AION 2 Ends Its Global Test at 69% Positive on Steam: Players Are Still Divided

AION 2's first global public test is over. The temporary characters are gone, the Playtest servers are offline, and tens of thousands of players now have roughly eleven days to decide whether they want to return for Advanced Access. The first measurable verdict is not overwhelmingly positive, but it is considerably better than it looked during the opening hours. At the time of writing, AION 2's Steam Playtest sits at 69 percent positive user reviews, placing the reception firmly in mixed territory rather than producing either the disaster or runaway triumph some corners of the MMO community were predicting.

That number becomes more interesting when viewed across the entire test. SteamDB recorded the Playtest at around 48 percent positive during an early snapshot on September 17. Later data showed that climbing into the 60s, and after Day 2 the score has reached 69 percent. Steam ratings can continue changing as more people submit reviews, so 69 percent should be treated as a snapshot rather than carved into the walls of Atreia. Still, the direction is notable: the player score improved as the test went on.

AION 2 Finished With 73,761 as Its Steam Peak

The final player numbers are now available as well. AION 2 reached an all-time Steam peak of 73,761 concurrent players on September 17. Day 2 came remarkably close, reaching a 24-hour peak of 73,739, just 22 players short of the first session's record.

That is useful context because the second test window did not collapse after the curiosity of Day 1 wore off. The audience returned at almost exactly the same peak level for another six-hour session, despite knowing that every character would disappear when the servers closed.

As we noted when AION 2 first hit 73,761 concurrent Steam players, these numbers still exclude everyone using NC's PURPLE launcher. The actual global test population was therefore larger, although NC has not provided a combined concurrency figure.

The Review Score Started Much Worse

The change in Steam sentiment may be the most interesting part of the test.

Early reactions were rough. During the opening period, SteamDB captured a review percentage below 50 percent. At that point, many of the complaints focused on exactly the things that make the strongest impression during AION 2's first hour: auto-navigation, the interface, extremely easy introductory combat and the feeling that parts of the game resemble a mobile MMORPG transplanted onto PC.

That criticism did not disappear. Steam discussions are still full of players complaining about auto-run, auto-potions, menu design and the generally streamlined structure of the opening quests. Some players tried the game for twenty minutes, decided they had seen another familiar Korean MMO formula and uninstalled.

But other players did something rather inconvenient for an immediate internet verdict.

They kept playing.

AION 2 Seems to Have a First-Hour Problem

Yesterday we looked at the first AION 2 player impressions after Day 1, and one pattern appeared repeatedly: players who disliked the opening hour sometimes became substantially more positive after additional skills, progression systems and group activities unlocked.

One highly discussed MMO community post came from a player who initially disliked the combat, auto systems and mobile-like presentation, then continued playing with friends for five hours and ended up disappointed when the servers closed. Other reactions described something similar. Combat starts extremely simple, but becomes more interesting once classes gain enough abilities for chained skills and actual rotations to develop.

The Steam review curve does not prove that every negative player simply needed to play longer. Plenty of people remained unconvinced after several hours, and that is perfectly legitimate. But the improvement from an early sub-50 percent snapshot to 69 percent after the full test is at least consistent with the idea that AION 2 makes a weaker first impression than it does a third or fourth impression.

The Mobile-Like UI Is Still the Biggest Recurring Complaint

The criticism that refuses to go away concerns AION 2's interface and automation.

Players repeatedly describe the UI as mobile-like, with large interface elements, strongly guided navigation and several automated conveniences. Auto-movement remains particularly divisive. Some players treat it as a harmless option when moving between quest objectives. Others see its presence as symbolic of exactly the sort of MMO design they hoped AION 2 would avoid.

The strange part is that the world itself is receiving plenty of praise. AION 2's vertical environments, floating architecture and large landscapes are among the most consistently appreciated parts of the test, which makes automatically following a route through them feel particularly odd to players who would rather explore manually.

NC now has a useful problem to solve. The systems that make AION 2 approachable may also be the systems making some veteran MMO players dismiss it before its stronger combat and progression have time to appear.

Combat and Progression Are Helping the Other Side of the Argument

Positive reactions tend to focus on a different set of features: combat once more skills unlock, character progression, the pet and mount collection systems, visual quality and the sheer number of things available to improve.

AION 2 constantly gives the player another number, item, passive tree or system to develop. That can eventually become dangerous in an MMO, because today's satisfying progression menu can become next month's list of mandatory chores. But across twelve hours of temporary testing, many players clearly enjoyed the feeling of continually unlocking something new.

