Arknights: Endfield brings action-packed combat to the Arknights universe. Surviving Talos-II will require you to build a strong squad—and while some characters in Arknights: Endfield are exceptionally strong from the start, others take significant investments to power up. With currencies and resources so scarce on Talos-II, you may find you need all the help you can get to build a strong team with good synergy!

That's where we come in. To save you the trouble, we've ranked all of the characters in Arknights: Endfield and put together some pointers on selecting a squad. Some of these characters can be obtained for free just by playing the game, while others can only be obtained if you get lucky enough on their respective gacha banners.
 

S-Tier

These characters are the best of the best. If you pull one of them, you're in luck!

• Laevatain
• Last Rite
• Pogranichnik
• Ardelia
• Antal

Laevatain leads the S-Tier category, which is fitting since she's the limited gacha character featured on Arknights: Endfield's very first banner. Laevatain is a sword-wielding Heat Striker that can output massive damage in any situation. Her AOE Ultimate is her strongest ability, and you'll want to have it ready as often as possible.

Last Rite is another six-star unit, but she's thankfully not as limited. She's the best Cryo character in Arknights: Endfield, and her game plan revolves around maximizing Cryo stacks on enemies. With so many Cryo units available in Arknights: Endfield, she's super easy to build a team around.

Pogranichnik is an archetype that features in every gacha game. He's a cool dude with a big sword, and he's the absolute best Physical unit in the entire game. He also applies a huge debuff to enemies that makes them incredibly vulnerable to Physical damage, and it stacks with other Physical debuffs applied by other characters.

As far as supports go, Ardelia is the best healer you can ask for in Arknights: Endfield. In addition to her strong healing capabilities, she can also apply Corrosion to enemies and then consume that Corrosion to apply Physical Susceptibility. She's a great fit for any squad.

Finally, Antal is the only non-six-star unit in S-Tier. He's common, so you'll end up with plenty of duplicates to raise his Potential level eventually. He can apply multiple different debuffs to enemies with his Focus ability, and Focus also applies extra status effect stacks after another character inflicts them. It's basically free damage, and Antal can drastically boost your team's combat capabilities.
 

A-Tier

These are all really strong characters that can easily hold their own in the hardest battles.

• Endministrator
• Yvonne
• Gilberta
• Avywenna
• Catcher
• Lifeng
• Perlica
• Wulfgard
• Ember

Characters in A-Tier are very strong, but not completely overpowered. This is best exemplified by the Endministrator—the protagonist you control in Arknights: Endfield. The Endministrator has a solid Physical kit that can deal great damage with Crush, but their moveset is fairly vanilla compared to other Physical units like Pogranichnik.

The same goes for other units in A-Tier like Yvonne, whose Cryo powers are strong but pale in comparison to the abilities of characters like Last Rite. A lot of these characters are also great support units, like Lifeng and Gilberta, who apply Physical and Arts Susceptibility respectively, but rely on other units for maximum efficiency.

On the other hand, Avywenna is one of the best DPS units in the game, but she requires a bit more work than six-star characters on the battlefield because of her Thunderlance mechanic. She pairs well with Perlica, another A-Tier Electric unit who can forcibly apply the Electrification debuff without any setup, but it's not enough to rank Perlica alongside the S-Tier standouts in Arknights: Endfield.

On the bottom end of A-Tier is Catcher, a Physical unit that specializes in shielding allies. If shields are your thing, Catcher is a great fit who can also output some solid Physical damage. Pure healers tend to perform better, however.

Finally, there's Wulfgard (who you'll receive for free early in the main story of Arknights: Endfield) and Ember, a standard six-star unit. Ember is one of the best Heat units in the game, and she can shield, heal, and deal damage all on her own. Wulfgard is a solid Heat unit if you can't pull a six-star, but his damage output is considerably lower than the greats.
 

B-Tier

These characters are fine on their own, but they're outclassed by other units that perform much better.

• Chen Qianyu
• Snowshine
• Akekuri
• Alesh
• Estella
• Xaihi

B-Tier begins with Chen Qianyu, who you'll recruit during the game's tutorial phase. She synergizes incredibly well with the Endministrator, and she's capable of applying Lift quite often. She doesn't do much else, though, and her run-of-the-mill kit lands her in B-Tier. The same goes for Akekuri, one of the game's most straightforward Heat characters.

Snowshine is similar. She can heal and shield allies, but she has very little damage potential outside of her icy AOE Ultimate. That said, her Ultimate is great, and she can perform well on a Cryo-focused team. Xaihi is another Cryo character carried by her Ultimate, applying Cryo and Nature Amp, but her supplemental support abilities leave a lot to be desired.

Estella and Alesh are the other Cryo units in B-Tier, and they're not that impressive, either. Cryo teams really aren't in a good spot at Arknights: Endfield's launch unless you pull and pair them with the S-tier Last Rite. If you're determined though, then Estella synergizes well with Snowshine since Snowshine's Ultimate applies Solidification, and the same goes for Alesh since he can Solidify enemies with his basic skill.

Both Estella and Alesh have weaknesses that land them in B-Tier, however, and that's the issue plaguing this section of the list. Estella doesn't apply mind-blowing debuffs, and Alesh has a bit of unnecessary randomness, since his kit revolves around catching fish. They can perform well in the right scenarios, but they're not as flexible as stronger units.
 

C-Tier

Last and least, the plucky C-tier. These aren't necessarily bad characters, but you're better off using other units that can be easily obtained.

• Fluorite
• Arclight
• Da Pan

Fluorite specializes in both Cryo and Nature Infliction, and she can reapply stacks with both her basic skill and Ultimate. She just suffers from low damage, and there's a lot of setup involved with her improvised explosive ability for very little reward, since other units can apply Arts Inflictions more easily.

Arclight needs the support of others. She performs well with allies that can inflict Electrification because her Combo Trigger will only pop if an enemy is suffering from it. She also struggles to apply Electric Infliction on her own (outside of her Ultimate), making her a very situational unit overall.

Finally, there's Da Pan. This cool-looking panda is like a hybrid between the Endministrator and Chen Qianyu with his kit revolving around Crush and Lift. Da Pan should be the best of both worlds, but he ends up feeling like a watered-down version of other units. He's just a really low damage dealer to be leading the charge on your team.

Arknights: Endfield is free-to-play on the Epic Games Store.