Arknights: Endfield Review Overview
What is Arknights: Endfield?
Arknights: Endfield is a 2026 action-adventure RPG by Arknights developers Hypergryph set in the hostile and mysterious planet of Talos-II. Players assume the role of the Endministrator, an enigmatic individual entrusted with great authority over Endfield Industries. As Endfield Industries’ head and trump card, their mission is to journey through the treacherous, hostile regions of the planet while setting up outposts to expand the organization’s area of operations.
It introduces a real-time action RPG experience enriched with base-building and strategic management elements. Gameplay emphasizes tactical party combat with up to four characters engaging enemies simultaneously, each with unique skills and abilities. Seamless character switching and precise skill targeting amplify the action's intensity.
For more gameplay details, read everything we know about Arknights: Endfield’s gameplay and story.
Arknights: Endfield features:
⚫︎ Factory Building Mechanics
⚫︎ Engaging Combat Gameplay
⚫︎ Stunning Visuals and Sights
⚫︎ Voiced Characters
⚫︎ An Extensive Open World To Explore
| Digital Storefronts | |||||||
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 Official Website |
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 Google Play Store |
 App Store |
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 PSN |
 Epic Games |
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| Free-to-Play | |||||||
Arknights: Endfield Pros & Cons
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
 Engaging Combat Gameplay Factory Building Is Insanely Fun Gorgeous Character Design Fun Open World With Many Points of Interest |
Unusual Gacha Mechanics Weird Visual Bugs |
Arknights: Endfield Story - 8/10
The story is decent and gets intriguing, but it can feel draggy or slow-paced early on. It fits the context of the narrative, yes, but this can make or break the player’s initial interest, especially if it would take a certain amount of time to get to the next region, which is much more promising in scope and story. However, most characters, especially those with a bit more importance to the story, are generally very interesting and feel fleshed out.
Arknights: Endfield Gameplay - 9/10
Endfield is definitely not lacking in gameplay and has certainly polished these mechanics well. Combat, open world exploration, factory building, resource and outpost management, a bit of tower defense mini-games—there’s a plethora of content to go through, so much so that it can be quite overwhelming to a certain point that doesn’t feel organic. Controls are a bit on the heavier side, but nevertheless, they play smoothly and feel intuitive.
Arknights: Endfield Visuals - 9/10
Arknights: Endfield is, I dare say, one of the most visually stunning PC-mobile games of 2026. Details, textures, overall aesthetics—it’s all breathtaking, making it a little hard to believe that the game is primarily marketed as a mobile title. Character designs are of the signature Arknights flair; well-made, gorgeous, and evidently thought out. Unfortunately, it suffers from a few visual lapses, like certain cutscenes having obstacles in them, to the weird and obvious pixelation of background assets, but it doesn’t completely sour the experience.
Arknights: Endfield Audio - 10/10
Audio design is on-point—sound effects with substance and weight, well-voiced characters, a fitting soundtrack as you go about the world of Talos-II. Footsteps, combat sounds, environmental tones—its audio heightens the experience, allowing for a more immersive experience as you explore its world.
Arknights: Endfield Value for Money - 7/10
It’s a free-to-play game with a large variety of content that can rival paid games, promising hours and hours of gameplay. However, the low rate and "spark system" gacha mechanic may be a hit or a miss to many expectant players who have been used to the mechanics of Endfield’s other contemporaries. As the first-time resources for pulls and premium currency run low, pulling for characters will eventually feel expensive, for what it’s worth.
Arknights: Endfield Overall Score - 86/100
Arknights: Endfield somehow almost has it all—a decent story that has potential, multiple engaging gameplay mechanics, a vibrant world to explore, and solid audio and visual design. Aside from the gacha system that not many people may be used to, it deserves high marks everywhere else. Its future is bright, and they can only keep going up from here.
Arknights: Endfield Review: Signature Arknights That Delivers
Arknights: Endfield has finally arrived in all its glory, releasing onto mobile, PC, and the PS5. It only feels like yesterday when I played the game’s Beta Test II, and I surely enjoyed my time back then. It’s one of the most anticipated games as of late, attracting both Arknights players and action-adventure RPG enthusiasts to take a swing at it.
It’s still fun the second time around, feeling smoother and overall better now that it’s the full launch. As expected, it comes from Hypergryph, who has already made its name known in the industry with how well they managed the first game of the series, Arknights. There’s a reason that game is still going strong even after almost seven years, and sure enough, Arknights: Endfield is on track to receivethe same treatment. I’ve sunk several hours (read: a lot) into the game, but I still feel like I’ve barely touched upon what Endfield has to offer in its entirety.
A New Home on Talos-II
Set in a different moon-planet called Talos-II that is millions of light-years away from the setting of the original Arknights, Arknights: Endfield (from here forth will simply be referred to as Endfield) mainly follows the player character, the Endministrator, after they wake up from their decade-long stasis. Although they have no memories to speak of nor a hazy understanding of what’s going on, they are immediately hurled into the center of trouble brewing on the planet. As the leader of Endfield Industries, it is their duty to make humanity flourish and prosper once again.
