AION 2 Works With a Controller, but Full Controller Support Is Not Guaranteed for Launch

AION 2 can be played with a controller on PC. That much is confirmed. What is slightly less clear is whether the entire game will be fully controller-friendly when the global version launches on October 5.

In its official pre-release FAQ, NC says that AION 2 is playable with a controller, but adds that the team is still evaluating whether full controller support will be within scope for launch. That may sound like a small distinction, but for anyone planning to play from a sofa, handheld PC or television setup, it is worth understanding before launch.

Controller Support Is Confirmed

The good news is straightforward: you will not be forced to play AION 2 with keyboard and mouse.

NC has confirmed controller support publicly, and Executive Publishing Producer Merv Lee Kwai was even more direct during a recent Gamescom interview, saying that controllers are supported in the global version.

That makes sense for AION 2's combat design. The game is built around third-person action, movement, positioning, chained abilities and aerial combat rather than the enormous ability bars associated with older PC MMORPGs. The eight global launch classes still have plenty of skills to manage, but the underlying combat is far more naturally suited to an analogue stick than the original AION ever was.

What Does “Full Controller Support” Actually Mean?

This is where NC's wording becomes important.

The company has not published a detailed list showing exactly which parts of AION 2 may still require a mouse or keyboard at launch. So we should not invent missing features and present them as fact.

In general PC gaming terminology, there is a difference between a game being playable with a controller and offering full controller support across the entire experience. The latter usually means you can navigate menus, manage inventory, configure settings, enter gameplay and handle most normal interactions without regularly reaching for another input device.

NC has confirmed the first part. It has not yet promised the second.

That means combat could work perfectly well on a gamepad while certain menus, text entry or interface functions remain less comfortable. Exactly where AION 2 draws that line at global launch is something we still need NC to clarify.

The PC Interface Makes This Question More Important

Controller support is particularly interesting after the first day of the Launch Scale Test.

As we covered in our AION 2 first impressions roundup, one of the most common pieces of feedback concerns the interface. Some players feel the UI is oversized or mobile-like, while others appreciate how clearly many of its functions are presented.

A large interface is not necessarily bad news for controller players. In fact, bigger buttons and simplified menu structures can translate quite well to gamepad navigation. But that only helps if the entire interface has been designed to respond consistently to controller input.

This is why “controller supported” and “fully controller supported” are not just two ways of saying the same thing.

AION 2 Is Still a PC-First Global Release

NC is also being very clear about the platform priority. The global version launches first on PC through Steam and PURPLE. There is no global mobile version currently planned, and the Steam page lists AION 2 as a PC release arriving October 5.

That PC-first approach probably explains why full controller support is still being evaluated rather than treated as a hard launch requirement. Keyboard and mouse remain the default input methods for the release platform.

Still, the number of players using gamepads on PC is far larger than it once was, especially with handheld systems, living-room PCs and console-style setups becoming more common. An action MMORPG with aerial combat is exactly the sort of game many people will want to play away from a desk.

A Console Version Is Already Being Prepared

The more interesting piece of context is that AION 2 is already being prepared for consoles.

Game Director Namjoon Kim confirmed that work on a console release is underway, although PC remains the priority and no PlayStation or Xbox release date has been announced. We covered those plans in our AION 2 console and cross-play breakdown.

That makes controller development more than a small PC accessibility feature. Whatever NC learns while refining controller support on PC will inevitably be relevant when the console version eventually arrives.

A console release cannot rely on players occasionally leaning forward to click a stubborn inventory tab with a mouse. So even if the global PC version does not launch with perfect controller navigation, NC has a very good reason to keep improving it.

Console Cross-Play Still Looks Unlikely

The future console version also comes with one major uncertainty. NC has not made a final decision on PC-console cross-play, but the current expectation is that it may not be supported.

Kim has said differences in platform usage, gameplay and launch timing make shared operation difficult. That means the console version may eventually run as a separate ecosystem rather than simply joining existing PC servers.

That does not directly change controller support on PC, but it reinforces the fact that NC is treating consoles as a proper future platform rather than just imagining AION 2 streamed onto a television somewhere down the line.

Should You Play AION 2 With a Controller?

If you prefer controller combat, there is no reason to rule AION 2 out. NC explicitly says the game is playable that way, and its third-person action combat looks like a natural fit.

The caveat is convenience.

Until NC confirms full controller support, players should expect that some parts of the PC experience may be easier with a keyboard and mouse nearby. That may barely matter at a desk. It matters considerably more if your plan is to play exclusively from the sofa.

The current Launch Scale Test is therefore a useful opportunity to experiment before permanent progression begins. Try your preferred controller, explore menus and see whether the parts of the interface you use most feel comfortable.

Controller Support Is There, but the Final Polish Is Still a Question

AION 2 is not launching without gamepad support. That misconception can be put to rest.

You can play with a controller.

What NC has not yet guaranteed is that you will be able to do absolutely everything comfortably without touching a keyboard or mouse.

For most desktop players, that distinction may be fairly minor. For handheld-PC owners and anyone planning a full living-room setup, it could matter a great deal.

And with a console version already in development, this is almost certainly not the end of AION 2's controller story.

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AION 2 First Impressions: Players Praise the Combat, but the Mobile-Like UI Is Dividing People

AION 2 has finally spent a few hours in the hands of global players, which means we can temporarily stop analysing developer presentations and start analysing something considerably more dangerous: MMO players with opinions. Following the first six-hour Launch Scale Test session on September 17, the early reaction is decidedly mixed. Players are praising AION 2's world, progression and increasingly satisfying combat, while the interface, auto-movement and extremely gentle opening hours are repeatedly being criticised for making the game feel more like a mobile MMO than some PC players expected.

That does not amount to a verdict on AION 2. The test is capped at level 37, runs for only twelve hours across two sessions, disables several major economy systems and wipes every character afterward. But after 73,761 concurrent Steam players joined the first global test, there are finally enough people experiencing the same opening hours for some clear patterns to emerge.

The First Hour Seems to Be AION 2's Biggest Problem

One of the more interesting reactions comes from players who initially disliked AION 2 and then gradually changed their minds. In a widely discussed r/MMORPG thread, one player described actively disliking the game during the opening period before eventually spending roughly five hours playing and becoming disappointed when the servers closed.

The complaints will sound familiar to anyone who has followed Asian MMORPG design over the past decade. Auto-movement appears almost immediately. Tutorials aggressively explain where to click. The early main quest sends players back and forth between NPCs while combat encounters offer very little resistance. Combined with the interface, that creates a first impression that several players have described as distinctly mobile-like.

Another Day 1 discussion on r/MMORPG praised the graphics and smooth combat while criticising the early questing for providing little challenge and saying the UI and UX felt like a mobile application.

That criticism is worth taking seriously because first impressions matter. Telling new players that the interesting MMO starts several hours later has never been the strongest sales pitch in the genre. "Please continue until the game stops annoying you" is technically a retention strategy, but not an especially elegant one.

The Combat Seems to Improve Once More Skills Unlock

Combat produced one of the stranger patterns in the reactions because some players listed it as both a strength and a weakness.

At the very beginning, AION 2's combat can feel limited. Characters have relatively few abilities, gear is basic and the game's chain-skill systems have not developed enough to show what a full rotation eventually looks like. Several Day 1 players said combat felt odd or underwhelming initially, only to find it considerably more enjoyable once additional skills and progression systems began opening.

That fits reasonably well with what NC has told us about the combat system. AION 2 is built around chained abilities, positioning, timing and animation transitions, and the Korean version is still receiving changes to systems such as animation cancelling and skill chaining. A level 5 character therefore does not tell us much about how the game will feel after a proper build develops.

Players also seem divided by class. Gladiator has received some positive early comments for its direct, physical combat, while other classes take longer to develop their identity. That is exactly why the Launch Scale Test is a useful place to experiment with several options before choosing one from the eight AION 2 global launch classes.

The World and Visual Design Are Getting Plenty of Praise

Where the reaction is more consistently positive is the environment itself. Even players criticising the interface have highlighted the terrain, verticality and atmosphere of AION 2's opening zones.

