Enchanting in AION 2 means upgrading your gear by levels (+1, +2, +3…) using Enhancement Stones and the in-game currency Kina. Up to +10, success is guaranteed. Above +10 you can fail, but the item is never destroyed or downgraded. A failed attempt uses up the materials and raises your chance for next time. If you later break the item down, you get the stones back. The Kina, however, is gone.
This guide covers AION 2, not the original AION from 2009. The difference matters most for exactly this system: in the old game, items could be destroyed during enchanting, while in AION 2 that cannot happen. Yet most of the pages a search engine shows you for this query describe the old game, and one of the top results claims the exact opposite of what is true in AION 2.
The mechanics below are based on the Korean and Taiwanese version, which has been live since 19 November 2025 and received the big Chapter 1 update in July 2026. The global version launches in early access on 30 September 2026 (Founder’s Pack owners only), with the full free-to-play release on 5 October 2026, on PC. NCSoft has not yet confirmed which of these systems will make it into the global launch build.
The five things that matter most
- Up to +10, enchanting always succeeds. Above +10 it comes down to luck, but even then you can’t lose the item.
- A failure neither destroys the item nor lowers its level. This sets AION 2 apart from the original AION and from most MMORPGs, where gear breaks during upgrades.
- Every failure raises your chance on the next attempt. Sooner or later the upgrade will succeed; the only question is how much material it costs.
- When you break an item down, you get back all the Enhancement Stones, but not the Kina, manastones or theostones. So the real cost of enchanting is currency, not stones.
- Since Chapter 1 (1 July 2026, Korean and Taiwanese version), enchantment inheritance has a 100% success rate, and materials lost to earlier failures were refunded to players retroactively starting 8 July 2026.
How enchanting works in AION 2
To enchant a regular piece of gear, you need just two things: Kina and Enhancement Stones. Kina is the in-game currency (veterans of the original AION know it as “Kinah”, but official AION 2 materials spell it Kina). The Enhancement Stone, sometimes written as Enhance Stone, is the basic enchanting material and drops from practically everything you do in the game.
The exceptions are three slots that need one extra item: the amulet, the belt and the pendant. They get their own section below. The rest of your gear works simply: open the enhancement screen, pick a piece, confirm, and its level goes up by one.
Every enchantment level raises the item level of the piece, and with it your character’s overall Gear Score. Gear Score is simply the sum of the item levels of all your gear, including added enchantment levels. There is no hidden math behind it. That is exactly why you can’t put off enchanting forever: content is locked behind Gear Score.
A concrete example from the game data: the Krao Cave dungeon has a Gear Score threshold of 200 in Exploration mode, 1,000 on normal difficulty and 2,400 on hard. Without enchanted gear you simply won’t get into the tougher versions, no matter how good you are at the game otherwise.
Where to get Enhancement Stones
- Quests and the main story: the most reliable and cheapest source while you level up.
- Daily dungeons: a steady supply you can count on. There’s an overview in the article on dungeons in AION 2.
- Hideouts (sealed dungeons): according to a translation of a Korean leveling guide, your first clear of a hideout gives 15,000 Kina and 500 Enhance Stones. That is the biggest one-time injection of materials in the early game.
- Subjugation battles: group content that showers you with both stones and currency.
- Breaking down gear you don’t need: every piece you don’t want is material. In the game this step is called extraction, and it has its own section below.
Your material income is therefore tied directly to how much content you can get through in a day. Where it pays off most to linger while leveling is covered in the leveling guide, and it’s worth reading before you start planning where to pour your resources.
A practical note on the controls: the enhancement screen opens via the Enhance all option and also shows gear stored in your inventory, not just what you’re wearing. So you don’t need to swap anything back and forth.
