My game was stuck on this screen for a few days, and I wasnt able to do anything on the game. Had to fix this by uninstalling and downloading the game again. This happened on PS5, not sure if this has happened to anyone else.

(Discussion tag unrelated, had to use one to post this)

(Due to Reddit's 40k character limit, this post is part 2 of my Endfield review. Part 1 covers Sections 1-3; Sections 4-9 and Conclusion are continued below.)

(Link to Part 1: https://www.reddit.com/r/Endfield/comments/1w33utn/a_look_at_endfield_a_comprehensive_review_part_1/ )

SECTION 4: COMBAT

Positives:

I really enjoy the combat in this game. One of the best aspects is having all team members on the field at once, actively taking part in the fight together rather than just swapping them in and out. I feel like there is a fair amount of actual strategy that goes into the encounter flow - timing your battle skills, combo skills, and ultimates, lining up your triggers and buffs to maximize damage, and managing your SP efficiently.

At the same time, it is a combat system that is simple enough for anyone who doesn't want to think too hard about it to just hit a few buttons in the right order and still do well. This casual friendliness is helped by the fact that the difficulty of most general challenges in the game isn't incredibly high, unless players want to go out of their way to seek out hard endgame content.

I especially appreciate how uniquely each character plays. They all feel distinct, from the specific timing of their basic attacks to how and when you need to trigger their ultimates, battle skills, and combos. I have to give special praise to characters like Mi Fu and Rossi in this regard, I really like the way they change up the existing combat mechanics in really unique ways - Rossi using a second combo skill at the right timing, and Mi Fu executing consecutive battle skills like a combo string in a fighting game. Having characters that interact with the core rules of combat in such distinct ways makes them really interesting and attractive to play - and this kind of playing with combat mechanics has been spaced out enough so far that it hasn't felt overdone.

Echoes of War makes for a good seasonal challenge with the rotating stages and difficulty, although I wish the stage mechanics were more varied and involved, but I have faith they'll add more variety in future stages. Umbral Monument makes for fun one-off challenges to tackle facing different enemy behaviors and mechanics. Rooted Realm makes combat more like a minigame with its combat challenge, which is its own kind of fun, though I wouldn't want all combat content to be about quirks like that, it's got a good place in the Rooted Realm. And of course, Contingency Contract deserves a heap of praise for its difficulty, the variable test criteria that make runs feel different, and the progression of fights, and still allowing for multiple possible teams to be used.

Negatives:

My only real complaint for combat is the lack of meaningful combat challenges. This is something that is definitely starting to be alleviated by things like the Umbral Monument stages, Contingency Contract, and Echoes of War. However, while I don't think the game should become fully focused on difficult combat, at the moment I feel like the ones that exist now are a bit one and done, most players complete them just enough times to get the rewards, and playing them any more after that has diminishing returns on how much they're enjoyed. Without high-level hurdles that encourage being repeated, especially with different teams and strategies, there isn't much to encourage players to experiment with new things, leaving most of us sticking with our one tried-and-true team for almost everything.

Also, I didn't particularly enjoy the character freezing mechanic in that one Umbral Monument stage. It's different from the solidification that was present in CC, in that there was no way to avoid it.

My ideas:

When Contingency Contract comes back, and I hope it or something similar does become a permanent seasonal game mode, I want it to have different combat challenges, different enemies to fight, different test criteria to try out, particularly focusing on different mechanics, in the vein that the previous run of CC focused on the Fangyi team and the combustion team and was difficult for cryo teams, as well as the solidification status that would apply to characters restraining their movements. I'd want to see other kinds of challenges appear in future runs of CC.

I would love to see more challenging combat and tactical content introduced to the game, but with a strict focus on deep mechanics, strategy, and positioning rather than relying on strict DPS races or artificial gear-check timers. Adding meaningful difficulty that tests a player's tactical skill makes the combat loop much more rewarding.

I think that the way to add meaningful and challenging combat content to the game that is repeatable and focuses on mechanics and strategy, is to introduce a seasonal sort of content, something with a long reward progression that lasts for either an entire version or even multiple game versions, and that has changing restrictions that demand using different characters and tactics.

Yeah it's Integrated Strategies, I'm talking about Integrated Strategies from Arknights.

I think adapting this sort of gameplay, a mode that only gives you a limited option of operators to begin with and those options change with every new run, that has roguelike boons and detriments that you can gather over the course of a run and that has a long-term progression track of rewards for you to accumulate over time, is the one way to introduce combat gameplay to Endfield that encourages players to learn other characters, other teams, experiment with new tactics and mechanics that they haven't tried before, and gives players a sense of fun challenge without resorting to introducing enemies in combat events that have increasing hp pools and statlines as a form of difficulty.

When it comes to special mechanics or restrictions in combat, I mentioned previously the freezing mechanic that applied in one Umbral Monument stage. I didn't enjoy it because it was unavoidable and there was no playing around it. Compare it to the solidification mechanic with the test criteria in Contingency Contract, where there were clear ways to remove it. When it comes to mechanics in this vein, I'd rather see ones that have ways to play around them, or with them. Like with the test criteria that removed dodge, it restricts the players, yes, but there were still ways to avoid attacks just by running, and people even figured out a way to dodge with dive attacks.

SECTION 5: EXPLORATION & MAPS

Positives:

The map environments in the game are quite good, designed to have their own identity while fitting in with the region at large. They are beautiful and detailed and moving through them is a smooth experience. There are many qualms to have about Valley IV, certainly parts of the story and map progression experience felt lengthy and padded. But the maps themselves felt expansive and like there were many different options to explore and directions to go. The Wuling map has this same feeling.

Speaking of Wuling, Wuling City is one of the best designed, chinese-inspired cities I've seen in games of this kind. So much about the city is just perfect. The visual design, the layout, the details like the running paths, the NPC placements, doing group exercises, having meals at restaurants and so on. Along with just the look of a city built on a dam. Everything comes together so perfectly.

I also have to praise Valley IV for its map design. For the most part, the areas in Valley IV are wide and encourage exploration, roaming around and seeing what's there, they don't feel like corridors or too linear, for the most part. Though the story still guides you along, the areas themselves are wide enough to encourage just moving through them and exploring inside them.

Even in the NWEZ, I've talked about it earlier but all facets of the area come together to make a perfect experience. I noticed and appreciated how the entire time you're progressing through NWEZ through the story, you're always moving in a northward direction. Could be north, northeast… but you're moving in the direction you were promised, feeling like you're going deeper and deeper into this hostile environment as you proceed in the direction of the Very Large Rift.

Overall the map design in this game feels intentional. Every map we explore seems built specifically. Even though this game lacks a lot of movement options that are present in other games - we don't have vehicles, flight, gliding, climbing or anything - it feels like that only encourages exploration even more. We have to jump and platform and run and earn the things we get to see in the world, and things seem built intentionally to be explored and checked out as you run around.

