Anomaly Zones Guide NTE: Neverness to Everness

TL;DR

• Anomaly Zones are the main stamina-spending dungeons in NTE and your primary source of character upgrade materials.
• They cost Character Pixels to enter, which regenerate at 1 every 6 minutes up to a cap of 240.
• There are five main Anomaly Zones in Hethereau, each dropping different materials.
• Higher difficulty levels drop better and more materials. Always run the highest difficulty you can clear.
• You need Hunter Level 10 before you can access the first difficulty where Cartridges drop.
• The Anomaly Pilgrimage is a separate weekly mode that rewards Esper Ability upgrade materials and resets 3 times per week.
• Beyond the Rails is the endgame Anomaly Zone with rotating Special Routes that reset each game version.
• Spending your Character Pixels daily on Anomaly Zones is the single most important habit for account progression in NTE.

Anomaly Zones are the backbone of character progression in Neverness to Everness. Every upgrade material your characters need, from leveling EXP to Arc Ascension materials to Cartridges, comes from running these zones with your daily stamina. Understanding which zone drops what and how the difficulty system works will save you a lot of time and wasted resources.

This guide covers everything about Anomaly Zones in NTE: how they work, where to find each one, what they drop, how Character Pixels function, and how the Anomaly Pilgrimage and Beyond the Rails content fits into your weekly routine.

What Are Anomaly Zones in NTE?

Anomaly Zones are instanced combat domains scattered across the city of Hethereau. They are the primary stamina-spending activity in NTE and the main source of Development Materials needed to strengthen your characters and Arcs. Each zone has multiple difficulty levels, and the rewards scale up as the difficulty increases. The higher the level you can clear, the more materials you earn per run.

Every Anomaly Zone has its own challenge node types inside it, each dropping a specific category of upgrade material. Knowing which zone to visit for what you need is just as important as knowing how to clear them.

To find all Anomaly Zone locations quickly, open your smartphone in-game and use the Exploration Guide. Select any challenge entry and tap Go to navigate directly to that zone without needing to find it on the map yourself.

Character Pixels: How Stamina Works in Anomaly Zones

Anomaly Zones use a stamina resource called Character Pixels. This is completely separate from City Stamina, which is used for Hethereau Hobbies like racing, fishing, and Swift Travel. Character Pixels are exclusive to Anomaly Zones and related content.

• Regeneration rate: 1 Character Pixel every 6 minutes, which totals 240 per 24 hours.
• Maximum cap: 240 Character Pixels. Once you hit the cap, regeneration stops, so you lose potential resources if you do not spend them.
• Recovery items: The De-noise Solution item restores 60 Pixels when consumed. You can use it by pressing the + button on the upper right of the stage selection screen in the Anomaly Zone, or directly from your bag.
• Annulith top-up: You can also spend Annulith to refill Pixels, but this is only recommended in specific circumstances since Annulith is more valuable as gacha currency. This option is capped at 6 uses per day and resets with the daily server reset.

The most important habit in NTE is logging in and spending all your Character Pixels every day. Running Anomaly Zones not only gives you upgrade materials but also awards Hunter Level EXP, which unlocks higher difficulty tiers and raises the character level cap over time. Missing a day means losing a full 240 Pixels worth of materials and EXP that cannot be recovered.

How Difficulty Levels Work

Every Anomaly Zone has multiple difficulty tiers. The drop rates and quantity of materials scale directly with the difficulty you choose. A higher difficulty run rewards more materials than two lower difficulty runs for the same total Pixel cost, so you always want to push the hardest tier your team can comfortably clear.

You need to reach Hunter Level 10 before you can access the first difficulty tier where Cartridges can be farmed. Before that point, focus on clearing story content to level up quickly. Higher Hunter Levels continue to unlock harder difficulty tiers as you progress, and higher Appraisal Levels increase the strength of enemies but also improve the quality of dropped rewards.

If you ever get stuck on a higher difficulty, check your team building and character builds. Having a well-synergized team makes a much bigger difference than raw stats in NTE. Our best team compositions guide for NTE covers the strongest setups for clearing tough content efficiently.

All Anomaly Zones in NTE: Locations and Rewards

There are five main Anomaly Zones in Hethereau at launch. Each one is found in a specific district and rewards a specific category of materials. Here is a breakdown of each.

1. Houdinii’s Magic Stage (Bridge Crossings)

Location: Southeast of the Green Wall Slope in Bridge Crossings. Access the route through Fiscus Avenue.

