Arknights: Tips and Advice to Guide New Doctors

The Gacha and Recruitment

• 1. The "New Player" banner guarantees a 6★ and 5★ Operator but is limited to 21 pulls (including the tutorial pull).  With its discounted price, this banner is an easy way for new players to get Operators.

• 2. Re-rolling is not necessary, as all of the 6★ Operators featured on the new player banner are good and stages can be cleared with low-rarity Operators and proper strategies. If you are planning on rerolling, look here for advice.

• 3. Players are guaranteed to pull one 5★ or higher Operator within the first 10 pulls on any banner. This may seem good, but it is usually a newbie trap.  5★ Operators are more expensive to develop than lower rarity Operators, and usually do not significantly outperform their lower rarity counterparts at lower levels.  On top of this, most 5★ Operators will not have a significant impact at end-game, so investment in them often ultimately gets wasted.  We recommend that new players NOT roll a banner for the G5 (5★ guarantee) alone, unless there is a significant chance the 5★ will be worth investment.  To find out which 5★ Operators might be worth rolling for you can check out the New Player Tier List.   Instead of pulling the G5, players should save for upcoming high-impact Operators: check out the Banner list to find out who's coming!

• 4. The Arknights gacha has a pity system that increases the chance of pulling a 6★ Operator after 50 pulls without one. It persists across non-limited banners, ensuring even the unluckiest of players can get high-rarity units. Additionally, during every Standard Pool Banner one 5★ and one 6★ Operator can be obtained through the Yellow Certificate Shop. Keep in mind that Players should be saving their Yellow certs to purchase high-impact Operators.  Limited Banners do not share or roll-over pity.  More info about Limited banners can be found here.

5. Many great Operators can be obtained from Recruitment, even some 6★ ones! By picking the correct tags and recruitment time, you’ll be able to shift the odds in your favor. See our Recruitment Guide for more details on Tag Combinations and Recruitment.

Gameplay

• 1. A good “core” team composition is 2 Vanguards, 2 Snipers, 2 Casters, 2 Medics and 1 or 2 Defenders.  Guards and Supporters are good additions for general use, while Specialists excel at specific missions.  Our Teambuilding Guide has more advice if you need it.  After gaining a bit of experience in battle, try experimenting to find what strategies suit you best!

• Vanguard x2
• Sniper x2
• Caster x2
• Medic x2
• Defender x1-2

• 2. In the beginning, a good team composition is more important than rarity.  It is necessary to have the proper strategic roles covered. It isn’t until higher Promotion levels that higher rarity Operators start to become significantly more effective than lower rarity ones.  Lower rarity Operators are cheaper to deploy in battle and require less materials to upgrade. Make sure you aren’t creating an unbalanced team with cripplingly high DP costs by bringing only high rarity Operators.

• 3. Most new players will not have access to many of the high rarity Operators right from the start. You can check out our guide to the best low rarity Operators to help you build a good team early on.  Our New Player Tier List can help new players choose Operators that are good early-game investments.

• 4. Leveling your whole team at the same pace will allow you to advance through the story quicker, though you may benefit by giving DPS a little extra EXP while Medics can be kept at a slightly lower level.  In general, as levels and Skills get higher, there are diminishing returns in investment: it costs more for the same amount of gain.  Spreading out the love thus allows you to grow your overall team power faster than if you only invest in a few Operators.  For example, a decent stopping point is lvl 30 at E1 or E2 until other Operators catch up.

• 5. Skill Levels are very important!  Don't neglect them while you're leveling your Operators!  Skill level 4 is a good place to leave E1 Operators.  Level 7 also usually sees a significant improvement.

• 7. Don’t be afraid to mix up your team composition to try new strategies and become familiar with new Operators.  A common mistake for new Doctors is to focus too much on one team, missing opportunities that maps present for different formations or Operators to shine.  There are a lot of Classes, Archetypes, and Roles in Arknights.  You can use our Interactive Operator List  to get an idea of what is out there and what they are good for.

• 8. For enemy swarms, use Defenders to bunch them up and AoE units to destroy them.  Deploying 2 or 3 Defenders and 2 AoE Units typically works well.  Since AoE units are especially expensive, add extra Vanguards to increase your Deployment Points.

• 9. Sometimes the best Defense is a good Offense!  If an enemy is dead, it doesn’t need to be blocked and there is no damage to heal.   If you find yourself being overwhelmed in battle, you may be focusing too much on blocking and defending.  Try swapping in some harder-hitting offensive Operators to see if taking down the enemy quicker helps.

• 10. While you are learning, it is a good idea to have a cheap unit that can be deployed quickly if a weak enemy slips past your front line because of a misjudgment.  The unit can then be retreated after it has served its “panic button” purpose. Fast-redeploy units like Yato, Gravel, or Projekt Red work great for this.

• 11. Get to know your surroundings and enemies. Use Map Preview to plan your strategy and check special terrain effects. Enemy Intelligence contains enemy stats and information on their special abilities, letting you plan ahead. Drill Plans can be used to practice a quest before spending Sanity on an attempt. They can saved for high Sanity-cost stages that return a low percentage on failure.

• 12. Enemies will target the most recently deployed Operator in their range. Keep this in mind when fighting against mages, drones and ranged Bosses.

• 13. For most Operators, retreating refunds 50% of the Deployment Cost (the exception is Kill-DP-Recovery Vanguards, who refund 100%).  If an Operator dies, no Deployment Cost is refunded.  The first redeployment of an Operator increases Deployment Cost by 50%, and all subsequent redeployments increase cost by 100%.