Eight materials that are easy to mix up
The biggest confusion around gear enchanting isn’t the mechanics, it’s the names. There are eight materials, they have similar names, and different sources translate them differently. Here they are side by side, an overview you won’t find anywhere else.
| Material | What it’s for | Where to get it | Introduced |
|---|---|---|---|
| Enhancement Stone (Enhance Stone) | Basic enchanting of weapons, armor and accessories | Quests, daily dungeons, hideouts, gear extraction | Since launch |
| Breakthrough Stone | Breaking through the regular enchantment cap | Quests, daily dungeons, subjugation battles | Since launch |
| Draconic Essence / Radiant Draconic Essence | Highest pendant levels | Expedition and Sanctuary dungeons | Chapter 1 (older materials merged) |
| Enhance Scroll (amulet, belt) | Required extra item for two slots | Strongholds, Abyss shop | Since launch |
| Manastone | Socketed into weapons and armor, adds stats | Crafting and loot | Since launch |
| Spirit Stone | Same thing, but for accessories | Crafting and loot | Since launch |
| Mysterious Crystal | Refining Arcana | Arcana extraction, seasonal shop and missions | Since launch |
| Pure Crystal (Soul-bound) | Locking one Arcana property | In-game rewards, cannot be traded | Chapter 1 |
A rule that makes this list easier: the first four items upgrade the item as a whole, the other four add or change its properties. If you’re not sure what you’re holding, ask yourself whether it raises the item’s number or gives it an ability.
Risk and reward: safe up to +10, a lottery above +10, but you keep the item
Up to +10, enchanting succeeds every time. From +11 upward you can fail, but a failure doesn’t cost you the item or the level you’ve reached, only the materials. That’s how the developer stream from 1 October 2025 described it, as reported by Massively Overpowered: players can enchant up to a total of +10 without any fear of failure, and failures start to appear beyond that point.
It pays to know exactly what does and doesn’t happen when you fail:
- The item is not destroyed. It stays in your inventory exactly as it was.
- The enchantment level does not drop. A +12 item doesn’t become +11 after a failure.
- The materials are consumed: the stones and Kina you put into the attempt.
- Your success chance goes up. Each new attempt is more likely to succeed than the one before.
One source gives a specific number: +5% chance for every failed attempt. Treat it as a rough community figure, not an officially confirmed mechanic. The official wording only says the chance increases gradually; NCSoft hasn’t published the exact value.
Watch out for guides from 2009
One of the top search results is a discussion forum thread from 22 October 2009 that claims breaking down an item destroys it. It describes the original AION. In AION 2 it’s the other way around: breaking items down is a normal, recommended step that gets your materials back. Anyone who reads only that snippet in the search results walks away believing the exact opposite of what is true.
The same goes for the general definition of enchanting that the search engine pulls from a wiki for the 2009 game. That definition happens to be roughly accurate for AION 2 too, but nothing else on that page is. How the two games really differ is covered in our comparison of AION Classic and AION 2.
The key takeaway from this section: the risk in AION 2 isn’t losing an item. It’s spending Kina on something you’ll replace in a week. And that is exactly what the next section is about.
Gear enchanting is only half of your character’s power, though. The other half comes from skills, and how you can tweak them is explained in the article on the Stigma system.
What you get back and what you don’t (and why Kina is the real cost)
When you extract, meaning break down, an enchanted item, you get back all the Enhancement Stones you put into it. You don’t get back the Kina, manastones or theostones. Fextralife puts it plainly: the only thing refunded when extracting an enchanted piece is Enhancement Stones, not the Kina, manastones or theostones used on that piece.
| What you put into the item | Refunded on extraction? | Note |
|---|---|---|
| Enhancement Stones | Yes, all of them | Full refund regardless of the level reached |
| Kina | No | Spent currency is gone; this is the real cost of enchanting |
| Manastones | No | The socketed stone disappears with the item |
| Theostones | No | Same as above |
| Item appearance | Yes | Added to your wardrobe; appearances you didn’t own yet also give stats |
| Abyss Points (PvP gear) | 80% | Applies to gear bought with PvP points |
The last two rows are worth highlighting. Extraction isn’t just recycling, it’s also how you unlock appearances for your wardrobe, and every new one adds stats. So breaking down an old piece you won’t use again makes sense even when you don’t need the stones right now.
PvP gear has a different and better refund rate: you get back 80% of the Abyss points you put in. How you earn those points and what you can buy with them is described in the article on the Abyss as the main PvP zone.
The practical conclusion of this whole section fits into one sentence: stones are a loan, Kina is an expense. That leads to the only rule you really need in this system: enchant anything you like, but only push deep on items you’re keeping.
This shifts the real cost of enchanting into your character’s economy. How much Kina you can realistically earn per day, what caps the game puts on earnings and where the currency disappears fastest is covered in the article on Kina and the in-game economy.
Amulet, belt and pendant: three slots that are enchanted differently
Besides Kina and stones, the Amulet of Revelation and the Belt of Nobility also need their own Enhance Scroll, a different one for each. They are the only two slots with a special requirement, and they’re also the ones recommended to enchant first.
The reasoning is simple: sooner or later you’ll swap the rest of your gear for a better piece, and your investment in it is lost. You never replace the amulet and the belt; instead, they move up through quality tiers. Whatever you put into them stays with you.
The quality ladder looks like this: Rare +10 → substance morph to Epic (back to zero) → +10 → Unique → +10 → Heroic. The last tier only arrived with Chapter 1, and no other guide covers it yet. Specifically, Chapter 1 added the Heroic Belt of Nobility, Amulet of Revelation and Amulet of Battle; a blueprint turns a Unique +10 amulet or belt into its Heroic version, which is then enchanted with the Amulet of Battle Enhancement Scroll from the Abyss shop.
According to the only available source, belt Enhance Scrolls come from strongholds. Treat this as unconfirmed: no one else backs it up.
The Pendant is a new slot from Chapter 1 and is enchanted with completely different materials: Kina plus Breakthrough Stones plus Draconic Essence, and for Unique quality and above, also Radiant Draconic Essence. Rare and Heritage quality pendants, as well as the materials for them, drop from quests in the new regions.
| Slot | Extra requirement | Where it comes from | Priority |
|---|---|---|---|
| Amulet of Revelation | Its own Enhance Scroll | In-game rewards, Abyss shop | First (you never replace it) |
| Belt of Nobility | Its own Enhance Scroll (different from the amulet one) | Strongholds | First (you never replace it) |
| Pendant | Breakthrough Stones + Draconic Essence | Quests in Eltnen and Morheim, dragon dungeons | Once you reach the new regions |
| Weapon and armor | Nothing extra | – | Weapon second, everything else kept to a minimum |
If you play on the Taiwanese server and haven’t reached the new regions yet, you simply don’t have a pendant, and that’s fine. It’s not a slot you’ll miss on your way through the levels. What awaits your character in Eltnen and Morheim has its own article.
Breakthrough and Draconic Essence: the layer for players who have maxed out
Breakthrough is a step beyond the cap that only unlocks once an item reaches its maximum enchantment. It’s not a daily routine but an endgame layer. Sources disagree on where exactly that cap lies: one description talks generally about “maximum enchantment”, another about the +15 mark.
Breakthrough Stones come from the same sources as regular Enhancement Stones: quests, daily dungeons and subjugation battles. So you don’t have to hunt for them anywhere special; there are just fewer of them, as you’d expect. Just like you enhance your gear, you can upgrade your wardrobe too – check out the AION 2 merch at the GamersTogether shop.
Draconic Essence and Radiant Draconic Essence are the endgame materials for the pendant. Chapter 1 merged the earlier dragon materials Horn, Hide and Scale from Expedition and Sanctuary dungeons into them. Conversion also works both ways, between the essences and the processed dragon materials used for crafting.
If you have old Horn, Hide or Scale materials sitting in storage, you haven’t lost anything: the merge was retroactive. That’s less common with big updates than you’d expect, and it’s worth pointing out.
