The Villain Invasion event drops you into Crow Hideout, a limited-time gamemode built around four escalating stages of enemies with distinct mechanics. Each act punishes an unbalanced team in a different way, and the final stage is locked behind an item you can only farm by clearing the earlier ones. Get your roles right and the whole event becomes a repeatable grind for Villain Coins, event equipment, and a shot at the Secret unit Crow.
Quick answer: Open the Events menu, select Villain Invasion, and clear Act 1 through Act 3 in Crow Hideout to farm Crow Relics. Bring a slowing unit for Act 1, high single-target damage for Act 2, a damage-over-time unit for Act 3, and a coordinated 3 to 4 player team for the final Crow stage. You must hold a Crow Relic to earn Villain Coins and completion rewards on the last act.
What Villain Invasion adds to Anime Expeditions
Villain Invasion is a major limited-time event released with the Villain Update (0.5) of Anime Expeditions. It introduces the Crow Hideout gamemode, a separate Villain Battlepass that runs alongside the standard one, and an Event Shop stocked with limited skins, equipment, and cosmetics.
Clearing stages and finishing event quests pays out Villain Coins and Villain Battlepass EXP. Villain Coins are the event currency, and you spend them in the Event Shop or on the Villain Banner, which carries the Secret unit Crow at a very low pull rate. The event is scheduled to run until Saturday, August 1 at 4:00 PM, so the reward pool disappears once it closes.
How to join Villain Invasion
Press the Events button on the left side of the main screen. The active events list opens with Villain Invasion sitting at the top. Select it, scroll to the Event Game Mode section at the bottom, choose the act you want to run, and start the stage.
Enemy mechanics for each act
Every act tests a specific weakness in your team. Knowing which enemy does what tells you exactly which role you cannot skip.
| Act | Key enemies | What they do |
|---|---|---|
| Act 1: Death | Armored, Commander, Death | Armored cut AOE damage by 33%; Commander boosts nearby health and speed by 20%; Death grants stacking 5% movement speed. |
| Act 2: Tartaros | Reinforced, Tartaros, Veil | Reinforced reduce all incoming damage by 30%; Tartaros eats a nearby enemy every 10 seconds to heal; Veil shields nearby enemies for 200% of the Veil’s health. |
| Act 3: Sword | Explosive, Sprinter, Sword | Explosive stun nearby units for 2 seconds on death (radius 10); Sprinter move 45% faster with 20% less health; Sword respawn up to twice unless killed under a DoT effect. |
| Act 4: Dawn | Splitter, Summoner, Dawn (plus returning mechanics) | Dawn cuts Splitter/Summoner spawn health by 99% but adds 5 shields; Splitter break into three copies at 33% health each; Summoner spawn a new enemy every 5 seconds. |
Clearing Act 1: Death
Armored enemies punish AOE, so lean on standard attackers or line-based damage such as Eighth Sword, Puppet, Cursed Student, and Lady Giant. Kill Commander enemies first, since the health and speed boost they hand to the wave stacks quickly if you leave them alive.
The Death enemies are the real threat because their 5% speed buffs are permanent and stack. Bring at least one slowing unit like Salmon Sorcerer or the cheaper Ice Mage, since applying a slow resets the accumulated speed bonus back to zero. Add a Stone Alchemist for income, then place your slow so it covers the longest stretch of path and stack your damage dealers inside that same zone.
Clearing Act 2: Tartaros
This act is a raw damage check. Reinforced enemies block 30% of all damage with no workaround, so you win by hitting harder rather than by countering a mechanic. Focus fire the Tartaros enemy before it consumes fodder and heals itself back up.
Veil enemies wrap nearby foes in shields worth 200% of the Veil’s own health, turning packs into damage sponges. Load up on high-damage units like Elf Mage, Lady Giant, and Eighth Sword, then support them with buffers such as Forbidden Teacher or The Hero. Farm early with a Stone Alchemist, but once your economy is stable, pour money into your main carries instead of spreading it thin.
Clearing Act 3: Sword
Sword enemies respawn at the base up to two times unless they die while burning, bleeding, or otherwise under a damage-over-time effect. A reliable DoT unit is mandatory here. Cursed Student and Crimson are strong picks, and Demon Cyborg works as a budget alternative.
