Combat is a major part of Arknights: Endfield. Not only does it look really cool, but it also comes with deep mechanics that require proper understanding. Every action, your timing, positioning, and movement, matters and can lead to completely different outcomes. In this guide, you’ll learn everything you need to know about the basics of combat in Arknights: Endfield, including elemental reactions, Arts usage, and overall team synergy.
How Basic Combat Works
Here are the essential basic combat mechanics in Arknights: Endfield that you absolutely need to understand.
Attacks and Building Skill Points
Every character you play has its own attack combo. When you finish the combo with the last hit (called the Final Strike), you get Skill Points (SP). You need SP to use your character's special skills, so landing that final hit matters. Don't worry about running out, though. When you're not fighting, your SP replenishes quickly.
Watch Your Positioning
Positioning plays a crucial role. Once you begin an attack, your Operator is locked in place until the animation finishes. This means you must pay close attention to enemy movements before committing to an attack, or you may end up taking unnecessary hits or swinging at empty air.
The Dodge and Parry System
When an enemy is about to strike, you’ll see a red flash, this is your cue to dodge. Dodging at the perfect moment triggers a Perfect Dodge, letting you completely avoid the attack while restoring a small amount of SP.
If you notice a glowing red orb forming around an enemy, it means they are charging an attack. This serves as your window to perform a parry. You can parry by activating any character’s attack skill, which interrupts the enemy mid-charge and staggers them. Each enemy has a stagger bar under their HP. Once it fills up, the enemy becomes stunned and can’t fight back for a short duration, your perfect opportunity to deal heavy damage.
Combo Skills
These are special moves that trigger automatically when certain things happen. These specific requirements depend on the special moves. Maybe one character's Combo Skill activates when a teammate gets hit. Another might trigger after you cause a specific elemental reaction. Each one has its own cooldown, and they're super important for chaining big damage together.
Physical Reactions
Physical reactions let you control groups of enemies by chaining two physical control skills. When you hit an enemy with a knockback, lift, or any physical control skill for the first time, they become Vulnerable, marked with a broken shield icon.
If you hit that same enemy again with another physical control skill, the real effect kicks in, knocking them down, launching them, or pushing them back. You can even split this between characters: one applies Vulnerable, and another follows up to trigger the full reaction, making team synergy an important part of the mechanic.
The Arts System
The elemental system in Endfield is called Arts, and it's where the big damage happens. There are two main ways to use it: Arts Bursts and Elemental Reactions.
Arts Bursts
An Arts Burst happens when you hit an enemy with the same element twice in a row. For example, use an Electric skill, then quickly use another Electric skill. You'll trigger an Electric Arts Burst that deals a ton of damage. Characters with fast animations are great at this.
Arts Reactions
Just like in many other games, combining different elements will trigger reactions that produce unique effects. The last element applied determines which reaction occurs.
| Reaction | Combination | Final Effect |
| Combustion | Any Element → Heat | Creates an explosion and applies burning damage over time |
| Corrode | Any Element → Nature | Gradually lowers enemy defense, making them take more damage |
| Solidify | Any Element → Cryo | Freezes the enemy, making them immovable and enabling Shatter |
| Shatter | Physical Damage → Frozen Enemy | Breaks the ice and deals a burst of extra damage |
| Electrify | Electric Arts | Increases damage taken from all elemental sources; doesn’t react with other elements |
Building Your Team
The core mechanic of Endfield's combat is how everything chains together. You want to build a team where everyone's abilities flow into each other. Think about elemental combos, Combo Skill triggers, and who can set up Vulnerable for others.
Characters are divided into different Operator Class Roles: Guard, Defender, Caster, Support, Striker, and Vanguard. You need a balanced team that covers different roles and elements. This becomes really important when you face harder challenges.
Arknights: Endfield's combat has a lot going on, but that's what makes it fun. You're not just mindlessly attacking, but you're planning combos, timing parries, and watching your team pull off sick elemental chains. Start with the basics I covered here, then experiment with different team combinations. Once you nail the timing and understand how your characters work together, you'll be clearing content like it's nothing.