During the last few days a fair amount of attention was drawn to Aion 2.0. Pet System which we covered in our latest guide Aion 2.0. Pet System Part 1. The upcoming free expansion Aion: Assault on Balaurea introduces an entirely new pet subsystem to explore. You will have access to functional pets capable of storing goods, assisting with crafting, acting as guardians by alerting their masters to nearby enemies, and of course those simply designed to make their masters look good.

The pets system will continue to develop and evolve moving forward, but we’re looking at five pet types to start out with:

* Companion – Adventure with their owner throughout Atreia
* Signal – Alert their owner to the presence of enemy players
* Pack – Expand their owner’s inventory
* Fortune – Produce items for their owner after being well-fed
* Purebred – Provide their owner with multiple functions at once

You’ll have 100 dedicated pet slots available to populate, but can only own one of each type, and are only capable of summoning one pet at a time. You will retain features such as inventory space increase even while the pet providing the feature is put away. The pets you own can be given names, and these names are not unique, which will allow you to choose names freely and make changes whenever you so desire. And as a special treat, a new type of pet emote will trigger unique animations for each type of pet (watch out Westminster Kennel Club, there’s a new set of tricks to teach those old dogs).

There will be different ways to get your hands on these pets, including buying them from in-game merchants or the NCStore, getting them as quest rewards, item drops, or through special promotional events.

Aion: Assault on Balaurea is a free expansion, but there will also be a new boxed version with an upgraded client preloaded available for purchase (MSRP $39.99). To celebrate the release of Aion: Assault on Balaurea, those who purchase the expansion will receive an adorable Speckled Ailu pet (it’s much like a panda). Some retailers will for a limited time also offer an exclusive Companion pet along with the Speckled Ailu: NCsoft Store: Fuzzy Elroco, Amazon.com: Beluslan Kitter, GameStop: Grassy Drakie, Best Buy/Best Buy Canada: Heiron Kitten, QVS: Altgard Kitter Companion Pet, Steam: Skullabra Krall, Wal-Mart: Border Daggie

When we finished the Blue Inferno Sword guide a lot of players asked if we can find anything similar for Asmos. A Spy quest The Spirit’s Letter is one of those quests, not very hard, but little frustrating:) which rewards a fantastic 26 level Blue weapons for Asmodians only.

Step one: Get the Faded Letter.

A Fadded Letter is a guest giving item that starts the Spy Quest The Spirit’s Letter. Any Spectral Mage/Soldier/Warrior in Fortress of Spirits (Desert area – Morheim) has a chance to drop it. But expect hours of grinding before you get it. Ancient Elyos Spirits are level 25-28 with high respawn rate.

Step two: Find the rift

Finding the rifts is not easy as it looks. When you see the server message that rifts have been opened your first step is to ask other players where it can be found (use Chat window) if you don’t have time or nerves to camp out at the rift locations. There are several rift locations in Beluslan through which you can go directly to Heiron.

Also, you can use a Memo Pad and save rift locations:

Asmodian Beluslan -> Heiron Rifts

Beluslan [pos:Entrance A <24 entries lv<=38>;220040000 233.323499491353 150.910478128179 0.0 -1] Heiron [pos:Exit A;210040000 2132.44408019165 434.266044634977 0.0 -1]
Beluslan [pos:Entrance B <36 entries lv<=42>;220040000 1301.48219735504 634.12512716175 0.0 -1] Heiron [pos:Exit B;210040000 1955.92157357206 1821.22859664607 0.0 -1]
Beluslan [pos:Entrance C <48 entries lv<=46>;220040000 767.402848423194 2226.19023397762 0.0 -1] Heiron [pos:Exit C;210040000 871.569032908839 903.311562224183 0.0 -1]
Beluslan [pos:Entrance D <48 entries lv<=46>;220040000 2069.53916581892 262.812817904374 0.0 -1] Heiron [pos:Exit D;210040000 861.482032530576 2194.44761064179 0.0 -1]
Beluslan [pos:Entrance E <60 entries lv<=50>;220040000 2842.68260427263 618.865717192269 0.0 -1] Heiron [pos:Exit E;210040000 291.566511158744 2658.44962804186 0.0 -1]
Beluslan [pos:Entrance F <60 entries lv<=50>;220040000 2812.16378433367 2561.89725330621 0.0 -1] Heiron [pos:Exit F;210040000 362.175513806582 514.962047661077 0.0 -1]
Beluslan [pos:Entrance G <72 entries lv<=50>;220040000 1596.49745676501 2053.2502543235 0.0 -1] Heiron [pos:Exit G;210040000 1905.48657168075 2577.75362501576 0.0 -1]

Beluslan Entrance

Heiron exit

Step three: Important stuffs – Kisk, Potions, Tombstone of Revival, full DP and speed scrolls

Make sure you have heal over time potions, big heal potions and Odessa Powder. If you want to save Kinah and time you should have a Kisk. I would recommend reading our Kisk guide first. You can think of the Kisk Stones as a mobile Obelisks. You can buy them from a General Goods Merchants at every capitols and summon them nearly everywhere. They last 2 hours, are purchasable for ~30k, if you die you don’t res with Soul Sickness or XP loss. Since you are entering area with higher level mobs and Elyos you should go through the rift, log out and wait for a less active time (after 1am).

