Minion Rumble

Hello, Summoners!

This is PD Leo!

Today, I’d like to start by sharing the patch details for the 1.8.6 update in advance.

◆ 1.8.6 Update 

* Co-op Raid Time Updates

The dev team has analyzed player activity data and gathered your feedback to adjust the available times for Co-op Raids. Our goal is to make sure as many players as possible can enjoy the content at more convenient hours.

The new schedule is as follows:

Please refer to the major global time zones.

Additionally, each Co-op Raid session has been extended to 2 hours.

We’ve done our best to reflect your feedback, but we understand that the new times may still not be ideal for everyone. Please know we’ve tried to balance as many requests as possible, and we ask for your understanding. If concerns about the schedule continue, we’ll revisit and consider further changes in the update after 1.8.6.

* Chapter & Tower of Infinity Expansion 

The dev team has been steadily upgrading content and systems in line with the pace at which players progress through the game. Features such as Mythical Gear and Champion Resonance will also continue to be updated based on how quickly you consume content.

As part of the 1.8.6, Chapter battles will be expanded up to Chapter 220, and the Tower of Infinity will be extended to Floor 250.

Balancing is always a challenge, as players’ control skills and strategies constantly exceed our expectations. Taking into account your incredible capabilities, we’ve tuned the difficulty to provide a proper sense of challenge. We hope you’ll enjoy testing your limits and take on these new stages!

* Guide Mission System

Sadly, many players leave the game without a word (as they say, no feedback is the scariest kind…). Still, thanks to the Relic Cards and other features we patched in 1.8, more players have been sticking around, and our community is slowly growing. We’re truly grateful for your support. To keep this momentum going, we’re introducing the Guide Mission System, our second initiative aimed at helping new players settle in. The goal is to encourage essential growth habits and content play.

As the translation is in progress, we kindly ask for your understanding that the image has been temporarily replaced with the Korean version.

Guide Missions will include objectives such as summoning, leveling up, and participating in specific content. This system will show you what to focus on at each stage, ensuring you don’t miss out on important growth opportunities or content. We hope this will help more players reach a solid level of progression and enjoy the game even more.

Since Guide Missions are primarily designed for early-game guidance, we’ve also made sure that experienced players—those who have already leveled up significantly or fully nurtured their Yggdrasil—will be able to complete them right away without hassle.

◆ Feedback Roundup

* Balance: Zanmang Loopy vs. Kain

There’s an ongoing debate around S-tier and LE-tier. We’d like to clarify our stance once more.

Kain (S-tier Summoner) is designed to be relatively affordable over long-term play—we recognize the concern that this point may have been overlooked. We also acknowledge the feedback that, within a limited timeframe, raising Zanmang Loopy to 6-star can be more challenging.

Once again, we are not declaring a simple hierarchy between tiers, nor treating any tier as obsolete. We will continue to evaluate overall balance and acquisition difficulty holistically and do our best not to let you down.

* Minion Balance

Since 1.8, we’ve received a wide range of feedback—some saying Minions feel too strong, others saying Minions still feel weak. Before our global launch, many players felt Minions were too powerful while Champions were underwhelming. That’s why we had been focusing on a series of Champion-related patches. As a result, Minions ended up feeling weaker by comparison, which led us to implement the Minion patch in 1.8.

Even after this update, some of you may still feel Minions are weak, while others may feel they’re too strong.

The key point is this: the performance of Minions and Champion builds can vary greatly depending on your play environment and setup.

[Minion Tree Tips]

- Minion Collection boosts Minion performance far more than you might expect. We strongly recommend enhancing your Minions through the Minion Collection system.

- In Solo Raids, using Minions effectively against certain bosses can yield very high damage.

- Performance varies depending on map type:

ㄴ Against giant monsters or in vertical maps → relatively weaker

ㄴ In large maps or wave-based maps → relatively stronger

- Gear combinations and setups also have a huge impact.

ㄴ For example, we’ve mentioned the Lord’s Gear Set before. Using the right Gear in the right situation can make your Minion Tree incredibly powerful.

[Minion Tree Limitations]

- Since the Minion Tree relies on having larger numbers to scale its performance, it has some limits on applying diverse effects.

- In high-difficulty chapters that demand complex setups or precise combinations, the Minion Tree may perform worse than the Champion Tree.

In short, both the Minion Tree and Champion Tree perform differently depending on the situation and your setup, so it’s important to choose based on your environment and goals.

* Stats Formula

We understand the curiosity many of you have about how different stats are applied. Listing out every stat in detail would be overly complex and hard to digest, so here’s a simplified explanation:

{(ATK Value × ATK%) + Final ATK} × Skill Multiplier × (Enemy’ Damage Taken Increase + Damage Dealt Increase) × Double Damage effects × Amplify Damage effects

- When a Critical Hit occurs:

Original Damage × (200% + CRIT DMG)

- When being hit (from the opponent’s perspective):

Original Damage Taken × Damage Reduction × Damage Reduction

ATK values are all added together and ATK% values are also added together, then multiplied.

Effects labeled as Damage Increase are added together, then multiplied.

Double Damage effects are multiplied.

Amplify Damage effects are multiplied.

Damage Reduction effects are generally multiplicative, not additive.

Example (Summoner):

If your Summoner has ATK%, chance for Double Damage, and Damage to Bosses, these will multiply together—so collecting all related passive cards can yield enormous damage. On the flip side, if you only focus on stacking ATK%, the effect becomes less efficient over time, since ATK% values are additive.

This is a first-step explanation of the overall mechanics rather than a full breakdown. If you’d like to dive deeper into any part of the formula, please let us know in the comments—we’ll do our best to explain further.

* Miscs.

We’ve received a wide variety of feedback, and here are our answers to some of the most common points raised:

Q. Clearing [Tower of Infinity – Own multiple Greater Minions] has become too difficult after removing the Minion survival timer. Please consider adjusting the difficulty.

A. I’ve tried it myself a few times... and yes, it’s tough. However, this isn’t just a Tower of Infinity issue. If 100 Minions stay alive without dying, there’s no way for Greater Minions to spawn. That’s a broader system issue, not specific to the Tower. To resolve this, once you’ve acquired the Greater Minion Card, when additional Minions are generated, existing Basic Minions will be replaced with Greater Minions. This change is scheduled for the 1.9 update.

Q. Please consider balance adjustments beyond just Powermin’s Abilities and Set Effects. 

A. It’s intentional that 2-star or 3-star Powermin Set Effects are among the most efficient setups. We designed the Powermin Set Effect so that players can make solid choices without overcomplicating things. That said, after reaching 2-star Powermin (4-set), what you choose for the remaining two slots can vary by situation. That’s why we built the flexibility to reroll between Set Effects at will. If we were to make every Set Effect universally apply to all allies, it could create side effects and also reduce the fun of strategic choices. That’s why we recommend building Set Effects suited to each situation. Of course, if you have specific suggestions on how you’d like to see these systems revised, please share them in the comments.

That’s all for today. I’ll be back in the next Developer Note with even more useful updates to share.

Thank you!