Arknights: Endfield Bug Turns Characters Blue, Japanese Players Mistake It for New Design

A lighthearted but confusing incident has surfaced following the global launch of Arknights: Endfield, the latest action RPG from Hypergryph, which officially went live worldwide on January 22, 2026. A Japanese player recently encountered a bizarre visual bug that caused every character in the game to appear bright blue, leading them to initially believe it was an intentional design choice.

The player, known on X as Hatomugi, shared that they had played the game for several hours without suspecting anything was wrong. Due to the game’s strong sci-fi and space-themed atmosphere, the blue skin tones felt oddly fitting at first. It was only later, after noticing that even small items such as an apple held by a character had turned blue, that doubts began to creep in.

Curious, the player checked official promotional images of Arknights: Endfield and quickly realized that none of the characters were meant to have blue skin at all. Even more telling was the fact that parts of the user interface, which are normally yellow, had also shifted entirely to blue, confirming that something was clearly off.

According to community analysis, the issue appears to be linked to graphics driver processing errors, particularly affecting users who recently updated Intel GPU drivers before launching the game. The bug seems to cause incorrect color or hue rendering across the entire scene. Early workarounds suggested by players include rolling back to an older graphics driver or adjusting rendering settings within the game launcher.

For PC players experiencing this issue, the most reliable fix reported so far is to launch the game using DirectX 11. This can be done by simply checking the “Launch with DirectX 11” option below the Play button in the launcher. Doing so restores correct color output and prevents characters like Endministrator or Perlica from unintentionally looking like aliens.

Beyond the blue skin bug, Arknights: Endfield’s launch week has also seen reports of other issues, including PayPal payment errors and performance problems on certain PC configurations. Hypergryph has acknowledged these launch-period issues and is actively working on updates to address them, aiming to ensure a smoother experience for players exploring the world of Talos-II.

While technically a visual error, the unexpected blue character models have added a bit of charm to the game’s launch, sparking jokes and discussions within the community. For some players, it even left a surprisingly positive impression before the mystery was finally solved.

Source: Automaton Media