While Arknights Endfield is still in second beta test only, the release date is not so far off. Therefore, we are confident that many of the mechanics and core aspects of the game will remain the same or be lightly rebalanced by the time it's greenlit for release. We covered some of the key points about Endfield in our beginners guide which are useful for priming you to be your best efficient self and set on day one. It's good to not have to overthink the many new aspects that this game offers, even if you're a seasoned Arknights player.
Early Progression, POI & Exploring
While you're at the very early stage of the game, the best thing you can do is simply follow the main story to level up. Some degree of freedom is given only in the form of looking around some corners and jumping around when you reach the Valley IV Base; there will already be some chests and glowing collectible Aurylene scattered around and accessible to you.
The chests in Endfield come in three varieties, white being common, blue containing slightly better rewards, while the yellow rare chests contain the best loot and will always earn you a celebratory quip from a team member. There is no need to go out of your way for collecting anything else at this early point in time; some things that you would otherwise be able to collect and solve won't be available to you until you've progressed the main story enough.
Enfield Combat Damage Types & Team-making
Combat, the types of damage, and the way they chain in Endfield may seem daunting at first glance, but is something that can be simplified. You do this by making a good team and tweaking your operator setup into simpler skill rotations which yield maximum results.
Endfield deals with three different types of damage: Physical, Arts and Æther, though the last one is still not present in the gameplay. The game does a great job of explaining every aspect of combat through detailed tutorials, but if you don't want to spend time doing them early on and just feel like hopping right into it, we broke down damage types and statuses in the following tables:
Physical Damage & Status
| Skill Type & Effect | First Skill Use | Next Skill Use |
|---|---|---|
 LiftTarget lifted in mid-air | Applies  Vulnerable | Adds a stack of Vulnerable (up to 4), applies Lift |
 Knock DownTarget knocked down into the ground | Applies Vulnerable | Adds a stack of Vulnerable (up to 4), applies Knock Down |
 CrushTarget dealt a massive instance of Physical DMG | Applies Vulnerable | Consumes all Vulnerable stacks, applies Crushed |
 BreachTemporarily increases Physical DMG target takes | Applies Vulnerable | Consumes all Vulnerable stacks, applies Breached |
It's worth noting that some skills explicitly state they can force targets into the end-state, like Lift and Knock-down. But that means you'll be skipping the intro Vulnerable stack, which may affect the skill chain's Crush or Breach end-damage, if you have no other means to add to them.
Arts damage is all about the 4 elements inflictions and how you mix them. Play around to get those huge damage scores!
Arts Damage & Status
| Skill Type | Next Skill | Resulting Status & Effect |
|---|---|---|
 Heat Infliction | Heat Infliction (up to 4 stacks) | Heat Burst = Heat DMG |
| Heat Infliction |    Infliction |  Combustion= Heat DoT |
| Electric Infliction | Electric Infliction (up to 4 stacks) | Electric Burst = Electric DMG |
| Electric Infliction | Infliction |  Electrification= Target takes more Arts DMG |
| Cryo Infliction | Cryo Infliction (up to 4 stacks) | Cryo Burst = Cryo DMG |
| Cryo Infliction | Infliction |  Solidification= Target cannot move. Applying Vulnerable or any of the 4 physical effects triggers  Shatter for massive Physical DMG |
| Nature Infliction | Nature Infliction (up to 4 stacks) | Nature Burst = Nature DMG |
| Nature Infliction | Infliction |  Corrosion= Target loses resistance to all Arts elements over time |
The combat may be fast-paced but if you're keeping eyes on the enemy, you'll have no trouble discerning what's happening. You can follow any Vulnerable or Arts elemental stacks as quarters of a white status highlight right next to the enemy health bar.
Best Factory and Automation Tips
It's extremely important to point this out: you won't be getting anywhere without a solid and sustainable factory. In order to do this, the game will guide you into a simple production flow based on Originium ores.
You will expand into Amethyst very soon, but the real party begins once you have a steady influx of the blue rocks through story progression - Ferrium. At this stage you will be able to create multiple products by mixing, matching and re-refining various parts. One of the first real tests will be to obtain enough Steel Parts to make top-notch defensive towers for the Outposts you're managing. Original Arknights is a tower defense game after all!
If you're not big on assembling factory lines, make sure to clear tutorials for every new facility, as doing so will grant you blueprint files for various chunks of production sequences. You can simply put these down as sets, provided you have enough space and energy in the grid.
How to Get AIC Upgrade Points: The Factory Must Grow
Not all the development is done in the factory hubs; in order to actually obtain access to many of the production facilities, you're going to need to explore and progress the main story. At one point, the game will let you communicate with the inflatable yellow buddies you've seen around the map.
There's no need to remember where they are, as the map for each area conveniently highlights where the ones you've met reside, plus how many of them is left in the area. Each yields a single AIC Index upgrade point. Some advanced upgrades will require more than one point, while some may also have a certain criteria that needs to be fulfilled in order to unlock it. It remains to be seen in the full release how far Endfield plans to go with the complexity of factory systems.
Advanced Exploration
You're going to encounter many puzzles in the world of Endfield. If you're not sure how to complete some, it may be that you simply haven't progressed enough in other aspects. For instance, some things that you have to blow up remotely to pass won't have a barrel for creating explosives nearby, and instead requires you to craft explosives on a factory line.
