Systems

Arknights Endfield AIC Factory Guide for Version 1.5

When the AIC factory unlocks in Arknights: Endfield, what it makes, how it differs from the Dijiang cabins, and what to check when a line stops.

By: K. Talos Updated: 2026-09-28 11 min read

The facts below were checked on 2026-09-27 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.

The factory in Arknights: Endfield is the Automated Industry Complex, or AIC. Gryphline's announcements call it the "AIC Factory". Your first factory area, the Core AIC Area in the Hub, opens during the Valley Reboot main mission. In the next quest, Rally and Unite, Andre has you gather materials and set the factory up. Top View Mode and blueprints follow in Paving the Way (Chapter 1, Process II).

The AIC turns ore into refined materials, parts, gear components, batteries and trade goods. Those feed gear crafting, your power grid, and outpost trades that pay out Stock Bills. Promotion and weapon tuning materials aren't listed as AIC products. Their sources include the cabins on OMV Dijiang, the orbital base.

Gryphline names its updates instead of numbering them. The current one, Dreamscape of Wind and Snow, has update notes dated 2 September 2026. Game8 calls it 1.5, and the version numbers on this page are Game8's.

Is the AIC the same thing as the Dijiang base?

No. The AIC is the factory you build on the ground, region by region. Dijiang is a separate base in orbit with its own production cabins.

The Endfield Talos Wiki says the AIC "represents the successful miniaturization and modularization of industrial production machinery," and calls the PAC (Protocol Automation-Core) that each region's factory is built around "the heart of the Automated Industry Complex (AIC) Factory." Every region has one PAC and every outpost one Sub-PAC. Both work as teleport points and give access to the Depot, and each region's PAC has its own Depot.

The wiki describes OMV Dijiang as "a spacecraft in geostationary orbit above Talos-II" and Endfield Industries' headquarters, and says "The Manufacturing Cabin can produce operator progression materials when given enough time." GameWith's OMV Dijiang page, the source for the Dijiang column below, says the Growth Chamber grows "Fungi for Character Promotion, Vitros for Skill Enhancement, and Rare Minerals for Weapon Tuning."

	AIC	OMV Dijiang
Where	On the ground in each region, around the PAC and Sub-PACs	In orbit above Talos-II
Makes	Refined materials, parts, gear components, batteries, consumables, trade goods	Combat Records and Arms Inspector (Manufacturing Cabin); Fungi, Vitros, Rare Minerals (Growth Chamber)
Opens	Valley Reboot main mission	Authority Level 15 or higher plus Chapter 1, Process II

When does the factory unlock in Arknights Endfield?

It opens in stages through Chapter 1 of the main story. The first table follows Game8's mission pages and its PAC and Sub-PAC page; the second lists the Valley IV outposts from that same PAC page.

Chapter 1 main story missions

Mission	Where it sits	What it adds
Valley Reboot	Chapter 1	The Core AIC Area in the Hub
Rally and Unite	Chapter 1, Process I; needs Authority Level 2 and Valley Reboot	Andre teaches the basic factory mechanics
Paving the Way	Chapter 1, Process II; right after Fort Showdown, no level requirement	Top View Mode and blueprints. You collect AIC Index from a Protocol Datalogger, research Mining II (Electric Mining Rig) and make Amethyst Part in a Fitting Unit. The Basic Expansion Core reward opens Basic AIC Tier II
Mystery in the Building	Chapter 1, Process III; after Walk in the Park	Basic AIC Tier III, which includes the Electric Mining Rig Mk II

Game8's PAC page puts the start at Valley Reboot; TheGamer and Game8's Rally and Unite page point to Rally and Unite. Read together, the area seems to open first and the tutorial follows. At first, GameWith notes, "the production line is not yet automated, so you must manually input and collect items at each stage."

The AIC Index you collect in Paving the Way comes from Protocol Dataloggers in Valley IV and Wuling, which look like inflatable air dancers and can be tracked on the map. Research itself finishes instantly.

