Arknights Endfield Skill Leveling Priority – Which Skills to Max First

Skill upgrades in Arknights: Endfield give huge early power spikes, but they are expensive, so beginners should max a few core actives on their main team before touching anything else. The simple rule is: prioritize damage and team‑buff skills you press often, get everything important to around level 5–7, then only chase high‑tier masteries on your best carries.

Global Skill Priority Rules

Endfield operators have four main skill types (Basic, Battle, Combo, Ultimate), plus passives/talents. For most characters, the recommended leveling order is:​​

1. Main Battle Skill(s) – your most-used damage or buff button.
2. Ultimate – big burst or major team utility.
3. Combo Skill – conditional damage or extra control when procs are easy.
4. Basic Attack – lowest priority, level it last.

Beginner guides summarize it as: raise character level and key skills first, weapons after, and do not chase full max skills on everyone early.​

Which Skills to Max First (Generic)

Because materials are limited, push only a handful of skills high early on.​

• On your main DPS:
  • Max their primary Battle Skill and Ultimate first (to 7–9), since these drive most of their damage and stagger during boss windows.​
  • Raise their Combo Skill if it reliably triggers in your team (e.g., off freeze/knockdown).​
• On your tank:
  • Focus on survivability actives (damage reduction, shields, self‑heals) and any taunt/stagger skills you use to control elites.​​
• On your healer/support:
  • Prioritize skills that buff team damage (susceptibility, debuffs) and group healing/mitigation over niche single‑target heals.

Icy‑Veins and Mobalytics both emphasize that “gold” late‑game materials and high masteries should be reserved for your best 1–2 operators once you are past level 60+; beginners should stop at affordable breakpoints.​

Example: Ardelia’s Skill Priority

LDShop’s build guide for Ardelia gives a concrete example of how to prioritize skills on a core support/DPS.​

• Top priority: Battle Skill (the dash that cashes out Corrosion into both Physical and Arts susceptibility and fuels her healing engine).​
• Next: Ultimate, then Combo Skill, then Basic Attack.​

This matches the general rule: push the skill that defines the unit’s job (here, damage amp + Corrosion), then their Ultimate, then everything else.

Where to Farm Skill Materials and How High to Go

• Skill materials:
  • Protoprism and Protohedron are the two items used to level skills from 1→9 and can both be farmed at a spot near the Core AIC Area in Protocol Space.
• How far to level:
  • Use Protoprism/Protohedron to take core skills to level 5–7 during early and mid game, which gives most of the benefit without extreme cost.​​
  • Treat levels 8–9 and Skill Masteries (which consume special gold-tier materials from Deep Dives) as late‑game investments reserved for your best 1–2 carries.​​

ProGameGuides stresses that Deep Dive mastery materials are tuned for teams of level 80+ operators, so beginners should ignore them until their main squad is fully promoted and geared.​

Practical Beginner Checklist

For a new account working on a first main team, a simple, safe plan is:

• Choose 4 core operators (main DPS, tank, healer/support, flex).
• For each:
  • Take their key Battle Skill and Ultimate to at least level 5.
  • Push those to 7–9 only on your main DPS and your best support (e.g., Ardelia).
• Farm Protoprism/Protohedron only after you have enough EXP and promotion mats to hit your next level caps.

Following these priorities keeps your skill leveling efficient, avoids wasting rare materials, and ensures that the abilities you actually press most during combat get the biggest upgrades.