The game's combat also has more going on beneath the simple opening than first appears. NC continues adjusting systems such as animation cancelling and skill chaining, while the eight launch classes develop significantly as additional abilities become available.

That does not erase the criticism of the first few levels. It simply explains why somebody can dislike AION 2 at level 5 and enjoy it considerably more later the same evening.

The Test Was Missing Some of AION 2's Most Controversial Systems

There is another major reason not to treat 69 percent as a review score for the complete game.

The Launch Scale Test disabled the Shop, Quna purchases, Membership, the Market, Quna Exchange and other payment systems. The level cap was 37, Founder's Pack items were unavailable and every piece of progression was wiped after Day 2. NC's official test rules were explicit that this was a limited scale test rather than a complete representation of long-term progression. ([steamdb.info](https://steamdb.info/patchnotes/25369750/))

That means players were unable to properly experience one of AION 2's most controversial subjects: monetization. We have already looked at how the $15 Membership affects Market access and other systems, and NC has now clarified after the test that direct player-to-player trading will be disabled as an anti-bot measure, leaving the Market as the central trading system.

The economic conversation will therefore change considerably once the permanent servers open.

NC Is Already Making Changes After the Test

The Launch Scale Test did more than produce a Steam score. NC used Day 1 feedback to push crash fixes, improve quest-object interaction ranges and open four additional European servers during the test.

After the test closed, NC also confirmed changes to its launch queue policy. Players in good account standing can enter a priority queue when servers are at capacity, although NC stresses that priority does not guarantee immediate entry. Accounts under disciplinary action or suspected of violating the Terms of Service can lose that privilege.

Steam users must now uninstall the separate Playtest application and download the retail AION 2 client before Advanced Access. PURPLE users do not need the same extra step.

69 Percent Is Neither a Disaster Nor a Victory Lap

A 69 percent Steam score is exactly the sort of number that allows everyone to find evidence for whatever they already believed.

If you expected AION 2 to be another polished but over-automated Korean MMO, plenty of reviews will support that conclusion. If you hoped for strong combat, beautiful environments and an enormous progression-heavy MMO, there are plenty of players saying they found exactly that too.

The more useful observation is that sentiment improved during the test while player concurrency remained remarkably stable between the two sessions. AION 2 hit 73,761 players on Day 1 and 73,739 on Day 2, while the Steam review percentage climbed substantially from its early position.

That is a much healthier story than a test where everybody arrives once, hates the first hour and never comes back.

It is also far too early for celebration.

The real test begins when the wipe is gone, the economy is active, Membership matters, endgame progression starts consuming weeks instead of hours and players have to decide whether AION 2 deserves a permanent place in their MMO rotation.

For now, 69 percent positive feels strangely appropriate.

AION 2 has convinced a lot of people. It has annoyed plenty of others. And with Advanced Access beginning September 30, the argument has barely started.

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AION 2 Added New EU Servers During Its Global Test and Pushed a Crash-Fixing Hotfix

AION 2's Launch Scale Test did exactly what a scale test is supposed to do: put thousands of players into the game, expose a few rough edges and give NC enough live traffic to start adjusting things before the real characters arrive. During the first test session on September 17, NC opened four additional European servers in two waves, then followed Day 1 with scheduled maintenance and a hotfix addressing client crashes, quest interaction ranges and several smaller issues before the second session began.

The server additions are particularly interesting because they arrived very quickly. According to NC's Day 1 notices, Vaizel and Triniel opened 48 minutes after the test began, followed by Kaisinel and Lumiel roughly 40 minutes later. NC did not publish capacity figures or explain exactly what triggered the additions, so we should not claim the original servers were full or that the company underestimated demand. What we can say is that European test capacity was expanded twice within the first 90 minutes.

Four New European Servers Opened During Day 1

The first new pair, Vaizel and Triniel, opened at 06:48 PDT on September 17, 48 minutes after Day 1 began. A second pair, Kaisinel and Lumiel, followed at 07:28 PDT. NC listed the server names under separate Elyos and Asmodian columns, continuing AION 2's faction-based server structure.

• Vaizel — Elyos
• Triniel — Asmodian
• Kaisinel — Elyos
• Lumiel — Asmodian

The names will be familiar to long-time AION players, which is a nice touch for a sequel otherwise busy rebuilding large parts of the original formula. More importantly, these are the first concrete European server names NC has made public during the global test. The company has already confirmed that the final global service will include Europe, North America, South America and Japan as server regions, but a full launch-world list has still not been published.

