AION 2 Enhancement & Gear Guide: Rates, Pity, Costs

AION 2 enhancement is the single biggest Kinah sink in the game, and it is also where most bad advice lives. Plenty of gear guides still quote Korean-server rates or mix up the three separate upgrade tracks. This AION 2 gear guide reads every number straight from the global client files: the success rate of each step, the pity bonus after a failure, the Kinah and stone cost, and which items can actually lose a level.

There are three tracks to learn. Enhancement takes gear up to its normal cap. Amplified Enhancement pushes maxed Unique gear past that cap. Potential adds PvP stats to Unique gear. Manastones and Theostones sit on top of all three. If you want to run your own numbers while you read, the enhancement calculator uses the same curves.

How does enhancement work in AION 2?

Every weapon, guard, armor piece and accessory has an enhancement curve: one row per level with a success chance, a pity bonus, a Kinah fee and a stack of Enhance Stones. The curve depends on the item's grade, and the fee scales with item level. Item level never changes the odds, only the price. That matters because it means a cheap low-level Unique item is a perfect place to learn how the risky steps feel.

1. 1
   Open the Enhancement menu

   Pick the item you want to raise. The same menu also holds your Theostones, which the Theostone tooltip itself points to.

2. 2
   Pay Kinah and Enhance Stones

   Each attempt costs the Kinah fee plus Enhance Stones for that level. Item level 102 Unique gear costs 12,800 Kinah and 510 stones for +0 to +1, rising to 1,860,000 Kinah and 14,820 stones for +14 to +15.

3. 3
   Succeed or bank pity

   On a success the item gains a level. On a failure you keep the level, lose the materials, and the next attempt at the same level gets the pity bonus.

4. 4
   Max it, then branch out

   At +15 a Unique item can move on to Amplified Enhancement if it has a track, and Potential is a separate track you can level at any time.

AION 2 enhancement rates by grade

Here is the grade ladder as the game shows it, low to high: Common, Rare, Epic, Unique, Heroic, Mythic. In the global client every weapon, armor piece and accessory tops out at Unique. There is no Heroic or Mythic gear yet, so Unique is the endgame grade. Browse them by slot in the weapons, armor and accessories lists.

Only the last five Unique steps can fail. Everything else is a straight Kinah-and-stones purchase, which is why levelling Epic gear to +10 on the way up is never a gamble. Gear counts above are weapons, guards, armor and accessories (Arcana cards excluded).

Unique +10 to +15: success rate and pity

Every Unique curve uses the same five risky steps, from item level 36 to 102. The pity bonus is +5% per failure and only applies to the level you are on: once the attempt succeeds, the next level starts back at its base rate. Because pity caps your bad luck, each step also has a hard maximum number of attempts.

How much does it cost to enhance to +15?

Taking Unique gear from +0 to +10 is guaranteed, so the price is fixed. From +10 the cost is an average. We calculated the average below from the curve rows and the pity formula. Expect a total of about 22 attempts per item, 10 safe ones plus about 12 on the risky steps.

On item level 102 gear, the last two steps cost more than the first thirteen combined. The +14 to +15 step alone averages about 6.4M Kinah. If you are short, stop at +13 on secondary pieces and push your weapon first. For what +15 buys you: on Ludra's Blade of Extinction the enhancement effect table adds +174 to both minimum and maximum Attack at +15, on a base of 446–604.

Can you lose enhancement levels in AION 2?

No, not on regular gear. In the global client, failing an attempt on a weapon, guard, armor piece or regular accessory costs the Kinah and stones and nothing else. There is no break chance and no downgrade on any of these curves.

The one exception is the Clash Rune. It goes to +10, needs one Clash Rune Enhance Scroll per attempt on top of Kinah and stones, has no pity, and drops one level whenever an attempt fails. Its odds fall fast: 100% for +0 to +1, then 80%, 66%, 50%, 33%, 25%, 20%, 15%, 12% and finally 10% for +9 to +10.

What is Amplified Enhancement in AION 2?

Amplified Enhancement takes a Unique item past +15. The Amplify Stone (Unique) tooltip spells out the rule: it is used to amplify Unique gear that has reached its maximum enhancement level. Each Amplified level has its own odds and a pity bonus that shrinks as you climb.

Going all the way to +5 averages about 13.8 attempts, roughly 26.2M Kinah and 196 Amplify Stones (calculated). The final step is the real wall: with only +1% pity, an unlucky run can take up to 81 tries. The Amplified section of the calculator shows your odds for any start level.

How many Amplified levels does your gear get?

The Amplified cap only follows item level 70, 86 or 102 on crafted Splendent gear. The client gives every Unique item its own Amplified track, and non-Splendent gear gets more levels at the same item level.

What is Potential in AION 2? (breakthrough explained)

Potential is the third track. Every step always succeeds. Instead of Enhance Stones it costs Potential Stone: Abyss (Unique) plus Abyss Points, and it only adds PvP stats. The stone's tooltip says it works on gear that has been Soul Bound.

