AION 2 Membership & Economy: What $15 Unlocks

The short version: the game is free to download and free to play, but the player economy sits behind an optional subscription. This page breaks down exactly what the $15/month Special Quairerk Subscription unlocks, what stays free, and — the part most global players actually care about — how the global model differs from the Korean build it was adapted from.

Is the game actually free to play?

Yes. There is no box price and no required subscription to log in, level, or clear content. The global launch on October 5 is free-to-play on both Steam and PURPLE — you can create a character, pick a faction, and play through the entire game without spending anything. The monetization layer on top is optional: a cosmetic shop, a Battle Pass, the Founder’s Pack, and the membership this page is about.

What does the $15 membership unlock?

The membership — officially the Special Quairerk Subscription — costs $15 per month and unlocks the game’s entire player-driven economy:

Unlock	What it does
Marketplace	The auction house — list and buy items from other players
Player-to-player trading	Direct trades between characters
Kina–Quna Exchange	Convert between earned and paid currency (details below)
Subscriber-only shop	A dedicated storefront for members

In practical terms: everything about playing the game is free, and everything about trading in it is member-only. If you plan to sell drops, buy gear off the board, or move currency around, the membership is effectively the price of admission to the economy.

How do Kina and Quna work?

The economy runs on two currencies:

• Kina — the in-game currency, earned through play.
• Quna — the paid currency, bought with real money.

The Kina–Quna Exchange connects them: players trade the two currencies with each other at player-set rates. The key design point is that NC does not sell Kina directly — the exchange is a player-to-player market, not a cash shop listing. Whether it lands closer to a healthy gold-token system or an inflation engine depends entirely on launch-week supply and demand, which we’ll be tracking once servers open.

Because both sides of the exchange sit behind the membership, free players are locked out of this loop entirely — they can earn Kina, but they can’t convert it or spend it through the Marketplace.

What can you do without paying anything?

The honest boundary:

Free players keep: the full open world (including flight and underwater exploration), the main story, all eight launch classes, dungeons, and PvP including the Abyss. Nothing about combat, leveling, or content access is paywalled.

Free players lose: the Marketplace, direct player trading, and the Kina–Quna Exchange. You can still earn and spend Kina with NPCs, but you can’t participate in the player economy.

That’s a real restriction — MMO veterans will recognize it as the difference between “free to play” and “free to play, $15 to trade.” Whether it matters to you depends on how much of your endgame loop is economic. Players who mostly raid, fly, and PvP can ignore the membership entirely; players who live on the auction house should budget for it.

How is this different from the Korean version?

This is the good news. Korea and Taiwan launched in November 2025 with a two-tier membership — a “comfort” tier and a “content” tier on a 28-day cycle — that together cost roughly $40–50 per month equivalent, with trading locked behind the subscription wall.

The global build replaces that with a single $15 tier. Same idea — the economy is subscription-gated — but one tier at roughly a third of the Korean price, with no second membership level stacked on top. It’s one of the headline differences in the global vs. Korea breakdown, and it’s the rare case where the global version is unambiguously cheaper.

What happened at the Korean launch?

For context, since it’s why global players are watching monetization so closely: at the Korean launch in November 2025, cash shop bundles shipped containing power-affecting items, contradicting NC’s pre-launch messaging. NC held an emergency apology broadcast roughly 15 hours after launch, and the company’s stock dropped 14.94% that day. The offending bundles were pulled, the power items were distributed free, skill resets were made free, and consumable prices were halved. The global monetization model was announced separately afterward, and the structure above is the result — which is why the differences from Korea are worth taking seriously rather than assuming a direct port.

Is the cash shop pay-to-win?

As announced, no: the global shop is cosmetic-only — outfits, wings, and pets — with an official commitment to no stat-bearing items. A Battle Pass exists alongside it.

The honest caveat: that’s a pre-launch commitment, and this game’s Korean version is exactly where a similar commitment broke once. We’ll re-verify the shop’s actual contents on day one of early access and update this page if anything stat-bearing appears — the global vs. Korea page tracks version differences for the same reason.

Frequently asked questions

Can I sell items to other players without a membership?

No. Both the Marketplace and direct player-to-player trading require the Special Quairerk Subscription. Free players can trade with NPCs but not with each other.

Is the membership required for dungeons or PvP?

No. All content access — leveling, dungeons, flight, the Abyss — is free. The membership only gates the economy features listed above.

Does the Founder's Pack include membership time?

Yes — every tier includes 30 days of Membership along with the September 30 early access. See the Founder’s Pack breakdown for the per-tier comparison.

Can free players earn Quna without paying?

Only through the Kina–Quna Exchange — which itself requires the membership — so in practice, no. Free players interact with Kina alone. If NC announces a free redemption path (the codes page tracks official freebies like the newsletter pet rewards), we’ll note it there and here.