MI FU RACE MYSTERY: SARKAZ OR KYLIN?

When Hypergryph quietly updated the official Arknights: Endfield website with Mi Fu’s character profile, the community did not just raise an eyebrow — it raised a full-blown lore civil war. The fan-favorite Captain of the Wuling Watchguards, who had spent the entire Wuling story arc looking like a textbook Kylin, was suddenly tagged as Sarkaz. And just like that, one of the cleanest design assumptions in the game collapsed overnight.

If you have been scrolling through subreddits, Discord servers, and gacha news sites trying to figure out what is actually going on with Mi Fu’s race in Arknights: Endfield, this deep dive is for you. We are going to unpack the lore, the design language, the established race rules from the original Arknights universe, and what Mi Fu’s classification could realistically mean for the future of Talos-II.

Strap in. This one gets weird.

Mi Fu’s official 1.3 splash — Kylin-coded silhouette, Sarkaz-tagged profile.

TL;DR - Key Points

• Mi Fu’s official profile lists her race as Sarkaz — despite a design that overwhelmingly reads as Kylin
• She debuts as the first 6-star Operator of Version 1.3 — a Physical Guard wielding a greatsword
• Her fluffy mammalian tail breaks every established Sarkaz subrace template — no canonical Sarkaz lineage has that tail style
• In-story Qingbo Stockade NPCs reportedly call her Sarkaz — which rules out a simple metadata typo
• Three credible community theories: database error, undiscovered mixed/hybrid Sarkaz subrace, or deliberate disguise
• Pixiu and Tianlu folklore offer a possible bridge between her Chinese mythological aesthetic and the Sarkaz label
• Talos-II’s 150-year isolation from Terra could justify entirely new race lineages emerging on the colony
• Full backstory expected in Version 1.3 story content — her character files will likely settle the debate

Who Is Mi Fu in Arknights: Endfield?

Before we tackle the race controversy, let us set the table. Mi Fu is one of the most prominent supporting characters introduced during the Wuling chapters of Arknights: Endfield’s main story. She serves as the Captain of the Wuling Watchguards under the Hongshan Academy of Sciences, and reports directly to Viceroy Zhuang Fangyi — a name Endfield players will instantly recognize from the Zhuang Fangyi build, rotation and team guide as one of the marquee carries of the launch roster.

Mi Fu was originally from the Qingbo Stockade, a fact that becomes important later when we discuss her in-universe identity. According to lore released alongside her promotional material, Zhuang Fangyi lured a young Mi Fu to Wuling City with two strings of sugar oil rice cakes — a charming origin story that explains why she now follows Fangyi with absolute loyalty and refers to her as “Boss” regardless of formal titles.

She is also confirmed to be the first 6-star Operator of Arknights: Endfield Version 1.3, debuting as a Physical Guard who wields a greatsword. She is the kind of character Hypergryph clearly wants players to fall in love with: distinct silhouette, strong personality, and a unique presence in the story.

And then they dropped the race bomb.

The Reveal That Broke the Community

Up until the official profile dropped, the working assumption across nearly every corner of the Arknights: Endfield fanbase was that Mi Fu was a Kylin — the in-universe equivalent of the mythological Qilin. The evidence was overwhelming, or at least it felt that way:

• She has prominent, branching horns reminiscent of antlers
• Her design palette of pinks, whites, and soft blues echoes traditional Chinese depictions of auspicious Qilin
• She is closely associated with Zhuang Fangyi, who herself was assumed to be a Lung (the dragon-coded race) but later revealed to be Kylin
• The artwork shown in her character splash even depicts a clearly Qilin-inspired beast in the background

Then the website update arrived. Her race tag: Sarkaz.

For long-time Arknights players, this is the equivalent of being told a character with feathered wings and a halo is actually a Reunion ghoul. The visual cues simply do not line up with the race classification, and that mismatch is what has launched dozens of theory threads across the community.

What Are the Sarkaz, Anyway?

To understand why this reveal is so jarring, you need to understand what Sarkaz means in the Arknights universe.

The Sarkaz are a race with deep, often tragic lore in the original Arknights. They are essentially the setting’s “demon-coded” people — long-lived, persecuted, and tied to themes of war, sorrow, and identity. The Sarkaz are not a monolith, however. They are an umbrella race containing numerous distinct subraces, each with its own physical traits and cultural lineage.

