The data in this hub is focused on the east Asia servers (Korea/Japan/Taiwan). As of March 2024, this site is no longer being updated.
Quick information about Ni no Kuni: Cross Worlds and how to get started on one of the Asia servers. If you have a question not answered by this FAQ (or other pages on this hub), drop by the Ni no Kuni subreddit Discord server. The #cross-worlds channel has some regular players who may be able to help you out.
Ni no Kuni: Cross Worlds is a free-to-play mobile game, a fantasy MMORPG set in the universe of the Ni no Kuni franchise. It contains an all new cast and story, although it includes references to previous entries in the series. Elements from both Ni no Kuni (Dark Djinn/White Witch) and Ni no Kuni 2 (Revenant Kingdom) are present in the game.
Cross Worlds is co-developed by Level-5 (the original creators of the Ni no Kuni franchise) and Netmarble. Netmarble runs the servers and manages transactions within the game.
Cross Worlds is released in Japan, Korea, and Taiwan, and can be found in the app stores for those regions (both Apple and Google Play). A PC client is also available for these regions.
Netmarble plans to launch Ni no Kuni: Cross Worlds globally on May 25th, 2022.
At the moment, there is not a method to play the game with English UI or text. However, the game comes with several spoken language options, one of which is English. This allows you to watch cutscenes in English, although not all scenes are voiced, and not all voiced scenes are fully voiced, so this option will only provide limited support for English players.
Very early in the game's lifecycle (the first few weeks of release), users found some beta English strings in the mobile app and were able to toggle a flag in the APK that surfaced these strings. This has since been patched out of the game, so no English text is currently available.
If you would like to play the game in English, you should wait for the global release scheduled for Q2 2022.
You can install the game directly from the Japanese, Korean, or Taiwanese app stores on iOS or Android. You can also sideload the APK onto your mobile device.
Japan and Korea use the same APK bundle, and the default language for this is Korean. If you want to install the game in Japanese, you will need to set your OS language to Japanese first. It may be necessary to set Japanese as the only OS language, although some users have been fine with having multiple OS languages as long as Japanese is set to primary. If you have installed the game and it loaded in Korean, try uninstalling the game, changing your OS language, and reinstalling the game. Once the game is installed, you can set your OS language back to its previous settings, and the language setting should stick.
Go to the official PC client site (Japan/Korean/Taiwan) and download the installer for the Netmarble Launcher. You will probably need to have a VPN running for the region you wish to play in before running the launcher for the first time, as this will populate what games the launcher will load. Cross Worlds should be an available game; once the game is installed/updated, use the Netmarble Launcher to run it.
You do not need to run a VPN after the launcher has loaded the version of Cross Worlds you wish to play. The launcher can be minimized once you launch Cross Worlds, but cannot be closed when Cross Worlds is open. The launcher is used to manage updates to itself and Cross Worlds, so you should not need to redownload updates from the PC client site once installed.
The PC client is in beta and lacks several features. Notably, you cannot create a new character with the PC client; you will need to create a character in the mobile app, link your account to an email address, and then use that email address account to log in to your character on PC. The PC client also lacks transaction support; if you wish to make purchases in-game, they will need to be done in the mobile app.
Although there is not a rigid schedule for updates, Cross Worlds typically updates weekly on Thursday afternoons (JST). These server patches can take anywhere from 1 to 8 hours to complete; there are announcements in-game and on social media the day before with more details.
The game may also undergo smaller maintenance patches if there is a bug that needs addressing. These patches tend to only need 15-45 minutes to complete, and are often not pre-announced (but the game's forums will include information about what was patched after it completes.)
The app/PC client is updated less frequently, perhaps once a month if the weekly patch is a major update that adds a new feature.
If you wish to play the game with friends, or join a specific Kingdom, you will need to chose the same server and region as them.
Otherwise, it doesn't really matter which server you join, as long as you are in the appropriate region for the language UI you wish to play in (Japan region for Japanese, Korea region for Korean, Taiwan region for Chinese.) The game will recommend a server within your region, which you can accept, or you can chose one specifically. Netmarble may occasionally add new servers to the pool.
There are limited opportunities to transfer between servers in the same region, at Netmarble's discretion.
There are 5 character classes in Cross Worlds to chose from: Swordsman, Witch, Destroyer, Engineer, and Rogue. Each has its own sets of skills and playstyles. You should chose a class that appeals to your primary playstyle, whether it's a melee fighter, a healer, a tank, etc.
Once you clear the initial tutorials, you can swap freely between the classes. Each class will level separately, and you will need to replay some of the early main story for each class in order to unlock each one's full set of abilities. However, you are not locked into any choices, so do not feel too stressed about chosing a class to start the game with.
Read more about each class on the character classes guide pages.
Cross Worlds has an autoplay feature for quests, where the game will navigate your character to the goal of each quest's sub-objectives until the quest is complete (or at least up to the point where user intervention is required.)
On the left side of the screen, next to the objective's <!> icon, you can see what your current objective is. If there is a sparkling background behind the objective, that means autoplay is on -- tap on the objective so that the sparkling animation turns off and that will turn off autoplay.
Note that some quests will re-toggle autoplay once you complete subobjectives, so you may need to toggle this on/off multiple times.
As you progress in the game, you'll be able to acquire multiple objectives, and you may need to scroll through the list to see if any single objective has autoplay turned on or not.
Cross Worlds will, by default, automatically use your attack skills when they come off of cooldown if you engage in a fight. You can turn this on/off by adjusting the autoattack settings. Long tap the auto icon in the bottom of the screen (just to the right of the mount icon) to open the autobattle settings, and tap on the bottom button to adjust skill use settings. You should see refresh arrows spinning over the skills that the game will use automatically. Tap each skill (or familiar) to toggle auto-use on/off. When you're done, tap on the normal attack icon (in the center of the attack skill wheel) to confirm your new settings.
