Arknights is a Tower Defense Gacha game for mobile devices, released in China in May, 2019.
As the world was torn apart by Catastrophes of unknown origin, Originium Ore suddenly appeared. The power of the ore was harnessed to push civilization forward. But Originium Ore also gave birth to the Infected…
The Infected are those negatively afflicted by Originium Ore. The fatality rate of this affliction, Oripathy, is theoretically 100%. The threat of contagion remains upon the carrier's death. Combined with the threat of dangerous, unknown powers, most countries have chosen to expel the Infected. Left stateless, the Infected had no clear path in life. But recently, the Infected have begun to gather around the radical resistance movement known as "Reunion."
Reunion rallies around the cause of Infected nationalism, rejecting racial and national identities. They aggressively push for acquisition and exploitation of Infected power. Reunion uses violence in their push for justice, having gone so far as to destroy an entire city. This led to the intervention of a pharmaceutical company called "Rhodes Island".
The most advanced Infected research institution in the world, Rhodes Island is not afraid to employ the Infected. They are known to go deep into hazardous areas to take care of issues related to the Infected. They are currently working with many governments, corporations, and NGOs to uncover the causes of an Infected riot on an unprecedented scale.
Your decisions will have a significant impact on how Rhodes Island will proceed.
Arknights is a gacha tower defense game for mobile platforms wrapped in gorgeous art by truly talented individuals. Like a traditional tower defense game, a stream of enemies will deploy from designated areas and move across the map towards your base. Your goal as the Doctor is to place Operators at strategic locations as to stop the enemy's advances. Cost Points build over time or through various actions (such as summoning Vanguards or certain Specialist abilities), and these points can be spent to deploy Operators onto the field. You may withdraw and redeploy Operators (after a cooldown), and these decisions will spell victory or defeat.
There are eight Operator classes, each with their own strengths and weaknesses. Vanguards are the class that generate Cost Points quickly and are usually deployed early. Defenders are your standard tank class and can "hold" multiple enemies at one time, halting their advances. Guards are a melee DPS and can hold limited amounts of enemies at one time. Snipers are ranged DPS, able to deal physical damage at a safer distance. Casters are ranged DPS that deal magical damage, which penetrates armor. Medics are the main healers of any team that can buff allied Operators as well as keep them alive. Supporters employ tactics that can help your team succeed, whether by buffing Operators or debuffing enemies. Finally, Specialists are the Operators that have skills unique to them, whether this be a utilizing a unique playstyle (redeployment speed) or manipulating the location of enemy units.
The game itself has no auto combat, however, there is a memory mode. Whenever a stage is cleared, it can be "saved" and repeated for that stage any time. This includes ability usage and Operator placement. This can fail through RNG if the stage is difficult and you barely squeaked through, although you are given a warning if this is about to take place.
Finally, there is a base system that is similar to games like Fallout Shelter. It is a major part of the game, and is another source of customization, from decorations to prioritizing outputting resources for the main part of the game.
There are two different types of gacha: Recruit and Headhunt.
Recruit is a timer-based gacha system that is "free" to all players. You earn tickets through various tasks, like weekly quests, login rewards, and so on, and these can be used in Recruit. You can then use a timer to increase or decrease the time it takes to summon a unit. For example, you can increase the timer to 9 hours (max) and increase the chance to receive a rarer unit (and eliminate lower rarity units completely) or you can decrease the timer to 1 hour and open up the pool to all rarity units. The system is very similar to Girls Frontline or [BANNED GAME], although you do not earn as many summon tickets as in those games.
The second gacha, Headhunt, is your standard gacha, premium currency and all. Gacha odds are:
2% - ******
8% - *****
50% - ****
40% - ***
There are only units in the gacha, so no artifacts, craft essences, dragons, or weapons. Also, there is a pity system. After 50 rolls of no six starred Operator, six star chance raises by 2% each single roll, until after 100 rolls it is 100%. It is reset after pulling a six star Operator. It is NOT reset between banners, so if you were to roll 68 times and not get a six star Operator, and the banner ends, you would have an 38% chance to get a six star Operator on your next pull, no matter which banner you pull on.
Duplicates not required, but add some minor benefits. There are five stages, so to max a unit out, five duplicates are required.These benefits include reduced deployment costs, re-deployment time reduction, minor stat enhancements, and the final unlock is unique to each Operator. These are nice to have, but none are necessary.
Last edited: