Aion: Assault on Balaurea Introduces Aion Players to their New Best Friends

Two and Four Legged Pets make their way into the Arsenal of Features in the Free Expansion

Pets are no longer restricted to fetching the morning paper and crowd pleasing tricks, as today Aion® redefines how MMORPGs approach pets, creating an entirely new subsystem for players to explore within the upcoming free expansion, Aion: Assault on Balaurea™. For the first time within Aion, players 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 designed to make their masters look good.

While the pets system will continuously evolve throughout the life of the game, Aion: Assault on Balaurea will launch with five pet types.

• • 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

Players will have 100 dedicated pet slots available to populate, but are only capable of summoning one pet at a time, however, features like inventory space increase remains while the pet is put away. Players are restricted to one of each pet. Names are not unique, so players have the freedom to name them and make changes at will. And as a special treat, a new praise pet emote triggers unique animations for each type of pet – watch out Westminster Kennel Club, there’s a new set of tricks to teach those old dogs.

Players will have plenty of opportunities in and out of the game to acquire pets, including in-game purchases, quest rewards, item drops, NCStore, and special promotional events. To celebrate the release of the expansion, those who purchase Aion: Assault on Balaurea (MSRP $39.99) – the new retail SKU that provides everything a new player needs to jump in to the world of Atreia – from select retailers will receive an exclusive Companion pet along with a premium Speckled Ailu (Panda) Pack pet. Select retailers and their limited-time offer pet exclusives include:

• • All Retail SKUs – Speckled Ailu (Panda) A premium Pack pet which increases a player’s warehouse by 12 slots

• • NCsoft Store – Fuzzy Elroco Companion Pet

• • Amazon.com – Beluslan Kitter Companion Pet

• • Best Buy/Best Buy Canada – Heiron Kitter Companion Pet

• • GameStop – Grassy Drakie Companion Pet

• • QVS – Altgard Kitter Companion Pet

• • Steam – Skullabra Krall Companion Pet

• • Wal-Mart – Border Daggie Companion Pet

About Aion:

Unlike any MMO before it, Aion is a uniquely crafted online gaming experience where flight offers much more than just a way to gracefully explore the landscape – it is a strategic and integral part of combat, quests, and exploration. Players will use flight to dive into battle and plunge through thousands of unique, story-driven quests, all while trying to save and control a world literally shattered in half from centuries of brutal conflict.

And in Aion: Assault on Balaurea, the next exciting chapter within Aion, characters have the ability to align together to launch massive counter assaults against the invading Balaur on their homeland while experiencing new and updated instances and zones, an increased level cap, new weapons and items, new skills and added flight mechanics.

For more information about Aion and Aion: Assault on Balaurea and the introduction of pets, go to http://www.aiononline.com.