At level 45, you can be around 700 Gear Score with your main story still unfinished. Your AION 2 guide to 1400 starts with green quests and Daeva Board points, +10 story weapon and guard, two Clash runes, upgraded belt and amulet, and selected yellow dungeon pieces with mana stones. Reach 1000 to finish the story and upgrade its bracelet, then reassess after each new piece until you hit 1400 and open two-star dungeons.
Which number are you trying to raise?
The character screen looks like it has two competing power ratings. Read the larger number as Gear Score, your progression target here, and the blue number as Combat Power. You need both: raising an entry score and improving offensive or defensive stats are related, but they are different goals.
Weapon and story-bracelet enhancement improve score and combat stats together. Early mana-stone rolls can help you reach a gate without being your ideal combat rolls. Check the larger number after equipping each upgrade before spending energy on another reward.
What should you finish before farming dungeons?
- Finish your green quests, sealed dungeons and strongholds. Sealed dungeons appear as question-mark markers; your faction's map can look different from the Elyos map shown here. Use the AION 2 interactive map while clearing these activities.
- Use the Daeva crystals from your bag, then spend the resulting points on your Daeva Boards. Receiving crystals alone is not the finished upgrade.
- Equip two Clash runes. Specific green quests award them; another route is level-one Nightmare first clears, followed by the Growth trade shop using the first-clear tokens.
Check: points should be allocated on the board and your Gear Score should rise. Board benefits also add Combat Power. Two Clash runes contribute 60 Gear Score each, so adding both to a 700-score setup would put it at 820 before other upgrades.
Clash runes can break when an upgrade fails. Keep two equipped and improve spare runes as you acquire them, then swap in stronger ones. Losing an equipped rune works against the score you are trying to build.
Which equipment upgrades get you to 1000?
Start with the yellow Spirit Forged weapon and guard you receive while leveling. Enhance both to +10 and add mana stones through the enhancement menu. These are your early foundation.
Check: both equipped pieces should show +10. Reopen the character screen after socketing and equipping them to see your new score.
Your green belt and amulet have a separate upgrade route:
- Enhance the green pieces to +10 and use the upgrade scrolls obtained from strongholds.
- Unequip them and use Substance Morph to turn them blue.
- Equip them again. For the later push to 1400, bring the blue pieces back to +10 and advance them to yellow.
Check: inspect the resulting rarity and make sure both pieces are equipped again. Their yellow upgrades give another substantial score increase, but enhancement costs plenty of stones. If that is your bottleneck, use the AION 2 refining stones guide alongside this route.
Open Expedition → Exploration → Draupnir and loot three times for the pity box. Three clears without taking loot are not the same thing. Select a yellow upgrade from the box; extra drops are a bonus.
Enhance item-level-54 yellow pieces to +5 and use lesser or intermediate mana stones, aiming for at least two green rolls. Workable score gains matter more than perfect combat stats here. Save superior stones for a piece you intend to keep.
Check: receive the selection box after the third loot, equip and enhance your chosen piece, then look for 1000 Gear Score on the character screen.
What changes when you finish the main story?
At 1000, follow the yellow main-story quests into the Abyss and finish the story for its bracelet. Bring it to +10 or +11. Enhancement improves item level, attack and defense, making this a strong investment for both Gear Score and Combat Power.
This is the better place to use a superior mana stone or soul stone and aim for two yellow rolls. Yellow rolls add more score than green or blue rolls, but the desired result is not guaranteed. Your other bracelet comes from a quest in your own faction; look for item level 43.
Check: equip the story bracelet and inspect its enhancement level and stats. Confirm the new total on your character screen before farming the next bracket.
How do you close the gap to 1400 without wasting energy?
Treat early Conquest rewards as individual upgrades. If you get a yellow hat, enhance it to +5 or +10, add mana stones, equip it, and check your Gear Score. Then decide whether you still need that dungeon.
Three item-level-54 yellow dungeon pieces can be enough to reach 1400 alongside the other upgrades on this route. That is a combined setup, not a guarantee from three unenhanced drops.
| Remaining gap | Useful action | How to confirm progress |
|---|---|---|
| Unspent board points | Use crystals and allocate points | Board allocations and Gear Score increase |
| Blue belt or amulet | Advance it to yellow | Yellow rarity on the equipped piece |
| New yellow dungeon piece | Enhance and socket before farming again | Enhancement level, stone rolls and updated score |
| More board crystals needed | Participate in Shugo Festival and buy crystals in its shop | Purchased crystals are used and points spent |
| Enhancement stones running low | Clear opposing-faction strongholds and sealed dungeons through a rift | Stones appear in your bag for the next enhancement |
The early white Nightmare bosses are another activity to tackle around the 1000 bracket. For belt and amulet enhancement stones, use a rift to reach the opposing faction's map and clear its strongholds and sealed dungeons.
If you already have an unenhanced upgrade or unspent board points, finish those before taking more dungeon loot. Recheck your score after each change so you can move on as soon as you reach the next gate.
Which route should you choose at 1400?
Recommended: Sky Island exploration, then Conquest
Loot Sky Island in Exploration three times for its pity box and choose your biggest upgrade. Then move to Sky Island Conquest. This gives you a planned reward to build around instead of needing a lucky weapon drop.
A practical reward order is a breastplate from Exploration, then gloves from the Conquest reward if you still need them. Aim for combat speed on gloves; if you already have gloves, choose boots and aim for movement speed.
Check: collect the pity reward, equip your selection and enhance it. Continue toward 1600 with the story guard and bracelet plus your yellow belt and amulet still contributing.
Greedier option: Urugugu Canyon
Urugugu Canyon drops accessories and weapons, including weapons for other classes. Choose it if you want to gamble on those slots. One player got a useful weapon this way, but the drop pool makes that less predictable than choosing a Sky Island pity reward.
Check: inspect the weapon type before counting a drop as progress. Equip a usable upgrade, enhance it, and compare your score again. A weapon you cannot use does not close your current gap.
How do you keep progressing beyond 1600?
At 1600, start Transcendence for AION 2 Arcana cards. Run its different encounters to obtain cards for your slots and equip them in the Arcana menu. Aim for S grade and green cards before spending time perfecting their stats.
| Milestone | Next score gains | Check before moving on |
|---|---|---|
| 1600 to 1800 | Five green Arcana cards contribute 40 each, totaling 200 | All five slots contain green cards; compare against your starting setup |
| Toward 1900 | Finish card replacements and remaining equipment enhancements | Character Gear Score reaches the stage-two gate |
| 1900 toward 2000 | Stage-two blue cards add 20 per slot over green, totaling 100 across five | Blue replacements are equipped in the Arcana menu |
| Toward 2100 | Replace blue or lower-tier yellow gear with two-star yellow upgrades | Compare the equipped replacement's score and mana-stone slots |
The full 200 from green cards is their contribution, not an extra 200 on top of cards already occupying those slots. Your total gain depends on what you replace. A yellow Sky Island cloak is one way to close the later gap: replacing a blue cloak adds score and an extra mana-stone slot.
Beyond 2100, repeat the Exploration pity-reward loop in three-star content, replace armor through Conquest, and pursue weapon and accessory upgrades in Fire Temple. Stage-three Transcendence provides the next Arcana rarity step. Higher enhancement targets bring AION 2 amplify stones into the plan; keep crafting materials and choose longer-term pieces before committing heavily to +20.
Reaching 1400 gives you access to two-star dungeons and a route toward 1600, then Arcana progression. Take your next guaranteed upgrade, check the equipped result, and use the AION 2 gear progression hub when choosing the next system to improve.