Arknights: Endfield uses a layered gacha system that looks familiar on the surface and then turns into something much stricter once you follow how its pity counters behave over multiple banners. The core idea is simple: characters live in Headhunting banners, weapons live in Arsenal Exchange banners, and both sides have hard guarantees that do not all carry over.
Base character rates and currencies
Character pulls live in Headhunting. A single pull costs 500 Oroberyl, and a 10-pull costs 5,000. The base rarity rates on any character banner are:
| Rarity | Type | Base chance per pull |
|---|---|---|
| 6★ | Operators | 0.8% |
| 5★ | Operators | 8% |
| 4★ | Operators | 91.2% |
Those are the odds before pity kicks in. Every extra system on top is there to drag you back toward a 6★ if you get unlucky, or toward the rate-up if you keep missing the coin flip.
Headhunting banner types
Endfield splits character gacha into three banners:
- Chartered Headhunting – limited banners with a single featured 6★ and a rotating pool of previous limiteds.
- Basic Headhunting – the standard banner with a fixed pool of launch 6★ operators.
- New Horizons – a one-time beginner banner with a discount and an early 6★ guarantee.
All three share the same base rates and the same 10-pull 5★ guarantee. The way they handle 6★ pity and guarantees is where they differ.
Chartered (limited) banner pity and 50/50
Chartered Headhunting is where the limited 6★ operators live. It combines three overlapping mechanics:
- A rolling pity for “any 6★”.
- A separate one-shot guarantee for the featured 6★ at 120 pulls.
- A long-horizon dupe token at 240 pulls.
10-pull 5★ guarantee (carries over)
Every 10 character pulls guarantee at least one 5★. This counter does carry over between banners, so if you stop at 7 pulls on one banner and do 3 on the next, the 10th pull on the new banner will drop a 5★. On limited banners, that 5★ has a 50 percent chance to be the featured 5★ and 50 percent to be some other 5★.
Soft pity at 65 pulls (carries over)
Endfield starts boosting your 6★ odds once you have gone 65 pulls on a banner with no 6★.
- At 65 pulls with no 6★, soft pity activates.
- From the 66th pull onward, your 6★ rate rises by 5 percentage points per pull on top of the 0.8 percent base.
In simple terms: after 65 dry pulls, the game aggressively ramps you toward a 6★ before you hit the hard pity at 80. This soft pity progress goes wherever the 80-pull “any 6★” pity goes, which means it effectively carries between banners as long as you still haven’t pulled a 6★.
Hard pity at 80 pulls (carries over, but still a 50/50)
If you go 80 pulls on any character banner without a 6★, the 80th pull is guaranteed to be a 6★. This is the “any 6★” pity. Two important details:
- On limited Chartered banners, that 6★ is a pure 50/50 – either the current featured limited or some other 6★.
- The 80-pull counter does carry over between banners. If you did 60 pulls on the last limited banner with no 6★, you are 20 pulls away from a guaranteed 6★ on the next one.
Once you actually get a 6★, this 80-pull pity and the soft pity behind it both reset to zero. It does not matter whether that 6★ is the rate-up or a standard off-rate; any 6★ fully resets the “any 6★” pity.
Featured 6★ guarantee at 120 pulls (does not carry over)
The piece that drives most of the discourse is the 120-pull featured guarantee on Chartered banners. It works like this:
- Every pull on that specific limited banner advances a separate 120 counter.
- If you reach 120 pulls on that banner without having hit the featured 6★ at any point, the 120th pull forces the featured character.
- That 120 counter is single-use and completely resets at the end of the banner, whether you triggered it or not.
That means 119 pulls on a banner that ends the next morning are just 119 pulls; they do not give you any head start toward the 120 guarantee on the next limited. This is why veteran players keep repeating that you should not commit to a Chartered banner unless you are ready to go all the way to 120.
It also means there is no “memory” of lost 50/50s. You can, in theory, lose the 50/50 multiple times in a row across banners. The only hard stop is that you can never go beyond 120 pulls on a banner without touching the rate-up at least once.
