Arknights: Endfield Guide – The Best Build for Tantan

With the release of the first major update 1.1 for the gacha game Arknights: Endfield , players received a huge amount of fresh content. One of the most notable additions was the introduction of a new operator, Tantang, the leader of the Qinbo camp and Chen Qiangyu’s loyal companion.

Tantan is primarily a support character with excellent Cryo buffs, but she also delivers quite a bit of damage for her role. This makes her a definite player to try to recruit in Arknights: Endfield, especially if you’re playing with teams based on the Freeze reaction, where the additional buffs to Cryo Susceptibility, Vulnerability, Impact, and Damage are helpful.

General overview of Tantan

If you’ve already reached Wuling in Arknights: Endfield, you’ve likely been eagerly awaiting the arrival of the new location, Qinbo Camp, which was added alongside Tantan in the first major update, Version 1.1, on March 12, 2026. Its leader is Tantan, a six-star operator who debuted on the banners in Version 1.1.

Tantan is a very cheerful character, so once you add her to your team, you’ll often hear her cheerful lines. In battle, she acts as a powerful cryogenic caster, using hand cannons. Thanks to her long-range attacks and high agility (her primary stat), along with strength as a secondary stat, she has many ways to effectively apply cryogenic effects, making her an excellent candidate for freeze-based teams.

If you’ve already played through the part of the story involving the giant “water wheels,” you won’t be surprised to see Tantan creating whirlpools on the battlefield, enhancing her Cryogenic Susceptibility or Smite abilities. She can then summon a whirlpool, which, regardless of team composition, makes it easy to set up a Freeze reaction chain. She fits perfectly into almost any squad that requires strong elemental support and synergizes well with most Operators, while remaining quite powerful and independent on her own.

Best weapon for Tantan

Rogue’s Calling – 6-Star Hand Cannon (Tantan Signature Weapon)

This is Tantan’s exclusive weapon, which appeared alongside her banner during her debut in Update 1.1. The weapon perfectly suits her in terms of stats and damage. It directly increases Cryogenic damage and provides an additional bonus after applying it to an enemy. It also increases attack and agility.

Homesick – 6-Star Hand Cannon

If you’ve unlocked the Originium Delivery reward tier in the Proto Pass (Arknights: Endfield’s battle pass, updated with each game version), you can get this weapon for free. It’s a great option if you already own Tantan and want to boost her agility, cryogenic damage, and base attack. Additionally, after using a combat skill, her next skill gains an additional bonus.

Klin is a 6-star hand cannon.

This weapon works especially well with Tantan’s “Ride the Wave!” combat skill. It increases the percentage of magic damage dealt and critical strike chance. The hand cannon also boosts the operator’s primary stat, giving Tantan an additional agility boost.

Opus of the Living – 5-Star Hand Cannon

Of the five-star weapons, Opus of the Living appears to be the most useful for Tantan. After triggering an elemental reaction, the weapon increases the wielder’s attack power for 20 seconds—reactions are Tantan’s strong point. It also increases her agility and increases her magic damage percentage.

OBJ Pryt – 5-Star Hand Cannon

“OBJ Agility” increases agility and accelerates super energy generation. Agility is the operator’s primary stat, and faster super energy regeneration allows for more frequent super activations. The weapon’s passive ability also increases Attack and nature damage. However, Tantan doesn’t deal nature damage, so only the Attack bonus is useful for her.

Long Way – 4-Star Hand Cannon

Tantan doesn’t have many free weapon options in the game, so the Long Way is a good choice to start with. This weapon increases Strength and increases damage from Arts—stats that are considered secondary for this operator. Additionally, the weapon provides an additional attack boost after using a combo skill, slightly increasing the character’s overall damage.

The Best Gear Sets for Tantan

Bonecrusher Game – Golden Gear

3-piece bonus: Owner’s attack +15%. Using a combo skill grants 1 charge of Bonebreaker Strike, which grants +30% to the damage dealt by the next combat skill. Bonebreaker Strike stacks up to 2 times.

