I've been an Arknights: Endfield fan since the first global technical test in January 2024. Its art style that blended anime with realism and similarities with RPGs I enjoyed like Genshin Impact convinced me to try it. In the process, I found an intriguing world with a layered combat system and building mechanics that set it apart from competitors. Now, with the game's latest build, developer Hypergryph has reforged and polished those systems to feel even snappier and more accessible than what I remember.According to developer Hypergryph, the team has redone 80 to 90% of the cutscenes and dialogue, about 50% or so of the structure of the maps, and nearly 40 to 50% of the game's overall level design--a lot of the game I first played back in 2024 is just not there anymore. But, after previewing Arknights: Endfield again for over five hours ahead of the official beta's launch, I have no doubt I'd spend another 20 in this brave new world.When I first booted up this new version of Arknights: Endfield, I was quickly reintroduced to the controls with an action-packed battlefield. The player character, the Endministrator (or just Endmin), harnesses the power of a resource called Originium, which they can use to attack during combat and create and repair Originium-based machines. Later, we learn that the Endmin was the leader of Endfield Industries and the creator behind many of the machines that they control. Perlica, the poster character for Arknights: Endfield, and Chen Qianyu, a counterpart of Ch'en (a popular operator from the original Arknights), come from the same faction.The intro didn't have the kind of impact I hoped for with a frantic but mindless boss battle and heavy exposition that slowed down the pacing with multiple time skips that detailed what happened leading into Endfield's story. However, after the first 20 minutes or so, the story starts to pick up when Perlica joins the Endmin on their first mission.You play as the Endministrator, the amnesiac leader of Endfield Industries.Arknights: Endfield is an open-world action RPG with building mechanics that encourage you to essentially build your own mining and transportation infrastructure. Combat-wise, you can deploy up to four characters at once and even fight alongside them on the field, but you can only control one character at a time. Each character has skills that you can use so long as you have skill points, which you charge up as you fight with actions like dealing damage and dodging. You can also take advantage of combo skills, which you can manually trigger with a button while using another character so long as the conditions are met.During the first mission, a prompt to activate Perlica's combo skill appeared after the Endministrator temporarily stunned an enemy. While I could have timed skills one after the other in the original test to increase damage, being able to stack an attack on top of the other with a combo skill added an additional strategic layer to the combat system I already enjoyed.Left to right: Andre, Chen Qianyu, Endministrator, Perlica.Making combat snappier than beforeRyan, one of the co-founders of HyperGryph and lead designer on the original Arknights title, explained to me via a translator the changes his team made for the second beta like this shift in combat. As the lead designer on Arknights: Endfield, he mainly handles systems design and oversees all things design-related, including characters and environments."This [change to combat] is done mainly because we received feedback that certain players believe our combat may not be as smooth as they have wanted," Ryan told me. "Basic attacks, for example, may easily get interrupted and [break] their combos. So we've added dodge, and we've also made changes to basic combat. So right now, players should have a much smoother combat flow and combos."When an Assist Skill is available, your teammate's icon will pop up.Dodging works similarly to how it would in most action games, where pressing a button at just the right time evades damage. In Endfield, successful dodges also charge your skill point meter so that your characters can more frequently cast stronger attacks.Dodging isn't the only way to charge your skill meter--landing basic attacks and stringing together combos can too. Before, the closest I could get to dodging was using the dash button to quickly move out of the way of an attack. A true dodge mechanic makes evading enemy attacks much smoother and erases some of the frustrations I had with combat back in 2024. The incentive to play more skillfully so that you can charge your skill meter is also a plus.Combo skills also help recharge your skill points, but they are trickier to set up. Each character has a combo skill that depends on a specific trigger, and you may have to build your team around these triggers to maximize synergy.The dodge mechanic was one of the major upgrades from Beta Test I.An easier to understand factory systemRyan also led the revamp of Arknights: Endfield's signature factory system. I started playing with factory mechanics within the first 90 minutes or so of the preview, where I recovered an open field to use for the AIC--aka your main "power plant" hub. From here, I relearned how to set up machines to automatically convert ores into higher-quality materials for building. Arknights: Endfield incentivizes you to use this factory system to streamline farming, build convenient transportation points between your most visited areas, and even sell products later on.Arknights: Endfield easily reminds me of existing gacha RPGs with its combat menu and character progression systems, but it's the only one within the genre that I could think of with the ability to craft and place structures across the map with some kind of utility behind them. While the AIC is confined to one area, you can build towers and ziplines across the map depending on where you want to direct power for your machines or build ziplines for easy transport. I built a machine to automatically harvest ores, a machine to transform stacks of ore into materials for new towers, and so on.The factory system includes many machines and power supply.You might also need to use the factory system to solve environmental puzzles, which appealed to the problem solver in me. I found abandoned machines that needed a power source to be operated, for example, so I built relay towers between them and the AIC. Once the machines were powered, I could use them to open gates that had treasure locked behind them.This latest beta holds your hand when it introduces the factory system with a tutorial that details explicit instructions throughout the process, which I appreciated when I needed to learn how to build again. Arknights: Endfield also now has a blueprint system that lets you copy others' factory system layouts, so that you don't need to build them yourself if you don't want to or can't figure out how to. Between the more detailed tutorial and new blueprint feature, the factory system is a lot more approachable than it was before."Some players feel that the factory system is a very daunting task, so they don't know how to get started with [it]," Ryan explained. "At the same time, some core players who are more familiar with the factory system feel that they need more space and playgrounds to try out more complex designs. Based on these above considerations, we thought of the blueprint [system] as a great solution, which can take care of the two issues that we mentioned earlier."You can build ziplines almost anywhere you want.Sci-fi is more complicated than you thinkI asked Ryan what he thought was an important but underrated aspect of a game like Endfield that he didn't think players would notice right away. In response, he brought up Arknights: Endfield's concept designs in sci-fi."So, from a player's perspective, they may not find a lot of distinguishing differences [between genres]. But, in reality, when making a game, I think sci-fi concepts are a lot harder to make than fantasy ones. In terms of game designs, sci-fi is a bigger challenge because, from structural designs to designs of monsters and all sorts of in-game elements, having a sci-fi theme means all these designs have to have a certain sense of logic in them. They have to have a certain sense of reasonability in them compared to other concepts, and that means we have to put a lot of considerations into our concept designs. Maybe some players may not be able to see this or feel this immediately upon playing the game, but we believe having these elements and considerations in our game design will help us to produce more original work."For those not familiar with the series, Arknights: Endfield takes place in the same universe as the Arknights tower defense mobile game in a future far, far away. Its futuristic setting features chrome-laden environments filled with buildings, machines, and structures (like shelters, farming plots, etc.) that imply the existence of a technologically and scientifically advanced society.Outside of Wuling City, the new map in Beta Test II.Arknights: Endfield kicks off in a region called Valley IV, which looks like a tech center hit by an apocalypse. Machinery in these areas are rugged, but aspects of their design still point toward each of their original purpose--maybe mining or irrigation. In my last 90 or so minutes with Endfield, I also explored Wuling City, which was significantly redone between this test and the last. This area features tall buildings and bustling streets like a city, but also includes water-themed structures that match the environment around it.Ryan estimates it would normally take between 20 to 30 hours to enter the Wuling area if you focused on story content, so don't expect to see it as soon as I did. Wuling City also draws inspiration from many of the Hypergryph devs' alma mater, the China Academy of Arts."Rather than duplicating a certain building per se, the entire map draws some inspiration from the China Academy of Arts. That may include structural references, but also certain designs are actually done by professors within the China Academy of Arts," Ryan said."I think you will find details and pieces all over the map that draws inspiration here and there, especially in [the city part of] Wuling City."Wuling City is inspired by the China Academy of Arts.It's never too late for this gachaLast but not least: the gacha. Arknights: Endfield is a free-to-play gacha RPG, just like Genshin Impact and Wuthering Waves. It features limited-time banners with an increased drop rate for the featured character and both 5-star and 6-star characters.Unfortunately, the gacha system wasn't available for testing during the preview. So I asked Ryan what we should expect to see when that system goes online. He wasn't able to tell me the exact numbers for the pity system (the maximum number of times a player would need to exchange currency on the banner), but he did reveal that Arknights: Endfield doesn't simply copy paste the same system from games like Genshin Impact.Usually, limited-time banners feature a character that you can only get for six or so weeks. When the banner ends, you need to wait for the character to come back during a rerun. Instead of only running characters for a limited time, Arknights: Endfield characters featured in limited-time banners will still be available indefinitely after their debut. However, the increased drop rate for a featured character will still only be available during the limited-time banner. They will essentially just become another character you can get on the standard banner.Perlica and Chen are your first two free-to-play characters."So, simply put, there will be two main pools for players to use: the basic one, and more of a time-limited one. But we have done changes so that characters that get their probabilities up in the limited pool, they're not going to disappear after the time of the event. They're still going to be there for a while for some players to catch up," he explained.So far, Ryan has confirmed Perlica, Chen, and Wulfgard as the three free-to-play characters you can expect to see at this point in development. These three were a big help to me in the first beta, and the reworked kits for Perlica and Chen that I tried out were even more fluid than last time.If you want to try the game for yourself, you can sign up for the second beta now from the Arknights: Endfield official website. Arknights: Endfield Beta II Test officially begins on November 28, 2025.Arknights: Endfield is slated to release in early 2026 for PlayStation 5, PC, and mobile devices.