combat system in which players arrange collected Anima to exploit enemy weaknesses. Victory in combat creates chances to forge bonds and add defeated Anima to the player\u2019s roster.<\/p><p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Bonding attempts were reported to be chance-based. The tester stated that Anima can escape after repeated failed attempts and that escaped Anima respawn at the same location, allowing players to attempt bonding again later.<\/p><p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Small side activities were present in the build the tester played. Mini-games included short races, shooting contests and object-destruction challenges. The tester also noted a rename option for Anima and said keyboard support on the tested Android tablet improved control comfort.<\/p><p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">On presentation, the playtest notes described smooth exploration and combat animations, and highlighted character ultimate animations in auto-battler fights. The tester reported that the soundtrack supported emotional story moments and matched the calmer tone of open-world sections. A fast-forward mechanic similar to those in other HoYoverse titles appeared with a different visual treatment in this build.<\/p><p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The tester criticized the absence of dedicated summoning animations for the game\u2019s gacha banners, describing both the Eidos and Anima banners as visually plain compared with expectations. No release date was provided in the playtest notes. HoYoverse continues staged testing and is adjusting final systems and content for the title, which the studio develops alongside its other games.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A tester in HoYoverse&#8217;s Evolution Test played Honkai: Nexus Anima on an Android tablet and reported open-world exploration, Anima collecting, formation-based auto-battler combat and detailed animations.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_yoast_wpseo_canonical":"","_yoast_wpseo_opengraph-title":"","_yoast_wpseo_opengraph-description":"","_yoast_wpseo_twitter-title":"","_yoast_wpseo_twitter-description":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2488","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-latest"],"newsroom_tags":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Honkai: Nexus Anima first look - open world, auto-battler<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Hands-on test reveals Honkai: Nexus Anima&#039;s open world, Anima collecting and formation-based auto-battler combat in an Android playtest; no release date yet.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/news.goranked.gg\/en\/news\/honkai-nexus-anima-first-look-open-world-auto-battler\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Honkai: Nexus Anima first look - open world, auto-battler\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Hands-on test reveals Honkai: Nexus Anima&#039;s open world, Anima collecting and formation-based auto-battler combat in an Android playtest; no release date yet.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/news.goranked.gg\/en\/news\/honkai-nexus-anima-first-look-open-world-auto-battler\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Goranked\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-07-26T10:02:57+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Goranked Researcher\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Goranked Researcher\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Honkai: Nexus Anima first look - open world, auto-battler","description":"Hands-on test reveals Honkai: Nexus Anima's open world, Anima collecting and formation-based auto-battler combat in an Android playtest; 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