Dungeons

AION 2 carries more than two hundred dungeons across the full progression curve, a figure NCsoft uses for the global launch build as well as the live one. Dungeons span solo challenges, five-player party content and ten-player group content, and the design supports a wide range of difficulty: lower-tier content includes an Easy Mode with boss tutorials, while higher-tier content uses staged difficulty that scales beyond the standard format. Party sizes were four and eight before the Chapter 1 update raised them.

Three of the tiers now have their own pages: Expedition Dungeons for the five-player tier, Sanctuary Raids for the ten-player tier, and Transcendence System for the staged tier. Odyle Energy covers what it costs to run them.

Global first-clear guides

Follow Global Progression Walkthrough for entry gates and equipment order. The current Global playbooks on Deus Research Base, Shattered Arkanis, Vakron Sky Island and Ferocious Horn Den pair visible boss cues with responses, failure consequences and party responsibilities.

Dungeon Directory

Every instanced dungeon on the Korean and Taiwanese service in the Expedition, Transcendence and Sanctuary tiers, plus the solo and daily modes, as of October 7, 2026; the three daily dungeons are covered together on one page, and Crobahki's Secret Depository also has its own. Sealed Dungeons are covered under Strongholds and Sealed Dungeons. Party sizes are the current ones: Expedition and Transcendence parties were four players and Sanctuary forces eight until the Chapter 1. Lands of Sand and Snow update on July 1, 2026.

The star ratings are the reward tiers NCsoft used in its December 2025 drop-rate tables; NCsoft's May 2026 announcement calls the next two steps Tier 4 and Tier 5. Daily dungeons are entered from the Unknown Fissure menu described under Daily Dungeons.

Boss names follow NCsoft's English announcements where they exist and the game client's English data otherwise.

Dungeon Formats

Difficulty Tiers

• Easy Mode: Boss-fight tutorials and reduced mechanics for players new to a given dungeon. Lets you learn the room layout and the broad shape of a fight before stepping into normal difficulty.

• Normal: The standard tier; the assumed format for most progression.

• Hard / Higher: Increased mechanics density and tighter execution windows; gear and rotation matter more.

Expedition Dungeons

Expedition dungeons are the five-player tier. Season 2 added Dying Dramata's Nest and Cradle of Nihility. Season 3 added Hall of Illusion on April 8, 2026, an Expedition with Exploration and Conquest Normal and Hard that requires item level 3,000 and pays out Fragment: Yustiel's Trace for the Daevanion Yustiel, and Azure Breath Island on April 22. See Expedition Dungeons for the full roster.

Transcendence Dungeons

Transcendence dungeons are the staged five-player tier of the Transcendence System. Each is run at a chosen stage with its own item level gate, and clears feed the Arcana system and the Transcendence ranking. Sunken Temple of Life, the first Transcendence dungeon of Season 2, opened on February 25, 2026.

On April 22, 2026 the debuff that reduced life steal inside Transcendence and Sanctuary dungeons was removed, as part of the Season 3 change to HP Absorption described under Combat and Skill Chains.

Season 3 Dungeons

Season 3 added new dungeons in addition to the systemic reworks above. Both feed into the Daevanian Yustiel progression path described under Daeva System and Daevanion Board.

Azure Breath Island asks for item level 3,000 on Exploration and Conquest Normal and 3,500 on Hard. Its own page covers the bosses and rewards.

Ongoing Live-Build Additions

The KR and TW build continues to add dungeons through seasonal patches. These come in three broad shapes, and the specifics below are provisional live-build figures rather than confirmed global content:

• New Transcendence dungeons. Mirror of Scarlet Desire (May 13, 2026) opened with four stages from item level 3,200 and three new Arcana sets.

• Daily mini-dungeons. Crobahki's Secret Depository (May 13, 2026), one of the Daily Dungeons, gives the player up to 40 seconds to avoid bombs and collect coins for Kina.

• Sanctuary instances. Chalice of Muspel (May 27, 2026) introduced the Brooch equipment slot.

Specific entry item-levels, drop tables, reward caps, set names, and launch dates for upcoming instances are tuned on the live build and frequently shift between the dev-stream preview and the patch that ships. Treat any single figure circulating ahead of the live patch as provisional until it lands, and defer to the in-game UI once it does.

