Revision 5

Cradle of Nihility is an Expedition dungeon in AION 2, called 무의 요람 in Korean. NCsoft's January 2026 roadmap scheduled it for January 28; it opened on the Korean and Taiwanese service on February 11, 2026 with Exploration, Conquest Normal and Conquest Hard available at once.

NCsoft describes it as a newly designed dungeon set in a mysterious environment. Its final boss is Afflicted Bakarma, who fell into a dimensional rift, was empowered by immense energy and is still consumed by rage and trapped in his altered form.

As of October 7, 2026, NCsoft's global notices have not listed which Expedition dungeons are open in the global build that launched on October 5, 2026; they say that all instanced content, including dungeons, is available cross-server. Everything on this page describes the Korean and Taiwanese service unless it says otherwise.

At a Glance

Entry Requirements

These item levels appear in the game data, in a release-day summary and in a June 2026 player-compiled table. Exploration has cost 40 Odyle Energy since April 8, 2026, when a one-time bonus for the first three Exploration clears was also added.

Rewards

The Conquest cube on release carried Unstable Stigma Shards, Philosopher's Stone: Revelation, painting remnants for a painting of the dungeon, wing feathers for its wings, a Void Silver Horn helmet skin and new Draconic crafting materials. Its bosses drop Shining Ode. The later reward changes match Dying Dramata's Nest: Philosopher's Stone: Revelation as a guaranteed reward (March 11, 2026), Fragment: Marchutan's Trace in the cube (March 25), Hard cube Kina raised from 600,000 to 810,000 (May 13), half of Normal Kina bound (July 1), all Kina bound (August 26) and Draconic materials bound only (September 9). Its Exploration version moved to 40 Odyle Energy with a three-clear bonus on April 8.

The dungeon has its own Gear Change Voucher. Since February 25, 2026 the Cradle of Nihility voucher can also be used as a material for Unique-grade Sync Stones, and on March 4 the chance of gear from the Exploration cube was set to half the Conquest rate; on April 8 the Unique-grade gear chance in Exploration was raised to the Conquest level.

Bosses

Players reach the first boss either by lifts or by an air route: a windstream device and a chain of floating platforms are faster than the lifts, and runners use them to reach the Kisk before the rest of the party. NCsoft raised the fall-death height in the boss areas on August 19, 2026. The first two boss names are the game client's English data; Afflicted Bakarma is NCsoft's own English name.

Boss Mechanics

Multiverse Veltiras

Veltiras's main mechanic creates eight dark orbs around the arena. Each player is marked three times and drops the mark on an orb to break it, so the group splits the orbs between them; anyone who fails should get far from the orbs before they explode. Before a damage wave a colour appears over each player's head and they must stand in the dome of the same colour. Tornadoes cross the room during the fight, and the last ring of a jump attack is fast enough that melee players jump as soon as she lands. On February 25, 2026 NCsoft fixed her Nebula Collapse orb blast being dodgeable with an emergency dodge and her Supernova Explosion hurting players inside the shields. See Multiverse Veltiras.

Solemn Valkan

Valkan's signature phase starts when he flies to the far end of the room and raises tombstones of red and blue around it. He marks a player with an eye, raises his shield in a red or blue barrier, announces whether red or blue writing will be carved on their tombstone, and charges the marked player. The marked player stands so that his charge hits a tombstone of the announced colour; tombstones left standing deal damage to the whole party. Write-ups agree that his first charge in this phase always aims at the same pillar. He also pulls players in with a guaranteed slow that cure potions remove. See Solemn Valkan.

Afflicted Bakarma

The final boss moves to the centre and opens safe zones that rotate in the direction his blades spin, four times in a row. He roots his top-threat player and surrounds them with a damage circle, which the rest of the party leaves and then re-enters, and later the safe area moves with a marked player. A line attack has to be shared by everyone standing in it. See Bakarma for his story and his other form in Draupnir.

Patch History

Related Pages

• Bakarma

• Multiverse Veltiras and Solemn Valkan

• Dying Dramata's Nest

• Expedition Dungeons

• Dungeons