The world makes immediate use of height. Floating structures, cliffs, distant architecture and areas visible far beyond the player's current route give the starting region a sense of scale that works particularly well with AION's winged identity. One Day 1 player described the map as feeling alive and specifically praised the amount of vertical space, while Japanese impressions from AION2 Times' three-hour Launch Scale Test session similarly highlighted the presentation and the experience of finally playing the Japanese/global build firsthand.

That does not mean everybody loves the art direction. Some players feel the extremely polished character designs and interface contribute to the mobile-game comparison. But the actual landscape and environmental presentation appear to be among AION 2's safer strengths so far.

Auto-Movement Is Already One of the Most Divisive Features

Few things announce "Korean MMORPG" quite as efficiently as pressing a quest objective and watching your character begin travelling there without further assistance.

AION 2 includes auto-movement during its main story progression, and reactions range from convenient to deeply irritating. Critics argue that automatic navigation undermines exploration, particularly in a game whose world is one of its strongest visual features. Others have found it less objectionable once they stopped treating the main quest as the entire game and instead saw it as a fast route through tutorials and progression unlocks.

There is a genuine design tension there. AION 2 gives players a large vertical world and then, during its opening hours, repeatedly offers to navigate that world for them.

Nothing forces players to stare passively at their character running along a road, but the existence of the feature contributes heavily to the mobile comparison. For some PC MMO players, auto-pathing is simply a red flag regardless of how optional it eventually becomes.

Progression May Be the Thing That Keeps People Playing

One of the more positive recurring observations is how frequently AION 2 gives players something to improve. Equipment, skills, passive progression, pets, mounts and dungeon rewards all provide separate advancement paths, creating a constant sense that something is getting stronger.

The pet and mount systems have received particular interest because creatures encountered in the world can become part of those collection systems. Field bosses also appear early enough to show players enemies they are clearly not supposed to defeat yet, providing a simple but effective reason to remember an area and return later.

AION 2's dungeon structure feeds directly into that feeling. We recently broke down how AION 2 spreads more than 200 advertised dungeon activities across solo, 5-player and 10-player PvE, and even the early instanced content offers progression rewards beyond simply producing another piece of equipment.

The possible downside is obvious: lots of progression systems can eventually become lots of chores. Six hours is enough time to enjoy watching several numbers increase. It is not enough time to know whether maintaining all those systems after two months becomes entertaining endgame progression or a second administrative career.

Playing With Friends During the Opening Story Can Be Awkward

Another criticism worth watching concerns the main story experience. Some early quests and story sequences are heavily instanced, meaning players entering the test together can find themselves progressing alongside friends in voice chat while technically completing large parts of the story separately.

Later AION 2 content is much more group-oriented, particularly dungeons, world activities and PvP, so this should not be interpreted as meaning AION 2 is fundamentally a solo MMO. But the first several hours do not necessarily make that clear.

For a game launching into a genre built around playing together, it is another slightly strange first impression. You recruit four friends into a new MMO, form a party, and the game politely asks everyone to go away and complete their homework individually before the multiplayer begins.

The Mobile Comparison Is Not Going Away

This is probably the biggest challenge facing AION 2's global perception.

The game is a PC MMORPG. NC has no current plans for a global mobile version, and the global client has been positioned firmly around Steam and PURPLE. Yet several elements of the experience immediately remind Western players of mobile MMORPG design: auto-navigation, highly guided tutorials, interface layout, numerous progression systems and an extremely streamlined main quest.

That does not automatically mean those systems are bad. Nor does visual similarity to a mobile interface tell us whether the endgame is good. But the comparison appears frequently enough in Day 1 reactions that dismissing it would be silly.

The question is whether players get past that initial impression.

Some clearly did. One of the most interesting Day 1 accounts effectively moved from "this looks like a mobile game and I dislike it" to playing five hours straight and wanting the servers to stay online. Others saw the same systems and decided they had already seen enough.

That is what makes these first reactions more useful than a simple thumbs-up percentage.

Six Hours Cannot Tell Us Whether AION 2 Is Good

The Launch Scale Test is deliberately a poor environment for producing a final review. The level cap is 37. Membership is disabled. The Market, Quna Exchange and player trading are unavailable. Progress disappears after Day 2, and most players have barely touched the systems that will define AION 2's long-term endgame.

Even NC describes this primarily as a scale and stability test rather than a complete content preview.

What Day 1 can tell us is where the immediate friction sits.

AION 2 looks good. Its combat appears to improve as classes develop. The world and progression systems are attracting praise. But the mobile-like interface, auto-movement and overly guided opening hours are absolutely turning some players away before those strengths have time to appear.

Tonight's second Launch Scale Test session gives everyone another six hours. After that, the temporary characters disappear and we wait until Advance Access begins on September 30.

At least now the argument about AION 2 has moved beyond screenshots and Korean gameplay videos.

Global players have finally played it.

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AION 2 Hits 73,761 Concurrent Steam Players During Its First Global Test

AION 2 has finally been placed in front of a global PC audience, and quite a few people apparently wanted to see what NC has been building. During the first day of the Launch Scale Test on September 17, AION 2 reached an all-time peak of 73,761 concurrent players on Steam, according to SteamDB. For a temporary test running for just six hours, with every character destined for deletion, that is a fairly substantial first showing.

There is an important qualifier immediately: 73,761 is not the total AION 2 test population. The Launch Scale Test is available through both Steam and PURPLE, while SteamDB can naturally only see players using Steam. NC has not published a combined concurrency figure for the two platforms, so the actual number of people exploring the global version at peak was higher. How much higher, we simply do not know.

73,761 Players Joined a Test Where Nothing Survives

The number becomes more interesting once you look at the structure of the test itself. Day 1 only ran from 15:00 to 21:00 CEST on September 17, giving players a six-hour window. The second session runs from 21:00 CEST on September 18 until 03:00 on September 19.

NC has also made it very clear that this is not early progression disguised as a beta. Characters carry from Day 1 into Day 2, but everything is wiped once the test finishes. Nothing transfers into Advanced Access on September 30 or the full October launch.

The Market, Quna Exchange, player trading, Membership systems, Founder's Pack bonuses and all payment functionality are disabled as well. The level cap is 37. In other words, tens of thousands of Steam players turned up knowing perfectly well that everything they accomplished would shortly disappear into the MMO void. That is usually a reasonably healthy indication that people are curious.

This Is Not the Same as a Launch Player Count

It is tempting to take a SteamDB graph and immediately begin predicting the future. We would avoid that.

A free public test and a live MMO launch are two very different things. There was no purchase required, no invitation system and no meaningful commitment involved beyond downloading a rather large client. Some players will have logged in purely to inspect the character creator, test performance or satisfy their curiosity before deciding that AION 2 is not for them.

At the same time, the limited six-hour window works in the opposite direction. This was not a normal 24-hour period where players could log in whenever convenient. Everyone using Steam had to squeeze into the same relatively narrow block of time, which makes concurrency particularly visible.

The number is therefore best treated for what it is: the first concrete indication of global interest in AION 2 on Steam, not a prediction of how many people will still be playing three weeks after launch.

PURPLE Makes the Real Test Population Impossible to See

This is also why comparisons with other MMO tests need some care. AION 2 is not a Steam-only release. Players can access the global game directly through NC's PURPLE platform as well, something we covered in our Steam vs PURPLE guide.

Someone playing through PURPLE never appears on SteamDB's chart. That means 73,761 should effectively be read as “at least 73,761 concurrent PC players” rather than the complete peak for Day 1.

Whether Steam becomes the dominant platform after launch will be interesting to watch. Steam gives us transparent public concurrency data, while PURPLE does not, so the visible number will always represent only one part of AION 2's global audience.

The Test Is Also Doing What NC Actually Needs It to Do

The entire point of a Launch Scale Test is to put real pressure on infrastructure before the permanent characters arrive. NC opened the test to everyone with no keys, invitations or registration list, which makes a large turnout considerably more useful than a carefully controlled closed beta.

It also gives players their first chance to test many of the things we have spent the past week discussing theoretically: the eight global launch classes, the game's combat, regional latency and whether their machines actually meet the AION 2 PC requirements.

