In Arknights: Endfield, banners are the main way to obtain new characters. With a consistently expanding roster of powerful four-, five-, and six-star operators available, each with their own unique strengths and playstyles, it's an important feature for any Endmin to keep on top of.
From the beginner's banner offering new players a welcome boost to the limited banner that changes every few weeks and often introduces new, limited operators, it can be hard to keep up. But, with this handy guide (and the help of our list of all the new Arknights: Endfield codes), you can keep on top of all the latest info, and work out whether to splash out and spend or keep on saving.
Here's everything you need to know about the Arknights: Endfield banners:
What's the current Arknights: Endfield banner?
The first Arknights Endfield banner features a rate-up on the six-star operator, Gilberta. Gilberta is a supporter who wields an arts unit to dish out nature damage, and creates large gravitational fields to pull in and debuff enemies.
Here's the first Arknights: Endfield banner:
The Floaty Messenger
February 7 - 24
- Gilberta (six-star, nature, supporter)
Additionally, as a part of the release celebration, there's a chance that operators from one of the upcoming banners may appear on an earlier banner. For example, if you lose your 50/50, there's a chance that you could pull Yvonne on Gilberta's banner.
If you're wondering which banners you should pull on, you can check out our Arknights: Endfield tier list to see how all the different Arknights: Endfield characters rank.
What's the next Arknights: Endfield banner?
During the official launch livestream, Hypergryph announced that the next Arknights: Endfield banner will feature the six-star operator Yvonne.
Here are the next Arknights: Endfield banners:
Hues of Passion
February 24 - end of version 1.0
- Yvonne (six-star, ice, caster)
As mentioned above, as the three launch banners are a part of the special release celebration, there's a chance that an operator from an upcoming banner may appear on an earlier banner - so you might just get lucky and grab a copy of Yvonne earlier, or a copy of Laevatain or Gilberta after their banners end.
What's the standard Arknights: Endfield banner?
The standard Arknights: Endfield banner, named Basic Headhunting, is a permanent banner that features a fixed pool of characters. On this banner, you're guaranteed to get at least one six-star operator every 80 pulls.
Additionally, once you've performed a total of 300 pulls on this banner, you can claim a bonus 'Select Designation' chance, which allows you to obtain one six-star operator of your choice.
Here are all of the six-star characters featured on the standard Arknights: Endfield banner:
- Ember (flame, defender)
- Lifeng (physical, guard)
- Ardelia (nature, supporter)
- Last Rite (cryo, striker)
- Pogranichnik (physical, vanguard)
What's the beginner Arknights: Endfield banner?
The beginner Arknights: Endfield banner, entitled New Horizons Headhunting, is a special banner intended to help new players get started. During the official release special program, Hypergryph confirmed that you can obtain all of the required headhunting permits (gacha pulls) for this banner entirely through gameplay progression.
Completing this banner guarantees you a six-star operator from the following pool:
- Ember (flame, defender)
- Lifeng (physical, guard)
- Ardelia (nature, supporter)
- Last Rite (cryo, striker)
- Pogranichnik (physical, vanguard)
Additionally, upon completing this banner, you also get a bonus New Horizons Weapon Supply item that you can use to acquire one six-star weapon of your choice.
How do the Arknights: Endfield weapon banners work?
Acquiring weapons in Arknights: Endfield is quite different to other gacha games. Instead of using your normal gacha currency, you need to obtain special items called Arsenal Tickets.
You can get Arsenal Tickets by pulling on the operator banners, from the in-game store, or by completing weekly routine tasks. You can also get them through the Protocol Pass (battlepass), or exchange origeometries for them.
You can then spend these Arsenal Tickets to pull on various Arsenal Issue banners, including ones that offer signature weapons for the featured characters.
When you use Arsenal Tickets on an Arsenal Issue banner, you get ten weapons at once. In each Arsenal Issue, you're guaranteed to get a six-star weapon within four issues, and a rate-up weapon within eight issues.
The tenth issue gives an extra arms offering crate item, which lets you choose a non-rate-up six-star weapon from the issue banner, and the 18th issue gives you an extra rate-up weapon. After that, you get either an arms offering crate or a rate-up weapon every eight issues (these alternate).
Alternatively, you can use Arsenal Tickets to directly purchase certain five- or six-star weapons, and some in-game features may also give you weapons.
