Systems

Arknights Endfield Combat Guide with SP, Stagger, Reactions

How Arknights: Endfield combat works, from shared SP and Combo Skills to Stagger, Vulnerable stacks and Arts Reactions, with Talos Wiki values.

By: K. Talos Updated: 2026-09-29 11 min read

The facts below were checked on 2026-09-28 against the sources listed at the end of this page. Game updates can change them, so check the in-game screen before you spend. If something no longer matches, tell us.

Arknights: Endfield is fought in real time with a team of up to four operators. You control one of them. The other three keep up basic attacks on their own, but every Battle Skill, Combo Skill and Ultimate is cast by you. Battle Skills spend Skill Points (SP) from a pool the whole team shares. Combo Skills only unlock when a condition is met. On top of that sit two status systems: Physical Statuses, which build and spend Vulnerable stacks, and Arts Inflictions, which turn into Arts Bursts and Arts Reactions. Fill an enemy's Stagger meter and it takes extra damage and opens up a Finisher.

As of 28 September 2026 the live update is Dreamscape of Wind and Snow, released on 2 September. Its notes say the combat changes in it were to effect descriptions only and that "the actual effects remain unchanged", so that update did not change the effects the wiki pages below describe.

How does combat work in Arknights: Endfield?

A team holds up to four operators, and the same operator can't appear twice; the wiki says "up to four unique Operators." You play as one of them, the controlled operator. According to the wiki, the others "will automatically perform basic attacks", while "their Battle skills, Combo Skills, and Ultimates must still be manually cast."

To take control of a different operator, press the Character Swap key. Game8 gives the PC default as Q and says swapping works "both inside and outside of battle." The team building guide covers the Team Menu and how slot order affects Combo Skills.

Your basic attack is a chain. Pressing or holding attack runs through the Basic Attack Sequence, and the last hit of that chain is the Final Strike. The wiki notes that the controlled operator's Final Strike "also deals Stagger and restores some Skill Points (SP)". That one hit feeds two of the systems below, so finishing the chain is worth more than it looks. You can also lock on: per the wiki, lock-on "keeps the target in view and will make Skills used focus the target."

What are Skill Points, and how do you get SP back faster?

SP is what Battle Skills cost, and all four operators draw from one pool. According to the Endfield Talos Wiki, you can hold up to 300 SP, shown on the HUD as three bars of 100. Most Battle Skills cost 100 SP, which is one bar; a few cost 50 or 25 instead. GameWith describes the same pool in bars instead of numbers: a Battle Skill "consumes one bar of Skill Points (SP)".

Since the pool is shared, a team full of 100-SP skills is competing for the same three bars. That is why SP recovery shapes both how you play and who you bring. The wiki lists these sources:

Where SP comes from	Amount, according to the wiki	Notes
Natural regeneration	8 SP per second	Only during combat
Final Strike by the controlled operator	15 to 30 SP	Depends on who you control; the wiki's range runs from Fluorite (15) to Last Rite (30)
Perfect Dodge	About 7.5 SP	Also pauses natural regeneration for half a second
Finisher on a Staggered enemy	Depends on the enemy	The wiki gives no single figure
Skills and other effects	Varies	Vanguard skills are the main example

Final Strikes are the source you control most directly, and how much they return changes with the operator you are controlling. A Perfect Dodge adds about 7.5 SP, but the wiki notes it also stops natural regeneration for half a second.

Vanguards are the class built around this. The wiki's one-line description of the class is "Great at recovering Skill Points (SP) to help their teammates' skill casting." The wiki also says many other skills and effects return SP, so check an operator's skill text before assuming only Vanguards help.

How Battle Skills, Combo Skills and Ultimates differ

Each operator has three skills besides the basic attack. The table sums up the wiki's Combat Mechanic page:

Skill	Cost	Cooldown	When you can cast it
Battle Skill	SP from the shared pool (usually 100)	None	Any time the team has enough SP
Combo Skill	No SP	Yes	Only after that operator's trigger condition is met
Ultimate	All of that operator's Ultimate Energy	A short cooldown after casting	When the operator's Ultimate Energy is full

How do Combo Skills trigger?

