COMBAT MASTERY
SP Management, Stagger, Skill Rotations & Advanced Techniques
Last updated: 2026-02-01
* TL;DR - Key Points
- * Your team of 4 shares a pool of 3 SP -- every skill decision affects everyone
- * Land your Final Strikes (last hit of a combo) to generate SP
- * Fill the enemy Stagger bar, then land a Finisher for burst damage + SP refund
- * Perfect Dodge at the right moment restores stamina and grants i-frames
- * Cancel Heavy Attack recovery with dodge or skills to maintain DPS
- * Use Background Casting to fire teammate skills without switching characters
Contents
The SP System
In Arknights: Endfield, all four operators share a pool of 3 SP (Skill Points). Battle Skills cost 1 SP with no cooldown, Combo Skills cost 0 SP but need trigger conditions, and Ultimates require a full energy bar. SP regenerates through Final Strikes, Perfect Dodges, Finishers, and slow passive regen.
Your team runs on Skill Points. Understanding how they flow is arguably the single most important thing you can learn about Endfield's combat system.
How SP Works
All four Operators draw from the same shared SP pool. You can hold a maximum of 3 SP at once, with no way to expand that cap. This means every time you burn SP on one character, the rest of your team has to wait for it to refill.
SP Generation Methods
| Source | How It Works | Reliability |
|---|---|---|
| Final Strikes | Complete a full combo chain (4-5 hits) to trigger the closing blow | High |
| Perfect Dodges | Dodge at the exact moment an attack lands | Medium |
| Finishers | First basic attack on a Staggered enemy | High |
| Passive Regen | SP ticks up slowly over time | Low |
Skill Types & SP Costs
| Skill Type | SP Cost | Cooldown | Activation |
|---|---|---|---|
| Battle Skill | 1 SP | None | Use whenever you have SP |
| Combo Skill | 0 SP | Yes | Requires a trigger condition (freeze, knockdown, etc.) |
| Ultimate | 0 SP | Needs full energy | Energy charges over time and from combat |
Battle Skills are your bread and butter -- 1 SP, no cooldown, meaning you can dump all 3 SP in quick succession for burst. Combo Skills are free but gated behind conditions and cooldowns, rewarding you for creating the right openings. Ultimates are the big payoff abilities that charge over time.
The SP Flow Loop
When it all clicks, SP management becomes a self-sustaining cycle:
- 1. Attack with combos, landing Final Strikes to generate SP
- 2. Spend SP on Battle Skills for damage or utility
- 3. Build the enemy's Stagger bar through Final Strikes and skills
- 4. Stagger the enemy, land a Finisher to refund SP
- 5. Refunded SP feeds your next wave of skills
Pro Tip: SP Discipline
Resist the urge to spend all 3 SP the moment they fill. Keep at least 1 SP in reserve for emergencies -- a clutch Battle Skill cancel or a background-cast heal can save a run. Only dump everything during a Stagger window when the enemy can't retaliate.
Attack Combos & Final Strikes
Every Operator has a basic attack chain -- typically 4 to 5 hits ending in a heavier swing called the Final Strike. This closing blow hits harder than regular attacks and is your main SP generator.
Why Final Strikes Matter
The instinct in action games is to dodge-cancel constantly, weaving in and out of range. In Endfield, that habit drains your SP dry. You need to commit to finishing your combos so the Final Strike actually connects. It's the engine that keeps your entire team running.
Heavy Attacks
After the Final Strike, your character follows up with a Heavy Attack -- a slow, powerful swing with a long recovery animation. It contributes significantly to the Stagger bar, but the recovery window leaves you exposed. This is where animation cancelling comes in.
Stagger Mechanics
Every enemy in Arknights: Endfield has a Stagger bar beneath their health bar. Filling it through Final Strikes, Heavy Attacks, and skill hits stuns the enemy. Landing the first attack on a staggered enemy triggers a Finisher dealing massive burst damage and refunding SP to your team pool.
Every enemy has a Stagger bar -- the white gauge underneath their health bar. Filling it is how you create your biggest damage windows.