Chalice of Muspel Sanctuary

The Chalice of Muspel was introduced on May 27, 2026 as the top-tier Sanctuary instance on the KR and TW build and was billed as the most challenging group PvE content at that time. Snowfield of Sorrow, added on September 9, 2026, was subsequently described as the highest-difficulty PvE content. The setting is an ancient temple submerged beneath lava deep inside the Muspel volcano, resurfaced after intense seismic activity. English coverage has also rendered the name as Grail of Muspel; this page uses the official global wording. Entry requires a minimum item level of 4,500, and players may attempt it an unlimited number of times within the run's time limit. As with every late-game instance, the figures below describe the Korean and Taiwanese announcement and rules; they do not establish global availability.

The Kaldrix Brooch ties into the new Brooch accessory slot. The Sanctuary patch also added the craft-only Genesis and Nemesis Dragon Lord weapons and guards, produced through Succession Crafting with six base Soul Inscription options, plus the Philosopher's Stone: Power material that enables Soul Binding on the new gear. The same patch raised the six core stat caps to 250 and lifted the maximum Attack Boost and Defense Boost to 130 percent.

A June 10 live-build patch split the Chalice of Muspel into two difficulties. The original version became the Hard tier, and a new Normal tier was added below it for groups that are not yet geared for the full fight. The Normal tier does not drop weapons or direct gear pieces, so the Hard tier remains the only source of the Lava Heart weapon and the Kaldrix Brooch. The same patch added a mid-run retry option so a wipe inside the instance no longer forces a full reset of the attempt. As with the other figures here, these are Korean and Taiwanese rules rather than a confirmation that the dungeon is available globally.

Chapter 1 Dungeons

The Chapter 1. Lands of Sand and Snow update raised the level cap to 50 and added a new tier of level-50 endgame dungeons. Party size for Expedition and Transcendence content expanded to five players and Sanctuary content to ten. Consumable entry tickets were removed entirely; those instances now pay out through Odyle Energy instead. Players can also ride pets inside dungeons from this update onwards. The English names below are NCsoft's own, published on July 6, 2026, replacing the several provisional renderings that circulated in earlier coverage of the Korean build.

Citadel of the Fallen Daeva (Hard)

Community clear reports for the Hard version describe a three-boss layout. The first boss periodically summons swords into the arena that must be cleansed off the floor before they overwhelm the group. The second boss marks every party member with a circle that drops a high-damage poison pool after a short delay, then follows with a wide slice attack, so groups stack to drop the pools in one spot, dodge out, and spread for the slice. The final boss works off color auras: players carry a color, mechanics resolve by matching or avoiding zones of that color, and a golden-circle mechanic wipes groups that mishandle it. Reports also note the legendary drop chance here is markedly lower than in earlier dungeons. The game client's English data names the three bosses Willful Turgen, Forbidden Hexbeast Griosa and Basilus the False; the mechanics summary is community-sourced.

August 2026 Additions

The August 12, 2026 patch added Consumed Deus Research Base, a level 50 Expedition that NCsoft had announced under that English name in June 2026 (Korean 잠식된 데우스 연구기지). It opens in an Exploration variant and a Conquest variant with Normal and Hard difficulties:

A companion four-stage Transcendence dungeon, Noiran's Hidden Legacy, arrived in the same patch; its stage gates and new Arcana rewards are covered on the Transcendence System page. The patch also raised the contribution required to earn Odyle Energy cubes in Expeditions and Transcendence dungeons from 1% to 5%, and the note flags that the threshold may be adjusted again.

The August 26, 2026 patch converted the Kina paid out by six instances into bound Kina that cannot be traded or moved between characters: the Hard Conquest runs of Fire Temple and Ferocious Horn Den, the Normal and Hard Conquest runs of Dying Dramata's Nest and Cradle of Nihility, the Transcendence dungeon Sunken Temple of Life and the Sanctuary Abyssal Forge: Ludra. NCsoft announced the split into regular and bound Kina in March 2026 to keep the in-game economy stable; clear rewards are otherwise untouched.

Joining, Leaving and Retrying

Group dungeons on the Korean and Taiwanese service let players join a run that is already in progress, and since August 19, 2026 an exception lets a player who joins while the final boss is in combat leave the dungeon, provided they are outside the final boss area and have no contribution to the fight. The rules NCsoft has published:

• Disconnects: a player who drops out of an Expedition, Transcendence or Sanctuary run unexpectedly has 10 minutes (one minute until January 28, 2026) to reconnect and rejoin the party's room without using up an entry.

• Retry: since January 21, 2026 the party leader can offer a retry after a clear. Members have 60 seconds to accept; those who accept are moved to a new room together, and anyone who declines stays behind. Since March 11, 2026, if a full party all accept, the next attempt starts inside the dungeon.

• Vote kick: since May 27, 2026, once a mid-boss has died and instant removal is locked, the leader of a party or force of three or more can start a vote to remove a member; a party needs every voter to agree, a force a majority, and abstentions count as votes against.

