Arknights: Endfield Review: A Factory Sim Wearing a Gacha RPG's Clothes

Arknights: Endfield is HyperGryph’s big swing: a full 3D action RPG that trades the mobile tower-defence roots of the original Arknights for real-time squad combat and, more surprisingly, a Factorio-style production layer. It launched globally in January 2026 as a free-to-play title on PC via the Epic Games Store alongside PlayStation 5 and mobile, and has since moved into a regular content cadence. The verdict up front: this is one of the most polished free-to-play launches in the genre, and its best ideas are the ones that have nothing to do with pulling characters.

How we tested

We spent about 45 hours on the PC build, taking a fresh account from the tutorial through the early endgame. That covered the main campaign, the combat challenge content, and a serious investment in the base-building systems, plus repeated visits to the shop and banner screens across two limited-character rotations. Testing was done on a mid-range desktop at 1440p with a controller for combat and mouse-and-keyboard for base management, which is how the game seems to expect you to split your time.

The base is the real game

The Automated Industry Complex, or AIC, is where Endfield separates itself from every other gacha RPG on the market. It is not a cosmetic housing feature or an idle-resource timer; it is a functional production network that you lay out by hand, running power, routing conveyor lines, balancing inputs and outputs and expanding across the map as you unlock new regions. The tutorial for it is long and frankly overwhelming, and the game does a poor job easing you in. Push through that wall and it becomes the thing you actually log in for: a systemic puzzle that feeds your character progression and rewards planning rather than spending.

Combat that opens strong and coasts

The fighting controls one squad member at a time while the other three act on their own, with a tactical pause for issuing orders and lining up skills. Early on it feels tactical and readable, asking you to weave dodges, swap targets and time abilities together. By the mid-game it loses some of that tension and slides toward holding the attack button through packs of enemies, with boss fights carrying most of the challenge. It is competent and looks great in motion; it is just not the deep action system the presentation implies.

A conspicuously polished package

For a 1.0 free release, the craft on display is high. Art direction is strong and consistent, the sci-fi setting has personality, the voice acting is solid across languages and the UI is dense but legible. Performance on PC is reasonable for a game of this scope, with sensible scaling options, and the Epic client wrapper is unobtrusive. This is not a game that feels like it is still in testing.

Monetisation: generous with content, stingy with pulls

Here is the catch. Endfield’s gacha is on the harsher end of the current field. Reaching a featured character sits at a high pity count, that pity does not carry over between banners, and grabbing duplicates for a character’s upgrade path pushes the effective cost higher still. The pressure lands hardest on free and low-spend players trying to keep pace with new units. The rest of the model is fairer: the campaign is fully playable without paying, the base layer is untouched by the shop, and there is no aggressive stamina-selling loop. But the character economy is where the game asks the most and gives the least, and you should go in expecting that.

Who it’s for

This is a game for people who see a conveyor belt and want to make it more efficient. If the AIC concept excites you, and you are content to treat the banners as a slow-burn side goal rather than a chase, Endfield has more to chew on than almost anything else in the category. If you want a pure character-collection action RPG and expect to actually acquire the characters you like, the pull economy will grind on you.

Verdict

Arknights: Endfield is two games stacked together, and the quieter one is the better one. The base-building layer is a legitimately excellent systems sandbox that happens to be attached to a gacha RPG, and the production values across the whole thing are a cut above what free-to-play launches usually manage. HyperGryph clearly had the resources and the ambition to build something that stands on its own.

It falls short of the top tier because the combat does not sustain its early promise and the monetisation is noticeably less friendly than its peers, particularly for players who cannot or will not spend. If you enjoy logistics puzzles and can hold the banner screen at arm’s length, this is an easy recommendation and a game you can sink months into for free. If your enjoyment depends on collecting the roster, wait to see whether the pull economy softens before you commit.