How to reach item level 1,000 in Aion 2

Item level 1,000 is the first number that matters after level 45. It opens the Abyss, and the main story waits for it. If you rushed the story, you reach 45 at around 650. Players who explored along the way can be at 1,000 before they hit 45.

The 350 or so you're missing mostly doesn't come from dungeon gear. It comes from four things you do alone in the open world, and all four stay with you when you replace your gear.

What opens at 1,000

The Abyss: Chaotic Lower Reshanta, the zone where Elyos and Asmodians meet. The main story sends you there, so it can't go on until you reach 1,000.
Ascension Trial: Its Easy difficulty, a score-based dungeon you can enter a few times a week.

Time in the Abyss is limited: your usage time resets to 7 hours with the weekly reset on Wednesday, and it only runs while you're inside.

What counts toward item level

Gear: Everything you wear across 20 slots, which are your weapon and guard, seven armor pieces including the cloak, seven accessories, your amulet and belt, and two rune slots. Enhancing a piece and slotting Manastones raise its item level too.
Daevanion points: Every point you earn adds one item level.
Arcana: Cards from Transcendence, later on.

Combat power is a different number. Groups often ask for it, but entry gates check item level. Combat power and item level, explained covers both.

The four steps to 1,000

Clear sealed dungeons for Daevanion points. They're the question marks on your map, and every first clear gives Daevanion crystals. Since each point is one item level, this is the biggest source on the way to 1,000: the 61 sealed dungeons in Verteron or Altgard alone are worth 122 points, and over Season 1 you can collect around 360. Region quests give points too.
Collect Empyrean Traces for your amulet. Empyrean Traces are the glowing feathers all over the map. Bring them to your region's Monolith, which the quest Empyrean Monolith unlocks: each Monolith level gives permanent stats and Revelation Amulet Enhance Scrolls. Once the amulet is at +10, Substance Morph turns it into the next grade, from Rare to Epic and then to Unique at item level 65. Unequip the amulet first, or the recipe doesn't show.
Clear strongholds for your belt. Strongholds are the enemy forts on your home map, 15 of them. They show up as question marks like sealed dungeons, and the map's info panel tells the two apart. Each one is a one-time clear that pays Noble Belt Enhance Scrolls, and the belt climbs the same way as the amulet: +10, then Substance Morph, up to Unique at item level 65. After 45, rifts take you to the other faction's map, which has strongholds of its own.
Fill both rune slots with Clash Runes. Region quests hand them out. Upgrade each rune to +1 and stop there: past +1 an upgrade can destroy the rune. Two runes at +1 add about 80.

Do all four and you pass 1,000 without a single piece of dungeon gear. The amulet and belt are never replaced, only upgraded, so nothing you put into them is wasted.

Still short?

Run Draupnir's Exploration mode three times. It opens at 700, and the chest after the third run holds a guaranteed Unique armor piece.
Enhance what you wear to +10. Up to +10 enhancing can't fail. The daily dungeon pays Enhance Stones for it.

For what the Expeditions pay, see Aion 2 dungeon item levels and rewards.

What not to spend on yet

Clash Rune upgrades past +1. The rune can be destroyed.
Enhancing gear past +10 unless it's Unique. You'll replace it on the way to 1,400, and its levels are lost with it. Unique (yellow) pieces are different: Enhancement Transfer moves their enhancement levels onto the Unique piece that replaces them. Even then, bring everything you wear to +10 first, since past +10 a try can fail.
Good Manastones on gear you'll replace. A new piece comes with empty slots, and the stones stay on the old one.
Storage space for old gear. Extract everything that isn't yellow, unless you need it for a supply request.

Next: 1,400

Once you're in the Abyss, its own Empyrean Traces add about 50 more item levels. At 1,400 the second pair of Conquest dungeons opens, Urugugu Canyon and Vakron Sky Island, with item level 70 gear. The next guide in this series covers it: how to reach item level 1,400.