AION 2: How to Get Pets Fast (Complete Pet Guide)

TL;DR

• Unlock the pet system by completing the All Geared Up quest (Episode 1).
• Your first two pets are free — one from your starter package and one from talking to Kaidros.
• Farm Pet Souls by defeating specific monsters in the open world — check the Source tab in the Pets menu for spawn locations.
• Check the Black Cloud Merchant every hour for discounted pets and Pet Chests.
• You need 5 souls to unlock a pet, 25 more to reach Level 2, and 75 more to max it out at Level 3.
• Maxed pets unlock Pet Transformation — use Empathy Candy to transform into your pet for 5 minutes.
• The Genus Insight system gives permanent character stat bonuses as you build your collection.
• There are over 200 pets in AION 2 across five types: Cogni, Fera, Natura, Varian, and Special.

How to Unlock Pets in AION 2

Pets are not available right from the start. The pet system unlocks during the early story chain, roughly around Level 11, after you complete the All Geared Up quest in Episode 1. Once you finish it, the game prompts you to pick one of three starter pets as your reward and opens the full Pets screen.

When you first create your character, you also receive a Pet Selection Chest in your starter package. This gives you a choice from four pet options — pick carefully. Combined with the pet you get from All Geared Up, that means you start the game with two free pets right away.

After unlocking the screen, head into the Pets menu. The left column sorts pets by genus: All, Cogni, Fera, Natura, Varian, and Special. Each pet entry shows a 3D model, its current Collection Status, and a Pet Insight panel that tells you what owning it actually does for your character stats.

If you’re still in the early game, don’t miss our AION 2 Beginners Guide — it covers all the core systems you’ll need to understand before diving deep into pet collection.

AION 2 Pet Types Explained

There are over 200 pets in AION 2 and they are split into five types, or genus groups. Each genus has its own stat bonuses and its own Genus Insight progression board. The five types are:

• Fera — The largest group (65 pets). Gives Ground Vehicle Speed bonuses (+1/+2/+3 at Insight tiers). Best for mount-speed focused players.
• Natura (48 pets) — Provides Stamina bonuses, which are spent when sprinting or riding a pet. Also gives Critical Hit Resist and Precision.
• Varian (46 pets) — Adds a riding sprint-cost reduction stat plus Evasion Bonus and Constitution bonuses.
• Cogni (41 pets) — Grants HP, Critical Hit bonuses, and Might. Good overall for combat performance.
• Special — Rare pets from shops, events, Passes, and high-end content. These cannot be used for Pet Transformation and have no Soul farming method.

Pet ownership and Genus Insight are shared across all characters on your server. Work done on your main character benefits your alts automatically. Pet levels also combine across characters, so collective farming counts.

How to Get Pets Fast in AION 2

1. Farm Pet Souls From Monsters

Farm Pet Souls From Monsters Aion 2

This is the most direct and reliable method. Almost every monster in AION 2 has a corresponding pet version, and killing that monster drops its Pet Soul. Collect enough souls and the pet unlocks permanently.

Here is the soul requirement for each stage:

• 5 souls — Unlocks the pet (Level 1, first Owned Effect active)
• 25 more souls — Upgrades to Pet Insight Level 2 (second Owned Effect)
• 75 more souls — Maxes out at Pet Insight Level 3 / Max Insight (unlocks Pet Transformation)

Total souls to fully max one regular pet: 105 souls.

To find where specific pets spawn, open the Pets menu, click on the pet you want, and go to its Source tab. This shows the exact map locations where the monster spawns. Don’t guess — the Source tab makes farming efficient.

When you’re out in the world, group Sealed Dungeons and monster farming areas together by zone. Cluster your objectives before heading out. Running across the map for a single spawn point wastes more time than the farming itself.

2. Buy From the Black Cloud Merchant

The Black Cloud Merchant is one of the fastest ways to grab pets without grinding. This hourly-refreshing shop is accessible from the main menu via the Shop tab. It sells pets at a discount compared to the standard store, so checking it regularly is worth the habit.

The merchant also sells Pet Chests, which come in three types:

• Mysterious Pet Chest — Opens for 5 to 10 random pets per chest. Good for bulk collection.
• Growth Pet Chest — Contains pets focused on in-game progression value.
• Genus Pet Chests (Fera, Cogni, Natura, etc.) — Guarantees pets within a specific genus. Use these when you want to target a particular type for Genus Insight progress.

Check the Black Cloud Merchant every hour if you’re actively building your collection. Rotation resets quickly and desirable pets don’t stay available for long.

3. Open Pet Soul Chests

Pet Soul Chests give you souls directly without needing to farm specific monsters. These are handed out through various in-game sources including daily rewards, dungeon completions, event shops, Daeva Pass rewards, Shugo Festival events, and attendance bonuses.

These chests are useful when you’re working toward maxing a specific pet but the farming location is inconvenient or far from your current area.

4. Events and Limited-Time Content

AION 2 runs regular events that give out pets, Pet Chests, and Empathy Candy as rewards. The Shugo Festival in particular has its own dedicated event shop with exclusive pets you cannot get anywhere else.

Events are also the primary source of Special Genus pets — rarer companions that come from passes, collaboration content, and milestone achievements. Don’t skip event participation if you care about growing your collection.

Some pets are tied to specific achievements. For example, the Red Dragon pet was given to the first players to clear the Chalice of Muspel raid content.

5. Progress the Daeva Pass and Battlepass

The Daeva Pass (Season 1 and beyond) rewards exclusive pets at certain milestones. The Swift Lugi, for example, is a Season 1 Daeva Pass pet. The Battlepass also provides pass currency that lets you buy exclusive pets directly from the Pass Shop.

