AION 2 Patch Adds Hard Mode to Krao Cave and Draupnir and a New Ariel Daevanion Board

NC's October 21 patch for AION 2 adds a Hard mode to two Expedition dungeons, Krao Cave and Draupnir, and a new Daevanion board called Ariel that is filled with the new Hard mode rewards. The patch notes on Steam also let more players into the Abyss at once and give every Abyss boss more health.

The update arrived with the maintenance that began at 06:30 UTC on October 21. That was 2:30 PM in Singapore, Hong Kong and Taipei (GMT+8), 3:30 PM in Seoul and Tokyo (GMT+9), 8:30 AM in Central Europe (CEST), 7:30 AM in London (BST), 2:30 AM in New York (EDT) and 11:30 PM on October 20 in Los Angeles (PDT).

How Hard mode works

You need item level 2600 to enter. Bosses go into Frenzy after 4 minutes, and each player gets only 3 revives, so a group that survives Normal by picking each other up will have to play cleaner here.

The rewards are the reason to bother:

• A chance at Philosopher's Stone: Revelation (Bound), which you can also choose as the guaranteed reward.

• Ariel Fragments (Bound), with the type of fragment depending on the dungeon.

• A chance at an Expedition Hero Artwork.

• More Kina than Normal difficulty pays.

• Every Unique crafting material from both dungeons, including Wrathful Mind, Wrathful Will and Wrathful Ego.

New achievements cover Expedition (Hard) clears and collecting Hero Artwork, and some of them unlock Unique skins.

The Ariel Daevanion board

Ariel Fragments are the way into the new board. With Substance Morph, 100 fragments become one Daevanion Crystal: Ariel (Bound), up to 30 times per character, and that is how Ariel Daevanion Points are earned. NC says the amount you can gain this way is capped for each dungeon. A single fragment can also be turned into 5 Enhance Stones as often as you like, so spare fragments never go to waste.

Abyss changes, class fixes and a revive event

The Abyss now accepts more players. To keep pace, the Dimensional Core in the Lower Abyss and all Abyss bosses have more HP, and the bosses Kaira and Argo have slightly larger hitboxes. NC also eased the system that stopped some players from listing gathered materials on the Market, although the limit stays in place for others.

Class changes are fixes only. Chanter's Spinning Strike now shows its effects properly. Sorcerer gets several Frostbite fixes on Cold Storm, plus a Fire Wall fix: it had been dealing extra damage to targets without Embers, so some Sorcerers will see a little less damage.

A new event, Rise to the Challenge, sells Resurrection Spiritstones (Season 1) for Kina: 30 for 25,000 Kina, then 30 more for 50,000 Kina, each limited per server per week. It runs until the maintenance of December 15 by Pacific time (December 16 by Central European time). No start time for that maintenance is given yet.

NEXTARCA's take

This is the first real step up for players who have outgrown Normal Expeditions. The 3 revive limit matters more than the timer, because it stops groups from brute forcing mechanics, and that should make a Hard clear mean something.

The Ariel board is the long term hook. A cap of 30 crystals per character rewards steady weekly runs more than marathon nights, which suits players with less time. Selling cheap revives for Kina in the same week is a fair touch. On the PvP side, a fuller Abyss with tougher bosses should mean bigger fights, and the first week will show whether the servers cope.