Arknights CN Announces a Persona 3 Reload Side Story: Koromaru Is a Free 1-Star, With 30 Free Pulls Attached
Hypergryph announced a Persona 3 Reload crossover at the Arknights CN Summer Carnival livestream on July 25, 2026, at 19:30 UTC+8. It is a CN-server event with no start date attached, and the only character named so far is Koromaru, the Shiba Inu of SEES, who arrives free rather than on a banner.
The licensed title is Persona 3 Reload specifically, the 2024 Atlus remake, not the 2006 original, Persona 3 FES or Persona 3 Portable. Atlus is a Sega subsidiary, so the license traces to Sega, but the licensor to name is Atlus. It is the first Atlus property to cross into Arknights.
This Is the 2019 Tower Defence Arknights, Not Endfield
The original Arknights deploys operators onto lane tiles with DP costs and redeploy timers. This is the game the Persona 3 Reload event belongs to.
Two live games answer to the name in 2026, and the collab belongs to one of them. This is 明日方舟, the tower defence gacha Hypergryph launched on CN in 2019 and Yostar took to Global in January 2020. Arknights: Endfield, the 3D squad-combat sequel set on Talos-II, is a separate game with separate servers and separate banners, and it has no part in this announcement. The Summer Carnival is the original title's own annual livestream.
The server scope is just as narrow. CN only. There is no Global, JP, KR, TW or HK announcement as of August 1, 2026, and nothing in the reveal implies one.
The Free Content: 30 Pulls, One Operator, Zero Yuan
The event runs as a Side Story set in Laterano. That format matters for what it costs: Side Stories carry their own stage set, story chapters and event shop, and Arknights has archived past collab Side Stories into permanent access on Global in the past.
| Free item | Detail |
|---|---|
| Koromaru | Gifted event operator, reported at 1 star, not a gacha pull |
| 10 headhunting tickets | One per day across a 10-day login chain |
| 2 ten-pull tickets | From a sign-in event |
| Total pulls | 30 |
That is 30 pulls handed over before a player spends anything. The number is the clearest signal available about the event's shape, because a 10-day daily ticket chain has to fit inside the event window, and the window has to close before the vouchers stop working.
Koromaru Is the Third Free 1-Star Collab Operator, Not the First
<!-- image: Koromaru 1-star operator card, from the official CN event page at ak.hypergryph.com once the Side Story announcement goes live; do not lift the Game8 or Persona Central crops -->Game8's write-up calls Koromaru the first collaboration character to arrive at this rarity. The record says otherwise, twice over.
| Operator | Rarity | Event | How obtained |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ash | 6★ | Operation Originium Dust (2021) | Limited banner |
| Blitz, Frost | 5★ | Operation Originium Dust (2021) | Limited banner |
| Tachanka | 5★ | Operation Originium Dust (2021) | Free, clear stage OD-4 |
| Terra Research Commission | 1★ | A Flurry to the Flame (2023) | Free, Roka Village Quest Board |
| Doc, Ela, Fuze, Iana | 5★ | Operation Lucent Arrowhead (2024) | Limited banner |
| Rhodes Island Recon | 1★ | Thunder in the Azure Dream (CN 2026) | Free, The General's Order |
Terra Research Commission is a Felyne trio from the 2023 Monster Hunter crossover. Rhodes Island Recon is built on Palico and Palamute from Monster Hunter Rise and landed on CN in June 2026, two months before this announcement. Both are free 1-star units, both are the partner IP's mascot animal, and Koromaru is the third entry in that pattern rather than a novelty.
The rarity sets expectations for the kit, too. A 1-star operator caps at level 30, carries a single talent and sits on a 200-second redeploy timer. Eleven exist in the game, mostly Rhodes Island robots. Nothing about custom animations or a full skill set has been announced, and the rarity itself argues against that framing. Note also that the 1-star figure is single-sourced to Game8; Persona Central covered the same reveal and states outright that it does not know Koromaru's rarity.
Two Different September Deadlines
The September 18 stamp that circulated after the reveal is not an event end date. It is when collab gacha vouchers stop working, and there is a second, earlier stamp attached to the reward mails.
| Beat | Date and time | Tier |
|---|---|---|
| Announced, CN Summer Carnival livestream | July 25, 2026, 19:30 UTC+8 | T2 |
| CN event start | Not announced | T1 |
| CN start, community inference | Around September 5, 2026 | T3 |
| Reward mails expire | September 17, 2026, 23:59 CN server time | T2 |
| Collab gacha vouchers expire | September 18, 2026, 03:59 CN server time | T2 |
| Global run | Not announced | T1 |
The community inference of an early-September start is arithmetic, not an announcement: a 10-day daily ticket chain that has to finish before the September 18 voucher cutoff backs out to roughly September 5. Treat it as expected, not booked. The one hard consequence of the two stamps is ordering: mail rewards have to be claimed a full four hours and one day before the vouchers themselves expire, so anything sitting in the inbox on September 17 is the first thing to lose.
