CONTINGENCY CONTRACT PHASE 2: NEW CRITERIA

The wait for the second act is over. The in-game notice for Contingency Contract: Re-Ignition Experimental Operation dropped June 25, 2026 at 14:00 server time, and it confirms the day-8 expansion the launch announcement promised: Phase 2 goes live June 26, 2026 at 12:00 server time in Arknights: Endfield. The headline is five fresh Test Criteria that auto-unlock into the board, plus the continuing cycle-mission drip and a hard reward deadline that has not moved. If you treated launch week as a warm-up, this is the part where the ceiling rises. Here is everything the Phase 2 notice confirms, what the five new modifiers look like they do, and the one catch that will lock half the new content behind players who coasted.

Phase 2 of Re-Ignition arrives June 26 with five new auto-unlocked Test Criteria, keeping every Phase 1 mechanic intact.

Update (June 27, 2026): Phase 2 is now live, and the five Test Criteria have confirmed effects and risk values, pulled from the in-game data. Those numbers are folded into the sections below, replacing the launch-eve estimates. The bigger story: the new criteria add roughly +6 cheap risk points to an existing comp, which is what pushed the documented ceiling from Risk 47 to a full Risk 50 combustion clear, since extended to a Risk 52 clear on an electric Zhuang Fangyi comp (Zhuang Fangyi, Arclight, Perlica, Gilberta). See the Contingency Contract hub for the Risk 50 and Risk 52 strategies and clears.

TL;DR - Key Points

• Phase 2 lands June 26, 2026 at 12:00 server time (UTC+8 Asia, UTC-5 Americas/Europe). The notice was posted June 25 at 14:00.
• Five new Test Criteria auto-unlock (now live with confirmed values): Team: Encumbered (+1), Ambient: Time Limit III (+3), Edit: Flash Freeze (+2), and two Re-Construct ambient variants (+2 / +3).
• The locked-set catch is real – a newly added Criterion “cannot be selected” if its Criteria Set is still locked. Coasting through Phase 1 leaves the new content greyed out.
• Every Phase 1 mechanic carries over – Total Test Criteria scoring, the Sanctuary Rating, the engraved medal, and the Secret Sanctuary shop all stay exactly as they were.
• Cycle missions keep dripping – a new cycle mission every 3 days, seven in total, all open until the event ends.
• Reward deadline is unchanged – the Secret Sanctuary stays open until July 23, 2026 at 04:00, then all unused Vitrified Coins are wiped.
• Entry bar is still low – Authority Level 30 and the Chapter I Process II: Paving the Way main mission.

What Phase 2 Actually Changes

The cleanest way to read the June 25 notice is as a content top-up, not a rework. Phase 2 “maintains all existing mechanics from Phase 1.” The scoring model, the Locked and Key Criteria structure, the Sanctuary Rating profile flex, the engraved medal, and the Secret Sanctuary exchange are all untouched. If you already learned the mode during launch week, you do not need to relearn anything.

What you get instead is more board. The single concrete addition is five new Test Criteria that drop into the existing Criteria Sets and immediately auto-unlock, raising the difficulty ceiling and the score ceiling at the same time. For the full mechanical foundation (how Total Test Criteria is summed, what Key Criteria gate, and how the Sharing Code works), our Contingency Contract Test Criteria meta breakdown still covers the whole system. This post is about what is new on June 26 and how to slot it in.

If you missed the opening week entirely, start with the Re-Ignition launch-day strategy playbook first. It walks the first session, the Sanctuary Rating activation, and the reward priorities that Phase 2 leaves completely intact.

The Five New Test Criteria

Now that the criteria are live, here is what each one actually does and what it is worth in risk points (in-game names settle as Flash Freeze and Re-Construct, not the notice’s “Flashfreeze” and “RE-Construct”):

• Team: Encumbered (+1 risk) – natural SP recovery pauses whenever your controlled operator has not landed a Final Strike in the last 12 seconds.
• Ambient: Time Limit III (+3 risk) – cuts the wave timer by another 300 seconds, the tier-III step on top of Time Limit I and II.
• Edit: Flash Freeze (+2 risk) – when an enemy applies Cryo Infliction to your controlled operator, it converts straight to Solidification (freeze) instead of stacking the meter.
• Ambient: Re-Construct I (+2 risk) – final-wave Heavy Ram and Heavy Sting enemies are swapped for tougher Heavy Ram and Heavy Sting alpha variants.
• Ambient: Re-Construct II (+3 risk) – waves 3 and 4 Heavy Ram and Heavy Sting enemies become alpha variants, and it auto-clears Re-Construct I, so you only pick one.

Stacked together the five are worth up to +11 risk, but Re-Construct I and II share a group (the higher tier auto-clears the lower), so the most you can select at once is +9. The cheap trio of Re-Construct II (+3), Flash Freeze (+2), and Encumbered (+1) adds a clean +6, which is exactly the bump that carried an existing Risk 44 combustion comp to a Risk 50 clear. The documented ceiling has since climbed to Risk 52 on an electric Zhuang Fangyi comp.

Reading the New Modifiers Now That They Are Live

With the effects confirmed, here is how each one actually plays and which rosters it punishes.

Team: Encumbered is cheap (+1) but it specifically taxes pure-kite play. Because SP recovery pauses whenever your controlled operator goes 12 seconds without a Final Strike, you cannot just run circles and let the AI fight: you have to weave basic attacks in to keep landing Final Strikes, or your SP economy dries up. A bruiser or carry that is constantly hitting barely notices it; a player parking Estella and dodging full-time feels it immediately.

Ambient: Time Limit III is the one to respect (+3). The mode already fails you when the wave timer expires, and a third 300-second cut squeezes the failure condition most players already lose to. This is a clear-speed tax, not a survival tax. Reaction and damage-over-time comps that win through sustained pressure feel it harder than a burst team that deletes waves on cooldown, and it pairs brutally with the No Dodge nodes.

Edit: Flash Freeze (+2) is the sharp counter to the season’s most popular crutch. Estella’s talent ignores cryo infliction, but Flash Freeze converts that incoming cryo straight into Solidification, a freeze her talent does not stop. So the kite-and-ignore-cryo plan suddenly needs a real answer again: bank at least 1 SP to dispel Solidification on demand, or bring enough Heat and Combustion to melt through it.

Ambient: Re-Construct I (+2) and II (+3) swap the late-wave Heavy Ram and Heavy Sting enemies for tougher alpha variants, I in the final wave and II across waves 3 and 4. They are mostly a damage and survival check on the back half of the run rather than a revive mechanic, and II auto-clears I, so you only ever select one of the pair. Take II for the higher score if your back-wave damage can handle the sturdier enemies.

The standing rule from launch week still applies to all five: your Total Test Criteria is the sum of what you pick, but it is not the true measure of difficulty. Stack the new modifiers your specific roster barely notices and skip the ones that bite your carry. Two loadouts with the same number can play worlds apart.

The Locked-Set Catch That Bites Coasters

Here is the line in the Phase 2 notice that decides whether you can even touch the new content: “If a Criteria Set is still locked, its newly added Test Criteria cannot be selected.”

In plain terms, the five new modifiers auto-unlock into their Criteria Sets, but you can only select them if you have already unlocked the Set that holds them. Criteria Sets unlock as you clear at higher Total Test Criteria during the run. So the new content is gated behind the climbing you were supposed to do in Phase 1.

This is exactly the trap the launch playbook flagged. Players who cleared at minimum difficulty all week to farm Vitrified Coins did not unlock the higher Criteria Sets, which means Phase 2’s headline additions stay greyed out for them. If that is you, the fix is straightforward but not instant: push your Total Test Criteria up far enough to unlock the relevant Sets, then the new modifiers become selectable.

The takeaway: if you want the Phase 2 modifiers on day one, do your Set-unlock homework before June 26. If you are reading this after launch, prioritize a few high-Total clears over more low-risk coin runs.

Everything That Stays the Same

Phase 2 is additive, so the systems you already know are unchanged. Worth restating because the value structure has not moved:

• Sanctuary Rating – still activates on any clear with Total Test Criteria of at least 1, still shows on your Friends screen, still active only for the event. Push it higher with the new modifiers if you care about the seasonal flex.
• Engraved medal – still a permanent collection piece tied to specified conditions. The new high-difficulty Criteria are plausible medal-condition fodder, so the climb serves double duty.
• Total Test Criteria scoring – same sum-of-modifiers math, same “not the sole measure of difficulty” caveat.
• Secret Sanctuary shop – same Oroberyls, Advanced Progression Selection Crate I, and Contingency Contract sticker, same Vitrified Coins currency.

If you need a refresher on which comps thrive under this season’s modifier mix, our Contingency Contract reaction and DoT team breakdown explains why reaction and damage-over-time rosters beat skill-carry teams when the board gets punishing, and the Contingency Contract team comps and sharing codes hub collects community clears by risk bracket.

