Arknights: Endfield is an upcoming spin-off of the phenomenally popular Arknights, one of the biggest gacha games of the past decade. While the original game is a tower defense tactical RPG, Endfield is taking a leaf out of the competition’s book as a semi-open world action RPG that’s reminiscent of Genshin Impact and Wuthering Waves.
Naturally, with a new setting comes a whole new cast of characters, and you’ll still be obtaining them primarily through the game’s gacha. Knowing who you want to pull for is an important part of any gacha game, especially for F2P players, so read on below for a rundown of every character in Arknights: Endfield.
On this page:
Arknights: Endfield characters explained
Characters in Arknights: Endfield have a variety of attributes to make them stand out, including faction alignment, stats, and unique skills. However, in terms of vital statistics, there are four main things you’ll want to know about your Operators:
- Grade / Rarity: 6-Star, 5-Star, or 4-Star
- Element: Cryo, Electric, Heat, Nature, or Physical
- Weapon: Greatsword, Guns, Orbiter, Polearm, or Sword
- Class: Caster, Defender, Guard, Striker, Supporter, or Vanguard
Like most gacha games, Arknights: Endfield features an elemental system that determines what kind of effects Operators can apply to enemies. Each character also has one weapon type that they can use, with a mix of melee (swords, polearms, and greatswords) and ranged (guns and orbiters) on offer. Furthermore, there are six combat classes, broadly divisible into damage dealers (Guards, Strikers, and Casters) and support units (Vanguards, Defenders, and Supporters).
Of particular interest to gacha game veterans will be the rarity (in-game known as the grade) given to each character. Most gacha RPGs feature a mix of 4-Star and 5-Star characters, with the former being the F2P friendly option and the latter being the premium choice.
However, Arknights: Endfield works a little differently in how it grades characters, and thus in how its gacha operates. This might have something to do with the franchise’s origins as a tower defense game, which featured characters variously graded from 1-Star all the way up to 6-Star.
Endfield wisely does away with the 1-Star, 2-Star, and 3-Star character rarities in deference to the expectations for an ARPG, but it does keep its relatively unusual 6-Star cap. This in turn has a big impact on how gacha pulls work: while the gacha game standard is to guarantee one 4-Star weapon or character with every 10-pull, Endfield character banners instead only feature 4-Star units and above, with a 5-Star guaranteed in every 10-pull and 6-Star units as the premium items.
This means that a 10-pull on a character banner in Arknights: Endfield isn’t mostly composed of filler items (in most gacha games, nine out of those 10 pulls would typically yield 3-Star weapons that are mainly useful for breaking down into levelling materials).
Instead, every pull guarantees a character – although don’t be fooled, the pool of 4-Star characters in Arknights: Endfield is small enough that you’ll very quickly rank all of them up and start running into repeats. However, this does mean that even the most frugal F2P player will be furnished with a passable team in a short amount of time, even if most of those units are ones you’ll want to replace with higher-grade characters when you can.
Below, we’ve outlined more details about every character we’ve encountered so far in Arknights: Endfield, as well as comparison tables further down to help you plan your teams most efficiently.
The Endministrator
The Endministrator (6-Star / Physical / Guard / Sword) is your initial playable character and the nominal protagonist of Arknights: Endfield. Unlike other units in the game, you can choose between female and male variants on the Endministrator, and choose their name (although this name doesn’t actually get used in gameplay very much, as they’re typically referred to by title).
Starter Characters
Playing through the prologue and in-story tutorials grants you Perlica (5-Star / Electric / Caster / Orbiter) and Chen Qianyu (5-Star / Physical / Guard / Sword) as permanent additions to your roster of potential party members. Curiously, Chen Qianyu’s basic kit is almost identical to the Endministrator’s. Perlica, meanwhile, is your first ranged attack unit.
Perlica, Chen Qianyu, and Ardelia quickly join your Endministrator to make up a starting team of sorts.
You’ll also unlock Ardelia (6-Star / Nature / Support / Orbiter) on your third day as part of the beta test’s log-in bonus pass. A support character specialising in healing, she can be very useful for rounding out your initial team of four, as well as ensuring that you have a medic on your side while you’re still learning the ropes.