Inheritance: 100% since Chapter 1 (and what was refunded retroactively)
Inheritance means transferring enchantments you’ve already invested from an old item to a new one. Instead of the new piece starting at zero, it takes over the level you ground out on the old one. It’s the one system in this article you don’t need to know at all, and at the same time the one that most changes how you should treat your items.
Chapter 1 (1 July 2026, Korean and Taiwanese version) did three things to it at once:
- Inheritance now has a 100% success rate. Previously you could fail and lose the materials.
- The cap on the number of inheritances is gone. How many times you transfer an enchantment is no longer limited.
- Advanced Inheritance got a fixed maximum cost of 50,000,000 Kina. So the price has a ceiling, which means you can plan for it.
On top of that there’s a fourth, rather unusual change: materials lost to earlier failed attempts were refunded to players retroactively from the game logs, starting 8 July 2026. NCSoft made the change based on player feedback and didn’t just apply it going forward.
But beware of the wrong conclusion this news invites. “Inheritance is 100%” is easy to read as “enchanting is safe now”. It isn’t. Inheritance didn’t remove the risk, it only moved it. The gamble above +10 still applies, and Kina is still not refunded.
Inheritance is also used when crafting top-tier gear. The blueprints for the Genesis and Nemesis Dragon Lord sets require existing Dragon Lord armor as an inheritance material, and the same goes for Abyss gear (Centurion is inherited into Legion Commander). The details of the whole July update are summed up in the article on the Chapter 1 patch notes.
Where enchanting ends and crafting begins
Enchanting and crafting often get mixed up, yet they answer two different questions: “how do I make an item stronger” (this article) and “how do I make the item in the first place” (crafting). The line between them is fairly sharp in AION 2, and it’s worth knowing because each system spends different resources.
| Question | Belongs to | Typical resource |
|---|---|---|
| How do I raise the level of an item I have | Enchanting | Enhancement Stones + Kina |
| How do I make an item from scratch | Crafting | Gathered raw materials + professions |
| Where do I get manastones | Crafting | Recipe and profession |
| How do I socket a manastone into armor | Enchanting | Socketing on the item |
| How do I convert dragon materials | Enchanting | Two-way essence conversion |
| Which profession should I pick | Crafting | There aren’t enough points for all of them |
The two systems meet in one place: the best gear in the game. Crafted gear can be the best available for a given slot, and it’s fully tradable, so some players don’t grind out their endgame piece but buy it instead. How professions are chosen, which choice is forced on you and why there aren’t enough points for everything is covered in the article on crafting and professions.
A practical rule for deciding: if you’re working out what to enchant an item with, you’re in the right place. If you’re working out where to get the item, head to the crafting article.
Arcana: where to get it, how to refine it and what extraction costs
What Arcana is for and how it raises skill levels is explained in the article on the Stigma system. This section is about where to get it and how to upgrade it.
There are two generations of Arcana, and no other source lists them side by side. The older set comes from Transcendence dungeons, the new one arrived with Chapter 1, and part of it hasn’t even been released yet.
| Generation | Types | Drops from | Note |
|---|---|---|---|
| Older set | Bell, Compass, Grail | Transcendence dungeon Deus | Grail drops from both dungeons |
| Older set | Mirror, Parchment, Grail | Transcendence dungeon Arcanis | – |
| New set (Chapter 1) | Key, Hourglass | Transcendence | Available since 1 July 2026 |
| New set (Chapter 1) | Dice, Lantern | Transcendence | Coming in a later update |
Farming it comes with one unexpected rule: higher Transcendence difficulties also give the lower-tier rewards, so it always pays to play the highest difficulty your character can handle. Playing a lower difficulty “to be safe” is a pure waste of time.
