New players in Arknights: Endfield mainly lose progress by over-investing in too many units, ignoring AIC/factory, misusing Sanity, and misunderstanding banner guarantees. Fixing these habits early makes the whole account smoother and cheaper to run.
Leveling and Team-Building Mistakes
- Mistake: Leveling everyone a little instead of one core team.
- Early resources (credits, mats, essence) are tight; spreading them across 8–12 operators leaves you with no truly strong squad.
- Fix: Lock in one main team (1 DPS, 1 tank/bruise, 1 healer, 1 flex support) and push them first before touching side picks.
- Mistake: Over-upgrading random early gear.
- Pumping resources into low-rarity gear you will replace soon is a major sink.
- Fix: Equip what drops, but save heavy upgrades for decent 3–4★ sets that actually match your main operators.
Resource and Sanity Mismanagement
- Mistake: Letting Sanity cap or spending it on low-yield content.
- Capped Sanity is wasted progression; grinding low XP/story for drops is inefficient.
- Fix: After resource stages unlock, spend Sanity on core XP/promotion/weapon mats, not random side fights; log in at least once daily to dump Sanity.
- Mistake: Ignoring consumables and Stock Bills.
- Not crafting good consumables or using Recycling/rare nodes slows Stock Bill gain and long-term upgrades.
- Fix: Craft useful consumables (heals, buffs) and make sure rare node and Recycling timers are always ticking so you do not waste respawns.
AIC Factory and Exploration Mistakes
- Mistake: Treating AIC as optional “later content.”
- Factory time lost on day one is gone forever and drags future upgrades.
- Fix: Unlock and set up electric mining rigs and early production lines ASAP; keep them running every session.
- Mistake: Placing ziplines/pylons randomly.
- Sloppy layouts make backtracking and farming slower.
- Fix: As you enter new areas, plan zipline and energy routes that connect main objectives, chests, and resource nodes efficiently.
Gacha and Spending Mistakes
- Mistake: Pulling on whatever banner is up without a plan.
- Many new players ignore the 120-pull featured guarantee and pity carry-over, then miss limited units by stopping at awkward numbers.
- Fix: Learn that:
- 6★ pity is at 80 and carries across character banners.
- The 120-pull spark for the rate-up does NOT carry and resets when the banner ends.
- Only commit heavily to a limited banner if you are comfortable going to ~120 pulls; otherwise, save.
- Mistake: Prioritizing weapons over characters.
- Weapon pity is more expensive and does not carry between banners, so early weapon chasing hurts rosters.
- Fix: Focus on getting a solid operator core first, then consider weapon banners once your team is stable.
Combat and Mechanics Mistakes
- Mistake: Ignoring elements, reactions, and Stagger.
- Some new players just spam skills, missing huge damage from reactions and stagger windows.
- Fix: Learn Infliction → Burst → Reaction basics and build Stagger before bursting bosses; this massively increases effective DPS.
- Mistake: Bad team order and positioning.
- Putting operators in poor slot order and standing in hazards makes fights harder than they need to be.
- Fix: Arrange team order (frontline first, healer last) and practice positioning/dodges; keep an eye on environmental hazards when pathing.
If you avoid these traps, build one main team, treat AIC and Sanity seriously, plan banners around pity, and respect elements/Stagger, you sidestep nearly all of the progress-killing mistakes veterans see from new Endfield players.
