Spiritmaster

At a glance

1. Elemental Fusion is your damage. Each spirit skill adds an element, and at four you enter Four Elements, which unlocks Fusion (no cooldown). Fire it at once: you gain no elements while you hold it, and any spirit counts, so one spirit can supply all four.
2. The Ancient Spirit carries the fight. Summon: Ancient Spirit (90 s) fights for 30 s beside your other spirit and grants Four Elements every time it uses its skill. Buff first: spirits take your stats when they are summoned.
3. Skill points stop at rank 10. Daevanion adds +4 (14 total); rank 16 needs ring lines and Arcana too.
4. Priority: Combustion and Elemental Fusion to 20; Summon: Fire Spirit to 16–20; Cold Shock, Jointstrike: Curse, Dimensional Control and Summon: Water Spirit to 12–16.
5. Stigmas: Summon: Ancient Spirit, Enhance: Spirit's Benediction, Jointstrike: Corrode, Flame Blessing (Jointstrike: Destructive Attack for stagger checks).
6. Macro: Elemental Fusion, Jointstrike: Corrode, Jointstrike: Curse, the Water > Earth > Fire summon stack, Dimensional Control, Combustion, with Cold Shock held on left mouse; Combustion keeps its right-mouse slot (inferred default).
7. Summon Fire last. It deals the most damage, and a replaced spirit stays only 2 s, so Fire should be the one left out.
8. Watch your MP. Cold Shock and Dimensional Control restore 100 MP each and the Water Spirit 20 per hit; the full summon loop still needs MP potions.
9. Passives: Spirit Strike and Mental Focus first, then Element Unification and Spirit Revitalization.
10. Gear: Attack, then Crit (below the 50% cap), then Accuracy; Combustion, Elemental Fusion and Summon: Fire Spirit lines on the rings.
11. Use only the game's built-in macro. Mouse macros and third-party tools get accounts banned.

Where the Spiritmaster stands

• Global standing: shugo.gg rates it A for PvE (Oct 11): strong damage, but it buffs only itself and its spirit. MeinMMO rates its damage A (Oct 13) and says it needs time to get rolling; metabot's editorial calls it the best solo class (damage 4, survivability 4, utility 3 of 5). Korea and Taiwan rate it S, with top-three damage at equal combat power (Korean data).
• Global Combat Power (Nov 8): metabot's typical level-45 Spiritmaster reads 100K. Across the eight classes it reads Assassin 152K, Cleric 143K, Sorcerer 141K, Chanter 136K, Templar 126K, Ranger 124K, Gladiator 119K and Spiritmaster 100K. These follow whichever characters metabot tracks and move from day to day (on Nov 4 the Templar read highest at 134K; on Nov 7 the Spiritmaster read 123K), so treat them as a rough band. On Nov 7, when the median read 123K across 1,131 tracked players, the top 10% started at 198K and the top 1% at 251K. By region: LatAm 136.8K, Asia 133.1K, EU 120.2K, NA East 118.9K, NA West 118.8K.
• Damage (AionFlex, uploads to Oct 7, before the Oct 28 nerf): 2nd of all classes in Deus Research Base at typical play (1st at the top end) and 3rd in Shattered Arkanis. AionFlex misses summon damage without an owner stamp (up to 14% of a fight), so the real figure is a little higher. Spiritmasters are in 34.0% of 241,282 logged fights, the lowest of any class.
• Damage (Korean meter, Nov 8): median 788K for all players (6th of 9), 815K at 400K+ combat power (6th) and 1.38M at 600K+ (3rd, behind the Gladiator's 1.61M and the Assassin's 1.50M); Oct 20 was 770K / 862K / 1.51M. Korean brackets use Korean combat power and a newer skill state, so read them as a ranking.
• What a party gets: pure damage, no party buffs. Benediction and Flame Blessing cover only you and your spirit, and Corrode raises only the damage the target takes from your spirit; the Earth Spirit's Curse hit lowers Status Resist by 10%, and you bring stagger (Destructive Attack 50, Ancient Spirit 20, Soul's Cry 15).
• Weaknesses: a slow ramp, mana hunger, fear that does nothing to crowd-control-immune bosses, no party buffs, and lost damage whenever a spirit is dead or the Ancient Spirit is on cooldown.
• Weapon: an orb with a guard in the off hand. Base HP at 45 is 5,702 since Oct 28 (was 4,702).

Current patch: what has changed

Global: the Oct 5 launch and the Oct 7 and 9 patches list no Spiritmaster changes; the global client runs roughly Korea's Sep 23 skill state (Combustion castable while moving, Command: Proxy 4 s, Corrode's 70% heal reduction) and lacks Korea's Oct 14 and Oct 21 changes. The Oct 14 patch fixed Ancient Spirits at rank 15 or below not using their skills. Korea's Oct 7 patch raised skill presets from 3 to 5; global timing is unknown. The Oct 21 patch (Oct 20 PDT) lists no Spiritmaster changes. It added Krao Cave and Draupnir on Hard (2,600 item level) and a new Ariel Daevanion board (see Gear score milestones), raised the Abyss player cap and Abyss boss HP, and fixed title effects that didn't match their tooltips. The Oct 28 patch (Oct 27 PDT) raised the Spiritmaster's base HP at 45 from 4,702 to 5,702, cut boss Attack and HP in Expedition and Transcendence, added Urugugu Canyon and Vakron Sky Island on Hard (2,700) and raised crafted gear's Amplify caps. The Nov 4 patch (Nov 3 PST) opened Abyssal Forge: Ludra, made Draupnir, Vakron and Horn Den Exploration pay like Conquest, added always-succeed True and Star Dragon recipes, pet souls from Expedition and Transcendence, and Chaotic Outer Reshanta (PvP with equalised stats); no class changes.

Level-by-level checklist

Follow the yellow main-story quests to 45; they pay 97–99% of the EXP. Each sealed dungeon clear also gives 2 Daevanion points, 2 skill points, 15,000 Kinah and 1,250 Enhance Stones. Levels 30–39 are slow, so fill the gap with sealed dungeons.

The last column is the highest rank you can buy by the end of each band. A skill learned by level 17 gains a rank every 3 levels (rank 8 at unlock level + 18, rank 10 at + 24); skills learned at 21 or later have no gate.

Skill points come to about 16 by level 10, 61 by 20, 111 by 30, 171 by 40 and 203 by 45; stigma shards from leveling come to about 5 by 27, 10 by 32, 15 by 37 and 29 by 45.

Leveling extras: don't open the Journal Duty tab before level 45 (a launch bug delays Duty content until the day after you reach 45); collect 40 feathers early (120 shards) for an amulet upgrade; clear hideouts at levels 15, 20 and 25; at the cap, do the Shugo activities and a map sweep.

Leveling playbook. metabot's order: summon Fire, then Water, Curse the pack, fire Dimensional Control after each spirit attack, Combustion for the AoE, spend Fusion when it lights up and fill with Cold Shock. Take Cold Shock's +20% MP option and Curse's Mobile option first (mmoexp), and keep core skills at rank 10; metabot's leveling stigmas are Ancient Spirit 8, Benediction 7, Corrode 5 and Flame Blessing 4.

After 45, in order:

1. Regional quests (accessory and rune slots).
2. Every remaining sealed dungeon.
3. Strongholds (Noble Belt scrolls).
4. Conquest, gated by total item level: Krao Cave and Draupnir at 700, Urugugu Canyon and Vakron Sky Island at 1,400, Fire Temple and Ferocious Horn Den at 2,100. Run the highest you qualify for.
5. Transcendence from item level 1,600 (stages to 2,500) for Arcana; see Transcendence dungeons for which one to farm.
6. Nightmare (Pantheon fragments) and Abyss (stigma shards, Daevanion resources).
7. The Ludra raid (Abyssal Forge: Ludra, open since Nov 4) needs 2,800 item level for Normal and 3,000 for Hard; until then, the top steps are Krao Cave and Draupnir on Hard (2,600) and Urugugu Canyon and Vakron Sky Island on Hard (2,700).

How skills level up (and how to reach 16)

Skill points only buy ranks 1–10 (13 points to rank 8, 21 to rank 10). Everything above comes from the sources below.

