Albion Online Corrupted Dungeons Guide 2026: Ratting

What Corrupted Dungeons are

Corrupted Dungeons are solo instances that mix PvE and PvP. You enter alone, kill corrupted mobs and fill a progress bar. When the bar is full you can summon the demon boss. Killing it opens the boss chest and ends the run.

The twist is the invasion system. Another player can be sent into your dungeon for a 1v1 fight, and you can sign up to invade others. On the lethal difficulties the loser drops everything to the winner.

You find entrances in the open world as two rocks with an orange glow. Since the Abyssal Depths update on 30 June 2025 there is also an entrance in the Antiquarian's Den, so you do not have to run around the map to find one. The items Corrupted Dungeon Map (Hunter) and Corrupted Dungeon Map (Stalker/Slayer) also exist; check in game what they can still be used for.

Hunter, Stalker and Slayer

There are three difficulty levels. They differ in what happens when you lose a fight, where you can enter them and how good the rewards are. Entry is checked against the base Item Power of your gear (the value before mastery and spec bonuses), and the 30 June 2025 patch lowered the minimum for Hunter and Slayer.

• Slayer is locked until you reach 100,000 Infamy. The unlock is permanent: if your Infamy later drops, you keep access.
• Each difficulty has an Item Power soft cap. Power above it is cut down hard, so a very expensive set gives much less than its number suggests, especially in Hunter and Stalker. Check the current cap in game before you overspend.

What changed on 30 June 2025 (Abyssal Depths)

Many older guides and videos were written before this patch. If a guide tells you to farm Infamy to get better chests, it is out of date.

• Loot no longer scales with Infamy. A new player and a veteran get the same loot for the same difficulty and tier.
• The fame bonus from Infamy still exists but its maximum was cut from 50% to 20%.
• Base loot and base fame were raised for everyone to make up for it.
• Minimum Item Power went down: Hunter 700, Slayer 1100. The check now uses base Item Power.
• Invasion matchmaking was made faster.
• Corrupted Dungeon Maps now salvage for 100% of their value.
• A Corrupted Dungeon entrance was added to the Antiquarian's Den.

Invasions, the Demonic Shrine and shards

Every Corrupted Dungeon has a Demonic Shrine. If you use it, you are queued to invade another player's dungeon. If you never touch it, you can still be invaded by someone else.

When an invader arrives, Demonic Shards appear in your dungeon. You have two choices: fight the invader, or break 3 shards to banish them. Banishing ends the invasion without a fight and you carry on with your run.

Spawning the boss stops new invasions from starting, but an invader who is already inside stays until the fight is settled or you banish them. Infamy changes hands when a player wins or loses a fight, so PvP players chase invasions to climb the leaderboard.

Ratting and skipping: what players mean

Ratting is the community word for playing Corrupted Dungeons for the PvE loot and avoiding the PvP. A rat clears mobs and opens chests as fast as possible, does not use the shrine, and runs from or banishes invaders instead of fighting them. Rat builds focus on clear speed, mobility and at least one strong escape.

Skipping means ignoring the invader when one shows up. You kite them, use your escapes and potions, and break the 3 Demonic Shards to banish them, then finish the run. Players say "I skipped him" when they banished an invader without a real fight.

The words carry some heat. Invaders often complain that rats are impossible to catch and ask for nerfs, while rats see skipping as the fair answer to players who only invade to gank. Both are part of the mode as designed.

How to run a Corrupted Dungeon as a rat, step by step

1. 1

   Pick your difficulty

   Learn the dungeon in Hunter, where a lost fight costs no gear. Move to Stalker when you can afford to lose your set, and to Slayer after 100,000 Infamy with gear that clears the harder mobs quickly.

2. 2

   Pack food and an escape

   Bring a stew for damage and health, such as Avalonian Beef Stew, plus an escape potion like Tornado in a Bottle or Invisibility Potion. You can swap food and potions inside, so carry spares.

3. 3

   Skip the shrine

   If you only want PvE, do not use the Demonic Shrine. It does not make you safe, but it keeps you out of the invader queue.

4. 4

   Clear toward the chests

   Kill the minibosses and open the guarded treasure on your way. Pull packs together when your build can handle it so the bar fills sooner.

5. 5

   Watch the minimap

   A hostile dot means an invader has arrived. Stop pulling new packs and decide at once: fight or skip.

6. 6

   Skip with the shards

   If the fight is not in your favor, kite, use your escape and break 3 Demonic Shards to banish the invader.

7. 7

   Spawn the boss early

   As soon as the bar is full, summon the boss. It blocks new invasions. Kill it, loot the chest and leave.

Builds for ratting

A good rat build does three things: it clears packs alone without stopping to rest, it survives the boss, and it can break away from an invader long enough to hit the shards. The meta shifts with balance patches, so treat any list as a starting point.

• Fast AoE clear with self-sustain: weapons such as Soulscythe or Bear Paws with a Druid Robe are common picks for clearing solo.
• Mobility and a hard escape: Shoes of Tenacity, Royal Sandals or Cleric Sandals for movement, and an Invisibility Potion or Tornado in a Bottle as the emergency button.
• Burst for the duel you cannot avoid: Battle Bracers with an Assassin Jacket fits players who want to win some fights rather than skip them all.
• Older rat setups built around a Double Bladed Staff or Guardian Helmet still show up, but check how they perform after recent patches.

Loot, risk and profit

Rewards come from mob drops, the miniboss and treasure chests, and the boss chest: silver, gear, and runes, souls, relics and shards for enchanting. Stalker pays clearly more than Hunter, and Slayer more again.

Profit per hour depends on your clear speed, your tier, how often you are invaded and what the loot sells for today. We have not found a reliable current figure, and old numbers from before June 2025 used a different loot model. Track a few runs yourself and compare the loot value to the cost of the gear you risk.

Loot sells best when you know where it is worth most. AOScout item price pages show every city and the Black Market for each item, so you can decide whether to sell gear in Caerleon, to the Black Market or keep it. Prices there can be a few hours old.

• Mistake: using the shrine out of habit when you only want PvE.
• Mistake: entering Stalker or Slayer in a set you cannot afford to lose.
• Mistake: following pre-2025 advice that more Infamy means better chests.
• Mistake: fighting every invader when breaking 3 shards would end it.
• Mistake: forgetting that gear is locked once you are inside.

Questions players ask