Arknights: Endfield Factory and Base Building Guide for Beginners

If you feel overwhelmed by construction, here is an easy way to get started

Building a base or factory in Arknights: Endfield is one of the core systems that strongly affects your overall progression. Understanding how the AIC system works allows players to automate production, generate essential resources, and steadily grow their regional development.

This guide explains the basics of factory construction, automation flow, and recommended early setups to help new players get started with confidence.

Overview of Base Building

Automating resource production is essential in Arknights: Endfield. It allows you to consistently produce operator equipment, combat items, and trade goods used to earn Treasury Notes at camps.

For new players, this system can feel overwhelming due to the number of mechanics unlocked as the story progresses. Learning how these systems connect is critical for building a stable base and generating long term income.

What Are Treasury Notes?

Treasury Notes are the main currency used to upgrade features, craft equipment, and purchase items from rotating shops. These include promotion materials, operator gifts that increase trust level, T-Credit, and more.

They are also tied to Regional Development Level, which increases the Treasury Note cap, improves mining efficiency, and unlocks new regional features. Because of this, producing and spending Treasury Notes regularly is strongly recommended.

When exploring new regions, players can send crafted materials for export and receive Treasury Notes in return. This makes early item production especially important.

AIC Explained

AIC, or Automated Industry Complex, is your main factory hub. It automates procurement, production, and item refinement.

Basic automation is simple, but complexity increases when crafting advanced items that require multiple facilities and processing steps. Understanding production flow is the key to efficient factory design.

For example, refining Originium Ore into Originium Crystals allows you to stock essential materials in your AIC storage at all times, enabling on demand facility construction.

Bug Capsule [C] Recipe

As demand for refined materials increases, expanding production lines becomes necessary. Bug Capsule [C] is one of the recommended early focus items since it supports base progression and can also be used as a healing item for operators.

Technology Tree and AIC Blueprints

Although the factory system becomes available early, it is recommended to progress until completing Act 1 before fully investing in AIC construction. This unlocks the Technology Tree, which provides new facilities and production upgrades.

Basic AIC Index

Unlocking new technologies requires Basic AIC Index, obtained by interacting with Protocol Data Recorders scattered across the map. These can be located using the world map.

Technology Progression Priority

During main missions, players must unlock Mining II and Equipment Technology.

Mining II allows automated mining using electric drills that transport ores directly into AIC storage. Equipment Technology enables component crafting for operator gear.

Recommended early unlocks include:

• Material Forming, required for Agriculture
• Part Printing, required for Packaging Technology
• Field Storage, which significantly improves factory layout flexibility

After unlocking Basic AIC II, prioritize:

• Power I for facility upkeep
• Solid Filling, required for Agriculture
• Agriculture for indoor crop farming
• Packaging Technology for automated explosive and battery production

Self Sustaining Crop Farm

Once Agriculture is unlocked, players can create a self sustaining crop farm using two planting units and one seed storage unit. This setup produces seedlings for storage while exporting excess crops directly into AIC inventory through protocol storage.

Bug Capsule [C] Automation

With crop farming in place, Buckwheat Flowers can be produced without map exploration. These are processed through shredders and combined with refined Amethyst materials to automate Bug Capsule [C] production.

Conveyor belts transfer Buckwheat Flowers to shredders, then to packaging units. Amethyst flows from AIC storage through refining, printing, and packaging units.

Improving Automation Efficiency

If production feels slow, bottlenecks are often the cause. For example, Amethyst Bottle production requires two Amethyst Fibers per bottle, with each fiber taking two seconds to produce. This results in slower output.

Adding an additional refining unit doubles fiber production, removes bottlenecks, and significantly improves overall output efficiency.

Always consider processing time at each step, as a single slow unit can reduce total factory performance.

Expanding the AIC Core Area

As progression continues, players will unlock the side quest AIC Steward, which provides upgrades that expand the main AIC core area.

Warehouse Bus

The Warehouse Bus is a major upgrade that allows communication with AIC maintenance centers. Unlocking it expands the technology tree and removes layout limitations tied to Automated Core ports, enabling more flexible production designs.

Valley Battery System

Facilities require power to operate. Thermal Banks allow players to generate energy by feeding materials directly, eliminating constant power pole connections.

Each Valley Battery produces 220 watts and consumes one unit every 40 seconds.

Example Battery Setup

A typical setup uses two production lines:

• Originium Powder via shredders
• Amethyst Ore processed into Amethyst Components

Packaging units produce one battery every 10 seconds. Two Thermal Banks consume two batteries every 40 seconds, leaving surplus batteries that can be exported for Treasury Notes.

Additional Thermal Banks can be added to expand AIC power capacity.

Amethyst Ore Limitations

At some point, factory production may exceed automated mining output. To resolve this, players must explore further regions to unlock additional Amethyst mining nodes.

Signal towers can be connected from camps to mining locations, though early game travel may be challenging.

Blueprint System

Production lines can be copied using the Blueprint system. This allows players to save layouts for future use or import blueprints shared by other players using blueprint codes.

The game also provides system blueprints, which are especially useful for beginners. These include clear layout guidance and required input materials.

Final Tips

• Complete in game tutorials under Simulation and Basic AIC Blueprints
• Use the in game database to review full production chains
• Break complex systems into smaller steps
• Prioritize Bug Capsules, explosives, and batteries early
• There is no single correct factory layout. Experimentation and creativity are the best ways to master the AIC system

Source: Mobalytics