Place the DoT unit early along the path so its effect lands before your main damage finishes enemies off, which fully cancels the respawn. Keep your units back from the track so Explosive enemies do not stun them within their radius-10 blast, and make sure you have enough early damage to handle Sprinter enemies, which are faster but frailer than normal foes. A Stone Alchemist early keeps your upgrades ahead of the ramp.
Note: This is where Crow Relics drop. Each Act 3 clear rolls a 2.5% chance at a Crow Relic, alongside a 2.5% chance at the Predator’s Skull (with a 1/20 pity). Relics are the item that gates the final stage.
Beating Act 4 and the final Crow stage
The final act stacks every earlier mechanic on top of new ones. The Dawn effect strips 99% of the health from Splitter and Summoner spawns but shields them five times, making cheap-looking enemies hard to finish. Splitter enemies break into three copies at 33% health each, and Summoner enemies keep spawning reinforcements every five seconds, all while the Death, Sword, and Tartaros mechanics return.
Because so many mechanics run at once, take this act with a full team of 3 to 4 players and split the roles. One player handles slowing and crowd control, another keeps DoT effects applied to shut down the Sword respawns, and the rest maximize damage and team buffs.
Important: You must own a Crow Relic to earn Villain Coins and the other completion rewards from the final stage. You can still enter without one to practice or help teammates, but you will not be paid out.
Confirming a clear
A finished stage ends on a Game Won screen showing your match stats and reward payout. An act completion pays 500 Villain Coins, 1,000 Unit EXP, and 145 Player EXP on the results screen, and any Crow Relic or Predator’s Skull roll appears there as well. If a run fails, the most common cause is leaking during the opening waves before your farm units generate enough income, so prioritize your economy and your control unit before spreading resources.
Event quests and Villain Coin payouts
Daily quests refresh every day and each pays 500 Villain Coins and 500 Battlepass EXP: clear one Crow Hideout stage, collect 1,000 Villain Coins, and summon 10 times on the Villain Banner. The non-daily quests reward larger sums for repeated clears.
| Quest | Requirement | Villain Coins / EXP |
|---|---|---|
| Act 1/2/3 Conqueror #1 | Complete each act once | 500 / 500 each |
| Crow Conqueror #1 | Complete Crow Mode once | 2,500 / 500 |
| Act 1/2/3 Conqueror #2 | Complete each act 5 times | 1,000 / 1,000 each |
| Crow Conqueror #2 | Complete Crow Mode 5 times | 5,000 / 1,000 |
| Act 1/2/3 Conqueror #3 | Complete each act 10 times | 2,000 / 1,500 each |
| Complete Villain Invasion | Finish 11 non-daily quests | 5,000 / 5,000 + Crow Hideout Banner |
Spending Villain Coins in the Event Shop
Villain Coins buy reroll materials, cosmetics, and the crafting items tied to Crow. If you are chasing the Secret unit, Crow’s Ring is the evolution material you need, and Illusion Crow is Crow’s own equipment. Check the evolve menu before you buy, since the shop stocks several near-identical items.
| Item | Amount | Cost (Villain Coins) |
|---|---|---|
| Illusion Crow (Crow’s equipment) | 1x | 10,000 |
| Crow’s Ring (evolution material) | 1x | 5,000 |
| Jaw Skull / Magical Amulet / Cursed Book | 1x each | 5,000 each |
| Villain Invasion Banner | 1x | 5,000 |
| Villain Invasion Theme | 1x | 5,000 |
| Trait Crystal | 200x | 100 |
| Stat Reroll / Stat Lock | 100x each | 100 each |
| Equipment Reroll / Equipment Lock | 100x each | 100 each |
| Sprite (Grey) | 100x | 50 each |
The fastest way through the event is to run the highest act you can clear reliably, bank Crow Relics from Act 3, and save your coins for Crow’s Ring and gear rather than dumping everything into the banner. Once you clear a stage cleanly, it becomes a steady loop, and everything you earn here leaves when the event ends, so lock in the equipment and materials you want before the window closes.
