AION 2 Expedition Hard: 2600 to enter, only three revives
Krao Cave and Draupnir Hard list item level 2600, a four-minute Frenzy timer and three revives per player. Entry checks, rewards and Ariel Fragment recipes.
Published
Stockpiling stones does not allow endless revives in AION 2's announced Hard mode: NC limits each player to three revives. The official Expedition Hard explanation also lists item level 2600 and a four-minute Frenzy timer for Krao Cave and Draupnir. These are the Global conditions checked on October 21, 2026, and the checks to make before forming a group.
2600 is an entry threshold, not a promise of an easy clear
Hard is a new difficulty for Expedition dungeons. The October 20 PDT / October 21, 2026 European-calendar patch names exactly two: Krao Cave and Draupnir. The entry requirement is item level 2600, an equipment-level measure. It is different from character level or an arbitrary recruitment rating.
Check the dungeon, selected difficulty and your item level first. Meeting the threshold establishes the formal entry requirement. It does not prove the group will win or promise acceptance into any player-created group. A leader's higher recruitment request does not become a new official mode requirement.
Open the original entry, Frenzy and revive conditions at full size. This extract from NC's document preserves all three conditions without redrawing.
Four minutes and three revives are different restrictions
Hard sets the boss's Frenzy timer to four minutes. The same list separately limits each player to three revives. That is not three shared revives for the entire group. The timer is not a success guarantee: this paragraph does not explain Frenzy's exact effects, counter resets or every condition ending an attempt.
Alongside this, NC announced Resurrection Spiritstone sales for Kina, the in-game currency, in Rise to the Challenge. Consumable availability and permitted revive count are separate conditions. Buying stones does not override Hard's explicit limit. Agree on what the group does after a death before fighting, rather than after the counter runs out.
Hard rewards: a chance and a selectable reward
New rewards include Philosopher's Stone: Revelation (Bound). NC lists both a chance to obtain it and the option to select it as a guaranteed reward. Those are different statements. Do not turn a chance into a promise of an extra guaranteed drop; check the available selection in your reward window.
The announcement also lists Ariel Fragment (Bound), a chance of Expedition Hero Artwork and more Kina than Normal. It gives neither exact drop percentages nor a Kina amount here. Both Hard dungeons list Unique materials Wrathful Mind, Wrathful Will and Wrathful Ego. Unique Skins are announced for Expedition (Hard) achievements; that does not promise a skin for the first clear.
100 Ariel Fragments: check the recipe and its limit
Ariel Fragment is a reward material whose variety depends on the dungeon. Through Substance Morph, the material-conversion system, NC allows 100 fragments to become one Daevanion Crystal: Ariel (Bound), up to 30 times per character. The recipe is under Substance Morph → Special → Daevanion. Bound identifies the item's binding status.
A different recipe converts one Ariel Fragment into five Enhance Stones, without a limit on conversion count. Find it under Substance Morph → Special → Consumables. Keep the outputs separate: five Enhance Stones are not five Ariel crystals.
Open the original Ariel conversion recipes and limit. The numbers and menu paths are also written above.
The new Daevanion Ariel board gains points by collecting fragments from Expedition (Hard) and converting them. NC separately says the amount obtainable through Substance Morph is limited for each dungeon. Check the fragment variety and specific recipe counter before spending; do not combine all varieties into one unlimited stock. This patch does not specify a reset period for the limit of 30.
What to check before entering
Check three things: Hard is selected in one of the two named dungeons; your item level meets 2600; and the group understands the four-minute Frenzy timer and each player's three revives. Decide which reward and Ariel recipe you want beforehand. This follows the published conditions, rather than promising a clear or an optimal boss strategy.
When stocking dungeon consumables, separately check the temporary Odyle Energy purchase limit. A shop restriction does not replace Hard's entry or revive rules. This patch paragraph does not state the energy cost of claiming the new mode's rewards.
The source conditions were checked on October 21, 2026. At that check, the maintenance notice scheduled a 09:30 Moscow-time start and 5.5 hours of work, giving an estimated 15:00 finish. This historical plan does not confirm actual completion or Hard's opening. Check your current client version and NC's latest notices after signing in.