Every Combo Skill has its own trigger. When it is met, GameWith says an icon appears and you can cast it. Combo Skills don't fire by themselves. They don't cost SP, but they go on cooldown after use. A few triggers from the wiki's operator pages show how different they are:

Perlica: "When controlled operator performs a Final Strike on any enemy."
Chen Qianyu: "When an enemy becomes Vulnerable."
Akekuri: "When an enemy becomes Staggered or hits a Stagger Node."
Ardelia: when the controlled operator lands a Final Strike on an enemy with no Vulnerability or Arts Infliction stacks.
Snowshine: "After controlled operator gets attacked and drops below 60% HP."
Endministrator: "When another operator in the team deals DMG with combo skills."

Chen Qianyu's Combo Skill triggers when an enemy becomes Vulnerable. Ardelia's triggers on a Final Strike against an enemy with no Vulnerability or Arts Infliction stacks. Game8 adds a note on ordering: "Combo Skills can only be triggered in the order they activate." For operators with similar requirements, such as Wulfgard and Antal, Game8 says "the leftmost Operator's Combo Skill will trigger first." Of the sources listed below, only Game8 describes this ordering.

How does Ultimate Energy fill up?

An operator can cast their Ultimate once their Ultimate Energy is full. The wiki explains how it charges: "Casting Battle Skills grant every teammate an equal amount of Ultimate Energy; casting Combo Skills grant only the caster Ultimate Energy." Casting the Ultimate spends all of it and puts the skill on a short cooldown. While an Ultimate's enhancement is active, that operator gains no energy.

SP spent on any Battle Skill charges the whole team's Ultimates at once. A Combo Skill only charges the operator who cast it. The amount needed differs per operator. The Chinese BWIKI's copy of the in-game skill text lists 70 Ultimate Energy for Chen Qianyu and 80 for Perlica.

How to stagger enemies and land a Finisher

Most enemies have a Stagger meter. According to the wiki, "the controlled operator's Final Strike and most skills also deal Stagger." Game8's stagger guide lists three sources: Final Strikes, skills and Ultimates, and Physical Statuses. On the wiki's numbers, Lift and Knock Down each deal 10 Base Stagger.

Game8 says a red circle can appear around an enemy, "indicating that they are charging up to cast a skill." GameWith says hitting them in that window with a Battle Skill, Combo Skill or Ultimate "will interrupt the attack and significantly increase their Stagger Meter."

A full meter leaves the enemy Staggered. The wiki says Staggered enemies "are immobile for a while and take 30% increased damage", and its damage calculation page lists the same thing as a 1.3× multiplier. While Staggered, an enemy can't build more Stagger, and it recovers after a while. That makes the Stagger window the natural place to spend Ultimates.

The first basic attack your controlled operator lands on a Staggered enemy becomes a Finisher. The wiki says it deals increased damage and restores SP; Game8 says Finishers "deal massive damage and recover SP when performed." Neither source gives a fixed SP figure.

Some stronger enemies also have Stagger Nodes, points along the meter. Gryphline introduced them in its Beta Test II developer notes (1 November 2025): "When their Stagger reaches specific nodes, they will temporarily stumble, giving you a valuable window to deal major damage or adjust strategy." Akekuri's Combo Skill, listed above, triggers on exactly this.

Dodging, Perfect Dodge and Stamina

Dashing and dodging cost Stamina. That is a combat bar, not the Sanity you spend to claim stage rewards; the beginner guide covers Sanity. The wiki says you start with three sections of Stamina and can raise the cap through the Stamina Delimiter by submitting Aurylene of Valley IV at TP Points. Only the wiki mentions this.

Gryphline's Beta Test II notes say operators "can now perform two consecutive dodges within a short window" and that "Dodging no longer interrupts basic attack sequences." GameWith gives the same two-dodge limit, and the wiki says dodging "does not interrupt the basic attack sequence." That means you can dodge mid-chain and still reach the Final Strike.