NC scheduled maintenance after the first test session, with the game servers temporarily unavailable ahead of Day 2. For a scale test, that is not particularly alarming. Finding problems while the characters are disposable is considerably preferable to discovering them on September 30 while several thousand Founder's Pack owners are staring angrily at a login screen.

Day 2 Could Push the Steam Peak Even Higher

The second Launch Scale Test session begins tonight at 21:00 CEST. The later European start and Friday timing could produce a different concurrency pattern, although there is no guarantee the Day 1 record will be beaten.

We will know the final Steam peak once that second session is over. For now, 73,761 concurrent Steam players is the number to beat.

Then comes the considerably more important test. Founder's Pack owners enter through Advanced Access on September 30, followed by the full AION 2 global release on October 5.

A six-hour test cannot tell us whether AION 2 will become the next long-term MMO success. It can tell us that a lot of people were willing to turn up for the audition.

73,761 of them on Steam alone, in fact.

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AION 2 Is Reworking Animation Cancelling to Reduce Ping-Based DPS Gaps

Animation cancelling is one of those MMO mechanics that can live somewhere between advanced combat technique, accidental engine behaviour and a minor form of witchcraft performed by somebody with a very expensive mouse. AION 2 has embraced fast skill chaining since launch, but NC has increasingly decided that there should be limits to how much damage depends on your hardware, connection quality or ability to automate perfectly timed cancels.

The Korean version of AION 2 received a major combat change on August 26 when NC introduced a minimum skill-cancel time across every skill in the game. The developer's stated goal was unusually direct: reduce differences in skill chaining, cancel timing and ultimately DPS caused by differences in players' game environments.

And NC is not finished. The September 16 Korean update goes even further, specifically increasing cancel delays on several Templar and Assassin skills to discourage mouse macros built around extremely fast animation-cancel combinations.

In other words, NC is not trying to remove fast combat from AION 2. It is trying to make sure that fast combat is decided more by the player than by the equipment sitting on their desk.

A Minimum Cancel Time Now Applies to Every Skill in Korea

The first major change arrived in the August 26 Korean update. NC added a minimum cancel time to every skill, explaining that differences in the player's game environment were producing too much variation in combo speed and damage output.

Animation cancelling itself is fairly simple in principle. Many attack animations continue for a short period after the game has already registered the important part of the skill. If another action can interrupt that remaining animation, an experienced player can move into the next attack faster and squeeze more skills into the same window.

There is nothing inherently wrong with that. Done well, animation cancelling can reward knowledge and execution. The problem appears when the optimal timing becomes so narrow that latency, frame rate, input hardware or automated macros begin deciding who can actually perform it consistently.

NC's solution is not to disable cancelling completely. Instead, a minimum amount of time must now pass before the next skill can replace the current animation. The very fastest cancels are therefore capped, narrowing the difference between players operating under different technical conditions.

This Is About More Than High Ping

It would be tempting to describe the change simply as an anti-latency system, but that is only part of it.

AION 2's combat rewards rapid chained inputs, and very small timing differences can accumulate across an entire rotation. A player with extremely stable latency and high frame rates may be able to execute cancels more consistently than someone on a weaker machine or a connection further from the server. Add programmable mouse buttons and macros to the equation, and a combat technique that originally rewarded practice can gradually become something else entirely.

That matters particularly for the global version. We already know from the confirmed AION 2 global server regions that players will connect through North America, South America, Europe and Japan, while Oceania does not have a dedicated launch region. Latency will inevitably vary dramatically depending on where people live.

A combat model where tiny differences in network conditions directly produce meaningful DPS gaps would therefore become even more noticeable once AION 2 expands beyond Korea and Taiwan.

NC Compensated Classes for the Lost Damage

The August change was not simply a universal combat slowdown. NC knew that introducing a minimum cancel time would reduce the theoretical damage output of rotations that depended heavily on extremely fast chaining, so the same patch included widespread class damage buffs.

Gladiator, Templar, Assassin, Ranger, Chanter, Cleric, Sorcerer and Spiritmaster all received various PvE adjustments as part of the wider rebalance. Some individual abilities received sizeable damage increases, while Templar and Chanter underwent deeper changes to their core mechanics.

That distinction is important. NC is trying to move damage away from exploiting exceptionally short animation windows and put more of it directly back into the skills themselves.

The result should theoretically be a narrower gap between somebody playing the rotation correctly under normal conditions and somebody performing frame-perfect cancels through an unusually favourable setup.

It also fits the broader philosophy behind the global build. As we discussed in our look at why global AION 2 starts behind Korea but inherits newer improvements, NC is using the first year of Korean live service to smooth out systems before they reach the wider audience.

The September 16 Patch Takes Direct Aim at Mouse Macros

The most interesting development arrived yesterday.

In its September 16 Korean update, NC specifically called out two animation-cancel combinations where mouse macros had become a concern.

For Templar, the cancel delays on Pummel, Punishing Strike and Judgment were increased. NC said the change was intended to discourage mouse macros used to rapidly cancel Pummel into Judgment. Several Templar PvE abilities received damage increases at the same time, including a 20 percent increase for Shield Smite and 10 percent increases for Warding Strike, Annihilate and Punishment.

Assassin received a similar treatment. Savage Roar, Savage Smash and Heart Gore all gained longer cancel delays to discourage macros used around the Savage Roar to Heart Gore chain. Again, NC compensated elsewhere, increasing the PvE damage of Quick Slice and several related abilities by 10 percent.

That makes the philosophy considerably clearer. NC is not simply trying to make combat slower. When an extremely fast cancel is restricted, damage is being redistributed into normal skill use.

Good Animation Cancelling Is Not Necessarily Going Away

This distinction matters because animation cancelling has acquired a slightly unfair reputation in some games. It is not automatically an exploit.

Timing an ability correctly, interrupting unnecessary recovery frames and understanding how skills flow into one another can add genuine depth to action combat. AION 2 would arguably lose something if every skill forced players to stand politely through a theatrical animation before the game permitted another button press.

The issue is where the line sits.

If two players understand the same rotation equally well but one produces considerably higher DPS because a macro fires inputs at mechanically perfect intervals, that is no longer much of a test of combat knowledge. If the optimal rotation only works properly below a particular latency threshold, geography has effectively become a character stat.

NC appears to be trying to preserve the responsive part while putting a floor under the time required for each transition.

Why This Could Matter Even More in PvP

The immediate class compensation in these patches focuses heavily on PvE damage, but animation timing obviously matters in PvP as well.

AION 2 has a substantial competitive structure built around the Abyss, Rifts, Arenas and Battlegrounds. In those environments, tiny differences in how quickly a player can transition from crowd control into burst damage can decide a fight before the opponent has much opportunity to respond.

Some of that should absolutely reward experience. A veteran Assassin should probably execute a burst sequence more cleanly than someone who discovered the class eleven minutes ago.

The question is whether that advantage comes from knowing the sequence or from owning a mouse capable of playing part of the sequence for you.

NC's latest adjustments suggest it wants the former.

We Do Not Yet Know Exactly What Global Will Launch With

There is one important caveat for global players: these specific changes are currently documented on the Korean service.

NC has already confirmed that global AION 2 does not simply copy Korea's current content timeline. The Western release begins with a modified Season 1 while incorporating later quality-of-life improvements, balance lessons and progression changes.

That makes the minimum-cancel philosophy highly relevant to global, but we should not assume that every September 16 Korean class value, cancel delay or damage percentage will appear unchanged in the global client on October 5.

The ongoing AION 2 Launch Scale Test gives players the first useful opportunity to see how combat feels under global network conditions. Once the live global build arrives, comparisons between Korea and the Western version will become much easier to make properly.

This Is Probably Healthy for AION 2's Global Combat

There is always a danger when developers standardize animation timing. Go too far and responsive combat starts feeling heavy. Every attack becomes a commitment, chaining becomes less expressive, and the player begins to feel as though they are politely requesting permission from the animation system before pressing another button.

But doing nothing has its own problems.

