It is honest work. Or at least it is supposed to be.
In AION 2, gathering has also become part of a much larger economic problem involving automated farming, suspicious trading activity and the increasingly complicated question of who should be allowed to sell what.
Now NC is introducing another set of restrictions.
With the October 28, 2026 Global update, gathering requires level 45 instead of level 10. Players also face a new daily limit of 1,000 gathering actions per server, while the waiting period for deleting characters increases from one day to seven days.
These changes will be particularly noticeable for players who rely on gathering to earn Kina, maintain alternative characters or supply crafting materials. And unlike a dungeon boss adjustment, they affect the way ordinary resources enter the game's economy.
AION 2's New Gathering Rules Explained
The official patch notes establish three major restrictions, along with a specific daily reset time.
| System | Previous Rule | October 28 Rule |
|---|---|---|
| Minimum Gathering Level | Level 10 | Level 45 |
| Daily Gathering Limit | No previously announced equivalent cap | 1,000 actions per server |
| Gathering Reset | Not applicable | 08:00 CET under the announced schedule |
| Character Deletion Waiting Period | 1 day | 7 days |
The most important detail is that the 1,000-action limit is specified per server, not per character. Players should therefore plan their gathering around the server-level allowance rather than assume every alternative character receives an independent daily supply of 1,000 actions.
NC also warns that the limit may be adjusted in future updates. This is not necessarily the final number.
The official schedule identifies 08:00 CET as the daily reset time for this update, corresponding to midnight Pacific Daylight Time. Players should check the current in-game reset clock when regional daylight-saving changes affect the displayed local time.
One distinction is worth making: the patch refers to the number of gathering actions, not a guaranteed quantity of materials. Different resources and gathering results should not be assumed to consume the allowance in identical ways without confirmation from the live interface.
For casual players collecting a handful of herbs or ore deposits while completing quests, the daily cap may rarely become relevant. Dedicated gathering characters, however, now have a clearly defined ceiling on how much activity they can perform before the next reset.
Why Raising the Level Requirement to 45 Matters
The change from level 10 to level 45 is arguably more significant than the daily cap itself.
Previously, a relatively new character could begin gathering early in their adventure. That made resource collection accessible to legitimate beginners, but it also allowed newly created characters to enter the gathering economy without progressing very far through the game.
Requiring level 45 creates a much higher barrier.
Players who maintained low-level gathering alts will no longer be able to use those characters for gathering until they meet the new requirement. Anyone creating a fresh character specifically to collect materials must now invest substantially more progression time before beginning that activity.
This changes the economics of alternative characters. A level 10 gathering alt was relatively easy to establish. A level 45 character represents a more meaningful investment, especially when several characters are involved.
For legitimate players, that investment may be inconvenient. For operations built around rapidly creating disposable resource-farming characters, it potentially makes the process less attractive.
That second consequence is an economic interpretation rather than a detailed explanation provided by NC. The patch confirms the new gathering requirement but does not publish a calculation showing how many automated farming accounts it expects to affect.
Players needing to bring an alternative character up to level 45 should prioritise normal progression rather than treat gathering as the only worthwhile activity. Our AION 2 Fast Gearing Guide explains how to improve equipment efficiently while progressing toward higher-level activities.
Seven Days to Delete a Character: Another Barrier to Abuse
NC is also extending the character deletion waiting period from one day to seven days.
This particular change comes with an explicit explanation: the developer says it is intended to prevent abuse involving repeated character deletion and creation.
That suggests NC wants to discourage behaviour built around disposable characters, although the announcement does not provide a detailed account of the specific methods being targeted.
The practical consequence is straightforward. Character slots become more important to manage because removing an unwanted character now involves a much longer waiting period.
Players experimenting with different classes should think carefully before filling every available slot. Our guide to all eight AION 2 classes can help when choosing which characters are worth developing rather than repeatedly creating and deleting new ones.
It is also important not to confuse the deletion waiting period with a disciplinary restriction. NC has not announced that deleting a character is forbidden. The process simply takes longer, making repeated deletion and recreation less convenient.
How Will This Affect Gathering, Crafting and Market Prices?
Gathering is not an isolated activity. It supports professions, equipment production, resource conversions and the Market. Changing who can gather and how frequently they can do it may therefore have consequences beyond the players directly affected by the restrictions.
Consider a crafter who regularly purchases ore, herbs or other materials instead of collecting everything personally. If fewer gathering characters supply those resources, the availability of some ingredients could change.
