Last updated on January 4th, 2026 at 06:39 pm
Arknights – Strategy Game Review
Arknights is a Strategy/Card game from YOSTAR (HONG KONG) LIMITED, first launched in 15th January 2020.
It’s rated 12+ and currently has 9,861+ ratings on the App Store.
What Makes Arknights Stand Out
Take on the role of a key member of Rhodes Island, a pharmaceutical company that fights both a deadly infection and the unrest it leaves in its wake. Together with your leader Amiya, you’ll recruit Operators, train them, then assign them to various operations to protect the innocent and resist those who would thrust the world into turmoil.
・Gorgeous anime-style game with a perfect combination of RPG and strategy elements
・Hundreds of unique Operators across a variety of classes open up countless gameplay options
・Auto Deploy system conveniently allows you to free up your hands
・Carve out a home, just the way you want it, with the Base construction system
・A robust soundtrack and some of the most famous Japanese voice actors and actresses will give you a sublime auditory experience.
Arknights Official Homepage:
https://www.arknights.global/
Official Discord Server:
https://discord.gg/arknights
Official X Account:
https://x.com/ArknightsEN
Official Facebook Page:
https://www.facebook.com/ArknightsGlobal/
Official Instagram:
https://www.instagram.com/arknights_messenger_official/
This Strategy game offers engaging gameplay and regular updates for mobile players.
Player Feedback
As a newer release, Arknights is building its player community. Early feedback suggests .
Recent Updates & Development
Latest Update: 11th December 2025
Recent improvements include:
Update Note
-This is a mandatory update, after which you should download and install the app again manually. Please log in and bind your account to at least one third-party account before the update if you are currently using a guest account to play the game.
Download & Availability
Arknights is available through the official App Store for iOS devices.
Requirements: Requires iPhone 5s / iPad Air / iPad Air (Cellular) / iPad Mini 2 (Retina) / iPad Mini 2 (Retina, Cellular) / iPhone 6 / iPhone 6 Plus / iPad Air 2 / iPad Air 2 (Cellular) / iPad Mini 3 or later.
Compatible with iPhone and iPad devices.
Player Experience Highlights
Community Insight:
Arknights is a tower defense game, one so intense and packed with action. We find the gameplay to be so fun, keeping the operators in check as they fend off enemies with their unique roles and skills. Any operation can be completed with any operator of your choice. Operators are the towers of this game. You can pick from one that exists on the battlefields for a few seconds to distract an enemy, to an operator that can take on waves of enemies by themselves. And without one of them, the outcome of the operation can be affected drastically. If you want an operator, you'd most likely have to use the gacha to get them. But the 6 stars, the highest rarity, have a 2% chance to be in your next pull, which is much higher than what you see in other gacha games. A couple 10 draws would guarantee you a 6 star, with the friendly pity system. Didn't get the 6 star you wanted? Don't worry about it, they aren't must-haves. Some players are completing the game with free operators only, and some are even limiting themselves to 3 and 4 stars, which are usually your last resort. The game's UI is clean and organized, and the operators have beautiful artwork and backstories. We'll let you know that we don't read the lore, because we can't sit still and read seemingly endless dialogue. But you can trust us it's good. Farming for your operators is quick, it'll only cost about 30 minutes of your morning and evening. And all you need to do is start an operation and it'll complete itself while you are doing something else. We've always known about the game, we played it back when it released and dropped it, but picked it up again a few months ago and am still enjoying it now. The game isn't perfect, there are still a few flaws, but they will not affect your experience. We never wrote game reviews before, but we have to let you know that Arknights is a masterpiece, a hidden gem.
May be cruelbut this is just arknights.
Ive been playing this game almost since launch (few years now). It is by far, the best strategic game ever. Does not require too much of a daily work, so you can focus IRL things and play other games. Its the perfect balance of time, spending, and big brain moments.
Ive played this game and we love it. Ive been playing it for about 3-4 years now and we love to collect the characters the most and when u start the game now it gives you 2 packages to choose one 5 star character from each and we were wondering if ,YOSTAR, that you could make another package (not in store but free) letting you choose 1 limited 6 star that was part of an event and can not be headhunted anymore. We think that it would be helpful to new players that probably have only one 6 star. It doesnt have to be completely free to such as (just an example) Epic 7 where it gives gifts after they made a livestream and has a code in the stream to unlock the gift. We think it would be a good idea and would please the players. And of course we understand the 6 stars are super rare and thats what makes it exciting to get them but some you cant get anymore which is why we proposed this idea because our dream 6 star character is dusk but we cant get her in headhunting anymore. If you (YOSTAR) doesnt like the idea then at least consider bringing back some limited 6 star characters from the past (Specifically dusk please). If you dont like either idea then that is fine but we hope this brings other good ideas if you didnt want to use ours. Just please consider :).
