Anime Squadron drops you into a tower defense grind with dozens of units, several currencies, and four ways to upgrade a single character, but almost no direction on what to do first. The game is built to be played half-AFK, so the whole point is knowing what to farm at each stage instead of spreading your resources thin. What follows is the shortest reliable route from your first summon to a squad that can clear the hardest content.
Quick answer: Redeem every code and free reward, clear Story Stages to level 10 with any Legendary damage dealer plus Fastwagon, pull Goki and Vegata and awaken them, add Karashi for fast low-stage clears, farm Madora in the Ninja Village Squadron Stage, finish the Primal Fusion quest to unlock Gometa, then farm Puppeteer in the Katakara Bridge Challenge, rolling traits and stats and crafting gear along the way.
Claim every free reward before you play
Your first session should be about collecting free currency, not summoning. Open the Update Log to grab the current codes, then close it and enter them in the Codes section on the following screen. Codes regularly hand out Gold, Summoning Gems, and sometimes whole units or materials, so they give you a real head start.
Next, visit the Update Event NPC and the Group Rewards NPC. Sign up for the update and join the group to unlock more freebies, then open your Daily rewards and claim what is there. Finish by opening the Beginner Missions and collecting anything you have already completed, and make a note to return once you have cleared a few stages.
Who to summon first on each banner
There are two banners. The Basic Banner is open from the start, and the Selection Banner unlocks at level 10. Do not dump all your Gems into the Basic Banner just because you have them. Roll until you land at least one Epic or Legendary damage dealer, and after that only pull on the Basic Banner when the rotating featured unit is Karashi, Goki, Vegata, or Fastwagon. That rotation changes every hour, so check back often.
| Unit | Rarity | Why it matters |
|---|---|---|
| Karashi (Sharingan) | Mythic | Fastest practical unit for speed farming materials and easy stages. |
| Goki (SSJ4) | Mythic | Required for the Primal Fusion quest that unlocks Gometa. |
| Vegata (SSJ4) | Mythic | Also required for the Primal Fusion quest. |
| Fastwagon | Epic | Generates Yen, which you need for the entire game. |
When the Selection Banner opens at level 10, pick a unit you do not already own, with Goki and Vegata taking priority. Woo (Shadow) is the fastest unit in the game, but it sits behind a 15,000 pity or a 0.0075% pull rate on the Basic Banner, so treat it as a long-term goal rather than an early target.
Early game: Story Stages and Perks to level 10
Your early goal is level 10 so the Selection Banner unlocks. The fastest way there is clearing Story Stages on both Normal and Hard difficulty to collect the one-time XP and Gem rewards, which push your level up quickly.
Before entering any stage, upgrade your Maximum Yen and Yen Generation perks to roughly level 3 to 5, depending on how much Gold your codes gave you. Keep Maximum Yen at 2,000 or higher so you can summon Mythic units at the start of a stage. Skip Health upgrades entirely; if your units are strong, base HP barely matters. Always keep some Gold in reserve, since you will need it for Awakening later.
Check the Board next to the Play section for any GT City bounties, since that is the first set of stages you will clear anyway. Most importantly, keep your team small. Fastwagon plus your best damage dealer is enough for these stages. Adding extra units splits your Yen and stops you from upgrading the two units that actually carry the run. As you clear content, sweep your Battle Pass, Daily Quest, Weekly Quest, and anything marked with an exclamation icon for more free rewards.
When you get stuck early
Early on your upgrade options are limited, and overusing them drains your resources fast. Work through this checklist in order, and if the answer to all of it is no, head back to farming.
- Can I upgrade any unit with Food?
- Can I upgrade Maximum Yen or Yen Generation, with Yen Generation first?
- Can I roll for a better Mythic and still keep enough Gems for pity?