Refining is how you upgrade Arcana. The material is Mysterious Crystal (5 or 15 pieces depending on the type) plus Kina. Refining takes Arcana up to Unique quality, and along the way you choose its additional properties. The source’s advice is clear: pick two properties you want and refine toward them. Rerolling everything over and over is the most expensive approach there is.
You get Mysterious Crystals back by extracting Arcana. Extraction fills a gauge based on the quality of the piece you break down, so breaking down Arcana you don’t need isn’t a loss. Other sources are the seasonal shop and seasonal missions.
Chapter 1 also added locking a single property on Arcana, for 500,000 Kina and a Pure Crystal, which cannot be traded. This applies to the Prelude of Punishment, Protected Soul and Indomitable Dedication sets.
Which specific Arcana combinations are worth it for which class doesn’t belong here; the individual class guides cover that. You’ll find links to them in the class overview.
Soul imprints, manastones and another layer of stats
Besides enchantment levels, gear has a second layer: properties that get added to it. These aren’t competing systems, just another way to get more out of the same piece. It’s enough to know they exist and to be able to tell them apart.
Soul imprint (soul engraving) is a property an item receives automatically the moment you first equip it. You can change it with Soul Scrolls from in-game events and exchange shops, and strengthen it by using the same item again as material.
A practical warning you won’t find elsewhere: once you change a soul imprint, the item can no longer be traded. If you wanted to sell it, do that first.
A soul imprint can also raise the Mastery level of skills. What that means for the skills themselves belongs in the article on the Stigma system; here it’s enough to know that it happens through your gear.
Manastones are socketed into weapons and armor, Spirit Stones into accessories. Both add stats, and a simple rule applies: the higher the stone’s quality, the stronger the effect. Alongside them there’s also the Divine Stone, elsewhere called a godstone or theostone, which gives an item a special effect and is obtained through Transcendence content.
Chapter 1 also added a new family of “Frontal” stats, which your character gets through soul engraving and socketed stones, among other things. And a reminder that applies to this whole layer: manastones and theostones are not refunded on extraction. Socket them into gear you’re keeping.
What to enchant first: rules that work in every patch
The order below is based on the one property of the system that never changes: stones come back, currency doesn’t. That’s why the best investment is the one you’ll never have to abandon.
- Amulet and belt first. You never replace them with a better piece, you only move them up through quality tiers, so your investment in them is never lost.
- Weapon second. The speed at which you clear content multiplies everything else: more runs mean more materials and faster progress.
- The rest of your gear only to the bare minimum, until you have a piece you know you’re keeping.
- Don’t hesitate up to +10. In terms of risk it’s free, and you get the stones back when you break the item down.
- Above +10, only invest in items you’re keeping. From here on you’re spending Kina that doesn’t come back.
- Before a big investment, check whether you’ll be able to inherit it. Since Chapter 1, inheritance is a sure thing, and that changes the order in which it pays to spend.
And one question that always comes up at this point: can you get around enchanting with money? Not directly. Founder’s Packs are purely cosmetic, and paid content is presented as not affecting progression. The context is more complicated than it sounds, though, and it’s covered in the article on price, the free-to-play model and the cash shop.
One more slot deserves a special mention, since many players don’t think of it as enchantable gear at all: wings. They can be enchanted up to +10 with a 100% success rate and add attack, defense and accuracy, so they aren’t just cosmetic. The details are in the article on wings and flying.
Did enchanting work the same way in the original AION?
No. In the original AION from 2009, enchanting was a gamble in which the item could be destroyed. In AION 2 that can’t happen. It’s the most important difference between the two games for this system, and also the most common source of confusion.
| Original AION (2009) | AION 2 | |
|---|---|---|
| Failed enchantment | The item could be destroyed | The item stays, its level doesn’t drop |
| When the risk starts | Practically from the start | Only above +10 |
| Breaking down an item | “Disenchant”: the item was sacrificed | Extraction: returns stones and the appearance |
| Repeated attempts | No effect on the chance | Every failure raises the success chance |
| Transferring enchantments to a new piece | Didn’t exist | Inheritance, with a 100% success rate since Chapter 1 |
Why we stress this so strongly: several results on the first page of search results for this topic describe the 2009 game, including the very first one. They aren’t bad articles, they’re just about a different game, and the search engine doesn’t tell them apart. You’ll find a detailed comparison of the two games in the article AION Classic vs AION 2.