• 14. Developing at least two 3★ Operators will grant rewards from Mission Board quests.  Good 3★ Operators to consider raising are Melantha, Kroos, Midnight, and/or Ansel, but pick your favorites -- there's no "wrong" choice.

• On "Annihilation Maps" If the battle isn't going your way, you can exit out of the application and all sanity will be refunded (no rewards given).  Keep in mind this does NOT work on non-annihilation stages: if the application closes mid-run, the run fails.
• Skip tickets can be used on Annihilation runs once they are completed with no escapes.
• Players can use "Support" units of friends to help them complete runs.  The level of the Support units are limited to the highest promotion level of Operators the borrowing player owns.  In other words, if your friend Support unit is at promotion level E2, but you do not have an E2 level operator, the support unit will be limited to promotion level E1.  Thus, some players may want to "rush" their first E2 in order to get stronger Support units to "carry" them through content (especially relevant for new players trying to clear limited-time event content). Some considerations should be made in this regard:
  • Stages cleared with Support units cannot be auto'd.  Thus, it is typically used for content where only 1 clear is needed, and NOT for content that needs to be farmed, since most players will quickly burn out if they need to manually farm stages.  Know yourself and your limits.
  • Rushing a single E2 will require resources that are taken away from developing your team as a whole, thus slowing down the power growth of your team, and slowing down your overall solo and farming progression.  Make sure this trade-off is worth it.
  • If you do decide to rush a first E2, we recommend to choose a 4* (since they are the cheapest to E2) whose promotion will most benefit your current teams power.  This will most likely be a DPS oriented 4 star with good E2 gains.  You can find a more detailed discussion here:  

Base

• 1. The Base is crucial in developing Operators and provides many resources, so don’t neglect it!  Trading Posts can earn you LMD or Orundum.  Factories provide the resources to keep Trading Posts running and are the only source of Dualchips needed to upgrade 5* and 6* Operators to Elite 2. For detailed Base Information see our RIIC Base Guide here:

• 2. When building your base, you’ll have to decide on the number of Trading Posts, Factories and Power Plants you want, as well as to which level to upgrade your facilities.  There are trade-offs that come with some decisions, and some choices that cannot be undone, so be sure to be informed before upgrading.  If in doubt, we recommend using the 2-5-2 build. 

• 3. Some Operators have especially good skills for improving Base output.  Be sure to use them!  This guide can help you find some of them.

• 4. In the beginning, focus on upgrading the left side first to maximize LMD and EXP production output. This will help you develop your Operators faster.

• 5. Operators lose morale over time while working. When they become tired, their skills no longer take effect. Swap them out with fully rested Operators if you will be offline for a long time (i.e., overnight).

6. The Reception Room has some factors that affect Clue Search Speed and finding that are "hidden", as they are non-obvious and not explained in-game.  For more information see the following guide:

Shops

• 1. There are 6 Stores in Arknights: Friend Credit Store, Furniture Store, Certificate Store (with Commendations, Distinctions, and Shop Vouchers), Outfit Store (skins), Originium (premium currency), and Pack Store.  For detailed Store information, see the Store and Currency Guide here:

• 2. You can pick up a couple 4★ operators in the Friend Credit Store.  You get Friend Credits through using Support Units, giving and receiving Clues, and visiting your friends’ dorms during investigations.  You’ll also get Friend Credits every day based on your Dorm Atmosphere.  Friend Credits are limited at 300 and all credits over the cap are lost at the daily reset, so make sure you have less than 300 before the day ends.

• 3. In the Certificate Shop, you have a choice to make on how to spend your Distinctions.  They can be spent on 6★ and 5★ Operators, Headhunting Tickets, and much more.  The most common use is exchanging them for rare 6★ Operators, but if in doubt, just save them up, as they are very hard to gain after the first few weeks of playing.

• 4. Headhunting Tickets can be purchased in the Professional Certificate shop up to 5 times each month.  Each purchase unlocks the next set, with each set being a better deal in terms of Certificate cost per ticket.  Players should only buy the tickets if they can purchase all sets in a given month, at a total cost of 258 Certificates for 38 Headhunting tickets.

• 5. If you do not plan on spending money and you care about skins, Originite Prime should be saved for acquiring skins, because your husbandos and waifus deserve cute new outfits! Most skins can only be purchased with Originite Prime, which the game does not often award free.

Farming

• 1. Once you unlock the Supply Missions, focus on Tactical Drill for farming EXP and Cargo Escort for farming LMD to increase the levels of your Operators.  These stages increase in efficiency at higher levels, so try to beat harder stages as soon as you are able.

• 2. Daily and Weekly missions are a great source of resources, so don’t forget about them!  You can play the free stage 1-11 to complete Mission Clear, Enemy Kills and Enemy Leader Kills without spending Sanity. 

• 3. Be sure to complete your Annihilation Weekly Rewards.  They are the best source of Orundum outside of spending money.

• 4. Be warned: Auto mode can fail because of RNG or increased Operator Costs.  It is a good idea to re-do stages if you've upgraded a lot of units since the last time you ran it.  (It can be fun to see how easily you can smash a stage with your newly-enhanced Operators, too!)

• 5. Stages cannot be auto-cleared if Support Units have been used, so you can save time by clearing a stage on your own before farming it.

• 6. Each farming node is only available on certain days of the week.  Each has its own schedule.  See our Supplies and Chips availability calendar to plan ahead for when you can farm for the materials you need!

• 7. When there is an event running with a shop that requires currency from event stages, players should prioritize farming the event stages for currency (even if they can't clear the higher level stages), since event store purchases will lead to higher overall returns on sanity spent.  Event shop rewards can be found on event pages.