 |
|
|---|---|
| Title | Arknights: Endfield |
| Developer | Hypergryph |
| Publisher | GRYPHLINE |
| Release Date | January 22nd, 2026 |
| Genre | 3D Tactical Industrial RPG |
| Platform | PC, PlayStation 5, iOS, Android |
| Age Rating | ESRB – T for Teen |
| Official Website | |
Years ago, I tried out Arknights on my phone. I was interested in the setting and characters, but I was unfortunately not too great at the tower defense gameplay. Because of this, I did not become a dedicated player. That’s right, it’s what you would call a skill issue on my part. After that, a spin-off to the game, Arknights: Endfield, was announced. I was already a little interested due to the relation to Arknights, but my interest only grew as I saw more information come out about the game, especially how it would have different gameplay from the main title. So, imagine my surprise when we got access to the game before its official release. I was interested in seeing how the combat played out, if the characters and setting piqued my interest, and if any prior knowledge of Arknights was required to enjoy this spin-off. For this review, I had access to two different accounts: A fresh account that starts at the beginning, and a veteran account that has access to a new region and has all currently available operators unlocked with a bunch of pre-loaded in-game currency. I spent a couple of hours on each account, so let’s see how my foray into Talos-II panned out, so far.
Arknights: Endfield follows the Endministrator, the leader of Endfield Industries who has awakened after a long 10-year slumber. Due to this long slumber, the Endmin’s memories are in a haze, and they cannot remember what happened in the past. Perlica, a supervisor at Endfield Industries, informs the Endmin of a technology they developed, the Protocol Automation-Core (PAC). Endfield plans to deploy the PAC throughout the Talos-II Civilization Band and fulfill a special mission, the Reboot of Life. This plan and mission are under a special commission known as the Zeroth Directive, which was commissioned by the Endmin themself. What is the Zeroth Directive and what exactly does it entail? Why did the Endmin commission this directive? With these questions in mind and due to a sudden call, the Endmin and Perlica make their way to Talos-II to finally put the plan into action.
Arkknights: Endfield’s story, so far, did enough to pique my interest and make me want to come back for more. What was the Endministrator like before their slumber? What was the Endministrator’s past relationship like with certain characters? What is the ultimate end goal of Nefarith’s group? Why did Chen leave Wuling City? These are some of the mysteries I hope to see answered as more of the story releases. But, this brings me to some of my problems with it. First off, which is unavoidable for a game such as this, is that the story is incomplete. I want to see what comes next, but I have to wait for future game updates to have more of the story come out. Second, the story progresses pretty slowly. In Chapter 1, you have to go through a bunch of tutorials before things really start getting moving, and then when things start rolling, the next part of the story gets locked behind a higher Authority Level. I understand doing this helps the player get used to the game mechanics and helps you prepare your party for the upcoming dangers, but it doesn’t make it any less of a slog. But, I appreciated how I could get into the story without much knowledge of the main Arknights game. Groups like Rhodes Island are still around, and you can read up a little on Terra (the setting of the original game), but nothing you absolutely needed to know beforehand. I did like the characters introduced so far, especially the Endmin’s main companions: Perlica and Chen. Perlica is the cool tactician of the group while Chen is the energetic and cheerful bodyguard. They, along with the Endmin, work off each other well in conversations. Chen can be really silly at times too, which can help relieve tension. I also appreciated how you could read up on terms mentioned in the game’s Intel Archive. It certainly made things less confusing and gave more substance to the game’s setting. Overall, the story has potential, and I’m sure it’ll get polished as the game gets updated in the future.
Arknights: Endfield’s gameplay consists of building facilities, exploring regions for materials, fighting enemies, and managing the OMV Dijiang (Endfield Industries’ spaceship). Building facilities and exploring go hand-in-hand. Building requires a PAC to be installed in a region. This is done during the story and after installation, you have access to the Automated Industrial Complex (AIC). You can switch to AIC mode at the tap of a button, and from here you can start installing different facilities. These can be facilities that refine raw materials, resource procurement methods like Mining Rigs, facilities that help your offensive capabilities like Gun Towers, and facilities that simply supply power like Relay Towers. Exploration takes place in a semi-open world. Each region is split up into different sectors which the developer/publisher calls Hakoniwa. These Hakoniwa have their own maps and collectibles to be found. For example, the first region you land in is Valley IV while the first two Hakoniwa within Valley IV are known as The Hub and The Valley. Your character can dash and jump, and they take no damage (at least from what I noticed) when falling from high heights. While your character is pretty free with how they move, they can’t swim or climb cliffs and such. You can get the raw materials needed for refinement, crafting different items and eventual facility manufacturing via exploring the different areas in each region. These can range from plants to mining deposits and so on.