It is also worth remembering just how much traffic the test was handling. We reported yesterday that AION 2 reached 73,761 concurrent players on Steam during Day 1. PURPLE players are not included in that figure, so the total number of simultaneous players was higher. Expanding European capacity during that same session is therefore hardly surprising, even if NC has not provided the exact load figures behind the decision.

NC Took the Servers Down for Maintenance After Day 1

When the first six-hour session ended, NC began scheduled maintenance at 12:00 PDT on September 17. The company estimated roughly 24 hours of downtime, lining the maintenance window up with the start of Day 2 rather than cutting into the second session itself.

That distinction matters because a 24-hour maintenance notice can look rather dramatic if read without context. The Launch Scale Test was always designed as two separate six-hour windows with a full day between them. NC simply used that planned gap to patch the client and prepare the service for another round of players.

For a test explicitly designed to prepare infrastructure for launch, that is exactly when you want maintenance to happen. Finding the client crashes and awkward quest interactions while every character is temporary is considerably preferable to discovering them during Advanced Access on September 30 or the full October 5 launch.

The Hotfix Addresses Client Crashes

NC's post-Day 1 hotfix contains four specific changes. The most important is simply described as fixes for client crashes. No detailed technical explanation was provided, so we do not know whether NC was targeting one widespread crash or several different problems reported during the first session.

Crash fixes are hardly glamorous patch-note material, but they are arguably the most useful outcome a scale test can produce. AION 2's global version needs to work across a huge variety of hardware configurations, particularly when the official minimum specification goes all the way down to a GTX 1050 Ti and 8 GB of RAM. A few hours with tens of thousands of players inevitably exposes combinations that internal testing cannot reproduce.

Quest Objects Should Be Easier to Interact With

The hotfix also slightly increases the interaction radius for quest objects. That sounds tiny, but it is the kind of change that can make a surprisingly noticeable difference in a crowded MMO launch.

When dozens of players are trying to click or interact with the same small object, having to stand on exactly the correct pixel quickly stops feeling like immersive fantasy adventure and starts feeling like attempting to use a self-checkout machine while twenty other people push the trolley.

A slightly more generous interaction radius should make those moments less fiddly without fundamentally changing how quests work.

Appearance Change Tickets Now Require Level 10

NC also changed appearance tickets so that characters below level 10 can no longer use them. The company did not explain the reasoning behind the restriction, and since the Shop and payment systems were disabled during the Launch Scale Test, it is difficult to judge how important this will be in the retail client.

It is nevertheless another example of why players should avoid treating every test-system behaviour as final. We have already found substantial differences between regions in our look at how the AION 2 global test build differs from Korea and Taiwan. Small rules can still move around before the actual launch client arrives.

Reporting Chat and Macros Has Also Been Fixed

The final documented fix concerns AION 2's reporting system. Players attempting to report chat or macro-related behaviour could incorrectly receive a message saying that the other player's information could not be verified. NC says that problem has now been resolved.

The mention of macro reporting is particularly interesting given NC's recent work on combat automation. The Korean service has already received several updates designed to reduce advantages from mouse macros and extremely aggressive animation cancelling. A functioning reporting system will obviously matter once the global servers become permanent and competitive PvP begins properly.

The Test Is Already Producing Useful Launch Changes

It is easy to look at a public test purely as free early access, especially when tens of thousands of players rush through the opening levels as quickly as possible. For NC, though, the Launch Scale Test exists to find exactly this sort of thing.

Day 1 produced enough activity for NC to add two pairs of European servers, identify client crashes, adjust quest interactions and patch several smaller issues before the next session. That is considerably more useful than a completely uneventful test where everybody congratulates themselves and the real problems wait politely until launch day.

Nothing from the test survives. The level cap remains 37, Membership and the player economy are disabled, and every character disappears when the second session ends. NC's official test rules still state that progression carries only from Day 1 to Day 2 and transfers nothing into Advanced Access or launch.

But the fixes can survive.

And that is ultimately the point.

AION 2 does not need the Launch Scale Test to prove that players can reach level 37. It needs the test to discover what breaks when tens of thousands of them try to do it at the same time.

