Arknights: Endfield Is Better Than Before, Streamlining Its Combat And Factory System

I've been an Arknights: Endfield fan since the first global technical test in January 2024. Its art style — a blend of anime and realism — plus its echoes of RPGs I enjoyed like Genshin Impact convinced me to try it. In playing, I found a layered combat system and building mechanics that set it apart from competitors. With the latest build, developer Hypergryph has reforged and polished those systems to feel snappier and more accessible than I remember.

Hypergryph says the team reworked 80–90% of the cutscenes and dialogue, about half of the map structure, and roughly 40–50% of the overall level design — much of what I first played in 2024 has been changed. After previewing Arknights: Endfield for over five hours ahead of the official beta launch, I’d gladly spend another 20 exploring this revised world.

When I booted up the new version, I was quickly reintroduced to the controls on an action-packed battlefield. You play as the Endministrator (or Endmin), who uses a resource called Originium to attack and to create and repair Originium-based machines. We learn the Endmin led Endfield Industries and designed many of the machines they control. Perlica (the poster character for Endfield) and Chen Qianyu (a counterpart to Ch'en from the original Arknights) come from the same faction.

The intro didn’t land as strongly as I’d hoped — it opened with a frantic but shallow boss fight and heavy exposition that slowed the pacing with several time skips. But after the first 20 minutes, the story picks up once Perlica joins the Endmin on their first mission.

You play as the Endministrator, the amnesiac leader of Endfield Industries.

Arknights: Endfield is an open-world action RPG with building mechanics that encourage you to build mining and transport infrastructure. In combat you can deploy up to four characters and fight alongside them, but you control only one at a time. Each character has skills that consume skill points, which you charge by dealing damage, dodging, and performing other actions. Combo skills can be manually triggered while using another character if conditions are met.

During the first mission, a prompt to activate Perlica's combo skill appeared after the Endministrator briefly stunned an enemy. In the original test you could chain skills for extra damage, but the combo mechanic — stacking one attack on top of another — adds a satisfying strategic layer to the combat I already enjoyed.

Left to right: Andre, Chen Qianyu, Endministrator, Perlica.

Making combat snappier than before

Ryan, a HyperGryph co-founder and lead designer on Arknights, explained changes made for Beta II, including combat improvements. As lead designer he handles systems design and oversees characters and environments.

"This [change to combat] is done mainly because we received feedback that certain players believe our combat may not be as smooth as they have wanted," Ryan said through a translator. "Basic attacks, for example, may easily get interrupted and [break] their combos. So we've added dodge, and we've also made changes to basic combat. So right now, players should have a much smoother combat flow and combos."

When an Assist Skill is available, your teammate's icon will pop up.

Dodging behaves like in many action games: press a button at the right moment to evade damage. Successful dodges also charge the skill-meter so characters can use stronger attacks more often.

Dodges aren’t the only way to charge the meter — basic attacks and combos do it too. Previously, dash was the closest thing to a dodge; now a true dodge mechanic makes evasion smoother and removes frustrations I had in 2024. Rewarding skillful play with faster skill charging is a welcome change.

Combo skills also recharge skill points but are harder to set up. Each character’s combo depends on a specific trigger, and team-building around those triggers maximizes synergy.

The dodge mechanic was one of the major upgrades from Beta Test I.

An easier-to-understand factory system

Ryan also led the revamp of Endfield’s signature factory system. Within the first 90 minutes of preview I reclaimed an open field for the AIC — your main “power plant” hub — and relearned how to set up machines that automatically refine ores into higher-grade materials. The factory system incentivizes streamlining farming, creating transport links, and selling products later on.

Arknights: Endfield feels familiar in its gacha-RPG menus and progression, but it stands out in the genre for letting you craft and place utility structures across the map. The AIC is confined to one area, but you can build towers and ziplines across the map to direct power or enable fast travel. I built an automated ore harvester, a material-processor machine, and transport infrastructure linking them.

The factory system includes many machines and power supply.

The latest beta walks you through the factory system with a clear tutorial, which I appreciated when relearning how to build. Endfield also introduces a blueprint system that lets you copy other players’ factory layouts so you don’t have to reinvent the wheel. Between a better tutorial and blueprints, the factory system is far more approachable than before.

"Some players feel that the factory system is a very daunting task, so they don't know how to get started with [it]," Ryan said. "At the same time, some core players who are more familiar with the factory system feel that they need more space and playgrounds to try out more complex designs. Based on these above considerations, we thought of the blueprint [system] as a great solution, which can take care of the two issues that we mentioned earlier."

You can build ziplines almost anywhere you want.

Sci-fi is more complicated than you think

I asked Ryan what subtle but important aspect of Endfield players might miss. He pointed to the difficulty of designing sci-fi concepts.

"From a player's perspective, they may not find a lot of distinguishing differences [between genres]. But, in reality, when making a game, I think sci-fi concepts are a lot harder to make than fantasy ones. In terms of game designs, sci-fi is a bigger challenge because, from structural designs to designs of monsters and all sorts of in-game elements, having a sci-fi theme means all these designs have to have a certain sense of logic in them. They have to have a certain sense of reasonability in them compared to other concepts, and that means we have to put a lot of considerations into our concept designs."

Arknights: Endfield is set in the same universe as the Arknights tower-defense mobile game but far in the future. Its futuristic locales are chrome-laden and filled with machines, structures, and hints of an advanced, scientifically driven society.

Outside of Wuling City, the new map in Beta Test II.

The game opens in Valley IV, a tech center touched by apocalypse; machinery looks rugged but shows purpose — mining, irrigation, and so on. I spent time in Wuling City, which was heavily redone since the last test. The city features tall buildings and water-themed structures that match the surrounding environment.

Ryan estimates it takes 20–30 hours of story-focused play to reach Wuling, so don’t expect it early. Wuling City draws inspiration from the China Academy of Arts; Ryan said some structural references and designs were created in collaboration with professors there.

Wuling City is inspired by the China Academy of Arts.

It's never too late for this gacha

Arknights: Endfield is a free-to-play gacha RPG like Genshin Impact and Wuthering Waves, featuring limited-time banners and 5-star/6-star characters. The gacha wasn’t available during the preview, so I asked Ryan what to expect.

He wouldn’t confirm exact pity numbers but said Endfield’s system differs from the usual model. Instead of characters disappearing after a limited run, characters featured in limited-time banners will remain available in the standard pool after their debut — only the increased drop rate is limited to the banner period.

Perlica and Chen are your first two free-to-play characters.

"There will be two main pools for players to use: the basic one, and more of a time-limited one. But we have done changes so that characters that get their probabilities up in the limited pool, they're not going to disappear after the time of the event. They're still going to be there for a while for some players to catch up," he said.

So far Ryan confirmed Perlica, Chen, and Wulfgard as the three free-to-play characters available at this stage. They helped me a lot in the beta, and the reworked kits for Perlica and Chen felt even more fluid than before.

If you want to try it, sign up for the second beta at the Arknights: Endfield official website. Beta II starts on November 28, 2025.

Arknights: Endfield is scheduled to release in early 2026 for PlayStation 5, PC, and mobile devices.