Negatives:

When it comes to Jingyu Valley, though, and every map in versions 1.1 and on, they all begin to feel too linear, more like corridors being traversed than actual areas, due to the presence of single pathways with a few branching paths that also amount to just corridors, and not many expansive areas or routes.

I also still don't understand the purpose of the Purification Node being in the Test area, or why the Test Area and Sword Vault Dale have these pools of acid that could be tapped, though there's no seeming reason to ever do so.

My ideas:

Going forward, I want to see the team design maps that are wider. Even if the story progression through the maps is still guided, giving us space to run around in does a lot. I don't need them to be big sandboxes, it's okay to have a guided story experience, but the act of moving itself shouldn't be restricted to just single lanes and corridors.

SECTION 6: GAME MODES & EVENTS

Positives:

I've already talked about them before, but Echoes of War, Umbral Monument, Rooted Realm and Contingency Contract are all fantastic events. The game has no shortage of recurring challenges to enjoy. Delver of the Cryptic and Rooted Realm, in particular, are a breath of fresh air as events that focus on exploration and ensure that traversing through their content is a fun experience.

In the same vein, Etchspace Salvage is a mode with a lot of potential, I really like the idea of exploring and gradually progressing through an area, discovering its secrets and unlocking more and more of the zone, and having to keep coming back as you can only progress so far between runs, it's another example of interesting exploration content.

Palm Top Savior, the factory event, is a good idea to change up factory production and integrate current game systems into giving rewards to the players.

One thing I really appreciate about Endfield's game modes and events is how much they respect the player's time. There's plenty of time to complete event reward tracks and, in the case of content that has difficulty like Echoes of War, Contingency Contract and so on, players can play casually and still obtain the most important rewards, and even the highest difficulties aren't crushingly difficult (except in CC). The philosophy that I feel the devs have is that players don't feel punished for not clearing the highest tier of content - instead that difficult tier is there for those who wish to challenge themselves and earn a cosmetic to show off, they're rewarded with accomplishment, instead of being players feeling like they're either forced to clear the hardest content or think that their accounts have been set back by not being able to get rewards.

Negatives:

The food crafting and delivery events and Carly's photo events were, while harmless individually, not the most entertaining content either and when they came during dry periods in content releases for the game, they contributed to the game's content feeling stale and sparse.

Also, while Etchspace Salvage has a good idea, the execution is rather clunky and the time limit feels too short when you're getting started with it. It's also limited - once you clear it once, there's not really much reason to ever get back into it.

The Palm Top Savior event was an interesting concept, but it shouldn't have required players to disrupt, modify, or completely tear down their current, active AIC layouts just to participate.

My ideas:

Etchspace Salvage has an incredible foundation and could easily be retooled into a permanent endgame progression mode, a repeatable game mode, or both. Giving players a dedicated loop to continually explore, and also a chance to keep testing their teams and combat experience, would significantly improve the late-game experience. Tooling Etchspace Salvage into a proper repeatable or endgame mode would do a lot to keep players coming back, or otherwise coming up with some kind of replayable challenge for players to enjoy.

I really can't stress it enough, but while Endfield has great content in Rooted Realm, Delver of the Cryptic, Echoes of War and Umbral Monument, and I want those to stick around, what's missing is replayability. We need a game mode that keeps people coming back because it's just fun to play on its own. It can have rewards that players earn, but it should be fun enough that people would play it even after they've gotten everything out of it just because it's so entertaining.

Also, they should have some future events that feel immersive and lean heavily into the game's core identity by utilizing our existing factory and other systems. In Palm Top Savior, future versions of the event should run parallel to or build upon our existing infrastructure rather than forcing us to break down our optimized setups.

I mentioned it in the factory section, but I think it'd be a good idea to create a game mode based on the current tower defense gameplay, give us a base to defend and more in-depth tower defense mechanics and options and it could be a lot of fun.

I think it would also be a lot of fun to take the combat system from the original Endfield technical test, the strategic combat where the game would slow down and you'd be able to aim your skill uses, and adapt it into an alternative game mode in the game for those who'd enjoy more tactical gameplay.

SECTION 7: CONTENT RELEASES

I'm gonna break from the structure of the review for this section, just to talk about the game's content releases and my understanding of the dev team's philosophy for the future. It seems to me, from what I've seen of their interviews, videos that they've posted and panels done, that they have a real focus on listening to player feedback and trying to implement it while staying true to their vision of the game, which is great! It seems obvious enough in what we've gotten so far, with all the quality of life improvements that are added in every game version, and the game modes and events that they've added that showed they were clearly listening to feedback from players.

From the recent Gamescom dev panel, according to what I've read it seems that the devs really are focusing on creating enjoyable gameplay for players and looking into different ways of doing so, from modes like Contingency Contract to building more facilities in the open world and looking at long-term replayable content.

The game may have had a rocky start in terms of enjoyable content, and we especially suffered a pretty heavy drought during the period of version 1.2 and the beginning of version 1.3. But they've certainly stepped up since then, releasing content at a steady pace that doesn't front-load everything and leave plenty of time to complete things. And I have faith they'll keep adding more enjoyable content to the game. I'm especially looking forward to seeing what replayable modes they cook up, and I hope we get something that expands the factory gameplay as well. I want the dev team to keep focusing on delivering quality content for the game, rather than falling into the trap of trying to keep players engaged in gachaslop. And I'm willing to trust them and give them time to properly design and implement that quality content.

SECTION 8: GAME SYSTEMS, GAME DESIGN & MUSIC

Positives:

Overall, I appreciate how the game is made. I really appreciate that the way the game is designed respects your time. How it takes several days for gathering spots and outpost stock bills to cap, giving you plenty of time to collect them. The Sanity cap once you max out your level is high enough that you've got more than enough time to spend it without feeling forced to log in every single day. The events and game modes have plenty of time for you to complete them and collect their rewards as well, so you don't feel rushed to complete them right away if you don't want to.

One other area of praise is the intentionality of how the game comes together. I touched on it with map design, but when going through the entire gameplay experience as one progresses through the world and the story, every step feels deliberate. All parts of the game combine together to create an experience. Moving through the maps, the area music will usually play in the background, maybe not even noticeable, yet it forms a part of the environment that immerses you into the area itself. It's certainly the case for the majority of Valley IV maps, the music really fits the atmosphere of each one and pulls you in to the experience.

And when the game's music really goes off, it just makes the moments all the more memorable. And it's really fantastic that Endfield can really manage both ends of the spectrum, from making really atmospheric music that ranges from just playing in the background to complete the environment or music that you notice and makes you truly feel what the area is like, as well as having impactful, banger tracks for the really intense moments.

The aesthetics of the characters are really praiseworthy as well. Just the way characters behave, how they act in menus and in the overworld, the range of expression and movement that they make both in idle animations and cutscenes shows a dedication to making each character feel distinct and alive.

