Beginner's Guide to Aion: The Tower of Eternity

The world of Atreia was once like an apple core. It was enclosed, with the Tower of Eternity running through the middle, illuminating the enclosed world and providing the world with necessary nourishment. Infused in this tower was a god, called Aion. Today there are two player factions: Elyos and Asmodians. However, back in this time, there existed only one race: humans. While the humans lived peacefully, Aion decided to create a new race in order to test the humans, a race known as the Draken. These Draken eventually became very powerful, greedy, and organized. They eventually were led by five lords known as the Dragon Lords and those lords changed their name to the Balaur, as they're still known now. The Dragon Lords went to Aion himself and asked for more power; Aion refused. Seeing how powerful the Balaur had become, Aion created twelve lords to assist the humans in fighting the Balaur, known as the Empyrean Lords.

These lords were infused by an essence known as Aether, which gave them immense power. The Empyrean Lords began creating an army with this Aether by infusing it in humans. When this process happened, the human was now known as a Daeva (which you become at level 10 in the game). Those with Aether in them are immortal and powerful. War raged on between the humans and the Balaur for centuries until half of the Empyrean Lords decided that the war was pointless and was causing too much bloodshed. Those half tried to convince the leader of the Empyrean Lords that they must negotiate peace with the Balaur. Eventually that leader, Israphel, gave in and agreed to the leader of the half of the Empyrean Lords wanting peace, Ariel. The Empyrean Lords invited the Dragon Lords into the Tower of Eternity to negotiate peace, letting down the massive Aether shield put up to protect the human race from the Balaur. While negotiating, one of the Empyrean Lords, still desiring war, killed one of the Dragon Lords. The Dragon Lords and Empyrean Lords fought inside the Tower of Eternity after that, and that caused the Tower of Eternity to collapse and fall apart. This caused a massive cataclysm, known as the Epic Cataclysm, and destroyed the outer walls of the planet of Atreia.

All that remained were two pieces. One piece floating in the sky high above the other, with a huge empty space in the middle known as the Abyss. All that remained of the Tower of Eternity were two stumps, one on both sides of the world and Aion was no longer with the world. During the Epic Cataclysm, Ariel and Israphel gave their lives to set up a shield of Aether around as many humans as they could, to save their lives. Some humans ended up on the bottom, along with the Empyrean Lords who wanted peace. Some humans ended up on the top, along with the Empyrean Lords who wanted to continue fighting. The open sides of the world made way for sun to pour through to the Elyos side, the bottom (replacing the light from the Tower of Eternity); but the top, the Asmodians, were not so lucky. They lived in darkness and cold and their bodies changed to suit the environment and climate. One-thousand years of living apart from each other, an event that shook the stumps of the Tower of Eternity and released massive amounts of Aether into the Abyss occurred. This also made for gates to appear out of nowhere, leading to Asmodae, Elysea, or the Abyss. Some Elyos went into one of these gates and ended up in Asmodae, where Asmodians slaughtered them (still having animosity from 1,000 years earlier when their side wanted to negotiate with the Balaur). To compliment this new war, it was discovered that the leaking Aether from the two stumps was actually the planet's life force being drained. So, the only option that each side could figure out was to destroy each other's stumps, causing that side to collapse, shutting the holes that Aether leaks from. To complicate matters, the Balaur happen to be in the Abyss, adding more trouble for both sides. And this is where Atreia is now, consumed by war among three factions. Each one wants to destroy the other two. You don't really get much contact with the other faction players, the game is in such a way where I believe you're supposed to kill the other faction whenever you see them, if you see them.

What is Aion?

Aion is a very graphically detailed MMORPG with an extensive character creation system, innovative flight system, and quite a large world with beautiful landscapes and fascinating views. The game is largely quest-driven; you will probably never find yourself without a quest to complete. If you decide to read the quest descriptions you'll find that the stories truly captivate you and make you feel more of a part of the game as if you're really making a difference. The history of the world of Atreia (the name of the world in the game) is vast and very interesting, which you may have realized after reading above. The game also offers such paths as Smithing, Crafting, Cooking, and other things. These systems are very easy to use, but, of course, take time to become profitable as you must collect your materials. You could choose the path of using these creation skills rather than leveling or PvPing to make yourself somewhat of a merchant-type character. The buying and selling system is very easy and convenient; you may set up player shops or check an auction house (at an NPC called a Trade Broker in-game). In addition, making money is not very difficult as the quests you complete give you more than enough money to buy your skills and provide you with armor (though not amazing armor, of course). You get a huge array of skills, which all level up automatically. Thus, it's your job to decide which path to take with the skills offered to you, how to use them correctly, and when to use them.

