AION 2 patch 9 September 2026: new Sanctuary and stronger Abyss bosses

The AION 2 update for 9 September 2026 adds the Sanctuary “Snowfield of Sorrow”, a new equipment slot and more Draconic crafting. It also makes the bosses in the Abyss Rift Zone stronger, shortens territory battles and introduces commendations for teammates. Before you head into combat, check your second and third skill presets in particular: because of a system change, the skill levels in them will be reset.

This overview is based on the Korean patch notes published on 8 September and updated on 9 September at 12:35. The dates below are taken from that announcement. Skill, item and location names are given in English, as they appear in the English game client. Only the five Soul Crystal types from the Daeva Pass have no English name yet, so those are our translation.

The most important changes at a glance

• The new Sanctuary “Snowfield of Sorrow” has three difficulties and ties into the new “Seal” slot.
• Draconic materials are being redistributed across dungeons. In some of them, only the variants marked “Bound” will drop.
• Bosses in the Abyss Rift Zone will be stronger. Eight types gain temporary invulnerability when their HP drops.
• Rift territory battles are shortened from 25 to 15 minutes, and each group will have four outposts instead of five.
• Teammate commendations, markers you can place on the ground and Streamer Mode are being added.
• Skill levels in the second and third skill presets will be reset. Some accessory filters for selling and storage are reset as well.

If you want to catch up on the previous changes, you’ll also find the AION 2 patch notes from 2 September with the Domination adjustments on our site.

New Sanctuary, equipment slot and crafting

Sanctuary “Snowfield of Sorrow” and the “Seal” slot

The Sanctuary “Snowfield of Sorrow” arrives with easy, normal and hard difficulties. At the same time, a new equipment slot, “Seal”, opens up. You get gear for it through crafting or through the material conversion system, which uses an equipment exchange voucher from the new Sanctuary plus Kinah.

In addition, once you enter the boss room in the Sanctuary, a portal appears at the starting point that takes you to just outside the boss room.

New Draconic recipes

• Recipes for “[True] Genesis Dragon Lord / Nemesis Dragon Lord” weapons and garders are being added.
• New follow-up recipes let you use “Splendent Genesis Dragon Lord / Nemesis Dragon Lord” weapons and garders to craft the matching “[True] Genesis Dragon Lord / Nemesis Dragon Lord” variant.
• Converting “Liberated White Night” weapons and garders gives you materials for crafting “[True] Genesis Dragon Lord / Nemesis Dragon Lord”.
• Crafting through the “Transfer craft” system now requires the input gear to have a set enhancement level. A piece that doesn’t meet the requirement can’t be used as a material.

Redistribution of Draconic materials

The distribution of the seven materials “Wrathful Mind/Will/Ego/Wish/Sublimation/Belief/Flame” from Od Energy reward cubes in Expedition and Sanctuary is changing. It will also matter whether a drop is the variant marked “Bound” or a tradable piece.

• Only “Bound” variants drop in Krao Cave, Draupnir, Urugugu Canyon, “Vakron Sky Island”, Fire Temple, “Ferocious Horn Den”, “Dying Dramata’s Nest” and “Cradle of Nihility”.
• In “Hall of Illusion”, “Azure Breath Island”, “Citadel of the Fallen Daeva” and “Consumed Deus Research Base”, all seven materials will be available, both as “Bound” and as tradable variants.
• In “Chalice of Muspel”, you’ll be able to get all seven materials as “Bound”.

If you want a refresher on the dungeons themselves before you go, we have a separate Krao Cave guide and a Draupnir dungeon guide.

Soul Binding

A new item, “Philosopher’s Stone: Truth (Bound)”, is being added. You create it through material conversion from 10 “Philosopher’s Stone: Power (Bound)”.

Abyss: new server matchups and stronger bosses

Occupation reset and Abyss Rift Zone changes

Along with the new server matchups, the occupation status of Artifact and Abyss Corridor is reset. The matchup results will be posted in the CMHideout announcement.

