Squads

Arknights Endfield Team Building Guide and Starter Teams

Build an Arknights: Endfield team around shared SP, Vulnerable stacks, Arts Reaction order and Combo Skill triggers, plus free operators to start with.

By: K. Talos Updated: 2026-10-17 8 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.

An Arknights: Endfield team is up to four operators, and you control one at a time. Building one comes down to how the game's systems connect. Battle Skills draw on one SP pool shared by all four operators. Physical Statuses build and spend Vulnerable stacks, and in Arts Reactions the order of elements matters. Each Combo Skill only unlocks when a specific condition is met. For any line-up, check two things: whether its members trigger each other's conditions, and how many of them need SP at the same time.

The combat guide covers each of these mechanics in full, with the wiki's numbers.

How many operators can you take into a fight, and how do you swap them?

Four. The Endfield Talos Wiki says a team has "up to four unique Operators", so no duplicates. Game8 and GameWith give the same limit. You control one operator; the others auto-attack, and you cast all of their skills yourself.

Game8's guide to swapping (updated 10 April 2026) covers the controls:

Mid-fight: press Character Swap (Q on PC by default) to take control of another team member. It works "both inside and outside of battle."
Changing the line-up: open the Team Menu at the top right of the screen (U on PC by default) and tap any character to swap them around.
Saved teams: according to Game8, you can keep up to 5 team loadouts.
The Endministrator: Game8 says "the Endministrator can be replaced with another character", so the lead doesn't have to stay in the team.

According to Game8's team building guide (4 September 2026), when two operators have similar Combo Skill requirements, "the leftmost Operator's Combo Skill will trigger first." Only Game8 describes this rule.

In the 2 September update, Gryphline's notes describe trial events played "with the preset team that includes the trial operator", and Combat Drills that let you try the 6★ operator Typhoeus.

What each class brings to a team

The official operator page filters by six classes. Here is the wiki's description of each, with how many operators each class has on the wiki's list as of 28 September 2026:

Class	What the wiki says it does	Operators
Guard	"skilled at making enemies Vulnerable and applying Physical Statuses"	6
Caster	"skilled at applying Arts Inflictions and Arts Reactions"	5
Striker	"exploit Physical or Arts effects inflicted by other operators to deal decisive damage"	7
Vanguard	"Great at recovering Skill Points (SP) to help their teammates' skill casting"	5
Defender	"extremely tough", "skilled in protecting and treating their teammates, as well as counterattacking the enemy"	4
Supporter	"skilled at applying various control effects that weaken the enemy"	5

Put side by side, the descriptions split into roles: Guards and Casters apply effects, Strikers deal damage off effects others applied, and Vanguards recover SP. Among the operators with pages on this site, Endministrator and Chen Qianyu are Guards, Perlica and Wulfgard are Casters, and Ember is a Defender.

Do you need one of each class?

You can't have one of each: there are six classes and four slots. Game8 and GameWith frame the choice differently, and both are opinions, not rules from the game.

Game8 (4 September 2026) builds around a DPS: "The DPS will be the core member of any team as the primary source of damage." Supports add buffs and debuffs, and "SP Generators, or Vanguards" let the team cast more Battle Skills. It also says to make sure each operator's Combo Skill requirements "can be met with the team members present."
GameWith (4 February 2026) suggests "2 to 3 DPS units and 1 to 2 support characters", a balance of "DPS, Shielders, and Healers", and a mix of melee and ranged, since enemies charging skills from a distance "are easier to interrupt with ranged characters."

GameWith's page is dated 4 February 2026, months before operators such as Purrchena arrived.

How much SP can one team afford?

According to the wiki, the whole team shares a pool of up to 300 SP, most Battle Skills cost 100, and in combat SP regenerates at 8 per second. Two or three operators who all want to use Battle Skills can end up waiting on the same three bars. The combat guide lists every way to get SP back.

