Basic introduction to the best artifact rolls

Choosing the Best Artifact Passives

Artifact passives play a huge role in boosting your Immortals’ effectiveness in Infinity Kingdom, especially as you move into Conquest seasons. In this guide, we’ll go over each category of artifact passives by Immortal role (Defense, Frontline Attack, Support, Mage, and Archer), explain which stats to aim for, and highlight which passives are best in the current meta.

This is a basic guide intended for newer players to give a quick overview of what you should look for on your artifact rolls and bonuses. There are many niche cases where a different stat or bonus is best, hence always think for yourself. This is a general guide that will give you an introduction to what the best rolls are.

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Defensive Artifact Passives: Guard vs. Growth

Best Stat: Physical Defense %

If you’re crafting a defensive artifact, your #1 goal should be to roll Physical Defense Percentage as your main stat. It’s universally considered the best defensive stat. Once that’s in place, the ideal passive comes down to two strong contenders:

• Growth: Increases HP %
• Guard: Reduces physical damage taken

Verdict:

Growth edges out Guard slightly, particularly in Conquest seasons and late-game, because it enhances survivability against all damage types. Guard is still great against physical-heavy teams but loses most value against magic teams.

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Attack Frontline Artifact Passives: Surge, Rapid, Iron Fist

Best Stat: Physical Attack %

This is the only Immortal role that gets three different passives:

• Surge: Increases energy regen
• Rapid: Increases attack speed (best for Alex and Hannibal)
• Iron Fist: Increases direct skill damage

Verdict:

Surge is the most universally powerful, especially for energy-hungry Immortals like Hippolyta or Attila. Rapid is excellent for burst-heavy normal attack setups (e.g., Alex/Hannibal), while Iron Fist works best for skill-based builds.

Surge (Green Artifact) is usually found on Hippolyta, while Rapid (Blue Artifact) is found on Alex and Hannibal.

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Support Artifact Passives: Surge vs. Shining Light

Best Stat: Dodge Rate %

Dodge Rate is king for supports. It offers better survivability against physical attackers, as mages can’t miss, but physical immortals like Alex and Poseidon can.

• Surge: Increases energy regen
• Shining Light: Boosts healing

Verdict:

Surge wins out here again. Increased energy regen means more heals and utility uptime. Shining Light has its place, but it becomes less reliable due to common anti-heal skills like Wounds.

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Mage Artifact Passives: Annihilation vs. Deadly

Best Stat: Crit Rate %

For mages, you want your skills to crit hard and often. That makes Crit Rate % the most desirable main stat.

• Annihilation: Boosts crit damage
• Deadly: Boosts raw magic damage

Verdict:

Annihilation + Crit Rate % is the ideal combo. It enables high-burst builds and scales better with meta mages like Empress Wu or Himiko. Deadly is acceptable for mages with low crit scaling like Merlin or Hammurabi but is generally less desirable.

Many players go through dozens of artifact rolls before getting the perfect Annihilation/Crit Rate combination—but once you do, the damage jump is worth it!

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Archer Artifact Passives: Annihilation vs. Iron Fist

Best Stat: Physical Attack %

• Annihilation: Boosts crit damage
• Iron Fist: Boosts direct skill damage

Verdict:

Iron Fist is the preferred option for most archer builds. Crit-based archer builds were once popular (e.g., Seondeok with Annihilation) but have largely fallen out of meta due to nerfs and unreliable crit scaling.

To make Annihilation work on archers now, you need:

• High crit rate from multiple sources (low talent, specialization, Time to Shine)
• A very specific build

That’s a lot of effort for limited return, so Iron Fist is a more reliable and flexible choice.

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Final Thoughts

Here are the top passives by role:

• Defense: Growth (Physical Defense %)
• Attack Frontline: Surge > Rapid > Iron Fist (Physical Attack %)
• Support: Surge (Dodge Rate %)
• Mage: Annihilation (Crit Rate %)
• Archer: Iron Fist (Physical Attack %)

In short, Surge and Annihilation are the most powerful and versatile passives, with Surge in particular being a game-changer for both support and frontline energy-based builds.

If you’re crafting or selecting artifacts, always aim for the best stat + ideal passive combo for your Immortal’s role. The right artifact can elevate your Immortal from average to top-tier.

Good luck and happy crafting!

Published: 14-04-2025