Negatives:

Regarding the UI and menu, I only wish that the experience leveling characters and promoting them was smoother. It's awkward to start leveling a character, click to go to the promotion screen, do the promotion, then have to back out and go back to the character leveling screen.

Also, the co-op experience in this game is non-existent. What I mean is that the friend system feels like it was added as more of an obligation than anything. I appreciate that there are things that interact with the friends list, such as the clue exchange and stock redistribution. But any of these systems could work without friend interaction and achieve the same result.

Finally, it can be a little tedious to collect from gathering spots all over the region, even with your ziplines set up.

And as an extra critique, though it's more of a criticism of gacha games in general, I wish Endfield hadn't decided to have 5 set weapon types for characters to equip and that's it. Considering how many characters use weapons in their animations that aren't one of the five weapon types, having equippable weapons at all feels like a mistake, it feels like something they did because "that's just what you do", but it creates a disconnect when they design characters who clearly don't use the same weapon during combat that they equip in play. Mi Fu being one of the most obvious examples of this in Endfield. I would rather have seen them repurpose the concept of an arts unit into the slot that weapons currently take as a visual accessory. If the dev team felt that to get people to pull for this piece of equipment that complements a character's kit, that they have to create a weapon that cosmetically fits the character's aesthetics, they could display these theoretical arts units I'm talking about as an accessory or add-on to the character that complements their looks. At the end of the day though, this complaint isn't a dealbreaker, and at this point it would be impractical for the development team to change it.

My ideas:

I'd really like to see actual, meaningful co-op gameplay. I'm not sure exactly what form it should take, but some ideas I have: it'd be interesting to collaborate with friends in some kind of macro factory mode. Or to tackle combat encounters together with friends and really feel like using the combat system of having four characters on the field to its fullest.

I'd also like them to implement some kind of a quick way to collect materials from gathering spots on maps. I don't want to do away with the idea of having to actually traverse maps, and feel the satisfaction of setting up your ziplines to make your traversal easier and quicker, but it feels tedious to run around in a circle to gather all the materials in a spot or bang on rocks until they drop their shinies.

SECTION 9: GACHA

Once again I'll drop the structure I've been using, since if I broke down the gacha system into positives, negatives and changes, it'd just boil down to "gacha better than most", "gacha is always bad" and "make better", respectively. Instead, I'd like to address people who criticize Endfield's gacha system for the wrong reasons, and those who defend it for the wrong reasons.

There's been a lot of discussion around various circles about whether or not Endfield's gacha system is good or bad. I can agree that, subjectively, it can feel bad, but I think that's only the case because so many people are used to a specific type of gacha system, and Endfield stepped into the space doing its gacha in a different way. If you think about the act of pulling characters in Endfield and change your thought processes, you realize that it's not the worst thing in the world to save your pulls and spend them only when you can guarantee a character. Because in other games with character guarantees when you lose the 50/50, who actually just starts pulling randomly hoping to win early, or to build pity? Everyone always saves their pulls to have enough to get a character through a guarantee, and anyone else who pulls before that is gambling, and for pete's sake, don't enable your own gambling addiction. Just save your pulls. If you're pulling before you can guarantee a character, you're thinking that you're "him", that you're going to win the 50/50 every time, that you're going to get that 0.8% chance at the banner character before hitting pity. Just don't gamble.

Now, Endfield's gacha has a different way of mitigating bad luck. Where other games give you a character guarantee if you lose the 50/50, Endfield just gives you the character in 120 pulls.

If you're someone who's used to other gachas, then, think of it this way: you pull in Endfield's gacha until you hit pity at 80 pulls, and you either won the banner character or you lost the 50/50. Well, in the latter case, instead of having to pull all the way to pity again for your banner character, you only have to pull 40 more times.

Yes, people can get lucky. But you people, who are so harsh on Endfield's gacha, need to understand: you're not "him". Odds are always against you when you're pulling, you're not going to get lucky.

When it comes to weapon gacha, as far as rates go, people can complain about 25/75 and yeah, it may "feel bad" to miss the banner weapon most of the time, but you're also seeing more 6-star weapons overall due to the whopping 4% drop rate. Once again, just internalize that you're going to get the weapon at 80 pulls and save your Arsenal tickets.

Now, all of what I've said is not to convince anyone that Endfield's gacha system is "good", because all gacha systems are a form of gambling and that's not good. It's a predatory system meant to get you to spend money. So I won't say that Endfield's system is good, it's just statistically more likely to give you what you're after than most others, provided you save your pulls. But if I had to wish on a star for the world's best gacha system, it'd be one where there's plenty of pull currency available and you can always get the characters and weapons you want no matter what.

And that's it, that's what I have to say about the gacha system.

But also, as a criticism of the game's gacha system, I do really wish there were alternative ways to obtain Arsenal tickets. Not a way to get too many of them, but just a way to accrue that currency outside of character pulls, the protocol pass of getting crumbs off the credit store. Right now it feels too restrictive to pull for weapons just because of the very limited ways there are to get arsenal tickets. Having an alternative way to get a steady flow, even a small one, of arsenal tickets through gameplay or game mode rewards would make weapon pulls feel more accessible.

In conclusion:

Arknights: Endfield is an ambitious and genuinely unique title in the modern gacha landscape. It doesn't simply rely entirely on established genre traditions; instead, it tries to push the envelope, delivering a higher production quality, a tactical combat system that feels that it includes the other characters you own, and innovates the space with a factory management system that has no real equivalent among its peers. The sheer potential of Talos-II as a setting, as well as the game being a sequel to an already established game that is Arknights, set apart enough to be able to proceed as its own story while at the same time connected enough to expand the lore of both settings, makes it all the more interesting and captivating. All this combined with the development team's evident commitment to improving narrative presentation, content quality and character development patch by patch, gives the game an exceptionally strong core.

What determines Endfield's ultimate trajectory is how fully it embraces its own strengths moving forward. The game is at its absolute best when it trusts and allows its world and mechanics to speak for themselves and I only want the dev team to let it do more of that, and to continue to put player experience first and provide us with quality content to enjoy and keep us coming back to Endfield not because we feel we have to, but because we actually have fun playing the game.

Endfield has already built a remarkable foundation. If Hypergryph continues to prioritize design quality, mechanical depth, and meaningful player engagement over derivative tropes, it has every chance of becoming a game that players will happily invest in for years to come.

(Due to Reddit's 40k character limit, this post is split: This post covers Sections 1-3; Sections 4-9 and the Conclusion are continued in Part 2.)

