If you’ve followed the Arknights franchise for any length of time, you’ve probably seen the flashy trailers for Endfield and started asking dozens of questions about its setting. The most common question by far, though, is when Arknights Endfield take place, especially since its open, wild alien planet setting feels so different from the war-torn, established nation states of the original Arknights’ Terra. It’s not just a trivial lore question either: knowing the timeline will help you pick up on hidden Easter eggs, understand character motivations, and even make better choices as you play through the game’s story and open world content. I’ve dug through official dev statements, closed beta lore drops, and popular fan theories to put together all the confirmed details you need to know.
When Does Arknights Endfield Take Place, Exactly?
Officially confirmed by Hypergryph in multiple developer interviews, Arknights Endfield is set roughly 500 years after the core events of the original Arknights game. It does not take place on Terra at all, but on a distant colonized planet called Talos-II, settled by groups of Terrans who left their home world after the worst of the Originium crisis and global conflicts were resolved. That means all the stories you know from Rhodes Island’s fight against Oripathy and political corruption are ancient history for the characters living in Endfield’s time.
When the first trailer dropped back in 2022, a lot of fans guessed it was a prequel because of the lack of established cities and the focus on frontier exploration. That mix-up makes sense if you only watch the 30-second teaser clips, but the full lore drops quickly shut that theory down. The devs have also noted that the timeline is not fixed to an exact year yet, and small details may shift as they finalize the full game’s story, but the 500-year gap is a solid confirmed detail they won’t be changing.
You won’t find direct references to specific events from the original Arknights story in most casual NPC dialogue, because most of the population of Talos-II only has vague, secondhand knowledge of their home planet’s history. The only references to old Terra lore show up in ancient relics, classified corporate documents, and hidden areas you can unlock as you progress through the game.
Key Timeline Connections Between Arknights and Endfield
Just because Endfield is set hundreds of years in the future on a different planet doesn’t mean it’s totally disconnected from the original Arknights universe. There are dozens of small, intentional lore links scattered throughout the game that tie it back to the franchise’s core story, and all of them make sense within the confirmed 500-year timeline. Some of these links are obvious, while others are tiny Easter eggs only long-time fans will pick up on.
These connections aren’t just cheap fan service, either. They shape the core conflict of Endfield’s story, as the colonists on Talos-II are already repeating many of the same mistakes that led to widespread destruction on Terra. You’ll see factions fighting over Originium mining rights, ignoring warnings about Oripathy spread, and prioritizing corporate profit over the safety of local communities, just like you did in the original game.
You don’t need to have played the original Arknights to follow Endfield’s main story, but knowing the timeline adds a lot of extra weight to small details you’ll find while exploring. I still remember finding a cracked old Rhodes Island lanyard in a hidden chest during the closed beta, and it made the entire world feel so much more connected to the game I’ve sunk hundreds of hours into over the years.
Why the Endfield Timeline Matters for Gameplay
The timeline isn’t just useless background lore for people who only care about combat and exploration. It directly impacts almost every part of the game’s design, from the weapons you use to the types of missions you take on. The 500-year gap between the two games means technology in Endfield is far more advanced than anything that existed on Terra during the original Arknights timeline.
You have access to open world traversal tools like jetpacks, automated mining rigs, and far more powerful Arts weapons that would have been unthinkable for Rhodes Island operators to use. The frontier setting also means most of the map is untamed, so you’ll spend more time exploring uncharted territories and building outposts than navigating established war zones or crowded city streets.
The timeline also explains why none of your favorite original Arknights operators show up as active characters in Endfield. Even the longest-lived Terran species, like Sarkaz, have a natural lifespan of around 200 years, so all the characters from the original game would have passed away centuries before Endfield’s story starts. Any references to them are purely historical, and you won’t run into any time travel plot lines that bring them back, according to official dev statements.
If you’re the type of player who likes to 100% complete games, knowing the timeline will also help you track down rare lore collectibles. Many of the hidden relic quests require you to connect dots between old Terran history and current events on Talos-II, and you’ll miss out on full quest rewards if you don’t understand the basic timeline context.
Common Timeline Misconceptions to Avoid
With so much fan theory and unconfirmed information floating around social media, it’s easy to pick up wrong facts about Endfield’s timeline if you don’t stick to official dev statements. I’ve seen dozens of viral posts making claims that have no basis in confirmed lore, and a lot of new fans end up confused as a result.
The most common misconception is that Endfield is a prequel set before the Originium plague spread across Terra. We already covered that this is not true, but it still pops up all the time in comment sections. Another popular wrong take is that Talos-II is just a new name for Terra, after the planet recovered from the Originium crisis. That’s also false: Talos-II has its own unique Originium-based ecosystem that never existed on Terra, and devs have confirmed it’s located in a completely separate star system.
A lot of fans also assume that Endfield Industries, the core faction in the new game, is a direct successor to Rhodes Island from the original Arknights. That’s a fun theory, but there is no confirmed link between Endfield Industries and any Terran corporation from the original game as of right now. The devs have explicitly said they haven’t revealed that connection yet, so don’t take fan theories as canon until they’re officially confirmed.
Finally, don’t buy into the take that the far future timeline means Endfield’s story has no real stakes. Just because the original Arknights’ conflicts are over doesn’t mean there’s no tension on Talos-II. The planet has dangerous native creatures, violent conflicts between competing colonist factions, and Originium disasters that are far more unpredictable than anything that happened on Terra. The stakes feel just as high, if not higher, than the original game’s story, because the entire future of the colony is on the line.
At the end of the day, figuring out when Arknights Endfield take place is just the first step to unpacking one of the most interesting expanded universe settings in mobile gaming right now. Whether you’re a long-time Arknights fan coming for the lore connections, or a new player who just likes open world RPGs, the timeline adds a lot of depth to every part of the game. Take time to read item descriptions and listen to random NPC dialogue as you play, because you’ll find tons of small hints that expand on the timeline even more. I’m still hunting for all the hidden Terran relics in the beta build, and I can’t wait to see what other lore secrets the devs add when the full game launches later this year.