This is also the last big limited window of the year, and the three weeks with the densest material drops all sit inside it. The three stage blocks roll out on the 1st, 8th and 15th, the shop drags on until the 29th, and the contract exchange closes on the 18th. No two of those four deadlines land together, and getting the order wrong once costs you a chunk of rewards.
Below we walk through Arknights strategy, the schedule, what to buy first in the shop, how the 70% weight actually works, and how much Orundum to set aside for 300 pulls. Line it up against the calendar and you are set.
Timing: Three Stage Blocks and Four Deadlines
The event unlocks once you clear Main Story 1-10. This Arknights 2026 guide sets out the timing below: the stages do not all open at once, they arrive in three blocks. Block one, Afterglow's Finale, opens at 12:00 on 1 November; block two, First Green of the Long Winter, at 16:00 on 8 November; block three, Spring of the Century, at 16:00 on 15 November. All three close together at 04:00 on 22 November.
The stage dates are easy to remember; what actually trips people up are these four deadlines, listed in the order they close:
Banner: 04:00 on 15 November. Contract exchange: 04:00 on 18 November. Event stages: 04:00 on 22 November. The shop, Buried Under the Barrage: 04:00 on 29 November.
None of the four dates overlap, so do not fob it off with "it ends in late November" ��� people get this wrong every year.
Here is where money quietly gets lost: the contract exchange stays open three days past the banner. Once the pool closes you still have three days to spend your Headhunting Data Contracts, yet every year someone assumes the contracts die with the banner, leaves them sitting there untouched, and forfeits a 6-star for nothing.
There is also a small web event running alongside, Tundra and Ember, from 20:00 on 24 October to 04:00 on 24 November. It raffles physical prizes and has nothing to do with your in-game progress ��� a couple of clicks when you happen to be online, no need to grind for it.
How to Farm the Event Currency
The event currency is Expired Records, and it comes from two sources: drops from event stages, and the Layout Objectives of the Wartime News Committee. The first scales with Sanity, so you get out exactly what you put in; the second is a set of one-off mission rewards that are gone once claimed.
Clear the Layout Objectives the moment you get in. They pay out Ursus Compendium pages, advanced upgrade materials, LMD and Battle Records ��� all of it free and one-off, no Sanity required. Do it the other way round, grinding stages until your Sanity is gone and only then remembering the objectives, and you have simply lost value.
The other track, Witnessed by the Dawn, is a mission chain that advances as you clear stages. Its main rewards are the 6-star event operator Dominion, part of the A Corner of the Palace furniture set, module materials and Expired Records.
One more thing: Dominion's Token can also be bought from the shop. The operator herself is free, and the developers have left a route to duplicate copies, so whether you push Potential depends on whether you will actually use her. The base copy costs you nothing either way.
How the 70% Weight Actually Works
The event hands you everything for time; the banner does not work that way ��� money spent still does not guarantee a hit, and this is exactly where people lose their heads. For a read on operator strength, see Arknights character tier list 2026.
Cast Snow into Fire belongs to the Celebration limited headhunting series and runs from 12:00 on 1 November to 04:00 on 15 November. The rate structure works like this: Talulah [Limited] and Frozen River together make up 70% of 6-star drops, while the remaining 30% is shared by Frostguard SilverAsh [Limited], New Covenant Exusiai [Limited] and Lappland the Decadenza [Limited], each with a 5x weight boost. On the 5-star side, Olga accounts for 50% of 5-star drops.
Do not read that 70% as "seven out of every ten pulls is Talulah".
What the 70% means is this: once a 6-star has already appeared, those two take seven of every ten. Put another way, if you pull ten 6-stars this run, roughly seven of them should be Talulah or Frozen River ��� but the premise is that a 6-star shows up at all, and the base rate on a single pull is only 2%.
So the correct reading is: clear the 2% gate first, then talk about the 70%. Treating 70% as a per-pull rate is exactly where this event's most common misunderstanding comes from.
Pity kicks in after 50 consecutive pulls without a 6-star: from the 51st pull onward the rate climbs by 2% per pull, so the longer you go without one, the likelier it lands. The extra Talulah at 300 pulls is a one-time bonus granted at 300 cumulative headhunts ��� it produces no Headhunting Data Contracts and does not affect your odds of the next 6-star. For most players that number is close to meaningless: a Monthly Card alone will never reach 300, so it is a safety net for heavy spenders. Glance at it, but do not build it into your plan.
