Arknight: Endfield Contingency Contract Re-Ignition Experimental Operation Complete Guide | Risk 20

Recently, Arknight: Endfield launched the event Contingency Contract: Re-Ignition Experimental Operation. Simply put, it isa Periodic high-difficulty challenge mode. Players can combine Test Criteria from different levels to complete combat challenges.

If you are new, you will probably feel lost with the criteria selection and team building. Fortunately, this guide aims to help new players understand the event thoroughly. Meanwhile, F2P players can also use this guide to claim all the rewards easily.

Before we dive in, you first need to know this: for new players, the priority is to get all the event rewards. If you still have energy left, you can try for a higher score later. To target it, you only need to pick criteria that add up to risk 20. This difficulty level does not demand a strong team or perfect execution. Overall, it is quite beginner-friendly.

How long does the Contingency Contract last?

According to the official announcement, the Contingency Contract: Experimental Re-Ignition Operation began on June 19th and will continue until the next version maintenance and update. During this time, the event updated once on June 26th at 12:00 (server time).

The event shop, [Secret Sanctuary], opened along with the event but will close on July 23rd at 4:00 (server time). Please ensure all Vitrified Coins are used before the shop closes.

How to unlock the Contingency Contract?

Contingency Contract Rewards and the shop

How to claim the Vitrified Coins

Vitrified Coins are the primary currency used to redeem goods in this event. There are 3 ways to obtain them:

What can you buy in the Secret Sanctuary?

The rewards for Contingency Contract primarily consist of Oroberyl, upgrade materials, and stickers, which can be redeemed using Vitrified Coins in Secret Sanctuary. Additionally, Trimmed Medals, avatars, and avatar frames can be obtained by completing mission guides.

To clear the shop (excluding the infinitely redeemable TC), a total of 8560 Vitrified Coins is required. However, beginners don't need to worry about this. It's easy to maximize your rewards with the proper selection of indicators and team composition. And that's what I'm going to talk about.

Contingency Contract Shop Priority

If you're struggling to acquire enough Vitrified Coins, I suggest prioritizing Oroberyl, followed by discounted items in the shop. In terms of quality, prioritize gold items, followed by purple. As for photo stickers, it's up to your personal preference.

Contingency Contract Gameplay Introduction

Before the fight, players need to choose test criteria to weaken operators and strengthen enemies. These criteria are divided into three levels. The higher the level of the criterion chosen, the greater the difficulty of the battle.

When you are in an operation, you need to withstand four waves of enemies. There are rest periods between waves. During this phase, health packs will appear, and you can also start channeling the operator's combo attacks. Defeating all enemies counts as a successful challenge. If you fail, you will need to start over.

Contingency Contract Enemy Mechanics

After understanding the gameplay details, let's break down the enemy mechanics to help us be more effective in combat.

I.   

The first wave will spawn 3 Rams in the arena. When only one Ram remains, a Falsewings will spawn in each of the three directions. Its attack method is to summon small storms.

After that, a Heavy Sting will spawn in the center of the arena. When fighting it, you can run to a corner, and it will automatically approach. It's recommended to kill the three Falsewings first, then the Heavy Sting.

II.   

The second wave will first spawn three Mudflows in the center of the arena. Then, three Herons will spawn in the corners. They can apply a ranged attack that inflicts a chilling effect on operators. At 4 stacks, it will trigger a freeze, rendering the main operator unable to move for 3.5 seconds.

When only one enemy remains, a Prism and a Tidewalker will spawn. The former extends a chain to other enemies, granting the linked target an 80% damage reduction buff. The latter also applies a chilling effect to operators.

Compared to the Herons, the Tidewalker's application frequency is higher, and its damage is also significant. So prioritize killing the Prism before the Tidewalker. To deal with them, you need to pay attention to the carrying and configuration of survival slots.

III.   

The third wave consists of two Heavy Rams. They only dash once and can be controlled. It's recommended to use shield parry, freeze, or a physical damage control chain to defeat them.

During the fight, save 100 SP and time your shield parry operators' skills when the red light flashes. However, be aware that dodging or parrying their dash might result in instant death.

After defeating them, an Effigy will appear. Its skill damage is quite serious, so be careful to dodge.

IV.   

The fourth wave will spawn the previously defeated Heavy Sting and Heavy Rams. If you're confident in your playstyle, you can start by attacking Heavy Sting; Heavy Rams will then come over and get hit together. If you're not confident in your playstyle, you can start by attacking Heavy Rams.

After defeating them, the Boss, Tidalklast, will spawn. In its normal state, it does not inflict freezing. However, when its HP drops below 85%, it enters a strengthened state. In this state, it gains 30% fire vulnerability and 50% damage reduction to other elements, and inflicts freezing on operators. The strengthened state lasts for approximately one minute.