AION 2's official PC requirements are deliberately broad, ranging all the way down to a GTX 1050 Ti, while the global service will cover players spread across several enormous geographical regions. If the combat system only performs competitively at its best on exceptionally fast hardware, exceptionally low ping and programmable input devices, that accessibility starts disappearing rather quickly.

The approach NC is taking makes more sense: establish minimum cancel windows, compensate classes where that removes legitimate damage, and target individual macro-heavy chains when they emerge.

It is unlikely to end the argument. Someone will always insist that their seventeen-input sequence executed in the time normally required to blink was pure skill and absolutely nothing to do with the software attached to Mouse Button 4.

But for the global launch, a combat system where knowing when to press the next skill matters more than how quickly your hardware can press it seems like a fairly sensible place to start.

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AION 2 Has Over 200 Dungeons: Solo, 5-Player and 10-Player PvE Explained

AION 2 may spend a great deal of its marketing time showing winged warriors fighting in the sky, but NC is making an equally large promise to players who prefer their enemies controlled by a server rather than another human being. According to the official global Steam page, AION 2 contains more than 200 dungeons, ranging from solo challenges to 5-player party content and 10-player group encounters.

That is a very large number, even by MMO standards, and naturally comes with an important question: what exactly counts as one of those 200 dungeons?

NC has not published a complete catalogue breaking the figure down dungeon by dungeon, difficulty by difficulty and season by season. So it would be premature to read "over 200" as meaning that global players will log in on October 5 and immediately discover 200 completely different endgame raids waiting in a menu. What NC has confirmed is much more useful: AION 2's PvE is deliberately spread across several scales of content, from things you can tackle alone to dedicated party dungeons and larger 10-player encounters.

AION 2 Has More Than 200 Dungeons Across Multiple Formats

The official AION 2 Steam page describes the PvE structure as spanning more than 200 dungeons, including:

• Solo challenges
• 5-player party content
• 10-player group dungeons
• Seasonal challenges
• Competitive rankings
• Open-world PvE events

That immediately tells us that AION 2 is not building its PvE around a single traditional dungeon queue. Different activities are designed for different group sizes and progression stages, while ranking systems and seasonal structures give players reasons to revisit content beyond simply clearing it once.

It also fits what we already know about AION 2's combat. The game is built around positioning, timing and chained skills rather than a completely static rotation, and those systems have considerably more room to breathe inside encounters designed specifically around them. Choosing the right class will therefore matter for more than PvP, which is why our guide to all eight AION 2 launch classes is worth reading before committing to your first character.

Solo Dungeons Mean PvE Does Not Start With Group Finder

One of the more welcome parts of NC's description is the emphasis on solo instances. MMO endgames often reach a point where the answer to every progression question becomes "find four strangers," which is not always ideal if you log in at strange hours or simply fancy doing something without negotiating party composition first.

AION 2's Korean service already provides examples of the sort of solo structure NC is using. Nightmare and Ascension Trial are solo dungeon systems that have continued receiving new layers, bosses and difficulty levels as the game has expanded.

For example, NC's July Chapter 1 update added new bosses to Nightmare Layer IV and introduced a Doom difficulty for Ascension Trial. That specific update belongs to the later Korean content timeline, so global players should not assume every current Korean stage will exist on October 5. As we have already explained, the global version begins behind Korea in actual content progression.

The important point is the structure: AION 2 has a meaningful PvE path for players who are not permanently attached to a five-person static group.

Five Players Is the Standard Dungeon Party Size

For normal group content, five players is the important number.

NC increased Expedition and Transcendence dungeon party sizes from four to five players as part of the game's 2026 development, and five-player content is now explicitly part of the global version's marketing. That gives AION 2 a fairly familiar MMO party size and creates considerably more room for traditional role combinations.

A five-person group can comfortably accommodate a tank, healer and three damage-oriented positions, although AION 2's classes are not all confined to perfectly rigid boxes. Chanter in particular brings hybrid support tools, while Gladiator offers a different kind of frontline presence from the more dedicated Templar.

Whether the eventual global meta settles into a strict tank-healer-three-DPS formula remains to be seen. MMO players have an impressive historical talent for taking any flexible combat system and eventually converting it into a spreadsheet containing one correct answer.

Expedition and Transcendence Form Part of the Dungeon Structure

Two important names to remember are Expedition and Transcendence. These are established dungeon categories in AION 2's existing service and have received new instances, difficulties and reward adjustments throughout 2026.

NC's Chapter 1 update, for example, introduced the Expedition dungeon Citadel of the Fallen Daeva and the Transcendence dungeon Abyssal Horn Den. Both were designed for level 50 players on the Korean service, with increasing item-level requirements at higher difficulties.

Again, those particular Chapter 1 additions are useful examples of where AION 2's PvE goes rather than a promise that every current Korean dungeon will appear in global Season 1. The global build deliberately starts earlier in the content timeline while incorporating newer balance and quality-of-life improvements.

That distinction is going to be important over the next few months. Watching a Korean streamer enter a dungeon does not automatically mean you have somehow failed to unlock it on the global server.

Ten-Player Content Is the Next Step Up

AION 2's larger organized PvE uses 10-player groups. NC expanded Sanctuary content from eight players to ten during 2026, and the official global Steam description now specifically advertises 10-player group dungeons alongside five-player party content.

This is the part of AION 2 closest to what most MMO players would describe as raiding. Larger groups allow encounters to demand more coordination, wider role coverage and mechanics that would become rather unreasonable if attempted by somebody alone at two in the morning.

NC has continued building high-end Sanctuary encounters on the Korean service throughout the year, giving us a good indication that 10-player PvE is intended as a genuine progression layer rather than a novelty activity that players clear once and forget.

For guilds preparing for global launch, ten is therefore a useful number to remember. You do not need a forty-person roster held together by spreadsheets, attendance officers and low-level workplace politics, but organized endgame PvE will still reward having a reliable group larger than a standard dungeon party.

Dungeon Entry Has Already Been Made Less Annoying

Some of the most encouraging changes have happened around the dungeons rather than inside them.

During the July Chapter 1 update, NC removed the tickets previously required for Expedition and Transcendence dungeon entry on the Korean service. Rewards were instead tied to Odyle Energy. Players were also allowed to use mounts inside many dungeon areas, while the group-size expansion to five and ten players arrived at the same time.

Those changes are relevant to global players because NC has repeatedly said that the global version benefits from newer quality-of-life lessons instead of recreating the Korean launch exactly as it happened. It is the same philosophy behind smoother progression and reducing some of the pressure from mandatory daily and weekly routines.

That does not mean AION 2 suddenly has no progression currencies, reward limits or systems encouraging repeat visits. It means NC has already spent months discovering which pieces of friction players tolerated and which pieces mainly caused them to stare angrily at the interface.

What Does “Over 200 Dungeons” Actually Mean?

This is the part where we should resist turning marketing into mathematics.

NC officially says AION 2 has over 200 dungeons spanning multiple formats. It has not, at the time of writing, provided a public global-launch spreadsheet containing 200 individually named, completely distinct dungeons. Difficulty variants, solo challenges, seasonal content and the expanding Korean content library all form part of the broader PvE ecosystem.

So the sensible takeaway is not "AION 2 launches with 200 raids."

The useful takeaway is that NC is positioning instanced PvE as one of AION 2's major pillars rather than allowing the Abyss and faction warfare to dominate the entire endgame. Players who have little interest in the Abyss, Rifts and AION 2's faction PvP systems still have a substantial progression path built around PvE.

PvE and PvP Still Overlap in the Wider World

That separation is not absolute. NC specifically says the Abyss ensures PvE and faction warfare are never completely far apart, while open-world events provide another type of content outside traditional instances.

AION 2 is still a game about Elyos and Asmodians occupying the same rather unstable world. The difference is that you are not required to treat every evening as a faction war simply because you want better equipment.

The global version includes more player control over open-world PvP, while dedicated PvE offers solo, small-group and larger-group alternatives. That broader choice may turn out to be one of the more important differences between AION 2 and memories of the original game.

AION 2 Looks Much More PvE-Heavy Than the Trailers Suggest

Flight, faction warfare and giant airborne battles are much easier to put in a trailer than five people carefully learning a dungeon boss mechanic. But underneath the spectacle, NC appears to be building a fairly conventional MMO progression ladder with an unusually large amount of instanced content.

