Infinity Nikki beginner's guide: What you need to know before playing the most fashionable fantasy RPG
12.9.2024
By Jess Reyes, Contributor

If you’ve played a gacha game like Genshin Impact before, then many of Infinity Nikki’s systems will feel familiar. That said, the differences make it a more refreshing (and potentially confusing) experience. Here’s what you should know before starting Infinity Nikki.
“Thrift” your clothing
Infinity Nikki separates itself from its gacha RPG rivals with dress-up gameplay, something that Infold Games’ Nikki series is known for. You can dress Nikki from head to toe with hats, blouses, pants, shoes, gloves, and even makeup. However, she comes with a limited number of free outfits—usually the ones associated with her abilities from her skill tree, the Heart of Infinity. Outside of those freebies, you need to collect Sketches for outfit items or pay for them directly. The clothing you collect throughout your journey determines what kind of outfits you can make.
Sketches, Infinity Nikki’s crafting recipes, specify the materials you need to create an outfit item. Treasure chests, styling challenges, and progression rewards are just a few ways you can earn Sketches for free. You might also get them from completing quests—just check the quest rewards preview to see what you can get.
Budget wisely
Blings (Infinity Nikki’s cash equivalent) and Diamonds are the easiest ways to grow your wardrobe. Diamonds can be traded in for Resonance Crystals to use in the gacha system. Here are just a few places you can spend these currencies.
Resonance - Resonance is Infinity Nikki’s gacha system, which includes permanent and limited-time banners you can spend Diamonds or Crystals on for outfit items. However, “gacha” means that the items you receive aren’t guaranteed. In Resonance, you’re guaranteed a four-star outfit item every 10 tries and a five-star item every 20 tries. That might seem generous, but even when you get a five-star item, it will only be part of a five-star outfit and not the whole ensemble. You may get a necklace but not the full dress, shoes, hair, and so on.

Infinity Nikki allows you to select a five-star outfit from its standard banner, which will be available to draw from for the entirety of the game. Just be sure to carefully think about which outfit you want before cashing in Diamonds because you will start getting five-star items from that particular outfit. You can switch your five-star option whenever you want, but it’ll be the same as starting from scratch.
Surprise-O-Matic - This sizable capsule machine can be found right next to the Stylist’s Guild. It spits out colored balls with outfit pieces for 20,000 Bling a pop. The pieces from the Surprise-O-Matic don’t have as much variety as the ones from the Resonance gacha system. You also might need to pay millions of Blings before you see your first five-star item. While the description offers a percentage for how likely you are to receive four or five-star pieces, it doesn’t guarantee them after a set number of pulls. If you’re addicted to outfits like me, you can use your Realm Currency to exchange a bunch of flowers and fruit from around Florawish for Blings at the Realm of Escalation.
Track Whimstars
Whimstars enhance Nikki’s power. You can find them scattered throughout Miraland in different glowing purple forms. Collecting them isn’t so straightforward, though.
Some immediately merge with Nikki once she touches them. However, others force you to solve a puzzle or chase after them before they merge with her. One of the Whimstars I found was hidden in a glowing purple ferret, and I needed to use Nikki’s animal taming ability before it transformed into a star. Another Whimstar was hidden in a treasure chest trap that forced me to fend off monstrous Esselings before the Whimstar appeared.
So why are Whimstars so important? Well, you need them to unlock special abilities. Some parts of the story are locked behind superpowered outfits that you can only craft after you unlock them in the Heart of Infinity. If you have enough Whimstars ready, you won’t need to put your adventure on hold to continue the story.

Momo, Nikki’s best friend and cat-like companion, is an expert Whimstar hunter. Whenever Momo senses a Whimstar, an icon of his face in the top corner of the screen sparkles and wiggles, urging you to track the Whimstar immediately. A star-shaped tracker will pop up on the screen to guide you to its location if you do.
Chase these Whimstars immediately if you can—they can be easy to lose if you forget! Each distinct region of the map keeps track of the remaining Whimstars in the area, but it won’t mark them for you. If you really don’t feel like stopping for them, you can mark your map to remind yourself to come back later.
Use your Realm Currency
Realm Currency, which you can use at teleportation points for valuables like Mira EXP and Blings, recharges throughout the day. Spires, also known as teleportation points, give you access to Realms where you can exchange items to strengthen your skills, trade materials for Blings, and so on. All these actions need Realm Currency to happen. Once the currency reaches its limit, it won’t give you anymore. So use it whenever the gauge is full so that you get more, especially when Realm challenges can be as easy as trading a few fruits in for skill points.
Stay light on your feet
You can’t craft outfits without materials. However, as you grow more experienced, you’ll eventually find Sketches that demand rarer ingredients that are harder to get. Some of these come from anxious animals that run whenever they see you. When an exclamation point pops up over their head, don’t panic! Use your animal taming ability and tiptoe toward them. Worst-case scenario, they run like they were already going to when you startled them.
Explore outside Florawish
Florawish is your starting point, but it isn’t your only destination. Infinity Nikki has multiple regions available at launch, including the Breezy Meadow just beside Florawish. Parts of the map are covered in puffy white clouds or blocked off with yellow lines.

If you enter uncharted territory, then the name of the region will pop up on your screen and unlock that part of your map so that you can see it.
Ride a bike
One of the first mounts you can get in Infinity Nikki is a bicycle from the Whimcycle Rental. Teleport to the Florawish Lane Spire and travel south until you unlock Breezy Meadow. From there, you should see multiple locations on the map marked with an orange flag icon. The nearest one should be to the far left, surrounded by what looks like pink trees. That's just one of many bike rentals across the map.
Once you have a bike, you can travel across designated cycling areas without on-and-off sprinting. Unfortunately, the bikes only work in select areas. I tried to take the bike outside of Breezy Meadow into Florawish and was promptly teleported to the outskirts of town. Unsurprisingly, like Nikki, the bike can’t travel in the deeper water. You may need to retrieve it from the shop if it goes under.
Avoid deep water
Nikki loses health if she falls into deep water. The rivers around Florawish seem to be shallow enough for her to survive, but if she falls into any water that looks like it’s more than knee-deep, she’ll lose a heart and be teleported back to land.
Take your time
Despite the similarities it shares with your favorite standalone RPGs, Infinity Nikki is a gacha game. Many of its progression systems depend on the amount of time you spend on the game, whether it’s logging in every day to complete your daily wishes for rewards or painstakingly completing every goal in your Mira Journey “battle pass.” The most efficient way to level up without spending too much time grinding is to complete those quick, easy tasks and quests, progress through the story, and let time pass so that your most EXP-rewarding tasks will refresh.
In short, Infinity Nikki is a game best savored. Travel across Miraland, try on outfits galore, and don’t worry too much about seeing it all so soon. Grab it now on the Epic Games Store.