With Arknights: Endfield a new anime game is set to be released in just a few days on January 22, 2026, mixing at its core Genshin Impact and Satisfactory to create an entirely new game.
What kind of game is this? While Arknights may not be familiar to everyone in Germany, the gaming brand is one of the largest in Asia. The game has been downloaded over 30 million times in the Chinese App Store TapTap (via Reddit), and on Android and iOS, the download tracker shows over 5 million downloads each.
A new spin-off is set to be released on January 22, 2026, with Arknights: Endfield. However, this is not a tower defense game, but an RPG that resembles Genshin Impact.
As in the template, you play a team of characters who support each other in combat through various elements and combo attacks to face bosses and other enemies. With beautiful graphics and many colorful effects, the reward is loot, but it’s different.
Here you can watch a trailer for Arknights: Endfield:
Loot for the Factory
What makes the loot special? Instead of directly obtaining crafting materials, weapons, and equipment from enemies like in other games, everything in Arknights: Endfield revolves around the factory. Because the factory is an important part of the gameplay and also produces your equipment alongside, instead of getting it from raid bosses.
Here you build your own production lines similar to Satisfactory, to repurpose your farmed items. The factory works day and night, even when you are not online.
- But be careful: There is not unlimited space in the warehouse. You have to log in and sort every now and then.
Just like in other factory games, optimizing your production is important for quickly processing resources and necessary to reach the endgame early. The game does offer blueprints, but they are not perfectly optimized.
The factory and the gameplay surrounding it are one of the special features in Arknights: Endfield and an important component of the game.
Adventure in the Open World
What else is there to do besides the factory? With a team of 4 characters that can be obtained through a gacha system, you can explore the vast open world, which is divided into various large areas and zones.
There, you’ll find not only enemies to defeat but also raw materials and teleportation points. An important feature in the world of Arknights: Endfield is the construction of facilities in the world. This way, you can build a variety of different devices that help you.
For example, there are zipline towers that you place in the open world at the beginning of the game, allowing you to be transported faster from point A to point B in the future.
Moreover, there will likely be power poles that can be attacked and disrupted by monsters, which can halt your factory. To defend these, just like in the original Arknights, there are turrets that can independently handle enemies. You need to build these strategically to ensure a longer period of peace from enemies.
How will the monetization work? Arknights: Endfield will be available for free on PC and mobile. The game is funded just like the original tower defense game solely through microtransactions. Players can purchase new characters for their team, as well as skins and items for real money, as initial testers report on YouTube.
However, players should be able to complete the RPG entirely for free. According to the testers, this would take somewhat longer than with a good team, but it wouldn’t be difficult.
What does the endgame look like? During the past tests, testers were allowed to play to the highest level with the best equipment, but many criticized the lack of endgame content. After reaching the best equipment in the game, many had only 10–15 minutes of dailies and a few boss challenges left.
However, a proper endgame loop was missing, as well as the opportunity to team up with other players to fight bosses or raid. So, Arknights: Endfield is not a real MMO(RPG).
However, this seems to not deter players from adding the game to their wish lists. Over 35 million players have now registered for Arknights: Endfield worldwide, eager to play at launch on January 22, 2026.
Arknights: Endfield deliberately positions itself away from the always-similar competition, mixing various genres and cult titles to create a brand new concept. Whether it will be as successful as Arknights remains to be seen. The first MMORPG success of the year has already occurred: A solo developer releases an entire MMORPG on Steam, becoming a surprise hit, only one weakness becomes clear