Daevanion alone reaches 14, never 16. Rank 16 needs two more levels from rings or Arcana. No global skill cap is published (client tables run to 40): the theoretical ceiling for an active is 10 points + 4 Daevanion + 4 gear + 8 Arcana = 26, and the Ariel board adds no ranks. Top global Spiritmasters average 14–16 on their main skills (Combustion and Fusion 16.1).

Rank 16's real value is the specializations (Fusion's 25% chance to regain Four Elements, the Fire Spirit's +20% stats, Combustion's Ashy Call chain); the extra damage per rank is smaller than the jump from rank 8 to 10.

Priority:

1. Skill nodes for core skills on every board (12 points per active for +4).
2. Combustion, Elemental Fusion and Summon: Fire Spirit lines on both rings.
3. Parchment lines on Fusion or the Fire Spirit, Compass lines on Combustion.
4. Stop at rank 12 on Jointstrike: Curse and Cold Shock: mmoexp finds their higher options add little in PvE.
5. Treat 12 and 16 as breakpoints; 13 or 15 isn't worth chasing.

Point budget. Maxing every active and passive to rank 10 costs about 460, so spend in this order (cheap early ranks first, ranks 9–10 last):

Rows 1–6 fit inside the 203 points from levels alone; the rest come from sealed-dungeon and regional-quest points. The order is this guide's synthesis of the targets below.

Active skills

The last column is the share of top Korean PvE Spiritmasters with the skill at rank 16 or higher, then 20 or higher; in brackets, the global top-player average rank (metabot, Nov 7).

Only one elemental spirit is out at a time (plus the Ancient Spirit); each one uses its skill when summoned, and any spirit skill adds one element. Spirit attacks forced by Curse or Corrode add none (mmoexp).

Specializations

You have three slots, which open at rank 8, 12 and 20. Each option has its own minimum rank (8, 12 or 16), so at rank 16 you fill two slots from options up to 16. Counts are from 8 questlog PvE builds.

Guides number options differently; read the tooltip.

Passives

Each rank adds the same amount, but ranks 9–10 cost 4 points each, so buy the key passives to 8 first and Spirit Strike and Mental Focus to 10 later. Target is the total rank to aim for with gear and Arcana. Sources split on order: mmoexp takes Spirit Strike, Mental Focus, then Element Unification; questlog builds add Spirit Revitalization fourth. Bracketed numbers are the global top-player average rank.

Korean top players hold Spirit Strike at 20+ 75% of the time, Mental Focus 70%, Element Unification 44% and Spirit Revitalization 27%.

Stigmas

Global has four slots (22, 27, 32, 37) and stigmas level to 20; Korea has five slots (since Mar 25; one seller site reports six after Chapter 1) and goes to 25. The rank 5 / 10 / 15 / 20 bonuses unlock on their own.

• Global top players (1,064): Summon: Ancient Spirit 97% (average rank 15.4), Enhance: Spirit's Benediction 95% (12.9), Jointstrike: Corrode 91% (9.4), Flame Blessing 82% (11.6), Jointstrike: Destructive Attack 32% (4.9), Siphon 16%. metabot says to train the Ancient Spirit first, since it is the slot you keep longest.
• Upgrade order (sources split): mmoexp takes Corrode to 5 first (its +15% is cheap), then Ancient Spirit to 15, Flame Blessing to 15 and Benediction to 10, then all four to 20; hemini123 keeps Corrode at 5. init.rb's Destructive Attack route: Ancient Spirit, Benediction and Corrode to 5, Destructive Attack to 10, then Ancient Spirit 15, Benediction 10, Destructive Attack 15, then Ancient Spirit and Destructive Attack 20, Benediction 20, Corrode last. Questlog builds all run Ancient Spirit, Benediction and Corrode (8 of 8), Flame Blessing in 6 and Destructive Attack in 3.
• Timing: the Ancient Spirit (90 s) and Benediction (60 s) don't line up, so hold Benediction for the Ancient Spirit (gameplay.tips).
• Korean rates (owned at 20+, PvE): Summon: Ancient Spirit 86%, Benediction 83%, Flame Blessing 77%, Corrode 70%, Siphon 61%, Destructive Attack 44%. Stigma Shards: Abyss shop (200), Nightmare shop (52,500 fragments for 35), Shugo shop (10,500 tokens for 35).

Rotation and macro

Set up: most-liked community builds now put the macro skills in one or two stacks and run a 1–4 step macro over them, held with left mouse; a macro step presses a whole slot (see Community builds for this class's stacks). The per-slot layout below is the simpler fallback: give every macro skill its own hotbar slot first (see Hotbar setup). Then open the Skill menu (K) → Macros → Add Macro, add the skills in the order shown, and bind the macro key under Settings → Key Settings → General → Gameplay → Macro. Bind it to a side mouse button and hold it together with left mouse, so right mouse keeps the bar's last slot (see Hotbar setup). Use 10 ms between steps.

• Opener: Benediction, Flame Blessing, then Summon: Ancient Spirit, then Corrode and the macro (gameplay.tips, mmoexp): spirits take your stats when summoned, so buffs go first. Sources split: metabot's order is Ancient Spirit, Fire, Water, Benediction, Corrode, Curse, Dimensional Control, Fusion, Combustion, Cold Shock.
• Ancient Spirit uptime: most of your damage comes while it is out, and global cooldown reduction tops out around 19–21% (Korea 34–40%), so it has more downtime here and drifts off Benediction's 60 s (gameplay.tips). Don't summon it into a mechanic or a death.
• Elements: summoning any spirit, or its auto-attack skill procs, adds an element; the Ancient Spirit grants all four every time it uses its skill (every 7 basic attacks, 5 at rank 15). Jointstrike-forced spirit attacks add none (mmoexp).
• Fire last: a replaced spirit lingers 2 s, so summoning Water and Earth before Fire briefly stacks spirits and leaves Fire, the biggest hitter, out (mmoexp).
• Mana: Cold Shock and Dimensional Control restore 100 MP each and the Water Spirit 20 MP per hit; gameplay.tips calls MP potions almost essential and says summoning one spirit fewer costs little damage.
• Destructive Attack is charged: hold its key for the full charge, by hand, at stagger checks.
• Use the game's built-in macro only.

Hotbar setup

• Left mouse: Cold Shock, held together with the macro key. Right mouse (RMB): Combustion, the Spiritmaster's default right-mouse skill and the macro's last step (inferred: mmoexp and all 8 questlog PvE builds put it there; check your own bar).
• Q: Summon: Ancient Spirit. E (buffs): Enhance: Spirit's Benediction, then Flame Blessing; press E twice, then Q, so both buffs land before the summon.
• 1: Rapid Scattershot, on staggered targets only. 2: Soul's Cry (fear and 15 stagger; useless on crowd-control-immune bosses). 3: Summon: Wind Spirit, for heals while solo.
• Macro slots 4–8 and RMB, in step order: Elemental Fusion (4), Jointstrike: Corrode (5), Jointstrike: Curse (6), the Water > Earth > Fire stack (8), Dimensional Control (7), Combustion (RMB).
• Swap-ins: a stigma you swap in takes the slot of the one it replaces. Jointstrike: Destructive Attack replaces Flame Blessing on E (press E for Benediction, then hold E to charge Destructive Attack); Siphon, for solo play, replaces Jointstrike: Corrode on 5, so the macro casts it on cooldown for HP and MP (my pick; no source names which stigma Siphon replaces).
• Reach: hand-pressed skills take the keys closest to WASD (Q, E, then 1–3) and the macro steps take the far ones, since the macro presses those for you. Put the most time-critical skills (the Ancient Spirit and its buffs) on Q and E.
• Defiance can't be slotted: the stun break fires with Space, so it never needs a bar slot.
• Stacking: a slot holds up to four skills. A press fires the lowest one that is ready; if it is on cooldown or its condition isn't met, it falls to the next one up. Put cooldown and conditional skills at the bottom and spam skills on top.
• Stacks and macros: a macro step presses a whole slot, so a step on a stacked slot fires that stack's first ready skill. Top community builds put the macro skills in one stack (usually right mouse) and hold it with left mouse, or run a 1–4 step macro over stacks; see Community builds, and test it on a dummy.
• Keep out of the macro: charged skills (Destructive Attack), the buffs and the Ancient Spirit (they need timing and the stat snapshot), and situational or emergency skills.
• Slots: the bar has 12. The last four are Q, E, left mouse (LMB) and right mouse (RMB). Every class starts with its basic attack on LMB and a second skill on RMB (T is RMB's keyboard key). Put the macro on a side mouse button so RMB keeps that skill; binding the macro to right mouse pushes the slot onto T. Rebind slots under Settings → Key Settings → Quickslot, and treat this layout as a suggestion.

