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Monetization and Memberships
July 22, 2026 at 03:16 AM
Added the published global business model: $15 monthly Membership, Kina and Quna currencies, the Market and Exchange, in-game shop policy, Daeva Passes, and Founder's Packs with five-day Early Access. Corrected the market currency name from Kinah to Kina.
AION 2 is free-to-play. The game is free to download and play to endgame, with optional paid layers built around memberships, a premium currency, and cosmetic purchases. The model described here reflects the Korean and Taiwanese live build; NCsoft published the global business model on July 8, 2026; the section below covers it. A few details, most notably the Founder's Pack lineup, are still to come.
Every class, faction, region, and the core progression systems are available without paying. The cash shop on the live build is positioned as cosmetic and convenience focused rather than a power store, and NCsoft has framed the global model as a lighter-touch version of its other recent free-to-play release. Korean-build prices below are Korean-build reference points and are separate from the global pricing published on July 8, 2026.
Through mid-June 2026 the live build offered two optional monthly memberships that could be purchased together or separately, covering different benefit categories. The June 17, 2026 update folded that structure into a single membership (see the Kwairing Express Membership section below). The two-tier layout below describes how the system worked before that change:
Membership | Focus |
|---|---|
Convenience Membership | Quality-of-life perks that smooth the day-to-day grind, such as expanded conveniences and time-savers |
Content Membership | Access-oriented perks tied to content throughput and reward cadence |
On the Korean build the two memberships have been sold as a bundle. The exact bundle price and the split of benefits between the two tiers are live-build values; check the official store for the current global terms once they are published.
Quna is the premium currency. It is bought with real money and spent on cosmetics, battle passes, and shop items. On the live build, Quna can also be exchanged for the in-game gold currency, Kina, through an in-game exchange. That Quna-to-Kina conversion is the part of the model that has driven the most player discussion, because it links real-money spending to the in-game economy. Whether the global launch keeps the same exchange and at what rate is part of the not-yet-finalized Western terms.
Currency | Type | Use |
|---|---|---|
Quna | Premium (real money) | Cosmetics, battle passes, shop items; exchangeable for Kina on the live build |
Kina | In-game gold | Crafting, repairs, trading, and most in-game transactions |
The live build runs cosmetic battle passes on a recurring cycle of roughly two months each. Passes are purchased with Quna and reward cosmetic items along a track that fills as you play. They are cosmetic-focused rather than a source of combat power, and they run alongside the cash shop rather than replacing it.
The cash shop sells cosmetic outfits, appearance items, and convenience goods for Quna. NCsoft's framing for the live build positions it away from loot-box-style randomized power and toward direct cosmetic and convenience purchases. As with the rest of the model, the precise global catalog and pricing are being adjusted for Western markets.
On July 8, 2026 NCsoft published the business model for the global release. The headline is that AION 2 stays free to play with no purchase required, and the paid layers sit around a monthly Membership, a premium currency, per-character passes, and pre-launch Founder's Packs. NCsoft noted that some areas may still change as launch preparation continues.
The global build runs two currencies, and they are easy to confuse because the names are close.
Currency | How You Get It | What It Buys |
|---|---|---|
Kina | Earned through gameplay, or bought from other players with Quna through the Exchange | Trading on the Market; the currency the player-driven economy runs on |
Quna | Bought with real money, or acquired from other players through the Exchange | In-game shop items, the premium Battle Pass track, and anything else priced in Quna |
The Market is the centre of the player-driven economy. Players list and buy items in Kina, and prices are set by players rather than by fixed vendor rates. The Kina and Quna Exchange sits alongside it: one player lists Kina for sale, another spends Quna to buy it, and every trade happens between players. The game itself never lists or purchases on the Exchange. Quna picked up through the Exchange spends exactly like purchased Quna on any item or pass sold for it.
An active Membership is required to trade on the Market.
