AION 2 Launch Scale Test Day 1: New EU Servers, 24-Hour Maintenance, and a Hotfix Before Day 2

As of September 18, 2026, the first of the two Launch Scale Test sessions is done. NC posted "Launch Scale Test: Day 1" to its EN-US announcements board and to Steam news as the September 17 session opened at 6:00 AM PDT (15:00 CEST). The notice restates the published rules without change: Steam and PURPLE, open to everyone with no keys, invites or registration list, six hours per day and twelve in total, a level 37 cap, all purchasing, the Marketplace, the Quna exchange and player trading switched off, Founder's Pack items unavailable, and a full wipe at the end of Day 2. It also points feedback to the Launch Scale Test channel on NC's Discord.

The operational news came 35 minutes later. A second notice, "New LST Servers Opening: Day 1", records two additions to the European region during the session:

• EU — Vaizel (listed under Elyos) and Triniel (listed under Asmodian), added September 17 at 6:48 AM PDT, 48 minutes into Day 1.
• EU — Kaisinel (listed under Elyos) and Lumiel (listed under Asmodian), added September 17 at 7:28 AM PDT, 88 minutes into Day 1.

Two things about that notice are worth reading carefully. First, it lists only the additions: NC has not published the names of the servers that were open at 6:00 AM, so the total EU count, and whether NA or other regions were expanded, is not on the record. Second, the notice's table has separate "Elyos" and "Asmodian" columns, with one server name in each per row. That is consistent with what NC has said before about the global service — Elyos and Asmodian servers are separate, and the factions meet in the Abyss — which is why each addition comes as a pair. The notice itself does not spell that out, so we are noting the match rather than asserting it as a test rule.

Adding capacity inside the first ninety minutes is, in the plainest reading, the test doing what NC said it was for: a stability check of a live-like environment. NC has not published concurrency, queue times or any load figures, and neither has any outlet from a primary source, so nothing about how full the servers were is stated here.

At 12:00 PM PDT on September 17 — the published end of Day 1 — NC posted "Scheduled Maintenance: September 17". Game servers go down from that moment for "approximately 24 hours", with login unavailable throughout. That window ends at 12:00 PM PDT on September 18, which is exactly when Day 2 is scheduled to open (12:00 PM to 6:00 PM PDT; 21:00 CEST to 03:00 CEST on the 19th).

In other words, the maintenance is the gap between the two sessions, not a cut into Day 2's six hours. If you saw the maintenance notice and read it as a delay, it is not one — the Day 2 times NC published on August 26 still stand as of this writing. Whether the servers actually reopen on the minute is something NC will only say on the board, so check it before you queue.

Late on September 17 PDT (early on September 18 in Europe), NC posted "AION 2 Hot Fix Update". It is short, and the notice's own list, in full:

• Slightly increased interaction radius for quest interaction objects.
• Characters below level 10 can no longer use appearance change tickets.
• Resolved an error where chat/macro reporting incorrectly stated that the other party's information could not be verified.
• Fixed client crash issues.

The instruction attached to it is the part that matters for Day 2: NC asks players to download the hotfix before the session begins. On Steam that means letting the separate AION 2 Playtest app (4972320) update; on PURPLE, the launcher patches on start. If you pre-loaded on September 16 and have not opened the client since Day 1, open it early rather than at 12:00 PM PDT. Our download guide covers both clients.

Three of the four items are the kind of thing a scale test exists to surface: a quest-object hitbox, a reporting-flow error and client crashes. The fourth — blocking appearance change tickets below level 10 — reads as an anti-abuse change rather than a bug fix, but NC gives no rationale and we are not supplying one. None of the four alters the test rules, the level cap or the wipe.

Separately, NC's Steam news hub picked up a "Steam Pre-release FAQ" on the evening of September 16 PDT. Most of it restates positions already on the record — PC only, four server regions (North America, South America, Europe, Japan; see the Oceania decision), and a pointer to the July 8 Team Update for monetization. Two entries are newer. On controllers, NC says AION 2 is playable with one but that it is "still evaluating" whether full controller support is within scope for launch — a more hedged position than the gamescom Q&A's confirmation. And the FAQ lists eight launch languages: English, French, German, Spanish (Spain), Portuguese (Brazil), Russian, Japanese and Korean. That omits the Simplified and Traditional Chinese that the June 5 press release counted, which is consistent with a separate Chinese service and a separate Taiwanese build, but NC has not addressed the difference directly. Wishlist and newsletter rewards are, per the FAQ, to be detailed "closer to the global launch date".

None of this moves a date. Early Access for Founder's Pack holders still begins September 30 and the free-to-play launch is still October 5 — the release date guide carries the full timeline, and everything reached during the test is wiped after Day 2 regardless.