Daevanion boards

Buy the blue nodes for Combustion, Elemental Fusion, Summon: Fire Spirit, Cold Shock, Jointstrike: Curse and Dimensional Control first (that gets you to rank 14), then the orange corners, then the green passives (Spirit Strike, Mental Focus, Element Unification), routing through Attack and Crit greys. Costs: grey 1, green 2, blue 3, orange 4; each node must touch one you own. Percentages are global top-player pick rates (metabot).

metabot's editorial text starts with Nezekan's Spirit Strike pair, then Zikel's Consecutive Countercurrent and Element Unification, but its own top-player data favours the actives and corners above. Rapid Scattershot, Wind Spirit, Defiance and Soul's Cry are low picks on every board.

Recommended board setups

Numbered nodes are phase 1: buy them in that order, starting next to the center star. Outlined nodes are phase 2. Faded nodes with a red X are skips; a dimmed node without an X is only a connector. Global corners give +1.5% each.

Layouts are from the metabot global planner. The four PvE boards hold 570 points; this plan spends 394 of them (phase 1: 283, phase 2: 111), which leaves about 20 of the roughly 416 you can earn for extra Attack or Crit greys. Crystals come from leveling (~136), sealed dungeons (~122), regional quests (~58) and the Shugo and Nightmare shops (50 each per character).

Ariel board (added Oct 21): a sixth board whose points come only from Daevanion Crystal: Ariel, morphed from Ariel Fragments from all four Hard Expeditions (Krao Cave and Draupnir at 2,600; guaranteed in Urugugu Canyon and Vakron at 2,700); 100 fragments make one crystal (+1 gear score). Cap: 30 per character in the patch text, 30 per dungeon (120) per two community guides. Layout: 152 nodes and 232 points, with PvE Damage Boost and PvE Damage Tolerance cores, smaller PvE stat nodes and no skill nodes; nobody can fill it yet.

Gear

Attack lifts your hits, your spirit's hits and your Curse ticks, so it comes first, then Crit up to the 50% cap, then Accuracy if bosses dodge, HP for solo play and MP only if long fights run you dry (metabot). Put Combustion, Elemental Fusion and Summon: Fire Spirit lines on the rings.

• Skill lines: the orb, guard and rings roll active-skill lines; armor, necklace and earrings roll passives. Weapon and guard lines go to Combat Speed, Might, Precision and Weapon Damage Boost, plus Damage Boost or Multi-hit. Rings: Combustion, Elemental Fusion and Summon: Fire Spirit (fourth: Earth Spirit or Curse). Armor and jewelry: Spirit Strike and Mental Focus, then Element Unification or Spirit Revitalization.
• Jewelry and fixed slots: top global Spiritmasters wear Kromede jewelry (51–54%), the Noble Belt (88%) and the Revelation Amulet (90%).
• Manastones: Attack, then Crit (below the cap), Accuracy, HP, MP; top global Spiritmasters kept Attack 15%, HP 13%, Crit 12%, MP 12% and Accuracy 11%.
• Theostone (PvE): Zikel's Arrogance (Poison): one more damage over time on the target for Consecutive Countercurrent to hit (metabot).

Arcana: Parchment rolls Cold Shock, Curse, Fire Spirit, Earth Spirit, Dimensional Control and Elemental Fusion; Compass rolls Combustion, Water Spirit, Rapid Scattershot, Wind Spirit, Soul's Cry and Defiance; Bell rolls Spirit Strike, Spirit's Descent, Spirit Revitalization, Spirit Communion and Element Unification; Mirror rolls Spirit Protection, Corrode, Mental Focus, Consecutive Countercurrent and Revitalization Contract; Chalice rolls any skill. Chase Parchment for Fusion and the Fire Spirit, Compass for Combustion, Bell for Spirit Strike and Element Unification, Mirror for Mental Focus, and a Chalice for Fusion or Combustion. Versions split: top global players run Chalice of Vigor (49%), Parchment of Vigor (36%; Magic 11%), Compass of Vigor (27%) or Magic (19%), Bell of Magic (35%; Vigor 11%) and Mirror of Vigor (25%) or Magic (21%); questlog builds run four Vigor cards plus the Bell of Magic.

Mana, Crit and Accuracy

• Mana: Combustion costs 120 MP, a summon 150, Curse 80, Corrode and the Ancient Spirit 200 each. Cold Shock (+20% with its rank-8 option) and Dimensional Control restore 100 each, the Water Spirit 20 per hit, and every summon has a −50% MP option at rank 8.
• Crit: the Corrode passive and Flame Blessing's rank-10 bonus (+100) add Crit; stop short of the 50% cap and move the rest to Accuracy.
• Accuracy: your damage over time has to land first (metabot). Spirit Communion gives +100 flat, Flame Blessing's rank-5 bonus +100, Combustion has a +100 Skill Accuracy option (8), and Curse's rank-16 option ignores Block and Evasion and always crits.
• Cooldown reduction: global tops out around 19–21% against 34–40% in Korea (gameplay.tips), so every point shortens the Ancient Spirit's 90 s; Talisra wings add +4%.
• Check boss parry rates in the in-game Combat Analysis.

Gear economy

Gear by item level (level 45). Only item level moves at the cap. This table is per piece; the dungeon gates under "After 45" use your total item level.

• Craft chain: True Dragon Lord (62), Splendent (70), White (78), Splendent (86), Wise (94), Splendent Wise (102). Each step has a 25% chance of the Splendent version. Asmodian names: Star, Dark, Ebony.
• Mastery: True Dragon Lord pieces need crafting mastery 55 or 60, and mastery stops at 50 until you finish the upgrade quest.
• Don't waste: Enhance Stones on Common or Rare gear, or on Legend (blue) pieces you'll replace (the belt and amulet are the exception); Superior manastones on gear you'll replace; restarting a craft (upgrades carry enhancement, amplification and soul binding forward); Abyss Points on Potential, which gives only PvP stats.

Enhancement (Unique gear, max +15). +10 is guaranteed. +11 to +15 succeed 65, 50, 35, 25 and 20%, with +5% after each failure. A failure only costs materials. Expect about 22 attempts, 15M Kinah and 191,000 Enhance Stones to reach +15 on item level 102 gear. Keep the weapon at +10 until you have the final one. Amplified Enhancement comes after +15: its steps succeed 66, 50, 33, 25 and 20% (with pity), and item level caps it at +1 for 54–62, +3 for 70 and +5 for 86 and up. Since Oct 28, crafted Dragon Lord gear has the same caps (True and Star +3, White and Dark +5), and Gear Transfer can move enhancement from Expedition gear onto crafted gear.

Soul binding (Unique gear only). It unlocks random stats and makes the item untradeable. The first step costs 30,000 Kinah and 10 Soul Codex, the tenth 632,000 Kinah and 102 Soul Codex. Rebinding costs 300,000 Kinah and 3 Soul Codex.

Manastones. Slots by grade: Common 1, Rare 2, Legend (blue) 3, Unique 4 (amulet, belt and rune have none). Jewelry takes Soulstones from the same pools. Engraving fills every slot at once for 500–2,000 Kinah by gear grade and can't fail, and each line adds gear score (+1 grey to +4 yellow).

• Attack, Defense, Accuracy, Evasion, Crit and Crit Resist each roll about 10% of the time; Combat Speed and cooldown stats can't be rolled.
• Rerolling overwrites the old stat and consumes the stone. Enhancing keeps stones; dismantling gear destroys them.
• Use regular stones for PvE; Abyssal stones split a third of rolls onto PvP stats.
• Lesser stones drop; Alchemy crafts the rest. 5 Lesser, 3 Spiritstone Powder and 2 Professional Ink make an Intermediate (mastery 20), with a 20% chance of a Superior; the dedicated Superior recipe is 30 Intermediate, 10 Powder and 2 Exceptional Ink at mastery 85.

