How to Unlock Yan He for Free in Sword x Staff: Ensemble Puzzle Tasks and Rewards

If you want to stock up on Luminium and Vouchers before the event window closes, the Sword x Staff top-up page delivers instantly, and you can compare rates across the Topuplist homepage before you buy.

What Is the Yan He Free Unlock?

During Sword x Staff's Kanstein Music Festival crossover with the Vocaloid lineup, two partners became available: Luo Tianyi (Signal Officer) and Yan He. The key difference players care about is cost. Luo Tianyi is pulled from the Harmony Wheel (Concerto Wheel) with a 60-pull pity, while Yan He is 100% free — she is handed to you through the Ensemble Puzzle (the "Sound-Picture Link" puzzle chain) as long as you complete the event's daily tasks during the run.

This guide focuses entirely on the free path. You do not need to spend a single Luminium or Voucher to walk away with Yan He and her limited headdress Visage. The only thing the unlock costs is daily attendance. For most players, that makes Yan He the single best value in the entire collab, because a permanent partner is a permanent account upgrade and the price is your time alone.

How the Ensemble Puzzle Works

The Ensemble Puzzle is an event-exclusive progress board made of several jigsaw panels. Each panel unlocks as you bank puzzle fragments, and fragments are earned by finishing the event's daily and milestone tasks. The headline reward — the complete Yan He companion plus her limited headdress — is gated behind the second panel, "Sound-Picture Link" (Voice-Picture Bond). Finish that panel and the game mails you the full partner with no payment prompt.

Three facts matter for planning:

• The puzzle only advances while the event is live. Missed days slow you down, but the panel can still be completed if you keep doing the daily tasks until the event ends.

• The fragments are task-gated, not luck-gated. Unlike the Harmony Wheel, there is no random draw. If you do the work, you get Yan He. That is why the community calls her the "free" Vocaloid of the collab.

• The fragments are also useful after the panel. Leftover fragments typically convert into event coins you can spend in the exchange shop, so over-performing on dailies is never wasted.

The Tasks That Feed the Puzzle

Yan He's puzzle is fed by three task families that run in parallel during the Music Festival. None of them require spending.

Daily Event Tasks

The event assigns a small set of daily objectives — usually logging in, entering the event hub, and playing the rhythm/minigame mode a set number of times. Each cleared objective drops puzzle fragments. These reset every day, so the most reliable strategy is to clear them the moment you log in. Treat the daily task list as the spine of your fragment income; skipping even two days can push your completion dangerously close to the event deadline.

Dungeon and Replica Clears

Some fragment sources are tied to clearing specific dungeons or replicas (the game's instanced fights). The event rotation typically asks for a handful of clears on featured stages. These also feed your normal progression, so they are not "wasted" effort — you are getting puzzle progress and campaign rewards at the same time. If a required stage is above your current combat power, prioritize leveling and gear before the event window narrows.

Goddess Prayer / Event Objective List

The Music Festival bundles its tasks under a single objective tracker that many players refer to loosely as the event's "prayer" list. Completing the full objective chain — daily tasks plus the cumulative milestones — is what fills the Ensemble Puzzle to the Sound-Picture Link panel. Treat the objective list as your checklist: if a line is unchecked, that is fragment progress you are leaving on the table. The milestone bar at the top of the event hub is the fastest way to see how close you are to the free claim.

Step-by-Step: Unlock Yan He Without Spending

Follow this order and you will hit the free claim well before the event expires:

1. Open the event hub from the main menu as soon as the Music Festival goes live. The Ensemble Puzzle board is pinned there.

1. Clear the daily tasks every single day. This is the backbone of fragment income. Even one missed day extends your path.

1. Run the required dungeon/replica clears when they appear in the objective list. Do them early so a late-event surge of tasks does not pile up.

1. Watch the milestone bar. The second panel, Sound-Picture Link, completes from cumulative fragment totals, not a separate currency.

1. Claim Yan He and the headdress the moment the panel finishes. The game sends them to your mailbox automatically — there is no purchase step.