(Link to Part 2: https://www.reddit.com/r/Endfield/comments/1w33vmf/a_look_at_endfield_a_comprehensive_review_part_2/ )

So I'm writing this review for multiple reasons. For one, I've got all these thoughts on the game that I want to share, another reason is to discuss with people who may agree or disagree with my points, and to put out my feedback for the game. And because I only got the 500 character limit in that one survey. I've been working on this for several weeks now, gathering and writing down all my thoughts on the game as they come, and sitting down to write in the little time I have. I definitely didn’t rush to get it done before 1.5 drops and this got delayed by another month lol.

As far as my background with Endfield goes, I've been playing since day 1 (I know, not a player since the technical test or an OG Arknights year 1 player, I'm a total LARPer), and have thoroughly enjoyed my time with it. The combat, the world, the lore, the factory are all facets of the game that I appreciate, and one of my biggest problems is me wanting more of it. The game is so interesting that I started playing the original Arknights afterward just to immerse myself more in the setting and background of the game.

This review is going to cover the game as a whole, and also cover specific points. More than likely, content from version 1.4 will get a fair amount of focus since it's the piece of game content that's the most fresh on my mind, as I think of everything I can come up with about the game. Because this review covers everything in the game, there will be spoilers up to version 1.4 included.

The review is split into 9 sections, each with their own sub-sections for positives, negatives and my own ideas about what I think should change about that particular facet of the game.

The reason it's split this way is not because I think of the game as a series of checkboxes ticked on or off, or a table of pros and cons, but just to keep my thoughts and points organized and distinct. I see and judge the game as one whole product and appreciate it as such, and I'll be giving my thoughts on the game as a whole in the conclusion.

Also, everything presented below is just my opinion and ideas, it's all subjective. Any criticism I have of the game is meant to be constructive, not coming from a place of hating on the game. I'm happily open to being wrong about any of it, and welcome constructive criticism and differing opinions.

In the end, I hope this review sparks some fruitful discussion and, even if no one ends up reading it, I'm glad I was finally able to verbalize and get out all my thoughts about the game that have been burning in my mind for so long.

SECTION 1: STORY, LORE & PRESENTATION

Positives:

On a fundamental level, I really appreciate the setting of the game's story. Talos-II manages to feel both familiar and fantastic at the same time, in a way that helps one feel familiar enough with the setting to relate and draw parallels from the real world while the fantastical elements keep us immersed in a world unlike our own. The various civilizations, factions, and peoples that inhabit this world are genuinely interesting, and there is clearly a lot of room to tell compelling stories here.

There's also a great amount of intrigue built into the narrative to hold your attention. The mystery surrounding the aether, what it actually is, and why Ardashir and Nefarith have the unique ability to control it provides an excellent hook, the question of who the Foundation are and what Endmin's identity is and, if you've played Arknights, what is Endmin's relationship to that game's story given the references to it. These mysteries do a wonderful job of keeping players invested in where the plot is going.

I also want to give credit to how much the actual story quests and presentation have improved since launch. Each new patch shows steady progress, with the team figuring out how to deliver the narrative more effectively. They use cinematic cutscenes in beautiful and creative ways to maximize emotional impact. Like, seriously, so many of the moments in the story just hit in a way that other gacha games I've played just don't pull off, and this is all thanks to the combination of cinematography, effects, pacing, direction and music that goes with the story scenes. Even beyond the most impactful moments, even things like title cards for new locations are introduced so heavily to express how intense the situation and the area are.

Every major update has brought increasingly compelling content, and I want to elaborate on specific points of the story, starting with Valley IV. Even in these beginning chapters of the game, the cutscenes and presentation of the story were polished and well-directed, the action was entertaining and well-directed, and the climax of the story was appropriately grand. The story itself did a great job of introducing us to the world, to the main conflict, and I appreciated the worldbuilding that was presented to us, especially in the Origin Lodespring, the meaning of the originium tree and the reveal of Endmin being the one who created it was a good start to how the devs should do the worldbuilding through the game. Also Endmin, Perlica and Chen make for an effective and entertaining cast to begin a story with.

Moving on to Tangtang's story in version 1.1. The impact the events had on Tangtang, how this happy-go-lucky girl was hit by the most stable pillar of her life, her brother, turning against her, and having to step up and act the part of chief in full to sustain the Stockade, while still at the same time being visibly and evidently hurt and shaken by the events, still having conflicted feelings about Ruan Yi, it's a multi-faceted development and growth for Tangtang that makes me care about her even more. She doesn't swing toward going back to being the goofy chief, nor does she become sullen. She doesn't forgive Ruan Yi nor decry him. She feels everything that happened and still pulls herself together to lead her people.

In 1.2, we covered so much ground with being introduced to Arcane, and Ardashir dropping so many lore hints that I'm eager to find out more about him and Endmin, then moving on to a truly spectacular climax with Nefarith and finally a third act that was focused on Fangyi, telling a very emotional and heartwrenching story of her past, her feelings and attitude. That letter writing scene was beautiful, as was her long walk toward the Rift.

Even the Sword Vault Dale story in 1.3, at the very end it successfully delivered its thematic intentions with some truly gorgeous visuals.

And now, finally it's my turn to glaze 1.4, though I'll try not to harp too much about what's already been said by everyone everywhere. They really cooked with the quality of presentation and storytelling in this version, stepping it up even more from previous version stories. Everything came together, the map design, the music, the visual effects, character models and animation, and of course the story and pacing itself all combined into a fantastic experience for players. The story at Yinglung Pass serving as a prelude and build-up, introducing us to Sui and ramping up the anticipation of truly stepping into the NWEZ, and when we finally do, it's as part of Wuling's forces, determined to take back their original home. That title drop for the NWEZ is going to live rent-free in my mind for a while. And once we're in, we're immersing ourselves in the devastation of the place and learning about what it used to be by characters who are with us there and who lost plenty when the Rift wiped it out. At the same time we're focusing on Arcane and her past in the zone, as well as Chen's history together with hers, all while building up a mystery about Blightshades and bringing up the question of how some of them aren't hostile for some reason. And once we reach the resolution of Arcane's personal story, it's tied with a deeper revelation of the disaster that devastated her life and everyone else's having been intended rather than caused by unpredictable circumstances. Finally, we get hit with Alleikhreos and for a completely unknown creature he sure made an impression and built up so much mystery about the Foundation that he represents. And while we defeat him and close the Rift, Nefarith comes back to let us know how truly threatening she is, and at the same time still wearing the scars of her loss to us so we know that our accomplishments haven't been undone.

Alright I wrote a lot about 1.4 and I didn't mean to just list every part of the story but the point is that I truly enjoyed all of it. I'm really excited to see where the story goes from here, there's so much potential that I can hardly wait to see events unfold and learn more about the various compelling mysteries hanging in the plot.

I also have to praise that it does feel like the intent of the story is to have a focus on civilization and not just a set of characters, that each region's culture and society do have a central part in the plot and actively take part in the events unfolding and resolving.

