Honkai: Nexus Anima Beta Shows HoYoverse’s Take on Monster Battling
Honkai: Nexus Anima is HoYoverse’s next swing at a familiar genre: the monster battler. A closed beta build is already playable for testers, and the early shape is pretty clear. It mixes creature collecting, real-time squad battles, gacha-style character progression, and the studio’s usual dense story setup.
The game starts with a custom character trapped in a dreamlike world alongside Darsea, with the plot quickly throwing out immortal monsters, rival characters, and a town where things are clearly off. It’s very HoYoverse in that sense. Big ideas up front, lots of names, and not always much breathing room.
The creatures here are called Anima, and players “bond” with them rather than catch them. They appear in the overworld, and quests push players to expand their roster early. Each Anima has an Aspect, such as Reality, Beauty, or Satiation, along with traits and dispositions that affect how they behave.
Combat is the biggest departure from a straight Pokémon-style setup. Battles run in real time with up to five Anima on the field. They attack on their own, but players trigger cooldown abilities and need to think about positioning, healing zones, target priority, and team composition. Matching Aspects also unlocks synergy bonuses at certain thresholds, giving the system a light auto-battler feel without making it fully hands-off.
The beta also includes Eidos, story characters who fight alongside the Anima. The first one shown is Breadhead, a small character in a yellow firefighter coat with a loaf of bread for a head. Eidos have their own leveling systems and an Eidognosis board, with some nodes tied to duplicate-style progression that will look familiar to players of Genshin Impact or Honkai: Star Rail.
Live-service elements are already visible in the test build too, including premium currency items like Nexus Trace and Nexus Wisp, daily check-ins, limited events, and a permanent quest track called A Tour of Iia. As always with a beta, drop rates, monetization, and balance can still change before launch.
HoYoverse hasn’t provided a release date in the source material, but the beta suggests Nexus Anima is leaning hard into monster collecting while keeping the studio’s usual anime presentation, character systems, and long-form storytelling.
