How to reach item level 1,600 in Aion 2

Item level 1,600 opens Transcendence, the content that drops Arcana cards, and every Arcana card you equip adds to your item level. This is part three of the series, after item level 1,000 and item level 1,400.

From 1,400 on, your gear finally comes from dungeons, and enhancing becomes the biggest single source of item level.

What opens at 1,600

Transcendence stage 1

Deus Research Base and Shattered Arkanis, the two Transcendence dungeons on global.

Party

Five players. Each run is scored on how fast you beat the boss and whether anyone died.

Rewards

Arcana cards. The higher the stage, the higher their grade.

Since the October 28 patch, stage 1 bosses hit 15% less hard and have 6.5% less HP.

The steps to 1,600

1. Run Vakron Sky Island's Exploration mode three times. The chest after the third run holds a guaranteed Unique armor piece at item level 70, which on a weak slot is worth 30 item levels or more.
2. Farm Urugugu Canyon and Vakron Sky Island on Conquest. Urugugu for your weapon and accessories, Vakron for armor and the guard, all at item level 70. Swap out your lowest pieces first, and keep Odyle energy for the reward cubes.
3. Enhance everything you wear. This is the big one, explained below.
4. Keep the permanent upgrades going. Sealed dungeons and strongholds on the other faction's map, Daevanion Crystals from the Shugo Festival and your crafted accessories all still count. The 1,400 guide covers them.

Enhancing: the biggest step

Every enhancement level raises a piece's item level, and across 20 slots that adds up fast: most of the climb from 1,400 to 1,600 is enhancing. A plan that works:

• Unique pieces: +11. It's the first step that can fail, but at 65% the odds are still good, and Enhancement Transfer keeps the levels when you replace the piece.
• Bracelets and the guard: +10.
• Everything else: around +8.

How enhancing works on Unique gear:

Up to +10

It always succeeds.

Past +10

+11 has a 65% chance, then 50%, 35%, 25% and 20% up to +15. Every failure adds 5% to your next try, so a bad streak can't go on forever.

Enhancement Transfer

When a new Unique piece replaces an old one, it moves the old piece's enhancement levels and Soul Binding stats onto the new one. The new piece keeps its own Manastones, and the old piece's stones don't come along.

Cost

An item level 70 piece takes about 630,000 Kina and 25,000 Enhance Stones to go from +0 to +10.

Enhance Stones come from:

Sealed dungeons

Every first clear gives some.

The daily dungeon

Daeva Bio-Research Base. It shares its entries with Odylium Repository, which pays Soul Crystals instead.

Sealed Wings

Substance Morph turns them into Enhance Stones, up to 20 times a week per server.

Once you're at 1,600

Run Transcendence stage 1 and fill your five Arcana slots: Bell, Chalice, Compass, Mirror and Parchment. Each card adds its own item level, about 20 for a grey card and 40 for a green one, and enhancing a card adds a little more. Five green cards are worth about 200, most of the way to 1,900, where stage 2 opens. That's the next step in this series.

What not to spend on yet

• Enhancing past +11. From 50% down each level takes more tries but still adds one item level, so your Enhance Stones go further on pieces below +11.
• Superior Manastones on item level 70 gear. Save them for the item level 86 and higher pieces you'll keep.
• Selling or extracting a Splendent craft. It's the ingredient for the next tier of the same item.