What is an anomaly?
An XM Anomaly is a live event where agents from both factions travel to one city and fight over a chosen area of portals, the Anomaly Zone, for an afternoon. The Ingress year is split into three-month seasons. Each one adds up points from anomalies, global campaigns and First Saturdays, and the faction with the higher total wins it. Not every season has in-person anomalies: Cygnus, the current one, has none.
Most sites are paired, so two cities on opposite sides of the world play on the same day.
The games at an anomaly
An anomaly is a set of smaller competitions, and each site was worth up to 300 Season Points in the 2026 seasons. These details come from the Apollo season rules (July to September 2026). Numbers can change between seasons, so read the sites post for the event you attend.
| Competition | When (local) | Season Points |
|---|---|---|
| Stealth Ops | Friday evening | 10 |
| Urban Ops | Saturday 09:00 to 13:00 | 10 |
| Battle Beacons | Saturday 14:00 to 17:00 | 100 |
| Flash Shards | Saturday 14:00 to 17:00 | 100 |
| Anomaly Uniques | Saturday 14:00 to 17:00 | 80 |
Battle Beacons
The three hours are split into six half-hour waves, and rare Battle Beacons appear on zone portals at the start of each one. Each beacon has three checkpoints, three minutes apart, worth 2, 3 and 4 points to whoever holds the portal at that moment. Volatile portals are worth five times as much, 10, 15 and 20. A faction's final score is its single best wave, so one great wave beats steady results. Holding the last checkpoint is worth twice the first, which means timing your flip late can pay off.
Flash Shards
Each wave brings 23 shards and six target portals per faction. About every five minutes shards jump along links, and only along links between two portals of level 4 or higher. The faction that owns the link scores 1 point per jump, plus 1 if the link is longer than 499.5 m and lands on a zone portal. Each target portal scores 5 points for the faction it belongs to, for each of the first four shards that land on it. Links are what move shards, so a well-placed network of level 4 portals matters more than raw firepower here.
Anomaly Uniques
Agents earn a unique hack the first time they hack each zone portal during the battle. The score is the average per agent for each faction, with the top and bottom 10% left out, so everybody's hacking counts and a few sprinters can't carry it. Some portals secretly enter a Recursive State for a whole wave and give a one-off bonus of 10 to 50 uniques to anyone who hacks them.
The Anomaly Campaign and medal
During the battle, agents near the zone get a five-bounty campaign through Dispatch for deploying resonators, destroying resonators and earning unique hacks. Finishing four of the five earns that season's on-site medal, and it's the most achievable goal for a first-time attendee.
Portal immunity
ADA Refactors and Jarvis Viruses leave a portal immune to being flipped again for a while. On anomaly days that period changes worldwide, from 5 to 55 minutes, about every half hour, with no advance warning. A flip attempt during immunity uses up the item, so be careful with your flip cards.
Urban Ops and Stealth Ops
These are ticketed physical challenges hosted by GORUCK: relay races, team carries, trivia and glyph contests. Each one splits 10 Season Points in proportion to the challenges each faction wins.
Shard Storms
Shard Storms are a separate format, and they decide part of the current season. Shards appear at six sites worldwide and move along links during fixed windows. The scoring rewards link length: in Cygnus, 5 Season Points per jump over a link of 1 to 5 km, or 10 for one jump over a link longer than 10 km, after which that shard stops scoring. Spawn portals are marked 20 days ahead, so the work is in building the right links before the day.
Going to your first anomaly
- Sign up with your faction. Each site has team leads from both factions, linked from the official sites post. They'll assign you a role even if you're new.
- Stay for the weekend. Most sites also have a Mission Day, group photos and a mobile NL-1331 portal to hack for a medal.
- Bring battery power, and comfortable shoes. Three hours of constant Scanner use goes through a phone fast.
- Get your gear ready before you arrive. Clear space in your inventory and stock up on resonators, power cubes and weapons.
- Hack everything you pass. Unique hacks count for every agent, so you can help your faction at any level.
2026 anomaly sites
Looking further back? The anomaly history covers every series since 2013.
| Date | Season | Sites |
|---|---|---|
| Sep 19, 2026 | Apollo | Singapore and Denver, CO, USA |
| Aug 22, 2026 | Apollo | Seoul, South Korea and Paris, France |
| Jul 18, 2026 | Apollo | Helsinki, Finland and Bogotá, Colombia |
| Jun 20, 2026 | Orion | Geneva, Switzerland and Lima, Peru |
| May 30, 2026 | Orion | Kure City, Japan and Jersey City, NJ, USA |
| May 16, 2026 | Orion | Sydney, Australia and Prague, Czechia |
| Mar 21, 2026 | +Gamma | Hyderabad, India and Buenos Aires, Argentina |
| Mar 14, 2026 | +Gamma | Hong Kong and Zagreb, Croatia |
| Feb 28, 2026 | +Gamma | Lisbon, Portugal and Charlotte, NC, USA |
2026 season winners
| Season | Months | Result |
|---|---|---|
| +Gamma | January to March 2026 | Enlightened |
| Orion | April to June 2026 | Enlightened |
| Apollo | July to September 2026 | Resistance |
| Cygnus | October to December 2026 | In progress |