Contingency Contract: Indigo Experimental Operation Guide

Contingency Contract: Indigo Experimental Operation is live in Arknights: Endfield now. It opened on Nov. 5, 2026 at 12:00 server time and closes when the next version's update maintenance starts. Phase 2 arrives Nov. 12 at 12:00, and the Secret Sanctuary exchange counter stays open until Dec. 2 at 04:00. If you only remember one of those four times, remember the last one: the shop closes with whatever currency you left in it.

The [Sanctuary of Ink] Version Update Notes list the event as the tenth of eleven dated entries, and it is the only one on that list that is built around stacking your own difficulty modifiers. Everything below comes from those notes plus the two Re-Ignition notices that documented the same mode back in June. Where a rule is carried over from the June run rather than printed for this one, the text says so.

Dates, all in server time

Asia runs on UTC+8 and Americas/Europe on UTC-5, as the notes state. The combat window has no fixed end date in the notes beyond "before version update and maintenance", so the only hard deadline you can plan around is the shop closing on Dec. 2. Last run the shop stayed open seven days past the maintenance that ended the event, so a dated shop window is normal even when the combat close depends on the next patch.

Who can enter

Re-Ignition's release details set two gates: complete the main mission [Chapter I Process II: Paving the Way] and reach Authority Level 30 or higher. Both sit early in the progression, so most accounts that have finished the opening chapter clear them without thinking about it. The Indigo notes do not restate the two conditions, and nothing in them suggests the gates moved.

What the event pays

Two cosmetics, one currency and one shop stock. The medal and the frame are display items. The real payout is [Vitrified Indigo], because it converts into [Oroberyl]×2000 at the counter, and Oroberyl is the currency you spend on pulls. A sticker and a selection crate round out the shelf.

What Vitrified Indigo buys

The notes name three exchanges: [Oroberyl]×2000, [Sticker: Contingency Resolved] and [Advanced Progression Selection Crate II]. They describe that as "including", not as the full shelf, so treat the in-game counter as the authority on what else is on offer. What is not in doubt is the closing rule: whatever you have not spent when Secret Sanctuary shuts is gone. Last run the same warning was printed for [Vitrified Coins], and there is no line in this version's notes that reverses it.

How a run works: four waves, no checkpoint

Each challenge is four waves. Clear all of them to beat it. The wave count comes from the Re-Ignition release details; this run's notes describe the same Test Criteria system without printing it again. Fail and the attempt restarts from the first wave, so a wipe on the last wave costs the entire run. That single rule shapes everything else about how you should stack difficulty: a contract you can finish beats a contract you can almost finish.

Clearing any challenge with a Total Test Criteria of at least 1 switches on the Sanctuary Rating, which other players see on your Friends screen for the duration of the event. Meeting the specified conditions also earns the event's engraved medal. Neither one is a stat, so neither is worth a failed run.

Test Criteria, Total, and Criteria Sets

Test Criteria come in three difficulty levels, 1, 2 and 3. Your Total Test Criteria is the sum of the levels on everything you switched on. Higher Total records unlock Criteria Sets for different regions over time, and some Test Criteria are Locked Criteria that only become selectable once you take the specified Key Criteria.

That ordering matters more than any individual modifier. You cannot jump straight to the interesting options in a set you have not opened, and you cannot open a set without posting a record in the one before it. The practical route through the event is a ladder of small increases in Total, not one heroic stack.

Phase 2 lands on day 8, again

Re-Ignition opened June 19 and took its content update June 26, 7 days later. Indigo opened Nov. 5 and takes its content update Nov. 12, 7 days later. Same gap, second run, so the timing is a pattern rather than a coincidence in the calendar.

What a phase adds, judging by June: five auto-unlocked Test Criteria arrived at once, [Team: Encumbered], [Ambient: Time Limit III], [Edit: Flashfreeze], [Ambient: RE-Construct I] and [Ambient: RE-Construct II]. They still could not be selected while their Criteria Set was locked. Indigo's phase-2 list is not published as of Nov. 8; the notes date the update and stop there.

The other recurring piece is the cycle mission. In Re-Ignition a new one appeared every three days, seven in total, and all of them stayed open until the event ended. The Indigo notes do not print a count, so we are not going to invent one. Check the Event Center for the current list.

What changed since Re-Ignition

The skeleton is identical: four waves, 1/2/3 criteria summed into a Total, sets unlocked by records, a shop that clears unspent currency, a phase update on day 8. What moved is the wrapping. The currency got a new name, the selection crate went from tier I to tier II, and all three cosmetics were replaced.

One number moved the wrong way for players. Re-Ignition's shop stayed open 34 days. Indigo's stays open 27. Seven fewer days to spend the same kind of currency, and the currency still dies at the door.

Where the data stops

Our own item database has not caught up with this run. It still files the June currency as [Vitrified Coin], the shop crate as Advanced Progression Selection Crate I, and the sticker as "Sticker: Contingency Contract". There is no [Vitrified Indigo], no Crate II and no "Sticker: Contingency Resolved" in the file. We would rather say that than attach a plausible-looking id to a name that has no record yet.

The stage side is thinner still. The Contract category holds a single entry, indie_contract001, at Lv.80, and nothing in the data lists this season's encounters, criteria or missions. So this page can tell you the dates, the payouts and the rules, and it cannot tell you which fight to bring which team to. For that, the in-game Event Center is the only source that is current.

For the mode itself, as opposed to this run, the long version is in our Contingency Contract explainer. For where the rest of the patch's dated content falls, see the [Sanctuary of Ink] event schedule, and for the systems around it, the version guide.

Sources

Dates, rewards and the shop list are from the official [Sanctuary of Ink] Version Update Notes (Oct. 15, 2026), entry 10. The mode rules, participation criteria and the day-8 phase update come from the two Re-Ignition notices: Release Details (June 18, 2026) and Content Update Notes (June 25, 2026). Item and stage claims were checked against our own data files. Browsable copies of the announcements sit in the news hub.