You can play alone. You can build a five-player party. You can move into ten-player group content. Seasonal challenges and rankings give repeat clears additional purpose, while later Korean updates show that NC intends to keep expanding all three layers.

Exactly how those 200-plus dungeons are distributed across the global Season 1 build will become much clearer once players reach the endgame after the October 5 global launch.

But one thing is already clear: AION 2 is not simply an open-world faction war with a few caves attached.

There is a lot of PvE hiding underneath those wings.

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AION 2 Steam vs PURPLE: Which Launcher Should You Use for Global Launch?

AION 2's global launch gives PC players two doors into Atreia. You can play through Steam, where most of us already have a library large enough to qualify as an archaeological site, or through PURPLE, NC's own PC platform. Both are official launch options, both support the global version of AION 2, and both can be used for the Launch Scale Test. The obvious question is whether choosing one over the other actually matters.

For most players, the answer is fairly simple: choose the platform you actually intend to keep using. The game itself does not become fundamentally different because you launch it through Steam rather than PURPLE. However, Founder's Pack purchases, Advance Access and a few practical details are tied closely enough to your launcher choice that it is worth deciding before spending money rather than afterward.

Steam and PURPLE Both Run the Global PC Version

NC confirmed earlier this year that the global AION 2 release is being developed for PC through both Steam and PURPLE. The global service launches with regional servers in North America, South America, Europe and Japan, rather than maintaining a completely separate set of worlds specifically because somebody clicked a different launcher icon.

That means you do not need Steam and PURPLE installed at the same time simply to play AION 2. They are alternative ways of accessing the game, not two halves of some elaborate NC launcher ritual.

If you already use Steam for almost everything, there is an obvious convenience advantage in keeping AION 2 inside the same library. Screenshots, downloads, playtime tracking and purchases all stay in the ecosystem you already know. PURPLE makes more sense if you already use NC's platform or simply prefer dealing directly with the publisher rather than adding Steam as another layer.

Founder's Packs Are Where Your Choice Starts to Matter

The important detail comes if you plan to buy a Founder's Pack. AION 2 offers Standard, Deluxe and Ultimate packs on both platforms, starting at $24.99, and all three include five days of Advance Access beginning September 30 plus 30 days of Special Quai Membership.

Those purchases are tied to the platform where you make them. A Founder's Pack bought through Steam is intended for the Steam version, while one purchased through PURPLE is tied to PURPLE. The associated Advance Access does not function as a generic ticket that you can casually move between launchers later.

So if you already know you want to play through Steam, buy the Steam pack. If you intend to use PURPLE, buy it there. Buying first and deciding which launcher you prefer afterward is doing these steps in precisely the wrong order.

We have already broken down what the subscription actually unlocks in our guide to AION 2's Membership, Market and trading systems, so the Founder's Pack is more than simply five days of early access and a collection of shiny wings.

PURPLE Has One Founder's Pack Advantage

PURPLE currently has one useful advantage for players who are uncertain which Founder's Pack tier they want. NC offers paid upgrade products between Founder's Pack tiers through PURPLE. A Standard owner can pay the price difference to move to Deluxe or Ultimate, while a Deluxe owner can upgrade to Ultimate.

The upgrade prices correspond to the difference between the original pack prices, so choosing Standard first does not punish you financially if you later decide those expensive wings have begun calling your name.

An equivalent upgrade system has not been announced for Steam. That makes PURPLE slightly more flexible if you want Advance Access but are still debating whether the larger cosmetic packages are worthwhile.

The Launch Scale Test Works Slightly Differently

The difference is also visible during the AION 2 Launch Scale Test.

Both Steam and PURPLE players can participate, and the test is completely open with no keys or invitation requirement. However, Steam users are downloading a separate AION 2 Playtest application. Once the test finishes, NC says Steam players must uninstall that Playtest client and download the regular AION 2 application separately before Advance Access begins.

PURPLE players have no equivalent post-test step. NC specifically states that PURPLE users have nothing further to do once the Launch Scale Test ends.

This is hardly enough to justify changing your entire platform decision. Uninstalling one client and downloading another is not exactly the Siege of the Abyss. Still, PURPLE does offer the slightly cleaner transition between test and retail.

Does Launch Scale Test Progress Carry Between Steam and PURPLE?

For the current test, this question is largely academic because all Launch Scale Test progression will be wiped. Characters carry from Test Day 1 into Test Day 2, but nothing survives into Advance Access or the October 5 release.

Founder's Pack bonuses are also disabled during testing, along with the Market, Quna Exchange, player trading, Membership benefits and payment systems. In other words, there is no reason to choose your permanent launcher based on preserving whatever you accomplish during these twelve temporary hours.

Use the test to decide whether you like the game, try a few of the eight AION 2 launch classes and see how your computer handles Atreia. We also have the official AION 2 PC requirements if your graphics card begins making noises normally associated with agricultural machinery.

Should You Choose Steam or PURPLE for AION 2?

For most players, Steam is probably the easiest choice. If your games already live there, there is little reason to add another launcher purely for AION 2. The global game launches there officially, Founder's Packs are available there and Advance Access begins on September 30 exactly as it does through PURPLE.

PURPLE nevertheless has a couple of legitimate advantages. The transition from Launch Scale Test to retail is cleaner, and its Founder's Pack upgrade options give you more flexibility if you initially purchase Standard or Deluxe and later want a higher tier.

• Choose Steam if: you already use Steam, want AION 2 alongside the rest of your library and already know which Founder's Pack you want.
• Choose PURPLE if: you already use NC's ecosystem, want the cleanest test-to-launch transition or value the option to upgrade your Founder's Pack later.

The most important advice is simpler than either of those points: once money enters the equation, pick your platform before buying.

AION 2 launches globally as a free-to-play game on October 5, with Founder's Pack Advance Access beginning September 30. If you are waiting for the free launch, there is considerably less pressure. Download the launcher you prefer and go.

If you are paying to arrive five days early, however, make sure you have chosen the door before buying the key.

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Which AION 2 Class Should You Play? All Eight Launch Classes Explained

Choosing your first class in a new MMO is a serious business. Not because you cannot eventually make another character, but because nobody wants to spend six hours carefully choosing a hairstyle only to discover that the class attached to it requires a playstyle they absolutely hate. With the AION 2 Launch Scale Test about to begin and the global release following on October 5, NC has now made the decision slightly easier by launching an official class diagnosis quiz designed to match players with one of the game's eight global launch classes.

The global roster consists of Gladiator, Templar, Assassin, Ranger, Chanter, Cleric, Sorcerer and Spiritmaster. It is a deliberately familiar lineup for anyone who played the original AION, but the combat underneath those names has changed considerably. AION 2 is faster, more action-focused and built around timing, positioning and skill combinations rather than simply standing still and working through a traditional MMO rotation.

NC's official AION 2 class diagnosis tool asks a series of questions about how you prefer to play before suggesting a suitable class. That is a fun way to approach the decision, but if you would rather understand what you are signing up for before allowing a personality quiz to determine the next several hundred hours of your life, here is what each class actually brings to Atreia.

AION 2 Classes at a Glance

• Gladiator: aggressive melee fighter with powerful area attacks
• Templar: dedicated frontline tank built around defense and control
• Assassin: fast melee damage focused on precision and burst
• Ranger: mobile ranged physical damage
• Chanter: hybrid fighter and support class
• Cleric: primary healer with improved offensive capabilities
• Sorcerer: high burst magical damage
• Spiritmaster: summon-based magic class with strong solo utility and control

Gladiator: Pick This if You Want to Be in the Middle of Everything

The Gladiator is AION 2's heavy melee bruiser. NC describes the class around powerful wide-area attacks, making it an obvious choice for players who enjoy charging directly into groups of enemies rather than politely attacking them one at a time.

Gladiator occupies that comfortable space between pure damage dealer and durable frontline fighter. It is not the dedicated tank that Templar is, but its combination of melee pressure, toughness and area damage should make it attractive to players who want to survive in the middle of a fight while still producing meaningful damage.

