Combat Power in Aion 2 is a single number that sums up how strong your character actually is. It pulls from almost every progression system you touch, which is why swapping in a rarer weapon alone rarely fixes a low score. The number climbs whenever you develop something that carries combat stats, so the fastest route is to patch the biggest unfinished systems rather than spreading materials thinly across all of them.
Quick answer: Raise Combat Power by improving any stat-bearing system — gear and its enhancements, skills, Stigmas, Daevanion nodes, Arcana, and collection bonuses — then watch the CP value rise on the toggle next to your item level.
What Combat Power counts (and what it ignores)
Combat Power and item level are not the same thing. Item level reflects your equipment and acts as the entry gate for dungeons, so some Expedition and Transcendence stages refuse you until you hit a minimum. Combat Power is the wider measure. It folds in systems item level ignores, including skills, Stigmas, Arcana, and pet Genus Insight, which is why two players with matching item level can show very different Combat Power.
| System | Raises item level | Raises Combat Power |
|---|---|---|
| Gear quality and enhancement | Yes | Yes |
| Daevanion | Yes | Yes |
| Active and passive skills | No | Yes |
| Stigma skills | No | Yes |
| Manastones and Theostones | Gear-dependent | Yes |
| Soul Binding | Gear-dependent | Yes |
| Wings, Pets, Titles, Skins | No | Yes |
Some things never touch the number at all. Shop cosmetics give no gameplay advantage, Founder’s Pack skins, pets, and wings are appearance-only, and consumables such as potions and resurrection stones sit outside the calculation. Temporary buff stats are excluded too, so a flask will not inflate your score.
- Shop cosmetics
- Founder’s Pack title, skins, pet, and wings
- Potions, resurrection stones, and other buff items
Gear and its upgrade layers
Early on, gear drives most of your Combat Power because every piece carries base stats plus room for several upgrades stacked on top. Fill every equipment slot and replace outdated weapons, armor, and accessories as stronger pieces arrive. Main Episode and Regional quests hand you most of your starting equipment, and once those rewards stop improving, Expeditions become your main supply of Hero- and Unique-grade drops.
Do not judge a piece by its base grade alone. Enhancement, socketed Manastones and Theostones, and Soul Binding all add to a piece, so a developed item can outperform a fresh replacement that only looks better on paper. Enhancement runs up to +15 with amplified levels beyond it; a +15 Spectral Staff, for example, adds +69 to both minimum and maximum attack over its base values.
The hardest group content sits at the top of this ladder. The Chalice of Muspel Sanctuary is a 10-player raid with a 120-minute time limit and two revives, holding bosses Iscariel and Kaldrix at level 85 and the Muspel Guardian Statue at level 80. You claim rewards from the dungeon ladder using Odyle Energy, which caps at 560 and rises to 840 with a Membership.
Transfer can pass Soul Binding effects and amplified enhance levels, along with upgrade stages, to replacement gear—up to six times for each piece—so materials used on equipment you plan to replace aren’t wasted.
Skills, Stigmas, and Skill Points
Skill levels are easy to forget because nothing about them shows on your character model, yet active skills, passives, and Stigmas all push your Combat Power. Spend points on the abilities that make up your rotation — core damage skills, buffs, healing, and defensive tools — rather than leveling everything evenly. By the time you reach level 45 you will have earned 203 Skill Points through the main quest, and beyond that you clear Sealed Dungeons and complete Regional quests for more.
Stigmas run on their own currency and contribute a large share of Combat Power. Your first Stigma slot unlocks for free at level 22 after the ascension quest, and later upgrades consume Stigma Shards instead of Skill Points. Higher Stigma levels strengthen the skill and unlock extra effects, so invest first in the Stigmas your build already uses.
Stigma Shards come from a few reliable places:
- Shugo Festival
- Abyss Trade Shop
- Nightmare Trade Shop
Daevanion boards
Daevanion boards are permanent talent grids that hand out stats and skill-level bonuses as you unlock nodes. Because the progression stays with your character while your gear changes, every useful node keeps paying off. You feed the boards with Daevanion Points earned from Exploration objectives and Regional quests, and with Daevanion Crystals gathered from Regional quests and Sealed Dungeons.
Start with nodes suited to the stats and skills your build relies on; add secondary bonuses after those. Note that PvP Daevanion nodes increase overall Combat Power and may help you meet dungeon thresholds, but they provide no PvE damage. If your only goal is hitting harder in group content, invest in PvE nodes first.
Arcana cards and sets
Arcana cards work almost like extra gear slots, adding combat stats and, in many cases, raising the level of specific active or passive skills past their normal cap. Equipping cards from the Primal Vigor or Magic Armor families unlocks set bonuses; the game currently runs two complete sets, whose equipped effects shift depending on your class.
Cards come from Transcendence dungeons, which currently include Deus Research Base and Shattered Arkanis. You can extract older cards into crystals for newer sets, while Mysterious Crystal (Bound) serves as the primary material for transmuting Arcana. Put useful cards in empty Arcana slots, then swap them for higher rarities as they appear instead of saving resources for a perfect card.
Collection stats: Wings, Titles, Pets, Skins, and Pantheon
The collection systems look small one at a time, but they stack into a steady, permanent Combat Power gain across your account. Wings, Titles, and Pets grant both an owned effect and an equipped effect, which means collecting an item strengthens you even when you are not displaying it.
| System | Where it comes from | What it adds |
|---|---|---|
| Wings | Unlocks, Siege Shop, Shugo events | Owned and equipped stats |
| Titles | Achievements, world and challenge bosses | Owned and equipped stats |
| Pets / Genus Insight | Hunting monsters, Pet Boxes | Pooled pet stat bonuses |
| Skins | Skin Chests and equipment | Weapon damage, armor defense, both for accessories |
| Pantheon | Nightmare shop, Substance Morph, Conquest | Colossus, Statue, Artwork stats |
Genus Insight is the pet collection’s own progression layer. As you gather Pet Souls and level companions, more stat sockets open up, and you can later reroll those attributes using soul crystals and Kina. Pantheon sits outside the normal equipment screen, so it is easy to leave weak Colossus, Statue, and Artwork pieces in place and quietly lose Combat Power.
A stat does not become good just because it raises your Combat Power. A card, node, or skin full of bonuses your class ignores still inflates the number while doing little for your actual build, so keep prioritizing the stats and skills that make you hit harder or survive longer.
How to check your Combat Power went up
Combat Power appears as a toggle on your existing item level display, so flip to it after any upgrade and confirm the number is higher than before. For a direct read on damage rather than the summary score, open the Combat Analysis tool from the ESC menu or with Ctrl+X. It reports total combat time, DPS, and total damage dealt, with a detailed mode that breaks the numbers down by skill, and it can start measuring automatically when you attack a boss.
Use both values to choose your next upgrade. A locked dungeon means your item level falls short; focus first on equipment that boosts it. Once you meet the entry requirement, if a group expects more Combat Power, improve your skills, Stigmas, Daevanion, Arcana, Genus Insight, or collection systems.