Time a dodge just before a hit lands and you get a Perfect Dodge. The same Gryphline notes say it "returns some consumed stamina and restores a small amount of Skill Points (SP)." The wiki puts the SP at about 7.5. The SP table above covers the regeneration pause. No official page, wiki page or guide listed below publishes the Perfect Dodge timing window or any invulnerability time.

What do Vulnerable, Lift, Knock Down, Crush and Breach do?

Physical Statuses are, in the wiki's words, "physical debuffs and effects that can be applied to enemies." There are four: Lift, Knock Down, Crush and Breach. They all work through a fifth state, Vulnerable, which stacks up to four times.

The first Physical Status on a clean enemy only adds Vulnerable. The wiki says: "If an enemy has no Vulnerable stacks, the Physical Status will only add one Vulnerable stack." From then on, Lift and Knock Down add stacks, and Crush and Breach spend all of them. The more stacks they spend, the higher the level of the effect, from I to IV. Gryphline's Beta Test II notes describe the same split. The wiki gives Vulnerable a 20-second duration that refreshes when reapplied.

Status	Vulnerable stacks	Effect, according to the wiki
Lift	Adds 1 more (max 4)	120% Base Physical DMG and 10 Base Stagger. Weaker enemies are lifted and can't act for 1 second unless stated otherwise
Knock Down	Adds 1 more (max 4)	120% Base Physical DMG and 10 Base Stagger
Crush	Consumes all	Extra Physical DMG as Crush DMG: I 300%, II 450%, III 600%, IV 750% ATK
Breach	Consumes all	Physical DMG of 100%, 150%, 200% or 250% ATK (I to IV), then the enemy takes +12%, +16%, +20% or +24% Physical DMG for 12, 18, 24 or 30 seconds

Crush deals 300% ATK at level I and 750% at level IV, and the level depends on how many stacks it consumes. So the operators who add stacks should act before the one who spends them.

How do Arts Inflictions, Arts Bursts and Arts Reactions work?

The four non-Physical elements each have an Arts Infliction: Heat, Electric, Cryo and Nature. The wiki says an infliction lasts 20 seconds, and Gryphline's Beta Test II notes cap it at four stacks. What happens next depends on the element you apply next.

Same element again: the stacks go up by one (to a maximum of four) and an Arts Burst goes off. The wiki lists the Burst at 160% ATK as Base Arts DMG of that element.
A different element: an Arts Reaction triggers and the existing infliction is consumed.

Which element decides the reaction? The wiki says that when a new infliction lands on an enemy carrying a different one, "an Arts Reaction is triggered with the former determining the type of reaction and the latter determining the strength of the reaction." The former is the new infliction; the latter is the one already on the enemy. GameWith puts the first half as "The resulting Arts Reaction is determined by the most recently inflicted Originium Arts." So the element you apply second picks the reaction, and the stacks built by the first element set its level.

The wiki's element table matches each element to the reaction it causes when applied last:

Heat applied last: Combustion
Electric applied last: Electrification
Cryo applied last: Solidification
Nature applied last: Corrosion

Say a Heat operator has put two Heat stacks on an enemy and an Electric operator hits next. The result is Electrification, at a strength set by those Heat stacks. If you wanted Combustion instead, the Electric operator would have to go first and the Heat operator second.

Enemies can do the same to you. The wiki says that when an operator reaches four stacks of the same element, those stacks are removed and a reaction triggers on the operator. Enemy-applied Combustion, for example, lasts 8 seconds and burns for 4% of max HP up front, then 2% per second.

The wiki says Arts Intensity "increases damage and effectiveness of Arts Reactions, Arts Bursts and Physical Statuses." That page was last edited in February 2026, so treat anything more detailed about it with caution.

What each Arts Reaction does

According to the wiki, all four reactions deal the same initial damage by level: 160%, 240%, 320% and 400% ATK for levels I to IV. They differ in what they leave behind. Shatter is listed here as well because it comes from Solidification.

