Li Zhiyan (Arcane): What We Know So Far

If you’ve played through Chapter II of Arknights: Endfield, you already know the moment we’re talking about. The Marker Stone is cracking, Ardashir is bearing down on everyone, and this ice-cold Liberi officer just… steps up and seals herself away to buy the rest of the team an exit. No big speech. No hesitation. Just a job that needed doing.

That’s Li Zhiyan, codename Arcane. And ever since that scene dropped, every Endfield community has been flooded with the same questions: Is she playable? When does she release? What’s her kit? Who voices her? Is something going on between her and Chen Qianyu?

So let’s get into all of it — everything that’s actually confirmed, everything that’s pure speculation, and everything in between, with honest flags on which is which. Because the worst thing a fan resource can do right now is pretend rumors are gospel.

Grab a coffee. This is the deep dive.

TL;DR — Key Points

Li Zhiyan (codename Arcane) is currently a story NPC — she is not pullable, and no banner exists for her as of June 2026.
She’s a Liberi Major in the Yinglung Special Task Force (YSTF) — the youngest task leader in its history, stationed in North Wuling.
Her Chapter II sacrifice — sealing herself and Ardashir inside the Ink Scroll to protect the Marker Stone — is what made her a community phenomenon.
She shares a charged history with Chen Qianyu — former YSTF entrance-exam classmates with an ugly fallout and heavy ship-tease subtext.
Community chatter pencils her in for Version 1.4 (estimates around mid-to-late July 2026), but no official date exists.
Her kit, class, and element are genuinely unknown — on-screen evidence shows both a sword and railguns, and the theories contradict each other.
Her voice actor is not confirmed in any language — ignore the fan guess circulating online.
Smart play: bank pulls now, commit nothing until the official preview stream shows her real numbers.

Who Is Li Zhiyan? Profile at a Glance

Li Zhiyan (Chinese: 李织烟) goes by the codename Arcane in English. You’ll also see people online spell it “Arcana” or “Li Zhi-Yan,” but those are just fan variations of the same character.

Profile	Detail
Real name	Li Zhiyan (李织烟)
Codename (EN)	Arcane
Codename (CN / JP / KR)	诀 / オクギ (Okugi) / 결 — all roughly “secret/inner mystery”
Race	Liberi
Affiliation	Hongshan Academy of Sciences — Yinglung Special Task Force (YSTF)
Rank	Major — youngest YSTF task leader ever, youngest major stationed in Wuling
Current status	Alive, unconscious after Chapter II
Playable?	No — story NPC as of June 2026

That last row is the big one, so let’s say it plainly before going further: you cannot pull Li Zhiyan right now. Everything you’ve seen about her “kit” or “banner” is speculation, a datamine, or a rumor. We’ll cover all of it below — but the flag goes in the ground early so nobody burns Oroberyl chasing a unit that doesn’t exist on a banner yet.

Her Role in Chapter II (Spoilers Ahead)

This is where Arcane goes from “cool background officer” to “wait, I’m emotionally invested now.”

Her backstory ties directly into one of the game’s actual playable Operators: Chen Qianyu. The two of them joined the YSTF as reservists at the same time. During the entrance exam, they ended up fighting each other — and the fallout was brutal. Chen washed out, flagged for “emotional immaturity,” while Li Zhiyan, the certified genius of the pair, sailed through. She climbed the ranks fast and got posted to the North Wuling Exclusion Zone.

So when Chapter II rolls around and the Endfield crew needs reinforcements, guess who Viceroy Zhuang Fangyi sends? Yep. And Chen is not emotionally ready to see her old classmate again. She gets flustered, keeps accidentally calling Arcane by her real name before the formal introduction, and grumbles that Li’s permanent ice-queen energy makes her impossible to read.

One detail that lands harder on a second playthrough: her real name is only formally revealed during the “Where Friendship Was Made” quest. Up until then, she’s just “Arcane” to the team — which makes Chen’s constant slip-ups hit a little differently.

