Reclamation Algorithm

Reclamation Algorithm

Guide

Reclamation Algorithm (R.A.) is a game mode in Arknights.

Overview

Reclamation Algorithm is accessible once 3-8 is cleared. In R.A., one starts a "campaign" in a single area and have to expand by developing their base with resources obtained from exploration and battles, and defend their home area from enemy attacks, similar to that of Minecraft albeit done through Arknights' gameplay perspective. R.A. does not consume the player's Sanity.

Please keep note of the following before playing R.A.:

1. R.A. often feature enemies in large numbers that may cause performance issues or, at worst, crash the game, especially on lower-end devices!
2. When building your base, please do not construct it in a way that would violate the Arknights Terms of Service (ToS), which could result in permanent ban. This includes, but is not limited to, the following:
   • Any kind of discriminatory and defamatory layouts (e.g. swastikas, hammer and sickle).
   • Any kind of NSFW layouts.

Themes

Similar to Integrated Strategies, R.A. content are divided into distinct themes, of which there are two as of January 29, 2024:

Event	Start/end dates
	CN	Global	TW
Fire Within the Sand	2023/1/29 2023/3/12	2023/9/7 2023/10/12	2023/12/12 2024/1/13
Tales Within the Sand	2024/2/3 2024/10/1	2024/8/7 2025/3/1	2025/2/1

Fire Within the Sand is the only R.A. theme that is not permanently available, akin to a temporary event; Tales Within the Sand is permanently available in the Terminal, which also extends to its Path to Glory medals that has no time constraints in obtaining them! As of November 1, 2024, whether R.A. would receive a new theme is unknown.

For the rest of this article, the following terminologies will be used to refer to specific R.A. themes.

• FS: Fire Within the Sand
• TS: Tales Within the Sand

Basics

Time

The R.A. campaign is divided into days and the player will have two Acts in each day, which allows the player to carry out activities such as entering combat or events at the cost of 1 Act, but some do not use Acts at all; in FS, certain events use up more than one Act. The campaign will advance to the next day when all Acts are used up or at the player's discretion; Acts are refreshed daily, but keep in mind that unused Acts will not carry over to the next day!

In FS, from Day 13 onward, the campaign enters the Days of Suppression phase where the player only has a single Act per day and can only intercept Raids (explained below).

In TS, the campaign is also divided into cycles with one cycle being completed every 3 days. The third day in a cycle is the Calculation Day, after which the player's progression up to that point is accounted for to give out rewards.

Operator usage

In FS, Operators have Stamina; when an Operator participates in an operation, they will lose 1 Stamina, and Operators with 0 stamina will become unusable when brought into an operation.

• Initially all Operators have 0 Stamina, but the player can choose six Operators whose Stamina will be replenished to the max when starting a campaign, otherwise Stamina can be replenished by having Operators drink Electrolyte Isotonics and eat certain Provisions, randomly at the start of a day (Overnight Canteen), and sent into certain Dispatches.
• Operators' Stamina cap depends on their rarity, level, and promotion:
  • 1★ and 2★ Operators have a Stamina cap of 1.
  • 3★ Operators have an initial Stamina cap of 1, which is increased to 2 at Elite 1 Level 55.
  • 4★ and higher Operators have a Stamina cap of 1 at Elite 1 Level 1 or below, 2 from Elite 1 maximum level, and 3 from their respective Operator Module unlock requirement level:
    • Elite 2 Level 40 for 4★ Operators
    • Elite 2 Level 50 for 5★ Operators
    • Elite 2 Level 60 for 6★ Operators
• Electrolye Isotonics can be used to replenish Operators' stamina, which is made in the Support Department by using raw ingredients or recycling uneaten Provisions. Isotonics restore 1 stamina when drank by an Operator which consumes 10 units, but each Operator can only drink Isotonics once per day and the Isotonics itself has a storage limit.

In TS, an Operator will be tired after participating in an operation, making them unusable for the rest of the day.

Resources

Creating helpful items require materials and ingredients, both of which must be gathered in the overworld, usually in Resource and Hunting Zones; see below for the mechanics of doing so.

Constructs

Main article: Construct

Support Items/Tools

Main article: Support Item

Provisions

Main article: Provision

Overworld

R.A. takes place in an epic-sized region, or "overworld", divided into various zones linked radially in different directions. Exploring the various zones play an important role in R.A.

At first zones except those adjacent to the Headquarters (Outposts in TS) are undiscovered and must be revealed by clearing any of the already revealed zones adjacent to it at least once (or finishing the event for Encounters).

TS also divides the overworld into regions featuring different climate, terrains, resources and events. Zones within other regions cannot be accessed until the region itself is unlocked by clearing Mountain Passes.