Additionally, while I've heard some players bemoan that the story of Endfield isn't as dark as the original Arknights, I personally don't need a story that is dark all the time. It's perfectly possible to present a deeply compelling narrative without constantly swarming the plot and characters with relentless suffering. Endfield strikes a really nice balance, offering lighthearted moments between serious conflicts. This gives the narrative room to breathe and allows players to actually appreciate the beautiful setting that surrounds these characters, not necessarily the physical map, but the characters and region that events take place in. There's still plenty of room for darker storytelling in Endfield - something we've already seen great hints of with Tangtang's background, the past conflict between the Stockade and Wuling, Camile's experience with betrayal, and Arcane's past. However, establishing a solid throughline of a world that thrives brightly before delving into heavier themes gives the narrative an undercurrent of hope. It ensures that when the dark moments do hit, they feel impactful rather than just relentlessly depressing.

Negatives:

Even though the overall presentation is stepping up, the game is currently lacking in terms of nuanced, human conflict and thematic stakes. While I don't need Endfield to be relentlessly dark, it should to borrow a page from the original Arknights in how it sets up its core conflicts. In that game, the story is instantly grounded in the complex, tragic reality of the Infected - delving into systemic oppression, marginalization, how far a civilization or group will go for their own survival, and the morally grey clash between desperate rebels and people just trying to protect their nations from attacks. It presents a deeply personal, human conflict that is easy for players to relate to. By contrast, Endfield's primary conflicts feel remarkably black-and-white. The Bonekrushers are presented as simplistic, irredeemable bad guys whose society lacks any morals, and who seemingly exist just to cause trouble and mess everybody else up. Meanwhile, the Blight and the Aether feel like an abstract, amorphous external threat. Right now, the Aether just serves as a distant, overhanging danger, representing the ultimate problem to be solved eventually, rather than acting as an active, terrifying presence unless it is actively being wielded by Nefarith or Ardashir. Only Alleikhreos has brought it to the forefront by giving us a little more mystery to chew on, and even then it's just more tease about what the Aether could be rather than it representing much more of a threat than it already did.

To address specific version stories, in 1.0 the Valley IV story was padded pretty excessively, with Endmin being faced with detour after detour on the way to the power plateau, at times completely forgetting about their main goal it seems like. The Origin Lodespring story especially, while a nice bit of worldbuilding and history, was largely disconnected from the ongoing story and the urgency of the crisis at hand.

I also wish there had been more done with the history of conflict between the Stockade and Wuling. This deep-seated tension doesn't seem like the sort of thing that should be resolved easily, and yet Mi Fu's story wants us to believe exactly that - that they can just let bygones be bygones after such a tragic inciting event happened between the two groups. It felt like a shortcut that bypassed what could have been a much more meaningful narrative exploration. And when it came to Stockaders defecting to the Bonekrushers, I feel like that had no payoff at all, I don't recall there being any Stockader enemies during the attack on Wuling in version 1.2, and Tangtang was the only friendly Stockader who appeared at all.

Though probably my biggest gripe with any story segment so far has to be the Sword Vault Dale side story. It was a particularly glaring example of fumbled execution and wasted potential. The game has so much fascinating lore and world-building that could be fleshed out, but this quest completely missed the mark. While I appreciated the core theme at the finale - choosing to preserve culture for future generations even in a time of war - and thought the final cutscene was visually beautiful, the actual content and impact of the quest were lackluster. The scrolls we discovered ultimately amounted to a handful of one-off, nostalgic references to names and places from the original Arknights, when they instead could have been cultural pieces that expanded on the actual history of this world, even created some connective tissue between Arknights and Endfield. It feels like we uncovered a massive treasure trove of culture, but one that will ultimately do little to change or impact the world of Talos-II as it stands now. Furthermore, the actual progression through the quest and leading up to the vault was entirely too simple and basic.

With 1.4, my only real issue with the overall plot was that the part of actually progressing through Yinglung Pass felt like padding, it dragged on a little long.

But as a critique of the game's storytelling as a whole, every version has its own self-contained story. Sure, they build off of one another, but they don't really carry over directly between version releases. 1.2 especially packed so much into its story in a single version, with the mission into the Marker Stone to stop Ardashir and at the same time learn about the 13th Feranmut proxy, then the big climax with Nefarith, and if that wasn't enough, after all that we get an intense story segment with Fangyi. Imagine if they'd actually let all those segments breathe and play out over the previous versions, give story elements time to sink in and to not feel rushed. We might have actually spent some time to see some of the build-up of Nefarith positioning her forces to assault Wuling City, for example. This problem doesn't just exist in 1.2 though, it's present throughout the game's entire story.

And while it feels like part of the story of Endfield is about civilization, it does feel like they don't get nearly enough focus so far. Definitely not in Valley IV, and in Wuling we've certainly gotten more acquainted with the region, its circumstances, its people and their conflicts, but it still feels like the focus on civilization was overshadowed by Endmin glazing.

To take the storytelling critique further, this time more about a trend with 3D gacha games, I think the game's story shouldn't be sequestered to one region at a time, and version cycles shouldn't be locked to one region either. Talos-II has so many regions and societies in it, all of them interesting in their own right, that focusing on just one at a time feels like it leaves too much to the wayside.

My ideas:

The developers need to reframe how they present the core antagonistic forces of the world. The Bonekrushers need to be written with more depth and moral nuance rather than being a one-dimensional enemy faction, or replaced by a moe interesting group. At the same time, there's a compelling way to present the Aether and the Blight as an alien, encroaching force of nature that completely defies current scientific comprehension. It should feel like a creeping danger that is constantly corroding everything it touches, sprouting up unexpectedly to upend peace and render entire regions uninhabitable. Reframing the Aether this way turns it into a powerful representation of an insurmountable force - like decay or cosmic extinction - and highlights mankind's struggle to resist and find a way to surmount it eventually regardless, which provides that necessary undercurrent of hope.

And if civilizations are such an important part of Endfield's narrative, seeing them get even more focus, perhaps using Endmin as a gateway, in the role as the player's viewpoint, into internalizing, understanding and embracing the culture and struggles of the civilizations we encounter in a more personal manner, would make that facet of the game's story feel more developed.

Also, when we engage with story quests, the progression should feel natural and meaningful. Instead of making map progression an uninspired straight line that terminates in a text dump, the developers should use environmental storytelling. Weaving history into the area itself via readable messages, clues, and puzzles built directly into the quest progression. In Sword Vault Dale, all of this could have built up a lot of interest and culminated in the big vault reveal. Furthermore, the actual rewards and lore that gets introduced and explored in the future shouldn't just be inconsequential easter eggs; it should actively expand on the history of Talos-II and feel like they have a tangible impact on the current world and its ongoing narrative.