What is the Test Criteria in Contingency Contract?

Understand test criteria: the core of the Contingency Contract

In the test criteria selection, some criteria are connected by a gray line, indicating that they belong to the same group. Only one criterion can be selected at a time, and the higher the criterion's level, the greater its negative effect.

After selecting criteria, the bottom right corner of the screen displays the total level of the currently selected criteria. Completing a level using the currently selected criteria will count towards your highest achievement level. In the Contingency Contract, criteria are categorized into different sets, which are unlocked as your highest achievement level increases.

It's important to note that some criteria require you to select the corresponding key criteria to unlock them. Key criteria are the most unique type of criterion in the contract; while they provide negative effects, they also offer positive buffs. Utilizing these positive buffs effectively is the key to easily clearing the stage.

On the 8th day after the event begins, new criteria will be added. If your current criteria set is not yet available, you will still be unable to select new criteria. During the event, one new recurring quest will be added every 3 days, for a total of 7 recurring quests this period. All quests will continue until the end of the event.

Criteria Selection Priority

To reduce the pressure of combat, the selection of criteria is very important. In addition, it will also affect the choice of team composition.

Here is the summary based on the currently available criteria. And the recommended selection order is divided into three tiers: T2-T0. T2 is the highest priority, followed by T0 and then T1.

T2：low pressure These types of criteria have relatively minor negative effects. They can be completely avoided through specific operators or configurations.
criteria	suggestion
	Compared to other criteria that reduce output, the value is relatively low, and its impact on overall output is limited.
	Suitable for Crush Teams, Cryo Teams, and Heat Teams, but less effective if Zhuang Fangyi is the main damage dealer.
	This suppresses skill-based DPS operators, but benefits combo and special damage operators. The cooldown reduction also accelerates ultimate skill charging. Optional for non-Crush, Cryo, and Heat Teams.
	Directly thaws enemies when using Fire, Electro, Physical, or Nature-based skills. This includes combo attacks and ultimate abilities.
	Recommended for use in conjunction with the Freeze Criteria skill. In actual combat, pay attention to the skill release order and try to stagger key skills with the 4-Cold Bite application. However, if Estella is the main control character, this effect can be ignored.
	This has a significant negative impact on burst-type operators, such as Last Rite. The normal output rhythm is acceptable, but avoid using ultimate skills or key skills in quick succession; you might encounter situations where a second ultimate skill or skills don't deal damage. Players with skillful positioning can choose this criterion.
	This should be a must-have for most players. If your main operator lacks strong self-defense capabilities or your gameplay is not going well, you can include shield-type or healing operators like Ember and Ardelia in the team to reduce the pressure on team survival.
● Ambient: Hypoxia Reduces stamina recovery speed by 50%.	This criterion doesn't make a significant difference in gameplay, so it's a viable option.

T1：moderate pressure These criteria have significant negative effects. The impact of these negative effects can be mitigated or avoided by changing equipment, optimizing team composition, and refining gameplay.
criteria	suggestion
	This significantly impacts teams that rely on multiple application cycles, such as the Heat Team built around Laevatain, the Cryo Team built around Last Rite, and the Physical Team built around Endministrator. However, the impact is limited for teams that do not rely on high-frequency applications.
	This is unfavorable for teams like Physical Team and Cryo Team that rely on high-level encasement. If the team's main damage dealer is not a high-level encasement type, the negative impact of this criterion is limited.
	This significantly limits DPS operators with built-in encasements, such as Laevatain, Zhuang Fangyi, Tangtang, and Fluorite. Last Rite can mitigate some of the impact by changing equipment sets or adjusting skill order. Physical Team is unaffected by this criterion.
	However, this can be mitigated through ranged attacks or careful positioning. The choice of this criterion depends on the proportion of melee operators in the team.
	This negatively impacts ultimate skill-based operators like Rossi, Last Rite, and Chen Qianyu. It's best to avoid using these operators with this criterion or rely on non-ultimate skill damage output.
	These effects include knockback, knockdown, freeze, as well as the Endministrator's crystal stun and Tangtang's ultimate attack. Not recommended for Physical Teams and Cryo Teams.
	As long as the team's DPS is sufficient, it won't cause additional pressure.
	This is generally not a problem if the team has shield characters and healers.

T0：high pressure These criteria are difficult to handle, greatly increasing the difficulty of clearing the level and severely limiting team composition options; therefore, they are not recommended.
criteria	suggestion
	This severely impacts the damage output of operators relying on normal attacks, such as Yvonne and Laevatain.
	This severely limits survivability and is particularly detrimental when paired with Edit: Toxic Residue.
	significantly increasing overall damage output requirements.
	This severely limits the value of healing and shielding operators. If your team relies on operators like Laevatain, Xaihi, Antar, and Ember, it's recommended to avoid using this.