Choose Gladiator if: you like aggressive melee combat, large weapons, cleaving through groups and being close enough to the boss to see precisely which animation you failed to dodge.

Templar: Pick This if You Want to Tank

If your natural reaction when a giant monster appears is to stand directly in front of it while everybody else sensibly moves away, Templar is probably your class.

NC describes Templar as AION 2's core tanking role. Its job is to survive, control enemies and create enough stability for the rest of the group to do theirs. That makes Templar particularly important in organized dungeon and raid content, but it also comes with the responsibility normally attached to being the person expected to know where the group is going.

Templar is therefore not automatically the easiest first class simply because it is durable. Surviving mistakes is nice. Being expected to understand boss positioning, pulls and mechanics while four strangers silently judge you is another matter entirely.

Choose Templar if: you enjoy tanking, protecting groups, controlling the battlefield and being the player everyone follows into danger.

Assassin: Pick This if You Like Speed, Precision and Burst Damage

The Assassin sits at the opposite end of the melee spectrum. Rather than absorbing punishment or swinging through groups, Assassin is built around precision, mobility and quickly exploiting openings.

NC calls it a precision-based melee specialist, which fits the traditional AION identity perfectly. This is the class for players who enjoy getting close, executing combinations cleanly and dealing substantial damage before repositioning.

That also means Assassin is unlikely to be the class that forgives lazy positioning. You are fighting at melee range without the Templar's defensive job description, so movement and timing matter. In PvP, that should make Assassin especially attractive to people who enjoy picking targets, creating pressure and disappearing from situations shortly before they become unpleasant.

Choose Assassin if: you enjoy fast melee combat, burst damage, mobility and a higher emphasis on execution.

Ranger: Pick This if You Want Mobile Ranged Damage

Ranger offers the obvious alternative for players who would prefer enemies remain somewhere over there. The class focuses on ranged physical damage and mobility, allowing it to pressure targets without remaining permanently glued to melee range.

That distance can make Ranger an appealing first character. Learning a new boss while standing slightly farther away generally provides a little more time to understand what is happening, and ranged movement should fit particularly well with AION 2's much greater emphasis on vertical environments and aerial combat.

That does not mean Ranger is simply easy mode. Maintaining distance, moving correctly and keeping damage flowing at the same time can become its own skill test, especially against other players who have developed the unreasonable habit of refusing to stand still.

Choose Ranger if: you prefer bows, ranged physical damage, mobility and controlling the distance between yourself and whatever wants to kill you.

Chanter: Pick This if You Want to Make Everyone Else Better

Chanter remains one of AION's more distinctive classes. It is not simply a second healer and not simply another melee damage dealer. NC describes Chanter as a versatile support role designed around multiplayer utility.

That makes it an excellent choice for players who enjoy contributing to a group through buffs, support and utility while still actively participating in combat. Instead of staring almost exclusively at health bars, Chanter sits closer to the action and helps the entire party perform better.

Hybrid classes often become especially interesting once players understand an MMO's encounter design, because utility that looks modest on a character sheet can become enormously valuable in the right group. We would therefore avoid declaring Chanter either mandatory or niche before the global meta develops.

Choose Chanter if: you enjoy support roles, group utility and hybrid gameplay rather than committing completely to damage, tanking or healing.

Cleric: Pick This if You Want to Heal, but Still Want to Fight

Cleric is AION 2's primary healing class, making it one of the easiest roles to explain and potentially one of the hardest to replace when group content gets serious.

What has changed is that NC has specifically highlighted improved damage capabilities for AION 2's Cleric. That is important for solo players. One of the recurring problems with dedicated healer classes in older MMOs was that they could keep an entire raid alive but needed half an afternoon to kill an angry shrub while questing alone.

A more offensive Cleric should make leveling and solo content less painful without changing the class's fundamental identity. When the group starts taking damage, however, everybody will still look in your direction.

Choose Cleric if: you enjoy healing, want strong group demand and still want enough offensive capability to handle solo content comfortably.

Sorcerer: Pick This if the Solution Should Be More Magic

The Sorcerer is the straightforward magical destruction option. NC describes it around high burst magic damage, making it ideal for players who enjoy turning a carefully selected target into a regrettable memory from a comfortable distance.

Sorcerer should appeal to traditional caster players, particularly anyone who values explosive damage windows over the more utility-driven identity of Spiritmaster. The trade-off is familiar: classes built around large magical damage tend to care a great deal about positioning, timing and not allowing angry melee opponents to reach them.

AION 2's faster combat should make that especially interesting. Rather than feeling like an old MMO turret planted in the ground, Sorcerer operates inside a combat system where movement and timing matter considerably more.

Choose Sorcerer if: you want ranged magic, big burst damage and the deeply satisfying experience of solving complicated problems with increasingly large spells.

Spiritmaster: Pick This if You Like Summons, Control and Solo Play

Spiritmaster is the class for players who prefer bringing additional employees to every fight. Its identity revolves around summoned spirits, elemental magic and battlefield control, giving it a very different rhythm from the Sorcerer's direct burst damage.

NC has specifically described Spiritmaster as being optimized for solo play, which immediately makes it worth considering for anyone expecting to spend a lot of time exploring without a permanent group. Summons can create breathing room, while the class's control-oriented toolkit offers ways to manipulate encounters rather than simply racing an enemy's health bar.

That combination could also make Spiritmaster particularly irritating in PvP, which is usually a compliment when discussing a control class.

Choose Spiritmaster if: you enjoy pets or summons, solo play, magical damage and controlling fights rather than relying entirely on raw burst.

What Is the Best AION 2 Class for Beginners?

There is no universally correct beginner class, because the easiest class is usually the one whose basic job makes sense to you. A veteran MMO tank may find Templar completely natural while a new player could find the responsibility exhausting. Someone comfortable with ranged action combat may immediately understand Ranger but struggle with Assassin positioning.

If you are genuinely undecided, Gladiator and Ranger look like sensible starting points. Gladiator provides a relatively sturdy introduction to melee combat without immediately taking on the dedicated tank role, while Ranger gives you distance and mobility while learning encounters. Spiritmaster is also worth considering if most of your early play will be solo.

We would not choose purely according to Korean damage rankings. As we explained in our look at how the AION 2 global version differs from Korea, the Western build launches with a modified Season 1 and newer balance improvements. A tier list based on another region, another patch and another stage of progression can become obsolete surprisingly quickly.

Can You Test Classes Before Launch?

Yes, and this is probably the best use of the upcoming AION 2 Launch Scale Test. Progress will be wiped after the test, so there is very little reason to become obsessed with maximizing temporary progression. Instead, try several classes and pay attention to how movement, skills and combat rhythm actually feel.

The test is also a useful opportunity to check whether your machine handles the game comfortably. We have already broken down the official AION 2 PC requirements, including NC's surprisingly modest GTX 1050 Ti minimum and the rather more curious recommendation of an RTX 2070 for 1080p Low settings.

What About Brawler?

You may have seen another AION 2 class called Brawler in Korean coverage. That class exists in the Korean service, but it is not one of the eight classes currently presented for the global launch. NC's official global AION 2 site continues to list Gladiator, Templar, Assassin, Ranger, Chanter, Cleric, Sorcerer and Spiritmaster as the global roster.

That fits with the wider content strategy. Global AION 2 begins behind Korea in content progression, so classes and systems introduced later in the Korean version should not automatically be assumed to exist globally on October 5.

So Which AION 2 Class Should You Choose?

The simplest answer is to choose based on the job you actually enjoy doing rather than whatever class happens to be sitting at the top of a damage chart this week.

• Want heavy melee damage? Gladiator.
• Want to tank? Templar.
• Want fast melee burst? Assassin.
• Want ranged physical damage? Ranger.
• Want hybrid support? Chanter.
• Want to heal? Cleric.
• Want explosive magic damage? Sorcerer.
• Want summons, control and strong solo utility? Spiritmaster.

The official global AION 2 site currently presents all eight classes ahead of the September test and October 5 global launch. Balance will change, builds will emerge and players will inevitably discover several things NC did not expect.

