Arknights base layout decisions create permanent resource production multipliers that compound across entire gameplay experiences, making poor early choices costly to reverse later. This comprehensive guide covers optimal arrangement principles that maximize passive income while maintaining the flexibility needed for evolving player situations. The base represents one of the most consequential long-term investments in Arknights. The Two-Two-Five Dormitory Configuration The two-two-five dormitory configuration provides the most common high-efficiency setup, prioritizing trading posts and power stations over dormitories while maintaining sufficient rest bonus accumulation. This arrangement maximizes resource production throughput while providing the comfort levels that operator morale requires. The specific floor assignments matter less than the overall proportion of production versus rest facilities. Dormitory comfort levels matter more than quantity once minimum thresholds are met, as additional dormitory floors beyond comfortable capacity provide diminishing returns that production floors would better utilize. Maintaining four full-comfort dormitories provides sufficient rest bonus for most player situations, with additional floors better allocated to production facilities.
Trading Post Prioritization
Trading post levels directly determine sanity to gold conversion efficiency, with every trading post upgrade providing substantial per-sanity value that manufacturing tier improvements cannot match. Prioritizing trading post upgrades before expanding manufacturing capacity represents counterintuitive advice that contradicts casual intuition but produces measurably superior results in long-term progression. The per-floor trading post bonus compounds dramatically across weeks of operation. This prioritization requires patience during early and mid-game when manufacturing seems more immediately productive, but the long-term advantages of trading post focus prove substantial. Players who follow conventional wisdom and max manufacturing before trading posts find their progression slower than optimal approaches would have produced.
Factory Assignment Optimization
Factory assignment affects output dramatically based on what products you prioritize, with crafting battle records in factories rather than pure originium grants providing consistent sanity efficiency. Late-game players should dedicate at least three factories to battle record production while maintaining one factory for materials that trading posts cannot replace. The sanity efficiency of battle record crafting exceeds alternative products by meaningful margins. Drones accelerate specific tasks but waste resources when misapplied, with experienced players using drones exclusively for trading post instant completions and power station emergency fills. Never spend drones on manufacturing except during specific events that justify the investment through bonus efficiency. This drone discipline prevents the resource leakage that casual players commonly experience through well-intentioned but inefficient drone usage.
