Exploration Level in Arknights: Endfield is a global progression value that tracks how far you are in the main story and how strong the game expects your team to be. It adjusts enemy strength, operator level caps, and several late‑game systems.
Quick answer: Exploration Level increases automatically by progressing the main missions. After reaching Exploration Level 3, each new level requires clearing a dedicated combat trial. You can lower your current Exploration Level by one step once every 24 hours from the Protosync menu.
Exploration Level mechanics
Exploration Level is separate from both Authority (account) level and individual Operator levels. It behaves as a world scaling value with these deterministic effects:
- Minimum enemy level in the open world and missions
- Maximum Operator level cap
- Spawn limits and regrowth rates for minerals and rare gatherables
- Energy Alluvium difficulty tiers
- Protocol Space stage availability
- RE‑Crisis Deep Dive availability and stage tiers
Higher Exploration Levels always mean stronger enemies and better growth potential, but they never reduce an Operator’s existing level. If your Operators are already above the cap of a lowered Exploration Level, they remain at their current level; only the cap for further levelling changes.
All Exploration Level effects
The following table lists every Exploration Level and its fixed gameplay effects.
| Exploration Level | Key effects |
|---|---|
| 1 |
Operator level cap 30 Minimum enemy level 1 |
| 2 |
Operator level cap 50 Minimum enemy level 20 Mineral and rare gatherable limit and regrowth increased |
| 3 |
Minimum enemy level 30 Mineral and rare gatherable limit and regrowth increased Higher‑level Protocol Space stages unlocked |
| 4 |
Operator level cap 70 Minimum enemy level 40 Mineral and rare gatherable limit and regrowth increased Higher‑level Protocol Space stages unlocked Severe Energy Alluvium unlocked |
| 5 |
Minimum enemy level 50 Mineral and rare gatherable limit and regrowth increased Higher‑level Protocol Space stages unlocked New Severe Energy Alluvium stage RE‑Crisis Deep Dive Mode unlocked Protocol Space: Advanced Progression Deep Dive Mode unlocked |
| 6 |
Operator level cap 90 Minimum enemy level 60 Mineral and rare gatherable limit and regrowth increased Higher‑level Protocol Space stages unlocked New RE‑Crisis Deep Dive Mode stage New Protocol Space: Advanced Progression Deep Dive Mode stage |
| 7 |
Minimum enemy level 70 Mineral and rare gatherable limit and regrowth increased Higher‑level Protocol Space stages unlocked |
How to increase Exploration Level
Raising Exploration Level 1 → 3
Exploration Level has no separate experience bar. It increases only when you advance the main mission line.
For the early ranks, you simply continue clearing main missions:
- Exploration Level 1 is the starting state.
- Exploration Level 2 unlocks after finishing the main mission The Mission Continues.
- Exploration Level 3 unlocks later as you keep completing main missions.
You know Exploration Level has increased when the world‑level notification appears, and the value in the Protosync or profile area updates to the next number.
Raising Exploration Level 3 and above (trial requirement)
From Exploration Level 3 onward, a combat trial is required every time the game attempts to raise the level further.
The deterministic behavior is:
- Reaching the story point tied to the next Exploration Level unlocks a trial stage instead of immediately increasing the level.
- Clearing that trial once raises Exploration Level by one step.
- Failing the trial does not lower your current Exploration Level; it only prevents the increase until you succeed.
If the trial does not appear, or the level does not increase after a mission, the story trigger for that Exploration Level has not been reached yet.
How to lower and adjust Exploration Level
Where to change Exploration Level
Exploration Level can be lowered manually once per day. The interface for this adjustment is the Protosync menu, which is also accessible from the lower part of the main screen where your user profile and Exploration Level value are shown.
The deterministic adjustment rules are:
- You can decrease the current Exploration Level by exactly 1 step.
- You can perform this decrease only once every 24 hours.
- You can restore Exploration Level to the highest value you have previously reached at any time.
After a successful adjustment, the displayed Exploration Level number and world‑level tooltip change immediately, and enemy and cap behavior follow the table values for the new level.
Effect of lowering Exploration Level
Lowering Exploration Level has these fixed outcomes:
- Enemy minimum levels drop to the value listed for the new level.
- The Operator level cap drops to the value listed for the new level, if that level has a listed cap.
- Operators that are already above the new capped value remain at their current level; you simply cannot level them further until Exploration Level is raised again.
Raising Exploration Level back up through the Protosync adjustment immediately restores the higher cap and enemy minimum levels tied to that rank.
How to confirm Exploration Level changes worked
Any change to Exploration Level is confirmed through the UI and world behavior:
- The numeric Exploration Level display updates to the new value.
- Operator leveling screens show the updated maximum level cap.
- Enemy levels in newly entered areas obey the minimum enemy level for the current Exploration Level.
- System menus such as Protocol Space and RE‑Crisis show or hide stages that are gated to specific Exploration Levels as listed in the table.
If these elements do not match the values for the intended Exploration Level, then the level has not actually changed, and the 24‑hour adjustment may not have been available yet.