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AION 2 Global Is More Different From Korea Than We Thought: What the Test Build Changed

When NC said AION 2 Global would launch with a modified version of Season 1, the obvious assumption was fairly simple. Global players would start earlier in the content timeline than Korea and Taiwan, but receive a year's worth of balance work, progression improvements and quality-of-life changes layered on top. After the Launch Scale Test, it looks like the word "modified" may be doing considerably more work than we realised.

Players comparing the global test client directly with the current Taiwan and Korean versions have uncovered changes across gear stats, enhancement limits, crafting, dungeon requirements, Daevanion progression, pets, Genus Insight and several other systems. Some numbers are higher. Many percentage-based bonuses are lower. Entire progression routes appear to have been rearranged.

Before going any further, there is one very important warning: this was the Launch Scale Test build, not the final September 30 Advance Access client. NC has not published official global patch notes documenting these differences, and several systems were deliberately disabled during the test. Anything discussed below can therefore change before launch.

With that caveat firmly attached, the test still gives us our clearest look yet at what NC actually means when it says the global version of AION 2 is not simply the Korean game arriving one year late.

Global Season 1 Is Being Rebuilt, Not Simply Replayed

NC already confirmed during Gamescom that the global version will begin with Season 1 rather than jumping straight to Korea's current content. Executive Publishing Producer Merv Lee Kwai described it as a modified Season 1 incorporating later quality-of-life and balance improvements. We covered that broader strategy in our breakdown of why AION 2 Global launches behind Korea while benefiting from its first year of development.

What the Launch Scale Test reveals is that these changes appear to reach much deeper into progression itself.

A detailed side-by-side comparison published by AION2 Hub, based largely on testing by Taiwan player Madsin and comparisons with Korean game data, found that global gear does not simply use the same numbers as the existing Asian versions. Base stats, percentage bonuses, enhancement caps and crafting paths have all been altered in the test build.

That makes this much closer to a rebalanced progression model than a localization exercise.

Global Gear Has Higher Base Attack but Lower Percentage Bonuses

One of the clearest differences appears on equipment.

Higher-tier crafted weapons in the global test can have larger raw Attack values than comparable Taiwan equipment. One example shown in the comparison is the Splendent Ebony Dragon Lord Longsword, called Splendent Wise Dragon Lord for Elyos. In the Launch Scale Test it appeared at Item Level 102 with 485 to 606 Attack, compared with Item Level 92 and 372 to 465 Attack on Taiwan.

That sounds like straightforward power inflation until you look at everything surrounding it.

Percentage-based stats have generally been reduced. Soul-binding rolls provide smaller bonuses, and the built-in PvE damage percentages found on Korean and Taiwanese crafted gear are absent from the global test equipment.

On Korea and Taiwan, Dragon Lord weapons can carry a flat PvE Damage Boost while armour and accessories include their own PvE-related bonuses. In the global test build, those built-in lines were missing from both crafted and dungeon gear.

Instead, the equipment interface shows the Potential system as available across more gear types. That suggests NC may be moving a larger share of PvE specialization away from automatically granted percentages and into progression systems players develop over time.

The important point is not simply that one version has bigger numbers. The entire distribution of those numbers appears to be changing.

Enhancement Caps Are Much Lower During Early Progression

The test also revealed significantly lower enhancement caps on early equipment.

In the Launch Scale Test:

• Green Rare gear capped at +5
• Blue gear capped at +10

On Korea and Taiwan, those same grades can currently reach +10 and +15 respectively.

This may be one of the more sensible global changes. MMO players have a remarkable ability to spend enormous quantities of resources upgrading an item they replace forty-five minutes later. Lower caps on early equipment reduce the temptation to over-invest in temporary gear while still preserving the enhancement system for items worth keeping.

Per-level stat gains appear to remain broadly similar, and Amplification still exists, so NC is not removing equipment progression. It appears to be controlling how aggressively players can push lower-grade gear.

Again, that is exactly the sort of thing a developer might change after watching an MMO operate live for a year.

Crafting Progression Has Been Reworked

Crafting may have received one of the larger structural changes.

In the global test build, only the first Dragon Lord equipment tier could be directly crafted. For Asmodians that is Star Dragon Lord gear, while Elyos receive the equivalent True Dragon Lord set.

Higher tiers were instead reached through transfer crafting, moving progressively from one tier to the next. According to the test findings, those higher-tier results were also bound rather than freely tradeable.

That is a significant economic difference from the current Taiwan structure.

If it survives into launch, the system appears designed to make high-level crafted equipment something players develop themselves rather than simply purchase from somebody who completed the entire crafting ladder first.

