The Abyss is AION 2’s main PvP zone – a huge floating territory between the worlds of the two factions, where players fight over artifacts and earn Abyss Points. It is not the Abyss you remember from 2009. This guide covers AION 2, not the original AION. The zone has the same name, but you capture different objectives there, and the big fortress sieges are missing at launch.
The zone as a whole is called Reshanta and it is split into layers that NCSOFT added one by one. Abyss Points buy PvP gear, manastones and Stigma Shards, so the Abyss is not optional fun for people who love fighting. It is a full progression system.
Before you get into the numbers: every mechanic described here comes from the Korean and Taiwanese version, which has been live since 19 November 2025. The global version launches in early access on 30 September 2026 for Founder’s Pack owners and goes fully free for everyone on 5 October 2026. NCSOFT has not said anywhere what content it will launch with.
The essentials in five points
- The Abyss is back in AION 2, but rebuilt. Instead of fortresses you capture artifacts, the factions have separate servers, and the Abyss matches those servers against each other.
- It is made of layers that were added season by season: a lower one with full flight, a middle one with gliding only, and a surface layer that you actually can’t enter if you are too strong.
- This is where you earn Abyss Points (AP). Without them you won’t finish your PvP gear or max out your Stigma skills.
- PvP outside the Abyss is optional: since 21 January 2026 the game has had a PvP/PvE mode toggle. Inside the Abyss you can’t turn it off.
- Big fortress sieges and full-scale GvG are missing at launch. Instead you get artifact battles, arenas and battlegrounds with 10 players per side.
What the Abyss is and why it matters so much in AION 2
The Abyss is a huge floating zone between the territories of the two factions, and it is the main place where players fight other players in AION 2. The zone itself is called Reshanta, and the two terms are used almost interchangeably: the Abyss is the system, Reshanta is the place.
Combat here takes the form of RvR (Realm vs Realm), meaning large faction-against-faction clashes. Who fights whom depends on the choice between Elyos and Asmodians. We cover it in the article on the Elyos and Asmodian factions, because you make that choice in your first minute of play, it can’t be undone, and it also decides which server you’ll play on.
The importance of the Abyss comes down to one thing: it is the source of Abyss Points. They buy PvP gear, PvP manastones, runes and above all Stigma Shards, which unlock and upgrade your character’s strongest abilities. If you never go into the Abyss, you’ll hit a ceiling sooner than everyone else.
To be fair, there is also a caveat the community keeps raising. The PvP guide on questlog.gg sums up AION 2 as a game that “addresses faction imbalance with separate servers, brings back Rifting, a potentially time-gated Abyss and instanced arenas”. The term “time-gated” is a legitimate concern: part of the Abyss content is tied to weekly and seasonal caps, which we get to below.
The Abyss in 2009 vs. the Abyss in AION 2: what actually changed
This is the most common source of confusion. Search engines still serve wiki pages about the original game for AION 2 queries, so players end up mixing two sets of mechanics together. The differences are not cosmetic. Before you dive into the fight for the Abyss, gear up outside the game too – the GamersTogether shop has AION 2 merch.
| Element | Original AION (2009) | AION 2 |
|---|---|---|
| What you fight over | Fortresses and their sieges | Artifacts and Artifact Siege |
| Faction servers | Elyos and Asmodians on the same server | Separate servers; the Abyss matches them against each other |
| Entering the zone | Abyss Gate after campaign quests from level 25 | Main menu → Abyss section → choose a layer |
| Battle size | Hundreds to thousands of players | Smaller clashes; big sieges and GvG are missing at launch |
| PvP outside the zone | Forced, in the open world | Optional, with a toggle since 21 January 2026 |
| Flying | Everywhere | Depends on the layer: full flight in some, gliding only in others |
The first row matters most. In the original AION you captured fortresses, in AION 2 you capture artifacts, and with that change the whole ritual of hours-long sieges that veterans remember is gone too. For a broader comparison of the two games, see the article AION Classic vs AION 2.