For starters, the northern hemisphere of Talos-II remains unexplored and unreachable due to the presence of the Auroral Barrier that effectively cuts the world into two—the dangerous, frosty North, and the green, inhabitable South. However, the South is also in danger because of the prevalence of the Blight, a corruptive phenomenon that negatively affects both the land and human beings. What’s worse is that a mysterious entity has arrived on Talos-II who has the enigmatic ability to control the Blight at will—and appears to be determined to cause chaos and destruction to the world.
It is then up to the Endministrator and their fellow Endfielders to get to the bottom of it all, saving the planet, one step at a time.
Given it’s only early on and there are only two regions as of late, the story itself is decent, but it can feel rather sluggish and a little all over the place at the beginning. Granted, you’re playing the head of Endfield Industries who has lost their memory and has been gone for 10 years—with doomsday looming closer than ever, you need to get back up into shape, and STAT. The Valley IV region acts as your starting point to everything about Endfield, and I feel like it wants to cover as much ground as possible before zoning in on one thing.
It’s not a bad thing to do so, but some parts of the early game might be a hit or miss for the players, perhaps not interesting enough either to make them reach the next region, Wuling, which overall feels more put together. I don’t want to delve too deeply into the specifics since that would take away the experience, but nevertheless, the story’s intriguing enough that I’ve already decided to stick around for much longer than I anticipated.
Fight, Build, and Explore To Your Heart’s Content
Endfield’s gameplay mainly consists of three major gameplay structures: the real-time action combat system, the factory-building and production mechanics, and open-world exploration that encompasses all other gameplay systems in place. Essentially, it’s an action-adventure RPG that plays similarly to other well-known titles such as Genshin Impact and Wuthering Waves.
Across the map, there are dozens of discoverables, such as interactive environment puzzles, following cute grass bunnies for hidden treasure, rare resources to gather, or simply looking for scenic spots to watch and take in. Crafty sales-minded people are also able to take part in buying and selling goods across regions, complete with their volatile economy and the need to know when to buy and sell. It’s enjoyable in its own right and gives motivation to actually explore the map.
In combat and exploration, players directly control one of the four Operators selected in their on-field team, with the other three acting as auto-attacking supports. Their respective Battle Skills and Ultimates are executed with a corresponding button press (for Skills) or hold (for Ultimates). Pretty standard fare for an open-world game with real-time combat, and veteran players of the aforementioned games will feel right at home.
A rather different aspect of their combat system is the Combo Skills. Each Operator uniquely possesses one of these, and they are not triggered automatically by a press of a button, but instead through meeting certain conditions on the battlefield. For instance, Perlica’s Combo Skill can simply be unleashed after the controlled Operator finishes their attack sequence with a Final Strike. However, Operators like Alesh and Avywenna need a bit more set-up such as requiring certain elemental Inflictions or debuffs to be cast on the enemy.
Team building isn’t anything new, but the way there’s a highlight on the need to synergize units and make use of proper strategy for maximum damage output. This was more evident to me because I pulled a different 6-Star Operator this time around—from Last Rite to Ember. I’ve never encountered her before, so playing around with her kit, building a team around her, and testing combos felt different from when I built one for Last Rite in beta.
In comparison with the beta, the core gameplay hasn’t changed much, although it feels smoother and more intuitive with timely responses in button inputs. Controls feel heavy, but buttery smooth. It’s snappy, and it adds to the satisfaction of executing the game’s flashy combat.
There’s also the added bonus of being able to play the game at 120 FPS now (it was previously locked in at 60 FPS), which adds to the smoothness of it all.
Production, Production, and More Production
What sets Endfield apart from its contemporaries is the emphasis on factory systems, resource management, and building elements. Unlike other games where building anything is pretty much optional, it is central in progressing the game’s story and is the core of other gameplay systems such as area outposts, regional side-quests, and more.
This starts with the Core AIC Area, or the Automated Industry Complex. Your goal is to expand your influence across the regions through outposts connected to the mainframe using Sub-Automation Cores. These outposts can handle several factory machines at once, making efficient production lines for crafting products. At the beginning, you only have a number of standard machines to work with, but the more you expand and collect Index Points through factory gameplay and data point collection, the more advanced machines you can utilize.
Factorio and Satisfactory players will definitely be pros at this, but newer players to this type of gameplay can find it either a hit or a miss. At the beginning of it all, it feels doable, easy, and all that, especially while the game teaches you the basics through simulations and blueprints. It makes it all the more approachable—it worked on me, after all. Factory simulation games have always intimidated me with their complexities, but Endfield actually made me more interested in the genre now…so much so that, honestly, most of my playtime the past few days has just been learning about the factory and making sure that things are, at the very least, in working order.
I’m still terrible at making things efficient, but I’m having more fun than I initially thought I would. Right now, I’m certainly more motivated to try out Satisfactory now that I’ve gotten into the flow.
Stunning Visual Presentation…Mostly
Maybe it’s just me, or it's the 120FPS talking, but Endfield arguably looks much better this time around. The developers definitely polished many of the visual assets since the beta. It’s magnificent, seen in the details, especially during the prologue in the cold wintry landscape. The scenery, the sights, the character designs—good quality visuals just seem to be the standard for Arknights, and it carried on to Endfield as well.