That has obvious implications for the economy and makes our earlier look at AION 2's Membership, Market and trading restrictions even more interesting. The importance of Market access depends heavily on which endgame items can actually move through that Market.

Dungeon Entry Requirements Are Lower

The global test also makes several early Conquest dungeons easier to enter from an item-level perspective.

Krao Cave and Draupnir reportedly required Item Level 700 in the test build compared with 1,000 on the live Asian versions. Urugugu Canyon dropped from 1,600 to 1,400, while Fire Temple and Ferocious Horn Den were reduced from 2,200 to 2,100.

Those are not enormous philosophical changes, but together they suggest NC wants the early PvE progression path to connect more smoothly.

That matches what Game Director Namjoon Kim told press before launch. One of the major lessons from Korea was that item progression initially felt disconnected, with large jumps between meaningful upgrades. NC says global is intended to provide a smoother progression curve where earlier investment continues naturally into later systems.

Lower dungeon entry requirements make sense inside that philosophy.

Players interested in the wider PvE structure can also see our guide to AION 2's solo, 5-player and 10-player dungeon content.

Dungeon Rewards Are Changing Too

It is not only the doorway that has changed.

The Ferocious Horn Den final boss showed a 7.5 percent Unique gear pool during the test compared with 10 percent on Taiwan. That should not be interpreted as proof that all global dungeon drops have simply been nerfed. Drop rates vary between bosses even in the existing Asian version, and we only have detailed comparisons for certain encounters.

Other reward systems may actually be becoming less frustrating.

Gear Change Vouchers appeared as guaranteed rewards across more Conquest content, and weapon conversion required fewer vouchers. Some fragment-style drops also appear to have been replaced with finished items, potentially reducing the amount of inventory clutter players accumulate while farming.

The broad direction appears to be familiar: slightly tighter numerical progression, but fewer awkward hoops around actually using the rewards you earn.

Daevanion Bonuses Are Considerably Smaller

One of the most dramatic differences appears in Daevanion progression.

Major nodes that currently provide bonuses such as 2.5 percent Combat Speed, 2.5 percent Cooldown Reduction or 5 percent Damage Boost on Korea and Taiwan were shown at roughly 1.5 percent, 1.5 percent and 2.5 percent respectively in the global test.

Minor numerical nodes are lower too. Attack and Critical Hit bonuses have been reduced, and the PvE-focused Ariel board was apparently absent entirely from the Launch Scale Test client.

This supports a wider pattern visible throughout the test: global seems to be reducing how quickly percentage bonuses accumulate across multiple progression systems.

That matters because MMOs often develop stat inflation not from one outrageous item but from twenty perfectly reasonable 3 percent bonuses multiplying together until the character sheet begins behaving like a financial derivative.

NC appears to be trying to keep that curve flatter from the beginning.

Pets Cap Earlier and Provide Different Stats

Pet progression is another example.

The global test used a pet level cap of 3 rather than 5, a change NC had previously discussed publicly. Individual pet stat packages also differ from the current Taiwan version.

Some offensive bonuses have been replaced or redistributed, again suggesting that NC is deliberately reducing the number of independent percentage modifiers available across the entire progression ecosystem.

Titles show a similar pattern, with generally smaller stat bonuses and certain specialized damage bonuses disappearing altogether.

Viewed individually, none of these changes seems enormous. Viewed together, they begin to look very deliberate.

Genus Insight Has Been Rebalanced

Genus Insight, another long-term character progression system, also appears to have received significant changes.

Smite bonuses that can currently reach 4.8 percent per enemy genus on Korea and Taiwan were limited to lower values in the test build, while several stat categories were reorganized. New options such as status-effect chance, resistance and percentage HP appeared, while offensive and defensive stats were more clearly separated.

If those values survive to launch, reaching certain accuracy, critical or damage thresholds may require more deliberate build choices than simply stacking every progression system in the same direction.

That could be particularly important later in PvE, where encounter tuning inevitably begins assuming players have accumulated whatever bonuses the progression system allows.

Hidden Cubes Suddenly Give Far More Soul Crystals

Not every change slows progression.

One of the stranger differences discovered during testing concerns hidden cubes. On Korea and Taiwan these provide 100 Soul Crystals. During the global Launch Scale Test, they reportedly provided 1,000 Soul Crystals each.

That is a tenfold increase.

