Arknights Rumor Mill: Is CC#12 a remake of CCβ?

Earlier today, Hypergryph released a new post in their official website detailing the release of three new events: Leaves Chasing Fire, presumed to be the Monster Hunter Collab, “Improved Readiness”, a new main story mechanic involving Trust, and most importantly the announcement of Contingency Contract Season 12: Operation Origin.

Knowing this will be the final season of Contingency Contract before a big overhaul of the event, many players have started wondering if this one will have something special and memorable to go out with a bang. This article will show some evidence that points towards this season being based on the very first of this event, Contingency Contract Beta.

As per official sources, the codename for this season of Contingency Contract is 「起源行动」, tentatively translated as Operation Origin.

While this alone is circumstantial as best, the pattern fits really well with the rest of the evidence we’ve found within the announcement, making it seem less of a coincidence and more of a deliberate choice on the event’s theme: a return to the roots of Contingency Contract, it’s very origin in CCβ.

One of the very few visual indicators of what this season will look like already comes packed with clues, starting from the very shape of its unique logo. Does it ring a bell?

Trademark triangular shape aside, we can spot certain similarities between the season 12 icon and the beta icon share some surprising visuals: both the concentric circles nested inside the triangle and the halo surrounding it are clearly visible in both icons, along with the parallel lines traversing from the inner circles to the triangle itself and even the cuts of a “negative space” where the smaller triangle under the circle would be.

The season 12 icon appears eroded and weathered by time, with large chunks of its general shape missing, but still bears a striking resemblance to the beta one, with some particular differences I will mention later in this article.

One of the main currencies of Contingency Contract, present throughout all season, is the Operation Agreements, earnt via challenge missions and spent on unlocking further contracts to challenge yourself with.

These share their shape with the CCβ icon entirely, and thus the resemblances are the exact same as in the previous point, bar the outer halo which is not present in the currency version of the icon.

What is the single most memorable part of Contingency Contract Beta? The novelty of the event? The Armed Militants? No, it’s none of those things, it’s the two incredibly buffed Hateful Avengers the game threw at us with an Active Originium Tile buff to top it off. Fully juiced up by Contracts, these monsters had over 6500 Attack and almost 100000 Health, decimating everything in their path and quickly crushing any strategy that couldn’t permanently stall them.

If you take a look at the season 12 icon again, you might notice two inconspicuous, blazing swords poking above and below the triangle…