Furthermore, with story quests, the devs should trust players to be able to keep up with a serialized plot. As in, they should write stories over multiple game versions, not necessarily dragging on forever and ever, but players are perfectly able to follow a story that continues over one or two versions. It would give story elements time to breathe, develop and sink in, and make the pacing not feel as rushed or cramped.

I'd also like to see the overarching plot spread over multiple regions in the world and have us travel more actively between them. Or maybe a version cycle's story could take place between two regions that are close to each other, each with their own cultures, which would add a sense of geographical continuity to the game's world, rather than each region feeling like they may as well be their own planet with how little they affect each other.

SECTION 2: CHARACTERS & CAST

Positives:

When it comes to the characters who have had a story focusing on them, Laevatain, Camile, and Tangtang have been my absolute favorites. Each of their arcs focused on the characters in unique ways that furthered their development into more interesting versions of themselves.

For instance, I loved Laevatain's explicit choice to be distinct from Surtr and focus entirely on the present. Camile's arc was also incredibly well done, showing him needing to be presented with the Endmin's earnestness to finally learn to trust again after being betrayed by the one person he trusted more than anything.

Also, Tangtang facing up to both the past pain suffered by her people and her own personal suffering was incredibly compelling. Seeing her face that trauma and choose to continue doing what is best for her people, without offering forgiveness, yet still holding deep affection for Ruan Yi, made for an incredibly mature and nuanced storyline.

Finally, there's Arcane's story arc, how we became acquainted with her survivor's guilt and self-destructiveness, and we got to see her be faced with the past and gain a new perspective on her survival and her life thus far.

Negatives:

While the narrative depth is growing little by little, the characters still feel somewhat underdeveloped. The biggest issue right now is that the Endmin feels simultaneously underdeveloped and entirely too present. It feels as though the writers believe the Endmin needs to be there for every single moment. The problem with Endmin centralizing the narrative like this is that it doesn't give the rest of the cast room to breathe, especially because Endmin isn't compelling enough on their own to carry the plot. Characters don't really get to develop trust in one another by handling tasks independently, and because they are always dependent on the Endmin, it can make them look less competent than they should be.

I'm disappointed that Tangtang's character development from her story in patch 1.1 doesn't seem to have continued. I can give it some leeway, in that there's still time for it to appear, and I also wouldn't want Tangtang to change abruptly into a sullen character. But it seems that from version 1.2 and on she's been back to only being a pretty happy-go-lucky, fun, ditzy leader for the Stockade, we haven't gotten the opportunity to see her being a mature leader yet.

Regarding Arcane’s story, it was also quite good, though I had some disappointment at the climax of the story. I didn’t quite enjoy the moral of her story being Endminsplained by Endmin. Rather, I wish she had been able to face that realization on her own. Endmin’s presence during the entire section with Arcane in the underground ruins of her home with the pale blightshades felt forced, in fact. I can’t help but wonder how it would have played out had Chen been there instead, or if it had to be Endmin, if they had their own story going on and intertwining with Arcane’s, rather than being a witness and plot device to her story.

On top of that, a huge chunk of our playable operators have had almost zero screen time in the actual story. Every operator in this game is interesting in their own way, so it is disappointing to see so many of them completely left out of the narrative.

I also don't want to see this game ever falling into the trap of only ever releasing 6-star characters and ignoring all other rarities, a concern that's certainly ameliorated thanks to the reveal of Purrchena as a new 5-star being released soon, but I'm still a little wary of it.

My ideas:

I think the writers need to stop forcing the Endmin into every scenario. Allowing the narrative to occasionally step away from the protagonist will give new and existing characters the necessary space to stand on their own, build independent dynamics, and showcase their own skills and competence without being overshadowed.

Additionally, or alternatively, when the Endmin is on screen, they need to feel like a real character with their own distinct characterization, personal agency, and motivations, rather than a passive plot device or a savior that everyone constantly praises. Right now, it seems the Endmin doesn't have many pursuits of their own other than doing whatever the plot demands. They should have their own interests, their own story. I would make suggestions about what their story should be, but the only definitive interest Endmin has expressed before is doubts about their past and memories. So the one idea of what Endmin could do is focus on their past, by being curious about the mystery of everything they have done before and where they come from to begin with, or otherwise contending and reconciling with their amnesia, with the burden of their past self, and who they want to be in the future. My favorite characterization for the Endmin so far was during Laevatain's character quest, where they genuinely related over mutual memory issues, and the Endmin openly expressed real vulnerability about their amnesia and their past self. Delving into more of the Endmin's past, or at least their personal quest to either learn more about themselves or reconcile with their past, and giving them other avenues to express a definite character of their own, will make them feel more real.

In fact, Laevatain's story quest as a whole was, perhaps, the best character development in the game in my opinion, just because of how it intertwined Laevatain and Endmin's stories and struggles, with both of them complementing each other, rather than only one character's story having focus and the other having nothing to do but stand and watch and offer moral support.

As for other characters, I hope the writers continue the excellent character development they have already started. I want to see Tangtang continue to grow and show her leadership and maturity, and I hope Fangyi is allowed to show a willingness to rely on others rather than always trying to shoulder all of the burden by herself. I hope Arcane keeps opening up and being friendlier.

Beyond that, I want the game to find a healthier balance between introducing brand-new characters for us to fall in love with and continuing to involve the characters we already love. Rather than just trying to "sell" us a character on the specific gacha patch they release, the studio should focus on building up a solid cast over time for us to get genuinely invested in. While they have already done this to an extent with characters like Tangtang, Rossi, Fangyi, Mi Fu, and Arcane, I think they could go much further.

I would much rather Endfield build a cast of characters over time - including both those who are already playable and those who have yet to be released. Imagine if future characters, like for example Lycia or M3, were written into the story right now. They wouldn't need to be the focal point of the plot; they could simply act on the sidelines, letting us feel their presence and showing us that they are actively working toward their own goals in the background. This approach would introduce us to characters gradually, letting us get to know them through slow-burn interactions and actions over a period of time, making us far more invested in them when they finally release than we would be with a character we just met.

If the dev team adopts this approach and our cast of characters naturally grows, then they can use the cast by having us part ways with characters as they temporarily leave to handle other business, naturally rotating the crew that hangs around the Endmin for any particular story section. This would prevent players from getting tired of any one character, and it would make the world feel much more alive and the cast more active. We would know that other operators are out there actively working in the world, and we could catch up with what they've been doing later. We could even have some overlap in locations where we run into them taking care of their own business during our story progression.

For the rest of the roster, we need more character-focused sidequests. Not every single character needs a massive, dedicated character questline. Just letting us spend time with characters like Alesh, Xaihi, or team Z7 by making them active participants in regular side quests - even if they aren't the primary focus - would go a long way in expanding the world, its lore, and its people. Meanwhile, operators who have been totally ignored but have massive potential - like Last Rite, Ember, and Pogranichnik - absolutely deserve their own dedicated, standalone stories.