Cycle Missions and the Drip Cadence

The reward grind keeps its Phase 1 rhythm. A new cycle mission is added every 3 days, with the daily reset at 04:00 server time, and there are seven cycle missions in total across the event. All of them remain available until the event ends, so nothing you skip is permanently lost mid-event.

That cadence is a double-edged design. It rewards steady logins and punishes binge players: if you ignore the mode until the final weekend, you will face a pile of cycle missions and their objectives all at once. The Vitrified Coins these missions pay are your real reward stream, far more than any leaderboard number, so the practical move is to clear cycle missions as they unlock rather than hoarding them.

• Seven cycle missions, one new one every 3 days.
• Daily and cycle resets at 04:00 server time.
• All cycle missions close when the event ends – no carryover into the Sanctuary window.
• Coins drip across the whole event, so big shop totals are meant to be reached gradually, not on day one.

The Reward Deadline Has Not Moved

The most important date in the whole event is still the shop closure. The Secret Sanctuary remains open until July 23, 2026 at 04:00 server time, deliberately outlasting the combat event so you have buffer time to spend down. When it closes, all unused Vitrified Coins are cleared. There is no carryover and no second chance.

Spend in priority order, the same as Phase 1:

1. Oroberyls – premium currency, roster-agnostic, the highest-value pull. Clear it first.
2. Advanced Progression Selection Crate I – targeted operator progression materials, second priority.
3. Sticker: Contingency Contract – a cosmetic flex; grab it once the materials are banked.

The combat challenges and cycle missions close when the event itself ends, but the shop’s longer tail means you can keep grinding coins right up to the event’s close and still have time to convert them. Just do not let the July 23 wall catch you holding a balance.

Phase 2 Strategy by Player Type

Re-Ignition’s low entry bar means Phase 2 hits different players differently. Here is where to spend your June 26 session based on where you sit. For the horizontal roster-readiness checklist that makes any modifier combination survivable, our endgame Contingency Contract prep guide covers the investment that pays off across every Criteria Set.

Returning Casual (cleared a few times in Phase 1)

• Check whether your Sets are unlocked first. If the new Criteria are greyed out, that is the locked-set catch. Push a couple of higher-Total clears to open them.
• Keep clearing cycle missions. The coins are your reward, and seven missions are still dripping in.
• Do not chase the new modifiers for their own sake. Add only the ones your team barely feels.

Mid-Game Player (established roster, some flex)

• Test the five new modifiers against your kit immediately. Flash Freeze punishes the Estella cryo-immunity crutch, the Re-Construct pair toughens the back-wave enemies, and Time Limit III punishes slow clears.
• Race the timer, not the HP bars. With Time Limit III in the pool, most new losses will be timeouts. Prioritize clear speed.
• Bank coins toward Oroberyls and the progression crate before cosmetics.

Endgame / Veteran (deep, flexible roster)

• Map the new Criteria to your highest-scoring loadouts. The five additions raise the score ceiling; chart which ones are near-free for your roster and stack them for the Sanctuary Rating push.
• Take Re-Construct II for the score once your back-wave damage holds. It toughens the Heavy Ram and Heavy Sting enemies across waves 3 and 4 and auto-clears Re-Construct I, so it is +3 risk for clearing both.
• Push the Sanctuary Rating while it is live. It vanishes at event end, so the displayed number only matters during the run.

Common Mistakes to Avoid in Phase 2

The Phase 2 additions create a few new ways to trip, on top of the launch-week errors that still apply.

• Assuming the new Criteria are handed to everyone. They auto-unlock into their Sets, but a locked Set keeps them unselectable. Climb to unlock.
• Eating Time Limit III on a slow comp. A tier-III timer cut is a clear-speed tax. If your team grinds waves down slowly, this is the modifier that ends runs.
• Kiting full-time under Encumbered. SP recovery pauses if your controlled operator goes 12 seconds without a Final Strike, so pure dodging starves your SP. Weave basic attacks in to keep landing Final Strikes.
• Ignoring the cycle-mission drip. Seven missions stack across the event and all close at the end. Clear them as they arrive.
• Letting Vitrified Coins expire. July 23 at 04:00 wipes the balance. Spend on Oroberyls and the crate well before then.
• Stacking modifiers for the number. Total Test Criteria is not the true difficulty. A team-hostile low score is harder than a team-friendly high one.

What to Watch After June 26

With the modifiers live, the big unknowns from launch eve are now settled: the effects and risk values are confirmed (listed above), and Re-Construct turned out to be tougher alpha enemy variants rather than a revive mechanic. A few things are still moving.

