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Advance Access
October 2, 2026 at 03:21 AM
Initial version (2026-10-02)
Advance Access is the five-day head start on the global AION 2 servers for players who bought any tier of Founder's Pack. It opened on September 30, 2026 on Steam and PURPLE and runs until October 4, ahead of the free-to-play launch on October 5, 2026. NCsoft's notices call the same window both Advanced Access and Early Access. Pack tiers and prices are on Monetization and Memberships, and the wider launch calendar is on Global Launch and Platforms.
Phase | Pacific Time | UTC |
|---|---|---|
Pre-download | From September 28, 6:00 AM PDT | From September 28, 13:00 |
Advance Access | September 30, 6:00 AM PDT to October 4, 10:00 PM PDT | September 30, 13:00 to October 5, 05:00 |
Maintenance before launch | October 4, 10:00 PM PDT to October 5, 6:00 AM PDT | October 5, 05:00 to 13:00 |
Global launch | October 5, 6:00 AM PDT | October 5, 13:00 |
Last chance to buy a Founder's Pack | October 5, 8:00 AM PDT | October 5, 15:00 |
These are the times NCsoft published before the opening. It noted that the maintenance window may change.
Pre-download opened on September 28, 2026. The downloaded files were encrypted, and the client decrypted them when Advance Access began. NCsoft said decryption is not a reinstallation and that its length depends on the PC's specifications, and that players who had not pre-downloaded would download the client at the start of Advance Access at whatever speed their connection allowed. The published storage requirement is 100 GB of free space; see System Requirements.
On the morning of September 30 NCsoft delayed the opening by 30 minutes, from 6:00 AM PDT (13:00 UTC) to 6:30 AM PDT (13:30 UTC). Client decryption started on schedule, but the servers stayed in maintenance. A second official post then gave 7:00 AM PDT as the opening time with no further delay and said an additional gift was being prepared for players; NCsoft later described it as 10 Resurrection Stones.
Queues built on the original servers within hours. NCsoft responded by opening new server pairs through the day and asked players who were waiting in a queue, or joining late, to create characters on a recommended server.
Region | Elyos Server | Asmodian Server | Added (September 30, PDT) |
|---|---|---|---|
Europe | Yustiel | Marchutan | 7:40 AM |
Europe | Ariel | Azphel | 8:20 AM |
Europe | Fregion | Ereshkigal | 9:18 AM |
NA East | Vaizel | Triniel | 2:50 PM |
Europe | Meslamtaeda | Beritra | 4:10 PM |
NA West | Nezekan | Zikel | 5:08 PM |
The full lineup, including the servers that were open from the start, is on Servers and Regions.
When | What Happened |
|---|---|
September 30, 11:00 PM PDT (October 1, 08:00 CEST) | Maintenance scheduled for an hour and a half on all services, with login unavailable. It addressed a bottleneck when interacting with objects in Hero Quests in Northern Tolbas Forest, Eastern Tolbas Forest and Altamia Highland for the Elyos, and in Basfelt Ruins, Purifying Forest, Fafnite Deposit and Impetusium Square for the Asmodians. NCsoft announced the servers were back online at 12:22 AM PDT on October 1 and said compensation would arrive by mail later that day. |
October 1, 4:32 AM PDT | A fix with no downtime for players whose Early Access status was not recognised at login, and for problems with in-game purchases. It applies the next time the client is restarted. NCsoft said it was still investigating account-linking problems. |
Support answers for other launch problems, including the Steam account-linking error and payment verification failures, are collected on Known Issues.
Gift | Contents | How to Get It |
|---|---|---|
Thank-you coupon | Odyle Energy (Bound) x4, Resurrection Spiritstone (Bound) x5, Battle Enhance Scroll (Bound) x10 | Code TAKEFLIGHTAION2, one redemption per account, from October 1 after maintenance until October 13, 11:00 PM PDT (North America) or October 14, 08:00 CEST (Europe). See Coupon Codes. |
Appreciation gift | Battle Enhancement Scroll (Engraved) x5 | In-game mail, claimable until the end of Advance Access |
Opening delay gift | 10 Resurrection Stones | Announced on September 30 for all players |
Maintenance compensation | Not itemised in the notice | In-game mail on October 1 |
On September 30 NCsoft said AION 2 was No. 1 on Steam's Global Top Sellers chart and No. 1 in several individual countries, including the United States, Germany, France and Brazil. Steam wishlists had passed 1.3 million before the opening, and the game reached a reported first-day peak of about 171,500 concurrent players on Steam, a count that leaves out PURPLE players.
As of October 2, 2026 the Steam store rated user reviews Mostly Positive: about 77 percent of 3,639 reviews across all languages were positive, and 75 percent of 1,828 English-language reviews. The most-upvoted negative review at that point, and several others among the most helpful, objected to paid items, including Founder's Pack rewards and the Membership, being tied to one character or one server rather than to the whole account.
Advance Access characters carry on after launch. The Advance Access servers stay open alongside the launch servers, and once transfers open on October 14, 2026 their characters can move only to other Advance Access servers, not to the launch servers.
Founder's Pack items that are not claimed during Advance Access can still be claimed afterwards on any server through a dedicated claim button.
Progress from the Korean or Taiwanese service does not carry over to the global version.
The Transcendence Dungeon Leaderboard started on the Advance Access servers on September 30, five days before it opens on the launch servers, and the War for Atreia creator event began the same day. Viewer rewards for watching AION 2 livestreams run for the whole Advance Access window. See Launch Events.