What unites these subraces is a fairly consistent design language: sharp, metallic-looking horns, slim or spaded tails, and an aesthetic that leans into the “demon” archetype. There is no established Sarkaz subrace in canonical lore that sports a long, fluffy, mammal-like tail. Not one.

And Mi Fu? She has a long, fluffy tail.

The Tail Problem: Why Mi Fu’s Design Doesn’t Add Up

The tail is the single biggest sticking point in the Mi Fu race debate, and for good reason.

In the broader Arknights design vocabulary, tails are extremely reliable race indicators — arguably more reliable than horns. Felines have cat tails. Perro have dog tails. Kuranta have horse tails. Liberi don’t have tails at all but have wings. And the Sarkaz, across all their subraces, have either no visible tail or the slender, often spike-tipped tail typical of devil-coded iconography.

Mi Fu’s tail, by contrast, is full, plush, and clearly mammalian. It looks much closer to what you would expect from a fox-coded Vulpo, a Kylin (traditionally more equine or chimeric, but increasingly depicted with fluff in modern art), or even a Zalak-style rodent design.

The original Arknights operator Leizi is the most prominent Kylin character in the franchise. Her artwork consistently depicts her with a flowing, horse-like tail — the classic Qilin tail of mythological art. Mi Fu’s tail does not match that style either, which is why even the “she’s just a Kylin and the tag is wrong” theory has its skeptics.

So if the tail is not Sarkaz, and not quite Kylin, and not any other established race… what is it?

The Three Leading Theories Explained

Let us walk through the most credible community theories one by one and evaluate the lore evidence behind each.

Theory 1: Hypergryph Made a Database Error

This is the simplest theory, and frankly the most likely one on its face. The hypothesis is that someone on the Endfield team mismatched race tags in an internal spreadsheet, and Mi Fu’s profile shipped with the wrong label.

There is precedent. Earlier in Endfield’s release cycle, several character profiles received quiet corrections after launch as inconsistencies were spotted. Race tags are exactly the kind of metadata that can slip through QA if no one specifically reviews them against the art.

Arguments for this theory:

• Mi Fu’s visual design is overwhelmingly Kylin-coded
• Her artistic motifs, including the auspicious beast in her splash art, point to a mythological Chinese creature
• Hypergryph has a history of patching small lore inconsistencies post-launch
• The “fluffy-tailed Sarkaz” concept has no established precedent in Arknights lore

Arguments against:

• A 6-star Operator’s profile would typically receive heavy review before going live
• In-game NPCs in Qingbo Stockade reportedly refer to Mi Fu’s race as Sarkaz within the story dialogue itself, which is too significant to be a tagging error

That last point is the killer. If the Sarkaz identity is referenced in actual scripted dialogue, then this is not a spreadsheet typo — it is canon.

Theory 2: Mi Fu Is a Mixed-Race or Chimeric Sarkaz

This is the theory that lore-deep fans tend to gravitate toward. The argument is that Mi Fu represents a previously unseen mixed-race Sarkaz lineage — possibly one that emerged uniquely on Talos-II due to its isolation from the main Terran continent.

In Arknights canon, inter-race children almost always inherit one parent’s race outright rather than displaying mixed traits. The famous exception is the Sankta-Sarkaz lineage of Theresa and Theresis, which is treated as a special case because Sankta and Sarkaz share deep genetic roots in the lore.

However, Sarkaz themselves are described as the most genetically chaotic race in the setting. The original Arknights operator W, for example, is a Sarkaz with distinctly insect-like, almost cockroach-coded design features that do not fit any clean subrace template. The race is established as having extensive interbreeding throughout its history, which can produce designs that defy easy categorization.

Why this theory has legs:

• Talos-II has been isolated from Terra for roughly 150 years in the Endfield timeline
• Small, isolated populations experience accelerated genetic drift — a real-world biology principle the writers may be applying
• The Sarkaz are already established as a chaotic, mixed-blood race in lore
• A new subrace or hybrid lineage would make for compelling future story content

The weak point:

• Arknights has historically been very disciplined about race rules. Introducing a fluffy-tailed Sarkaz subrace out of nowhere would break a lot of established design logic.

Theory 3: She Is Disguised, Not Genuinely Sarkaz-Identified

A more recent theory gaining traction is that Mi Fu’s tail is a fashion accessory or deliberate disguise, similar to how the operator Ines in original Arknights actively shaves her goat horns and conceals her Caprinae traits to pass as Sarkaz.