That's the case for a Vanguard, the one class the wiki describes by SP recovery. Game8's framework calls this slot the "SP Generator." There is a second reason to spend SP freely. The wiki says Battle Skills give "every teammate an equal amount of Ultimate Energy," while Combo Skills only charge the operator who cast them. So SP spent on Battle Skills charges the whole team's Ultimates.

Why Combo Skill triggers decide who works together

A Combo Skill doesn't cost SP, but it only becomes castable when its condition is met. GameWith's February guide puts it plainly: "Combo Skills cannot be activated by forming a random team." These conditions from the wiki's operator pages show the range:

Operator	Class and element	Combo Skill trigger (wiki)
Perlica	Caster, Electric	The controlled operator performs a Final Strike on any enemy
Chen Qianyu	Guard, Physical	An enemy becomes Vulnerable
Endministrator	Guard, Physical	Another operator in the team deals damage with a Combo Skill
Akekuri	Vanguard, Heat	An enemy becomes Staggered or hits a Stagger Node
Ardelia	Supporter, Nature	The controlled operator performs a Final Strike on an enemy with no Vulnerable or Arts Infliction stacks
Snowshine	Defender, Cryo	The controlled operator gets attacked and drops below 60% HP

Perlica's condition comes up in almost any fight, because any controlled operator lands Final Strikes. Chen Qianyu's Combo Skill triggers when an enemy becomes Vulnerable. The Endministrator needs another Combo Skill to deal damage first, so the Endministrator can follow a teammate's Combo Skill such as Chen Qianyu's. Ardelia wants a clean target. Snowshine's Combo Skill only triggers after the controlled operator is hit below 60% HP.

Game8 adds a queueing rule: "Combo Skills can only be triggered in the order they activate." Its example is Ardelia and Xaihi. If Ardelia's Combo Skill is waiting when Xaihi's triggers, Xaihi's can't be used until Ardelia's is cast or runs out.

How do Physical teams stack and spend Vulnerable?

Lift and Knock Down each add a Vulnerable stack, up to four. Crush and Breach consume every stack, and the more they consume, the stronger they hit. A Physical team needs someone to build stacks and someone to spend them, in that order. (Mechanics and values: combat guide.)

Chen Qianyu's Combo Skill triggers on Vulnerable, so she fits a team that applies it. Dexerto's team guide (18 April 2026) sums up the approach: "Physical teams focus on vulnerability stacking rather than reactions." Game8's Mono-Physical team (2 September 2026) is Mi Fu, Pogranichnik, Chen Qianyu and Lifeng.

Physical has the most operators of any element, nine on the wiki's list, and most of them are Guards. The wiki lists no Physical Caster or Supporter.

In an Arts team, which element should go first?

When a second Arts element hits an enemy that already carries a different one, it triggers an Arts Reaction. The element applied second picks the reaction; the stacks from the first element set its strength. (Details: combat guide.)

For team building, that means the operator whose element matches the reaction you want should act second. The first operator's job is to build stacks. The reactions by the element applied last:

Electric last gives Electrification: the enemy takes more Arts damage.
Cryo last gives Solidification: the enemy can't move.
Nature last gives Corrosion: the enemy's Resistance keeps dropping.
Heat last gives Combustion: Heat damage over time.

Solidification links the two systems. Hitting a Solidified enemy with Vulnerable or a Physical Status triggers Shatter, which consumes the Solidification and deals extra Physical damage. Game8's Shatter team (2 September 2026) is Endministrator, Alesh, Estella and Ardelia: one Physical operator, two Cryo and one Nature.

Should your whole team share one element?

Applying the same element again doesn't cause a reaction. Instead it adds a stack and sets off an Arts Burst, which the wiki lists at 160% ATK. Reactions need a second element. Game8's worked example in its team building guide (4 September 2026) is an all-Electric team: Avywenna as DPS, Perlica and Antal as supports, and Arclight as the SP Generator.

Electrification raises the Arts damage an enemy takes and Breach raises Physical damage taken; the combat guide compares the two.