• Bosses in the Abyss Rift Zone get higher stats.
• Eight boss types gain invulnerability for 25 seconds when their HP drops below a set threshold. It can trigger at most twice per fight.
• The makeup of the individual phases changes and the total number of bosses goes down.
• With fewer bosses, the “Rift Bundle” rewards you get from them are increased.
• Abyss Rift Zone tasks are being added to the weekly and seasonal missions in the Abyss category.

For you, this means fewer bosses, but tougher individual fights and, with selected enemies, forced breaks in dealing damage. The notes give neither the exact HP thresholds nor the numbers behind the stat increase.

PvE set bonuses on Abyss gear

The PvE stats on Abyss gear are changed or removed depending on its grade. For the “PVE Abyss damage amplification” stat, the patch lists the following values at 2, 5, 8 and 12 set pieces:

• “Decanus”: 15% / 20% / no bonus / no bonus.
• “Centurion”: 15% / 20% / 25% / no bonus.
• “Tribunus”: 20% / 25% / 30% / 35%.
• “High Commander”: 25% / 30% / 35% / 40%.
• “Praetorian Captain”: 30% / 35% / 40% / 45%.

Rift territory battles: 15 minutes and four outposts

The “Spacetime Rift: Domination” mode gets a shorter run time, a different outpost layout and a clearer map.

• Each group now has four outposts instead of five.
• The attacking side wins by capturing three of the four outposts.
• The defending side wins if it holds at least three outposts.
• Battle length drops from 25 to 15 minutes.
• While you take part, flight energy consumption is reduced by 50%.
• Killing the same character repeatedly within a certain time window will count for less toward your battle contribution.
• The contribution you get for assisting in killing a player from the opposing faction is slightly reduced.

The new outpost distribution applies to groups A, B and C in the Verteron and Altgard defense territories. During preparation and the battle itself, a “Domination” tab with an overview of how it’s going appears on the world map. Clicking the icon to the left of the battle name in the notification opens the map centered on that clash.

Teammate commendations and the Sanctuary Hall of Fame

One commendation per dungeon clear

After killing the last boss in Expedition, Transcendence, Trial and Sanctuary, you can commend a teammate. You pick the recipient and the reason, and you can give at most one commendation per dungeon clear. The window stays open only for a limited time.

• Party members can give a commendation if they met the minimum contribution when the last boss died and were still in the party and inside the dungeon.
• The same conditions apply to players who can receive a commendation.
• In Sanctuary, you choose the recipient only from your own party.
• Once the commendations have been handed out, the results are shown.
• Commendations are counted separately for each character, and you can find the total in the character info.
• Related achievements are being added in the “Achievement – Growth – Custom” category.

The first three clears across all servers

The Sanctuary Hall of Fame records the first, second and third kill of the final boss across all servers. For now, it covers the hard difficulty of “Snowfield of Sorrow”.

It saves the character name, server, Legion, class, the highest combat power and item level reached during the run, the Force order, the record date and the time needed to clear. Characters with no contribution to the fight aren’t recorded. Changing your name, server or Legion later won’t alter a saved entry. You’ll find the Hall of Fame in the top left corner of the Sanctuary entry screen.

Skill changes and dungeon fixes

General changes and individual classes

• General: for “Judgment” and “Dark Crush”, delayed activation when chaining skills under certain circumstances is fixed.
• Assassin – “Illusive Clone”: the additional damage from specialization no. 4 gets a hit visual effect.
• Spiritmaster – “Elemental Fusion”: repeated use of the skill during invulnerability is fixed.
• Spiritmaster – “Jointstrike: Destructive Attack”: the spirits’ joint attacks should now trigger immediately.
• Cleric – “Salvation”: for specialization no. 5, a bug is fixed that caused the effect preventing overlapping invulnerabilities to apply only to the caster and the party member with the lowest HP.

Combat and interaction fixes

• In Expedition, Transcendence and Sanctuary, the missing outline on important interactive objects when you hover over them is fixed.
• In “Consumed Deus Research Base”, the placement of monsters in front of the entrance to “Overseer Gromkas” changes.
• For the boss “Atiel” in the same dungeon, a skill that couldn’t be prevented with “Focused Block” or “Evasion Stance” is fixed.
• In Nightmare “Dream LayerⅡ”, the wrong camera position after being hit by a certain skill of the boss “Mutated Ulgorn” is fixed.
• After time runs out in Abyss Corridor, the resurrection interface now displays correctly when a dead character leaves.

