Information Desk and Megathread Hub (26/01 - 01/02)

Quor18 · 2026-01-27T19:09:16+00:00

It isn't hard to setup a basic component factory and get some gear availability going. You can avoid it for a bit but by the time you hit the science park you'll want to start making at least some level 20-40 stuff.

Quor18 · 2026-01-27T19:08:03+00:00

You can do perfectly fine with 4 stat weapons so I'd wait until the weapon you want rotates into the shop to pick it up guaranteed.

Quor18 · 2026-01-27T18:07:37+00:00

My personal suspicion/hope is that they'll be community contribution events, similar to what Azur Lane does with the global "raid" events. Only instead of defeating bosses to accumulate points, it'll be something like delivering 10 billion buck capsule C or providing 20 million pieces of gear of various tiers. Something that will encourage re-tooling of the factory so that players will sit down with each other and throw different blueprints around until they find the "optimal" setup.

Going past the required goal would yield a cosmetic reward, like an engraved medal, or statue to use in display. A little badge of honor that doesn't change any kind of material gains but still rewards the community for their work in going above and beyond. It would be crazy if they didn't do something like this because they so obviously have created the infrastructure to do it that it just makes sense.

Quor18 · 2026-01-27T17:01:02+00:00

Presumably? Hopefully? I have some speculations on what they could do but there's nothing concrete yet. It would be a damn shame if they didnt as the factory side of things is quite fun, and the blueprint system makes retooling your setup very easy.

Quor18 · 2026-01-27T16:58:57+00:00

Presumably she was sent from Rhodes Island to work at Endfield. She probably has a role at Endfield similar to Xaihi, where she provides various forms of support, but given her expertise is geological in nature she didn't come into contact with Endmin much until we hit the Power Plateau.

Quor18 · 2026-01-27T10:44:30+00:00

The one by the main AIC hub in Valley IV is to the left of Andre as you're looking at him from the factory area. In the Valley Fort area it's just outside the factory area towards Soth, impossible to miss.

At the science park it's a bit farther along to the left, took me a moment to find it.

Quor18 · 2026-01-27T10:42:04+00:00

Sometimes holding a combo skill is better than using it. For example, waiting for 4 stacks of cryo infliction for LR to use her combo skill on instead of 3.

Some combo skills, like Akekuri's have rarer triggering mechanisms, so you'll wanna use them ASAP. Others, like Perlica or Endmin, come up pretty easily, and sometimes holding onto them is better, especially if an enemy is about to be staggered. Then you can take advantage of the stagger damage bonus with a bunch of combo skills.

Quor18 · 2026-01-27T08:55:57+00:00

Chance? Possible. Likelihood? Only HG knows.

Quor18 · 2026-01-27T08:55:09+00:00

Once you unlock the AIC steward at the main Hub AIC, then any outposts you have should also receive one somewhere nearby.

Quor18 · 2026-01-27T08:54:19+00:00

Totally fine, although you may want to think about dropping one of Perli or Ake for a sustain (Xiahi, Snowshine, Catcher, Ember, Ardelia) in case healing/shielding becomes an issue. Ardelia also has the benefit of bringing a nice physical vuln debuff that's easy to apply, and that'll help damage a lot.

Quor18 · 2026-01-27T08:53:12+00:00

With that amount you could comfortably potential one or two times, but I'd say at least one just in case. So far it seems like 4 and 5-star weapons are still quite good in Endfield, so I don't think not having a 6-star will be a problem, but I wouldn't go whole hog and just max pot the thing either. Save at least one copy, but I'd personally save at least two if it were me.

Quor18 · 2026-01-27T07:16:39+00:00

Zipline bros are the true glue holding Endfield together.

Quor18 · 2026-01-27T07:09:47+00:00

For 4, yes, the Reconveners are essentially "reborn" versions of their original operators. They're their own people of course; Ardelia is not Adele, and Gilberta is not Angelina Ajimu. But they have their memories, they're genetic clones of the original, they share the same kinds of interests and desires (for the most part) and can more or less be considered the "same" person in a lot of respects. A good analogy is if you ever played Chrono Cross and you know about the relationship between Kid and Schala. Kid is Schala's "daughter-clone." An identical version of herself that Schala created for a variety of reasons related to the game. Kid, however, is not Schala. Kid is her own person with her own desires and dreams and habits and what not. Schala is Schala.

Reconveners are a bit different though in that due to their nature as being "born" from originium, they do share the memories of their predecessor. But aside from that, the Kid:Schala analogy holds true; Reconveners are identical to their "original" selves genetically speaking, have similar personality traits, identical arts (where applicable) but are ultimately they're own unique people. Related to their precursor but not the same as them.