What it drops: Character EXP materials used to level up your Appraisers. This is the zone to run whenever your characters need EXP to push their level cap higher. The challenge node inside this zone is called Collection. Higher difficulty tiers drop larger quantities and higher grades of EXP books.

2. Bubble Can Factory (New Herland District)

Location: On the side of Nutcracker Road, just under Iris Bridge in the New Herland District.

What it drops: Arc Ascension materials used to raise the level cap on your Arcs (weapons). Run this zone whenever you need to push an Arc to the next ascension tier. Arcs are a major part of your team’s damage output, so keeping them upgraded is just as important as leveling your characters. Our guide on how to get cartridges and modules in NTE covers related gear farming in more detail.

3. Houdinii’s Schemes (Miguel District)

Location: Behind the Griddy Storage Lockers on Saint Torres Avenue, near Miguel Street.

What it drops: Materials for upgrading your Appraiser’s abilities. This zone is essential for strengthening the active skills and passive upgrades of your characters at a deeper level than simple leveling allows.

4. Rabbit Hole (New Herland District)

Location: On top of a high-rise building in Cape Square in New Herland District. This is the trickiest Anomaly Zone to reach at first since the entrance is elevated. You will need to find a way up to the rooftop level to access it.

What it drops: Cartridges — the gear pieces that give your characters randomized stats and set bonuses through the Console system. This is the most critical Anomaly Zone for endgame character building because Cartridges are a major source of power. The challenge nodes inside Rabbit Hole drop specific Cartridge sets including Shadow Creed and Tiny Big Adventure, as well as Carrotas used for Easy Rewind and EXP materials for Modules. Wait until Hunter Level 30 before farming Cartridges seriously, since higher-tier pieces start dropping from that point onward and you do not want to invest resources into gear that will quickly become outdated.

5. Beyond the Rails (Miguel District)

Location: The train station in the northern part of Miguel District.

What it drops: This is NTE’s endgame Anomaly Zone. Beyond the Rails features Special Routes with rotating rewards that reset and change every time the game updates to a new version. Clearing Special Routes earns Annulith and training materials. There is also a hidden side mission here called Norms on the Anomaly Express, which involves speaking to an NPC named Miss Levi at the station. This quest is not visible on the map and must be found by exploring the zone yourself.

Anomaly Pilgrimage: The Weekly Esper Ability Farming Mode

The Anomaly Pilgrimage is a separate weekly content mode that works alongside the standard Anomaly Zones. It is the primary source for Esper Ability upgrade materials, which are the resources needed to enhance your characters’ active skills and raise their ability levels.

Key things to know about the Anomaly Pilgrimage:

• You can only claim rewards from it 3 times per week. Once those attempts are used, you must wait for the weekly reset before you can earn more.
• It still costs Character Pixels to run, so plan your Pixel spending across your week to make sure you have enough to hit all three Pilgrimage attempts.
• Always check which specific Esper Ability materials your current characters actually need before locking in your weekly runs. Spending on the wrong material type wastes limited attempts.
• The weekly reset for City Stamina and Anomaly Pilgrimage attempts occurs every Monday at 5:00 AM UTC+8.

The Anomaly Pilgrimage should always be your first priority when it comes to weekly Pixel spending. Standard Anomaly Zone runs can cover daily EXP and Arc material needs, but the Pilgrimage is the only reliable source for Esper Ability upgrades and should never be skipped.

The Realm of Greed: The Home-Based Weekly Zone

The Realm of Greed is a special Anomaly Zone that you access differently from all the others. Instead of going to a location in the open world, you activate it by interacting with the Mammon decoration inside your apartment. This makes it one of the most convenient content pieces in the game since you can run it from home without any travel.

Clearing the Realm of Greed rewards Fons based on the difficulty level you clear. Like all Anomaly-related content, always push the highest difficulty you can handle to maximize the payout. This is a once-per-week activity, so time it well and make sure you are attempting the hardest tier possible when you do it.

If you do not own an apartment yet, our guide on how to buy a house in NTE will help you get set up. For more on the Anomaly Furniture system that also lives inside your apartment, check our Anomaly Furniture guide.

Anomaly Commissions vs Anomaly Zones: What Is the Difference?

These two systems get confused often but they work very differently.

Anomaly Zones are repeatable dungeon-style instances that you spend Character Pixels to enter. They are your primary daily farming activity for upgrade materials and Hunter Level EXP. You can run them as many times as your Pixels allow.

Anomaly Commissions are one-time story missions tied to specific supernatural entities in Hethereau. They involve tracking down and containing Anomalies ranging from quirky animals to horror-style encounters. Each commission gives a one-time reward package that includes Annulith, Fons, Beetle Coins, Carrota, and Anomaly Material Selection Boxes. Some commissions also reward entire standard S-class Arc weapons, meaning you can equip your team with powerful gear without spending a single Tri-Key on the weapon banner.

Think of Anomaly Commissions as content you do once for big rewards, and Anomaly Zones as content you do every day for steady material income. We have separate guides covering many of the individual Anomaly Commissions, including the After School Anomaly Commission, the Heaven’s Forsaken Anomaly Commission, the Lonely Player Anomaly Commission, the Flaming Bike Ride Assault Commission, and the Change Your Perspective Anomaly Commission.

Anomaly Hunts: Open World Boss Farming

Beyond the instanced Anomaly Zones, NTE also has Anomaly Hunts which are open world boss encounters. These bosses spawn at specific locations in Hethereau and respawn after a set cooldown period. Defeating them rewards character-specific upgrade materials used to push certain characters to higher levels or unlock their abilities. Unlike Anomaly Zone runs, Anomaly Hunts do not cost Character Pixels to attempt. They are worth working into your weekly routine once you have unlocked them, especially if a specific boss drops materials you need for characters you are actively building.

How to Track Which Materials You Need

One of the most useful features in NTE is the Exploration Guide, accessible from your smartphone in-game or by pressing F1 on PC. It shows you all available Anomaly Zone challenges and lets you navigate directly to any of them with one tap. More importantly, it helps you track which materials you are short on so you can decide which zone to prioritize before spending your Pixels.

A good habit is to check the Exploration Guide before each farming session so your Pixels always go toward materials that actually benefit your current roster. Running the wrong zone because you are not sure what you need is one of the most common early-game inefficiencies.

Daily Anomaly Zone Routine: How to Farm Efficiently

Here is the most efficient approach to Anomaly Zone farming in NTE on a daily and weekly basis:

• Every day: Log in and spend all 240 Character Pixels on Anomaly Zones. Use the Exploration Guide to identify which materials you need and go to the correct zone. Always run the highest difficulty tier your team can clear.
• Every week (Monday reset): Use your three Anomaly Pilgrimage attempts first before spending Pixels on standard zones. The Pilgrimage rewards Esper Ability materials which are harder to come by elsewhere. Only clear the Realm of Greed in your apartment once per week.
• Wait until Hunter Level 30 for Cartridges: Do not farm Rabbit Hole Cartridges seriously until this milestone. Before that point, prioritize EXP materials from Houdinii’s Magic Stage to level your characters quickly.
• Beyond the Rails each version update: Check the Special Routes whenever a new game version drops. Clear them before they rotate out with the next update.
• Use De-noise Solution items when needed: If you have them, use Pixel recovery items on days when you need a surge of materials for a specific upgrade. Save Annulith refills for genuinely high-priority situations.

For more help with daily resource management, see our guide on how to get Fons fast in NTE and our full City Tycoon guide to keep all income streams running in parallel.

Anomaly Zones and Character Builds

The materials you farm from Anomaly Zones feed directly into your character builds. EXP books raise character levels, Arc Ascension materials push weapon caps, ability upgrade materials from the Pilgrimage unlock stronger skills, and Cartridges from Rabbit Hole are the endgame gear system that fine-tunes every character’s stat profile.

Getting the most out of your Anomaly Zone runs means having the right characters built well enough to clear high difficulty tiers. Check individual build guides for help with specific characters you are working on, including our guides for Nanally, Skia, Daffodil, Adler, Hathor, Chiz, Esper Zero, and Haniel. For help on unlocking more map areas so you can find all the Anomaly Zone entrances quickly, check our guide on how to unlock all map areas in NTE.

Where to Play Neverness to Everness

NTE is available on PC via the official NTE website, on Android through the Google Play Store, and on PlayStation through the PlayStation Store.

Ending Note

Anomaly Zones are the engine that powers your entire character progression in NTE. Every upgrade your team needs runs through these instanced dungeons. The habit of spending your 240 Character Pixels daily, prioritizing the Anomaly Pilgrimage weekly, and always pushing the hardest difficulty you can clear is the single most important routine you can build in Neverness to Everness. Get that loop going early and your account will grow consistently without any wasted effort.

For more progression guides, check out our vehicle modification guide, our fishing guide for extra daily Annulith, all current NTE redeem codes for free resources, and the Scarborough Fair gacha system guide to understand how to spend the Annulith you earn from zone clears.