Whether prices actually increase is another question. That depends on demand, existing inventories, the number of active gatherers and how frequently legitimate players approach the new daily limit.
There is no reliable basis for claiming that every crafting material will suddenly become more expensive. A daily allowance of 1,000 actions may still be sufficient for many ordinary players.
But the possibility of a supply adjustment is worth watching, particularly because NC has already been changing its Market rules.
On October 21, the developer relaxed some restrictions on selling gathered materials, allowing certain previously affected players to list resources again.
Those Market restrictions and the new gathering limit are separate systems. The earlier rule concerns whether materials can be sold. The October 28 changes determine who can gather and how frequently they can do so.
A character can therefore satisfy the level requirement without necessarily being guaranteed unrestricted Market access. NC has not said that reaching level 45 automatically removes gameplay-history-based trading restrictions.
For crafters who need particular ingredients, our Substance Morph Guide explains alternative material conversions, including recipes that transform Odyle into bound crafting resources.
These conversions may help when a specific ingredient becomes difficult to obtain, but they are not guaranteed replacements for ordinary gathering. Bound materials cannot simply be treated as resources that may always be resold.
Is NC Tightening Its Fight Against Bots?
The broader context makes the October 28 changes particularly interesting.
NC has already taken extensive action against suspected botting, unauthorised programs, commercial gold farming and real-money trading. According to its enforcement announcements, the company reported 58,057 account restriction actions across six waves between October 11 and October 21.
We examined those figures in our report on AION 2's expanding account crackdown.
Gathering restrictions fit naturally into this wider effort to control economic abuse. Raising the entry requirement makes newly created gathering characters less immediately useful, while a server-level daily cap limits the amount of gathering activity available under that allowance.
However, an important distinction remains: NC has explicitly connected the longer deletion period to preventing abuse, but has not published evidence demonstrating precisely how much automated gathering the new level requirement and daily cap will prevent.
Nor should ordinary players who reach the daily gathering limit be treated as suspicious. Farming materials for hours is a perfectly normal MMORPG activity. It has been since the days when collecting a mountain of copper ore was considered an enjoyable Saturday afternoon.
Effective economic protection needs to distinguish between organised exploitation and legitimate players who simply enjoy professions more than combat.
What Should Regular Players Do Now?
The new rules call for some practical adjustments, especially for players who depend on gathering as a regular source of Kina.
First, make sure your intended gathering character is level 45 or higher. Low-level alts should no longer be part of your immediate resource-farming plans.
Second, treat the daily allowance as a resource in its own right. If you routinely gather large quantities of materials, prioritise the resources you actually need for crafting or the ones that provide worthwhile returns on your server's Market.
Third, avoid assuming that farming alone will provide a predictable income. Equipment progression, dungeon rewards and intelligent use of existing materials can reduce your dependence on any one activity.
Our guide to costly progression mistakes explains why conserving valuable resources is often more important than chasing every immediately available reward.
Players investing gathering profits into equipment should also review the Gear Transfer Guide, which covers ways to preserve expensive upgrades when replacing equipment.
Finally, keep track of the daily reset separately from the game's weekly activities. Our Weekly Reset Checklist covers the recurring progression systems that should not be confused with the new daily gathering allowance.
A Necessary Restriction or Another Problem for Honest Gatherers?
The October 28 changes illustrate one of the oldest problems in online game design. A system intended to prevent abuse can also inconvenience people who have done absolutely nothing wrong.
There are sensible reasons to make automated farming more difficult. An MMORPG economy depends on meaningful resource availability, functioning markets and a reasonable relationship between effort and reward.
But ordinary gathering is also part of that economy. Players who prefer collecting materials, developing professions or supplying other adventurers should not find their chosen playstyle unnecessarily frustrating.
For now, the level 45 requirement and 1,000-action daily allowance establish a new framework. Whether that framework strikes the right balance will depend on how gathering activity and Market conditions develop over the coming weeks.
NC has already indicated that the daily limit may change, leaving room for future adjustments.
In the meantime, gathering in Atreia is becoming a rather more exclusive profession. Apparently, picking flowers now requires the experience of someone who has survived most of the world's dangers.
And even then, the authorities would prefer you not pick more than a thousand in one day.
Official source: AION 2 Global Patch Notes, October 27 PDT / October 28 CET, 2026. The published limits may be adjusted in later updates.
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