Headhunting banners

Banners

A list of headhunting banners in Arknights.

All Operators introduced on a headhunting banner will be available from all future banners after the one they were introduced in ends, with the exception to limited Operators; see below for more information.

List

Main article: Headhunting/Banners/Upcoming

Main article: Headhunting/Banners/Former

Overview

Headhunting banners are divided into six categories: Standard Pool, special, Joint Operation, The Front That Was, limited, and Newbie Pool.

Rate-up Operators are those who are more likely to appear than others.

When a 6★ or 5★ Operator appears in a pull, there is a 50% chance that said Operator will be the rate-up one(s).
When a 4★ Operator appears in a pull, there is a 20% chance that said Operator will be the rate-up one(s).

Standard Pool

Standard Pool banners include the previously introduced Operators and always have two rate-up 6★ Operators and three rate-up 5★ Operators, one from each rarity is available in the Distinctions Store for 180 and 45 , respectively, who can be easily identified by looking at the banner's image: the 6★ Operator is the one who uses their base artwork while the 5★ Operator is the one in the middle of rate-up 5★ Operators.

Standard Pool banners are updated every two weeks. Initially the Global and TW server's Standard Pool rotation follows the CN server's until the third and fourth, which are switched, and differs from the fifth onwards.

Special

Special banners (officially limited-time, but the Arknights Fandom Wiki uses "Special" to avoid confusion with those featuring limited Operators, explained below) are always up alongside Side Story, most Vignette, and Main Theme episode release events, which includes the Operators introduced in the respective content, always having one new 6★ and 5★ Operator (as well as 4★ on Main Theme ones), and one old 5★ Operator (usually those related to the new ones) as the rate-up ones.

Joint Operation

Joint Operation (JO) banners, known as Joint Action in the CN server, are always up alongside most Contingency Contract seasons and includes four 6★ Operators and six 5★ Operators, all of which are previously introduced ones. Unlike in most other banners, the 6★ and 5★ Operators that appear on a pull in the JO banner will always be the rate-up ones.

The Front That Was

The Front That Was (TFTW) banners precedes Main Theme episode releases since Episode 11 Warm-Up and includes three 6★, 5★, 4★ Operators, all of which are introduced with previous Main Theme episodes with the newest ones replacing the oldest ones. Unlike in other banners:

The 6★ Operators that appear on a pull in TFTW banners will always be the rate-up ones.
The 5★ and 4★ Operators that appear on a pull in TFTW banners have a 60% and 45% chance, respectively to be the rate-up ones.

Limited

Limited banners are named such because they introduce limited Operators and being the only way to add them into the player's Operator roster. They always feature two new 6★ Operators, one of which is the limited one, up to three old limited 6★ Operators of the same series, and one new 5★ Operator as the rate-up ones.

Under this definition, Crossover banners, part of a collaboration event with a non-Arknights media franchise, can also be included as limited headhunting banners. They always feature one new 6★ Operator and at least one new 5★ Operator as the rate-up ones.

Celebrate & Recollect banners are also classified as a limited headhunting banner, but neither introduces nor features limited Operators. Instead, the first (and only the first) 6★ Operator that appears in a pull on the said banner will always be a non-limited 6★ Operator that the player do not have yet in their roster up until a certain special headhunting banner (see above); if the player have all the specified 6★ Operator in their roster, then the one that appears will be randomly chosen from the specified ones. Celebrate & Recollect banners are always live prior to Festival events in the Global server or during New Years in the CN server.

Currently limited headhunting banners are divided into three series; note that the release of limited banners in Global follow a different schedule than CN.

Series	CN schedule	Global schedule
Celebration #1	Half-year anniversary events (early November)	Thank-You Celebration events (late April)
Festival	Chinese New Year events (late January)	Half-year anniversary events (late July)
Celebration #2	Yearly anniversary events (early May)	Gift of the Deep Ones events (late October)
Carnival	Summer events (mid August)	Yearly anniversary events (mid January)

An exception to the scheduling above is Cremation Last Wish, which are released during the 1st Anniversary Celebration.

