Arknights: Endfield does not hand out pulls generously, and pity on banners is unforgiving. The most reliable way to stabilize an early roster is to grab every character the game gives you for free and build around them, saving premium currency for banners you care about.
All permanently free operators in Arknights: Endfield
At launch, three operators are guaranteed without spending any gacha currency:
| Operator | Rarity | Element | Role / Path | How to get |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Endministrator | 6★ | Physical | Guard | Default protagonist, obtained automatically when you start the game. |
| Ardelia | 6★ | Nature | Support / Caster | Login event reward after a total of 14 days, together with her 6★ weapon. |
| Snowshine | 5★ | Cryo | Defender | Pre-registration reward for players who registered before launch, sent via in-game mail. |
On top of that core trio, several early-game operators are also functionally free because they join through story progression rather than gacha pulls. These include Perlica, Chen Qianyu, and Wulfgard, who all slot naturally into beginner teams and can carry you through the opening chapters.
How Endministrator works as a free 6★ carry
Endministrator is the face of Arknights: Endfield and the only 6★ you get the moment you load into the game. They are a Physical Guard who fights with a sword and has two cosmetic variants, male and female, that you can swap between.
Endministrator’s kit is built around frontline damage and crowd control. They hit hard in close range, juggle enemies with combos, and can adapt to many teams because their element is Physical rather than a niche elemental archetype.
Step 1: Start a new account and complete the opening sequences until you reach full control of your character. Endministrator is added automatically as your first operator; no banners or menus are required.
Step 2: Choose the male or female presentation when prompted at the start. This choice is not permanent. Once you unlock the base on Dijiang, you can change it every 24 hours using the Protocol Singularity in the Stasis Core.
For early progression, it is worth putting resources into Endministrator. They are designed to stay relevant well beyond the tutorial, functioning as a flexible damage dealer and crowd controller in both story and open combat.
How to unlock Snowshine for free
Snowshine is a 5★ Cryo Defender who uses a greatsword and focuses on shielding and emergency sustain. She is tied to the global pre-registration campaign.
Once Arknights: Endfield reached 30 million pre-registrations, Snowshine became a guaranteed reward for everyone who registered ahead of launch.
Step 1: Make sure you are logging in with the same account that was used to pre-register on the official Arknights: Endfield site or via the platform storefront.
Step 2: Progress through the beginning of the game until the Mail feature becomes available in the interface.
Step 3: Open your in-game mailbox and claim the pre-registration rewards bundle. Snowshine is delivered directly here alongside other milestone rewards.
Snowshine’s value is in keeping your team alive. She provides strong defensive tools and shields while inflicting Cryo, along with a reactive heal that triggers when an ally’s HP drops below a certain threshold. She is not a top-end meta unit, but as a free 5★ tank she can comfortably bridge you through early content if you do not pull a preferred Defender.
How to get Ardelia and her 6★ weapon for free
Ardelia is a 6★ Nature support who uses an Arts Unit and specializes in healing, Corrosion application, and team-wide damage amplification. At launch she is tied to a time-limited but generous beginner login event.
The event is structured around cumulative logins, not strict streaks, so missing a day does not reset progress.
Step 1: Log in to Arknights: Endfield each day after launch and claim the beginner sign-in rewards from the event menu.
Step 2: Once your total login count for the event reaches 14 days, claim Ardelia from the same sign-in screen. Alongside her, you also receive her 6★ weapon “Dreams of the Starry Beach” and additional premium resources.
Ardelia fills several gaps at once: she is a strong, dedicated healer, she provides Corrosion to boost elemental damage from the rest of your squad, and her signature weapon arrives fully free, removing early-game pressure to pull or buy a compatible 6★ Arts weapon.
For most players, she becomes an automatic core support in many teams regardless of what you pull from banners.
Story-locked free operators beyond the core three
Endfield also layers in several more operators that you gain simply by playing the main story. These characters are not tied to banners and do not cost any gacha currency.
| Operator | Rarity | Element | Role / Path | How they join |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Perlica | 5★ | Electric | Caster | Appears during the prologue sequence on Daijing and joins automatically early in the story. |
| Chen Qianyu | 5★ | Physical | Guard | Joins naturally as you progress through the early chapters and meet Andre. |
| Wulfgard | 5★ | Heat | Caster | Automatically recruited shortly after the initial AiC introduction sequence. |
Perlica sets up Electric reactions and synergizes well with Endministrator, both in combat and in base management, where she improves stamina regeneration for deployed operators. Chen Qianyu provides extra frontline Physical damage and can cover lanes while Endministrator rotates or swaps out. Wulfgard offers ranged Heat damage and is especially useful if you lack other Heat Casters; he has some combo conditions, but still performs well in the all-free roster.
Together with Endministrator, these story units give you a functional multi-element core that can handle most early PvE content, even if you delay pulling on banners.
Beginner banner and “free” 6★ through guaranteed pulls
Beyond hard-guaranteed characters, Endfield’s launch version also leans on a very generous beginner banner to put a standard 6★ into every account early.
The beginner banner works differently from normal banners. It uses special tickets you earn in the first chapter and comes with a hard guarantee:
- You receive enough beginner tickets for 40 pulls after around one to two hours of story play.
- Those 40 pulls can only be used on the beginner banner.
- At 40 pulls, the banner guarantees one random 6★ from a fixed pool of five standard operators.
The 6★ pool on the beginner banner consists of Ardelia, Last Rite, Pogranichnik, Lifeng, and Ember. Ardelia is in that pool even though she is also given for free via the login event, which means some players will inevitably pull a duplicate copy.
There is also a small chance that you obtain more than one 6★ from this banner due to its base rates, but only one is guaranteed. Since Ardelia’s duplicate offers a noticeable potential upgrade, even an “unlucky” roll is not a complete loss; you simply lose the opportunity to secure one of the other four 6★s early.
Later, once you’ve accrued roughly 300 standard pulls over time, the permanent standard banner provides a one-time 6★ selector ticket. That ticket lets you choose any one of the standard 6★ operators, functioning as a long-term “free pick” but not something you can count on for day-one planning.
How these free characters fit into early teams
With the full set of launch freebies and story units, you can field a full team without touching the gacha. A typical no-pull composition might look like this:
- DPS / frontliners: Endministrator and Chen Qianyu as Physical Guards.
- Elemental damage: Perlica for Electric arts and Wulfgard for Heat arts.
- Defensive core: Snowshine as a Cryo Defender, soaking hits and applying shields.
- Support: Ardelia handling healing, Corrosion, and team buffs once unlocked.
This mix gives you coverage of Physical, Heat, Electric, Nature, and Cryo, along with both melee and ranged options, a real tank, and a top-tier support. That is more than enough to clear launch story content while you stockpile currency for limited banners or specific meta pulls later.
Additional free operators may arrive later through events, side stories, or new authority milestones. The pattern so far points to more story-locked characters being layered in as Talos II expands, but there is no confirmed schedule beyond the launch window.
If you collect Endministrator, claim Snowshine from your pre-registration mail, log in for 14 days to secure Ardelia and her weapon, and play through the early chapters to recruit Perlica, Chen Qianyu, and Wulfgard, you already have a full-sized, multi-element roster without burning a single premium pull. From there, you can treat every gacha decision as optional rather than desperate.