The Best Team Composition to Easily Reach Risk 20

Criteria selection is based solely on the main DPS character; teammates can be adjusted as needed. Other general criteria can be added or removed depending on your playstyle and character building.

The current popular teams and gameplay strategies are as follows:

Heat Team

● Laevatain as the core:

Laevatain

Ardelia

Wulfgard

Slot 4 Recommendations:

Akekuri Easily triggers combo attacks and recovers skill points in groups of enemies; her skill inflicts AoE fire.

Ember Strong survivability.

Gilberta Groups enemies.

Strategy: Choose Criteria with combo cooldown reduction, ensuring Ardelia can activate her combo with each heavy attack, simultaneously triggering Laevatain's combo skill to quickly build up Molten Core for enhanced skills and ultimates.

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● Wulfgard as the core:

Wulfgard

Ardelia

Caster Operator Recommendations:

Gilberta Groups enemies, strong buff.

Tangtang Area slow, applies ice to multiple areas.

Perlica Provides conductivity vulnerability.

Survivability Slot Recommendations:

Ember Healing, shield, control.

Snowshine Shield parry applies ice.

Strategy: Choose operators with +100% damage stats (excluding skill damage). Frequently utilize Wulfgard's combo attacks to apply fire to multiple areas.

Cyro Team

● Last Rite as the core:

Last Rite

Xaihi

Gilberta（Abnormal Damage） Tangtang（Combo Cooldown）

Slot 4 Recommendations:

Estella Provides immunity to freeze and knock-up when in control.

Snowshine Shield parry applies ice.

Strategy: Choose criteria that increase damage by 100% (excluding skills). Use Ice Shatter or Tangtang's Tornado to compensate for Last Rite's weakness against AoE monsters. Last Rite is effective against single targets. Estella's freeze immunity as the main controller increases survivability.

● Yvonne as the core:

Yvonne

Gilberta

Xaihi

Slot 4 Recommendations:

Estella Provides immunity to freeze and knock-up when in control.

Snowshine Shield parry applies ice.

Tangtang Spell Vulnerability, Area slow, applies ice to multiple areas

Strategy: Choose criteria that reduce combo cooldown. Frequently triggers Yvonne's combo. Theoretically, this can result in a permanent freeze and quick removal of monsters. Simultaneously, quickly recharge Yvonne's energy. Use her ultimate ability to finish off elite enemies.

Electric Team

Zhuang Fangyi/Avywenna(When used as the main DPS, the stat choices are similar, and the team composition is the same as usual)

Zhuang Fangyi Avywenna

Arclight

Perlica Gilberta

Perlica, as the main DPS, is not highly recommended due to her slightly weak AoE damage. If used, the ultimate skill damage reduction and normal attack damage reduction stats should be chosen cautiously.

Strategy: Choose criteria that reduce combo cooldown. This allows Perlica to frequently release combos that generate electricity. When using Avywenna, it also allows her to generate more electric guns.

When using Arclight/Gilberta, you can choose to release physical skills to thaw criteria. Alternatively, you can rely on Perlica's combo and choose to release electric skills to thaw criteria.

Physical Team

Whether it's Endministrator, Da Pan, or Mi Fu, the main DPS in a physical team relies on Slam attacks for damage, so the skill stats are similar.

Mi Fu Endministrator Da Pan

Chen Qianyu

Ember

The only thing to note is that if using Endministrator and Chen Qianyu for damage, the ultimate skill damage reduction criteria should be chosen with caution.

Team composition is similar to usual.

Strategy: Choose the 100% damage increase criterion (excluding skills), relying on Slam attacks to deal massive damage.

Rossi Team

When using Rossi as the main DPS, the primary considerations are whether to go for a pure spell damage build or a hybrid build with Slammer.

For the spell damage build: Choose combo cooldown reduction stats to frequently trigger Gilberta and Perlica combos, resulting in almost constant armor penetration and conductivity.

For the hybrid build: Choose damage-increasing stats (excluding skill damage) to utilize Rossi's talents' DoT damage and Slammer damage for massive output.

Generally, only these two mutually exclusive stats differ; the other stats are largely the same.

Conclusion

For free-to-play or beginner players, the primary goal should be to claim all the basic rewards and Trimmed Medals. To chase the highest difficulty tiers isn't necessarily.

While the limited number of characters in Arknight: Endfield restricts team composition and buff strategies, some characters' unique talents and skills can be surprisingly effective against specific criteria.

Choose criteria that suit your character and playstyle. Avoid mixing criteria related to survival pressure, as this will increase survival pressure and hinder your damage output.

Furthermore, pooling your resources into a single core team is far more effective than spreading them thin across multiple characters.

If you've completed this guide and cleared the basic difficulty, and want to aim for higher scores, just look forward to the next advanced guide.