Membership is a monthly subscription priced at $15 per month. It unlocks the Market and the Kina and Quna Exchange, adds gameplay benefits for members, and opens a members-only shop where extra purchases can be made with Kina. It is optional in the sense that the game is playable without it, but it is the gate on player-to-player trading.
Category | Contents | Stated Policy |
|---|---|---|
Cosmetics | Outfits, wings, pets, weapon skins, accessories | Purely aesthetic; sold cosmetics give no gameplay or combat advantage |
Consumables | Potions, resurrection stones, and similar combat aids | Can assist during combat but do not affect gear progression or long-term power, and the same consumables are earnable through regular gameplay |
The battle passes are called Daeva Passes and are sold per character rather than per account. Each pass mixes cosmetics, items, upgrade materials, and other in-game currencies across its track. The Standard Track is available to every player and fills as you engage with content across the world. The Premium Track is optional, bought with Quna, and layers bonus rewards on top of the same progress. Quna earned through the Exchange can be used to buy it.
Ahead of launch NCsoft will sell Founder's Packs in more than one tier. Every tier includes a selection of cosmetics, consumables to speed up the early game, and five days of Early Access before the global launch. Early Access servers run separate Markets and separate PvP matching for the duration of that window, so the head-start population cannot flood the launch-day economy. Pack names, contents, and prices had not been published at the time of writing.
How the servers themselves are structured during and after that window is covered on Global Launch and Platforms.
In its Q1 2026 earnings disclosure, NCsoft broke down where AION 2's KR and TW revenue came from across the first full quarter the game was live. The disclosed mix was roughly a quarter from memberships, a quarter from cosmetic skins, and the remaining half from the Quna premium currency, with a meaningful share of the Quna spend converting onward into in-game item purchases. The disclosure also confirmed that AION 2 generated several hundred billion Korean won in revenue across the first full quarter on the KR and TW live build. These are KR and TW live-build figures specific to the period through Q1 2026; the global launch's monetization structure is still being tuned, so the same split should not be assumed for the Western release.
Confirmed for global: free to play with no purchase required; a $15 per month Membership that gates Market trading; the Kina and Quna currencies; a player-to-player Kina and Quna Exchange; per-character Daeva Passes with a free Standard Track and a Quna Premium Track; a cosmetics-and-consumables shop; and Founder's Packs carrying five days of Early Access.
Still pending for global: the Founder's Pack tiers, their contents and their prices; the Quna price points and pack sizes; and the exact Membership benefit list beyond Market and Exchange access.
Korean and Taiwanese build only: the Kwairing Express Membership and its won pricing, the collaboration cosmetics, and any mobile-specific store behaviour. The global release is PC only.
At the June 17, 2026 maintenance on the Korean and Taiwanese build, the separate memberships were retired and consolidated into a single membership called the Kwairing Express Membership. The three previously sold memberships, the Shugo Express Membership, the Sand Breeze Membership, and the Chengarung Membership, ended sales, and the Shugo Express benefits carried over into the new Kwairing Express tier. On the Korean build the unified membership is priced at 25,000 won, down from the 45,000 won of the former Shugo Express tier. Treat that figure as a Korean-build reference point rather than a confirmed global price, since the global terms are still being tuned for Western markets.
The same June 17, 2026 maintenance added a cosmetic collaboration with the K-pop group fromis_9 on the Korean and Taiwanese build. The collaboration adds themed costumes, weapons, a pet, and wings, plus performance emotes; wearing the full themed set changes the character's appearance to match the collaboration. Dedicated performance stages went up in Verteron and Altgard, where a player holding the collaboration performance emote can start a stage show that up to five characters join, complete with stage effects and music. A tie-in event, The Stolen Performance Props, runs alongside the collaboration through the August 12, 2026 maintenance. These are cosmetic items consistent with the cash-shop model described above, not power purchases. As with the rest of the monetization model, whether this collaboration reaches the global build is not confirmed.
AION 2 Overview