The flip of that scenario — a non-Sarkaz character wearing accessories to appear Sarkaz, or vice versa — would be a fascinating lore beat. It would also explain why the Qingbo Stockade NPCs “believe” she is Sarkaz, even if no official record confirms it. That careful phrasing in the lore notes is something fans have latched onto.

This theory is compelling because:

• Endfield has already established that race-concealing accessories exist in this world
• The Qingbo Stockade dialogue specifically says villagers “believe” she is Sarkaz, not that she factually is
• Mi Fu has a complex personal history involving Wuling and the Stockade, leaving room for deliberate identity ambiguity
• It elegantly explains the visual contradictions without breaking established lore

The Pixiu and Tianlu Connection

One of the more thoughtful threads of speculation involves Chinese mythological creatures that often get lumped together with the Qilin family but are technically distinct. The Pixiu (sometimes called Píxiū or Pi Yao) and the Tianlu are auspicious beasts associated with wealth, protection, and luck in Chinese folklore.

Modern depictions of the Tianlu in particular feature a pink, white, and blue color palette that lines up surprisingly well with Mi Fu’s character design. They are also often depicted with fluffier, more mammalian tails compared to the strictly draconic Qilin.

If Hypergryph is in fact establishing a new Sarkaz subrace inspired by Pixiu or Tianlu folklore — perhaps one unique to Talos-II that bridges the demon-coded Sarkaz with auspicious Chinese mythology — that would be a genuinely creative direction. It would also explain why her design feels like it sits between two race archetypes.

Whether this is the actual lore direction or just clever fan archaeology remains to be seen.

How This Compares to Other Endfield Race Surprises

Mi Fu is not the only Endfield character whose race classification has raised eyebrows. The game has been quietly stretching, and in some cases reshaping, the race system that Arknights players spent years internalizing. Our Endfield characters vs originals lore breakdown covers the broader Reconvener and descendant framework that this pattern fits inside.

Zhuang Fangyi herself was a major surprise. Throughout the early game, her design — chunky horns, robust frame, dragon-coded aesthetic — read as Lung. The reveal that she is actually Kylin caught a lot of veteran Arknights players off guard, though her lightning-based Lei Fa arts (a known Kylin specialty) made the reveal feel earned in retrospect; we cover this directly in the Zhuang Fangyi Ascended Form lore analysis.

There is also the case of Pythia Ardashir, whose race classification reportedly does not align with what veteran Arknights players would expect, and Ember, who appears to lack wings despite being from a race typically associated with them.

The pattern here is interesting. Either Endfield is making subtle errors that are getting caught one at a time, or — more likely — the developers are deliberately playing with race ambiguity to set up future lore reveals. Talos-II is established as a colony world with 150 years of isolation from Terra. Evolution, drift, cultural mixing, and possibly even environmental factors from prolonged Originium exposure could plausibly explain why the races of Talos-II do not always match their Terran counterparts cleanly.

If Hypergryph is playing the long game, Mi Fu may be a hint at a much larger lore beat about what isolation does to a species over generations.

What Mi Fu’s Race Means for Gameplay

Beyond the lore drama, Mi Fu is shaping up to be a meaningful gameplay addition. As a Physical Guard wielding a greatsword, she fills a damage role that has been somewhat underrepresented in Endfield’s early roster. For deeper team-comp analysis and pull-timing math, the Mi Fu and Sui Shisan Version 1.3-1.4 meta analysis covers her projected kit, role, and synergy ceiling in detail.

Early information indicates she scales primarily off Physical Vulnerability, which means she will likely synergize with team compositions that focus on debuff stacking rather than elemental amplification. This unfortunately means she may not slot directly into existing Zhuang Fangyi teams, which lean heavily on Psy-element synergy. Players who were hoping for a “Fangyi and her loyal lieutenant” dream team will need to build her around a different core.

She is also reportedly the only operator besides Zhuang Fangyi to wield a greatsword as her base weapon, which gives her a unique combat identity in the current roster.

How To Read Mi Fu Lore By Player Type

Not every player needs to engage with this debate at the same depth. Here is how to triage it depending on your relationship with Arknights lore.

• Endfield-first players — Treat the Sarkaz tag as canon and watch the Version 1.3 story for the explanation. You will not be missing context from Terra-era lore.
• Arknights veterans — Hold both readings in your head. The visual contradiction is real, but Hypergryph rarely ships race tags lightly. Track NPC dialogue for confirmation.
• Lore theorycrafters — The Pixiu/Tianlu folklore bridge is the most generative angle. Expect a new Sarkaz subrace name to drop in a character file or stele text.
• Pull-decision players — Race ambiguity does not change Mi Fu’s kit, scaling, or banner timing. Decide based on the Version 1.3 Sketches of Lost Heirlooms livestream recap, not on whether her tail counts.

