AION 2 Abyss Beginner Guide: Sieges, AP & First RvR

Updated 2026-10-20 · Global release (Season 1) · launch-window meta, subject to patches

AION 2 Abyss Beginner Guide: Sieges, Abyss Points and Your First RvR

The Abyss is what makes AION 2 different from every other MMO, and walking into your first siege with no idea what's happening is genuinely overwhelming — I've watched hundreds of wings fill the sky and had no clue who to hit. This is the calm, beginner version: how to get in, what the rules are, when the big fights happen, and how to contribute and earn rewards without getting lost. It covers the live global build as of October 2026.

What the Abyss actually is

The Abyss is Reshanta, the shattered zone left by the collapse of the Tower of AION, where the Elyos, Asmodians and the NPC Balaur all fight at once — pure PvPvE. Inside it you can attack players of the enemy faction at any time, regardless of your normal PvP flag setting. Your faction choice decides which camp you spawn in, but everyone shares the same battlefield.

The mindset that matters most: you're paid for objectives, not just kills. Chasing duels is fun, but players who show up for sieges, bosses and quests progress far faster.

How to get in (and the gear gates)

The Abyss unlocks at level 45 with no quest — just open the Abyss menu or use the portal.
Two ways in, both dropping you at your faction base in the lower layer:
Abyss Portal NPC in your homeland (Elyos: Garden of the Illusion God in Verteron; Asmodians: Black Claw Village in Altgard), costing 1 Return Scroll.
The Enter button in the Abyss menu.
Leaving costs nothing.
Item Level gates: 1,000 for the Lower layer and 3,000 for the Middle layer. Don't queue in undergeared expecting to survive focus fire — use the lower layer first.

The layers and your weekly time limit

Reshanta stacks in three layers — Lower, Middle and Upper — and each gated layer has its own weekly time allowance, so time in one doesn't drain the other:

7 hours of basic time per layer per week, reset on Wednesday.
Items called Rift Stones add time on top, up to a combined cap of 30 hours per layer (Lower Rift Stone = +1 hour, Lesser = +30 minutes; Middle stones are crafted from materials found inside Middle Reshanta).
When your time runs out you can't re-enter that layer until you refill or the reset.

So plan your week: don't burn all seven hours wandering AFK. Spend it around the scheduled events below.

Your base and what's in it

Each faction has a base in each active layer with everything you need: a general goods merchant, storage, a teleport tower, bind points, and the all-important Command Merchant. You can also bind field kibelisks around the lower layer to teleport back into the fight quickly after you die. Learn where your base exits and teleporters are before the siege starts.

Artifact Sieges — the main event

The factions fight over Artifacts, and the lower-layer siege runs on a fixed schedule: Monday, Thursday and Saturday, with an in-game warning before it starts.

Here's the simple version of the flow:

When the siege begins, a Dimensional Core appears at each artifact.
Both factions pile in and damage it. Whichever faction lands the last hit destroys the core, opening the artifact to be claimed.
Contributors earn Abyss Points based on their contribution — you don't need the killing blow, you need to be participating.
Claiming uses a Binding Entity next to the artifact and requires the minimum rank of Ninth-Class Soldier plus enough siege contribution. Binding pays out more Abyss Points.
Your faction then holds that artifact (with a layer-wide buff) until the next siege. After a capture, a short-lived Abyss Corridor opens as a high-value reward run — one of the fastest Abyss Point bursts available.

For your first siege, your job is simple: be in the area, hit the core and nearby enemies/Balaur, stay alive with your group, and follow the crowd to the Binding Entity. You'll earn participation rewards even if you don't fully understand the map yet.

Abyss Points, ranks and what to spend them on

Nearly everything in the Abyss pays Abyss Points (AP): sieges, field bosses, rifts, quests, and kills/objectives during events. Crucially, dying to another player does not directly deduct your AP in the current system, so don't hide in base out of fear of losing progress — you lose time and position, not your wallet.

Spend AP in the Abyss Trade Shop on PvP gear and PvP Daevanion upgrades. As you accumulate AP you climb ranks (Soldier up through Officer tiers to Commander), and your rank grants a passive buff to PvP damage, PvP defense and Abyss PvE damage that grows with rank. At season end you get the title for the rank you reached.

Two things to grab each week:

Commands from the Command Merchant at your base — weekly quests you complete inside the Abyss that pay AP, upgrade materials and even extra Abyss time. The middle layer also offers rare and player-kill command quests. Buy them before the Wednesday reset.
Field bosses (announced in-game) drop merit chests with AP and draw the enemy faction, turning into PvPvE flashpoints. A set of "Executor" bosses spawns after each Mon/Thu/Sat siege — stick around after the main fight.

The rules nobody tells you

Enemy PvP is always on in the Abyss, no matter your flag.
You can't group with the enemy, auto-battle doesn't work, and crafting/server-transfer are disabled inside.
For faction balance the game can move you to another channel and drop your party — if your group suddenly vanishes, that's why, not a crash.
Your nameplate can show your rank, and the map can reveal where high-rank players die — meaning you are a target. New to PvP? Don't advertise a high rank until you can defend yourself.

Surviving your first big fight

Review your flight first. The whole fight is three-dimensional; enemies drop in from above. Practice engaging from height and escaping upward before you siege — the aerial combat guide has the drills. Climbing breaks melee contact instantly.
Stick with your faction's zerg and a party. Solo players get focused down instantly in a siege; in the crowd you're harder to single out and you still earn contribution.
Don't chase. Chasing a lone enemy pulls you out of your faction's support and into theirs. Hit the objective, rejoin the group.
Bind a field kisbelisk near the fight so a death costs a short run back, not a long ride from home base.
Lower your graphics enough to hold frames when a thousand wings and effects appear — performance in crowds is its own skill; see the settings guide.
After the siege, do the post-siege Executor bosses and your Command quests while everyone's already organized — that's prime-time efficiency rather than wandering the Abyss alone at 3 a.m.

If you're not yet 45 or ilvl 1,000, focus on leveling to 45 and the level-45 checklist first; the Abyss will still be there after the Wednesday reset.

TL;DR

Level 45, no quest; Lower needs ilvl 1,000, Middle needs 3,000.
7 hours per layer per week, reset Wednesday; Rift Stones add time.
Sieges are Monday/Thursday/Saturday — hit the Dimensional Core, contribute, bind the artifact, then run the corridor and Executor bosses.
Earn Abyss Points for objectives (death doesn't remove them); spend them on PvP gear and PvP Daevanion.
Buy weekly Commands, fly in three dimensions, and stick with the group.

This guide is based on the global release as of October 2026. AION 2 is receiving frequent balance patches, so details may change. Unofficial fan guide, not affiliated with NCSoft.

This guide is based on the global release as of October 2026. AION 2 is receiving frequent balance patches, so meta may change. Unofficial fan guide, not affiliated with NCSoft.