There are three factions: two of which are the players and the other in which the monsters of the world are classified. The two player factions are the Elyos and the Asmodians. The monster faction is known as the Balaur. In the beginning of the world, the Elyos and Asmodians were one. However, in their 1,000 years of separation after the Epic Cataclysm, the Asmodians evolved apart from the Elyos and acquired their current appearance.

Interface:

1 (red) - Player Title (earned through quests, they give slight stats)
2 (green) - Name
3 (blue) - Legion
4 (pink) - Chat Box
5 (purple) - HP/MP/DP Bars (DP is used for special skills)
6 (light blue) - XP Bar (20 bars, each bar is 5%)
7 (yellow) - Skill Hotkey Rows
8 (orange) - System / Additional Options Menus
9 (aqua) - Flight Time / Cooldown (when green bars run out, you have no more flight time, and the circle inside the green bars is darkened when you have a cooldown, when it's fully lighter again you can fly again)
10 (baby blue) - Navigator
11 (brown) - Monster
12 (white) - Quick Quest Information (you can toggle which quests are shown here in the quest window)

Controls:

Q - Sideswipe to the left
W - Move Forward
E - Sideswipe to the right
R - Rise (while flying)
Y - Private Shop
U - Macros
I - Inventory
O - Options
P - Character Information (including Titles and Stigmas)
A - Move/Turn Left
S - Move backwards
D - Move/Turn Right
F - Fall (while flying)
G - Legion Information
J - Quests
K - Skills (includes crafting and such, as well as gives chain skill information)
C - Target and Move to/Attack Nearest NPC, Player, or Monster
B - Toggle Power Shard (these increase your weapons attack and are consumed one per attack)
N - Transparent Map
M - Map
, (<) - Toggle Sit
Tab - Target Nearest Monster
Enter - Toggle Chat
Spacebar: Jump/Glide
Page Up - Fly
Page Down - Stop Flying
Arrow Keys - Movement
Right Click - View Options About Target or Toggle Camera
Left Click - Move/Attack/Target
Scroll - Zoom In or Out
F Keys - F1 targets yourself, I believe the others target other party members? I'm not sure.
Number Keys - Skills in First Hotkey Row
Alt + Number Keys - Skills in Second Hotkey Row
C + Number Keys - Skills in Third Hotkey Row
Print Screen - Screenshot

Tips / Things to Know Before Playing

- Do the quests. All of them.
- Check your titles in your character information screen regularly; you may have gotten a useful new one to use.
- When you die you lose XP. You can recover it from a Soul Healer in any town/village for some money.
- You lose HP per second if you're submerged in water.
- You can die from falling too high, so land while flying before you run out of flight time.
- Do not buy weapons or armor with money until 20+, you'll get satisfactory stuff from quests and you'll need that money later on.
- Make sure to expand your inventory at the starter town as soon as you can; it's cheap (the Cube NPC guy).
- You buy your skill manuals (which teach you skills) from your class's master NPC. This NPC is in the starter town or in Sanctum for Elyos and Pandaemonium for Asmodians (I think).
- You can glide even in flat areas and non-flying zones sometimes for extended lengths if you take your finger off the W button while gliding.
- If you're going to drop from flying while high in the sky and you plan on re-flying, make sure your flight cooldown is over (XD).
- Upgrading doesn't destroy your weapon; it only decreases the plus value.
- You can expand your Warehouse by clicking "Expand" while using your warehouse (the first couple are relatively cheap).
- You can further increase your inventory size by talking to the Cube NPC in Sanctum or Pandaemonium (again I THINK, I've never been to Asmodae really so I'm not totally sure).
- I would suggest you NPC all of your monster drops as well as non-green equipment. Only keep good equipment or items that say "Material," "Quest," or "Manastone" or any other thing that is important to keep.
- Bind yourself to an area you know you'll be close to for awhile. You do this by clicking an Obelisk near the Soul Healer. It costs some money, but each time you die you'll re-spawn at this area (saving time and possibly money) and your Return skill will be set to this point, making transportation possibly more convenient.



http://na.aiononline.com/en/ - The official Aion site.
http://www.aionsource.com - Fan site, very informational stuff.
http://www.aionglobal.com - Another fan site.
http://powerwiki.na.aiononline.com/aion - Wiki on the official Aion site, very helpful information about just about everything.

