Deus Research Base is the first Transcendence dungeon you can get into in AION 2. Entry requires Lv. 45 and, in the global version, item level 1,600 for the first stage, and you run it in a group of two to five. This guide shows you how its point system works, what changes across the four difficulty stages and why the final boss kills you if you don’t take him down in time.
Watch out for a mix-up right at the start: there are two instances with almost the same name. This article covers the Transcendence version. The other one, Consumed Deus Research Base, is an Expedition that sits at Lv. 50 and item level 3,800 in the Korean and Taiwanese version, while the global version has a level cap of 45. English guides refer to it by three different names, so it’s easy to confuse the two.
Deus Research Base at a glance
| Item level | 1,600 (Stage 1), 1,900 (Stage 2) |
|---|
Transcendence has its own menu in AION 2, not a tab under Expedition. In Season 1 of the global version it holds two dungeons, Deus Research Base and Shattered Arkanis. Submerged Life Temple, Mirror of Scarlet Desire, Noiran’s Hidden Legacy and Abyssal Horn Den belong to the Korean and Taiwanese line-up. Together with Shattered Arkanis, Deus Research Base is the entry tier of this whole content type.
The four stages raise the item level requirement and add effects
Each stage has its own item level requirement. In the global version Stage 1 asks for item level 1,600 and Stage 2 for 1,900, always at Lv. 45 and with two to five players. The reward of 300,000 Kinah for killing all the bosses doesn’t change with the stage.
On top of that come the Stage Effects. On the first stage the panel literally says that no effect is applied. On the fourth, three run at once:
| Effect | What it does |
|---|---|
| Balance | When an elite enemy of tier three or higher dies, it leaves a zone on the spot. Inside it, monsters deal more damage and you lose health over time. |
| Rage | A regular enemy’s damage goes up once its health drops to half or lower. |
| Judgment | Every hit from a boss applies the Judgment status to you. Once it stacks up, it explodes and deals damage to everyone around you, scaled to your health. |
In practice a higher stage asks for better gear at the door and a cleaner fight inside. The bosses themselves stay mechanically the same. They’re just stronger, tankier and affected by these effects. And the rewards on higher stages are significantly better.
The point system: why you can’t just run to the boss
Deus Research Base doesn’t work as a path from point A to point B. You have to collect points by killing enemies, and the counter sits at the bottom right under the minimap.
| Source | Points |
|---|---|
| regular enemy | 2 |
| miniboss | 45 |
| needed on stage 1 | 110 |
The math is simple. If you only farmed regular enemies, you’d need 55 kills. But once you take down both minibosses, you have 90 points right away and only need to finish off ten regular mobs. So it pays to go for the minibosses, not the trash.
Bosses and their mechanics
All three are level 45 and each has its own reward pool.
Gelcos: the first miniboss
The easiest of the three. He has lunges, some movement impairment and area attacks, but no mechanic you actually have to solve. If you dodge normally, he won’t kill you.
Nazmun: the second miniboss
One step harder. He summons laser lines that rotate across the whole platform and apply debuffs. You have to avoid them, but they won’t take you down in one hit. It’s still a fight you can get through just by paying attention.
Atiel: three phases and a timer that wipes the whole team
The final boss and the only place where you can actually fail Deus Research Base. The fight has three phases and they all revolve around one thing: the platform gradually crumbles beneath you.
- Once he has lost roughly a third of his health, Atiel jumps to the middle of the platform and starts charging. Then he blows up its edge. Anyone standing on the edge at that moment dies, and it’s a death that neither a Resurrection Stone nor a revive from a Cleric can undo.
- In the second phase he does the same and adds shadows and portals that knock you off the platform. Here it’s mostly about positioning.
- The third phase is a time limit. If you don’t kill Atiel in time, he destroys the last remaining piece of the platform and kills the whole team at once.
The practical rule: never stand on the edge. The center of the platform is the only spot that survives all three phases, and the fight is a race against time from the start, not a fight you can wait out.
Why Transcendence is worth it
The main reason isn’t Kinah, it’s Arcana. They raise Combat Power, unlock specialization levels and additional slots, and they tie directly into the endgame. Without them your character stops progressing. Deus Research Base drops them in three types and two variants, Vigor and Magic:
- Arcane Bell of Vigor / of Magic
- Arcane Chalice of Vigor / of Magic
- Arcane Compass of Vigor / of Magic
Alongside them you get Unstable Stigma Shards (on stage 1 one of five kinds is guaranteed) and Amplify Stone Fragments, which you need for enchanting your gear. The Kinah from a run comes in handy everywhere else; how to manage it is covered in the article on the Kinah economy. Higher stages add a guaranteed unique item, three epic and three rare Arcana and Theostones.
Stigma Shards tie directly into the Stigma system. Without them you can’t complete your skill set, and Transcendence is their main source.
How many players to bring
The entry requirement says two to five players, so the game doesn’t officially offer solo play. You can go through it solo, but you very likely won’t make it to the end. Atiel’s time limit is built around group damage and you won’t beat it alone. Before you head into the Deus Research Base, swing by the GamersTogether shop for limited AION 2 merch.
One more thing, to be honest: don’t come here with gear right at the entry threshold. Item level 1,600 gets you into Stage 1, and you only build it up after leveling to 45, but Transcendence is noticeably harder than regular dungeons at the same level and it’s built for a group of five. Come here for Arcana once you have something to work with.
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FAQ
It’s a separate type of group content with its own in-game menu, for two to five players. Each dungeon has four difficulty stages. They differ in the required item level and in so-called Stage Effects, modifiers that strengthen enemies and make the fight harder.
Level 45 and two to five players on every stage. The item level depends on the stage: in the global version it’s 1,600 for Stage 1 and 1,900 for Stage 2. Together with Shattered Arkanis, Deus Research Base is the easiest Transcendence dungeon in the game, both marked with one star.
110 on the first stage. A regular enemy gives two points, a miniboss 45. The fastest route is to kill both minibosses for 90 points and make up the rest with ten regular enemies. Higher stages require more points.
Atiel has a time limit. If you don’t kill him in time in the third phase, he destroys the last remaining piece of the platform and kills everyone at once. The second common cause is standing on the edge of the platform: he blows it up as soon as he loses the first third of his health, and not even a Resurrection Stone can bring you back from that death.
The game officially lets in two to five players, so a solo run isn’t supported. You can go through it, but because of Atiel’s time limit you probably won’t make it to the end. We recommend going with at least two players, ideally a full group of five.
Mainly Arcana in three types, Bell, Chalice and Compass, each in a Vigor and a Magic variant. On top of that, Unstable Stigma Shards, Amplify Stone Fragments, Soul Codexes and 300,000 Kinah for killing all three bosses. Higher stages add Theostones.
Boss mechanics, the point system and the Kinah reward come from our own run through the instance on 4 September 2026 on the first difficulty stage, before the global launch. Entry requirements and the Season 1 dungeon line-up of the global version verified as of 7 October 2026. You’ll find more instances in the dungeon overview, the neighboring Conquest tiers are covered in the guides to Draupnir and Urugugu Canyon, and everything else is in the AION 2 guide.