Arknights: Endfield has thirty released operators as of August 2026 — the twenty-three the game launched with on 22 January 2026, plus seven added since. This page ranks all of them: every launch operator with its rarity, class, element and attribute spread, what it actually does, and where it sits in the meta today — which for twelve of the twenty-three is not where it started.
Quick answer
| What | Answer |
|---|---|
| Strongest operator right now | Arcane — 6★ Nature Caster, added in version 1.4 |
| Best free operator | The Endministrator, your own player character |
| Best operator to start with | Perlica — 5★, easy combos, top of the meta today |
| Biggest riser since launch | Chen Qianyu — a free 5★ the launch list called a fill-in |
| Only two you can safely skip | Catcher and Fluorite |
Accurate as of 21 August 2026, game version 1.4 Phase 2. The launch rankings below come from a tier list published on 21 January 2026, the day before global release.
Where the meta stands in August 2026
The eight at the very top of the current consensus ranking are Arcane, Gilberta, Zhuang Fangyi, Rossi, Camille, Mi Fu, Tangtang and Perlica. Six of the eight did not exist at launch. A second group of near-equals sits just below them, and the tables on this page count both as the top band.
The Now column in every table below places each launch operator against that ranking, in five bands: Top band, Strong, Solid, Situational and Skip. Three things are worth knowing before you read them:
- Combat runs on elemental reactions, so composition beats tier placement more than it does in most gacha games. A Cryo carry with no Cryo enabler behind it is a worse team than two mid-band operators whose elements line up.
- The top band is not stable. Laevatain was the consensus number one for months and was moved down a band in version 1.4 Phase 2 for insufficient damage, while Mi Fu moved up for endgame value. A ranking that shifts that far in one patch is a starting point, not a rule.
- Free operators do not sit at the bottom any more. The Endministrator, Chen Qianyu and Snowshine are all handed out, and the first two have both climbed since launch.
The seven operators added since launch
| Operator | Rarity, class, element | What they are |
|---|---|---|
| Arcane | 6★ Caster, Nature | The flagship of the 1.4 Homecoming update, released 16 July 2026. A dual-form damage and support hybrid, and the current top pick. |
| Liino | 6★ Supporter, Electric | The thirtieth operator, banner open 9 August to 2 September 2026. A support kit that buffs and sustains across most compositions. |
| Zhuang Fangyi | 6★ Striker, Electric | Top-band Electric carry, and the reason Electric teams are worth building at all. |
| Rossi | 6★ Guard, Physical | Top-band Physical Guard. |
| Camille | 6★ Vanguard, Heat | Top-band Heat Vanguard. |
| Mi Fu | 6★ Guard, Physical | Promoted into the top band in version 1.4 Phase 2 on endgame value. |
| Tangtang | 6★ Caster, Cryo | Top-band Cryo Caster, and the strongest reason to run Cryo now. |
Version 1.5 opens on 2 September 2026 with Typhoeus, whose banner runs to 30 September. Purrchena follows on 24 September through the Purry Big Feline! RAWR! event. If you are saving, those are the two dates to save toward.
S tier at launch, and where those operators are now
These were the seven the launch list told you to spend everything on 0:59. Five held. Ardelia and Last Rite did not — both are still good, both have been passed by operators released since.
| Operator | Rarity, class, element | Main / secondary attribute | What they do | Now |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Gilberta | 6★ Supporter, Nature | Intellect / Will | Pulls enemies into a central vortex, then amplifies the AoE that lands on them. Crowd control and damage amplification in one slot. | Top band, held |
| Laevatain | 6★ Striker, Heat | Intellect / Strength | The main AoE burst carry. Manages melting flame stacks to ignore enemy resistances, then unloads her ultimate. | Top band, held — though it lost the top place in 1.4 Phase 2 |
| Pogranichnik | 6★ Vanguard, Physical | Will / Agility | Physical teams through breach application. Unusually good left under AI control, with self-sustain and high uptime. | Top band, held |
| Xaihi | 5★ Supporter, Cryo | Will / Intellect | The battery for Cryo teams: freezing crowd control plus a fast, steady supply of Cryo inflictions for someone else to consume. | Top band, held |
| Yvonne | 6★ Caster, Cryo | Intellect / Agility | Consumes elemental inflictions to trigger solidification, which is the payoff every Cryo enabler is building toward. | Top band, held |
| Ardelia | 6★ Supporter, Nature | Intellect / Will | Plug-and-play healer that also amplifies damage — corrosion to cut enemy resistance, plus physical and arts susceptibility for the team. | Strong, slipped |
| Last Rite | 6★ Striker, Cryo | Strength / Will | Single-target burst specialist. Stacks Cryo inflictions and spends them in one window, which is what boss and elite fights reward. | Strong, slipped |
A tier at launch
The launch list framed A tier as replacements to run until an S tier drops 3:24. Three of the six have since climbed past most of the band they were meant to be standing in for.