A full +4 costs 10 Potential Stones and 400,000 Abyss Points per item. The curve is labelled Abyss in the client, but it is not limited to Abyss gear: every Unique weapon, guard and armor piece in the item list has it, from item level 36 up. Potential Stones drop from monsters in Chaotic Lower Reshanta. The client also contains starred Potential Stones such as [Potential Stone: Weapon [★]](/aion-2/items/potential-stone-weapon-bound), but no Potential curve on listed gear uses them. Check the Potential table for each slot.

Item level and gear progression: which Unique gear to chase

Unique gear in the global client comes in 16 item levels: 36, 41, 43, 44, 45, 46, 51, 54, 56, 62, 65, 70, 78, 86, 94 and 102. Item level sets the enhancement fee and the Amplified cap, so moving up a tier matters more than squeezing one more level out of old gear. The top tier, item level 102, has 47 items: the Ludra's set from the Abyssal Forge Ludra raid, where you face Eternal Ludra, and the crafted Splendent Wise and Ebony Dragon Lord sets.

1. Item level 36–51
   Early Unique

   Quest rewards and field drops such as the Wisdom Greatsword. Enhance to +15 for practice and stats. These pieces have no Amplified track, so do not wait for one.

2. Item level 54–78
   Mid Unique

   Dungeon gear like the Aulamus line from Urugugu Canyon and the crafted Dragon Lord sets. These are the first pieces with Amplified levels (+1 to +3).

3. Item level 86–94
   Late Unique

   The Enraged Kromede Claymore drops from Fire Temple and the raid. Non-Splendent gear here reaches +5 Amplified, the same cap as item level 102.

4. Item level 102
   Best in slot

   Ludra's Heavenbound Staff, the Blade of Extinction and the rest of Ludra's set, or the Splendent Wise Dragon Lord crafts. +15, +5 Amplified and +4 Potential is the current ceiling.

Craft-or-drop is a real decision at the top. Ludra's weapons only come from the raid, while the Splendent sets come from crafting. Both share the same item level 102 enhancement and Amplified curves, so pick whichever you can finish first. Search any piece in the item database to see its drop sources.

How do manastones work in AION 2?

Manastones add random stats through slots on your gear. The tooltip of every manastone says the same thing: it can be engraved on Manastone slots in all weapons and armor, and the type and value of the stats are determined by chance. The number of slots is fixed by grade.

There are two families, each in three sizes. Regular manastones are Common grade: Lesser Manastone, Intermediate Manastone and Superior Manastone. The Abyssal family is Rare grade: Lesser Abyssal Manastone up to Superior Abyssal Manastone. Lesser Manastones drop from monsters in Verteron, Altgard and Chaotic Lower Reshanta. The bigger sizes come from Alchemy: an Intermediate Manastone takes 5 Lesser Manastones, 3 Spiritstone Powder and 2 Professional Ink (mastery 20), and a Superior takes 30 Intermediate, 10 Spiritstone Powder and 2 Exceptional Ink (mastery 85).

Theostones: which slot and which one to use

Theostones are proc effects for your weapon. All 51 of them are weapon-category stones: 17 Rare, 17 Epic and 17 Unique. In the item data, Epic and Unique weapons and guards have one Theostone slot, while Common and Rare weapons have none. You collect them as items, and the tooltip notes the obtained Theostone then appears in the Enhancement menu. See the full list on the Theostone page.

• Burst damage: Theostone: Tiamat's Rage (Unique) has a 1% chance on attack to deal 15,000 Fire damage to one target. The Epic version, Theostone: Traufnir's Courage, deals 10,000.
• Damage over time: Theostone: Zikel's Arrogance has a 5% chance to deal 600 Poison damage every 2s for 20s.
• Crowd control: Theostone: Meslamtaeda's Greed has a 3% chance to Stun for 3s, with a 5s activation cooldown.
• Cheap start: the Rare Theostone Chest grants one Rare-grade Theostone by fixed probability. Rare stones like Theostone: Aultross's Promise are weaker copies of the same effects.

Every Theostone tooltip ends with the same rule: only one effect applies when identical Theostones are engraved. Most damage stones have a 1s activation cooldown and the control stones have 5s, so for PvE the higher-chance damage stones are the steady pick and the control stones shine in PvP.

Burning Odyle is not an enhancement stone

Burning Odyle is not an enhancement material. In the client it belongs to gathering. Burning Odyle, Small Burning Odyle, Large Burning Odyle and Splendent Burning Odyle are all upgrade items for Odyle and Essence Extraction, the gathering skill. None of them appear in any enhancement, Amplified or Potential curve. The only materials those curves use are Enhance Stones, Amplify Stones, the rune, amulet and belt scrolls, Potential Stones and Abyss Points.

Enhancement checklist before you spend

• Level Epic gear to +10 freely: every step succeeds.
• Push your weapon to +15 before armor: it carries the Attack gain and your Theostone.
• Keep 12-plus attempts worth of Kinah and stones before starting +10 → +15 on a Unique item.
• Do not swap targets mid-step: pity is tied to the level you are failing on.
• Check the Amplified cap of a piece before you farm Amplify Stones for it.
• Level Potential on Soul Bound Unique gear you will keep for PvP.
• Engrave manastones and Theostones last, on gear you are not replacing soon.

Arcana cards are the other big power track and they use a completely different EXP-based system. Read our Arcana guide next.