How to Unlock the Legendary Irisalis in Aniimo's Windchaser's Departure Event

Aniimo's first big content update landed this week, and buried in the patch notes is the game's first legendary creature since launch. Irisalis, a Grass-type Aniimo described in-game as a "divine messenger" that blooms in radiant colors, arrives through a limited-time chapter called Windchaser's Departure. Unlike a normal wild encounter, getting Irisalis means grinding a new weekly currency and working through a short crafting chain — so it's worth understanding the system before the clock starts running.

What Windchaser's Departure Actually Is

Windchaser's Departure is a "Legendary Journey" chapter that Pawprint Studio's official update notice confirms runs from September 25 at 10:00 to December 10 at 07:59 (UTC+8) — just under eleven weeks. It's tied to the same patch that brought Aniimo's mobile launch online across Europe, the Americas and APAC this week, so servers everywhere are running the event on staggered regional clocks rather than one global timer.

Irisalis itself is framed as a companion piece to Iris, an existing Grass-type Aniimo already in the game. Pawprint Studio's own social account describes Irisalis as evolving from Iris and notes that "their likeness can be found depicted around Bloomville in a variety of decorative motifs" — a hint that the developer built out the town's art before the creature was even obtainable.

For anyone just arriving, Aniimo is a free-to-play, open-world creature-catching game built around Twining, a mechanic that lets a Pathfinder physically merge with a captured Aniimo to fly, dig or sprint using its abilities in the field. Creatures are found and captured out in the world rather than pulled from a gacha banner, which is why a legendary like Irisalis needs its own crafted item instead of a loot-box-style pull — the Aniipod system is standing in for the kind of guaranteed pity mechanic other collectors handle differently.

How to Farm Iris Petals

Everything in this event runs on a single resource: Iris Petals. The official notice describes "a new weekly-limited source" for the currency introduced alongside the chapter, meaning there's a hard cap on how many Petals you can collect each week rather than a grindable daily task. Practically, that means logging in during the event's early weeks matters more than trying to catch up later — missed weekly allotments don't appear to roll over, and the chapter's roughly eleven-week runway is there specifically to let that weekly drip add up to enough Petals for crafting.

Check your in-game event tab as soon as the September 25 window opens on your region's server; Pawprint Studio has run other time-gated content in Aniimo's first two weeks, and Petal sources have tended to combine story-quest rewards with a repeatable weekly objective.

Crafting the Legendary Aniipod: Irisalis

Once you've banked enough Petals, you spend them to craft the Legendary Aniipod: Irisalis. This is the item that actually gets you the creature, and it does more than just unlock a capture attempt. According to the patch notes, successfully crafting it "unlocks the Rift Space where Irisalis resides," and from there you can forge Twine — Aniimo's signature mechanic that lets a Pathfinder merge with a captured creature — to unlock a set of rewards called Blessing Gifts. Befriending Irisalis afterward also unlocks an exclusive Transmog ability tied specifically to that Aniimo.

In short: the Aniipod isn't a side grade to a normal capture, it's the only route to Irisalis, and it gates a small chain of bonus content (Rift Space, Blessing Gifts, the Transmog unlock) behind that first craft.

Should You Also Craft the Windchaser's Departure Aniipod?

After you've obtained Irisalis through the Legendary Aniipod, the event offers a second, more expensive craft: the Windchaser's Departure Aniipod. Spending additional Iris Petals on this one is optional, but the payoff is significant — Pawprint Studio's notes guarantee it comes with a 100% capture rate, Perfect Innate Potential, and the creature's rare Sparkling Form, plus "exclusive seasonal perks" tied to the Windchaser's Departure event specifically.

• Guaranteed 100% capture rate, removing any chance of losing the Aniimo mid-encounter
• Perfect Innate Potential, which affects the creature's growth ceiling in battle
• Guaranteed Sparkling Form, the game's rarest cosmetic variant
• Seasonal perks unique to this chapter that won't be available once it ends in December

Given the weekly Petal cap, budgeting for the upgraded Aniipod early is the difference between getting a serviceable Irisalis and getting the best possible version before the chapter closes.

The Rest of the September 23 Update

Irisalis isn't the only new thing to log in for. The same update introduced Holo-Battle Interlink, a weekly co-op mode open every Thursday through Monday to Pathfinders who've reached Trailblazer I. It sends a four-player team — or a solo player matched with AI — through three distinct routes against high-threat "Alpha" encounters, with star-rank rewards that reset each week and bonus Support Rewards for helping other players improve their own runs.

Players who've already climbed to Tier IV "Elite Egg Seeker" in the existing Operation: Egg Heist mode also gained access to a new Chaos Mode, a harder difficulty tier that requires a Chaos Ticket to enter but sharply increases drop rates for Prismana Aniimo Eggs and rare Prismatic Collectibles. Rounding out the patch are four smaller timed events — Glamour Star, Aniimo Discovery, Vein Abundance and Journey Chronicles — alongside a long list of quality-of-life fixes, including console and controller navigation improvements and a fix for Aniimo custom videos that weren't playing correctly on PS5.

Tips Before You Start Farming

A few things worth keeping in mind heading into the chapter. First, since Iris Petals are weekly-limited rather than freely farmable, there's no way to rush the base Legendary Aniipod in a single session — treat it as a standing weekly task alongside your other Aniimo routines rather than a weekend project. Second, decide early whether you're chasing the upgraded Windchaser's Departure Aniipod; if the guaranteed Sparkling Form and Perfect Innate Potential matter to you, budget extra Petals into every week's total rather than spending them all on the base craft first.

Finally, because the event runs on regional server clocks rather than a single worldwide reset, check your own server's local start time on the Aniimo news page before assuming the September 25 date applies at the same hour everywhere. With almost eleven weeks on the clock, there's no need to panic-grind on day one — but the sooner the weekly Petal counter starts ticking in your favor, the more comfortably you'll clear both crafts before Windchaser's Departure closes on December 10.

It's also worth pairing your Petal farming with the update's other new systems rather than treating them separately. Holo-Battle Interlink's weekly reset lines up conveniently with the Petal source's own weekly cadence, so Pathfinders who clear their Alpha routes and collect Support Rewards on the same login are effectively stacking two currencies on one weekly checklist instead of splitting their play sessions across the week.

📖 Aniimo Profile Vol. 25: Irisalis Evolved from Iris, this Grass-Type DPS Aniimo is regarded as a divine messenger, bringing vitality through the colors of nature. ✨ Their likeness can be found depicted around Bloomville in a variety of decorative motifs. 🩷 #Aniimo

— Aniimo (@Aniimo_EN), Sept. 21, 2026 on X