This article is incomplete
Some sections are missing or need additional details. Help improve it by contributing.
Nightmare is a solo boss dungeon in AION 2. NCsoft listed the Nightmare Dungeon among the game's solo content in August 2025, and its English announcement for Chapter 1 groups Nightmare with the Ascension Trial as the game's two solo dungeons. Clears earn ranking points, and since Season 3 the Nightmare ranking is judged within each class.
Global service: Nightmare is part of the global build. The global Daeva Pass that started on September 30, 2026 pays Nightmare Dungeon Challenge Tickets (Bound) as rewards. NCsoft has not published the global Nightmare rules, so the rest of this page describes the Korean and Taiwanese service.
How Nightmare Works
The official guidebook describes Nightmare as a dungeon where the player goes straight into a fight with a boss and earns rewards according to the stage cleared. Each boss runs on ten stages. The main reward is the Phantasmal Fragment (몽환의 파편), the currency of the Nightmare exchange shop.
Rule | Detail |
|---|---|
Players | One (solo) |
Attempts | One attempt is used per boss kill. Attempts recharge for free at two per day and can be stored up to 14 |
Stages | Ten per boss. Since July 1, 2026 a boss without an unlock condition can be fought on any stage up to 10 straight away, and clearing a higher stage also pays the first-clear rewards of the stages below it |
Repeat rewards | Clears after the first pay repeat-clear rewards; since April 8, 2026 their quantity depends on the character's class-ranking grade |
Instant clear | Instant Clear Ticket: Nightmare (Bound) takes the repeat rewards again for a ticket and an attempt each; tickets are bought with Kina from a special tab of the in-game shop |
Buffs | Buffs are removed on entry since April 22, 2026, except the Templar's and Chanter's own protection buffs (fixed August 5, 2026) |
Ranking
Each clear earns ranking points, and the season grade comes from the points and the rank reached. The guidebook says bosses are graded and pay one, two or three times the base points. Since Season 2 the season's ranking uses each character's best record and pays season rewards by class ranking, and since April 8, 2026 the Nightmare ladder is judged within each class. February 25 and June 17, 2026 changes made the points depend on how fast each stage is cleared, and a December 10, 2025 change raised the points for the final boss Zikel's Apparition. Ranking buffs that higher ranks used to receive were removed on April 8, 2026.
Dream Layers
Bosses are grouped by the season that added them, each in its own tab of the Nightmare menu.
Layer | Season | Added (KR/TW) |
|---|---|---|
Dream Layer I | Season 1 | From the November 19, 2025 launch season |
Dream Layer II | Season 2 | January 21, 2026; NCsoft counted seven boss monsters in Nightmare for Season 2 |
Dream Layer III | Season 3 | April 8, 2026; seven new bosses, including Tyrant Tassin |
Dream Layer IV | Chapter 1 | July 1, 2026 |
Each new layer also added that season's boss decorations to the statue tab of the Nightmare exchange shop. In January 2026 the Korean service lowered the accuracy, block and health of several Layer II bosses.
Bosses by Layer
The Korean patch notes and NCsoft's announcements name these Nightmare bosses. English names are the game client's English data except Tyrant Tassin, which NCsoft used in English, and the layer column only lists what an official source states.
Boss | Korean name | Layer | Notes from the patch notes |
|---|---|---|---|
Zikel's Apparition | 지켈의 사념체 | Dream Layer I (final boss) | Ranking points for killing it raised on December 10, 2025 |
Mutated Ulgorn | 변이된 울고른 | Dream Layer II | Health lowered on January 28, 2026; a camera fix for one of its skills on September 9, 2026 |
Soulreaper Rathman | 영혼수확자 라트만 | Dream Layer II | Health lowered on January 28, 2026 |
Sharp Aulak | 날카로운 울라크 | Dream Layer II | Health lowered on January 28, 2026 |
Sealed Sura | 봉인된 수라 | Dream Layer II | Health lowered on January 28, 2026 |
Kaisinel's Illusion | 카이시넬의 환영 | Dream Layer II | Damage lowered and a telegraph mismatch fixed on February 25, 2026; its Illusion Erosion debuff now ends when it dies |
Enraged Reda | 분노한 레다 | Dream Layer II | Its damage zones could be attacked until February 25, 2026; health lowered on April 8, 2026 |
Warden Santras | 교도관 산트라스 | Dream Layer II | Health lowered on April 8, 2026 |
Gatekeeper Pinopi | 문지기 피노피 | Not stated | Its knockdown after a grab could not be cleared with a break-free skill until February 25, 2026 |
Incarnated Warding Feather | 현신한 비호의 깃 | Dream Layer III | A sound fix on May 20, 2026 |
Tyrant Tassin | 폭군 타신 | Dream Layer III | Named by NCsoft among the seven Season 3 bosses |
Ascended Atheron | 각성한 아테론 | Dream Layer IV | A fix on July 8, 2026 for projectile portals vanishing when a Spiritmaster dismissed a spirit |
On January 28, 2026 the Korean service also lowered the accuracy and block of the Layer II bosses as a group. The game client's data lists further Nightmare-style bosses in the same block, but the official notes do not say which layer they belong to, so they are left out here.
