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Arknights is a tactical tower defense gacha game where you play as the Doctor, a renowned strategist with amnesia. Your job is to battle various enemy factions as you lead the Infected Operators of Rhodes Island, a massive mobile city, in their fight for survival.
Arknights has been going strong for several years, with frequent content updates bringing new Operators, story chapters, gameplay elements, and more. If you’re just starting to get into the game now, you’ll most likely be overwhelmed by the years worth of content that has stacked up. Below, we’ll take a look at the most important things to keep in mind as a new player of Arknights.
Form A Balanced Team
There areeight classes in Arknights, each with their own strengths and weaknesses. In general, you should focus on forming a team that hastwo of each class, withone each of Specialist and Supporter. The eight classes and their primary use are as follows.
Description
Vanguard
Generates Deployment Points (DP), allowing you to deploy your other Operators more quickly
Deals ranged physical damage, and can target flying enemies.
Deals high melee damage, and acts as a frontline attacker.
Has high health and defense, used for blocking enemies.
Heals nearby allies.
Specialist
Performs a variety of roles, from fast redeployment to pushing or pulling enemies.
Supporter
Provides buffs, and often attacks with Arts damage.
While Operators all have one of these classes, their roles may cross over in some cases. For example, you may have a Guard who can deal ranged Arts damage, a Medic who can deal damage, or a Defender who can heal.
When constructing your party, attempt to bring a balance of these classes to ensure smooth operations.
Change Up Your Formation
Even the most skilled Doctors can’t play through the entire game with the same party. Most of the time, you’ll need toadjust your squad on a stage-by-stage basis, so that you’re able to target specific weaknesses in the enemy formation. For example, some enemies have high defense, making your physical attacks against them weak.
However, that same enemy probably has low resistance, making Arts, or magic, damage against them strong. Similarly, sometimes you may encounterflying enemieslike Drones thatcan only be targeted by Snipers, Casters, or certain Supporters. Overall, you’ll want toadjust your party as necessary as you playthrough the story mode.
Vanguards are thebest class at generating Deployment Points (DP), which then allow you todeploy your other Operators more quickly. Vanguards are often essential for getting your team onto the field to quickly deal with incoming enemies.
More often than not, the first Operator you deploy in a battle should be your Vanguard. It’s often a good idea to bring two to get your other Operators deployed, thenretreat one or both of your Vanguardstofree up Deployment spotsfor your other, stronger Operators.
Focus On Story Stages
In your first few weeks of playing Arknights, you should try tofocus on getting through the story. As you progress, you’ll unlock many different side game modes. Some of these game modes can be very confusing, even for veteran players, so it’s often best toleave them aloneuntil you’re more comfortable with the game.
Focusing on the story will also let youcomplete new player missionsand earnmaterials for Headhuntingandupgrading Operators. Until your roster is more fleshed out and you’re able to comfortably complete stages, the story mode should be your priority!
The only exception here is when atime-limited eventis underway. These are great opportunities tofarm materials more efficiently, as well as stock up onOriginite PrimeandOrundumfor summoning new characters.
Build Up Your Base
The Rhodes Island Infrastructure Complex (RIIC), or more commonly known simply as the base, iswhere most of your money and EXP will come from. Upgrading and configuring your base is essential, and should be doneas soon as possibleso you can start building up your stocks of materials for upgrading your Operators.
There are several strategies to consider when planning out your base, but the one you choosedepends on your priorities.
The most commonly recommended setup for new players is the2-5-2 base layout. This means setting up your base withtwo Trading Posts, five Factories, and two Power Plants, withtwo of your Factories producing Pure Goldandthree of them producing Battle Records(EXP).
This layout represents thefastest way to stockpile money and EXP, at the cost of not being able to fully upgrade your facilities due to limited power. This layout isbest for the early gamewhen you desperately need all the money and EXP you can get, but should betransitioned out ofonce your roster is more established.
The other option is to go straight for the midgame optimized layout; the2-4-3 layout. This setup makes use oftwo Trading Posts, Four Factories, and three Power Plants. With this setup, you’ll have enough power to fully upgrade all of your facilities, while also producing a decent amount of money and EXP.
Ignore Orundum productionin the Factory. The extra pulls you get from producing Orondum isnegligiblecompared to the amount of money you would otherwise get.
Reinforce Your Roster Through Recruitment
Headhuntingis the standard method for unlocking new Operators, but you’re able to also try your luck throughRecruitment. Here, you can spendRecruitment Permitsto recruit an Operator. By selecting variousJob Tags, you cannarrow down your recruitment searchfor more specific roles.
Use aRecruitment Calculatorto help you narrow down which Operators come from which Tags.
This is a great way to easily fill out your roster. If you get lucky, you’re able to even getfive or six-star Operatorsthrough Recruitment. Watch out for theSenior OperatorandTop Operatortags respectively for a guaranteed chance at getting high rarity characters!
Prioritize The Newbie Banner
Speaking of recruitment, your first priority when spending your Orundum should be theNewbie Banner. Here, you canpull up to 20 times, with the first ten-pull beingguaranteed to give one of six six-star Operators. The Operators you can get are listed below.
These are all extremely strong characters, but if you’re rerolling,ThornsandMountainare the best options.
For now,ignore the Kernal Bannerunless a character you really want rotates into the available pool. You’re better off spending your Orundum on the normal,rotating Headhunting banner.
When In Doubt, Use A Guide
Perhaps one of the most important things to keep in mind as a new player in Arknights is touse the resources that are available to you. Arknights has an incredible wealth ofcommunity-run guides; from strategies to beating every stage in the game to the most efficient methods for farming resources.
If you’re ever stuck on a stage or struggling with which Operators to upgrade first,look up a guide! Arknights is known for its overload of mechanics, both inside and outside of story stages. Don’t be afraid toseek out information beyond what the game tells you, and follow along to video games to help you through the more difficult stages of the game.