Common Misreadings to Avoid

The Mi Fu race discourse has produced a handful of confidently-stated takes that do not survive close reading. Pre-empting them here.

• “Sarkaz is a single race, so the tag must be wrong.” — Sarkaz is an umbrella race with at least a dozen distinct subraces. A character can be tagged Sarkaz without resembling any specific one you have seen before.
• “Zhuang Fangyi was tagged Lung first and they changed it.” — The community assumed Lung; the official tag was always Kylin. That is fan inference correcting itself, not a Hypergryph retcon.
• “Tails are decorative in Endfield.” — Tails have been load-bearing race indicators across every Arknights character released to date. Treating Mi Fu’s tail as cosmetic without specific evidence is a leap.
• “The Wuling NPCs are unreliable narrators.” — True for in-universe gossip, but the lore notes deliberately preserve the “villagers believe” phrasing, which is itself a clue rather than a dismissal.
• “Hybrid Sarkaz is impossible.” — The Sankta-Sarkaz lineage of Theresa and Theresis is canonical precedent. The bar is “rare and meaningful,” not “impossible.”

Watch List: What Would Settle This

Several upcoming content drops could resolve the Mi Fu race question one way or another. Keep an eye on these as Version 1.3 rolls out.

• Mi Fu’s character file unlocks — Operator files in Arknights historically include explicit race subdesignations. A “Sarkaz / [subrace name]” line ends the debate immediately.
• Qingbo Stockade story revisit — If a 1.3 quest returns to her hometown, expect NPC dialogue with cleaner phrasing on whether she is “actually” Sarkaz or just “believed to be.”
• A new subrace name in stele or codex text — Endfield has been seeding Talos-II-native lineages quietly. A Pixiu-flavored Sarkaz subrace name appearing anywhere in 1.3 codex text would lock in Theory 2.
• Ines-style reveal mechanic — If a cutscene shows Mi Fu adjusting or removing a prosthetic feature, Theory 3 (disguise) becomes the front-runner.
• A second Talos-II Sarkaz with a similar tail style — If another character ships with the same fluffy-tail-plus-Sarkaz-tag combo, that establishes a recurring subrace rather than a one-off anomaly.

What We Still Don’t Know

Hypergryph has been notoriously tight-lipped about Mi Fu’s full lore. Her official character profile confirms the Sarkaz tag but does not specify a subrace, which is actually consistent with how the original Arknights handles many Sarkaz characters. In the source game, operators like Camille are tagged simply as “Sarkaz” on their public profiles, with subrace details revealed only through deep-dive story content.

The expectation is that Mi Fu’s full backstory — including the truth about her race — will be explored in dedicated story content during Version 1.3 and beyond. Her character story quest and operator files, when they release, will likely answer most of the questions the community is currently theorizing about.

Until then, every player has the freedom to pick their favorite theory and run with it.

Why This Debate Matters

For non-Arknights fans, it might seem strange that a single race tag could generate this much discussion. But the Arknights universe is one of the most lore-dense settings in modern gacha gaming, and Hypergryph has built enormous goodwill with its playerbase by treating its world-building seriously.

When something seems to contradict established lore, the community does not just shrug — it digs in. That is the sign of a healthy fandom engaging with a setting that respects its audience.

Mi Fu’s race controversy is, in many ways, a compliment to how seriously Arknights players take this universe. Whether the answer turns out to be a quiet error, a new subrace, a clever disguise, or a setup for a major Talos-II lore beat, the fact that thousands of players are dissecting tail fluff and horn geometry says something about how invested this community is.

And that investment is exactly what makes Arknights: Endfield’s storytelling experiment worth following.

Final Verdict: What Should Players Believe?

Until Hypergryph confirms otherwise, the safest framework for understanding Mi Fu is this:

1. She is officially classified as Sarkaz in her profile.
2. Her visual design contradicts every established Sarkaz subrace.
3. The in-story belief that she is Sarkaz comes from her hometown of Qingbo Stockade, not from any confirmed lore document.
4. Her full backstory has not yet been revealed and is expected to drop in Version 1.3.

