AION 2 has only been out for about a month, and it is already one of the biggest games on Steam. NCSOFT’s free-to-play MMORPG launched worldwide on October 5, 2026, and in its first full week it sat at number three on Steam’s top sellers, right behind Phantom Blade Zero and Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4. If you are one of the new arrivals in Atreia, this AION 2 beginner’s guide will save you from the mistakes most people make in their first week.
The short version: pick your faction with your friends, pick a forgiving class, follow the gold main quest, and do not burn your resources on gear you will replace tomorrow. Here is why.
What Is AION 2?
AION 2 is the sequel to NCSOFT’s classic MMO, rebuilt on Unreal Engine 5, with a world the studio says is 36 times larger than the original AION. The big hook is still aerial combat: your character earns wings early on, and flying is part of how fights work, not just a way to travel. The game is free to play on PC through Steam and NCSOFT’s PURPLE launcher, and both share the same servers. There is no console version yet. The Steam listing asks for 100 GB of free space and recommends an SSD. An optional membership and Battle Pass exist, but no class is locked behind payment.
Elyos or Asmodian: Which Faction Should You Pick?
This is the first decision the game asks you to make, and it is the one you cannot easily undo. You play as either Elyos or Asmodian, and there is currently no way to switch factions later. Each server hosts only one faction, and each side has its own starting areas and quest routes. All eight classes are available to both factions, so your faction choice does not limit what you can play. It limits who you play with.
So if you want to play with friends, agree on a faction and a server before anyone creates a character. Anyone who ends up on the other side levels in different areas and will face you as an enemy in the Abyss later on. You get four character slots per server at launch, so you can experiment with classes, but not with factions. Full servers sometimes lock character creation for a while, so if your friends’ server is locked, wait rather than starting somewhere else. Server transfers opened on October 14 and are free within the same region and faction.
What Is the Best Class for Beginners in AION 2?
AION 2 launched with eight classes: Templar, Gladiator, Assassin, Ranger, Sorcerer, Spiritmaster, Cleric and Chanter. Your class is tied to your character, and there is currently no free class-change option, so this choice deserves a minute of thought. Deleting a character and starting over takes 24 hours, which makes a wrong pick cheap to fix early but annoying later.
If you are new to MMORPGs or mostly play solo, the Gladiator is the safest first main. It is the most common beginner recommendation across guide sites, including Game8 and Destructoid: it wears heavy armour, hits hard with a two-handed greatsword, and heals itself off its own attacks. Its rotation is short, and it forgives the positioning mistakes that would kill a cloth-wearing class. It is also rated S tier for solo farming.
The Templar is the game’s only dedicated tank, carrying a longsword and shield. It kills slowly on its own, but it is extremely hard to kill, and groups always want one, which means short dungeon queues. The Cleric is the healer, with self-healing and shields that make it very hard to die solo, plus a resurrection that makes it welcome in every group. Its damage is low, so leveling feels slower, but you will rarely wait long for a party. The Ranger fights from up to 20 metres away, which is comfortable, but it leans on gear more than the melee classes. The Chanter mixes melee, buffs and light healing, while the Spiritmaster lets its elemental spirits tank for you, though managing four spirits takes practice.
Leave the Assassin and the Sorcerer for a second character. The Assassin is the most technical class in the game and is sensitive to ping, while the Sorcerer is fragile and lives or dies on landing its burst. The honest advice from nearly every guide is the same: ignore tier lists for your first character. Class gaps while leveling are small, and balance shifts with patches. Pick the playstyle you will enjoy for a hundred hours.
How Do You Level Up Fast in AION 2?
The level cap at launch is 45, and the fastest route there is simpler than most new players expect: follow the gold-marked main quest and do not get distracted. The main questline pays for roughly 97 to 99 percent of the experience you need to reach level 45, so grinding monsters is almost never the right use of your time. One guide writer reached level 30 in about twelve hours at a relaxed pace just by following the main quest.
- Use auto-navigation. Click a quest in your log and your character runs to the objective on its own. Quests in your tracker have shortcuts from Alt+1 through Alt+9.
- Pick up Regional Missions from level 12. The main quest alone sometimes leaves a small experience gap before your second Ascension, and Regional Missions along your route fill it without a detour.
- Save Sealed Dungeons and Strongholds for level 45. This content scales with your level, and the rewards are better at the cap. Run them early only if you genuinely need the experience for your next step.
- Do not interrupt leveling for every hourly event. The Shugo Festival runs mini-games every hour. Fun, but a trap for your momentum.
Change These Settings Before Your First Quest
Before you accept your first quest, spend two minutes in the settings menu. Combat, Auto Use: AION 2 automatically uses Life Potions when you fall below 70 percent HP by default, so adjust that threshold to suit your class and keep potions in your bag. Combat, Looting: this decides which item rarities you pick up with the loot key, so set it sensibly and low-value junk will stop clogging up your Cube, which is what AION 2 calls its inventory. Graphics, Teleport Effect Color: teleporting flashes bright by default, so switch it to Dark if you dislike the glare. HUD Edit lets you rearrange the interface, scale the UI and change chat font size. It is a small job, but it makes the game feel much better.