Theostones (Epic and Unique weapons only). A weapon engraving with a chance to proc on attack; identical stones don't stack.

• PvE pick (Spiritmaster): Zikel's Arrogance (Poison), which keeps a damage-over-time effect up for Consecutive Countercurrent (Rare Santras's Secret, Epic Orissan's Blood). PvP: Beritra's Conspiracy (Seal) (metabot).
• How to get them: the 3 regional quests per faction (Rare chest plus 100,000 Kinah each), the Abyss Trade Shop Selection Chest (35,000 Abyss Points), the Season Shop (17,500 Oath Coin, limit 10), the Arena shop (1 Arena Token, 5 per week) and Daeva Pass.
• Upgrading: combining gives Rare to Epic 11.1% and Epic to Unique 9.1%; Unique stones come only from combining.

Consumables. Battle Enhance Scroll gives +10% Damage Boost and +10% Damage Tolerance for 5 minutes (quests, achievements and attendance, or the Season Shop for 6,000 Oath Coin, limit 10 per account; the shop closes Dec 16). Courage Scroll gives +10% Combat Speed for 5 minutes (1,000 Kinah). Food is defensive only.

Check your numbers in game. Use the in-game Combat Analysis for parry rates and rotation. Third-party macros and tools risk bans, and I can't confirm third-party meters are safe.

Essence Extraction (gathering)

Essence Extraction is the game's one gathering skill: Ore, Gem, Log, Herb, Cooking Ingredient and Odyle nodes in Verteron, Altgard and Chaotic Lower Reshanta (Odyle also in the Expeditions). It feeds crafting (Dragon Lord gear, manastones) and the Radiant Odyle that unseals dungeon wings. Each node gives two to four extractions; the minigame fills a blue Success gauge against an orange Failure gauge, and your odds improve with use.

• Cap at Novice 50: proficiency stops at level 50 until you finish "[Upgrade] Essence Extraction Specialty Skill" (Korius for Elyos, Alzirr for Asmodians): extract one Splendent Ruby from a Ruby node (Elyos: around the Verteron Fortress Ruins; Asmodians: near Quay Campsite and Calderon Canyon) and hand it in. Professional runs 51–100.
• Fast proficiency: Orichalcum, Raydam, Azpha and Odyle nodes. Odyle sits in the air, and running out of flight stamina cancels the extraction. Since Oct 28, gathering needs level 45 and is capped at 1,000 extractions per server per day.

Points. Every proficiency level gives a Common point (45 by level 50, 95 by level 100). Specialty points come every 10 levels, two at 50, 80, 90 and 100 (6 by level 50, 14 by level 100).

Levels 1–5 cost 1 to 5 points (15 per skill, Novice); levels 6–10 cost 5 each (25 more, Professional).

• Novice: all three to 5, which is exactly the 45 points you have.
• Professional: the 50 extra points max two skills. Take Lady Luck and Proficient Handling to 10 (both fire on successes, and the ×2.5 or ×4 boost likely multiplies Proficient Handling's gain) and keep Delicate Touch at 5; swap it in if failures keep ending your extractions on high-level nodes. This split is my reading of the tooltips; no guide publishes one.

Specialty skills. Every node type has the same tree, 7 points to max: Seeker (1 point, shows that node type on the minimap), Plentiful Harvest (3 levels: 10, 20 or 30% chance of double materials) and Appraiser (3 levels: 10, 20 or 30% chance to reroll to a higher grade; for Cooking Ingredients it rerolls the quantity). Only level 1 of each opens at Novice, and 14 points max two of the six trees.

Check in game whether the points can be reset before you commit.

Gear score milestones

Gear score is the item level shown under your character level, and it gates almost all level-45 content. Climb it in the order below: each bracket lists what opens, what to do and what to skip.

What counts. Every equipped piece's item level, plus +1 per enhancement level, +5 per Amplify level, manastone lines (+1 grey, +2 green, +3 blue, +4 yellow), +1 per Daevanion point spent, +40 per Clash Rune, +3 per Rare Theostone, and Arcana cards (+20 / 40 / 60 / 80 by grade, +1 per card level). Each Ariel crystal adds +1. Soul binding, skill points, Stigmas, titles, pets and Genus Insight, the Pantheon and the closet raise Combat Power only; sources split on whether wings add gear score.

Gates are from the global client data (metabot, Corpus). Some creator videos quote 1,500, 2,200 and 2,700 instead; the client wins.

Combat Power

Combat Power (CP) is the server's own rating and NC hasn't published the formula. It weights attack over defense (Korean estimates: Attack 1.25, Defense 1, secondary stats 0.25, about 100 per 1% stat). Gates check item level only, but party finders ask for CP, and global CP runs about a quarter of Korean CP.

The targets are AionFlex entry CP (the 25th percentile of players who killed the boss, Nov 7). The cheapest CP comes from Stigmas, Daevanion points, titles and Genus Insight, which need no new gear.

Raising Combat Power, easiest first

CP also counts systems that gear score ignores, so the cheapest gains need no new gear. Work down this list:

1. Spend every point. Unspent skill and Daevanion points are free CP, and Daevanion nodes opened track CP almost as closely as item level (median 98 nodes in the bottom fifth of players, 255 in the top fifth).
2. Level your Stigmas. Each Stigma Shard spent is worth about +100 CP, and filling all four can add 20K+; Korean figures put ranks 1–5 at about 0.9K per stigma, 5–10 at 2K, 10–15 at 3.5K and 15–20 at 6K.
3. Collect titles. Every title you own counts, not just the three you wear: titles owned track CP almost as closely as item level (median 44 in the bottom fifth, 191 at the top). Sightseer, Rift and Monolith titles are quick, and artwork titles (Journey's Path, Hero's Footsteps, Click) come with normal play.
4. Collect wings and pets. Owned wing effects, pets and Genus Insight add CP without gear score; pet souls now drop in Expedition and Transcendence runs.
5. Put a Theostone on the weapon and the guard. The guard is the one people forget.
6. Favour Attack when a roll is a toss-up. Korean estimates weigh Attack and main stats at 1.25 per point, Defense 1, secondary stats 0.25, HP 0.05, and percentage lines (Damage Boost, Boss Damage) about 100 per 1%, so offensive manastones and Arcana move CP most.
7. Then enhance, add Arcana and Amplify. Average enhancement rises from +1.7 below 60K CP to +9 at 110K+; about 5 Arcana cards separate players over 90K from those under 70K, and Amplify shows up only above 90K. A higher-item-level weapon is worth about +4,000 CP and Statue: Transcendent Bakarma about +1,000.

CP rates stats, not play: spreading points over more skills can raise it while weakening your build, and tanks and healers score lower than damage dealers of the same strength. Don't break a build to chase the number; groups that gatekeep on CP usually exempt Clerics.

Level 45 to 1,000: finish the free gear

• Story and quests: finish the main story and the last Ascension and Abyss quests for the Spiritforged weapon (Unique, 45), guard and bracelet.
• Clash Runes: open both rune chests from the Verteron or Altgard regional quests; at +40 each, two runes alone carried one creator to 1,000.
• Belt and amulet: Stronghold scrolls (2 per home Stronghold) take the Noble Belt to +10, and Monolith Resonance scrolls (one per home Monolith level, so feed it Empyrean Trace feathers) take the Revelation Amulet to +10; enhancing them always succeeds. Then Substance Morph each one (Alt+H → Gear; at +10 and unequipped, always succeeds, returns at +0) from Rare (item 13) to Legend, the blue grade some guides call Epic (item 36, +23 each).
• Spend: every Daevanion point (+1 each), and the Spiritforged weapon to +10 (about 406,000 Kinah and 16,000 Enhance Stones).
• Odyle: bank it for 1,400, where Vakron and Urugugu pay more per point, but never let it reach the 560 cap.

