Arknights: Endfield finally drags its wallet-draining ass onto Steam October 15 with the free 'Sanctuary of Ink' chapter, giving existing players cross-progression so their progress doesn't vanish into the gacha void. The update drops Si, a Cryo Supporter who paints Inksouls to redirect damage, and Argent Flow, an Electric Guard who does mounted charges on his horse Nuli, both rolling out through recruitment events. A countryside inn sim where you farm crops and cook for guests gets added alongside Contingency Contract tweaks that let enemies counter your modifiers, and the soundtrack mixes color bass with UK garage from Black Myth: Wukong composer Zhai Jinyan and others.

GRYPHLINE and Mountain Contour timed this perfectly to pull in PC players who skipped the January mobile/PS5/Epic launch, with wishlist milestones already handing out Oroberyl and T-Creds. Steam listings confirm no data wipe for playtest users and a required GRYPHLINE account link, plus mouse targeting fixes and saved loadouts for the mouse-and-keyboard crowd. X posts are already hyped about the new chapter and cross-save, while the Steam page sits at zero reviews ahead of the unlock.

The painted world gimmick sounds like the usual gacha narrative bait, but at least whales get new banners to bleed on without starting over. Steam release on the 15th, chapter free for everyone already grinding.