How Arknights: Endfield connects to the original Arknights

What Is Arknights: Endfield?

Arknights: Endfield, out since January 9, 2026, on PC, mobile, and PS5, is Hypergryph’s leap to 3D real-time action RPG with integrated base-building. You play the Endministrator of Endfield Industries on Talos-II, a brutal planet hit by periodic Catastrophes. These are no normal natural disasters, as they are Massive Storms, Powerful Earthquakes, and Corruption Outbreaks that taint the land. The gameplay mixes fluid action rpg combat (skill gauges, executions), exploration for resources, and automated factories to push back raiders and alien Aggeloi hordes.

Arknights: The Original Crisis

It’s directly related to the original Arknights, launched in 2019. Endfield is not an outright, sequel, however. It deals with different threats because of its new setting, but the reason for that new setting is because of the conflict in the original Arknights. The Arknights setting of Tera is an urban fantasy world facing an apocalypse. In this world crystals called Originium forms the backbone of civilization. In ancient times, few could safely use them to perform magic called Arts. With the industrial age however, the races of Tera learned how to refine and use these crystals for modern use in places like engines and factories. But this unleashed Oripathy worldwide, this strange disease that causes these very crystals to grow on the bodies of people. While Oripathy kills slowly and very painfully, having Originium in one’s body also boostes one’s ability to use Arts. In Arknights, players lead Rhodes Island Pharmaceuticals, a pharmaceutical group aiding “Infected” victims and recruiting these Infected operators to fight discrimination, faction wars, and militants amid resource-driven conflicts and natural disasters.

The Æthergate Exodus and Talos-II Arrival

Terra’s Oripathy pandemic and endless Catastrophes pushed civilization to the brink. Roughly 150 years before Endfield’s present, explorers in the remote Sami region uncovered the Æthergate: a strange and volatile Originium-powered portal buried in ice. Rhodes Island, seeing a way for people to survive, organized an exodus of pioneers carrying critical data: the First Originium Crystal, encoded with operator profiles, tech schematics, and cultural archives as a “backup”.

These refugees landed on Talos-II around “Year 0,” finding a harsher world: no established nations, just ancient ruins, roaming Aggeloi (hostile alien entities), and Catastrophes far deadlier than Terra’s. The Aethergate collapsed around 50 years later during the First Aggeloi War, stranding every current inhabitant. During this war, there was also the shattering of the First Originium Crystal, causing the data inside to becoming corrupted and lost in an abstract realm called the “Assimilated Universe”. Warfarin, Rhodes Island’s leader during this period, was able to find a way to decode these shards, which birthed Reconveners: Talos-II natives inheriting Terra operators’ skills and fragmented memories.

Rhodes Island and Endfield Industries

By Endfield’s era (Year 150+), Rhodes Island now functions as an established engineering and R&D company on Talos-II. They’ve helped curb Oripathy, reducing most of it’s terrible effects. They decode more and more crystals and develop survival gear against Catastrophes. Rhodes Island no longer serves as the “protagonist” faction.

Now the main faction leading the charge is Endfield Industries, who are the leaders in research, exploration, and industrial development. Terra’s full fate remains ambiguous as all contact has been lost. Tying back to Arknights, the Reconveners are Endfield’s playable characters. They’re not clones or time travelers; they’re individuals who have inherited Terra operators’ skills, partial memories, and personalities. These Reconveners are an interesting take on data immortality: are you the original or a remix? There are many teases on what the truth could be.

Endfield flips Arknights’ formula while carrying forward its core conflicts. Rhodes Island evolves from scrappy humanitarian underdogs into a pragmatic R&D powerhouse, while Endfield Industries takes center stage as Talos-II’s industrial vanguard. Oripathy, once a death sentence, becomes a manageable condition through Rhodes Island serums; but new existential threats emerge.

The Threats on Talos-II

Corruption, a supernatural blight unleashed during Catastrophes, warps landscapes into toxic zones and spawns twisted monsters. They functionin as Originium’s planetary-scale evolution. Aggeloi, intelligent crystalline alien lifeforms native to Talos-II, actively exploit Corruption zones and hunt human settlements with hive-like coordination. The Landbreakers are armed forces who have broken off from society and live as scavengers and criminals. Despite trying to escape the woes of Originum, the pioneers have only stumbled across threats that may prove to be their end.

An Enduring Universe

Arknights: Endfield carries forward many elements from Terra to Talos-II. The exodus through the Aethergate brought pioneers, the First Originium Crystal, and Rhodes Island. Reconveners stand as the living bridge. Corruption, Aggeloi, and Landbreakers present new existential threats, but they’re rooted in the same crystal curse that drove humanity from Terra 150 years ago.

These connections add depth to the story behind many characters and plotlines. Rhodes Island no longer leads from the frontlines, but their technology and operators remain essential. Endfield proves the operators of the Arknights universe endures, even in a world so far removed from their origin.