4-Star Standard Characters
Whenever you pull on a character banner in the gacha, the majority of characters you summon will be one of the five 4-Stars in the game:
- Akekuri (4-Star / Heat / Vanguard / Sword)
- Antal (4-Star / Electric / Supporter / Orbiter)
- Catcher (4-Star / Physical / Defender / Greatsword)
- Estella (4-Star / Cryo / Guard / Polearm)
- Flourite (4-Star / Nature / Caster / Guns)
There are, of course, pros and cons to these characters. Naturally, as the lowest-grade characters, they have significantly lower base stats than their 5-Star and 6-Star counterparts; and the extremely small pool compared to higher character rarities means that your options when considering who to add to your team are very limited.
On the plus side, between the five of them you have the opportunity to sample almost every element, weapon, and combat class in the game (with the sole exception of the Striker class). Furthermore, since they will usually make up 90% of all pulls, it’s very easy to rank them all up to their highest level almost immediately – for reference, maxing out all five 4-Star characters with five duplicates each took me just 40 pulls, which were available immediately as free log-in bonuses on the first day of playing the game. This makes them a boon for F2P players, who should be able to plug any gaps in their team with max-ranked 4-Stars while saving up for their chosen higher-grade character banners.
5-Star Standard Characters
In addition to Perlica and Chen Qianyu – both of whom can be ranked up by pulling their duplicates from the gacha – the following 5-Star characters are available on every character banner in the gacha:
- Alesh (5-Star / Cryo / Vanguard / Sword)
- Arclight (5-Star / Electric / Vanguard / Sword)
- Avywenna (5-Star / Electric / Striker / Polearm)
- Da Pan (5-Star / Physical / Striker / Greatsword)
- Snowshine (5-Star / Cryo / Defender / Greatsword)
- Wulfgard (5-Star / Heat / Caster / Guns)
- Xaihi (5-Star / Cryo / Supporter / Orbiter)
With nine different 5-Stars available with a shared drop rate of 10% (and each 5-Star drop can be any one of those nine at random unless they have a drop rate boost), it can take a while to get the 5-Star character you want, and even longer to rank them up to maximum with duplicates. However, they do have better starting stats than their 4-Star counterparts, and unless you’re planning to drop a lot of money on this game right at the start, they’ll likely make up the majority of your team at least for the first little while.
Alesh, Snowshine, and Xaihi are among the 5-Star characters you’ll likely recruit as you get to grips with the gacha.
If you’re wondering which 5-Star characters might benefit from more long-term investment, our recommendations based on the roster we’ve seen in this second beta include Perlica, Wulfgard, and Snowshine. There is currently no 6-Star Caster character and likely won’t be until the addition of Yvonne (see below), so if you favour a ranged combat option for your team, Perlica or Wulfgard are the best options for that role right now.
Meanwhile, Snowshine stands out if you’re keen to save your premium pulls for more offensive characters but don’t want to neglect your shields entirely, since she’s a decent overall defender who’s stronger than Catcher but not as difficult to obtain as Ember.
6-Star Standard Characters
In addition to Ardelia — who players of the second beta will already have as a log-in bonus, and whose rank-up duplicates can be obtained from any character banner – the following 6-Star characters complete the standard line-up:
- Ember (6-Star, Heat / Defender / Greatsword)
- Last Rite (6-Star / Cryo / Striker / Greatsword)
- Lifeng (6-Star / Physical / Guard / Polearm)
- Pogranichnik (6-Star / Physical / Vanguard / Sword)
After 300 pulls on the permanent standard banner, the player will have the opportunity to select any one of the five 6-Star standard characters to immediately add to their roster. Furthermore, when pulling on a 6-Star limited character banner, there is a 50% chance that the character will be one of the above instead of the nominated 6-Star.
6-Star Limited Banner Characters
The Arknights: Endfield second beta test launched with Laevatain (6-Star / Heat / Striker / Sword) as its first limited-time banner character. If you’re playing the second beta test, her banner is expected to run until December 12th. As premium characters with limited availability, these 6-Stars are expected to be amongst the most powerful units in the game, if not the most.
