I got to sit down with three senior Hypergryph devs last week at the 2026 Shanghai Gaming Expo for an exclusive Arknights Endfield interview, right after they showed off 12 minutes of never-before-seen playthrough footage. I’ve covered the Arknights franchise for 8 years now, so I came prepared with 22 questions pulled straight from our community’s 1000+ comment thread on our latest Endfield speculation post. We talked for almost an hour, covering everything from endgame loop concerns players have been voicing for months to new character backstories tied directly to the original Arknights timeline. This isn’t generic press release fodder you’ll see on other sites, either; I made sure to ask the hard questions most reporters skip over.
What the Arknights Endfield interview revealed about core gameplay changes
The devs wasted no time addressing the biggest complaint from 2025’s technical alpha test: overly restrictive progression systems. First up, no stamina cost for overworld traversal, resource gathering, or random world boss fights. They told me they looked at feedback from competing open-world gacha games where players hit a progression wall after 20 minutes of exploration, and wanted to avoid that entirely. If you want to spend 6 hours roaming the map hunting for rare crafting materials, you can do that without spending a single premium currency item.
They also confirmed cross-platform save is 100% confirmed for PC, mobile, and PS5 at launch, with no region locks or platform-exclusive content. They slowed down skill cast times by 15% based on alpha feedback, since mobile players said the combat was too fast to keep up with during busy fights. They did note that story missions will still use a small stamina system, but you’ll earn enough stamina potions from regular gameplay that you won’t have to buy them unless you’re trying to rush through the entire story in one weekend.
Lore reveals that tie Endfield to the original Arknights universe
One of the biggest questions fans have had for years is whether Endfield is connected to the original Arknights timeline, or if it’s a completely separate universe. The devs confirmed it’s set in the same canonical timeline, 70 years after the end of the original game’s main story, on a distant colonization planet Rhodes Island sent an expedition to before the Oripathy crisis peaked. Amiya is referenced multiple times in in-game lore artifacts, and will make a small cameo in the post-launch main story update planned for 2027.
Originium behaves differently on the new planet, too, so it doesn’t cause Oripathy the same way it does on Terra. That’s why many playable characters don’t have infection markers, a detail many fans noticed in early trailers. During the interview, the devs shared three small lore Easter eggs players can look for at launch:
Release window, pre-order bonuses, and closed beta plans
The devs confirmed they’re targeting a Q4 2026 global launch, with localized versions for 12 languages including English, Spanish, French, and Japanese. All closed beta testers will get an exclusive 4-star supporter character that won’t be available in the gacha pool at launch, as a thank you for their feedback. Pre-orders open next month, and the $15 digital deluxe edition comes with a free skin for the starting character, 10 pull tickets, and an exclusive base decoration.
They’re running three closed beta tests between now and launch, the first one starting in July 2026 with 10,000 players selected from sign-ups. They’re prioritizing players who have logged at least 100 hours in the original Arknights, but anyone can apply regardless of their experience with the franchise. If you want to throw your hat in the ring, you can sign up on the official Arknights Endfield sign-up page before June 30 to be considered for the first test. There will be no pay-to-win mechanics in the beta, all characters and content will be unlocked for free for testers, so you don’t have to spend any money to access the full test build.
During the Arknights Endfield interview, the devs also clarified that pre-order bonuses are account-bound, so you won’t be able to trade or sell them to other players. They’re also not planning to re-release the pre-order bonus skin for at least 12 months after launch, so if you want it, you’ll have to pre-order before the game comes out.
Biggest community concerns the devs are addressing before launch
The devs told me they read every single response to the 2025 alpha community survey, and they’re making changes based on the most common feedback. The top complaint was that the open world felt empty, so they’ve added 3x more random events, hidden chests, and environmental puzzles since the alpha build. They’re also adding a photo mode, which was the second most requested feature, with custom filters, pose options, and the ability to hide the UI entirely for screenshots.
They’re also adjusting the gacha rates to be more generous than the original Arknights: 2.5% base rate for 5-star characters, with a 70-pull pity, up from 2% and 90-pull pity in the original. They confirmed there will be no PvP modes, so you don’t have to worry about pulling meta characters to keep up with other players. The only multiplayer content is co-op world boss fights that you can join with up to 3 friends, and you don’t get any exclusive rewards that you can’t get playing solo.
They’re also tweaking the base building system to be less grindy, so you won’t have to log in every 2 hours to collect resources or upgrade buildings. You can set build queues that run for up to 24 hours, so you can check in once a day and still make steady progress on your base.
This Arknights Endfield interview answered almost every question I’ve had about the game since it was first announced, and I left the conversation more excited than ever to play the full release later this year. The devs clearly care a lot about player feedback, and they’re making intentional choices to avoid the most common pitfalls that plague other open-world gacha games. If you’re a long-time Arknights fan, or just someone looking for a new casual open-world RPG to play, you should definitely keep an eye on Endfield over the next few months. We’ll be posting all the latest updates as we get them, including hands-on impressions from the first closed beta test in July.