Infinity Nikki is the comfy open-world mobile game that Nikki fans have been waiting for. Even if you’re not into the previous Nikki games, there’s a lot that this big world has to offer if you love collecting items, exploring huge landscapes, or just dressing up in cute outfits.
If you’re not familiar with the gacha-mobile game model, Infinity Nikki can be overwhelming — and honestly, even if you are familiar with them, it’s still a lot to take in at once, as it has a bit of a different gameplay loop than you may be used to.
Below, we provide some tips for getting started in Infinity Nikki to assist both completely new players and gacha experts alike.
Yes, it’s a gacha game!
Before you get too excited about a new shiny free-to-play open world game, note that, yep, Infinity Nikki is a gacha game (just like the other titles in the franchise). While this won’t be surprising for fans of Nikki games, just remember that it’ll offer you a lot of microtransactions, and tons of the fanciest outfits are going to be locked behind the RNG gacha system. Play and purchase responsibly!
Rather than building for combat, you improve your outfits
Similar games in this genre (like Genshin Impact or Wuthering Waves) have you leveling up your characters, weapons, and specialized equipment for each character, but in Infinity Nikki, you’re leveling up the visual stats on your clothes. This has no effect on your combat (which is just firing a simple orb at enemies), but it does help you beat styling duels, which require you to set Nikki up with an outfit that meets a certain stat requirement.
Image: Infold Games/Papergames via Polygon
Don’t be intimidated by the sheer number of menus
Everything in this game is more confusing than it looks — and it admittedly looks pretty confusing. Your Pear-Pal menu will fill up with icons quickly, each taking you to a different menu, but these jargony names can be simplified down once you realize what they actually mean. Your “courses” are your achievements, “glow up” is upgrading your outfits, “Mira Journey” is the battle pass, and so forth. Take a second to skim through all of the menus until it clicks, just to avoid later frustration and confusion.
Take things at your own pace
There is a ton of content in this game at launch. While doing the main story bits, you’ll run into and accidentally start dozens of side quests. The map is filled with people to have styling duels against. You’ll collect tons of outfit pieces that you’ll want to craft and equip. Take it a step at a time and focus on things you want to first. There’s no need to rush through all the content.
Pick up everything you find
As you run around the world, you’ll quickly find a lot of little collectables. Between flowers, fish, bugs, and animal fur, you’ll want to amass a bunch of these things. Not only do you need this stuff for crafting new clothing pieces, but you’ll want to trade it to get loads of Insight, a currency you need to expand your skill tree. Rolling for a four-star fishing outfit in the gacha won’t improve your fishing skills, but collecting loads of Fishing Insight and upgrading your skill tree will.
Don’t sleep on collecting Whimstars
Several points of the main story will tell you that you cannot continue until you collect more Whimstars. That said, pay attention to Momo when he says there’s a Whimstar nearby. If it’s not horrendously out of the way, you should go get it to avoid getting your story progress blocked. It’s much easier to find Whimstars when you’re running around new areas than it is to backtrack them when you absolutely need them.
You’ll also need Whimstars to upgrade your skill tree, so… yeah, don’t skimp on the Whimstars.
Image: Infold Games/Papergames via Polygon
Spend your Vital Energy at warp spires
It can be easy to forget to do this as you progress through the story, but this is a mobile game at heart, which means there’s a stamina system. Your Vital Energy will recharge over time and you can use it at warp spires to do a plethora of things: fight bosses to get special drops needed to make clothes, farm eureka (special equips that boost your styling stats), trade collected items for Insight, and more.
You’ll also amass a ton of EXP to increase your Mira Level, so spending your Vital Energy is a must-do.
Fulfill your daily wishes
Your daily wishes are a set of tasks that you’ll get every day, as the name implies. Fulfilling these will give you premium currency, money, and lots of EXP, so don’t forget to check to see what your tasks are for the day. Most of them can be completed just by playing the game, but there’s no harm in double checking.
You’ll also need to amass the wishes from here to level up in the courses menu.
Keep your eye out for promotional codes
As with the rest of the games in this genre, the social media accounts for Infinity Nikki occasionally hand out promotional codes to use in game that fork over a handful of the premium currency, crafting materials, money, and other useful goodies. If you don’t want to be on social media (understandable), we have a guide that stays updated with all the codes you’ll need to get that free Nikki loot.
Keep track of your findings with an interactive map
If you plan on going hard with collectables — grabbing every Whimstar, chest, and Dew of Inspiration — you’ll want to keep track on what you’ve found and what you still need to grab. Just like for other open-world games, we recommend using an interactive map where you can mark your findings and keep track of what you’ve found already. While we don’t have an on-site interactive map for you, we liked using this one by IMapp.
