Arknights: Endfield launches with an overwhelming array of systems: Operators, gacha mechanics, factory automation, combat, and resource management. This guide breaks down how to spend your resources wisely, which daily activities you must complete, and which beginner mistakes will drain your resources the fastest in Endfield.
1. Getting Started with Arknights: Endfield
Authority Level reward milestones.
Arknights: Endfield is a standalone experience. You don’t need to play the original Arknights to understand this game, though familiarity with the original Arknights will provide additional lore context. The story introduces all mechanics gradually, so don’t worry about feeling lost.
Your primary goal during your first week is to progress through the main story, unlock new regions, and establish your Automated Industry Complex (AIC). The game rewards consistent daily engagement, so logging in every single day will significantly impact your success.
Authority Level vs Exploration Level
Authority Level is your account progression tier. It determines character and weapon level caps, available stamina-based content, and access to the story. Almost everything grants Authority XP, from opening chests to completing quests, making progression naturally flow as you play.
Exploration Level unlocks through main story completion and trial clearing. The game guides you naturally, so don’t stress about this; follow the story.
Authority Level 8.
2. How Endfield’s Gacha System Works
Many beginners and new players misunderstand the gacha system in Arknights: Endfield, which differs significantly from those in other titles. A thorough understanding of the gacha and pity mechanics is essential for effective planning of who to pull and when.
Character Banner Pity Structure
The featured character banner operates on a hard pity system that demands careful planning. Here’s the step-by-step character gacha’s pity system:
- Soft pity begins at 65 pulls with increased 6-star rates
- Guaranteed 6-star at 80 pulls (50/50 chance for featured unit)
- If you lose the 50/50, the next guaranteed 6-star is the featured unit at 120 pulls
- This 120-pull guarantee does NOT carry over to the next banner
It is recommended only to pull when you have 120 pulls saved. Pulling before guaranteeing 120 in Arknights: Endfield comes with a significant risk.
Lifeng is a 6-star character.
The New Horizon Banner
The beginner banner guarantees a 6-star operator at just 40 pulls. This is the best value in the game. Complete the first four chapters to earn the HH permits needed for this banner.
Endfield’s New Horizons Headhunting banner.
Arsenal (Weapon) Banner
Weapon pulls use Arsenal Tickets, earned primarily from character banner pulls. The weapon system mirrors character pity with a hard guarantee at 80 attempts (roughly 15,840 Arsenal Tickets).
Free 6-Star Character, Ardelia
You’ll receive free 6-star units simply by logging in. Ardelia, a powerful healer, is given for free at day 3, and other rewards follow. Never ignore these login bonuses.
Ardelia is a free 6-star character.
3. How Operators Function in Arknights: Endfield
Operators are the heart of Arknights: Endfield‘s combat system. Each character fits specific classes and damage types, determining their role in team composition. It is recommended to build one powerful damage dealer first, then expand your roster as materials become abundant.
Key Operator Attributes
Every operator is defined by class and damage type, plus two attributes: primary and secondary.
All Operator Classes
- Vanguard: Restore skill points, enabling rapid ability spam
- Damage Dealers: Front-line offensive specialists
- Supports: Enhance teammate performance
- Healers: Restore health and provide utility
All Damage Types
- Physical: Uses vulnerability stacks through lift, knockdown, crush, and breach
- Heat, Electric, Cryo, Nature: Apply elemental inflictions, triggering Arts burst, and chain reactions
Endministrator is a Physical character.
Leveling Your Operators
Do not spread resources thin. Early game resources are limited. Focus on one main damage dealer first, promote them through elite ranks (20, 40, 60, 80), then level their combat skills to rank 9.
Which Operators to Build First
- Ardelia (Free, 6-star): Best healer available
- Akekuri (4-star): Excellent SP generator for skill spamming
- Pogranichnik (6-star Vanguard): Physical team essential
- Antal (4-star): Boosts electric and heat damage output
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- Antal is an Electric 4-star character.
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- Akekuri is a 4-star Fire character.
Potentials and Dupes
Potentials (unlocked through duplicate operators) provide modest bonuses like increased damage, improved skill range, or reduced cooldowns. Unlike several other gacha games, Endfield‘s duplicate system is not aggressive—potentials are valuable but never mandatory.
Operator Potentials.