Reaction	How it triggers	Main effect, according to the wiki (levels I to IV)
Combustion	Heat applied onto another infliction	Heat damage over time of 24% to 60% ATK per second for 10 seconds, unless stated otherwise
Electrification	Electric applied onto another infliction	Enemy takes +12%, +16%, +20% or +24% Arts DMG for 12, 18, 24 or 30 seconds. A new Electrification overrides the old one and resets the timer
Solidification	Cryo applied onto another infliction	Enemy can't move for 5.75, 6.75, 7.75 or 8.75 seconds
Corrosion	Nature applied onto another infliction	Lowers Resistance by 3.6, 4.8, 6 or 7.2 at once, then by 0.84, 1.12, 1.4 or 1.68 more each second, up to 12, 16, 20 or 24
Shatter	Vulnerable or a Physical Status applied to a Solidified enemy	Consumes Solidification and deals 240% to 600% ATK as Base Physical DMG

Corrosion works on enemies with 0 Resistance too and can push them into negative values, and lower Resistance means the enemy takes more damage. The wiki's Arts Reaction page calls this an "Increased Resistance Multiplier". That means a bigger damage multiplier on your side, not a tougher enemy. The wiki's two pages disagree on how long Corrosion lasts.

Electrification and Breach look alike: both make the enemy take more damage, by the same percentages and for the same times. The difference is the damage type. Electrification boosts Arts damage and Breach boosts Physical damage, so which one suits your team depends on where its damage comes from.

Endfield's six classes and five elements

The official operator page filters by six classes and five elements. The class roles below are the wiki's one-line descriptions:

Class	What it does, per the wiki
Guard	Makes enemies Vulnerable and applies Physical Statuses
Caster	Applies Arts Inflictions and Arts Reactions
Striker	Exploits Physical or Arts effects inflicted by other operators to deal decisive damage
Vanguard	Recovers SP to help teammates cast skills
Defender	Very tough; protects and treats teammates and counterattacks
Supporter	Applies control effects that weaken the enemy

Compared with the original Arknights, the wiki says Endfield "does not have the Sniper, Medic, and Specialist classes, the last one being removed in Beta Test II."

The five elements are Physical, Heat, Cryo, Electric and Nature. The wiki identifies each by the colour of its damage numbers: white for Physical, red for Heat, cyan for Cryo, green for Nature and yellow for Electric. "Arts" isn't a sixth element. The wiki's Combat Mechanic page lists Arts Inflictions only for the four non-Physical elements, and its damage pages split damage into Physical and Arts. The team building guide counts how many operators each class and element currently has.

What has changed in combat since launch?

Today's systems date from before launch. In its Beta Test II developer notes of 1 November 2025, Gryphline wrote: "We've redesigned the underlying mechanics of Physical Status and Arts Reaction." That update added Vulnerable stacks, Arts Infliction stacks and Stagger Nodes, and it reworked the classes. The 12 March, 17 April and 2 September notes include these general combat changes:

12 March 2026: after a single dive attack, a basic attack shortly afterwards "will not reset the basic attack sequence." Dodging and collision for operators you aren't controlling were improved. In some Protocol Space stages, the team enters combat "with a separate status set to full HP and full Ultimate Energy."
17 April 2026: Ultimates that last for a while now show their remaining time at the bottom of the screen.
2 September 2026 (Dreamscape of Wind and Snow): descriptions for Arts Reaction, Burst Boost and several damage bonuses were rewritten; "The actual effects remain unchanged."

Which combat numbers are still unknown?

These figures are missing from the sources below, or the sources disagree:

How long Stagger lasts. The wiki says "a certain amount of time"; Game8 says until the meter drains.
The Perfect Dodge timing window, and any invulnerability time on dodges.
How much SP a Finisher returns. The wiki only says it depends on the enemy.
How long Corrosion lasts, because the wiki's pages disagree.
A full damage formula. The wiki has a community-built one; Gryphline has not published one.

If a guide quotes an exact number for any of these, check where it came from before you plan around it. For what to do with a fresh account, see the beginner guide, and for choosing a starting operator, the reroll guide.