Best items:

• K2 Bonebreaker Heavy Armor – Increases strength and agility, provides a bonus to cryogenic damage dealt.
• Bonebreaking Gauntlets K1 – Increases strength and agility, provides a bonus to cryogenic damage dealt.
• K2 Bonebreaker Mask – Increases strength and agility, provides a bonus to combat skill damage.

Eberrei’s Legacy – Purple Gear

3-piece bonus: +24% damage from the owner’s skills. When using a combat skill, combo skill, or super skill, the owner gains +5% attack for 15 seconds. The three skill types are unique and do not stack.

Best items:

• Heavy Armor “Eberray” (regular or K1) – both increase strength and agility, but differ in the third stat – either a bonus to damage dealt from all skills, or a more significant damage bonus from combo skills.
• Two Eberray UV Lamps – Increases strength and agility, as well as damage bonuses for all skills.

Many of Tantan’s best gear in Arknights: Endfield are crafted using blueprints found in Ulin. So, it’s no surprise that her optimal gear is late-game. While you gradually unlock new blueprints, you can combine different pieces of gear, but be careful not to miss out on the useful 3-piece set bonuses. Fortunately, gear from Valley IV and Ulin will suffice until you obtain her best set.

Best Units for Tantan and Her Abilities

Option 1

• Memorial Service/Yvonne
• Tantan
• Saykhi
• Perlik

Tantan generally performs best on the battlefield when paired with other Cryo damage DPS operators, boosting her Freeze reactions. Her support abilities make activating Freeze reactions much easier for the entire team. Excellent Cryo damage dealers for this role include Requiem and Yvonne—you don’t need both, just one is enough, but they’re generally interchangeable. Add Perlica to your team for the electrifying effect, allowing you to activate Freeze reactions faster, and you’ll have an extremely powerful combat team.

Saihi is almost mandatory on Tantan’s team, as well as on most Cryo damage-focused squads, as her powerful buffs significantly increase the entire team’s Cryo damage.

Option 2

• Tantan
• Saykhi
• Fluorite
• Ardelia

However, if you don’t have the six-star Cryo damage dealers mentioned above, you can even use Tantan as your primary DPS, filling your team with four-star or free operators from previous versions of the game. While she’s primarily better as a support character for triggering the Freeze reaction, without Requiem or Yvonne, she can easily take on the role of primary damage dealer.

An alternative team we can offer for Tantan allows for the use of two reactions at once: Freeze and Corrode. This composition also includes Ardelia, who serves as a useful healer on the battlefield. In this setup, Tantan is almost always the better choice, so this build is slightly less flexible than the previous one.

Option 3

• Tantan
• Saykhi
• Fluorite
• Memorial service

This squad is built around the synergy between Tantan and Requiem, who together act as the primary damage dealers. Their synergy is based on mutually enhancing elemental effects and judiciously deploying debuffs.

Tantan acts as a secondary damage dealer: she crowd-controls enemies and applies Arts Susceptibility, increasing the damage they take from magical abilities. Requiem, in turn, applies Cryogenic Susceptibility. This allows both characters to enhance each other’s effectiveness, as Tantan’s Cryogenic damage also receives an additional boost.

How to play?

The whole sequence is about first setting up the battlefield by buffing allies and debuffing enemies. After that, Tantan and Requiem begin their main damage-dealing phase. It’s best to control Tantan, as this will allow you to use her aerial attack during Requiem’s ​​ultimate animation.

The battle begins with the activation of the Saiha and Requiem combat skills. These actions prepare the basic support effects and initiate the initial buff mechanics. Next, perform Tantan’s final strike to inflict the first level of Cryogenic Damage. After this, use the Requiem combat skill again. It’s important not to activate Tantan’s combo skill at this point.

Then follow up with one final strike from Tantan, which will grant a second level of Cryogenic Damage. If Saiha’s Super is available at this point, you can use it immediately or save it for later in the rotation.

After the effects accumulate, activate Tantan’s combo skill. Next, use Saiha and Fluorite’s combo skills—they will increase the number of Cryogenic Damage stacks. Then, use Tantan’s combat skill to enhance the effect and inflict Arts Susceptibility on enemies.

