Genre: Action, role‑playing game. Publisher: Gryphline. Developer: Hypergryph. Minimum requirements: Intel Core i5‑9400F 2.9 GHz or equivalent AMD, 16 GB RAM, DirectX 12 capable GPU with 6 GB VRAM such as NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 or AMD equivalent, 60 GB free disk space, account with the platform store. Recommended requirements: Intel Core i7‑10700K 3.8 GHz or AMD equivalent, 16 GB RAM, DirectX 12 GPU with 6 GB VRAM such as NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 or AMD equivalent. Release date: January 22, 2026. Age rating: 12+. Localization: text. Platforms: PC, PlayStation 5, iOS, Android.
Tested on PlayStation 5.
Six years after the international launch of Arknights, a mobile tower‑defense title that built a loyal audience, the series expands into a new territory. The original game introduced players to Terra, a world altered by calamities and the discovery of a mutated mineral called Originium. That mineral both empowered people and caused deadly illnesses. In Arknights: Endfield the story shifts to the moonlike satellite Talos II, where Originium was brought from Terra to help found a new civilization. It turns out the mineral is not only a source of magic but a tremendous source of industrial energy, enabling the construction of massive complexes and the extraction of resources needed for survival.
The basic backstory is straightforward and easier to follow than much of the game’s in‑mission storytelling. Colonists from Terra arrived at Talos II through the Space Gates and established the Endfield enterprise, led by the Administrator. War soon erupted with creatures called aggels, crystalline entities that behave like animate geological formations. The northern front fell, colonists fled south, gates were captured or destroyed, and survivors who planned to return to Terra became stranded on Talos II. Beyond aggels, the settlers must also defend themselves from violent gangs of local bandits known as the Earthbreakers.
Sadly, the in‑game narrative is written as if aimed primarily at long‑time fans of the Arknights universe rather than newcomers. Worldbuilding is interesting, but many of the most compelling details are tucked away in the Archive rather than woven into mission scenes. Story missions themselves are overloaded with lengthy dialogue, and after a while you may find yourself skipping lines — particularly because the game often gives short recaps of what just happened in the cutscenes.
This is not a gacha you should pick up solely for its plot. In the opening region the conflict between good and bad can feel flat and repetitive, and the constant parade of unfamiliar terms, factions, and acronyms can be off‑putting. The narrative improves with time, but so does the onboarding: for the first 15 to 20 hours tutorial screens appear constantly, sometimes repeating the same mechanics multiple times. That said, the heavy hand of explanation is arguably necessary — there are many systems here, and several of them are unusual for a gacha title.
On first glance Endfield resembles other open‑world action RPGs: a large explorable environment dotted with resources, treasure chests, wandering enemies, and points of interest. You control a party of four, travel between markers, level characters, and complete objectives. Early on you also establish an Automated Production Complex, or APC. Around the APC you place power towers that link your base to surrounding zones, connecting them to an energy grid. The game borrows some ideas reminiscent of delivery and player‑built infrastructure games: you can see structures placed by other players in your world, and those structures degrade over time and need repairs.
As you progress it becomes clear that the development team drew inspiration not only from narrative auteurs but also from factory‑building simulations. The area around the APC is a vast space you will gradually fill with production modules: stamping presses, packaging lines, molding stations, planting beds, grinders, and more. You locate deposits across the world, place extraction rigs there, and the harvested raw materials are magically routed back to your APC warehouse. From those inputs your factory assembles finished goods — bottles, parts, capsules — which serve both as crafting components and items to sell.
Production is not entirely automatic, however. To make the system work you must plan logistics carefully. Conveyor belts create transport routes between buildings, and each structure has defined input and output ports. You must connect machines so processes keep flowing and ultimately deliver products to the warehouse. Because ports are limited, you will rely on connectors such as warehouse links, splitters, and other auxiliary devices to manage throughput and ensure the right items arrive at the right place.
This creates a fully fledged game within the game. You can design factories from scratch, rely on developer blueprints unlocked after completing the lengthy tutorials, or seek community layouts and optimize them yourself. All approaches require a substantial time investment, and the satisfaction of watching a well‑tuned production line hum along is a major part of Endfield’s appeal. For players who enjoy logistics puzzles and base optimization this element is the highlight of the experience; for more casual gacha players it may feel overwhelming, as many competing titles focus primarily on exploring or combat rather than industrial design.