Korean players' posts from December 2025 also list Fortress Guardian Notun (요새 수호자 노툰), Mutated Gerod (변이된 게로드) and Furious Feruk (광폭한 페르크) among the Season 1 bosses, with Zikel's Apparition as the hardest of them; those three names are the game client's English data.
Notable Fights
Korean players' guides describe these fights as follows. They are player write-ups rather than official descriptions, and the Ascended Atheron account comes from a single guide.
Zikel's Apparition: a mix of slashes, dashes and a whip, then a ground-break ring that is jumped half a beat early; afterwards sword-marked circles keep exploding while the boss moves to one side and opens line attacks that the player crosses after the first lines go off.
Kaisinel's Illusion: defined by a jump-rope pattern of crossing coloured lines spreading from the centre, taken at the intersections; it is stamina-hungry.
Ascended Atheron (Layer IV): at set health thresholds it relocates and fires volleys that the player blocks by keeping a central crystal between themselves and the shot, then uses the orbs from broken crystals for a shield during its Descent (강림) cast.
Stages and Instant Clear
April 8, 2026: Instant Clear Ticket: Nightmare (Bound) added. After a clear, the player can take the same rewards again a chosen number of times, spending one ticket and one attempt per repeat; repeats still count for the season mission. The tickets were sold at 14 per server per week for 30,000 Kina each.
April 22, 2026: instant clear became available from the Nightmare lobby for any stage cleared at least once, without ranking points; buffs are removed on entry; boss attack and damage amplification were lowered by 2.5% to 15% to match the new life steal rules.
July 1, 2026: Nightmare without an unlock condition can be challenged up to stage 10 without clearing the stages below, and clearing a higher stage also pays the first-clear rewards of the stages beneath it.
Exchange Shop
Phantasmal Fragments are spent in the Nightmare exchange shop. Its statue tab gained each season's boss decorations as new layers opened (January 21, April 8 and July 1, 2026). Since September 16, 2026 it also sells Superior Manastones and Superior Soulstones, and the October 7, 2026 update added Stigma Shards and switched its Soul Crystals to bundles of 50.
Change History
Date (KR/TW) | Change |
|---|---|
December 10, 2025 | More ranking points for killing Zikel's Apparition |
January 21, 2026 | Season 2 bosses added under a Dream Layer II tab, with Season 1 bosses under Dream Layer I; a Season 2 tab added to the statue shop |
January 28, 2026 | Layer II boss accuracy, block and health lowered; ranking sorted by best record |
February 25, 2026 | Kaisinel's Illusion damage lowered; ranking points tied to completion time per stage |
April 8, 2026 | Dream Layer III with seven new bosses; Instant Clear Ticket: Nightmare sold at 14 per server per week for 30,000 Kina each; class-based ranking; Season 2 ranking rewards replaced by a box sold for 2 Quna (a title and a painting of Kaisinel's Illusion) |
April 22, 2026 | Instant clear from the lobby without ranking points; buffs removed on entry; boss attack and damage amplification lowered by 2.5% to 15% |
June 17, 2026 | Ranking points again raised by completion time |
June 24, 2026 | Instant clear blocked while a Nightmare run is in progress |
July 1, 2026 | Dream Layer IV; stages up to 10 open directly; higher clears pay lower first-clear rewards |
August 26, 2026 | Boss direction markers shown in Nightmare |
September 16, 2026 | Superior Manastones and Superior Soulstones in the exchange shop |
October 7, 2026 | Stigma Shards in the exchange shop; Soul Crystals sold in bundles of 50 |
Related Pages
Ascension Trial