Will it be the same in the global version?
NCSoft hasn’t confirmed anywhere yet what content the global version will launch with. We also checked the developer account’s pre-launch FAQ on Steam, and the topic isn’t addressed there at all.
For this article, that has a concrete consequence. Inheritance with a 100% success rate, the pendant slot, Draconic Essence and the new Arcana set are all Chapter 1 content, meaning the 1 July 2026 update for the Korean and Taiwanese version. The basics (Enhancement Stones, the +10 threshold, stone refunds) have been in the game since launch and are more likely to make it into the global version. That isn’t confirmed, though.
What is confirmed: early access starts on 30 September 2026 and is for Founder’s Pack owners, and the full free-to-play release for everyone is on 5 October 2026, on PC only. The exact dates and what comes with them are covered in the article on the release date.
And one important point for this article: Founder’s Packs are purely cosmetic and give no head start in gear enchanting. The Daeva’s Campaign Supply Chest is identical in all three tiers; only the appearances differ. The full breakdown of contents is in the article on early access and Founder’s Packs.
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FAQ
No. In AION 2, a failed enchantment neither destroys the item nor lowers the level it has reached; you only lose the materials you put in. This sets the game apart from the original 2009 AION and from most MMORPGs. Guides that claim otherwise describe the old game, not AION 2.
Up to +10. According to the developer stream from 1 October 2025, you don’t need to worry about failure at all up to this level; failures start to appear above it. Even then, a failure doesn’t cost you the item, only materials and time. On top of that, every new attempt is more likely to succeed than the one before.
All the Enhancement Stones you put into it, plus the item’s appearance for your wardrobe. The Kina, manastones and theostones are not refunded. For gear bought with Abyss points, 80% of the points you put in are refunded. So the real cost of enchanting is currency, not stones, and that’s exactly why deep enchanting only pays off on items you’re keeping.
The amulet and the belt. They’re the only two slots you never replace with a better piece; instead they move up through quality tiers, so the resources you put into them are never lost. The weapon comes second, because the speed at which you clear content multiplies everything else. Enchant the rest of your gear only to the bare minimum.
Inheritance means transferring enchantments you’ve already invested from an old item to a new one. Since Chapter 1 (1 July 2026, Korean and Taiwanese version) it has a 100% success rate, the cap on the number of transfers is gone, and Advanced Inheritance has a fixed maximum cost of 50 million Kina. That doesn’t mean enchanting is risk-free, though: the gamble above +10 still applies.
Because they aren’t regular pieces of gear. Instead of being replaced with a better piece, the Amulet of Revelation and the Belt of Nobility move up through quality tiers, so on top of Kina and stones the game requires a dedicated Enhance Scroll for each of them, a different one for each slot. They are the only two slots with a special requirement.
No, it was much harsher. In the 2009 game an item could be destroyed on failure, and “disenchant” meant sacrificing the item. In AION 2, by contrast, breaking an item down is a normal step that returns materials, and the risk only starts above +10. So don’t rely on guides for the original game when playing AION 2, even though the system has the same name.
Where to go next
Gear enchanting is one of the systems in AION 2 that are more connected than they first appear: materials flow from dungeons, money from the economy, and the other half of your character’s power from skills. You’ll find links to all the guides in the AION 2 guide.
The mechanics described here are based on the Korean and Taiwanese version, which has been live since 19 November 2025 and received the Chapter 1 update in July 2026. The enchanting system got two major changes in 2026 alone, so it’s worth coming back to this article after the global version launches. Information verified as of 10 August 2026.