Chen Qianyu Build Guide for Arknights: Endfield

Chen Qianyu is a free 5-star Physical Guard in Arknights: Endfield who excels as a sub-DPS by stacking Vulnerable on enemies and chaining Lift through her Battle Skill and Combo Skill. She pairs naturally with Physical damage dealers like the Endministrator, Pogranichnik, and Lifeng, who benefit from or consume Vulnerable stacks.

Chen Qianyu at a baseline

Chen is a Sword user from Endfield Industries with Agility as her main attribute and Strength as her sub. Her kit revolves around two mechanics: applying Vulnerable (via Lift) with her skills, and staggering enemies when interrupting their charged attacks. Her Ultimate, Blade Gale, is a single-target finisher with a relatively cheap 70 energy cost, making it accessible in most rotations.

Best weapons for Chen Qianyu

Chen has unusually deep weapon flexibility because her kit benefits from ATK%, Physical DMG%, and Ultimate damage in roughly equal measure. Her own talent adds up to 40% ATK, which dilutes further ATK buffs slightly but still favors weapons that add it directly.

Sundering Steel is the most consistent choice for most players and scales well as a main-DPS weapon. Its passive grants stacking ATK whenever she applies a Physical Status, which she triggers regularly through Lift. Because ATK% is scarce compared to DMG%, the multiplier stays strong even in heavily buffed teams.

Aspirant, her signature, shines when she is used as a sub-DPS whose Ultimate is the main payoff. The passive stacks Ultimate damage through Lift applications, and it is easy to sit at full stacks before each Blade Gale. If you are constantly pressing her Battle Skill on cooldown, Sundering Steel pulls ahead; if you hold Ultimate and mostly proc her Combo Skill off-field, Aspirant is stronger.

Rapid Ascent looks ideal on paper with Physical DMG on Battle Skills and Ultimates plus a large bonus against staggered enemies, but the Crit Rate it rolls has no Crit Damage buffs to pair with. In practice it underperforms both Sundering Steel and Aspirant in most rotations.

Glorious Memory is a Protocol Pass option that gives ATK and conditional DMG% on the next Ultimate after applying Vulnerable. It is a reasonable pickup if you are already planning to use the pass, but not worth chasing over farmable alternatives.

Prominent Edge is a strong 4-star stopgap with Agility, Physical DMG, and an ATK buff on Battle Skill hit, which Chen maintains easily.

Best gear set

The Swordmancer set is the clear endgame choice. Its 3-piece effect adds 20% Stagger Efficiency and triggers a follow-up Physical hit whenever Chen applies a Physical Status, which lines up perfectly with her Combo Skill Lift applications. Because Physical teams want to stack staggers into burst windows, running Swordmancer across multiple operators compounds the benefit.

The standard loadout is four Swordmancer pieces with Swordmancer Flint equipped twice in the kit slots for Physical DMG%. For the chest, either stick with the Swordmancer Heavy Armor or swap in a Bonekrusha chest. The Bonekrusha chest with Ultimate Gain Efficiency is strong with P4 Chen because it cuts the number of skills needed between Ultimates from roughly seven to five. If you take that chest, pair it with the Swordmancer gloves rolled for Ultimate DMG%.

Before unlocking gold gear, Roving MSGR (blue and purple tiers) is the strongest interim set thanks to +50 Agility and +20% Physical DMG above 80% HP. Mix in an Aburrey Heavy Armor T1 chest for Combo Skill DMG at purple tier.

Skill priority

Battle Skill goes first because Chen's job is interrupting enemy charged attacks for extra Stagger through her Momentum Breaker talent, and it also applies Vulnerable directly. After that, Ultimate and Combo Skill scale her damage; Basic Attack only matters when she is your on-field operator for Finisher hits.

How to rotate Chen

Chen's Slashing Edge talent grants 8% ATK per skill hit, up to 5 stacks for 10 seconds. Because that window is short, you want to space her Battle Skill and Combo Skill rather than firing them back-to-back. Using them together wastes refresh uptime and lets stacks drop between cycles.

Step 1: When her Combo Skill is off cooldown, have another operator apply a Physical Status or trigger Vulnerable so Soar to the Stars activates. This applies Lift (and another Vulnerable stack) across everything she dashes through.

Step 2: Wait a few seconds, then fire her Battle Skill. Ascending Strike applies Vulnerable and Lift directly, maintains Slashing Edge stacks, and interrupts enemy charges for bonus Stagger through Momentum Breaker.

Step 3: Consume stacked Vulnerable with a teammate's Crush or Breach effect — the Endministrator, Pogranichnik, or Da Pan work well here — then cast Blade Gale when energy is available to finish a target.

Step 4: Repeat the loop. If she is fully off-field, prioritize Combo Skill procs and only press Battle Skill when you need another Vulnerable or want to keep Slashing Edge alive.

Potentials ranked by impact

None of Chen's potentials are game-changing, and vertical investment is generally low priority in Arknights: Endfield. That said, P5 is the most meaningful breakpoint because the 3-second Combo Skill cooldown reduction directly increases her Vulnerable output.

Team pairings

Chen slots into most Physical compositions because Vulnerable is a core damage amplifier for the element. The F2P-friendly starter core is Chen with the Endministrator, who consumes Vulnerable stacks on her Battle Skill for extra damage. Add Perlica and Ardelia for Corrosion support, or swap in Estella and Alesh for a Cryo-Physical hybrid that adds Solidification and Physical Susceptibility.

For premium rosters, Chen fits alongside Pogranichnik, who consumes Vulnerable to generate SP for the team. A common lineup is Chen, Lifeng, Pogranichnik, and Ardelia — Chen and Lifeng stack Vulnerable and Physical Susceptibility, and Pogranichnik converts those debuffs into large Battle Skill bursts.

As a standard-pool operator with a guaranteed free copy early in the story, Chen is one of the safest long-term investments for any Physical team. Build her Swordmancer set, slot in Sundering Steel or Aspirant based on how often you plan to press her skills, and treat her as the Vulnerable backbone your main DPS needs to hit their damage ceilings.