What Is Honkai Nexus Anima? HoYoverse's Auto-Chess Creature Collector Explained
2026-07-23
What is Honkai Nexus Anima? A complete explainer on HoYoverse's new auto-chess creature-collecting game: gameplay, Anima types, beta status, release date, and how it fits in the Honkai universe.
HoYoverse is making an auto-chess game: Honkai Nexus Anima.
If this sounds surprising, you're not alone - the studio behind Genshin Impact and Honkai Impact 3rd is best known for action combat and open-world exploration. Honkai Nexus Anima is neither of those things. It's a creature-collecting strategy game where battles play out automatically on a grid, and your job is to build the right team and put them in the right positions.
Here's what Honkai Nexus Anima actually is, how it works, and whether it's worth your attention.
What Is Honkai Nexus Anima?
Honkai Nexus Anima is a free-to-play strategy RPG developed by HoYoverse for Android and iOS. The game combines two genres that don't usually meet: auto-chess battling and open-world creature collection.
You play as an explorer in a fantasy world inhabited by creatures called Anima. Your job is to find them, collect them, build teams, and deploy those teams in auto-battles against AI enemies and other players. Think of the Anima as chess pieces: each has a role (tank, damage, support), an element (fire, water, nature, etc.), and evolution paths that change how it performs in combat.
The game is part of the Honkai universe but tells its own standalone story. You don't need to have played Honkai Impact 3rd or Honkai: Star Rail to understand it.
How Does the Gameplay Work?
The gameplay loop has four connected parts:
1. World Exploration: You explore an open world divided into zones. Each zone has Anima habitats, resource gathering points, puzzle mechanics, and story NPCs. The world design is softer and more naturalistic than Honkai Impact 3rd's sci-fi environments.
2. Anima Collection: You discover Anima in the wild and add them to your roster. Each Anima belongs to an elemental type (fire, water, lightning, earth, nature, dark) and has a designated combat role (tank, DPS, support, control, healer). Some Anima are common and found easily; others are rare and require specific conditions to encounter.
3. Team Building: Before each battle, you select a team of Anima and arrange them on a hexagonal grid. Positioning determines who takes damage first and who can target enemy backline units. Synergy bonuses activate when you field multiple Anima of the same element.
4. Auto-Battles: Once the battle starts, your Anima fight automatically. You watch and adjust strategy between rounds. Combat modes include:
- PvE story battles and boss fights
- Nexus Battles (PvP against other players' teams)
- Co-op boss raids (team up with friends against giant Anima)
Between battles, you feed resources into your Anima to level them up and trigger evolutions. Evolution changes an Anima's form and ability set, with branching paths that let you specialize.
What Are Anima?
Anima are the game's central mechanic; the creatures you collect, train, and battle with. Confirmed Anima types from trailers and official materials:
| Anima Category | Examples | Battle Role |
|---|---|---|
| Flora spirits | Plant nymphs, mushroom creatures | Healing, buffs, area control |
| Storm beasts | Lightning wolves, thunder hawks | High DPS, flanking attacks |
| Stone guardians | Golems, crystal turtles | Tanking, damage absorption |
| Flame creatures | Phoenix variants, fire foxes | Ranged DPS, AoE damage |
| Water beings | Tide serpents, ice sprites | Debuffs, crowd control |
| Shadow entities | Wraiths, void bats | Assassin, backline targeting |
Each Anima has multiple evolution stages. For example, a basic fire fox might evolve into either a fast "Blaze Runner" form (speed focus) or a "Flame Sage" form (AoE damage focus). Evolution choices are permanent for that specific Anima, encouraging strategic decisions.
Nexus Anima is the most mechanically different from HoYoverse's existing catalog. It's the first with PvP, the first where you control creatures rather than human characters, and the first where combat is positioning-based rather than reaction-based. The HoYoverse studio is also known for:
- Genshin Impact (open-world action RPG, 60M+ monthly players)
Genshin Impact is an open world action RPG that combines exploration, character collection, and elemental combat.
- Honkai: Star Rail (turn-based RPG, strong critical and commercial reception)
Honkai: Star Rail is a space fantasy RPG that follows the Astral Express across a galaxy shaped by the Stellaron mystery.
- Honkai Impact 3rd (action combat, the studio's original flagship)
- Zenless Zone Zero (urban action RPG)
Zenless Zone Zero is an urban fantasy ARPG that combines fast combat with city life storytelling.
Honkai Nexus Anima Beta and Release Date
- Status: Closed Beta Test (Evolution Test) running as of July 2026
- Next phase: Likely another CBT late 2026
- Full launch estimate: 2027
- Platforms: Android, iOS
- Price: Free to play
Is Honkai Nexus Anima Worth Following?
- If you like auto-chess (TFT, Dota Underlords) and want a version with a story and exploration
- If you're a HoYoverse fan curious about how the studio handles a new genre
- If you enjoy creature collecting (Pokémon, Temtem) with strategic depth
Honkai Nexus Anima is HoYoverse swinging for a different fence. Instead of making another action RPG in a different setting, they're building something mechanically distinct from their entire catalog. Whether auto-chess + creature collection works at the scale HoYoverse is known for depends on how the Evolution Test goes. The ambition is real : the execution is what's being tested right now.
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