EFFICIENT GEAR PRIORITY: EQUIPMENT, ESSENCES & ARTIFICING | ENDFIELD

TL;DR - Key Points

• Equipment first (no artificing) — Factory produces thousands of components, easiest upgrade path
• Character level > Weapon level > Skills — Core progression before optimization
• Main DPS to 90, supports to 80 — Level 80→90 investment is extremely resource-intensive
• Skills: M3 for main DPS, 9 for supports — Utility skills (Gilberta/Arclight ult) worth M1
• Essences: Max for main DPS, +4/+4/+2 for supports — Passive-only essences acceptable for supports
• Artificing last — Time-gated, not sanity-gated; do it alongside other upgrades, not instead of
• Stock bills are the bottleneck — Trade-off between artificing catalysts and essence engraving tickets
• Content is skill-check, not stat-check — Umbral Monument clearable with +0 artificed gear

Related read: Gearing New Teams in Endfield: April 2026 goes deeper on equipment.

The Problem: Resource Overwhelm

If you’ve ever stared at the artificing screen wondering why it takes 20 gear components to upgrade a single piece of gear once (and you need to do this 9+ times), you’re not alone. The resource sink feels overwhelming:

• Gear artificing materials
• Weapon essence grinding
• Character level materials
• Exorbitant Wuling Stock Bill requirements

The question isn’t whether to do everything—it’s what order maximizes your team’s power while minimizing resource waste.

See also: Rossi Nuke Build: Best Team Comps & Gear for more on gear guide.

Priority Order: What to Build First

1. Equipment (Base Gear Only)

Priority: Highest
Resource Cost: Factory components (plentiful)
Time Gate: None

Get the base equipment first—do not artifice yet. Factory production generates thousands of components, making this the easiest upgrade path. Equipment provides immediate stat boosts without the RNG and resource sink of artificing.

2. Character Level

Priority: Highest
Resource Cost: EXP materials, Coins
Time Gate: Sanity

Level your main DPS character to 80-90 depending on account freshness. Supports and sub-DPS can sit at 60-80 until you’re comfortable clearing desired content.

Important: The investment to go from 80→90 is insane. Only level your main DPS to 90; the rest of the team functions fine at 80.

3. Weapon Level

Priority: High
Resource Cost: Weapon EXP, Coins
Time Gate: Sanity

Weapon levels provide significant damage scaling. Main DPS weapons should match character level (90). Support weapons can remain at 60 initially.

4. Skill Level

Priority: High
Resource Cost: Skill manuals, Sanity
Time Gate: Sanity

This is where you get the most damage per resource spent.

Main DPS: All skills to Mastery 3. The extra damage scaling alone justifies the investment.

Supports: Skills to 9 unless they provide utility enhancements:

• Gilberta Ultimate → M1 (additional Arts Susceptibility scaling)
• Arclight Ultimate → M1 (additional stagger)

5. Weapon Essence

Priority: Medium-High
Resource Cost: Engraving tickets, Essence farming
Time Gate: RNG + Stock Bills

Main DPS: Max level essences with optimal stats
Supports: +4/+4/+2 is sufficient; passive-only essences acceptable

Stock Bill Reality Check: You must choose between:

• Artificing catalysts
• Essence engraving tickets (Valley 4 tickets cost 1.2M for 10)

Once you have perfect essences for your main weapons, you can ignore engraving tickets entirely and spend stamina in Wuling OR Valley 4.

6. Artificing

Priority: Lowest (but do it concurrently)
Resource Cost: Artificing catalysts, gear components, Stock Bills
Time Gate: Weekly catalyst limit (~80/week in shop)

Here’s the critical insight: Artificing doesn’t consume sanity—it’s time-gated only. There’s no reason to delay it, but there’s also no reason to prioritize it over sanity-gated upgrades.

The debate: Some players recommend “don’t artifice until later” because the percentages seem small. This is wrong. The difference is huge, but artificing doesn’t compete with leveling for resources. You should be doing both simultaneously.

The actual trade-off: Stock bills. Players with low stock bill income must decide between:

• Buying artificing catalysts
• Buying essence engraving tickets

Once stock bill income isn’t an issue, you can do both without worrying.

Artificing Strategy

When to Stop

You don’t need max artificing on everything:

• Main DPS: +3 on good matches, +2 on mediocre matches
• Supports: +2 is often sufficient; some characters (like Gilberta) don’t benefit much from artificing
• Content clearance: +0 artificed gear can clear Umbral Monument with proper execution

The Lucky Factor

The “20 components” is a hard limit, not a target. You can succeed before hitting pity. Always use gear pieces with higher base stats of the relevant attribute for better success rates.

Shop Strategy

Buy all artificing catalysts available weekly (~80 total). Stockpile them when not actively building a character. The catalysts are far more valuable than most other shop items.

Team Building Priorities

Main DPS (Build First)

• Level 90
• Weapon 90
• All skills M3
• Max essences
• Artificing +2 to +3

Sub-DPS (Build Second)

• Level 80-90
• Weapon 80
• Skills 9 (damage skills only)
• Essences +4/+4/+2
• Artificing +2

Supports (Build Last)

• Level 60-80
• Weapon 60
• Skills 9 (or M1 for utility enhancements)
• Essences +4/+4/+2 (passive-only acceptable)
• Artificing +0 to +2

Reality Check: Skill > Stats

You can 2-minute clear Umbral Monument challenges with +0 artificed gear using proper boss mechanic knowledge and rotations. Endfield focuses on skill-checking players rather than stat-checking.

Early Umbral Monument runs showed fully built Laevatain teams getting destroyed because players assumed they could mash through challenges. Boss mechanic knowledge and proper rotations matter more than perfect artificing.

The Long Game

Compared to other gacha games, Endfield has significantly less RNG. Almost everything you do is progress toward your end goal:

• Character levels: Permanent, no RNG
• Skill levels: Permanent, no RNG
• Weapon levels: Permanent, no RNG
• Equipment: Permanent, no RNG (just time-gated)
• Essences: Some RNG, but guaranteed item shops exist
• Artificing: Some RNG, but pity system exists

The only true RNG sink is essence farming without engraving tickets. Everything else is deterministic progress.

Final Recommendations

1. Don’t stress the artificing grind — Do it weekly with shop catalysts, but don’t let it bottleneck your team building
2. Focus on main DPS first — One fully built team clears all current content
3. Learn boss mechanics — Skill execution matters more than +3 vs +5 artificing
4. Stockpile catalysts — Buy weekly, use when actively building
5. Essences before perfect artificing — Good essences > perfect artificing on trash essences

The anvil-drop feeling when you realize artificing costs 20 components per upgrade? That’s normal. But remember: you’re building for the long term, and every catalyst you buy this week is progress toward your next fully-built character.

What’s your current gear priority strategy? Are you focusing on main DPS only or building multiple teams simultaneously? Share your thoughts in the comments.