What Builds Stagger
| Source | Stagger Contribution |
|---|---|
| Final Strikes | Moderate |
| Heavy Attacks | Strong |
| Battle / Combo Skills | Varies by operator |
| Physical Lift / Knock Down | Strong + CC |
| Interrupting Charge Attacks | Very Strong |
The Staggered State
Once the Stagger bar fills completely, the enemy enters a stunned state:
- * Enemy freezes in place for several seconds
- * All damage is amplified ~30%
- * Your first normal attack becomes a Finisher
Finisher Attacks
The Finisher is the payoff for your Stagger work:
- * Massive burst damage far beyond a normal attack
- * Restores SP to your team's pool
- * Resets the Stagger bar so the cycle begins again
After the Finisher, immediately use Battle Skills while the enemy is still recovering -- you'll have the SP to spend.
Interrupting Charge Attacks
Some enemies telegraph powerful moves with a red circle or red glow while charging up. If you hit them during this window with a Battle Skill, Combo Skill, or Ultimate, you'll interrupt the attack and dump a massive amount into their Stagger bar. Watch for the red indicator, then unload a skill instead of dodging away.
Pro Tip: Stagger Priority
Against bosses with large Stagger bars, consider designating one team member as your "Stagger specialist" -- someone whose skills deal high Stagger damage. Operators with Physical Lift/Knock Down are excellent for this since those moves build Vulnerable stacks AND fill the Stagger bar at the same time.
Perfect Dodge
When an enemy is about to attack, you'll see a red glow on their body or a brief red flash. Dodging at the precise moment the hit would connect triggers a Perfect Dodge.
What You Get
- * Full damage negation -- the attack deals zero damage
- * Stamina recovery -- you gain stamina instead of spending it
- * Brief invincibility -- a short i-frame window after the dodge
- * Small SP gain -- a minor but welcome bonus
Best Used Against
- * Single big hits (boss slams, elite sweeps)
- * Attacks you can't outrange in time
- * Low stamina situations
Avoid Attempting On
- * Multi-hit combos (dodge first hit, then reposition)
- * AoE ground effects with lingering damage
- * Rapid attacks with unclear timing
Animation Cancelling
After your combo's Heavy Attack, there's a long recovery animation where your character is locked in place. Experienced players cancel this recovery to maintain their damage output.
How to Cancel
Interrupt the Heavy Attack recovery with any of these:
- * Dodge -- the most common cancel, repositions you at the same time
- * Battle Skill -- cancels into damage if you have SP to spend
- * Combo Skill -- highest-value cancel if the trigger condition is met
The Optimal Rhythm
With cancelling, you eliminate the dead time after Heavy Attacks and keep damage flowing smoothly. Without it, there's roughly a full second of downtime between combos.
Pro Tip: Dodge Direction
When dodge-cancelling a Heavy Attack, dodge toward the enemy rather than backward. This keeps you in melee range and lets you start the next combo immediately. Dodging away wastes time closing the gap.
Background Casting
Background Casting in Arknights: Endfield lets you use inactive teammates' Battle Skills without switching characters. Press a teammate's skill button while controlling your active operator to cast from the background. This keeps your main DPS attacking uninterrupted while supports apply buffs, heals, or elemental debuffs.
One of Endfield's most underused mechanics: you can fire off your inactive teammates' skills without switching to them.
How It Works
While controlling your active Operator, press the skill button assigned to a teammate. That teammate casts their skill from the background -- no character swap, no interruption to your active character's combo.
Why It's Powerful
- * Main DPS keeps attacking uninterrupted
- * Supports apply buffs and heals passively
- * Enablers set up reactions in the background
- * Stack multiple background skills in quick succession
Best Uses
- * Pop healer skill mid-combo
- * Apply elemental debuffs to trigger reactions
- * Activate buffs right before a burst window
- * Use a Stagger skill during charge-up
Note: Background-cast skills may have slightly reduced effectiveness for some operators compared to direct casting (depending on talents). But the DPS uptime you maintain almost always outweighs that trade-off.
Skill Rotation Fundamentals
Effective rotations in Endfield aren't about memorizing a fixed button sequence. They're about recognizing the setup → trigger → burst pattern.
