Early Access — servers, groups and the market

30 September starts early access for everyone holding a Founder’s Pack. 5 October opens the game for everyone.

NCSOFT has now explained how that works technically. Short version: your choice of server is less final than it feels — with exactly two exceptions, and they are below.

What is different at the EU launch

Everything else on this page comes from the Taiwanese version. These points are officially announced for the global launch — from the first global community livestream on 7 August 2026 and the gamescom announcements.

From the EU playtest

Where a finding concerns a specific system, it sits there as its own box: odyle energy, Monolith, Daevanion boards, Abyss, soul binding, Vakron, Shugo, Nightmare, daily dungeon, cubes, expedition, Fire Temple, Horn Den, weapon path and monetization. This section holds the two biggest shifts and everything that has no page of its own.

Odyle energy and gear score: the two big shifts

Odyle energy refills 15 every three hours instead of every 48 minutes — with or without a subscription. That is roughly three boss cubes a day.

The gear score thresholds are lower:

Tier	Content	Gear score
T1	Krao Cave, Draupnir Cave	700
T2	Urugugu, Vakron	1400
T3	Fire Temple, Horn Den	2100

The TW figures on the roadmap — 1800 for Vakron, 2400 for the Fire Temple — are therefore 300 to 400 too high.

Careful when comparing individual stats: global gear has higher attack and defence values. A Nuakum helm (level 86) has 551 defence instead of 260 in Korea, and the Splendent Ebony Dragon Dagger is item level 102 instead of 92. Figures from TW or KR guides do not carry over directly.

EU playtest, September 2026, as seen on thewhelps’ stream. Pre-launch state, subject to change.

The server list

Each server houses one faction only. Every Elyos server is tied to an Asmodian one, and in cross-faction content — the abyss and rifts — the enemies you meet come from that one paired server.

On first launch you choose in this order: region, then faction, then server.

Europe

Pair	Elyos	Asmodian
1	Siel	Israphel
2	Nezekan	Zikel
3	Vaizel	Triniel
4	Kaisinel	Lumiel

The other regions start smaller: NA West and Asia with one pair each (Siel / Israphel), NA East and Latin America with two pairs each (adding Nezekan / Zikel).

The times

	Start	End
Advanced access	30 Sept, 13:00 UTC	5 Oct, 05:00 UTC
Maintenance	5 Oct, 05:00 UTC	5 Oct, 13:00 UTC
Global launch	5 Oct, 13:00 UTC	—

That is 6AM PDT and 15:00 CEST for both the advanced access start and the global launch. Maintenance times are subject to change, per the announcement.

Two waves of servers

Wave	When	Who gets on
Early access servers	30 Sept	Founder’s Pack only at first, any tier
Launch servers	5 Oct	everyone

At launch on 5 October the second wave opens and you pick freely. Anyone without early access can then also join the early access servers — provided those are still open and taking players.

For dungeons the server barely matters

Party matching runs across all servers in a region:

During early access: across all early access servers in the region
From 5 October: across early access and launch servers in the same region

That is the most relaxing part of the whole announcement. If your group ends up spread over three servers, you can still run dungeons together — friends list and party matching work across the server boundary.

First exception: the Abyss

Elyos and Asmodian servers are separate. They meet in the abyss.

During early access: abyss matchmaking only between early access servers
Concretely: each server has exactly one opposing server — the pairs are listed above. Siel against Israphel, Nezekan against Zikel, and so on.
After that: pairings get redrawn periodically to keep the factions balanced. August’s announcement added that progress and strength of the servers would be taken into account.

Which makes your server your PvP neighbourhood. How fast people there progress decides who you end up fighting — and whether your abyss rank is easier or harder to hold. Land on a very ambitious server and you farm the same points against tougher opposition.

Second exception: the market

There are two, and only one is there at the start.

Market	Reach	Available
Server market	your server	from day one of early access
Cross-server market	every server in your region	not at early access, not at launch — opens later

Both trade in kinah.

Server transfers: announced, no date

NCSOFT commits to a transfer service. After early access and launch they intend to review server occupancy; details are to follow in their own announcement.

What this means for your decision

For dungeons the server hardly matters. Friends elsewhere are no problem.
For the abyss and the market it does. Both depend on your server’s population and progress.
Starting together beats starting alone — not because of party matching but because of the market.
The Founder’s Pack buys you five days of a head start and a place on an early access server. Whether that head start is worth it to you is a money question, not a game question — the roadmap works exactly the same from 5 October.

In short

Two waves: early access from 30 Sept, launch servers from 5 Oct
Party matching runs region-wide across servers
Abyss matchmaking pairs servers by progress
The region-wide market only comes after launch — until then your server counts
Server transfers are promised, but without a date
EU playtest: odyle energy refills far slower, gear score thresholds are lower