If you’re playing actively and leveling the pass naturally through gameplay, these come passively without extra farming effort.

6. Purchase Special Pets With Kina

Some Special pets can be bought directly with in-game Kina. The Pagati pet, for instance, can be purchased for 2 million Kinah (Bound) from the Tsenka Merchants. Others are available from the Atelier Shop, including the White Bunny and Chonky Hamster.

These purchases are good for filling specific collection gaps without farming, as long as you have the Kinah to spare.

AION 2 Pet Transformation: How It Works

Once you fully max a regular pet to Pet Insight Level 3 (Max Insight), you unlock the Transform ability on that pet. This lets you physically transform your character into that pet’s appearance for a limited time.

To transform, you need Empathy Candy (Bound). Use it while the maxed pet is equipped and you will transform into it for 300 seconds (5 minutes). There is a short cooldown between transformations.

How to get Empathy Candy:

• Collection milestones — Every 50 pets you collect rewards 10 Empathy Candy. With 207 pets available at launch, you can earn up to 40 Empathy Candy from milestones alone.
• Festivals, Shugo Festival shops, and various in-game events

Note: Special Genus pets cannot be used for transformation. Only regular pets from the Cogni, Fera, Natura, and Varian groups are eligible.

Pet Collection Milestones and Rewards

Building your collection pays out permanent rewards as you hit certain pet counts. Milestones trigger at:

• 5 pets — first milestone
• Then every 10 pets up to 500

Most milestones reward 100 Soul Crystals (Bound). Every 50th pet milestone gives 10 Empathy Candy instead. With 207 pets currently in the game, reachable milestones give a total of approximately 1,700 Soul Crystals and 40 Empathy Candy over the full collection arc.

Mastering the Genus Insight system completely across all five boards also unlocks the “Unbound by Genus” title, which gives a PvE Damage Boost of +4.5%. That is a meaningful stat reward just for building your pet collection consistently.

What Is Genus Insight and Why Does It Matter?

Genus Insight is the second major progression layer inside the pet system. It lives in the second tab of your Pets menu. Each of the five genus types has its own separate Genus Insight board, and all five work independently.

Here is how it works:

• Unlocking a pet grants 500 Genus Insight EXP toward that pet’s genus board
• Reaching Pet Insight Level 2 adds 250 more EXP
• Reaching Pet Insight Level 3 (Max) adds another 250 EXP
• Each Genus Insight Analysis also grants 100 EXP per slot analyzed

As your Genus Insight levels up (max is Level 10 per genus), it unlocks additional stat analysis slots. When you hit the Analyze button, the game randomly rolls stat bonuses into each open slot. You can lock your best rolls to protect them — but locking slots significantly increases the Kina and Soul Crystal cost of future analyses.

The core stat priorities for each genus in the global version are:

• Fera — Weapon Damage Boost
• Varian — Front/Back Damage Boost
• Cogni — Critical Damage Boost

The practical advice: level each Genus Insight board to Level 10 first without worrying about the stats you roll. Once you hit max level, then start analyzing and locking down best-in-slot properties. Spending Crystal resources before that point is wasteful.

Crystals for Cogni, Fera, Natura, and Varian are farmed relatively easily from open-world monsters once those pet types reach their max level in your collection. Save the rainbow-colored joker crystals for the Special Genus board, which is harder to farm directly.

AION 2 Special Pets List

Special pets are rarer and come from specific sources. They cannot be farmed through normal Soul collection. Here are the known Special pets and how to get them:

• Pagati — Purchase for 2 million Kina (Bound) from Tsenka Merchants, or via the Advance: Pet Chest
• Black Dragon — Obtained via the Daeva’s Chest of Might
• Swift Lugi — Daeva Pass Season 1 reward
• Wandering Merchant Lugi — Purchased from the Shugo Festival Pets Trade Shop
• White Bunny — Available from the Atelier Shop
• Chonky Hamster — Available from the Atelier Shop
• Red Dragon — First-clear reward for Chalice of Muspel (endgame raid)

Best Tips for Building Your Pet Collection Fast

• Don’t focus on one pet at a time. Collect pets passively while leveling. Natural exploration through zones covers a large part of your collection without dedicated farming sessions.
• Prioritize breadth over depth early. Unlock as many different pets as possible at Level 1 (5 souls each) before pushing individual pets to Level 2 or 3. This builds Genus Insight EXP faster and hits collection milestones sooner.
• Check the Black Cloud Merchant every time you log in. The shop resets hourly. Over a few days of checking, you can grab a good number of pets at a discount without grinding at all.
• Don’t waste joker crystals on Cogni, Fera, Natura, or Varian boards. Those are farmable. Save all joker/rainbow crystals for the Special board.
• Don’t skip event participation. Events hand out pets, Pet Chests, Empathy Candy, and other materials that would otherwise take hours to farm normally.
• Use the Source tab religiously. Never guess where a pet spawns. Open the pet entry, check the Source tab, and farm the correct location from the start.
• Pet ownership is account-wide. Don’t double-farm on alts. Work done on your main character benefits everyone on your server.

Where to Play AION 2

Ready to start building your pet collection? Jump into AION 2 right now:

• AION 2 Official Website
• AION 2 on Steam

Also check our other AION 2 guides to get stronger faster:

• AION 2: How to Level Up Fast
• AION 2: Best Settings for Smooth Gameplay
• AION 2 PC Requirements
• AION 2 Review

AION 2 Pets FAQ