Gaming Guide

Aniimo: How to Unlock the Four Hard to Find Sanctums

Twisted Roots, Stonebound Sword, Shattering Stone and Chasing Clouds each need outside work before the entrance will open.

Twisted Roots, Stonebound Sword, Shattering Stone and Chasing Clouds each need outside work before the entrance will open.

Image: Pawprint Studio

Most Sanctums in Aniimo sit in plain sight. You walk up to a floating purple cube, interact, and the entrance card appears. Four of them do not work that way. Two are locked behind quest chains that never point at a Sanctum until the final step, and two are buried in caves you have to burn or drop your way into.

Quick answer: All four need overworld work first. Twisted Roots needs three Vine Cores handed to Ron, Stonebound Sword needs the Warrior quest finished, and Shattering Stone and Chasing Clouds need hidden cave routes opened.


The four Sanctums with hidden entrances

Idyll holds 17 Sanctum entrances in total, 14 solo and 3 co-op. All four of the awkward ones are solo rooms, so you never need a partner for any of them.

SanctumAreaChestsWhat blocks it
Twisted RootsMistwoods1Three Vine Cores
Stonebound SwordRusset Highlands1Warrior quest
Shattering StoneZephyrus Landbridge3Lava cave route
Chasing CloudsNimbus Fields4Vine-covered cave mouth

Zephyrus Landbridge is a level 47 to 57 area, so Shattering Stone is the one to save for later. The other three sit in earlier regions and can be cleared long before that.


Twisted Roots location and Vine Core chain in Mistwoods

There is no cube to walk up to here. The Sanctum sits at the bottom of a root cavern in The Mistwoods, and the door only appears after you finish an errand for an NPC named Ron.

Vine Core
Vine Core. Image: Pawprint Studio
Track the Mistwoods quest that points you at Tuckin and defeat the giant plant creature. This is the gate for everything that follows in the root cavern.
Head to the marked hole in the ground nearby, twine into a winged Aniimo and glide down into the cavern labelled Twisted Roots. Ron is waiting at the bottom.
Sit through the cutscene where Ron explains the three vine cores tied to Tuckin. It hands you the quest Binding Oath, which is what actually places the three core markers on your map.
Collect the Western Swamp core. Climb the rocky cliffs, burn the thorny vines with a Fire Aniimo, then touch the glowing core called Dream of a Lifetime. There is a chest beside it.
Collect the Northern Cave core. A wall of thorny vines blocks the narrow cavern mouth, so burn it, go deep inside and take Mistlight and Starlight from the chamber.
Collect the Eastern Ruins core. Scale the stone pillars, glide over the broken walls into the courtyard full of glowing vines, and interact with Magic Sound Duet.
Fast travel back to The Mistwoods, drop down the hole again and give all three Vine Cores to Ron. The cutscene plays and the Sanctum: Twisted Roots entrance opens beside him.

The interior is the shortest in the game. Run to the middle, open the single chest, touch the core cube and you are done.

Twisted Roots does not hand you a trial Aniimo at the start. It runs entirely on the team you walked in with.


Stonebound Sword: Finish the Warrior quest in Russet Highlands

This is the longest unlock of the four. The Sanctum itself is a one-chest room that takes about a minute, but the cube does not exist in the world until a Helmut pulls a sword out of a rock for you.

Open your Log, go to the Journey tab and track the clue about the painter of the Russet Highlands. That sets the marker for the whole chain.
Find Sorora at her easel in the snowy part of Russet Highlands and talk to her. This starts the quest named Warrior.
Catch a wild Helmut in the snowfield with an Anipod and equip it to your team. You cannot progress the next objective without one on hand.
Travel to the ancient stone ruins on the map, twine into your Helmut and speak to the Weeping Helmut. It panics and runs off deeper into the red lands.
Follow the new marker up the snowy path and find the hiding Helmut tucked behind a rock ledge. The dialogue ends with it deciding to draw the Sword of Bravery.
Climb the stone stairs to the summit, check on the exhausted Helmut at the red marks on the cliff wall, then push through the storm barrier to the fiery claw monument.
Twine with Helmut and smash the Dragonclaw Stone. The monument breaks apart and the Sword of Bravery is underneath.
Interact with the sword and pick the courageous dialogue options. Your Helmut evolves into the Nova Stage Aniimo Pawney, which you need for the final step.
Dialogue with Will of ???10:15Dialogue with Will of ???
Courageous dialogue options with the Sword of Bravery awaken the legendary warrior spirit. Shown at 10:15 in WoW Quests’s video.
Fight Infergon when the fiery dragon drops down from the crystal spire. Beating it makes a Flame Flower sprout on the stone base, and there is a reward chest alongside it.
Go back down to the pedestal mechanism, twine with Pawney and interact with the Field Notes stone altar. The Stonebound Sword cube rises out of the cliff and stairs appear leading up to a purple doorway.

