SNOWY FOREST 1.5: PREP AND GLOOMWALD

Version 1.5 releases on September 2, 2026, with maintenance starting at 6:00 AM UTC+8, and the Snowy Forest is the centerpiece of it. It is the version’s new region, it is where the main story picks up, and it is where the area boss Gloomwald’s Rage lives.

This post is deliberately narrow. It covers what has actually been confirmed about the region and what you can usefully do in the next few days, and it stops there. The fight data is not public, so there is no honest way to write a Gloomwald’s Rage boss guide yet, and we would rather tell you that than pad one out of guesses. We will write the real one once people have fought it.

If you are here for the Sami and Collapsals angle, that is a separate and much more speculative conversation, and we covered it in Sami and the Collapsals.

For everything else landing in the patch on the same day, and for the dates further out, the Dreamscape of Wind and Snow version calendar has the full schedule.

TL;DR - Key Points

• The Snowy Forest opens September 2, 2026 as Phase 1 content, alongside Typhoeus and the Winter Hunt banner.
• It sits outside the Yinglung Pass, and the story hook is Chief Engineer Andre going silent while transporting supplies.
• The region resumes the story from the Wuling confrontation. If you are behind on that arc, clearing it is the highest-value prep you can do.
• Two enemy types are confirmed: Ents, plus a new type specialised in witchcraft.
• The area boss is Gloomwald’s Rage. Nothing beyond the name has been announced.
• The environment is part of the fight. The pitch is mist, runes, and illusion, with a new puzzle set to match.
• Trial of the Bow arrives September 9 as a challenge event built around Typhoeus’s kit, and its story stays playable after the event window closes.
• Bank your materials. New regions bring new gear and new ascension costs, and having a buffer beats farming from zero on day one.

What the Snowy Forest Actually Is

The setup is a search and rescue that goes wrong. Chief Engineer Andre goes silent while transporting supplies, and the Endministrator heads into the Snowy Forest outside the Yinglung Pass to find him. In the mist you run into Typhoeus, who is trapped there as well, which is how the version’s headline operator gets introduced in the story rather than just on a banner. That rescue is now playable in full as her narrative event, and we cover it beat by beat in Typhoeus’s story quest: Amma and the Voice of Sami. Worth flagging for anyone reading this page for boss prep: the quest’s final fight is a gigantic witchcraft creation inside a dreamscape, not Gloomwald’s Rage.

The region itself is described as built around strange runes and a bewitched atmosphere, with a new puzzle set designed for it. The framing that matters for how you will actually play it is that the environment is meant to be an obstacle in its own right: a mist-and-illusion zone where visibility and orientation are part of the challenge rather than scenery.

We flagged this area back when it was a teaser slide in the 1.4 program. It is now the version’s main exploration content, and it arrives in Phase 1 rather than being held back.

The pitch is a zone where the terrain fights you as much as the enemies do.

Confirmed Enemies: Ents and the Witchcraft Type

Two enemy categories have been named.

Ents. A tree-form enemy type, new to the region. Nothing about their stagger behaviour, damage type, or resistances has been published.

A new enemy type specialised in witchcraft. This is the more interesting one, because “specialised in witchcraft” in an illusion-themed zone reads like an enemy built around debuffs and status effects rather than raw damage output. That is inference, not confirmation, and we are labelling it as such.

Here is the honest state of things:

A caution on element planning specifically. Endfield’s damage model runs on Inflictions and Arts Reactions rather than a published enemy weakness chart, so “bring Heat because they are trees” is the kind of instinct imported from other games that tends not to pay here. Until somebody posts real numbers, build the team that reliably applies and consumes Inflictions, which is the answer in essentially every other piece of content too.

Gloomwald’s Rage, and What an Area Boss Usually Means

All that is confirmed is the name and the role: Gloomwald’s Rage is the Snowy Forest’s area boss.

What you can reasonably plan around is the pattern rather than the fight. Area bosses in Endfield have generally been the anchor for a region’s material economy, which means the boss tends to matter to your account beyond the one clear: ascension materials, gear progression, and a repeatable target that shows up in your weekly routine.

So the useful prep is not theorycrafting a counter to a boss nobody has seen. It is making sure that when the drop table appears, you have the headroom to actually use it. That means upgrade materials in the bank and a team that does not need to be dismantled to gear a new operator.

We will publish a proper Gloomwald’s Rage breakdown once the fight is live and there are real mechanics to write about, in the same format as our Howlers of the Crag coverage.

What to Do Before September 2

This is the actionable part, in rough priority order.

1. Clear the Wuling story arc. The 1.5 main story resumes from that confrontation. Being behind means either a gate or a spoiler, and it is the one prep item with a hard deadline attached.
2. Stop spending upgrade materials. A new region means new gear to level and probably new ascension costs. A buffer on day one is worth more than a marginally stronger team today.
3. Finish anything expiring. Battle pass tiers, event shops, and time-limited currency all reset around a version boundary. Check them now rather than during maintenance.
4. Decide your banner plan first. Winter Hunt opens the same day. If you are pulling Typhoeus, know your Oroberyl position before you start spending on gear, and check it against the 120-pull floor with our pity calculator.
5. Leave a gear slot free. If every set you own is committed to a working team, gearing a new operator means breaking one. One spare three-piece set is enough to avoid that.
6. Do not pre-farm region-specific materials. You cannot, and anyone telling you what the Snowy Forest drops is guessing.

Trial of the Bow and Whether You Need Typhoeus

Trial of the Bow arrives September 9 as a challenge event. Typhoeus takes the Endministrator into the Snowy Forest’s archery range hunting for special Sami arrows, and the event is a series of archery challenges built to test her kit.

