You’ll start Infinity Nikki in a pretty straightforward story, but at its core, it’s a gacha mobile game. That means Infinity Nikki comes with all the expected systems: rolling for outfits, stamina that replenishes over time but has a cap, and some kind of upgrading system. However, as you play, you may wonder what the deal is with all of this.
If you’re familiar at all with similar open-world gacha games like Wuthering Waves, Genshin Impact, or Tower of Fantasy, you’ll know that after you catch up to the story, you’ll find yourself in the same gameplay loop. You use your stamina to farm for materials to upgrade your characters and weapons. After beefing things up decently, you’ll start farming for individual equipment pieces that get randomized stats when upgrading — thus creating a somewhat infinite grind. Is this the same in Infinity Nikki? Well, kind of.
(Note that this information is from a closed beta that we played shortly before the game launched, so there may be slightly differing information in the live version of the game.)
What’s the combat like in Infinity Nikki?
The combat in Infinity Nikki is extremely simple. Nikki can blast orbs at enemies. Most enemies you find around the world can be one-shot, with some needing two hits. There are boss fights where you’ll need to dodge attacks, wait for an opening, and then attack at the right time — but there’s no way to get through these fights any quicker by dealing more damage. Nikki’s attacks appear to do a set value and you don’t upgrade her gear to dish out more damage.
So why am I leveling up my outfits in Infinity Nikki?
You do need to beef up Nikki’s clothes for a different reason. Rather than adding offensive stats to clothing, you’ll need to upgrade its visual stats in order to complete more difficult styling duels.
You’ll need to complete a few lower-level styling duels as you play through the story, but there are several optional factions to take on around the world. You’ll be presented with challenges, and after completing enough of them, you’ll be able to take on a big boss for rewards like Diamonds (the premium currency) and even recipes to craft more clothes. Some of the early styling duels can be done with default clothes at low levels, but you will need to improve your stuff in order to fully complete some of the later duels.
This is where the gameplay loop comes in. You can only upgrade your clothes so much, and you’ll need to raise your Mira Level (your player level) to lift that upgrade cap. Spending stamina (called “Vital Energy”) and completing quests will net you loads of EXP to raise your Mira Level.
Are there randomized stats and equips I need to ‘farm’ in Infinity Nikki?
Not really. There’s additional equipment called “Eureka” that you’ll want to collect to further your styling duel points. These are collected via spending stamina at warp spires and you can level them up to add more stats to them.
While their color will randomly change when they’re maxed out, it didn’t appear that the stats “rolled” randomly the way that stats do in the aforementioned gacha games, so you can safely just grab one of each (or more, if you want a specific color), without having to farm these for ages. So, no, there are no randomized stats, but yes, there are equips you’ll want to collect.
In a way, you are doing the aforementioned gameplay loop that lines up with those other open-world gacha games. You are leveling up gear and whatnot, though the method, reason, and grind is just quite different.
That is to say, you don’t really have to do any of this. You can spend your time collecting Whimstars, catching bugs, and completing side quests while largely ignoring this component of the game, if you’re not into the grind or the min-max — but the styling duels are a major component of the Nikki franchise and you won’t be able to make the iconic miracle outfit without taking on the faction leaders. You will need to make the miracle outfit to hit the final points of the game (as of launch), though you can enjoy your time in Mira Land doing other stuff, if you so prefer.
If you’re looking for more info about Infinity Nikki, we have a beginner’s guide, a list of codes, and a guide noting where to unlock more clothes.