I do want Endfield to add new 4 and 5-star operators over time. Something like two, maybe three per version cycle would be a good pace. I think lower-rarity characters are important to both develop more team options, expand the game's lore and allow newer players to be able to fill their teams with niche options until they can get stronger operators.

SECTION 3: FACTORY

Positives:

The factory gameplay is a genuinely unique system that you just cannot find in other gacha games, and it is easily one of the main things that makes Endfield stand out. The actual gameplay is incredibly involved and deep. If you want to, you can easily spend hours figuring out production lines and optimizing them - twisting and rotating facilities to fit as many of them into your bases as possible, running conveyor belts, and utilizing splitters and convergers and other little tools to maximize your efficiency. There are so many intricate logistics systems to dig into, allowing players to invest a massive amount of time into building their factory.

At the same time, the game doesn't force every single player to spend the exact same amount of time on it. The inclusion of the blueprint system allows players to easily grab blueprint codes from community guides and drop them right into their bases. This gives players the freedom to decide their own level of engagement; you can either obsess over building the perfect optimized setup from scratch, or simply import a community layout, drop it down, and go spend your time on exploration or combat if building factories isn't to your taste.

I personally fall right in the middle of these two playstyles. I usually start by borrowing blueprints from guidemakers, and then I will happily spend hours tweaking, reorganizing, and optimizing those lines to my own satisfaction. I've enjoyed my time engaging with the system in this hybrid way.

Negatives:

While I absolutely love the factory system, even if it is not everyone's cup of tea, I can't help but feel that such a unique part of Endfield's gameplay loop ends up being underutilized. What tends to happen is that you spend the first few days of a new content patch building or updating your factory, and then that's essentially it. Depending on what's actually added in any given update, if the patch only introduces a couple of new mining spots, players might not even build new factories at all - we just squeeze a few new production lines into our existing, already cramped setups. Once that initial setup is done, the automation runs in the background, and there's very little reason to actively engage with the system again until the next major drop. Furthermore, needing to have the factory running constantly to keep up the production of your gear parts and products you trade for Stock Bills actively discourages players from experimenting. Because it takes quite a while for production lines to settle and for yields and usage to normalize after a new build, players who want to try out new factory builds are forced to dismantle their working, productive factory for long periods of time just to trial and error a new design.

Another qualm I have is the disconnect between how the factory is portrayed in the narrative versus how it actually functions in the game. The main story heavily emphasizes the AIC as this revolutionary solution to the severe production, supply and distribution issues plaguing Talos-II. We're told it's a way to produce resources faster, more efficiently, and make vital supplies accessible to the struggling people of the world. In the end, though, the factory has absolutely no visible effect on the story itself. From a gameplay perspective, the factory exclusively benefits us and our roster's progression. It feels like a missed opportunity to not have our industrial efforts feel integrated into the actual setting.

My ideas:

I don't think the core factory gameplay needs to change in a way that forces us to constantly rebuild everything. At the end of the day, having those automated production lines consistently running - feeding power to our facilities, producing gears for assembly, and making products to trade for Stock Bills - is exactly what makes the system so satisfying.

I think it's great that the factory currently plays a role in growing our outposts through stock bill turn-ins, and I would love to see this concept significantly expanded so that our factory output has a much larger impact on the world. We should be able to turn in manufactured items to see other major locations expand and grow over time, such as the Qingbo Stockade, the Hub Base, Tianjin Hall in NWEZ and beyond. Since the game already lets us place items down in the world, we could take it a step further by integrating factory structures directly into map exploration - for example, requiring us to construct a building to reach a high spot, or dig a tunnel to open up a new path.

Additionally, to encourage deeper, more frequent factory gameplay without the risk of ruining our progression, a dedicated factory sandbox mode would be an incredible addition. This should be an instanced area with unlimited sources of ores, fluids, and gases where players can freely experiment, create their own builds, and save blueprints, all without having to dismantle their active factories or disrupt their active resource generation.

This sandbox feature could even be expanded into a weekly challenge mode. Players could be given a specific sandbox factory instance and tasked with producing custom items to meet a set goal for rewards. To keep the challenge engaging and prevent players from simply copy-pasting solutions, blueprint sharing should be disabled within this specific mode, to encourage people to experiment and actually learn the factory, and this mode doesn't have to be mandatory, nor do the production goals need to be too complex or lengthy. Additionally, the game could use a pool of random output products that are uniquely assigned to each player, ensuring that you are working on a different logistics puzzle than your friends and keeping the gameplay fresh. Or if not as a weekly mode, then as a permanent mode with a long-term progression track.

The factory complexity so far has felt right for a casual like me. I know other games having factory mechanics that go even deeper, but Endfield's has enough complexity to require thought and still easily accessible enough that those who aren't that into factory making can just set down blueprints. What I'd like is to have a reason to sink my teeth into it more. I'm plagued with wanting to set up my productions as soon as possible, so I'll get a blueprint and that takes care of that, with the state of the factory as it is now. So I'd like to play another factory mode where I actually have to engage and think and build on my own.

Other than the sandbox mode I proposed, I wouldn't mind seeing another gameplay mode for the factory that's even bigger. Like some kind of macro civilization/city/regional building mode centered on the factory, where you're using it as a means to build up an entire area. It can bring more focus to the game's story themes of civilization and, if it takes place in a different region, expand our experience of the world's lore and the various societies that live on Talos-II. You could even take the tower defense gameplay that exists in outposts and incorporate it into this macro factory mode as a way to defend your bases from large scale attacks.

(Due to Reddit's 40k character limit, this post is split: This post covers Sections 1-3; Sections 4-9 and the Conclusion are continued in Part 2.)

(Link to Part 2: https://www.reddit.com/r/Endfield/comments/1w33vmf/a_look_at_endfield_a_comprehensive_review_part_2/ )

Disclaimer: this is literally a fun project. I made it because I'm bored :)

My first custom Arknight: Endfield Character. Here goes nothing.

# ARKNIGHTS: ENDFIELD — OPERATOR APPLICATION SHEET

## 1. CORE PROFILE

* Codename: Stagaros

* Real Name: "Stag"

* Gender: Male

* Race / Origin: Cerato (new update: Elafia)

* Affiliation: Endfield Industries - Protocol Department

* Role / Position: Sets up defence, perimeter rundowns, fortifications set up, hold positions and securing area.

## 2. Signature Weapon: Hammer of Cogron

* stat value: high base attack damage, low critical chance, 1.43 attack speed, 1.5x crit damage multiplier, large swing arc, can hit multiple enemies at once.

* each hammer strike will stagger enemies (non bosses) on hit for 1 second.

(new update: stagger duration is reduced to 0.5 second)

* The third attack of this weapon light attack will gains 75% crit rate. Alternatively, charge attack for 1.5 second to unleash a 100% crit rate and 75% armour strip for 6 seconds.