Compelling story that makes us cry every chapter, constantly updating with new content, innovative battle system thats never boring and always rewarding, WONDERFUL dev team that listens to their fans, and the best, most forgiving gacha Ive ever pulled on in our entire life. Do yourself a favor and play this game.
So hear us out. Normally, Gacha games typically arent challenging if you whale and spend thousands of dollars. This game is completely different. You could have all the best units in the game just to find out that the stage youre on would be much easier if you used a team of 3 or 4 star operators. Being F2P in this game is a huge treat btw, since this game does not throw ads or packs in your face. Not only that, the sprite work is some of the best Ive seen. Did we mention theres literally no paywall in this game? We know we keep harping on the monetization part of this game, but most mobile games are toxic in that regard. This game is a breath of fresh air that deserves so much more attention.
Ok, so lets get the good things out of the way: amazing OST featuring songs from almost any genre, the game makes you think about how to overcome challenges, the game is completely free to play, as you can beat the ENTIRE game with 3 stars, you can even beat the entire game without leveling up a single unit (CN community managed to pull this off but the ch8 boss took 5 hours because again, unleveled units), the game gives you a ton of pull currency, and lastly, the game has great lore that will keep you reading. This story will tug at your heart strings one way or another. As for the negatives, the only one we have is that older units that came out near release are kinda bland, such as skadi whoms skills only give her stat boosts. Luckily, modules fix this issue somewhat, but we believe older units should be reworked to have unique kits. Overall, we recommend giving this game a try. The story is a little boring at first, but trust us, it will ramp up in later chapters to the point where you start questioning what is wrong with the games world. Also, you gacha rates are pretty good, since you get a ton of pull currency every week. The character designs are great, especially the recent ones. We can guarantee there will be at least 1 character design you may like, or even love.
We love the game but the ui is too small.
If you want a game that is interesting, has amazing music and lore, dynamic characters with diverse backgrounds and designs, a relatively FTP experience, then Arknights has it. Its one of the best games Ive played on mobile, and one of the few that has kept our interest. We are really not good at strategic games, but its the love for the characters and evolution that has kept us going for 2+ years. Unlike some other popular games, the devs really seem to try to create creative and unique characters and abilities, and they really seem interested in providing a smooth experience for players. Have we mentioned how much the studio actually puts into this game? The music is phenomenal and they frequently release state-of-the-art anime style 3D animations that few other companies can hold a candle to. They genuinely seem to invest the money they receive from this game to improve and expand it. We can say that thats really rare in the mobile game industry, at least in our opinion.
10/10 would mald again, worth spending hours to beat a single stage.
Pros: good story no gear rng F2P friendly gacha has pity system good art cons: endgame is repetitive there is no skip button cc is getting old no new game modes except for waiting for new events gacha has no sparking system live 2D limited to a very few number of units.
A tower defense game where the towers are characters. That is over simplifying, but at least gives you some idea. Honestly we love the puzzle solving and strategies involved, and really love most of the characters. Overall the pricing is fairly decent but it is a gacha game so be aware of that. Really enjoyable characters and a surprisingly intricate story.
Title, much prefer to play this game in Chinese.
After playing the game for about 2 hours in a day, our iPhone battery was hit hard. Once we had recharged it, our phone required a hard reset as the screen wouldnt come from back which was a direct result from weird battery drainage. This could have been an outside source but it only happened the day we got the game. The game is still very fun but thats just the issue we had.
So when we downloaded this game and was on the part to install the files we chose the 2200 mb but when it reached 80 percent it stopped and trust us we have good internet so idk this game is just unplayable.
This game moves levels up too fast without having the proper funds to level up your characters. It does not give you enough materials to build up a whole team that matches the enemys level, let alone account for a new players investing mistakes. They do not teach you how to get more materials, and you have to figure it out yourself, which is indescribably frustrating and evil. As someone with terrible luck who has barely any diverse good units (most of our good units are all in the same category), we experience major frustration when trying to beat a level with our 4 good rarity defenders and 3 + 4 star anyone else.
