The wait is over. At 1 PM UTC on Monday, October 5, AION 2 opens its doors to everyone, free to play, on PC. Founder's Pack buyers have already spent five days testing the servers' patience; now the rest of the audience arrives all at once, and the question changes from "when does it open?" to "where do I start?".

This is the day-one roadmap: how to get in, what to expect from the launch after what happened in early access, which server to choose and how to make the most of your first hours. Price, PC requirements and languages are already covered in our launch story, so here we focus on what changes for anyone playing today.

Silhouette of a gothic castle under an orange sky in AION 2
The world of Atreia opens to every player at 1 PM UTC.

How to get into AION 2 right now

  • Where to download: through Steam or PURPLE, NC's own launcher. Players on either one land in the same world.
  • Price: nothing. The base game is free to play, with an optional store and subscription.
  • Platform: PC only, with no console version at launch.
  • Time: 1 PM UTC, which is 6 AM on the US West Coast, 9 AM on the East Coast and 3 PM in Central Europe.
  • Language: text in Brazilian Portuguese and seven other languages on Steam, with full audio in English, Japanese and Korean.
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If you have not downloaded it yet, start now: the client is around 100 GB, and on opening day the download itself can run slower than usual. If you played the early access, all you need to do is open the game, because characters created since September 30 carry over.

What to expect from launch after the early access

The early access did not start smoothly. The opening was scheduled for 1 PM UTC, pushed to 1:30 PM and then to 2 PM, and the delay drew a wave of negative player reviews before many people could even log in. Once service stabilized, the game climbed to the top of Steam's best-sellers and passed 171,000 concurrent players.

That track record carries two lessons. The first is that the demand is real: AION 2 has been live in South Korea and Taiwan since November 2025, and Western players responded quickly. The second is that the free launch is a much bigger test than early access, because now people who paid nothing join in too. Go in with a classic MMORPG launch-day mindset: queues, the occasional disconnect and some patience. If the game stumbles in the first hours, the problem is very unlikely to be your PC.

A party of adventurers fighting feathered creatures on a wooden platform in AION 2

Which server to pick

NC has confirmed five regions for the global launch: North America West, North America East, South America, Central Europe and Japan. Pick the region closest to you for the lowest ping. There is no region lock, so you can join another region if your friends are there, knowing latency will go up.

Within your region, steer clear of the most crowded servers. NC is asking players to choose the recommended servers, and the reason is practical: server transfers only arrive on October 14, so creating a character on a packed server today could keep you stuck there for more than a week.

Early access players are on separate servers, but according to NC, from October 5 those servers will share queues with the launch servers. In practice, people who arrived early and people arriving now will end up mixed together.

Your first steps with a character

Every account starts with four character slots, and it pays to use them. The customization screen is detailed, with face, hair, voice and color options, and creating a second character to try another class costs very little. What is not worth doing is spending hours on looks before you know whether you enjoy playing that class.

AION 2 character customization screen with hair and color options
Every account starts with four character slots, plenty of room to test classes.

The most important day-one decision is your class. Our AION 2 class guide compares the 8 launch classes and points to the best fit for each kind of player, from beginners who want something easy to learn to those who prefer a support role in a party. If you are playing with friends, agree on region, server and classes before creating your character, because changing later is a hassle.

One more tip for the start: explore. Flight is the signature of the AION series, and NC is betting on it to win over Western PC players. Even in the first hours, it is worth taking to the skies and learning the map instead of only following the quest list.

A character swimming through a submerged cave lit by colorful plants in AION 2

Can my PC run it?

A summary of the official Steam requirements: the minimum calls for a Ryzen 5 2600 or Core i5-10500, 8 GB of RAM and a GTX 1050 Ti; the recommended spec calls for a Ryzen 7 3700X or Core i7-11700, 16 GB of RAM and an RTX 2070. Storage is 100 GB, with an SSD recommended. The full table and NC's note on graphics quality for each configuration are in the launch story.

Our take

AION 2 offers a rare combination for a Western MMORPG today: it is free, it has a South America server, it supports Portuguese text, it lets you play with friends on a different launcher and it does not lock you into a region. That alone removes most of the excuses for anyone who wanted to try it.

What is still open is what always decides an MMORPG: server stability after the first week, class balance and how the store behaves. Today tells you how many people show up; week two tells you how many stay. If you want to try it with no strings attached, now is the time, and the window before WoW Forever arrives on November 4 is a long one.

Frequently asked questions

What time does AION 2 open? At 1 PM UTC on October 5, 2026, which is 6 AM PDT, 9 AM EDT and 3 PM CEST.

Is AION 2 free? Yes. The base game is free to play, with an optional store and subscription. Founder's Packs were only for players who wanted to get in early.

Which server should I choose? The region closest to you, preferably a server marked as recommended, to avoid long queues.

Can I switch servers later? Server transfers are planned for October 14.

Do early access players lose their characters? No. Characters created since September 30 carry over, on their own servers that now share queues with the launch servers.

Does AION 2 come to consoles? Not at launch. It is PC only, through Steam and PURPLE.