Arknights: Limited Operator Lists and Series Banners Explained!

Limited Banners function a bit differently than Standard Pool Banners or Normal Event/Feature Banners.  Here are the main differences:

• The chance of pulling a rate-up Operator when pulling a 6 Star Operator is 70% (instead of the normal 50%), with the result chance equally split between the 1 Limited Operator and 1 non-limited Operator.
• Previously released Limited Operators of the same Banner Series (more on this below) will be added to the non-rate-up pool after a certain amount of time has passed since that limited Operator's original release. This amount of time is determined based on the CN Operator release schedule, and is 1 year from the original release.  These limited Operators are 5 times more likely to be pulled from the pool of non-rate-up 6 stars (reminder that there is 30% possibility of pulling a non-rate up Operator when pulling a 6 star).
• Each Limited Banner has it's own pity count that is not shared with any other banner (standard or limited).  The pity count is lost when the banner ends.
• Each pull awards a  [Headhunting Data Contract].  300 can be used to purchase a 6 star from the relevant shop, 75 to purchase a 5 star.  The 6 stars available for purchase will be the 6 stars on the current banner plus any limited Operators the have been added to the non-rate-up pool (as described above in bullet 2)
• When the banner ends, any existing  [Headhunting Data Contract] will be converted into [Headhunting Parametric Models] at a 1:6 ratio.  At that point, they can no longer be used to hire Operators, but instead can be used to purchase development materials from the shop.  Details of the shop can be found here.

• The [New Year Celebration Lookback] Limited Banner is different than the others in that it doesn't have Limited Operators.  For these banners, the first (and only the first) 6* operator in this headhunting is guaranteed to be on of the Operators that the player does not currently have from a specified pool of existing non-limited 6 Stars.

• There are currently 4 Limited Banner Series: [Celebration], [Spring Festival], [Summer], and [New Year Celebration Lookback]. (Note that the Spring Festival, Summer, and New Year Series do not yet have EN translated names)
• Limited Operators are added to the non-rate-up 6 star pool of future banners of the same series after 1 year has passed (based on the CN Banner release schedule).  They also become available for purchase with [Headhunting Data Contract]s at the same time.
• The R6 Collab Banner Attack-Defence Tactical Collide with limited Operators was not announced to be part of any existing series, and it is unkown if this banner or these operators will ever be made available again in the future.
• The [New Year Celebration Lookback] Limited Banner is different than the others in that it doesn't have Limited Operators.  For these banners, the first (and only the first) 6* operator in this headhunting is guaranteed to be one of the Operators that the player does not currently have from a specified pool of existing non-limited 6 Stars.

A list of all Limited Operators, their details, release dates, etc, can be viewed on our Operator List here.

Operators with wait period cleared on global (will show up on future series banners): W, Rosmontis.

All Operators in this series will appear on future banners of the series, since (until now) this series only happens once per year.

Based on the last year or so of CN schedule, it looks like there will be 4 regularly occurring Limited Banners per year.  There may also be additional non-regular limited banners (for example, the R6 collab banner)

Celebration Series Schedule

• On CN, a [Celebration Series] Banner happens twice per year: one on Anniversary, and one on Half-Anniversary
• On Global, the [Celebration series] banners occurred for the first time on first anniversary, the second time during Golden Week, and the third time not attached to any significant date.  it is unclear exactly if/how the global [Celebration] banners will be scheduled in the future, but we can expect two per year. 

Spring Festival Series Schedule

• On CN, a [Spring Festival Series] Banner happens every year on Chinese New Year.
• On Global, the [Spring Festival Series] banners have happened on the Half-Anniversaries.  It is unclear if this scheduling will continue.

Summer Series Schedule

• On CN, the only current [Summer Series] Banner happened in August 2021.  It is unknown when the series will be repeated and if it will be regularly occurring.
• On Global, the [Summer Series] banner has not occurred yet.  As it is the next Limited Banner in line as per the CN schedule, it is speculated that it will come on the next major global date of significance, which would be the 2nd Anniversary.

New Year Celebration Lookback Schedule

• On CN, the only current [New Year Celebration Lookback] Banner happened on January 1, 2022.  It is unknown when the series will be repeated and if it will be regularly occurring.
• On Global, the [New Year Celebration Lookback] banner has not occurred yet.