Anyone who purchases a founder’s pack for Aion 2 can start in Early Access 5 days before the global launch. MeinMMO summarizes what this brings and how Early Access works.
Is there Early Access for Aion 2? Yes, there is. Anyone who purchases a founder’s pack for Aion 2 receives, in addition to some cosmetic items and consumables, access to the new MMORPG from NCSoft 5 days earlier. All free-to-play players who do not invest in a founder’s pack must wait until the global launch.
How much does a founder’s pack cost? There are 3 different founder’s packs:
- The Standard Edition is available for 21.25 euros and includes five days of Early Access, a “Daeva’s Campaign Supply Chest” and the unique title “Vanguard of Atreia”.
- The Deluxe Edition is available for 42.49 euros and includes all contents of the Standard Edition as well as the armor skins “Ascended Daeva” and the weapon skin “Eternal Sun”.
- The Ultimate Edition is available for 84.99 euros and includes all contents of the Deluxe Edition as well as the “Daeva’s Styling Chest”, the armor skin “Moonlit Aria”, the pet “Black Dragon” and the wings “Blazing Sun”.
Anyone interested can purchase only one founder’s version per account. All founder’s packs are also supposed to include a 30-day subscription. The skins from the founder’s packs are not supposed to appear in the shop later, unlike in Korea.
When does Early Access start? The Early Access starts on September 30. There is no exact start time yet.
Early Access of Aion 2: Early Access Servers, Matchmaking and Market
Which servers will Aion 2 receive? For Early Access, the developers will offer their own Early Access servers. Only players with a founder’s pack will have access to these worlds. At the official launch, a second wave of launch servers is to follow.
Free-to-play players who want to start only at the global launch can freely choose between the Early Access and launch servers. However, if a server reaches a certain population density, the developers may restrict the creation of new characters there.
Are server transfers possible? The developers want to wait first for the Early Access and launch phases and then evaluate in what form server transfers may be necessary. They want to prevent players who are already significantly further along from negatively impacting the experience of other players.
How does matchmaking work? Here the developers distinguish between PvE dungeons and PvP in the Abyss.
- The so-called “Dungeon Party Matching” brings together players from all active servers in a region (for us: Europe). During Early Access, this will only be the Early Access servers. From the global launch onwards, players with founder’s packs will then also encounter free-to-play players in the dungeons.
- If you and your friends are playing on different servers, you can still add each other to your friends list and register together as a group for a dungeon.
- During PvP in the Abyss during Early Access, players from all Early Access servers will face each other. After the global launch, the system should consistently match similarly strong servers in the Abyss.
Note that the two rival factions Elyos and Asmodian each have their own servers. In the open world, you will always only encounter characters from your faction.
How does the market work? Aion 2 is supposed to have two different markets through which you can trade with other players:
- Server Market: Here you trade with players from your server. This market is already available during Early Access and trades are done using the currency Kina. However, you can also obtain Kina through the real-money premium currency Quna.
- Cross-Server Market: Here, players from all servers in a region (for us: Europe) come together to buy or sell. This market is neither available during Early Access nor directly at launch, but is supposed to open at a later time. This way, the developers want to ensure that players with Early Access do not negatively affect the economy of the launch servers.
Be aware that trading via the market will only be possible if you invest in the optional monthly subscription for Aion 2.
So how significant is the advantage from founder’s packs? It is clear that you can gain a substantial lead in the 5 days of Early Access phase. In most areas, however, this is likely to have little or no impact.
At least if the matchmaking in PvP works as described and players from the launch servers indeed will only encounter opponents who also did not have Early Access for now. The same applies to the Cross-Server Market: The later it goes live, the less relevant the 5 days of advance for the founder’s pack owners will be.
Currently, we only see potential for trouble in the dungeons, where all players from a region meet from the very beginning. While it is about cooperation, Aion 2 would not be the first MMORPG where less experienced or poorly equipped players are kicked from the group because they do not meet the excessively high demands of certain players.
However, even there, the 5 days of advance from Early Access will likely play a less significant role the longer Aion 2 is live.
With the subscription integration confirmed in August and the confirmed exclusivity of the skins, the founder’s packs now appear more valuable than at the time of the first announcement. You can find out more about this here:
How do you assess the Early Access of Aion 2 and the decisions made by NCSoft regarding markets, matchmaking and server transfers? Feel free to let us know in the comments! It is also already clear how the free-to-play payment model of the MMORPG is supposed to work in detail: Aion 2 reveals what it wants your money for, and you won’t like it
Your opinion is important to us!
Do you like the article? Then let us know!