Arknights: Guide to the Anniversary Recruitment Updates!

Among the exciting news from the Anniversary Livestreams, we learned that we'd be seeing the addition of a large number of Operators to the Recruitment pool!

We immediately lamented the loss of all the guaranteed Gummies and ShiraYukis, but is their loss someone else's gain? What other tags have been affected, and what new tags have taken their place? In this guide I will discuss the major additions, changes, and impacts of the first recruitment pool expansion.

All Tags will be refreshed when the recruitment changes are implemented.  So if you try to save a Top Operator Tag to get Ch'en, you are going to have no Ch'en and a lot of tears and regret.

Use any rare tags before the recruitment update!

Note: Recruits that start before the reset and end after the reset will use the pre-reset pool, not the post reset pool

We don't know 100% for certain, but based on data that has been collected up to this point, it is highly likely that:

• Tag combination rarity guarantee is determined independently from the exact set of tags.

What does that mean?  We all know that certain combinations of tags guarantee that higher rarity Operators will be recruited when they are selected together.  Based on the fact that these "high rarity" combinations more frequently occur together than apart, it is believed that the process for which Tags appear for the player is a 2 step process:

• Step 1: The game randomly determines which level of rarity that the recruitment will guarantee.
• Step 2: Tags and tag combinations are then randomly selected that will guarantee the rarity selected in step 1.

Since this process does not change, the updates to the pool will not change the rate of getting combinations that guarantee higher rarity units, it will only change which tag combinations you get.

So you won't be getting less Yellow Certs, but until you memorize the new tags that guarantee them, you might want to use a filter/calculator so you don't miss one:

Tag List: Top Operator, Melee, Guard, Nuker, DPS

Guarantee Combos to get this Operator: Top Operator + Nuker

Notes: Top Operator + Guard - no longer guarantees SilverAsh, but is shared by him, Skadi, and Ch'en.

Tag List: Top Operator, Melee, Guard, Survival, DPS

Guarantee Combos to get this Operator: Top Operator + Survival

Notes: Top Operator + Guard - no longer guarantees SilverAsh, but is shared by him, Skadi, and Ch'en.

Tag List: Senior Operator, Melee, Guard, Support, DPS

Guarantee Combos to get this Operator: Senior Operator + Support + Guard, 

Notes:

• Senior Operator + Guard + DPS - no longer guarantees Indra.  Indra no longer has a combo to guarantees her specifically, but the DPS + Guard + Senior combo will have a 50% between her and Swire.
• Senior Operator + Support + Melee - no longer guarantees Zima.  Zima still has combos to guarantee her.

Tag List: Senior Operator, Ranged, Caster, Healing, DPS, Slow

Guarantee Combos to get this Operator: Caster + Healing, Healing + Slow, Healing + DPS, Senior Operator + Caster, Caster + DPS + Slow

Notes: The following combos will no longer guarantee Istina: Slow + Ranged + DPS, Senior Operator + Slow + DPS, Senior Operator + Slow + Ranged.  There are still combos that will guarantee her.

Tag List: Ranged, Caster, AoE, Slow

Guarantee Combos to get this Operator: Caster + AoE + Slow (however, choosing only Caster + Slow gives a chance at Nightmare, and will also give Greyy most of the time.)

New 4 Star and Up Guarantee (Yellow Cert): Caster + Slow

Tag List: Melee, DPS, Guard

Guarantee Combos to get this Operator: none

New 4 Star and Up Guarantee (Yellow Cert): none

Tag List: Melee, Defender, Defense, Healing

Combos that no longer guarantee 4 Star and up (Yellow Cert): Defender + Healing, Defense + Healing

Notes: Finally somebody other than Beagle if you are going all-out for Vulcan. The addition of Spot will make getting Gummy more difficult.

Tag List: Melee, Guard, AoE, Survival

Combos that no longer guarantee 4 Star and up (Yellow Cert): Guard + AoE, Survival + AoE, AoE + Melee

Notes: The addition of Popukar will make getting Estelle, a recruit-only Operator, quite a bit more difficult.

Tag List: Melee, Guard, DPS

Notes: Popukar and Midnight will be giving Melantha a rest if you are trying to get lucky with Indra.

Tag List: Ranged, Sniper, AoE

Combos that no longer guarantee 4 Star and up (Yellow Cert):Sniper + AoE

Notes: Even with the addition of Catapult, ShiraYuki still has the Sniper + Slow combo that will guarantee her, and AoE + Slow that will guarantee her or Greyy, so it shouldn't greatly effect the difficulty of getting her.

Tag List: Melee, Specialist, Nuker, Robot

Combos that guarantee this Operator: Robot + Specialist, Robot + Nuker, Specialist + Nuker

Note: if time is set to 3:50 or below, 5 stars are removed, so a Nuker tag guarantees Themal (assuming it doesn't drop).  At above 3:50, robots are removed, so the Nuker tag guarantees Firewatch (you should be setting to 9 hours)

On the main Operator Recruitment guide, I have the updated full lists of Tag combos that guarantee 5 and 4 Star Operators.  For example, here is the new Yellow Cert Tag List: