Revision history: Headhunting Data Contracts

Headhunting Data Contracts are Arknights' spark: a deterministic exchange ceiling layered onto limited banners. The system arrived in 2024, starting with the "Cremation Last Wish" limited banner, five years into the game's life and after years of community requests. [1]

The rules

• Every pull on a limited banner grants 1 Headhunting Data Contract. [1]
• 300 contracts can be exchanged for the banner's rate-up limited 6-star operator. [1]
• 75 contracts can be exchanged for a rate-up 5-star operator. [1]
• Contracts expire when the banner ends, converting into a small amount of shop currency; nothing carries to the next limited banner. [1]

The 300 figure follows the Granblue Fantasy convention (see cerulean sparks), and the expiry rule is the strict version of the pattern: the ceiling only protects players who commit all 300 pulls inside one banner window.

The 2025 discount

From the "Our Kind" limited banner onward, the exchange cost for shop 6-star operators originally released four or more years earlier (five or more for the Festival limited class) dropped from 300 to 200 contracts, a partial answer to the growing backlog of old limited operators. [1]

How it interacts with the other systems

The spark sits on top of the escalation and the 150-pull limited guarantee described on the Headhunting page. In practice the layers produce this ladder for a limited banner: escalation caps a 6-star drought at 99 pulls, the 150-pull rule guarantees one rate-up limited 6-star, and 300 contracts guarantee the specific one you wanted. Cross-game context is in the comparison table.