This is a very friendly gacha games.
We didnt think we would enjoy this game as much as we do especially since Im not a mobile gamer but Ive been playing arknights every day consistently since we downloaded it, (Oct 2021) and Ive thoroughly enjoyed every single moment from the story to the base interactions, pulling operator mechanics as well just leveling up all our cool operators. Also this game actually rewards you for playing it with all the daily logins and rewards from events and recently theres been nothing but events back to back. The only thing Id like to see is some kind of permanent coop thing where you can have more interaction with your friends. Sending clues and stuff is nice but having actual stages to play with our friends would be even better. You can make them kind of like contingencies where you fresh the level once every day and make it so it has some challenges added to it. Other than that perfect game 10/10 this game is being passed down to our childrens children and left in our will. Thanks Yostar.
We absolutely love this game. The characters, the music, the battles, and especially the base building. We have all 4 dormitories unlocked and fully furnished for a relaxed looking base. Do you plan on expanding the base and adding more floors to it? We have tons of operators and furniture but no more room to put them in. Other than that, thanks for making such an awesome game.
Despite us playing this game off and on a lot we usually always comeback to playing it! Its a wonderful pass time with the difficult levels it has sometimes. And the story of it all is just incredible. We love the F2P style and just the whole game is great.
We have been playing this game for 2 years, love it.
We like the game so far and it doesnt feel pay to win but the game crashes in the middle of a match. Yes we know our phone (iPhone 6 plus) is very old but the game doesnt crash on a cromebook so we hope it would get patched out.
Combat system has some actual strategy rather than 3d models shooting on auto mode for 3 minutes. Makes getting a certain character slightly more worth.
Everytime we have some extra money to throw around for this mediocre game, we somehow always end up rolling Mizuki, the one character out of almost 50 6 units, we dont want. We absolutely hate his character design and traps/femboys disgust us. And to no surprise hes the worst 6 in the game. Well if we learned anything, its that we shouldnt waste anymore money on this.
Phn home th khng xem c im exp, headhunt th khng xem c lch s, khng c bo him. Game rc.
Since the new update the size has more than double. Used to be 2.5gb. Little bigger than install of 2.1gb requirement. Since update backup now 4.6gb. We even try to delete and backup again to see if mistake still 4.6gb. They are backup entire game not just the save data to the iCloud. ICloud limit to 5gb unless pay the monthly charges for extra. Look at bottom of AppStore page for Arknights says require space for the install.
This game is amazing. We absolutely love this game. But why are the ads soooo bad? We feel like the ads are making the game look bad. This game obviously has high production value but the ads look like its one of the cultivation games. It just doesnt look appealing. For the love of god please improve you advertising department. This game is missing out on a huge market.
Good strategy game cool operators and good lore.
This game is amazingly good in its genre right now and in our opinion the gold standard for what tower defense games should be. Ive been playing this since release and it just keeps getting better and better. The story is absolutely engaging and makes you actually enjoy both protagonists and antagonists and is not afraid to go dark into the story. If youre into tower defense in general this is also fantastic since getting different operators spices up each zone and you can figure out different ways on completing each zone, leaving a lot of replay ability. Whenever they come out with special events they add new side story details for specific operators, new and already existing, and are very generous with giving out resources. The only gripe we have is the drop rates are pretty meh at most for operator recruitment , but the game itself gives you a bunch of chances to build your premium resources up for specific banners through story, events, and annihilation mode. This game IMO deserves to be called the best in its genre and Im so glad they are animating the story also.
Very good game it makes you think and use strategy to solve levels Misha is an idiot.
Its plausible to only clear all content with low rarity and friend support units.
From beautiful lore and character design, we enjoy that im a dedicated player of arknights. We look forward to the well thought out events and strategies for new stages! The music this game puts out is even more impressive – this game really brings us a lot of happiness.
Incredible character designs. Free units can clear almost all content in the game and theres a lot of opportunity to get 5 and 6 stars that will help clear the remaining tough parts.
This is as great game and gives out good deals for 6 month and yearly benchmark. Genshin impact showed the world how not to do games . We hope more people come to games like this for better customer service. We have to downgrade this to a 4 star due to the lack of cs support. There was issues with the second anni log in system and they will not give us our earned rewards.
We love this game so much but the game sometimes lags and ruins the whole experience. Plz fix this issue. Thank the developers for this amazing game.