What the Teaser Actually Shows
<!-- image: frame from the official Bilibili collab PV (Dark Hour moon over Laterano's Funerary Hall, or the Evoker/MP3 player shot); needs a licensed grab or an official press-kit still, not a fan reupload -->Blue lighting, water and the Dark Hour aesthetic, plus the MP3 player. That is the whole of what the sources describe. No SEES member is confirmed on screen, no cast list has been revealed, and no source supports a shared event map, a newly commissioned song or any playable Persona 3 Reload character beyond Koromaru.
The PV lives on Bilibili and nowhere else. Every YouTube upload of it checked so far resolves to a fan channel rather than to Hypergryph or Yostar, so a video result is not evidence of an official Western release beat. A CN event title has circulated as well, but it traces to a fan-made Bilibili upload and not to any Hypergryph channel, so it stays out of this piece until an official page carries it.
When Global Can Expect It
Collab operators enter the same roster as the rest of the game. The question for a Global player is only when.
No ranking coverage of this announcement answers the question a Global player is actually asking, so here is the precedent. Four crossovers have added operators, and the CN to Global gap has held near six months since 2021.
| Event | Partner | CN run | Global run | Gap |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Operation Originium Dust | Rainbow Six Siege | 2021/03/09 to 03/23 | 2021/08/18 to 09/01 | ~5.4 months |
| A Flurry to the Flame (21st Side Story) | Monster Hunter | 2023/03/07 to 03/21 | 2023/09/07 to 09/21 | Exactly 6 months |
| Operation Lucent Arrowhead (28th Side Story) | Rainbow Six Siege | 2024/03/07 to 03/21 | 2024/09/05 to 09/19 | ~6 months |
| Thunder in the Azure Dream (45th Side Story) | Monster Hunter Rise | 2026/06/01 to 06/15 | Not released as of 2026-08-01 | Pending |
Note the second Rainbow Six Siege event is 2024, not 2023, and that Monster Hunter has two entries rather than one. The cadence between them is irregular: 2021, 2023, 2024, 2026. Nothing supports a fixed six-to-twelve-month collab schedule.
Applying the six-month lag to a CN start in early September 2026 puts a Global run around March 2027, Expected. That figure stacks one inference on another, the CN start and the lag, so it is a planning number and not a date. The live counter-example is on the board already: Thunder in the Azure Dream ran on CN in June 2026 and has still not reached Global.
One adjacent date is confirmed. The Arknights PC version launches August 13, 2026 at 7 AM ET, published by Yostar, with Japan on the same day. Western players get a new client four months before the collab plausibly reaches them.
Three Things That Will Settle This
A Side Story brings its own stage set, story chapters and event shop on top of the standard loop.
Whether the CN start lands in the first week of September. The 10-day ticket chain and the September 18 voucher cutoff only fit together in a narrow band, and Hypergryph publishing the actual start date either confirms the community arithmetic or breaks it.
Whether any Persona 3 Reload character beyond Koromaru is playable. A free 1-star mascot is the pattern from 2023 and June 2026. A 6-star SEES member on a limited banner would be the Rainbow Six Siege pattern from 2021 and 2024 instead, and those two shapes carry very different costs.
Whether Thunder in the Azure Dream reaches Global before this event starts on CN. That is the cleanest test of whether the six-month lag still holds. If the June 2026 Monster Hunter event slips past December, the March 2027 estimate for this one slips with it.
FAQ
Is the Arknights x Persona 3 Reload collab on Global? No. It is a CN-server announcement, and there is no Global, JP, KR, TW or HK date as of August 1, 2026. Arknights collabs have reached Global about six months after CN since 2021, which points to roughly March 2027 as an expectation rather than a confirmed window.
Is Koromaru free or a gacha unit? Free. He is a gifted event operator, reported at 1 star, and he is not on a banner. The 1-star figure is single-sourced, so treat the rarity as likely rather than settled while the acquisition method itself is clear.
Is Koromaru the first 1-star collab operator in Arknights? No. Terra Research Commission, the Felyne trio, arrived free at 1 star in A Flurry to the Flame in 2023, and Rhodes Island Recon, based on Palico and Palamute, arrived free at 1 star on CN in June 2026. Koromaru is the third.
When does the collab start on CN? No start date has been announced. The community estimate of around September 5, 2026 is derived from the 10-day login chain fitting before the September 18 voucher expiry, and it is not official.
What expires on September 18, 2026? The collab gacha vouchers, at 03:59 CN server time. Reward mails expire earlier, at 23:59 on September 17. Neither stamp is the event's end date, which has not been published.
How many free pulls does the event give? Thirty. Ten headhunting tickets arrive one per day across a 10-day chain, and two ten-pull tickets come from a sign-in event.
Which Arknights is this, the original or Endfield? The original 2019 tower defence game by Hypergryph. Arknights: Endfield is a separate title with its own servers and banners, and it is not part of this collaboration.
Do Makoto Yuki and the rest of SEES appear? Not confirmed. Hypergryph has not revealed a cast beyond Koromaru, and the teaser has been described only as Dark Hour lighting, water and the MP3 player.
Where is the official trailer? On Bilibili. There is no official Hypergryph or Yostar YouTube upload of this PV, and the copies circulating on YouTube are fan reuploads.