The Arknights: Endfield characters list launches with 34 operators spread across six classes and five elements, and knowing who does what is the difference between a squad that melts bosses and one that stalls on every imbalance window. This guide walks the full roster by rarity, class, and element so you can identify the strongest pulls on every banner, spot overlap with the units you already own, and read every character name before you commit your Orundum. According to the the official Endfield site (Korean), the launch operator pool defines class role, elemental specialty, and weapon archetype on every profile page, which is why most players sort the roster along those three axes first and only then look at individual stats.
Launch Roster Overview and Rarity Spread
The launch Arknights: Endfield all characters pool sits at 34 operators and breaks into three rarity tiers: 4-star, 5-star, and 6-star. The 6-star band is the largest and packs every meta-defining unit, the 5-star band carries the mid-tier backbone, and the 4-star band is the smallest free starter pool that every new player draws from before the first banner.
Rarity Distribution at Launch
| Rarity | Count at Launch | Role in Roster | Pull Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| 6-star | 19 | Meta anchors, banner-defining | Limited + standard banner |
| 5-star | 10 | Backbone of most teams | Standard banner, rate-up |
| 4-star | 5 | Early-game filler, trust farm | New player pool, standard |
Community sources such as Game8 maintain a full character list alongside per-character build pages, which is the fastest way to check whether an operator you just pulled competes for a slot in your four-squad team. The official site, by contrast, is the cleanest source for class, element, and weapon type because those are the three attributes that decide slot fit long before raw stat numbers matter.
Why Rarity Alone Doesn't Decide a Slot
Rarity is the floor, not the ceiling. A 5-star operator with the right element for the current combat zone will outperform a 6-star whose element is being resisted, which is why experienced players sort the Arknights: Endfield operator list by element first and rarity second when the imbalance meter starts dropping faster than their burst damage. That habit also explains why the four-slot party is built around two damage dealers, one support, and one defender — the same composition philosophy shows up across community tier lists such as the Endfield Tier List: Who Leads the Meta rankings that consistently push a balanced element spread over a raw rarity stack.
Classes, Elements, and How Operators Are Categorized
Every Arknights: Endfield operators profile is built from three layers: class, element, and weapon type. Class decides what the operator does in combat (tank, dps, support), element decides which damage types and combos they unlock, and weapon type decides which gear set and base stats scale with them. All three appear on the official operator page, and the game's tutorial also surfaces them in the squad screen, so reading the roster is mostly a matter of reading the icon column.
The Six Classes Explained
| Class | Squad Role | Typical Weapon | Example Operator |
|---|---|---|---|
| Vanguard | Early deployment, fast setup | Sword / Polearm | Various |
| Striker | Main melee damage dealer | Greatsword / Dual blades | Various |
| Guard | Balanced melee frontline | Sword / Spear | Various |
| Defender | Tank, stagger soak | Hammer / Shield | Various |
| Caster | Ranged elemental damage | Catalyst / Wand | Various |
| Supporter | Buffs, heals, utility | Instrument / Tool | Various |
The class column on the official site is the first filter to apply when scanning the Arknights: Endfield characters name catalog, because two operators with identical element and rarity can fill wildly different squad roles. A Heat Striker and a Heat Caster, for example, share a damage type but operate on completely different gauges and ranges, so the class column is what actually decides which four units make the final cut.
How the Five Elements Shape Team Building
| Element | Best Against | Combo Trigger | Faction Flavor |
|---|---|---|---|
| Physical | Neutral, armor strips | Burst linkage | Industrial, grounded |
| Heat | Plant / organic | Combustion | Volcanic, aggressive |
| Cryo | Slow, freeze windows | Permafrost | Glacial, control |
| Electric | Chain, shield break | Shock | High-tech, rapid |
| Nature | Healing, regen | Bloom | Organic, sustain |
Element matters twice in Endfield: it gates the elemental combo system that pops extra damage when two elements hit the same target in sequence, and it gates the imbalance gauge that promotes your next heavy hit into an execution attack once it fills. The Arknights: Endfield all characters roster covers all five elements at launch, but Heat and Cryo are the most heavily represented because they line up with the two elemental reactions the tutorial teaches first. If you want a deeper element-by-element breakdown of who leads each element, the best per-element operators ranking goes one level deeper than the class table.