| Operator | Rarity, class, element | Main / secondary attribute | What they do | Now |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Perlica | 5★ Caster, Electric | Intellect / Will | Electric infliction enabler with real damage of her own, applying electrification through combos that are easy to hit and amplifying Electric damage on top 5:46. | Top band, risen |
| Avywenna | 5★ Striker, Electric | Will / Agility | High-burst Electric damage. Throws thunder lances to stack damage, pulls enemies together for AoE, and applies susceptibility while doing it. | Top band, risen |
| Lifeng | 6★ Guard, Physical | Agility / Strength | Burst physical damage and an enabler in the same kit: physical susceptibility and vulnerability applied through knockdowns, with solid AoE behind it. | Strong, risen |
| Ember | 6★ Defender, Heat | Strength / Will | Labelled a Defender and plays nothing like one — face-tanks, deals heavy single-target and AoE damage, staggers, debuffs, shields and heals. | Solid, held |
| Antal | 4★ Supporter, Electric | Intellect / Strength | A four-star with six-star utility. Marks enemies for susceptibility and amplifies both Electric and Heat damage for the team. | Solid, held |
| Akekuri | 4★ Vanguard, Heat | Agility / Intellect | SP battery and support in one. Recovers large amounts of SP through combos and her ultimate, applies Heat infliction, buffs team attack — and you will pull a lot of copies of her. | Solid, held |
B tier at launch, the band that aged best
This is where the launch ranking went furthest wrong. It called these five temporary fill-ins not worth heavy investment 6:15. Four of the five have climbed since, and two of them are free.
| Operator | Rarity, class, element | Main / secondary attribute | What they do | Now |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Chen Qianyu | 5★ Guard, Physical | Agility / Strength | A free five-star handed to you early. Good damage, stacks physical vulnerability, and has stagger and interrupt strong enough to change how a fight goes. | Top band, risen |
| Endministrator | 6★ Guard, Physical | Agility / Strength | Your own player character, free and permanent. Core physical damage that shatters originium crystals for bonus damage buffs and consumes vulnerability stacks 7:41. | Strong, risen |
| Wulfgard | 5★ Caster, Heat | Strength / Agility | Heat infliction enabler with enough self-sustain to hold a slot alone. Feeds Heat stacks to carries like Laevatain, forces combustion, and buffs other Heat operators. | Strong, risen |
| Arclight | 5★ Vanguard, Electric | Agility / Intellect | Fast-paced Electric enabler and sub-carry. Recovers SP and spends it just as fast, and procs the team's Electric amplifiers. | Strong, risen |
| Snowshine | 5★ Defender, Cryo | Strength / Will | Free, and easy to use. A tank-healer hybrid with shields, conditional heals, Cryo retaliation and an AoE zone that applies solidification. | Situational, held |
C tier at launch
The launch list called this the bottom of the barrel 9:06. Only two of the calls held.
