Aion 2 Arcana Guide: Card Skills, Sets, Enhancing and Transmute

Which card carries your skill: Arcana skills by class

Each card raises only its own skills, from 22 of your class's:

• Parchment: 6 Active skills. Drops in Shattered Arkanis.
• Compass: the other 6 Active skills. Drops in Deus Research Base.
• Bell: 5 Passive skills. Drops in Deus Research Base.
• Mirror: the other 5 Passive skills. Drops in Shattered Arkanis.
• Chalice: any of the 22. Drops in both.

Every skill in a card's pool is equally likely (we checked the game files), and a card never carries the same one twice, so a card with four effects holds 4 of its pool: a skill you want is on 4 in 6 Parchments or Compasses, 4 in 5 Bells or Mirrors, but only 4 in 22 Chalices. That is why the Chalice is the card to Transmute with a skill you choose. Vigor and Magic cards carry the same skills.

Gladiator

Card	Skill
Parchment	Keen Strike
	Leaping Slam
	Overhead Slam
	Ankle Slice
	Aerial Snare
	Ruinous Blow
Compass	Rending Blow
	Mocking Blade
	Rush Strike
	Crushing Wave
	Sword Aura Rampage
	Defiance
Bell	Survival Stance
	Blood Absorption
	Attack Preparation
	Destructive Impulse
	Survival Willpower
Mirror	Protection Armor
	Identify Weakness
	Impact Hit
	Experienced Counterstrike
	Murderous Burst

Templar

Card	Skill
Parchment	Vicious Strike
	Poach
	Annihilate
	Judgment
	Debilitating Smash
	Punishment
Compass	Pummel
	Shield Smite
	Shield Rush
	Warding Strike
	Flash Rampage
	Defiance
Bell	Enhance Health
	Punishing Benediction
	Guarding Seal
	Insulting Roar
	Fury
Mirror	Warding Shield
	Ironclad Defense
	Impact Hit
	Survival Willpower
	Block Pain

Assassin

Card	Skill
Parchment	Quick Slice
	Shadowstrike
	Heart Gore
	Whirlwind Slice
	Shadow Fall
	Insignia Explosion
Compass	Ambush
	Savage Roar
	Infiltrate
	Flash Slice
	Storm Rampage
	Defiance
Bell	Heightened Sixth Sense
	Apply Poison
	Assault Stance
	Ambush Stance
	Revitalization Contract
Mirror	Exploit Weakness
	Rear Smite
	Impact Hit
	Defense Break
	Determination

Ranger

Card	Skill
Parchment	Snipe
	Snare Shot
	Drill Dart
	Burst Arrow
	Explosion Trap
	Tempest Shot
Compass	Deadshot
	Marking Shot
	Suppressing Arrow
	Gale Arrow
	Arrow Scattershot
	Defiance
Bell	Vigilant Eye
	Wind Vigor
	Hunter's Resolve
	Rooting Eye
	Revitalization Contract
Mirror	Concentrated Fire
	Focused Eye
	Unyielding Resolve
	Melee Fire
	Hunter's Soul

Sorcerer

Card	Skill
Parchment	Flame Arrow
	Firestorm
	Blaze
	Frost Burst
	Wish of Concentration
	Hellfire
Compass	Ice Chain
	Bittercold Wind
	Frost
	Winter's Shackles
	Flame Scattershot
	Defiance
Bell	Fire Mark
	Cold Snap
	Robe of Cold
	Grace of Resistance
	Revitalization Contract
Mirror	Robe of Earth
	Robe of Flame
	Absorb Essence
	Grace of Enhancement
	Vitality Evaporation

Elementalist

Card	Skill
Parchment	Cold Shock
	Summon: Fire Spirit
	Jointstrike: Curse
	Summon: Earth Spirit
	Dimensional Control
	Elemental Fusion
Compass	Combustion
	Summon: Water Spirit
	Soul's Cry
	Summon: Wind Spirit
	Rapid Scattershot
	Defiance
Bell	Spirit Strike
	Spirit's Descent
	Spirit Revitalization
	Spirit Communion
	Element Unification
Mirror	Spirit Protection
	Corrode
	Mental Focus
	Consecutive Countercurrent
	Revitalization Contract

Cleric

Card	Skill
Parchment	Earth's Retribution
	Debilitating Mark
	Chain of Torment
	Condemnation
	Radiant Recovery
	Bolt
Compass	Judgment Thunder
	Divine Aura
	Light of Regeneration
	Healing Light
	Lightning Strike Scattershot
	Defiance
Bell	Warm Benediction
	Empyrean Lord's Grace
	Immortal Veil
	Prayer of Concentration
	Survival Willpower
Mirror	Empyrean Lords' Benediction
	Healing Enhancement
	Heal Block
	Radiant Benediction
	Earth's Grace

Chanter

Card	Skill
Parchment	Onslaught
	Rushing Smash
	Wave Blow
	Heat Wave Blow
	Dark Crush
	Spinning Strike
Compass	Incandescent Blow
	Impactful Crush
	Tremor Crush
	Recuperation
	Gust Rampage
	Defiance
Bell	Blessing of Life
	Protection Circle
	Attack Preparation
	Raging Spell
	Survival Willpower
Mirror	Crossguard
	Inspiring Spell
	Impact Hit
	Earth's Promise
	Wind's Promise

What each grade gives

Each level adds 1 item level, which is your gear score, and 1 Lord stat. A Unique at +5 gives 85 gear score and 25 Lord stat points.

How skill effects grow

A card drops with its skill effects at Lv. +1 each, one effect per grade step. Each enhancement level adds a new effect until the card has four; after that, each level raises one of the four at random, up to Lv. +4. Some guides say enhancing only raises the effects a card already has; we checked the game files, the game's enhance preview and an enhanced card, below.