Will add more as people ask questions and such. If anyone has ANY question about the game whatsoever, ask it here and I'll put in a FAQ to answer them.

I'll have to wait until next beta to post a few screenies

I basically only did this for Neves. >_> Maybe Ura, since Ura didn't get very high leveled. Hopefully if anyone else is thinking of playing Aion it'll help too.

-raises hand- And Vinny too. Since she spent all day playing with character creation. LOL

didnt have much time playing anything at all.
my life = work

Lol Vinny xD

rofl. aion=fun

beta's should be longer >_>

Oh thank you bleu. I appreciate this like... this much

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and Oh My Gawd. Reading this made me more peppy for Aion xD

EDIT:

Vinneh wrote:-raises hand- And Vinny too. Since she spent all day playing with character creation. LOL

Oh my gawd. I might spend a few hours trying to make me look cute :d

Regarding the game itself. Once you choose a race to play on one of the servers, you are only allowed to make new chars of the same race on that server.

If you want to play the other race, you have to start on another server (or make another account and pay double xD)

Lol x.x; That kinda sucks XD

@peep.

not true. After i made my char i could make another on the other race.

Peepsie wrote:Regarding the game itself. Once you choose a race to play on one of the servers, you are only allowed to make new chars of the same race on that server.

If you want to play the other race, you have to start on another server (or make another account and pay double xD)

Sounds like they're popping babies.

Bram, that's only for beta. It's actually stated you can't do it once they push Aion into release.

Of course, they can still change it cause it IS still beta.

Off Topic (But I feel it's important :d): Jefferson (MagicalBlader, MrJefferson, JeffsEbilTwin) and his brother decided to join the "evil" side. Which means, I (and whoever else wants too), will work my ass off to kick his butt in Race vs Race :d

but you have to be in the right server ofc d:

man..that eltnen place was invaded with asmodians for some time @_@

couldnt even do quests normally xD

i keeled like only 3 of them e_e

ther was one ranger guy who kept killing people while they were alone fighting mobs and he killed me like 4 times >_> but in the end i got him when he atked someone else and didnt see me ;D

Bram wrote:but you have to be in the right server ofc d:

man..that eltnen place was invaded with asmodians for some time @_@

couldnt even do quests normally xD

i keeled like only 3 of them e_e

ther was one ranger guy who kept killing people while they were alone fighting mobs and he killed me like 4 times >_> but in the end i got him when he atked someone else and didnt see me ;D

I think your server must have a lot of high-level Asmodians, because in Eltnen on my server, there were soooo many Elyos in Eltnen, lol. There's no way the Asmodians could come there and kill anyone. XD I didn't even see an Asmodian. =o

OHH I didn't know Jeff was playing Aion too. =o That's awesome. I tried Asmodians out for a little bit but just wanted to stick to Elyos. >_<

We should all get on the same server when it's released ;o

Elyos ftw

>D

Peepsie wrote:We should all get on the same server when it's released ;o

Elyos ftw

I get a job and buy for peepsie if she does not want to pay :3

Nevesicle wrote:

Peepsie wrote:We should all get on the same server when it's released ;o

Elyos ftw

I get a job and buy for peepsie if she does not want to pay :3

Peep will officially be playing. XD So we'll have quite a few people. o_o

Oh, I forgot to mention that I bought Aion

i will if ill have the money, xD

other things on my mind atm @_@

Peepsie wrote:Oh, I forgot to mention that I bought Aion

Oh...

I'm still looking for a job though :3 Must help make family happy That is my life goal. :>

Added a helpful links section.

:O If only Bram, ura and whoever else (not in NA) could go on our servers .-.

-sigh-