Summer Siege turns Anime Expeditions into a fishing game for a while, and that is not a joke. The event layers a rod-and-bobber minigame on top of the usual tower defense loop, and almost every new reward in the update is gated behind Sand Dollars, the event currency you earn from catching fish and playing normal modes once your fishing rank is high enough. New accounts have a real shot at most of it, provided you do things in the right order.
Quick answer: Fish to raise your fishing rank (Grandmaster gives +100% currency gain), bank Sand Dollars, and spend them on Summer Capsules at 100 each for a 1-in-400 shot at Rainman (Galaxy), Water Mage (Scholar), Sand (Summer), and Head Captain (Summer). Everything else in the update comes from the Battle Pass, Tidal Siege, portals, or Kitsune Bingo.
Sand Dollars and fishing ranks in Summer Siege
Sand Dollars are the only currency that matters during the event. You earn them by fishing, and the amount scales with your fishing rank, which climbs as you keep catching. There are six ranks, and from Veteran onward you also start earning event currency passively from non-event game modes, up to a daily cap.
| Rank | Currency gain | Bonus from other modes |
|---|---|---|
| Beginner | Base rate | None |
| Novice | +20% | None |
| Experienced | +40% | None |
| Veteran | +60% | +250 per run, up to 5,000/day |
| Master | +80% | +250 per run, up to 7,500/day |
| Grandmaster | +100% | +250 per run, up to 10,000/day |
That daily cap is the thing to plan around. Once you hit Veteran, your regular Story and challenge runs quietly feed the event, so ranking up early is worth more than hoarding early catches. Fishing also fills a Fish Index and a milestone reward track, both of which pay out as you catch more varieties.
Sand Dollars are spent in the Tidal Siege shop, which sells Summer Capsules at 100 apiece alongside Summer Portals, Trait Crystals, Stat Rerolls, Stat Locks, and Equipment Rerolls.
Fishing rods and how to unlock each one
You start with the Normal Rod, which is fine but slow. The other four each remove a chunk of the grind, and the Auto Rod in particular is the one worth chasing because it lands bites for you.
| Rod | How to get it | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| Normal Rod | Default | Standard manual fishing |
| Auto Rod | Reach Wave 150 in Tidal Siege | Lands bites automatically |
| Advanced Rod | Buy from the Summer Shop | Upgraded catch performance |
| Lucky Rod | 1% drop after any catch | Guarantees a Mythic drop every 8th catch |
| Recycling Rod | Fish 100 times | Turns every 10 items sold into a random Legendary+ item |
Note: the Recycling Rod only needs 100 total catches, so it tends to arrive on its own while you are grinding rank. Do not go out of your way for it.
How to get all nine Summer Siege units
The nine new units are spread across five completely different systems, and only four of them are gacha. The rest are effectively free if you play the event and finish the Battle Pass, which makes them the priority for a new account.
| Unit | Where it comes from |
|---|---|
| Rainman (Galaxy) | Summer Capsule, 1 in 400 |
| Water Mage (Scholar) | Summer Capsule, 1 in 400 |
| Sand (Summer) | Summer Capsule, 1 in 400 |
| Head Captain (Summer) | Summer Capsule, 1 in 400 |
| Jester | Season 3 Battle Pass reward |
| Kitsune | Complete the Kitsune Bingo board once |
| Herabel | Tidal Siege event mode |
| Sinbad | Portals, bought from the shop for 1,000 gems |
| Lightning God | Sky Ruins Portal, 2.5% drop from Rose Kingdom Act 1 Infinite |
You will know Kitsune is yours the moment the bingo board reports a completed line set and the unit lands in your collection. One full board is all it takes, so there is no reason to keep grinding it afterward.
The Sky Ruins Portal is the only genuinely random step here. At 2.5% from Rose Kingdom Act 1 Infinite, expect a stretch of runs before one drops, and there is no way to buy your way past it.
Best standard banner units for a new account
Event units are a bonus. Your actual account still runs on the standard banner, and a handful of pulls carry you through Story and into raids. The names worth summoning for are Bioinsect (Cell), Vegetable (Vegeta), Puppet (Gowther), Elf Mage (Frieren), Goku, and Megumi. Later on, evolved forms like Puppet (Telekinetic), Elf Mage (Unleashed), Hollow (Blaze), Dark Mage (Sovereign), and 8th Sword (Berserk) are the ones people build around.
Do not spread upgrade materials across everything you pull. Pick a small core, level it, evolve it, and leave the rest alone until you have gold and sprites to spare. Trait Crystals in particular are worth saving for a unit you know you are keeping, not a temporary Story carry.
Daily gem, sprite, and reroll farming
Gems fund summons, and the most efficient source for a mid-level account is AFK farming the King’s Tomb Master stage. Each clear pays out 100 gems along with gold, sprites, and player XP, so it doubles as a leveling method while you are doing something else.
Around that, the rest of the daily loop is short. Clear Daily, Weekly, and Regular Challenges for rerolls and sprites, push the Season 3 Battle Pass for Jester and Trait Crystals, and run raids if you are aiming at Kenpachi, the 8th Sword. Those four things cover almost every consumable you will need for evolutions.
Vegetable (Prince) evolution requirements
Vegetable is the evolution most new players attempt first, and it is a fair benchmark for how the system works. The recipe is fixed, and the crown comes from the unit’s own trial rather than a random drop.
| Material | Amount |
|---|---|
| Prince’s Crown | 1 |
| Sprite (Yellow) | 30 |
| Sprite (Green) | 30 |
| Gold | 100,000 |
Colored sprites are converted from the grey ones you collect through challenges, so the sprite requirement is really a gold and time cost more than a luck one. The 100,000 gold is usually the part that stalls people first.
The practical order for a fresh account, then, is straightforward. Fish until your rank stops feeling slow, let your normal runs top up Sand Dollars in the background, take the free units from the Battle Pass and Tidal Siege before gambling on capsules, and put everything else into a single carry you plan to keep once the event is over.