The Core Pattern
- 1. Setup: Apply a condition (elemental infliction, Vulnerable stacks, Stagger buildup)
- 2. Trigger: Use a skill that activates on that condition (Combo Skills, reaction triggers)
- 3. Burst: Maximize damage during the window (Stagger state, buff windows, reaction damage)
Example: Physical Rotation
- 1. Basic combos apply Vulnerable passively from Physical hits
- 2. Use Lift or Knock Down to add more stacks + CC the enemy
- 3. At 4 Vulnerable stacks, use Breach (shreds defense)
- 4. Follow with Crush (consumes all stacks for a massive Physical hit)
- 5. Build Stagger through Final Strikes, land Finisher, cycle again
Example: Cryo Burst Rotation
- 1. Apply Cryo Infliction from your Cryo DPS
- 2. Stack to 3-4 Inflictions via mono-element hits (each triggers an Arts Burst)
- 3. Background-cast an Electric skill to trigger Electrification (bonus Arts damage)
- 4. Or apply Cryo to a debuffed target for Solidification (freeze)
- 5. Hit frozen enemy with Physical for Shatter (enormous burst)
Pro Tip: Watch the Debuff Icons
Keep an eye on the status icons above enemies. Seeing "3x Cryo Infliction" or "4x Vulnerable" is your signal to shift from setup to burst. Stacks decay over time, so missing the window means wasted buildup.
Boss Phase Management
Major bosses typically follow a multi-phase structure -- usually 3 phases tied to health thresholds (roughly 100-66%, 66-33%, 33-0%).
What Changes Between Phases
- * Attack patterns become more aggressive and complex
- * New mechanics may activate (shields, summons, area denial)
- * Some bosses gain brief invulnerability during transitions
- * Weak points may shift to different body parts
Phase Transition Tips
- * Don't dump skills at a threshold. If the boss goes invulnerable at 66% HP and you just used your Ultimate, that damage evaporates.
- * Save burst for after transitions. The post-transition window often has a brief vulnerability period. Punish it hard.
- * Watch for Stagger resets. Some bosses reset their Stagger bar on phase change. Don't waste buildup right before a threshold.
Weak Points
Certain bosses expose glowing weak points that take bonus damage and accelerate Stagger gain. Some bosses can only be meaningfully damaged through these weak spots. Others have armored sections that reduce damage and knock you back if hit. Pay attention to your damage numbers -- if they drop on a body part, stop attacking it and look for the weak point.
Pro Tip: Threshold Awareness
If a boss is sitting at ~70% HP, you know a phase transition is coming. That's the time to stop using expensive skills and bank SP for the post-transition burst window.
Physical vs. Arts Team Loops
Your team's damage type fundamentally changes how combat plays out. Each has a distinct loop to master.
Physical Teams
Strengths:
- * Consistent single-target damage
- * Strong Stagger generation
- * Shatter combos (freeze + Physical)
Arts (Elemental) Teams
Strengths:
- * AoE damage through reactions
- * Sustained DoT pressure
- * Defense shredding (Corrosion)
- * Hard CC (Solidification freeze)
Hybrid Teams
Some compositions blend Physical and Arts damage to access Shatter -- one of the highest single-hit damage combos available. The typical approach: use Arts operators to freeze the target, then swap to a Physical DPS for the Shatter hit. Check our State Guide for details on how reactions chain together.
Quick Reference Checklist
Frequently Asked Questions
How does the SP system work in Arknights: Endfield?
All four Operators share a pool of 3 SP. Battle Skills cost 1 SP each with no cooldown, Combo Skills cost 0 SP but require a trigger condition, and Ultimates need a full energy bar. SP regenerates through Final Strikes, Perfect Dodges, Finishers, and passive regen.
What is a Finisher in Arknights: Endfield?
When an enemy's Stagger bar fills completely, they become stunned. The first normal attack you land on a Staggered enemy becomes a Finisher, dealing massive burst damage and restoring SP to your team.
How do you animation cancel in Arknights: Endfield?
After a Heavy Attack, your character is locked in a recovery animation. You can cancel this by immediately inputting a Dodge, Battle Skill, or Combo Skill, maintaining DPS uptime instead of standing still.
What is Background Casting in Arknights: Endfield?
Background Casting lets you use an inactive teammate's skill without switching characters. Press the skill button assigned to a teammate while controlling your main DPS, and they'll cast from the background without interrupting your active operator.