NIA field analysts have recorded three separate Shard formations within the Season of Cygnus. Each will draw Enlightened and Resistance Agents into direct competition for Season Points, and the results will carry forward into the final standings of the Season.
Shard Storm rewards the disciplined Faction. Links must be built and held in the right places, at the right lengths, before a Movement Window opens — which means surveying ground in advance, coordinating across a region, and holding position when the opposition moves against you. Precision, teamwork, grit, and strategy decide these operations. Agents of both Factions should prepare accordingly.
What
During each Cygnus Shard Storm Event Day, Shards will manifest at six (6) sites worldwide. Three (3) Shards will appear at each site, for a total of eighteen (18) Shards per Event Day and fifty-four (54) across the Season.
Your Faction earns Season Points when a Shard travels over a Link your Faction owns, at a length that scores. Building the right Link geometry and holding it through each Movement Window is the objective. Up to 630 Season Points are available per Event Day, and 1,890 across all three.
Agents who hack a Shard-bearing Portal are recognized individually with Cygnus Tokens, which count toward the Cygnus Season Medal.
When
Cygnus Shard Storm is a series of three one-day operations: 17 October 2026, 24 October 2026, and 21 November 2026. On each date, Shards manifest at 14:00 local time at their respective sites and disappear at 21:00 local time.
Where
Shard Storm sites will be announced ahead of each Event Day. Spawn Portals will be ornamented twenty (20) days prior to each manifestation, identifying the sites in the field and giving Agents time to survey the surrounding Link network.
Procedure
All Shards manifest at 14:00 local time. Movement Windows then open every thirty minutes, and Shards will travel along Portal Links when possible, with each Shard at a site moving two minutes after the one preceding it:
Shard 1 moves every 30 minutes, from 14:15 to 16:45 local time.
Shard 2 moves two minutes after Shard 1, from 14:17 to 16:47 local time.
Shard 3 moves two minutes after Shard 2, from 14:19 to 16:49 local time.
Each Shard therefore has six (6) Movement Windows. After its final window, a Shard will remain in place until 21:00 local time, at which point it will disappear.
Shard Behavior Pattern
Shards will only travel along Links connecting two Portals of L4 or higher.
If multiple viable Links exist, a Shard may travel on any one of those Links. If multiple Shards are present on a Portal, they may each travel along different Links.
Shards will not return or backtrack to a Portal they were previously located on within the past 150 minutes.
In the event that a Shard has not traveled along any Link within the past 150 minutes, it may randomly teleport to a nearby Portal at the next Movement Window.
If a Shard movement is found to have been the result of actions by a rogue Agent, Ingress Ops may return the Shard to a previous location.
Portal Immunity Instability
During Shard Storm Event Days, Immunity Periods for ADA Refactors and Jarvis Viruses will experience instability.
Immunity Period instability will affect all Portals, globally, during the time period it is active.
On Shard Storm Event Days, the instability will begin approximately one hour prior to Shard manifestation at the first site of the day, and will end approximately one hour after the Shards disappear at the last site of the day.
During the instability windows identified above, Immunity Period will vary between a minimum of 5 and a maximum of 55 minutes, rounded to a whole minute (e.g. 7 minutes and 0 seconds). The Current Immunity Period will be modified, globally, approximately every 30 minutes. As soon as the Current Immunity Period is modified, it will affect all Portals, regardless of what the Immunity Period was when they were last flipped.
When a Portal flip is attempted using a Jarvis Virus or ADA Refactor, the time of the last flip (e.g. 10 minutes and 5 seconds ago) will be compared to the Current Immunity Period (e.g. 20 minutes and 0 seconds); in this example, the flip fails. The Current Immunity Period may be different from the Immunity Period when the last flip was performed. Only the Current Immunity Period and the time of the last flip are used to calculate whether a Portal flip is successful. ADA Refactors and Jarvis Viruses will be expended during both failed and successful flip attempts, as usual.
The Immunity Periods for ADA Refactors and Jarvis Viruses will always be equivalent during the instability windows.
Neither Faction will be aware of the time or duration of changes in Immunity in advance, and no mechanic will exist to allow a Faction advance knowledge of this information (e.g. media, passcode, dead-drop intel or special Ops reward).
A list of all Immunity Period changes, both the time at which the change was made, and the duration it was changed to, will be published following the conclusion of a day’s events. A hash of that list will be published in advance.
Date
Immunity Instability Hash
17 Oct 2026
To be announced
24 Oct 2026
To be announced
21 Nov 2026
To be announced
Individual Rewards: Cygnus Tokens
Agents who successfully hack a Portal where a Shard is present will be granted 2,500 Cygnus Tokens.
This reward is limited to 2,500 Cygnus Tokens per Event Day. An Agent who hacks additional Shard-bearing Portals on the same day, whether at the same site or at other sites, will not receive further Cygnus Tokens for that day. The reward may be earned up to three (3) times per Season.
Cygnus Tokens count toward the three-tiered Cygnus Season Medal.
Faction Score
Factions will earn Season Points for each Shard jump over a Faction-owned Link during each Cygnus Shard Storm Event Day:
5 Season Points for each jump over a Link between 1 km and 5 km in length.
10 Season Points for a single jump over a Link longer than 10 km (ten kilometers). That Shard then stops scoring; points it already earned still count.
Jumps over Links of other lengths do not score. A maximum of 35 Season Points is available per Shard, 105 Season Points per site, and 630 Season Points per Event Day.
If a site or Shard is cancelled, it awards no Season Points and has no impact on the Season results.
Official results will be publicly announced within one week following the conclusion of each Shard Storm day, via a dedicated Season Score update published on ingress.com/news.
