AION 2: Faction War Through Timed Rifts (Elyos / Asmodian)
Factions sit on separate paired servers and only meet through timed Spacetime Rifts. Elyos portals drop you in Altgard, Asmodian portals in Verteron. The real challenge: entering before the ~10-minute portal window fills, then surviving long enough to finish the gated content.
The goal: get through a Spacetime Rift before the short portal window fills, then stay on the enemy side long enough to finish quests, strongholds, or PvP without a death sending you home. Each Elyos server is paired to one Asmodian server - the crowd you meet is that pair, not your whole region.
1Be at a Portal Before the Hour, Not When Chat Announces It
Rifts open every 3 hours: 00:00, 03:00, 06:00, 09:00, 12:00, 15:00, 18:00, 21:00 UTC (in-game clock marks 2, 5, 8, 11). The portal stays usable for roughly the first 10 minutes - after that the entrance is gone even if the enemy-side window is still running.
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A few minutes before the hour, open the map and click the vortex icon
It shows the level gate, remaining entries, and how long that portal stays open.
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2
Fly to a marker before the system message
On busy servers the first portal the starter quest points at fills immediately.
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3
Icon already draining? Take a different rift
Zoom the map - at least two other portals are usually up at the same time and last longer than the quest-guided one. Players specifically recommend Pilgrims Rest when the popular northern quest rift is slammed.
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4
Splitting a group across two portals is fine
Everyone still lands in the same enemy zone.
2Set Your PvP Flag Before You Cross
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The flag defaults to PvE and can only be toggled in your own territory
You cannot change it once inside the rift.
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The cooldown is 70 minutes
That matches the 10-minute portal plus the time on the other side - guessing wrong locks you in for the whole window.
3The First 10 Seconds on the Other Side Decide the Run
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1
Drop your kisk the moment you get ~10 seconds of peace
It is the resurrection point that lets you stay. Dying without a kisk or Resurrection Spiritstone sends you home with no re-entry to that rift.
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Exit camped? Do not fight it alone
Leave, take a different open rift, and come back as a party. Assassin-party stealth was the suggested workaround for choke points on the way into a camped dungeon door.
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Stay off enemy guard posts
Getting one-shot by guards, then respawning at home with no way back, is the failure mode that keeps coming up.
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Campers do not sit there all day
If a door is fully locked down, do something else and return in the last stretch of the window, or hit a different portal and wipe the camp with a group.
4Faction-War Nights Are a Different Entry Check
On Monday, Thursday, and Saturday the 20:00 and 23:00 rifts become the contested battle (Spacetime Rift Domination): ~25 minutes, 60-200 players per side. Week 1 Elyos defend in Verteron, Week 2 Asmodians defend in Altgard, swapping weekly. Attackers break the monoliths; first side to hold 3 of 5 strongholds wins.
| Domination Entry Requirement | Gate |
|---|---|
| Level | 50 |
| Item level | 4,500 |
| Combat power | 500k |
| Stronghold sweeps | Verteron / Altgard cleared |
Common Mistakes
- Showing up when chat says the rift is open. On a full server the quest portal is already capped - be there before the hour.
- Standing on the popular rift. Check the map for quieter portals instead.
- Entering with the wrong PvP flag. You are stuck with it for the window plus a 70-minute cooldown.
- Dying with no kisk or spiritstone. That ends the run - drop your kisk first.
- Forcing a camped dungeon door solo. Swap rifts and come back as a party.
- Treating Mon/Thu/Sat evening rifts as normal farming. Those are the Domination battles with hard entry gates.