Endfield Runners' Steeplechase Opens Oct 1: How the Tracks Unlock

GRYPHLINE has published the full details for Runners' Steeplechase, the racing event that opens in Arknights: Endfield on October 1 at 12:00 server time and runs until the next version maintenance. It is a Fun & Games event set in Wuling City: four tracks, a time limit per race, collectible balloons that feed a milestone track, and a medal for anyone who finishes every course. The rules are simple, but the unlock cadence and the way balloons are counted change how the two weeks should be played. Here is what the official event sheet says, what the timing means in practice, and what it leaves out.

The short version

• Opens October 1, 2026 at 12:00 server time; ends before the next version update and maintenance. No exact end date has been published.
• Requirement: complete the main mission Chapter II Process II: Ready the Easterlies.
• Four tracks. Pavilion Hop and Wind Step are open from the start. From day 2, one new track unlocks per day at 04:00 server time: Bastion Trek, then Cloud Stroll.
• Chubby Lung Balloons collected on any track fill the Runner's Milestones progression, and they count even if you don't finish the race.
• Finishing every race earns an exclusive engraved medal. A 3★ rating on all four tracks upgrades it to a trimmed version.
• Rewards include Oroberyl ×1,200, Portrait Frame: Champion Runner, "Rolling Chubby Lung" Energy Drink, Advanced Progression Selection Crate I, Advanced Cognitive Carrier and Mark of Perseverance.
• The same day also opens the Ridgeline Flows of Autumn seven-day sign-in and the OrbiPom! MERGE! web event.

What the event is

Runners' Steeplechase is presented as Wuling's most popular annual athletic event, with the usual GRYPHLINE wink that something is different this year. In gameplay terms it is a platforming race: you enter a track, reach the finish line within the time limit to complete the run, and earn rewards based on performance.

Each track has its own layout, mechanics and traps. The two named in the event sheet are a Vortex, which gives a temporary speed boost when touched, and Banana Peels, which make anyone who steps on them slip and fall. The framing — "the track is simple but the steeplechase is not" — suggests the difficulty is in reading the hazards rather than in raw movement.

How the tracks unlock, hour by hour

This is the detail most likely to trip people up. The event opens at 12:00 server time on October 1, but track unlocks happen at 04:00 server time.

• October 1, 12:00 — event opens with Pavilion Hop and Wind Step.
• October 2, 04:00 — Bastion Trek unlocks. That is 16 hours after the event opened, not 24.
• October 3, 04:00 — Cloud Stroll unlocks, 40 hours after opening.

From the morning of October 3, all four tracks are available and nothing else is gated by the calendar. Two consequences follow. First, the "one per day" cadence is front-loaded: the full event is playable in less than two days from launch. Second, if you log in on the evening of October 1 expecting two tracks and then again on the evening of October 2, you will find three, because the 04:00 unlock will have passed. Anyone planning to play the tracks in order as they arrive should think in 04:00 server-time resets, not in event-open time.

Balloons, milestones and why DNF still pays

Chubby Lung Balloons are scattered along the tracks. Collecting them fills the Runner's Milestones progression, which has five levels with a reward at each node. The event sheet is explicit on one point: even if you don't finish a race, the balloons you collected still count toward Runner's Milestones.

That single rule changes the shape of the event. The milestone track does not care about the time limit, the star rating or whether you reached the finish line. It only counts balloons. A player who cannot clear Cloud Stroll can still run it repeatedly for balloons and progress the milestones at the same rate as someone who finishes. Milestones are the forgiving half of the event.

The unforgiving half is the medal. Completing every race earns the exclusive engraved medal, and completing all four tracks with a 3★ rating trims it. Both require actual finishes; the 3★ version requires clean ones. The medal is cosmetic, so the split is deliberate: the resource rewards sit on the accessible track, and the bragging rights sit behind the skill check.

Rewards, as listed

The event sheet names seven rewards and a "more" tile, without stating which are milestone rewards and which come from race completion:

• Oroberyl ×1,200
• Portrait Frame: Champion Runner
• "Rolling Chubby Lung" Energy Drink
• Advanced Progression Selection Crate I
• Advanced Cognitive Carrier
• Mark of Perseverance
• Additional rewards not itemized

The official version notes describe the rewards as coming from completing races with 3★, collecting balloons and reaching Runner's Milestones, in one sentence. Whether the Oroberyl sits on the milestone track or on the 3★ track is not specified, and that distinction is the difference between "free for anyone who runs" and "free for anyone who runs well." Until the in-game reward panel settles it, assume the biggest items may require finishes.

October 1 is a stacked day

Runners' Steeplechase does not arrive alone. The version notes list two other events opening at the same 12:00 server-time slot:

• Ridgeline Flows of Autumn, a seven-day sign-in event with Oroberyl ×1,500, the Go Forth and Run portrait and another Rolling Chubby Lung Energy Drink.
• OrbiPom! MERGE!, a web event where merging OrbiPoms earns points.

Purrchena's giveaway has been running since September 24 and continues to the end of the version. So from October 1, a player is juggling a sign-in track, a web event, a giveaway with six missions and a racing event with daily unlocks, all inside a version whose end date GRYPHLINE has not published. Community schedule trackers project the version ending around October 14, which would give Runners' Steeplechase roughly two weeks, but that is a projection.

What isn't known

• The end date. "Before version update and maintenance" is the only official wording.
• Balloons per milestone level. The sheet shows five levels; it does not show how many balloons each requires.
• The milestone rewards per level. The seven named items are not mapped to nodes.
• Which rewards need finishes. The notes bundle 3★ clears, balloons and milestones into one sentence.
• Per-track time limits. Every track has one; none is published.
• The full hazard list. Vortex and Banana Peel are the two shown as examples; "each track features its own track mechanics and traps" implies more.

What to do

• Clear Chapter II Process II first if you haven't. It is the only gate, and it is early enough in the main story that most accounts are past it.
• Play the two opening tracks on October 1, then check again after 04:00 on October 2 and October 3. All four are open by the morning of the third day.
• Farm balloons on every track, finished or not. Milestone progress is the reward track that does not care about your run.
• Separate your goals. If you want the resources, chase balloons and milestones. If you want the trimmed medal, chase 3★ on all four — and expect Cloud Stroll to be the one that demands retries.
• Don't assume you have until mid-October. The end date is unpublished. Treat the community projection as a planning guide, not a deadline.
• Log in for the sign-in on the same visits. Seven sign-ins over a version that may only have about two weeks left means skipping days is not free.

Marketplace

If you want to enter the second half of Dreamscape of Wind and Snow with a roster already built, browse verified Arknights: Endfield accounts. Keep the sign-in, the Purrchena missions and daily track runs on schedule with Arknights: Endfield hourly services, or get every track cleared at 3★ for the trimmed medal through Arknights: Endfield boosting.

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