Aion 2 EU/NA Release: Everything We Know (Launch Week)

Aion 2 opened in Europe and North America on September 30, 2026 (advanced access) and October 5 (free-to-play). This page collects what NCSOFT confirmed for the launch, what the EU client itself tells us, and what was still unannounced, with sources. Its launch schedule was last checked on October 1, 2026.

The short version

Sources: the AION 2 Steam store page (release date October 5, 2026, free to play, Windows, supported languages) and NCSOFT's official announcements on the AION 2 Steam news hub: "Advanced Access Servers" (September 29, 2026), "Pre-download Available Now" (September 28), "Steam Pre-release FAQ" (September 16), "Founder's Pack Content Showcase" (July 22) and "Announcing AION 2's Global Release" (April 21). The official site is aion2.plaync.com.

Launch times in your time zone

Both launch moments were announced for 13:00 UTC (06:00 PDT). Advanced access then opened an hour late, at 14:00 UTC (07:00 PDT, NCSOFT's "Early Access Start Time" notice); the free-to-play launch was announced for 13:00 UTC on October 5. Every zone below is on summer time on both dates:

The launch hub counts down to both moments in your browser's own time zone.

The launch schedule, step by step

NCSOFT's "Advanced Access Servers" announcement gives the full sequence:

1. Advanced access: September 30 at 14:00 UTC (announced for 13:00) until October 5 at 05:00 UTC (October 4, 22:00 PDT). Only Founder's Pack owners can play.
2. Maintenance: October 5, 05:00 to 13:00 UTC. NCSOFT notes that maintenance times can change and asks players to follow its social channels.
3. Global launch: October 5 at 13:00 UTC, free-to-play for everyone.

Pre-download opened on September 28, and the client decrypted the downloaded files when advanced access opened on September 30 (no reinstall). Steam players who took part in the September Launch Scale Test must uninstall the Playtest app and install AION 2 separately. PURPLE players don't need to do anything.

Editions: free-to-play or Founder's Pack

AION 2 is free-to-play, and a Founder's Pack is not required to play from October 5. The three Founder's Packs sold on Steam and PURPLE mainly buy the five-day head start plus cosmetics:

The 30-day membership was added to every pack on August 21. NCSOFT lists these perks: remote storage, personal trading, the Wind Breeze Merchants, a higher Odyle Energy cap, Market access, the Quna Exchange Shop, and more Odyle Energy Cube selections in Expedition, Transcendence and Sanctuary.

Platform and store

The global version is PC only. NCSOFT's Steam FAQ says it "is currently being developed exclusively for PC platforms", and the Steam page lists Windows only. You can play through Steam or NC's PURPLE launcher.

NCSOFT's Launch FAQ (September 30) settles the platform questions:

• Controllers: the game is playable with a controller, but controllers are not officially supported.
• Linux and Steam Deck: not supported. The game may run there, but NCSOFT only supports Steam and PURPLE on Windows PC.
• Steam and PURPLE have the same content and share the same servers. You don't need to link a PURPLE account to play on Steam; link them only to use the same characters on both.
• No carry-over: progress from the Taiwan or Korean version does not move to the global version.

Two setup notes from NCSOFT's notices: players in Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore and Thailand must set PURPLE's region to "Global" to see AION 2 (PURPLE region notice). And on laptops with an RTX 50-series GPU, DLSS Frame Generation can crash the game: NCSOFT's Japanese notice (not on the English board) says to set V-Sync to On in the NVIDIA Control Panel and, where the game still crashes with G-SYNC on, to turn G-SYNC off.

Regions and servers

Each server hosts one faction only. When you start the game you pick a region, then a faction, then a server. Every Elyos server is paired with an Asmodian server, and the two sides meet in shared PvP content such as Spacetime Rifts and the Abyss. NCSOFT says it will change the pairings from time to time to keep the factions balanced.

The advanced-access lineup on October 1 (Elyos server / Asmodian server), with the six pairs NCSOFT added on launch day as queues grew ("Advanced Access: New Servers Opening!", Steam news):

Asia: NCSOFT's English notices list one pair, while its Japanese server notice (corrected on September 30) lists all three; it gives no opening time for the second and third pair. That makes 36 servers in five regions.

The launch hub and the server list always show the current lineup. Server transfers start on October 14: free at first, between servers of the same faction, and characters on advanced-access servers can only move to other advanced-access servers (NCSOFT, "Information on Server Transfer").

Not announced yet:

• Server clocks and time zones. NCSOFT has not said which time zone the EU and NA servers use for resets, bosses and events. Our event timer assumes regional local time and labels every time as provisional until we can confirm it on the live servers.
• The launch-day servers. The table above is the advanced-access lineup; NCSOFT has not named the servers that open on October 5.
• Region locks and transfers between regions. The October 14 transfers are announced within a faction; NCSOFT has not said whether they cross regions.

Game languages

The Steam page and NCSOFT's FAQ list eight languages: English, French, German, Spanish (Spain), Portuguese (Brazil), Russian, Japanese and Korean. English, Japanese and Korean have full voice acting. The EU client we extract matches this: it ships text in exactly these eight locales (en-US, fr-FR, de-DE, es-ES, pt-BR, ru-RU, ja-JP, ko-KR).

Aion2.gg shows game text in six of them (English, French, German, Spanish, Brazilian Portuguese and Russian), always taken from the client's own translation.

Classes and races

These come straight from the EU client's character data. There are two playable races, the Elyos and the Asmodians. The eight launch classes are available to both races and to both body types. The Brawler is in the client files but not in the EU/NA release: it comes later (every one of the 35 skills in its skill list still has a "???" placeholder name).

For playstyles and help choosing, see the Aion 2 class overview or try the class finder.

The setting, from NCSOFT's global announcement: AION 2 takes place 200 years after the original game. The Tower of Eternity has fallen, and the Daevas, whose power is fading, are fighting to survive under the Balaur.

What Aion2.gg offers at launch

• Launch hub: countdowns to both launch moments, plus launch-week Spacetime Rift, Shugo Festival, Artifact Siege, field boss and reset times, shown on your region's clock.
• Database: items, skills, NPCs and monsters, quests, dungeons with drop rates, recipes, Daevanion boards and more. All of it is extracted from the EU client, not typed in by hand.
• Interactive map: every zone drawn from the client's own map images, with spawn, gathering and point-of-interest markers.
• Event timer: a chime before every event, a calendar feed you can subscribe to and an OBS overlay.
• Character creator: try out looks before the character-name rush.
• Rankings: EU and NA show "Not live yet" until NCSOFT publishes the official EU/NA character and ranking pages after launch. They switch on automatically when that happens. Taiwan and Korea boards are available now.

How to prepare for October 5

1. Pick a class. All eight launch classes are open to both factions, so picking a faction is about friends and taste, not class access. Start with our class overview.
2. Pick a region and a server pair with your friends. Each server hosts only one faction, so agree on the faction too.
3. Install now (Steam or PURPLE), so the free-to-play launch is just a login once the maintenance ends.
4. Learn the systems: gear grades and enhancing, Soul Binding and Daevanion boards.
5. Scout the route: the leveling guides and the Beginner's Guide walk through the starter zones, and the interactive map shows every zone.

Last checked against official sources: October 1, 2026. We update this page as NCSOFT confirms more.