Gear, Enhancement and Odyle Energy: Do Not Waste Your Resources
Gear enhancement unlocks at level 9, and the beginner rule is simple: while you are leveling, you replace gear constantly, so do not pour everything into one piece. Raise several pieces by one level each rather than pushing a single temporary item up several levels. When a piece is replaced, dismantle it instead of throwing it away. You will need the fragments later. Belts and amulets are the exception: pieces like the Noble Belt, the Revelation Amulet and the Fierce Battle Amulet stay useful for a long time, and once you enhance one to +10 you can use Substance Morph to upgrade it to the next grade, which worked with a 100 percent success rate in testing.
Then there is Odyle Energy, the resource new players waste most. Your first group content comes as Expeditions, dungeons for up to five players. Krao Cave opens at level 20 and needs an item level of 200, and claiming the reward Cube at the end costs 20 Odyle Energy. Higher Expeditions cost 30 to 40. Odyle Energy regenerates over time, but it is limited, so do not burn it all on beginner dungeons whose gear you will replace within a day. Keep a healthy reserve for level 45 content. Weekly clears matter too: in Krao Cave, the first six clears of the week pay full Kina, clears seven to thirteen pay 60 percent, fourteen to twenty pay 20 percent, and after that you get nothing.
What Unlocks at Each Level?
AION 2 drip-feeds its systems. Wings arrive at level 5 with your first Ascension, which is when flying properly opens up. Stigma, the system that lets you customise your build with extra skills, unlocks at level 22 with your second Ascension. In between: Skills at 4, Titles at 7, Gear Enhancement at 9, Pets, Gathering and Crafting at 10, Regional Missions at 12, Daevanion, Sealed Dungeons and Strongholds at 13, Legions at 16, the Urugugu Canyon Expedition at 30, your third Ascension at 32, the Fire Temple Expedition at 37, and at 45 your fourth Ascension plus the Abyss, Arena, Battlefield, Sanctuary, Spacetime Rifts and Nightmare dungeons. The Abyss needs an item level of 1,000 on top of level 45. Pets are worth collecting from level 10: they grant an Owned Effect, so you get the stats simply for unlocking them, and you can even ride them. Just do not grind them while leveling. Wings earned through gameplay also give you stats, while shop wings are cosmetic only.
What Awaits You at Level 45?
Reaching the cap is when AION 2 really opens up. The Abyss is the centrepiece, a faction war zone where Elyos and Asmodians fight over territory. Around it sit the Arena and the Battlefield for structured PvP, the Sanctuary and Spacetime Rifts for group challenges, and Nightmare dungeons, Ascension Trials and Duty Quests for endgame progression. Expeditions move to Conquest difficulty, where the Kina rewards scale far better than anything you farmed while leveling. That is why this guide keeps coming back to the same point: save your resources for the cap.
If you want a sense of how other big launches handle their first weeks, our Final Fantasy Resonance beginner’s guide covers a similar set of early decisions for another new MMORPG, and our Resident Evil Requiem beginner’s guide shows the same approach applied to a very different kind of game. For the performance side of things, the Phantom Blade Zero best settings guide is a good example of how to tune a demanding Unreal Engine 5 game on PC.
AION 2 Beginner’s Guide FAQ
Is AION 2 free to play?
Yes. AION 2 is free to play on PC through Steam and NCSOFT’s PURPLE launcher, and both share the same servers. There is an optional monthly membership, cosmetics and a Battle Pass, but no class is reserved for paying players, and the game itself costs nothing to download or start.
What level do you unlock wings in AION 2?
You unlock wings at level 5, with your first Ascension. Wings are central to AION 2: the game is built around aerial combat, and flying opens up new areas and fight mechanics. Wings earned through gameplay also give you stats, while shop wings are cosmetic only.
Can you change your class in AION 2?
No, there is currently no free class-change option, and your class is tied to your character. If you want to play a different class, you need to create and level another character. Character deletion takes 24 hours, so a wrong pick is cheap to fix in your first few levels but expensive later. Choose for the playstyle you enjoy, not a temporary tier list.
The Bottom Line
AION 2 rewards patience more than it rewards rushing. Pick a faction with your friends, start with a forgiving class like the Gladiator, follow the main quest to 45, and keep your Enhance Stones, Kina and Odyle Energy for the content that actually lasts. Do that, and your first week in Atreia will feel like a flying start instead of a list of things you wish you had known. The game is free, the servers are busy, and there has rarely been a better time to start an MMO from day one. See you in the Abyss.
For the official details, check the AION 2 page on Steam and the official AION 2 website.
