Pawprint Studio’s free‑to‑play open‑world creature‑catching RPG Aniimo has kicked off its second closed beta. Here’s how the “Paws Up” test works, what’s new compared to the first beta, and where this MMO‑lite contender could land in today’s crowded F2P landscape.
Aniimo has quietly gone from “another creature collector” to one of the more interesting MMO‑lite hopefuls on the horizon. With its “Paws Up” second closed beta now live, Pawprint Studio is finally letting a wider audience see what happens when Pokémon‑style collecting collides with a Genshin‑style open world and a light MMO wrapper.
If you are curious about Aniimo, this beta is the best window yet into what the full game is trying to be.
What kind of game is Aniimo?
Aniimo is a free to play, open world, creature‑catching action RPG set on the continent of Idyll. You play as a Pathfinder, exploring a shared online world, catching and evolving magical creatures called Aniimo and diving into co‑op dungeons, world events and boss fights.
The twist that separates Aniimo from most of its rivals is Twining. Instead of just throwing monsters at each other, you merge with your Aniimo, fusing your character and partner into a single combat form that mixes weapon skills with creature abilities. Twining is meant to make combat feel closer to a character action RPG than a passive turn‑based battler.
Layered on top are life‑sim and exploration systems. Weather and time of day influence which Aniimo appear. There is a photography feature that encourages you to document rare encounters. The world is designed to be traversed and re‑traversed, with environmental puzzles and secrets hidden off the critical path.
On paper, it sits somewhere between a co‑op Genshin Impact, Pokémon Legends: Arceus and a small‑scale MMO like Tower of Fantasy or Blue Protocol.
How to check if you are in the second closed beta
The current test is technically closed, but Pawprint has removed the NDA. That means gameplay footage, streams and impressions are all allowed, so even if you are not in, you can still get a clear picture of where the game stands.
If you signed up and are not sure whether your account was selected, the process is straightforward:
Head to the official site at aniimo.com. There is an “Am I In?” button tucked in the bottom‑right corner of the page. Click it, enter the email address you used to register and the site will tell you if that account has beta access.
Platform access is slightly more complicated than in many tests. Players invited through iOS TestFlight can play on both iOS and PC. If you were selected without TestFlight access, your account is limited to the PC client. The second beta is also planned to cover Xbox Series X|S and Android during its run, though availability can depend on your region and invite tier.
If you are not in yet, sign‑ups remain open through the official site for future waves, and the lack of NDA means you can still follow along with creator coverage while you wait.
What CBT2 is stress testing and expanding
CBT1 for Aniimo was mostly about proving out the basics. It focused on early‑game progression and the core loop of exploring a slice of Idyll, catching Aniimo with Aniipods and experimenting with Twining during combat. Content was relatively limited, and servers only had to handle a small population.
The “Paws Up” second closed beta raises the scope in several ways.
First, Pawprint is very clearly stress testing infrastructure. The test is global and runs across multiple platforms at once, which lets the team hammer matchmaking, cross‑play and account systems with a much higher concurrent player count. Expect intentional load spikes around world events and prime‑time hours as the team gathers data on servers and network performance.
Second, CBT2 expands the playable world. New regions of Idyll are open, with fresh biomes meant to show off the game’s lighting, traversal and environmental storytelling. Alongside the new zones come more Aniimo species and variant forms. With more creatures in rotation and stronger environmental ties, Pawprint can gather data on spawn rates, encounter balance and how rewarding the hunt feels over longer sessions.
Third, combat and cooperative content are getting a sharper focus. New instanced activities, including higher‑level lairs and group encounters, are available for parties. These are designed to probe whether the moment to moment combat actually supports long‑term progression or just looks flashy in short trailers. Twining forms, cooldown pacing, stamina management and dodge windows are all on the tuning table.
Finally, progression and monetization hooks are being quietly checked in the background. As a free to play title, Aniimo will live or die on whether its gacha and cosmetic systems feel fair. This beta includes more of the long‑term meta progression, which lets the team gather early feedback on grind, drop rates and pay pressure without fully turning on the cash shop.
How Aniimo’s hook stacks up in a crowded F2P landscape
The free to play creature‑collector space is suddenly busy. Palworld has eaten the zeitgeist on PC and console, Temtem carved out a niche as a buy to play alternative, and gacha‑driven explorers like Genshin Impact and Wuthering Waves have normalized live‑service open worlds.
Aniimo’s best chance to stand out is its identity as an MMO‑lite rather than a single player adventure that happens to be online. The world of Idyll is designed as a shared space where you bump into other Pathfinders, join public events, and seamlessly party up for dungeons. If the netcode holds and the server tech from this second beta scales well, Aniimo could occupy a sweet spot between “chill co‑op” and “full MMO commitment.”
Twining also gives combat a clearer personality. Where many creature games lean on auto‑battling or traditional turn orders, Aniimo aims for something closer to an action RPG, with positioning, i‑frames, and combo timing. If Pawprint can avoid the floaty feel that plagues some mobile‑forward action titles, the game could appeal to players who bounced off slower monster battlers but love character‑action systems.
Finally, Aniimo’s F2P structure will be critical to where it lands. If monetization focuses on cosmetics, convenience and rotating event Aniimo rather than raw power, it has a shot at becoming a long‑tail social RPG that can sit alongside games like Genshin or Honkai: Star Rail in players’ rotations. Aggressive stat‑based gacha, on the other hand, would push it into a much more contested and fatigue‑heavy part of the market.
What to watch during the second beta
If you are diving into the test or watching streams, there are a few key questions that will determine whether Aniimo can stick the landing.
The first is whether exploration stays fresh past the honeymoon phase. The world needs enough dynamic events, secrets and rare Aniimo behaviors to keep dedicated players engaged rather than just chasing checklists.
The second is how co‑op feels once the population spreads out. Matchmaking times, cross‑play reliability and dungeon balance will reveal whether Pawprint has built a genuinely social game or something that is best played solo with optional grouping.
The third is the grind curve. XP pacing, resource bottlenecks and Twining upgrades will all feed into whether the game feels like a welcoming F2P hobby or a second job.
If Aniimo can nail those fundamentals, this second closed beta may be remembered as the moment it shifted from curiosity to serious contender in the MMO‑lite creature collecting scene. For now, its inventive combat, cross‑platform ambitions and community‑first testing approach make it one of the more intriguing online RPGs to keep an eye on in 2026.