About Arknights
Arknights is Hypergryph's tactical tower-defense gacha. Deploy operators across grid-based maps to stop Reunion forces, with class and archetype depth, base building and a famously dense story about disease, nationhood and identity in the world of Terra.
- • Grid-based tower-defense tactics
- • Operator class and skill systems
- • Base building and resource management
- • Deep world-building storyline
- • Regular event story chapters
Storyline
The game is set in the dystopian, apocalyptic future setting of the planet Terra, where people exhibit kemonomimi features – characteristics of animals or mythological races. Natural disasters leave behind a valuable mineral, Originium, which infects people with a progressive disease, Oripathy, but can also enhance the ability to use "Arts" (magic). Because Oripathy is infectious under certain conditions and invariably fatal, the infected are shunned and persecuted. In response, some of them form the Reunion movement, a militant group waging war on the despotic governments of Terra. The main story and some event storylines of Arknights revolve around the estrangement of people infected with Originium and the conflicts that ensue between the infected and the non-infected. The conflicts among the countries of Terra, the struggles of various communities and divisions among various races, and the battles between humans and non-human creatures are important components of the worldview and plot of the game. The player takes the role of the masked and amnesiac "Doctor", who commands a team of "operators" of Rhodes Island, a pharmaceutical, medical, and self-defense organization. As Oripathy spreads, Rhodes Island searches for a cure while defending itself against Reunion and several of the governments of Terra.
Gameplay
The core gameplay is that of a tower defense game, with a number of characters ("operators") acting as towers. Operators have distinct personalities and possess unique combat abilities, whose power depends on their rarity. Operators are divided into eight classes—Vanguard, Guard, Defender, Sniper, Specialist, Medic, Caster, and Supporter—each with multiple sub-classes. Melee operators can be placed on ground tiles and ranged operators on elevated tiles. Melee operators physically block enemies from advancing, and ranged operators deal ranged damage, heal or otherwise support melee operators. Players must place operators on the correct tiles to prevent the enemy from infiltrating the player's base. Once in place, an operator's skills can be activated after a time for special effects, or they can be withdrawn for redeployment after a delay. Because there is often a limited number of viable solutions, especially at high difficulties, Arknights has also been described as a puzzle game. The gameplay normally does not require quick reaction times (the game is pauseable, and time slows down while commands are issued), but rather on-the-spot tactical analysis and foresight. As the player progresses through the game, they unlock more stages, operators and resources, and are also introduced to new types of enemies and gameplay mechanics. Levels that have been cleared with a three-star rating without using a borrowed support unit can then be auto-completed without player input, as the game records the player's actions and replicates them. The game also has a base-building aspect, which allows players to construct facilities and assign operators to them. This allows players to increase their resources in the manner of an incremental game. It features the usual array of free-to-play, gacha game mechanics, such as daily login rewards and randomized character acquisition through virtual currency which can be obtained by playing the game, through limited-time events, or optional in-app purchases using real currency. Because of the limited resources available (even if real money is spent), another layer of challenge lies in "internalizing multiple complex economic systems" and…
- Developer
- Hypergryph
- Publisher
- Yostar
- Release
- 1 May 2019
- Price
- Free to play
- Modes
- single-player, online
- Age rating
- T