You cannot ignore manufacturing: better armor and other powerful equipment come from your factory, and it is also a primary income source. Selling quality goods to outposts funds expansions for the APC, pays for consumables in a special shop, and covers other progression costs. Even simple items such as medkits and temporary stat‑boosting meals are produced manually in your facilities, reinforcing the interdependence of exploration, combat, and production.
Endfield offers more than factory work. In addition to story missions there are many side tasks and training challenges that award experience, currencies, and materials. Midway through the campaign you gain access to a spacecraft with production and incubation bays where characters can be assigned to create resources. From the ship you enter the Gravipspace, a roguelike‑adjacent mode where insanity levels rise over time and you must scavenge supplies and defeat tough foes before an evacuation triggers. The more often you venture there and the more objectives you complete, the longer you can explore each run before extraction.
Combat takes place both in the open world and inside special modes. The fighting system sticks to familiar action RPG conventions: dodges, interrupting attacks, staggering enemies when stamina is depleted, special skills, and ultimate abilities. There is not a deep innovation in the core combat loop, but each character carries elemental or mechanical quirks that affect how you build squads. For example, characters whose attacks cause enemies to be launched into the air have skill interactions that make opponents vulnerable and then suspend them, enabling follow‑up combos. Ultimately most fights are about timing attacks, dodging telegraphed enemy moves, and assembling complementary teams to exploit skill synergies.
The game's gacha mechanics are currently a cause for concern. The pity system is harsh compared with many contemporaries. There is no familiar 50/50 guarantee for top‑tier units: misses can accumulate, and the only clear guarantee mentioned is that opening the 240th loot box will award the featured operator — an astronomically high threshold. A secondary mechanic further complicates matters: the chance of a top‑tier drop remains negligible until around the 80th loot box, then it rises up to a guaranteed drop by the 120th box in many cases, though players often receive a desired unit closer to the 100th attempt. The worst part is that banner expiration can void all your progress toward that pity, meaning that if a specific banner ends before you reach the high pity, those attempts do not carry over to the next banner. That design forces players either to spend a lot or accept that their invested currency yielded nothing.
From a pure free‑to‑play perspective Endfield delivers substantial value. If you do not intend to pour money into the gacha, the game provides hours and weeks, possibly months of content if updates continue to arrive. The factory mechanics are not gated behind paywalls, the story campaign is long, the combat is competent, and the amount of content is generous. The localization into Russian is well done and helps navigate the vast text volume, making the experience less opaque for non‑English speakers.
Pros include a large open world split into zones that encourage exploration; a factory and production system that feels like an entire game inside the main game; a long list of activities from story missions to roguelike runs, all available for free; a pleasant though not outstanding combat system; and high‑quality visuals with detailed textures and attractive special effects.
Cons are a slow, tutorial‑heavy introduction that can frustrate new players, and a gacha system that treats unlucky players harshly and may prompt undesirable spending behavior.
Technical notes: the developers use a modified Unity engine that produces surprisingly impressive visuals — landscapes look great and character detail is consistently high. On PlayStation 5 occasional stutters appear but tend to be short‑lived. Audio work is solid: voice acting is well produced in both English and Chinese, although the music itself is not particularly memorable.
Endfield is primarily built for single‑player: the story, side quests, and factory building are all geared toward solo play. There is a friends system that allows light interactions, such as helping acquaintances work on the ship to earn currency, but a full cooperative mode is not supported.
Estimated completion time for the main story is about 50 hours, with substantial extra content beyond that. Boss encounters serve as good benchmarks for whether you have properly upgraded your roster and equipment.
Overall impression: one of the most visually impressive gacha titles to date, and an unexpected but effective blend of Arknights lore with factory‑building mechanics reminiscent of popular construction sims. The slow start and the punitive gacha economy may deter some players, but the game offers deep, rewarding systems for those who enjoy logistics and long‑term progression.
Final score: 8.0 out of 10.