QUICK START
- Unlock the PAC (Protocol Anchor Core) first — everything in your network routes through it.
- Prioritise Tier I and Tier II tech under Resourcing, Logistics, Processing and Power before anything else.
- Your factory keeps running while you’re logged out, so a working line beats a perfect one.
- Combat facilities only work in zones where your AIC is active — that’s the production-to-combat link.
- Shared Blueprints let you import a working layout with a code instead of designing one.
The Automated Industry Complex is where most new Arknights Endfield players stall. It looks like a side system, gets introduced through a long tutorial, and doesn’t obviously connect to the fighting. This Arknights Endfield base building guide covers how the AIC actually works — and, more importantly, how production feeds directly into combat power.
Arknights Endfield Base Building: What the AIC Actually Does
The AIC is your personal factory network on Talos-II. It pulls raw ore out of the ground, refines it, and turns it into gear, medicine, food, explosives, and outpost supplies — automatically, on a loop, whether you’re standing there or not.
The part that matters: your factory keeps running while you’re logged out. Set up a working production chain tonight and you’ll wake up to stockpiles. Leave it broken and your progression stops the moment gear upgrades become mandatory, which happens sooner than most players expect.
If you’re wondering whether the whole system is worth engaging with at all, our Arknights Endfield review covers where it lands for different types of players.
Start With the PAC, Not the Layout
Before you build anything, unlock the PAC (Protocol Anchor Core). This is the central hub your entire network hangs off — output ports on the PAC feed your conveyor runs, and everything downstream depends on it being placed sensibly.
The order that works for a first base:
- Unlock and place the PAC
- Build mining rigs on resource nodes and connect them
- Run conveyors from the rigs into refiners
- Feed refiner output into packers and depots
That’s a complete basic loop: raw material in, usable material stored. Everything else is an expansion of that pattern.
Power: Build the Spine First
Power is the constraint that quietly breaks most early bases. You distribute it through Relay Towers, and cables have range limits you have to respect — you can’t just place a generator and assume everything within sight is covered.
Build your power spine with margin before you expand production, not after. Adding facilities to a grid that’s already at capacity means rewiring the whole thing, and rewiring is where people give up on the system entirely.
Tech Priority: Tier I and II Before Anything Else
The tech tree offers more than you can unlock early, and the temptation is to chase the interesting stuff. Don’t. Focus on Tier I and Tier II under four categories:
- Resourcing — automated mining and extraction
- Logistics — conveyors, ports, and routing
- Processing — refiners and production facilities
- Power — generation and relay coverage
Combat and exploration facilities — ziplines, turrets, bounce gadgets — are genuinely fun and do nothing for your economy. Save them for after your production loop is stable.
Production Lines: Build Modules You Can Copy
The layout principle that separates a base you can expand from one you have to demolish: build production blocks you can duplicate without rewiring.
In practice that means short, readable conveyor runs fed from PAC output ports, rather than long spaghetti routes crossing each other. When you need more of a given output, you copy the block rather than redesigning the base around it.
Sequence your automation in this order:
- Automate raw intake and refinement first
- Stabilise intermediate materials so they’re always in surplus
- Only then add end-product lines
Building end-product lines before your intermediates are comfortable is how you end up with a factory that’s constantly starved.
Blueprints: You Don’t Have to Design Anything
This is the single most underused feature for players who don’t enjoy factory games. Endfield has three blueprint types:
- System Blueprints — unlocked through in-game Simulations and AIC Plan progression
- My Blueprints — your own saved designs, ready to redeploy
- Shared Blueprints — community layouts you import using share codes
If the AIC isn’t the reason you’re playing, import a shared blueprint for your basic setups and move on. The required parts of the system are not difficult; they just need to exist.
How Production Actually Connects to Combat
Three concrete links, and this is what the tutorial fails to make clear:
1. Gear comes from the factory. The equipment upgrades your operators need are produced here. Early on you can coast without them. Later, top-tier gear stops being optional, and there’s no alternative source.
2. Combat facilities work in AIC-active zones. When you’re fighting in an area your AIC covers, you can call on combat facilities that damage enemies or heal your squad. That’s a direct production-to-combat conversion, and it’s the difference-maker in harder encounters.
3. Ancient tech blocks progression. Paths across Talos-II are sealed behind old machinery that needs power. Expanding your network is what opens the map.
Outposts: Where the Real Rewards Are
Outposts are mini-bases placed in different zones, and they’re the most consistent free-to-play power source in the game.
Each outpost has Supply Orders that fill automatically every minute once you connect your production lines to the outpost’s storage. Completing them pays out Convention Certificates, which buy gacha pulls, trust items, and rare progression materials.
Levelling outposts as fast as you can is the highest-value thing you can do with a working factory. It converts automated production directly into pulls without spending money.
You’ll also earn Stock Bills, the currency used for upgrading features, crafting gear, and buying from a rotating shop that stocks promotion materials, operator gifts, T-Credits, and pulls.
Can You Skip Base Building?
Mostly, but not completely.
You can play without going deep on the AIC and be fine for a long stretch. What you can’t do is ignore it entirely — gear production is mandatory eventually, and there’s no way around that. The good news is that the required parts are the easy parts, and shared blueprints handle them for you.
The high-end optimisation, the elaborate outpost networks, the perfectly balanced production ratios — all optional. Get a basic loop running, keep outposts supplied, and you’ve cleared the bar.
The official site has the current version details and patch notes.
FAQ
What should I unlock first in the AIC?
The PAC, then Tier I and II tech under Resourcing, Logistics, Processing and Power. Combat and exploration facilities come last.
Does my factory run while I’m offline?
Yes. Production continues while you’re logged out, which is why getting a basic chain working early pays off more than optimising a small one.
What are Convention Certificates for?
Gacha pulls, trust items, and rare progression materials. You earn them from outpost Supply Orders, which fill automatically from your production lines.
Can I copy another player’s base?
Yes. Shared Blueprints let you import community layouts with a share code, so you never have to design a factory yourself if you don’t want to.
Do I need base building to win fights?
Indirectly, yes. Gear comes from the factory, and combat facilities only function in zones your AIC covers.
