Story · Defend · Infinite · Raid
Anime Zero Game Modes
Anime Zero has four ways to play. Story sends you through acts in order, Defend asks you to hold a position against waves, Infinite throws endless waves with a boss on a fixed rhythm, and raids arrived with Update 1. In the lobby you pick the map, the act and one of four difficulties before you queue, and the difficulty sets both how tough enemies are and how much you earn.
Nightmare is the setting to aim for: it pays ten times Easy's Story money and is the only way into the Spirited Away raid. Each step up costs you tougher enemies and pays back in coins, gems, trait crystals and more frequent Infinite bosses.
Difficulty comparison
Use the arrows beside each column heading to sort.
| Difficulty | Enemy health | Story money | Story gems | Infinite coins by wave 50 | Infinite gems by wave 50 | Infinite boss every | Trait crystal chance | Enemies in HxH |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Easy | 0.85× | 1,500 | 50 | 6,000 | 200 | 10 waves | 5% | 40 |
| Medium (Normal) | 1.3× | 3,000 | 100 | 9,450 | 525 | 8 waves | 10% | 51 |
| Hard | 1.6× | 6,000 | 200 | 13,500 | 1,200 | 6 waves | 20% | 76 |
| Nightmare Unlocks the Spirited Away raid | 2× | 15,000 | 350 | 21,000 | 2,450 | 5 waves | 40% | 105 |
Enemy health multiplies the base health of every enemy and boss on that setting. Story money and gems are paid for each act you clear. An Infinite run has paid out the coins and gems shown by the time you clear wave 50, and the boss interval is the number of waves between Infinite bosses.
The trait crystal chance applies to Story wins, and an HxH act spawns the number of enemies shown for its difficulty. The health multipliers date from the 3 October rebalance and are unchanged in Update 1.
Story mode
Story is where every account starts. Acts unlock in order and each one ends with a boss, and the act screen shows which materials it drops before you queue, so you can pick the act that feeds the accessory or evolution you are building. Two maps carry the acts: Sakamoto, the launch street map whose chain finishes against Uzuki, and HxH, added with Patch 1. The Sakamoto street also hosts Sakamoto Defense, the map Defend mode uses.
A win pays coins, gems, XP and act materials, plus a chance at a trait crystal that grows from 5% on Easy to 40% on Nightmare. Story payouts nearly quadrupled in the 2 October rework, which lifted a Nightmare clear to 15,000 coins and 350 gems. HxH also scales its crowd size by difficulty, from 40 enemies on Easy to 105 on Nightmare.
Defend and Infinite
Defend asks you to hold a position against incoming waves on the Sakamoto Defense map. You select it in the lobby like any other mode, and it pays coins, gems and XP; act materials stay a Story and Infinite reward.
Infinite runs until you fall. A boss arrives every 10 waves on Easy, every 8 on Medium, every 6 on Hard and every 5 on Nightmare, and since the 4 October patch Infinite pays coins, gems and XP for every wave you clear. Materials start dropping from wave 16, and the mode keeps a most-waves-survived leaderboard. Leaving with L ends the run, and you are paid only for the waves you finished, so time an exit right after a wave clears.
By wave 50 the difference between settings is large: 6,000 coins and 200 gems on Easy against 21,000 coins and 2,450 gems on Nightmare, more than twelve times the gems for about 2.4 times the enemy health.
Raids and Nightmare access
Raids are the fourth mode and the newest. Update 1 opened the Spirited Away raid on 5 October: a fight through a multi-floor bathhouse that ends against No-Face, who splits off a fast shadow clone at half health. Bosses get tougher and enemies hit harder as more players join, so a full party is not automatically an easier run.
The raid requires Nightmare difficulty access, and it is the only source of the Lyth weapon Paramita Pyre and of Staff of Homa and Ghost, the two items that awaken it. Collecting the weapon and both awakening items takes several raid clears.
Because the raid is the only mode locked behind Nightmare, Nightmare Story acts double as a readiness check: if your pair cannot clear them at twice the base enemy health, No-Face's clone phase will be harder still. Cursed King, Cataclysm and Paramita Pyre lead raid loadouts thanks to their invincibility frames.
Maps and enemies
Runs start in the Anime Zone lobby, a neon night city with a WEAPONS building, an ACHIEVEMENTS portal and railway-crossing gates. From there you queue into the Sakamoto street or the HxH acts for Story, or into the Spirited Away bathhouse for the raid, and each map has its own named enemies and bosses.
| Name | Type | Details |
|---|---|---|
| Anime Zone lobby | Hub | Neon night city with a WEAPONS building, an ACHIEVEMENTS portal and ANIME ZONE welcome signs |
| Sakamoto | Story map | Daytime street with a Sakamoto store front; the act chain ends against Uzuki and the map also hosts Sakamoto Defense |
| HxH | Story map | Added with Patch 1; areas are blocked by rubble that takes at most 30% damage per hit |
| Spirited Away bathhouse | Raid map | Multi-floor bathhouse where enemies drop from the stairs in the shaft |
| Suit Katana | Enemy | Suit-wearing sword enemy at levels 4 and 10 |
| Suit Leg | Enemy | Kicking enemy at level 6 in Nightmare Story runs |
| Citizen Katana | Enemy | Sword-wielding citizen at level 13 |
| Citizen Gun | Enemy | Ranged citizen enemy in Story runs |
| Uzuki | Boss | Final boss of the Sakamoto act chain |
| Hisoka | Boss | Card-throwing HxH boss; Update 1 made his cards dodgeable |
| Chrollo | Boss | Named boss in the HxH story acts |
| No-Face | Raid boss | Spawns a fast-attacking shadow clone at 50% health and scales with party size |
Choosing a difficulty
Each step up multiplies enemy health less than it multiplies rewards. Going from Easy to Nightmare raises enemy health from 0.85 to 2 times, about 2.4 times tougher, while Story money rises tenfold and Story gems sevenfold. Hard is the efficient middle ground for a new account: 1.6 times health for four times Easy's Story money and a 20% trait crystal chance.
Move up once your two weapons clear an act comfortably. Story rewards come with the win and Infinite only pays for finished waves, so a failed attempt on a harder setting earns less than a clean run one step lower. Only two enemies can hit you at the same time, so funnelling packs through doorways makes the higher settings safer than the health numbers suggest. Nightmare is the long-term goal: the 40% trait crystal chance, the 2,450 gems by Infinite wave 50 and the raid all sit behind it.