Some repair puzzles will require you to find a shape elsewhere in order to solve, which may in turn require you to clear a quest to access an area. Other puzzles will force you to shape accessible terrain, move containers with nearby mechanisms, connect dead nodes to electricity lines, etc.
Not all solutions will be immediately obvious, but at least you can make out what needs to be done. It's a good idea to mark unsolved puzzles on your map so you can easily find your way back to them when you have the right solution.
How to Headhunt - Origeometry & Oroberyl Farming
The process of new operator recruitment in Endfield, or Headhunting as it's generally known in Arknights, requires the red currency of Oroberyl, previously known as Orundum. Oroberyl is obtainable in practically every little action in Endfield, from clearing tutorials to opening chests.
The Arknights gold premium currency Originium has been replaced with Origeometry, and it can be manually translated into Oroberyl at an exchange rate of 1:150. If Endfield follows Arknights' path, we may be seeing other benefits of Origeometry as well, such as exclusive skins, and the special Originium Supply Protocol Pass track.
This is one of three Battle Pass tracks available in Beta Test II, with the first one being free and the third one possibly locked behind real money, though monetization isn't enabled during the test.
How to Get Arsenal Tickets - Weapons Gacha, Bond Quota & More
Though Operators wield weapons, there's some great news for players: weapons gacha doesn't consume the same currency! Instead, you will pull with the Arsenal Ticket, which you get through pulling for your desired operator. Both Basic and Chartered (limited) Headhunting yield Arsenal Tickets.
The most interesting deal is the big 1980 ticket pack, and if the active deal for Laevatain's weapon is to be believed, the weapon for the Chartered Headhunting operator weapon will always be rated up in the pack. Other weapons are also available on-demand and in rotations for fixed amounts of Arsenal tickets.
Other features include the Bond Quota exchange, featuring currency you obtain when getting copies of 5★ and 6★ operators. It is obtainable in fixed amounts (10 and 50 for each respectively). For veteran Arknights players, this is the closest thing to Yellow Certificate Shop.
The other selection of less valuable but not less needed resources is found through the AIC quota exchange (similar to Green Certificate Shop), and you only get those once you max-potential 4★ and 5★ operators. You'll primarily get these through infinite copies of your 4★ pulls.
Finally, the Endpoint Quota is yielded for any 6★ operator copy beyond their max potential, and two such copies can get you a 6★ weapon of your choice.
Daily Tasks & Time Limited Resources - Schedule
Some resources like Rare Growths of crystals, plants and mushrooms used for Elite-ing your operators (raising their level cap) are only available in certain habitats found around the map. They only regrow and respawn at a certain pace, which can make the process of leveling your operators a dragged out and tedious one. In order to speed things up, player base OMV Dijiang has special Growth Chambers for multiplying these rare resources. Make sure to allocate operators with special buffs to work in Growth Chambers!
The development level of OMV Dijiang and its production chambers will affect the efficiency of cultivating these materials and producing EXP tickets, etc. To level these chambers, you're going to want to visit all the Recycling stations around the map every day until your OMV Dijiang base has been fully kitted out. The Recycling stations also recharge at a set pace and offer fixed amounts of Aerospace materials that can both upgrade the stations themselves, and the chambers in your base.
Additionally, always make sure to address your Depot every day and sell off excess products to the maintained Outposts to always have room for making more and earning Stock Bills.
Last, but not the least, like in the original game, there's a daily capped currency of Credits which you can spend in the Credit shop for various useful items at a discounted price. You can sometimes even find Oroberyl on sale. Make sure to always spend all of your credits daily, as any excess will be discarded on server reset!
Much like in Arknights, the main medium of multiplayer in Endfield revolves around the Reception Room in the base. You can visit your friends' Dijiang and help them by speeding up their production chambers. Keep in mind though that you have 5 helping chances daily shared across all your friends! Choose wisely. You can freely move around on a friendly Dijiang, see your friends' operators and Reception room decoration, and you also gain a special "guest mode" floater while you're visiting.
Overworld multiplayer boils down to shared facilities like Ziplines, Towers and Signs, not unlike passive multiplayer features in Souls games or Death Stranding. Though it's only a Beta Test, we're expecting that the world will be teeming with buildables and advice from all players! These kinds of background multiplayer features truly give us a sense of a supportive community in the making.
FAQ
A: No, this is not possible, as factory development represents one of the core mechanics of the game and many other aspects are dependent on it.
A: Yes, Endfield has a light form of multiplayer, similar to Death Stranding and Souls games messaging system.
A: Yes, Endfield has A weapon gacha system in place, but you get the special weapon gacha currency through pulling for Operators.
A: Yes, you can switch your Endministrator's gender by interacting with your Sarcophagus on OMV Dijiang every 24 hours.
We hope this Endfield Beginners' Guide will help you brace for launch and readily accept some of the new gameplay elements that might otherwise be less familiar. While we count down for launch, take a look at our Endfield Beta Test II Operator Tier List and bookmark Pro Game Guides for more Endfield news!
An avid enjoyer of everything Cyberpunk and a very slightly addicted gacha enthusiast. A sucker for good RPGs, quality turn-based games, non-linear adventures and everything that offers both good time AND long time. If the story is good, they'll always come running. Certified established gamer since year 2000.