The 6-Star Roster and Their Banner Identity
The 6-star band is the most scrutinized slice of the Arknights: Endfield characters list because every limited banner features one of them at a 50% rate-up and the rest sit on the standard banner at much lower odds. Each 6-star is also the face of a banner rotation, which means the community tracks them less as a list and more as a timeline of who is up for pull and when.
Current 6-Star Operators at Launch
| Operator | Class | Element | Weapon | Banner Window at Launch |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lifeng | Guard | Physical | Polearm | Launch limited |
| Laevatain | Striker | Heat | Sword | Launch limited |
| Typhoeus | Striker | Nature | Arts Unit | Launch limited |
| Ember | Defender | Heat | Great Sword | Launch limited |
| Mi Fu | Guard | Physical | Great Sword | Launch limited |
| Arcane | Caster | Nature | Arts Unit | Standard |
| Liino | Supporter | Electric | Polearm | Standard |
| Yvonne | Striker | Cryo | Handcannon | Standard |
| And others | Various | Various | Various | Standard |
The limited 6-stars are the units you actually want to plan around, because missing their banner window pushes them to standard-banner odds that can take months of saving to convert. The community breakdown of how each of these 6-stars actually performs in practice, including Typhoeus and Laevatain placements on the current meta chart, lives in the 5-star and 6-star tier list guide, which is a good companion read once you know which banners you are planning to pull on.
Reading Banner Identity
Banner identity matters because limited 6-stars usually ship with a signature mechanic that no standard operator replicates. Laevatain, for example, is the premier Heat Striker and the cleanest fit for Combustion windows, while Typhoeus defines how Nature is supposed to chain through shielded targets. Reading each 6-star's kit in advance — class, element, weapon, and the one or two mechanics that make them a banner-defining unit — is the single biggest lever you have over pull efficiency, which is exactly the lens the Arknights: Endfield characters tier list uses to sort the field.
The 5-Star Roster, 4-Star Roster, and Free Units
Beneath the 6-star band, the 5-star and 4-star rosters do most of the heavy lifting on real accounts. A new player who hits the early banners without a 6-star is not stuck — they are running on a fully viable 5-star squad that covers every class, with a 4-star bench filling in trust, outpost, and clue-room assignments.
How 5-Stars Fit a Working Squad
| 5-Star Slot | Best Use | Why It Matters |
|---|---|---|
| Damage carry | Patch a missing element | Better than a 6-star wrong element |
| Sub-DPS | Trigger elemental combo | Cheap, fast to build |
| Support | Buffs / heals for 4-slot team | Most teams want one support slot |
| Defender | Stagger soak, gauge holding | Lets DPS spend their burst window |
A 5-star team comp clears every story node and most event content at launch, and the gap between a maxed 5-star and a fresh 6-star is much smaller than the tier-list drama suggests. The community's strongest 5-star picks are listed in the strongest operators ranking page, and most of them double as the best 4-slot anchors when a 6-star is off-banner. The 4-star bench is also where your trust, clue room, and outpost operators come from, so leveling a few extras there is never wasted progression.
4-Star Operators and the Free Roster
The 4-star band is small but functional. Several of the 4-stars are competitive with mid 5-stars for early story content, and almost all of them are useful for the passive systems that run in the background. The free roster you accumulate from the new-player pool plus login rewards easily covers the four-slot core, and once you add one or two 5-stars from the standard banner, the 6-stars become the cherry on top rather than the foundation of the team.
Upcoming Characters and Banner Predictions
The Arknights: Endfield upcoming characters list is the part of the roster that nobody has a hard answer to, because Hypergryph has not published a full schedule the way some live-service games do. What the community can confidently say is which archetypes are missing from the launch roster, which elements are under-represented, and which classes still feel thin after a few weeks of play.
What's Likely on the Roadmap
| Predicted Archetype | Class Gap | Element Gap | Likely Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Physical Defender | Defender slot thin | Physical underused | Standard pool |
| Nature Striker | Nature strikers rare | Element balance | Limited |
| Electric Supporter | Electric support scarce | Combo enabler | Limited |
| Heat Caster | Heat caster count low | Burst windows | Limited |
None of these predictions are confirmed, and any specific name attached to them is community speculation, not an official reveal. The safest reading is that the Arknights: Endfield operator list will keep growing on roughly the cadence of one new 6-star per patch plus a handful of new 5-stars and 4-stars, with limited units rotating onto the standard banner after their rate-up window closes. For players who want to plan pulls around the current banner rather than future ones, the current banner and team comp tier list is the most practical reference.
