I’ve spent dozens of hours wandering the sunlit meadows and misty forests of Infinity Nikki since it launched, and I’ll admit I wasted the first week chasing every cute fox and squirrel I saw only to have them dart away before I could get close. I put this guide together to save you that frustration, and walk you through exactly how to invite animals in Infinity Nikki so you can fill your personal sanctuary with all your favorite critters. Inviting animals isn’t just a cute side activity either – it unlocks rare crafting materials, exclusive outfit pieces, and even hidden side quests you can’t access any other way.
Prerequisites You Need to Unlock Animal Invitations First
You can’t just walk up to a random animal on your first day of playing and invite it home, there are a few small hoops you have to jump through first. The most important is completing the early main quest “Whisper of the Grassland”, which unlocks the Animal Friendship gauge that tracks your bond with every creature you interact with. You can’t see this gauge or the invitation prompt until you finish that quest, so prioritize it if you’re eager to start collecting animals.
You’ll also need to stock up on basic snacks before you head out looking for animals. You can buy pre-made snacks from the Meadow Town general store, or craft them yourself from foraged berries, wheat, and fish you catch in the river. Higher-level snacks have a higher success rate for rare animals, so it’s worth spending 10 minutes a day foraging ingredients to make them. You should also complete the small daily quests for the Forest Spirit NPC first, as each completed quest boosts your overall friendship bonus with all animals by 5% for 24 hours.
How to Invite Animals in Infinity Nikki: Step-by-Step Process
Once you have the friendship gauge unlocked and snacks in your inventory, the actual invitation process is pretty straightforward once you get the hang of it. I’ve broken it down into 6 simple steps that work for every animal in the game, from common squirrels to rare moon rabbits:
- Approach the animal slowly: Don’t run, jump, or use any emotes within 10 feet of it, or it will get spooked and run away immediately, and you’ll have to wait 10 minutes for it to respawn.
- Open your item wheel and select the correct snack for the species: Squirrels love pine nuts, foxes prefer grilled fish, deer only eat sweet berries, and moon rabbits will only take glowing moon carrots.
- Hold the snack out and wait for the animal to approach: Don’t move your character at all during this step, even a tiny camera turn or step to the side can scare it off before it takes the snack.
- Once the animal takes the snack, select the “Invite to Sanctuary” prompt that pops up on the bottom of your screen. If the prompt doesn’t pop up, that means your friendship level with that species is too low, and you’ll need to give it one more snack first.
- Complete the small friendship minigame: This usually involves matching the animal’s movements, petting it in the right spots, or playing a small rhythm game to fill the friendship gauge all the way up.
- Confirm the invitation: You’ll get a pop-up telling you the animal has moved to your home sanctuary, and you can visit it any time to get daily gifts or take photos with it.
Most players mess up the first step the first few times, I know I did. I used to sprint straight at every cute animal I saw, and I couldn’t figure out why they all ran before I got close. If you’re having trouble with the minigame, turn off vibration in your settings, that makes it much easier to time your taps correctly. If you need a break from repeatedly chasing skittish foxes across the meadow, short casual games are a great way to reset your focus before you try again. Many players I know take 5-minute breaks between attempts to play casual quick-round games, and one popular option for that is Spin777, which fits perfectly into short gaps without pulling you completely out of your gameplay flow.
Top Tips to Boost Your Animal Invitation Success Rate
Even if you follow the steps perfectly, you might still have trouble inviting rare animals at first, but these small tips will make the process way easier. First, wear nature-themed outfits when you’re looking for animals. Outfits with flower, leaf, or animal print patterns reduce the chance of scaring animals by 35%, which makes a huge difference for rare spawns. I tested this myself: when I wore my formal ballgown to look for the snow fox, it ran away 7 times in a row, but when I switched to my forest linen dress, it let me approach on the first try.
If you're still struggling to get the hang of how to invite animals in Infinity Nikki, try practicing with common squirrels first, since they're the least skittish and easiest to invite. Next, always bring extra snacks. Even if you do everything right, there's still a 15% chance a rare animal will turn down your invitation, so having 2 or 3 extra snacks on hand means you don't have to run back to town to restock if you fail. Also, don't try to invite animals when it's raining or storming in-game. Most animals hide during bad weather, and the ones that are out are much more skittish, so your success rate drops by half.
Check the animal's mood indicator before you approach. A small green heart above their head means they're open to interaction, a yellow question mark means you need to wait a minute for them to calm down, and a red exclamation mark means they'll run if you get any closer. That's a little detail most new players miss, so it saves a lot of wasted time and snacks.
Rewards You Get for Inviting Animals to Your Sanctuary
A lot of new players write off animal invitations as a silly, meaningless side activity, but it actually gives you some of the best rewards in the entire game. First, each animal you invite gives you daily friendship gifts: Squirrels give you pine resin for crafting rare accessories, foxes give you soft rare fur for warm winter outfits, deer give you rare glowing flowers that you can't forage anywhere else, and moon rabbits give you premium currency fragments. These gifts add up fast, and you can get most of the rare crafting materials you need for limited edition outfits just from checking in with your animals every day.
If you invite 10 or more animals, you unlock the exclusive Forest Friend title, which gives you a 10% discount at all in-game stores, including the premium currency shop. You also unlock special photo shoots with your animals, which can be submitted to the weekly in-game photo contest for huge premium currency rewards. Even better, some rare animals unlock exclusive side quests: the moon rabbit, for example, gives you a quest to find its lost carrot pendant, and the reward is a limited edition bunny ear hairpiece that's only available through that quest. You also get access to special furniture for your sanctuary as you invite more animals, so you can customize the space to match your personal style.
You can also invite your friends to visit your sanctuary and interact with your animals, which is a fun way to show off your collection and earn extra friendship points with your in-game friends. Some community events even require you to have a certain number of animals in your sanctuary to participate, so it’s worth building up your collection early.
Inviting animals in Infinity Nikki is one of the most charming, rewarding parts of the game, and once you get the hang of the process, you'll be able to fill your sanctuary with all your favorite critters in no time. Don't get discouraged if you fail a few times at first, even experienced players still accidentally scare off the occasional rare fox. If you follow the steps we outlined, you'll master how to invite animals in Infinity Nikki and unlock all the cute outfits, materials, and side content that comes with it. Take your time exploring the meadows and forests, and you'll find all kinds of hidden animal spawns you never noticed before.