Arknights: Endfield first-week plan: base automation without the grind

Arknights: Endfield is HyperGryph’s 3D follow-up to the original Arknights: a squad RPG where you control one operator at a time in real-time combat while building and automating an industrial base on the planet Talos-II. The mix of action combat, gacha collection and factory logistics can feel like three games at once in the first session. This guide keeps the opening hours simple so you build good habits instead of a tangled mess of conveyor lines.

Because Endfield is a new release and its developer has kept adjusting systems since testing, treat any exact costs or drop rates you see as provisional and check them in-client.

Before you start

• Set combat to a difficulty you can react at; you can raise it later for better rewards.
• Keep your starter operators and the first free story characters. Do not feed anyone away early.
• Do not spend premium currency on weapon banners until you know your core squad.
• Save upgrade materials rather than sprinkling them across every operator you pull.
• Expect to redo your first factory layout once. Leave open floor space around it.

Step 1: Push the main story before you explore

The campaign is the fastest way to open up the game. Early chapters hand you the base, the tools for placing production buildings, new operators, higher level caps and the systems that let you automate anything at all. Free-roaming a zone you unlocked an hour ago mostly gives you fights you are underlevelled for. Clear story missions until the pace forces you to stop, then circle back for side content and resource nodes with a stronger squad.

Step 2: Build one small automation loop

When the base opens, resist the urge to blueprint a mega-factory. Set up a single chain that takes one raw material, refines it one step, and drops the result into storage. Confirm power is stable and the output buffer is not overflowing. Automation in Endfield runs continuously as long as it has power and somewhere to put the product, so a clean short loop quietly stockpiles what you need while you play the action side.

Only add a second stage when a crafting recipe you actually want is blocked on it. Growing the factory reactively keeps it readable.

Step 3: Choose a four-operator core

Your active party is four operators and they are all on the field at once, with the AI handling basic attacks while you time the important skills. Pick four you like the feel of, covering roughly: one steady damage dealer, one burst or elemental specialist, one operator who can soak hits or draw aggro, and one support who heals or buffs. Then commit. Concentrate operator levels, weapon levels, skill ranks and talent nodes on those four. Spreading upgrades across a bench of ten leaves you with ten weak operators and no clear team.

Step 4: Spend stamina on your squad’s materials

Endfield gates farmable materials behind a daily stamina pool. Before you spend it, look at what your core four need to hit their next promotion or skill breakpoint, and farm that. It is tempting to run whichever stage is newest or gives the shiniest icon, but promotion materials and skill mats are what raise your combat power in the first weeks. Weapon and gear farms come after your operators are promoted.

Step 5: Fight with movement, not the attack button

Combat looks like a standard action RPG but punishes standing still. Dodge through telegraphed attacks, then answer with a skill while the enemy recovers. Rotate through your party’s abilities rather than dumping them all at once: trigger a control or debuff skill, follow with your damage operator’s big hit, and keep one defensive skill in reserve. Switching operators mid-combo is free and often the point, since many kits are designed to hand off into each other.

If a fight is a wall, it is usually an upgrade problem, not a skill problem. Go back to Step 4.

Keep an eye on your operators’ elemental damage types too. Many enemies resist or are weak to particular elements, and bringing a squad whose damage lines up with an encounter’s weakness does more than a few operator levels. If one boss keeps stonewalling you, swapping one squad member for a different element is often the fix.

Key takeaways

• Follow the main story first; it unlocks the base, factory tools and most early systems faster than free-roaming.
• Build one short automation chain that feeds itself, then expand only when a recipe demands it.
• Lock in a four-operator core early and concentrate levels, weapons and skill upgrades on those four.
• Spend daily stamina on the material farms your core squad actually needs, not on whatever is newest.
• Combat rewards dodging and skill timing far more than holding the attack button.