1,000 to 1,400: points, not drops

• Daevanion crystals: clear every sealed dungeon (2 each, +122 total) and the regional quests (+58). Feathers to Monolith level 16 give 36 Azphel crystals, and the Nightmare and Shugo shops sell 50 each (+100).
• Belt and amulet to Unique: take each Legend piece to +10 (+10 gear score each; about 1.58M Kinah and 63,000 Enhance Stones per piece), then Substance Morph it to Unique (item 65, +29 each). Unique also goes to +10 (+10 more each, about 5M Kinah per piece) when Kinah allows.
• Clash Runes to +1, then stop: +1 always succeeds; +2 is 80%, then 66, 50 and 33%, down to 10% at +10, and sources disagree on whether a failure drops a level or destroys the rune.
• Weapon, guard, bracelet to +10, with one grey or green manastone line each. The Spiritforged Guard comes from the Abyss (Forgotten Commander).
• Every Unique piece to +10: enhancing to +10 always succeeds, so finish the +6 and +7 pieces you already wear (+1 gear score per level).
• Fill every manastone slot: gear arrives with open slots (Rare 2, Legend 3, Unique 4; jewelry takes Soulstones). Engraving fills them all at once for 500–2,000 Kinah and can't fail. Grey or green lines (+1 or +2) are enough on pieces you'll replace; Lesser stones drop from named level-45 mobs in your home region and Lower Reshanta, and the Abyss shop sells 50 Lesser Abyssal stones a week (1,000 Abyss Points each). Fifty-odd slots at +2 is over +100.
• Swap leftover quest pieces for item-54 Unique: Draupnir Conquest drops Bakarma armor, and Krao Cave Conquest drops Berk necklace, earrings and rings (and Rupture weapons). Replacing an item-40 piece is +14 before enhancing; the usual weak slots are the helm, pants, necklace, earrings, second ring and a quest bracelet.
• Worked example (a 1,231 Chanter, Oct 15): +6 Unique gloves, boots, cloak and ring, a +7 bracelet, a +0 Legend belt and amulet, item-40 helm, pants, necklace and earrings, and few manastones. Finishing the +10s (+19), belt and amulet to Unique (+78) and green manastones cover the 169 it needed; two or three item-54 swaps add a margin.
• New content: start Ascension Trial (Easy), Subjugation and Arena; this is where parry rates first show up, so check Accuracy (see Accuracy).
• Skip: enhancing item-43 quest gear past +5, Clash Runes past +1, Superior manastones, or anything you'll replace at 1,400.

1,400 to 2,800: the full route

Odyle Energy sets the pace until about 2,500, then Kinah and Enhance Stones. A claim is one cube at 40 Odyle: regeneration pays for about 21 a week, the shop about 20 more (4 per character, 16 per server), and the Odyle Energy Boost mails 4 a day until Nov 10, so farm hardest now.

Times come from published drop rates and one creator's pace (2,500 in two weekly resets with membership; expect four or five without), not measured player data.

• Guaranteed picks: every 21 claims at Vakron and Urugugu, every 28 at Fire Temple and Horn Den. Fire Temple's never offers the weapon (3 vouchers, 2M Kinah and an off-class Enraged Kromede weapon, about 84 claims) and Horn Den's never offers the guard. Since Nov 4, Draupnir, Vakron and Horn Den Exploration pay like Conquest (same guaranteed-pick count, Amplify Stone Fragments, bound crafting materials), but their Kinah shrinks after 40 runs, to 20% from run 71.
• Gear-score math: a one-tier swap (54 → 70 → 86 → 102) is +16 at the same enhancement; +1 per enhancement level, and +10 → +15 costs about 12M Kinah and 130,000 Enhance Stones per item-86 piece for +5; Amplify (after +15) is +5 a level, about 6.3M Kinah and 58 Amplify Stones for three levels; manastone lines are +1 (grey) to +4 (yellow), 64 lines on a full Unique set; Arcana is +20 per grade plus +1 per card level (a full Unique set at +5 is 425).
• Crafting beats farming only for the weapon (about 240M Kinah to item 102, with 5 Soul Binding lines against Kromede's 3). Since Oct 28, Kromede and Nuakum enhancement can move down onto crafted gear, so enhancing them isn't wasted. Since Nov 4, True and Star Dragon gear also has an always-succeed recipe (bound, no Great Success).
• Bracelets stay at item 43 until Ludra; no other source has been found.
• Spiritmaster: top global Spiritmasters wear the Enraged Kromede Jewel (29%) or the Aulamus Orb (21%) with the Nuakum Guard (36%) or Vakron Guard (14%). Questlog builds go Rupture Jewel and Bakarma Guard, then a crafted True Dragon Lord Orb, then the Enraged Kromede Jewel and Nuakum Guard, then a crafted Splendent White or Wise Dragon Lord orb; none plans a Ludra weapon.

2,600 and 2,700: Hard Expeditions and the Ariel board

• Krao Cave and Draupnir on Hard (2,600, Oct 21) and Urugugu Canyon and Vakron Sky Island on Hard (2,700, Oct 28): a 4-minute boss Frenzy timer and 3 revives per player.
• Rewards: a chance at Philosopher's Stone: Revelation (or pick it as the guaranteed reward), every Unique crafting material, Wrathful Mind, Will and Ego, Ariel Fragments (guaranteed at Urugugu and Vakron), more Kinah than Normal, and Expedition Hero Artwork. Hard achievements give Unique skins.
• Claims and checks: 40 Odyle per claim and 60–90 Ariel Fragments per final-boss cube (client data); the guaranteed pick comes after 28 claims per one guide (another says 14 at Krao Cave and Draupnir, 21 at Urugugu). Stagger Berk at about 50% and hide behind rocks for Wave of Fury; stop attacking during Lakshmi's reflection and before Raur's Counterstrike Stance; stack for Auldor's Tempest Strike; at Thamon, red means physical stops and purple magic stops. Entry CP runs 147–151K at 2,600 and 161–163K at 2,700.
• Ariel Fragments: Substance Morph turns 100 into a Daevanion Crystal: Ariel (up to 30 per character in the patch text; one guide reads it as 30 per dungeon) and 1 into 5 Enhance Stones with no limit.
• Ariel board: a new Daevanion board whose points come only from those crystals; 152 nodes and 232 points, with PvE Damage Boost and Tolerance cores and no skill nodes.

2,800 and up: Ludra

• Abyssal Forge: Ludra opened Nov 4: Normal at 2,800 item level, Hard at 3,000, with a 1-hour limit per run; Normal drops the same item types as Hard at lower rates. The first 20 parties per region to clear Hard get titles, and anyone who clears either mode before Nov 24 gets Ludra's Nemesis.
• Drops: Ludra's weapon and guard, Abyssal Bracelets (Amplify up to 3), Sealed Abyssal Waves Wings and Artwork: Abyssal Ludra. Take a Gear Change Voucher as the guaranteed reward: Substance Morph turns one into a weapon selection chest, and 6 Ludra vouchers (or 3 Hard ones) make Ludra's Bracelet (Amplify up to 5); 2 Normal vouchers trade for 1 Hard voucher.
• Fire Temple and Ferocious Horn Den on Hard are in the client at 2,800 but locked (a Nov 4 hotfix removed the Hard option that briefly showed); the client also lists higher Conquest tiers and Korean raids at 3,500 and 4,300.
• Format: 10 players in two parties of five, 2 revives, and one counted final-boss kill a week (Wednesday reset); the bosses are level 75. As of Nov 7 there were 11 Eternal Ludra kills on Normal and none on Hard.
• Ready gear (community): Kromede weapon and Nuakum guard at +16 to +18, armor +10 to +15; for Hard, desolo targets +16 everywhere, +17 weapons and all 120 Ariel crystals. Parties ask about 175–190K CP for Normal and 200K+ for Hard.
• Reactor: break the auxiliary reactors.
• Rahu and Ketu (split boss): pass Rahu's SOS Bomb on (3 failures wipe the party); on Ketu the tank blocks the jump, face the red side and turn away from the blue, and the crystals give immunity.
• Eternal Ludra: berserk at 10:00; the red tower needs a blocker, then come two Bingo grids, a colour split and the Thunder Zone. The Reactor and Ludra details come from early-access and client data (mobalytics live guides), so expect changes.
• Loot: sites disagree whether the guaranteed voucher comes every 2 or every 4 kills, and a specific Ludra weapon drops at about 0.3–0.6% per kill, so plan on vouchers. A crafted Splendent Wise or Ebony (102) weapon matches a Ludra weapon's Attack at max enhancement with more lines, so the Ludra weapon is the no-craft route and Ludra's Heart and the bracelets are the real upgrades. Ludra Hunt titles have no stats.
• Spiritmaster duties: no Spiritmaster-specific Ludra guide exists yet. Bring stagger (Destructive Attack 50, Ancient Spirit 20, Soul's Cry 15, Curse and Fusion 10), and since spirits despawn when you die (Korean Apr 8 note), re-summon after a death or phase change, buffs first (inferred). AionFlex entry CP for Ludra Normal is 176K at the Reactor, 186K at Rahu and 191K at Ketu, against a 123K global Spiritmaster median.