The Abyss layers and the order they were added in
The Abyss is not one map but several layers stacked on top of each other. At launch only the lower one existed; more were added with each season, and each has different flight rules and entry requirements. The overview below applies to the Korean and Taiwanese version.
| Layer | Added | Flying | Entry requirement | Artifacts |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lower Reshanta | Launch, 19 November 2025 | Full flight; rings speed up flight and refill flight time | No restrictions | 3 |
| Middle Reshanta | Season 2, 21 January 2026 | Restricted | Based on item level | +3 (6 in total) and Artifact Siege |
| Chaotic Middle Reshanta | Season 3, 8 April 2026 | No flying: walking, running and gliding on air currents only | Based on item level | Marked on the map |
| Surface layer | Chapter 1, 1 July 2026 | Not stated | Only up to item level 4300 or 400,000 Combat Power | None, and no bosses either |
Item level is a combined number for the strength of your gear, while Combat Power sums up the strength of your whole character. On the surface layer they work as a cap, not a ticket: if you go over the limit, you get kicked out of the zone and lose an hour of the time you’re allowed to spend there.
Watch out for the reversed logic. You’d intuitively expect the top layer to be the hardest endgame. It’s the opposite: the surface layer is a protected space for weaker characters, so overpowered players can’t crush them. It holds up to 300 players per faction and has neither artifacts nor bosses.
The layers also differ in how you move around. In the lower one you fly without limits, while in Chaotic Middle Reshanta flying is not allowed and you travel by gliding along air currents. What wings can do in AION 2 and why they’re not just cosmetic is covered in the article on the flight system.
On top of that, different sources spell the zone’s name differently: besides Reshanta you’ll also run into Ereshranta and Ereshulanta. It’s the same zone with different transliterations of the Korean original; this article sticks with Reshanta.
How to get into the Abyss in three steps
- Open the game’s main menu.
- Go to the Abyss section.
- Choose the layer you want to enter and confirm the transfer.
No gates, no campaign quests. In the original AION you entered the Abyss through gates after completing the campaign quests, starting at level 25. AION 2 doesn’t work like that, and answers describing that mechanic belong to the 2009 game.
Artifacts and Artifact Siege: what you fight over in the Abyss
In AION 2 the main objectives you capture are artifacts, not fortresses. An artifact is a structure that can be taken, and holding it gives the whole faction a bonus. The fight over it is called Artifact Siege, and it’s the closest thing to a siege the game has.
According to community sources, capturing artifacts is the most reliable source of medals, the game’s second PvP currency. That makes it an activity you can’t avoid in the long run, even if large-scale battles aren’t your thing.
Season 2 (21 January 2026) added two practical improvements: teleporting straight to the artifact after a battle ends and an improved Artifact Resonance. Both cut down the time spent running across the map.
According to one source, the middle layer also grants a stacking buff called Reshanta Aura for killing enemies, which grows stronger with kill streaks. Nobody has independently confirmed this yet.
The surface layer has no artifacts at all, which is further proof that it’s not meant for endgame but for getting weaker characters up to speed.
Abyss Points: how you earn them and what they’re for
Abyss Points (AP) are AION 2’s PvP currency and by far the most important thing you take home from the Abyss. You spend them on PvP gear (so-called Abyss gear), manastones that only work in PvP, runes, Afel tiles and Stigma Shards.
Stigma Shards are the strongest link in the whole game: you buy them with Abyss Points in the Abyss Exchange Shop. That means you can’t max out Stigma skills without PvP. The Stigma system and the Abyss are connected, not two independent systems. If you want a fully tuned character, you need both.
AP income is capped. Since Season 2 there has been a weekly limit of 100,000 AP from hunting monsters and another 100,000 AP from fighting players, plus a seasonal cap of 2,500,000 AP. One source also lists a weekly limit of 400,000 AP from commission merchant quests.
The table below sums up where AP comes from. This is community data, not official NCSOFT numbers: the publisher hasn’t released any reward table, so treat the values as a rough guide.
| Activity | Approximate reward | Note |
|---|---|---|
| Arena | ~100 AP per win | Lowest reward, but no waiting |
| Battleground | 2,000 AP per win | Reportedly 10× per week |
| Shugo festival | 200–4,000 AP | Event |
| Rift event | 200–4,000 AP | Incursion into the other faction’s territory |
| Solo dungeon in enemy territory | 500 AP | – |
| Daily quests | 5 × 500 AP | – |
| Killing players and monsters in the Abyss | Variable | Subject to weekly caps |
You lose AP when you die, but it’s a fixed amount, so low-rank players don’t risk much. Season 2 also added rank buffs that give weaker players a higher percentage of AP from farming, letting them catch up with everyone else.