• Leaving without the reward: since July 1, 2026, leaving an Expedition or Transcendence run without taking the cube reward uses up a weekly allowance shared by all characters on the server, and entry is blocked when it runs out.

• Cross-faction: since March 11, 2026 Elyos and Asmodians can form parties and forces together for these dungeons and chat inside them.

Tips

• Run Easy Mode the first time you encounter a new dungeon. The shorter rotations and lighter mechanics let you read the room before doing it for real.

• Build your role first. A dungeon is much harder when your tank does not have threat tools or your healer does not have a single-target emergency cooldown.

• Check the seasonal rotation. Top-tier rewards usually rotate with each season; chasing a piece that is leaving the rotation is a common time pressure for group play.

• Track Yustiel's Trace drops. Fragment: Yustiel's Trace feeds the Daevanion Yustiel; Hall of Illusion is its confirmed source.

Expedition Ordeal

The Expedition Ordeal (Korean 시련) is a content type added to the Korean and Taiwanese build on July 15, 2026, sitting alongside Expeditions, Transcendence, Sanctuaries and Nightmare content. It is entered through the Expedition interface but runs on its own difficulty and reward rules, and it is aimed at players who have already cleared the existing endgame tiers.

The distinguishing feature is that you build the difficulty yourself. The first Ordeal exposed four separate traits, each of which can be set from stage 1 to stage 4. The final difficulty is the sum of the four, which means the floor is stage 4 and the ceiling is stage 16, and two groups can run the same Ordeal at very different levels of pressure by weighting the traits differently.

Clearing an Ordeal awards a currency used only for this content, spent at the Ordeal shop in the Expedition menu. Because rewards are gated per difficulty per week, running the same Ordeal repeatedly at one setting does not pay out again; the intended loop is to clear at several difficulty totals across the week. The first Ordeal opened at item level 4,800, the same gate as the top stage of the Chapter 1 Transcendence dungeons.

Ordeals rotate. On September 23, 2026 the Korean and Taiwanese build closed the first Ordeal on Vakron Sky Island and replaced it with a Fire Temple Ordeal at the same level 50 and item level 4,800 gate. The four settings became Time Limit (stages 1 to 3), Resurrection Limit (1 to 3), Boss Enhancement (1 to 8) and Player Weakening (1 to 2), keeping the overall range of 4 to 16 and the weekly reward reset. The same patch raised the weekly purchase limits on several items at the Ordeal shop and added new stock.

Solo Ladder Changes in Chapter 1

The solo instances were reworked alongside the group content. Nightmare gained a fourth layer with new bosses, and clearing a specific stage there now grants the combined rewards of every preceding stage rather than only that stage's payout. Ascension Trial gained a Doom difficulty that opens at item level 4,000, sitting above the previously top tier. Both changes landed with Chapter 1 on the Korean and Taiwanese build.

Raids (Ended)

Seasons 1 and 2 also had a weekly Raid mode (토벌전). On January 21, 2026 Season 2 replaced the two Season 1 raids with two new ones and added Extreme, Insane and Hell difficulties. NCsoft ended Raid content when Season 3 began on April 8, 2026; leftover Raid challenge tickets can be converted into 20,000 Enhance Stones.

Global Availability

The global client opened for Founder's Pack Advance Access on September 30, 2026, ahead of the free-to-play launch on October 5, 2026. The global store page describes more than 200 dungeons across solo challenges, five-player party content and ten-player group dungeons. NCsoft says all instanced content, including dungeons, is available cross-server, and during Advance Access party matching pools every Advance Access server in a region. The global membership allows a second Odyle Energy injection when opening reward cubes in Expedition, Transcendence and Sanctuary.

As of October 7, 2026, the dungeons NCsoft has named for the global build are Deus Research Base and Shattered Arkanis, the two dungeons of the global Transcendence Dungeon Leaderboard event, and Sanctuary Raid: Ludra. Ludra was playable during Advance Access; on October 5, 2026 NCsoft removed it temporarily from the full launch build to prepare a version with new and adjusted mechanics, promised a new first-clear event and said it would announce the return date by October 16. As of the evening of October 17, 2026 (PDT), no return date had been posted on NCsoft's global channels. NCsoft has not published which Expeditions or later Transcendence dungeons are open at global launch, so the dates on this page are Korean and Taiwanese dates.

Official English Names

The global client is bringing official English names into use. These are the names this wiki now follows:

Related Pages

• Classes

• Combat and Skill Chains

• Daeva System and Daevanion Board

• Transcendence System

• Hall of Illusion

• Succession Crafting