How to Prepare for Upcoming Banners
The single best preparation is to keep your Orundum stash healthy between banners instead of burning it on the standard pool. Once you know which 6-stars you are willing to skip, the standard banner becomes a side activity rather than the main event, and your pull budget can concentrate on the next rate-up. The four-slot team building that the launch roster expects is covered in detail in the 4-operator squad building guide, which is worth reading before you commit a single ten-pull, because the wrong 6-star on the wrong account is a slower mistake than the wrong 5-star on a new one.
Building Your First Squad From the Roster
A working Arknights: Endfield squad is four operators, one combo window, and one imbalance-meter plan. Most successful starter squads run two damage dealers, one support, and one defender, with the elements split so that at least one combo reaction is always online. The combat loop also means your defender choice matters more than the raw rarity of your damage dealers, because the defender is the one holding the gauge while your burst operators spend their cooldowns.
A Practical Roster Checklist
| Checklist Item | Why It Matters | Where to Confirm |
|---|---|---|
| One Heat or Cryo unit | First combo reaction the tutorial teaches | Element column on profile |
| One physical or electric unit | Second combo reaction for shielded enemies | Element column on profile |
| One supporter | Buffs, heals, or shields the four-slot team | Class column on profile |
| One defender | Stagger soak + imbalance holding | Class column on profile |
| A trust-farm operator | Builds trust rewards passively | Outpost assignment screen |
| A clue-room operator | Converts intel into rewards | Reception room screen |
That checklist covers story, event, and most boss content at launch. The two damage slots and the one support slot are where your rarity decisions actually show up, while the defender slot is usually filled by whoever you pulled most recently because the class is rare enough that you take what you get. The official site is the cleanest place to confirm class and element, and the per-character build pages on community wikis fill in the gear and skill priority behind each name.
Common Roster Mistakes
Three mistakes show up over and over on new accounts. The first is pulling only on the banner with the prettiest operator art and ending up with four defenders and no damage. The second is ignoring the element column and stacking two of the same element when the four-slot team wants element spread. The third is benching every 4-star and 5-star the moment a 6-star lands, which starves the trust, clue, and outpost systems of assignable operators. The roster is large enough that the right answer is almost always to keep your bench wide and your team comp narrow.
Frequently Asked Questions
How many Arknights: Endfield characters are there at launch?
The launch Arknights: Endfield all characters roster sits at 34 operators split across 4-star, 5-star, and 6-star bands, with 19 six-stars, 10 five-stars, and 5 four-stars. The exact total shifts slightly with each patch because new operators are added on a regular cadence, so community-maintained lists like Game8 are the most up-to-date reference for the precise current count.
What is the difference between an operator and a character in Arknights: Endfield?
Nothing — the two terms refer to the same roster. The official site uses "operator" because of the franchise's lore, while players use "character" interchangeably in casual discussion. The Arknights: Endfield operator list and the Arknights: Endfield characters list describe the same pool of units and use the same class, element, and weapon columns on their profile pages.
Which class should I prioritize when starting out?
Striker, Caster, Supporter, and Defender in roughly that order. A starter team wants one or two damage dealers from Striker or Caster, one Supporter to buff or heal the four-slot, and one Defender to hold the imbalance gauge. Vanguard and Guard are useful but not mandatory at launch, and the deeper meta picks are easier to evaluate once you have the four core slots filled.
Are Arknights: Endfield upcoming characters confirmed in advance?
Not officially. Hypergryph typically reveals the next banner's 6-star feature a few days before the banner opens, with the rest of the rate-up operators announced at the same time. The Arknights: Endfield upcoming characters list circulating on Reddit and Discord is community prediction based on unreleased archetypes and CN-server testing data, not official confirmation, so plan your Orundum around confirmed reveals rather than speculation.
Where can I check every Arknights: Endfield characters name in one place?
The official Arknights: Endfield website lists every operator with class, element, and weapon type, while community wikis like Game8 add per-character builds, skill priority, and gear recommendations. For players who want to cross-reference the roster with current meta rankings, the tier list hub sorts the same names into performance tiers that the official site does not publish.