AION 2 Dungeons: Expeditions, Nightmare and Rewards
Five Dungeon Modes
Dungeons in AION 2 Global come in five main modes: Expeditions, Daily Dungeons, Transcendence, Nightmare, and Ascension Trial. Player reports also mention short solo Sealed Dungeons on the map, though they are rarer in Global. The first three serve different needs: Expeditions drop gear, Daily Dungeons pay out materials and Kina, and Transcendence is where Arcana Cards come from. Nightmare and Ascension Trial are solo modes with seasonal rankings.
Global launched on October 5, 2026, the level cap is 45, and there are no Heroic items in Season 1: the top grade is Unique. So everything below is about materials, Kina, and Arcana Cards, not Heroic gear.
The figures are accurate as of October 7, 2026. The servers have gone down for maintenance since then, so check exact thresholds and rewards in the client. Weekly counters reset on Wednesday at 7:00 UTC.
Expeditions: Exploration and Conquest
These are the classic five-player dungeons: for parties of up to five players. Each has three bosses, and the reward only appears after the final one. You can skip the first two, but the chest will be poorer.
Every Expedition has two difficulties. Exploration is easier, unlocks through the story quests, and pays bound Kina. Conquest asks for a higher Gear Score (GS), adds boss mechanics, and pays unbound Kina. According to player reports, Conquest is the version worth playing seriously, since the reward system is tuned around it. The requirements below come from community guides.
Expedition | Level | Exploration GS |
|---|---|---|
Krao Cave | 20 | 200 |
Urugugu Canyon | 28 | 300 |
Fire Temple | 35 | 500 |
Draupnir | 45 | 700 |
Vakron Sky Island | 45 | 1,400 |
Ferocious Horn Den | 45 | 2,100 |
These six dungeons are what the Global version has available at launch.
The whole economy of the mode revolves around the final chest. Its contents depend on how many bosses you killed, so do not skip the mini-bosses. Opening the chest costs Odyle Energy, which is the main limiter. Inside you can find gear, Kina, Enhancement Stones, Silentium, and Soul Codex items.
A separate weekly track rewards repeat runs of the same dungeon. That reward comes on top of the chest. There is also bad-luck protection: after a set number of opened chests you can pick a specific item from the list instead of a random drop. Players recommend working out which dungeons are worth the Energy for this, because not all of them are.
A practical target: many players aim for Vakron Sky Island on Conquest at 1,400 GS, because, in their estimate, the return per point of Energy is better than in the lower dungeons.
Daily Dungeons: Weekly Resources
Daily Dungeons are short solo arenas that unlock at level 30. You score points, and the reward depends on your final score. Despite the name, the limit is weekly: player reports say each server gets 14 entries per week, shared across all three dungeons, and the counter resets on Wednesday.
Daeva Bio-Research Base - fight waves of test subjects for Enhancement Stones. The maximum is 10,000 stones at 10,000 points.
Odylium Repository - collect Odyle Energy from unstable Odylium for Growth Pet Chests. Every 500 points add 4 chests, up to 80.
Crobakhi's Secret Depository - collect coins for bound Kina. Every 500 points add another 10,000 Kina, up to 300,000 at 10,000 points.
Because the attempts are shared, every entry into one dungeon is taken from another. Pick by what you lack right now. If you are short on Enhancement Stones, Daeva Bio-Research Base is your main source.
Before each run the game offers three random effects and you choose one. The best, according to players, boost damage or movement speed, while minor healing and defense bonuses usually lose to them. Mind the wording: "damage tolerance reduced" means the enemy takes more damage, while "damage reduced" lowers what the enemy deals to you.
The stronger your character, the higher your score, so the mode scales with you. Spend your entries during the week, since the counter resets on Wednesday.
Transcendence: The Road to Arcana Cards
This is a seasonal five-player dungeon for level 45. Global Season 1 has two: Deus Research Base and Shattered Arkanis. The season started on September 30. Each dungeon has four stages, and every stage asks for more GS and adds modifiers. According to guides, the thresholds are 1,600, 1,900, 2,200, and 2,500 GS.
The route differs from Expeditions. According to player reports, before the final boss opens, you need to collect 110 points: each mini-boss gives 45, each regular enemy gives 2. Both mini-bosses give 90, and ten regular enemies cover the rest. You cannot skip all the packs between the bosses.
Stage modifiers stack. The second stage adds zones left by fallen elite enemies, the third makes enemies hit harder at low health, and the fourth gives the boss a unique mechanic: an explosive Judgment effect in Deus Research Base, and a larger stagger gauge in Shattered Arkanis.
The main value of the mode is Arcana Cards. They let you raise skills past what skill points and Daevanion boards allow, and according to player reports they are how skills reach level 16. Other drops include Amplify Stone Fragments, Silentium, Enhancement Stones, Soul Codex items, and Kina. Opening the chest costs 40 Odyle Energy at any stage, and higher stages give better rewards.
There is also a seasonal ranking within each class. Points depend on difficulty, clear time, enemies killed, and deaths. Changing party members after entry, according to player reports, voids the run's points. Top players of the season receive titles and Talisra helm skins. These are cosmetic and do not affect combat stats.
Nightmare: A Ladder of Bosses
Nightmare unlocks at level 45 and works as a solo ladder. You pick a boss and a challenge level, and each boss has ten. Player reports say you can skip the low levels if your gear allows it.
The mode lives apart from Odyle Energy: it has its own attempts, its own currency called Phantasmal Fragments, and its own shop. The mode has seven bosses, and the main one is Zikel's Apparition. For example, according to player reports, Gatekeeper Pinopi is tuned for item level 1,000 at challenge level 1 and 1,600 at level 10.
Rewards. A first clear of a level pays noticeably more fragments than a repeat. At level 10 of Gatekeeper Pinopi, player reports give 900 against 180.
Shop. Fragments buy consumables, upgrades, wings, skins, and statues.
Attempts. Player reports say 14 by default, 2 more every day, up to 30 stored. You can bank them and spend a batch when you are ready for a high level.
Instant Clear Tickets. They claim the rewards of an already cleared level without a fight, but ranking points are not awarded that way.
Seasonal rewards are similar in spirit to Transcendence: class-based titles and cosmetic helms.
Ascension Trial: Score Attack on a Clock
A solo level 45 dungeon: several rooms of enemies and a final boss. According to guides, Global currently has one active trial, Nightmare Altar, with four difficulties.
Easy: item level 1,000.
Normal: 1,500.
Hard: 2,000.
Extreme: 2,500.
Entering spends an attempt immediately, not after a successful clear. A failed run also costs one of your weekly attempts, of which you reportedly get three by default. So do not jump into Extreme just because you barely meet the requirement.
According to player reports, the top difficulties apply a constant debuff: regular enemies hit harder once their health drops to half. Finish packs quickly.
The reward depends on your final score. At 7,000 points the maximum is up to 3,500 Enhancement Stones, plus Growth Pet Chests, Amplify Stone Fragments, and Ascension chests. The seasonal ranking uses your best result, and season rewards here are titles only.
What to Run and in What Order
While leveling, clear Exploration Expeditions. At level 45 switch to Conquest and build up GS. In parallel, spend all 14 weekly Daily Dungeon entries, picking the resource by need. Once you reach the first stage of Transcendence, it becomes your main source of Arcana Cards.
Nightmare and Ascension Trial fit between group runs: they are solo and do not spend Odyle Energy. Do not forget Nightmare: the attempt pool grows up to 30, and it is easier to spend it regularly than all at once.
Odyle Energy is the main limiter. A chest costs 40, and regeneration is 15 every three hours. A free account stores up to 560. Plan your spending ahead and use it where the return is highest.
Leaving Conquest or Transcendence without opening the chest also reduces the shared weekly quota of such runs, reportedly 10 runs per week. Also, the more runs you do in a week, the less Kina each chest pays; by the same reports, Arcana Cards and other rewards are not affected.