Whether that is a deliberate global progression adjustment or simply accelerated test tuning is impossible to say without official patch notes. It is exactly the sort of number we should therefore avoid treating as guaranteed for September 30.

But it also demonstrates why comparing only individual nerfs is misleading. NC appears to be moving rewards and power around rather than simply reducing everything.

The Test Build Even Contains Systems Korea Does Not Have

Players also found signs of systems that do not currently exist in Korea or Taiwan.

One was a reported trust system briefly visible during Day 1, apparently increasing through normal gameplay and potentially restricting access to trading and the Market until sufficient trust had been established. That sounds like an anti-bot measure, although NC has not officially documented it.

The currency interface also contained something called Pending Quna, with a tooltip saying it converts into Paid Quna after a 72-hour waiting period. Again, NC has not explained how the currency is earned or whether it will appear in the final launch client.

Both systems are therefore interesting clues rather than confirmed launch features.

They do, however, reinforce one central point: the global client is not simply a translated copy of another region's build.

This Does Not Mean Global Is “Nerfed Korea”

That is probably the easiest mistake to make when looking at these numbers.

Many percentage bonuses are lower. Enhancement caps are lower. Certain progression boards are missing. Some dungeon drops appear reduced.

It would therefore be easy to conclude that the global version is simply weaker or more restrictive.

But base equipment stats can be higher. Dungeon entry requirements are lower. Guaranteed reward systems have been improved. Crafting progression is different. Some rewards are dramatically larger. And NC has already confirmed that one of its primary goals for global is making item progression smoother and reducing unnecessary daily and weekly pressure.

The actual question is not whether a global character has 5 percent where a Korean character has 8 percent.

The question is how all of these systems fit together.

A lower percentage bonus is meaningless in isolation if enemy health, base Attack, progression rates and encounter tuning have all changed alongside it.

Do Not Build Your Launch Spreadsheet Yet

Perhaps the most important lesson from all of this is patience.

The Launch Scale Test was exactly that: a test. Steam players were even told that the Playtest client would be uninstalled afterward and replaced by the separate retail client before Advance Access. We already explained that distinction in our Steam vs PURPLE guide.

The Shop, Market, trading and Membership systems were disabled. Content stopped at level 37. Entire systems may have been hidden because players could not meaningfully use them during twelve hours of disposable progression.

So if the test appears to be missing a recipe, progression board or currency source, that does not necessarily mean it has been permanently removed from global AION 2.

We need final patch notes and the September 30 retail client before treating any of these values as permanent.

AION 2 Global Is Starting to Look Like Its Own Version

What we can say with considerably more confidence is that AION 2 Global appears to be more ambitious than simply starting Korea's content calendar from the beginning.

NC had a year of live data before bringing the game West. It knows where progression accelerated too quickly, which early upgrades players wasted resources on, where dungeon requirements created unnecessary walls and which percentage bonuses eventually stacked beyond their intended value.

The Launch Scale Test suggests the studio is using that information aggressively.

Global AION 2 may start with Season 1, but it increasingly looks like a Season 1 rebuilt with hindsight.

That does not automatically make it better. We will need to see the complete economy, endgame progression and final balance before making that judgment.

But after the Launch Scale Test, one thing is becoming clear: anyone preparing for October 5 by blindly following an old Korean progression guide may be in for a few surprises.

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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 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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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 Shows Off the Abyss, Rifts and Arena Ahead of Global Launch

AION without Elyos and Asmodians finding increasingly elaborate reasons to hit each other would feel slightly wrong. NC has now given global players a much closer look at how that old faction rivalry works in AION 2, using a new 74-minute PvP Gameplay Live Showcase to demonstrate the Abyss, Rifts, Arena combat and the broader approach to player-versus-player content ahead of the global launch on October 5.

The official AION 2 PvP showcase aired on September 11 with Community Broadcaster Stella Chung and Associate Product Manager Void playing through several of the game's competitive systems. NC had promoted the broadcast specifically around Elyos versus Asmodians, the Abyss, Rifts and Arena, and the resulting stream made one thing fairly clear: PvP remains an important part of AION 2's identity, but NC is trying to give players more control over when they actually participate in it.

The Abyss Is Still Where the Gloves Come Off

The Abyss remains the most recognizably AION part of the PvP structure. It is the game's dedicated faction-war environment, where Elyos and Asmodian players can encounter each other while pursuing objectives, rewards and territory. Unlike ordinary areas of the world, where the global version will offer a PvP flag that allows players to opt in or out, the Abyss is permanently faction-versus-faction.