Climate

Zones can have varying weathers that applies a handicap which makes operating in the zone more difficult. As days pass, the weather can become harsher, and some events can trigger weather changes.

TS also feature seasons which alters the overworld drastically for extended periods. When a season changes, resources and certain devices in all zones are refreshed.

Operation mechanics

R.A. operations act like normal ones do, but with the following differences:

• In TS, entering an operation requires 2 Energy Drink with a squad of 6 or less Operators, or 3 with a squad of 7 or more Operators.
• Life Points are only relevant for Conflict Zones and Raid interceptions, and there are no penalties for failing them by losing all LP.
• Operations except those part of Conflict Zones, Raid interceptions, and Headquarters defense have a time limit shown on the HUD in place of LP; once the time is up, the operation ends and the player's progression up to that point will be accounted for.
• In the HQ defense operation, the Base's HP will be shown on the HUD in place of LP.
• Quitting out of an R.A. operation does not merit any penalties, with the player's progression up until that point remains accounted for.
  • Due to its urgency however, the HQ defense operation is the sole exception to this rule; while the player can quit out of it if they haven't used all of their Acts on the day, quitting out of HQ defense if all of their Acts have been used will end the R.A. campaign in failure!
• Enemies outside of Raids have no proper routes as in other operations and wander around the map aimlessly, although certain enemies move in a specific pattern. If a friendly unit with a block count of 1 or higher is inside an enemy's line-of-sight (LOS), they will move towards them and attack, essentially making these enemies act as harassment to the player's activities. Furthermore, certain enemies will retaliate towards attackers by going after them even if the attacker is outside the enemy's LOS (can be easily noticed by using Operators with global attacks such as Ambriel w/ Radar Sweep).
  • Ranged enemies' LOS matches their attack range, while melee ones have a LOS of 1.5 (but some can be higher).
• The map is perpetually covered by Fog of War which gives the following implications:
  • Enemies inside the Fog of War appears as clouds of pale static (with a bluish hue for allies) and cannot be targeted/affected by attacks/abilities.
  • Devices will not appear until the Fog of War is lifted on the tile they are on, and will stay revealed even after the Fog of War returns.
  • Protection Objectives and Incursion Points inside the Fog of War are shown as gray boxes (but can still be identified by clicking on them).
  • Fog of War does not restrict friendly unit deployment and will be lifted when a unit's attack range (including the tile they were on) overlaps with it.
  • Tip: When deploying a friendly unit, look at low or high ground tiles which cannot be deployed upon. Those tiles could have objects of interest such as resources, NPCs, or others.
• Most R.A. operations' maps are larger than usual, and because of this, it is possible to center the player's view on other areas of the map by dragging the screen, during which the game is slowed to half speed.
  • Unlike in other operations, the Enemy Intelligence will always reveal enemies that would appear in the map, even if the player haven't yet entered it!
  • When the game is paused, a quick overview of the map and whatever in the player's current view will be shown.
• On occasion, certain operations have a secret area with lots of resources which can be identified by the zone having a lower resource yield than it was supposed to. If the player is paying attention, they can spot a Historical Remains among the scenery that can be destroyed to reveal the secret area, so don't miss them out!
• The state of enemies in combat zones, which includes numbers (as well as HP and forms for bosses) will be refreshed daily.
  • If all enemies are not defeated when the operation ends and the player retries it on the same day, the remaining amount of enemies will be retained from the previous try.
  • In FS, "superbosses" in No Man's Land kept their state between days. To make up for the fact that their state will be refreshed daily as with other enemies in TS however, superbosses will not respawn until the start of a new season once defeated.
• Enemies part of Raids (explained below) kept their state between operations, which includes HP and forms for bosses.
• The resource yield in Resource and Hunting Zones only shows the primary output, so the player will have to check the map themselves to see the exact amount, especially since extra resources may show up in the zone.

Resource Zones

Thickets, Monoliths, Strange Ore Veins, and/or Lighting Ore Veins (TS) are present and can be "harvested" by having friendly units attack them; whenever its HP is depleted, the resource's HP will be immediately restored to the max and it will have one unit of the corresponding material that can be collected by deploying Operators (and only Operators) adjacent to them, which will be added to the player's stock once the Operator is retreated. Resources will be exhausted once it is harvested a number of times where it will be destroyed and cannot be gathered from anymore, but uncollected resource units will remain until accounted for.

• Operators can carry resources equal to their block count.
• Any unharvested resources will persist even if the player quits out of the Resource Zone, allowing them to be harvested later.
• In TS, resources in Resource Zones are refreshed when the season changes.