Players who attended fully during the original run reported that the free fragment income comfortably covers the Sound-Picture Link panel with days to spare, so the unlock is realistic for any active account. The only accounts that miss it are the ones that stop logging in mid-event.

Yan He Rewards: What You Actually Get

The standout is the Yan He companion itself. As a Vocaloid-collab partner she slots into the active battle line and contributes the same passive stats any partner provides, making her a permanent account upgrade you earned for free. The headdress is the cosmetic cherry on top — a limited piece that will not return outside a future rerun. For collectors, the headdress alone justifies daily attendance; for power-focused players, the companion is the real prize.

Yan He in Combat: What She Brings

Because Yan He is a partner, she behaves like every other companion in the game's deployment system. You can run up to four partners at once, with your main slot granting 100% of a partner's stats, the three secondary slots granting 50% each, and every partner you own contributing 20% through resonance. Yan He's value as a free partner is that she lets you raise your total resonance and slot depth without spending a pull. She is not a damage carry on the level of a Mythic Fantomon, but as a free, event-exclusive companion she is pure upside for any account that completes the puzzle.

Yan He vs Luo Tianyi: Why the Free Path Matters

It is worth contrasting the two partners so you can plan your event budget:

• Luo Tianyi (Signal Officer) comes from the Harmony Wheel. The wheel hands out 52 tickets free from the Music Classroom minigame plus 10 more from the event shop, for a total of 62 tickets. Because the wheel's hard pity is 60 pulls, a free-to-play player who attends fully is guaranteed Luo Tianyi with 2 tickets left over. So Luo Tianyi is effectively free too — but only if you play the minigame and claim the shop tickets.

• Yan He skips the wheel entirely. She is the puzzle reward, with zero draw luck involved.

If your goal is "spend nothing and get a Vocaloid partner," Yan He is the safest target because her path has no pity math. If you also want Luo Tianyi, the free tickets make both achievable in one event without opening your wallet. The two unlocks are complementary, not competing: the daily tasks that feed Yan He's puzzle also keep you logged in for the Luo Tianyi minigame tickets.

Event Timeline and Rerun Cadence

The original Music Festival ran as part of the Kanstein Music Festival crossover, and it was re-run on July 16, 2026, when a new Visage (Mind Signal Officer) arrived while Luminous Concerto and Proverb both returned. Yan He's Ensemble Puzzle has appeared in these runs as the free companion track. Reruns of the Vocaloid line have historically returned on a roughly seasonal cadence, which matters for planning: if you miss the current run, a future rerun is plausible but not guaranteed. The safe assumption is that the current event is your best guaranteed window, so treat the daily tasks as mandatory until the panel completes.

Should You Top Up for the Event?

For Yan He specifically, no. The entire unlock is task-driven. The only reason to spend during the Music Festival is if you want extra Harmony Wheel pulls for Luo Tianyi's alternate Visage variants, or you are chasing the Mystery Box cosmetics covered in our Luminous Concerto guide. Yan He herself asks only for your time. When you do decide to top up — for the wheel, the Mystery Box, or general progression — keep it efficient. The Sword x Staff top-up page supports instant Luminium and Voucher delivery, and the Topuplist homepage lists the current bundles so you can pick the best value before you commit.

Common Mistakes That Delay the Unlock

• Skipping daily tasks. The fragment income is front-loaded on dailies; missing them is the number-one reason players miss the panel.

• Waiting until the last week. The objective milestones stack up. Start day one.

• Confusing the Harmony Wheel with the puzzle. Luo Tianyi is the wheel; Yan He is the puzzle. Do not sink pulls hoping Yan He drops from the wheel — she will not.

• Forgetting to claim from the mailbox. Completed panels mail the rewards; check your mailbox (the owl icon) after the panel finishes.

• Ignoring the milestone bar. The bar tells you exactly how many fragments remain; checking it daily prevents a nasty surprise near the deadline.

Yan He Team Synergy and Where She Fits

While Yan He is not a damage carry, her value as a free partner is positional. In the deployment system, she can occupy a secondary slot (50% stats) or sit in resonance (20% to all owned), and either way she raises your account's total passive stats at no cost. For players who already run Zeioletus or Armopi as their main pet, Yan He is pure bonus resonance depth. For newer players who have not yet banked a Mythic Fantomon, she is a meaningful early stat contributor that costs nothing but attendance.

