Artifacts are the objectives the two sides fight over in the lower and middle layers of the Abyss. Holding one raises your side's Abyss Points gains and opens its Abyss Corridor. Ownership changes hands in a scheduled battle, which NCsoft's English announcements call the Artifact Siege, in which a Dimensional Core appears and contribution against it decides the rewards. Everything on this page describes the Korean and Taiwanese service unless it says otherwise.
The official guidebook describes the battle this way. A Dimensional Core reveals itself at the Artifact; the faction that lands the last hit on the Core is judged to have destroyed it and captures the Artifact, and keeps it until the next artifact battle. Players of the capturing faction are rewarded with Abyss Points by contribution, and an Abyss Corridor opens at the Artifact's location for that faction. Battles start one matching group after another, at times set for each group.
Number and Location
Three Artifacts stood in the lower layer at launch on November 19, 2025.
When the middle layer reopened for Season 2 on January 21, 2026, the total rose to six: three in each layer.
Chaotic Upper Reshanta, the zone added on July 1, 2026, has no Artifacts.
What Holding an Artifact Gives
Effect | Detail |
|---|---|
Abyss Point bonus | Each Artifact held raises Abyss Point gains, a bonus that applies across both layers. It was cut from 5% to 2.5% per Artifact on January 21, 2026. |
Each Artifact opens a corridor that only the side holding it can use | |
Teleport | Players can teleport to their side's Artifacts after the battle (since December 3, 2025), but not while in combat (since December 17, 2025) |
Schedule History
The battle has moved from a player-triggered event to a fixed timetable. Times are Korean time.
Date | Rule |
|---|---|
Launch | The battle started when an Artifact's resonance was triggered. The wait before it could restart was set to 24 hours on November 21, 2025 and to 48 hours on November 26, 2025, to reduce fatigue from large battles. |
February 11, 2026 | Resonance removed. The battle started every Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday at 9 PM in both layers. |
April 1, 2026 | Start times staggered by matching group, at 9:00, 9:05 and 9:10 PM |
April 22, 2026 | Moved to Wednesdays and Saturdays at 10 PM, with a 5 to 10 minute delay depending on the matching group, followed by an Abyss boss event at 10:30 PM |
September 30, 2026 | Still Wednesdays and Saturdays, now starting at 9:20, 9:50 or 10:20 PM depending on the matching group. The bosses that follow appear at 9:45, 10:15 or 10:45 PM. |
The October 7, 2026 Korean rematch notice, revised October 8, gives the following schedule for all 21 matching groups. Every time is Korean server time; Server Matching lists the paired servers.
Matching groups | Artifact battle (Wed/Sat) | Abyss bosses (Wed/Sat) | Nahma (Fri/Sun) |
|---|---|---|---|
1, 4, 7, 10, 13, 16, 19 | 21:20 | 21:45 | 22:00 |
2, 5, 8, 11, 14, 17, 20 | 21:50 | 22:15 | 22:30 |
3, 6, 9, 12, 15, 18, 21 | 22:20 | 22:45 | 23:00 |
Dimensional Cores
Each artifact battle spawns a Dimensional Core, and contribution against it decides who is rewarded. Its stats have been raised repeatedly so that fights last longer; the March 25, 2026 patch gave Abyss bosses and Cores a large defense increase for exactly that reason, and the May 27, 2026 patch raised Core HP by about one and a half times in both layers. From September 30, 2026 a Core that has not been destroyed within eight minutes of combat starting receives a debuff that lowers its damage resistance, to stop battles from dragging on.
PvP around a Core counts toward it. Since May 13, 2026 the players who damaged an enemy killed near a Core or boss gain contribution on that Core or boss, since May 20 damage and healing in PvP near them builds contribution in real time, and the June 17 and August 19 patches raised the contribution those actions earn.
Since October 7, 2026 the faction that fails to land the last hit on a Dimensional Core is also rewarded, so the losing side of an artifact battle no longer leaves empty-handed. The patch note does not give the amounts.
Losing-Side Buffs (Removed)
For a period the side that lost Artifacts was compensated. A buff per Artifact lost was added on December 24, 2025 and reworked on January 21, 2026: a side that lost all three Artifacts in a layer (0 to 3) received 35% PvP damage resistance and 20% PvP damage amplification in the next battle. Both losing-side buffs were removed on March 25, 2026, along with a stronghold corridor that had given the losing side its own Abyss Corridor entrance.
Bosses After the Battle
Since April 22, 2026 a boss event follows the artifact battle in both layers. The lower layer receives three bosses and the middle layer three more. Their rewards are materials that convert into Dimensional Merit Boxes, which can contain Potential Amplification Stones for Abyss gear. On July 1, 2026 the rewards for Abyss bosses and the artifact battle changed from one overall contribution ranking to rankings per class, so that more players are rewarded, and some merit medal amounts were raised again on September 16, 2026.
The event bosses are Executor Kaira, Executor Argo and Executor Tamasa in the lower layer and Executioner Dramos, Turncoat Ducal and Ravager Marakha in the middle layer. See Abyss Bosses.
Resets
Artifact ownership is reset at every server rematch, together with the Abyss Corridors. The patch notes have repeated the rule with each rematch since February 11, 2026, so control of the map never carries across a matching cycle. See Server Matching.
Related Pages
PvP and the Abyss
Abyss Corridor
Abyss Points
Server Matching