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[Review] Winners and Losers: Analysis of Patch 2.9.6 Notes in Infinity Kingdom

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Article Publish : 05/31/2026 15:33

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💠Introduction

What’s up, folks? Welcome to this month’s edition of Winners and Losers for Patch 2.9.6. Patch 2.9.6 will be released on Thursday, June 4. The patch has a couple of optimizations, along with a couple of changes and new additions to help out the newest Chaos Immortal, Great Tengu. In this article, we’ll discuss the most important updates, who will benefit, and who will suffer.

💠Table of Contents

Thorn Armor
Battle of Asteria Optimizations
Great Tengu Buff
Summary

💠Thorn Armor

Thorn Armor is a new defensive skill that reduces Physical Damage taken by all allies by 6% plus 2% per level after battle begins. Its secondary effect activates when a target has a Counterattack effect, granting Damage Reflect Spikes that reflect 6% plus 2% per level of incoming damage back to the attacker before damage reduction is applied. The skill is likely restricted to Defense immortals, which could further encourage double-tank team compositions that are already becoming more common. Its value is heavily tied to Great Tengu, the newest Chaos immortal, since Tengu provides the Counterattack buff required to activate the reflection effect. Without Tengu, the skill is essentially just a teamwide physical damage reduction skill and is considerably less impressive. As a result, players who do not own or plan to use Tengu will likely get much less value from Thorn Armor and can probably skip it, while Tengu users may find it a strong addition to defensive team setups.

Winners: Great Tengu

Losers: Physical Damage Dealers

💠Battle of Asteria Optimizations

Battle of Asteria is receiving a progression overhaul designed to put all players on equal footing. After the update, every player's challenge progress will be reset to Difficulty 1, and players must once again clear stages sequentially until they are defeated. In future runs, previously cleared difficulties will be locked, meaning players who have already completed all levels can only challenge the highest difficulty available. Rewards will now be granted every five levels cleared for the first time at each difficulty, with additional rewards based on the highest difficulty reached when the event ends. Difficulty progress will also reset whenever a new server season begins, with challenge scaling adjusted to match the new season. Since Battle of Asteria is a returning event, many veteran players had retained progress from previous runs and started at much higher difficulties than newer players, so this reset should bring everyone back to the same starting point.

Winners: Everyone

Losers: N/A

💠Great Tengu Buff

Unbreakable Pact is receiving a meaningful buff that improves both its support utility and synergy with counterattack teams. Previously, the skill removed debuffs from allies and, if no debuffs were present, provided healing and granted front-row immortals a Counterattack effect for 6 seconds. The new version keeps those effects but now also grants 6 seconds of debuff immunity after cleansing, making it much harder for enemies to immediately reapply crowd control or other negative effects. This addition may make Fu Fei increasingly redundant, as players can now obtain powerful debuff protection through Tengu while opening a roster spot for Nine Tails, who can passively increase a backline carry's damage by 20%. With Tengu providing cleansing, debuff immunity, and Counterattack synergy, and Nine Tails offering additional debuff removal and damage amplification, these teams become both more resilient and more threatening offensively.

Winners: Great Tengu, Nine Tails

Losers: Fu Fei

💠Summary

Thorn Armor introduces a new Counterattack-focused defensive option that strongly benefits Great Tengu teams. Battle of Asteria is being reset to put all players on equal footing. Great Tengu also received a major buff, making Fu Fei less necessary and strengthening Nine Tails synergies.

What do you think about the upcoming patch? Let me know in the comments below!