World PvP (Player versus player combat) is an integral aspect of Ashes of Creation, with player combat ranging from small-scale battles to large open world conflicts. Most players will participate in opt-in, objective-based battlegrounds, which are high-risk, high-reward encounters that do not use the corruption system. These battlegrounds may include sieges, caravans, guild wars, and naval combat on the open sea. In addition to these structured PvP events, players may also engage in open-world PvP, which is subject to the player flagging and corruption system. These activities may include contesting open-world dungeons or raids, contesting scarce resources and hunting grounds, or simply engaging in player-vs-player combat. While the corruption system aims to deter most players from griefing, open-world PvP is still expected to occur. All classes, including Tanks and Bards, are viable in PvP due to the rock-paper-scissors design philosophy, which allows each class to have natural strengths against certain skill compositions.

Ashes of Creation incorporates both opt-in PvP systems and events, as well as open-world PvP with a flagging and corruption system. In the open world, players must consider of competing for resources, raiding, and engaging in other activities, and be aware of the reputation and actions of other players in the area. The flagging system is designed to provide an element of risk in all settings, but also to ensure that griefing and player-killing are almost never a worthwhile option. The corruption system takes into account level disparity between attackers and players who are killed, and imposes increasing penalties and skill dampening as corruption score increases. It also includes a bounty system that reveals the locations of corrupt players on the map, and prevents non-combatants from being targeted by CC effects. Players who support corrupted players will flag as combatants, and there is a 60 second timer to log out while corrupt, with force-disconnecting the client during the cooldown resulting in the character remaining in-game.

Players can participate in PvP through opt-in objective-based battlegrounds. These events include node sieges, castle sieges, caravans, guild wars, and naval battles in the open sea. While participating in these events, players are flagged as Combatants and will remain flagged for a period of time after leaving the battleground. Death penalties do not usually apply to objective-based events, but gear degradation does apply on death during Caravan PvP. Outside of these events, the normal flagging and corruption rules for PvP apply. Players can also spectate certain battlegrounds and potentially castle sieges from fixed ghost camera positions. Open-world skirmishes may lead into sieges or other battles, and the overall goal of PvP in Ashes of Creation is to create meaningful conflict with real stakes for players.

Caravans are open PvP zones that flag players for combat (purple). These events allow players to attack, defend, or ignore the caravan through a user interface window, which appears based on the player's performance as either a defender or attacker in previous raids. A group is required to successfully attack a caravan, and each caravan persists in the world for a period of 5 to 10 minutes from the time its owner logs out or is disconnected. While death penalties do not apply to objective-based events like Caravans, gear degradation does apply on death during Caravan PvP. Incentives and risks for both attackers and defenders include a quest system that tracks a player's history of successful or failed defenses and attacks, and social rewards and risks created informally between players. The caravan defender role has its own progression and quest rewards, while the attacker role has incentives that appeal to "highway brigand" players. These systems will be tested in alpha and beta to ensure they are balanced and attract players to participate.

Guilds can participate in castle sieges to capture and occupy one of the five available castles. These sieges occur once a month and are designed to bring large numbers of players together for a single battlefield, with a goal of 250-500 players participating in the future. Castle sieges may include instanced objective-based battles that can affect the overall outcome of the siege, but it is not yet clear whether the sieges will be entirely instanced or take place in the open world. The guild that captures a castle will own it for a month before it is sieged again. In the weeks leading up to the siege, the guild must defend their castle nodes in order to improve their defenses for the castle siege. Siege weaponry will be available to attackers to help them destroy castle defenses and gain access to the inner keep. When castles change hands, some taxes remain with the castle and some go with the guild. There will also be benefits for attracting non-guild players to the castle, fostering a feudal-like system where both the guild and independent players can benefit from their relationship.

Open-world PvP is subject to the player flagging and corruption systems. This means that in the open world, outside of opt-in objective-based PvP systems such as sieges, caravans, guild wars, node wars, and naval PvP, players can engage in PvP by contesting resources, hunting grounds, and challenging other players to combat. The open-world flagging system is designed to deter players from griefing or attacking other players without good reason, and there are options available for players to customize their PvP experience through settings such as the "Force function" and the ability to initiate AoE attacks against flagged players. However, there are also incentives for participating in open-world PvP, such as the potential for rewards and the chance to gain reputation. Overall, the goal is for Ashes of Creation to be a game where players can engage in meaningful PvP without resorting to indiscriminate killing or spawn camping.

The majority of PvP will be through consensual systems, in which players opt-in to events such as sieges, caravans, guild wars, or naval battles. These events will flag participating players as Combatants (purple) and players will remain flagged for a period of time after leaving the event. Non-consensual PvP exists in the open world and is subject to player flagging and corruption systems. Players can initiate a forced attack against another player, which will flag them as Combatants if the attack is successful. Non-combatant (green) players cannot be attacked or affected by certain abilities, and attacking a non-combatant will result in the attacker being flagged as a Combatant. Players can kill Combatants without repercussions and are encouraged to do so, as death penalties are reduced while flagged as a Combatant. If a Combatant player or their summon kills a non-combatant player, the attacker will be flagged as Corrupted (red). Corrupted players have increased death penalties and are visible to bounty hunters, and their combat effectiveness decreases with higher levels of corruption. Players can also be flagged as Wanted (orange) if they have a high level of PK value, which is gained by killing non-combatant players. Wanted players can be attacked by anyone and will have increased death penalties.