AION 2 Ban Waves Explained: What Gets Accounts Restricted

AION 2 Global has had four ban waves in its first week and a half. NC’s account-restriction notices on Steam list 4,996 accounts on October 10, 10,000 on October 12/13, 9,422 on October 14 and 7,933 on October 15/16. Added together that is 32,351 accounts; this is our sum of the four notices, as NC has not published a cumulative total. Every notice names the same two categories: botting and gold farming (macros, bots and other unauthorized programs, plus organized play linked to real-money trading) and economy abuse (abnormal trading that disrupts the game economy). NC also says plainly that normal play, including long grinding sessions, is not affected.

This guide covers what those notices actually say, what they leave out, and the myths that keep coming up on the forums. It covers the Steam/PURPLE Global service only. Korea and Taiwan publish their own notices.

The Global ban waves so far

Figures from NC’s official announcements on the AION 2 Steam page. Our write-ups of each wave: Oct 10 · Oct 12 · Oct 14 · Oct 15.

The waves have come only a few days apart, and the second was about twice the size of the first. You can’t read a trend into four data points, but it does suggest NC is running regular batches rather than one launch-week sweep.

What NC lists as violations

The notices use the same short list each time. In plain terms:

1. Botting and gold farming

• Using macros, bots or other unauthorized programs.
• Organized play patterns linked to gold farming or RMT. This covers farm networks, not just a single program on one PC.

2. Economy abuse

• Abnormal trading patterns that disrupt the in-game economy. The notices don’t define “abnormal”. In practice it points at the trading side of RMT: Kinah moving between accounts in ways normal play doesn’t produce.

The full rules are in the AION 2 Global Operation Policy. The notices say NC reviews cases under that policy before acting. They do not publish a penalty table, a detection method, or how many accounts fell into each category.

What NC says is not a violation

Two lines in the notices answer the most common worry.

• Long sessions are fine. “Normal play, including long grinding sessions, is not affected.” Grinding a pet for six hours is not, by itself, an offence.
• A security lock is not a ban. A small number of accounts were temporarily locked as a precaution because access from a device or connection looked like the account might be compromised. NC’s wording is direct: “A security lock is not a penalty.”

If you think a restriction or lock is a mistake, NC asks you to open a ticket with NC Support. Each request is reviewed individually.

Common misconceptions

“Restricted means permanently banned”

Not necessarily. The notices count restricted accounts. They don’t say every one is permanent, and they don’t give durations, so the total is not a count of perma-bans.

“The ban wave cleared out the bots”

Players on the Steam forums reported bots back in popular farming spots within about a day of the first wave. That fits how bot operations work: banned accounts are cheap to replace. It’s also why the waves keep coming. In Korea, NCSOFT said by January 2026 that it had run 65 rounds of sanctions covering 727,748 accounts, and it had filed criminal complaints against users of illegal macro programs (Inven Global). Expect enforcement on Global to be just as ongoing.

“Any macro gets you banned”

AION 2 has a built-in skill macro system, and that’s a game feature. The notices are about macros, bots or other unauthorized programs: outside software that plays the game for you. Where exactly NC draws the line on things like mouse macros isn’t spelled out in the notices, so check the Operation Policy, and when in doubt, assume third-party input automation carries risk.

“Only gold sellers get banned, so buying Kinah is safe”

The notices list “abnormal trading patterns” as a violation in their own right, with no buyer/seller distinction. Kinah bought for real money still arrives through a trade. We don’t cover buying or selling Kinah, and NC’s own wording gives no reason to think buyers are exempt.

“Failing a captcha means an instant ban”

Unconfirmed. Players describe a Guardian Verification prompt that can pop up during repetitive activities like gathering or pet farming. Failing it reportedly turns your character into a harmless blob for a while, and a few forum posts claim a 24-hour suspension followed. NC hasn’t published how the check is triggered or what failure costs, so treat the forum details as player reports.

“My market listing is blocked, so I’m flagged”

Probably not. The October 13/14 patch added a system that limits Market listings of gathered materials based on gameplay history. If you see “insufficient gameplay record”, that’s an eligibility check, not a sanction. Our Market listing FAQ covers what’s known.

Other anti-bot measures to know about

• Gathered-material listing limits (Global, from October 14), described above.
• Guardian Verification captchas during repetitive play.
• Korea’s January 2026 package, announced on stream: blocking certain overseas VPNs, a better in-game report system, hardware-based blocking, and raising the gathering level to 45 to slow gathering macros. That was the Korean service. Global may handle it differently, so check official notices.

If your account was restricted

1. Check what you received. A security lock and a disciplinary restriction are different things; read the login message or email carefully to see which one you got.
2. Open a support ticket through NC Support with your character name, server and roughly when it happened.
3. Don’t pay for “unban services”. Nobody outside NC can lift a restriction. Those offers are scams, and sharing login details with them puts the account at further risk.

Where Aion2 Bot fits

Aion2 Bot (Aion.Onl) is a third-party automation tool, and “bots and other unauthorized programs” is exactly what these notices name. We use advanced anti-detection techniques to protect accounts as far as possible, but no third-party tool can promise you won’t be banned, and we don’t. If you use any automation, make that decision knowing the risk.

What we can offer is practical. The Control Center’s Guardian verification page recognizes the in-game captcha for free and logs every attempt with the image, answer and result, so you can see what happened instead of guessing. The Control Center shows every account’s running status and account status in one table, so a locked or restricted account shows up right away. New users can try a free 3-hour test card at user.aion.onl, and questions go to our Telegram channel.

Related reading: “Insufficient Gameplay Record” in AION 2: Market Listing FAQ · AION 2 Global Restricts 4,996 Accounts in October 10 Enforcement Notice · Aion.Onl In-House Captcha Recognition for AION 2