ANOMALITH ships with twelve Anomalization skills, and the count is exact: nine active powers you cast during a fight, plus three passive boosts that raise attack, maximum HP and maximum MP. Four further entries in the same menu are upgrades to skills you already own, not new slots. Reona starts with three actives and unlocks the rest through the Workshop, paying in OV and materials rather than levelling up.
How the twelve are actually counted
The menu shows sixteen rows, which is where most confusion starts. Nine of those rows are active skills with an MP cost. Three are passives with no cast cost. The remaining four — Ripper Slash Upgrade, Parry Upgrade, Track Shot Upgrade and Brutal Raid Upgrade — only deepen an existing skill, so they do not add a twelfth anything.
Every branch is a straight line rather than a tree. You buy the base skill, then its upgrade, then the passive that sits beside it, then the next active in the chain. Nothing branches sideways, so there is no way to lock yourself out of a skill by choosing the wrong path first.
The full list, with MP and OV
| Branch | Skill | Type | MP | Prerequisite | OV |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ripper Slash | Ripper Slash | Active | 30 | — | Starter |
| Ripper Slash | Ripper Slash Upgrade | Upgrade | — | Ripper Slash | 1,000 |
| Ripper Slash | Attack Boost | Passive | — | Ripper Slash | 4,300 |
| Ripper Slash | Ground Spike | Active | 35 | Ripper Slash | 1,000 |
| Parry | Parry | Active | 15 | — | Starter |
| Parry | HP Boost | Passive | — | Parry | 500 |
| Parry | Parry Upgrade | Upgrade | — | Parry | 4,300 |
| Parry | Float Shield | Active | 5 | Parry | 4,300 |
| Track Shot | Track Shot | Active | 30 | — | 2,400 |
| Track Shot | Track Shot Upgrade | Upgrade | — | Track Shot | 3,600 |
| Track Shot | Repulsor Shot | Active | 50 | Track Shot | 5,160 |
| Brutal Raid | Brutal Raid | Active | 0 | — | Starter |
| Brutal Raid | Brutal Raid Upgrade | Upgrade | — | Brutal Raid | 500 |
| Brutal Raid | MP Boost | Passive | — | Brutal Raid | 4,300 |
| No Mercy | No Mercy | Active | 0 | Material: Shadowless Lamp | 5,000 |
| No Mercy | Gravity Storm | Active | 0 | No Mercy + second material | 10,000 |
Read the MP column as the real cost of using a skill, and the OV column as the cost of owning it. Those are different budgets and they compete: OV also pays for guns, armour and consumables, so a skill purchase is a decision to delay a weapon upgrade.
What each branch is for
Ripper Slash is the damage branch. The base skill is a forward lunge with a claw, and the upgrade turns it into a two-hit string if you press again on contact. Ground Spike grows spikes out of Reona's own cells, has a wide footprint and middling damage, which makes it the answer to groups rather than to single targets.
Parry is the defensive branch and the cheapest entry in the game at 15 MP. A successful parry cancels the damage outright and lines your gun up on the enemy's weak point, so it doubles as an aiming shortcut. Float Shield costs only 5 MP, pulls debris into orbit around Reona and can be toggled off by pressing again.
Track Shot is the utility branch. Three homing rounds for 30 MP is low damage per shot, but the upgrade pushes it to five and Repulsor Shot creates a gravity field that lifts enemies off the floor. Lifting a crowd is often worth more than killing one of them.
Brutal Raid costs nothing to cast and only works on a staggered enemy, which makes it a finisher rather than an opener. Its upgrade adds a shockwave, and the passive beside it raises maximum MP — the only place in the tree where you can buy a bigger mana pool.
No Mercy is the endgame branch. It needs a specific boss material before you can even buy it, which means it is gated by progress rather than by money. Gravity Storm sits behind it at 10,000 OV and a second material, and it is the most expensive single purchase in the Workshop.
Where MP comes from
MP is not refilled by shooting. It comes back through the half-anomalization state: when Reona's health drops below a threshold she partially transforms, her skills get stronger and MP regenerates on its own. That is the tutorial's own description of the mechanic, and it is why low health is a resource rather than only a problem.
You can also trigger it deliberately. Holding the attack input drains Reona's own HP and converts it into MP, which is the trade the game never puts in a menu: health for a cast. Used badly it kills you; used well it turns a losing fight into a rotation.
The number that matters
No Mercy, Gravity Storm and Brutal Raid all cost 0 MP. Their limits are materials and cooldowns, not the mana bar — so a build can run three free abilities and spend MP only on parries and shields.
The three passives, priced
Attack Boost, HP Boost and MP Boost each live inside a branch, so you cannot buy one without first owning the base skill beside it. HP Boost is the cheapest permanent upgrade in the game at 500 OV, attached to Parry, which is also the skill you should buy first — the two reinforce each other.
Attack Boost costs 4,300 OV and sits in the Ripper Slash branch, applying to every bullet you fire for the rest of the run — which makes it the best value in the tree for a gun-focused build. MP Boost costs the same 4,300 and only pays out when you cast, so it is worth buying after your rotation is already MP-hungry rather than before.
Note which branches own which passive. There is no way to buy Attack Boost on its own: it requires Ripper Slash first, the same way HP Boost requires Parry. Choosing a passive therefore means choosing a base skill you may not otherwise want.
What to buy first
Buy Parry before anything else. It is 15 MP, it cancels damage, and it points your gun at the weak spot, which is three jobs for the price of the cheapest skill in the tree. HP Boost beside it costs 500 OV and is the cheapest permanent upgrade in the game.
Then take the passive that matches how you actually play. Attack Boost at 4,300 OV pays out on every bullet; MP Boost pays out only if you cast often. Buying both early is the most common way to end up short of OV for a weapon tier.
Leave Gravity Storm for last. At 10,000 OV plus a boss material it is a completionist purchase, not a mid-game solution, and by the time you can afford it you will already know whether you want it.
Names and translations
The game's English build uses its own names, and four are confirmed in English-language footage: Ripper Slash, Ground Spike, Track Shot and No Mercy. Parry, Brutal Raid, Float Shield, Repulsor Shot and Gravity Storm are direct translations of the Japanese menu, and the exact English wording is unconfirmed. The materials that gate the last two branches are also only documented in Japanese.
If a name on your screen does not match this table, the branch, MP cost and OV price will still match. Those come from the skill menu itself, where the numbers are printed next to every entry.