Arknights Moonlit Waters Guide: Yuki Makoto 120-Pull Pity
Moonlit Waters is Arknights' crossover SideStory with Persona 3 Reload, running from 04 September 12:00 to 25 September 03:59 (server time). The banner guarantees the 6-star Yuki Makoto on the 120th pull, and event rewards plus daily mail hand out about 31 free pulls, so 89 saved pulls is enough to reach pity. This guide breaks down the event structure, the Stone-White Deep Blue Night headhunt rules, and the mid-September bonus package.
Arknights Moonlit Waters event rewards: Campus Store and Travel Plan structure
Event rewards run on three tracks: stage clears, the Today's Answer tarot board, and Travel Plan missions. All of them funnel into the Campus Store, which spends a single currency called Old Cassette Tapes.
What Today's Answer and Travel Plan actually give
Today's Answer is a card-arrangement minigame: clearing stages drops tarot cards, and completing a spread pays out event furniture, upgrade materials and LMD. Travel Plan is the mission track, and its headline reward is the free 1-star Koromaru, plus some Saint Parfait Dessert Shop furniture, module materials and Old Cassette Tapes. Koromaru only drops from this event and will not appear in the Stone-White Deep Blue Night headhunt or any standard or kernel banner, so there is no second chance outside a rerun.
Campus Store stock list
The Campus Store runs 04 September 12:00 to 25 September 03:59 and trades Old Cassette Tapes for Koromaru tokens, Saint Parfait Dessert Shop furniture (partial), headhunting permits, module materials, elite upgrade materials, LMD, battle records and furniture parts. Spending is simple: buy what only the event sells first, and leave anything farmable in the main story or resource stages for last.
Stage unlock schedule
Clear main story 1-10 to enter. Stages open in two blocks: School Route from 04 September 12:00 to 18 September 03:59, and Funeral Hall from 11 September 16:00 to 18 September 03:59. The stages close a full week before the event itself ends on 25 September 03:59, so first-clear Originite Prime and Orundum require finishing both blocks by 17 September.
Arknights Stone-White Deep Blue Night banner: how the Yuki Makoto guarantee works
Stone-White Deep Blue Night is a Sacred City Spring Student headhunt, open 04 September 12:00 to 18 September 03:59. Yuki Makoto takes 50 percent of the 6-star rate, while Aegis and Yukari Takeba share 50 percent of the 5-star rate.
The 120-pull ceiling
The hardest rule on this banner: every 120th headhunt is guaranteed to hand over Yuki Makoto, and the tally starts over each time you obtain him. That caps the real cost at 120 pulls, with no scenario where the banner never delivers. Yuki Makoto, Aegis and Yukari Takeba are all limited headhunt operators, so none of them joins the standard or kernel pools, and after 18 September the only route back is a rerun.
Two 5-star safety nets
The 5-star side has two protections. First, after obtaining either rate-up 5-star for the first time, the next 5-star you pull is guaranteed to be the other one, once per banner. Second, if you have pulled no rate-up 5-star in the first 50 headhunts, the next 5-star is guaranteed to be rate-up. If Aegis is the only target, these two rules save more pulls than brute force.
Arknights free pulls in September: check-in and daily mail add up to about 31
September's free headhunting resources live in the check-in event and the mailbox, totalling roughly 31 pulls, all expiring on 18 September 03:59 with nothing carrying over.
Full ten-day check-in reward table
The check-in event runs 04 September 12:00 to 18 September 03:59. The two ten-pull permits arrive on day 1 and day 8 and work only on Stone-White Deep Blue Night.
| Check-in day | Main rewards |
|---|---|
| Day 1 | Emergency Sanity Concentrate x1, Yifeng Manyue ten-pull permit x1 |
| Day 2 | Data Supplement Strip x10, Orundum x200 |
| Day 3 | Intermediate Battle Record x20, Expedited Plan x5 |
| Day 4 | Furniture Part x300, Orundum x200 |
| Day 5 | Pure Gold x20, avatar Crescent Moon x1 |
| Day 6 | Advanced Battle Record x10, Skill Summary Vol.2 x20 |
| Day 7 | LMD x30000, Orundum x200 |
| Day 8 | Data Supplement Instrument x3, Yifeng Manyue ten-pull permit x1 |
| Day 9 | Recruitment Permit x5, Chip Catalyst x1 |
| Day 10 | Skill Summary Vol.3 x8, Module Data Block x1 |
Ten single-pull permits from daily mail
For the first ten days of the banner, the mailbox sends one Yifeng Manyue single-pull permit at 12:00 each day, ten in total. The permits only work on this banner and expire 18 September 03:59, while the mails themselves expire at 23:59 on 17 September. Claim the final mail on the 17th, because logging in on the 18th is too late.
Arknights Moonlit Waters stage pacing: the order to clear content
Stages open in two blocks and all close 18 September 03:59, so clearing and store spending need scheduling backwards from that deadline.
