/akg/ Merch Purchase Guide

Amiya

This Rentry aims to be an all-in-one guide on how to purchase official and unofficial (doujin) Arknights merch from Chinese sites. Keep in mind that while you can probably find some official merch in select stores, it's usually a lot cheaper in the long run to go through a proxy. CHOEARTH is the brand name for official Arknights merch.



Proxies

Highly Recommended

The author of this page has used Superbuy for over a year with little to no issue.


Official Shops

Notice

On 8/4/2025, Yostar opened up an online store for the US! But all orders have a flat $100 "tariff" fee. Sucks to be a gweilo. Depending on your situation, it might (might) be cheaper to ship from the non-US store to a friend's house and have them ship it to you rather than pay that fee.


Artist Shops

Sometimes artists sell through individual stores or in groups with other artists.


Shopping Centers

These are all sites where you can easily find doujin merch. Think Ebay or Mercari.



Hanzi Cheatsheet

Chinese English
明日方舟 Arknights
明日方舟通行认证 Arknights acrylic pass
明日方舟通行证保护壳 Arknights acrylic pass case
明日方舟手机壳 Arknights phone case
预售 Preorder
cos Cosplay
音律聯覚 Ambience Synesthesia
危机合约 Contingency Contract
黑胶唱片 Vinyl record
龙泡泡 (Sui) Beans
山山兎 Rabbit plushies

You can also go to the wiki or Aceship to find specific operator names.


Guides

I hope you like downloading a bunch of apps.

WeChat

This one's seemingly easy. Download WeChat from the App Store or Google Play Store and sign up using your phone number. According to one anon, you may require another WeChat user to verify your account. I did a bit of research and it seems like this varies from person to person, country to country. I'm from Higashi so this wasn't an issue when I made an account a while ago nor when I made another one just now for testing. If you need verfication and are desperate, poke around Reddit or Facebook groups and do not fucking pay someone to verify you. Apparently every person capable of verification has a limited amount they can do so don't get scammed. I am unable to help you with this as my account lacks the ability.

Weibo

Avoid frustration by downloading the Weibo app instead of trying to sign up using the site. Sign up using your phone number or WeChat login. From there, go to the Weibo site, click "登录/注册", and a popup will appear. Pull out your phone and tap the rightmost person icon on the Weibo app, then click the middle (scan) corner in the top right. Scan the QR code that appeared on the Weibo site and on your phone choose the top, orange option that'll show up to login.

Taobao

Same thing as Weibo, lots of downloading and scanning. Get Taobao (App Store, Google Play Store) and make an account. There are a few options, from top to bottom: Line, Google, Apple, Facebook, email and phone. I used Line. Head to Taobao's site on your PC and click the orange "亲,请登录" in the top left corner. Pull out your phone again and go to the Taobao app. Rather than your user page, you'll scan from the home searchbar. Leftmost icon on the dock, leftmost button in the search bar. Scan the QR code on your PC, keep clicking the orange buttons ("accept") that pop up and you're good to go.

Weidian

Same as everything else. Download Weidian (App Store) and tap the rightmost icon on the dock, then the giant red button on the top left. You can either login really quickly with WeChat/Weibo or use your phone number. If using your phone number, ignore the fact everything is in Chinese and scroll to find your country code. Accept the ToS by clicking the tiny button under the red one, throw your phone number in, do the captcha and then wait for a verification code. Voila. Alternatively, you can skip all that by going to the Weidian site and clicking "登录" to login. Use the verification code or QR code method if you made an account on the app.


Tips & Tricks

  • Double or triple check when buying secondhand merch, especially acrylic passes
    • Acrylic pass prices vary heavily depending on character popularity. Unpopular or low-rarity characters average around $3~$10 while highly sought after ones may go up to $50~$70. If a price looks too good to be true, it probably is
    • Acrylic passes release in batches. Early batch characters that haven't received reruns are very expensive (Castermiya, Rosmontis, etc.)
    • It's often cheaper to purchase individual passes of a character/characters you like rather than purchase a whole box set ($50)
  • CHOEARTH preorders tend to take ~3 months to ship, in-stock items take 1~2ish weeks
  • My advice with figures is to preorder anything you're on the fence about on Amiami and cancel later if you change your mind. Because Arknights is a massive IP in China, it's rare for figures to bin or decrease in value at all. Almost every figure releases on Amiami and/or Amazon JP, though some may be pricier when bought on sites other than Tmall/Taobao. For example, Myethos' Shu figure was $140 in CN and $180~$200 in JP/NA
  • If you see a specific set of doujin merch you want (on social media), you should reach out directly to the artist and ask what platform they're selling on. They'll often provide a direct link that can be plugged into a proxy
  • Some official Arknights artists release doujin merch which can be bought through CN sites and JP sites. There is generally not a considerable markup on the latter, so it might be easier to acquire them that way
  • Expensive merch may sometimes require a deposit if it's a preorder item. You'll make a one-time payment through your proxy like usual (your proxy may reach out to confirm) and wait until the actual product releases. Once it does, you pay the rest off and give your shopping agent the Taobao/Tmall order number. You cannot buy an item if it required a deposit and you hadn't paid for said deposit ahead of time. Your shopping agent will not remind you when the finalized product releases so you have to keep an eye out yourself
  • Superbuy has its own internal Taobao/Tmall browser so you technically don't need any additional accounts to buy things but it's not a 1:1 copy, meaning there will be "missing" items. I wouldn't rely on it. One advantage, however, is that it displays other Superbuy users' purchases if they've left a review, meaning you can preview something before purchasing
  • It's more expensive to buy official Ambience Synesthesia merch through GRYPHLINE than it is to get it imported from China
  • Keep in mind that the E0 character standees are not made proportionate to each other and there's a huge size discrepancy with most

Afterword

Lemuen

Contact

If you find any outdated or otherwise incorrect information, feel free to shoot an email to [email protected] or summon me ITT. If you need help identifying if something's counterfeit or not, you should also ask your fellow anons.

I wanted to make an interactive calendar that displays merch releases for easy access but I don't have the time to manage that yet.

Edit

Pub: 29 Jul 2025 05:42 UTC

Edit: 04 Aug 2025 03:44 UTC

Views: 323