The textures are of high quality, and the character models look great. There’s no clipping of random hair strands into clothing, light and shadow reflect realistically, and even the creases and minute details all come together. Zooming into things in the overworld shows just how much effort was put into making it look its best.
However, with how much content there is in the game, it’s inevitable that some may have slipped in through the cracks. For example, I did notice that some background assets during dialogue cutscenes were rendered to be a little more pixelated. Perhaps it’s a way to lessen the load on the PC, or there’s something going on with my settings (oddly enough, I am on all High specs though), but it does get evident, especially when a high-textured character is face-to-face with it. It’s not always there, but it’s common enough to be noticeable.
There’s also the hilarious but immersion-breaking inclusion of the Memo Beacons in cutscenes. In the pre-launch livestream, they said that this issue was patched out, but there are still some rogue parts that may have been overlooked, particularly the one with Qin Jiangchi before you get the option to teleport back onto the OMV Dijiang. It’s amusing, indeed, but still counts as an oversight.
Immersive Audio
The game’s audio—sound design, soundtrack, voice-acting—is well-done all across the board. Coupled along with the visuals, it makes for a pleasing experience. Footsteps, ambient sounds, and combat audio effects are solid and weighty, and accompanied by the soundtrack, it really makes the world of Talos-II more vibrant and alive.
While I do mainly play with Japanese voice-over, the English voice lines deserve their own laurels as well. The world of Arknights is made up of different races with different vernaculars and ways of speaking, and it reflects in how they do it in English. For example, you meet Wulfgard early on—he has a distinct Italian accent and even speaks Italian in his voice lines sometimes, calling to his race’s origins. Da Pan, the giant panda Endfielder from Hongshan, also speaks with a Chinese accent in his lines.
It reminds me of both the original Arknights and Reverse: 1999, games praised for their top-notch voice-acting chops spanning a variety of accents and nationalities. Endfield may just be on track to follow suit.
Gacha Can Be Confusing
While not exactly a con, it is something a bit new to those who may be coming from similar gacha-run games such as the Hoyoverse games and Wuthering Waves. It’s quite the same as it was in the original Arknights, and I’m the type of person to not pull on banners of characters I’m not particularly interested in, so it’s not that bad of a "change" to me. However, players who have gotten used to the more common gacha systems in place might not be big fans.
Essentially, if you don’t have the 120 pulls to guarantee yourself the 6-Star character on the banner, don’t pull. Gacha players with quick trigger fingers to get that momentary wishing or pulling dopamine even on banners they’re not particularly interested in won’t like this. Why save pulls? Because there is always the chance of losing your 50/50…multiple times. You heard me right. Multiple times.
Yes, there is an 80 pull pity for a guaranteed 6-Star character, but it can be any 6-Star. Losing a 50/50 does NOT (for emphasis, indeed) guarantee the limited banner’s character. It doesn’t matter if you’ve unluckily pulled Lifeng from the standard pool 3 times in a row—there’s no other way to guarantee the limited character from the banner unless you get to 120 pulls.
While the average player won’t really bother with this part of team building, with this in mind, getting Potentials (Constellations, Eidolons, Sequences, dupes, whatever you’d like to call them) for non-standard 6-Stars is made more difficult this time around. After all, the 120 guarantee—called a Spark—only happens once. Granted, Hypergryph looks like it tried to mitigate this by having the limited character in the banner still be available for pulling up until the end of the two banners after it, but nevertheless, it does really make the gacha a tough test of luck.
Is Arknights: Endfield Worth It?
Definitely Worth A Try
Arknights: Endfield lives up to the Arknights name and has the beginning chops to prove that it will become one of the mainstay games in this current gaming generation. So far, it’s got engaging and accommodating gameplay systems both in adrenaline-pumping combat and in lesser-action-packed factory building, as well as aesthetically pleasing visuals combined with solid audio design and soundtrack.
Many of its complaints come from its "unconventional" gacha mechanics, but otherwise, if you’re not particularly troubled by it (or if you’re good at not giving in to temptation) and would just focus on the game as itself, it’s definitely worth a shot. It looks like it needs quite a bit of commitment in the long run, but nevertheless, it’s shaping up to be fun, high-quality, and something that will stay for a long, long time, and is something that you should definitely keep your eyes on.
| Digital Storefronts | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Official Website |
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| Google Play Store |
App Store |
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| PSN |
Epic Games |
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| Free-to-Play | |||||||
Arknights: Endfield FAQ
Is Arknights: Endfield available on PS5?
Arknights: Endfield is available on PS5, PC through a dedicated client, Epic Games, Android, and iOS devices.
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Arknights: Endfield Product Information
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| Title | Arknights: Endfield |
|---|---|
| Release Date | January 22, 2026 |
| Developer | Hypergryph |
| Publisher | Hypergryph |
| Supported Platforms | Dedicated Client, Android, iOS, PlayStation 5, Epic Games |
| Genre | Action, RPG, Adventure, Strategy |
| Number of Players | 1 |
| ESRB Rating | RP |
| Official Website | Arknights: Endfield Official Website |