Both Game8 (2 September 2026) and Dexerto (18 April 2026) sort their suggested teams by element, and Game8 adds mixed teams such as Shatter and a Crush hybrid. The roster is uneven across elements, which limits mono-element teams: Physical 9 operators, Cryo 7, Electric 6, Heat 5, Nature 5.

Do you need a Defender or a healer?

The wiki describes Defenders as "extremely tough" and "skilled in protecting and treating their teammates." GameWith's February guide recommends a team with "DPS, Shielders, and Healers". Game8's September framework is built around a DPS, supports and an SP Generator, and doesn't set aside a healing slot.

Snowshine, a Defender, has a Combo Skill that only triggers once the controlled operator is hit below 60% HP. In GameWith's early free team, Ardelia, a Supporter, is the one who heals. If your team keeps running low on HP, that is when a Defender or an operator whose kit heals, such as Ardelia, earns the slot.

Which operators can a new account use without pulling?

Five standard operators are free:

Operator	How you get them	Class and element
Endministrator	From the start	Guard, Physical
Perlica	From the start	Caster, Electric
Chen Qianyu	Joins in Break the Siege	Guard, Physical
Wulfgard	Main Mission reward	Caster, Heat
Ardelia	Day 3 of the Awakening Sign-In	Supporter, Nature

Snowshine is in GameWith's free-to-play team (27 April 2026) and Akekuri in Game8's starter team (2 September 2026); the wiki lists both as standard headhunting.

Here are three published starter teams, each with its date:

Game8, 2 September 2026: "The best starter team comp is Endministrator, Chen Qianyu, Perlica, and Akekuri."
GameWith, 27 April 2026: Endministrator, Chen Qianyu, Perlica and Snowshine, described as "capable of clearing the entire Endfield story."
GameWith, 4 February 2026: Endministrator, Perlica, Chen Qianyu and Ardelia, with Ardelia on healing.

All three share the same core: Endministrator, Chen Qianyu and Perlica. That fits the triggers above. Two of them are Guards, the class the wiki describes as making enemies Vulnerable, which is what Chen Qianyu's Combo Skill waits for. A Combo Skill that deals damage meets the Endministrator's condition, and Perlica's triggers off any Final Strike. The fourth slot is where they differ, and of those three fourth picks only Ardelia comes free. The beginner guide covers when each free operator arrives, and the reroll guide covers which banners are open.

What Game8, GameWith and Dexerto recommend

Third-party "best team" pages don't agree, and some are months old. GameWith (27 April 2026) calls a Laevatain-centred Heat team the best: Laevatain, Wulfgard, Akekuri and Ardelia. Game8's best-teams page (2 September 2026) lists fourteen teams, mostly by element, and names no single best. Dexerto (18 April 2026) gives six, sorted mostly by element.

Game8's character list counted 31 playable operators on 5 September; Purrchena, the 32nd, arrived on 24 September. Si arrived with the [Sanctuary of Ink] update in mid-October, and the same update notes list Argent Flow as the version's other new 6★. Any page older than an operator can't include them. None of the Gryphline pages listed below recommends a team.

Arknights Endfield operators by class and element

The wiki's Operators list (edited 25 September 2026) has 32 operators, and the names match the official operator page. Arcane has two forms, which Game8 labels "WILL" and "INT"; she is one operator, not two. The table counts operators by class and element as of that 25 September edit, so it doesn't include Si, who arrived in October. The full list with names is on the wiki's Operators page.

Class	Physical	Heat	Cryo	Electric	Nature	Total
Guard	5	0	1	0	0	6
Caster	0	1	1	1	2	5
Striker	1	1	2	2	1	7
Vanguard	1	2	1	1	0	5
Defender	2	1	1	0	0	4
Supporter	0	0	1	2	2	5
Total	9	5	7	6	5	32

Heat has no Supporter and no Guard. Electric and Nature have no Guard. Physical has no Caster or Supporter. Cryo is the only element with at least one operator in every class. The numbers will change as new operators arrive.