If you're jumping into Aion for the first time this weekend, you'll find it's different than other MMORPGs you might have played in more ways than one. Ten Ton Hammer has compiled a quick list of 13 hints and tips to get you off to a great start in your first 10 levels. Have a look!

13 things to know before playing Aion

If you're jumping into Aion for the first time this weekend, you'll find it's different than other MMORPGs you might have played in more ways than one. Ten Ton Hammer has compiled a quick list of 13 hints and tips to get you off to a great start in your first 10 levels.

Collect early, and look forward to aether harvesting when you get flight at or about level 10.
  1. Start collecting early. Aion has two gathering skill progressions: collecting and aether harvesting. Collecting can be done at level on, e but aether gathering doesn't start until you start flying at level 10 (look for the floating green nodes at that point). You can avoid backtracking to earlier areas if you start early. Crafting and even some quests hinge on your ability to collect and gather aether..
  2. Titles not only look cool, they add stats as well. Look for titles as you complete longer quest lines under your character profile and equip them early.
  3. Manastones are a cheap and easy way to add a little extra umph to your equipment, but keep in mind that while you can remove a manastone to free up a slot, you won't get that manastone back. +4s are fairly plentiful early, but save your +12s for green and blue items you'll be hanging onto for a while. You'll start seeing two-socket items around level 10.
  4. Unlike other MMORPGs, you won't find yourself fully kitted out early in the game as the result of completing class quests. Spend some of that hard earned cash on clothing upgrades as you can and enjoy dying less often.
  5. Thankfully, Aion offers a nice amount of inventory space (i.e. your "cube") but should you find yourself running out of space, a cube vendor in the starting village will be glad to expand your cube. The first upgrade is now pretty cheap.
  6. Resting (keystroke [comma] by default) helps you regain health and mana much more quickly. Try it and save bandages / potions for when you really need to reduce downtime.
  7. Upgrade early and often at the starting village's market area.
  8. Both starting areas have an end dungeon where players tend to converge. You're all after the same thing, so why not try a group on for size? It's as simple as a right click on another player and then clicking  "invite," and you'll get through the dungeon content with far less risk.
  9. Power shards are sort of like ammo for all weapon types (mage spellbooks included) and proc occasionally for increased stats. Like manastones, they're fairly common drops and cheap to buy, so keep a fresh stack attached to your weapon.
  10. Using the /pathfinding [name] feature can save you some time and cut down on the wandering aimlessly portion of quest or NPC hunting. /pathfinding can be used to locate areas and NPCs, so have fun with it.
  11. For those of you dual-booting the Windows 7 RC1 preview, Aion's anti-hack program has some pretty nasty qualms with the new OS. Install in Vista or XP if you're dual-booting to save some potential installation headaches (Disabling UAC doesn't work, in my experience).
  12. If the default UI isn't to your taste, experiment with more standard layouts via the settings menu.
  13. Have green items that you don't want or can't use? If you're long on cash and short on manastones, buy "extraction tools" from a General Goods vendor for 1,000 kinah (thanks for the clarification, Deluxion - also note that this is not a skill-based crafting item) to break down green weapons into special "enhancement" stones.
  14. Despite the ominous warning you get when you seek to complete your ascension quest at level 9 or 10, you can speak to a teleporter to return to the starting area if you have quests to complete there. It's worth completing the ascension quest asap because of the new abilities you'll get.

As a bonus, most quest locations are easy to find, but three proved to be a headache for me as I leveled to 10 on the Elyos side. If you run into trouble, here's some locations:

  • The Ancient Cube (x=231, y=2007)
  • Cauldron (x=297, y=2077)
  • Tutty (x=228, y=1903)

Special thanks to Martuk and Sardu for their help in putting together this list, but this is just the start. Jump into the forums to share and read more helpful Aion tips and hints!


To read the latest guides, news, and features you can visit our Aion Game Page.

Last Updated: Mar 29, 2016

About The Author

Jeff joined the Ten Ton Hammer team in 2004 covering EverQuest II, and he's had his hands on just about every PC online and multiplayer game he could since.

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