Valley IV outpost missions

Each Valley IV outpost has its own Sub-PAC, opened by the mission below. Game8 doesn't say which chapter these missions belong to or in what order they come.

Mission	Type	What it adds
Building an Outpost	Main mission	Refugee Camp Sub-PAC, Valley Pass
Outpost: Infra-Station	Outpost quest	Infra-Station Sub-PAC, Originium Science Park. GameWith says Depot Nodes unlock once you reach this area
Outpost: Reconstruction HQ	Outpost quest	Reconstruction HQ Sub-PAC, Power Plateau

Game8's main story overview (last updated July 2026) lists Chapters 1 and 2 only, and the Dreamscape of Wind and Snow update notes don't mention a new chapter.

Which upgrade materials does the AIC actually make?

Game8 says the AIC processes raw materials "to create products such as gear, medication, food, and explosives." Gear is crafted in the Gear Assembly menu from various Component items plus Stock Bills. The wiki pairs Amethyst Component with level-20 gear and Ferrium Component with levels 28 to 36. Game8 lists Amethyst Component for "Level 20-28 Gear" instead. For early production Game8 suggests Amethyst Component and Buck Capsule C.

Batteries are both product and fuel. LC Valley Battery, for example, is made from Amethyst Part and Originium Powder, and a Thermal Bank burns batteries for power.

Game8, GameWith and the wiki give these sources for the main upgrade materials, and none of them lists the AIC:

Protodisks (operator promotion). Protocol Space: Promotions, missions, exploration chests and events.
Weapon EXP items (Arms Inspector, Arms INSP Kit, Arms INSP Set). Protocol Space: Weapons EXP, the Credit Store, AIC Quota Exchange, Stock Redistribution Staple Goods, missions, events, chests and, for Arms Inspector, Dijiang's Manufacturing Cabin. The factory only connects through Staple Goods, bought with Stock Bills.
Rare Minerals (weapon tuning). Grown in Dijiang's Growth Chamber. Rare Ore sites on the map also have them, and each can only be gathered a limited number of times before it refreshes with the daily reset. Game8's Rare Ore page doesn't say whether a mining rig can work these sites.
AIC Quota. Not factory output despite the name. Its sources are 5★ and 6★ weapon pulls, Arms OC crates, surplus operator Potential and first-time operators.

Staple Goods also sells discounted Headhunting Permits and other upgrade materials for Stock Bills. Which permit works on which banner is in the reroll guide.

How ore gets from a mining rig to the Depot

A basic Valley IV line has a rig on a deposit, Transport Belts, a processing facility such as the Refining Unit, and a way back into the regional Depot. Game8's facility list has four rigs; the ore types below are from the wiki:

Rig	Power	Notes
Portable Originium Rig	None	—
Electric Mining Rig	5	Originium Ore and Amethyst Ore; sends ore to the Depot automatically
Electric Mining Rig Mk II	10	Ferrium Ore and other minerals; sends ore to the Depot automatically
Hydro Mining Rig	None	Runs on Clean Water

The Mk II isn't an upgrade for every deposit. The wiki's Mk II page points out that it uses more power but "does not produce resources any faster," so the Electric Mining Rig is still the one to use for Originium Ore and Amethyst Ore.

The Refining Unit (5 power) turns Ferrium Ore into Ferrium, Amethyst Ore into Amethyst Fiber and Originium Ore into Origocrust. The wiki gives each recipe as 2 seconds per item, 30 a minute for one unit. What a full line produces depends on your layout.

At the end of a line, the wiki says a Protocol Stash "can teleport items to the Depot" once powered, which is why "the stash is often placed at the end of production lines." To send stored items back out, TheGamer describes the PAC's output ports (it counts six in total) and a Depot Bus with a Depot Unloader.

How much can the Depot hold?

The Depot has unlimited slots but can only hold a limited amount of each item. GameWith's February page lists 11,000 (+3,000) after the first Depot Node level, which implies a starting cap of 8,000. Depot Nodes raise it further, and the cap applies to each item type separately, not to the total number of items stored.