4. Operator Gear and Weapons
Gear progression in Arknights: Endfield removes the frustrating RNG plaguing other gachas. All gear has fixed, predictable stats that you choose during crafting. This system puts power in your hands, letting you optimize each operator without praying for lucky rolls or RNG-dependent rerolls.
Gear Sets and Crafting
Each operator equips four gear pieces: armor, gloves, and two kits. Three-piece set bonuses activate when matching gear is equipped together, providing stat increases and conditional bonuses.
All gears in Arknights: Endfield have fixed stats with zero RNG. You choose exact stats when crafting, then enhance them through artificing later. This removes the frustration present in other gacha games.
Gears in Arknights: Endfield.
Weapon System
Weapons range from 3-star to 6-star rarity. Three traits define each weapon:
- Attribute Buff: Provides main stat bonus
- Stat Boost: Increases crit rate, HP, or damage type effectiveness
- Unique Trait: Conditional benefits like HP restoration or healing buffs
Don’t invest heavily in 3-star or 4-star weapons. Save resources until you obtain 5-star and 6-star weapons through exploration, gacha pulls, or the free 6-star weapon selector at Authority Level 45.
Sundered Steel sword.
Essential Gear Progression
Attributes (strength, agility, intellect, will) directly impact damage output. A character’s primary attribute grants a significant bonus percentage to attack, while the secondary attribute provides a smaller bonus.
Research each operator’s primary and secondary attributes before equipping gear—this ensures optimal damage scaling.
Gear stats.
5. Arknights: Endfield’s Combat Basics
Combat in Arknights: Endfield demands active engagement and skill-point management rather than passive autobattling. Understanding stagger mechanics, art reactions, and skill point recovery will help you breeze through the battles in the game.
Stagger Mechanics
Stagger immobilizes enemies temporarily. Build stagger through art reactions, final strikes, skills, combos, or ultimates, depending on operator kits.
When an enemy staggers, finisher attacks from your controlled operator deal massive damage and restore skill points. This mechanic is crucial for maintaining offensive momentum while recovering resources.
Arts Reactions and Inflictions
Art inflictions are elemental stacks applied to enemies. Two matching inflictions trigger an art burst. Two different elements trigger an art reaction with varied effects:
- Combustion (Heat + Cryo): Applies burning damage over time
- Electrification (Electric): Increases enemy arts damage taken
- Solidification (Cryo + Heat): Freezes enemies in place
- Corrosion (Nature): Lowers enemy elemental resistances
The order you’re doing the Art inflictions is crucial. Applying Heat → Cryo creates Combustion, but applying Cryo → Heat creates Solidification.
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- Cryo Arts Infliction.
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- Heat Arts Infliction.
Skill Point (SP) Management
Skill points enable ability casting. SP regenerates slowly, requiring strategic management during battles.
How to Generate Skill Points
- Combo finishers: Last hit of basic attack combos
- Perfect dodges: Reward evasion with SP
- SP generators: Units like Akekuri restore team SP through ultimates
- SP refund characters: Some operators refund SP through kit abilities
6. The Automated Industry Complex (AIC)
The Automated Industry Complex is Endfield‘s unique factory automation system. Early factory setup can feel daunting, but day-one automation setup delivers exponential returns on resources. Originium Ore powers everything from character upgrades to gear crafting, making efficient collection mandatory for progression.
Day One Priority Setup
AIC Factory.
After defeating the first boss and clearing the Valley Pass tutorial, immediately set up automated ore collection:
- Place two electric mining rigs where your manual rigs were
- Add one relay tower connecting both rigs
- Position two electric pylons, one powering each rig
- Connect pylons to your relay tower via automation core
This establishes hands-free ore collection, removing manual gathering. Originium ore powers your entire factory system, making this setup mandatory.
Essential Factory Elements
- Thermal Banks expand maximum power capacity. Early game, feed them batteries instead of raw ore for efficiency.
- Plant production lines automatically generate specific plants indefinitely by placing a picked-up plant into a seed-picking unit.
- Blueprint system lets you copy other players’ production setups, eliminating design stress if factory complexity overwhelms you.
Open the AIC Report from the menu regularly. If blue graphs exceed red (production exceeding consumption), you’re stockpiling efficiently. Use surplus items for additional production chains.
Using the blueprint.
