Arknights: Endfield Story Recap: Everything Before Sanctuary of Ink

A quick bit of setup first. People from Terra, the world of the original Arknights, reached Talos-II through a portal called the Cosmic Gate about 150 years ago. Five years later a war with creatures called the Aggeloi destroyed the Gate, and the settlers have been on their own ever since.

Endfield Industries is one of the oldest groups on the moon. Ten years before the game starts, an Aggeloi raid put the Endministrator into stasis. You wake up with gaps in your memory. Perlica, the supervisor who’s been running things, fills you in.

The first job is Valley IV, a barren region Endfield is using to test its automated factories. A band of Landbreakers called the Bonekrushers is attacking the place. You break their siege, set up an outpost, and push west until you face Rhodagn, the Bonekrushers’ top fighter, at their fort.

With Rhodagn down, the work turns to getting the valley’s infrastructure back up. Then the team heads through the Originium Science Park, an abandoned research site with a mystery waiting in one of its buildings.

Past it is the Cradle of the Ages. Twenty years earlier a huge creature attacked Valley IV, and the researchers stopped it by blowing up a giant Originium formation called the Great Originium Oak. The crater it left is still there, and the process ends with a fight against the Triaggelos.

The Bonekrushers’ leader, Nefarith, makes her real move. Her people take over the Æther Test Site, an old research facility, and Endfield has to fight its way back in. That ends with the Marble Aggelomoirai boss.

Things calm down for a moment, then a strange signal comes in. Chapter 1 ends aboard the Dijiang with the Conference of the Four, a secret meeting of four leaders.

A crisis team heads to Wuling, a river region with its own city and its own history. It doesn’t take long to stumble into the Qingbo Stockade, a group of people who were pushed out of Wuling years ago.

Ten years back, a Blight disaster wrecked Wuling’s science station. The Stockade’s men tried a raid on Wuling’s transports, and most of them were killed by the city’s defenses. Their leader, Ruan Lin, died there. His son Ruan Yi grew up wanting revenge, and Tangtang was raised in that same family.

A friendly traveler named Ardashir tags along with the Endministrator for a while. When Nefarith shows up, he stops her from attacking and makes it clear they’re on the same side. He gives Ruan Yi a dangerous kind of power to go after Wuling. Ruan Yi fights the Endministrator and Tangtang and loses, and the Stockade splits over it.

Nefarith brings the Bonekrushers and the Cangzei pirates against Wuling City. While they attack, Ardashir slips into the Marker Stone, the thing that keeps the Blight out, and weakens it.

Arcane helps the Endministrator chase him down. Ardashir pulls the Endministrator aside for a private talk. He says he was once a Pasha, a high-ranking lord from Sargon, and that he’s searching for something called the Foundation beyond the Æther. He asks the Endministrator to join him and gets turned down. He hands over an old gold coin and leaves. To stop him, Arcane seals herself and Ardashir inside the Ink Scroll.

The attack on the city fails and Nefarith is badly hurt. Ardashir ends up trapped in a painting by Si, then moved to a guarded prison. There he lets a few things slip. He and Nefarith served the same “Lady.” He once followed the Endministrator, back when he was chasing immortality. He wants the Endministrator to rule everything.

Wuling launches Operation Homecoming to retake the North Wuling Exclusion Zone, through Yinglung Pass and into the area the Blight has held for years.

While that’s going on, Nefarith gets into the prison and kills Ardashir. Si doesn’t treat it as the end. Ardashir can’t really die, Si explains, and what Nefarith destroyed was only the body he was using. A new enemy group tied to him, the Foundation, starts to show itself.

The Sanctuary of Ink special program aired on October 6. The update goes live on October 15, the same day Endfield comes out on Steam. Your save carries over.

The new chapter opens with the Endministrator hurt and recovering at Yuanyuan Manor Inn, which is inside a landscape painting Si made. Strange things are happening in the mountains around it, and they connect to something from about ten years ago. You get around by using Si’s brush, painting bridges across gaps, and the creatures living in the painting are made out of objects in it. Some of them aren’t friendly. There’s a trial waiting at the end.

Si and Argent Flow are the new characters. Si gets the first banner. Argent Flow fights with a sword and spear on his warhorse Nuli, and a later story event uses paintings to show his past. Contingency Contract is coming back, and there’s a farming and cooking side mode where you run the inn.