For the related dungeon, we also have a Deus Research Base guide on the site.

Controls, privacy and interface

Skill presets: watch out for the reset

Skill levels can now be set separately for each skill preset. Because of this change, the skill levels in the second and third presets are reset. Make sure to set them again after the update.

The skill window will also let you raise or reset a level based on the original or preceding skill, even while its follow-up variant is selected. The HUD editor gets a gauge used for boss mechanics.

Streamer Mode and ground markers

• Streamer Mode is added to the settings under “Settings → Other → Account”.
• You can toggle hiding account details and hiding your own character name independently.
• With name hiding on, your character name is replaced with “@Player” in every part of the interface that displays it.
• The new “World Marker” let you place markers on the ground in the open world, Expedition, Transcendence, Sanctuary, Abyss and other listed areas.
• You open the markers with the button next to the minimap or with your own key binding in the menu settings. The same rules apply to them as to the existing markers, and their window can be moved.

Wardrobe, gear transfer and other quality-of-life changes

• For patterns in the Wardrobe, you can change width and height separately. With aspect ratio lock on, resizing works as before.
• The input material slot in the “Transfer” system is shown from the very first step.
• The “Transfer” confirmation window shows the result for the target item more clearly. Before continuing, you have to tick a box confirming that you checked the result.
• For Dimensional Invasion, after selecting the entry icon you first see the details, including the name and rewards, and only then enter.
• The mismatch between the Force order in the waiting room and inside the dungeon is fixed.
• When 30 minutes or less of your membership remain, the subscription icon in the HUD and menu shows the remaining time.
• A system message announces when your membership expires. If it expires while you’re logged out, you’ll see the message the next time you log in.

Other settings resets and fixes

• Because of the new “Seal” slot, the detailed accessory settings for quick-listing items for sale to NPCs and for quick transfers to server or personal storage are reset. Check them after the patch.
• Slots in list view are removed from the sorting options in the equipped items window.
• The server transfer tab is removed from the shop.
• Mini chat should no longer pop up for messages you’ve turned off with a filter.
• The description of the upscaler option in advanced graphics quality is fixed.
• While doing the episodic quest “Empyrean Monolith”, the world map will no longer wrongly show the markers for the opposing faction’s deity traces.

Events: first Sanctuary clears and cheaper appearance edits

Rewards for the first 20 Forces

The event “Be the First to Lift the Chalice: Snowfield of Sorrow” starts after regular maintenance on 9 September and ends once the twentieth Force clears the new Sanctuary. The ranking is determined by the time the final boss “Deltras” is killed. Only players who are in that Force at the exact moment of the kill receive a reward.

• First Force: each eligible member gets one title “First to Break the Sword of Bitter Cold and Frost” and one “Gilded Void” pet.
• Second to fifth Force: each eligible member gets one “Argent Void” pet.
• Sixth to twentieth Force: each eligible member gets one “Bronze Void” pet.

Rewards will be sent out after the detailed clear data has been checked. The exact date will come in a later announcement, and you’ll have one month to claim them from your mail. The event rules in this announcement don’t specify a difficulty; hard difficulty is explicitly named for the Hall of Fame.

“Daeva Look Change Week”

From maintenance on 9 September until maintenance on 30 September, the price of an appearance edit per part drops from 200 to 100 Quna. The number of edits isn’t limited. Through the palette icon in the Wardrobe, you can change the color, material, pattern and pattern color of clothing and weapon appearances you own.

New in the shop

According to the Korean announcement, the following cosmetic items are on sale from maintenance on 9 September until maintenance on 21 October. Prices in Korean won come from the PURPLE Store and may differ between stores.

Gear appearances, accessories, pet and wings

• “Neo Ranger Suit”: the set includes chest, helmet, gloves and boots appearances. It costs KRW 49,000 or one “Appearance Exchange Ticket (Set)”.
• “Dark Police Suit”: the set includes chest, pants, helmet, gloves and boots appearances. It costs KRW 49,000 or one “Appearance Exchange Ticket (Set)”.
• Each of these sets credits 4,900 Mileage when bought with money; using a voucher doesn’t.
• “Pinky Spin Helmet”: 300 Quna or one “Appearance Exchange Ticket (Single)”, with no purchase limit listed.
• “Agent Black Sunglasses” and “Twist Ring Piercing”: each for 300 Quna or one “Appearance Exchange Ticket (Single)”, each at most once per server.
• Pet “Pinky Spin Skateboard”: KRW 29,000 or one “Pet Exchange Ticket”, at most once per server. Buying with money credits 2,900 Mileage, a voucher doesn’t.
• “Cutie Drone Wings (Bound)”: KRW 29,000, at most once per character.

You can further customize the sets and the helmet, but not the sunglasses, piercing or these wings. None of these cosmetic items or the pet can be traded, deleted or moved to storage. You’ll find these items in the relevant Atelier categories through the shop or the Wardrobe.

Four new emotes

“Emote: Neo Ranger Azure Dragon”, “Emote: Neo Ranger White Tiger”, “Emote: Neo Ranger Vermilion Bird” and “Emote: Neo Ranger Black Tortoise” are being added. Each costs 300 Quna, comes as a “Bound” variant and can be bought at most once per character.

New Daeva Pass “The Flower That Blooms at Night”

You can buy the new pass in the subscription menu from maintenance on 9 September until 6 October 2026 at 05:00. You can complete missions and claim rewards until maintenance on 7 October. We give the time as stated in the Korean announcement, without conversion.

• The basic version costs 2,000,000 Kinah.
• The Premium version costs 1,000 Quna and also includes 30,000 “Soul Crystal(Bound)”.
• Purchases are limited to one per server.
• The main track has 50 levels. Additional levels earned after reaching 50 give repeatable rewards.
• One level can be bought for 50 Quna.
• You spend the coins you earn in the Pass Shop in the subscription menu.

How you earn XP

The weekly cap is 15,000 XP per character. The individual activities give:

• Logging in: 1,000 XP.
• Killing 10 monsters: 60 XP.
• Killing a player from the opposing faction: 100 XP.
• Clearing Expedition or Transcendence: 300 XP.
• Clearing Sanctuary: 700 XP.
• Taking part in Shugo Festa: 500 XP.
• Successful gear enhancement: 10 XP.
• Gear extraction: 10 XP.

Reward breakdown

The rewards repeat in several blocks. The following amounts apply to each listed level separately; the first number is for the basic pass and the second for Premium. All listed rewards carry the “Bound” mark.

• Levels 1, 14, 27 and 40: “Intellect Soul Crystal”, 300 / 2,000.
• Levels 3, 16, 29 and 42: “Wild Soul Crystal”, 300 / 2,000.
• Levels 5, 18, 31 and 44: “Nature Soul Crystal”, 300 / 2,000.
• Levels 7, 20, 33 and 46: “Transformation Soul Crystal”, 300 / 2,000.
• Levels 9, 22, 35 and 48: “Special Soul Crystal”, 300 / 2,000.
• Levels 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, 15, 17, 19, 21, 23, 28, 30, 32, 34, 36, 41, 43, 45, 47 and 49: “Soul Crystal”, 700 / 3,000.
• Levels 11, 24 and 37: three “Appearance Box: Weapon (10 uses)” in the basic pass, three “Shining Appearance Box: Weapon (10 uses)” in Premium.
• Levels 12, 25 and 38: three “Appearance Box: Armor (10 uses)” in the basic pass, three “Shining Appearance Box: Armor (10 uses)” in Premium.
• Levels 13, 26 and 39: three “Appearance Box: Accessory (10 uses)” in the basic pass, three “Shining Appearance Box: Accessory (10 uses)” in Premium.
• Level 50: “Shining Appearance Box (10 uses)”, 1 / 3.
• Repeatable rewards after level 50: “Soul Crystal”, 500 / 3,000.

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