• How high the ceiling actually goes. A Risk 52 clear is now documented, reached exactly as players predicted: by dropping the Estella and Fluorite combustion package for an Arclight and Perlica electric core (Zhuang Fangyi, Arclight, Perlica, Gilberta). The Risk 50 combustion clear sits just below it, and players are now probing how much further the electric comp can push.
• Which Criteria Sets each new modifier belongs to. This still determines exactly how high you must climb to select them, the locked-set catch below.
• Any engraved-medal condition tied to the new content. High-difficulty Criteria are natural medal gates; watch for confirmation.
• Whether later version updates touch the mode. Phase 2 lands alongside the broader patch cadence, so watch for any mid-event adjustments.

For the design theory behind why CC demands this kind of flexible, horizontal roster in the first place, our Contingency Contract deep-dive analysis connects the dots between the modifier system and the breadth-over-depth investment it rewards.

Final Read

Phase 2 of Re-Ignition is a clean expansion, not a reinvention. The five new Test Criteria (Team: Encumbered, Ambient: Time Limit III, Edit: Flash Freeze, and the two Re-Construct variants) raise the ceiling on June 26 (a documented Risk 52 clear now sits at the top) while every Phase 1 system stays exactly as you left it. The one thing that separates players who get the new content on day one from those who do not is the locked-set catch: the new modifiers only become selectable once you have unlocked their Criteria Sets by clearing at higher Totals.

So the plan is simple. If you climbed during launch week, the new modifiers are waiting for you; read each against your roster and stack the ones you barely feel. If you coasted for coins, do a few high-Total clears to open the Sets first. Either way, keep clearing the cycle missions as they drip, push your Sanctuary Rating while it is live, and spend every Vitrified Coin on Oroberyls and the progression crate before the Secret Sanctuary closes July 23 at 04:00. The board just got bigger; go meet it.

Frequently Asked Questions

When does Contingency Contract Re-Ignition Phase 2 start? Phase 2 goes live June 26, 2026 at 12:00 server time (UTC+8 Asia, UTC-5 Americas/Europe). The in-game notice was posted June 25, 2026 at 14:00 server time.

What are the five new Test Criteria? Team: Encumbered (+1, pauses SP recovery if you go 12 seconds without a Final Strike), Ambient: Time Limit III (+3, cuts the timer by another 300 seconds), Edit: Flash Freeze (+2, converts incoming Cryo Infliction on your controlled operator into Solidification), Ambient: Re-Construct I (+2, final-wave Heavy Ram and Heavy Sting become tougher alpha variants), and Ambient: Re-Construct II (+3, the same swap across waves 3 and 4, and it auto-clears Re-Construct I). Together they add up to +9 selectable risk, and the cheap Re-Construct II plus Flash Freeze plus Encumbered stack (+6) is what lifts an existing Risk 44 comp to a Risk 50 clear.

Why can’t I select the new Test Criteria? The notice states that a newly added Criterion cannot be selected if its Criteria Set is still locked. The five modifiers auto-unlock into their Sets, but you can only pick them once you have unlocked the Set by clearing at a high enough Total Test Criteria. If they are greyed out, climb to unlock the Set.

Does Phase 2 change any existing mechanics? No. Phase 2 maintains all existing mechanics from Phase 1. The Total Test Criteria scoring, Sanctuary Rating, engraved medal, and Secret Sanctuary shop are all unchanged. It only adds the five new Criteria.

What do I need to access the event? Authority Level 30 and completion of the main mission Chapter I Process II: Paving the Way. Both are early-account milestones, so the entry bar stays low through Phase 2.

How many cycle missions are there? Seven in total, with one new cycle mission added every 3 days and resets at 04:00 server time. All cycle missions remain available until the event ends, then close.

When is the reward deadline? The Secret Sanctuary stays open until July 23, 2026 at 04:00 server time, after the combat event ends. When it closes, all unused Vitrified Coins are cleared with no carryover.

What should I spend Vitrified Coins on first? Oroberyls first (premium currency, highest value), then the Advanced Progression Selection Crate I for operator materials, then the Contingency Contract sticker cosmetic. Spend down to zero before July 23.

Does a higher Total Test Criteria always mean a harder fight? No. Total Test Criteria is the sum of your selected modifiers but is not the sole measure of difficulty. A loadout that targets your team’s weaknesses can be harder than a higher-scoring one your roster ignores, so pick the new modifiers your team barely notices.

Do I have to redo anything from Phase 1? No. Your Phase 1 progress, Set unlocks, Sanctuary Rating, and banked coins all carry over. Phase 2 simply adds more board on top of where you already are.