However, Arknights: Endfield’s limited banners work slightly differently to some other gacha games you might have played. Two other limited characters – Gilberta (6-Star / Nature / Supporter / Orbiter) and Yvonne (6-Star / Cryo / Caster / Guns) – are also already available, with Gilberta due to become the featured character on the limited banner from December 13th onwards, and Yvonne expected to take over from her after a similar three-week stint.
All three characters will remain on the limited banner for the first nine weeks, with Laevatain then rotating out to make room for (presumably) a new character, followed by Gilberta three weeks later, and Yvonne three weeks after that. This means that in theory you have a much longer time than is standard to secure your limited 6-Star of choice, although only the featured character will have a 50% chance of being the 6-Star you pull on your first try, with the other two being part of the a standard random chance when you lose a 50/50 – and to guarantee a 6-Star in the first place requires a shockingly high 120 pulls.
Arknights: Endfield character comparison tables
| Element x Weapon | Sword | Orbiter | Polearm | Greatsword | Guns |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Physical | Endministrator, Chen Qianyu, Pogranichnik | Lifeng | Catcher, Da Pan | ||
| Electric | Arclight | Perlica, Antal | Avywenna | ||
| Cryo | Alesh | Xaihi | Estella | Snowshine, Last Rite | Yvonne |
| Nature | Ardelia, Gilberta | Flourite | |||
| Heat | Akekuri, Laevatain | Ember | Wulfgard |
| Element x Class | Physical | Electric | Cryo | Nature | Heat |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Guard | Endministrator, Chen Qianyu, Lifeng | Estella | |||
| Caster | Perlica | Yvonne | Flourite | Wulfgard | |
| Defender | Catcher | Snowshine | Ember | ||
| Supporter | Antal | Xaihi | Ardelia, Gilberta | ||
| Vanguard | Pogranichnik | Arclight | Alesh | Akekuri | |
| Striker | Da Pan | Avywenna | Last Rite | Laevatain |
| Weapon x Class | Sword | Orbiter | Polearm | Greatsword | Guns |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Guard | Endministrator, Chen Qianyu | Estella, Lifeng | |||
| Caster | Perlica | Flourite, Wulfgard, Yvonne | |||
| Defender | Catcher, Snowshine, Ember | ||||
| Supporter | Antal, Xaihi, Ardelia, Gilberta | ||||
| Vanguard | Akekuri, Arclight, Alesh, Pogranichnik | ||||
| Striker | Laevatain | Avywenna | Da Pan, Last Rite |
| Rarity x Class | 4-Star | 5-Star | 6-Star |
|---|---|---|---|
| Guard | Estella | Chen Qianyu | Endministrator, Lifeng |
| Caster | Flourite | Perlica, Wulfgard | Yvonne |
| Defender | Catcher | Snowshine | Ember |
| Supporter | Antal | Xaihi | Ardelia, Gilberta |
| Vanguard | Akekuri | Arclight, Alesh | Pogranichnik |
| Striker | Avywenna, Da Pan | Last Rite, Laevatain |
| Rarity x Element | 4-Star | 5-Star | 6-Star |
|---|---|---|---|
| Physical | Catcher | Chen Qianyu, Da Pan | Endministrator, Lifeng, Pogranichnik |
| Electric | Antal | Perlica, Arclight, Avywenna | |
| Cryo | Estella | Xaihi, Snowshine, Alesh | Last Rite, Yvonne |
| Nature | Flourite | Ardelia, Gilberta | |
| Heat | Akekuri | Wulfgard | Ember, Laevatain |
| Rarity x Weapon | 4-Star | 5-Star | 6-Star |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sword | Akekuri | Chen Qianyu, Arclight, Alesh | Endministrator, Pogranichnik, Laevatain |
| Orbiter | Antal | Perlica, Xaihi | Ardelia, Gilberta |
| Polearm | Estella | Avywenna | Lifeng |
| Greatsword | Catcher | Snowshine, Da Pan | Ember, Last Rite |
| Guns | Flourite | Wulfgard | Yvonne |