Now the question almost everyone asks: according to MMOExp, PvP gear can’t be bought with real money; you have to earn it in game. That claim comes from a single source, which also happens to sell in-game currency, so take it with a grain of salt. How the game’s monetization really works is covered in the article on pricing and the cash shop.
Abyss Points can’t be exchanged for the game’s regular currency. How that currency works and why it pays to keep an eye on its daily cap is explained in the article on the in-game currency and economy.
Medals and ranks: the second currency people forget about
Besides Abyss Points, you also collect medals in the Abyss in three tiers: silver, gold and platinum. Without them you can’t reach the higher ranks of PvP gear, even if you have enough AP.
You get them from achievements and seasonal missions, from killing bosses in the Abyss (generals and marshals drop gold, commanders drop platinum), from capturing artifacts, and by crafting them from fragments, which reportedly has about a ten percent success chance. On top of that, the patch from 9 September 2026 gave eight types of bosses in the Abyss Rift Zone temporary invulnerability when their health drops.
The patch from 25 March 2026 loosened the system considerably: it added weekly challenges rewarded with medals, allowed downward conversion (one platinum for two gold, one gold for two silver) and removed the per-tier purchase limits in the Abyss gear shop. The medals themselves, however, remain limited to five per tier per week.
According to the available description, PvP gear ranks go from rank one to rank three, with Centurion above them. Rank four was still unavailable when the source was written. This is community data: NCSOFT hasn’t published a medal reward table or a breakdown of the ranks.
Arenas, battlegrounds and Rifting: PvP outside the open Abyss
The open Abyss isn’t the only form of PvP. Alongside it the game offers instanced arenas, balanced battlegrounds and Rifting, meaning incursions into the other faction’s territory. Each of these formats has its own rules and its own rewards.
| Mode | Size | Normalized stats? | Note |
|---|---|---|---|
| Arena of Solitude | 1v1 | No | Gear decides |
| Arena of Cooperation | 4v4, 5v5 since Chapter 1 | No | Changed together with the larger party size |
| Battleground (Arena of Tactics) | 10v10 | Yes | Called Sandstorm Temple since Chapter 1 |
| Rifting | Variable | No | PvP requires both sides to flag |
The normalized mode is the most interesting entry in the table. On the battleground the game equalizes everyone’s stats and also forces Mastery skills to level 20 and Stigma skills to level 25. So skill decides, not who has better gear. It’s also the best evidence of how tightly the Abyss, battlegrounds and the Stigma system are tied together.
Rifting refers to rifts that let you break into enemy faction territory every few hours to reach exclusive PvE content. Fighting there isn’t automatic, though: both sides have to opt in themselves, which is called flagging. Some veterans see this as a softening compared to the original game.
What the game is missing: large fortress sieges, full-scale GvG between guilds, Dredgion and Kamar Battlefield. Legions, as guilds are called in AION 2, do exist, but without a full system for fighting each other. The details are summed up in the article on legions and how to run them.
The group limits after Chapter 1 frame the whole picture: a party has at most 5 players, a large group called a Force has 20, a Sanctuary-type dungeon 10, and battlegrounds are 10 against 10. So AION 2 is aiming for smaller clashes, not mass sieges, and some commenters under videos from the Taiwanese server share that impression.
A practical note on controls: in large fights most players reach for classic Tab targeting, because it gives you a better view of your surroundings than aiming with a crosshair. Why the game offers both and how to switch between them is covered in the article on the combat system. This matters most with classes that rely on stealth, such as the Assassin, whose sudden appearance is often the first warning in the Abyss. How the other classes hold up in PvP is summed up in the class overview.
What Chapter 1 changed in the Abyss (Korean and Taiwanese version)
All changes in this section happened on the Korean and Taiwanese version, which has been live since 19 November 2025. They are not confirmed for the global version.
The update’s official name is “Chapter 1. Lands of Sand and Snow” and it was released on 1 July 2026. In discussions and on some international sites you’ll also come across the community version “Land of Sand and Frost”. It’s the same update.
- A new surface layer of Reshanta with a cap of item level 4300 or 400,000 Combat Power and a capacity of 300 players per faction.
- Sandstorm Temple replaced the previous Cradle of Odd Shards battleground, and the format grew to 10 against 10.
- 5v5 Co-op Arena, 5-player parties, Force of 20.
- Higher rewards both for winning and just for taking part, in Abyss Points as well as medals.
