AION 2 Patch Notes — September 9, 2026

The largest content patch since Chapter 1 opened in July. A new Sanctuary arrives with a server-wide first-clear leaderboard attached, a new equipment slot is added, the Draconic crafting tree gains a [True] tier, and the Abyss set bonus is rebuilt so that gear tier — not just piece count — decides how much damage amplification you get.

Sanctuary

• The new Sanctuary 'Snowfield of Lament' is added.
• Snowfield of Lament is made up of three difficulties: Easy, Normal and Hard.

Seal

• A new equipment slot, 'Seal', is added.
• Seals are obtained by crafting, or by material-converting the equipment change vouchers obtained in the new Sanctuary 'Snowfield of Lament' together with Kina.

New gear

New Draconic crafted equipment:

• Crafting blueprints for '[True] Genesis Dragon Lord' and '[True] Nemesis Dragon Lord' weapons and guards are added.
• A blueprint is added that inheritance-crafts 'Splendent Genesis Dragon Lord' and 'Splendent Nemesis Dragon Lord' weapons and guards into their [True] versions.
• 'Liberated White Night' weapons and guards can be material-converted to obtain [True] Genesis / Nemesis Dragon Lord crafting materials.

Expedition / Sanctuary

The Draconic equipment materials obtainable from Odyle Energy Cubes in Expeditions and Sanctuaries — Wrathful Mind, Will, Ego, Wish, Sublimation, Belief and Flame — are redistributed across the board:

• Krao Cave, Draupnir, Urugugu Canyon, Vakron Sky Island, Fire Temple, Ferocious Horn Den, Dying Dramata's Nest and Cradle of Nihility now drop Soul-bound materials only.
• Hall of Illusion, Azure Breath Island, Citadel of the Fallen Daeva and Consumed Deus Research Base now drop all seven Wrathful materials, in both Soul-bound and tradeable form.
• Chalice of Muspel now drops all seven Wrathful materials in Soul-bound form.

Soul Binding

• 'Philosopher's Stone: Revelation (Soul-bound)' is added.
• 10× 'Philosopher's Stone: Power (Soul-bound)' can be material-converted into one 'Philosopher's Stone: Revelation (Soul-bound)'.

Abyss

• Artifact occupation and the Abyss corridor are reset for the server rematch. The server-matching results are published on the CM Hideout rather than in the note.

Abyss Rift Zone

• The stats of boss monsters appearing in the Abyss Rift Zone are raised.
• Eight of the Abyss Rift Zone boss monsters become invulnerable for 25 seconds once their HP falls below a certain level, up to a maximum of two times.
• The per-phase composition of the Abyss Rift Zone is changed, reducing the total number of boss monsters.
• Following that reduction, the 'Rift Bundle' rewards obtainable from the bosses are raised.
• Abyss Rift Zone missions are added under [Season Mission – Abyss – Weekly / Season].

Dimensional Invasion

• Selecting the entry icon now shows the detailed information — title, rewards and so on — so it can be checked before entering.

Streamer Mode

• An option to set Streamer Mode is added under [Settings] > [Other] > [Account].
• Account-information hiding and character-name hiding can each be set independently in Streamer Mode.
• With character-name hiding enabled, your character's name is replaced with '@Player' everywhere it would be displayed.

Closet

• In [Decorate] > [Pattern], a pattern's width and height can now be adjusted separately.
• With the [Maintain aspect ratio] option enabled, sizing behaves as before and keeps the ratio. With it disabled, width and height can be adjusted independently.

Inheritance Craft

• A required enhancement-level condition is added to inheritance materials. Only equipment that meets the required enhancement level can be used as an inheritance material.

Commendation system

A new post-clear social feature: after the last boss dies in an Expedition, Transcendence, Trial or Sanctuary dungeon, players can commend one another.

• A commendation requires picking both a target and a reason, and can only be given once per dungeon clear.
• The commendation popup stays up for a limited time, and the commendation must be given within it. Once everyone has finished, the results can be viewed.
• Commendations accumulate per character, and the running total can be checked in the character information window.
• Who may give one: party members who met a certain contribution threshold when the last boss died, and party members still enrolled in the party and inside the dungeon at that moment.
• Who may receive one: the same two groups — and in a Sanctuary, the members of your own party.
• Commendation-related achievements are added under [Achievements – Growth – Custom].

Sanctuary Hall of Fame

A server-wide record of the first, second and third kills of a Sanctuary's last boss. It applies to Snowfield of Lament on Hard difficulty.

• Recorded at the moment the last boss is cleared: character name, server name, Legion name, class, the highest combat power reached during the run, the highest item level reached during the run, force order, the date the record was set, and the elapsed time to clear.
• Characters with no contribution are not recorded.
• Once recorded, the entry does not change even if the character name, server name or Legion name is later changed.
• Viewable from the Hall of Fame tab at the top left of the Sanctuary entry screen.

Rift of Time and Space Contest

One week after it launched on September 2 — and after the September 4 hotfix reopened its headcount — the Contest is tightened again: a group is now four strongholds rather than five, and a round runs fifteen minutes rather than twenty-five.

World map Contest tab

• While a Contest is being prepared or is under way, a [Contest] tab is added to the world map, so the overall state of play can be checked conveniently.
• Clicking the icon to the left of a siege's title in the Contest alerter jumps straight to a world-map view centred on that siege.

Format and environment

• The number of strongholds per group is reduced from 5 to 4.
• Attacking side: victory on capturing 3 of the 4 strongholds.
• Defending side: victory on protecting 3 or more strongholds.
• Contest duration is changed from 25 minutes to 15 minutes.
• While taking part in a Contest, a 50% reduction in flight-power consumption is applied.

The strongholds dropped in the trim are Poacher's Base, Mantasch Patrol Base and Forest Shade Execution Site on the Verteron side, and Logger's Rest Ruins, Legion Base Ruins and Granach's Hideout on the Altgard side.

Contribution adjustments

• Repeatedly killing the same character within a set time now has a limit applied to the contribution earned.
• The contribution earned for assisting in a kill on an opposing-side player is reduced slightly.

World Marker

• A 'World Marker' usable on the ground in the world, Expeditions, Transcendences, Sanctuaries, the Abyss and elsewhere is added.
• It is used via the 'World Marker' button next to the minimap, or by assigning a menu shortcut: [Settings] > [Key Settings] > [Menu], under the content sub-items.
• The same rules as the existing marker apply, and the World Marker popup can be moved as convenient.

Expedition / Transcendence / Sanctuary

• Fixed the outline not being drawn when the mouse is held over a primary interaction target.
• The monster placement before Overseer Gromkas in Consumed Deus Research Base is adjusted.
• Sanctuary: on entering the boss room, a portal is created at the starting point that moves you to the front of the boss room.

A short list this week — the substantive balance work was pulled forward into the September 4 emergency maintenance precisely so that it would not land alongside this content patch. What remains is bug fixes and one presentation improvement.

Inheritance

• The inheritance material registration slot is now shown from the very first inheritance step.
• The confirmation popup shown on inheritance is improved so the result can be previewed against the target item, and inheritance proceeds only after ticking the result-confirmation checkbox.

Abyss equipment set effect

The most consequential number change in the patch. The PvE stats carried by Abyss equipment are now scaled — or removed entirely — according to the gear's tier, so the same piece count is worth far more on higher-tier Abyss gear. The August 26 patch had set a single flat table for all Abyss gear (15% / 20% / 30% / 40% at 2 / 5 / 8 / 12 pieces); this replaces it:

The stat affected is PvE Abyss damage amplification. A dash means the set step is removed entirely at that tier.

Fix

• Fixed the force order in the dungeon waiting room not matching the force order inside the dungeon.

Be the First to Lift the Chalice: Snowfield of Lament

Runs from after regular maintenance on September 9, 2026 (Wed) until the 20th force has completed its clear. Rewards go to the forces that clear the new Sanctuary first — the first clear is recorded on the time the final boss 'Deltras' is defeated, and only members of the force at that moment are rewarded.

Payout timing is to be announced after the clear data has been checked; mail is claimable for one month.

Daeva Look Change Week

• Runs from after regular maintenance on September 9, 2026 (Wed) to before regular maintenance on September 30, 2026 (Wed).
• Decorating costs are halved from 200 Quna to 100 Quna per part, with no limit on the number of changes.
• Outfits and weapon appearances are dyed from the Closet menu via the palette icon; after picking a part, its dye, material, pattern and pattern colour can be changed.

All cosmetic products below are sold from after regular maintenance on September 9, 2026 (Wed) to before regular maintenance on October 21, 2026 (Wed). Prices are quoted at Purple Store rates and may differ by store.

Both armour sets and the pet can alternatively be bought with the matching exchange ticket, in which case no mileage accrues. Set pieces are non-tradeable, non-deletable and cannot be put in storage, but can be used for decorating.

New Daeva Pass: 'Flower Bloomed at Night'

Sold from [In-game Menu] → [Subscription], from after regular maintenance on September 9, 2026 (Wed) to October 6, 2026 (Tue) at 05:00. Missions can be run and rewards claimed until before regular maintenance on October 7, 2026 (Wed).

• Completing missions during the pass period earns pass experience; each pass level grants a reward, and the maximum level is 50.
• Experience earned after level 50 grants repeat rewards — 500 Soul Crystal (Soul-bound) on Basic, 3,000 on Premium.
• Pass levels can be bought outright at 50 Quna per level.
• Daeva Pass Shop Coins earned from the pass are spent in [Subscription] → [Pass Shop].

Pass experience sources, capped at 15,000 XP per character per week:

The 50-level reward table is a repeating 13-level cycle of Soul Crystals, reproduced here once rather than fifty times. Levels 1, 3, 5, 7 and 9 (and the same positions in each later cycle) give a typed Soul Crystal — Cogni, Fera, Natura, Varian and Special in that order — at 300 on Basic and 2,000 on Premium. The even levels between them give plain Soul Crystal at 700 on Basic and 3,000 on Premium. Levels 11, 12 and 13 (and 24–26, 37–39) give 3× Skin Chest: Weapon, Armor and Accessory (10 times) on Basic, and the Splendent versions of the same three on Premium. Level 50 gives 1× Splendent Skin Chest (10 times) on Basic and 3× on Premium. See the official note for the row-by-row table.

Improvements

• NPC shop: the accessory detail settings in NPC-shop quick sell registration and server/character storage quick registration are reset. This is a consequence of adding the Seal slot — check your detail settings again after the update.
• Subscription: when 30 minutes or less of membership remains, the time left until expiry is shown on the subscription icon in the HUD and menus. A system message is shown on expiry, and if it expired while you were offline, the message is shown at your next login.
• Skill window: skill levels can now be set differently per skill preset.
• Skill window: while a skill that is not the original or prerequisite skill is selected, levelling up and resetting can now be done based on that skill's original / prerequisite skill.
• A gauge UI for boss mechanics is added to the HUD editing screen.

Fixes

• Item equip window: the list-style slot is removed from the slot/list sorting options.
• Server transfer: the server-transfer tab is removed from the shop.
• Fixed the mini-chat UI activating for chat whose filter had been switched off in some situations.
• Nightmare 'Dream Layer II': fixed the camera viewpoint rendering abnormally when hit by a certain skill from boss 'Mutated Ulgorn'.
• Expedition 'Consumed Deus Research Base': fixed a certain skill from boss 'Atiel' being impossible to avoid with Focused Block or Evasion Stance.
• The description of the 'Upscaler' option under [Settings] > [Graphics] > [Optimization] > Graphics Quality – Advanced is corrected.
• Fixed the resurrection UI not being displayed when leaving the Abyss corridor on timeout while dead.
• Elyos and Asmodian: fixed the opposing faction's Empyrean trace marker being shown on the world map during the 'Empyrean Monolith' episode quest.