Once all the preparatory effects are activated, use Requiem’s ​​combo skill, inflicting Cryo Damage Susceptibility. Next, activate her Super Skill. While its animation is playing, perform an aerial attack with Tantan, which will allow her “Gainstallion” talent to activate.

Option 4

• Tantan
• Gilbert
• Saykhi
• Yvonne

In this composition, the team’s entire potential is focused on strengthening Yvonne. Tantan supports her by granting her Arts Susceptibility and crowd control. This allows Yvonne to fully utilize her ultimate skill.

How to play?

In this combination, Tantan plays a supporting role: she creates attack windows for Yvonne, providing crowd control and increasing damage thanks to her Arts susceptibility.

At the start of the battle, activate Saiha and Gilberta’s Battle Skills to activate their primary support effects. Then, perform Yvonne’s finishing blow. When Gilberta inflicts Nature Damage, use Yvonne’s Battle Skill to inflict a Freeze effect and speed up the cooldown of her Super Skill.

If the freeze was activated through a combat skill, perform a normal attack to immediately move into the finishing blow. As soon as Saiha’s super skill becomes available, activate it.

Next, use Yvonne’s combo skill to inflict Freeze again, followed by Saiha’s combo skill, which will add additional stacks of Cryogenic Damage. After preparing, activate Tantan’s combo skill, followed by her Combat Skill, which will grant Arts Susceptibility.

Then use Tantan’s super skill to control enemies. After that, activate Yvonne’s super skill. When it ends, perform an aerial attack to activate the “Gainmaker” talent.

Option 5

• Tantan
• Gilbert
• Saykhi
• Perlik

In this configuration, Tantan takes on the role of the main damage source. Her allies provide the perfect conditions: Gilbert and Perlica apply Corrosion and Electrification effects, while Saihi buffs her with buffs.

With her fast and powerful combo, Tantan can deal massive damage in a short period of time, especially while enemies are under attack and allied buffs are active.

How to play?

The main goal of this sequence is to utilize all possible buffs on allies and debuffs on enemies to maximize Tantan’s damage output.

Start the fight with Saiha’s Combat Skill—this will allow you to prepare the Support Crystal. Then, perform Tantan’s standard attack chain until the final blow. Avoid using Perlika’s Combo Skill at this point. Then, perform one final blow from Tantan. If Saiha’s Super Skill is already prepared, activate it.

Next, use Tantan’s combat skill to inflict Cryogenic Damage. After that, use Gilberta’s combat skill. Next, use the combo skills of Perlika, Saiha, and Tantan. It’s important that Saiha’s ability triggers before Gilberta activates Corrosion—this will allow Saiha’s “Process Start” talent to activate.

When the opportunity arises, use Gilberta’s Super first, followed immediately by Tantan’s Super. After Tantan’s Super finishes activating, perform an aerial attack—this will activate the “Gainmaker” talent, completing the main attack phase of the rotation.

Tantan Skill Overview and Leveling Priorities

Regardless of what role you assign Tantan to in your squad, she can deal Cryogenic damage in several ways.

Her basic attack, “Blow Your Mind!”, can deal up to five consecutive hits of Cryogenic damage.

The combat skill “Ride the Wave!” deals a single powerful blow with cryogenic damage to an enemy and creates a whirlpool that deals damage over time, restores a small amount of SP (skill points), and applies a debuff that increases susceptibility to arts.

The combo skill “Come, River!” unleashes a “line” of cryogenic damage in front of Tantan, damaging enemies and creating a vortex that remains on the field. It’s a powerful area-of-effect attack.

The super skill “The Leader’s Vigilance!” causes Tantan to briefly lift her eyepatch, revealing why she wears it. The skill immobilizes enemies and continuously deals Cryogenic damage. Afterward, Tantan summons a massive “Rogue Wave,” which crashes down on enemies and deals massive Cryogenic damage.

Regardless of Tantan’s chosen role in your team, it’s a good idea to prioritize her combat skill. It provides several benefits: damage over time, SP restoration, and a debuff.

After that, it’s recommended to upgrade your super skill, especially if you’re using Tantan as a support character in a cryogenic damage squad. Then, you should upgrade your combo skill, with your basic attack being your last priority.