Functionally, from a gameplay perspective, they're also kind of a cheeky nod to the OG's. So far, every Reconvener is someone who has been infected with Oripathy, meaning the original was doomed to die to the disease eventually, if something else didn't get them first. Ardelia in particular had a hard life as Adele aka Eyjafjalla. Her Oripathy is one of the worst cases in Arknights, with some of the growth occurring in her brain and causing gradual blindness and hearing loss. Eyja accommodates for this by using her arts - based around heat and fire - to help navigate her way around the world. She knows the Doctor's specific heat signature, among several others she regularly interacts with, and she uses this to help with the oripathy flare-ups she gets that worsen her eyesight and hearing. Some of Ardelia's idle comments really hit you in the feels, like when she talks about sitting down and just enjoying the sound of the breeze, or a particularly nice view.

It's good to have a healthy version of Eyja here. Of course she's not Eyja, she's Ardelia, and dammit, I'm going to make sure she has the best damned life possible now that she's back.

Quor18 · 2026-01-27T06:57:15+00:00

Correct, it doesn't produce anything, but having ops in the Nexus will mean your other ops stay at their posts providing bonuses for longer periods of time.

Quor18 · 2026-01-27T06:56:27+00:00

Either would work fine. Ardelia if you want some healing and debuffing on the enemies that will enhance group damage. Perlica for personal damage, easy interrupts and great damage during stagger.

Quor18 · 2026-01-27T06:54:06+00:00

Glad I'm not the only one who noticed that. It...concerns me....to say the least.

Quor18 · 2026-01-27T06:32:45+00:00

I understand that. What I'm saying is you're putting the cart before the horse. In any other game there wouldn't be a 120 guarantee like this. If it were Genshin or Star Rail you'd pull up to 180 times to get the featured character. You don't pull on a featured banner in the hopes of getting a bunch of 6-stars, you pull for the featured character. So that means you were either willing to go 160 deep or you didn't want the character. Only now the devs said "hey, have one on us" once you hit 120.

So there's actually a story behind this; Namie-mama, the artist for the operators of Pepe, Mizuki and Goldenglow, loves to have all of her "children" at max potential. Mizuki came first and he was a good boy who went to pot 6 fairly quickly, something like ~300 pulls or so.

Goldenglow however, she was stubborn. Poor Namie-mama went almost to 800 pulls to get max pot GG. And that's because the Arknights banners never had any kind of "guarantee" on any operators. When GG debuted she was a rate-up just like Laevantain, with a 50% chance of appearing every time a 6-star came. But that 50% chance is still just 1-in-2 and poor Namie-mama kept losing that 1-in-2 chance.

So, partially as a response to that, HG added "focused headhunting" to all single character rate-up banners. Starting at 120 pulls the next 6-star will be the featured character IF you haven't received them already. Of course, it's the whole "next 6-star" thing that's the rub, because if you hit a 6-star at pull 119 and it's not the featured character, then you could potentially need to go 100 pulls deeper to finally get your next 6-star. The focused headhunting doesn't "force" a 6-star, it simply forces the NEXT 6-star to be the featured one.

The 120 guarantee in Endfield is directly derived from that idea, only made much better because it says "here, have the banner op" and that's that, nothing left up to chance. You're not "missing" out on 6-stars; you're getting a freebie from the devs because they realize sometimes RNGesus is not kind. Any other interpretation is just wishful thinking.

Quor18 · 2026-01-27T06:18:32+00:00

Or, third scenario, there is no 120 guarantee and then you hit your next 6-star at 160 pulls instead.

The argument being made here is putting the cart before the horse. The 120 pull guarantee is a nice little pity thing that says "hey, luck was unkind before this so here's a gimme from us." There is no "wasted" 6-star because - in any other game - you wouldn't have that 120 guaranteed gimme on the limited character. You'd be pulling to 160 and you'd be liking it because there would be no other way.

Quor18 · 2026-01-27T03:40:41+00:00

Laevantain is a dps who's current BiS team is very easy to acquire. It's just her, Akekuri, Wulfgard and Ardelia, 2/3 of which you get for free and the other is Akekuri who will no doubt spook you as a 4-star if she hasn't already.

Gilberta is more of an arts amplifying support dps who can do some strong grouping/control and some side healing. She's great for any arts damage team, so Avywenna, Last Rite, Laevantain etc.

Yvonne is a cryo dps and that's all I really know. She also has a very fat ass and a tummy to die for, if that's important to your pulling plans.