Rules for every bracket

• Spend Odyle on the highest tier you can enter, and never let it cap (560, or 840 with membership). Membership reportedly also allows two Odyle injections per Expedition or Transcendence cube (80 Odyle for double rewards) and makes Sanctuary cubes eligible; NC hasn't published global numbers.
• Open every Conquest and Transcendence cube: leaving one unopened burns the shared 10-per-week counter, and at 0 you can't enter until Wednesday's reset.
• Enhancement priority is weapon, guard, bracelet, then the rest; only enhance past +5 on gear you'll keep.
• Belt and amulet morphs are once per character per grade; the 20-per-server weekly cap added Oct 6 covers only turning Sealed Wings into Enhance Stones. Grades run Common, Rare (green), Legend (blue; some guides say Epic), Unique (gold).

Spiritmaster at each bracket. At 1,000, the Spiritforged Orb and guard go to +10 first. At 1,400, a Rupture Jewel and Bakarma Guard (item 54) are only a stopgap: farm an Aulamus Orb and Vakron Guard (item 70) or craft a True Dragon Lord Orb, and put Combustion, Elemental Fusion and Summon: Fire Spirit lines on the rings. At 1,600, a Parchment for Fusion or the Fire Spirit and a Compass for Combustion come first. At 2,100, the Enraged Kromede Jewel (the most-worn global orb, 29%) and Nuakum armor and guard; questlog end stages move on to a crafted Splendent White or Wise Dragon Lord orb rather than a Ludra weapon.

Transcendence dungeons

Season 1 (to Dec 16) has two Transcendence dungeons: Deus Research Base drops Bell, Compass and Chalice cards, and Shattered Arkanis drops Mirror, Parchment and Chalice. Farm the one whose card slots your build still needs; for the Spiritmaster, start with Shattered Arkanis.

Best dungeon by class:

• Rewards: entry is free; taking the cube spends a reward count (1 per 12 hours, cap 14) and 40 Odyle. Every cube costs the same, so spend counts on the highest stage your group clears reliably.
• Sets don't decide the dungeon: both drop Vigor and Magic cards; the card slot does. The version you keep decides your Empyrean Lord stat (see Empyrean Lord stats and Pantheon). Duplicates extract into Mysterious Crystals, and 5 crystals and 2M Kinah transmute a Unique card of your choice.
• Party: 2–5 players; a player who leaves mid-run fails the dungeon for everyone. AionFlex entry Combat Power (25th percentile of players who killed the boss, Nov 7) is 80–81K at stage 1, 91K at 2, 109–110K at 3 and 134K at 4; most uploads predate the Oct 28 nerf, so post-nerf needs are slightly lower.
• Oct 28 boss nerf: stage 1 boss Attack −15%, stages 2–4 boss Attack and Damage Boost −10%, stages 1–2 boss HP −6.5%; base HP rose at the same time.
• Coming: the launch leaderboard closed Nov 2, with winners due Nov 9 and mail rewards by Nov 16 (top 10 per server and class: 35,000 Enhance Stones, 30 Unique Amplify Stones and a Philosopher's Stone: Revelation); Season 2 (Dec 16) adds Submerged Life Temple (client data).

Class fit uses AionFlex meter uploads from before the Oct 28 nerf; the damage gaps between dungeons are about 5%, so treat them as a lean, not a rule.

Wings and collection

Worn wings add stats; every pair you own adds a second bonus that grows to +10, even while you wear another. Pairs come in Elyos and Asmodian versions.

Ultimate Daeva Wings are free from the level-45 Ascension quest. The six dungeon-drop wings are Unique items from normal party dungeons, gated by your total item level for Conquest (700 for Krao Cave and Draupnir, 1,400 for Urugugu Canyon and Vakron Sky Island, 2,100 for Fire Temple and Ferocious Horn Den). They drop sealed and unseal with Radiant Odyle, and the drop is rare.

Wing ladder. Wear the best pair you own and keep every pair, because owned bonuses stack even while another pair is worn. The Daeva quest levels (22, 32, 45) come from a single guide, so check your quest log.

The item levels are your total, not a piece's, and match the Conquest gates under "After 45".

Which to wear (Spiritmaster). On global (metabot, Nov 7) Ultimate Daeva leads at 39% across both faction versions, then Dark Veil 19% and Forest Spirit 7.8%; Korean top Spiritmasters wear Talisra (56%), and questlog builds use Talisra, Black Fragment, Forest Spirit, Kromede or Dark Veil. Plan: Ultimate Daeva at 45 (free), Black Fragment at 700, Forest Spirit at 1,400, Kromede or Dark Veil at 2,100, then Talisra (its +4% Cooldown Reduction shortens the 90 s Ancient Spirit), with Nightmare or Abyssal Waves as the end-game alternatives. Collect the rest as you go, because the owned bonuses stack.

Upgrading. Rare and Epic always succeed to +10. Unique is safe to +3, then 90, 80, 50, 50, 50, 40 and 30% to +10 (about 16.7M Kinah, 137 Sync Stones and 66,000 Enhance Stones). Enhancing never changes worn stats, and Unique wings gain only Flight Power from it; each failure adds +10% to the next try. Collect pairs before enhancing, and enhance only the Epic and Rare pairs whose owned stat grows (for example Spirit Wings' PvE Defense).

Titles. You have three equip slots, one each for Attack, Defense and Other, and a title only fits its own slot. Every title you own also adds a collection bonus (check your Title tab). Fill each slot with the best title you own and swap up as you progress. Top global Spiritmasters run Unbound by Genus or Guardian of Altgard (Attack), Saint of Altgard or Verteron (Defense, 44% and 32%) and Through Hell and Back (Other); Empty Closet is the common late Other pick:

Asmodian counterparts (Guardian of Altgard and others) have the same stats; I only checked the Elyos quest names. The guide I read doesn't state the slot for Hello There or the Sightseer title; I placed them in Defense by their stats. Some titles also pay just for owning them: Unbound by Genus, Dominator of Dimensions and Hero's Footsteps each add +1% PvE Damage Boost or Tolerance.

Pets and Genus Insight

Genus Insight rerolls pet stats; Owned Effects grow with how many pets you own. No pet is mandatory.

• Pet: pick a Fera pet (Fossa, Armadon or Tog) from the level 10 quest; only Fera adds ground mount speed. Five souls unlock a pet; level 2 takes 25 more and level 3 (the cap) 75 more, about 105 per pet. Each pet adds 500/250/250 Insight EXP (failed rolls add EXP too), and Genus Insight is shared by every character on the server.
• Stat priority: Double Chance (on global it rolls only in the Special board's slot 4; the 'levels 3 and 9' advice is Korean or Taiwanese data), PvE Damage Boost in the other slot 4s (Varian: Front Attack Damage Boost), then Crit or Accuracy in slots 3, 6 and 9 (sources split; Cogni pets carry Crit and Fera pets Accuracy, per gamesfuze). Top global Spiritmasters use Pagati (18%).
• Slot 4: Cogni = Damage Boost (most questlog builds; PvE Damage Boost also works), Fera = Weapon Damage Boost, Natura = PvE Damage Boost (Perfect Chance or Multi-hit as fallbacks), Varian = Front or Back Attack Damage Boost, Special = Double Chance.
• Other slots: 1 and 5 Max Attack; 2 and 8 HP; 3, 6 and 9 Accuracy; 7 Damage Tolerance or Endurance.
• Rolling: each roll costs 4 Soul Crystals and 1,000 Kinah; at Insight 10 a roll is Heroic 5% and Unique 15%, so a Heroic Double Chance is about 0.4% per roll. Level all five boards to 9–10 on unlocked rolls, roll Special first with rainbow crystals, and lock only slot 4 (and 7 for tanks); each lock raises the cost.
• Soul Crystals: Substance Morph (1 per 500 Kinah, 1,000 a week), the Festival shop (100 per 50 tokens, 30 a month), pet milestones (100 every 10 pets), Hidden Cubes, the Odylium Repository and the Ludra check-in (3,000). Pet souls drop in Expedition and Transcendence dungeons since Nov 4.

