Inven Global

Marking its 1st anniversary, Aion 2 has announced comprehensive changes across character progression, combat, and dungeons. On November 8 at the aT Center in Yangjae, Seoul, NC revealed Chapter 1's second story, "Boundary of Light and Veil," alongside future update plans during its 1st anniversary celebration. The initial update will go live on November 11.

The maximum level cap will be expanded to 55, while Expeditions, Transcendence, and Sanctuaries will receive clearer, distinct roles defined by difficulty and rewards. Solo mode will be supported across all Expeditions, alongside a combat overhaul designed to enhance the efficiency of manual controls and skill combos. Long-awaited by players, the housing system will allow permanent ownership of a personal estate for 1,000,000 Kinah.

The presentation centered on a roadmap spanning from the first half of November through the second half of December, leading up to a new Sanctuary in January next year. Below is a breakdown of the imminent housing system, core progression elements, content overhauls, and 1st anniversary rewards.

Housing, the game's first life skill content, opens on November 11. Rather than decorating a single home, players receive an entire island as a personal estate to manage both gardens and interiors. The estate can be permanently owned for 1,000,000 Kinah, with no need to compete with other players for land.

Interior space spans approximately 90 pyeong. Players can customize floors, walls, stories, pillars, and partitions, changing colors and placing decorations down to individual books on bookshelves. Lighting types and colors are also customizable, enabling distinct atmospheres on every floor.

At launch, housing will offer 286 decoration types and 3 terrain options. Furniture can be crafted, with certain materials dropping from bosses. While furniture has quality tiers, no stats are attached to them. NC emphasized that cosmetics sold separately will also carry no combat stats.

Up to 40 players can be invited to an estate. Future updates plan to introduce interior and estate expansions, pet placement, training dummies, furniture interactions, and Legion villages. Furniture dyeing is also in development, and a "Cozy Shugo Statue" will be gifted to celebrate the housing release.

The new storyline covers the journey to the Barrier erected by the Empyrean Lords, taking Elyos through Eltnen and Asmodians through Morheim. The Elyos cross the Eracus Desert in search of Yustiel, while the Asmodians move alongside Nemon to reclaim stolen Artifacts. Chapter 1 concludes the narrative up to the Barrier, with the journey beyond continuing in Chapter 2.

Six outposts, 20 seal dungeons, 20 episode quests, and 14 zone quests will be added to both Eltnen and Morheim. The maximum level cap increases from 50 to 55. Daevanion will grant one new board and an additional 128 points in total; however, since not all nodes can be unlocked, players must choose and prioritize their builds.

Unique +20 Pendants can be converted to Hero grade and enhanced up to +20 again. Hero-grade Belts and Amulets will also support up to +20 enhancement and 5 Breakthrough stages. Players will gain one Greater Stigma Shard for each level gained, earning 5 in total.

The equipment Breakthrough cap expands to Stage 7. Beyond Stage 5, progression relies on collecting materials from content; NC explained that stat increases in these upper stages are designed to be less steep compared to previous tiers.

New Expeditions include "Fanatic Urugugu Canyon" and "Void Arcanis," which reboot existing dungeons with redesigned boss attack patterns. Transcendence adds "Eracus Ruins" and "Frostwind Valley." In Frostwind Valley, players face off against the Frostclaw tribe; mechanics require memorizing and following the boss's movement path, and the mount ridden by the boss is offered as a reward.

Content difficulty and rewards will be clearly stratified in order of Expeditions, Transcendence, and Sanctuaries. Transcendence allows players to earn Expedition rewards while granting exclusive new enhancement materials. Weekly entries for new Transcendence dungeons are set to 5, with 80 Aether Energy required for Cube rewards. Aether Energy used in the first and second halves of the chapter will also be separated.

Lower-tier dungeons will be consolidated. Tier 1 to 5 Expeditions will be streamlined into a single representative dungeon per tier, removing Hard difficulty. Existing Transcendence dungeons—Deus Research Lab, Shattered Arcanis, Sunken Temple of Life, and Mirror of Red Heart—will be merged into "Sunken Temple of Life," featuring solo mode support.

Solo mode will be introduced to all Expeditions. Entering alone scales stats to 1 player, while entering with 2 or more players scales stats to a 5-player party. It will not be broken down into separate scaling for 2, 3, or 4 players.

A new high-tier progression system, "Blessing of the Empyrean Lord," is being introduced. Using Holy Spirits and Incense of Prayer obtained from Transcendence, players can tune the stats of Chalices and Parchments. Although slot names match existing Arcana, this is a separate system.

Players acquire stats through "Humble Prayer" and "Earnest Prayer," ultimately equipping relics with desired stats. The system includes a mechanic where failure can result in losing accumulated stats. Unique equipment can be exchanged for relevant currencies, broadening the purpose of gear farming.

Existing Stat Arcana will reach their cap without further growth additions. For Skill Arcana, a redistribution feature will be added. Once players secure four desired skills, they can randomly redistribute skill level allocations while preserving the skill composition. The cost is 100,000 Kinah per attempt. Although 1,000,000 Kinah was shown on the demo screen, NC clarified during the presentation that the actual cost will be 100,000 Kinah.

The new Sanctuary, "Ascension Fortress Erek," will launch on January 20 next year. Set in a massive fortress floating above the Abyss, players face off against Dragon Lord Ishtar. Seven days prior to the Sanctuary's release, a Story Mode will unlock first, allowing players to explore the narrative background behind fighting the boss. Story Mode will also be added sequentially to existing Sanctuaries.

Sanctuaries will transition to a boss-by-boss stage structure. Players can select difficulties individually—for instance, defeating the first boss on Hard and challenging the next on Normal. Rewards and guaranteed reward points will be awarded based on the selected difficulty for each boss.