Previous limited characters in the Chartered pool
Chartered banners do one thing that softens the blow of missed 50/50s. When a new limited 6★ debuts, the previous two limited 6★ operators remain in the 6★ pool for that banner.
Whenever you roll a 6★ that isn’t forced by the 120 guarantee, the breakdown on a Chartered banner looks like this:
- 50% chance for the current featured limited.
- 7.14% chance for each of the previous two limiteds (14.28% total).
- 35.72% chance spread across the standard 6★ pool.
You still only have a coin flip for the new unit, but if you lose it, there is a non-trivial chance that you land on a relatively recent limited instead of a permanent standard character.
Dupe guarantee at 240 pulls on Chartered banners
Chartered banners also track a 240-pull threshold used for dupes of the featured 6★:
- After you have obtained the featured 6★ once on that banner (either early or via the 120 guarantee), a 240-pull counter starts.
- At 240 pulls on that same banner, you receive a special token you can trade for one more copy of the featured 6★.
- This 240 counter does not carry into future banners and does not interact with the 80 or 120 pity beyond being an extra ceiling on top.
Functionally, this is a safety valve for whales or extreme savers who want high Potential. It does not make duplicates common; it just ensures that no one is forced to endlessly chase dupes on pure 0.8 percent luck.
Headhunting Dossier: the free 10-pull after 60
Chartered banners hand out a one-time bonus that matters if you plan long-term:
- After 60 pulls on a limited banner, you receive a Headhunting Dossier item.
- That Dossier converts into a free 10-pull on the very next Chartered banner.
- If you don’t use it on that next limited banner, it expires; you cannot stockpile Dossiers.
This doesn’t change the basic math of “have 120 ready,” but it does tilt the long-term expected cost for limiteds slightly downward if you consistently engage with every banner.
Standard banner: Basic Headhunting
Basic Headhunting is the permanent standard banner. It uses the same 0.8 / 8 / 91.2 rarity split and the same 10-pull 5★ guarantee, soft pity, and 80-pull 6★ pity. Key differences:
- There is no featured limited 6★ on Basic; any 6★ is drawn from the standard pool.
- The 80-pull 6★ pity always yields a standard 6★; there is no 50/50 here.
- After 300 total pulls on Basic, you unlock a selector that lets you choose any standard 6★ from the pool once.
All 6★s added after launch go into limited Chartered banners rather than joining Basic. Basic’s role is to offer a steady, long-term way to fill out the launch roster and eventually pick a favorite with the 300-pull selector.
New Horizons beginner banner
New Horizons is a temporary beginner banner that disappears once you have claimed its guaranteed 6★. It has two perks:
- A 20 percent Oroberyl discount on 10-pulls (4,000 instead of 5,000).
- A guaranteed standard 6★ within 50 pulls.
It uses the same standard pool as Basic Headhunting. Once you hit the 6★, New Horizons closes permanently on that account. It’s effectively a one-off head start on building your roster.
Arsenal Exchange: how weapon gacha is wired
Weapons live in Arsenal Exchange banners and use a separate currency: Arsenal Tickets. You do not spend Oroberyl directly here.
There are two ways to get Arsenal Tickets:
- Every character pull produces tickets based on rarity:
- 6★ operator → 2,000 tickets.
- 5★ operator → 200 tickets.
- 4★ operator → 20 tickets.
- You can convert Oroberyl into tickets at a fixed rate of 30 Oroberyl for 10 tickets.
Because every 10-pull on the character side guarantees at least one 5★ and nine 4★, even a minimum-value 10-pull will always create at least 380 tickets. Over time, regular Headhunting naturally builds up a stockpile for weapons.
Each weapon 10-pull is packaged as an “Arsenal Issue” that costs 1,980 tickets. Single pulls are not available; you always fire in 10s.
Weapon banner rates and pity
Weapon banners are more generous on raw odds but harsher on carryover rules. Their base rates are:
| Rarity | Type | Base chance per 10-pull result |
|---|---|---|
| 6★ | Weapons | 4% |
| 5★ | Weapons | 15% |
| 4★ | Weapons | 81% |
Weapon pity milestones:
- Every 10-pull guarantees at least one 5★ weapon.
