Esper priority in NTE is not a taste question, it is a materials question. Ascension drops are weekly-gated, Beetle Coins run dry long before your ambitions do, and difficulty scales against the character you are holding — not against the size of your roster. Four Espers at 40 lose fights that one Esper at 60 walks through.
So this is a build order, not a tier list. Nanally to 60, one support behind her, everything else parked. I rebuilt a clean account when 1.3 opened on 19 August and ran the mistake deliberately for a week — materials split four ways — before switching to a single carry. The table below is what came out of it.
Nanally Is the Esper to Level First
Nanally goes to level 60 with her Ultimate at 6, and nothing else gets a Hunter's Manual until that is finished. Community tier lists through 1.3 still place her at the top of the Anima carries, and every hard fight in this game is decided by one carry rather than four half-built ones.
One carry beats four
Difficulty scales against your active character. A single Esper at 60 clears content that four Espers at 40 cannot dent, and the gap widens in the Anomaly Pilgrimages.
I split materials four ways for a week on my 1.3 account, on purpose. My boss clear time barely moved. The week I funnelled everything into Nanally alone, it dropped far enough that I stopped testing and just played.
If Nanally is not on your account
Zankou takes the slot, no hesitation. The 1.3 Incantation carry is built around damage-over-time pressure and is the only new release this patch that deserves a full material dump.
- Own both — Nanally first, Zankou second, never in parallel.
- Own neither — build Chiz, the free carry, to 60 rather than waiting.
- Own an unbuilt S-rank you dislike playing — skip it. A carry you avoid piloting is a wasted 60.
Level Your Priority Esper in This Exact Order
Ascension comes before everything, and it needs Hunter Rank 10 — check that first, because farming materials you cannot spend is the most common week people lose here.
The five steps, in execution order
1. Ascend to the next cap as soon as the boss drops allow it. 2. Level to that cap with Hunter's Manuals, then stop. Overflow EXP converts to Beetle Coins at 10:1, so it is not lost — but it is not free either. 3. Ultimate to 6. This is where a carry's damage actually sits. 4. Skill to 6. Only after the Ultimate is done. 5. Gear last, once the character is at cap and both talents are at 6.
The gate that decides your week
Boss drops reset weekly, so your ascension ceiling is fixed on Monday. Plan the week around the three Anomaly Pilgrimage runs, not around what you feel like farming on Thursday.
Basic attack levels wait. On my rebuild I pushed a carry's basic attack to 6 early and felt nothing; the same materials spent on the Ultimate changed the fight.
Where Your Stamina Goes, Monday to Sunday
Spend in this order: ascension materials, then EXP, then skills, then gear. Incantation materials are the least scarce resource in the game — farming them early is the classic way to arrive at Hunter Rank 30 with a level 40 carry.
The weekly shape
- Monday — boss reset, take your ascension drops immediately.
- Midweek — EXP and Beetle Coins, because levelling drains credits faster than manuals.
- Any three days — your Anomaly Pilgrimage runs, capped per week.
- Weekend — skill materials for the Ultimate you are pushing to 6.
Beetle Coins are the real bottleneck past level 50. Every account I have rebuilt hit that wall in the same place: manuals in the bag, no currency to burn them.
Gear farming before your carry is capped is dead stamina. It scales off a character that does not exist yet.
Try NTE: Neverness to Everness — free, PC
Check the banner phase running to 30 September before you commit materials: it decides which Espers you can even put in the queue.
Open the official page →Stop Levelling These Espers at 40
Adler, Mint and Aurelia stop at level 40 with their talents at 1. They are free, they are useful, and they are not where your ascension drops belong.
What each free Esper is actually for
- Adler — the shield holds through swaps, and the signature Umbrella Arc costs nothing. Cap at 40 and he still does his job.
- Mint — early Anima filler. She stops mattering the day your S-rank carry hits 60.
- Aurelia and Esper Zero — reaction coverage for the second team, nothing more.
- Chiz — the exception. Unlocked at City Tycoon 18, and worth the full 60 if you have no S-rank carry.
One support, not two
Sakiri is the support to build behind your carry, to 50, Ultimate at 4. Haniel replaces her only if your team runs Charge instead of Scorch or Discord.
A second support is the most expensive way to gain nothing. I have levelled one on every account I rebuilt and removed it from the team every single time.
Two Things That Change the Esper Priority
Nanally's rerun closed on 9 September — if you missed the Phase 1 window, do not stall your account waiting for the next one. Build Zankou to 60 and treat Nanally as a later upgrade.
Save materials, or spend them now
Spend them. Holding a stockpile for a future banner costs you every week of easier clears between now and then. Check what is coming before you commit anything, but a capped carry today farms the materials for tomorrow's.
If the game stutters while you build
Frame drops in crowded districts are a settings problem, not a roster problem, and they do not change your build order. Two lines and a link solve it — the minimum card and the settings that hold 60 fps are covered in the setup article of this silo.
Nothing in this order depends on spending money. The build path above finishes at 60 on a free account; it just takes weeks instead of days.
Build order at 1.3 — level targets and where to stop
| Order | Esper | Role | Level target | Ultimate | Skip it if |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Nanally | Anima main DPS | 60 | 6 | Not on your account |
| 2 | Zankou | Incantation DoT carry | 60 | 6 | Nanally already at 60 |
| 3 | Sakiri | Support / buffer | 50 | 4 | Your team runs Charge |
| 4 | Lacrimosa | Scorch sub-DPS | 50 | 4 | No Incantation carry yet |
| 5 | Chiz (free) | Backup S-rank carry | 60 | 6 | You own a built S-rank |
| 6 | Adler (free) | Shielder, free Arc | 40 | 1 | You clear without shields |
| 7 | Mint / Aurelia (free) | Second-team filler | 40 | 1 | Second team not needed |
Read next
- NTE: platforms, size, gacha and Espers — The pillar of the silo — the wide view for a reader who has not started yet.
- The minimum card and the settings that hold 60 fps — Hardware bridge: frame drops while grinding materials are a settings problem, answered by the setup article.
- The banners confirmed after 1.3 — A reader deciding whether to spend or hoard materials needs to know who is coming next.
- How NTE's gacha works without a 50/50 — Build priority depends on which Espers you can realistically obtain, which is a gacha structure question.
- How free PC games actually make money — Backs the claim that this build path finishes at 60 without spending.