Arknights: Endfield Was My First Tentative Step Into The Gacha World

I had the opportunity to go hands-on with Arknights: Endfield, a spin-off of Hypergryph's tower defence game Arknights, at this year's Gamescom. The series has been a massive success for the Chinese studio, even spawning an anime adaptation that recently concluded its third season.

Although I wasn't familiar with the series before, the production value of Endfield was immediately apparent as soon as I approached the gargantuan booth at the venue. The massive factory facade — complete with a smoke machine and dedicated cosplay team — dwarfed the booths surrounding it, including big titles like World of Warcraft.

Free-Flowing Party-Based Combat

The preview had five sections: a tutorial, two boss fights, an overview of the factory mechanics and some time in the hub area, where you can 'pull' for characters. The entire hands-on lasted about an hour, and I have to admit, I was pleasantly surprised.

I am by no means a gacha fan; I've not Genshin Impacted, Zenless Zone Zero'ed, or even Honkai Star Railled. Arknights: Endfield was my first time touching the genre, and honestly, I kind of get it now.

The boss battles have you pilot a party of four characters that you can switch between, but, unlike Genshin where there's only one character fighting at any given time, Endfield is built around the concept of team raids.

All four of your equipped characters (I played a giant panda) are dealing damage at the same time, and certain characters can combine their abilities to inflict additional damage. The combat was very smooth, with several movement mechanics like dodges and dashes that allow you to reset the fight in a sticky situation, or move in to deal damage at opportune times.

The screen was a visual cacophony of button prompts, damage particles and characters dashing around. I was fully engaged during these boss fights, dodging attacks and spamming whatever combo I was prompted with, regardless of whether or not I knew what these two characters did.

I defeated both bosses without a lot of trouble, but my pre-built characters were also completely optimised for me, so that's to be expected. A cutscene played with some exposition – your protagonist character, the Endministrator, appears in the cutscenes even if you don't have them equipped. However, other cutscenes featured other characters with spoken dialogue, which suggests some missions will be tied to specific characters.

Stranded Among The Stars

The exposition during these fights gave me an idea of Arknights: Endfield's setting, which isn't dissimilar to that of the original Arknights. Your corporation, Endfield Industries, and other commercial interests set out to colonise a moon called Talos-II, but the expansionists became stranded when the Aethergate they used to reach Talos-II unexpectedly closed.

The social dynamics of Talos-II then change, and the "pioneers" separate into different factions and groups. The moon is also an inhospitable place, often being struck by natural disasters, including the "Corruption", which creates dangerous physical beings. This setting justifies the variety of characters (factions), the combat (fighting the Corruption) and the factory-building, since Endfield is trying to colonise Talos-II.

The factory-building aspect of Arknights is interesting – I didn't have time to work out the automation mechanics, but the system appears to be something akin to a Factorio-lite. An efficient factory generates items which can be used to power up characters, and the free-roam part of the tutorial mission had me spawning turrets from my factory to clear an area, which suggests further integration.

You'd certainly need more time than I had to learn the ins and outs of the factory mode, but the interconnectivity of the RPG elements and the factory elements is such a novel crossover that I'm genuinely interested in spending more time on Arknights: Endfield.

Banners, Pulls, And Everything In-Between

Given that Endfield is a gacha game, the core of the experience is built around the game's characters. I didn't linger on the character select menu as my heart was firmly set on the giant panda, but I did notice the designs of the characters are typical of the genre: young-looking anime-style women, with a few slim-built men and of course, the aforementioned giant panda.

You can 'pull' for these characters in the hub area, and the gacha system is a formula of probability, currency and investment. There are banners, the characters and weapons are divided into star ratings, and you're guaranteed a high-star drop after a certain number of pulls. You can earn in-game currency or simply buy it – you know the drill.

I observed a long group chat conversation between several characters play out in the hub area, filled with quips, naivete and other conversational techniques that show off personality. These personality-fuelled sections are designed to create an attachment between the player and certain characters, a strategy that's become more common in gacha than overt sexualisation, which presumably isn't as effective for most players.

All in all, I quite enjoyed my time with Arknights: Endfield. The combat is smooth, the factory integration is a neat innovation in the genre, and the production value is unquestionably high. I don't think I'll ever be someone who agonises over a 6-star character pull, but I'm sure gacha players will be satisfied with what Endfield has to offer.

Arknights: Endfield doesn't currently have a release date, but Hypergryph was holding closed beta tests earlier this year.

Arknights: Endfield