Empyrean Lord stats and Pantheon

For the Spiritmaster: Time, then Destruction, then Freedom (while short on Accuracy) or Death, then Illusion or Wisdom (sources split), then Life; skip Justice, Destiny and Space. Each point adds 0.1% to both of its stat's effects on global (Korea doubled it to 0.2%, and some sites show the Korean rate). You can't spend or reset these points: they come from items, and almost all of the difference between players comes from which version of each Arcana card you run.

• Arcana is the real choice. Each slot has a Vigor and a Magic version with a fixed stat (+20 at Unique, +1 per card level, so +25 at +5). Skill lines belong to the slot, not the version, so the version only changes the stat and the set bonus. Top global Spiritmasters run Chalice of Vigor (49%), Parchment of Vigor (36%; Magic 11%) and Bell of Magic (35%; Vigor 11%), and split the Compass (Vigor 27%, Magic 19%) and the Mirror (Vigor 25%, Magic 21%): take the Compass of Vigor while bosses still parry, and the Mirror is the Illusion-or-Wisdom call.
• Sets: questlog Spiritmaster builds run four Vigor cards plus the Bell of Magic. The 2-piece bonuses are Primal Vigor (+60 PvE Attack at 70% HP or more) and Magic Armor (restores 1,500 MP at 20% MP or less).
• Colossus: take the Justice, Time and Destruction one: Zikel's Apparition (14,000 Phantasmal Fragments, +45 each; every questlog Spiritmaster build runs it), or Guardian Lord Nahma (+55 each) if you get the drop.
• Statues and artworks add only +4 to +10 each (the Pantheon holds 1 colossus, 4 statues and 12 artworks; you swap pieces, you can't enhance them), so buy them last; every questlog endgame build runs Statue: Transcendent Bakarma (Death, Space and Freedom +12; kill Bakarma 10 times in Conquest), then Asahr's Mirror (22 of 24 questlog builds) and Artifact of Eternity (20), then Statue: Kibelisk (10) or Fortress Guardian Notun (9); Artwork: Abyssal Ludra (a Ludra drop) appears in 5. Spiritmaster builds run Transcendent Bakarma, Asahr's Mirror, Notun and Gelcos. Freedom statues: Gerod (8,000 fragments, +10), Wraith Giselle (5,000), or all 61 home teleports for Statue: Kibelisk (+10).
• Bracelets: Ascension and quest bracelets have fixed lines, but the Abyssal Bracelet (from Ludra; item 70 in questlog's global table, 86 per GameWith) rolls four Empyrean Lord stats at 9–17 each (up to +68), so look for Time and Destruction lines; 19 of 44 questlog characters wear two in some stage, and the common lines are Time, Destruction, Wisdom and Illusion.
• Currency: Phantasmal Fragments, mostly from Nightmare (up to 1,500 a run, and Instant Clear Tickets cost 30,000 Kinah since Oct 28). They can't be traded and carry over between seasons.
• Spend order: Stigma Shards and Daevanion Crystals first (Nightmare Trade Shop: 300 fragments per crystal, 50 per character; 52,500 for 35 shards), then the colossus, then statues and artworks, then wings and cosmetics.

Top global Spiritmasters average Time 58.2, Justice 49.4, Death 44.8, Freedom 39.6, Destruction 36.2, Space 32.9, Life 30.0, Wisdom 27.6, Illusion 25.2 and Destiny 24.0 (metabot, 1,131 characters, Nov 7); the order above is this guide's synthesis of those card shares and the questlog builds.

Build variants

Party play

• You bring damage and nothing else: Benediction and Flame Blessing are self-only, and Corrode only raises the damage the target takes from your spirit, so no party buff overlaps with yours.
• Call your stagger for checks: Destructive Attack 50, Ancient Spirit 20, Soul's Cry 15, Curse and Fusion 10. The Earth Spirit's Curse hit also lowers the target's Status Resist by 10%.
• The Earth Spirit adds Enmity and can take a monster off you or a party member in a pinch (games.gg, expcarry); its Taunt only works on players, at 30%.
• Spirits despawn the moment you die (Korean Apr 8 note), so after a revive or a phase change, re-summon with buffs first and the Ancient Spirit if it's ready (inferred; no global guide tests it).

Events and what to prioritize

Almost everything in AION 2 refills on a timer and wastes anything past its cap, so the rule is: spend whatever is closest to its cap first. Daily and weekly counters reset at 16:00 server time (weekly on Wednesday).

Shugo Festival (hourly)

A rotating minigame that opens every hour (a Shugo icon and countdown appear beside the minimap; trust the in-game timer, since published schedules disagree). Entering is free; you pay one Reward Key per reward pick after you finish. A better placement gives more picks, but every pick still costs one key, and confirming a pick is final.

• Keys: 3 per day, cap 12 (21 with membership), shared by every character on your server. Keys over the cap are lost. Sources disagree on exact numbers, so check your in-game counter. Hidden Cube and Dimensional Invasion keys cannot be used here.
• Rewards at level 45: the participation package gives 50 Centuryroot Tokens and 700 Enhance Stones; the key package adds 1,200 Enhance Stones, three Soul Codex (bound), 800 Abyss Points and extra rolls, with a chance at unique gear. Reward pools are Chaos gear, Shade gear, Odyle, Refining Stones and Abyss Points.
• Token milestones: each of the nine games pays 20, 40 and 85 tokens at three participation milestones (1,305 tokens for all of them), and the general Festival track pays 30 tokens plus 10 Soul Crystals at 3 participations and 40 plus 10 at 10.

What a PvE Spiritmaster should buy with Centuryroot Tokens (in this order):

1. Daevanion Crystals (bound): 50 tokens each for the first 10, then 100, 200 and 400 (all 50 cost 10,500). More board points is the strongest upgrade for this build, whose board plan needs about 394 points.
2. Wisdom Stones (bound): 350 tokens in an event Festival shop per one guide; metabot's global shop data lists none in the Centuryroot Festival shop, so check in-game before saving tokens for them. Each stone is worth one skill point, which only helps until your key skills reach rank 10 (see How skills level up).
3. Stigma Shards (bound): 300 tokens each, up to 35 per character, for Summon: Ancient Spirit to 15 and then 20 (the slot you keep longest), Flame Blessing to 15 and Benediction to 10; Jointstrike: Corrode needs only 5.
4. Soul Crystal packs: 50 tokens each for ×100, up to 30 per month per character.
5. Cosmetics (wings, pets, skins) last. Wings cost 2,100 to 8,350 tokens.

Korea's Oct 7 patch also merged the per-mode Shugo remnants into one "Masterpiece" remnant that converts through Material Conversion, and added Stigma Shards to the Abyss, Nightmare and Festival shops; global already sells them (Abyss shop 200 per character, Nightmare 35 at 1,500 fragments each, Festival 35 at 300 tokens each). Don't interrupt leveling for every hourly round; start farming it at level 45.

Daily and weekly priority order

Limited-time events right now (as of Nov 4)

Common mistakes

1. Holding Elemental Fusion (you gain no elements in Four Elements), or thinking it needs four different elements (any spirit counts).
2. Letting MP run dry: hold Cold Shock, keep the Water Spirit in the loop and carry MP potions.
3. Summoning the Ancient Spirit before your buffs, or putting the buffs in the macro.
4. Summoning the Fire Spirit before Water and Earth: Fire should be the spirit that stays out.
5. Running Jointstrike: Curse without its Mobile option.
6. Using Soul's Cry's fear on crowd-control-immune bosses.
7. Automating Destructive Attack (charged) or Defiance.
8. Taking Fusion's charge option (12) in a macro build.
9. Copying Korean builds directly: Korea has a newer skill state and far more cooldown reduction.
10. Skill lines on the orb or guard instead of the rings.
11. Letting Shugo keys or Odyle Energy sit at their cap. The weekly Odyle cube counter (one guide; unverified) also drops when you clear without taking the cube; at 0 you can't enter Conquest or Transcendence until reset.
12. Mouse macros or third-party tools.

