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.

Times shown in UTC

  1. Early AccessWednesday, September 30 at 2:00 PM UTC Founder’s Pack owners only. Opened an hour later than planned, after two delays.
  2. Early Access ends, maintenanceMonday, October 5 at 5:00 AM UTC Servers close until launch. Maintenance times can still move.
  3. Free-to-play launchMonday, October 5 at 1:00 PM UTC Everyone, no purchase needed.

On Steam

  1. Remove the playtest if you have it. The Launch Scale Test ran as a separate Steam app called AION 2 Playtest. 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. Both the minimum and the recommended setup need 100 GB, and an SSD is recommended for both.
  4. Wait for your day. Pack owners have played since 30 September; everyone else starts at 6:00 AM PDT (13:00 UTC) on 5 October. The pre-download is open to all players, pack or not, so you can install before then.

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, 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 and look it up on the Block Code page of NC’s support site, which gives the setting to check for each one. 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. There is a Windows build only. For account or sign-in errors, see account problems; a greyed-out Play button, a slow decrypt or a crash at start are on errors and fixes.

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.