Chaos — The Main Mode

The mode that lets you replay the Chaos seen in the story — no Aether cost, farm without limit.

What is Chaos?

Chaos is the mode that replays the Chaos events witnessed in Chaos Zero Nightmare's story. Entering Chaos costs no Aether, so it can be farmed indefinitely. Whether you clear the run or your whole squad wipes, you still keep the Save Data earned up to that point, usable in other content. Difficulty 1-2 only unlocks the outer area of a Chaos; difficulty 3 and above also unlocks a center area with new events and enemies.

The 9 Chaos Zones

Zone Entry condition Boss Weakness
Blue Pot Clear Chapter 1 Kentris · Soul Collector Passion
Shadow of the Twin Stars Clear Chapter 2 Bercula · Formica Instinct
City of Mist Clear Chapter 3 Gaju · Sweet Dream Void
Swamp of Judgment Clear Chapter 4 Mountain God · Plague God Order
Descended Chaos Clear Chapter 5 Viadeus · Serapion Justice
Laboratory 0
Season 1
Clear Chapter 1 of the Galactic Disaster event Gaju · Sweet Dream Void
Burning Life
Season 2
Clear Season 2 Chapter 1 Mountain God · Plague God Order
Theater of Illusion
Season 3
Clear Season 3 Chapter 1 Not yet announced Passion
Kaleidoscope Hatchery
Season 4
Season 4 (from 2026-07-29) Not yet announced Not yet announced
Blue Pot
A city district completely swallowed by Chaos.
Shadow of the Twin Stars
The far-north region of Elvera, a moon of the planet Spites.
City of Mist
A city on the planet Seiren, administered by the Holy Cross, built in the image of an Earth city and abandoned once Chaos broke out.
Swamp of Judgment
A forest inside a giant cavern beneath a wild forest above.
Descended Chaos
One of the giant Chaos sitting directly on Earth, administered by the Holy Cross.
Laboratory 0
A secret laboratory of Kaguya Pharmaceuticals, hidden away because of forbidden research.
Burning Life
A seasonal Chaos featuring the Mountain God and Plague God bosses, testing squad sustain with their enormous health pools.
Kaleidoscope Hatchery
A new unidentified-area zone with new cards, new Environment Variables, and a new Invasion boss; the boss's name has not been announced.

Chaos Exploration Level

Each Chaos Area tracks its own Exploration Level (not shared across areas) — the more runs you complete in one area, the higher that area's level gets, unlocking new content to show up in later runs. This is the main way to obtain the full set of seasonal cards and equipment, not pure luck.

Completing a run in a Chaos Area raises that specific area's Exploration Level — levels are not shared between different areas.
In Kaleidoscope Hatchery (Season 4): raising Exploration Level unlocks additional Season 4 cards so they can appear in your future runs.
In Theater of Illusion (Season 3) and Burning Life (Season 2): raising Exploration Level unlocks additional seasonal equipment for that area.

The exact level thresholds needed to unlock each card/equipment: our current source doesn't state this number — we leave it blank instead of guessing.

The 10 Chaos Penalties

n scales with difficulty and the number of penalties attached — it isn't a fixed number.

Penalty Effect
Loss Credit earned from battle is reduced by n%.
Negligence At the start of each turn, discard 1 card (never more than 1 at once).
Tyrant Attack and HP of Elite-node and Boss enemies increase by n%.
Unrest You cannot rest at safe-zone nodes.
Elite Adds n Elite nodes (turns normal-enemy nodes into Elite-enemy nodes).
Illness Max HP is reduced by n%.
Wrath Enemies gain n Morale every 3 turns.
Hardening Enemies gain n Fortitude every 3 turns.
Vengeance Whenever an enemy dies, another enemy gains n Morale.
Necrosis Lose n% HP at the start of each turn.

Penalty-picking tactics

Community experience — not a hard rule of the game.

Avoid taking Illness + Tyrant together: lower max HP plus higher Elite damage can turn one hit into near-death or a Link Crash that sends you back to the lobby.

At high-tier Chaos, avoid the trio 「Tyrant · Hardening · Illness」 — all three hit your sustain directly and can cost you your last card-copy chance.

The most favored pair is Loss + Necrosis — Credit still stays sufficient if you clear unidentified-area nodes and bosses, while Necrosis's steady chip damage barely counts as a downside (even helps) since healing also lowers stress.

Well-geared players actually prefer Elite: Elite nodes guarantee better equipment and more Credit drops — and late into a Chaos run, normal enemies can sometimes be scarier than Elite ones.

The Zero System & Codex

The Zero System unlocks at Captain Level 40 as an advanced layer over Chaos: it attaches difficulty-raising prefixes in exchange for a higher Save Data tier. You can hold up to 3 Codex at once; since 2026-05-27 you can pick your Chaos directly instead of getting a random one. Chaos Orb is spent on upgrades, and those upgrades also apply to seasonal Chaos.

⚠ An exclusive Codex (meeting one of the 4 gods) does NOT save Save Data — the trade-off for how strong the god's effect is.

The 4 Exclusive Codex Gods

God Effect
Dialos Shield gained +200%; at end of turn, shield is kept and deals fixed damage based on shield amount to all enemies.
Nihilum The hit count of every attack card is multiplied by 3.
Kirken Using a card costing ≥2 refunds 2 cost and draws 1 extra card.
Secred All multi-hit cards compress into a single hit (total damage unchanged) and damage is doubled.

Nightmare Mode

Nightmare Mode unlocks once a squadmate falls into Deep Trauma at Chaos difficulty 3, after being treated at the Epione Center. If your squad has a combatant currently in Deep Trauma, this mode turns ON FORCIBLY (it cannot be switched off). Trade-off: stress management gets harder, but Save Data tier gets +1 and Epiphany rate goes up — so almost everyone leaves it on, except when farming a seasonal Chaos's own achievements.

Delegation Mode

Delegation Mode requires a Tactical Delegation Module, with 1 free per day (a monthly pack adds 1 more, for 2/day total; events add more). AI reads your playstyle and auto-resolves the battle — but the battle still runs for real: HP and stress still rise and fall normally, and a bad squad or a harsh penalty combo can still wipe your team and send you back to the ship. You still have to choose manually at unidentified-area nodes and rest nodes.

Real downside: the AI often skips rest nodes and unidentified-area nodes when auto-pathing, which hurts Controller-style decks that rely on Neutral Cards.

The Chaos data on this page is cross-checked against the original Korean community documentation (Season 1 patch notes) and official Season 4 notes; anything missing (such as the boss names for Theater of Illusion and Kaleidoscope Hatchery) is left blank rather than guessed.

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Quick FAQ

Does entering Chaos cost Aether?

No — Zero System Chaos and seasonal Chaos don't cost Aether to enter, so you can farm them as many times as you want in a day.

Is Nightmare Mode mandatory?

It only turns on forcibly when your squad has a combatant currently in Deep Trauma; otherwise you can toggle it yourself.

Is Delegation Mode fully automatic?

No — the battle still runs for real (HP/stress still change), a bad squad can still wipe your team, and you still have to manually choose at unidentified-area and rest nodes.

Keep exploring

Chaos Zero Nightmare · Combatants · Tier List · Tools · Game mechanics wiki · Redeem codes · Banner & event schedule · Seasons · Ark City · Simulation · Fates · Items · Voice Actors · Outfits · Missions · Equipment · Builds · Banned Cards · Memory Fragments · Patch History · Combat Guide

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