NC had already confirmed that distinction during its earlier global release presentation, and it is an important one. AION 2 is not turning the entire leveling experience into an open invitation for somebody ten levels higher to introduce themselves with a stun lock. Instead, players who want the dangerous version of Atreia know exactly where to find it.

The Abyss also appears designed around more than simply collecting kills. Timed objectives and faction activity give the zone a larger strategic structure, with control and participation affecting what a faction can do within the region. That makes it closer to an ongoing PvPvE war zone than a gigantic arena with particularly scenic clouds.

Rifts Bring the Enemy Faction to Your Doorstep

Rifts provide a different flavour of faction PvP. These temporary openings allow players to cross into opposing territory, bringing back one of the original AION's most memorable ideas: sometimes the enemy does not politely remain in the designated enemy zone.

NC has previously described AION 2's dimensional Rifts as timed invasions into enemy faction territory. Instead of the Abyss's permanent war environment, Rifts create shorter windows where Elyos and Asmodians can move into one another's territory and hunt, fight and generally make a normal evening of questing substantially less normal.

That distinction is important because it gives AION 2 several different scales of PvP. The Abyss is the long-term faction battlefield. Rifts create temporary invasions. Arena and Battleground content then provides more controlled competitive fights where the rules are considerably clearer and nobody can claim they were merely gathering flowers.

Arena PvP Is for Smaller, Cleaner Fights

The showcase also highlighted Arena combat, giving players a better look at the smaller-scale end of AION 2's PvP spectrum. NC has previously outlined competitive modes ranging from solo and small-group Arenas through 10v10 Battlegrounds and much larger faction conflicts, so players will not need to join a massive Abyss confrontation every time they want to test a build against another human being.

The global version's 10v10 Battleground is particularly interesting because NC has confirmed that it uses stat normalization. The mode is objective-based rather than simply being a race to generate the largest pile of defeated opponents, and normalization should reduce the extent to which raw gear progression determines the outcome.

That does not magically guarantee perfect balance. This is an MMORPG. Somewhere, somebody will discover a combination of skills that causes several thousand forum posts before breakfast. But it does suggest NC wants at least one structured PvP environment where positioning, class knowledge and teamwork matter more than simply arriving with a considerably larger number attached to your sword.

Flight Makes AION 2 PvP Look Different From Most MMOs

The part that continues to separate AION 2 visually from most modern MMORPGs is movement. Flight is not merely transport here. AION 2 has been built around unrestricted aerial movement and combat, meaning fights can shift vertically in ways that conventional ground-based MMO PvP simply cannot reproduce.

That has obvious implications for ranged classes, pursuit, escape and positioning. A cliff is not necessarily a defensive boundary when everybody involved has wings. Likewise, retreating upward may simply mean the Ranger shooting at you now has a better view.

NC has repeatedly presented this expanded flight system as one of the major differences between AION 2 and its predecessor. The world itself is dramatically larger, and PvP is clearly intended to make use of that vertical freedom rather than treating wings as a decorative mount with feathers.

AION 2 Is Not Forcing Everyone Into PvP

Perhaps the most important message for players who remember the more aggressive parts of older faction-based MMORPGs is that AION 2's global version is not being designed around constant involuntary PvP. Outside the Abyss, players will have access to a PvP toggle, allowing them to decide when they want to participate.

That fits with NC's more recent comments about balancing PvE and PvP for the global audience. AION 2 still has the Elyos-versus-Asmodians identity at its core, but the studio appears less interested in forcing every player into faction warfare simply because they happened to leave town carrying a quest marker.

For people who do want PvP, though, there is a surprisingly broad ladder of options: Arena fights, normalized 10v10 Battlegrounds, temporary Rifts, the permanent faction war of the Abyss and larger Realm-versus-Realm encounters. The structure looks less like a single PvP mode and more like an entire parallel progression path.

The Launch Scale Test Comes Next

Global players will get their next opportunity to experience AION 2 during the free Launch Scale Test beginning September 17. The test is capped at level 37 and NC has not published a complete list showing exactly which PvP activities will be accessible during those sessions, so it would be premature to assume players can immediately reproduce everything shown in the showcase.

After that, the calendar becomes very short indeed. Founder's Pack owners enter Atreia through Advanced Access on September 30, followed by the full AION 2 global launch on October 5.