The Ink Scroll Sacrifice

The mission itself is high stakes: Ardashir is attacking the Marker Stone, the keystone holding back the Æther Rift beneath Wuling. If it falls, things get apocalyptic. Arcane shows up as combat and Ætherside support — and when the situation goes sideways, she makes the call. She seals both herself and Ardashir inside the “Ink Scroll,” taking the threat out of play at the cost of her own freedom.

She gets pulled out later by the Feranmut Proxy, but she’s left completely drained — her Arts totally depleted, unconscious, no visible wounds. Just… empty. It’s a genuinely affecting beat, and it’s a big reason she blew up in popularity.

Li Zhiyan and Chen Qianyu — What’s the Deal?

Short answer: it’s complicated, and the game wants you to notice.

Arcane is written as the deliberate cold-blue counterpart to Chen Qianyu’s warm, expressive, all-feelings-all-the-time personality. Classic fire-and-ice setup. Chen clearly carries unresolved history about their fallout, gets visibly rattled around her, and is absolutely devastated when Arcane sacrifices herself.

Now — is it romantic? The writing leans into what fans would call “ship tease.” It’s charged, it’s personal, and the game is very much aware of the dynamic it’s creating. But it’s not spelled out as canon romance. Read it how you like; the subtext is doing a lot of work either way. Just know that if you’ve seen a hundred fan edits pairing these two, this is why.

Is Arcane Playable? The Release Window Reality Check

The question everyone’s actually here for.

Right now: no, she’s an NPC. But there are strong signs she’s headed to the roster eventually. Her silhouette showed up in the official 1.4 lineup teaser during the Sketches of Lost Heirlooms livestream — you can pick her out by the hairstyle, the Liberi features, and that jacket. Story-important characters with teaser silhouettes have a way of becoming pullable units down the line, and Arcane checks every box. The recent IGN Live 2026 trailer reinforced the read that she headlines 1.4 alongside the idol Operator.

So when? Here’s the straight answer: there is no official release date. The community consensus, based on the usual version-pacing patterns, points to Version 1.4 as her earliest likely debut — with estimates floating around mid-to-late July 2026, and the usual preview livestream roughly a week before. She’d potentially headline the first half of that update.

But — and this cannot be stressed enough — none of that is confirmed. Endfield has shuffled its character release order before. Plans change. A silhouette is a strong hint, not a contract. The smart move is to treat 1.4 as “plausible, not promised,” and wait for the official preview stream to actually show her off.

Honest advice: if you want her, start banking pulls now and don’t commit to anything until the official livestream drops her real info. No regrets that way.

Kit, Class & Element — Here’s Where It Gets Messy

This is the section you scrolled down for, and it has to start with a disappointment: there is no confirmed kit. Worse, the available clues contradict each other, which makes the speculation extra spicy.

Here’s what we can actually observe on screen:

In Chen Qianyu’s flashback, Arcane is wielding a sword.
In her present-day appearances, she seems to be using three railguns and throwing around teal-colored energy attacks.

So already, the “what weapon does she use” question doesn’t have a clean answer. Which leads to a pile of competing theories:

Theory	Basis	Confidence
Cryo element	The icy teal energy color, the ice-queen theming	Popular guess, unverified
Electric element	Railguns are electromagnetic weapons	Plausible, unverified
Nature element	Earlier framing of her as a support enabler	Weakest of the three
Sword DPS	The flashback weapon	Conflicts with present-day railguns
Arts Unit summoner	Three independent railguns, similar to Zhuang Fangyi’s summoned blades	Fits the visuals, still a guess
Ranged technical DPS / support	Her Ætherside support role in Chapter II	Story role ≠ gameplay role

There was also an early leak-era write-up claiming a complete kit for her — rarity, weapon type, role, the works. We’re not reprinting it here, for two reasons. First, presenting unreleased datamined content as fact is exactly what a fan resource shouldn’t do. Second, it directly conflicts with the swords-and-railguns we can actually see on screen — and pre-release leaks have a terrible track record in this game. Remember that Mi Fu was projected as a Heat/Electric Caster in the leak era and shipped as a Physical Guard.