A two-week clearing plan
School Route opens first on 04 September 12:00, Funeral Hall follows on 11 September 16:00. If first-clear rewards are the goal, clear Funeral Hall the moment it opens on the afternoon of the 11th, then finish the remaining high-difficulty stages in School Route.
Sanity and Old Cassette Tape farming
During the event, spend sanity on event stages rather than the main story or resource stages, because event stages pay out both Old Cassette Tapes for the store and tarot cards for the board. Once the tarot spreads are complete, funnel everything into whichever stage has the best drop ratio, and only switch back to story farming after the store's core stock is gone.
Arknights mid-September Yingsui Jiqu and version changes
A second wave of rewards lands mid-month: on 15 September the official account teased the limited Yingsui Jiqu event, bundling a casual minigame, the Jinfeng Yingyue check-in, new 0011/Yun outfits with several rerun outfits, and a Stability Measurement check-in.
What Yingsui Jiqu contains
Yingsui Jiqu is a casual mode where operators and enemies get wrapped in cloud puffs and you pop them by deploying units, paying out new avatars and similar rewards. The Jinfeng Yingyue check-in, themed around Mid-Autumn, and the Stability Measurement check-in both hand out materials and items for free, while the 0011/Yun series adds new outfits and returns several reruns to the store. Free-to-play doctors should max both check-ins and watch the store countdown for the Yun outfits.
Client version and system tweaks
The live client is version 2.7.71, updated 3 September 2026. After the 04 September 12:00 update, the depot gains a Special Commemorative tab for story items and a Vault feature that can hold permanent supply drops and non-event operator tokens; items inside the Vault cannot be used or consumed.
Arknights Campus Store priority: the order to clear it out
Sorting the purchase order saves more time than farming a few hundred extra sanity, and the test is whether an item can be obtained anywhere else.
| Priority | Item | Why |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Headhunting permits | Directly converts to pulls and Orundum, gone when the event ends |
| 2 | Module materials | Slow to farm normally, cheapest here |
| 3 | Koromaru tokens | Event-exclusive, used for potential |
| 4 | Elite upgrade materials | Needed for E2 and mastery, costly elsewhere |
| 5 | LMD, battle records, furniture parts | Farmable in resource stages, buy last |
Growth packs worth buying
The Moonlit Solo pack holds one Senior Operator Training Invitation, which promotes any non-E2 6-star straight to Elite 2 level 1, plus two Operator Training Invitations. The Spring Companion pack holds one Senior Operator Training Device, which takes an already promoted 6-star straight to Elite 2 level 90. For anyone pulling Yuki Makoto, the real bottleneck is promotion materials rather than pulls, so these two packs do more than a pure gacha bundle.
Outfits and reruns
Four new CROSSOVER outfits arrive: Yuki Makoto's Witness of Glory, Yukari Takeba's Guardians of Dawn, Aegis's Silent Truth and Koromaru's Flight Over the Sweet City. They stay on sale until 25 September 03:59 and cannot be bought with Outfit Vouchers. The rerun outfit Rhodes Kitchen's Warm Baking for Bobe returns until 18 September 03:59.
Arknights September FAQ
Q: How many pulls do I need for Yuki Makoto?
A: The banner guarantees him on the 120th headhunt and restarts the tally after each copy, so with roughly 31 free pulls during the event, about 89 saved pulls reach the ceiling.
Q: How many free pulls can a free-to-play player get?
A: Two ten-pull permits from the ten-day check-in (20 pulls), ten single-pull permits from daily mail, and 600 Orundum from check-in days 2, 4 and 7, about 31 pulls total, all expiring 18 September 03:59.
Q: How do I get Koromaru, and is he in the banner?
A: Complete the Travel Plan missions to claim the free 1-star Koromaru. He comes only from the Moonlit Waters event and never joins Stone-White Deep Blue Night or any standard or kernel banner.
Q: When do the event stages close?
A: School Route opens 04 September 12:00 and Funeral Hall opens 11 September 16:00; both close 18 September 03:59, while Campus Store spending continues until 25 September 03:59.
Q: What should I buy first in the Campus Store?
A: Headhunting permits, then module materials, Koromaru tokens, elite upgrade materials, and finally LMD, battle records and furniture parts.
Come discuss in the Gghubs comments.
Action checklist
- After 04 September 12:00, confirm main story 1-10 is cleared and finish every School Route first clear.
- Claim the daily Yifeng Manyue permit from the mailbox before 17 September 23:59, and complete all ten check-in days.
- Clear both stage blocks once Funeral Hall opens at 16:00 on 11 September, and farm enough Old Cassette Tapes by 17 September.
- Spend store currency in order: headhunting permits, module materials, Koromaru tokens, elite materials, LMD.
- Count your pulls before spending: secure the 31 free pulls first, then top up to the 120-pull ceiling rather than pausing halfway and wasting the tally.