We downloaded the game for IOS and after 1 day the sound is completely gone. The story for event are horrendously & unnecessary long. The gacha rates could be better but Im glad theres a pity system in place. Overall its a fun game to have and we love the combat system of it.
We were initially incredibly hooked on this game, the aesthetics, art, characters and design of it all was very appealing to us. We enjoyed rolling, all of the characters were pretty unique and we even enjoyed the story, rather than feeling like we were being dragged along through something we didnt care about. Our issue only arose after we got completely stuck at a higher level. The difficulty almost entirely spiked out of nowhere, and because resources are very hard (time-wise) to get, we decided to uninstall the game. Our team wasn't balanced enough to take on any new levels/events. And in order to roll for new ones/upgrade existing ones, id need resources that would only be dropped in missions further into the story. Beautiful game and tons of fun, but unfortunately there was no way we could have managed to defeat the chapter 3 final boss WITHOUT paying $$$.
When we press skip to SKIP character dialogue, let it ACTUALLY SKIP CHARACTER DIALOGUE COMPLETELY. Is that so much to ask.
Love this game but it can be very HARD at times and frustrating. We are not new to strategic games but we find this game to be very difficult at times. If you are reaching for the 3 star bonus it can be really frustrating. We wish they could make it a tad easier or have it as a setting at least so the people that like it very hard can keep it that way. If it wasnt for it being so difficult we would rate 5 stars but at times it just makes us really sad to have to try a stage 20 times to get 3 stars when all all our characters are way above the recommended level for the stage.
Cleared our previous review with valid criticisms so lowered stars. Terribly paced, overly complicated story that is frequently tiresome. If English isnt your first language, you may struggle and end up skipping. Recently, fanservice characters are featured more often. Less finesse involved in the integration of characters into stories so you end up not really understanding their relationships or interactions with each other unlike other games. We have quite a few operators we know absolutely nothing about. Skins are a bit lazy on the men and lower tier in general. Check the detail in the background compared to Nearls swimsuit skin and youll see what we mean. We really dont like that practice takes more for challenge or even that its limited. Energy is too scare especially when you need to run a few chips supplies battle. Nothing much to do each day. We had good things to say about it like the ingenuity in battles; it being possible to complete the game with low level operators, many freebies and events, but we are tired and will return to this. Lets see if its deleted again lol.
Its a great game, we have played for almost 2-years. Most recent update again made the game more enjoyable and efficient. As a 2 year old player, we highly recommend Arknights can do this improvement. This will make the game much more efficient and keeps old players longer. Highly recommend Arknights to have quick battle mode, so that we can have more fun time to play the game and find solutions for hard maps. Now everyday, the time was spent on repeated maps just for clearing senity. No time to even farm for essential materials just because those maps cost less senity that even more time will be taken. We wish Arknights can seriously consider this suggestion. Many of our friends have burned out on repeating maps.
The game is fun and pretty good to new players. There are some misses here and there like the limited banners and some small translation errors but other than that the game is fun and simplistic. Honestly the majority of bad reviews are due to some really loud toxic players that cant seem to understand why the company decided to remove a VA. Like as a company, if our only choices were to remove a VA because of some random little thing or get dropped from the App Store in our targeted audiences regions and piss away the players of the games opinions, yeah Id remove the VA. Everyone here is salty because they know theyre overreacting and needs to move on.