The genuinely useful detail is that the story remains playable after the event period ends. Endfield has been consistent about this with narrative events, which removes the usual pressure to rush story content because a three-week window is closing. The rewards stay time-limited, so there is still a reason to play it live.

The open question is whether the challenges provide a trial Typhoeus for players who did not pull her. An event explicitly built around one operator’s kit usually does, but that has not been confirmed, and if the reward tiers matter to you it is worth checking on day one before you plan around it. Our Typhoeus build guide covers her kit if you want to know what those challenges are likely to be testing, and our Trial of the Bow preview has the dates, prep list, and open questions in one place.

Who From Your Roster Is Worth Building Now

Since the enemy data is not out, the right move is to build things that are correct regardless of what the region turns out to want.

• One reliable Infliction applicator. This is the answer to almost every content question in Endfield, and it stays the answer here. If you are pulling Typhoeus, that applicator needs to apply Nature Infliction specifically.
• A healer you can trust. Illusion and debuff-themed zones historically punish teams that rely on positioning to avoid damage. Sustain that does not depend on dodging is worth having.
• Your existing best carry, not a new one. Building a speculative counter to an unannounced boss is how people end up with two half-geared operators instead of one finished one.
• Ardelia, if she is not built. She is free, she applies Corrosion and Susceptibility, and she heals. She earns a slot in most teams regardless of what 1.5 brings.

For anyone pulling Typhoeus and planning ahead into Phase 2, the free applicator arriving September 24 is Purrchena, and our Purrchena team breakdown covers how she slots into that Nature shell.

Common Mistakes to Avoid

• Treating early boss guides as real. Nobody has fought Gloomwald’s Rage. Advice published before September 2 is pattern-matching at best.
• Importing elemental weakness thinking. Endfield runs on Inflictions and reactions. “Fire beats trees” is not a mechanic here as far as anything published shows.
• Spending your material buffer the week before a version launch. This is the most common self-inflicted wound around a patch boundary.
• Skipping the Wuling story and planning to catch up later. The new story picks up from it directly, and catching up under spoiler pressure is worse than clearing it now.
• Committing your full Oroberyl reserve on day one. Winter Hunt runs to September 30 and the Phase 2 banner arrives September 24. There is time.

What We Still Do Not Know

Stated plainly, because a lot of coverage will imply otherwise:

1. Gloomwald’s Rage mechanics, phases, and drops. None of it.
2. What the witchcraft enemy type actually does. The name implies debuffs. That is an implication.
3. Whether the mist affects combat or only navigation. Both readings are consistent with what has been said.
4. The region’s material economy. No drop tables, no ascension costs, no gear sets confirmed as region-locked.
5. Whether Trial of the Bow lends you Typhoeus. Unconfirmed either way.

Final Read

The Snowy Forest is the biggest piece of Version 1.5 and one of the least documented, which is a normal state of affairs five days out from a patch. What is confirmed is enough to prepare with: a region outside the Yinglung Pass, a story that continues from Wuling, Ents and a witchcraft-specialised enemy type, and an area boss called Gloomwald’s Rage.

What is not confirmed is everything that would let anyone tell you what team to bring. So the correct prep is the boring kind. Clear the story gate, bank your materials, keep one gear set free, and settle your banner plan before September 2 rather than during it.

We will be back with a real Gloomwald’s Rage guide once the fight exists to be written about, and with a Snowy Forest route map once the region is walkable.

Frequently Asked Questions

When does the Snowy Forest region open in Arknights: Endfield? The Snowy Forest opens with Version 1.5 on September 2, 2026, after maintenance beginning at 6:00 AM UTC+8. It is Phase 1 content, so it arrives alongside Typhoeus and the Winter Hunt banner rather than in the September 24 second wave.

Where is the Snowy Forest located? Outside the Yinglung Pass. The story sends the Endministrator there after Chief Engineer Andre goes silent while transporting supplies, which picks up directly from the confrontation in Wuling.

What enemies are in the Snowy Forest? Two types are confirmed so far: Ents, and a new enemy type specialised in witchcraft. The area boss is Gloomwald’s Rage. Nothing about their move sets, damage types, or stagger behaviour has been published yet.

Who is Gloomwald’s Rage? Gloomwald’s Rage is the confirmed area boss of the Snowy Forest region in Version 1.5. Beyond the name and the fact that it anchors the zone, no mechanics, phases, or drop tables have been announced. Treat any early build advice you see as guesswork.

Do I need to finish the Wuling story before playing 1.5? You should plan on it. The 1.5 main story resumes directly after the confrontation in Wuling, so if you are behind on that arc you will likely be gated out of the new content or spoiled by it. This is the single most useful thing to clear before September 2.

Do I need Typhoeus for the Trial of the Bow event? Trial of the Bow is a challenge event built around Typhoeus’s kit, and she takes the Endministrator into the Snowy Forest’s archery range for it. Whether it provides a trial unit for players who did not pull her has not been confirmed, so if the rewards matter to you, watch for that detail at launch.

Will the Snowy Forest story stay playable after the event ends? The Trial of the Bow story specifically remains playable after its event period ends, which Endfield has been consistent about with narrative events. The rewards are still time-limited, so there is a reason to play it live even though the story itself is not going anywhere.

What should I farm before Version 1.5 releases? Bank upgrade materials and Oroberyl rather than spending them, clear anything expiring on your current battle pass, and get your existing carries to a state where you can gear a new operator without dismantling a working team. A new region usually means new gear and new ascension costs.

Endfield Hub is a fan-made resource for Arknights: Endfield and is not affiliated with Hypergryph or Yostar. Gloomwald’s Rage mechanics are unannounced as of publication, and we will publish a dedicated boss guide once the fight is live.