Bottom line: anyone giving you a confident build guide, recommended team, or tier-list ranking for Li Zhiyan right now is making it up. The skill data hasn’t been revealed. Full stop. Once the official kit drops, we’ll publish a real build guide. Until then, don’t theorycraft your roster around a unit whose damage type is genuinely unknown.

If you want to prep thematically, the Type 50 Yinglung gear set ties into her faction — it’s the civilian version of YSTF equipment, and its three-piece bonus rewards skill-casting team comps. But that’s reading tea leaves, not a real recommendation for her specifically.

What Rarity Will She Be?

Unconfirmed — but the smart money is on 6★. Story heavyweights with their own teaser silhouettes almost always land at top rarity, and everything about her presentation screams premium limited unit. Just understand that’s an educated guess, not a confirmed stat.

Pity Math: Planning Pulls for a Unit That Isn’t Announced

Assuming she releases as a featured limited unit, she’d arrive on a Chartered Headhunting banner. Here’s how Endfield’s pity system works so you can plan:

Pity Mechanic	Number
Base 6★ rate	0.8%
Soft pity starts	Pull 65 (+5% per pull after)
Guaranteed 6★	Pull 80
Guaranteed featured rate-up	Pull 120
Featured unit + signature weapon package	~240 pulls

Two carryover rules matter for planning. The 80-pull 6★ counter carries across banners (and resets whenever you hit any 6★). The 120-pull featured guarantee is banner-bound — it does not carry to the next Chartered Headhunting banner, so partial progress toward 120 evaporates when the banner closes.

Practical takeaway: if Arcane is your must-have, have at least 120 pulls saved before her banner goes live, and don’t start pulling unless you can finish. If the 1.4 idol Operator shares that update and you want both, you’re looking at saving roughly double. Run your own numbers in our pity calculator to see where your current savings land.

Saving Strategy by Player Type

F2P / light spender: Bank everything from now through the 1.4 preview stream. Skip optional pulls on current banners unless a unit fills a hole in your core team. 120 saved is the floor; anything less is gambling against a banner-bound guarantee.
Mid-spend: Same 120 floor, but decide now whether the signature weapon matters to you — the jump from 120 to ~240 is the single biggest budget decision, and it’s easier made calmly in June than impulsively on banner day.
Whale: Your only real question is dupes versus the idol Operator’s banner. Wait for kit details before allocating; potential value varies wildly by kit shape, as the Mi Fu potentials breakdown showed.
Lore-first player: You don’t need to pull at all to enjoy her arc — the North Wuling storyline continues regardless. But if her character quest follows the Mi Fu/Camille pattern, owning her will likely gate a personal story chapter.
Returning player: Don’t panic-pull catch-up units now. Arcane (if 1.4 holds) is the strongest known savings target on the horizon, and your reserves are worth more in July than in June.

The Voice Actor Question (And Other Misinformation Traps)

This one trips people up, so let’s be crystal clear: her voice actor is not confirmed in any language. Not Chinese, not Japanese, not English, not Korean. As an NPC, she hasn’t been given an official credited cast yet.

You may have seen a specific name floating around online — there’s at least one unverified fan guess circulating. Ignore it. It’s not official, and posting it as fact is exactly the kind of thing that turns into a misinformation snowball. When her playable version launches with a proper voiced kit, we’ll get real credits. Not before.

Why the Community Fell for Her

A few reasons, and they reinforce each other:

The design. Plain and simple, people love how she looks. “Her design is exquisite, I want to roll her” is a sentiment echoed everywhere. The cold, composed, military aesthetic landed hard.

The personality. Stoic, ultra-competent, all business — she’s the consummate professional archetype, and she pairs beautifully against Chen’s chaos. Not everyone loves the serious type, but the people who do really do.

That sacrifice. The Ink Scroll moment gave her an emotional anchor right out of the gate. She didn’t slowly grow on the fanbase; she made an entrance and then immediately did the most memorable thing in the chapter.

The result is a wave of fan content — TikTok edits, MMD animations, cutscene compilations, even community 3D model ports. For a character you can’t even pull yet, that’s a serious cultural footprint.

