AION 2 Guide
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About

How to download AION 2 on Steam or PURPLE

AION 2 is a free download on Steam or on NC’s PURPLE launcher, and it needs 100 GB of free space, ideally on an SSD. Founder’s Pack owners can pre-download it for Early Access from 6:00 AM PDT on 28 September; the clock below converts that moment to your own time zone.

Pre-download time shown in UTC; the other two are the days NC has published, with no hour yet

  1. Early Access pre-downloadMonday, September 28 at 1:00 PM UTC 6:00 AM Pacific in NC’s own post. Steam playtest installs have to be removed first.
  2. Early AccessWednesday, September 30 to October 4 Founder’s Pack owners only. NC has not announced the opening hour.
  3. Free-to-play launchMonday, October 5 Everyone, no purchase needed. The hour is not out yet.

On Steam

  1. Remove the playtest if you have it. The Launch Scale Test ran as a separate Steam app called AION 2 Playtest. NC asks Steam players to uninstall it and download AION 2 itself for Early Access. Nothing from the test carries over anyway: every character was wiped at the end of it.
  2. Open the AION 2 store page. Search Steam for AION 2 or go to the store page. The game itself is listed as free to play. The Early Access pre-download is for pack owners, so the Founder’s Pack needs to be on the same Steam account.
  3. Choose a drive with 100 GB free. Steam lists 100 GB for both the minimum and the recommended setup and recommends an SSD for both.
  4. Wait for your day. Pack owners play from 30 September, everyone else from 5 October. NC has not given the opening hour for either day, and has not said whether players without a pack can pre-load before 5 October.

On PURPLE

  1. Get the launcher. Download PURPLE from NC’s download page and install it.
  2. Sign in. Use an NC account, or the Steam login option if you want the same character reachable from Steam later. If sign-in stops with an account conflict, you have an NC account and a PLAYNC account on the same email address, and the fix is to change the email on the NC account.
  3. Install AION 2 from PURPLE. Plan for the same 100 GB. If you played the Launch Scale Test through PURPLE, NC says no further steps are needed.

Unsure which of the two to use? The main lasting difference is where purchases work, set out on Steam or PURPLE.

If the game will not start

If it closes with a Block Code pop-up, note the code: NC’s support site has a Block Code page listing each one with the setting to check. Before that, make sure the PC clears the minimum on system requirements: 64-bit Windows 10 or 11, DirectX 12 and a graphics card with at least 4 GB. Steam offers a Windows build only.

Where the download will not help

NC blocks both play and payment in 18 countries and territories, among them the Republic of Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong, mainland China, Russia, Belarus, Belgium and the Netherlands. The full list is on the platforms page. Everywhere else, the day you can log in depends on owning a pack or not; the release date page has both days side by side.