The building and exploration were handled well in Endfield. I liked how free you were to build different facilities, but it was free within reason. You needed to take providing power into account when installing different facilities, and certain facilities (like Zipline Pylons) even had install limits. If you drew too much power from the PAC, it could shut things down, so I thought that was a cool detail. You couldn’t just place facilities willy-nilly. Building facilities also helped unlock more places to explore. For example in Valley IV, there are switches that need power to operate. So, you’d have to place Relay Towers to supply power from the PAC to the switch. Once it has power, you can use the switch and it opens up a previously inaccessible area. It was nice seeing how exploring these regions gave you the materials to eventually build these facilities, and these in turn allowed you to explore more of an area. I think the building aspect in particular has a ton of potential, and I look forward to seeing what new facilities they add in the future. Exploration may not be too amazing for some since you’re a little limited in how you can traverse areas, but I understand these limitations are needed to make puzzles and the building aspect be more meaningful.
Managing the OMV Dijiang isn’t as robust as the other gameplay features, but it is a nice addition. You can manufacture items to level up your Operators here, talk to your Operators and raise their Trust in you, and decorate a Reception Room that friends can visit. Another nice feature is being able to change the Endministrator’s identity (gender), though this comes with a 24-hour cooldown. I like sci-fi settings, so it’s cool having your own spaceship, and I thought being able to have your friends visit your ship is a nice touch, though I wasn’t able to test that specific feature. All in all, it’s a cool feature to have and doesn’t really detract from the other gameplay features.
Combat in Arknights: Endfield is team-based action style. A team consists of four characters and you control one of these characters. All members of the team are in the field at the same time and you can switch the playable character at any time. You can perform basic attacks, battle skills, combo skills, Ultimates and Perfect Dodges. Once you start a fight, your other party members will fight automatically. Basic attacks are your basic combos and the last attack of the combo is the Final Strike. Final Strikes help increase an enemy’s Stagger meter faster. Once the Stagger meter is full, an enemy becomes Staggered and cannot move and will take more damage. Battle skills consume Skill Points (SP) and can range from single target attacks to area of effect (AOE) attacks to support skills. These battle skills have the same element as their associated character such as Physical for Endministrator and Electric for Perlica. Stacking different battle skills can have different effects. For example, if you hit an enemy with an Electric battle skill, it causes an Electric Arts Infliction to the enemy. While they’re currently inflicted by a non-Heat Arts Infliction, hitting them with a Heat battle skill causes the Combustion Arts Reaction. This consumes the other Arts Inflictions and causes big damage to the enemy. There are more combinations, but this is just one of the examples. Combo skills are similar to battle skills, except they don’t consume SP. They have a specific activation criteria, and these differ from character to character. For example, Perlica’s combo skill can be activated once the controlled character performs a Final Strike. And in turn, Endministrator’s combo skill can be activated once another teammate’s combo skill deals damage. Just based on this, Perlica and Endministrator’s combo skills work well off each other. Combo skills do have a cooldown, so you can’t abuse these. Ultimates are as they sound, they’re the character’s ultimate ability. These range from huge damage dealers to support to a combination of both. For example, Ember’s Ultimate deals massive Heat damage while applying a Shield to all her allies. Dodges are performed by dashing right before an enemy attack hits you. Dodging at the right moment causes a Perfect Dodge which restores a character’s SP.
I had fun with Endfield’s combat. While using the provided veteran account, I had a chance to try different team setups and the different damage dealing combinations. It was interesting seeing the different ways I could set up Arts Reactions and combo skills. Personally, I liked the preset Physical/Heat team led by Ember, as this was the easiest team to set off combo skills with. Also, Ember could take a lot of hits, she’s truly a tank. The Heat/Nature team led by Laevatain could deal a lot of damage, but I found it to be pretty squishy, mainly because I lost half of my party in one boss fight. A reminder that you can’t fight with reckless abandon, no matter how strong the characters are. The Cryo/Nature team led by Yvonne had the most high rarity Operators and could cause a good amount of damage and also had good support capabilities, though it took me some time to get used to how their skills worked together. But once I did get used to it, it was pretty smooth sailing in battles. It was fun seeing how all these different characters could work together, and fights in the game did provide a challenge. I’m sure I haven’t even scratched the surface of what the combat system is capable of. It has a lot to offer, and any new characters introduced can contribute to the team synergies. But, this leads into my biggest problem with the system, and that’s you actually need to have the characters to make these combinations. And in order to get the characters, you have to roll for them in the game’s gacha system. So if you’re not lucky enough, you can’t even make some of these teamups. It’s a solid combat system, but hampered by one of the fundamental components of a game like this.
Build your way to the next part of this review on page 2 ->