Common Mistakes to Avoid Right Now

Pulling “warm-up” rolls on current banners with the Oroberyl you’ve earmarked for Arcane. The 120 featured guarantee doesn’t carry — partial savings spent now are just gone.
Theorycrafting teams around her assumed element. Cryo is a fan guess, not a datapoint. Building or artificing gear for a Cryo Arcane today is premature on every axis.
Treating the leaked kit write-up as a baseline. It conflicts with on-screen evidence, and the Mi Fu precedent shows leak-era projections can miss by an entire damage type and class.
Repeating the fan VA guess as fact. No cast has been credited in any language.
Assuming “silhouette in teaser” means “guaranteed next patch.” Endfield has reshuffled release order before; 1.4 is plausible, not promised.
Skipping the story while you wait. Her arc is the best thing in Chapter II, and the “Where Friendship Was Made” quest recontextualizes every Chen Qianyu interaction. Play it spoiler-free while you can.

Watch List: What Turns Speculation Into Fact

The official 1.4 preview livestream — the only event that converts all of this from rumor to stat sheet. Expect it roughly a week before the patch if the usual cadence holds.
Her revealed element and weapon type — this single reveal collapses the entire theory table above and determines which existing operators she synergizes with.
Banner pairing — whether she shares 1.4 with the idol Operator decides if “save 120” becomes “save 240+.”
Rarity confirmation — a 5★ Arcane (unlikely but possible) would completely change the pull math.
Voice cast credits — real names, from official channels only.
The North Wuling story continuation — her unconscious state is an obvious narrative thread; how 1.4’s story handles her recovery will signal how central she stays.

The Final Read

Li Zhiyan is one of the most compelling characters Endfield has introduced — a genius officer with an ice-cold exterior, a gut-punch of a sacrifice, and a tangled history with one of your existing Operators. The hype is completely earned.

But the hype has also gotten way ahead of the facts. Her release date, kit, element, class, rarity, and voice actor are all unconfirmed. Anyone telling you otherwise is selling speculation as certainty.

So here’s the one-sentence verdict: save your pulls, enjoy the theorycrafting for what it is, and wait for the official reveal before you commit to anything. The moment the real details drop, we’ll be back with a proper build guide and banner breakdown.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is Li Zhiyan / Arcane playable in Arknights: Endfield?

Not yet. She’s currently a story NPC. There are strong signs she’ll become playable — including her silhouette in the official 1.4 teaser — but it hasn’t happened as of June 2026.

When is Arcane’s release date?

No official date exists. Community estimates point to Version 1.4 (roughly mid-to-late July 2026) at the earliest, but treat that as speculation until an official reveal or preview livestream.

What element and class is Li Zhiyan?

Unconfirmed and genuinely unclear — on-screen evidence shows both a sword and railguns, with theories spanning Cryo, Electric, and Nature. No real build guide exists yet, and any confident kit claim is speculation.

What rarity is Arcane?

Most likely 6★ based on her story prominence and presentation, but this is not confirmed.

Who is Li Zhiyan’s voice actor?

Not officially announced in any language. Any specific name you’ve seen circulating is an unverified fan guess.

What’s the relationship between Li Zhiyan and Chen Qianyu?

They’re former YSTF classmates with a complicated, emotionally charged history and a fallout during their entrance exam. The writing leans into heavy ship-tease subtext, though canon romance isn’t explicitly stated.

Is “Arcana” the same character as “Arcane”?

Yes — “Arcana” is just a common misspelling of her codename. Same goes for “Li Zhi-Yan” as a spelling of her real name.

How many pulls should I save for her?

At least 120 — that’s the banner-bound featured guarantee on a Chartered Headhunting banner. If you also want her signature weapon, budget closer to 240. If the idol Operator shares the 1.4 update and you want both, plan for roughly double.

Did Li Zhiyan die in Chapter II?

No. She survives the Ink Scroll sealing and is recovered by the Feranmut Proxy, but she’s left unconscious with her Arts completely depleted. Her recovery is an open story thread heading into future versions.

Keep an eye on that North Wuling storyline and the 1.4 preview stream — something tells us we haven’t seen the last of Arcane. We’ll update this page the moment anything goes official.

LI ZHIYAN (ARCANE): WHAT WE KNOW SO FAR