During the official release special program, Hypergryph revealed that, after going over feedback from the second beta test, it has extended the Arsenal Issue banners for the featured characters' weapons to span the duration of three Chartered Headhunting banners, giving you more time to get the weapons that you want. For the official release, the featured Arsenal Issue banners will be available in the following order:
- Smelting Forge Issue
- Express Delivery Issue
- Graffiti Issue
We'll update this guide with more information on the Arsenal Issue banners and what weapons they offer following the official launch.
Arknights: Endfield gacha and pity rates explained
Like all the best gacha games, Arknights: Endfield's banners have a set gacha rate and pity system. From what we've seen from the game's betas and the official release special program, every banner guarantees at least one five-star or better character every ten pulls, and at least one six-star character every 80 pulls.
When you pull a five- or six- star character, their respective pity resets. For every pull that you don't get a five- or a six- star character, you'll get a four-star character - there are no weapons or other items on the character banners.
The Chartered Headhunting featured banner features a 120 pull pity cap, which ensures that you will get the featured character within 120 pulls rather than the max pity of 160 if you were to lose your 50/50. This pity cap doesn't carry over between featured banners.
Additionally, the featured six-star character will also stay in the All Possible Operators list for two Chartered Headhunting banners after their featured banner ends. This means that you still have the chance to get a previously featured six-star operator if you pull a six-star that isn't the featured one on one of the next two featured banners.
However, after these three banners are over, the six-star operator will not join the standard pool of characters on the Basic Headhunting permanent banner, meaning that you'll have to wait for future reruns if you don't get them.
The Chartered Headhunting banner also has an Urgent Recruitment system on release. This means that, after you perform a total of 30 headhunting pulls, you can claim a free ten-pull on the current banner. However, note that this does not count towards the guarantee - but, if you do get the character you want with this free ten-pull, the guarantee is not affected either.
Then, once you've performed a total of 60 headhunting attempts in Chartered Headhunting, you can claim a bonus headhunting dossier item, which automatically converts into a special ten-pull that you can use on the next Chartered Headhunting banner when it begins.
Of course, there's also the matter of 'soft pity'. If you're unfamiliar, soft pity is a system where your chance of obtaining a high-rarity item or character (in this case, a six-star operator) begins to increase after you reach a certain number of pulls without receiving one, then continues to increase until you reach a 100% chance at hard pity (in this case, 80 pulls).
We're currently unsure whether Arknights: Endfield has a soft pity system. But, considering it's become commonplace in all the big gachas, we think it's highly likely that it will follow the industry norm of setting it at around your 65th or 70th pull, with your chance of getting a six-star character then increasing each time until you hit your 80th pull.
What are the different Arknights: Endfield gacha currencies?
The main currency that you use to purchase pulls is oroberyl. One pull on the standard or featured banner costs 500 oroberyl, and a ten-pull costs 5k oroberyl.
You can earn oroberyl by completing different types of missions, exploring and gathering, progressing through the Protocol Pass (battlepass), and completing tasks in the Operation Manual.
You can also exchange origeometry for oroberyl, which you can get through the Protocol Pass and main missions, as well as by submitting aurylene at TP points, or purchasing the currency directly from the in-game shop.
Outside of that, you can also acquire permits. Permits are like Genshin's wishes, HSR's tickets, or Wuthering Waves' tides, and there are different types of permits for each banner.
For the standard banner, you can get basic HH permits. The main way to obtain these is through events, and each permit allows you to pull on the Basic Headhunting banner once.
For the featured banner, permits come in a few different forms. The main one is the chartered HH permit, which doesn't expire, and you can use it across different permanent banners. You can get these through events, or by purchasing them in the in-game shop's Bond Quota Exchange tab using the special bond quota currency that you get from pulling on the banners.
However, each featured banner also has its own version of a single pull permit and a ten-pull permit that you can only use on that specific banner. These permits expire after their associated banner ends. You can get both the single and ten-pull variants of these permits from bundles in the in-game shop.
You can also purchase the single versions of these limited permits from the AIC Quota Exchange tab in the shop. You can get quota exchange tokens to use in this shop if you receive a duplicate of a character that has already met max potential (i.e. after you've already pulled six copies of them).