The problem of unfair play constantly plagues online projects around the world, and developers do not always respond promptly to current events. The release of AION 2 in South Korea and Taiwan did not go unnoticed by attackers. I noticed this attention Reddit user under the nickname andoris00.
According to him, modern bots, called 工作室 (“studios”), use hundreds of accounts, each of which actively uses cheats for teleportation and obtaining the necessary items. For example, the bot collects “feathers” (Empyrean Trace) scattered throughout the world in eight minutes, while for an ordinary player it can take several hours, even if there is a map at hand. These “feathers” can be exchanged for a quest reward in the form of a Skill Reset Book, which can then be sold to NPCs for 240,000 kinaras.
This gold is then sold on the “black market” for real money, and in the game itself the process looks like selling a cheap item for an incredibly high price at an auction. For proof, a video on Bilibili published on November 22, 2025 was presented. It clearly shows how a user takes 180 million kinara from an auction for the sale of a penny trinket. Judging by the description of the video, such a reserve of currency cost 12,000 yuan, which is approximately equal to 1,650 US dollars. The player almost immediately spends the funds received on strengthening his character.
We asked one of our Chinese friends, who wished to remain anonymous, to comment on the situation, and he confirmed this information. According to him, the price of game currency has fallen several times since the game’s release. The main reason is the huge volume of currency offered, since several large owners of bot farms and sellers of game property for real money are involved in bot farming. It is likely that they will soon reach the point of minimum self-sufficiency, and then they will begin to freely sell the software to anyone.
Meanwhile, the Taiwanese servers of the game are under DDoS attacks almost every evening for several hours, which reset the respawn time of bosses and allow some players to farm them without interruption. Because of this, NC Taiwan decided to restrict access from other countries, which greatly affected the game’s accessibility to international audiences.
It is worth noting that in the end the situation reached a point where even Chinese players who were accustomed to cheating and botting are “burying” the project and declaring a complete failure of NCSOFT. A quick search on bilibili turned up dozens of videos discussing this problem and demonstrating the capabilities of bots. We hope that the developers will strengthen the fight against dishonest players and strengthen the protection of the game.