The practical takeaway: do not compare Yan He to paid DPS pets. Compare her to the alternative of having an empty slot. An empty slot contributes nothing; Yan He contributes free stats and a collectible headdress. There is no downside to claiming her, which is rare for a partner of any rarity in a gacha-driven game.

Maximizing Your Free Fragment Income

To finish the Sound-Picture Link panel with the most buffer:

• Clear dailies the moment they reset. Fragment income is daily-gated; a missed day is a permanent loss for that run.

• Do the dungeon clears early. If the objective list asks for replica clears, knock them out in your first session so a late-event task surge does not collide with the deadline.

• Play the minigame anyway. Even though Yan He is puzzle-gated, the Music Classroom minigame also funds Luo Tianyi's wheel — doing it covers both unlocks.

• Track the milestone bar. Knowing your exact fragment remaining lets you decide whether a lighter final week is safe.

What If You Started Late?

If you join the event mid-run, you can still catch up by clearing every remaining daily and the outstanding milestone tasks. The panel completes on cumulative fragments, not a strict day count, so a late start is recoverable as long as enough event days remain. The only true failure case is logging in for the first time within a day or two of the deadline — at that point the daily-gated income cannot realistically fill the panel. If that is your situation, focus on the milestone tasks (which often hand out larger lump sums) and accept that the headdress may be the part you miss rather than the companion. The companion is the priority; the headdress is the bonus.

Yan He Cosmetic Value for Collectors

Beyond the companion, the Yan He headdress is the part collectors chase. Limited event cosmetics in Sword x Staff do not return outside reruns, and the Vocaloid line specifically has shown a roughly seasonal rerun cadence rather than a guaranteed annual return. That means the headdress you earn free during the current run may be the only free opportunity you get for a long time. For players who care about completing their Visage collection, the headdress alone justifies treating the daily tasks as mandatory. Paid players can sometimes acquire limited cosmetics through the Mystery Box or shop, but the free headdress path is the only zero-cost route, and it is gated behind the same puzzle that grants the companion.

The Bigger Picture: Why Free Unlocks Matter

Sword x Staff is a game where skill collection — not character collection — is the gacha hook. Partners and Fantomons are permanent stat layers, but the headline grind is the Prayer system at the Goddess Statue, where Stellatie buys skills. In that context, a free partner like Yan He is a small but real permanent layer that costs no premium currency. Over a long account lifespan, stacking these free layers (free partners, free event relics, free codes) is what separates efficient accounts from accounts that paid for the same power. The Yan He unlock is the cleanest example: show up daily, finish a puzzle, keep the reward forever.

FAQ

Is Yan He really free in Sword x Staff?

Yes. Yan He is unlocked through the Ensemble Puzzle (Sound-Picture Link panel) by completing event daily tasks and dungeon clears. There is no purchase step — the companion and headdress are mailed to you when the panel completes.

How many days do I need to play to get Yan He?

You need to complete the event's daily tasks consistently for the full run. Active players who clear dailies from day one finish the Sound-Picture Link panel with time to spare; the exact day count depends on that month's fragment totals.

Do I need to pull on the Harmony Wheel for Yan He?

No. Yan He comes only from the Ensemble Puzzle. The Harmony Wheel is for Luo Tianyi and the Mystery Box cosmetics, not Yan He.

What does Yan He do as a companion?

Yan He is a Vocaloid-collab partner who joins your active battle line and contributes passive stats like any other companion. She is a permanent, free account upgrade from the Music Festival, and she also raises your resonance depth.

Will Yan He return if I miss the event?

Reruns of the Vocaloid line have appeared on a seasonal cadence, but nothing is guaranteed. Treat the current run as your best confirmed window and finish the puzzle before it ends.

Where can I top up Luminium if I want Luo Tianyi's wheel pulls?

If you choose to chase Luo Tianyi's wheel or the Mystery Box, the Sword x Staff top-up page offers instant Luminium and Voucher delivery, with bundle options on the Topuplist homepage.