So an Epic's first level adds its fourth effect, and its skill levels start rising at +2. A Unique already has four, so every level raises one of them at random: this +3 Chalice put all three levels into one skill.

Vigor or Magic: sets and Lord stats

Every card is Vigor or Magic, half the drops each. Two or four cards of one set give its bonus:

The set also decides each card's Empyrean Lord stat. Each point raises both of its stats by 0.1%:

Pick by your MP. If your class runs dry on MP, run Magic: two cards give 1,500 MP back when you're low, the Mirror's Wisdom cuts your MP cost and the Parchment's Destiny raises your MP. Otherwise run Vigor, whose four cards add 150 PvE Attack while your HP is 70% or more. You have five slots, so the fifth card can be either set: wear whichever carries your skill. Two cards of each set give both two-card bonuses instead.

Vigor isn't a physical set and Magic isn't a magic-damage set: every class can wear either.

Global has these two sets and five cards. Guides with Scales, Keys, Hourglasses or seven sets describe the Korean game.

How to enhance Arcana: exp and Kina costs

1. Open Arcana, pick the card and register materials: spare cards or Training Arcana. Each spare card fed costs 5,000 Kina, plus 1 Kina for each exp you put into it; each Training Arcana costs 2,000.
2. A card fed gives its exp and all the exp put into it, so the exp you put into a card moves on when it feeds the next; its Kina fees don't come back. Exp past the top level comes back as Training Arcana.
3. Take every card you wear to four effects: a Rare to +2, an Epic to +1. A new effect is the cheapest skill level you can buy: 300 to 1,200 exp, against 48,000 for a Unique's last level.

Total exp from +0 to each level:

A spare card gives 200, 400, 800 or 2,000 exp from Common to Unique, so every grade needs the same count of its own spares:

Commons are the dearest feed for a better card: a Unique to +5 takes 465 Commons and 2,325,000 Kina, or 19 Exalted Training Arcana and 38,000 Kina.

Training Arcana

Training Arcana are materials, not cards you wear: each gives its exp for 2,000 Kina.

The first three come from the Season Shop and from Transcendence achievements:

The achievements are three per stage of each dungeon: clear it, clear it within 7 minutes, and clear it without losing a party member.

Keep, feed or extract: Mysterious Crystals per card

• Keep the best card in each slot that carries your skills.
• Feed spare Epics and Uniques, the cards you replace and Training Arcana to the cards you wear.
• Extract Commons. Extracting is free, and a card fills the Mysterious Crystal gauge by the exp it would feed: at +0, 2% for a Common, 4% a Rare, 8% an Epic and 20% a Unique. A full gauge is one crystal.

The cards a Transcendence claim gives, on average, with all three bosses killed:

What those cards are worth:

These count every card; the ones you keep come out of them. Fed instead, a claim's cards cost about 5,000 Kina each.

Transmute a Unique card: crystal and Kina costs

Transmute makes a Unique card of the slot and set you pick. You can choose up to two of its four skill effects; the rest roll from the card's skills. We checked the game files: each skill you choose adds 10 crystals and 3,000,000 Kina.

The cards of one grade you would extract for those crystals:

Transmute the Chalice first. It can carry any of your 22 skills, and a Unique Chalice drops only at stage 4, in one claim of four. A plain one, for 5 crystals, is worth 80 gear score, so it adds 80 to an empty slot and 20 over an Epic; the gear score guide crafts it at 1,900. Pick its set by your MP, as above.

Then the Active card your set is missing. After the Chalice, Transmute the Parchment or the Compass, whichever carries your main Active skills, in the set you're short of. They are the only other cards with Active skills; the Bell and Mirror carry Passives.

After a Transmute, the next one waits for a cooldown. The game says Transmute resets or changes at the start of each new season; season 1 ends on 16 December 2026.

Where to get Arcana cards and Mysterious Crystals

Arcana drops by stage

You can wear Arcana from level 45, and cards drop only in Transcendence: the Chalice, Compass and Bell in Deus Research Base, the Chalice, Parchment and Mirror in Shattered Arkanis. The highest grade each stage drops:

The Transcendence guide has the drop rates and the bosses.

Mysterious Crystals

Mysterious Crystals come from extracting cards, and 5 a season per server from the Season Shop's Growth tab, at 25,000 Oath Coins each. Buy those first: crystals are the scarce part, and exp comes with every spare card.

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Sources: Global client data (launcher version 26 tables, unchanged in version 30): the cards, their grades, Lord stats and enhancement (Item, ArcanaEnchant, ArcanaEnchantEffectMainStat), the skills each card can carry (ArcanaStatFilter and the Skill table), how skill effects grow (ItemEquipSubstatSkill and the game's enhancement text), the sets (ItemSet, ItemSetEffect), what each Lord stat raises (PcStatSecond), extraction and Transmute (GlobalSetting, ArcanaCreate), the Season Shop (GameShopGoods) and the Transcendence achievements (AchievementReward). The cards a claim are worked out from the client's drop rates, each boss rolling on its own, with all three killed; a card's extraction points are its feed exp, which our checks match for Common, Rare and Epic cards. Checked in game on our own and our guild's characters: the extraction gauge and its cost, the 5,000 Kina per card fed, a new card's effects, an enhanced card's new effect and random upgrades, the Season Shop, that a card never carries a skill twice, and 0.1% a Lord stat point; every screenshot here is ours or a guildmate's. Our calls: four effects before more levels, Commons to extraction, the Season Shop's crystals first, the Chalice first and its set by your MP, then the Active card your set is missing.