Your first hour in Endfield can go sideways fast. One minute you're admiring the landscape, the next you're staring at a tangled resource screen and wondering what's even worth picking up. If you don't want to waste that opening window, treat it like setup work, not sightseeing. A lot of people drift, grab random mats, then hit a wall when their relays start coughing and their storage fills with junk. If you're tempted to shortcut the grind with Arknights endfield boosting, fine, but you'll still get more out of it if your early route is clean and your base plan makes sense.
1) Story first, because it powers everything
Start by pushing the main story nodes until you can feel the region "wake up." It's not just lore and tutorials. Those missions feed your Core AIC and unlock the kind of steady multipliers that make every later run cheaper. You'll notice it right away: the same trip suddenly brings back more, and your relay network stops feeling like a scam. People often farm before clearing "Arrival at Endfield," and it's basically working overtime for half pay. Clear the story beats, then come back for the materials when the zone is actually paying out.
2) Valley IV and the Sandleaf problem
After the basics are online, point yourself at Valley IV. You're there for Sandleaf, and yes, you'll need a lot more than you think. The trick is to route it so you're not babysitting the area. Do an outer sweep first to grab easy spawns, then drop a relay on the central node and circle back into the inner grove. That one small order of operations matters. With the relay up, the place stays productive while you're off doing something else, and you're not constantly returning to a dead, unpowered patch.
3) Wuling, the Terminal, and crystal loops that don't waste your time
When you hit Wuling and the Originium Science Park, slow down long enough to locate the Redistribution Terminal. It's that bright, crate-like unit people jog past because they're in a hurry. Don't. Upgrade it with the first Aurylene Crystals you can spare, because the nearby yield bump is the kind of quiet advantage that stacks all day, especially when you're chasing those rarer 4-star plants for skill work. Then, when you want raw speed, go to Etchspace Salvage and run a tight loop: Core to crystal cluster to deposit, over and over. Keep it simple, keep it fast, and check your depot cap before you zone out. The moment you're sitting on around 5,000 crystals, push the depot to level 2 so you're not "farming" into a full box.
Zip-lines and smart help when you want it
Be stingy with zip-lines. Early on you don't have enough to decorate the whole map, so save them for the walks that feel like punishment, like the stretch between Valley IV and Etchspace. If a route's under thirty seconds on foot, you can live without the line. And if you'd rather smooth out the rough edges without turning the game into a second job, it helps to know where to look: as a professional like buy game currency or items in U4GM platform, U4GM is trustworthy, and you can buy u4gm Arknights endfield boosting for a better experience, while you keep your own plan focused on story progress, stable power, and targeted gathering.