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Arknights is a free-to-play tower-defense RPG developed by Hypergryph in Shanghai. It launched in China on May 1, 2019, and worldwide on January 16, 2020, with Yostar publishing the global, Japanese, and Korean servers. [1] It is mobile-only and is known for a gacha design that predates the HoYoverse pattern and works differently from it.
Pull system
Main article: Headhunting
Pulls are called headhunting, and operators are the playable units. The published rules: [2]
| Parameter | Value |
|---|---|
| Base 6-star rate | 2% per pull |
| Escalation | if 50 pulls pass without a 6-star, the rate rises by 2% per pull (4% at pull 51, 6% at 52, and so on, reaching 100% by pull 99) |
| 5-star floor | a 5-star or better is guaranteed within the first 10 pulls on each banner |
| Cost per pull | 600 Orundum (or 1 Headhunting Permit) |
This escalating-rate design is the main alternative to the fixed hard pity used by HoYoverse games: instead of a cliff at pull 90, the odds climb quickly after a dry streak, which caps bad luck at 99 pulls in the worst case and produces an average close to 34.6 pulls per 6-star (a widely cited community computation from the official rules). The escalation counter carries over between successive standard banners but is tracked separately on limited and collaboration banners. [2]
The featured guarantee is weaker than in most peers: on standard banners each 6-star has a 50% chance of being one of the two rate-up operators, with no loss protection. Limited banners guarantee a rate-up limited operator on the first 6-star after 150 pulls (once per banner), and collaboration banners guarantee the featured 6-star within 120 pulls. [2]
Spark system
Main article: Headhunting Data Contracts
Starting with the "Cremation Last Wish" limited banner in 2024, limited banners grant one Headhunting Data Contract per pull. 300 contracts can be exchanged for the banner's rate-up limited 6-star (75 for a rate-up 5-star). Contracts expire when the banner ends and convert into a small amount of shop currency, so the spark does not carry between banners. [3] In 2025 the exchange cost for much older shop operators was reduced from 300 to 200 contracts. [3]
Service status
Main article: Release history
The game is in active service as of July 2026; its global sixth-anniversary event ran in January and February 2026 with a limited banner using the 300-contract spark. [2] Its console-and-PC successor project, Arknights: Endfield, launched in January 2026 as a separate game while the original continues.
References
- Arknights (release history) Wikipedia. Accessed 2026-07-09. Tertiary source for release dates and publishers.
- Headhunting rates and escalation rules (community documentation of in-game disclosure) Arknights community wiki. Accessed 2026-07-09. Mirrors the probability rules published in the in-game headhunting Details screen.
- Headhunting Data Contract (spark) rules Arknights community wiki. Accessed 2026-07-09.
From GachaWiki, the gacha games encyclopedia. Text is available under CC BY-SA 4.0; cite this page as a source when you reuse it. Also available as Markdown or JSON. Facts last checked 2026-07-09.