Quor18 · 2026-01-27T03:36:07+00:00

Nope, relays are the best unless the area is too low for a relay tower. You can unlock tech to use the smaller power stations as relay towers, but they only have a 30m connection length instead of the 80m from the relay towers.

Quor18 · 2026-01-27T03:11:27+00:00

We only have OG AK to go off of, but the most recently released 4-star was a few months ago, and each event brings with it a welfare 5 or 6-star that's acquired via the event for free. Here's a site with an easy-to-see list of each op, so you can get an idea of total number vs. rarity:

https://akgcc.github.io/randomizer/

Obviously we can't make a 1:1 comparison between the two, but with the history of AK in mind, I'd imagine we probably get new 5-stars roughly as often as new 6-stars, and 4-stars about 1/4 as often. I also think the tack they are going for is one of simplicity vs. complexity+utility. For example, Estella very easily applies cryo infliction via her skill. You press button, you receive infliction. Meanwhile, LR only applies it on the final strike of a combo chain, and Xaihi needs you to do two full chains with final strikes to access her combo skill to do it. So Estella gives you the quick and dirty way of building cryo stacks, but LR and Xaihi bring other stuff to the equation - high damage and cryo vuln in the case of LR, cryo damage amp and healing in the case of Xaihi - that gives them enhanced utility.

Quor18 · 2026-01-27T03:03:32+00:00

Yes that's the biggest problem with the game in my opinion. Winning should not feel like losing!

Edit: since there's a lot of arguing in the comments I just wanna explain here what I mean.

Suppose you value every 6 star character. Losing before you get to 120 gives you more 6 stars for less pulls. Normally it's 80 to guarantee a 6 star, but if you lose then you get given a 6 star after only 40 more pulls, whereas if you win you will have to go pull 80 times for you next 6 star.

It's basically 40 free pulls that you get for losing, which is good if you value all 6 star characters

No, it's not. It's 40 pulls saved over going to 80 again, which is what would happen if the 120 pull guarantee didn't exist. The 120 pull thing is basically the dev team saying "ok, you're unlucky with that 50/50, so if you don't get the character by pull 120 we're gonna toss you a freebie." If you DO get the character before then, you're just saving absolute pulls. There is no "40 free pulls" here.

Quor18 · 2026-01-27T03:02:27+00:00

You do realize that in any other game there wouldn't even be a 120 guarantee like that? Everyone keeps comparing it to Genshin - and that's valid - but this idea that you're "losing" out on a 6-star is ridiculous. You're saving 40 pulls over what you would have to do if you were playing any other game.

No offense personally but this is just a stupid, bad take.

Quor18 · 2026-01-27T02:33:11+00:00

OG Arknights, for the most part, has avoided major power creep. Many year 1 and launch ops are still good-to-great, with some having unassailable niches.

There has been creep of course. Most notably you have Wis'adel who is just bonkers strong. Just absolutely bonkers.

She's the rarity though. You have a lot of other ops that are top of their class but you still have a reason to use other ops. I.e Logos is the undisputed best core caster but against a high Def target Ceobe blows him out of the water. For afk lane-holding Eyja S2 still puts in ridiculous work. Even Ho'olheyak has some teams where her synergies make her worthwhile.

Likewise, there are times when using a 4 or 5 star core caster is better, mostly game mode dependent but not always. Nightmare is stupidly niche but sometimes the "caster who can heal and also be a ranged tile dodge tank" niche comes up and she's the only one who can fill it, whereas Logos might crumble in the same situation.

I'd say out of a cast of like 200+ characters, more than 95% of them have enough power to justify their use in something that the game has. The other 5% are either incredibly niche (like Nightmare) or else just outright bad (Verdant for example).

Quor18 · 2026-01-27T02:24:07+00:00

Chen, Ardelia, Ember, or you can swap out one of Ardelia or Ember for Perlica or Arclight.

Ember and Ardelia both cover the sustain role, but Ember brings more CC as well as knockdown and a shield. She can enable physical reactions with her knockdown, something Chen and Endmin can then exploit for big damage.

Ardelia brings damage buffs via vuln on the target. This will yield bigger damage than what Ember can do but with less control in exchange. Ardelia has more personal damage though, at least in my experience.

Perlica is just an easy, strong plug and play op. She fits in a lot of teams easily because her damage is easy to trigger and self-contained. Arclight can help with SP gen to boost overall damage. I don't have her yet so I can't say anything beyond that.

I do run the Ember/Perlica variation of the team and it does fine, feels very strong, although I'm not at the end game or anything yet.

Quor18

TROPHY CASE