Also, it will be convenient to have several Tombstone of Revival which will give you the opportunity to resurrect at the current location.

Another important tips are: fill your DP before you go through the rift and don’t forget to buy speed scrolls!

Step four: How to find NPC Heraloene

The last step in the The Spirit’s Letter quest is to deliver the letter to Heraloene in the Jeiaparan Village of Elysea. Jeiaparan Village is a small fishing village on the eastern end of the Patema Ruins in Heiron (white x on the Heiron rifts map). There are several ways you can get to NPC Heraloene

Beluslan Entrance

Heiron exit

G rift : At the first glance it seems that the best and easies way to find Heraloene is through the G rift in Beluslan. But don’t forget that the entrance and exit point of this rift is deep in higher level mobs area and these mobs see through stealth.

A rift – dark green path:
If you choose the rift A – Beluslan Fortress entrance – Heiron Pass Exit, the path is much longer but there are several points from which you can glade and cover huge distances. This is much safer and faster than running through monsters and Elyos. The Heiron Observatory (A2) is your second point but also the place with NPC guards and Elyos players. It’s the halfway point on your journey, so try to find a safe spot and place your kisk.

At the A3 point you have two options. If you decide to go South (dark green path) it may seem faster and easier but you will run into an Elyos guard patrol, which is guarding an arch way at point A4. Elyos guard patrol see through stealth. However if you turn right before the arch and hop a wall you can get around it. Then follow the stream around the Village. Behind the village is the Old guy (A8 point).

If you turn North (light green path) from A3 watch out for pathing humanoids, there are a lot of them here. When you reach A5, turn east and hug the walls to your right. A6 is your next point. There is a bridge where you can hide and be out of sight and aggro. If you haven’t place any kisk yet, this is your best place for the kisk. Point A7 is the minefield. There are invisible high level mobs that see through stealth. They are located mostly along the walls so your best bet is running in the open if there are no Elyos on your radar. Move fast, don’t stop, and use every survival ability you have the second a ghost aggros you. Pop your big heal pots (they will take half your health per hit on most classes) and use a speed scroll if you have one. Get into the water at all costs.

Point A8 is the safe spot and the location you’ll wait for Heraloene. He will path out of the village down to the water, so don’t get impatient. Wait here and watch him on your map (you’ll see the quest turn in icon). Until he starts down, stay out. There are high level NPCs and Elyos in the village. None of the mobs in the water will aggro you, so I suggest laying low until you can turn in.

C-Rift – blue path If you manage to find C rift, you can reach the Heiron Observatory (point A2) without much difficulties. From point A2 follow the steps we wrote in section A rift.

B-Rift – red path If you use the rift at location B your exit point will be surrounded by higher level mobs. Just wait for the mobs to path away and make your way through them to point A4.

Rewards

There are 5 blue selectable rewards: Heraloene’s Sword, Helione’s Warhammer, Heraloene’s Spear, Heraloene’s Longbow, Heraloene’s Tome

We would like to thank Zam for several important tips.

Aion’s free expansion Assault on Balaurea is announced for September 7th. Among the huge list of new features in this enormous update (about 3 or 4 gigs of new content) was the mention of Aion Pet System.

We’ve also introduced our pet system, and just from reading all the comments from the players on the forums, that’s something that they’re really looking forward to. Pets won’t just be cute and cuddly — they will be — but they’ll also have functionality. We have an inventory pet, so basically it’s your pack mule that carries around all your items for you. We have a production pet, so when you go around the world and find junk loot that you don’t want, you can feed it to your pet and it’ll produce a better item for you to use. I usually say you feed it and it poops out a prize — it’s a whole new meaning to “world drops.”

There are also alert pets, that actually alert a player when something is sneaking up behind you. We have multifunction pets that are a combination of the ones that I just mentioned, and that’s our pet system.

[Spotted on Massively.com]

Before you can buy a pet, you have to finish Pet-related quest – That you will take the pet. You can obtain a pet praise skill book after completing the corresponding quest. You can purchase, sell, or abandon pet eggs through the Pet Manager Uranos and Armis (Elyos Sanctum) or Katin and Erudil (Asmo Pandaemonium).

Each pet has a unique function. There are 5 types of pets in the new Aion Pet System:

1. Decorative pets: unique appearances but no game play value.
   
2. Alertive  pets: Warns its master when an opposing race character approaches within certain range
   
3. Productive pets: When you feed it you may receive an enchantment  stone, manastone, aether, balaur material, ore, jewel, dye, hairpin.
   