But class identity tends to survive patches better than damage percentages do.

Pick the class whose basic job sounds fun. The numbers can be fixed later. Choosing a playstyle you dislike is considerably harder to patch.

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AION 2 Is Free-to-Play, but Its $15 Membership Locks Some Pretty Important MMO Features

AION 2 will launch globally as a free-to-play MMORPG on October 5. You do not need to buy the game, you do not need a Founder's Pack, and you do not need a monthly subscription simply to create a character, level through Atreia and start playing. That part is straightforward. Things become slightly more complicated once you start asking what "free-to-play" means for somebody who wants to participate seriously in the game's economy.

NC has confirmed that AION 2's global version includes an optional $15 monthly Special Quai Membership. The subscription does not simply provide a few cosmetics or a slightly nicer login badge. An active Membership unlocks several important MMO systems, including the player Market, personal trading and access to the Quna Exchange, alongside remote storage, additional merchants and extra reward-related benefits.

That makes AION 2 an interesting kind of free-to-play game. You can absolutely play without subscribing. Whether you will want to play an MMO for months without access to some of its core trading systems is a rather different question.

What Does the AION 2 Membership Cost?

NC's global business model sets the Special Quai Membership at approximately $15 per month. The game itself remains free, meaning Membership operates more like an optional traditional MMO subscription layered on top of a free-to-play client.

The situation will be slightly disguised during the opening month because all three AION 2 Founder's Packs now include 30 days of Special Quai Membership. NC added the Membership to every Founder's Pack in August, including purchases that had already been made.

That means players entering through Advanced Access on September 30 will have all of the Membership benefits available immediately. The real decision arrives roughly a month later, when those initial 30 days expire and Founders have to decide whether the systems they have been using are worth continuing to pay for.

What Does AION 2 Membership Unlock?

According to NC's official Membership announcement, Special Quai Membership provides the following benefits:

• Access to Remote Storage
• Access to Personal Trading
• Access to Wind Breeze Merchants
• Increased Odyle Energy maximum capacity
• Access to the Market
• Access to the Quna Exchange Shop
• Additional Odyle Energy Cube reward selections in Expedition, Transcendence and Sanctuary content

Some of those are ordinary convenience perks. Remote storage saves travelling back to an NPC every time your inventory starts resembling the kitchen drawer where nobody knows what half the objects are for. Increased Odyle Energy and additional reward selections provide efficiency benefits.

The controversial parts are clearly the Market, Exchange and personal trading.

The Player Market Requires Membership

AION 2 has a player-driven Market where items are traded using Kina, the currency earned through normal gameplay. This is effectively the game's auction house and, in an MMORPG built around loot, crafting, progression and an economy shared by thousands of players, it is difficult to describe the Market as a particularly obscure side feature.

NC requires an active Membership to access Market trading.

For a player who simply wants to follow the story, explore the world, level characters and run some content with friends, this may not matter much at first. For anybody who enjoys crafting, farming valuable materials, buying missing equipment or participating heavily in the player economy, the restriction becomes considerably more significant.

It also makes the $15 Membership fundamentally different from the sort of subscription that merely provides an XP bonus or extra character slots. This is not simply about progressing faster. It determines how deeply you can interact with AION 2's economy.

The Kina and Quna Exchange Is Also Restricted

AION 2 uses two important currencies. Kina is earned through gameplay, while Quna is the premium currency associated with the game's paid ecosystem.

The global business model includes a player-driven exchange connecting the two. Players can effectively trade value between Kina and Quna through a system where players supply the currencies rather than NC simply generating an arbitrary conversion rate.

However, participating in that Exchange also requires Membership.

This creates an interesting economic loop. AION 2 allows players to connect earned currency with premium currency through its official systems, but the doorway connecting those economies is itself part of the paid Membership package.

That is likely to be one of the most discussed pieces of AION 2's monetization after launch, particularly once players have spent enough time with the economy to determine how important Market and Exchange access actually becomes at endgame.

Personal Trading Is Not Free Either

Direct player-to-player trading is another Membership benefit. That means the restrictions are not limited to the auction-house-style Market. NC has deliberately placed broader economic interaction inside the subscription tier.

Again, none of this prevents a free player from entering Atreia and actually playing AION 2. It does, however, create a noticeable difference between somebody treating the game casually and somebody intending to make it their primary MMORPG.

An MMO can technically be playable without trading while still making trading extremely desirable once crafting materials, rare drops and endgame progression begin piling up. We will not really know how restrictive the system feels until the global economy has been running for a while.

Membership Also Gives Gameplay Convenience

The economic restrictions understandably attract most of the attention, but there are several additional advantages.

Remote Storage means members can access storage without returning to the appropriate NPC. Wind Breeze Merchant access provides similar convenience, while the increased Odyle Energy capacity and additional Cube selections affect how efficiently players can interact with certain reward systems.

Those benefits are harder to evaluate before launch because their real value depends entirely on how often the underlying systems matter during ordinary play. A feature that looks insignificant on a bullet list can become indispensable after fifty hours, while another can remain a button you forget exists.

The upcoming AION 2 Launch Scale Test will not give us the answer because NC has disabled Membership, payment and much of the player economy during the test. That makes sense for a temporary environment where all progression is being deleted, but it also means the global community will not properly experience the Membership divide until retail launch.

Is AION 2 Pay-to-Win?

That is where the discussion requires a little restraint.

Locking Market access, trading and economic systems behind a subscription is certainly a monetization decision worth scrutinizing, but it does not automatically prove that AION 2 is pay-to-win. That term usually depends on whether spending money produces a meaningful competitive power advantage that non-paying players cannot reasonably obtain.

NC has described the global model as one where normal gameplay remains free and where the paid shop focuses heavily on cosmetics and convenience. At the same time, Membership provides economic access and efficiency benefits, while AION 2 also includes premium currency and Daeva Pass systems. The practical balance between those pieces will become much easier to judge once the global servers actually have a functioning economy.

For now, the factual distinction is simpler: AION 2 is free-to-play, but full participation in its player economy is not completely free.

Founders Get the First Month Included

Anyone purchasing a Founder's Pack gets 30 days of Membership alongside the five days of Advanced Access beginning September 30. Even the $24.99 Standard Founder's Pack includes the Membership, which means most early-access players will probably enter the game without immediately noticing where the free-versus-member boundaries sit.

That will change when the included month expires.

At that point, players will have had several weeks to use Remote Storage, trade with other players, access the Market and interact with the Exchange. NC is effectively giving Founders enough time to become accustomed to the Membership ecosystem before asking whether they want to keep paying for it.

That is perfectly valid as a business model, but players should understand what they are signing up for before launch rather than discovering thirty days later that the auction house has suddenly developed a monthly entrance fee.

Free-to-Play, With a Fairly Large Asterisk

AION 2 does not require a box price or mandatory subscription. You can download it on October 5 and start playing without spending anything. In that literal sense, it is absolutely free-to-play.

But MMOs are unusual games. Their economies, trading networks and long-term progression systems are often as important as the combat itself. By putting the Market, personal trading and the Quna Exchange behind Special Quai Membership, NC has made the subscription considerably more important than a simple collection of convenience bonuses.

Whether $15 a month feels reasonable will ultimately depend on how you play.

If you want to explore Atreia, level a character and occasionally run content, staying completely free may prove perfectly comfortable. If AION 2 becomes your main MMO and you want to participate seriously in its economy, Special Quai Membership may feel much less optional than the word "optional" initially suggests.

We will know exactly how large that distinction becomes when the global economy opens on October 5.

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AION 2 PC Requirements: You Need 100 GB, but a GTX 1050 Ti Can Apparently Run It

AION 2's global Launch Scale Test is almost here, which means there is one rather practical question worth answering before everybody starts downloading 100 GB of MMORPG: can your PC actually run it? NC has now published the official minimum and recommended system requirements for the global version, and at first glance they are surprisingly forgiving for a large Unreal Engine 5 MMO. A GTX 1050 Ti apparently gets you through the front door. The slightly stranger part is what NC considers "recommended."