| Operator | Rarity, class, element | Main / secondary attribute | What they do | Now |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Alesh | 5★ Vanguard, Cryo | Strength / Intellect | SP battery that recovers through skills and consumes, applying solidification and team attack buffs alongside it. | Solid, risen |
| Da Pan | 5★ Striker, Physical | Strength / Will | Physical burst damage with an explosive combo that fires at high vulnerability stacks. Wants enablers around him, and pays off when he gets them. | Situational, risen |
| Estella | 4★ Guard, Cryo | Will / Strength | Shatter enabler. Applies Cryo infliction to trigger solidification, which opens physical susceptibility for the rest of the team. | Situational, risen |
| Catcher | 4★ Defender, Physical | Strength / Will | Sustain tank with high protection shields and some crowd control through weaken and knockdown. Outclassed by every better Defender. | Skip, held |
| Fluorite | 4★ Caster, Nature | Agility / Intellect | Applies slow and Nature infliction and carries corrosion attack buffs — all of it done better by casters who bring more besides. | Skip, held |
What to do with all of that
- Elemental reactions are where the damage comes from, so a matched trio beats three unmatched top-band operators. Cryo pairs Last Rite or Yvonne with Xaihi; Heat pairs Laevatain with Wulfgard; Electric pairs Zhuang Fangyi or Avywenna with Perlica.
- The Endministrator, Chen Qianyu and Snowshine cost no pulls, and the first two have both climbed a band or more since launch.
- Easy combos, real damage, and she amplifies the Electric team you will most likely end up building around her.
- Version 1.5 opens 2 September 2026 with Typhoeus, and Purrchena arrives 24 September through an event.
- They are the only two operators the current ranking still leaves in the bottom band, seven months on.
You will not ruin your account
Every ranking on this page is somebody's opinion about a game that keeps changing, and the pattern over seven months is that the opinions move a lot. Twelve of the twenty-three launch operators have changed band since January, ten of them upward, and the operator that held the top of the meta for months lost it in a single patch.
So the practical reading of a tier list in this game is narrower than it looks:
- Elemental synergy decides more fights than placement does. Two matched mid-band operators clear content that three unmatched top-band ones stall on.
- A low placement is not a broken operator. Estella was called one of the worst characters in the game at launch and now ranks level with Snowshine, whom that same list placed a whole band above her.
- Favourites are fine. You cannot lock yourself out of content by building an operator you like, and the early game in particular is clearable with almost any composition that has a healer in it.
Also worth knowing
- Do not skip an operator because a launch list ranked it low. Chen Qianyu, Arclight, Wulfgard and the Endministrator were all called temporary fill-ins in January and are all worth investment now.
- Do not treat the current top band as settled either. Laevatain lost the top spot in the patch that is live as you read this.
- Ember is worth building despite the label. She is ranked a band below the top and does the job of two operators.
- Da Pan rewards setup. He needs vulnerability stacks on the target and hits hard once he has them, which is why he has climbed out of the bottom band.
- Either greatsword is a fine first pick. Ember and Last Rite are the two new players agonise between. Last Rite ranks a band higher today; Ember is the more forgiving of the two to actually play.
Current rankings, roster and release dates cross-checked against Game8's August 2026 tier list (updated 9 August 2026), GameBrief's operator ranking (20 July 2026) and the rarity, class and element tables at endfield.gg (10 August 2026). Operator names follow the Arknights: Endfield Wiki.
See also: Tips and Hidden Systems — getting started
See also: Arknights: Endfield Beginner Tips for Smooth Progression — getting started
Frequently asked
Who is the best operator in Arknights: Endfield right now?
Arcane, the 6-star Nature Caster added in version 1.4, tops every current consensus ranking. The rest of the top eight are Gilberta, Zhuang Fangyi, Rossi, Camille, Mi Fu, Tangtang and Perlica. Six of those eight did not exist when the game launched, so any ranking written before July 2026 is missing most of the current top.
Is the launch tier list still accurate?
Only partly. Twelve of the twenty-three operators available at launch have moved band since, ten of them upward. The clearest misread was Chen Qianyu, a free 5-star the list called a temporary fill-in and who now sits in the top band, and with her the rest of the original B tier, four of whose five members have climbed. Only Catcher and Fluorite have stayed exactly where the launch list put them.
Which operators are free?
The Endministrator is your own player character and is handed to every account. Chen Qianyu is a free 5-star Physical Guard you obtain early, and Snowshine is a free 5-star Cryo Defender. The first two have both climbed a band or more since launch, which makes them the cheapest strong team you can assemble.
Are low-tier operators unusable?
No. Combat runs on elemental reactions, so a matched carry, enabler and healer beats three unmatched top-band operators. Estella was called one of the worst characters in the game at launch and now ranks level with Snowshine, whom that same list placed a whole band above her. You cannot lock yourself out of content by building an operator you like.
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