4. Warehouse pets: Owners can use a warehouse type storage space while it is the active pet. The storage they can hold is 6, 12, 18 and 24 slots.
   
5. Multi Type: A pet with more than one function.

Functional pets can be purchased with Kinah, or be obtained as quest rewards. You can select 3 accessories when you purchase a pet but you cannot choose the pet’s color. You can check pet abilities through the pet information screen. Double-click on the summoned pet from the pet list screen or by using the shortcut key ‘[‘. You can feed the pet by registering the item that it can eat or by dragging and dropping the desired item onto the pet. Through emotion study, your pets can learn to bow, flirt and even fly with you!

While I was following various Aion links during the last few days I came across this interesting forum post – Doll Toons. To be honest, an idea of making a toon that looks like a doll has never crossed my mind, but when I saw some screenshots I was really impressed. My first attempt wasn’t very successful. One of the reason might be a fact that is much harder to make Asmo doll than Elyos one. So I’ve decided to search for tips and tricks. And here is what I have found so far. If you have any other tip please let us know.

1) Dolls heads are large in proportion to their bodies. Also, their facial features are pushed closer together, and their eyes are pretty much full-size, which makes them seem bigger.
2) So, if you want to make a character’s face doll- like, push the features closer together, make the eyes bigger, the nose and mouth smaller, the head rounder and bigger. The waist shouldn’t be too narrow in proportion to the hips; the shoulders should not be broad.
3) The asmo body type will make this a little tougher as the base body types are different (bigger neck muscles, broader shoulders, wider hips, bigger chest) even when you bring all sliders down to 0.
4) Max the “scary” and “disturbing” bars. Min “human resemblance” bar.

Body:
1) Short as possible, tho make the legs fit the body
2) Feet should be small
3) Hands should be small
4) Shoulders close together
5) Bewbs should be small(est), unless you want a ****** doll look
6) Hips and waist should be small
7) Leg thickness should be small
8 ) Most should be small, except head, which should be slightly on the bigger side.

Face styles:
1) Should have the face style where the cheeks have blush on them
2) Big dead looking eyes work too

Eyebrows:
1) Narrow, and not too obvious

Eyes:
1) Big!
2) Make them ‘even’ as in not tilting up or down
3) Blue is best,
4) Make them fairly close together, not too close, but just a hair more than average

Hair:
1) Style is just prefference, tho avoid elaborate stuff
2) Blonde is best,
3) Long styles are best in my opinion, tho short ones will work. Curly or elaborate decorations do not work for dolls

Nose:
1) Don’t make it pointy, should be round and cute
2) Nostrils just slightly flared, a skinny nose is not doll-like
3) Make the nose tip round and ‘button like’
4) Make it slightly pointing upwards if you want
5) Nose bridge should be further in, than further out

Ears:
1) NOT elf like, that is all

Mouth:
1) Narrow(Kiss lips like)
2) Make them Full, think the Bratz dolls!
3) Should be rose red
4) Make it look average, no smile, no frown, just average

[Source]

Seems others are having the same problem we had with installing the PST client and it being seen by the NCSoft launcher.

Kuroi of the EU server Castor has posted a solution in this thread on the official forums and I am reposting it here so we spread the information as fast as possible.

He says the following:

“Ok, I guess there are people like me that don’t keep their games on the same drive or the same folder with rest of programs. And they are bound to have some problems with PTS client preparation when attempting to “copy, rename” routine and Launcher won’t find it. I did ^^v

So for those who encountered this problem goes this guide.”

Here are the instructions:

Quit NCLauncher before doing any of this.

1st option – registry patch
1. Open any text editor. Notepad will do.
2. Paste this :

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\NCsoft\AionPTS]
“InstallPath”=”C:\\Games\\AionPTS”

3. Replace “C:\\Games\\AionPTS” with path to your PTS client. Note that all slashes are doubled now.
4. Save files as (for example) aion_pts_client.reg
5. Now go to where you save this file and double click on it. After approving the changes – start NCLauncher.

2nd option – NCLauncher config modifications
(I’ve not verified this method myself, but it should work… In theory Designated to those who don’t want to work with OS registry)
1. Go to Program Files/NCSoft/Launcher/Config/Default folder
2. Open Games.xml in notepad or any other text editor
3. Find:
Quote:

AionPTS
4. Right below it should be:
Quote:
${sf:ProgramFiles}\NCsoft\AionPTS
${sf:ProgramFiles}\AionPTS
5. Replace any of those lines with:
Quote:
Drive:\Path\to\Game\AionPTS
Drive:\Path\to\Game\AionPTS – there should be the full path to your PTS client folder.
6. Start NCLauncher

WARNING: None of this information is official nor officially recommended. You can wait for NCSoft to address this problem, but in case you are inpatient you can try some of these methods. Don’t say we didn’t warn you though.