According to the official AION 2 Steam page, the minimum configuration requires just 8 GB of RAM and a GTX 1050 Ti with 4 GB of VRAM. Recommended hardware steps up to an RTX 2070 and 16 GB of memory. Both specifications require 100 GB of free storage, Windows 10 or 11, DirectX 12 and a 64-bit processor and operating system.

AION 2 Minimum PC Requirements

• OS: Windows 10/11 64-bit
• CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 2600 or Intel Core i5-10500
• RAM: 8 GB
• GPU: NVIDIA GTX 1050 Ti 4 GB
• DirectX: Version 12
• Storage: 100 GB available space
• SSD: Recommended
• Target: 1080p using the Very Low graphics preset

The GTX 1050 Ti is the number that immediately stands out. NVIDIA launched that card back in 2016, so NC is effectively saying that a decade-old mid-range GPU can technically run AION 2. There is an important qualification, though. The official notes specifically recommend using the Very Low preset at Full HD resolution with the minimum configuration.

In other words, "can run AION 2" and "can run AION 2 while admiring every feather on your wings" are not necessarily the same thing.

AION 2 Recommended PC Requirements

• OS: Windows 10/11 64-bit
• CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 3700X or Intel Core i7-11700
• RAM: 16 GB
• GPU: NVIDIA RTX 2070 8 GB
• DirectX: Version 12
• Storage: 100 GB available space
• SSD: Recommended
• Target: 1080p using the Low graphics preset

This is where the specification becomes more interesting. An RTX 2070 and 16 GB RAM do not look unreasonable for a modern MMORPG, but NC's own notes say the recommended configuration should use the Low preset at 1080p.

That is unusually conservative for a "recommended" specification. Normally, players expect recommended hardware to indicate something closer to medium or high settings at the target resolution. Here, NC appears to be drawing a distinction between hardware that provides an officially supported baseline experience and hardware required to actually push AION 2's visual settings much further.

What About High, Ultra and 1440p?

NC has not published separate official specifications for 1440p, 4K, High or Ultra settings on the global Steam page. That means we should be careful about inventing our own requirements before the game is in enough global players' hands to produce meaningful benchmarks.

What we do know is that AION 2 is built on Unreal Engine 5 and features a world NC describes as 36 times larger than the original AION, with extensive vertical environments, aerial combat and large-scale encounters. All of that can become considerably more demanding once draw distance, effects, shadows and character detail start moving beyond the Low preset.

The upcoming AION 2 Launch Scale Test should therefore be especially useful for PC players. Progress is wiped after the test anyway, so there is little reason not to spend some of those first hours experimenting with graphics presets, frame rates and upscaling rather than treating it like a race to the temporary level cap.

You Will Need 100 GB No Matter What

The requirement that does not change between minimum and recommended hardware is storage. AION 2 needs 100 GB of free space, and NC recommends installing it on an SSD.

That is hardly shocking by modern standards, but it is worth dealing with before the servers open. The full global launch arrives on October 5, while Founder's Pack players get Advanced Access from September 30. Nobody wants to discover at login time that their real first boss encounter is deciding which three games to uninstall.

An SSD recommendation also makes sense for an MMO built around large zones and rapid movement through the world. Mechanical hard drives may technically remain possible unless NC changes the requirement, but streaming Unreal Engine 5 environments from an older HDD is unlikely to be the ideal way to experience Atreia.

The Minimum Requirements Are Surprisingly Accessible

Overall, AION 2's official PC requirements are less intimidating than its screenshots might suggest. Eight gigabytes of RAM and a GTX 1050 Ti make the minimum barrier relatively low, while an RTX 2070 is hardly cutting-edge hardware in 2026.

The catch is in those graphics notes.

Minimum means 1080p Very Low. Recommended means 1080p Low. If you want to fly through Atreia at higher settings, higher resolutions and consistently strong frame rates, you should probably expect to need more than the published recommended specification.

Fortunately, the free Launch Scale Test gives us the perfect opportunity to find out exactly how optimistic those requirements are before anybody spends money on a Founder's Pack.

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AION 2 Global Server Regions Confirmed: Europe, NA, SA and Japan, but No Oceania

AION 2's global launch is getting very close, which means we have reached the traditional MMO stage where choosing the right server suddenly becomes almost as important as choosing a class. NC has now confirmed the regional structure players can expect when the game launches globally on October 5. AION 2 will have servers in North America, South America, Europe and Japan, covering most of the major global markets. One region is conspicuously absent, however: there will be no dedicated Oceania server at launch.

The four confirmed regions are listed in NC's official AION 2 pre-release FAQ on Steam, which names North America, South America, Europe and Japan as the locations supported by the global service. Korea and Taiwan continue to operate separately from this new global version, meaning players should not think of the October release as one enormous worldwide server network. There are several distinct AION 2 ecosystems, and the version launching next month is its own service.

AION 2 Global Has Four Confirmed Server Regions

The confirmed global server regions are:

• North America
• South America
• Europe
• Japan

NC has not yet published a final list of individual world names, and players should be careful with supposed complete server lists currently circulating online. The regional structure is official. Every individual server name, population prediction and unofficial recommendation chart is a different matter until NC publishes the launch list itself.

For most players, the obvious choice will be the geographically closest region. European players will naturally gravitate toward Europe, while North and South American players finally have clearly separated regional options. Japan acts as the global service's main East Asian location.

Latency matters in every MMO, but it could be particularly noticeable in AION 2. The game puts considerably more emphasis on action combat, aerial movement and PvP than traditional tab-target MMORPGs, and the recent AION 2 PvP showcase demonstrated how important positioning and movement can become. A slightly delayed auction-house click is irritating. A delayed reaction while another player is attempting to remove you from the sky with a sword is rather more educational.

There Will Be No Oceania Server at Launch

The awkward part of NC's regional plan concerns Australia, New Zealand and the wider Oceania community. After being asked directly about support for Australian players, NC confirmed to Massively Overpowered that no Oceania server is planned for the global launch.

That leaves players in Australia and New Zealand without a truly local option on the global service. Japan is geographically the closest of the four announced global regions, although real-world latency depends on routing rather than simply measuring the distance between two points on a map.

NC has not announced whether an Oceania server could be added later. The current statement applies specifically to launch, so it would be equally wrong to claim that Oceania is permanently ruled out or that a dedicated server is definitely coming later. For now, there simply isn't one.

NC Points Oceania Players Toward Taiwan

Interestingly, NC's response also highlighted that the Taiwanese version of AION 2 supports English, effectively presenting it as another possible route for players in the Oceania region.

There is an important catch. Taiwan is not another server inside the October global service. It is a separate existing version of AION 2 with its own service, progression and update environment. NC has announced no character transfers between Taiwan and the global version, so choosing Taiwan should not be treated like selecting a different region from a dropdown and changing your mind later.

We also already know that the global version will follow its own modified Season 1 progression rather than simply copying the current Korea and Taiwan builds. That makes the decision about more than latency. Players may also care about where their friends are playing, which content schedule they want to follow and which community they intend to stay with long term.

The Global Version Supports Eight Languages

Server region and language are not the same thing. NC's global FAQ confirms support for English, French, German, Spanish, Brazilian Portuguese, Russian, Japanese and Korean. A European player choosing the European region therefore does not need a separate English-language server simply to play in English.

That should help consolidate communities compared with older MMO launches where every language received several separate realms and everybody spent launch night trying to remember whether their guild had chosen Server 12, Server 17 or the one named after an obscure dragon mentioned once in a quest from 2009.

Choose Your Region Before the Real Launch Begins

Players will get an early opportunity to test AION 2's network performance during the Launch Scale Test beginning September 17. Since progression from the test is wiped afterward, it is an ideal time to experiment with regional latency before committing a permanent character to a launch server.

After that, the real servers arrive quickly. Founder's Pack owners enter through Advanced Access on September 30, followed by the full free-to-play global launch on October 5.

For most players, the server decision should be straightforward: choose the nearest region and make sure your friends do the same. For Australia and New Zealand, unfortunately, it is more complicated. Japan is part of the global service, while Taiwan offers English support through a separate version of AION 2.

North America, South America, Europe and Japan are ready for global launch. Oceania will have to make a choice.

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