Community builds (questlog)

The most-liked global PvE builds on questlog.gg's skill builder and character builder (checked Nov 7) mostly match this guide. Likes are small and many endgame stages are wish lists, so read them as community opinion beside the armory data above. Two authors (init.rb and grobmotoriker) made most of the Spiritmaster builds, and init.rb labels its endgame stages "theory".

Where they differ from this guide:

• Ranks: Combustion and Fusion at 20 and the Fire Spirit at 16–20 in every endgame build, but Cold Shock, Curse and Dimensional Control at 12 and Water and Earth at 10–12, lower than the global averages above 14.
• Stigmas: init.rb swaps Flame Blessing for Destructive Attack 20; grobmotoriker runs Benediction 20, Ancient Spirit 15, Flame Blessing 15 and Corrode 5.
• Macros: 1–4 steps over stacks with Fusion first, and Corrode and Curse inside the macro.
• Gear: rings Combustion, Fusion and Fire Spirit; armor and jewelry Spirit Strike and Mental Focus; four Vigor Arcana plus the Bell of Magic; Talisra or Forest Spirit wings; Unbound by Genus and Empty Closet titles; Colossus: Zikel's Apparition.

• Stack setup: grobmotoriker (60 likes): right mouse = Dimensional Control > Combustion; key 3 = Water > Corrode > Curse > Fire; key 4 = Fusion > Earth > Wind; key 5 = Benediction > Flame Blessing > Ancient Spirit; the macro presses Fusion, Fusion, Water and Dimensional Control. init.rb: right mouse = Curse > Fusion > Dimensional Control > Combustion; key 1 = Water > Corrode > Earth > Fire; the macro presses Water, Cold Shock and Curse. keengamer's version uses a spirit stack (Fusion > Water > Earth > Fire) and a damage stack (Corrode > Curse > Dimensional Control > Combustion).
• Gear by stage: Rupture Jewel and Bakarma Guard → True Dragon Lord Orb → Enraged Kromede Jewel and Nuakum Guard → Splendent White or Wise Dragon Lord; no build plans a Ludra weapon.
• Titles: Playing God (Attack slot: PvE Damage Boost +5.5%, Accuracy +90, Double Chance +400) appears in some builds, but its condition is unpublished, the client flags it hidden and no global owner is confirmed, so plan around Unbound by Genus. Journey's Path (Other slot: Combat Speed +3%, HP +900) comes from collecting 6 Unique Expedition artworks.
• Gear extras: Philosopher's Stone: Revelation adds a fifth engraving line to Unique gear (2 stones and 1M Kinah, always succeeds; weapon and guard first). Superior stones can also roll Damage Boost, Weapon, Crit Damage, or Front or Back Attack Damage Boost (about 0.5% each, +100 at best); keep any on the weapon and guard, but yellow Attack +10 is the realistic target. Necklace and earrings reroll toward Might, then Precision, after the class passives.
• Chalice crystals: the 5 Mysterious Crystals for a Unique Chalice come from Season Mission > Tower of Trials (3, for 4,000+ points in Hard Ascension Trial), the Season Shop (1, 25,000 coins) and extracting spare cards (1).

Sources

Korean data runs a couple of patches ahead of global; check tooltips after big patches.

• metabot Spiritmaster class page (global client data) and top-player build stats (1,131 characters, Nov 7)
• metabot Spiritmaster skills (one page per skill) and Daevanion planner (Spiritmaster boards)
• AION2CAL class DPS by combat-power bracket and ranking stats (Korean Spiritmaster builds, Nov 8)
• mmoexp Spiritmaster PvE guide (Oct 19) and gameplay.tips Spiritmaster rotation (Oct 10)
• games.gg Spiritmaster guide (Oct 4), gamesfuze Spiritmaster build and expcarry Spiritmaster guide
• keengamer macro guide
• shugo.gg tier list, KR/TW tier list and Spiritmaster skills
• MeinMMO PvE tier list (Oct 13)
• aion2hub Spiritmaster class page and Korean patch notes: Jan 14, Apr 8, Apr 22, Jun 17, Jul 1, Jul 8, Jul 15, Aug 12, Sep 4, Oct 14, Oct 21
• AionFlex class damage and party comps
• metabot stigma, Arcana, Theostone, Manastone and class tier guides
• metabot wings list and mounts, pets and wings guide
• metabot gear progression, Theostone and Manastone guides, and the enhancement calculator
• metabot leveling guide
• metabot titles, dungeon, stigma, crafting and gear enhancement guides
• metabot daily and weekly checklist
• Official Korean update notes list
• AION2 Hub patch notes: Oct 7 and Oct 5 launch
• aion2.blog Shugo Festival guide
• GameTruth Shugo Festival guide
• Official global Twitch Drops notice
• aion2game.com launch events
• MeinMMO on the removed Ludra raid and gaminghq.eu
• game8 Genus Insight guide
• game8 Phantasmal Fragments guide
• Sportskeeda Pantheon explained
• playnews.gg macro setup
• gamesfuze macro setup guide
• aion2timers stat calculator
• Corpus gear score guide: thresholds and what counts (Oct 10)
• Raid Relay gear score progression 45 to 2,100 (Oct 10)
• metabot dungeon guide: run order, entry limits, Ascension Trial gates (Oct 10)
• metabot content unlocks by item level
• Official notice: Server Transfer Products Info (Oct 9)
• Official Producer's Letter: Welcome to Atreia (Oct 9)
• Official notice: Update on Sanctuary Raid (Ludra)
• Official Oct 14 global update notes (aion2hub transcription)
• Official Oct 21 global update notes (Expedition Hard, Ariel board)
• Official Oct 28 global update notes (boss nerf, Hard Urugugu and Vakron, crafted Amplify) (aion2hub transcription)
• Official notice: Ludra Awakens on November 4th (Odyle Energy Boost, Ludra events) and Halloween Twitch Drops
• metabot Transcendence (client data), wikily Deus Research Base and rewards and Shattered Arkanis
• mobalytics Deus Research Base guide and Shattered Arkanis guide; timesaver Transcendence guide
• AionFlex class presence in clears and class damage by dungeon
• raidrelay gear score, Conquest, Transcendence and Gear Transfer guides; aion2-guides.info progression
• metabot stats (0.1% per point, caps) and Arcana guide; Odealo best Arcana per class
• aion2tool global Combat Power ranking (sample selection; stats read from the official armory), allthings.how Nightmare Trade Shop, aion2hub Colossus: Guardian Lord Nahma and GamesFuze Pantheon guide
• questlog.gg skill builder and character builder community builds (checked Nov 7; most-liked global PvE builds per class)
• Official Nov 4 global update notes (Abyssal Forge: Ludra, Exploration buff, crafting)
• AionFlex boss entry Combat Power (Nov 7)
• metabot class builds (wings, titles, CP medians, Nov 7)
• metabot Abyssal Forge: Ludra and Combat Power guide
• mobalytics Rahu and Ketu boss guides; expcarry Ludra guide
• mobalytics Combat Power guide, allthings: how to increase Combat Power and elitegrindlab Combat Power
• Official announcements mirrored on Steam (events, transfer limits)
• allthings.how: Noble Belt and Revelation Amulet upgrades, Daevanion Crystal sources and Clash Runes
• GameTruth belt and amulet guide, Fextralife Clash Rune odds and daevaguides Krao Cave loot
• senseos.gg grade names and Amplify and Selphie: raising gear score (Oct 12)
• wikily.gg Essence Extraction skills and proficiency and Odyle specialty skills (the other node types share the tree)
• VGC Essence Extraction guide, playnews.gg Essence Extraction and selphie1999gaming Splendent Ruby quest