Why can't I place more facilities?

Each region has a Protocol Capacity that caps its facility count. It rises with Regional Development Level, along with the zipline limit, the combat facility limit and mineral purity.

Moving and removing facilities

Stash Mode sends a facility back to your Backpack, and neither the facility nor its items are lost when stored. Since Homecoming (1.4), facilities in the wild can be stashed to the regional Depot from the map.
There's also a Dismantling Mode. Neither GameWith nor the wiki says whether dismantling refunds everything, so Stash is the safer choice when rearranging.

How much power does a region have, and what happens when it runs out?

Each region starts with 200 power capacity, per the wiki (Pocket Tactics gives 200 for Valley IV). A Thermal Bank adds more by burning Originium Ore or batteries, and must be on the grid. Sources disagree on its research node: the wiki (April 2026 edit) says Basic AIC I, Power I; Game8, Pocket Tactics and GameWith put Power I in Basic AIC II. Electric Pylons and Relay Towers carry power out, and the PAC and Sub-PAC supply power to Electric Pylons automatically.

In a shortage, GameWith's January page says the system draws on stored energy, and "Once stored energy reaches 0, all facilities will shut down." Sketches of Lost Heirlooms (1.3) added Backup Power. The update notes say that if a region runs out of power "when you're playing," its backup power activates automatically and temporarily supplies unlimited electricity to all facilities. It then drains and needs a cooldown to recharge. Gryphline gives no times; Game8 says 30 minutes of power and 12 hours to recharge.

How outposts and Stock Bills pay for a bigger factory

Stock Bills are regional. Game8 calls the Valley IV kind "A currency issued in Valley IV and only usable in the said region"; Wuling has its own. They have four uses: Staple Goods in Stock Redistribution, the Weapon Store, Depot Node upgrades and Gear Assembly.

Each outpost builds up Stock Bills over time until it hits a limit, and stops there until you trade. Trading earns Prosperity; a full bar lets you upgrade the outpost, raising the limit and adding trade goods. An operator assigned as Liaison whose faction, hobbies or expertise suit the outpost may speed this up. The operator index lists each operator's faction.

Stock Bills also come from Outpost Orders, Elastic Goods trading, Delivery Jobs and enemy drops. The wiki says Pack and Deliver, a delivery minigame paying Stock Bills, opens when your first Depot Node reaches level 2.

The Bills then fund expansion: you spend them with the AIC Steward, who is always near your PAC and Sub-PAC Hubs, to expand your factory space. Higher Regional Development also raises Mining Node purity. Once unlocked, Regional Transfer moves items from one regional Depot to another every hour.

Why won't an AIC blueprint code import?

Sharing a blueprint means saving it, getting it through review and then generating a code. Blueprints unlock in Paving the Way, and endfield.gg's January guide gives the steps:

In Top View, box-select the facilities you want.
Save (Ctrl + S on PC, Triangle on PS5) and add a name and tags.
Click Submit for Review so the game can check the blueprint.
Once it passes, choose Share, then Share with Others, to get a Sharing ID code.

Each blueprint has a facility limit. Gryphline hasn't published the number, but since Dreamscape of Wind and Snow, a box selection that goes over the limit shows your count against the maximum. To import, open Shared Blueprints, click Import Blueprint and paste the code. If it fails, Game8 and endfield.gg point to these causes:

Server. Codes are region-locked and only work within the same server.
Unlocks. You need to have unlocked every facility the blueprint uses.
Progress. Game8's own 1.5 codes "require at least level 21 Regional Development with the Fissure Filling and Land Grouting mission completed."

Why did my AIC production line stop?