Easy difficulty will be added to "Chalice of Muspell." Guaranteed rewards will be revamped into a point system, allowing points to be shared across difficulties within the same content. Guaranteed rewards for Expeditions and Transcendence will also be overhauled to share points.

The Trial "Temple of Fire" will expand from 16 to 24 tiers. Standard progression rewards will cap out at Tier 16, with higher tiers offering mostly honor rewards. This design aims to avoid forcing players to clear top-tier difficulty just to earn full progression rewards.

Reaching Tier 20 grants the title "Beyond Temple of Fire Limits," while Tier 24 grants "Reached the End of Temple of Fire." A dedicated exchange shop for Tier 17 and above will offer Silver Wings of Resolve, Silver Dragon, and "The Furious One" skin. The next Trial will be "Cradle of Naught," featuring Anguished Bakarma.

On December 2, a limited-time "Rudra Challenge" will launch. Based on the Global version's Rudra, it features higher difficulty encounters than current Sanctuaries. Designed as endgame content while waiting for the next Sanctuary, it awards a Rudra Pet as an honor reward.

The core of the combat overhaul is manual play, increasing rewards when chaining skills properly and reacting dynamically to combat situations. NC set a goal of improving manual control efficiency by approximately 20%. Rather than flatly boosting all character damage by 20%, the system is designed to reward skilled gameplay with up to a 20% performance advantage.

Specializations removing cooldowns for specific skills on certain classes will be removed, and the scope of cooldown reduction effects affecting all skills will be narrowed. For example, cooldown reductions for Groggy skills will apply only to Mastery skills and exclude Stigmas. Essential class-specific utility will not be erased indiscriminately.

Guaranteed critical hits on main attack skills will be adjusted to increased Critical Hit Chance, giving greater value to stat investment. However, guaranteed criticals will remain on select skills. Stat conversion efficiency from Empyrean Lord stats will be reduced by 50%, while stats earned from equipment Breakthrough will be changed to Damage Amplification and Damage Resistance.

The previously teased "Elemental Damage Amplification" stat will not be added. NC explicitly confirmed during the presentation that the plan has been scrapped.

Abyss rewards will be restructured around items required for PvP. Dedicated Breakthrough Stones for Abyss gear will be obtainable from shops and Hidden Cubes, while Hidden Cube rewards will be separated from PvE farming. Even after reaching the Abyss Point cap, players will still earn small amounts of points at roughly 10% of standard rates.

The defeated faction in boss encounters will receive rewards based on contribution, aiming to reward players who participate until the end regardless of outcome. Directives will yield Battle Marks, which can be exchanged for "Gear of Endless Battle."

Entry limits will be lifted for the Abyss Outer Layer, and stats will be normalized. To manage player burden, Abyss Point rewards and allowed play time will be reduced. High-tier battlegrounds are being prepared separately as Master RvR content in the Upper Abyss.

Rankings for Abyss, Nightmare, Transcendence, and Arena will shift to a weekly system, moving away from late-season rush dynamics to distribute weekly performance rewards. Scrolls will retain effects upon death, with duration extended to 10 minutes. Arena will grant identical consumables to all players, and Nightmare will be divided into first-half and second-half chapter phases.

Kinah distribution rules will also change. Tier 6 Expedition (Hard) and "Noiran's Hidden Legacy" will award Bound and Unbound Kinah in a 50/50 split, while lower-tier dungeons will give Bound Kinah. Diminishing returns on Kinah based on weekly cumulative clear counts will be removed. Instead, clears beyond 63 Expeditions will award 100% Bound Kinah without reducing total yield.

On November 18, the Trust system currently active in global services will be introduced. Trust levels will regulate limits on Brokerage and Exchange usage, daily item sales, Kinah settlements, and Kinah exchange box purchases, with higher Trust unlocking expanded usage limits.

Progression support for new and returning players will be bolstered up to 500K Combat Power (CP). Unique Stage 5 Breakthrough gear will be provided. Since support is limited to once per verified identity (person) rather than per account, players must select their character carefully. The Sprout tag will remain throughout Chapter 1 Part 2, but will be removed upon reaching 800K CP.

The 1st anniversary event, "Greedy Shugo Commotion," will feature Balloon Wings, emotes, and more. Players can redeem the anniversary coupon code THANKYOUDAEVA. Two winning contest costumes will be sold for 365 Kinah, and rerun sales of past cosmetics will be held twice.

Customization costs for appearance will be reduced from 100 Quna to 50 Quna. PC cafe players will be able to open Aether Energy Cubes one extra time, with enhanced login time rewards. A free server transfer (once per account) will be available on November 18.

In Shugo Festa, "Protect the Shugo Merchant" will be replaced by a new event mode, "Caution: Falling." NC plans to continue refining non-combat activities.

According to the revealed roadmap, November 11 will introduce the Expedition "Fanatic Urugugu Canyon," Transcendence "Eracus Ruins," and Consolidated Transcendence "Sunken Temple of Life." Nightmare Floor V, Awakening Battle "Submerged Throne," Housing, and the 1st Anniversary event will also launch on the same day.

Following the Rudra Challenge on December 2, the update proceeds to Part 2 on December 23. Part 2 will bring Expedition "Void Arcanis," Transcendence "Frostwind Valley," Nightmare Floor VI, and Christmas events. On January 20 next year, the new Sanctuary "Ascension Fortress Erek" and New Year events are planned.

Future content teased includes life skills combining sailing and fishing, a climb-through solo dungeon "Labyrinth," Master RvR in the Upper Abyss, and new zones in Interdictio, Beluslan, and Balaurea. These were presented as future development plans, with specific release dates unannounced.

Three collaborations, including two with famous anime franchises, are also in preparation. Specific collaboration partners and schedules will be announced at a later date.