In all limited headhunting banners, the pull count and increased 6★ Operator rate for the pity system are not carried over from non-limited banners, instead tracking them separately including from other limited banners. To offset this however:

In regular limited banners, the rate-up 6★ Operator(s) have a higher chance of 70% to be the 6★ Operator that appears in a pull, although this does not necessarily improve the chance of obtaining the limited Operator since it also applies to the non-limited 6★ Operator, effectively giving each rate-up 6★ Operator a 35% chance to appear in a pull. For the limited banners after the one they were introduced on, the previous limited Operators have a 30% chance to be the 6★ Operator that appears in a pull, or five times as likely to appear than other 6★ Operators.
In crossover limited banners:
- The rate-up 6★ Operator have a 50% chance to be the 6★ Operator that appears in a pull as in regular banners, but they are guaranteed to appear in any of the first 120 pulls (i.e. if the rate-up 6★ Operator do not appear after 119 pulls, then they will appear in the 120th pull).
- If there are two rate-up 5★ Operators, should either appears in a pull, the next (and only the next) 5★ Operator that appears are guaranteed to be the other rate-up 5★ Operator.

When a limited headhunting banner ends, the limited Operator introduced in that banner will be available from future limited banners and the Headhunting Data Contract Store of the matching series except for those on the Celebration banners who will be available from the other next Celebration banner (e.g. Rosmontis is introduced in Forget Me Not and added to Celebration banners in Path of the Radiant rather than Deep Drown Lament), with the sole exception to W.

Contrary to popular belief, once a limited Operator is no longer included in limited banners, they are not removed from the banner altogeher, but are as likely as non-limited Operators to appear in a pull on the banner and remains available in the Headhunting Data Contract Store.

Newbie Pool

The Newbie Pool banner is always available and has a discounted price of only 380 per pull instead of 600 , but are limited to 20 pulls for each account; once this limit is reached, the banner can no longer be accessed from the Headhunting menu.

A 6★ and 5★ Operator is guaranteed to appear in the first ten pulls and any of the twenty pulls within the Newbie Pool banner, respectively, which makes it the best choice for new players.

The following are the Newbie Pool banner's rate-up Operators:

Rework

This section pertains to a subject that is not yet released in the Global server of Arknights.

The release of Episode 12 introduces the following reworks to headhunting banners (the related information will be updated and moved into the Overview section once it is released in the Global server):

On special headhunting banners, if the rate-up 6★ Operator does not appear after 150 pulls, then the next (and only the next) 6★ Operator that appears will be the rate-up one.
6★ and 5★ Operators introduced in headhunting banners up until Illusions of the Past will no longer appear from Standard Pool and special banners.
A new headhunting banner category is introduced: Kernel Banner. This banner is always available and includes Operators that no longer appears from Standard Pool/special banners, but the pity system only applies to the Kernel Banner.
- Instead of awarding Commendation and Distinction Certificates, obtaining Operators from the Kernel Banner awards Universal Certificate which can be exchanged for Kernel Headhunting Permit and Ten-roll Kernel Headhunting Permit which can only be used in the Kernel Banner or the rate-up 6★ and 5★ Operator in the Kernel Banner.
- Operator Tokens awarded from Kernel banners are exchanged for Universal Certificates instead.
- The rate-up 6★ and 5★ Operator in the Kernel Banner and Kernel Headhunting Permits can be purchased with Distinction Certificates as well.
- During yearly anniversary events (the second Celebration events in the CN server; Carnival events in the Global server), the Kernel Banner will be temporarily replaced by the Kernel Locating Banner which has a fully customizable rate-up 6★ and 5★ Operator (that also applies to those in the Certificate Store).
The Newbie Pool headhunting banner's rate-up Operators are changed to the following: