Crafting in AION 2 means making items from raw resources and materials. There are five professions – Blacksmithing, Armorsmithing, Handicrafting, Alchemy and Cooking – and the best weapon in the game can only be obtained by crafting. It doesn’t drop from dungeons or from Transcendence. You either craft it yourself or buy it on the Market from a player who did.
This guide covers the global version of AION 2 after launch. We rewrote it on 16 October 2026 based on how crafting actually works on the global servers – from picking a profession through Splendent procs and Transfer Crafting to Amplify Stones and potential. Everything below is visible in-game, and Daniel shows all of it on his Cleric in the video above. None of this applies to the original AION from 2009, where crafting worked completely differently.
The five things that matter
- The best weapon in the game is crafted. It doesn’t drop from dungeons or Transcendence – you craft it or buy it from another player.
- Every craft has a 25% chance to produce a Splendent version (Combo Activation Chance). A higher profession level only raises your success rate, not the combo chance.
- High tiers come from chaining: Orichalcum → Splendent → Expert → Artisan → True Dragon Lord. From Unique grade onward you no longer need Splendent.
- Transfer Crafting is guaranteed to succeed and keeps your enchant and potential. It wipes the Philosopher’s Stone, theostone, manastones and soulstones.
- Kromede stats only transfer from Wise Dragon Lord up. True and White Dragon Lord in any variant won’t accept them, because their item level isn’t higher.
- Soul bind decides what happens to the item. Unbound gear can be sold on the Market; bound gear is yours forever and can be transferred further.
What crafting in AION 2 is – and what it isn’t
Crafting means making a new item from materials. Upgrading an item you already own is not crafting – that’s a separate system with its own guide. Players mix these two up more than anything else gear-related, even though each one burns different resources.
If you want to raise the grade of a weapon that dropped in a dungeon, you’re looking for gear enhancement (enchanting). If you want to know where to get that weapon in the first place, you’re in the right place. One exception: transfer, soul bind and Philosopher’s Stone make no sense without crafting, so we cover them here.
| What you’re trying to do | Which system it is | Where to find it |
|---|---|---|
| Pick a profession and decide which to level first | Crafting | This guide |
| Craft a weapon, Guard, armor or potion | Crafting | This guide |
| Understand Splendent and why you’re stuck without it | Crafting | This guide |
| Transfer Crafting and soul bind | Crafting | This guide |
| Raise an item to +1, +2, +3… | Enhancement | Gear enhancement guide |
| Socket a manastone into armor | Enhancement | Gear enhancement guide |
| Use and refine Arcana | Enhancement | Gear enhancement guide |
The five professions and what each one makes
Open crafting from the game menu (Alt+C by default). Along the top are five tabs, one per profession. The global version settled on Blacksmithing, Armorsmithing, Handicrafting, Alchemy and Cooking – names that older English guides used as just one of several variants. If a guide talks about Forging, Tailoring or Jewelcrafting, it means the same thing.
| Profession | What it makes | Who it’s for |
|---|---|---|
| Blacksmithing | Greatsword, Longsword, Dagger, Mace and Guard | Gladiator, Templar, Assassin, Cleric – plus the Guard for every class |
| Armorsmithing | Helmets and other armor pieces | All classes |
| Handicrafting | Bows, staffs, necklaces, earrings, rings and bracelets | Ranger (bow), Chanter (staff), jewelry for everyone |
| Alchemy | Spellbook, Orb, potions, scrolls, manastones and materials | Sorcerer (Spellbook), Spiritmaster (Orb), consumables for everyone |
| Cooking | Food with temporary buffs | All classes |
Each class uses one weapon type and can’t play another. That settles your profession in advance: you don’t pick what sounds fun, you pick what makes your character’s weapon. All classes are listed in the class overview.
Which profession to level first
- Ranger and Chanter: Handicrafting. It makes the bow, the staff and jewelry, so you get the most out of a single profession.
- Every other class: Blacksmithing. You make one of four weapons for your class, plus the Guard everyone needs.
- Armorsmithing comes third. Dungeon armor is enough early on; dungeon weapons aren’t.
In Daniel’s experience, Handicrafting jewelry doesn’t beat what you get from quests – so take the profession for the bow or staff, not the jewelry. Chanters depend on it most; see the Chanter guide for details.
Novice, Professional and how professions level
Each profession has a Novice and a Professional tier, fifty levels each. On the left of every recipe you see the level required to craft it – a symbol without wings means Novice, a symbol with wings means Professional.
You level a profession by crafting. Every item gives experience, and a Splendent version gives more. The cheapest way up runs through basic materials – craft ingots first, turn them into basic items, then push those further.
When you hit Novice 50, a quest appears under your map. It sends you to the capital – Elyos to Verteron, Asmodians to Safe Haven in Altgard – to an NPC who asks you to craft and hand in a specific item. Turn it in and you’re Professional 1, unlocking the winged recipes.
Splendent: a 25% you can’t influence
Besides the success chance, every craft has a chance to produce an upgraded version straight away – Splendent. In-game it’s called Combo Activation Chance and it’s 25%. That version is what you’re really after, because without it you can’t reach the next tier.
Two things get confused here, and it pays to separate them:
- Craft success chance grows with your profession level. If a craft fails, the materials are consumed and you get nothing – the game says so right by the Craft button.
- Combo Activation Chance is a flat 25% and profession level doesn’t raise it. It either procs or it doesn’t.
That leads to the strategy Daniel uses on his own Cleric: craft a pile of basic items and hope some of them proc into Splendent. A basic item is only worth anything as input for the next tier.
Chaining: from Orichalcum to True Dragon Lord
High-tier items don’t come from crafting one better piece – they come from chaining. Every tier needs the Splendent version of the tier below. Using a Cleric mace as an example, the chain looks like this:
- You craft an Orichalcum Mace. With a 25% chance you get a Splendent Orichalcum Mace.
- The Splendent Orichalcum Mace is the material for an Expert’s Orichalcum Mace – and again you want it to proc into Splendent.
- Expert’s Splendent is the material for an Artisan’s Orichalcum Mace, the first Unique-grade piece.
- From Artisan’s Splendent you craft the True Dragon Lord Mace – your first crafted endgame weapon.
From Unique grade onward you stop waiting for Splendent. If the Artisan’s piece procs, you get bonus endgame materials; if it doesn’t, you’ve still made it and move on. The same chain applies to Greatsword, Longsword, Dagger, Orb and Spellbook, just with different base material names.
The most important practical rule in this guide: never sell or discard Splendent intermediates. They look like duplicates, but they’re materials for the next tier. It’s the most common beginner mistake.
Soul bind: sell it or keep it
A crafted item isn’t bound to your character. Until you equip it and confirm Soul Bind, you can sell it on the Market. Artisan’s and higher pieces go for tens of millions of Kinah there, which makes crafting one of the best income sources in the game – where money comes from and where the caps are is covered in the guide to Kinah and the economy.
Once you bind an item, the game locks it out of the Market and you can’t give it to anyone. In exchange you can:
- upgrade it (enchant, manastones, theostone),
- reroll its soul bind stats,
- and transfer it to a higher tier with guaranteed success.
Soul bind has its own Soul Binding tab in the Enhancement window. On a weapon you see the Soul Binding Rate and five stats – Multi-hit Chance, Combat Speed, Attack, Critical Hit and Weapon Damage Boost – each with its current value and a cap in brackets. Stats can be rerolled, and Daniel recommends doing it before you push soul bind to 100%: rerolling drops it and you have to grind it back up.
Philosopher’s Stone: the sixth stat
A weapon has five soul bind stats. A Philosopher’s Stone adds a sixth through Soul Fuse. You’ll recognise it by the “Eligible for Soul Fuse” button under the stats; the fuse itself costs 1,000,000 Kinah. You need two stones, available in the Season Shop under Growth, twice per server. Put them into your weapon or Guard and nowhere else – they aren’t worth as much anywhere else. And only into a piece you won’t transfer again: a transfer wipes the sixth stat and the stones are gone.
Transfer Crafting: certainty instead of dice
Transfer Crafting is the second route to a higher tier – and unlike chaining, it’s guaranteed to succeed. It’s a separate tab right next to Crafting, and the recipe literally says: “This crafting is guaranteed to succeed.” The condition is that you already have the previous tier crafted and bound.
If your True Dragon Lord Mace didn’t proc into Splendent, you don’t have to start over. In Transfer Crafting you make the Splendent version for materials. For a Wise Dragon Lord Mace, for example, the game asks for:
- Splendent White Dragon Lord Mace (the previous-tier weapon),
- Artisan’s Splendent Orichalcum and an Artisan’s Ultimate Refining material,
- Fine Durable Balaur Horn – which is also crafted,
- Wrathful Mind, Wrathful Will and Wrathful Ego,
- Radiant Orichalcum Ore and Radiant Odyle.
Some materials come from profession NPC vendors – Dragon Leather from the Armorsmith, Superior Dragon Scale from the Handicrafter. With a membership, the same vendors are in the Shop, so you don’t have to travel to town. Weapons progress like this: True Dragon Lord → White Dragon Lord → Wise Dragon Lord, always through the Splendent version of the previous tier.
What a transfer keeps and what it wipes
A transfer carries your progress over. If your weapon is +15 with potential, that stays after transferring to a higher tier. Three things don’t carry over:
- The Philosopher’s Stone is wiped. The sixth stat from Soul Fuse disappears after a transfer and both stones are lost.
- The theostone is wiped.
- Manastones and soulstones are wiped. Plan for it before transferring, because you simply lose them.
And one trap that catches people out: a transfer raises the soul bind stat caps. A weapon at 100% Soul Binding Rate might sit at 90% after a transfer, because the number in brackets went up. So after every transfer you grind soul bind back up.
You can’t transfer Kromede weapon stats onto just any crafted weapon. The transfer only goes through when the crafted weapon has a higher item level than the one you’re transferring from. True Dragon Lord and White Dragon Lord don’t qualify in any variant, Splendent included. The lowest crafted weapon that takes Kromede stats is Wise Dragon Lord.
Beyond +15: Amplify Stone
Up to +15 you enhance your weapon with enchant stones and Kinah. Past +15 you need an Amplify Stone. It doesn’t drop – you make it through Substance Morph from Amplify Stone Fragments and enchant stones; in the global version one Amplify Stone costs 4 fragments and 2,500 Enhance Stones. Fragments come from the Battle Pass and dungeons.
Every level above +15 adds attack and damage boost to the weapon. Enhancement details, odds and safeguards are in the enchanting guide.
Potential: a PvP thing for the very end
Potential is another layer on top of enchanting, but it’s purely for PvP. You need a Potential Stone – bought in the Abyss Trade Shop twice a week – plus Abyss Points. Each level adds PvP damage or PvP damage tolerance.
Daniel says to leave it until the very end: when your weapon and gear are maxed, your Abyss shop is cleared and your wings, stigmas and Daevanion are done. Before that it’s expensive and not worth it – unless you mainly play PvP. Where Abyss Points come from is covered in the guide to the Abyss.
Manastones and theostones for your crafted weapon
Always slot the best manastones you have into your weapon, and pick a theostone based on what you play. A theostone adds an effect – blind or stun suits PvP, flat extra attack suits PvE. There’s no perfect theostone; it’s down to you.
Just remember that manastones and theostones vanish on transfer. Your most expensive stones belong in a weapon you won’t transfer again. Where manastones and soulstones are made and how they work is covered in the manastone guide.
Where to get materials
Every item in the game lists its source in the tooltip. Before you search online, open the material’s tooltip – it tells you where it drops. That’s the fastest answer to “where do I get this”, and no guide will give it to you better than the game itself.
The general endgame rule: most endgame gear materials come from Conquests. Specifically, Fire Temple and Ferocious Horn Den – expeditions for 1 to 5 players from level 45 with a weekly cap of 25 runs – are where you go in endgame mainly for materials. Ferocious Horn Den drops, among other things, the Balaur Horn you need for Transfer Crafting. All instances and their rewards are in the dungeon guide.
Open-world resources are gathered with a single skill, Essence Extraction – ore, gems, wood, herbs and cooking ingredients alike. You get three attempts per node, and an interrupted attempt costs you a share of the yield and experience, so always let it finish. A special resource is Odyle, green orbs floating in the air that you gather while flying; Substance Morph turns Odyle into other resources. Don’t confuse it with Odyle Energy, which replaced dungeon entry tickets from Chapter 1.
Is crafting worth it in AION 2?
For your own class’s weapon, yes, no question – it’s the only way to get the best weapon in the game. For armor, no – dungeons give you that. The difference between those two cases is the whole answer.
| Situation | Worth it? | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Weapon for your own class | Yes | The best weapon in the game is crafted and can’t be obtained any other way |
| Guard | Yes | Every class needs one, and Blacksmithing makes it |
| Selling on the Market | Yes | Unbound Artisan’s and higher pieces go for tens of millions of Kinah |
| Potions, scrolls, manastones | Yes | They get used up, so demand never ends |
| A full armor set as fast as possible | No | Dungeon loot is faster; leave Armorsmithing for later |
| Jewelry | Probably not | In Daniel’s experience, quest jewelry is better |
The one line to take away from this section: crafting in AION 2 isn’t a way to skip playing. It’s a way to turn what you earn into the best weapon – or into money. Besides crafting gear in-game you can also upgrade your wardrobe – check out the AION 2 merch in the GamersTogether shop.
Bulk crafting
On a recipe you set the quantity (the MAX button crafts as many as your materials allow), and crafting then runs on its own. For basic materials and consumables, it’s the easiest way to level a profession without clicking.
Moving or taking another action cancels bulk crafting. The safe way to stop is the Escape key – the item in progress finishes and the remaining materials aren’t consumed.
Did crafting work the same in the original AION?
No. This guide is about AION 2 – crafting in the original 2009 AION worked differently, and guides for it won’t help you in the sequel. Yet those are exactly the guides search engines show you first.
| Original AION (2009) | AION 2 | |
|---|---|---|
| Gathering | Separate skills for mining, logging and harvesting | One skill – Essence Extraction |
| Where you learn recipes | Artisan’s Hall and Temple of Artisans | Five professions right in the Crafting menu |
| Higher tiers | Procs at the crafting table | Chaining through Splendent + guaranteed Transfer Crafting |
| Converting resources | Didn’t exist | Substance Morph (Odyle into resources, fragments into Amplify Stones) |
The complaint that crafting in the sequel is shallower isn’t nonsense. It’s a deliberate simplification – but simpler doesn’t mean worse. For a full comparison of both games, read AION Classic vs AION 2.
Already crafting and wondering what to do next in the endgame? We cover it in our guide AION 2 endgame: what to do after 150k CP and 2.6K gear, including why you should craft your final gear one piece at a time.
FAQ
No. The top weapon tiers don’t drop from dungeons or Transcendence. You either craft the weapon yourself through chaining and Transfer Crafting, or buy it on the Market from a player who crafted it and left it unbound.
Combo Activation Chance is 25%, and profession level doesn’t raise it. A higher profession level only raises the chance that the craft succeeds. If a craft fails, the materials are consumed and you get nothing.
Ranger and Chanter take Handicrafting, because it makes the bow, the staff and jewelry. Every other class takes Blacksmithing to make their weapon and the Guard. Leave Armorsmithing for third – dungeons give you armor early on.
A separate tab next to Crafting where you turn a crafted, bound weapon into the next tier with guaranteed success. You pay in materials – such as Wrathful Mind, Fine Durable Balaur Horn or Radiant Odyle – instead of relying on the 25% Splendent chance.
Your enchant and potential are kept. The Philosopher’s Stone (the sixth stat from Soul Fuse), theostone, manastones and soulstones are wiped. The soul bind stat caps also go up, so a weapon at 100% Soul Binding Rate drops below 100% after a transfer and you grind soul bind back up.
An unbound item can be sold on the Market, where Artisan’s and higher tiers go for tens of millions of Kinah. A bound item can’t be sold or traded, but you can upgrade it, reroll its stats and transfer it to a higher tier. Decide based on whether you need the weapon yourself or are crafting it to sell.
Open the material’s tooltip first – every item lists its source. Most endgame materials come from Conquests, mainly Fire Temple and Ferocious Horn Den. Some you buy from profession NPC vendors, and with a membership directly in the Shop.
Wise Dragon Lord at the lowest. A transfer onto a crafted weapon only goes through when it has a higher item level than the weapon you transfer from. True Dragon Lord and White Dragon Lord don’t qualify in any variant, Splendent included.
Where to go next
Crafting in AION 2 touches almost everything else: Conquest loot supplies the materials, finished pieces get further enchants and manastones, and surplus goes to the Market for Kinah. All guides are linked from the AION 2 guide hub.
The mechanics described here are based on the global version of AION 2 and how they behave on the Siel server. Data verified on 16 October 2026.