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[Review] Winners and Losers: Analysis of Patch 2.9.9 in Infinity Kingdom

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Article Publish : 09/05/2026 14:57

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💠Introduction

What’s up, folks? Welcome to this month’s edition of Winners and Losers for Patch 2.9.8. Patch 2.9.8 will be released on Thursday, August 6. The patch has a couple of new features, some new additions to existing events and shops, and optimizations. In this article, we’ll discuss the most important updates, who will benefit, and who will suffer.

💠Table of Contents

Horus
Psychic Vortex
Thorn Armor Buff
Optimizations
Summary

💠Horus

Horus is a new legendary Chaos Immortal positioned in the back row as a Magic Bowmen Immortal. His ultimate skill, Royal Sarcophagus, has both passive and active effects. The passive caps every individual instance of damage Horus receives at 5% of his Max HP at max level, effectively making him much tankier against high-damage attacks because no single damage tick can exceed that threshold. This makes Horus a direct counter to burst-focused Immortals such as Apollo, whose massive individual hits are heavily restricted by the damage cap. The active portion of Royal Sarcophagus deals 400% Magical Damage to all enemies and has a 60% chance to inflict Punishment for six seconds, increasing affected enemies' damage taken by 15%. Horus's Exclusive Artifact makes the debuff considerably more reliable by increasing Punishment's application chance to 100%, with Crit Rate and Magical Attack Bonus recommended as its primary attributes. Horus will be obtainable through the Pirate Festival event for 850 Eternal Grails per 80 shards and appears designed to combine unusually strong personal survivability with AoE damage and a valuable teamwide damage amplification debuff.

Winners:Players looking for another Chaos mage

Losers: Apollo

💠Psychic Vortex

Psychic Vortex appears designed specifically for Horus, as his Royal Sarcophagus passive prevents any single damage instance from exceeding 5% of his Max HP, giving him more opportunities to survive long enough to maximize the skill. Psychic Vortex increases Magical Damage whenever Horus loses 10% HP or casts his Ultimate, reaching 21% per stack at max level and stacking up to five times for a potential 105% Magical Damage increase. A potential build could combine Psychic Vortex with Infinite Firepower and Energy Mastery to accelerate Ultimate usage and build stacks faster, while Battle Stance could also pair well with the setup. Psychic Vortex will be obtainable from the Wish Shop during Legendary Season.

Winners: Horus

Losers: N/A

💠Thorn Armor Buff

Thorn Armor is receiving a notable buff after seeing limited use in the current meta. Its teamwide Physical Damage reduction remains unchanged at 6% + 2% per level, reaching 20% at max level, but its additional reflection when paired with Counterattack is increasing from 6% + 2% per level to 9% + 3% per level. At max level, this raises reflected damage from 20% to 30%, a 50% increase, while reflection continues to occur before damage reduction. Thorn Armor has primarily been a niche option against Physical-focused teams featuring Immortals such as Ares and Medusa, but its reflection was not strong enough to make the skill particularly appealing. The buff should also provide a small boost to Great Tengu, who has struggled to see much play over stronger defensive options like Anubis and Athena, by making Thorn Armor and Counterattack-based setups more viable.

Winners: Tengu

Losers: Physical Damage Carries like Ares, Medusa, and Alex

💠Optimizations

The update includes a number of smaller optimizations, but only a couple stand out as meaningful quality-of-life improvements. Affinity rewards can now be claimed in batches instead of individually, significantly reducing the amount of repetitive clicking required, while the new talent downgrade and single-tree reset features give players much more flexibility when adjusting their talent builds without having to completely start over. Stellar Compass rewards have also been improved to include Artifact Schematics from any element as well as Season Exclusive Artifact Schematic Fragment Selection Chests, providing players with more useful and flexible artifact progression rewards.

Winners: Everyone

Losers: N/A

💠Summary

Horus arrives as a durable Chaos mage and direct counter to burst Immortals like Apollo, with Psychic Vortex appearing designed to maximize his potential. Thorn Armor’s stronger reflection should improve Tengu and Counterattack builds against Physical carries. The remaining update focuses on useful quality-of-life improvements, particularly easier Affinity claiming and more flexible talent resets.

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