To be honest with you, Arknights: Endfield is actually kind of cracked when it comes to free-to-play value. You don’t need to whale, you don’t need perfect six-star luck, and you definitely don’t need to reroll for hours just to have a functional team.
There are a lot of powerful characters that are either completely free or extremely easy to max out, and this article is all about those characters.
This isn’t a strict tier list, and it’s not meant to tell you who you must play. This is a list of characters that are strong, flexible, and worth investing in early without feeling like you’re wasting resources.
More detailed guides on team building and rotations will come later. This is your first-pass investment guide.
Table of contents
Endministrator (★★★★★★)
Normally, recommending a main DPS is risky because of power creep. Endministrator might be an exception.
What Endministrator Does
Endministrator is a physical damage dealer with strong self-buffs and vulnerability mechanics.
- Battle Skill applies Crush (Vulnerability)
- If Vulnerability already exists, it consumes it for big damage
- Combo skill triggers when any ally uses a combo
- Attaches Originium Crystals
- Immobilizes enemies
- Applying physical or vulnerability effects consumes crystals for bonus damage
Ultimate Damage
- Rank 1 ultimate
- With Originium Crystals active
- Over 600% damage multiplier
That’s early-game. It scales even harder later.
Passives & Potentials
- Self ATK buff up to 30%
- Enemies with crystals take extra physical damage
- All potentials are free
Key potentials:
- P1: Final Awakening: 50 SP refund when consuming crystals
- P2: Reflection of Authority: Team-wide ATK buff
Example Team
- Endministrator
- Chen Qianyu
- Akekuri
- Flexible Support (Ardelia / Pogranichnik)
Why They’re Worth It:
Endministrator is a legit physical carry — not just “good for free.”
Akekuri (★★★★)
She’s a four-star support who focuses on SP regeneration, which is one of the most important resources in Endfield.
Core Kit Breakdown
- Battle Skill applies Heat Infliction.
- Combo skill triggers on enemy stagger or stagger nodes
- Combo restores SP
- Ultimate restores a lot of SP
Her ultimate cost is high, but:
- Gear can reduce it
- Passives massively improve value
Flexibility
Here’s the important part:
If you don’t use her skill, Akekuri won’t apply any arts inflictions.
That means:
- She won’t mess up elemental priority
- She can slot into almost any team safely
Buffs & Passives
- Ultimate grants 10% ATK to the entire team (with Potential 3)
- Passive grants Link buff.
- Next skill or ultimate consumes Link for huge bonus damage
- Combo SP gain improves with passives
Gear Matters A Lot
- Frontiers Set
- Reduces combo cooldown
- Grants 16% team damage for 15 seconds after SP recovery
- Thermite Cutter
- Grants additional team ATK when SP or Link is granted
At full investment, Akekuri provides:
- Nearly 2.5 extra skill uses
- Link buff damage burst
- 10–15% team ATK
- 16% team damage bonus
And yes — she applies Heat, making her great with fire teams.
Why She’s Worth It:
Akekuri is one of the safest and most universally useful supports in the game.
Antal (★★★★)
Antal is a four-star character who has absolutely no business being this strong.
Because Endfield guarantees a character every pull, you’ll almost certainly max his potentials within your first 20–30 pulls, which makes him one of the easiest high-value units to fully build as a F2P player.
What Antal Actually Does
Antal revolves around a unique debuff called Focus which he applied via his Battle Skill “Specified Research Subject”, which can only exist on one enemy at a time. That sounds limiting, but it’s actually what makes him insane against bosses and elite enemies.
When an enemy has Focus:
- They gain Electric and Heat susceptibility (they take more damage from both)
- Applying any physical or arts infliction triggers Antal’s combo skill
- The combo deals a large burst of electric damage
- It also adds another stack of physical or arts infliction
That last part is huge — Antal doesn’t just react to debuffs, he adds more, letting your team snowball damage.
Yes, Focus being single-target can be awkward in large mob fights, but against high-HP enemies, elites, and bosses, Antal shines.
Ultimate & Utility
Antal’s ultimate:
- Grants Electric Amp + Heat Amp to allies
- Provides some healing
- Scales extremely well with potentials
At full investment:
- Up to 10% Electric + Heat susceptibility from skills
- An extra 4% susceptibility from copies
- 20% damage amp, plus 2% more from copies
- Skill Point refund (15 SP) when a Focused enemy dies
Gear Synergy
- Eternal Xiranite set boosts ally damage whenever Antal applies Amp or Susceptibility
- Stanza of Memorials (weapon) grants 8% ATK to allies of different elements — which Antal teams almost always are
Example Team
- Perlica
- Arclight
- Antal
- Avywenna
This team pumps out electric damage, triggers constant combo skills, and keeps enemies permanently debuffed.
Why He’s Worth It:
Antal is one of the best debuffers in the game, period — not just among four-stars.
Perlica (★★★★★)
Pearlica is one of the first characters you get for free, and she stays relevant way longer than you’d expect.
Why Perlica Is So Good
Perlica specializes in Electrification, which increases all arts damage (basically all elemental damage).
- Battle Skill applies Electric Infliction which gets enemies electrified.
- Combo skill triggers on any Final Strike, no matter who does it
- Combo Skill forcibly applies Electrification which increases all Arts Damage.
- Works incredibly well in multi-unit teams
Her combo skill triggers constantly because Final Strikes are everywhere.
- Combo chains again when hitting vulnerable enemies
- Deals bonus damage to staggered enemies
- Synergizes extremely well with Endministrator
- Ultimate has a very solid damage multiplier
Potentials
- Longer Electrification duration
- Self ATK buffs
- Big crit rate boost on her ultimate
Example Team
- Perlica
- Antal
- Laevatain (Premium)
- Flexible Slot
Electrification boosts Laevatain’s fire damage, Antal amplifies everything, and Perlica enables it all.
Why She’s Worth It:
Perlica is simple, reliable, and absurdly effective for a free five-star.
Ardelia (★★★★★★)
Ardelia is a completely free six-star healer, and she’s absurdly good.
Corrosion Explained
Corrosion:
- Reduces all elemental resistances
- Increases damage for every team
Ardelia’s Kit
- Applies corrosion naturally
- Skill removes corrosion and applies:
- Physical Susceptibility
- Arts Susceptibility
- Both last 30 seconds
- You can re-apply corrosion before it ends
Combo & Ultimate
- Combo triggers when an ally Final Strikes an enemy with no debuffs
- Applies corrosion to nearby enemies
- Ultimate deals damage and synergizes with her kit
Other Stuff:
- Passive allows instant skill re-cast if a nearby enemy has corrosion
- Healing is comfortable early game
- Potentials not required at all
Why She’s Worth It:
Ardelia fits into almost every team and massively boosts damage with zero gacha investment.
Final Thoughts
Endfield is still early, and balance will change — but right now, free-to-play players are eating good.
Between:
- Antal
- Perlica
- Akekuri
- Endministrator
- Ardelia
You can build multiple strong teams without spending anything.
Honestly, it’s refreshing to see a gacha where the main character is strong, free units matter, and investment actually feels rewarding.
More Endfield guides coming soon.
More indie games
For more articles on other indie games, please check out the links below:
Videogames.
Gym.
My dog.
Sneakers.
Manga.
In that order.