Hunting Zones

Various Wild Beast enemies are present, which gives out ingredients that corresponded to the Beast when defeated.

• Unlike in Resource Zones, all ingredients are immediately taken to stock as soon as the corresponding Beast is hunted down.
• Any surviving Beasts will remain even if the player quits out of the Hunting Zone, allowing them to be hunted later.
• In TS, Wild Beasts in Hunting Zones are refreshed at the start of a new cycle.

Raids

Enemy Raids may show up on the overworld from time to time and will slowly advance to the Headquarters at a rate of one zone per day. Raids also may suddenly appear while undertaking events or after certain conditions are met during a campaign.

On the Peaceful Mode difficulty in TS, Raids do not appear as days passed; only those spawned through events that will ever appear.

There are three types of Raid:

• Normal Raids (FS)/Minions (TS) are made up of regular enemies and will appear as early as Day 3.
• Elites are made up of powerful enemies and may spawn from Mountain Passes (FS)/Fortresses (TS) from time to time until they are conquered.
• Lord Ameer's Attacks (FS)/Ameeri Armies (TS) are led by an R.A.-exclusive boss with colossal stats. In FS, a Lord Ameer's Attack will appear in Day 10 and must be eliminated as one of the requirements to win the campaign.

In TS, there are also three special types of Raids:

• Stragglers at first appears with 40% strength and will not advance, but if left alone, they will grow larger, having 80% strength after one day and eventually full strength after two days, at which the Stragglers will start to advance. It is worth noting that most enemies part of Stragglers are those with ranged attacks, so be mindful of deployment orders to keep ranged Operators safe!
• Bandits will advance to a Deserted Town that has been captured by the player and occupy said zone upon arriving, preventing the player from dispatching Operators from the Town until it is recaptured by eliminating the Bandits.
• Brigands are always made up of Wilderness Rogues and fast-moving enemies at smaller numbers compared to other Raids, which will steal Crude Gold from the player upon spawning and then attempt to flee, avoiding the Headquarters and Outposts, and will disappear (along with the stolen Crude Gold) if not intercepted fast enough. If the Brigands are intercepted and eliminated, the stolen Crude Gold will be returned to the player's inventory.
  • Enemies part of Brigands uniquely spawn from Protection Objectives and will head towards Incursion Points.

The player can intercept a Raid by engaging them in the zone the Raid is currently in.

• If the Raid is intercepted in combat zones, it will use that zone's map but will only feature enemies part of the Raid and any other features including resource units will not be present.
• If the Raid is intercepted in non-combat zones, it will use one of three special maps chosen at random.

Intercepting a Raid uses up one Act even if multiple Raids are on a single zone, in which case the player will have to engage all of them in one sitting.

Enemies that makes up the Raid will spawn rapidly, which can and will overwhelm the player's Operators especially because the player would have little time to prepare. It is highly recommended to use lots of Defenders and area-of-effect attacks to hold the line, and clever placements of Constructs to stall the Raid.

Intercepting a Raid have two possible outcomes:

• If all enemies in the Raid are defeated, even if any of them managed to enter Protection Objectives (with the exception of Lord Ameer's Attacks/Ameeri Armies' boss as they deduct 30 LP, instantly compromising the interception), the Raid will be eliminated for good.
• If the players fails the interception, the Raid will remain active with any enemies that are not defeated, including those who entered Protection Objectives.

If the Raid feature boss(es), they will keep their state which includes HP and form between operations.

In the event a Raid manages to reach the HQ, the player will be forced to defend it and cannot access all zones but the HQ, where they must eliminate the invaders before they can destroy the Base (and compromising the R.A. campaign).

As Raids tend to be dangerous at full strength, especially Lord Ameer's Attacks/Ameeri Armies due to their boss, it is advisable to either eliminate them ASAP or, if the player's Operators are lacking, whittle them down so that they can be easily dispatched by the time they reached the HQ.

Sequences

Unique to R.A., various NPCs may appear on the zones and the player can converse with them to start or advance Sequences – a chain of tasks which expands the story and allows the player to influence the ending of the campaign. Some events can also start Sequences spanning over multiple tasks.

In FS, Sequences' progress are carried over across all campaigns until ended. In TS, Sequences are divided into Main which is required to progress the campaign's story and Optional which is not mandatory.

Token items (not to be confused with tokens) are awarded as the player progresses through Sequences, all of which have unique effects to help the player through the campaign and viewable in the Headquarters.

In FS, tokens could be By Fate which is permanent and carried over between campaigns until discarded or By Chance which only applies for the campaign it was obtained, and can be discarded to reset the Sequence associated with the token. In TS, all tokens are not carried over between campaigns.