Arknights: Endfield Characters

01 / FIELD GUIDE

Full Character Roster

As of the 1.4 "Homecoming" update, Arknights: Endfield's confirmed roster includes Alesh, Akekuri, Antal, Arcane, Arclight, Ardelia, Avywenna, Catcher, Chen Qianyu, Da Pan, Ember, Endministrator, Estella, Fjall, Fluorite, Gilberta, Last Rite, Laevatain, Liino, Lifeng, Perlica, Pogranichnik, Snowshine, Wulfgard, Xaihi and Yvonne — 26 named operators total. Arcane and Liino are the newest additions, joining with the Homecoming update. Four operators — Endministrator, Chen Qianyu, Ardelia and Snowshine — are free for every player from the start of the game, no gacha pull required. The roster has grown with every major content update since the January 22, 2026 launch.

That's a genuinely large roster for a game that's only six months old — Hypergryph has kept new-character releases tied to nearly every content patch rather than saving them all for major version bumps, which is worth knowing if you're trying to gauge how fast the roster (and your Oroberyl budget) will keep growing.

02 / FIELD GUIDE

Are Endfield Characters Different From the Original Arknights?

Mostly, yes. Endfield is a spin-off set in the same fictional universe as the original Arknights, and a handful of names carry over — Chen Qianyu, for instance, corresponds to a character from the original game. But the vast majority of Endfield's roster is new to this game specifically, designed around its real-time ARPG combat system rather than the original's tower-defense mechanics.

Even where a name overlaps, don't assume the kit does too. The two games play so differently — grid-based tower defense versus real-time action combat — that a character's original-game role rarely translates directly. Think of it less as "the same character, different game" and more as "a character who exists in both stories, redesigned for how this specific game plays."

This is worth being upfront about if you're coming to Endfield as a long-time original-Arknights player expecting a roster full of familiar faces. It's not that kind of crossover — the shared universe is closer to a shared setting and lore than a shared cast. Most of what you'll recognize is world-building and background references rather than character-for-character overlap, and that's a deliberate choice rather than an oversight; Hypergryph built Endfield as its own standalone story on Talos-II, not a retelling of the original game's events.

The Free Starting Roster

Four Arknights: Endfield operators are free for every player, granted automatically at the start of the game with no gacha pull required: Endministrator (the player's own character), Chen Qianyu, Ardelia and Snowshine. This starting roster is deliberately capable enough to clear all early-game story and exploration content on its own, which lets new players evaluate the combat and factory systems before deciding whether to engage with the gacha at all. It's a notably more generous starting point than many competing gacha titles, where the free roster is often limited to one or two low-rarity operators rather than a functional four-person team.

That's enough to clear the early game without pulling on a single banner — a deliberate design choice that lets you evaluate the combat system before deciding whether the gacha is worth engaging with at all.

03 / FIELD GUIDE

Character Classes Explained

Endfield organizes its roster into combat classes, similar in concept to a class system in most action RPGs, though built around this game's specific Arts-based elemental combat. Striker is the class most worth knowing up front — it covers burst-damage-focused operators like Laevatain and Yvonne, both built around converting team setup (status effects, critical hits) into large damage windows rather than dealing consistent damage on their own.

Beyond Striker, the roster splits across support, defensive and utility-leaning classes that enable your damage dealers rather than compete with them for the spotlight — which matters more in Endfield's combat than in a lot of gacha games, since our tier list found that a properly supported operator can deal nearly double the damage of the same operator played without one.

Why Class Balance Matters More Than Collecting Favorites

It's tempting to build a team purely around whichever operators you like the design of, and Endfield's combat will let you get away with that through most early content. It stops working as well once you hit harder encounters, where a team missing a support or utility piece noticeably underperforms compared to one that's balanced across classes. If you're planning pulls with any intention of clearing endgame content, it's worth keeping at least one non-Striker pick in mind rather than chasing damage dealers exclusively.

04 / FIELD GUIDE

Fan-Favorite Nicknames You'll See Online

Spend any time in Endfield community spaces and you'll notice players refer to operators by visual shorthand as often as their actual names — "the lizard girl," "the dragon girl," or similar descriptive nicknames tied to a character's design rather than their in-game name. It's a normal gacha-community habit (the original Arknights community does the same thing), not an official naming convention, so don't be thrown off if a build guide or Reddit thread references a character you don't immediately recognize by nickname alone. If you're not sure who a nickname refers to, the roster list above with each operator's actual name is the reliable reference.

05 / FIELD GUIDE

New Characters in Homecoming: Arcane & Liino

The Homecoming update added two operators to the roster: Arcane, who launched directly into SS-tier thanks to a dual-form kit that flexes between strong damage output and flexible support, and Liino, a solid roster addition without quite the same immediate meta impact. Both are covered in more depth in our full tier list, including where they rank against the rest of the established roster.

New operators arriving alongside major content patches rather than being held back for a big anniversary drop has been the pattern since launch — worth knowing if you're trying to time when to save Oroberyl versus when to spend it. Content patches have consistently been where new characters show up, which means the run-up to a major version update is usually the right window to start banking currency rather than pulling reactively once a new operator is already live.

06 / FIELD GUIDE

Where to See Full Builds

We're not going to pretend every one of the 26 operators above gets equal community attention — realistically, most build guides (ours included) focus on the handful of characters currently defining the meta, since that's what most players pulling on banners actually want to know about. Right now, that's Laevatain and Yvonne in the most depth, with our character build guide covering their kits, best gear and team comps in full. Expect that page to expand as Arcane, Liino and future releases earn the same treatment.

That's a deliberate choice rather than a gap we haven't gotten around to — publishing confident-sounding gear and team recommendations for operators before enough players have actually tested them thoroughly does readers a disservice, even if it would technically fill out a longer roster page. We'd rather cover fewer characters accurately than every character speculatively, and we'll keep expanding this coverage as more of the roster earns genuine community consensus on builds rather than early guesswork.

For the broader "should I even install this" context — including whether the roster and gacha system are worth engaging with — our full review covers that honestly. And if you landed here without the full picture on the game itself, start with our Arknights: Endfield overview.