7. Stock Bills and Resource Management
Stock Bills are Endfield‘s premium currency for gear progression, leveling materials, and high-end items. Don’t waste them early—instead, invest in infrastructure that generates exponentially more Bills through market manipulation and facility upgrades.
How to Maximize Bill Generation
- Unlock Stock Redistribution: Purchase and sell elastic goods through friends
- Trade with Outposts: Select materials from your local AIC depot and sell them to Outposts
- Build a friend network: Add everyone possible to maximize elastic good profits
- Buy from the highest-price NPCs: Check which friends offer the best-selling prices daily
- Upgrade Depot Stations: Unlock higher revenue delivery methods
- Complete Monitoring Jobs: Wuling region jobs grant massive Bill income later
Regional Development.
Where to Spend Your Stock Bills
- Upgrade Stock Redistribution to unlock elastic goods
- Upgrade Depot Stations for revenue multipliers
- Upgrade recycling stations for spaceship chamber materials
- Upgrade outpost facilities as discovered
Bills spent on the facilities above will generate exponentially more Bills back through system upgrades.
8. Daily Activities in Arknights: Endfield
Daily activities form the backbone of Endfield‘s gameplay loop. Completing operation manual tasks, spending stamina efficiently, and gathering rare materials take mere minutes but yield hours of progression. Never skip daily tasks; they’re the fastest Authority XP source, and skipping even one day leaves compounding gaps in your account development.
What to Do Daily
- Complete the daily operation manual tasks for 1150 Authority XP. This XP yields equivalent to 6-12 side quests in five minutes.
- Spend all stamina before it caps. Stamina slowly replenishes, so logging daily prevents wasteful caps. Higher-level stamina missions yield significantly more rewards per stamina spent, plus additional XP.
Daily Missions.
Where to Farm Resources
- Protocol Space Promotions (early game, then operators/weapons)
- Character XP and skill materials
- Weapon augment materials (Essences)
- Boss materials for elite promotions
9. Exploration and Resource Gathering
Exploration rewards in Arknights: Endfield scale with preparation and knowledge. Rare growth sites respawn on daily timers, and mapping them immediately on discovery prevents wasted login days.
Mapping Out Rare Growth Sites
Rare growth sites and rare ore deposits have daily refresh timers. Map their locations immediately—if you log out and return later, you lose harvest opportunities.
Early character ascension demands these materials heavily, so gather consistently from day one.
Rare Gathering Site.
Smart Exploration Setup
Carry out relay tower installations and research pylon relaying and relay redistribution upgrades to improve electricity distribution efficiency. Build ziplines for fast traversal when revisiting zones for rare materials.
Early game, place manual originium rigs easily accessible near your base. After unlocking the electric versions, relocate to strategic positions near the electric pylons to achieve full automation.
10. Common Mistakes to Avoid in Arknights: Endfield
New players that have just begun playing Arknights: Endfield may find themselves repeatedly avoiding avoidable errors across gacha spending, resource management, and factory setup. Learning these pitfalls beforehand accelerates your growth, preventing weeks of slow progression from poor early decisions.
| Category | DO’S ✅ | DON’T’S ❌ |
|---|---|---|
| Gacha Pulling | Save 120 pulls minimum before pulling featured units | Pull on featured banners without 120 pulls saved |
| Diversify your operator roster instead | Chase weapon dupes early in the game | |
| Use Origeometry only for battle pass or premium items | Spend Origeometry to refresh stamina | |
| Resource Management | Focus on one main DPS completely first | Overlevel multiple characters equally |
| Invest in infrastructure to generate more Stock Bills | Waste Stock Bills on summon tickets early | |
| Claim all login bonuses daily without exception | Ignore daily login rewards | |
| Complete daily operation tasks for 1150 Authority XP | Neglect the operation manual tasks | |
| Factory Setup | Automate electric mining rigs on day one | Gather originium ore manually indefinitely |
| Create battery production lines first for efficiency | Feed thermal banks raw ore for power | |
| Copy efficient designs from friends and the community | Build a factory without friend blueprints | |
| Map and harvest rare growth sites daily | Skip rare material gathering | |
| Operator Building | Concentrate resources on one primary damage dealer | Spend leveling resources evenly across teams |
| Wait until obtaining 5-star and 6-star weapons | Upgrade 3-star and 4-star weapons heavily | |
| Read combat skills carefully for optimal combo triggers | Ignore operator kit mechanics |