The most efficient fallback is GT City Stage 1 on Hard. Food and rewards there do not scale much with stage difficulty, so it farms Gems, XP, and Food efficiently. Gems convert to Gold when you feed off unwanted units, and every fifth level grants a milestone reward. Clear any Squadron Stages you can for their first-time rewards and run the Daily Challenge whenever it is available.
Mid game: awaken Goki and Vegata, then chase Gometa
Before pushing further, prioritize getting Goki and Vegata. Gometa is your first milestone unit and a staple deep into endgame, and both of these are required to make him. You will also use them to farm the other units you need. Karashi is not mandatory, but it makes every farming session far faster.
Once you hit level 10 and have those units, four upgrade systems open up. Handle them in this order of importance: Awakening, then rolling Traits, then rerolling Stats, then crafting Gear. Your first milestone here is awakening Goki and Vegata, which both need materials from different stages. Open the Awakening NPC, check where each material drops, and go farm it.
At the Trait Reroll NPC, take Goki and set the config to target Rebirth, Entrepreneur, Cloner, or Superior. Hitting Cloner is a win; hitting Superior means you never reroll that unit again. With 800 Trait Shards you can roll into the Cloner pity, and with 1,250 total you can push all the way to the Superior pity.
For stats, focus on damage and speed early and keep anything rated A or above. Save your Perfect Cubes for now, and only spend them on Goki if you land an S or better. You improve stat odds by using the unit before rerolling, so run a farm session first, then reroll. Gear crafting matters more later, but if you have spare materials for cheap pieces, make them for a small boost.
The Primal Fusion quest and Madora
Under Quests, open the Special tab and find Primal Fusion, then check its requirements. That quest is your mid-game target, and it rewards Gometa (SSJ4).
To complete it, build up until you can farm Chapter 4 of the Ninja Village Squadron Stage on both Normal and Hard. Normal drops Madora, and Hard drops his awakening material. Goki, Vegata, and Fastwagon with enough Perk levels can handle Ninja Village. Madora is a huge help in raid stages and stays useful into endgame, so spend Trait Shards and Reroll Cubes on him freely.
The quest also asks for raid runs, about 20 clears of GT City Raid Act 4 plus 80 more runs of any raid stage, and 500 Infinite waves. The Infinite portion is easy and just takes time on auto-play; it does not matter how far you push, only that you reach 500 waves. Once you awaken Gometa, you are ready to move toward endgame.
Endgame: lock in Puppeteer and gear your carries
Before this stage you want Gometa with at least Cloner, Fastwagon with Entrepreneur or Wealthy, a decent Madora, and a low-investment support like Shinks (even unawakened), Beby, or Android. Gometa and Madora should also have full gear sets. If you are struggling, grind faster low stages with Karashi and pour more into your Perks.
The last core unit to secure is Puppeteer, found on the Katakara Bridge Challenge. Clear Normal for the unit and Hard for the awakening materials. Puppeteer is an excellent tank that stays in your team well into endgame.
With a team of Gometa, Fastwagon, Madora, a support like Shinks, and Puppeteer, you can farm nearly anything. From here it comes down to upgrading those units to at least Cloner or Superior, fully gearing them (Fastwagon aside), and rolling their stats into the S or S+ range. Start spending your Perfect Cubes now if you have not already.
What to chase after your core team is built
With the essentials done, the rest is completion. Farm and awaken the remaining top units such as Berserker, Bralu, Baras, and Freezer, along with Gometa (Blue), which carries a heavy 15,000 pity. The order is entirely up to the current meta rankings or your own preference, since your core squad already handles the hardest content.
You can confirm each milestone is working the moment it lands. Awakening upgrades show on the unit’s Details screen, the Primal Fusion quest completes and grants Gometa in your roster, and a successful trait roll locks the new trait onto the unit. With Fastwagon carrying your economy and Gometa leading the damage, you are set to farm whatever you want, whenever you want. Redeem the latest Anime Squadron codes on a regular basis to keep your Gold, Shards, and Perfect Cubes topped up.