The smart money is on Mi Fu being either a previously unseen Sarkaz subrace unique to Talos-II, or a character whose identity involves deliberate ambiguity that will be resolved in upcoming story content. Either outcome would be a meaningful addition to the Endfield universe.

Whatever the truth ends up being, one thing is certain: Mi Fu has already done what every memorable Arknights character does best. She has the entire fanbase arguing about who she really is.

And honestly? That is the most Sarkaz thing imaginable.

Frequently Asked Questions

1. Is Mi Fu officially Sarkaz in Arknights: Endfield?

Yes. Her official character profile on the Hypergryph website lists her race as Sarkaz. No subrace has been specified, which is standard for newly introduced Sarkaz characters and leaves room for a later reveal in story content.

2. Why does Mi Fu look like a Kylin if she is Sarkaz?

Her design borrows heavily from Chinese mythological imagery — antler-style horns, an auspicious-beast splash background, and a soft pastel palette — all of which are typically Kylin or Qilin coded. The visual mismatch with her Sarkaz tag is exactly why the community is in uproar. The leading explanation is either a new Talos-II Sarkaz subrace or a deliberate identity-ambiguity setup.

3. What is the Tianlu or Pixiu theory about Mi Fu?

It is the idea that Mi Fu’s design draws from Chinese auspicious beasts adjacent to the Qilin — specifically the Pixiu and Tianlu, which have softer, fluffier depictions in modern art. If Hypergryph is bridging these mythological creatures into a new Sarkaz subrace, it would explain why her aesthetic sits between two existing race archetypes.

4. Could the Sarkaz tag just be a typo or database error?

Possible, but increasingly unlikely. Earlier Endfield characters have had small profile corrections post-launch, so a metadata slip is conceivable. However, multiple players report that in-story NPCs in Qingbo Stockade explicitly refer to Mi Fu as Sarkaz, which is far harder to dismiss as a typo than a single profile tag.

5. Is Mi Fu the first 6-star of Version 1.3?

Yes. Mi Fu is the headline 6-star Operator launching with Version 1.3 of Arknights: Endfield. She is a Physical Guard wielding a greatsword, scaling primarily off Physical Vulnerability stacking rather than elemental reactions.

6. Does Mi Fu synergize with Zhuang Fangyi?

Mostly no, despite the strong narrative pairing. Zhuang Fangyi teams are built around Electric-element amplification and Smiting Tempest rotations, while Mi Fu’s projected kit leans Physical Vulnerability. They can share a roster, but you will get more value pairing each with their own elemental core rather than forcing the “Boss and her Captain” combo.

7. Is Mi Fu the same race as Zhuang Fangyi?

No. Zhuang Fangyi is officially Kylin — a fact we cover in detail in the Zhuang Fangyi Ascended Form lore analysis. Mi Fu is tagged Sarkaz, despite her superficially Kylin-adjacent design. They are written as a closely-bonded duo across racial lines, not as members of the same lineage.

8. Why does Mi Fu have a fluffy tail if Sarkaz tails are spaded?

This is the single biggest piece of evidence against a clean Sarkaz reading. Every established Sarkaz subrace (Goliath, Vampire, Gargoyle, Banshee, Wendigo, and the others) either has no visible tail or a slim, often spaded, demon-coded tail. Mi Fu’s plush mammalian tail does not match any of them, which is why the community keeps gravitating toward “new subrace” or “disguise” theories.

9. When will we learn the truth about Mi Fu’s race?

Most likely during Version 1.3’s main story content, character story quest, and operator file unlocks. Hypergryph historically uses operator file entries to clarify subrace lineage, so expect the canonical answer to surface there rather than in a developer interview.

10. Should her race controversy affect my pull decision?

No. Race lore does not change Mi Fu’s kit, scaling, or banner pity. If you want a Physical Guard with a unique greatsword identity and strong projected damage in Vulnerability-stacking comps, the pull case stands regardless of which race theory turns out to be correct.

Are you planning to pull for Mi Fu when her banner drops in Version 1.3? Which race theory makes the most sense to you? Stay tuned for more Arknights: Endfield deep dives, banner analysis, and lore breakdowns as the journey across Talos-II continues.

Related Reading:

• Zhuang Fangyi: Rotations, Teams & Gear Analysis
• Endfield Characters vs Originals: Lore Analysis
• Endfield 1.3 “Sketches of Lost Heirlooms” Livestream Recap
• Version 1.3-1.4: Mi Fu & Sui Shisan Meta Analysis
• Zhuang Fangyi Ascended Form: Lore Analysis