GameWith's January 2026 page checks power, Depot capacity, belt congestion, then a blackout, in that order. The steps below follow it, with the later Backup Power and Multi-Clog Auto-Fix added in:

Power. Is the facility on a pylon? If everything stopped, a blackout may be the cause. Compare usage and supply on the Automation-Core details screen. Backup Power only covers a shortage for a while.
Depot cap. Once the Depot holds as much of a produced item as it can, items on the connected Transport Belt stop. Use some of that item or upgrade a Depot Node.
Feed speed. A facility fed faster than it can process stops producing and goes idle.
Clogs. Game8 calls a facility clogged when its output cache is full, which happens "if the next facility's input is full, there is no output conveyor belt, or the next facility has an invalid item." Empty part of the input and output caches, check belt connections, and if it recurs, try using more output channels.
Belt ends. A Transport Belt can stop just short of the connection point. Reconnect it.

Since Sketches of Lost Heirlooms, an Expanded Crucible running several formulas clears its own cache if all of them clog. The official notes call this [Multi-Clog Auto-Fix]; it's on by default and only applies to the Expanded Crucible.

What's different about the factory in Wuling?

Each region has its own AIC Plan and technology research tree. Game8 and GameWith say Wuling's Core AIC Area unlocks with A Breeze Away (Chapter 2, Process II). The wiki's AIC Factory Plan page (August 2026 edit) ties Wuling AIC Plan I to Ready the Easterlies, Plan II to Surging From a Withered Spring, Plan III to Free Will, and Gas Facilities to Thus Begins the Homeward March.

Xiranite. Producing Xiranite takes a Forge of the Sky. GameWith's March page said you could place only two; that may have changed.
Fewer deposits. GameWith notes that Wuling has fewer Mineral Beds than Valley IV.
Liquids and gas. Conduits and Hydro Mining arrived in March 2026, gas in Homecoming, which also raised conduit range to 300 metres.
Wiring. GameWith says Xiranite Pylons and Xiranite Relays "do not require manual wiring."

Game8 lists Wuling's outposts: Sky King Flats Construction Site after Where Danger Sleeps, Cardiac Remediation Station after Kindred Souls Who Share a Vision, and Xiranflow Cloudseeder Station after Stubbornly Lingers the Setting Sun.

AIC changes in Endfield's official update notes

Official notice	Game8 label	AIC changes
Beta Test II DEV Comm, 1 Nov 2025 (pre-launch)	—	Blueprint system; Regional Development System; Batch Mode
[Official Release Preview] DEV Comm, 17 Jan 2026	—	Better guidance prompts; clearer belt and pipe connection cues; easier Top View on mobile
[Old Deep Water Dies, by Rising Tide It is Denied], 12 Mar 2026	1.1	[WULING AIC II]: Hydro Mining, Conduits, Water Treatment, Liquid Refining; Cuprium Ore; build anywhere on the map; remove other players' shared facilities from the map screen
[At the Wake of Spring], 17 Apr 2026	1.2	[WULING AIC III]; Expanded Crucible, Purification Unit, Conduit Manifold; blueprint name in share text
[Sketches of Lost Heirlooms], 5 Jun 2026	1.3	Backup Power; Multi-Clog Auto-Fix; [AIC Report] from the main screen; [Regional Overview]
[Homecoming], 16 Jul 2026	1.4	Gas AIC Mode in Wuling; remote stashing; conduit range 200 m to 300 m; blueprints save conduit connections
[Dreamscape of Wind and Snow], 2 Sep 2026	1.5	[Continue Placing]; facility count shown when a blueprint selection goes over the limit; higher Wuling Regional Development cap

Does the AIC keep producing while you're offline?

The main sources don't say. Gryphline's update notes, the wiki's AIC page, Game8's AIC overview and GameWith's factory basics page are all silent on it. Two January guides, games.gg and outputlag, say the factory runs while you're logged out, and games.gg gives no source. The Backup Power note's "when you're playing" doesn't settle it either way.

Neither the update notes nor the wiki's Transport Belt page lists belt speeds or tiers; per-facility times are on each facility's wiki page. Blueprint codes are tied to a server region.

Sources

Pages accessed 27 and 28 September 2026.