The PvP showcase does not suddenly answer every balance question, nor does seventy-four minutes of controlled gameplay tell us what a live server full of thousands of inventive MMO players will eventually do to these systems. History suggests they will find something the developers did not expect within approximately seventeen minutes.

But it does make AION 2's direction much clearer. The Abyss is still dangerous. Rifts still bring the faction war home. Arenas provide the smaller fights, and the global version gives players considerably more choice about when to participate.

For an AION sequel, that feels like a sensible compromise between preserving what made the original unusual and accepting that not everybody wants to be murdered while trying to gather crafting materials.

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AION 2 Launch Scale Test Starts This Week: Dates, Times and Everything You Need to Know

For most of 2026, global AION 2 coverage has involved a familiar MMO ritual: watching another region play the game while patiently studying patch notes, balance changes and increasingly elaborate progression systems from the other side of the window. This week, that finally changes. AION 2's Launch Scale Test begins on September 17, giving global players their first major open opportunity to get into the PC version ahead of Advanced Access on September 30 and the full free-to-play launch in October.

NCSoft is making this one unusually easy to join. According to the official AION 2 Launch Scale Test announcement, the test is available through both Steam and PURPLE and is open to everyone. There are no beta keys to win, no invitation lottery and no mysterious sign-up system where somebody who registered six minutes after you somehow gets access first. If your PC can run AION 2 and the game is available in your region, this is essentially the final public dress rehearsal.

When Does the AION 2 Launch Scale Test Start?

Pre-download begins on September 16 at 15:00 CEST, giving players a full day to install the client before the first session begins.

The Launch Scale Test itself is divided into two six-hour sessions:

• September 17: 15:00 to 21:00 CEST
• September 18: 21:00 to 03:00 CEST on September 19

That gives players a maximum of 12 hours of testing. Progress from the first session carries over into the second, so characters will not reset overnight. Once the Launch Scale Test is finished, however, everything is wiped. Characters, levels, equipment and progression will not carry into Advanced Access or the full launch.

That last part is worth remembering if you are planning to treat the test like the first weekend of a new MMO. This is the time to experiment with classes, test performance, learn the opening areas and discover which keybind you immediately regret. It is probably not the time to become emotionally attached to a level 37 character whose name took longer to create than the character itself.

The Level Cap Is 37

NCSoft has set the maximum level at 37 for the Launch Scale Test, which naturally means that higher-level content will remain inaccessible. Several parts of AION 2's live economy are also deliberately disabled.

The Shop, Quna purchases, passes, memberships and payment functions will not be available. The Marketplace, Quna Exchange and direct player-to-player trading are also disabled, while Founder's Pack items cannot be used during the test. The Closet system is switched off as well, meaning characters will largely be running around in their default appearance.

That makes the Launch Scale Test quite different from the version of AION 2 that has already been operating in Asia. Earlier this year, we followed major economic changes such as AION 2's introduction of Bound Kinah, but much of that machinery is intentionally pushed into the background here. The purpose of this test is primarily to stress the global infrastructure and let players experience the game itself, rather than discover who can become Atreia's most efficient amateur accountant in twelve hours.

Steam Players Need a Separate Playtest Client

There is one practical detail worth knowing before downloading. Steam users will access the Launch Scale Test through a separate AION 2 Playtest application rather than the regular release client.

After the test ends, Steam players will therefore need to uninstall the Playtest version and download the normal AION 2 client if they intend to continue into Advanced Access or the full launch. PURPLE users will not have to perform the same additional download step.

It is hardly a catastrophe, but it is exactly the kind of small technical detail that becomes considerably more annoying when launch day arrives, everybody is trying to log in at once and your friends have already disappeared three zones ahead while you are staring at a progress bar.

AION 2's Global Launch Suddenly Feels Very Close

When we covered NCSoft confirming AION 2's global release plans earlier this year, the Western version still felt relatively distant. The Korean launch had already shown that AION 2 could attract a substantial audience, and the subsequent AION 2 roadmap revealed how quickly NCSoft intended to expand the game, but global players were still largely watching events from the sidelines.

That period is now effectively over. The Launch Scale Test is limited, all progression will eventually disappear and several important systems are disabled, but for players who have spent months wondering how AION 2 actually feels to play, September 17 is the first genuinely important global date.

It is also completely free.

AION 2's global launch is no longer some vague promise hiding somewhere later in 2026. This week, players can finally log in, spread their wings and see whether the sequel has been worth waiting for.

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