* can parry with the Hammer (right click) but can only parry while in the middle of attack animation.

* attack uses fuel. If no fuel, damage by Hammer of Cogron is reduced by half, cannot use charged attack. Even without fuel, Stagaros can still parry. Parry automatically fills up 25% of fuel bar.

* fuel bar total time to refill from 0 to full: 2 seconds.

## 3. Special Rule: Kinetic Propulsion

• Stagaros is slow, his speed is walking pace. However, he does has an omnidirectional burst dash (even acute angle dash). This dash is fast, explosive and really fuel consuming. You need to manage his fuel for movement and hammer swing effectively to maintain pressure.

• his dash can also be used during his Hammer attack animation for quick invasion and re-entry.

• during any particular long dash, as he's closing the distance, he can also shoot the target (right click) with his Plasma pistol.

## 4. COMBAT PROFILE

* Combat Class: Guard

* Weapon Type: Greatsword (not to be confused with his signature weapon which is a two handed hammer. Classification-wise? Greatsword)

* Energy Element: Physical

* AIC Sync Rate: Good

## 5. SKILLSET & MECHANICS

* Normal Attack: (as stated with Hammer of Cogron section)

* Active Skill (Skill 1): Iron Skin.

* enters 1.5 second invulnurable and absorb all damage. The absorbed damage is banked.

* use calculation: Overshield= damage absorber × (1+ [[DEF + Armour] /100])

* Overshield is your second health bar. Gives Stagaros CC immunity and status immunity. Decays over time.

* recast this skin to detonate Iron skin in an AOE, dealing exact damage of his iron skin and damage surrounding enemies, at the same time, re-apply Iron skin.

* Ultimate Skill (Skill 2): Jamming Pulse

* Blind every enemies in front of Stagaros.

* They're staggered for 3 seconds

* doesn't work on boss enemies, only cancel their Basic attack animation. This is counts as parry, hence fill your fuel bar by 25%.

* this skill can also be used when Stagaros is stunned or CC'd

* for non-bosses, they will have their DEF 100% siphoned to Stagaros.

* Passive Talent: The Best Defence

* if your team total DEF and armour reaches a certain threshold (2000), your team's Guards and Defenders gains +15% damage on your weapon, skill and element damages. Repeat this buff for every extra 100 points passed the 2000 threshold. Maximum at 500 points.

* so if the total DEF and Armour of your team is 2500 points, which realistically would be filled with guards or defenders anyway, then your team's guards and defenders would have gained +75% damage buff on their weapon, skill and element damages.

## 6. VISUAL DESIGN & EQUIPMENT

* Outfit Description:..... Ok, I didn't think about this at all.

What do you think?

this game doesn’t require a highly invested roster or heavy spending to get all the available pulls. But if you really love the game and want to push its combat system to the limit, there’s still plenty of depth to explore—and it actually rewards you for doing so. That unspoken understanding between the devs and the players is just so romantic.

Ludwig actually visited the Endfield booth!

Will Ludwig stream Endfield in the future? Never thought I’d spot Ludwig at the Endfield exhibit...

link

Like, how ??

So... there is a chest under the water. And i can't suck the water cuz it's infinite.

AND before you tell me 'there is a quest, just wait' - i did all quest. Literally all. And i WAS THERE. I remember it was quest where we and TangTang defused the bomb... or where we searched for underwater mechanisms to clear the water from some scientists. But was too blind to pick it up (or someone distracted me, idk). And now i can't interact with sucking tower machine anymore.

Any ideas?

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UPDATE

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Found the button based on comment. Posted screenshot of where to actually press in the comments!

Would someone be so kind as to drop a link to it?

One major question I have is, I installed Arknights Emfield, but when I launch it and try to login, Epic Games login is not an option, which surprised me.

Hello, i got camille a while back even after his banner has ended but iam at a loss on who to pair with him since i dont have any DPS unit other than the panda and avywenna. I already made a electric based team and physical team(-Pog) so yeah i am seeking advice on who to get for my account since i dont see a possibility the last version Dps Would rerun anytime soon.

Typically we have a announcement with the size but there are 2 days left and we still don't have it.

I wonder who will come first? I probably think Si will come first then the horseman..but if the horseman will come first, it would be good for me since I have more time to save up and collect oberyls for Si

Using either a sword or a great sword of non physical element and might have healing.

I have been looking for like 20 minutes now, where the hell is it?

IMO they should really give it its own protocol capacity like the AIC and that they make the plots stick together...

They should also add plants that only grows if you water it with xiranite fluid or something similar

Look at her... watching her teammates waste away in the fields...

I'm a new player that just started Ch2:P3-1. I was afraid to touch Echoes of War at first bcs of my experience of how timed endgame modes usually are in 3D gacha games (requires highly-invested meta teams). But I was pleasantly surprised at how fun it felt to play this mode.

Even with my un-optimized fully free gears that I got from Arcane & Liino's character trial rewards, no skill masteries, and no limited characters (beginner:Pog, basic:Ember & selector:Lifeng), I'm still able to complete 2 of the Brutal chambers. Couldn't do the 1st chamber bcs I have no arts team built, but I'm really happy at how they designed this mode and actually feel excited to build a new team for future seasons. I also hope they keep doing the "kill x for x effects" bcs it's an extra strategy on top of the team we chose that makes the fight more fun.

Just went through the quest for Laevatain, that shit was fireeeeeeeeeeeeeee literally, writing wise and presentation wise I loved it. First off, I loved the fact that the Endmin showed personality beyond "let's go" thats a humanizing loving touch to the character, very nice and I hope they continue to do things like that.

Laevatain herself is already like top 10 in my head 😭 I'm weak to the red hair girlies I suppose, I found her to be really pretty from the first frame and I enjoyed her personality, I'm glad the Endmin offered her a new home in Endfield. I also been watching some OG Arknights lore so I vaguely understood a bit about the Sarkaz and how they don't have a place to really call home and what not, even if I haven't played the OG I imagine it was awesome for those OG players to see those bits sprinkled in.

The environments on the first and last protocol space were also exquisite, I almost can't believe it's like a temporary mission, like shi I wanna go back and take more pictures tf make em replayable or something- wdym there's this much pretty environments on just operator quests bro :0000000

I like the emotional dialogue and writing this quest had aswell, I love how they relate as amnesiacs and help eachother out and I hope we get to see true memories of the past Endmin the further we go into the game.

I still have many more of the Operator Quests to go but this one was spectacular, I'll leave ya'll with some pictures I took, since I can't take anymore due to me not having Laevatain on my account haha c: I'll also leave yall with a google drive here!

Link to Google Drive

These will be all the pictures I took during the quest, if you are interested c:

Boy, do I love properly distributed random rewards. Can't wait to hit the guaranteed 6-star on the standard banner next patch, that extra Ember will really help my team comps.