- After 40 pulls on that banner, you are guaranteed a 6★ weapon, but only 25 percent of those 6★s are the featured one; the other 75 percent come from the wider 6★ weapon pool.
- After you have seen eight 6★ drops on that banner (which typically lines up around 80 pulls in the worst case), the system forces the featured 6★ weapon exactly once.
All of these weapon pity counters are local to the current banner. None of them carry over. If you stop at 70 pulls chasing a featured sword and the banner ends, every bit of weapon pity is lost. The tickets themselves persist, but your progress toward that specific weapon does not.
Arms Offering crates and direct weapon purchases
Weapon gacha has another long-horizon layer on top of its simple 40 / 80 pity:
- After 100 pulls on a weapon banner, you get an Arms Offering crate that lets you pick any 6★ weapon from the banner’s pool except the featured one.
- After 180 pulls, you get another guaranteed featured 6★ weapon.
- At 260 pulls, another Arms Offering crate; at 340, another featured weapon; and so on in an alternating cycle.
On top of that, there is a shop tied to Arsenal Tickets where some standard 6★ weapons rotate in as direct purchases. Limited featured weapons do not appear there and have to be obtained through the gacha itself.
Just like pity, Arms Offering progress is per-banner. If you leave a weapon banner at 90 pulls and move on, you won’t carry that 90 toward the 100-pull crate on the next one.
What pity carries over — and what never does
Endfield’s gacha is built around two very different philosophies for “pity.” Some counters are meant to be long-term guardrails; others are banner-scoped levers that push you to fully commit or fully skip.
| System | Threshold | Effect | Persists across banners? |
|---|---|---|---|
| Headhunting 5★ guarantee | 10 pulls | At least one 5★ character | Yes |
| Headhunting soft pity | 65+ pulls | +5% 6★ rate per pull | Yes (until a 6★ appears) |
| Headhunting hard pity | 80 pulls | Guaranteed 6★ character | Yes (until a 6★ appears) |
| Chartered featured guarantee | 120 pulls | Guaranteed featured 6★ | No |
| Chartered dupe token | 240 pulls | One extra copy of featured 6★ | No |
| Basic 6★ guarantee | 80 pulls | Guaranteed standard 6★ | Yes |
| Basic selector | 300 pulls | Choose one standard 6★ | N/A (one-time unlock) |
| New Horizons beginner pity | Up to 50 pulls | One guaranteed standard 6★ | No (banner disappears) |
| Weapon 6★ guarantee | 40 pulls | Guaranteed 6★ weapon (25% featured) | No |
| Weapon featured guarantee | 80 pulls / 8× 6★ | Guaranteed featured 6★ weapon | No |
| Arms Offering crate | 100 pulls, then alternating | Select non-featured 6★ weapon | No |
Why “never pull without 120” keeps coming up
Once you see the divide between the 80-pull pity that carries over and the 120-pull guarantee that does not, the community mantra makes sense.
If you stop early on a Chartered banner, two things can happen:
- If you never reached a 6★, your progress toward the 80-pull pity is safe and will help you on the next banner – but you are still nowhere near the 120 guarantee.
- If you did hit a 6★ (featured or not), the 80 pity and soft pity now read as zero, and the only thing you have left is however far you are from 120. When the banner ends, that 120 counter zeros out too.
Put differently: partial pulling on limited banners either buys you some odds for the current banner only, or it resets your long-term 80-pity in exchange for a one-off chance at the featured. It never makes you safer on the next limited in the way that rolling up to 50 or 60 does in many other modern gachas.
That’s why the system feels brutal for players who like to “throw a ten-pull” whenever they hit a small stash of currency. It punishes hesitation and rewards a binary playstyle: either skip hard, or show up with enough Oroberyl to go all the way to 120.
The end result is a gacha model that sits in an awkward place. The ceilings are comparatively low – 80 for “any 6★,” 120 for a guaranteed limited, 40 / 80 for weapons – but the lack of carryover on the guarantees makes those numbers feel much higher in practice. If you can live with saving for long stretches and only engaging when you are fully funded, the system is predictable and mathematically generous. If you like to sample banners or pull on vibes, it will feel punishing very quickly.