How Much Orundum to Set Aside
At 600 Orundum per pull, 300 pulls comes to 180,000 Orundum, and 150 pulls to 90,000. That 180,000 sounds abstract until you convert it: a full 30 ten-pulls.
| Tier | Pulls | Orundum | Ten-pulls | What you get |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Monthly Card | 30-60 | 18,000-36,000 | 3-6 | Ride the pity climb and gamble on it |
| Mid-spender | 120-150 | 72,000-90,000 | 12-15 | Very likely one limited, not necessarily Talulah |
| Full pity | 300 | 180,000 | 30 | A bonus Talulah thrown in |
Check the shop before you pull. The event shop, Buried Under the Barrage, sells headhunting permits ��� a fixed number of them, with the in-game listing as the final word. Redeem those first, then work out how much Orundum you still need to top up. Every permit saved is Orundum saved.
Is Dominion Worth Building?
Dominion comes free from the Witnessed by the Dawn mission chain. The announcement gives no skill or talent numbers, so how strong she really is will have to wait for release ��� but whether to build her can be decided right now.
Open your roster and check whether you already have a stronger 6-star in the same role. If you do not, it is pure profit: a free 6-star at zero gacha cost, and there is no reason to skip her. If you do, do not let her gather dust either ��� level her just far enough to clear the event's high-difficulty stages, and save the rest of your materials for banner operators.
Module materials come from both the mission chain and the shop. Run the chain first and only top up from the shop for what is missing; do it the other way round and you will pay a second batch of Records for the same item.
November Calendar
All times follow the official announcement:
| Date | What to do | Reference |
|---|---|---|
| 11/01 12:00 | Start block one, Afterglow's Finale, and open the Layout Objectives | Stages open that day |
| 11/01-11/15 | Banner window ��� decide whether to pull | Closes 11/15 03:59 |
| 11/05 04:00 | Frozen River and Olga enter Standard Headhunting | Per official announcement |
| 11/08 16:00 | Block two, First Green of the Long Winter | Stages open that day |
| 11/15 16:00 | Block three, Spring of the Century | Stages open that day |
| 11/18 03:59 | Contract exchange closes | Three days after the banner |
| 11/22 03:59 | Event stages close | Everything ends |
| 11/29 03:59 | Shop closes | Final deadline |
Every year, when people check the Thank-You Celebration schedule, the classic mistake is assuming the shop closes together with the banner. The shop is in fact the last thing to go ��� do not dump all your Sanity early.
Separately, from 04:00 on 5 November, Frozen River and Olga join the permanent Standard pool. If you are after them there, you can wait as long as you like ��� but the 70% weight on the limited banner only holds until 15 November, so do not let the limited window slip away while you wait.
One last reminder: event first, pulls second. Three weeks sounds generous, but the only dates you truly cannot miss are the stage openings. Miss block one and it does not come back; miss block three and everything before it was wasted. Mark 1, 8 and 15 November on your calendar now. The shop can be worked through slowly and the contracts can wait until those final three days ��� just do not let the stages slide.
Arknights 2026 Thank-You Celebration FAQ
When does Cast Snow into Fire close?
A: The banner closes at 03:59 on 15 November, while the Headhunting Data Contract exchange stays open until 03:59 on 18 November ��� three days longer. As of 29 October, that is 17 days away.
Does the bonus Talulah at 300 pulls reset pity?
A: No. The official notice states that this is a bonus acquisition: it produces no Headhunting Data Contracts and does not affect your odds of pulling the next 6-star this run.
Do I need to pull for the event operator Dominion?
A: No pulling required ��� she is free through the Witnessed by the Dawn mission chain, provided you clear the event stages. Her Token is bought from the shop with Expired Records.
Is Texas the Omertosa worth picking up?
A: This run her contract cost in the exchange drops from 300 to 200. A 6-star for 200 contracts is a third cheaper than the 300 tier ��� if your account is missing her, this is a priority.
What happens if I do not finish all three stage blocks?
A: All three blocks close together at 03:59 on 22 November, and block three only opens on 15 November ��� seven days at most. Leave room in your schedule for that last block.
The reason "event first, banner second" is pinned down as step one is that the event operator costs nothing in gacha terms. Securing her first raises the floor on everything else this run.
Action Checklist
- Clear Main Story 1-10 before 12:00 on 1 November so you can enter the event.
- When the event opens, do the Wartime News Committee Layout Objectives first ��� free materials take priority.
- Push Witnessed by the Dawn to get Dominion, then circle back for her Token in the shop.
- Buy headhunting permits from the shop first, then outfits and module materials.
- Decide on the banner before 03:59 on 15 November, and spend your contracts before 03:59 on 18 November.
Event times and banner rules follow the in-game notices. More event scheduling and operator-building breakdowns live in the guide section at gghubs.com.