The first half of Neverness to Everness version 1.3 puts two damage dealers on the board at the same time. Zankou is brand new, arriving on the Alluring Shadows banner as an Incantation main DPS. Nanally is back on The Ichi-daime, the game’s first rerun, and she is still the best Anima carry in the roster. Both are S-rank, both want to be the center of your team, and most players can only afford one.
Quick answer: Pull Zankou if you lack a modern Incantation main DPS or you already own Sakiri, Daffodill, or Lacrimosa. Pull Nanally if you have no Anima carry and want a Blossom team built around Esper Zero, Jiuyuan, and Iroi. If you can only fund one banner and want the longer shelf life, take Zankou.
Zankou vs Nanally: The core differences
These two barely overlap. They use different elements, trigger different Esper Cycles, and lean on different free characters, so the decision usually comes down to which half of your account is empty.
| Zankou | Nanally | |
|---|---|---|
| Element | Incantation | Anima |
| Role | Main DPS | Main DPS |
| Banner | Alluring Shadows (new) | The Ichi-daime (rerun) |
| Signature Arc | Ravenous Blade | Ready-Ready |
| Playstyle | DoT and follow-up attacks | On-field bursts with off-field turrets |
| Key reaction | Discord, Hexed, Scorch | Blossom |
| Free teammates | Sakiri, Daffodill | Esper Zero, Jiuyuan |
What Zankou does in version 1.3
Zankou is the go-to Incantation damage dealer as of version 1.3, and she pushes Baicang out of that slot outright. Her Arc compatibility is Gas, and her kit swings between two forms. Reality Form gives her the Hunt buff, which raises her damage. Her Redirect Skill, Sanguine Dash, flips her into Illusion Form, where every attack counts as follow-up damage and her basic attack chain stacks the Heartwrench damage-over-time debuff while spreading existing DoTs to nearby enemies.
Illusion Form also grants Delusion, a team-wide buff that raises the CRIT DMG of DoT effects. The payoff is timing-based. Cast the enhanced Redirect Skill, Soulcross, shortly before Illusion Form expires and you trigger Oblivion, a large AoE hit that arms her upgraded Ultimate, Bloodfeast Reverie. Firing that Ultimate piles on multiple Heartwrench stacks and hands you a free cast of her standard Ultimate, Inferno Flamenco.
Her support skill, Crimson Reverie, sets her Cycle Energy to 100 the moment a fight starts, once per battle, and raises her Cycle Intensity by 100 while she is on the team. Her signature Arc, Ravenous Blade, is straightforward but strong. It gives 16% Crit Rate flat, then adds 9% Crit DMG for 15 seconds every time she deals Incantation damage, stacking up to seven times with a 0.3-second gate between stacks. The duration refreshes on every trigger, so in a normal fight she sits near max stacks. Equipping it on Zankou also applies a purple weapon skin to her sword.
Note: two of her best partners cost nothing. Sakiri buffs the party and immobilizes enemies with her Ultimate, and Daffodill is the Chaos parry specialist who anchors Discord cycles. Both are available through the free S-rank standard character selection.
What Nanally still brings on her rerun
Nanally is the strongest Anima main DPS in the game and has not been displaced. She boosts her own CRIT damage through her skill and chains her Ultimate, basic attack string, and skill into a fast damage window. Her Cycle build-up is quick, which makes her easy to rotate in and out during longer fights.
Her real draw is Blossom, the reaction produced by pairing Anima with Cosmos. Blossom spawns turrets that keep hitting enemies while you are playing someone else, and Nanally’s Blossom enhancement makes Vita Buds fire twice as many shots. Stack her with other Blossom enhancers such as Iroi, Jiuyuan, or Mint and the off-field damage adds up fast.
Her signature Arc, Ready-Ready, carries CRIT Rate and Attack, buffs Basic Attack damage, and adds bonus damage against bosses. It is her best-in-slot weapon. It also works as an alternative option for Aurelia and Linko, though both have free Arcs that make it hard to justify pulling for them specifically.
How each one fits your endgame teams
Prime Circle, the high-difficulty Beyond the Rails content in the Miguel District, is the clearest test. It runs an Inbound and an Outbound line and forbids character overlap, so you need two fully built squads with no shared members. That structure quietly rewards owning both, but it also tells you which gap hurts more right now.
| Team | Lineup | How it works |
|---|---|---|
| Blossom (Nanally) | Nanally, Jiuyuan, Iroi, Esper Zero | Three Blossom enhancers stack turret damage; Esper Zero’s Redirect Skill keeps Cycles firing so Vita Pistils never run dry |
| Discord (Zankou’s lane) | Lacrimosa, Sakiri, Fadia, Daffodill | Incantation, Psyche, and Chaos trigger Discord to Break enemies fast; swapping Fadia for Haniel trades healing for damage |
Zankou slots into that Incantation and Chaos side of the roster, and she also pairs well with Lacrimosa, who is a strong damage dealer in her own right. Nanally owns the Anima and Cosmos side. If you already run one of these lanes comfortably, pull for the other.
The longevity argument
Gacha rosters drift. Older units get replaced, and Nanally has already watched several strong main DPS characters arrive since launch, including the fully free S-rank Chiz. She has not been dethroned as an Anima carry, but she is the older unit here.
Zankou released several patches later, so she should hold her position longer, and she stands to get better as more Incantation-adjacent units land. Linko arrives in the second half of version 1.3 as a sub-DPS focused on support skills and the Hexed reaction, which lines up with Zankou’s element. Each banner half of version 1.3 lasts 21 days, so you have time to bank Annuliths, but not enough to hedge on both if you also want Linko or the Hotori rerun later.
The short version: Zankou is the safer long-term investment and the better fit if you enjoy DoT and follow-up damage, while Nanally is the pick if your Anima and Blossom side is bare and you want a carry who works immediately with characters you already own for free. Neither is a mistake — but if you skipped Nanally the first time and have been fine without her, that is a decent signal that the newer Incantation carry is the one worth your Annuliths.