Cross Worlds is an MMO with a large number of systems and game modes that can be overwhelming for new players to figure out. Take your time to explore the various systems, and discover which areas you enjoy the most. A few tips for the early game:
You will want to clear the first 2 or 3 chapters of main story to get a good start on the game. You should be able to level up fairly quickly from the experience rewards from clearing main story quests (this starts slowing down around level 20-25). This also unlocks all 3 weapon, familiar, and skill slots for your class, as well as several features for familiars and equipment to boost them further. It will also give you access to some dungeons where you can farm for materials and get you in good shape for the mid-game.
Be sure to incubate familiar eggs and forge equipment in Evermore to get started with equipping your character.
Daily quests provide a small but steady source of leveling and upgrade materials for your familiars and equipment.
You can join a Kingdom starting at level 19 once you clear a short quest. Kingdoms can provide buffs for their members, a shop with useful items, and other players you can team up with to take on more challenging tasks. Finding one which is helpful to English speakers may be a bit trickier, though.
Have fun! If there's a a mode you don't like, or a class you can't stand playing, then don't play those. There are many ways to build up your character, and you don't need to pursue every single one of them. Don't burn yourself out on the game: take your time, and take breaks as needed.
Cross Worlds can be played with friends, as long as everyone is on the same server in the same region. There are limited opportunities to play with others on a different server in the same region (such as in certain dungeon party-matching, or in the Cross Field mode) but not with others in a different region.
The party system allows you to join/create a party of up to 5 members from the same server, if you want to take on raids together or challenge a difficult dungeon. You can chose specific people or create/join a pickup party in the area you are currently in.
You can create/join a Kingdom on your server to play directly with other players, as well as access Kingdom-specific raids.
Main story is currently a solo affair. There are no quests in main story that can be played with a party or a Kingdom.
Cross Worlds has several PK options when in a field/dungeon, and several PVP modes.
PK (player kill) options determine whether your character tries to attack other players or not, in any field or dungeon which allow PK (towns and early fields do not allow PK, but everything else generally does.) Being too aggresive on PKing can build up penalties on your character, which can lead to your character being griefed if you cannot clear them. However, there are some late zones and dungeons where there is no PK penalty, so approach those areas with caution.
PVP modes allow you to challenge other players directly (such as in the 5v5 Sky Island Brawl) or indirectly (such as through an AI-controlled version in the 1v1 Kingdom Training Grounds.) There are also several Kingdom vs Kingdom modes. All of these modes have specific maps and goals and are separate from the general fields/dungeons.
Cross Worlds has a large variety of items that may be purchased in-game for money. Note that the shop also has items to purchase with in-game gold and in-game diamonds, which are sometimes presented in the same areas as items that can be purchased with money, so be sure to check the exact price before committing.
Tickets: You can purchase tickets to the various gacha/lootbox systems in the game, to roll for Familiars, Equipment, or Costumes.
Diamonds: You can purchase diamonds, which are an in-game currency that is used for a wide variety of services such as resetting dungeons before their standard reset time, rolling in the gacha, or buying other useful items in the shop.
Passes: Cross Worlds has a variety of passes that provide bonus items. There are both timed passes (such as 14-day passes which provide a bonus every day for 2 weeks) and goal-based passes (such as Dimensional Boundary passes which provide a bonus each time you complete a set number of objectives in a Dimensional Boundary dungeon.)
Cosmetics: Cross Worlds provides multiple customization options for your account, such as costumes for your classes, mounts, and more. While some of these items have a boost to your character's performance (mounts provide a small boost to your base stats) they are primarily to customize your appearance.
Leveling/upgrade materials: There are many things you need to upgrade to boost your character, and you can buy materials to make upgrading faster.
Character boosts (equipment, skills): You can directly purchase certain pieces of equipment or skill books, some of which cannot be acquired elsewhere in the game.
Consumables: You can buy a variety of consumables to boost your character temporarily, although these are typically packaged with other purchases in order to make them more enticing.
Others: There are a few miscellaneous items that provide a specific service or option for your character, such as changing your character's name or default appearance.
Cross Worlds rather aggressively markets the paid items in its shop. However, if you are okay with not being at the top tier of competitiveness, and committed to a slower growth cycle, you can acquire a lot of good familiars, equipment, and leveling materials just by playing the game. It's up to you to determine your comfort level and determine the balance between grinding and paying to boost your character.
Long-term, it is yet to be determined whether Netmarble will powercreep the items that can only be acquired through monetary purchases, which would reduce the viability of F2P. If you are at all unsure, be very frugal in spending (if you choose spend at all) so that you aren't left with a gap in your wallet if you decide not to continue with the game long-term.
Yes, the game has semi-frequent giveaways of tickets, gold, consumables, and other items related to various promotions. Some past promotions include:
Coupon codes: These are usually given out during livestreams or during other time-limited promotions on social media. Different codes are available per region, although some codes work across regions. These tend to be tickets, gold, or food consumables.
Login campaigns: There is often a login campaign going on at any given time, where logging in for multiple days will reward you with different items each day. Tickets and other major items tend to be at large steps or at the end of the promotion (i.e. days 7 and 14) with gold, consumables, leveling materials, and a wide variety of other items available on other days.
Step up or mission campaigns: These are events where you need to do a variety of small tasks in order to receive rewards. Tickets are sometimes rewarded at the end if you complete all the missions.