- A new currency, “Fragment: Aspel’s Trace”.
The same period also includes the earlier patch from 25 March 2026, which changed the faction logic of the Abyss: in matchmaking, players of the same faction can now meet as enemies (Rift of Time/Space remains the exception). For a veteran of the original AION this is a big conceptual shift, since faction membership is no longer an absolute boundary. The same patch also halved healing received in the Abyss, on battlegrounds and in arenas. You’ll find the full breakdown in the Chapter 1 patch notes overview.
NCSOFT’s official press release for Chapter 1 also mentions a “Battlefield: Siege” mode with three zones to capture, which doesn’t appear in any other source. It’s unclear whether this is another name for Sandstorm Temple or separate content.
Will the Abyss be the same in the global version?
We don’t know, and NCSOFT hasn’t said. The publisher still hasn’t announced what content the global servers will launch with, and even the developer account’s pre-launch FAQ on Steam doesn’t address it. So it isn’t confirmed that the global version will get all four Abyss layers right away.
The question of Chaotic Abyss also remains open. It’s an RvR format that splits players into West and East forces at server level regardless of race, outside the traditional Elyos and Asmodian divide. NCSOFT announced it on 25 March 2026 for the Korean service, and it hasn’t appeared in any global material yet. The factions themselves are confirmed for the global version, Chaotic Abyss is not.
A practical detail for Founder’s Pack owners: during early access the Abyss only matches early access servers, and the Cross-Server Market doesn’t open even at full launch. So the five-day head start will matter less in PvP than you might think. What the Founder’s Packs include is covered in the article on early access.
The gear you farm in the Abyss can also be upgraded further. How that works and where the risk threshold lies is described in the article on gear enchanting.
Ping spikes in AION 2? Code MAGIC takes 62% off LagoFast.
LagoFast is a game booster that optimises the route to the game server. After registering you get 4 hours free, so you can check whether it helps on your server before paying – and the code MAGIC gets you 62% off your first order. Step by step in our LagoFast guide, or try it with the discount.This is an affiliate link. If you buy through it, GamersTogether earns a commission. It doesn’t affect your price or what we write here.
FAQ
Abyss Points are AION 2’s PvP currency. You use them to buy PvP gear, manastones that only work in PvP, runes, Afel tiles and above all Stigma Shards, which upgrade your strongest abilities. You earn them in the Abyss, in arenas, on battlegrounds and from daily quests. Income is subject to both weekly and seasonal caps.
Open the main menu, go to the Abyss section and choose the layer you want to enter. You don’t need any gates or campaign quests. Watch out for the surface layer: you can only enter it with an item level up to 4300 or up to 400,000 Combat Power, otherwise the game kicks you out.
No. The name and the basic idea stayed, but the mechanics changed. Instead of fortresses you capture artifacts, the factions have separate servers, and the game has neither large sieges nor full-scale GvG at launch. Entering through gates after campaign quests from level 25 doesn’t apply either; that’s a mechanic from the 2009 game.
To some extent, yes. Stigma Shards, which take skills to their maximum level, are bought with Abyss Points, and those mostly come from the Abyss. You can farm some AP by hunting monsters, but without fighting other players you’ll hit a ceiling sooner than everyone else.
No. Since 21 January 2026 the game has had a toggle between PvP and PvE mode, so outside the Abyss you can avoid fighting other players. Inside the Abyss you can’t turn it off. With Rifting, meaning incursions into the other faction’s territory, both sides also have to opt in to a fight.
According to MMOExp, no: you have to earn Abyss gear in game. But that claim comes from a single source that also sells in-game currency, so don’t treat it as a guarantee. The game is free-to-play with an optional membership for $15 a month, which unlocks the auction house and the currency exchange.
Nobody has confirmed that yet. NCSOFT hasn’t announced what content the global servers will launch with, so it’s not certain how many Abyss layers will be available right away or whether Chaotic Abyss will come. Early access starts on 30 September 2026 for Founder’s Pack owners, and the full free-to-play launch is on 5 October 2026.
The Abyss is one of the most frequently changed parts of the game: between November 2025 and July 2026 alone it received four major updates, and on the Asian servers patches come out practically every Wednesday. That’s why we’ll go through this article again after the global launch and add numbers verified directly in the global client. You’ll find the other guides in the AION 2 guides section. Information verified as of 10 August 2026.