Inside, grab the single chest and touch the core cube. Like Twisted Roots, this room supplies no trial Aniimo.

Russet Highlands also holds First Sight and Vigilant Eyes, and both of those have ordinary marked entrances you can simply walk to. If your map shows three pins in the region, only one of them is this quest chain.

Sanctum First Sight Location & Chest 113:29Sanctum First Sight Location & Chest 1
First Sight Sanctum in Russet Highlands contains Chest 1 beyond paths opened by the battering ram mechanism. Shown at 13:29 in WoW Quests’s video.

Shattering Stone entrance: The lava cave in Zephyrus Landbridge

Nothing is gated by a quest here. The cube is simply underground, and the only way in is a steaming volcanic fissure on a mountain ledge that looks like scenery from a distance.

Walk into the fissure on the ledge and drop down into the magma cavern below, called Blazing Rock Cavern. It is a straight descent, not a climb.
Follow the tunnel to the Pebblings stuck behind a giant cracked Lava Crystal. Magmarex smashes the obstacle and clears the way forward.
Keep going through the lava tunnels until the purple cube appears, then activate the entrance gate. That registers the Sanctum on your map.

Inside, run across the spiked floor and awaken the large Magmarex statue. Its charge skill, Fast and Furious, is the whole room. Use it to break the red-cracked barrier walls for the first chest.

Breaking walls and opening Chest 115:46Breaking walls and opening Chest 1
Magmarex's Fast and Furious charge smashes red-cracked barrier walls, revealing the first hidden chest. Shown at 15:46 in WoW Quests’s video.

The rest is a timed obstacle course through boulders, walls and rolling lava spheres. Reaching the finish line unlocks the two remaining chests on the main platform, so clear the run before you climb the stairs to the core cube.

The chests here are tied to the timed seals. Learn the course line first rather than sprinting blind, or you will finish the run with the seals already shut.


Chasing Clouds entrance: Burn the vines on the Nimbus Fields cliffs

The approach to this one is longer than the map suggests. The entrance sits underground on the route toward Crystal Cave, behind a cave mouth completely covered in dark vines.

Run out along the coastal cliffs in Nimbus Fields and glide down to the lower ledge. The opening is not visible until you are standing on it.
Burn the dense dark vines covering the cave mouth with a Fire ability, then climb through the cleared passage.
Activate the floating purple altar on the other side to open the portal. From this point the Sanctum is a normal four-chest solo room.

Inside you get trial Turbo and the Cloudwalk ascent, plus a Grab tutorial. Two of the chests come from floating up shafts and through ventilation passages, one from a lever that opens a wall, and the exit needs Ancient Batteries carried onto their charging plates.

In Nimbus Fields, First Spark likewise displays four optional chests, so that number cannot distinguish it from Chasing Clouds. Check the entrance card’s name before committing.

Sanctum First Spark Chest 100:11Sanctum First Spark Chest 1
An Emberpup burns the vine barrier inside First Spark Sanctum, revealing Chest 1. Shown at 00:11 in WoW Quests’s video.

Rules that apply to all four rooms

  • The first interaction activates the entrance and adds the Sanctum as a Transport destination on your map.
  • The entrance card shows the room name, the required player count and the exact optional chest total before you enter.
  • Most rooms hand you a sealed trial Aniimo near the start. Twisted Roots and Stonebound Sword do not.
  • Chests and the clear are tracked separately, so restoring the Vein does nothing for the chest counter.
  • First clear pays one Lumin Amber: Breezy Plains and 500 EXP. Repeat visits keep the Transport pin and pay nothing.

Your room clears apply to Sanctum Delver badge milestones of 3, 5, 10, and 15 rooms. That is the sole reason to clear every entrance instead of visiting only those near your level.


Old Sanctum names you will still see in checklists

When the game relaunched in September 2026, 14 of its 17 Sanctums received new names, and older lists may still be outdated. If a checklist points you to a room missing from your map, it is probably one of those renamed locations.

Current nameClosed-beta nameOlder alias
Twisted RootsRigged MazeNone
Stonebound SwordSword in the StoneSandy Cliff Fort
Shattering StoneShatterstoneNone
Chasing CloudsMistriderCloud Riding

How to confirm a Sanctum is fully cleared

Check the in-room chest counter against the total printed on the entrance card. Twisted Roots and Stonebound Sword should read 1, Shattering Stone 3 and Chasing Clouds 4. Only then walk to the Sanctum Terminus, the tesseract at the heart of the room, and touch it.

The Terminus restores the Vein and resolves the challenge, the first clear reward appears, and the Sanctum stays pinned on your map as a Transport destination. That pin is the confirmation the room is registered even after you leave.

Do not treat the pin as a safety net for a chest you skipped. The entrance stays usable, but the optional counter is worth finishing in one pass, and in Shattering Stone’s case the timed seals mean a second attempt is a full second run.