We recommend remaining f2p or limited pay. There is little in the ways of customer service if you encounter an in game problem. Every single issue we raised was met with Were sorry, but our policy doesnt allow us to help/we will use this information to make a better game(generic, never did)/ etc. There is nothing they appear to be able to do about anything. If Im investing heavily in a game, we want security that we can be assisted when we need to be regardless of the great gameplay etc. Here, we felt no support as a customer since theyre just bringing over elements from the CN version and not actually ever helping or listening because they cant actually change anything. There are things you can buy outright like cosmetics if you care about things like that at least. We do have our issues with the game itself too. The lore and writing is a complete drag, bogged down with poor pacing, stunted/unbelievable interaction, and questionable word choice. If English isnt your first language, good luck. We find ourselves skipping often outside of events and we typically love lore. The art is fantastic but inconsistent as its done by multiple artists with vastly different styles. Some are very anime and cutesy, and others are militaristic and/or more serious and stylized. Many of the men are of a similar style of tall & beautiful including one coming on the way that looks near identical to one already out. On the plus side of design, different artists and areas means theres mostly something for everyone. Gameplay is laughably difficult for the average player with mechanic information left out such as enemy weight so it narrows down the scope of who can enjoy this as materials are too limited to level/grind your way out of it by the time events are over unless you use guides. Also they, for some reason, limited practices to just 30 times a day and half sanity is taken for each challenge mode attempted. It punishes trying in a sense adding to frustration, but a way around this is to check challenge limits and impose them on yourself in practice. On the plus side they do require varied tactics and possibly use of new OPs or using them in unexpected and rewarding ways. The art for these events is also excellent. Unfortunately to add on to that grind if you go that route, it demands you actually let your phone sit and play through the stage. This game rewards you for your time invested in it, but that requires you to seriously have that time. It also requires significant gameplay skill and ingenuity. This game is not very welcoming or accessible to the casual(less time) or average(low TD experience) player. It needs significant boosts in items given out, IMO, and/or sanity. This is not a world where people can realistically give this game the amount of time it needs and the less time spent with it, the less theyll feel compelled to spend on it if they do. People that take a break and return will likely be overwhelmed as theres no refreshers/tips about easily forgotten aspects like DP return when removing units. The load screens are a good place for that if you ever add it but you can also replay the first few stages to relearn we believe. We dont know that they will, though. As a final thought, we think the sanity required for supplies stages is absurdly high. It doesnt have to be super low but ~30 sanity for like 3 level 3 skill books is just silly. Im not a believer that everything on earth should be easy but we do know an awful lot of people that quit once this game got too hard and never looked back. The hardcore and whalers would say good riddance, but Id say thats poor game design and player engagement. The frustration is winning over the fun theyre having and it doesnt feel rewarding. Yes some power through this and see that as the reward but many know they can easily find something more fun to do instead. You cant even talk to people in game to exchange info, tips, talk about how hot a char is, or vent frustration or anything! There is reward in casuals being able to enjoy your game, too, and work is needed at least to assist them IMO. SOMEthing. Im no game designer. Just letting you know. Too many aspects just arent accessible to newbies/normal people and many are ultimately driven away. But maybe those select few spending tons are all you need or care about. Whatever the case, thats all we had to say. Great game.
Its a real pain to play in banned area.
Love it!!! As a f2p, we can enjoy the game!!! Gachas not everything, we can even get characters from combat. We also love games which require strategy, and Arknights is one of them. Amiyas cute, Cardigans pretty!!!! Hope the game gains better!!!!! Btw pls give us Blemishine and Saria.
Ive been playing since the global launch (1-16-2020) and we can say this is definitely on the more casual side of gacha games. The tutorial and beginning of the game is very slow and handholding but if you manage power through it, you have an amazing game. The summon rates are very generous. We have most if not all the meta operators and we havent spent a dollar (not even the gummy pack). Our only complaint is that eventually over a long period of time the base starts becoming a daily chore but it gets done so quick that it doesnt bother us much. One final note; the game gets harder, much harder.
This game draws you in with its beautiful art and immersive world and keeps you with fun thoughtful tower defense style gameplay. Hundreds(?) of characters to choose from lets you mix and match and take on stages in unique and interesting ways.
We found out this game while looking for a good mobile game.At a glance it looks like a boring anime style tower defense but this game has so much more too it, its characters, gameplay and they friendly gacha(Which is really hard to balance) make this outstanding to us. Arknights is a game that you need to experience to understand it, we wish this game had better advertising because this is no slouch when it comes to mind breaking level! Our only complaint with the game is the dialogue can sometimes feel abit too much to read(wish their was maybe a narrator that could read it out.) but we have an anime coming so thats something Must try, chiefs Kiss.
This game is phenomenal Great story telling And we love the diversity of the art style The gacha is generous and the events are top tiers.
Our brother had introduced us to this game about a year ago and we got a lot of our friends playing it now. Its so fun to try and improve to get more characters. If your looking for a game to play in the free time, download arknights.
User feedback from Apple App Store
App Details
- Version: 32.6.21
- Size: 3,605.22 MB
- iOS: 13.0 or later
- Languages: EN
- Content Advisory: Infrequent/Mild Cartoon or Fantasy Violence, Loot Boxes
- Developer: YOSTAR (HONG KONG) LIMITED
Last updated: 11th December 2025 | Genre: Strategy, Card | Developer: YOSTAR (HONG KONG) LIMITED